Strange Happenings
MiamiMike · YMTC
Wrap-Up
Saturday, December 4, 2004
 nce upon a time, all
creatures had several things in common. They all had a power and
toughness. They all had a mana cost. They all had card art
and a name. They all had a creature type. Yet that already
changed with Champions of Kamigawa,
where dozens of creatures lost the "Legend" creature type, leaving some
creatures with no type. Yet Lore
changes something else. All creatures had a color or were an
artifact. Not true anymore. Feast your eyes upon this card:
All creatures had a color or
were an artifact. Not true anymore.
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Don't worry, nothing is wrong here. No words are missing from the
card. Check out that mana cost. Pre-Lore, any cards with such a cost
would be designated as artifacts. But Leaf-Borne Idol and friends
have no colored mana in their mana cost but are not artifacts.
This means that they can't be sacrificed to cards like Atog, destroyed
by cards like Shatter, or give bonuses to cards like Broodstar.
But like artifacts, their damage is colorless and can be placed into
nearly any deck.
Let me also take this time to demonstrate the other
aspect on this card. Even though Leaf-Borne Idol's mana cost is
completely colorless, you may use colored mana on it. Take a look
at the first ability. If you pay  as part of its
cost, it becomes green. It will no longer be colorless, but if it
is green, it gains the trample ability. To use the ability, you
do not have to pay  , making the ability unlike Invasion Block's kicker. You
can pay something to the order of  for it to be
green. (Due to its ability, only green mana will have any special
effect. Paying  won't make it red, for example.)
In the world of Jhiland, these
creatures exist due to the infusion of the colorless Ur-Magic.
Creatures can have their colors removed by the magic, and any creature
created by the magic is colorless. The Idol cycle is part of this
second group. Under the exposure of colored magic, their bodies
absorb the color and align themselves with that color, thus permanently
granting them the new color.
Enjoy this new "color," or lack thereof.
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