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For example, Quicksilver Fountain says

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a flood counter on target non-Island land he or she controls of his or her choice. That land is an Island for as long as it has a flood counter on it.

At the beginning of each end step, if all lands on the battlefield are Islands, remove all flood counters from them.

I imagine this card is useful specifically because it denies the opponent the appropriate color of mana, if they are not already playing a blue deck. If I make a Swamp into an Island, then it produces U instead of B.

But what about with non-basic lands? If I turn Hinterland Harbor into an Island, does that mean it can no longer produce green mana? What about Seat of the Synod? Will that still be an artifact?

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    I run this card in my Merfolk Tribal deck that focuses on Islandwalk. That way, not only are you messing with their mana base, you're also getting unblockable attackers.
    – Discord
    Dec 6, 2013 at 19:14

3 Answers 3

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Keep in mind that there is a difference between "gaining" a basic land type (Aquitect's Will, "in addition to") and a land "becoming" or "is" a basic land type. When a land becomes a basic land type, it loses its old rules text and gains the appropriate implict basic land mana generating ability. Supertypes and Types are unaffected, so a land that is also a creature or artifact remains one.

305.7. If an effect changes a land's subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text and its old land types, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn't remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Changing a land's subtype doesn't add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, i keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.

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There are two types of effects that change a land's subtype. One adds a new subtype, the other replaces all subtypes with a single subtype. Quicksilver Fountain's effect is a replacement effect. The land stops being what it was before and becomes just an island, losing all effects and abilities printed on the card (but not abilities gained from other sources such as Abundant Growth). This is covered in the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

305.7.: If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any copy effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn’t remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Setting a land’s subtype doesn’t add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.

For your specific questions.

  • Yes Quicksilver Fountain's effect does affect non basic lands. They will almost become copies of the island card. They will however lack the "basic" supertype and will not be named "Island", for effects that care about it. (such as Awakened Amalgam)
  • Yes, Hinterland Harbor would not be able to produce green mana if you make it into an island. Using a replacement ability like Quicksilver Fountain's, it would be a non basic land named Hinterland Harbor with the subtype island and the ability to produce only blue mana.
  • Yes, Seat of the Synod would still be an artifact. Changing the subtype does not change the type or supertypes on the card, and "artifact" is a type. Seat of the Synod would behave exactly as it did without the type change, other than now having the subtype island for cards that care about it (like Islandwalk creatures)

As an addition to your questions, Quicksilver Fountain only works on lands that are not already islands, due to the targeting restriction in the card's rule text (emphasis mine):

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a flood counter on target non-Island land he or she controls of his or her choice. That land is an Island for as long as it has a flood counter on it.

This effect is tied to the flood counters placed by Quicksilver Fountain only, since the rules text specifies "that land". The trade off is that the ability doesn't need Quicksilver Fountain to remain in play to work, if Quicksilver Fountain is destroyed the land remains an island. Flood counters placed by any other ability (such as Aquitect's Will) are not affected by the Fountain, nor do counters originally placed by the fountain but moved to another land (say Fate Transfer with two animated lands). This will matter most for the small list of non basic lands that are islands in addition to another type, like Tundra or Steam Vents, as Fountain can't force a player to lose this access to their other color.

If your goal is to mess with colors other than blue, and your deck is mono-blue since Quicksilver Fountain would cut off your access to other colors, you could look at Reality Twist. I used it in a mono-blue deck along with Eon Hub to prevent the cumulative upkeep. Unless your opponent is playing the right combination of colors it ruins their access to proper colors with their basic lands, and non-basic lands that have land types, by swapping the color a land would produce with another color. Only Boros and Golgari color combinations are unaffected.

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  • Can you add citation to back up that Quicksilver Fountain won't affect lands that already have the island type? I don't see anything in the rules to back that up. 305.7 begins by saying: "If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type." (blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/cr305) Note it doesn't say "... to one or more of the basic land types it didn't already have." Jan 15, 2018 at 7:32
  • @doppelgreener "target non-Island land" This is due to how fountain targets, since it only puts flood counters on cards that are not already islands and this type of ability modifies only the land targeted, it says "that land is an island', not "Lands with flood counters are islands" so the ability only affects lands that had been targeted to gain flood counters by the Fountain. Moving flood counters or placing flood counters with other cards will not move the effect.
    – Andrew
    Jan 15, 2018 at 13:57
  • @doppelgreener Alternatively it could have said "target lands without flood counters", and it would then affect these island duals, and regular island lands also, it would also potentially take longer to reset, since any islands would have to be flooded first.
    – Andrew
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:22
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    Ah, got it — it's not part of type-changing which I thought you were speaking about in general terms there, it's part of islands being an invalid target. Jan 15, 2018 at 14:39
  • @doppelgreener exactly, and I should have been more specific, it's because of the specific way the card in the question targets and the wording of it's type change.
    – Andrew
    Jan 15, 2018 at 15:00
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The land becomes an Island. It can no longer produce anything except U mana without help from other cards.

It would have the text 'in addition to its other types' or something similar if it meant anything else.

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  • Can you quote any specific rules to back you up? What about if the card has other Types?
    – StrixVaria
    Nov 26, 2012 at 21:42

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