The cornerstone of the Five Color Control deck. It allows the user to produce almost any kind of mana combined with the vivid lands, and thus play almost any spell. Hooray! Run in basically any multicolor deck.
Jedi1josh
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(14 votes)
Another card I rated low not because I think it's bad, but because I think it's too good. But what really bugs me about this card is that it's rare. By making it rare they've made it harder to get therefore driving up it's value. And like the comment below says, it's the cornerstone of the five color control deck. Why should a card that they know is going to be a cornerstone card be printed a rare? You've now given a unfair advantage to a small portion of players who have been fortunate enough to obtain them.
rb2k
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(5 votes)
Awesome land, this card is the definition of mana fixing. Although this card being the way it is takes away the ingenuity in creating a consistent multi-color mana base. Not sure if it deserved a reprint in today's environment, and I do not much enjoy the new art.
Studoku
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
I love it for the flavour text. It's possibly the only piece of flavour text that isn't funny that I like.
Rainyday2012
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(6 votes)
Should not have been in standard together with the vivid lands. They combine to create a monster.
The only thing that irks me about reflecting pool is lets say you draw your first hand, and you want to play your birds of paradise/noble hierarch, and you look down, and you see your birds, but.. only one land and its reflecting pool. If you play it on your first turn it produces no mana. Otherwise, a great mana fixer, for any deck in general.
kowrip
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Donovan_Fabian: If it produced mana on its own with no other land out, that would make an already powerful card just ridiculous. It needs to have SOME disadvantage given how great the ability is. It's simple to get this land to produce mana of all 5 colors. This is a very good card. 4.5/5
Aun
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I wonder if you can add any color if you just have two of these in play...
KarmasPayment
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
"I wonder if you can add any color if you just have two of these in play..." - Aun
The answer is no. Simply because neither of them alone can produce a colored mana, let alone any mana (seeing as if you have a colorless mana producing land, reflecting pool could tap for colorless)
or rely on the rulings.
5/1/2008Multiple Reflecting Pools won't help each other produce mana. If you control a Reflecting Pool, and all other lands you control either lack mana abilities or are other Reflecting Pools, you may still activate Reflecting Pool's ability -- it just won't produce any mana.
Nlky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm not sure why people don't like the new art. It's pretty cool combined with the flavor text. If you look into the water you see Lorwyn! It's happy, green, and sunny!
divine_exodus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like the rulings. "Reflecting Pool doesn't care about..."
In all seriousness though, it's a great combo card, worth the rare status, but i think it's overrated. It's not that fantastic.
Gabriel422
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This in Shadowmoor and Atog in Mirrodin show that reprinting old favorites blindly can go really, really wrong.
Reflecting Pool with even one Vivid land proved a completely different beast than Reflecting Pool with painlands and Cities of Brass. End result was a deck that bypassed the color pie altogether, and a black hole that all control decks eventually gravitate towards.
yyukichigai
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
It can't be a coincidence that this card was initially put out in Tempest, the set immediately following Weatherlight, where Gemstone Mine made its first appearance. On top of that, City of Brass was legal in Standard back then.
It was easy enough to make this into a five-color land back then. Reprinting it in a set alongside the Vivid cycle of lands, arguably some of the best short-term mana-fixers ever printed, made it just trivial, and made it possible without slowing down your mana curve to boot.
This card is amazing, period. If it could produce colorless mana it would cross the line from "amazing" to "broken".
Also, on a personal note, this is one of the few cards where I find the updated art to be superior to the original.
po0po0h3ad
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you have sunken ruins and a reflecting pool does the reflecting pool create two mana or just one?
blazestudios23
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Nice card, but doesn't solve the problem if you don't have any mana of the color you need in play.
GlintKawk42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Solid rare land. 4.5/5
koRnygoatweed
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Today I was over at my buddy's house and I was thumbing through some of his decks and while sliding past cards in his Vintage deck I came across a foil Japanese Reflecting Pool... Now I had to see what that was worth so we went to auction sites and wholesalers, nothing. Then I realized we were only searching for English versions of the card and even after that realization still no foil Reflecting Pools. Were these cards massively short printed in foil? Because if I can't find an English one to base the price off of I have to imagine the Japanese one would only be that much more rare.
Any info I could pass along would be helpful.
kor6sic6
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I was playing a game of EDH and had a Cavern of Souls in play, then I played one of these for turn, tapped it for blue (because Cavern could theoretically tap for any color) and an opponent claimed it was an illegal move, claiming that I'd have to use the Cavern for a color in order to use this. After reading the rules here, I see that I wasn't in the wrong. Should've called a judge.
Cynderias
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm curious as to how this interacts with a land like Graven Cairns. Seems like I'd be able to produce {B} or {R} with both on the field, but I'm not 100% sure.
BobbySinclair
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Okay, question. Your opponent has a City of Brass, and you have, say, two open Forests and a Thespian's stage. Technically, your Thespian's stage can produce any colour as it can copy the City of Brass, and in turn, your Reflecting pool can produce any colour the Thespian's stage can produce. The way the card is worded, it sounds as if this is possible. I'm going to assume it isn't, but has anyone encountered this scenario?
That all aside, this card is a beast in my 5 colour EDH. One Command tower becomes two. Epic 5/5.
tavaritz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@BobbySinclair I cannot say because it depends on the ruling.
The rulings I know are: If you control this, Tolarian Academy but no artifacts, this can produce blue mana, but if you control two of these but no other mana pruducing lands you cannot produce any mana. So how is this cards 'cannot produce mana if you don't control other types of permanents' different from Tolarian Academys 'cannot produce mana if you don't control other types of permanents'? It's only in ruling.
Check fourth edition Thicket Basilisk and Kjeldoran Frostbeast. For all intents and purposes there effect should be the same (because the cards are contemporary eg. templated the same), but by rulings it is not.
sweetgab
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Five Color Control: UUU on Cryptic Command, B on Shriekmaw, RG on Firespout, GGGG (or at least GG for the evoke) on Cloudthresher, W for Oblivion Ring optional... Half of your lands produce mana of any color, and Reflecting Pool did it at no penalty. It was one of the (or probably just the) most ambitious mana bases ever seen in Standard, and it worked perfectly.
Post Alara, Cloudthresher became Volcanic Fallout (RR), most of these decks also include Cruel Ultimatum at UUBBBRR. Just look at Gabriel Nassif's PT winning list, it's basically all the best control cards from every color. With a couple of Vivid lands and Reflecting Pools, UUBBBRR starts to feel a lot like 7.
Comments (24)
The answer is no. Simply because neither of them alone can produce a colored mana, let alone any mana (seeing as if you have a colorless mana producing land, reflecting pool could tap for colorless)
or rely on the rulings.
5/1/2008 Multiple Reflecting Pools won't help each other produce mana. If you control a Reflecting Pool, and all other lands you control either lack mana abilities or are other Reflecting Pools, you may still activate Reflecting Pool's ability -- it just won't produce any mana.
In all seriousness though, it's a great combo card, worth the rare status, but i think it's overrated. It's not that fantastic.
Reflecting Pool with even one Vivid land proved a completely different beast than Reflecting Pool with painlands and Cities of Brass. End result was a deck that bypassed the color pie altogether, and a black hole that all control decks eventually gravitate towards.
It was easy enough to make this into a five-color land back then. Reprinting it in a set alongside the Vivid cycle of lands, arguably some of the best short-term mana-fixers ever printed, made it just trivial, and made it possible without slowing down your mana curve to boot.
This card is amazing, period. If it could produce colorless mana it would cross the line from "amazing" to "broken".
Also, on a personal note, this is one of the few cards where I find the updated art to be superior to the original.
Any info I could pass along would be helpful.
That all aside, this card is a beast in my 5 colour EDH. One Command tower becomes two. Epic 5/5.
The rulings I know are: If you control this, Tolarian Academy but no artifacts, this can produce blue mana, but if you control two of these but no other mana pruducing lands you cannot produce any mana. So how is this cards 'cannot produce mana if you don't control other types of permanents' different from Tolarian Academys 'cannot produce mana if you don't control other types of permanents'? It's only in ruling.
Check fourth edition Thicket Basilisk and Kjeldoran Frostbeast. For all intents and purposes there effect should be the same (because the cards are contemporary eg. templated the same), but by rulings it is not.
Post Alara, Cloudthresher became Volcanic Fallout (RR), most of these decks also include Cruel Ultimatum at UUBBBRR. Just look at Gabriel Nassif's PT winning list, it's basically all the best control cards from every color. With a couple of Vivid lands and Reflecting Pools, UUBBBRR starts to feel a lot like 7.
Jaden Smith was here