Ersatz Gnomes

Color-hate tech aimed sideways at the entire concept of color. Where most protection in this era answers a specific color, this gnome strips color away entirely: point the first ability at a spell on the stack and it resolves colorless, slipping past counters and effects that key off a particular color. The second does the same to something already in play, turning any permanent colorless until end of turn so it stops being red or blue or green for anything that cares. That reach is narrower than it looks, though, because relabeling does not erase a text box: a creature with protection from red keeps that protection after it becomes colorless. What the trick actually does is the reverse of granting an answer; it revokes one. A removal spell that can only hit white permanents, a counter that only stops blue spells, a pump that only helps black creatures: making the target colorless takes it out of range of all of them, denying the opponent a color-conditional out rather than enabling yours. That is an unusual axis for a 1996 design. It does not destroy, counter, or steal; it edits the color line and lets the rules consequences follow. Both abilities cost a tap, which limits the gnome to one activation per turn and rules out a same-turn surprise; with a 1/1 body that any incidental damage kills, the play has to be staged in advance rather than held back as a reactive instant.