Does Commander’s Plate Protect From Colorless?
The short and direct answer is: No, Commander’s Plate does not grant protection from colorless. Commander’s Plate grants protection from all colors, and colorless is not a color. This distinction is crucial in understanding how protection interacts with various cards and strategies in Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format. While the card is powerful and versatile in its ability to safeguard your commander from colored threats, it does not offer any defense against colorless spells or abilities. Let’s dive deeper into why this is the case, and explore related nuances with some frequently asked questions.
Commander’s Plate and the Nature of Protection
Commander’s Plate is an equipment card that provides a significant defensive boost to your commander. It grants the equipped creature protection from all colors. This means that the equipped creature cannot be damaged, enchanted/equipped, blocked, or targeted by any source that has a color. However, colorless is not a color in Magic: The Gathering. It’s a characteristic that denotes an absence of color, distinct from the five colors of mana (white, blue, black, red, and green). Therefore, anything that is specifically identified as colorless is unaffected by the protections granted by Commander’s Plate. This includes colorless creatures, colorless spells, and colorless abilities, meaning your commander is still vulnerable to these threats.
Why Colorless Isn’t a Color
Understanding that colorless isn’t a color is fundamental in Magic. When the game refers to colors, it’s specifically referencing the five colors of the mana pie. Colorless, on the other hand, signifies an absence of those colors. This distinction is important for rules, card effects, and card interactions throughout the game, not just concerning protection effects. Therefore, while your Commander might be shielded from the wrath of a Wrath of God, it remains vulnerable to threats like a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth because the latter is a colorless source.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can You Get Protection From Colorless?
Currently, there is no way to grant “protection from colorless” by any existing card in Magic: The Gathering. The design of the game makes it such that protection is always defined in terms of color. If such a mechanic existed, it would prevent damage, targeting, and blocking from colorless sources, just as protection from a color would. However, given the game’s current design, protecting from colorless is usually about strategizing with resilient creatures and artifact-based removal.
2. What Happens If My Commander is Colorless?
If your commander has a colorless color identity, all cards in your deck must also have a colorless color identity. You can’t include any cards with a color identity, which means no basic lands or other cards that have colored mana symbols. This restriction impacts your deckbuilding process as it limits options to colorless spells, artifacts, and utility lands.
3. Can a Colorless Artifact be a Commander?
Yes, many colorless artifacts can be commanders. This includes legendary artifact creatures and some of the Eldrazi titans. These commanders allow for unique deck-building strategies based on artifact synergies, big mana, and creature-heavy strategies.
4. Does War Room Work with Colorless Commanders?
If your commander has no colors in its color identity, you pay no life to activate War Room’s last ability. You also cannot activate the ability if you don’t have a commander, but colorless commanders activate this at no cost. This provides a consistent draw engine in colorless decks.
5. Does Jeweled Lotus Work With a Colorless Commander?
Yes, Jeweled Lotus allows you to generate mana to cast your commander, regardless of its color or color identity. The mana can be used to help pay the casting cost of your commander, like paying for part of the {8} cost of Kozilek, the Great Distortion. This makes it a key card for many colorless commanders who require large casting costs.
6. Can You Put Colorless Cards in a Commander Deck?
Yes, colorless cards are allowed in a Commander deck as long as they do not violate the color identity restriction dictated by your commander’s color identity. Any card that does not have a colored mana symbol or is explicitly colorless is permitted, meaning they fit into all deck color restrictions.
7. What is the Best Colorless Commander?
There are several powerful colorless commanders, including Karn, Legacy Reforged, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, and Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter. Each brings unique strengths to the table and provides various paths for building powerful decks.
8. How Does Colorless Mana Work in Commander?
Colorless mana is not a color. When a land like Command Tower generates mana based on your commander’s color identity, it cannot provide colorless mana if your commander has no color identity. You must use lands that specifically generate colorless mana, like Ancient Tomb or Eye of Ugin.
9. Can Command Tower Tap for Colorless?
Officially, Command Tower cannot tap for colorless if your commander has no color identity. It only produces mana of your commander’s colors. In casual games, some playgroups might house-rule it to produce colorless mana, but this is not the official ruling.
10. Can Commander’s Sphere Tap for Colorless Mana?
No, Commander’s Sphere cannot tap for colorless mana. While it can produce mana of any color in your commander’s color identity, it cannot produce colorless mana. This is because colorless is not considered a color in Magic.
11. Can You Permanently Destroy a Commander?
While it’s difficult, a commander can be permanently destroyed through specific interactions like copying a card like Chaos Confetti and using it on a commander when you control the player’s turn. These types of scenarios are rare, but theoretically possible.
12. Does Colorless Count as Monocolor?
No, colorless does not count as monocolor. Monocolor refers to a card or object that has exactly one color. Colorless, by definition, lacks any color, placing it outside of the monocolored category.
13. Does Colorless Count as a Color in MTG?
Colorless is not a color in Magic: The Gathering. It refers to a type of object or mana and is distinct from the five colors of mana. This distinction is important for card interactions, deck building restrictions, and understanding mana production.
14. Can You Include Basic Lands in a Colorless Commander Deck?
No, you cannot include basic lands in a colorless Commander deck. Basic lands have innate mana abilities that produce colored mana, which would violate the colorless restriction of your deck.
15. Can I Run Devoid Cards in a Colorless Commander Deck?
No, you cannot run Devoid cards in a colorless Commander deck. While devoid cards don’t have colored mana symbols, they have a color. The devoid mechanic makes a card colorless, but the card color is dictated by the colors in it’s mana cost, which still violates the “all cards must be colorless” rule in a colorless commander deck.
Conclusion
In summary, while Commander’s Plate is a powerful tool for protecting your commander from colored threats, it offers no defense against colorless sources. Understanding this distinction is vital for effective deckbuilding and gameplay, especially when dealing with colorless strategies and commanders. These frequently asked questions hopefully provide you with a more thorough understanding of how colorless works within the Commander format and the limitations of protection from colors.