Seeing all these colorless damage spells makes
me a little sad that Circles of Protection
aren't in Standard nowadays. Not that Circles of
Protection promote interesting games per se -
they're the reason a lot of players my age have
a stereotype of white as the color that stops
everything from happening ever, and are a
perfect example of what Abe Sargent calls "a
Shahrazad". It's more that there's not really
any utility gained from their being colorless.
They would dodge cards like Flashfreeze and
Luminesce, but those aren't in Standard either
(though they might run into each other in larger
casual card pools). Their game text is really
the main event, and in Consuming Sinkhole's
case, you get something decent either way.
Creature lands can be problematic for almost any
deck, and the first mode prevents it from being
too narrow - four damage for four mana is not
efficient in older formats, but it's still a
significant percentage of most duel formats'
starting life total, and as such is a threat at
any stage.
Here is the third verse of the recitation. The
inescapable, all-devouring. There is no
situation under which it can not hurt you. It is
inside you now. Once you have glimpsed it, you
can never escape it. Ever.
