Chromatic Star MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 9 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeArtifact

Key Takeaways

  1. Smooths out draws by replacing itself, maintaining resource flow crucial for gameplay advantage.
  2. Enables mana fixing and acceleration, crucial for decks that demand diverse mana sources.
  3. Instant-speed sacrifice offers strategic flexibility, optimizing its utility in various game states.

Text of card

, , Sacrifice Chromatic Star: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. When Chromatic Star is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card.

"This item is not from . . . now. It reflects a sky no longer ours and gleams with hope that does not exist." —Tavalus, acolyte of Korlis


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Chromatic Star is a versatile piece that facilitates smoothing out your draws. Once expended, it replaces itself in your hand, ensuring that your flow of resources stays consistent, crucial for maintaining an edge over your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: In decks that require multiple colors of mana or need to ramp quickly, Chromatic Star excels. It offers a seamless way to fix your mana, allowing you to accelerate the deployment of your spells and strategies ahead of time.

Instant Speed: Though the Star itself isn’t an instant, the ability to sacrifice it is. This flexibility lets you adapt to the state of the game, using the Star either on your turn for a strategic play or in response to an opponent’s move, ensuring you’re always optimizing its potential for success.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Chromatic Star doesn’t explicitly ask you to discard, the action of sacrificing it effectively leaves you down a card in hand, making it a less than ideal topdeck when seeking immediate board impact.

Specific Mana Cost: Chromatic Star is often celebrated for its flexibility, but its initial casting cost requires a colorless mana, which in certain decks, could be a restrictive factor when it comes to curving out your plays efficiently.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite its low initial cost, when accounting for the need to pay one mana for its sacrifice and drawing a card, the investment doubles. In a game where every mana point matters, there are alternatives like Mishra’s Bauble that offer similar effects without the mana expenditure.


Reasons to Include Chromatic Star in Your Collection

Versatility: Chromatic Star is an artifact that fits seamlessly into nearly any deck profile due to its low mana cost and the ability to smoothly fix mana issues by providing any color when sacrificed.

Combo Potential: This card excels in synergizing with strategies that capitalize on artifacts entering and leaving the battlefield. Its sacrifice triggers can also enable graveyard-based plays or draw mechanics.

Meta-Relevance: Being a staple in formats like Modern and Pauper, its presence is critical in decks aiming to streamline their mana base and stay responsive to a diverse and evolving competitive scene.


How to beat

Chromatic Star is a staple in many decks within the Magic: The Gathering landscape, renowned for its mana flexibility and card draw capability. The allure of this artifact lies in its ability to convert one color of mana into another, coupled with a card draw upon its departure from the battlefield. This utility makes it a cog in the engine of many combo and synergy-driven decks.

Toppling this versatile tool requires a strategic approach. Artifact removal spells such as Abrade or Nature’s Claim can efficiently dispose of Chromatic Star, preventing its owner from capitalizing on its benefits. Additionally, employing counter strategies like Stony Silence can render Chromatic Star and similar artifacts inert, blocking the mana and card draw it provides. Timing is crucial; it is most effective to remove the Star in response to its activation or preemptively through discard effects to disrupt your opponent’s flow.

Executing these strategies correctly can hinder your opponent’s game plan, especially if they rely heavily on such artifacts for mana fixing and draw. Attacking resources is a classic tactic in Magic: The Gathering and dismantling key pieces like Chromatic Star is often the linchpin in securing victory against decks that utilize this potent piece of the MTG arsenal.


BurnMana Recommendations

Chromatic Star shines in the MTG universe as a key player proffering card advantage, resource acceleration, and instant speed flexibility. Its essential role in mana fixing and its combo-potential make it a staple in decks across various formats. While it holds certain drawbacks, such as its sacrifice leaving you a card short in hand, the Star’s benefits in maintaining momentum and synergizing with artifact-centric strategies often outweighs its cons. Whether fine-tuning your deck or adding versatility to your mana base, Chromatic Star is a card worth considering. Join us for deeper insights and shape your deck into a formidable force within the MTG realm.


Cards like Chromatic Star

Chromatic Star is a versatile mana filter and cantrip artifact in Magic: The Gathering that provides a burst of color-fixing and a redraw upon its departure from the battlefield. It shares functionality with Prophetic Prism, which also allows a player to filter mana, but at an additional cost and without the cantrip effect tying to its destruction. It also mirrors the trait of Terrarion, another low-cost artifact which draws a card upon leaving the field, yet requiring two different colored mana to activate.

Another parallel can be drawn to Mana Cylix, a mana filter without any card drawing abilities, making Chromatic Star particularly valuable for decks that aim to churn through cards quickly. Additionally, Sphere of the Suns presents a similar role by providing color fixing, but with a limited number of uses and no card draw capability. This puts Chromatic Star at a distinctive positioning as it not only aids mana stability but also advances card economy.

In essence, Chromatic Star stands out within the realm of MTG artifacts that juggle mana conversion and card flow. Its unique blend of attributes provides a subtle strategic depth, establishing it as a staple in various formats that require both flexibility in mana and the advantage of cycling through a deck.

Prophetic Prism - MTG Card versions
Terrarion - MTG Card versions
Mana Cylix - MTG Card versions
Sphere of the Suns - MTG Card versions
Prophetic Prism - Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)
Terrarion - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Mana Cylix - Planeshift (PLS)
Sphere of the Suns - Mirrodin Besieged (MBS)

Cards similar to Chromatic Star by color, type and mana cost

Glasses of Urza - MTG Card versions
Wooden Sphere - MTG Card versions
Sol Ring - MTG Card versions
Iron Star - MTG Card versions
Black Vise - MTG Card versions
Urza's Chalice - MTG Card versions
Ivory Cup - MTG Card versions
Brass Man - MTG Card versions
Mana Vault - MTG Card versions
Soul Net - MTG Card versions
The Rack - MTG Card versions
Obelisk of Undoing - MTG Card versions
Feldon's Cane - MTG Card versions
Throne of Bone - MTG Card versions
Meekstone - MTG Card versions
Thran Foundry - MTG Card versions
Cursed Scroll - MTG Card versions
Candelabra of Tawnos - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Dreadnought - MTG Card versions
Signal Pest - MTG Card versions
Glasses of Urza - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Wooden Sphere - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Sol Ring - The Brothers' War Commander (BRC)
Iron Star - Fourth Edition (4ED)
Black Vise - Revised Edition (3ED)
Urza's Chalice - Masters Edition (ME1)
Ivory Cup - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Brass Man - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
Mana Vault - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Soul Net - Fifth Edition (5ED)
The Rack - Fourth Edition (4ED)
Obelisk of Undoing - Rinascimento (RIN)
Feldon's Cane - Pro Tour Collector Set (PTC)
Throne of Bone - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Meekstone - World Championship Decks 2000 (WC00)
Thran Foundry - World Championship Decks 1999 (WC99)
Cursed Scroll - World Championship Decks 1999 (WC99)
Candelabra of Tawnos - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Phyrexian Dreadnought - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Signal Pest - Magic Online Promos (PRM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Chromatic Star MTG card by a specific set like Time Spiral and Tenth Edition, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Chromatic Star and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Chromatic Star Magic the Gathering card was released in 7 different sets between 2006-10-06 and 2022-11-18. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12006-10-06Time SpiralTSP 2512003normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
22007-07-13Tenth Edition10E 3142003normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
32019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 15602003normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
42020-08-07Double Masters2XM 2392015normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
52020-09-26The ListPLST TSP-2512003normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
62021-03-19Time Spiral RemasteredTSR 2632015normalblackDaniel Ljunggren
72022-11-18The Brothers' War Retro ArtifactsBRR 741997normalblackYeong-Hao Han
82022-11-18The Brothers' War Retro ArtifactsBRR 111997normalblackAlex Horley-Orlandelli
92022-11-18The Brothers' War Retro ArtifactsBRR 74z1997normalblackYeong-Hao Han

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Chromatic Star has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
TimelessLegal

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