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Mana screw (Referred to as being Mana hosed by Wizards of the Coast[1]) is a term that refers to the condition of either not having enough mana or not having the right color of mana to play the spells in your hand.[2] Mana screw can be the result of several factors: poor luck; an opponent playing a strategy to reduce your mana (such as land destruction and other forms of mana denial); or poor deckbuilding. The lattermost factor can be due to too few lands (or other mana sources), improper color ratio, or a combination of both.

The joke set Unhinged has a card called Mana Screw which satires the random nature of mana screw by providing mana at random. The illustration depicts an actual screw.

Color screw[ | ]

Color Screw refers to a specific type of mana screw, where a player, while perhaps having plenty of mana/acceleration, lacks the correct color to play certain spells. e.g. A player may have six Mountains, but lacks the Swamp they need to cast a Wrecking Ball.

See also[ | ]

  • Mana flood: having too much mana, and not enough spells.

References[ | ]

  1. Reid Duke (September 21, 2015). "Glossary of Terms". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. Jeff Cunningham (April 28, 2007). "Managing Mana Screw". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
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