Kozilek Commander: Colorless Developments In Oath of the Gatewatch

Colorless and Generic mana are two different things now. Here we go.

See that "diamond" symbol in the mana cost? That's the new colorless mana symbol. It means that you MUST use colorless mana to cast the spell. This is different than the generic mana costs shown by numbers in circles. For those costs, you can use any color of mana OR colorless mana to meet the requirement. Easy, right?

We'll see.

I really (really) dig the Eldrazi. They are bad ass. It's so flavorful what the Eldrazi are doing, existing between the planes. Consuming manifestations of reality. Laying waste. Great stuff there. And now, with the official Oath of the Gatewatch spoilers coming out, we are getting a good look at the truly colorless Eldrazi.



But what's really shaking things up, in my mind at least, is the introduction of a new Basic Land called Wastes.



This is foundational stuff here. A new basic land after all these years? Sign me up.

With the introduction of Wastes, it means that we can finally put together a fully colorless Commander deck that does not rely on a hodge-podge of non-basic lands to work. We can stick 30 Wastes plus 10 or so utility lands in the deck and call it a day.

Wooptie doo?



Hell yes, wooptie doo. Because Wastes is a basic land, we can start to use the good search and ramp cards that the other decks have had access to from the beginning. Sad Robot? Wayfarer's Bauble? Yes and yes. Armillary Sphere and Extraplanar Lens? Go for it.



It also means that the mana base is more stable. Ruination doesn't ruin our day. Back to Basics doesn't lock us out. Price of Progress doesn't bomb us back to the stone age. It's like we are playing a real deck.

Plus, it's a massive flavor win. Wastes are cool. Playing a colorless deck with Kozilek at the helm and casting him with a bunch of lands that represent all of the colored mana drained from the world? Oh, yes.

With all that said, it's a little weird to be introducing colorless mana now. Will players adjust? Almost certainly. But, it's confusing. You see, they are changing the way all of the old cards that produce colorless mana look. That Sol Ring you've been using for 20 years? Well, it actually produces colorless mana. That's two diamond symbols. So, keep that in mind.

I see some serious work for artists that do altered cards in the future.