Monday, February 9, 2026

Magic the Gathering: Commander Hybrid Mana Rules Proposal Changes

It took me a long time to think about the idea of hybrid mana in commander, because there are so many points that are valid against it. But I will say right off the top, that I am FOR the change, but after much thought, realize that it would require a rewrite of the color identity rules in commander.

So to begin, commander has a ruleset for color identity that says if a card is a color, or has a mana pip of a color on it, then that is the cards color identity. Now this does not count color words (such as Protection from Blue does not make the card a blue color identity), and it does not count rules explanation (the thing in parenthesis on the card explaining the rule).

And here is where we come across an issue with color identity that I already experience with casual players in commander, that people use as an argument against hybrid mana: Color words make players think that a card is that color identity when that is not the case. Especially true since you have white cards that can make blue tokens, etc. So the color rules are already confusing enough for that.

The rules text exclusion also causes some confusion for people, such as for rules explanations for extort.

Complexity of the rules aren't really an issue in this case. The game is complicated. People will learn.

Next is intuition of color identity. Color identity occurs in multiple locations on a card. One is using color words: This card is all colors, This card is Red. This fills in the confusion stated earlier with casuals. Not only that, the Devoid mechanic makes a card colorless for the purpose of things like Pyroblast, but not for color identity.

Next is the mana symbols on the casting cost of the card. This one is the easiest to understand and the one where hybrid mana is having its conversation on. This also includes the mana pips on the card text. If we just took the proposed hybrid rules change and only focused on this, then yes, the proposal would work with no issues. But there are more rules to color identity which causes issue with ONLY changing this rule.

Then there are color pip identifiers on the type line (such as on the back side of Archangel Avacyn, Avacyn the Purifier) and the border of the card. This one is huge because the card itself has NOTHING else saying that it is Red, other than the pip and the border of the backside. When I was first playing commander, I didn't understand why I couldn't put this in a mono-white deck. The pips are all white, and there's nothing on the front side making the card not mono-white. But this kind of card issue also has to be addressed with the hybrid mana changes. You cannot do one and then the other.

Because there's also more types of borders and colors identities, such as the border of the card, which sometimes is colorless or gold. 

Gold ain't no magic color I ever heard of.

So a change would need to be made to color identity in commander, in a way that can make sense. But not matter what you do, the rules will be complicated, but it already is. Would it be more or less complicated in any way that would matter? I don't know. But it would for sure be different. So I came up with a rules change, that I would be happy with, and I'm putting it out into the aether of the internet.

Proposal

We leave the current rules of color identity for identifying the colors a commander can provide (including hybrid mana counting as both), but only look at the mana cost of the spell and the mana cost on the card text for color identity, and not on color pips in the type line, or border/color of the card, with hybrid mana being an OR in this case and not an AND. 

This means that cards like Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn the Purifier is a Boros commander but can be in a mono-white deck in the 99. This means hybrid commanders are all colors in their mana symbols, but can participate in mono-color decks.

Addendum

Also, dual lands are weird in commander. The logic is that I can't run a forest in a Boros deck, but technically the Forest mana symbol is in the rules and not actually on the card (an animated forest does not lose its ability if Deadpool chooses it). So shouldn't it NOT have a green color identity? And I can run an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in my Boros deck. So, the whole thing is really.... complicated.

Kormus Bell, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Elesh Norn Combo 

You can run Kormus Bell, Urborg tomb of Yawgmoth and Elesh Norn as your commander in a mono-white deck as mass land destruction, but Hybrid mana is what makes commander rules complicated? I don't think so.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

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Watched episode 9, waiting for episode 10. This series is so, so cute!



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Friday, July 25, 2025

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So far this season of anime, the only one I'm enjoying that's NEW is "A Bouquet for an Ugly Girl" which stars an absolute cutie of a girl who looks down on herself (so far, not a single other person calls her ugly, it is all internalized).

Really funny, really sweet, and the protagonist is absolutely a cutie.

In ones that are new seasons, its Dan da dan. Which is straight fire.



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Tuesday, July 1, 2025

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Welcome to Gay Wrath month!

Let's give non-lgbtqia+ people what our parents would give us when WE whined about something. Let's give them something to actually cry about.

Step 1: Always point out a straight republican child predator. Have one on hand like, "at least I'm not Ryan Utterback. What did he do besides demonize lgbt and call us groomers? Oh yeah, he molested kids."
Step 2: Point them to statistics: whoismakingnews.com/
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Apesar de tudo, profit!

Any suggestions?



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Monday, June 23, 2025

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Ugh, I keep forgetting that social media is a thing.

Got some friends into Guild Wars 2, been learning DaggerHeart, and have given up on Pathfinder 2.

There we go, updated!



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Tuesday, June 3, 2025

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I'm live on Twitch, come hang out! twitch.tv/pangoriafallstar?sr=

Come watch. I'm in no talk mode though. Throat is hurting.



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aaaaaaand it crashed... will do more tomorrow or thursday, or later today... ugh...



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Watch pangoriafallstar with me on Twitch! twitch.tv/pangoriafallstar?sr=

Hello friends streaming for rewards, please make sure your twitch and gw2 arena net accts are linked



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Monday, May 19, 2025

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It's so hot, my peanut butter cups are melted.



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Sunday, May 18, 2025

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Dream, wth


I was awakened from a dream. Shaken awake by an upset roommate. Apparently I was howling in my sleep.

"What were you dreaming about?"

I could only remember the wolf jumping at me as I was about to jump a fence. I knew that the wolf was the lady that was there as me and someone else tried to teach a group of 4 how to drive a van.



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Thursday, May 8, 2025

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youtu.be/Z2uFyFK0ZqU?si=kHMCEV

Absolutely great analysis. In my head, it also shows what world building can lead to when you take the logic all the way through. Lily pointing out that the kingdom doesn't understand the word prince would exists, and therefore have Princess be a meaning that is genderless is interesting as well.



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Friday, May 2, 2025

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My family is dying. And I didn't even know. They ran from social media, and now I don't know about them.

I don't talk to others much. I read and check in on people. But having to ASK about it makes it hard.



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Sunday, April 6, 2025

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In case you think I love D&D5e, there are enough things I hate about it, that I can't even run it out the box and have multiple pages of custom rules.

Pathfinder2 vs D&D5e is like apples and oranges (even more so now that I am learning more about PF2e).

For example, the 3 actions in PF2e giving you more actions is a lie (because A one of those actions is your move that D&D does for free), 2 many spells and actions take multiples, which just makes it into action and bonus action.



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Friday, April 4, 2025

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churchofpangoria.blogspot.com/

I keep falling in hate with Pathfinder, but when I analyze it further, I realize its because I'm looking at it from the lens of d&d5e, and that I MUST be missing information on my analysis. Does anyone know of a video or write up that compares the economy of both games?



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Everytime Pathfinder seems to have a cool idea, they scare themselves out of doing something cool with it

    Pathfinder design is designed to make things take actions, take longer, and take time. Every action is met with a consequence. Every reward is limited, and difficult to abuse. Every decision is mitigated, limited edition, and useless unless perfect. It also seems to want to "realistically" spend your time, by making some unrealistic demands of your time.

    Which comes across my latest learning block of character building. Which is Talismans. Talismans in PF2e are single use, items that attach to specific gear and have special boosts to your different skill rolls and attacks. Its like a little safety vest in some cases, or like a glow stick. You get the effect, it gets used up right away or it lasts for a short burst (usually a single fight or event) and then you need to not only put a new one on, you have to take equal time taking the old one off, or else the whole thing becomes muted.

    There are so many other ways to run this to make it more fun, more valuable to players and without even needing to let it be abused. Thing is, that what I'm about to say, can be done for 10 extra minutes and more in game gold. Just let a player spend 10 minutes "recharging" the thing. Maybe as some sort of "focus" procedure, maybe not. Either way, it allows you to pick one up, and just keep using it. It gives great value to the Talisman archetypes and classes, and makes getting two a day that become inert at night much more valuable and not feel like a waste of a feature.

    I consistently feel like Pathfinder 2 is afraid of power. Its afraid of ease of use. It consistently asks me as a player, to suffer for my fun. And that makes it hard to want to build or play the game. Which is hard to feel, when so many GOOD ideas are included alongside these terrible wastes of energy and time. So much good design and effort is paired up so poorly. 

    And I know they have Runes for things that are a much more permanent effect, but this temporary effect didn't have to be a money sink and time sink all in one that also means that the feats for getting them also feel like so much less, when the feat also only gives you talismans of half your level, which is fine at level 2 and way less powerful at higher levels.

    Suddenly though, it makes sense why at level 16 they are willing to let you have... 6 free half level talismans per day for free....which is 600gp for free per day. Or you can also spend 1800gp to get one, that ... helps you confuse a monster that grabs you, once. Maybe for 1 round or less, maybe for 1 minute. That's not bad, but maybe its because Pathfinder 2e actually has a plan on how to give you money, and pays you well, and doesn't have the same issues with money spending that D&D5e has.

    Maybe that's the key. Because they plan for you to have money to spend, so that you can have a stack of 5 1800gp single use talismans. This is why I want to learn more, because its obvious the design is there for a reason. In 5e this is terrible design. But in a game that plans around your gold income as a metric for the functionality of items, maybe that is a lesson to learn. So what is your income like in Pathfinder vs D&D? Does anyone look into that at all?

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

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And that's where choices might matter. Because the enchantment you seek might require ash wood for its unlock adn the other needs mithril. Now you are put of resources and you have to sacrifice either the ash or the mithril to get the cherry wood effect (or craft more necklaces). But its those interesting decisions that I work so hard on.



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For example, a cherry wood clasp if connected to a magical instrument allows it to be played hands free. Bard concentration spells are off loaded to the instrument and it needs to take damage instead of the bard for concentration checks.

Now you have to unlock this in the crafting of the necklace to add it, but its one of the choices and a reason to use cherry wood. Later on in crafting you use the accumulated build points to customize the item with enchantments.



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Looking at what changes I've been doing for necklace crafting and I made a lot of progress on simplifying things. Focus was reducing from 8 lengths to 6, and putting some of the options in a three tier system I had generated in one of the previous upgrades. There are still inconsistencies to navigate, and a lot more choice to add; I really want my crafting system to have the materials matter, but I want it to be not where it is now, but instead in the end to have the listed materials as a guide.



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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

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Took me 1 week to write up an entire armor customization system update, over 14 months for necklaces.



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I'm always late to these things!



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