Colorless

File:Colorless-symbol.png

The colorless mana symbol

Colorless has two in-game meanings.

1. , a type of mana that has no color.
2. An object with no color is colorless. Colorless is not a color.

History

The idea of colorless mana was already introduced in Alpha with Basalt Monolith, Mana Vault and Sol Ring. It set the premise that most mana comes in one of the five colors (white, blue, black, red, or green), but there is a sixth subset of mana that is not any color. This mana can only be used to pay for costs that don't require color (for example artifacts).

In early sets the text for Sol Ring was still spelled out as "Add 2 colorless mana to your mana pool", but after Odyssey this was officially changed for editing reasons to "Add to your mana pool".

However, the cost of many cards includes a generic mana cost (, and so on). What that means is you can use one of any mana, colored or colorless, to pay for it. Though you can use colorless mana to pay for generic mana costs, they are not the same thing. "Generic" is a type of cost. "Colorless" is a type of mana. You can't produce generic mana, nor could you have a colorless cost. The latter changed with Oath of the Gatewatch.

R&D came to the conclusion that they had to stop using the mana circle with a number to represent both generic and colorless mana. Changing the representation of colorless mana was easier, as it's represented far less, so they to made the new mana symbol that represents one colorless mana. In our example the text for Sol Ring now is "Add ⁠ to your mana pool". One of the consequences of introducing a colorless mana symbol was the change to over 300 cards in Oracle, the central database of official card wordings.

Colorless Mana Cost

While colorless mana to be added to your mana pool is an evergreen mechanic, colorless mana cost is not. Colorless mana cost as first introduced in Oath of the Gatewatch and only appears in this one set.

Rules

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 107.4c The colorless mana symbol {C} is used to represent one colorless mana, and also to represent a cost that can be paid only with one colorless mana.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 106.10. If an effect would add mana represented by a generic mana symbol to a player’s mana pool, that much colorless mana is added to that player’s mana pool.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 202.2b Objects with no colored mana symbols in their mana costs are colorless.