CCDD 090617—prism

Cool Card Design of the Day
9/6/2017 - Prism is going to look underwhelming in the light of Ixalan's treasure tokens, but it's not hard to imagine a block that wants similar color-fixing without the danger of mana rituals. And this is much safer and cheaper to put on cards.

Each prism is a one-time turn-any-mana-into-any-other-mana talisman. Prismatic Wolf isn't pushed enough for anything but Limited, but having a prism laying around can help you play your gold cards on curve or your splashes at any time. When it costs almost nothing, it's a nice bit of insurance against color screw.

Prismatic Cave is functionally a delayed-effect Skymill, with the upside that you can store up 2+ prisms to use at once.

Because a prism is worth less than one mana, it will sometimes be paid for by slightly stricter color requirements. Which will increase your deck's need for prisms, increasing the regularity with which you get to spend your prisms and feel good as well as the times your deck comes out all wrong and you can't cast anything. We definitely wouldn't want too many prisms cards like this.

Cards like Artificer's Prism, on the other hand, are all-in on helping you fix your colors without any commitment from you.

This version asks you to play a fair few artifacts, but rewards you with unbounded prisms and repeatable card draw.

And this version I made to better fit the original name I came up with for Artificer's Prism. I like that it spends your prisms in a less blunt and more optional way.

I invite you to share a prism design of your own in the comments, to help us explore proper costs, flavor wins, and mechanical uses.