I think you may have accidentally managed to powercreep Black Lotus, which is a pretty high bar.
This card only starts going negative after more than 3 turns have passed. And with the amount of tempo it produces, the game is unlikely to last much longer than that.
If you end the game on the 6th turn after playing it, you will still come out positive as you would have only paid 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 mana, while receiving 18 mana out of it. If you end the game on the 7th turn, it will break even.
While I admit that calling it a powercrept black lotus could be slightly exaggerated, due to the fact that Black Lotus is more flexible, I am 100% serious when I say it's definitely better than a mox.
I think your interpretation is severely underestimating the power of fast mana.
If you look at high powered formats, particularly vintage, the primary thing that separates them from normal formats is the availability of fast mana. As a result, a lot of them are very combo oriented and are often decided early in the game.
And this would not be unique to those formats. Standard for example isn't a format that doesn't have game winning combos. It's just that you need to survive before you can pull the combo off. A game winning combo can be as simple as reanimating an Omniscience for 4 mana.
And this card is very good with combos. If you win the game on the same turn you play this, this is just Black Lotus. If you win the game next turn, it is 2 lotus petals followed by black lotus. If you win the game after 2 turns, it is 2 lotus petals followed by 1 lotus petal followed by black lotus. And if you still haven't won the game by that point, you deserved to lose.
Fast mana is so important to the game that even Legacy decks (the 2nd strongest format) are playing Lotus Petals and spirit guides.
This card would have to be instantly restricted in all formats, and probably banned in all formats that don't have access to 0 mana counterspells because it will enable turn 1 wins before your opponent can even play a land.
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u/Docdan 8d ago
I think you may have accidentally managed to powercreep Black Lotus, which is a pretty high bar.
This card only starts going negative after more than 3 turns have passed. And with the amount of tempo it produces, the game is unlikely to last much longer than that.
If you end the game on the 6th turn after playing it, you will still come out positive as you would have only paid 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 mana, while receiving 18 mana out of it. If you end the game on the 7th turn, it will break even.