Feb 22, 2013 -- 11:46PM, zammm wrote:

Like Astarael, I agree that CMC is poor terminology, but can't think of a really good replacement.

The most accurate alternatives I can come up with tend to be as long as--often longer than--the current wording. The concept of the total amount of mana in the mana cost just isn't something that can be easily reduced to a single term players will understand intuitively. The best I can come up with is introducing a vaguely relevant term that at least has the benefit of being shorter--if we have to explain the term anyway, it might as well be a better word than 'converted'.

So maybe 'value'?

Rethink : Counter target spell unless its controller pays , where X is its value.

Alternatively, if you still want to keep the mention of mana cost you could go with:

Rethink : Counter target spell unless its controller pays , where X is the value of its mana cost.

That's ever-so-slightly longer than the 'converted' wording, but it's a few shorter words instead of one longer one so it might be easier on templating anyway.

Ooh, or maybe someday:
 
Rethink : Counter target spell unless its controller pays its value in mana.

I would go witha combination of them all and say "Counter target spell unless its contoller pays X, where X is its mana value". It's clearer than the first and last but is shorter than the second. 

Feb 24, 2013 -- 7:48PM, EyeHunter wrote:

Feb 24, 2013 -- 6:54PM, bubba0077 wrote:

Feb 23, 2013 -- 3:42PM, Nyktos wrote:

I'd like "magnitude of [its] mana cost" but that's longer.

Could we just use "magnitude" or some other synonym for size? Or how about "energy"?

I assume this has the same problem as "Mill."

We have to reference "mana" or "cost" in the name somehow or else no one is going to know what the heck it is. The physicist in me is really attracted to "magnitude of its mana cost", despite how awkwardly long it is.