Commander Color Conundrum
Asked by capriom85 9 years ago
Ok, now that we have all that alliteration out of the way: I know generic mana is fair game for ANY EDH deck regardless of color identity. I can throw Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon into any deck I want and have fun. What about Kozilek, the Great Distortion? With the recent distinction between generic and colorless mana does he have to either be a general himself, as he is the only actually colorless legendary, or does he fit into the other 99? Further, if he dos into the other 99, must the general have generic mana in his casting cost?
Cool, thanks. Soon as I get used to stuff they change it on me.
April 13, 2016 7:59 a.m.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the colorless symbols may be hard to tap for. I seem to remember the only loopholes which let you tap for colorless mana are lands which can directly tap for colorless like Unknown Shores or to tap an artifact like Darksteel Ingot for a color not in your commander's color identity, which automatically makes the mana colorless.
April 13, 2016 9:47 a.m.
What about tapping something like Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel?
April 13, 2016 9:52 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... Accepted answer #6
Anything that taps for 
where X is a number, i.e. Sol Ring or Thought Vessel, has been errata'd to say it adds that much 
. So Sol Ring now adds to your mana pool and so on.
There is no color restriction on cards with in their mana cost or text, because they are still without any color since Colorless is not a color.
Egann, tapping a permanent for an off color used to produce , but the RC figured that was too much of a loophole for the new cards. They removed the rule that makes off color mana production into colorless, so now Darksteel Ingot can produce 
in a mono-black deck.
In order to pay for costs that have , you must directly produce that type of mana. For example,You cannot cast a Brainstorm without producing . Similarly, you cannot cast Warping Wail without producing .
Generic mana is the grey numerical mana cost, i.e. The 
in Warping Wail's cost. This generic mana can be paid with any of the 6 type of mana: 
, , 
, 
, 
, or .
April 13, 2016 10:45 a.m.
Nocturnal Outcast says... #7
@Egann
Colorless mana isn't that hard to produce, my five color sliver deck has plenty such as Sol Ring, all the dual pain lands Battlefield Forge, Caves of Koilos, Yavimaya Coast, Llanowar Wastes, Shivan Reef, then there is Cavern of Souls, Sliver Hive, Shimmering Grotto, Mirrodin's Core, and lots of others. Any of those produce the (<>) mana symbol.
Hope that helps!
April 13, 2016 11:02 a.m.
Could you not just run Wastes as your basics, too? Makes tapping for colorless pretty easy imo
April 14, 2016 7:38 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #9
If you're running a colored commander, running Wastes wouldn't benefit you very much for mana fixing. Only being able to tap for colorless mana wouldn't help in a 2 or 3 color deck. You're better off running lands like Battlefield Forge or Caves of Koilos.
Nocturnal Outcast says... #1
Creatures/spells with the colorless mana symbols in their cost are legal in any EDH deck.
April 13, 2016 7:44 a.m.