Land Color EDH Question
Asked by HumanofMassDestruction 12 years ago
Could I run Simic Guildgate in, say, a Kaalia of the Vast Edh? I'm not sure how color identity works for lands.
No; lands are colorless, but do have color identity. In the SImic Guildgate's case, its identity is G/U, and so clashes with Kaalia's W/R/B Identity.
April 3, 2013 8:41 p.m.
Bobgalarneau says... #3
Lands are colorless. I have been in situations where i controled some of my opponent's land and we had to refer to this rule : if a land you control would produce mana outside of your color identity, it produce colorless mana instead.
That said, i have never seen a rule forbiding you to play offcolor lands, and since they are colorless it wont break color identity rules.
I can't see why exept for the "gate" type you would do such a thing anyway... Gates bonus aren't that big that should do that, in my humble opinion.
April 3, 2013 8:45 p.m.
Arachnarchist says... #4
To expand on my previous answer, a lands color identity is defined by all colored symbols on the card. So, you cannot run a land that can specifically produce a color not in your commanders identity. This does not include a card that can produce "mana of any color," i.e. Ancient Ziggurat . However you can use fetchlands since they do not use the colored mana symbols. So, in your Kaalia deck you could use Verdant Catacombs , or even Windswept Heath , though the latter would not be able to fetch anything.
April 3, 2013 8:45 p.m.
Bobgalarneau says... #5
Even if i totaly agree with your answer been true, the fact that those fetchlands evade the color identity revolt me... It makes no sense and just make it impossible to follow when those rich player go with 6 fetchlands in their 3 color deck, just to make sure they can get their duallands... Makes me want to play my Ruination ...
April 3, 2013 8:56 p.m.
9 fetches--only one of the 10 you can't run (or could, for no reason) is the completely off color one.
It's worth it though--the land base is by far the most important thing in EDH.
April 3, 2013 9:15 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #7
Arachnarchist hit the mail on the head.
If you go to mtgcommander.net and click on deck construction, you will see a big definition if color identity. Basically, a cards color identity is defined by any mamba symbols on the card. Basic lands were amended so that they inherently say "tap: add (color) to your mana pool." The color identity ruling ignores mana symbols if it appears in reminder text.
April 3, 2013 9:22 p.m.
djbalestra says... #8
The rule is that if it has a mana symbol that is not in a general's color identity then it cannot be used.
April 3, 2013 9:34 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #9
The mana symbols also determine the cards color identity.
April 3, 2013 11:12 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #10
djbalestra and vampirelazarus hit the nail on the head here. Simic Guildgate has G and U on its actual card text, so it has a GU color identity.
The reason the fetches dodge color identity this way is that they don't have any mana symbols. They just say land names (plains, island, etc) but don't have any actual mana symbols, so their color identity is actually colorless.
You couldn't run a Simic Guildgate in a Kaalia of the Vast deck because of the G and U symbols. You couldn't run it in a Ghave, Guru of Spores or Thada Adel, Acquisitor deck either, for the same reason.
April 4, 2013 12:28 a.m.
FurybornPhyresis says... #11
So if I have like Sen Triplets out and lands that tap for mana of any color, since there is no specification as to what mana is being generated from like shimmering grove or whatever, I can generate land to play cards from their hand even if they are outside of my color identity because a color isn't directly specified on the card?
Arachnarchist says... Accepted answer #1
Color identity for lands works the same way as color identity for everything else. Therefore unless your commander is green AND blue, you cannot run Simic Guildgate .
April 3, 2013 8:41 p.m.