Another alternative for the "mana fixing or multicolor card that can be played as mono" slots, rather than the Loretower Guard cycle: instead we could have a cycle of cards with this ability. It's an interesting contrast to the Jhessian Zombies ability: this way is card disadvantage, but it gives you both colours of mana, and on the turn you use it. It's probably not very high-powered, but that seems okay for a Limited colour-smoothing mechanic.

The ability word isn't necessary; I'm not sure whether this is cleaner with or without the "Manawash - ".

A third option is Gloomriding Warden.

I'd piggy back off cycle / landcycle and have it "Manacycle"

I kinda like this ability.

Would manacycling count as cycling and trigger Astral Slide et al?

Either way, I don't feel that this ability would require a keyword.

Can we get a mild mana bump in the process? and discard: Add ? Or do we not want to annoy Timmy with that option?

@Link: If we call it manacycling, then yes, basically, if the rules for it are chosen sensibly then it will trigger Astral Slide. OTOH if we call it channel or something else then it won't.

@jmg: The reason I didn't do that was I wasn't wanting to create a whole new cycle of Simian Spirit Guides. But what do other people think?

@Alex: By Link, did you mean dude1818?
I don't know if I have an opinion right now either way on this ability adding to mana vs. just recoloring it.

I mentioned it because it's what sprang to mind, but I'm pretty sure that I don't like it. Telling players that they should throw away resources sounds bad, unless it was a minor subset of cards. But Gold stretches across all colors, and this ability is activated using colorless. I rescind my proposal.

Though, I do admit it would be kind of neat to get the opposite reaction with a bit of cycling involved. ", Discard ~: Add to your mana pool, and draw a card." is a cool ability. And it works with Enlighten.

"Manacycling - (, Discard this card: Add to your mana pool. Draw a card.)"

I don't know, it seems like this ability's actual power level would be hard to judge.

Ooh. Hmm. So they're a cycle of more restricted Manamorphoses but with a big creature option instead. That I quite like. It helps multicolour, it helps Enlighten; you take a minor tempo hit for using the manacycling, but you get colour-fixing and a card for it.

I'd like to give this a keyword "manacycling", but I don't like the way it'd need two parameters. Two-parameter keywords usually look pretty unwieldy (Suspend as on Keldon Halberdier), and I feel that'd detract from the simplicity of this ability.

You could make "Adds one mana of each colour ~ has" be part of the official expansion of manacycling; and (though multiverse doesn't support it) just expand the flavour appropriately, without needing an extra parameter visible on the card (multiverse would need them, I expect).

That's an interesting idea. So on the card it'd look something like:

> Manacycling (3) ((3), Discard this card: Add to your mana pool. Draw a card.)

But the Comp Rules details could spell it out fully:

> "Manacycling [cost]" means "[cost], Discard this card: Add to your mana pool one mana of each colour this card has. Draw a card."

The reminder text doesn't need to be comprehensive enough to catch the Painter's Servant interaction. Yeah, I could see that working.

If we don't want the odd wording "each colour this card has", we could borrow some technology from Charmed Pendant and instead say:

> "Manacycling [cost]" means "[cost], Discard this card: For each colored mana symbol in this card's mana cost, add one mana of that color to your mana pool. Then draw a card."

I wasn't sure at first, but I think it makes sense to call it manacycling; getting the mana as well as a card feels like a plausible extension of cycling to me (more so than the cards that have complicated "when you cycle..." abilities).

And yeah, Vitenka's proposal is interesting. In fact, I think it would be about equally good to spell out "manacycling -- 3, discard: add , draw a card" or to have everything after the cost in reminder text. Either way the pattern will hopefully be clear, and either way you can tell by reading it what it does if you don't already know.

Alex: 'xactly. Whether it's card colour or casting cost, I don't really mind, either makes it work.

<flavour> If we go with manacycling, we can make it so that the inhabitants of Aer are desperately putting everything into their plight - including sacrificing themselves to generate mana</flavour>