Mana Tithe

Funny Gameplay Moment

Happy birthday, Mark. My story just happened a few weeks ago. I convinced some friends to play PleasantKenobi’s party-in-a-box. I’ve put the power9 in as proxies. So, we start and player 3 casts pearl mox on his first turn. No land drop yet. Player 1 says: I’ve got a response. P3: oh? P1: yeah. Mana tithe. Do you pay 1? Now, the disbelief on his face was hilarious. He looks at his board to tap his land, only to realize he hadn’t dropped his land yet. The rest of us start laughing. He starts negotiating. P3: come on, i’ve never played a mox before. Please, don’t. P1 just deadpanned : do you pay the one? Nothing but laughter and heckling the next 10 minutes before we let P3 proceed to his land drop and finish his turn. But he did win the game in the end.

: )

Birthday Game Play Humor Lands Mana Mana Tithe Proxies Story / Lore Tap / Untap Tithe

Removing Poison

You've said before that Reprieve and Mana Tithe have been in-color for White for over a decade, but they just didn't get used by design teams. Is it accurate to say that Leeches is still technically in-color for White, but will never be used by a design team again? Or is removing poison counters simply a break in all colors now.

Removing poison is now not in any color.

Bend / Break Colors Leeches Mana Mana Tithe Poison Reprieve Tithe White

Counterspell Color Allocation

It had occurred to me that counters and soft counters are singularly in blue (rare exceptions like mana tithe). Maybe this has been discussed before but is there a reason behind this? Is it the polarization behind counters? Philosophy? Is there any mechanic in another color that that is pretty much exclusively in that color? If you or someone has ever talked about whether white's color pie should white have access to soft counters (primary/secondary/tertiary), I'd love a link!

We’ve decided we want to keep counterspells pretty contained to one color as they are very polarizing to the players.

Blue Color Pie Colors Mana Mana Tithe Mechanics Primary Rares Secondary Tertiary Tithe White

Favorite White Color Break

What is your favorite White color break? (You can say Mana Tithe if u want, that's my favorite too)

I don’t have favorite breaks, as breaks shouldn’t have happened. It’s like asking which crack in my windshield is my favorite.

Colors Mana Mana Tithe Mark's Favorites Mark's Favorites Tithe White

White Counterspells Request

I'd like to request more white counterspells! I really enjoy playing with Mana Tithe and Lapse of Certainty

Here’s the current state of white taxing and delaying counterspells. They’re in color pie, but play design isn’t currently interested in making them.

Color Pie Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe Play Design Tithe White

Acceptability of Color-shifted Requests

Regarding designs, do I recall correctly that requesting a color-shifted version of an existing card is fair game? For instance, imagine Mana Tithe did not exist. Would asking for Force Spike shifted to white be ok, or would that count as unsolicited design?

You can ask for a color-shifted version of a card.

Competitive Play Force Spike Mana Mana Tithe Spike Tithe White

New Cards in Time Spiral Remastered

With the Time Spiral Remastered set, is there a possibility of new cards in the same vein as Planar Chaos and Future Sight? I've been waiting for anything similar to a new version of Mana Tithe and my hopes dwindle every day.

There are no new cards in Time Spiral Remastered. Everything is a reprint.

Dwindle Future Sight Mana Mana Tithe Planar Chaos Reprints Time Spiral Tithe

White and Counterspelling

Why doesn’t white get more counterspells it’s #2 as far as counter magic is concerned but it has virtually none since mana tithe. I’ve tried a dozen ways to rephrase this but that’s as simply as it can be put.

The Council of Colors has said that white can do mana taxing counterspells and delaying counterspells (like Memory Lapse). The teams making the sets haven’t seemed particularly interested in making any. We can lead the proverbial horse to water…

Colors Council of colors Horse Mana Mana Tithe Memory Lapse Tithe White

White's Counterspell Abilities

So counterspells are supposedly still in White's part of the color pie. What kind can it get? Mana Tithe, Illumination, or both?

It can get a taxing or delaying counterspell.

Color Pie Mana Mana Tithe Tithe

White Counterspell Future

Do you think you will play around with white's space in counterspells (In cards like Mana Tithe and Lapse of Certainty) a little more in the future? I'm interested bc of your answer confidently stating Mana Tithe was in-pie.

It’s something we plan to do, but infrequently.

Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe White

Color Pie & Counterspells

Do cards like Mana Tithe and Gutteral Response still exist in the color pie slices in which they were printed or are counterspells exclusively a blue thing now?

Mana Tithe is within the color pie, but Guttural Response is not.

Blue Card Printing Color Pie Colors Guttural Response Mana Mana Tithe

Counterspell Color Identity

You've recently said that cards like Guttural Response are color pie breaks and shouldn't be allowed. Does that also extend to Lapse of Certainty or Mana Tithe? As someone who LOVES blue counterspells, I think conditional counters have an excellent home in white.

White mostly counters proactively, but it can counter through light taxing or temporarily through delay.

Blue Color Pie Colors Guttural Response Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe White

White and Soft Counterspells

Will we ever see White become the color of soft counterspells (Lapse of Certainty, Mana Tithe) and Blue being hard counterspells? Then people can't complain that Blue is the only color that can interact on the stack, even though white and green have ways to counter removal spells and Red has ways to counter Blue's counterspells.

I believe white might dip it’s toe in to counterspells (and it has) but I don’t anticipate white becoming home to all soft counterspells.

Blue Colors Green Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe Red Spells The Stack White

Planar Chaos Pie Fidelity

Thanks to Planar Chaos, there are a number of effects that exist in Modern in the "wrong color," while the right-color version has never been reprinted. Two examples off the top of my head are Simian Spirit Guide/Elvish Spirit Guide (arguably) and Mana Tithe/Force Spike. Do these color pie violations bother you more than others? (They do me.)

Planar Chaos stretched the color pie but not to the point of undercutting the weakness of colors, so those don’t bother me nearly as much as cards that let color’s do things that by color definition they aren’t supposed to be able to do.

Card Printing Color Pie Colors Elvish Spirit Guide Force Spike Mana Mana Tithe Modern Planar Chaos Reprints Simian Spirit Guide Spike Spirit

Planar Chaos Reprints

Planar Chaos may have been a mistake, but there were some absolutely fantastic cards that now exist in the greater MTG sphere that deserve a reprint, like damnation, or mana tithe.

There are cards in Planar Chaos that can be reprinted but there are many that cannot.

Card Printing Mana Mana Tithe Planar Chaos Reprints

Green Card Draw Logic

In Planar Chaos, we saw a lot of "color-shifted" effects. I have noticed that specific effects were usually shifted to allied colors (eg, White, being blue's ally, gets mana tithe, an effect usually in blue). This seems pretty ubiquitous but why did green get card draw when both of its enemies (Blue and Black), rather than its allies, are the kings of card draw?TL;DR, Whats the flavor of green card draw?

Green card draw reflects green’s growth.

Ally Black Blue Card Draw Colors Flavor Green Mana Mana Tithe Planar Chaos White

White's Counter Spells

You mention white gets a little bit of countering but there are only three unconditional non blue counterspells. Dash Hopes, Lapse of Certainty, and Mana Tithe. Black and White each have an additional two conditional counters. Excluding Mana Tithe since the set it was in was all about changing the color pie it looks like white and black are equal in their counters. Neither has very many though and most of them are over a decade old.

I never said white got nonconditional counterspells.

Black Blue Color Pie Colors Dash Dash Hopes Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe White

Mana Tithe Confusion

I was going through your old questions when I noticed something: You complained about Planar Chaos examples for what colors can do, then a few questions later cited Mana Tithe as an example of how white gets counterspells. Explain, please.

I forgot the cards were from Planar Chaos. In trying to answer as many questions as I can, I don’t always do enough research.

Colors Mana Mana Tithe Planar Chaos White

Guttural Response Debate

So you think guttural response was a mistake...*sigh*, as if it's a crime to have counterspells in a secondary color. You keep saying "they're in white, counterspells are secondary in white"; Well Mark, typically when one says something is secondary, that means there's more than 0 cards falling under that definition. (Im)patiently waiting...

Lapse of Certainty, Dawn Charm, Rebuff the Wicked. Mana Tithe was in Planar Chaos but I think we could do it in a normal set. There’s not a lot of them, but white does dabble a little (aka greater than 0.)

Colors Dawn Charm Guttural Response Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe Planar Chaos Rebuff the Wicked Secondary White

White Counterspell Philosophy

Regarding White Counterspells, I seem to recall Aaron mentioning (around PT: Amsterdam, where Paul Rietzl's deck featured both Mana Tithe and Lapse of Certainty) that they were backing off of them due to how easily they created a white "Fish" deck, due to White's strong weenie creatures. Has this attitude changed internally? There hasn't been a white counterspell printed since Shards. (On a related note: Any chance of seeing a "Withering Boon"-type C-spell in black again?)

Yeah, Aaron’s issue is an important one. White, thematically and philosophically, wants certain types of counterspells (especially delaying and taxing) but mechanically it gives some tools to white that cause problems. My waxing about the color of Memory Lapse was more a philosophical one than a practical one.

Black Card Printing Colors Counterspell Creatures Fish Lapse of Certainty Mana Mana Tithe Memory Lapse Three Color White Withering Boon