I'm not even curious if they should or shouldn't be allowed. I'm just wondering why such cards would be "problematic".
Does someone really need to explain why giving ALL DECKS access to the best clone in the format would be a problem?
Yes, because
a) It would be nice to have Clone effects NOT be just U.
b) It's still an Artifact/Whatever, so it's the easiest to answer Clone effect in the game.
c) How is playing the best clone effect in the game in mono-R any different than playing the best clone effect in R/U? What are you going to clone that's that much more powerful?
Private Mod Note
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
From the mtgcommander.net/rules, rule four states "A deck may not generate mana outside its colours. If an effect would generate mana of an illegal colour, it generates colourless mana instead." and rule three states "A card's colour identity is its colour plus the colour of any mana symbols in the card's rules text. A card's colour identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects.
The Commander's colour identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck." Given rule four, I don't even see a point to rule three aside from determining what a decks' legal colors would be. They should really just drop rule three and change rule four to be something like "A deck may not generate mana outside of its commanders colours. If an effect would generate mana of an illegal colour, it generates colourless mana instead." This simplifies rules and makes it easier for new players to learn the format. Also then people would be allowed to add cards of any color to their deck, but would have no means of casting them. This could lead to interesting deck designs that would take advantage of alternate means of playing cards like reanimation, Mycosynth Lattice, Celestial Dawn, Show and Tell, etc.
a) It would be nice to have Clone effects NOT be just U.
Why have a color pie?
b) It's still an Artifact/Whatever, so it's the easiest to answer Clone effect in the game.
Being answerable is irrelevant really.
c) How is playing the best clone effect in the game in mono-R any different than playing the best clone effect in R/U? What are you going to clone that's that much more powerful?
Power isn't the argument. The argument lies in the health of the format. It is my perspective that the format is better off with less ubiquity, especially concerning something like a staple card in it's own colors.
Let me ask you a question: how does playing a mono-blue card in a mono-red deck make sense in a format that cares about color identity?
b) It's still an Artifact/Whatever, so it's the easiest to answer Clone effect in the game.
Being answerable is irrelevant really.
GOOD! because that means there's no harm in letting every color have it
c) How is playing the best clone effect in the game in mono-R any different than playing the best clone effect in R/U? What are you going to clone that's that much more powerful?
Power isn't the argument. The argument lies in the health of the format. It is my perspective that the format is better off with less ubiquity, especially concerning something like a staple card in it's own colors.
Not every blue deck runs Metamorph, not every deck ever will, even if you allow it.
Let me ask you a question: how does playing a mono-blue card in a mono-red deck make sense in a format that cares about color identity?
Because it can still cast the card and use it to the fullest?
We aren't talking about Mana Drain, here. From power perspectives, any color will do what it takes to win, even including artifacts. From a lore perspective, R is the secondary color of artifacts. From a flavor perspective, R is totally one of the two colors that loves to steal/copy crap from people.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
How do you keep some of these cards from showing up everywhere? I can imagine Overbeing of Myth finding a spot in every mono-green built I've ever worked on, ditto with R/G. I mean much of this discussion has been centered around mono-colored lists, but consider that with such a rules change some two and three color decks essentially become four and five color lists. What flexibility is lent to mono-X is lent ten fold to X/Y. It seems like the format would become even more homogenous with some cards than it is right now.
From a perspective of it being wrong from the perspective of it being against the spirit of the format.... I think it is wrong to have planeswalkers as commanders but wizards decided to push that on us and we are going to have to live with that going forward. I don't think looking at the rules of the format and holding them as somehow sacred is how to look at this. The rules of commander have been changing regardless of if you like it or not. Command Tower suddenly started interacting with this format in a different way. Commanders like Derevi and Oloro have changed the way that commanders function. Regardless of if you like it, this is a changing format and to be honest the concept of allowing hybrid mana spells into the format changes very little as I don't think many of them would have an actual impact on the format. I still agree that keeping phyrexian mana out is for the best though.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
We're not talking about being able to produce mana outside of one's color identity here though. Even with rule change allowing hybrid mana, you still wouldn't be able to tap city of brass for G in a mono red deck. Nor would you be able to play a creature whose activated ability required the player to spend any mana outside of his or her color identity.
I really don't understand why Phyrexian spells keep coming up in the discussions of hybrids... They have a clear color identity with an extra stipulation that you can pay 2 life instead of the noted color when casting it. Birthing pod is a green artifact just like Hammer of Purphoros is a red artifact.
I am firmly in the camp that says that hybrid cards should be legal. They were designed with the intention and flavor of being spells that a mage of either color could cast without accessing the other color. They are fundamentally different from gold cards from both a flavor and a design standpoint. Take the examples given above of Divinity of Pride and Teysa, Orzhov Scion. The Divinity embodies elements that are found in both white and black, namely lifelink, flying, and a lifetotal based mechanic. These things can be found in either color on mono-colored cards. Teysa is a clear example of both colors being put together to combine design aspects typically not found together. It uses sacrifice (primarily black) to exile (primarily white) another creature. It also uses the primarily black trigger of a creatures death to create a lying spirit token, which again is a primarily white ability. W OR B is fundamentally different than W AND B.
I agree there a couple of hybrid cards that feel like neither color would be able to produce the effect on its own. Spitting Image is the best example, but the hybrid cards were meant to exemplify the design space where the colors overlap, and I think this card is one of the best examples of that from a flavor standpoint. Green is great at tokens and blue is great at cloning. It's no stretch of the imagination that either could do the other. Green makes token copies of its own creatures and blue's few removal spells involve token creation. And for those worried about Beseech the Queen, it would still be a mono-black card from a color identity standpoint. Being able to use 2 colorless as an alternative for each B spent doesn't make the card colorless. Same goes for Reaper King still being a 5 color card.
You clearly don't see the importance or significance of colors on the same level as I do and that's fine. And Phyrexian Metamorph is the most popular blue card in decks that can use it 2nd only to Cyclonic Rift according to this data.
They are fundamentally different from gold cards from both a flavor and a design standpoint. Take the examples given above of Divinity of Pride and Teysa, Orzhov Scion.
Functionally, they are not different though. They both count as 'multicolored', 'black', and 'white' which is where people are disagreeing.
I personally like the idea of having access to more cards in my decks, but it would feel weird to drop a hybrid mana costed card when one of them is an off color. If the idea that "hyrbids (not gold) should fit in either color completely" rings true though then I would agree with a rule change.
Phyrexian mana may have to be an exception and I'd be ok with that as well. There is nothing "hybrid" about them besides a potentially strange loop hole during a rule change. Rather, simply stating "hybrid" cards are the exception may make more sense. There is no hybrid mana cost in phyrexian mana as it is traditionally known.
Mark's side is looking at this from the holistic approach of Magic as a whole. A W/B hybrid costing card is either fully white or black in their opinion. A gold card is a mix of both. The other side's argument seems to be worried about the logistics of decks and power these cards may bring.
Kaalia's Army of AnnhilationRWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain MattersWB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator ToolboxBG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to DieRBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and TapGWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to BleedWBG
For the sake of information sharing, and for people who think extort is still allowed in a mono colored black deck, please see the following post from page 1:
People always go on about how reminder text doesn't count, and its true, it does not. What does count though, is the rules linked to that ability.
From the Comprehensive Rules:
702.100. Extort
702.100a Extort is a triggered ability. "Extort" means "Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay B/W. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain life equal to the total life lost this way."
702.100b If a permanent has multiple instances of extort, each triggers separately.
The comprehensive rules for extort have the w/b hybrid mana ability in them, and anything with the keyword extort has these rules attached to it. The color identity of a card is specified by all mana symbols that appear on the card anywhere, including within its rules text.
This was ignored/changed when Extort was printed though.
I actually like Maro's way of thinking. A black commander can only make black mana and cast black spells. Divinity of Pride can be cast using only black mana and is a black spell. There is no requirement to be able to make white mana to cast Divinity of Pride, and yet you can't play it in a black commander deck. It doesn't make sense to me why a black mage can't cast it in EDH, but should be able to theoretically.
Official EDH site ruling for reference:
A card's colour identity is its colour plus the colour of any mana symbols in the card's rules text. A card's colour identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects.
The Commander's colour identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck
Kaalia's Army of AnnhilationRWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain MattersWB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator ToolboxBG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to DieRBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and TapGWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to BleedWBG
And for those worried about Beseech the Queen, it would still be a mono-black card from a color identity standpoint. Being able to use 2 colorless as an alternative for each B spent doesn't make the card colorless. Same goes for Reaper King still being a 5 color card.
The major issue here (IMO) is that many of the rules changes that could allow hybrids into the format (be they changes to Commander or to vanilla Magic) would also tend to allow Beseech the Queen style hybrids or Phyrexian mana as well. A rules change that allows hybrids in off-color decks, while keeping Colorless-hybrids, Phyrexian mana, creatures with off-color abilities, and cards with other alternative casting costs all from bleeding over as well is difficult to word in a concise and unambiguous manner.
I think the issue of off-color fetchlands and the like intersects somewhere in this discussion, as it's kind of on the opposite end of the rules barrier (i.e. no ruling can be made that bars them from off-color decks without being needlessly wordy/having undesired consequences).
@Drizzle: I think I'm more worried about rules holistics/aesthetics than anything (though the others do apply to an extent)
And for those worried about Beseech the Queen, it would still be a mono-black card from a color identity standpoint. Being able to use 2 colorless as an alternative for each B spent doesn't make the card colorless. Same goes for Reaper King still being a 5 color card.
The major issue here (IMO) is that many of the rules changes that could allow hybrids into the format (be they changes to Commander or to vanilla Magic) would also tend to allow Beseech the Queen style hybrids or Phyrexian mana as well. A rules change that allows hybrids in off-color decks, while keeping Colorless-hybrids, Phyrexian mana, creatures with off-color abilities, and cards with other alternative casting costs all from bleeding over as well is difficult to word in a concise and unambiguous manner.
I think the issue of off-color fetchlands and the like intersects somewhere in this discussion, as it's kind of on the opposite end of the rules barrier (i.e. no ruling can be made that bars them from off-color decks without being needlessly wordy/having undesired consequences).
@Drizzle: I think I'm more worried about rules holistics/aesthetics than anything (though the others do apply to an extent)
Hmm, Is beseech the queen even a big deal if it were to be allowed in any deck? What are the other relevant artifact tutors for 6 mana with restrictions (the land count)?
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EDH Decks:
Kaalia's Army of AnnhilationRWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain MattersWB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator ToolboxBG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to DieRBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and TapGWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to BleedWBG
How do you keep some of these cards from showing up everywhere? I can imagine Overbeing of Myth finding a spot in every mono-green built I've ever worked on, ditto with R/G. I mean much of this discussion has been centered around mono-colored lists, but consider that with such a rules change some two and three color decks essentially become four and five color lists. What flexibility is lent to mono-X is lent ten fold to X/Y. It seems like the format would become even more homogenous with some cards than it is right now.
I think this right here makes the best point on the can of worms this would open. Tricolor and bicolored decks would suddenly have far, far more options open to them than before, giving them a new, big edge over mono-color decks, even with monocolor decks getting the same benefit, and it could possibly encourage more homogenous, less diverse decks.
It's essentially... Monocolor, well you get access to 4 'guilds' worth of hybrid cards. Bicolor, you get access to about twice as many guilds worth of hybrid cards, and tricolor you'll get access to possibly all of them.
I'm in favor of keeping the rules the way they are now. Spitting Image shouldn't be playable in mono-green decks. Playing that card in non-blue decks just seems wrong.
It does not make sens that every mono green deck have access to Overbeing of Myth. I know that hybrid cards are supposed to be either colors, but seriously i think they punted the ball on this one.
I really don't understand why Phyrexian spells keep coming up in the discussions of hybrids... They have a clear color identity with an extra stipulation that you can pay 2 life instead of the noted color when casting it. Birthing pod is a green artifact just like Hammer of Purphoros is a red artifact.
I am firmly in the camp that says that hybrid cards should be legal. They were designed with the intention and flavor of being spells that a mage of either color could cast without accessing the other color. They are fundamentally different from gold cards from both a flavor and a design standpoint. Take the examples given above of Divinity of Pride and Teysa, Orzhov Scion. The Divinity embodies elements that are found in both white and black, namely lifelink, flying, and a lifetotal based mechanic. These things can be found in either color on mono-colored cards. Teysa is a clear example of both colors being put together to combine design aspects typically not found together. It uses sacrifice (primarily black) to exile (primarily white) another creature. It also uses the primarily black trigger of a creatures death to create a lying spirit token, which again is a primarily white ability. W OR B is fundamentally different than W AND B.
I agree there a couple of hybrid cards that feel like neither color would be able to produce the effect on its own. Spitting Image is the best example, but the hybrid cards were meant to exemplify the design space where the colors overlap, and I think this card is one of the best examples of that from a flavor standpoint. Green is great at tokens and blue is great at cloning. It's no stretch of the imagination that either could do the other. Green makes token copies of its own creatures and blue's few removal spells involve token creation. And for those worried about Beseech the Queen, it would still be a mono-black card from a color identity standpoint. Being able to use 2 colorless as an alternative for each B spent doesn't make the card colorless. Same goes for Reaper King still being a 5 color card.
The bolded is why I don't agree with ANY hybrids being in mono-colored or off colored decks (despite the poster's using it to push for hybrids being allowed)--just because you can cast the spell for one of it's hybrid colors doesn't remove the other color from the card. Kitchen Finks has white in it, so a general without white in it's color identity can't cast it.
That's the most passive aggressive thing in the world. This is coming from the guy who broke the legend rule and keyworded hexproof as a pretext for moving into blue. It's funny watching him throw such a big tantrum over rules decisions he doesn't like in an unofficial format that he rakes in money on. I'd say that the pot is calling the kettle black, but color identity is more sound and reasonable than most of the major rule changes over the past decade or so. Maybe he'll make a fuss about how pauper handles cards printed at different rarities next.
I think the best arguments are the "what can counter X?" If a Pyroblast can counter an Azusa deck from casting Splitting Image then Splitting Image is clearly, at its core, a blue card. I feel like the argument comes up every couple of months when people want to add a cool hybrid to their mono color deck. The color rules as they are now require creative deck building and learning to build around each color's shortcomings. This format is Commander focused so it feels weird that we would get commanders like Azusa being able to cast splitting image. If you want to play a hybrid card there are enough commanders out there for you to do so without changing the core of the format.
It feels odd for a wizard to be able to copy an creature over and over?
Look at it like this: Jace is the primarily blue planeswalker, but he's been known to dip into White and Black magic. Ajani is a white mage, but he obviously uses both red and green magic.
Why is it so odd for Azusa to cast a off color spell?
As for it being "Aesthetically unpleasing", the RC should probably leave subjective opinions out of Rules Lawyering.
Private Mod Note
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
It feels odd for a wizard to be able to copy an creature over and over?
Look at it like this: Jace is the primarily blue planeswalker, but he's been known to dip into White and Black magic. Ajani is a white mage, but he obviously uses both red and green magic.
Why is it so odd for Azusa to cast a off color spell?
As for it being "Aesthetically unpleasing", the RC should probably leave subjective opinions out of Rules Lawyering.
Because the format was created to accentuate the legendary creature's colors, not bleed them out. The format is all about using the flavorful restrictions of the general to build the most fun variant of Magic.
As for the subjective opinions of the RC--this is a casual format built around the flavor. The whole thing is about aesthetics, and the mechanics are designed to enhance the aesthetics. As long as that's the case, I don't see hybrid working out.
It feels odd for a wizard to be able to copy an creature over and over?
Look at it like this: Jace is the primarily blue planeswalker, but he's been known to dip into White and Black magic. Ajani is a white mage, but he obviously uses both red and green magic.
Why is it so odd for Azusa to cast a off color spell?
As for it being "Aesthetically unpleasing", the RC should probably leave subjective opinions out of Rules Lawyering.
Because the format was created to accentuate the legendary creature's colors, not bleed them out. The format is all about using the flavorful restrictions of the general to build the most fun variant of Magic.
As for the subjective opinions of the RC--this is a casual format built around the flavor. The whole thing is about aesthetics, and the mechanics are designed to enhance the aesthetics. As long as that's the case, I don't see hybrid working out.
Actually, the format was first created to have decks based around the Elder Dragons, so we've already thrown out the reason the format was created.
Private Mod Note
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
Yes, because
a) It would be nice to have Clone effects NOT be just U.
b) It's still an Artifact/Whatever, so it's the easiest to answer Clone effect in the game.
c) How is playing the best clone effect in the game in mono-R any different than playing the best clone effect in R/U? What are you going to clone that's that much more powerful?
The Commander's colour identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck." Given rule four, I don't even see a point to rule three aside from determining what a decks' legal colors would be. They should really just drop rule three and change rule four to be something like "A deck may not generate mana outside of its commanders colours. If an effect would generate mana of an illegal colour, it generates colourless mana instead." This simplifies rules and makes it easier for new players to learn the format. Also then people would be allowed to add cards of any color to their deck, but would have no means of casting them. This could lead to interesting deck designs that would take advantage of alternate means of playing cards like reanimation, Mycosynth Lattice, Celestial Dawn, Show and Tell, etc.
In search of a foil french Dromar, the Banisher, pm me if you have one you want to part with, also foil Stratadon's.
Why have a color pie?
Being answerable is irrelevant really.
Power isn't the argument. The argument lies in the health of the format. It is my perspective that the format is better off with less ubiquity, especially concerning something like a staple card in it's own colors.
Let me ask you a question: how does playing a mono-blue card in a mono-red deck make sense in a format that cares about color identity?
Green has been asking that for a while now.
GOOD! because that means there's no harm in letting every color have it
Not every blue deck runs Metamorph, not every deck ever will, even if you allow it.
Because it can still cast the card and use it to the fullest?
We aren't talking about Mana Drain, here. From power perspectives, any color will do what it takes to win, even including artifacts. From a lore perspective, R is the secondary color of artifacts. From a flavor perspective, R is totally one of the two colors that loves to steal/copy crap from people.
Oh Rider, my heart will go on...
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Oh Rider, my heart will go on...
I am firmly in the camp that says that hybrid cards should be legal. They were designed with the intention and flavor of being spells that a mage of either color could cast without accessing the other color. They are fundamentally different from gold cards from both a flavor and a design standpoint. Take the examples given above of Divinity of Pride and Teysa, Orzhov Scion. The Divinity embodies elements that are found in both white and black, namely lifelink, flying, and a lifetotal based mechanic. These things can be found in either color on mono-colored cards. Teysa is a clear example of both colors being put together to combine design aspects typically not found together. It uses sacrifice (primarily black) to exile (primarily white) another creature. It also uses the primarily black trigger of a creatures death to create a lying spirit token, which again is a primarily white ability. W OR B is fundamentally different than W AND B.
I agree there a couple of hybrid cards that feel like neither color would be able to produce the effect on its own. Spitting Image is the best example, but the hybrid cards were meant to exemplify the design space where the colors overlap, and I think this card is one of the best examples of that from a flavor standpoint. Green is great at tokens and blue is great at cloning. It's no stretch of the imagination that either could do the other. Green makes token copies of its own creatures and blue's few removal spells involve token creation. And for those worried about Beseech the Queen, it would still be a mono-black card from a color identity standpoint. Being able to use 2 colorless as an alternative for each B spent doesn't make the card colorless. Same goes for Reaper King still being a 5 color card.
EDH Decks:
GGG Omnath, the Sultan of Stomp GGG
BB Marrow-Gnawer... Or... Rats! Foiled again! BB
BB The Army of Evil (Necromancy for fun and profit) BB
RW Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and her Samurai Army WR
UB Vela the Night-Clad... Ninjas be Sneaky and Stuff, Yo!!!1! BU
BGU Vorash, the Hunter... Voltron Vorash' Viciously Violent Victory UGB
BBB Ghoulcaller Gisa and the Return of the Night of Living Dead Part XIII BBB
WUBRG Sliver Overlord... Because Having Friends is Completely Overrated GRBUW
XXXXX Kozilek, Butcher of Youth or This is Vintage EDH... Get Off My Damn Lawn! XXXXX
You cannot make time, you can only take time. If you never take time, how can you ever have time?
You clearly don't see the importance or significance of colors on the same level as I do and that's fine. And Phyrexian Metamorph is the most popular blue card in decks that can use it 2nd only to Cyclonic Rift according to this data.
Functionally, they are not different though. They both count as 'multicolored', 'black', and 'white' which is where people are disagreeing.
Phyrexian mana may have to be an exception and I'd be ok with that as well. There is nothing "hybrid" about them besides a potentially strange loop hole during a rule change. Rather, simply stating "hybrid" cards are the exception may make more sense. There is no hybrid mana cost in phyrexian mana as it is traditionally known.
Mark's side is looking at this from the holistic approach of Magic as a whole. A W/B hybrid costing card is either fully white or black in their opinion. A gold card is a mix of both. The other side's argument seems to be worried about the logistics of decks and power these cards may bring.
Kaalia's Army of Annhilation RWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain Matters WB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator Toolbox BG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to Die RBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and Tap GWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to Bleed WBG
Official EDH site ruling for reference:
http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php
Kaalia's Army of Annhilation RWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain Matters WB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator Toolbox BG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to Die RBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and Tap GWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to Bleed WBG
The major issue here (IMO) is that many of the rules changes that could allow hybrids into the format (be they changes to Commander or to vanilla Magic) would also tend to allow Beseech the Queen style hybrids or Phyrexian mana as well. A rules change that allows hybrids in off-color decks, while keeping Colorless-hybrids, Phyrexian mana, creatures with off-color abilities, and cards with other alternative casting costs all from bleeding over as well is difficult to word in a concise and unambiguous manner.
I think the issue of off-color fetchlands and the like intersects somewhere in this discussion, as it's kind of on the opposite end of the rules barrier (i.e. no ruling can be made that bars them from off-color decks without being needlessly wordy/having undesired consequences).
@Drizzle: I think I'm more worried about rules holistics/aesthetics than anything (though the others do apply to an extent)
RRR - Bosh's School of Hard(cover) Knocks
Hmm, Is beseech the queen even a big deal if it were to be allowed in any deck? What are the other relevant artifact tutors for 6 mana with restrictions (the land count)?
Kaalia's Army of Annhilation RWB
Obzedat, Ghost Council - Life Gain Matters WB
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Fatty Reanimator Toolbox BG
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draw to Die RBU
Marath, Will of the Wild - Token Pump and Tap GWR
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Blink to Bleed WBG
I think this right here makes the best point on the can of worms this would open. Tricolor and bicolored decks would suddenly have far, far more options open to them than before, giving them a new, big edge over mono-color decks, even with monocolor decks getting the same benefit, and it could possibly encourage more homogenous, less diverse decks.
It's essentially... Monocolor, well you get access to 4 'guilds' worth of hybrid cards. Bicolor, you get access to about twice as many guilds worth of hybrid cards, and tricolor you'll get access to possibly all of them.
The bolded is why I don't agree with ANY hybrids being in mono-colored or off colored decks (despite the poster's using it to push for hybrids being allowed)--just because you can cast the spell for one of it's hybrid colors doesn't remove the other color from the card. Kitchen Finks has white in it, so a general without white in it's color identity can't cast it.
BRRakdos, Lord of RiotsBR
UBRThe MindrazerRBU
UUUSpymaster of TrestGGG
GGGThe South TreeGGG
RRRHuman AscendantRRR
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders
Honestly, if it wasn't:
Tutors:
Black
Green
Blue
White
Red
Card Draw
Blue
Black
Green
Red
White
Ramp:
Green
Black
Red
Blue
White
Big Creatures
Green
Black
Blue
Red
White
It would be totally different...... but there really isnt' anything that Red and White have that aren't "Weenies and lots of them".
Doesn't help that counterspelling is essentially:
Blue
???
???
White
???
???
???
EVERYONE.
Building silly decks for silly games.
Look at it like this: Jace is the primarily blue planeswalker, but he's been known to dip into White and Black magic. Ajani is a white mage, but he obviously uses both red and green magic.
Why is it so odd for Azusa to cast a off color spell?
As for it being "Aesthetically unpleasing", the RC should probably leave subjective opinions out of Rules Lawyering.
Because the format was created to accentuate the legendary creature's colors, not bleed them out. The format is all about using the flavorful restrictions of the general to build the most fun variant of Magic.
As for the subjective opinions of the RC--this is a casual format built around the flavor. The whole thing is about aesthetics, and the mechanics are designed to enhance the aesthetics. As long as that's the case, I don't see hybrid working out.
BRRakdos, Lord of RiotsBR
Actually, the format was first created to have decks based around the Elder Dragons, so we've already thrown out the reason the format was created.