Why Does Nyx Lotus Enter the Battlefield Tapped?
General forum
Posted on Sept. 1, 2020, 7:57 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
Nyx Lotus is a great card, but the fact that it enters the battlefield is a major flaw, in my mind, so I am wondering why that is.
The most logical explanation is that it prevents a player from generating more mana than what it took to cast the spell, but the amount of mana that the lotus generates is entirely dependent upon the player's devotion, which would need to be at least 5 in order for them to profit, so I see no reason for which the lotus should enter the battlefield tapped.
What does everyone else say about this? Why does Nyx Lotus enter the battlefield tapped?
Also, while I am asking this, why is it that Worn Powerstone enters the battlefield tapped when neither Mind Stone nor Thran Dynamo enter the battlefield tapped (and each of them costs one more mana to cast than what they produce)?
I think its because the colored mana acceleration has too much potential... let's just assume you play a permanent every turn with devotion... on turn 1 on turn 2 on turn 3.... assuming you also didn't miss any land drops turns 1-4 Nyx Lotus would be able to provide 6 Mana on T4 of whatever devotion you have in play (after tapping 4 mana just to cast lotus).... not to mention however much mana could be generated out of nowhere on Turn depending on the development of your board state.
Thran Dynamo will just give you generic mana on t4 after tapping to cast it..... and out side of untap combo shenanigans, it just gives that fixed mana amount throughout the game.
September 1, 2020 8:32 a.m.
I'm guessing because it would have been mythic had it come in untapped and they already had the mythic slots filled. But it would have been busted and awesome!
September 1, 2020 8:50 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #5
Colored mana is extremely easy to combo off with. I can think of several ways to break Nyx Lotus if your devotion was higher than 4, in decks where that's not hard. I mean, Monored with Priest of Urabrask, Burning-Tree Emissary, Paradoxical Outcome and some other tools, you can easily be turning 3-4 creatures into way too much mana.
Colorless mana is much harder to combo with.
September 1, 2020 10 a.m.
grumbledore says... #6
because combo players exist, and they like fast mana.
September 1, 2020 4:30 p.m.
The "enters tapped" clause slows down combo decks and forces them to add one more card to any shenanigans they want to abuse the lotus with. Without the "enters tapped" clause on the lotus, combo decks would go off 1 turn or 1 play sooner than with the clause. Assuming the need to cast something to counteract the tapped clause like Amulet of Vigor or whatever other way they plan on getting around it.
September 2, 2020 1:52 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #8
Before this thread vanishes into obscurity, I have another question: why does Empowered Autogenerator enter the battlefield tapped? It is too slow to ever be overpowered, so I fail to see why it needs to enter the battlefield tapped.
September 3, 2020 12:54 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
DeinoStinkus, whatever the reason may be, it takes four turns to pay for itself, so I will never use it in any of my decks.
September 3, 2020 1:38 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
DeinoStinkus, Gilded Lotus is an awesome card, although, for my Atraxa EDH deck, I instead use Astral Cornucopia.
September 3, 2020 1:43 p.m.
the fact of the Empowered Autogenerator being able to increase it's own counters without using your mana or other resources makes it better in the long run than any of the other cards listed here.
It is only slower than some of the others if you plan on going infinite mana with some kind of combo the turn you play your mana rock or within the next 1-3 turns.
In a vacuum it's more powerful and trades cost for an "over many turns" build up.
If you do shenanigans with it like in a proliferate or Vorel deck its almost as good as Astral Cornucopia. Just a turn slower to develop the same insane mana counts. And its clearly better than the others since they don't get counters you can exploit.
September 3, 2020 4:48 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #12
MagicMarc, the counters on Astral Cornucopia can be exploited very easily, unless you are referring to the fact that they cannot be increased without another card.
September 3, 2020 6:49 p.m.
Exactly, Both the Empowered Autogenerator and Astral Cornucopia go crazy in decks that exploit counters. When i mentioned the others i meant all of the non-counter gaining mana rocks. They gain nothing in a proliferate or counter doubling deck.
DemonDragonJ says... #2
DeinoStinkus, is that also the reason for which Prismatic Geoscope enters the battlefield tapped?
September 1, 2020 8:30 a.m.