When I tried to post this here is got automaticlally marked as spam, so I'll provide links instead. The video and article are both discussions of the above topic, trying to figure out how adding a sixth color would actually affect the game and the design process for a set.
Ya know, people freaked out about it way back in the days of, say, Saga and Masques blocks--when they could reasonably do it. But now it's a bit too late to do that as we're on our 82nd standard-legal set.
There would have to be a SUPER good reason for them to do so otherwise.
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
It would require too much errata and cause too many headaches and invalidate the traditional card back. What they did with colorless was neat, or snow mana, or something with Energy, but things like that are as close as they could ever do without it being more trouble than it is worth
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With changes this big to the game the question is: are the benefits gained worth the effort and headache?
The color pie, as it stands, covers most things, and new mechanic ideas can be shoehorned into existing colors without disrupting flavor.
A sixth color just really isn’t necessary.
All it would mean would be a further watering down and bleeding of the color pie, which as it stands now is quite bad enough. And what even would this sixth color be able to do that the other colors couldn't to make it distinct? What design space is actually REALLY left that hasn't already been touched on?
I think that adding colourless as the "6th colour" was their way of adding an extra "colour" without having to warp the colour pie too much and having it fit story reasons. I don't know how they'd find the design space otherwise but I'm not in R and D or whatever
I think that adding colourless as the "6th colour" was their way of adding an extra "colour" without having to warp the colour pie too much and having it fit story reasons. I don't know how they'd find the design space otherwise but I'm not in R and D or whatever
Colorless-costed cards in Oath of the Gatewatch only behaved like a color insomuch as they imposed similar deckbuilding restrictions as it would to add an additional color to a deck. Where colorlessness got away with pretending to be an impossible sixth color was in terms of identity, namely that it doesn't have one. The Eldrazi had a tribal identity that included colorlessness among other mechanics, but the Eldrazi do not make an identity for colorless cards as a whole no more than elves, goblins, and merfolk encompass the whole of green, red, and blue.
Instead, the actual identity of colorless cards is a catch-all, as they can literally do anything in the game as long as they receive the proper mana tax, restrictions, and flavor. This openness allowed the Eldrazi to carry out their color mimicry seamlessly, but a real, proper color that turns MTG's pentagon into a hexagon can't be content to exist only in the game's empty spaces.
I know they thought about adding purple in the time spiral block.
I support colorless being the sixth 'color'. Now that they've updated the formatting on producing colorless mana vs. generic mana on cards like Wasteland, it makes enough intuitive sense to possibly be used in the next Zendikar or Innistrad set. It adds a deckbuilding constraint, and so can be allowed to have its own unique effects beyond the existing colors. It also works thematically as artifice or the unnatural, taking position between blue and black and directly opposing green. Meanwhile blue is left to directly oppose red and white is left to directly oppose black.
As to what colorless-the-color's slice of the pie would be that isn't already handled by traditional generic mana artifacts... I couldn't say. I think the most distinct part of its identity is its unique position as a non-color, and I think effects like Scuttlemutt, Painter's Servant, Ugin's second ability and All is Dust exemplify this well. It could also have something of a 'reflection' theme as exemplified by Mirror Pool, Mimic Vat, or Mirage Mirror. It also seems to like exiling things by association with the Eldrazi and therefore the Blind Eternities.
But that's hardly a unique color, and the exile thing even treads on white and black's toes.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp6QokTZyH4
Link to transcript / article: https://remptongames.com/2019/09/21/what-would-happen-if-magic-the-gathering-added-a-sixth-color/
There would have to be a SUPER good reason for them to do so otherwise.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
The color pie, as it stands, covers most things, and new mechanic ideas can be shoehorned into existing colors without disrupting flavor.
A sixth color just really isn’t necessary.
.
Colorless-costed cards in Oath of the Gatewatch only behaved like a color insomuch as they imposed similar deckbuilding restrictions as it would to add an additional color to a deck. Where colorlessness got away with pretending to be an impossible sixth color was in terms of identity, namely that it doesn't have one. The Eldrazi had a tribal identity that included colorlessness among other mechanics, but the Eldrazi do not make an identity for colorless cards as a whole no more than elves, goblins, and merfolk encompass the whole of green, red, and blue.
Instead, the actual identity of colorless cards is a catch-all, as they can literally do anything in the game as long as they receive the proper mana tax, restrictions, and flavor. This openness allowed the Eldrazi to carry out their color mimicry seamlessly, but a real, proper color that turns MTG's pentagon into a hexagon can't be content to exist only in the game's empty spaces.
I support colorless being the sixth 'color'. Now that they've updated the formatting on producing colorless mana vs. generic mana on cards like Wasteland, it makes enough intuitive sense to possibly be used in the next Zendikar or Innistrad set. It adds a deckbuilding constraint, and so can be allowed to have its own unique effects beyond the existing colors. It also works thematically as artifice or the unnatural, taking position between blue and black and directly opposing green. Meanwhile blue is left to directly oppose red and white is left to directly oppose black.
As to what colorless-the-color's slice of the pie would be that isn't already handled by traditional generic mana artifacts... I couldn't say. I think the most distinct part of its identity is its unique position as a non-color, and I think effects like Scuttlemutt, Painter's Servant, Ugin's second ability and All is Dust exemplify this well. It could also have something of a 'reflection' theme as exemplified by Mirror Pool, Mimic Vat, or Mirage Mirror. It also seems to like exiling things by association with the Eldrazi and therefore the Blind Eternities.
But that's hardly a unique color, and the exile thing even treads on white and black's toes.
- Rabid Wombat
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