Monocolor

Fifteen-Type Framework Layout

the Magic Story Podcast mentioned that in early concepting, Bloomburrow had fifteen focus creature types, with one for each monocolor in addition to one for each color pair. do you know what the layout of creature types was in that fifteen-type framework? (they mentioned Otters were originally mono-Blue, so I'm especially curious what the UR creature type was in that model.)

That model didn’t last very long. We talked about Raccoons being blue/red for a hot second.

Bloomburrow Colors Creatures Drive to Work Izzet (U/R) Monocolor Otters Raccoons Red Story / Lore

Possibility of Monocolor Gimmick Set

Alara Reborn has no monocolor cards. Is such (premier) set possible in current system?

R&D refers to it as a “gimmick set” (aka all the cards in the set are _________). We’ve cooled on gimmick sets as they are significantly harder to make and just don’t result in additional sales.

Alara Reborn Monocolor

Cut Animals in Bloomburrow

When you do articles/DTWs on Bloomburrow: Can you list some more animals that you guys considered for the set but got cut and if you had any planned colors/mechanics for them? We know about Badgers and such, but would love to hear if there were more :)

The two that existed as two-color archetypes was Weasels in black/red and Badgers in red/green. In early vision design, for a short moment, we had fifteen animals as we gave one to each monocolor. It became clear quickly it was just too many animals. There were many ones we talked about that never made the cut. Turtles and Frogs, for example, were fighting for the green/blue slot.

Badgers Bloomburrow Blue Colors Frogs Green Gruul (R/G) Mechanics Monocolor Rakdos (B/R) Red Simic (G/U) Turtles Vision Design

Hybrid Commons Goal in Bloomburrow

What was the goal behind the hybrid commons in bloomburrow? This set doesn't seem to have either the strong multicolor focus or the strong monocolor focus that tends to necessitate that kind of thing in limited

It gets the as-fan of creature types up.

As-fan Bloomburrow Commons Creatures Hybrid Limited Monocolor

Difficulty with Mono-Color Set Design

What is the hardest part of designing a set focused on mono color?

Making limited work.

Colors Limited Monocolor Set Design

Dominaria United Monocolor Themes

Hi Mark! I would like to request some birthday trivia please! Specifically, in Dominaria United, each monocolor was assigned a mechanical theme (e.g. White = Go Wide, Blue = Sorceries and Instants matter). I was wondering if you could please elaborate the monocolor themes in Throne of Eldraine as I believe they aren't explicitly stated anywhere on l'internet.

Each of the five courts had a virtue which we built the color around mechanically, as well as flavorfully:
White Court (Ardenvale) – Loyalty
Blue Court (Vantress) – Knowledge
Black Court (Lochthwain) – Persistence
Red Court (Embereth) – Courage
Green Court (Garenbrig) – Strength
White leaned into “go wide” with creatures helping one another.Blue leaned into control with card drawing.Black leaned into graveyard recursion.Red leaned into aggression.Green leaned into caring about creature size.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Black Blue Card Draw Colors Creatures Dominaria United Green Instants Monocolor Red Sorceries The Graveyard Throne of Eldraine Throne of Eldraine White

Selective Obliteration Appreciation

Huge high-five to whoever designed Selective Obliteration for the Eldrazi MH3 commander deck. Monocolour doesn't get a ton of support, but this card really puts it back on the menu in a powerful way. Thank you, designer!

Will do.

Appreciation Commander Decks Eldrazi Modern Horizons 3 Monocolor Selective Obliteration

Mono Color Focus Sets

If/when a Standard set with a strong Mono Color focus. Last one was OG Theros

Throne of Eldraine was after that. We don’t do them often.

Colors If/When Monocolor Premier Sets Standard Theros Throne of Eldraine Throne of Eldraine

Monocolor Precon Commander Decks

I'd like to note that, aside from the W40K Necron deck, WotC hasn't released a monocolor precon in box stores in ten years with C14. I believe the Angels SL deck sold out quickly. Would another monocolor precon be completely out of the question based on ten year old data? Or was the Necrons deck significant for market research?

We are willing to do monocolor Commander decks, but they’re both harder to do and have a higher bar to clear.

Angel Commander 2014 Commander Decks Monocolor Necron Wizards of the Coast

Monocolored Commander Preferences

"Players mostly don’t want to purchase monocolored Commander decks." - Why is this? What existing monocolored precons are doing something unique vs 2+ colored precons? What are the incentives and exploits to build single color (outside Devotion), run as many basic lands as possible, etc? Players have proven willing and excited to build Rebecca Guay typal and coin flip precons. I am not convinced that this is a question that can be answered with market research alone. Food for thought.

This isn’t hypothetical. We’ve made monocolor Commander decks. There’s actual sales data.

Colors Commander Commander Decks Food Kindred / Typal Lands Monocolor

Monocolor Set Features

If/(foreseeable future)When: New Monocolored Matters set. I know you already did this with Morningtide/Eventide, and I don't consider Adamant or Devotion to lead to the gameplay patterns we're discussing. Most likely hybrid, colorless, cycling and/or DFC/Split Card focused to support limited.

When for sets with monocolor themes. I’m not quite sure what you want if devotion doesn’t count.

Adamant Colorless Cycling Dual Faced Cards Eventide Game Play Hybrid Limited Monocolor Morningtide Morningtide Split Cards

Monocolor Support

I agree that basic land type matters effects require a crafted limited environment, but there's so few of these, and you have other avenues for printing them while sidestepping limited now: Commander products, Universes Beyond, bonus sheets, fixed slots in boosters, etc. There's already a big disincentive towards running monocolored in most Eternal Constructed formats, twice so for Commander, so why not give monocolored a big shot in the arm?

We do make them from time to time, but they have to fit in the set we release them in. For example, they’re an odd fit in anything but a monocolor Commander deck, and we just don’t make many of those.

Bonus Sheets Boosters Card Printing Commander Commander Decks Constructed Eternal Lands Limited Monocolor Universes Beyond

Monocolor Deck Rewards

Why do we see so few cards that reward playing specific basic land types in Standard, such as Blanchwood Armor, Armored Ascension or Flow of Ideas? These seem like a slam dunk for encouraging monocolored decks in Constructed, something that we see less and less of as dual lands are released. Take the Darksteel Affinity for Land Type golems for instance: they solve the high mana value playability issue very well while asking for a meaningful commitment.

Those effects work best in uncommon, especially if that’s all they’re focused on. At uncommon, those cards are draft traps though if the set doesn’t support monocolor play. So, they’re not something we can just drop in most sets.

Affinity Armored Ascension Blanchwood Armor Constructed Darksteel Draft Formats Dual Lands Dual Lands Flow of Ideas Golem Lands Mana Value Monocolor Standard Uncommons

Devotion to Colorless

Re: devotion to colorless "The biggest challenge is it requires a set that is both about devotion, which tends to lean into monocolor, and colorless mana as a cost"Maybe I'm jumping the gun since we haven't seen the full set yet, but haven't you said the same thing about Snow Wastes which are now debuting in a set that seems to only use wastes and not snow? Couldn't a set with colorless have a devotion cameo, or if it were a Horizons set, do it as a one-off reference?

Modern Horizons does lots of one-ofs that a normal premier set can never do. I’m answering for normal sets, not Modern Horizons. Yes, Modern Horizons can do all sorts of stuff that’s hard for most sets to do.

Colorless Mana Modern Horizons Monocolor Premier Sets

Colorless Devotion Challenge

With more colorless mana symbol support coming in Modern Horizon 3 via its Eldrazi, could this help a devotion to colorless mana symbol at some point?

The biggest challenge is it requires a set that is both about devotion, which tends to lean into monocolor, and colorless mana as a cost, which tends to lean away from monocolor, so it’s a hard thing to co-exist in the same set.

Colorless Eldrazi Mana Modern Monocolor

Devotion Mechanic Potential

Hi Mark, I really enjoyed your podcast about monocolor design. It made me wonder, is there a chance Devotion could ever become deciduous? So much inherently incentivizes playing more colors; Devotion is a popular and intuitive mechanic that could be used to incentivize playing less colors more often and doesn't require any sort of structural support to be placed into a set.

Devotion only works in a set built to support monocolor play, so it’s not the kind of thing we’d make evergreen.

Colors Deciduous Drive to Work Evergreen Mechanics Monocolor

Eldraine Courts Focus

Reading your Rabiah article and you mention going back to Eldraine may have the courts again as there's "more to explore". Hypothetically if that happened, would the courts maintain their monocolor focus?
Wilds of Eldraine was fun, but it went from being the one I was most excited for in several years down to "looks like a fun set" when I found out it would lose the monocolor focus.

If we return to the courts, I assume there would be some monocolor focus.

Monocolor Wilds of Eldraine

Ward vs Protection

How is a colored or hybrid ward cost all that different from “protection from [color]” or “hexproof from [color]”? I would argue it’s even a better design space, since other colors can still interact if they have something uncounterable.

Protection from [color} is only unanswerable from a monocolor deck, and even then it could have colorless artifacts that might have answers. Ward: [color cost] is unanswerable to every deck not playing that color.

Artifacts Colorless Colors Design Space Hexproof Hybrid Monocolor Protection Ward

Arcane Signet Feedback

For the previous asker wanting to know about Arcane Signet: there are a nunber of commander players, myself included, who believe that it is too strong, because it's an auto-include in nearly every deck, other than colorless ones or ones that avoid rocks for other reasons. Even monocolor decks use it because it's strictly better than the cycle of Diamonds.

FYI

Arcane Signet Colorless Commander Cycles Monocolor Power Level Question Marks

Artifact Creature Cycle

May I ask when the Walking artifact creature cycle will be finished?Walking Ballista - RedHangarback Walker - Blue??? - White, Black, and Green.

How many other words exist on two different colored monocolor cards?

Artifacts Black Blue Creatures Green Hangarback Walker Monocolor Red Walking Ballista White