This in Shadowmoor and Atog in Mirrodin show that reprinting old favorites blindly can go really, really wrong.
Reflecting Pool with even one Vivid land proved a completely different beast than Reflecting Pool with painlands and Cities of Brass. End result was a deck that bypassed the color pie altogether, and a black hole that all control decks eventually gravitate towards.
Posted By:
Gabriel422
(1/6/2011 9:44:14 PM)
It can't be a coincidence that this card was initially put out in Tempest, the set immediately following Weatherlight, where Gemstone Mine made its first appearance. On top of that, City of Brass was legal in Standard back then.
It was easy enough to make this into a five-color land back then. Reprinting it in a set alongside the Vivid cycle of lands, arguably some of the best short-term mana-fixers ever printed, made it just trivial, and made it possible without slowing down your mana curve to boot.
This card is amazing, period. If it could produce colorless mana it would cross the line from "amazing" to "broken".
Also, on a personal note, this is one of the few cards where I find the updated art to be superior to the original.
Posted By:
yyukichigai
(8/15/2011 7:44:29 PM)
"I wonder if you can add any color if you just have two of these in play..." - Aun
The answer is no. Simply because neither of them alone can produce a colored mana, let alone any mana (seeing as if you have a colorless mana producing land, reflecting pool could tap for colorless)
or rely on the rulings.
5/1/2008 Multiple Reflecting Pools won't help each other produce mana. If you control a Reflecting Pool, and all other lands you control either lack mana abilities or are other Reflecting Pools, you may still activate Reflecting Pool's ability -- it just won't produce any mana.
Posted By:
KarmasPayment
(5/3/2010 10:08:34 PM)
Donovan_Fabian: If it produced mana on its own with no other land out, that would make an already powerful card just ridiculous. It needs to have SOME disadvantage given how great the ability is. It's simple to get this land to produce mana of all 5 colors. This is a very good card. 4.5/5
Posted By:
kowrip
(3/26/2010 9:28:32 AM)
The cornerstone of the Five Color Control deck. It allows the user to produce almost any kind of mana combined with the vivid lands, and thus play almost any spell. Hooray! Run in basically any multicolor deck.
Posted By:
Chocopuppet
(3/15/2009 9:39:49 PM)
Combine with Gemstone Mine, Vivid anything, Rupture Spire or Ancient Ziggurat.
Posted By:
iondragonx
(8/17/2009 9:01:10 AM)
I love it for the flavour text. It's possibly the only piece of flavour text that isn't funny that I like.
Posted By:
Studoku
(6/1/2009 7:12:49 PM)
Awesome land, this card is the definition of mana fixing. Although this card being the way it is takes away the ingenuity in creating a consistent multi-color mana base. Not sure if it deserved a reprint in today's environment, and I do not much enjoy the new art.
Posted By:
rb2k
(5/6/2009 7:18:26 PM)
The only thing that irks me about reflecting pool is lets say you draw your first hand, and you want to play your birds of paradise/noble hierarch, and you look down, and you see your birds, but.. only one land and its reflecting pool. If you play it on your first turn it produces no mana. Otherwise, a great mana fixer, for any deck in general.
Posted By:
Donovan_Fabian
(10/24/2009 10:48:36 PM)
Should not have been in standard together with the vivid lands. They combine to create a monster.
Posted By:
Rainyday2012
(7/27/2009 9:09:13 PM)