Island

[Anusien]

Island
Basic Land - Island
T: Add U to your mana pool.


I'm worried that it's a little too strong, since blue mana is really really strong in almost all the formats.  Should I require a life payment?  I also feel like even though this is basic, it's almost strictly weaker than some alternative.

Edit: Wizards stole my idea and put it in Ravnica.

[dandan]

Call this 'No man'

[magus888]

lmao 

[Norm4eva]

Generally, Wizards doesn't like printing lands that are strictly better than the other basics.  This should probably have a painland effect, or come into play tapped.

[Joblin Velder]

I don't think WotC will go for a 5th color.

[Harlequin]

In terms of Flavor, I think this card should be more like moat.

If you lived in a forest, or on a mountain, or in the middle of a wide open plains... sure you could be attacked.  But if you lived on an island I'm sure it would keep certain groundling from attacking you.

[Matt]

This is wayyyy undercosted. See [card]Island Fish Jasconius[/card].

[PucktheCat]

Man, if they ever printed this it would wreck Stax.  I realize that Wizards doesn't consider T1 when designing cards, but still, this seems broken.

[Scoops666]

I don't know, I don't think this card is all that powerful. Remember, lands can only be as powerful as the spells they can cast, and I don't believe we've seen any truly broken blue cards so far.

[49 Cents]

Maybe making it Legendary would help?

[Limbo]

Pff, we in the Netherlands have seen this development coming for a long time. That is why we are secretly accelerating the greenhouse effect, so all islands are destroyed. But with our dikes, we'll not only be the country with the hottest lesbian action, we will also have a monopoly on blue mana

Inside info: If you live in England, get out of there, as the flood should arrive there by monday morning.

[asmoranomardicodais]

OMG, if they printed this, my foil signed playset of Boil would skyrocket in price!

[Norm4eva]

OMG, if they printed this, my foil signed playset of Boil would skyrocket in price!

You know, I've been using Boil against wakwak.dec but if they printed this it'd be that much cooler.

[dandan]

They could call it Iceland and put it in Snap!! Snow-covered Island?

I don't like how this is immune to Wasteland. I could see people fetching them for that reason alone.

On the plus side, this makes River Boa and Dandan that much stronger but Mtenda Lion becomes virtually unplayable!

[The Atog Lord]

Oh man! If this card catches on, my Grayscaled Gharial will be useful for things besides getting around Island Sanctuary.

[asmoranomardicodais]

OMG, if they printed this, my foil signed playset of Boil would skyrocket in price!

You know, I've been using Boil against wakwak.dec but if they printed this it'd be that much cooler.

I mainly sideboard them in to stop Turbo-Jasconius, since its the only matchup my build of noblepanther.dec has trouble with. Circle of Protection: Lands is usually enough to stop wakwak.dec in its tracks.

[Matt]

I think you mean Rune of Protection: Lands.

[dandan]

I don't like that text. Can't we be bold and just put a friggin blue mana symbol there? People who can't understand that don't deserve to play Magic anyway. Stifle a friggin big {u} mana symbol, I think not!!

[asmoranomardicodais]

I think you mean Rune of Protection: Lands.

Proabably.

[Jacob Orlove]

You guys had better make this rare. I'm sure players would love to open a booster pack and pull one of these. Just don't give it a gold expansion symbol or anything--it should be indistinguishable from the copies you'd get in a starter tournament pack.

[orgcandman]

I've done some limited testing with this card, and its definately a beating. Once two of them show up, its really just a gameover waiting to happen.

Perhaps we could weaken it a bit? Maybe we could make it add more U, but only if you controlled artifacts. That way, people are FORCED to play with artifacts if they want to include it.

[Scoops666]

The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves, however, is what exactly is going to be this colors primary mechanic. The only things not really explored by other colors is countering spells and drawing cards- which I don't believe to be all that powerful in relation to preventing damage and gaining life.

[Harlequin]

The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves, however, is what exactly is going to be this colors primary mechanic. The only things not really explored by other colors is countering spells and drawing cards- which I don't believe to be all that powerful in relation to preventing damage and gaining life.

We could aslo give them the chance to return any permenant to its owners hand.   Its balanced because the opponent surely will be able to play it again. 

[Jacob Orlove]

That doesn't seem like it gives them enough control over the board, though. They should be able to steal opposing permanents, too.

To balance it, we'll give them terrible creatures, like 3/3s for five mana with a bunch of random abilities, or better yet, a 2/4 for five with just flying and some block flavor mechanic.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I like where you guys are going with this.  Especially the interaction with Artifacts.  I think that since basically they get no mana accelleration like Black Red and Green get, they should be able to play stuff for free once in a while, or maybe even tutor it into play!  I mean, lets say they put an artifact into play.  What's the worst you could put in, like, Juggernaut?  He can't even block, and he dies to Lightning Bolt (Which should totally be on the restricted list, by the way).

[warble]

I think we should really make the best cards from the color cost no mana, but have to pay other things instead.  I mean, obviously island is going to get restricted if it was ever printed.  Possibly we can just force people to pay their life for the cards or even better, make them discard cards from their hand to play spells.  That would be so weak, I mean you can't actually play some spell without sacrificing an artifact.  Let's give all the spells of island-color some sort of cost you have to pay to play them that isn't the mana.  That would definitely weaken the color a bit.  Better yet, let's make the spells you do play add more mana to your mana pool so you have to take mana burn after you cast your spells.  That'll definitely balance the color out.

[Matt]

I think this totally breaks the Domain mechanic, too.

[49 Cents]

Just make it that you get 1 damage everytime it's tapped. It will still be pretty insane but a little more balanced..

[dandan]

Couldn't this have a second ability, say tap for {b} or {r}? That way it would be more balanced, what with Wasteland being so common. It would also allow people to use it in more decks. Note that you leave yourself open to Swampwalkers/Mountainwalkers as well.

[forests failed you]

Island sucks;  My Toleria taps for blue mana AND removes the banding ability from my opponent's creatures./