Scour from Existence

Color Exclusive Effects

New 27 Dec 2023 Asked by 3-slugcat-pilots-7-ornithopters 32 Comments

This is kinda a complicated question, but do you think any color has more exclusive effects than others? Like white is really good at exiling things, but for 7 mana colorless can exile anything like scour from existence or 5 mana introduction to annihilation. More so, I was looking at weird counterspells and I don’t think colorless can just full counter a spell for any mana value, all of them have riders.So is blue any more “exclusive” in its effect? Or does any other color have more things that other colors just can’t replicate


There are small number of effects, like counterspells, that we mostly keep out of colorless effects. It’s based on the effect though and isn’t a larger color issue.

Cost of Colorless Removal Spells

New 08 Apr 2022 Asked by idunnoguy1 32 Comments

Is there a reason why the cost of colorless' removal spells is usually 7? (All is dust, scour from existence, spine of ish say, etc.)
That’s the line we drew to not step on colored space.
I was more specifically asking why it is specifically 7. Was it just arbitrarily chosen? Was it picked because the urzatron lands make 7 mana? Something else I don't know about?


It was based on setting the right power level due colorless removal, one that didn’t undercut the weakness of any of the five colors.

White's Exiling Capabilities

New 08 Apr 2022 Asked by fatcat1013111 34 Comments

Since colorless can exile target creature for 7, could white get exile target creature for 7? Any white deck has access to scour from existence in legacy formats so I don’t think it would be a break at all


Just because we do something in colorless, doesn’t mean we’ll print the effect in a particular color. That said, we have printed “exile target creature” in white (for example Angelic Edict for 4W).

Cost of Colorless' Spells

New 07 Apr 2022 Asked by idunnoguy1 30 Comments

Is there a reason why the cost of colorless' removal spells is usually 7? (All is dust, scour from existence, spine of ish say, etc.)


That’s the line we drew to not step on colored space.

Color Pie Rules and Artifacts

New 15 Oct 2021 Asked by cicakemlelo 64 Comments

You've said a color pie break is when it undermines a weakness in a color. What of Scour from Existence and Universal Solvent, which let any color remove any type of permanent? Or in general, there's a whole lineage of artifacts that let e.g. green deal damage to creatures or give them flying. If the justification is it's less efficient than what other colors have access to, that could also justify Desert Twister? (Which sounds right to me: that weaknesses are relative rather than absolute.)


Most players do not understand power level. The difference between a color doing something, in the color, and not, can’t be differentiated solely by mana cost because the majority of players won’t get where the line is and will just read it as something the color does. Generic cost artifacts can hit the line because it’s not communicating that a specific color can do something, and we can set the mana cost to keep from causing practical issues. For example, destroying any permanent in generic mana always costs at least 7.

Scour from Existence Clarification

New 09 Jun 2021 Asked by armeizh 53 Comments

Hi Mark, BFZ had the common "Scour from Existence", which exiled a permanent for 7 mana. Is it a part of "colourless can do anything the colours could (including multicoloured) at a higher cost", or was it a bend/break for Eldrazi flavour? Universal Solvent from KLD seems to imply the former.


We’ve drawn the line that colorless sources can destroy any permanent for seven mana.

Concept of Color Pie Breaks

New 06 Mar 2020 Asked by katzenwiege 48 Comments

"Being a color pie break requires you being in the color, not whether or not a deck can play the card." (From an earlier answer.) This is something that took me a long time to understand, and I'm still not sure I fully grok it. Desert Twister and Scour from Existence both let green remove permanents, but only Twister hurts the game. So it's more than an issue of competitive balance. It's as if the colors have personalities, and color pie breaks are out-of-character actions. Is that at all close?


We set limits for colorless abilities. For example, it costs 7 to destroy a permanent. This keeps colorless cards from undermining the color pie. Color identity is more than just what can go in the deck, but what that color itself can do. If we printed colored cards doing off color things at colorless limits, it would set bad messages about what the color can do. Most players aren’t good at telling rate, so a colored card at a bad rate just says, “Yeah, this color can do this.”

Colorless Card Effects

New 13 Feb 2019 Asked by glovealike 32 Comments

If Scour from Existence costs 7 and can be used in any color, does it mean that similar effect is possible in colored for high enough cost?


No. Artifacts are allowed to do things not allowed in certain colors.

Colorless vs Green Capability

New 17 Aug 2017 Asked by mrpopogod 33 Comments

Is the reason Green can't have Desert Twister but a green deck can have Scour from Existence is that by putting an effect in a color puts it on the path of becoming normalized and costed cheaper?


The color green can’t do it. Artifact and colorless sources are not green.

Colorless Card Debate

New 18 Feb 2017 Asked by siamkor 21 Comments

I think cards like Scour from Existence muddle the message. Green can't destroy target permanent at sorcery speed for 6, but can exile at instant speed for 7 (colorless to boot). Red can't destroy target permanent ever, not even for 20 mana and sacrificing 10 Mountains, but can exile for 7. I get why those cards exist, but if there are things mono-colors cannot do no matter the cost, I think cards like this send the wrong message. Colorless shouldn't do it either.


Green can use colorless things in its deck. That’s not Green doing it.

Colorless Cards Impact

New 08 Jul 2016 Asked by mrpopogod 50 Comments

So something that doesn't make sense to me is your statement that it's ok for colorless to do things at a high cost that a color can't do. So Scour From Existence is ok but Desert Twister (or let's say a theoretical 7 CC Twister) is not ok. But mechanically I can slot Scour into a mono green deck. I thought that "not undermining a color's weaknesses" was a mechanical thing, and colorless does just that.


Making a Green card at any cost says “Green does that” where making a colorless card does not. Yes, you can put colorless cards in your monoGreen deck but it is not conveying anything about what Green does. Green having to go outside of Green, even to colorless, stresses strongly that the thing is out of color pie.

Scour From Existence Pie

New 08 Jul 2016 Asked by scribonia 38 Comments

Does Scour From Existence, from BFZ, break the pie at "Exile target permanent?"


No. Colorless is not a color and thus doesn’t have a slice of the color pie.

Kiora Deck Inconsistency

New 29 May 2016 Asked by lenatir 25 Comments

Thematically speaking, I see a lot of cards that could fit a Kiora centered deck. A lot of Simic Guild cards seem to cooperate nicely. But how do I justify things like Phyrexian Infect or Eldrazi Scour From Existence?


Thematically speaking? You don’t.

Colorless Cost Flexibility

New 28 May 2016 Asked by choppenstantz 27 Comments

To be clear - Scour From Existence(and similar) is okay, because it's not about what a deck can do, it's about what a color can do, right? Basically, you can exile a permanent for seven generic mana, but you'd never print the same exact card for 6R or 6B, because it just wouldn't make any sense that way? I think this is confusing for people because there's no reason you can't spend six red mana to exile an enchantment. It feels like once you hit a high enough cost, colorless looks like 5-color.


Color identity is about what cards OF THAT COLOR can do. You can put Scour from Eternity in your mono-Red deck, but that doesn’t mean we’ll print 6R “Destroy target enchantment”.

Color Pie Considerations

New 28 May 2016 Asked by tilwin90 27 Comments

How is Scour from Existence not a color pie violation then? It allows red and black to deal with enchantments, one of the main weaknesses of these two colors, though admittedly at a greater cost.


You are confusing “can be played in the deck” with “is in that color”. Color philosophies are about what that color can do. Colorless cards, not being in that color, have no impact on what the color can philosophically do.

Thoughts on Scour

New 07 Nov 2015 Asked by ubsuporter 21 Comments

What are your feels about Scour from Existence?


Colorless gets access to certain colored things at a high enough cost.

Colorless Card Costs

New 16 Sep 2015 Asked by zerwyn 36 Comments

Why doesn't Scour from Existence break the color pie?


Just as with artifacts we let colorless do things at a high enough cost.


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