At some point we're going to start working on making some uncommons, so we might as well pull the conversation from the Blue Commons Submissions over here.

So far, it seems that the big contenders are:

Something that bounces lands sounds like a good answer to flood. I'm not sure about sweep specifically. Things like Quirion Ranger / Scryb Ranger, and perhaps Kor Skyfisher, might be fine approaches instead. (Amusingly Quirion Ranger works even better against red than against blue.)

We could also have something like Power Conduit / Chisei, Heart of Oceans, especially since that works with the green mechanic too.

Yeah, I think I prefer flood answers if they also interact one way or another with the rest of the set. There are a few Fortifications which do it, and I think those can count as black's answer.

I vote no on Sweep, and yes for either a Quirion Ranger cycle or something like Power Conduit.
I missed where we said "no nonbasic lands." Where/when was that?

It was in the talk about Fortifications. Part of the Fortifications discussion included a grind for where the numbers come from. At the time, I argued, and people seemed to back up, that we don't really need non-basic lands because fortificiations did everything that non-basics wanted anyways. We only have so many slots, and fortifications on non-basics can lead to a lot of confusing interactions in a part of the board that players don't pay much attention to. Having playtested with Fortifications, I can see that a lot of that is relevant. Fortifications kept jumping up from the back row and having an effect on the game, then going back and hiding behind land again. I don't think it's a big problem... people will just have to adjust to how they think about lands, and watch for brown cards hiding among the lands. But non-basic lands really would make that problem that much more difficult to deal with.

Also, I think a Quirion Ranger variant is fine. This is uncommon we're talking about. We're allowed to get a little meaner.

I agree with "sweep is a good idea, but other land-bouncing methods are probably better". Especially if they're fortifications.

Good point about fortifications replacing non-basic lands. We still have a cycle of common lands in the file, what were they earmarked for, do we still want them, or do we want to replace them with fortifications that mana-fix, or with something else?

Oh, heh, those common land slots were so far down the file, that I didn't notice them. Yes, the common land slots should be removed. The same, I assume, applies to the uncommon and rare slots, though, they probably need to be changed into artifacts. No one's fought me on this point, so I assume everyone is cool with this.

OK. My thinking is: do we need more manafixing? If so, they should be mana-fixing fortifications. If not, do we need more fortifications? But I suspect if we don't need them for mana fixing they may be more useful as a 14th coloured card? I don't know.

I agree about avoiding common nonbasics, and perhaps uncommons too, but I would like to be sure that we have the manafixing for a heavy-gold deck. I think some rare duals would be fine.

Well, initial tests from 3 color decks say that they're risky, but there are good rewards, and the amount of fixing is fair. The high level of mana cyclers often means that you will sometimes have access to the third color, and sometimes not, often through the course of the game, until the later stages. I only tested with one of each fortification in both decks, but it looks like we're going to end up with two/three forts in the common slot that do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to smoothing the mana base over, and those cards might even be tutored for (!).

That feels to me like we got it right in one. Of course, we'll only really know when we start drafting the set and looking at the playtesting more seriously. And while those common manacylcers and forts may be fine for limited, it is quite possible that block constructed will call them too expensive to seriously consider.

Edit: I was responding to the post in general, but didn't realize I was talking in the 'controlling flood in the uncommon slot' page. Yeah, I can't see why using the land bouncing cards here can't be used to help the color fixing problems. In fact, this might help solve my "May not be strong enough for block constructed" quandry with the common solutions to multicolor decks.

OK, it sounds like the current mana fixing is plausible, so lets assume that we have some rare duals, but be prepared to move them if we decide we want more fixing. It would also be possible to use these on a cycle of uncommon lands that do something other than producing mana.

By the by... Mammoth Support Beams is really digging the new rare fortifications. ;)