Does Devoid change a card's color identity in Commander?

No. Devoid makes a card colorless, but color identity is calculated separately — it includes all mana symbols printed on the card, including the casting cost. A devoid card with {2}{B} in its cost still has a black color identity and can only be included in Commander decks that allow black.

Does Devoid work in all zones, or only on the battlefield?

Devoid works everywhere — in your hand, library, graveyard, exile, and even outside the game. It's a characteristic-defining ability, which means the card is always colorless regardless of where it is.

Can you give a Devoid card a color?

Yes. If an external effect gives a devoid card a color (for example, an effect that makes all creatures red until end of turn), the devoid card is no longer colorless for the duration of that effect. It still has the devoid keyword, but the external color wins.

If a card loses Devoid, does it become colored again?

No. If a card loses devoid, it stays colorless. The colorless-setting effect from devoid is already applied to the card's characteristics before the ability is removed, so stripping devoid doesn't restore the card's mana-cost colors.

Can a Devoid card be targeted by color-based removal or protection?

No — and this catches people out regularly. Devoid cards are colorless objects, so spells and abilities that reference a specific color (like protection from black, or 'destroy target black creature') won't affect them, even if their mana cost includes that color.

When was Devoid first introduced in Magic: The Gathering?

Devoid first appeared as a preview in Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi, then was fully introduced in the Battle for Zendikar block in 2015. It returned in Modern Horizons 3 in 2024.

Devoid in MTG: Rules, History & Strategy Guide

There's something quietly strange about a card that costs {2}{B} but isn't black. That's exactly what devoid does - and understanding why that matters unlocks a surprisingly deep corner of Magic's color system.

What is Devoid?

Devoid is a characteristic-defining keyword ability that makes a card colorless, regardless of the colors in its mana cost. A spell with devoid and a cost of {2}{R} is, for all rules purposes, a colorless object - even though you need red mana to cast it.

The reminder text on cards says it plainly: "This card has no color." That one sentence has more rules weight than it first appears.

Dominator Drone is a clean example. It's an Eldrazi Drone with colored mana in its cost, but thanks to devoid, it enters the battlefield, sits in your hand, and exists in every zone as a colorless creature.

How Devoid works: the rules

Devoid is covered under CR 702.114. Here's the exact language:

"Devoid is a characteristic-defining ability. 'Devoid' means 'This object is colorless.' This ability functions everywhere, even outside the game."

CR 702.114a

The critical phrase is everywhere, even outside the game. Most keyword abilities only function on the battlefield or while a spell is on the stack. Devoid operates in all zones - your hand, your graveyard, your library, exile, even the command zone.

Edge cases worth knowing

A few interactions trip people up regularly:

Color vs. color identity. Devoid makes a card colorless, but it does not change the card's color identity. Color identity is used in Commander to determine what cards can go in a deck, and it's calculated from all mana symbols on the card - including the cost. A devoid card with {2}{B} in its cost still has a black color identity and cannot go in a non-black Commander deck.
Gaining color overrides devoid, but only temporarily. If another card or effect gives a devoid card a color (say, a spell that makes all creatures red until end of turn), the devoid card is no longer colorless for as long as that effect applies. It still has the devoid keyword, but the external effect wins.
Losing devoid doesn't restore color. If a card somehow loses devoid, it stays colorless. This is because the colorless-setting effect from devoid is already baked into the object's characteristics - effects that change color are applied in a specific layer order, and devoid's effect is already resolved before the ability is removed.
Gaining devoid doesn't strip existing color. If a colored object gains devoid from an external effect, it won't become colorless. The logic is the same: color-changing effects are applied in layer order, and the object's existing color is already established.

Rules note: The layer system for characteristic-defining abilities is one of Magic's trickier rule areas. If you're ever unsure about a specific interaction at a competitive event, it's worth asking a judge rather than guessing.

The visual design

Cards with devoid use a distinctive transparent frame style, the same aesthetic traditionally reserved for Eldrazi. The top portion of the card carries some color (matching the mana cost) over a hedron-textured background. This is intentional - it helps you identify casting costs and organise your deck at a glance, even when the card is technically colorless.

Strategy: playing with and against Devoid

Why colorlessness matters

Being colorless is mostly neutral, but it has meaningful interactions in specific contexts:

Protection and color-based removal.** Spells and abilities that protect from, or target, cards of a specific color simply don't apply to devoid cards. A creature with protection from black can still be hit by Complete Disregard ({2}{B}, devoid), because Complete Disregard is colorless - not black - when it resolves.
Color-matters effects. If your opponent controls a creature that gets +1/+1 for each black creature you control, your devoid creatures with black costs don't count toward that total.
Exile instead of destroy. Several devoid cards (notably Touch of the Void and Spell Shrivel) replace the usual "destroy" or "counter into graveyard" outcomes with exile. This is a mechanical theme of the Battle for Zendikar block, tied to the Eldrazi consuming and processing cards from exile.

Deck-building considerations

Devoid cards are overwhelmingly Eldrazi, so they slot most naturally into Eldrazi-themed decks. The key things to keep in mind:

You still need colored mana to cast them, even though they're colorless objects. Devoid doesn't change the casting cost - only what color the card is.
In Commander, check color identity carefully. Devoid does not give you a workaround for identity restrictions.
Devoid creatures pair well with effects that care about colorless creatures - Eldrazi Displacer, for example, has a {2}{C} activated ability, so a deck leaning on colorless permanents can support it more easily.

Playing against devoid

The main practical note when facing devoid cards: don't assume color-based protection or interaction applies. If you're holding a spell like Celestial Purge (exile target black or red permanent), check whether the threatening card has devoid before banking on it as your answer.

Notable cards with Devoid

Void Winnower ({9})

Void Winnower doesn't have devoid itself, but it's the most notorious Eldrazi from this era - worth mentioning for context. It's the card that taught a lot of players just how strange colorless can be.

Void Shatter ({1}{U}{U})

A Dissolve variant that exiles instead of sending the countered spell to the graveyard. Exiling matters more than it used to in a format full of graveyard recursion. The devoid clause makes it colorless, which is relevant for any effect that cares about the color of counters in your deck.

Touch of the Void ({2}{R})

Three damage to any target, and if a creature dealt damage this way would die, it's exiled instead. The exile rider is the point - it prevents graveyard triggers and recursion. A small upgrade over a vanilla damage spell in the right context.

Void Grafter ({1}{G}{U})

Flash, plus an ETB (enters the battlefield) hexproof grant to another creature you control. The flash makes this a combat trick or a response to targeted removal. Cheap protection attached to a 2/3 body is genuinely useful.

Essence Depleter ({2}{B})

A slow, repeatable drain effect: {1}{C} to make an opponent lose 1 life and you gain 1. Unremarkable in fast formats, but in a long game or a colourless-mana-generating engine, it adds up.

Spell Shrivel ({2}{U})

Counters a spell unless its controller pays {4}, and if it counters this way, the spell is exiled. A conditional counter with a high escape cost - fine in slower formats, less reliable against aggressive decks that can just pay.

Complete Disregard ({2}{B})

Exile a creature with power 3 or less. Cheap, clean, and permanent thanks to exile. The devoid frame is easy to forget here, but it matters for color-based interactions.

Void Attendant ({2}{G})

An Eldrazi Processor - a creature type that interacts with the exile zone. For {1}{G} and the cost of returning an exiled card to its owner's graveyard, you create a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion token. It rewards decks built around the ingest/process theme.

History of Devoid

Devoid first appeared as a preview in Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi before its full introduction in the Battle for Zendikar block (2015-2016). The mechanic was designed to let Eldrazi - traditionally colorless creatures - appear in multicolour sets with coloured mana costs without being considered coloured cards. The visual framing and rules text were built to solve a genuine design problem: how do you give Eldrazi casting costs that care about mana colours without making them "belong" to those colours?

Several white-costing devoid cards were planned for Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch but were cut for space. Eldrazi Displacer remained for years as the only devoid card with white mana in its cost - until Angelic Aberration, released in Modern Horizons 3 Commander (MH3, 2024), finally broke that streak.

Devoid returned in Modern Horizons 3** (2024) for similar reasons to its original design: R&D needed some Eldrazi to carry coloured mana costs, and devoid was the existing tool that solved that problem cleanly.

In retrospect, Mark Rosewater has reflected critically on the mechanic's design. He's said that naming devoid was a mistake - that it should have been reminder text or a rules note rather than a named keyword, and that a supertype might have been a more elegant solution. It's an interesting window into how Magic's design team reconsiders decisions even after a mechanic ships.

Lore aside: The Battle for Zendikar block centres on the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek threatening to consume the plane of Zendikar. The hedron texture on devoid card frames references the ancient stone constructs the Zendikari once used to imprison the Eldrazi - a neat bit of visual storytelling built into the frame design itself.