It's something that's poised to shake the very foundations of a 22 year old game. It bears a little discussion.
Though the fact that we can't come to a consensus about how these should work makes me appreciate why WOTC won't take fan created card ideas. We're all pretty awful at it.
The issue with dual or fetchland wastes is that the designers would have to envision Eldrazi working with colored allies and story-wise they aren't doing that.
Given that the basic land is Wastes and not city, I have difficulty envisioning colorless focus existng outside of the Oath of he gatewatch set.
You could easily put Wastes in a city, just make the artwork show the city landfill. Or even an empty lot. Or the site of a Magic battle that left the land scarred and it's mana ties severed.
There are so many ways you could put Wastes into any setting. The name could literally go in any setting.
Speaking of jury, I'm beginning to wonder if WOTC maybe intentionally leaked these in order to get the community talking about this early to work out all the kinks for the general public.
Everybody thought it was really unusual how WOTC put the painlands in the past two core sets (Origins and M15) instead of the checklands, but given their design lead time they could have known this was coming and wanted everyone to have fresh copies.
I predict that if <> gets confirmed as the new symbol for colorless mana, the painlands are going to regain their value real quick-like.
I thought Maro told us, that they dont like to print Land at Mythic
Maro said that cycles of utility dual lands (like the shocks or fetches) wouldn't be printed at mythic. Oddbal, one-off lands are okay to print at mythic.
I think Permanence is spot in (post #93). They've wanted something to differentiate between colorless mana generation and generic mana costs for some time.
I think we can also look at other TCGs, Pokemon has had a colorless energy type for some time now. Not only as an energy card type, but also as a cost on certain types of Pokemon.
WOTC didn't have any problem borrowing the idea of mythic rarity from Yu Gi Oh, so I wouldn't put it past them to borrow colorless from Pokemon.
Put me in the "real" camp. This is a long time coming and this is how they would do a new basic land. Personally I wish it would have a type so domain and such could go to six, I think the game could handle it and it could give it an injection of energy.
I'm also excited to see what kind of two and three color lands they can make with this.
I was expecting those last five land slots to be just some plain, utilitarian ETB dual lands but these are some really creative designs. I can totally see myself slipping singletons of these into my decks for a little extra oomph.
I once tried to design a land that was a DFC City of Brass, it was conditional off of prime numbers of permanents. I gave up because I thought it was too silly. Void Winnower just showed me I should try to make it work. Feels very silver bordered, but I'm glad to see it - this game needs more weirdness.
It's something that's poised to shake the very foundations of a 22 year old game. It bears a little discussion.
Though the fact that we can't come to a consensus about how these should work makes me appreciate why WOTC won't take fan created card ideas. We're all pretty awful at it.
You could easily put Wastes in a city, just make the artwork show the city landfill. Or even an empty lot. Or the site of a Magic battle that left the land scarred and it's mana ties severed.
There are so many ways you could put Wastes into any setting. The name could literally go in any setting.
Thanks
I predict that if <> gets confirmed as the new symbol for colorless mana, the painlands are going to regain their value real quick-like.
Maro said that cycles of utility dual lands (like the shocks or fetches) wouldn't be printed at mythic. Oddbal, one-off lands are okay to print at mythic.
I think Permanence is spot in (post #93). They've wanted something to differentiate between colorless mana generation and generic mana costs for some time.
I think we can also look at other TCGs, Pokemon has had a colorless energy type for some time now. Not only as an energy card type, but also as a cost on certain types of Pokemon.
WOTC didn't have any problem borrowing the idea of mythic rarity from Yu Gi Oh, so I wouldn't put it past them to borrow colorless from Pokemon.
I'm also excited to see what kind of two and three color lands they can make with this.
1.Innistrad
2. Lorwyn
3. Dominaria
4. Kamigawa
5. New Phyrexia
6. Alara
7. Ravnica
8. Theros
9. Tarkir
10. Kaladesh
11. Vryn
12. Fiora
13. Shandalar
14. Mercadia
15. Zendikar
16. Phyrexia
17. Ulgothra
18. Rath
19. Rabiah
20. Ragatha
That's pretty much confirmed that the manland cycle is spread over the two sets.
But, yes, perfect design.
Though now I wonder if this is how they're going to help colorless commander decks have more lands instead of solving the Barry's Land issue...