Why Was Temporary Mana Acceleration Moved from Black to Red?
General forum
Posted on Jan. 13, 2019, 9:21 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
In the early days of the game, temporary mana acceleration was a black ability, as seen most famously on Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual (as a side note, permanent mana acceleration has always been a green ability, as seen on cards such as Cultivate or Explosive Vegetation ).
Now, however, temporary mana acceleration seems to be a red ability, as seen on cards such as Desperate Ritual or Seething Song , and I am wondering why that is.
What does everyone else say about this? Why did WotC move temporary mana acceleration from black to red?
triproberts12 says... #3
In short, Red used to get mana advantage through land destruction. Once WotC decided no one like having their lands blown up, red needed more of the pie, and they tightened up black's color identity, which was kind of degenerate between having access to both ramp and tutors, by imposing costs on black's ability to ramp, typically through sacrificing creatures or life.
January 13, 2019 7:28 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
tpmains, triproberts12, both of those explanations make sense, thank you very much.
However, what about the fact that green has access to permanent mana acceleration, the ability to search libraries for lands and creatures, and the ability to recover any card (but usually creatures) from the graveyard? That does not make that color too powerful, does it.
January 13, 2019 10:32 p.m.
Every color has access to searching up its own type of lands, but green gets to look for every type of land and permanent ramping because it is all about nature. Green does have it weaknesses though. It's card advantage is limited because it is tied to creatures. It has trouble getting rid of creatures. It can only out-right destroy artifact, enchantment, and flying creatures, and other creature destruction involves fighting or combat. Since green is so creature-based, it is more susceptible to creature destruction, especially wrath effects that get rid of the built-up boards that usually happen in a green deck.
tpmains says... #2
It was moved because of flavor reasons. The flavor of red is to have more temporary gains and not look too far into the future. Black has a better ability to plan ahead into the future. It also has to do with black trading one resource for another, such as creatures, cards, or life.
January 13, 2019 7:26 p.m.