Thanks, that helps with that.
EDIT: With or without your manual mana rules in place, I still can't use anything related to mana pool. Specifically, I tried
City of Traitors. My assumption was, "Tap
City of Traitors, gain 2 mana, then place a spell with a requirement of 2 or less mana". Though it won't let me tap it.
It also seems that
Mana Crypt, just by being on the field, counts as 2 additional mana and automatically taps when it's needed. The other cards with similar functions don't do this.
But I'm still unclear to how a mana pool even works. I don't wanna put decks in if they rely on something I'm clueless about.