Multicolored

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Multicolored
Mechanic
Introduced	Legends
Last used	Evergreen
Scryfall Statistics
cards

Multicolored (also "multicolor", "multi-colored", "multi-color"; as opposed to "monocolored", "mono-colored" "single-colored") cards were introduced in the Legends set, and use a gold card frame to distinguish them. For this reason, they also can be referred to as "gold" cards.

Description

Multicolored cards use mana from two or more different colors to be played. Multicolored cards tend to combine the philosophy and mechanics of all the colors used in the spell's cost. For example, Quicksilver Dagger or Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, which combine blue's ability to draw cards with red's ability to ping.

Two-color hybrid cards have costs that can be paid with either of the card's colors (as opposed to both), and were introduced in Ravnica: City of Guilds. While their mana costs can often be paid with only one color of mana, they are still considered to be multicolored. This means that, for example, if a card has a mana cost of , it has a converted mana cost of 1, but the card is considered both a red card and a green card. The design of hybrid cards revolves around the mechanics and philosophies that the two colors have in common. The cards are distinguished by a gradient frame with those two colors.

Multicolored cards tend to be more powerful compared to single-color and hybrid cards, due to the restriction of requiring the player to use all the colors in the mana cost. For sets where multicolor is the major theme, there is usually some form of mana fixing at common to facilitate playing the multicolored cards at common.

Invasion block, all sets on Ravnica, Shadowmoor block, Alara block, Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Strixhaven: School of Mages, Modern Horizons 2 Streets of New Capenna, and Dominaria United are the sets where the design is focused on multicolored cards. Alara Reborn was the first, and so far only, Magic set in which all of the cards are multicolored.

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)

Multicolored

An object with two or more colors is multicolored. Multicolored is not a color. See rule 105, “Colors,” and rule 202, “Mana Cost and Color.”

Color pairs

Color pairs are typically used to structure the Limited environment and does a lot for development to create a better product. The color pairs' official names were given in Ravnica: City of Guilds, with each pair being named after a Ravnican guild.

From the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)

• 105.5. If an effect refers to a color pair, it means exactly two of the five colors. There are ten color pairs: white and blue, white and black, blue and black, blue and red, black and red, black and green, red and green, red and white, green and white, and green and blue.

Allied colors

Allied color pairs consist of colors that are adjacent in the color pie.

Color pair	Factions	Common mechanics	Common creature types
Azorius	Azorius Senate Clan Ojutai Guidelight Voyagers Order of the Widget	Flying, Flash, tapping, attacking or blocking prevention, returning permanents to hand, counterspells, temporarily exile removal	Birds, Kithkin, Wizards
Dimir	House Dimir Clan Silumgar Speed Demons Agents of S.N.E.A.K.	Milling, card draw, discard, library manipulation, casting from graveyard, large creatures with big drawbacks, unblockable	Merfolk, Faeries, Rogues, Assassins, Wizards
Rakdos	Cult of Rakdos Clan Kolaghan The Endriders League of Dastardly Doom	Menace, Haste, cheap spells with drawbacks, sacrifice, dealing direct damage or causing life loss, preventing life gain, power boosting (e.g. +X/+0 or +X/-X effects), Wither	Demons, Elementals, Goblins, Devils
Gruul	Gruul Clans Clan Atarka Goblin Rocketeers Goblin Explosioneers	Trample, Haste, Reach, Fight, Bite, +X/+X effects, Fast mana, direct damage to flying creatures, aggressive creatures, land removal	Warriors, Shamans, Goblins, Beasts
Selesnya	Selesnya Conclave Clan Dromoka Alacrian Quickbeasts Crossbreed Labs	Vigilance, creature tokens, protecting creatures, creature boosting/pump, life gain, enchantments	Elves, Centaurs, Knights

Enemy color

Enemy color pairs consist of colors that are not adjacent in the color pie.

Color pair	Factions	Common mechanics	Common creature types
Orzhov	Orzhov Syndicate Silverquill college	Lifelink, life gain, creature recursion, mass removal, permanent exiling	Spirits, Clerics, Knights, Vampires
Izzet	Izzet League Prismari college	Card draw, discard, synergy with instant and sorceries (e.g., Prowess and Storm), turn manipulation (e.g. extra turns), copying spells and abilities, gaining control of permanents	Wizards, Weirds, Noggles, Dragons, Otters
Golgari	Golgari Swarm Witherbloom college	Deathtouch, +1/+1 counters, reusing creature cards, exiling from graveyard as costs, destroying nonland permanents, recursion in general, Regeneration	Zombies, Insects, Elves, Plants, Shamans
Boros	Boros Legion Lorehold college	First strike, Double strike, small creatures, bonuses to attacking creatures, damage to attacking or blocking creatures	Soldiers, Giants, Warriors, Angels
Simic	Simic Combine Quandrix college	Hexproof/Ward, card draw, Flash, Library search, +1/+1 counters	Wizards, Beasts, Mutants, Merfolk

Color triples

Several sets have had major three-color themes, most notably in Alara, Tarkir, Ikoria, and Capenna sets. The Alara block focused on the shards in Shards of Alara, but had a strong five-color theme in Conflux and focused more on two-color gold cards in Alara Reborn with its all-gold gimmick. The Khans of Tarkir block only focuses on wedges in its namesake set Khans of Tarkir. As such, three-colored cards can show up now and again in other sets. Starting with the Tarkir block, the new default for showing three color costs is to place a pair's mutual enemy in the middle.

Shards

Shards are sets of three colors (a color and its two allies) that form an arc or an obtuse triangle. Originally called an "arc," the term "shard" was established in the 2008 block Shards of Alara, and each shard was given a colloquial name based on Alara's major locations:

• Bant ()
• Esper ()
• Grixis ()
• Jund ()
• Naya ()

Within Alara, the color that is allied to both of the other colors was considered the "primary" color of the shard by the design team; for example, Bant's primary color was White.These names were subsequently picked up by the Magic community and used frequently in place of the color combination.

Streets of New Capenna introduced an alternative to the shards in the form of five criminal families. Much like the Alaran shards, the Capennan factions have the central color as their focus. Players have generally not shifted to using these names to refer to the color combinations over the Alaran shard names.

• Brokers ()
• Obscura ()
• Maestros ()
• Riveteers ()
• Cabaretti ()

Wedges

Wedges are sets of three colors (a color and its two enemies) that form a wedge shape, or an acute triangle. The term "wedge" has existed since antiquity, but each wedge was finally given colloquial names in the 2014 set Khans of Tarkir based on Tarkir's major factions:

• Abzan ()
• Jeskai ()
• Sultai ()
• Mardu ()
• Temur ()

Within Tarkir, the color that is counterclockwise-most of the allied colors, when looking from the base of the triangle to the tip, was considered the "primary" color of the wedge by the design team (e.g. the primary color of Abzan was White). The "center" color was dropped after pivotal defeats led to rulership by Elder Dragons in Dragons of Tarkir. For example, as a condition of surrender, the Abzan were forced to cease worship of their ancestors (and their ties to Black) as a practice that could foster rebellion. Similar fates befell the Jeskai losing Red, etc. In Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the center color was shifted into the sole enemy color (e.g., Abzan's primary color became Black), representing the reclamation of the clans' culture after the fall of the Elder Dragons (e.g., Abzan reconnecting with their ancestors).

While not as large a focus, wedges also saw heavy use in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, representing the plane's different triomes with the center color being the enemy color.

Color quadruples

Four-color cards are hard to design and are thus the least prevalent cards, relative to other color combinations, as they need to justify why each is explicitly not a full WUBRG card. There are no given names for four color combinations yet, nor have colloquial names caught on among players.

The Nephilim from Guildpact were the first four-colored cards. In some circles, these Nephilim creatures have become the nicknames for the different 4-color decks:

• Yore (, Yore-Tiller Nephilim)
• Glint (, Glint-Eye Nephilim)
• Dune (, Dune-Brood Nephilim)
• Ink (, Ink-Treader Nephilim)
• Witch (, Witch-Maw Nephilim)

Commander 2016 introduced a second cycle of four-colored cards. For the first time, a named mechanical theme was given to each four-color combination, which became alternative nicknames for 4-color decks:

• Artifice (, Breya, Etherium Shaper)
• Chaos (, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder)
• Aggression (, Saskia the Unyielding)
• Altruism (, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis)
• Growth (, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice)

For three of these combinations, their cycle components are the only four-color representatives printed, with the other two having more, for a total of fourteen. The fourth iteration of Omnath, an elemental that gained a color with each new card, produced a card in Zendikar Rising as Omnath, Locus of Creation. 2023 had the most non-cycle four color designs starting with a new Atraxa card (Atraxa, Grand Unifier, ) in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, followed by Aragorn, the Uniter () in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and most recently, the Secret Lair Drop Series: Doctor Who: Regeneration introduced The Fourteenth Doctor ().

Additionally, there are four non-legal four-color commanders from gimmick printings. Sol, Advocate Eternal, Elusen, the Giving are from Heroes of the Realm 2018 and 2022, adding one to () and () respectively, and then Mystery Booster 2, Anax and Cymede & Kynaios and Tiro as () and most recently Halana and Alena and Gisa and Geralf as , being the first card to neither be from Commander 2016 or Guildpact.

Given how distinctive the four-color costing is, most cost exactly those four mana. Only four cards that are four colors have casting costs that are not four: A-Omnath, Locus of Creation (mana value 5), Atraxa, Grand Unifier (mana value 7), The Fourteenth Doctor (mana value 3, with hybrid mana) and Anax and Cymede & Kynaios and Tiro (mana value 5).

All colors

The first card with five colors () was 1996 World Champion, the first one that was legal for sanctioned play was Sliver Queen. The colloquial name for five colors is WUBRG, referencing White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green.

External links

• Magic: The Gathering Combination Names: Tool that allows selecting colors to show the name for the particular color combination, as well as a representative symbol if available.