These are ideas for dual lands and mana fixing artifacts that I came up with while working on my set. Every drawback is an already existing drawback combined with another or with slightly changes.
So lands can deal damage, which can be prevented. Can force you to lose life, which cannot be prevented. Can check for something to generate mana. Can tap and not untap for one turn. Can enter the battlefield tapped. Can force you to return another land to your hand. Can force you to sacrifice a land. Can filter mana only. Can exhaust their supply after a number of times. And lastly, not generate mana, but put another land in play.
Legendary isn't a drawback for colors, it's a drawback for quantity. Therefore, the only way to use it would be to make lands that generate either any color or more than one mana. But all legendary lands have some activated ability that is not a mana ability.
Lands that have basic types can only have damage and/or "enter the battlefield" triggers, because it's impossible to restrict the mana ability itself.
For lands that have no basic types: Ice age's depletion lands (highest drawback) <--------------> (smallest drawback) Ice Age/Apocalypse Painlands.
For three colors: Planeshift's lairs (bounce a land) <--------------> (enters tapped) Shards and wedges
Four colors is unfesiable. It'll require the same drawbacks seen in lands that can generate any color, unless the drawbacks are assymetric, two different drawbacks for two different pairs. But a land with assymetric drawbacks are only playable in a very narrow environment.
Mox is one thing that I didn't add in this set. If a Mox is in a cycle of 5 or 10, it must contain some drawback that makes it not replace all lands in your deck. If it's a mox that produces mana of any color, it must contain a drawback such that you can only play one at any time. In the end, it's much easier to make some mana stone that costs at least 1 or 2 mana than a mox that costs 0.
50 lands (all two and three colored come in cycles of 10. The exception are shards/wedges where the central color varies, in which case the cycles would have to have 30 to cover all possible combinations)
14 artifacts
All cycles summed up are nearly 900 cards
Land's nicknames
Spark (after Death spark. Or maybe call these Sting lands)
Gain 2 life and lose 1 or lose 2 and gain 1. It fails due to "Whenever you gain life" triggers.
Rely on mana pool rules, add mana to your mana pool and lose life when you spend the mana. It fails due memory problems and potentially funny cases with Drain Power.
Produce WU but can't enter unless you bounce an island and a plains. It's a waste of card slots, it's effectively like Homelands' cycle, pay two to produce one.
Damage done in two steps: once when it enters, again when it produces mana with an IF clause to not deal damage. The only way to make this symmetric is to have one basic type and one extra mana ability for two colors. It doesn't work for two colors only.
Quad lands. They are two dual lands in one, but the drawback ends up being either the same as for lands of any color, or requires complex IF clauses. It always end up overlapping at least one of the drawbacks for dual lands, making them always strictly superior than any dual.
Lands that produce any color but have an IF clause to not deal damage. Unless the IF clause is something like "5 turns", they are always better than existing painlands.
Lands with three types. It fails because the only way to make this balanced is to force it to remove two other basic lands from the battlefield, to prevent this from triggering the Domain keyword too early.
Half heal and half painland. One color gives life to your opponents, the other deals damage to you. It's assymetric by definition. A cycle of this would require 20 lands.
Discard Lands. It works for mox, but not for lands.
Remake the 6th's edition sac lands without sacrificing. That's what karoo lands are. If not sacrificing itself or bouncing a land, it's broken.
Any attempt to replace the pay 2 life of shocklands with something else (bounce lands, pay mana, tap lands, discard, sac) is either stricly better or strictly worse than paying 2 life.
There is no such thing as tap a land to activate something. It's either pay mana or tap something else. To tap lands without producing mana doesnt work.
Pay mana to enter untapped is the same thing as filtering mana.
If a land bounces another or has a sacrifice another land cost: it can only be a land that produces two mana, or any color or at least three colors.
Give mana and deal damage reversed to deal damage first and then produce mana. This only works for artifacts, enchantments or creatures, doesn't work for lands.
Sunflower1
Artifact
Enters the battlefield tapped. T: Put a bloom counter on this. T: Remove a bloom counter from this and add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 3, T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Draw a card.
Shooting Star2
Artifact T: Choose the color of a permanent on the battlefield. Add one mana of the chosen color to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a permanent of the chosen color. During the glooming night of this land's darkest season, shooting stars were seen on the sky. We followed them.
Mirroring Pool made in an artifact.
Shard/Wedge Eggs2 3, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Add WUB to your mana pool. Draw a card.
Eggs' cycle from Odyssey, cost one more mana.
Shard/Wedge Eggs alternative1
Enters the battlefield tapped. 2, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Add WUB to your mana pool.
Costs less, enters tapped, costs less to activate and has no cantrip.
Dual Diamonds2
Artifact
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, sacrifice a plains or an island you control. If you don’t, sacrifice CARDNAME. T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
Shadowmoor Signets2
Artifact T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
, T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands as artifacts.
Shard/Wedge Filter Pain Signet2
Artifact T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 1, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool. Shard/Wedge Filter Pain Signet deals 1 damage to you.
The filter painland concept extended to artifacts.
Watered down ingots3 (after Darksteel's ingot)
Artifact T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
Pay 2 life or discard a card from your hand: }CARDNAME gains indestructible until end of turn.
It's strictly better than Invasion's cameos and strictly worse than Darksteel Ingot. Indestructible is not static ability because this would make a whole cycle of artifacts indestructible. It's not shroud because shroud would make it immune to anything but mass destruction.
Shock Cameos2
Artifact
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield it deals 2 damage to you unless you pay 1. T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
If you pay 3, it's the same thing as cameos. If you pay 2 and have it deal 2 damage to you, it works as a shockland. It's worded to deal damage rather than having an alternate cost to ensure that it can always be cast, regardless of life payment's restrictions. But with the damage and extra payment being a trigger and not an alternate cost, this changes the interaction with any card that looks for casting cost and makes it cost something even if it enters the battlefield without being cast from hand.
Shard/Wedge Sunglasses3
Artifact
You may spend white, blue and black mana as though it were white, blue or black.
A cycle of this would 10 have artifacts. It's not worth it to make this two colors only. At 3 mana it's strictly better than the original sunglasses.
Land Shifter4
All plains that you own are every basic land type in addition to their own type.
A cycle of this would have 5 artifacts. It works even for cards outside the battlefield.
This effect isn't worth it if it is restricted to pairs of basic lands. Caveat: it might break something because it works in every zone.
Chromatic One type land1
Artifact
Each plains you control have "T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
It's a one mana costed, one land type only, chromatic lanter.
This one is on the safe side: no unwanted interactions with basic land types.
Painter's brush3
Artifact
You may spend colorless mana as though as it were mana of any color.
I was discussing about a cycle of Sunglasses of Urza. But with Chromatic Lantern being printed, I though reversely: let's make colorless mana colored.
Prismatic Lens3
Artifact T: Add 1 to your mana pool. X, T: Add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
Filter any quantity of mana at once.
Payback Shockland 2.0
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may add W or U to your mana pool. If you do, you lose 2 life.
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
It's a clone of shocklands, with two minor differences: rather than choosing between not using it right away and paying 2 life to do so, you choose between paying for mana or not paying anything. It'll always enter tapped. The other difference is that it doesn't have types.
Payback Tapland
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, add 1 to your mana pool.
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
So a land can enter tapped and give something back to pay for its own cost, 1 life or scry 1. Why not one colorless mana?
Caveat with a land that gives mana when it enters the battlefield: it interacts with Amulet of Vigor.
Maze painlands
Land T: Add W to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control an island. T: Add U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a plains.
Combines the concept of painlands with Nimbus Maze. It can't have ability to produce colorless mana for no damage to not be strictly better than painlands.
Shapeshifting lands
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
This is a plains and an island as long as you control a plains and an island. (This can't be one subtype at a time, it either has both or none)
It benefits from shocklands because it copies both types from one land. It's almost like a Nimbus Maze which can either produce both colors or none, no split check condition. The difference is that this land does interact with any card that looks for specific land types.
Delayed painlands
Land
At the beginning of your end step, if CARDNAME has counters on it, remove all counters and lose 1 life per counter removed this way. T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Add W or U to your mana pool. Put a counter on this.
It's worse than painland because it replaces damage with life loss, but that loss is delayed until the end of your turn.
Greater painlands
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you unless you control a plains and an island.
If damage go up to 3, it becomes too close to Tarnished Citadel. If it goes down to 1, it becomes stricly better than painlands. If the colorless mana ability is removed, it reverts to the previous one.
Rotation Twin Lands
Land
Rotation Twin Land enters the battlefield tapped.
When Rotation Twin Land enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice a plains or an island. T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
It's more flexible with mana than Ravnica cycle, but the cost to put it on the battlefield is higher.
Armistice lands 2.0
Land - Plains Island (T: Add W or U to your mana pool.)
As CARDNAME enters the battlefield you may have your opponent gain 3 life. If you don’t, CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
It is the opposite of a shockland.
Shard/Wedge check-pain land
Land T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a mountain.
Shard/Wedge Greater painland
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you unless you control a mountain.
Shard/Wedge Maze Land
Land T: Add W or U. Activate this only if you control a mountain.
It could be done reversely, checks for a plains and an island to add red. But then, it's worse than a mountain and would require some bonus.
Shard/Wedge Checkland
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a mountain. T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
It's checkland but the check is shifted to a shard or wedge.
Shard/Wedge Shapeshifting lands
Land
This is a plains and an island as long as you control a a mountain. (This can't be one subtype at a time, it either has both or none)
Same idea of shapeshifting for two colors extended to three. It lacks the colorless mana ability because this checks for one land subtype only.
This can be done reversely, it's a mountain as long as you control both a plains and an island. This would have the tap for colorless mana because it's checking for two types.
Shard/Wedge Lotus Vale
Land
if CARDNAME would enter the battlefield, sacrifice two lands, you control, of at least two different land types among plains, island and swamp. If you do, put CARDNAME onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it in its owners graveyard. T: Add three mana in any combination of W, U and B to your mana pool.
It's a lotus vale meant to pay the cost of wedges and shards, including WWW, UUU and BBB
Shock Triple Lands 2.0
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, sacrifice CARDNAME. T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It's slightly better than Lairs Lands, rather than bouncing a land you pay 2 life like a shockland.
First Lands 3.0
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you don’t control other lands.
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you lose 3 life unless you control at least one other land. T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It can only enter untapped if you control no other lands and if you tap it, you lose 3 life.
Slow Triple Pain Lands 2.0
Land
CARDNAME doesn’t untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of you upkeep, if CARDNAME is tapped, you may pay 1 or 1 life to untap it. T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It's a slow land with the benefit of being able to pay to untap it. The side effect of this mechanic is that it fits perfectly in Stasis type decks.
Discharge lands
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you put two charge counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are counters on CARDNAME, remove a charge counter from it.
Whenever CARDNAME is tapped for mana, it deals x damage to you, where x is the number of counters on it. T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It functions as a first time shockland and a second time painland. So, 3 colors for 2+1 damage. Similar concept here
Spark Painlands 2.0
Land - Plains (T: Add W to your mana pool.)
As CARDNAME enters the battlefield you may pay 1 life. If you don’t, CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add U or B to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you.
This is as symmetric as it can be. You halve the land subtype to one, halve the life payment and add pain to the other two colors. The variations would all be one of the multiple pain/check conditions of the other lands. However, a cycle would need 30 lands to be complete. Each shard and each wedge would have to rotate the three colors three times.
Shard/Wedge Filter Land
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. W, U or B, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool.
It's Shadowmoor/Eventide's cycle extended to shards and wedges.
Shard/Wedge Filter Painland
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 1, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you.
This is a pain and filter land in one. In between the previous two there could be filters that can either deal damage or not depending on the color choices, but it creates extra long cycles of 30 lands with too many IF clauses.
Spark saclands
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you lose 1 life. T: Add W to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Add U or G to your mana pool. T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Draw a card.
It Invasion's cycle, with enters tapped swapped for losing life and adding cantrip.
Egg Lands
Land
Enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W or U to your mana pool. T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you. Add WU to your mana pool. Draw a card.
The Egg's cycle made into lands. It's strictly better than Invasion's cycle.
Painless Fetch Land
Land W, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for an island and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. U, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
This is pretty much checklands turned into painless fetch lands.
Shard/Wedge Fetch Land
Land R, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains or an island and put it onto the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
It's the same as above, now in a shard/wedge combination.
Shard/Wedge Fetch Land Reversed
Land
, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a mountain and put it onto the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
Same as above, now reversed. The issue with forcing one color in the activation cost is that it creates a cycle of 30 lands, three combinations per shard and per wedge.
Triple fetch land
Land 1, T, Pay 2 life, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains, island or swamp and put CARDNAME onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
The cost to use this is the equivalent to one and a half fetch land. It can't be used in turn one unless you have a Lotus or a Mox.
Triple fetch land slow 3.0
Land 1, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains, island or swamp and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
No life payment or mana cost, but it's much much slower. Unlike the panoramas from Alara, it can search for shocklands.
Twin Fetch Land
Land
, Pay 2 life, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for two plains or two islands. Put the chosen ones on the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
Search for two lands of one subtype. It combines Shadowmoor/Eventide cycle with Fetch Lands.
Filter Fetch Land
Land 2, Pay 2 life, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains and an island and put them onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Filter and fetch in one.
Basic land fetcher
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 3, T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Search your library for any basic land and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
It has two differences from Terminal Moraine: costs one more to activate and put the land onto the battlefield untapped.
Nonbasic land fetcher
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 6, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Search your library for a nonbasic land and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
It costs a lot of mana to use. An alternative: change the activation cost to 3 mana and 3 life and remove the ability to produce colorless mana.
Echo lands
Land
Land Tax 1 T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
Land Tax is echo, but for lands only.
Triple Echo Lands
Land
Land Tax W, U or B T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
Same as echo dual land, but with three colors and a more restrictive echo cost.
Cycle Shocklands
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you.
As long CARDNAME is in your graveyard, plains you control have "T: Add U to your mana pool" and islands you control have "T: Add W to your mana pool".
Cycling: WU.
It doesn't enter the battlefield tapped and there is no "unless" clause, it always deals 2 damage. It can be cycled if you don't need its colored mana or don't want to take damage.
Uncharted Paradise (not related to the PS game)
Land T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You lose 1 life unless you put the top card of your library in your graveyard.
It's a variation of Forsaken City. Rather than choosing between not untapping it and exiling a card from your hand, you choose between losing life or mill yourself. I think that discarding a card is potentially broken with graveyard interaction.
Las Vegas (if CARDNAME were to be printed, I'd call it City of Gamblers or something related to Mercandian Masques).
Land T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Flip a coin. If you lose, you lose 1 life. If your opponent wins, he or she gains 1 life.
I think this card is a little too close to being Un-set.
Mount Olimpus
Land - Legendary
Indestructible
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped. When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land and return an untapped land you control to your hand. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
It enters tapped and can only enter if you have at least two other lands, one of them being untapped. You can't have two in play and it's indestructible. The only way to remove it from the game is by Boomeranging it or by means of Epicenter. I could swap indestructible for Hexproof, this way it's immune to Stone Rain but not to Armageddon.
Mirroring Pool
Land T: Choose a permanent on the battlefield. Add one mana of that color to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a permanent of the chosen color.
It's a Meteor Crater that can look up all permanents, not just yours. But it also deals damage, albeit it has a conditional to avoid it.
Forbidden City
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose one:
You lose 3 life
Your opponent gains 3 life. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
You don't have the choice of entering tapped, your only choice is life disadvantage.
City of Ash (pun with City of Ass)
Land
As long CARDNAME has an ash counter, it can't be untapped. You may pay 1 life at any time to remove an ash counter from this. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Put an ash counter on this.
This is strictly better than Mana Confluence for one but reason: you don't pay life to produce mana, you pay life to untap it. In case a card prevents life payments, it'll tap and produce mana to never untap back.
Crystal City
Land T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You can’t spend this mana to pay activation costs of permanents you control. if this mana is spent to cast a spell, that spell has "CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you".
It has one key advantage over City of Brass, the damage source is shifted from the land itself to the spell being casted, which opens up more opportunities for damage prevention. But the drawback is that you can only cast spells, not pay activation costs of any permanent, unless the permanent is not yours.
El Dorado
Land
If El Dorado would enter the battlefield, you may sacrifice an untapped land you control. If you do, put El Dorado on the battlefield. If you don't, put it in its owners graveyard. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
It's effectively replacing one land. The previous version didn't have the more restrictive "sacrifice an untapped land" condition.
Forgotten City 2.0
Land
If CARDNAME would enter the battlefield, pay 2 and 1 life. If you do, put it onto the battlefield. If you don’t, put CARDNAME in its owner’s graveyard. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
This can't be played in turn one much like Rupture Spire, but there is a caveat: in turn two, if you have one mana to spend, you can have this enter and tap to pay for itself. If you have two mana to spend, you'll have one mana of any color available. In any case, you'll have to pay 1 life.
Exotic Pool
Land T: Add to your mana pool one mana of any color that a basic land on the battlefield could produce.
It is Exotic Orchard and Reflecting Pool at the same time. The drawback it that it can only copy mana from basic lands.
Vanishing Gemstone Mine
Land
Vanishing 3 (CARDNAME enters the battlefield with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.) T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Gemstone mine remade with vanishing.
Manamorphose Land
Land 1, T: Add two mana in any combination of two colors to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you.
Fixed some mistakes. The fetch lands were saying to put itself on the battlefield, but it's the searched land. Lands with the "if would enter" clause were repeating the CARDNAME and causing ambiguity. Discharge land was missing an extra clause to prevent it from removing counters when there are aren't any.
All mistakes, with the exception of Discharge Lands, were caused by SEARCH and REPLACE.
Added more signet variations. And fixed a mistake in Karoo Signets, the sacrifice a plains or island is part of the cost, not a trigger that may or may not trigger.
One more concept. Shadowmoor cycle + Ravnica karoo lands. For this cycle I don't think it makes sense to have it with three colors. Therefore, it's either ally or enemy colors.
Added another land that generates mana of any color: Shimmering River. Or better say, it's a bestow land. Rather than filtering mana, it grants another land the ability to produce mana of any color.
I'm no longer calling this a set, but just a collection.
Scrapped 9 lands:
- Portshock and Karoo Tax Dual. Fail because if the land has two basic types, the only drawback that is feasible is either to lose life or to have opponent gain even more life.
- Port Outpost. Fails because to tap an untapped land is just another way to say "pay mana and the mana has to be produced by a land".
- Doll lands. Fails because it only works in enchantments, artifacts or creatures that have triggers to produce mana. To rely on damage to produce mana doesn't work in a land.
- Tax, Rotation Tax and Tax Triple Lands. Pay mana to enter untapped is the same thing as filtering mana. If mana payment is replaced by return a land to your hand, the land has to either produce at least three colors (Lairs) or more than one mana (Karoo).
- Charge painlands. It's just worse than Mirrodin's Core.
Scrapped one artifact: Karoo Signets, both versions. Replaced with a new one called "Dual Diamonds".
Corrected some lands:
- Forgotten City
- Payback Shockland
- Tax Lands
- Triple Fetch Land Slow
- Triple Karoo Lands
- Spark Lands
- Armistice Lands
- Crystal City ("you own" -> "you control")
Two flaws there: one is about ETBT unless you pay... So what if you don't pay at all? Missing text explaining that, it was badly worded because I attempted to save up text space. The other mistake is related to the payment itself. This is a land, so the payment is part of this land's cost. If I put the life or mana payment after the land has entered the battlefield, it must be an activated ability that reads "pay to untap it". I've discovered this flaw because of Stifle. Stifle can't prevent a shockland from untapping because the life payment is a cost of playing the land itself, not an activated ability that untaps the former tapped land. Zendikar's lands have the life gain as a trigger because there is no such thing as a casting cost that is to "pay -1 life (in other words, gain life)".
Reworded Triple Fetch Land Slow. Erased the ETBT part and added one mana to the activation cost. Much cleaner this way.
So lands can deal damage, which can be prevented. Can force you to lose life, which cannot be prevented. Can check for something to generate mana. Can tap and not untap for one turn. Can enter the battlefield tapped. Can force you to return another land to your hand. Can force you to sacrifice a land. Can filter mana only. Can exhaust their supply after a number of times. And lastly, not generate mana, but put another land in play.
Legendary isn't a drawback for colors, it's a drawback for quantity. Therefore, the only way to use it would be to make lands that generate either any color or more than one mana. But all legendary lands have some activated ability that is not a mana ability.
Lands that have basic types can only have damage and/or "enter the battlefield" triggers, because it's impossible to restrict the mana ability itself.
For lands that have no basic types: Ice age's depletion lands (highest drawback) <--------------> (smallest drawback) Ice Age/Apocalypse Painlands.
For three colors: Planeshift's lairs (bounce a land) <--------------> (enters tapped) Shards and wedges
Four colors is unfesiable. It'll require the same drawbacks seen in lands that can generate any color, unless the drawbacks are assymetric, two different drawbacks for two different pairs. But a land with assymetric drawbacks are only playable in a very narrow environment.
Mox is one thing that I didn't add in this set. If a Mox is in a cycle of 5 or 10, it must contain some drawback that makes it not replace all lands in your deck. If it's a mox that produces mana of any color, it must contain a drawback such that you can only play one at any time. In the end, it's much easier to make some mana stone that costs at least 1 or 2 mana than a mox that costs 0.
Cool idea for a multi subtype land. I'd restrict it to basic land types only.
Numbers
Land's nicknames
Scrapped concepts
Artifact
Enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Put a bloom counter on this.
T: Remove a bloom counter from this and add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
3, T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Draw a card.
Shooting Star 2
Artifact
T: Choose the color of a permanent on the battlefield. Add one mana of the chosen color to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a permanent of the chosen color.
During the glooming night of this land's darkest season, shooting stars were seen on the sky. We followed them.
Mirroring Pool made in an artifact.
Shard/Wedge Eggs 2
3, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Add WUB to your mana pool. Draw a card.
Eggs' cycle from Odyssey, cost one more mana.
Shard/Wedge Eggs alternative 1
Enters the battlefield tapped.
2, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Add WUB to your mana pool.
Costs less, enters tapped, costs less to activate and has no cantrip.
Dual Diamonds 2
Artifact
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, sacrifice a plains or an island you control. If you don’t, sacrifice CARDNAME.
T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
Shadowmoor Signets 2
Artifact
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
, T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands as artifacts.
Shard/Wedge Filter Pain Signet 2
Artifact
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool. Shard/Wedge Filter Pain Signet deals 1 damage to you.
The filter painland concept extended to artifacts.
Watered down ingots 3 (after Darksteel's ingot)
Artifact
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
Pay 2 life or discard a card from your hand: }CARDNAME gains indestructible until end of turn.
It's strictly better than Invasion's cameos and strictly worse than Darksteel Ingot. Indestructible is not static ability because this would make a whole cycle of artifacts indestructible. It's not shroud because shroud would make it immune to anything but mass destruction.
Shock Cameos 2
Artifact
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield it deals 2 damage to you unless you pay 1.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
If you pay 3, it's the same thing as cameos. If you pay 2 and have it deal 2 damage to you, it works as a shockland. It's worded to deal damage rather than having an alternate cost to ensure that it can always be cast, regardless of life payment's restrictions. But with the damage and extra payment being a trigger and not an alternate cost, this changes the interaction with any card that looks for casting cost and makes it cost something even if it enters the battlefield without being cast from hand.
Shard/Wedge Sunglasses 3
Artifact
You may spend white, blue and black mana as though it were white, blue or black.
A cycle of this would 10 have artifacts. It's not worth it to make this two colors only. At 3 mana it's strictly better than the original sunglasses.
Land Shifter 4
All plains that you own are every basic land type in addition to their own type.
A cycle of this would have 5 artifacts. It works even for cards outside the battlefield.
This effect isn't worth it if it is restricted to pairs of basic lands.
Caveat: it might break something because it works in every zone.
Chromatic One type land 1
Artifact
Each plains you control have "T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
It's a one mana costed, one land type only, chromatic lanter.
This one is on the safe side: no unwanted interactions with basic land types.
Painter's brush 3
Artifact
You may spend colorless mana as though as it were mana of any color.
I was discussing about a cycle of Sunglasses of Urza. But with Chromatic Lantern being printed, I though reversely: let's make colorless mana colored.
Prismatic Lens 3
Artifact
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
X, T: Add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
Filter any quantity of mana at once.
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may add W or U to your mana pool. If you do, you lose 2 life.
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
It's a clone of shocklands, with two minor differences: rather than choosing between not using it right away and paying 2 life to do so, you choose between paying for mana or not paying anything. It'll always enter tapped. The other difference is that it doesn't have types.
Payback Tapland
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, add 1 to your mana pool.
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
So a land can enter tapped and give something back to pay for its own cost, 1 life or scry 1. Why not one colorless mana?
Caveat with a land that gives mana when it enters the battlefield: it interacts with Amulet of Vigor.
Maze painlands
Land
T: Add W to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control an island.
T: Add U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a plains.
Combines the concept of painlands with Nimbus Maze. It can't have ability to produce colorless mana for no damage to not be strictly better than painlands.
Shapeshifting lands
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
This is a plains and an island as long as you control a plains and an island. (This can't be one subtype at a time, it either has both or none)
It benefits from shocklands because it copies both types from one land. It's almost like a Nimbus Maze which can either produce both colors or none, no split check condition. The difference is that this land does interact with any card that looks for specific land types.
Delayed painlands
Land
At the beginning of your end step, if CARDNAME has counters on it, remove all counters and lose 1 life per counter removed this way.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. Put a counter on this.
It's worse than painland because it replaces damage with life loss, but that loss is delayed until the end of your turn.
Greater painlands
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you unless you control a plains and an island.
If damage go up to 3, it becomes too close to Tarnished Citadel. If it goes down to 1, it becomes stricly better than painlands. If the colorless mana ability is removed, it reverts to the previous one.
Rotation Twin Lands
Land
Rotation Twin Land enters the battlefield tapped.
When Rotation Twin Land enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice a plains or an island.
T: Add WW, WU or UU to your mana pool.
It's more flexible with mana than Ravnica cycle, but the cost to put it on the battlefield is higher.
Land - Plains Island
(T: Add W or U to your mana pool.)
As CARDNAME enters the battlefield you may have your opponent gain 3 life. If you don’t, CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
It is the opposite of a shockland.
Land
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a mountain.
Shard/Wedge Greater painland
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you unless you control a mountain.
Shard/Wedge Maze Land
Land
T: Add W or U. Activate this only if you control a mountain.
It could be done reversely, checks for a plains and an island to add red. But then, it's worse than a mountain and would require some bonus.
Shard/Wedge Checkland
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a mountain.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
It's checkland but the check is shifted to a shard or wedge.
Shard/Wedge Shapeshifting lands
Land
This is a plains and an island as long as you control a a mountain. (This can't be one subtype at a time, it either has both or none)
Same idea of shapeshifting for two colors extended to three. It lacks the colorless mana ability because this checks for one land subtype only.
This can be done reversely, it's a mountain as long as you control both a plains and an island. This would have the tap for colorless mana because it's checking for two types.
Shard/Wedge Lotus Vale
Land
if CARDNAME would enter the battlefield, sacrifice two lands, you control, of at least two different land types among plains, island and swamp. If you do, put CARDNAME onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it in its owners graveyard.
T: Add three mana in any combination of W, U and B to your mana pool.
It's a lotus vale meant to pay the cost of wedges and shards, including WWW, UUU and BBB
Shock Triple Lands 2.0
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, sacrifice CARDNAME.
T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It's slightly better than Lairs Lands, rather than bouncing a land you pay 2 life like a shockland.
First Lands 3.0
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you don’t control other lands.
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you lose 3 life unless you control at least one other land.
T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It can only enter untapped if you control no other lands and if you tap it, you lose 3 life.
Slow Triple Pain Lands 2.0
Land
CARDNAME doesn’t untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of you upkeep, if CARDNAME is tapped, you may pay 1 or 1 life to untap it.
T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It's a slow land with the benefit of being able to pay to untap it. The side effect of this mechanic is that it fits perfectly in Stasis type decks.
Discharge lands
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you put two charge counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are counters on CARDNAME, remove a charge counter from it.
Whenever CARDNAME is tapped for mana, it deals x damage to you, where x is the number of counters on it.
T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
It functions as a first time shockland and a second time painland. So, 3 colors for 2+1 damage. Similar concept here
Land - Plains
(T: Add W to your mana pool.)
As CARDNAME enters the battlefield you may pay 1 life. If you don’t, CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add U or B to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you.
This is as symmetric as it can be. You halve the land subtype to one, halve the life payment and add pain to the other two colors. The variations would all be one of the multiple pain/check conditions of the other lands. However, a cycle would need 30 lands to be complete. Each shard and each wedge would have to rotate the three colors three times.
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
W, U or B, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool.
It's Shadowmoor/Eventide's cycle extended to shards and wedges.
Shard/Wedge Filter Painland
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Add WU, UB or WB to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you.
This is a pain and filter land in one. In between the previous two there could be filters that can either deal damage or not depending on the color choices, but it creates extra long cycles of 30 lands with too many IF clauses.
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you lose 1 life.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Add U or G to your mana pool.
T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Draw a card.
It Invasion's cycle, with enters tapped swapped for losing life and adding cantrip.
Egg Lands
Land
Enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you. Add WU to your mana pool. Draw a card.
The Egg's cycle made into lands. It's strictly better than Invasion's cycle.
Painless Fetch Land
Land
W, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for an island and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
U, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
This is pretty much checklands turned into painless fetch lands.
Shard/Wedge Fetch Land
Land
R, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains or an island and put it onto the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
It's the same as above, now in a shard/wedge combination.
Shard/Wedge Fetch Land Reversed
Land
, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a mountain and put it onto the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
Same as above, now reversed. The issue with forcing one color in the activation cost is that it creates a cycle of 30 lands, three combinations per shard and per wedge.
Triple fetch land
Land
1, T, Pay 2 life, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains, island or swamp and put CARDNAME onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
The cost to use this is the equivalent to one and a half fetch land. It can't be used in turn one unless you have a Lotus or a Mox.
Triple fetch land slow 3.0
Land
1, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains, island or swamp and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
No life payment or mana cost, but it's much much slower. Unlike the panoramas from Alara, it can search for shocklands.
Twin Fetch Land
Land
, Pay 2 life, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for two plains or two islands. Put the chosen ones on the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library.
Search for two lands of one subtype. It combines Shadowmoor/Eventide cycle with Fetch Lands.
Filter Fetch Land
Land
2, Pay 2 life, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Search your library for a plains and an island and put them onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Filter and fetch in one.
Basic land fetcher
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
3, T: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Search your library for any basic land and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
It has two differences from Terminal Moraine: costs one more to activate and put the land onto the battlefield untapped.
Nonbasic land fetcher
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
6, t: Sacrifice CARDNAME. Search your library for a nonbasic land and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
It costs a lot of mana to use. An alternative: change the activation cost to 3 mana and 3 life and remove the ability to produce colorless mana.
Land
Land Tax 1
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.
Land Tax is echo, but for lands only.
Triple Echo Lands
Land
Land Tax W, U or B
T: Add W, U or B to your mana pool.
Same as echo dual land, but with three colors and a more restrictive echo cost.
Cycle Shocklands
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you.
As long CARDNAME is in your graveyard, plains you control have "T: Add U to your mana pool" and islands you control have "T: Add W to your mana pool".
Cycling: WU.
It doesn't enter the battlefield tapped and there is no "unless" clause, it always deals 2 damage. It can be cycled if you don't need its colored mana or don't want to take damage.
The idea steams from Riftstone Portal.
Land
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You lose 1 life unless you put the top card of your library in your graveyard.
It's a variation of Forsaken City. Rather than choosing between not untapping it and exiling a card from your hand, you choose between losing life or mill yourself. I think that discarding a card is potentially broken with graveyard interaction.
Las Vegas (if CARDNAME were to be printed, I'd call it City of Gamblers or something related to Mercandian Masques).
Land
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Flip a coin. If you lose, you lose 1 life. If your opponent wins, he or she gains 1 life.
I think this card is a little too close to being Un-set.
Mount Olimpus
Land - Legendary
Indestructible
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped. When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land and return an untapped land you control to your hand.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
It enters tapped and can only enter if you have at least two other lands, one of them being untapped. You can't have two in play and it's indestructible. The only way to remove it from the game is by Boomeranging it or by means of Epicenter. I could swap indestructible for Hexproof, this way it's immune to Stone Rain but not to Armageddon.
Mirroring Pool
Land
T: Choose a permanent on the battlefield. Add one mana of that color to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you unless you control a permanent of the chosen color.
It's a Meteor Crater that can look up all permanents, not just yours. But it also deals damage, albeit it has a conditional to avoid it.
Forbidden City
Land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose one:
You lose 3 life
Your opponent gains 3 life.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
You don't have the choice of entering tapped, your only choice is life disadvantage.
City of Ash (pun with City of Ass)
Land
As long CARDNAME has an ash counter, it can't be untapped. You may pay 1 life at any time to remove an ash counter from this.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Put an ash counter on this.
This is strictly better than Mana Confluence for one but reason: you don't pay life to produce mana, you pay life to untap it. In case a card prevents life payments, it'll tap and produce mana to never untap back.
Crystal City
Land
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You can’t spend this mana to pay activation costs of permanents you control. if this mana is spent to cast a spell, that spell has "CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you".
It has one key advantage over City of Brass, the damage source is shifted from the land itself to the spell being casted, which opens up more opportunities for damage prevention. But the drawback is that you can only cast spells, not pay activation costs of any permanent, unless the permanent is not yours.
El Dorado
Land
If El Dorado would enter the battlefield, you may sacrifice an untapped land you control. If you do, put El Dorado on the battlefield. If you don't, put it in its owners graveyard.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
It's effectively replacing one land. The previous version didn't have the more restrictive "sacrifice an untapped land" condition.
Forgotten City 2.0
Land
If CARDNAME would enter the battlefield, pay 2 and 1 life. If you do, put it onto the battlefield. If you don’t, put CARDNAME in its owner’s graveyard.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
This can't be played in turn one much like Rupture Spire, but there is a caveat: in turn two, if you have one mana to spend, you can have this enter and tap to pay for itself. If you have two mana to spend, you'll have one mana of any color available. In any case, you'll have to pay 1 life.
Exotic Pool
Land
T: Add to your mana pool one mana of any color that a basic land on the battlefield could produce.
It is Exotic Orchard and Reflecting Pool at the same time. The drawback it that it can only copy mana from basic lands.
Vanishing Gemstone Mine
Land
Vanishing 3 (CARDNAME enters the battlefield with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Gemstone mine remade with vanishing.
Manamorphose Land
Land
1, T: Add two mana in any combination of two colors to your mana pool. CARDNAME deals 2 damage to you.
Two City of Brass in one.
Greater Manamorphose Land
Land
2, Pay 3 life, T: Add three mana in any combination of three colors to your mana pool.
Three Mana Confluence in one.
Shimmering River
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Target land gains "T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool" until end of turn.
All mistakes, with the exception of Discharge Lands, were caused by SEARCH and REPLACE.
Scrapped 9 lands:
- Portshock and Karoo Tax Dual. Fail because if the land has two basic types, the only drawback that is feasible is either to lose life or to have opponent gain even more life.
- Port Outpost. Fails because to tap an untapped land is just another way to say "pay mana and the mana has to be produced by a land".
- Doll lands. Fails because it only works in enchantments, artifacts or creatures that have triggers to produce mana. To rely on damage to produce mana doesn't work in a land.
- Tax, Rotation Tax and Tax Triple Lands. Pay mana to enter untapped is the same thing as filtering mana. If mana payment is replaced by return a land to your hand, the land has to either produce at least three colors (Lairs) or more than one mana (Karoo).
- Charge painlands. It's just worse than Mirrodin's Core.
Scrapped one artifact: Karoo Signets, both versions. Replaced with a new one called "Dual Diamonds".
4 new triple lands:
- Triple Pain Lands
- Shock Triple Lands
- First Lands
- Slow Triple Pain Lands 2.0
1 new artifact
- Prismatic Lens
Corrected some lands:
- Forgotten City
- Payback Shockland
- Tax Lands
- Triple Fetch Land Slow
- Triple Karoo Lands
- Spark Lands
- Armistice Lands
- Crystal City ("you own" -> "you control")
Two flaws there: one is about ETBT unless you pay... So what if you don't pay at all? Missing text explaining that, it was badly worded because I attempted to save up text space. The other mistake is related to the payment itself. This is a land, so the payment is part of this land's cost. If I put the life or mana payment after the land has entered the battlefield, it must be an activated ability that reads "pay to untap it". I've discovered this flaw because of Stifle. Stifle can't prevent a shockland from untapping because the life payment is a cost of playing the land itself, not an activated ability that untaps the former tapped land. Zendikar's lands have the life gain as a trigger because there is no such thing as a casting cost that is to "pay -1 life (in other words, gain life)".
Reworded Triple Fetch Land Slow. Erased the ETBT part and added one mana to the activation cost. Much cleaner this way.
Exported a visual spoiler. Many lands removed, others added.