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Alabaster Potion - Old-school players have been drinking the Potion in response to lethal damage for years.Aether Tide - Adding card disadvantage to an X-spell limits its flexibility.Abandon Hope - This fixed Mind Twist may lack the punch of the original, but flexible amounts of discard can still be brutal.Take a gander at this catalog of 100 spells (and yes, there have been exactly 100 as of Mirrodin) throughout Magic's history. Their flexible natures - their ability to be early-game tricks, solid mid-game spells, or late-game world-shatterers, depending on what you need - have served mages since the game's inception.
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Spells with variables in their mana costs have been creature removal spells, card-drawers, counterspells, creatures, artifacts - everything under the Dominarian sun. What better use for your mana-gobs than an spell?
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With recent cards like Cloudpost, Urza's Mine / Urza's Tower / Urza's Power Plant, Journey of Discovery, and Gilded Lotus, there are opportunities for producing mana by the gobs.
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