Is the colour identity of a card defined strictly by colour symbols mentioned outside of flavour text?
Asked by Yesterday 6 years ago
Hi, just a quick question here about colour identity for Commander purposes. I understand that cards like Trinisphere aren't defined as having a black colour identity due to the reminder text mentioning B as an example.
I was confused when I found out that Crypt Ghast had only black colour identity, because I understood that, though is only mentioned in the reminder text, it's an implied part of the ability. For instance, aren't the tap for mana abilities of lands with basic land types just an implied part of the card, so the only colour that's actually mentioned is in the reminder text? Like with Murmuring Bosk - why would this have a partly green identity if is only mentioned in the reminder text? If it doesn't contribute to the colour identity, then why can't you include Mountains in an Azusa, Lost but Seeking deck? And if it does, then why isn't Crypt Ghast also defined by the colour identity of the Extort ability?
Would the Bringer cards (like Bringer of the Blue Dawn) have only one colour identity if they had the keyword ability 'Bringer', which was defined in reminder text as "(You may pay rather than pay this card's mana cost)"?
I'm sorry if I phrased this weirdly, I'm not feeling very well ATM. Thanks in advance.
1/ Correct on trinisphere, it is colorless.
2/ Any mentions of color in reminder text are not part of a cards color identity, that is why Crypt Ghast is mono black in terms of identity.
3/ Murmuring Bosk is in color identity, but in this case reminder text is misleading, as it is not really reminder text. It is because its type is a forest. All lands with a basic type have the text ": Add 1 mana of COLOR to your mana pool", even if it is not explicitly written on them.
4/ On the Azusa thing, see answer number 3.
5/ If they were keyworded with the symbols in reminder text, Bringers would have a single color for color identity purposes.
November 24, 2017 10:56 a.m.
It's because there are actually 2 rules for what cards you can include in your deck, and lands with basic land types are covered separately from most cases:
903.5c A card can be included in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also found in the color identity of the deck's commander.
903.5d A card with a basic land type may be included in a Commander deck only if each color of mana it could produce is included in the commander's color identity.
Pieguy396 says... #1
I believe Basic land subtypes also contribute to color identity - it's why you can have Polluted Delta in a Dragonlord Ojutai deck, but not Watery Grave. As for the Bringers, I believe you are correct - if they had an ability called "Bringer", which was defined only in reminder text, they would have the color identity of only the color in the top-right corner.
November 24, 2017 10:49 a.m.