I find Mage-Ring Network to be quite the little gem. It doesn't enter tapped and allows a continuous outlet for extra mana. Accumulating extra colorless mana can be quite useful serving as pseudo-ramp.
Am I overselling this card? Or is it actually good? Does the effect warrant a slot?
Storage lands can be great depending on the meta. I was really into the time spiral storage lands untill my opponents started destroying them when they got a few counters on them. Every time you declare a counter on the land your opponents attention is brought to that land. Good land, but can be a target for random LD.
My only hang ups with other storage lands is the coming in tapped, and the generally don't tap for a single mana. Even though it's colorless, it is very useful considering that the tax on commanders is colorless.
My only hang ups with other storage lands is the coming in tapped, and the generally don't tap for a single mana. Even though it's colorless, it is very useful considering that the tax on commanders is colorless.
Not really sure what lands you are talking about but theTimeSpiralStorageLands come into play untapped and tap for a single colorless mana.
My only hang ups with other storage lands is the coming in tapped, and the generally don't tap for a single mana. Even though it's colorless, it is very useful considering that the tax on commanders is colorless.
Not really sure what lands you are talking about but theTimeSpiralStorageLands come into play untapped and tap for a single colorless mana.
The older, mono-colored storage lands come into play tapped and do not.
I'm still not convinced in either direction with this card. I might slot it in monocolored decks that can afford the colorless land for some testing. I honestly don't even have much experience with other storage lands. I have played them on occasion but they either never show up in my decks or I just always tap them for colorless to stay on curve.
Slightly worse than the Time Spiral ones, unless you're in colorless or monocolored or enemy colors (It's a counter mechanic, so blue/green, maybe?) or something. Much better than traditional storage lands.
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I'm not a fan of Mage-Ring Network. At the cost of two mana to charge it each turn (one mana plus the opportunity cost of tapping the land itself for mana), the Network just feels slow and inefficient. Furthermore, you have to charge the card at least twice (costing a total of four mana) before you receive any payout. That payout, which at the earliest can only be cashed in two turns after you played the Network, will only grant you a single mana more than the card could originally make by itself. Two turns later and four mana invested only returns you one extra mana. That just feels so trivial. For every two mana (and turn) spent charging the card thereafter you receive one more mana, which is colorless to boot. Yea... no thanks.
When can a player even afford to charge Mage-Ring Network up anyways? Two mana per turn is not an entirely trivial cost. The first few turns of the game seem ideal for charging the Network as it can be difficult to fully utilize all of your mana at that stage and the Network scales with how long it has stayed in play, but doing so could interfere with your ability to cast other ramp spells. Midgame seems like the worst time to spend mana to charge the Network, since you likely only have enough mana to cast the spells in your hand and would much rather do so than building up this card. Lategame you likely have excess mana that can be funneled into the card, but since it requires a minimum of two additional turns to do anything, you may not see any kind of significant payoff before the game ends. Furthermore, there is always the chance that you already have all the mana you could already use lategame and that charging Mage-Ring Network with your spare mana isn't a productive way to spend it.
For as much as I don't care for the card, there are decks that will be willing to play with it. Colorless commanders like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can't play basic lands anyways, so the only other cards competing for deck space are other colorless nonbasics. Other decks that synergize strongly with counters, such as the aforementioned Vorel of the Hull Clade may decide to use the Network as well. In most commander decks though, I would prefer to play another basic land before devoting a slot to this card.
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I actually think that this land could be very good in certain decks. Any deck that runs a lot of morphs like U/G Kruphix morph deck in working on will want this. Also my memnarch artifact deck will really like this card. And like already mentioned before commander tax is colorless so It will find a home somewhere it is a pretty powerful storage land.
I think the cool thing about Mage-Ring Network is that you don't have spend a mana to take the counters off like other storage lands.
One mana isn't a lot, but in those rare situations it matters. I have them in my non-green mono colored lists.
The Mercadian Masques and Fallen Empires storage lands don't cost any mana to remove counters, and they also don't tap for colorless.
The Time Spiral cycle is, in my opinion, slightly more flexible than Mage-Ring Network. You can still treat it's mana cost as a 'Tap' cost by tapping the land itself for mana. This can also helo dig you out of situations where you have a need for colored mana and an overabundance of colorless mana (Tap a Sol Ring for 2. Use one to get the colored mana you need this turn then use the other to add another counter for next turn).
I'm not a fan of Mage-Ring Network. At the cost of two mana to charge it each turn (one mana plus the opportunity cost of tapping the land itself for mana), the Network just feels slow and inefficient. Furthermore, you have to charge the card at least twice (costing a total of four mana) before you receive any payout. That payout, which at the earliest can only be cashed in two turns after you played the Network, will only grant you a single mana more than the card could originally make by itself. Two turns later and four mana invested only returns you one extra mana. That just feels so trivial. For every two mana (and turn) spent charging the card thereafter you receive one more mana, which is colorless to boot. Yea... no thanks.
I think this is the best break down of the card. It generates 1 extra mana per four mana spend upon it's initial play. I would much rather play an Everflowing Chalice in it's stead. For the same 4 mana cost you get two mana per activation.
The goal of the card is get more mana over time for mana invested in the card to be used at a later time. I think cards like Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Mana Bloom, and Omnath, Locus of Mana provide a better pay off then the Mage-Ring Network does. I think one is better off running another land in place of the Mage-Ring and playing one of the cards I mentioned above. Another possibility that requires two mana per use to generate one mana is Gemstone Array
I'm not a fan of Mage-Ring Network. At the cost of two mana to charge it each turn (one mana plus the opportunity cost of tapping the land itself for mana), the Network just feels slow and inefficient. Furthermore, you have to charge the card at least twice (costing a total of four mana) before you receive any payout. That payout, which at the earliest can only be cashed in two turns after you played the Network, will only grant you a single mana more than the card could originally make by itself. Two turns later and four mana invested only returns you one extra mana. That just feels so trivial. For every two mana (and turn) spent charging the card thereafter you receive one more mana, which is colorless to boot. Yea... no thanks.
I think this is the best break down of the card. It generates 1 extra mana per four mana spend upon it's initial play. I would much rather play an Everflowing Chalice in it's stead. For the same 4 mana cost you get two mana per activation.
The goal of the card is get more mana over time for mana invested in the card to be used at a later time. I think cards like Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Mana Bloom, and Omnath, Locus of Mana provide a better pay off then the Mage-Ring Network does. I think one is better off running another land in place of the Mage-Ring and playing one of the cards I mentioned above. Another possibility that requires two mana per use to generate one mana is Gemstone Array
all the things you suggested take up a spell slot. network is a land.
if you have a lot of colored mana requirements it isnt great, but if having a colorless land doesnt effect you too much then theres very little drawback to running this.
you dont have to put counters on it. if youre somehow in a world where youre drawing like a god and use all of your mana every turn, awesome. if not, running this over a basic is good stuff.
So far, it's been pretty good in two decks. One is Narset, Enlightened Master, because it's going to be awhile until she comes out and then later she's casting <=4 spells per turn free anyway, allowing some flexibility in color demand. Naturally, it's a "get out of Commander tax free" card.
I think the cool thing about Mage-Ring Network is that you don't have spend a mana to take the counters off like other storage lands.
One mana isn't a lot, but in those rare situations it matters. I have them in my non-green mono colored lists.
Unlike the time spiral versions, this one taps itself to use it's storage counters. The time spiral stores can be activated multiple times in a turn if needed, where this land cannot.
Dreadship Reef and the others from Time Spiral may not have to tap to discharge, but they do cost mana to do so. In practice, that mana almost always comes from tapping the land for a colorless. Except in a few corner-cases it's not really going to matter whether you tap the land for 1 to pay for its discharge ability or if you just directly tap the land for its discharge ability.
I think people are being overly critical of this card. It's definitely not as good as the Time Spiral lands because colored mana is better than colorless, but mono-colored decks can run Mage-Ring Network. It's also not as though the card says "at end of turn sacrifice Mage-Ring Network if you didn't put a charge counter on it." You're allowed to just tap it for a colorless mana and go about your business. Charge it up when you can. I imagine this card being excellent in draw-go control decks.
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I think the cool thing about Mage-Ring Network is that you don't have spend a mana to take the counters off like other storage lands.
One mana isn't a lot, but in those rare situations it matters. I have them in my non-green mono colored lists.
This one taps itself, thus, losing the opportunity to tap for 1 mana, so it comes out the same.
The Timespiral ones cost 1 mana to decharge, but don't require a tap on that ability, so you can tap them for the mana to pay for it - coming out the same... except that you can active the timespiral ones even when tapped... say you have a dreadship reef with 5 counters on it and NEED triple blue on your turn, you tap and activate it and remove 3 counters, leaving two... now even though you tapped your reef and you may only have a single swamp untapped, as long as that dreadship reef has 2 counters on it, you're still threatening a counterspell.
You can't split up the mage-ring.
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If you're playing a mono-colored, or even bi-colored draw-go deck, it can be worth it's salt, allowing you to defer payments to super charge a later turn. It's also good in decks with Sword of Feast and Famine, as if you don't have anything to spend all your mana on pre-untap trigger, it allows you to keep mana open for tricks during combat and still charge it up. Especially if you somehow end up with multiple swords, or double-=strike, so you can charge mid-triggers.
On the other hand, a Time Spiral storage land can at best get 1+X with a Mana Reflection in play (tap for 2, pay 1 to produce X), while Mage-Ring, Crucible of the Spirit dragon, and the mono-color storage lands from Mercadian Masques and Fallen Empires would be tapping for 2*X. The Time Spiral storage lands also don't produce extra mana with Caged Sun, or extra colored mana with Mirari's Wake.
On the other hand, a Time Spiral storage land can at best get 1+X with a Mana Reflection in play (tap for 2, pay 1 to produce X), while Mage-Ring, Crucible of the Spirit dragon, and the mono-color storage lands from Mercadian Masques and Fallen Empires would be tapping for 2*X. The Time Spiral storage lands also don't produce extra mana with Caged Sun, or extra colored mana with Mirari's Wake.
Actually, they do produce extra with Caged Sun - in fact, if you have more that one caged sun out (somehow), you can actually continuously activate the ability for 1 in order to gain even MORE mana.
You are correct about Mana Reflection, but that seems like such an extreme corner case - much more so I feel than utilizing them multiple times a turn, as I play the Ux ones a bit, and that can actually happen fairly frequently. I also tend to leave them untapped occasionally when removing counters - using another land to grab counters off of it on the initial use (when I need specific color requirements). This allows me to re-charge it if the remaining counters aren't used/needed during opposing turns. THAT's a rather infrequent corner case, and I feel it still beats out the corner case of Mana Reflection.
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The Fallen Empires lands suffer far more from their inability to work with untapping effects, in fact not even gaining a counter on the turns you choose to untap them to have them available. While I love them to death, they are so far outclassed, even with proliferate and mana reflection.
The Masques ones are alright for mono-colored decks, but the CITP tapped really hurts for me. In most cases, I would run mage-ring over them. Also, I feel that any mono-colored deck has far better options for boosting mana than storage lands, even for a draw-go deck.
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If I had to rank them on general usefulness, the Timespiral lands are far and ahead clear winners for me, followed by Mage Ring which has a substantial gap before Masques, which has a substantial gap before Fallen Empires.
Am I overselling this card? Or is it actually good? Does the effect warrant a slot?
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The older, mono-colored storage lands come into play tapped and do not.
For example, Mercadian Bazaar
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One mana isn't a lot, but in those rare situations it matters. I have them in my non-green mono colored lists.
When can a player even afford to charge Mage-Ring Network up anyways? Two mana per turn is not an entirely trivial cost. The first few turns of the game seem ideal for charging the Network as it can be difficult to fully utilize all of your mana at that stage and the Network scales with how long it has stayed in play, but doing so could interfere with your ability to cast other ramp spells. Midgame seems like the worst time to spend mana to charge the Network, since you likely only have enough mana to cast the spells in your hand and would much rather do so than building up this card. Lategame you likely have excess mana that can be funneled into the card, but since it requires a minimum of two additional turns to do anything, you may not see any kind of significant payoff before the game ends. Furthermore, there is always the chance that you already have all the mana you could already use lategame and that charging Mage-Ring Network with your spare mana isn't a productive way to spend it.
For as much as I don't care for the card, there are decks that will be willing to play with it. Colorless commanders like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can't play basic lands anyways, so the only other cards competing for deck space are other colorless nonbasics. Other decks that synergize strongly with counters, such as the aforementioned Vorel of the Hull Clade may decide to use the Network as well. In most commander decks though, I would prefer to play another basic land before devoting a slot to this card.
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I think playing this card and dedicating yourself to charging it is a mistake. It's for those times when the opportunity presents itself.
I run it in my Godo list and see a fair amount of extra mana from it.
The Mercadian Masques and Fallen Empires storage lands don't cost any mana to remove counters, and they also don't tap for colorless.
The Time Spiral cycle is, in my opinion, slightly more flexible than Mage-Ring Network. You can still treat it's mana cost as a 'Tap' cost by tapping the land itself for mana. This can also helo dig you out of situations where you have a need for colored mana and an overabundance of colorless mana (Tap a Sol Ring for 2. Use one to get the colored mana you need this turn then use the other to add another counter for next turn).
I think this is the best break down of the card. It generates 1 extra mana per four mana spend upon it's initial play. I would much rather play an Everflowing Chalice in it's stead. For the same 4 mana cost you get two mana per activation.
The goal of the card is get more mana over time for mana invested in the card to be used at a later time. I think cards like Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Mana Bloom, and Omnath, Locus of Mana provide a better pay off then the Mage-Ring Network does. I think one is better off running another land in place of the Mage-Ring and playing one of the cards I mentioned above. Another possibility that requires two mana per use to generate one mana is Gemstone Array
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all the things you suggested take up a spell slot. network is a land.
if you have a lot of colored mana requirements it isnt great, but if having a colorless land doesnt effect you too much then theres very little drawback to running this.
you dont have to put counters on it. if youre somehow in a world where youre drawing like a god and use all of your mana every turn, awesome. if not, running this over a basic is good stuff.
The other one is Sydri, Galvanic Genius because, duh, artifacts.
Unlike the time spiral versions, this one taps itself to use it's storage counters. The time spiral stores can be activated multiple times in a turn if needed, where this land cannot.
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I think people are being overly critical of this card. It's definitely not as good as the Time Spiral lands because colored mana is better than colorless, but mono-colored decks can run Mage-Ring Network. It's also not as though the card says "at end of turn sacrifice Mage-Ring Network if you didn't put a charge counter on it." You're allowed to just tap it for a colorless mana and go about your business. Charge it up when you can. I imagine this card being excellent in draw-go control decks.
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This one taps itself, thus, losing the opportunity to tap for 1 mana, so it comes out the same.
The Timespiral ones cost 1 mana to decharge, but don't require a tap on that ability, so you can tap them for the mana to pay for it - coming out the same... except that you can active the timespiral ones even when tapped... say you have a dreadship reef with 5 counters on it and NEED triple blue on your turn, you tap and activate it and remove 3 counters, leaving two... now even though you tapped your reef and you may only have a single swamp untapped, as long as that dreadship reef has 2 counters on it, you're still threatening a counterspell.
You can't split up the mage-ring.
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If you're playing a mono-colored, or even bi-colored draw-go deck, it can be worth it's salt, allowing you to defer payments to super charge a later turn. It's also good in decks with Sword of Feast and Famine, as if you don't have anything to spend all your mana on pre-untap trigger, it allows you to keep mana open for tricks during combat and still charge it up. Especially if you somehow end up with multiple swords, or double-=strike, so you can charge mid-triggers.
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Actually, they do produce extra with Caged Sun - in fact, if you have more that one caged sun out (somehow), you can actually continuously activate the ability for 1 in order to gain even MORE mana.
You are correct about Mana Reflection, but that seems like such an extreme corner case - much more so I feel than utilizing them multiple times a turn, as I play the Ux ones a bit, and that can actually happen fairly frequently. I also tend to leave them untapped occasionally when removing counters - using another land to grab counters off of it on the initial use (when I need specific color requirements). This allows me to re-charge it if the remaining counters aren't used/needed during opposing turns. THAT's a rather infrequent corner case, and I feel it still beats out the corner case of Mana Reflection.
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The Fallen Empires lands suffer far more from their inability to work with untapping effects, in fact not even gaining a counter on the turns you choose to untap them to have them available. While I love them to death, they are so far outclassed, even with proliferate and mana reflection.
The Masques ones are alright for mono-colored decks, but the CITP tapped really hurts for me. In most cases, I would run mage-ring over them. Also, I feel that any mono-colored deck has far better options for boosting mana than storage lands, even for a draw-go deck.
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If I had to rank them on general usefulness, the Timespiral lands are far and ahead clear winners for me, followed by Mage Ring which has a substantial gap before Masques, which has a substantial gap before Fallen Empires.
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