A mana stone, also called mana rock, is an artifact that produces mana.
Description
Mana stones were often employed at common to enhance mana quality or color fixing in limited and regularly come in cycles when producing colored mana, though often they produce colorless mana and have additional abilities.
Nowadays, full cycles are rarer and only show up in multicolored sets. For other sets, there is either a basic land searcher or a three-mana, five-color artifact with minor upside. Additionally, the cost has increased lately from an average of two mana to three mana.
Mana Stones are popular in Commander as a means to speed up the game as mana stones are additional mana sources that continuously provide extra mana. Artifact creatures and cards that require the sacrifice of permanents are not considered mana stones.
The moxes can also be considered mana stones.
Cycles
Producing colorless mana
Producing any color
Other
Man stones
A common subclass of Mana stones are those that can turn themselves into creatures during the late game, providing additional attackers when additional mana becomes less desirable. This is comparable to Manlands, another form of mana-producing permanent that turn themselves into creatures.