Darksteel Ingot is just better in every way. The only way I see this being even remotely playable is with Power Artifact, and even then it's a waste.
Just another useless relic of Magic history.
Ibn_Shisha
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(6 votes)
One of the least efficient mana filters ever, this didn't even see much play back in the day (dual lands were easier to get your hands on back then). Now that mana burn is gone, it's not even useful for that.
Roy1138
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(6 votes)
Yeah. This is not Amy Weber's best work. And I like Amy Weber, especially for artifacts. I wouldn’t have put much effort into the art for this card ether though.
look at that.. simply.. wow.. the art just blew me away!
Fert12334
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
How could they print this and Black Lotus in the same set? Honestly seems very useless and overpriced. Also, the art is terrible. (not that i'm dissing Amy Weber)
Ava_Adore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I didnt know this existed till i sorted magic cards from worst rating to best,
I remember when i had the 3 for a 1 T lens, and then i got the 2 for a 1 T lens,
and now prophetic prism which has draw a card
Phantom_of_the_FNM
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(9 votes)
This actually is the worst card in the game. If you look closely, some cards are rated worse on this site, but all of them actually serve a purpose because they can actually kill the opponent or set you ahead in some way. Even the red spell to turn a morph face-up can cause problems for combat math, and can force an opponent to lose a creature in limited (say, a scornful egotist). That card can be good if the opponent is really bad. Or the land from Kamigawa Block. It may be bad overall, but I have won casual games using this to accelerate into creatures like Yukora, the Prisoner, and Iwamori of the Open Fist. It does do a (admittedly, bad) job of accelerating you in some decks. This, on the other hand, fixes your mana as a strictly-worse mana cyclix, that sets you behind 3 mana and a card for casting it, then one mana (it costs 2 and produces 1) for each activation. Instead of the normal gain in tempo from being able to cast better spells more reliably, you lose tempo trying to meet this mana requirement! It costs 5 mana to play and activate this once. By that point, and at this time, you should have all the colors you need out without this, because of all the duals.
tavaritz
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(4 votes)
THe question Isn't why it was printed (in A/B/U), but why was it reprinted (in R/4)?
kiseki
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(12 votes)
somewhere, sometime, someone once used a black lotus to cast this and forever shattered their opponent's faith in the game.
pedrodyl
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
you know, or you could play a black lotus instead. that'd be good too
NuckChorris
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Here's a great combo for this card.
Turn one: Mishra's Workshop, tap for this, Then play a Mox, tap it for Sol Ring, tap the ring to use this ability. Congrats, you just got 1 mana of any color. Use it to play your favorite 1-drop, like Suntail Hawk or Folk of An-Havva. Then prepare to defend yourself from constant laughing and/or ridiculing from everyone around. Stick out the match, you can win. Don't worry, you can stop your opponents 2/3 Kird Ape, and if they use Dark Ritual into Hymn to Tourach, keep going. What are they going to do about your creature and mana-filtering power?
Turn 2: Attack, play Sorrow's Path, tap the ring to filter the mana into this for 1 mana of any color and tap the workshop for Opaline Bracers use your leftover 1 mana for Ravorgrass Screen for some defense.
Turn 3: Equip the bracers to your creature that can attack, beat face, play Cathedral of Serra and play Melira, Sylvok Outcast, who bands.
Turn 4: You're dead from your opponent's Channel/Fireball. Demand a rematch.
Arachibutyrophobia
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
it's bad, but not bad enough to be funny, like wood elemental, nor is it playable at all. ugh, what a sad card...
Lauch
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Even the art reflects how much this card sucks.
deadeye1387
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Recently, the guys at The Coast came to their senses, and now we have Manalith.
Atogatogatog
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Yea, I have to agree with Phantom, there is not a worse card than this. Whenever I'm looking through my older artifacts for something interesting, this pops up and I just think "this is the worst card I own".
Dolorosa
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
5 mana for 1, huh? Hm...well, seems legit to me. I even get to choose which color my new mana is! Wonderful! For when you have 5 Swamps but REEEAAALLY want to play a Phantasmal Bear, buy your self a shiny new island and lovingly place your new bear on the field by your side!
What moron gave this more than 0.5? Read Phantom_of_the_FNM's comment and then rerate this card.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
When they first made the game, they seriously overestimated the price for mana filtering. Even casting cost, and activation cost would be worse then allot of things.
Oddly enough, they put too much value on mana filtering, but not nearly enough on actually ramping your mana.
Also, worst Amy Weber art ever?
vantha
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wow, we have come a long way haven't we? Compare this piece of crap to Prophetic Prism in Gatecrash. Not only is Prophetic cost 1 less to play and 1 less to activate, but the turn it comes into play you cantrip. I am so glad I wasn't playing when this card was still around. It just screams horrible card.
Andromeiylochk
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@DrJack
I know this may be hard for you to understand, but you have to pay five mana before you can even use it once. His point was that it's too costly overall.
DarthParallax
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Hey Dr Jackass.....quit being a condescending dick. -_- Nobody loves you. :P
Celestial Prism is actually a GREAT card because it has had SO many cards designed after it-- meaning there is quite a lot of Design Space for a card that is "Artifact. Make Gold Mana."
I think we should judge cards not by whether they are the Most Overpowered Version they can, but whether you can actually make lots and lots of inspired Designs improving on the original. It means...umm...how can I say this differently?
there is HUGE quantities of untapped 'genetic material' for card designed locked inside the mana of a Celestial Prism. We've discovered LOTS of it already, but the day we run out of 3 mana Artifacts that produce Gold Mana is not a day I see in sight. Ever.
Of course it is 'primitive', but Serra Angel now looks primitive to people who are gluttonous for ETB creatures. :/ Is Serra Angel ACTUALLY a bad card, or is it GREAT that it paved the way for people to want so many "My Creature can Attack AND Defend" cards? (the entire Vigilance keyword probably owes its support to Serra Angel)
Yes. Think about it. In Alpha, there were the Moxen, Sol Ring, Black Lotus, and Mana Vault. I don't think there were any other 'Mana Stones'. All of the actually fair and balanced ones? They come from Celestial Prism, and thinking that 3 mana is the right casting cost for Fixing your Colors. The cards that give only 2 colors are meant to be played in specifically 2-colored Decks, and are really the same concept as the 5-color artifacts. That is why I'm willing to attribute most of the artifacts that produce mana or search for lands as coming indirectly from Celestial Prism. The list of cards that come from those more powerful artifacts is much shorter but many of those cards are just more power than you quite need, or at least more power than is interesting enough to tell a real story about.
greatspearman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Hey, the rating on this card is exactly 1 star.
Sorry, guys.
SkyknightXi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I wish people would remember that this card GREATLY predates any thought WotC might have had of the Spike demographic...They weren't expecting people to hoard dual lands or mox gems (or any other rare), remember? (What, you thought basic lands were strictly for beginners?) It was probably anticipated that anyone with more than two colors would need this sort of help...as long as they were willing to deal with the inherent tempo loss. It wasn't expected that games would be at breakneck speed, anyway--the whole Black Lotus/Channel/Mountain/Fireball|Disintegrate situation took them by surprise, I believe.
@Darth Parallax: Stalking Stones...? I think you meant Standing Stones...which doesn't really have meaning nowadays, except as a stepping stone towards Mana Prism. (No pun intended.)
BigBoyBrian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Some of Amy Weber's other art is good but....
Based on this pic only, I would say that Amy Weber is in the wrong line of work.
Here's what she should be doing: http://www.1zoom.net/Celebrities/Amy_Weber/t2/1/
DrJack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ DarthParallax - excellent points. I totally agree, we should have more respect for cards that inspired the creation of many others, even that card isn't a Spike kill-em-all card. And yep, I was being a jerk too. I'm not very popular around here. :-P
(Original post, where I was acting like a cantankerous cad) @ Dolorosa, "5 mana for 1, huh?"
Yeah, if you're one of those strange people around here who have that house rule that says you have to pay a card's casting cost every turn. Or do you have some bizaare misprint of Celestial Prism that reads "5: add 1 mana of any color to your mana pool"?
The casting cost of Celestial Prism is 3 (three) colorless mana. I know this must be very hard for you to understand, but you only have to pay a casting cost once. The activation cost is 2 (two) colorless mana - it says so on the card, too in case you never noticed. After the turn in which you've cast Celestial Prism, you only need 2 (two) colorless mana forever more to activate it.
DId that help clear things up?
Claytoon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
"I need to topdeck a Celestial Prism during my next draw for the win." - Said no one ever
Comments (31)
Just another useless relic of Magic history.
the art just blew me away!
I remember when i had the 3 for a 1 T lens, and then i got the 2 for a 1 T lens,
and now prophetic prism which has draw a card
If you look closely, some cards are rated worse on this site, but all of them actually serve a purpose because they can actually kill the opponent or set you ahead in some way. Even the red spell to turn a morph face-up can cause problems for combat math, and can force an opponent to lose a creature in limited (say, a scornful egotist). That card can be good if the opponent is really bad. Or the land from Kamigawa Block. It may be bad overall, but I have won casual games using this to accelerate into creatures like Yukora, the Prisoner, and Iwamori of the Open Fist. It does do a (admittedly, bad) job of accelerating you in some decks. This, on the other hand, fixes your mana as a strictly-worse mana cyclix, that sets you behind 3 mana and a card for casting it, then one mana (it costs 2 and produces 1) for each activation. Instead of the normal gain in tempo from being able to cast better spells more reliably, you lose tempo trying to meet this mana requirement! It costs 5 mana to play and activate this once. By that point, and at this time, you should have all the colors you need out without this, because of all the duals.
Turn one: Mishra's Workshop, tap for this, Then play a Mox, tap it for Sol Ring, tap the ring to use this ability. Congrats, you just got 1 mana of any color. Use it to play your favorite 1-drop, like Suntail Hawk or Folk of An-Havva. Then prepare to defend yourself from constant laughing and/or ridiculing from everyone around. Stick out the match, you can win. Don't worry, you can stop your opponents 2/3 Kird Ape, and if they use Dark Ritual into Hymn to Tourach, keep going. What are they going to do about your creature and mana-filtering power?
Turn 2: Attack, play Sorrow's Path, tap the ring to filter the mana into this for 1 mana of any color and tap the workshop for Opaline Bracers use your leftover 1 mana for Ravorgrass Screen for some defense.
Turn 3: Equip the bracers to your creature that can attack, beat face, play Cathedral of Serra and play Melira, Sylvok Outcast, who bands.
Turn 4: You're dead from your opponent's Channel/Fireball. Demand a rematch.
Just a wee bit better, though it kills you...
Oddly enough, they put too much value on mana filtering, but not nearly enough on actually ramping your mana.
Also, worst Amy Weber art ever?
I know this may be hard for you to understand, but you have to pay five mana before you can even use it once. His point was that it's too costly overall.
Celestial Prism is actually a GREAT card because it has had SO many cards designed after it-- meaning there is quite a lot of Design Space for a card that is "Artifact. Make Gold Mana."
I think we should judge cards not by whether they are the Most Overpowered Version they can, but whether you can actually make lots and lots of inspired Designs improving on the original. It means...umm...how can I say this differently?
there is HUGE quantities of untapped 'genetic material' for card designed locked inside the mana of a Celestial Prism. We've discovered LOTS of it already, but the day we run out of 3 mana Artifacts that produce Gold Mana is not a day I see in sight. Ever.
Of course it is 'primitive', but Serra Angel now looks primitive to people who are gluttonous for ETB creatures. :/ Is Serra Angel ACTUALLY a bad card, or is it GREAT that it paved the way for people to want so many "My Creature can Attack AND Defend" cards? (the entire Vigilance keyword probably owes its support to Serra Angel)
Mana Prism
Stalking Stones
Coalition Relic
Darksteel Ingot
Ramos Artifacts
Chromatic Lantern
Fist of Suns
Manalith
Prismatic Lens
Alloy Myr
Extraplanar Lens
Borderpost cycle
Keyrune cycle
Cameo cycle
And the two mana artifacts are even more numberous-
Pentad Prism
Spheres
Signet cycle
Diamond cycle
Fellwar Stone
Fractured Powerstone
Coldsteel Heart
Copper Myr
Lead Myr
Gold Myr
Silver Myr
Iron Myr
And the 1 mana artifacts:
Chromatic Star
Chromatic Sphere
Barbed Sextant
Egg cycle
and here are some wierd ones:
Altar of the Lost
Astrolabe
Implements of Sacrifice
Yes. Think about it. In Alpha, there were the Moxen, Sol Ring, Black Lotus, and Mana Vault. I don't think there were any other 'Mana Stones'. All of the actually fair and balanced ones? They come from Celestial Prism, and thinking that 3 mana is the right casting cost for Fixing your Colors. The cards that give only 2 colors are meant to be played in specifically 2-colored Decks, and are really the same concept as the 5-color artifacts. That is why I'm willing to attribute most of the artifacts that produce mana or search for lands as coming indirectly from Celestial Prism. The list of cards that come from those more powerful artifacts is much shorter but many of those cards are just more power than you quite need, or at least more power than is interesting enough to tell a real story about.
Sorry, guys.
@Darth Parallax: Stalking Stones...? I think you meant Standing Stones...which doesn't really have meaning nowadays, except as a stepping stone towards Mana Prism. (No pun intended.)
Based on this pic only, I would say that Amy Weber is in the wrong line of work.
Here's what she should be doing: http://www.1zoom.net/Celebrities/Amy_Weber/t2/1/
(Original post, where I was acting like a cantankerous cad)
@ Dolorosa, "5 mana for 1, huh?"
Yeah, if you're one of those strange people around here who have that house rule that says you have to pay a card's casting cost every turn. Or do you have some bizaare misprint of Celestial Prism that reads "5: add 1 mana of any color to your mana pool"?
The casting cost of Celestial Prism is 3 (three) colorless mana. I know this must be very hard for you to understand, but you only have to pay a casting cost once. The activation cost is 2 (two) colorless mana - it says so on the card, too in case you never noticed. After the turn in which you've cast Celestial Prism, you only need 2 (two) colorless mana forever more to activate it.
DId that help clear things up?
- Said no one ever