This is giving selective artifcact and enchantment destruction to black and red. At a cost of 5, sure; but it's a very deliberate choice that this isn't permitted.

At least I'm not making it a common (Scour from Existence). You seem to be missing the whole point of having twobrid in the set.

The point of twobrid should not be to bleed stuff you can't get in a colour at all. Bleed stuff that's unusual sure, but not flat out forbidden. I think the rule of thumb is "If you can have it on an artifact".

And yeah; cost 7 is more plausible for it. Maybe ?

Paying more to get to exile creatures also seems senseless. Why would you play this over those mana card in that case?

This is a rather unexciting rare. Is it like the Brittle Effigy argument as to why is it even allowed to exist (mythics are given much more leeway with the color pie for example)?

IMO colorless cards have been the bane of color pie for some time now. One person in the WotC article admitted that there has been a problem with that - with stuff that can't be of a certain color just being printed as a colorless artifact instead.

Does this card really need to exist? Couldn't this slot be filled with a card that would be more exciting and not-so-color-breaking?

Sometimes I just want to poll the Wizards design/development staff.

"Dear Wizards,
So what's up with Flame Javelin? You guys still think it's fine? Just wondering.
--John-Michael"

Well, I mean there's always Blogatog.

For whatever reason, (colorless) artifacts are able to burn in limited amounts: Explosive Apparatus, Vial of Dragonfire, Flamecast Wheel, Meteorite, etc...

Also, considering that you can instant-speed-exile-Vindicate at , 4 damage for seems just "okay" powerwise. Personally I've never been a fan of this color pie breaking colorless cards are able to do though.

I guess I made my point in a far too curt manner. It is easy to overlook there cards because they are rarely played in any competitive farmat, but R&D always put effects like that in sets with significant amount of colorless: Karn Liberated, both versions of Ulamog, Argentum Armor (originally from Scars), Spine of Ish Sah, Lux Cannon, Oblivion Stone.

In fact, there are no less than four such effects in standard right now: Scour from Existence, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Universal Solvent and Mockery of Nature. Scour (and by extension solvent) was unusual because of its rarity. Its effect was nothing new.

Overall, this is not even pie breaking for commander as far as I'm aware, so I feel no shame whatsoever in pushing Bramblecrush as a 3G rare.

While all of this true, I would suggest you to abandon this heretic thinking that has pervaded the inside-workings of WotC - they aren't always right, you know?

For example you could easily trip players by showing off a card like...

"Doom"
Instant
Exile target permanent. Its controller loses 1 life.

... and I bet some responsible card designer hobbyist would come around to tell you that rakdos colors shouldn't be able to get rid of enchantments. Then you could go "So if I remove that from its cost it now be okay since Scour from Existence is a card - how does that make any sense?". Then they would have to ramble some utter nonsense how requiring you to pay specific color of mana actually should make the card worse - what is obviously a mere feeble attempt to keep justifying this "color pie" thing they hold utmost faith in.

It seems that once you go + as a colorless card you are allowed to pretty much do anything. Seriously, isn't instant-speed exile Vindicate like one of the strongest effects the game has to offer? It's the kind of stuff that should also appear in cards like Legacy Weapon or Ashen Rider.

If someone goes with the "Well it costs so much that it just sucks so its okay", we might as well start printing Hornet Sting and Bee Sting - heck, let's make them - who cares, the color pie is a lie and even if it ever was a thing then it has surely been killed by artifacts long ago.

I believe the thinking has been for some time that artifacts in fact have their own slice of the "color" pie, such that there are certain things that artifacts can do that not each individual color can. Whether you agree with it or not, it's not hard to see the reasoning behind this. There are very few things that are shared across all five colors, such that the existence of artifacts in non-negligible quantities hinges on the existence of this sixth slice of the pie. It would be, for example, literally impossible to design a compelling artifact set otherwise, since a large fraction of the set's card designs would have to sit on such a narrow slice of the game's possible design space.

That's the justification for this from the point of view of the design rule. The "well it costs so much that it just sucks so its okay" sides of things is more necessary as a game balancing principle, since things get out of hand when colorless card become better, especially significantly better, than their colored counterparts. (cough Renegade Freighter cough) These two ideas come together to explain most of the artifacts that have been designed, with a few legitimate design mistakes it the mix, as there always is.

If you want to hardline stick to the idea of a "pure" color pie than you probably have to believe that colorless cards in general are a design mistake. By that I mean that there would be next to no reason for colorless cards to exist at all, being cards that rarely do anything and are nearly always weaker than other comparable cards in the five colors. I can respect such an opinion, if that's what you believe; I can definitely see the reasoning behind it. But you should see that it's a logical consequence of what you're already saying.

Generally, yes, though I was being overly snarky.

There are certain things like mana fixing (and other "utility" effects) that artifacts can (should be able to) do - in the same sense that basic land cycling is something all colors can do to some extent.

I think it was indeed the original Mirrodin that tinkered with the restrictions so much that they were pretty much forgotten altogether. This "sixth color" has made the ("true" colorless) mana rather pointless since nobody really know what it can do or can't (Warping Wail anyone?). It's pronouncing the problem already embedded in "normal" colorless cards.