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Mana Pool and Useless Land Cards

So, I've been thinking about this for a while ever since I found out the actual rules for it, and I have to say: The intangible mana pool system is just useless. You know those land cards where they say "Tap, add (insert mana type here) to your mana pool"? Yeah, those cards are absolutely pointless in a deck (as some of you may/may not agree with me on this), the only thing they do is replace the land you just tapped with another color type, it doesn't may any big game changes at all. Also, the lands aren't considered mana, yet we have to tap them in order to activate cards because they're "sources", what's the difference at that point? The lands aren't mana, yet we tap them to activate cards, the mana pool is intangible yet the lands help us utilize the cards we need to pay for to cast, and the cards that say we add to the mana pool end up useless once you realize you're just tapping a land to replace it with another mana type without it ever increasing your resources in the end. Take Fetid Heath for example: It's second effect allows you to add 2 White, 2 Black, or 1 of each to your mana pool all for the cost of a plains/swamp. Yet all it does is just replace what you just tapped for just a short period of time. Looking at them like this, it just appears to be waste of ink on these cards. So, in light of all of this, I propose we rethink the concept of the Mana Pool rule: To ensure these cards have use, and to clear up any confusion, we should have these types of lands add other lands from the deck to the land stack (i.e. tap to add (-white mana- Plains or -black mana- swamps to your mana pool) , which should be renamed as the Mana Pool.

Upsides:
-Faster Games
-A tangible mana pool
-You don't have to mentally keep track of the mana amount
-The cards that add to the mana pool won't be as useless
-A LOT less confusion for normal players
Downsides:
-Makes for ridiculous plays involving heavy mana cost
-Quick and easy OTKs for sharp-minded players
-May require more than just a few rule revisions to prevent "add to mana pool" cards from adding in copies of themselves

Since I've just recently studied this rule, I'm a bit short sited on the usefulness of the "Add to mana pool" concept, but so far all I've noticed is that they're just useful for adding certain mana colors one would need in a temporary span. So if you have more info on why the intangible concept is useful (aside from the downsides I've mentioned) I'll be happy to hear. But in the meantime, you don't have to take my words to heart, everyone no matter who they are is entitled to their opinion, be in agreement or disagreement. I just wanted to state my thoughts on the matter. Thank you for taking your time to read this and have a wonderful day.
Posted 02 June 2019 at 19:46

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As far as I understood what you tried to explain: There is s reason cards like Fetid Heath or Painted Bluffs exist: Mana-fixing. Say you play a white and black deck and you want to cast e.g a "Grave Pact" (or any other card that has double or tripple coloured mana-costs) but only have 1 swamp and 2 plains. Fetid Heath allows you to pay any single black or white mana and get 2 mana back in the colour combination you need. Painted Bluffs isn't as powerful as Fetid Heath as you need to pay 1 mana to get 1 mana of any colour you wish, but the basic principle is the same. So these lands have their use in decks that have manacosts that are really hard to pay. Best example: Progenitus
The lands you speak of, that add other lands, exist, but they also come at a price. Like Evolving Wilds, that slow your play as the land enters tapped, or Marsh Flats where you need to pay life. Those cards also have a second benefit over lands like Fetid Heath: They lower the number of (land)cards you can draw while playing by 2 so you increase the chance of drawing a useful card.

As for the confusion, it took none of my new playerd more than 2 games to understand the principle of lands and mana and normally you don't tap more lands than you need to add mana and pay for spells (There are some exceptions but those are very rare). And keeping track isn't all that difficult: You calculate once what you need to tap and cast the spell. But I'm a long-time player maybe I don't see your problem at the moment.
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Posted 07 June 2019 at 19:41

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