Michiel Smit (996)

23-1-2012 13:20:00

Color indicator is a new characteristic introduced on the back face of the double-faced cards. These cards started out with a characteristic-defining ability saying "CARDNAME is [color]." We use this sort of ability most often when we have to define color and don't have a mana cost to rely on. But it's kind of ugly, and no one was really happy having to include it on a group of cards that we knew were going to be in the spotlight.

Well, what if we didn't need that text at all? For most players, the color of the frame loudly and clearly communicates color. You look at a card. It has a red frame. It's red. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately, not so simple. The gold frames used on multicolor cards have considerable equity, so the rules need something other than the frames to point at to define a card's color. Enter the color indicator.

Found just to the left of the type line, the color indicator is a circular symbol that indicates a card's color. It is most often used in the absence of a mana cost. Once we had decided on the color indicator for Innistrad's double-faced cards, we thought about other cards with a color-defining ability. As I said, no one was in love with those lines of text, so in the interest of consistency and aesthetics, we are applying a color indicator the cards listed below. They all will lose the line of rules text that previously defined their colors.

Ancestral Vision
Crimson Kobolds
Crookshank Kobolds
Dryad Arbor
Evermind
Hypergenesis
Intervention Pact
Kobolds of Kher Keep
Living End
Pact of Negation
Pact of the Titan
Restore Balance
Slaughter Pact
Summoner’s Pact
Transguild Courier
Wheel of Fate

Oh, as to why this is in the functional changes section? Well, there are a few small differences, but we've decided we're comfortable with them. One, they're all losing an ability, so some of those cards will have a newfound appreciation for Muraganda Petroglyphs. Two, cards like Mind Bend that change one color word into another won't affect the color of these cards. Three, Evermind no longer turns the spells it's spliced onto blue. Really, how weird was that? Four, Dryad Arbor behaves a little differently under a Blood Moon. Previously, it would become colorless. No, really. (In layer 4, it becomes a Mountain and thus loses all of its abilities, including the one that would make it green in layer 5.) Now, because color indicator is not an ability it can lose, it remains green. It ain't easy, but we think Dryad Arbor will be just fine.

Bron: hier