Sacred Foundry Question
General forum
Posted on April 19, 2013, 3:20 p.m. by QuintenO
I'm new to the game and you guys have helped me out before.Does Sacred Foundry add mana from your library to your mana pool? People have told me no, but others have told me yes, so anyone who can give me a definitive answer would be a cool cat.
So, I tap Foundry, then I add the mana, does that mana have to come from my hand? I'm literally not joking with these questions, I honestly do not understand the card._.
April 19, 2013 3:35 p.m.
comatoseeffect says... #4
The mana comes from the Foundry itself, you don't need to get the mana from anywhere. I assume by mana in your hand, you mean land cards? It doesn't work like that. Each basic land card has the ability to tap to add one mana of its color to the mana pool, while these dual lands, like Sacred Foundry can tap to add one mana of either of its colors.
April 19, 2013 3:42 p.m.
harrydemon117 says... #5
Sacred Foundry or any other "land" card (you can tell this usually because it will say "land" as its "type" underneath the picture) produce mana that can be used to cast your spells.
Spells are any cards of the following types: artifacts, creatures, enchantments, instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers. At the top of each card is listed its "mana cost" that is required to cast the said spell.
When you "tap" a land (or other source like a Llanowar Elves for mana, you can use it cast your spells. You will need to get the correct amount of mana before you can cast a spell
Lands produce the mana themselves and do not bring them from anywhere else. Your allowed (under normal circumstances) to play 1 land per turn (other spells/effects allow you to play more than one such as Oracle of Mul Daya .
Does this answer your question?
April 19, 2013 4 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
First things first, mana and lands are two completely different things. Lands are lands, of course, and mana is the game's energy resource used to cast spells and activate abilities. Though lands are the most common source of mana, there are some non-land ways to produce mana (Avacyn's Pilgrim , Pyretic Ritual , etc.), and there are even some lands that don't make any mana at all (Maze of Ith , Thawing Glaciers , etc.).
Let's look at a Mountain . The big fireball in the text box doesn't stand for Mountain, it's a Red mana symbol (abbreviated R), and it's actually short for an ability that reads "Tap: Add R to your mana pool". A long time ago, every basic land used to have this ability written out in full in its text box, but around 1999 or so Wizards of the Coast had the design of them change to what we see now as a way to make the basic lands look nicer and cleaner.
If a land has one or more of the basic land types (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest) in its type line, it automatically has the ability to tap for mana of the associated color. Because Sacred Foundry has both the Mountain and Plains land types, it can be tapped for either R or W. This is also why Sacred Foundry's mana abilities are written in italicized reminder text, because it technically doesn't need those abilities written out on the card as long as it has those types. Compare this to Clifftop Retreat , which doesn't have any of the basic land types and has to have its mana abilities written out in regular rules text.
So when you tap Sacred Foundry to add either R or W to your mana pool, it's just like tapping either a Mountain or a Plains to do the same thing.
April 19, 2013 4:02 p.m.
theemptyquiver says... #7
Don't worry dude. I've been playing Magic since 1994 off and on, and I still feel like I learn new things about the game all the time.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #2
Nothing adds mana from your library. Lands, among other sources, add mana to your mana pool. You tap a land, to add mana of a color it can produce.
April 19, 2013 3:22 p.m.