On Eldraine, Magic the Gathering's fairytale plane, the population is split up across five courts: the white Ardenvale, the blue Vantress, the black Locthwain, the red Embereth, and the green Garenbrig. Serving these courts is the highest honour, and only those who manage to become a knight of all five are allowed to become the eventual monarch of Eldraine.
These courts all have very different philosophies – some value knowledge, others bravery, others self-reliance – but all train their knights to be adamant servants of the realm. Represented by Throne of Eldraine's Adamant mechanic, if you fully pledge yourself to a colour, you can get some pretty impressive benefits to casting your spells. Here is everything you need to know about the Adamant mechanic.
What Is Adamant?
Adamant is a keyword found in some creature, instant, and sorcery spells that tracks the colours of mana you used to cast it. If you cast the specified number of the right colour of mana, additional effects will trigger.
For example, while you can pay just one white mana and two generic mana to cast Rally for the Throne and make two 1/1 white Human creature tokens. If you instead pay three white mana (one for the coloured pip, and then two more white mana for the generic cost), you'll get one life for each creature you control.
Adamant isn't an additional cost, it just cares about what colour of mana you used to pay for the spell. Every card with Adamant asks you to pay three of the same colour mana, although Throne of Eldraine also has Sundering Stroke, a spell that wants seven red mana despite not actually having the Adamant keyword on it.
When casting an Adamant spell, keep in mind that the colour of mana you make is important, even if you have something like a Mycosynth Lattice that allows you to use any colour mana to cast any spell. Using a Mycosynth Lattice to tap three swamps only lets you use black mana as if it was another colour. It doesn't actually make it that colour, and therefore won't trigger Adamant. On the other hand, things that allow you to produce mana of any colour, like a Chromatic Lantern, will work.
This is also why copied spells will never trigger Adamant: a copied spell had no mana paid into it, and therefore can't trigger, even if the spell it's copying used the right mana.
Though Adamant abilities care about the mana used when casting, the effect only happens when the spell resolves. If somebody counters your Turn into a Pumpkin, you won't make a Food token no matter how much blue mana you paid into it.
How To Use Adamant
Adamant was a relatively minor mechanic of Throne of Eldraine, especially compared to Adventures, and so there isn't a whole lot you can do with it outside of extra value when casting spells.
It's a mechanic that works best in decks with only one or two colours, as you can more easily ensure you have the colours of mana you need open for casting. Alternatively, use cards like Chromatic Lantern or Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to smooth out your mana colours.
For cards with multiple effects, like an Adamant spell, always remember to start at the top of the card and work your way down when resolving the abilities. For an Unexplained Vision with Adamant triggered, you draw three cards, and then Scry three, not the other way around. Doing it out of order can cheat you out of some really useful effects, such as Rally for the Throne giving you two creatures and then giving you life for each creature you control.
What Colour Is Adamant?
Adamant represents the five courts of Eldraine, meaning the cards are spread across multiple 'cycles'.
Every colour has three cards with Adamant, although red also has the Adamant-in-all-but-name card Sundering Stroke. There are also two colourless artifact creatures with Adamant, Clockwork Servant and Henge Walker.
There are no multicolour Adamant cards.