Four Color

Variety in Four-colour Commanders

New 21 Jul 2024 Asked by datkrawg 0 Comments

Will we finally see some more four colour commanders over the next couple years?I'd really love to have some Variety in those slots.


I think more will happen over time, but slowly.

Four Color Factions Possibility

New 14 Jun 2024 Asked by shahrathestoryteller 10 Comments

Hi Mark! I am here once again to ask when/if four color factions are possible as a minor theme, like in Ikoria, or as a set of commander decks, like Warhammer 40k. We need names for the combos (please c:)!


Us making names, through other means, has a much higher percent chance than us building a set around four-color factions.

Tertiary Abilities Rule

New 09 May 2024 Asked by thunderweb 27 Comments

I have a question about tertiary abilities not being used on multicolor cards.https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021This article says Trample is tertiary in White, Blue, and Black. Does it mean there shouldn't be a WUBRG or GWUB creature with trample, even if Green is the primary color for it?


Tertiary abilities shouldn’t be that color’s contribution to a gold card. As long as a multicolor card has a color that’s primary or secondary in the ability, all is good. For instance, a green/blue multicolor card can have trample, because trample is primary in green.

Names for Mana Combinations

New 07 May 2024 Asked by zombsidian 39 Comments

What's your thoughts on people still referring to 2 color/3 color combinations with the Ravnican/Alaran names? Have you seen anyone use the Capennan names?And does the team or you personally want to give similar names to the 4 color combinations?


We expect vocabulary to stay the same. I assume we’ll give names to the four-color combinations one day.

Quad-Color Commander Design

New 05 May 2024 Asked by between-panels-blog 11 Comments

Hello!

Last time I wrote, I asked about Planar Chaos, and whether design might go back to something like that with the color pie. Thank you for your response. I can appreciate how it was a novel idea back then, but you do it more now in small ways over time.

My next question also has to do with color.

Like a lot of people, I love commander. I've created a challenge for myself. I'm trying to build a deck in every color combination.

I finally finished colorless, which was a challenge I've been afraid of since I started playing in Alara. Now I'm looking at four color commanders.

I have Omnath. I love Omnath. Landfall's been a favorite, since Zendikar is close to my heart.

And oh. There's Atraxa. Atraxa excites me. I think I'll focus her on poison counters.

But then there's the other combinations. After the Nephilim in Guildpact, most call them Glint, (no white) Dune, (no blue) and Witch (no red).

I see Breya, Saskia, and Yidris. They're awesome cards, and Yidris excites me somewhat. But it feels like a very tiny box that's been built many, many times before.

And those three cards are really it for those three color groupings. There's a whole bunch of representation for WURG especially with Doctor Who UB, and WUBG has the two Atraxa. But the other three don't get much.

Partner is an option I've considered. But at a glance, it seems a bit forced.

Do you think design will do more with the quad-color groupings? Would a set like Alara or Tarkir be possible, but with quad-color tribes? Or does that overcomplicate design too much?


Four-color legendary cards are in a weird place. We don’t want to make them such that people are just using them to play more colors in Commander, so it means we have to be very focused in what they’re doing, and finding a home for such a design is tricky.

Sliver Legends Colors

New 22 Mar 2024 Asked by zombsidian 42 Comments

Is there a reason all Sliver Legends are WUBRG? Could there be space, favorfully or otherwise, for 2/3/4 color Sliver Legends?


Slivers are a five-color creature type, so we want to give players access to all the Slivers. Plus, there are only 115 Slivers, so we want to give players some ability to customize. I do think as the number goes up, we’ll make some non-five color ones.

Un-Set Commander Deck

New 01 Mar 2024 Asked by gamecubewizard 23 Comments

What're the chances of getting some kind of Un-Set commander precon run of some kind? lots of play groups love to rule zero silver bordered cards and I don't think there are any three/four color Un-Set options to play as a commander


Unfinity has a cycle of monocolor legendary creatures with partner that you can run with a two-color legendary creature with partner.

Future 4-Color Commanders

New 21 Feb 2024 Asked by satan-samael-666 30 Comments

If or when, more 4 color commanders for no blue, no green and no white?


I assume when. Were purposefully not making 4-color commanders too often.

Mana Base Control

New 20 Feb 2024 Asked by j-waffles 31 Comments

There seems to be a staunch lack of mass nonbasic hate in standard & pioneer. Targeted land removal like demolition field, field of ruin, or Boseiju are good for dealing with individually powerful lands; but they don’t meaningfully punish greedy mana bases. Domain has been a tier 1 standard deck since DMU came out, and it’s only ever gotten more options. 4 color omnath dominated standard when it was legal, and multicolor decks in general have access to tons of fixing just with the land-base. Modern at least has blood moon, but standard and pioneer don’t have any mass nonbasic hate. Is this intentional? If so, why?


Hating on greedy mana bases, but not messing up non-greedy mana bases is a challenge.

More Legendary Creatures

New 13 Jan 2024 Asked by rosechord-blog 23 Comments

Can I get an if/when on more 4 color legendary creatures/two color partners?


When for the former.If for the latter.

Four-Color Commanders

New 02 Jan 2024 Asked by baconboy54-blog 26 Comments

Happy New Year!
I made an account just for this lol

If/when: A cycle of four color commanders?


Welcome.I assume when.

Color Popularity

New 26 Dec 2023 Asked by snow-points 46 Comments

is there any particular reason that there are far more RGWU cards than any other 4 color combination?


Yes, “not black” is the most popular flavor option.

Battle Commander Flavor

New 21 Dec 2023 Asked by honor-basquiat 49 Comments

"If. What’s the flavor?" (Regarding a Battle card as a commander)Hi Mark,As a game designer, I think your one of your most important goals should be to create designs that play well mechanically speaking that players enjoy playing with. Someone who wants to play with a Battle as a commander likely wants to do so for mechanical game play reasons, not flavor reasons.Similarly, more 4 color commanders being hard to justify with flavor shouldn't be the primary reason they are very seldom created even though there is immense demand for them.There's no flavor justification for Cycling or Kicker but they are deciduous mechanics that play very well and are extremely popular. They are examples of good game design even though one could dismiss them by saying "What's the flavor?" A hardcore Vorthros player might dismiss or dislike mechanics like Cycling and Kicker for that reason but that definitely shouldn't stop you from making designs mechanics.If you have this mentality with things like "mill", "kicker", and "cycling" and it is successful, I don't understand why you can't do other things that would lead to interesting gameplay even if it isn't a perfect flavor homerun?

Thoughts?


Intuition is a key part of good game design. You want things to play as the audience expects them to play. Flavor is an important part of that. If the flavor contradicts the card’s function, it will make players play it wrong. Some mechanics are light on flavor, so you can get away with lots of hand-waving. What does kicker represent? It doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t evoke flavor in a way that will create false expectations. Commanders, by definition, are very flavorful. We can do weird things with them, but because they are so steeped in flavor, we have to be conscious of what the flavor will be, so we can design it such that players will assume the right things about its mechanical function. In short, flavor matters in some places mechanically more than others.One last thing, the reason we don’t do lots of four-color cards is all about design and play balance, and very little about flavor.

Hybrid Mana Complexity

New 19 Dec 2023 Asked by anodomani 34 Comments

If / when, three color, four color, or five color (e.g. anything but colorless) hybrid mana pips?


If. We’ve looked at them. They don’t look good, are hard to read, and get too close to the functionality of a generic mana cost.

WURG Legendaries Prevalence

New 12 Dec 2023 Asked by lhurgyof-blog 47 Comments

Why do we see so many WURG legendaries compared to the other 4 color combinations?


Because not-black is the easiest not-a-color to flavor.

Four Color Commanders

New 01 Dec 2023 Asked by mooseontheloose9 21 Comments

Hey Mark!How far up the short list are new four color commanders?


The “short” list isn’t ordered by priority.

Dragon Color Identity

New 21 Nov 2023 Asked by guardgomabroa 20 Comments

There's enough dragons and dragon support cards in non-red colors to make a four color, red-less dragon typal commander deck. Do you think R&D would ever consider shifting dragons from red's iconic type to a "any color" identity like humans?


I do not.

Mana Cost Order

New 07 Oct 2023 Asked by theoucreator 58 Comments

Theoretically, if a card were to exist with a mana cost consisting of one each of WUBR, and three of G, would the mana cost on the card be ordered as BRGGGWU or WUBRGGG? I'm leaning towards BRGGGWU because it follows what I consider as MTG color philosophy more, but I figured I'd just ask directly because this has been tearing apart my friend group.


I believe it would be WUBRGGG.

Four-Color Commanders

New 07 Oct 2023 Asked by puresmoulder 63 Comments

I've been thinking about multi colour commanders and I feel like I don't really like 4 colour commanders?5 colour commanders are big and flashy and when they offer unique deck building opportunities like Tom Bombadil, they're really fun to build.On the other end, 1 to 3 colour commanders feel like they're still restrictive enough that whatever colours you have, you still feel like you're missing out significantly on the colours you're missing. (which is great!)Meanwhile 4 colour commanders just feel like they're 5 colour but worse. Being short one colour doesn't feel like it affects deck building significantly, and the commanders themselves don't feel unique compared to other commanders with more or fewer colours than them. It's like I have to work out a more complicated manabase for an effect that could be in fewer colours. Just wanted to know your thoughts on them too.


How do others feel about four-color commanders?

Four-Color Card Distribution

New 29 Sep 2023 Asked by irlnautica 44 Comments

Why do you think RGWU has twice as many cards as any of the other four-colour combinations, with four to their two? (GWUB has three, but two of those are Atraxa.)


Four-color cards are more defined by what they aren’t and non-black is the easiest to flavor.


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