Colorless
In Magic: The Gathering, colorless has two in-game meanings. It is either a type of objects or a type of mana. Note that colorless is not a color, and is not represented in the color wheel.[1]
Colorless objects
An object (a card or spell) with no colored mana symbols in their mana costs is colorless. Lands, having no mana costs, are always colorless by default, with the sole exception of the color-indicated Dryad Arbor. Artifacts are the most common colorless spell, and Eldrazi creatures were made colorless to mark them as alien, with multiple associated noncreature spells. Karn and Ugin are colorless planeswalkers. In Strixhaven: School of Mages, several colorless Sorceries were printed as first-year introduction spells, in contrast to the colored school faculties.
Colorless gets access to pretty much everything, but at inefficient mana costs. For example, the destruction of permanents costs a minimum of 
.[2][3]
Devoid is a characteristic-defining keyword ability that states that a card is colorless, regardless of the colors in that card's mana cost. All devoid cards are from Battle for Zendikar block and Modern Horizons 3.
Colorless cards come before colored cards in collector number, in contrast to artifacts and lands, which are numbered at the end of the set. Colorless cards which aren't artifacts or lands feature a transparent frame, allowing the art to run all the way to the border.
Colorless mana
Colorless mana (
) has no color.
History
The idea of colorless mana was already introduced in Alpha with Basalt Monolith, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring.[4] It set the premise that most mana comes in one of the five colors (white, blue, black, red, or green), but there is a sixth subset of mana that is not any color. This mana could only be used to pay for costs that don't require color (for example artifacts).
In early sets, the text for Sol Ring was still spelled out as "Add 2 colorless mana to your mana pool". However, from Onslaught onwards, this was officially changed for editing reasons to "Add 
to your mana pool".[5]
The cost of many cards includes generic mana (e.g., 
, ), meaning that a player can use that number of any mana (colored or colorless) to pay for it. Though one can use colorless mana to pay for generic mana costs, they are not the same thing. Generic is a type of cost, whereas colorless is a type of mana; a player cannot produce generic mana and, originally, there were no colorless costs. The latter changed with Oath of the Gatewatch.[6]
R&D concluded that they had to stop using the mana circle with a number to represent both generic and colorless mana. Changing the representation of colorless mana was easier, as it's represented far less, so they decided to make the new mana symbol that represents one colorless mana.[7] In our example the text for Sol Ring now is "Add ". One of the consequences of introducing a colorless mana symbol was the change to over 300 cards in Oracle, the central database of official card wordings.[8]
Colorless mana cost
While adding colorless mana to your mana pool is an evergreen mechanic, colorless mana costs are not.[9] Mana costs that can only be paid with colorless mana were first introduced in Oath of the Gatewatch and have only appeared since (outside of reprints) in the Eldrazi Unbound Commander Masters deck and in Modern Horizons 3.[10]
In the vision design of The Brothers' War, R&D did spend some time talking about whether they wanted to use colorless mana as a cost (similar to Oath of the Gatewatch). They even went so far as to explore the idea of having fifteen draft archetypes with colorless mana filling the role of a sixth "color." In the end, it just didn't feel right.[11]
Rules
From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- 107.4c The colorless mana symbol {C} is used to represent one colorless mana, and also to represent a cost that can be paid only with one colorless mana.
From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- 106.10. If an effect would add mana represented by a generic mana symbol to a player’s mana pool, that much colorless mana is added to that player’s mana pool.
From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- 202.2b Objects with no colored mana symbols in their mana costs are colorless.
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- Colorless
- 1. An object with no color is colorless. Colorless is not a color. See rule 105, “Colors,” and rule 202, “Mana Cost and Color.”
- 2. A type of mana. See rule 106, “Mana,” and rule 107.4c.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 13, 2019). "Where would you put colorless mana on the color pie?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 16, 2019). "If Colorless gets to destroy any target permanent, can it also get the more restrictive "destroy target enchantment"?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 10, 2019). "How "in color" is Warping Wail?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 28, 2015). "A Solemn Oath, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (April, 2003). "Ask Wizards - April 2003". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Sam Stoddard (January 8, 2016). "Getting Colorless to Work". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Matt Tabak (December 28, 2015). "Oath of the Gatewatch Mechanics". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Alli Medwin (January 27, 2016). "The Costs of Costs". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 31, 2015). "Do you all have any fear that now having to write (5) as CCCCC will take up too much space at card top and as such may affect the creation of spells and creatures with large mana costs?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 27, 2024). "Third Time's the Charm, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 12, 2022). "Odds & Ends: The Brothers' War". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
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