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There are plenty of cards, such as cards with Sunburst and Converge and most of these cards, which care about the colors of mana spent on themselves.

Additionally, Nix cares about whether or not any mana was spent on its target, but doesn't care about what color(s) it was.

Are there any cards that care about what color(s) of mana were spent on something other than the card which cares?

As a concrete example, suppose I tapped a Mountain and Temple Garden to cast Roast. Can it ever matter whether the Temple Garden was tapped for G or W, i.e. whether Roast was cast for GR or WR?

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  • You are asking two different questions there. The question in the last sentence has a very different answer than the one in your title. Please clarify.
    – Hackworth
    Mar 9, 2016 at 11:15
  • 2
    Not sure if you're trying to be sarcastic or why, but no, it doesn't. And my complaint about the question in the last line still applies. Tapping a land for mana and paying costs are very different things, even though they usually happen in the same context of casting a spell or activating an ability.
    – Hackworth
    Mar 9, 2016 at 11:54
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    I think that rewording the "concrete example" at the end can fix some of the clarity issues people are seeing. Would it be accurate to say that what you wanted to know there can be expressed as "Can it ever matter whether I spent {W}{R} or {G}{R} to cast Roast?"
    – murgatroid99
    Mar 9, 2016 at 16:36
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    The question seems reasonable enough to me; tried to edit to make it even more clear.
    – Cascabel
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:40
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    I sure hope not, what a colossal hassle and judging disaster it would be to have such a card in a format.
    – Affe
    Mar 9, 2016 at 19:05

4 Answers 4

3

It depends on what you mean by "care".

There are abilities that remember what colors of mana were spent to activate them, such as the abilities of Illusionary Mask and Ice Cauldron (credit to this answer and its comments).

There is at least one spell allows you to cast another spell based on the number of colors used to cast it: Bring to Light.

There are also indirect effects. Although things like Sunburst only directly affect the card with Sunburst, other spells could depend on attributes of the Sunburst card which in turn depend on the color(s) of mana spent to cast it. For example:

Situation A

You gain 5 life.

Situation B

  • Cast Arcbound Wanderer for {G}{G}{G}{G}{G}{G}
  • Cast Devour Flesh, targeting yourself.

You gain 1 life.

There are zero spells currently in existence that do the following:

  • "If you/the controller of the spell spent [color] to cast [some other spell], [effect]."
  • "Whenevever you cast a spell, if you spent [color] to cast it, [effect.]"
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  • 3
    I don't think you're using "care" in the same sense as the question. This doesn't care about the color of the mana, it cares about something that happened because of the mana. I don't think people would generally say that Devour Flesh cares about what Master Biomancer's power was when your creature entered the battlefield because that'd affect the number of +1/+1 counters on them and therefore its toughness. Devour Flesh just cares about your creature's toughness now, not how it came to have that toughness.
    – Cascabel
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:36
  • @Jefromi I see your point. I will modify my answer to clarify.
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:39
  • @Jefromi There we go. Does that look better?
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:51
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    Yeah, it's better. Honestly I wouldn't bother with the Arcbound Wanderer example all, because it seems quite clearly not what the OP means by "care". I think the bits after that are the actual answer, and that's just a digression, but keep it if you think it's useful!
    – Cascabel
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:54
  • @Jefromi I want that part of the answer because it was my first impression of what the OP was asking for, but after a more careful reading, I can see why your view is also reasonable. So I compromised and moved the part I like closer to the bottom of the answer. Now the part you liked more is up top.
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:55
2

Probably not what you are looking for but in a way it might fit the description. If Illusionary Mask is used to cast a creature then that creature spell cares about what colors are used on the Mask's ability.

Otherwise I don't think anything else comes even remotely close, but of course it's very hard to prove that something doesn't exist.

Anyway, i searched for cards that either had the word "spend" or "spent" in the text and checked them one by one, because I think that if such a card existed it should have one of those words

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  • 1
    Ice Cauldron might also fit, in the same way.
    – murgatroid99
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:18
1

Addressing specifically:

"Can it ever matter whether the Temple Garden was tapped for G or W?"

Because that is substantively different from:

Are there any cards that care about what color(s) of mana were spent on something other than the card which cares?

Yes, there are cards that cares about the mana a source produces:

Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun.

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  • Okay, I was unsure before, but this answer tipped me over the edge. The question is definitely unclear.
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 9, 2016 at 14:33
  • @BrainLot By design. Mar 9, 2016 at 14:37
  • Oh, and by the way, Gauntlet of Power doesn't care what colors of mana were spent. It cares what colors of mana were produced. I don't think that technically satisfies the second quoted question in your answer. Same goes for Caged Sun.
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 9, 2016 at 14:40
  • @Rainbolt Preceding the edit, the Question posed two disparate concepts; each is highlighted by the blocked text in this Answer. I addressed the portion that has been phased out of the Question. Mar 9, 2016 at 19:22
  • Now that the question has been edited to clarify that this is not what they were asking for, this answer is pretty much completely irrelevant.
    – murgatroid99
    Mar 9, 2016 at 22:06
0

There are also cycles in Eventide (e.g. Batwing Brume) and the original Ravnica block (e.g. Azorius Herald) that care about using specific colors of mana to cast spells.

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  • Both of those cards are already linked in the question.
    – murgatroid99
    Mar 9, 2016 at 17:22
  • @murgatroid99 Oh, I didn't notice that link <<;;;;
    – Circeus
    Mar 9, 2016 at 19:11

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