Wastes
Oracle Text
: Add .
Card Rulings
1/22/2016 The mana ability of Wastes doesn’t appear on the printed cards, but it is in its official Oracle text. (A card’s Oracle text (in English) can be found using the Gatherer card database at Gatherer.Wizards.com.) The printed cards display a large colorless mana symbol in a design that’s similar to other basic land cards.
1/22/2016 Because Wastes is a basic land, you can include as many of them as you like in your Constructed decks.
1/22/2016 In Limited events (including Sealed Deck and Booster Draft), Wastes must be in your card pool to be included in your deck. You can’t add Wastes to your card pool in the same way that you can add other basic lands.
1/22/2016 Wastes is not a land type. If something asks you to name a land type, you can’t choose Wastes.
1/22/2016 Similarly, colorless is not a color. If something asks you to choose a color, you can’t choose colorless.
My assumption would be that a card such as ghostfire would end up costing 2<>, instead of 2R. Going forward, this would make the cards we currently call devoid just be truly colorless, requiring colorless mana "<>" to be spent on it, rather than a color.
you couldnt produce the mana if your commander isnt in the colors
and if you would try to, like with fellwar stone, then it becomes colorless
I honestly believe that <> will just be a requirement to cast certain colorless spells, much like snow land was required for activation costs (This is clearly on a much bigger level though, and has many more questions that need to be answered). Cards like command tower will not be able to add <> to your mana pool, but they would be able to still make generic colorless mana. The biggest difference they will have to establish is what generic mana is and what colorless mana is.
In that case, I don't even think you will need a card such as you described. A simple 4 colored legendary eldrazi would do just fine, as it would synergize well, but still allow you to play all those colored devoid cards.
However, they could possibly say "yes, wastes cannot be added to a deck without the waste symbol in the mana cost, as this is color identity" but I doubt it.
In essence, we must keep in mind that eldrazi only have 4 colors, they cannot be white. Wastes possibly would act as that fifth color in the new set, without it being an actual color. So, at least, I would like to see a four color eldrazi that requires the "waste" symbol in it.
I'm also curious how cards like "command tower" will interact with commanders that have the waste symbol int heir summoning cost. Can it tap for that too?
They make a commander/legendary creature that is specifically devoid, and a casting cost of something like (<>/W) (<>/U) (<>/B) (<>/R) (<>/G) which would allow the color identity to be everything, but would have the stipulation along the lines of "As long as *blank* is in your command zone you may only cast colorless spells" as one of the restrictions. There could also be "As long as *blank* is in your command zone/in play, you may only cast colorless spells and <> may be used as mana of any color"
I think that would be fair, and wouldn't really cause too many rules issues. The only issue would be that whatever card that is would be the only card that you could run as your commander, since the color identity restriction would stop you from using a kozilek or emrakul as a commander.
Just my thoughts. Let me know what you think.
My thought is, do you think they should make "devoid" count towards color identity as well for EDH? I feel like the current Devoid cards are weak due to their dependence on color, but if devoid applied to commander, it would make them more useful.