Color

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Revision as of 12:09, 22 January 2007 by >Zyrakris (→‎Flavor)
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Overview

File:Color pie.jpg
The Color Pie. © Wizards of the Coast

The Color Wheel also known as the Color Pie is how Wizards categorize mechanics in the game of magic. It is also how one differentiates the philosophies behind the colors.

File:Color wheel.jpg
The Color Wheel. © Wizards of the Coast


White

Flavor

White is a very moral color. In it's belief, there is very little grey area in moralily, and it's moral laws are very black and white (so to speak). White does not focus on the individual, but instead on the whole. Individuals are indeed encouraged to act on behalf of White and stop those who oppose it, even inside its own borders, but their personal views and feelings are often disregarded and even discouraged in a manner, in order to preserve the health and bond of the group. One can view White as one big mass, which internally governs itself with an iron fist, and to the outside looks facist and enthralling. To the White citizen this is not necessarily true, as it is White's, and therefore the citizen's, moral laws that binds the person to the Great White Way.

White also uses more tangible civil laws, so that individuals do not disturb the whole. This also show that White is very concerned with the society it breeds, in that the good of the society is much more important than the rights and welfare of a single individual. The term, "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the one", certainly applies to the White way of living. This again implies that any dissident will be dealt with swiftly, so that no factions appear within the White society. White individuals are therefore inherently political beings that go through large amounts of bureaucracy to change the ways of the society.

(To be expanded.)

Rules

White is an inherently defensive color, which can bee seen throughout the color, and if one looks closely is what motivates nearly all of white's mechanics.

One of these defensive mechanics is Life Gain and its ilk. This comes in the form of life gain directly to the player, life gain to a creature (also know as healing) and damage prevention. Examples of cards that do this are: Healing Salve and Heart of Light.

Furthermore, White can be quite rough on attackers, which all of its newer removal targets. Cards that exemplify this includes: Chastise and Condemn.

White is also the foremost color of [protection]], show in cards such as White Knight, Paladin in-vec and Absolute Grace.

White also features defensive enchantments that again punishes attackers, such as Teferi's Moat and Worship.

White is the bane of enemy enchantments, which serve to prevent White from having its way. This comes in the form of Demystify, Erase and Scour and more.

White also uses "taxing", which are spells that stop an opponnent from doing something unless they pay a price. Examples of this are Kataki, War's Wage and Ghostly Prison.

As the most political of colors, White also uses rule-setting enchantments that change how the game of Magic is played. Cards like Rule of Law and Humility do this.

White is also, historically, the global resetter, which means that it has ability to reset the board so that all sides have an equal playing ground. Cards like Wrath of God, Armageddon and Balance show this mechanic, which comes in many different forms.

White's army is made up of small individual pieces, which mechanically explains why White has the most small (weenie) creatures. The color can, however, use its organizational skills to build a massive, united whole. Most of the mechanics the white creatures have makes them work better together. These mechanics include First Strike, Vigilance and damage prevention. It also include, what Mark Rosewater calls "Rangestrike", which is {T}: deal damage to target attacking or blocking creature, and boosting from creature to creature ({T}: Target creature gains +x/+x).

(To be expanded.)

Blue

Flavor

Blue is the colour that looks out on the world and sees one thing, though it may encompass all: Opportunity. In Blue's eyes, the world is a vast place with countless things to learn and to do. Blue wants to become a part of that perfectly running machine which is the universe. To do so, it learns to value one commodity - knowledge. Knowledge gives order to the universe. Knowledge allows one to make an informed decision. Knowledge is the supreme good, at least to Blue. With all knowledge (omniscience), Blue can shape the universe into its perfect form, and mold itself to fit perfectly into that perfect universe. Recurring themes in Blue are artifice over nature, inaction over action, nurture over nature, and the future over the past or present.

Blue is the enemy colour of Green and of Red. Green opposes Blue on the viewpoint that Blue is obligated to shape the universe. Green sees that as an affront to Nature and highly presumptuous. Blue looks on Green's resistance and sees someone stuck in the past. This appears mechanically in the game where Blue tends to construct complicated board positions and uses interesting effects from nonliving sources, while Green tries to destroy those complications and substitute more basic, primal, living creatures.

(Please expand this if you have the info.)

Rules

There is only one sacred rule to Blue's mechanics in the game - destroy nothing. What can be learned from a shattered machine, a dead body, or a broken enchantment? Nothing. Blue's abilities tend to be focused on manipulating time and information. The three central mechanics which have made Blue what it is today are: 1) Card drawing 2) Counterspells 3) "Return to hand" effects (informally called bounce effects)

Blue can draw cards simply by paying mana because cards represent knowledge, and Blue knows how to gain knowledge. This sets it apart from other colours because Black has to pay some life to draw cards, Green needs to draw cards by using its creatures, and White and Red have very little card drawing at all. Because Blue can draw cards at any time regardless of how it is doing in the game, this allows it to climb out of seemingly hopeless game situations, representing how the right information can solve any problem.

Blue has the ability to counter spells if it reacts to them at the time they are cast. This represents how Blue can prevent people from taking action and causing chaos; some may see it as keeping things the way they are so you can study it fully.

Blue can return things to their owners' hands. Flavourfully, this represents how Blue dabbles in magic which manipulates time. Mechanically, it is a way for Blue to have "removal" (control over what is affecting the game) without actually destroying the unwanted card. Blue is simply delaying the problem until it has a more permanent solution. Sometimes Blue may even find ways to turn a powerful card to its advantage.

Other signature mechanics of Blue include "stealing" (gaining control of opponent's cards or effects) and copying (duplicating effects, plagiarism, cloning). This represents how Blue is also amoral much like Black. The only difference is that Blue is much more inclined to a lawful, orderly sort of amorality than Black. Furthermore, copying your enemy is the best way to understand what he or she is like.

Black

Flavor

(To be written.)

Rules

A black card is defined as any card that has {B} in its mana cost. Black is oriented on obtaining power - ultimate power at any cost. In the game of Magic, this means that black cards sometimes uses resources that other colors don't dare touch. Sacrificing permanents and paying life is certainly do-able for the right effect. A simple card such as Greed exemplifies black's determination to get any advantage.

Up until and including Mercadian Masques black had acces to temporary mana boosts, primarily in the form of Dark Ritual. This mechanic has since moved to the color Red.

Black is the color which uses every resource it can get, which is exemplified in cards such as Grinning Demon, Phyrexian Negator and Dark Confidant.

Black is the only color that causes a player to discard as an effect, not a cost. (Certain other colors use discard as cost, but that is different.) Notable discard cards are Hymn to Tourach, Wrench Mind, Persecute and Cabal Therapy.

Black is the foremost color in spot destruction, illustrated in cards as Terror and Dark Banishing. Recently black has been attributed several "weakness" type spells that gives creatures -x/-x (Last Gasp, Hideous Laughter and Sickening Shoal). A possible reason for this is that Wizards have obsoleted the term Bury (="Destroy, no regeneration") and is phasing out destruction spells that does not allow regeneration, such as Terror, and this is a different way of avoiding Regeneration, in that a creature with 0 or less toughness is put directly into the graveyard.


(Please expand this if you have the info.)

Red

Flavor

(To be written.)

Rules

The following keywords are primarily associated with the color red:

Red is the color that has the most direct damage (e.g. Lightning Bolt and Fireball) and is often used in aggressive decks. The creature types Goblin and Ogre are primarily red, and severeal decks based on Goblins have been created.

(Please expand this if you have the info.)

Green

Flavor

(To be written.)

Rules

(To be written.)

Off color - Artifacts

Flavor

(To be written.)

Rules

(To be written.)

Multicolor

Some cards can be multicoloured, meaning they require more than one type of mana to use. Until recently, that was about all that the players could really know about multicolour. Though Invasion Block, the first set to introduce widespread multicolour-ism, was a smashing success (as evidenced by a definite spike in tournament attendance), in Mark Rosewater's words, it wasn't really a mechanic they explored much. The card pool was dominated by "Chinese menu" cards, meaning they took one ability from two colours, scrunched them together on one card, and saw what happened.

Recently though, with the finalization of the Ravnica block, the "guild model" has given way to a new era of understanding colour combinations. Mark Rosewater boldly campaigned to showcase all ten two-colour combinations equally. Those combinations, and the names of the guild associated with them in Ravnica block, are: [[1]]

White-Blue Azorius Senate

White-Black Orzhov Syndicate

Blue-Black House Dimir

Blue-Red Izzet League

Black-Red Cult of Rakdos

Black-Green Golgari Swarm

Red-Green Gruul Clans

Red-White Boros Legion

Green-White Selesnya Conclave

Green-Blue Simic Combine

According to a new set of "colour pie philosophy" articles by Mark Rosewater (which isn't yet finished), each two-colour combination is defined as the intersection of the two colours.

(Please expand this article using the appropriate info)

"Sources" or "Things I Should Read Before Writing in this Article and Learning to Love the Wheel'o'Color"

(These should be deleted when the article is complete, and references have been made properly.)

Color wheel

Black

Blue

Hosing of Blue

Green

Red

White

Artifacts

Color hate

Multicolor

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