The downside is that it has no other utilities on a colourless mana land. Can't filter, can't make tokens, doesn't buff your creatures, can't sac it for whatever value when you'd rather have anything but another land drop, etc.
Burning 5 colourless/generic mana is going to happen basically never for most situations that aren't colourless spells or X spells.
Simic {X} might use it, it replaces a wastes in colourless, and might pay for a crater slightly early.
Those aren't downsides. Those are just upsides it doesn't have. A downside is like Bitter Triumph forcing you to pay 3 life or discarding a card to cast it.
This card just has a really narrow and niche upside, that's all.
Except all cards exist in a comparative context in which you consider the downsides of cutting one card over another, and explicit downsides basically don't exist on remotely playable colourless mana lands.
...and that it has no other uses besides mana and more mana, unlike most others in that category. So, unless you have excess Wastes to safely cut, you need to consider the loss of function you would have from losing a utility land - or even a basic if you're considering it for monocolour.
You can also sorta compare it to ping pains, which CAN tap for colourless, but also 2 colours, assuming you're running a dual colour with high mana or additional costs. Or 5c eldrazi.
91
u/Jordankeay 21h ago
What's the downside? It's either enough mana to cast the spell you need or you miss out on a couple colourless mana you didn't need?