I made like 10 or 20 cycles of trilands. All sorts of different drawbacks. Conditions to enter untapped, conditions to add mana, life loss or additional costs. I came to the conclusion that they don't make such cycles because they would inevitably devaluate all duals and all lands that add any color.
Uh. No? I think? They had two sets centered around tricolor, and both have a triland cycle. They have literally not missed a single chance to print trilands. Well, unless you count Invasion block, which pushed for As Many Colors As Possible while having very poor land support. However, Invasion is also notorious for having the very same manabase demonized by all of R&D for not being open enough.
Where in the world should they have expressed lack of will to print trilands? Ravnica is a color duo set, Ixalan has three color factions but is centered around color pairs... And in the time since Alara, they have printed plenty of 3+ colored lands, although admittedly much fewer cycles of them. Sorry, but I have no idea what you're on about. When should they have printed 3+ colored lands, and how damning is this?
I think FreezingPoint is referring to nonbasic trilands that have three basic land types and a static replacement ability that would be more likely known as "Bolt Lands" in reference to the card Lightning Bolt similar to how the Shock Lands are based on the card Shock. Say for example you have a Bolt Land that represents Jeskai (Blue, Red, White) that counts as an Island, Mountain, and Plains on a single card that you can use to fetch with either Flooded Strand or Arid Mesa since they can fetch for any of those three basic land types.
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No. I was referring to trilands that can enter untapped or they always enter untapped but the mana ability has some downside attached to it. There are dozens and dozens of possible drawbacks to full cycles of ten trilands.
New cards devaluing old cards does not mean WotC loses money. The new cards hold value and drive sales after all.
Unless you are talking about printing these in lower rarity (more supply of mana base). In that case this is not news. WotC keeps the best lands at rare to bump how much money people needs to spend in the game.
But when have they missed the chance to print these things? I don't understand how this is devious behavior in any way. Taplands are the simplest forms of duals, so that's why they did them in Alara, and in Khans they just finished the "cycle" because it felt natural, and there has been no other tricolor sets. Maybe Modern Horizons? But does Modern really need a stronger manabase? I'm at a loss as to how this serves them and not the players or whatever the problem is.
I don't get where that thing about not wanting to "devaluate" (sic) dual lands comes from. That's like accusing Wizards of not wanting to print cards that are strictly better than other cards, which they do all the damn time.
It can't possibly be about money because the majority of dual lands aren't actually worth much. Of the dual lands with value, the horizon, filter, and manlands have special uses that wouldn't compete with tri-lands, fetches and shocks (or ABUR duals) are still more flexible than any reasonable etb untapped tri-land without basic land types, and fastlands are the only painless early game duals in Modern. Every other dual in the game has been worth a few bucks in standard only to tank into obscurity after rotation. What is there left to protect that doesn't protect themselves?
Not to mention, Wizards knows that people love power creep and flock to it. People flock to high-powered sets and throw money at them, which is why they constantly cycle their power creep to keep standard's power level in an MC Escher-style infinite staircase. The only reason such card haven't appeared yet is appropriateness, not some sort of conspiracy theory.
Oh, and Wizards already designed an ETB untapped tri-land that's fetchable, and it sees no play. It's Murmuring Bosk, and it's proof that Wizards can design conditional ETB untapped tri-lands that are just as ephemeral as the rest of the forgotten duals.
It's not a conspiracy theory. The design space between a dual and a land that produces any color is so narrow that I think that filling it with many cycles of trilands may end up making it too easy to build multicolored decks. The full cycles of fetches already does that.
Just because they can make things doesn't mean they're just going to stick them random places. As said there haven't been any good sets for trilands. In general the game is built around mono/bicolor, not tri. And something like trilands aren't going to be done as one offs really often either.
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Where in the world should they have expressed lack of will to print trilands? Ravnica is a color duo set, Ixalan has three color factions but is centered around color pairs... And in the time since Alara, they have printed plenty of 3+ colored lands, although admittedly much fewer cycles of them. Sorry, but I have no idea what you're on about. When should they have printed 3+ colored lands, and how damning is this?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Unless you are talking about printing these in lower rarity (more supply of mana base). In that case this is not news. WotC keeps the best lands at rare to bump how much money people needs to spend in the game.
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Also what italofoca says.
It can't possibly be about money because the majority of dual lands aren't actually worth much. Of the dual lands with value, the horizon, filter, and manlands have special uses that wouldn't compete with tri-lands, fetches and shocks (or ABUR duals) are still more flexible than any reasonable etb untapped tri-land without basic land types, and fastlands are the only painless early game duals in Modern. Every other dual in the game has been worth a few bucks in standard only to tank into obscurity after rotation. What is there left to protect that doesn't protect themselves?
Not to mention, Wizards knows that people love power creep and flock to it. People flock to high-powered sets and throw money at them, which is why they constantly cycle their power creep to keep standard's power level in an MC Escher-style infinite staircase. The only reason such card haven't appeared yet is appropriateness, not some sort of conspiracy theory.
Oh, and Wizards already designed an ETB untapped tri-land that's fetchable, and it sees no play. It's Murmuring Bosk, and it's proof that Wizards can design conditional ETB untapped tri-lands that are just as ephemeral as the rest of the forgotten duals.