You've said there's no room to add a sixth color. If, hypothetically, you absolutely had to add one, do you think the existing colors have enough depth that you could steal some mechanics from each color to make a new one, but still leave each existing color feeling like it has enough to it?

We tried that experiment, sort of, with purple in Planar Chaos design. And there we had the alternate reality, reworking of the color pie as a tool, and it was still too difficult.

Suppose you were making a UB set where the source IP had something analogous to the five colors of Magic, but there were six of them instead of five. Would you be willing to add a sixth color for such a set?

I’m skeptical we would. The five colors are so core to the game.

Now, with the caveat that both are extremely unlikely, which is more likely: Magic temporarily adds a sixth color for an In Universe product, or Magic adds a sixth color for a Universes Beyond premier set that really wants it for flavor reasons?

While all unlikely, the in-universe option is slightly more likely than the Universes Beyond one.

I'm tired of all these questions about purple being the sixth color. Why can't the sixth color be yellow?! Or orange?!

Blame Inquest Magazine. : )EDIT: Oops, I had the wrong magazine.

On a recent Drive *mumble* Work episode, you mentioned that there are 8 members of the Council of Colors. My mental math only gets to 7. Can you tell us the roles of the 8? Thanks! (FWIW, I did consider posting this with “Sixth color confirmed!”.)

There is a representative for white, blue, black, red, green and colorless. I oversee the group with help from Mark Gottlieb. Technically, we have a ninth member that does much of the organizing work and takes notes

As is, do you think there's room in Magic for a few sets with purple mana? Not specifically taking away from other colors, but having a unique blend of other colors' abilities and weaknesses that you wouldn't normally get in one color. Kind of like how other colors can be secondary or tertiary in an effect normally belonging to another color. It might be more helpful to define colors by their weaknesses as opposed to their strengths in this regard..

I’m skeptical we’ll do a sixth color. If we do, it’ll probably more out of the box than simply a combination of effects not in the same color.

When considering a sixth color, have you gone so far as to consider where it would fit n the color wheel? My hunch would be between blue and black...

The more likely spot would be in the center.

The sixth color in Planar Chaos was Purple, between black and blue. Purple-shifted version of Mana Drain and Hymn to Tourach was looked at. It was "time" and had countering and discard. According to Bill Rose. Standard would have been brutal so I'm kinda glad that didn't happen.The idea of putting it in the middle of all five, instead of between black and blue, came later. You talked about that idea in a 2019 interview.

We had talked about various different ideas during Planar Chaos, including it being in the center. None of them came to pass (we killed the idea pretty early in design), so I was remembering a different one than the one I wrote about in my article. Apologies.

Hi Mark! I just listened to DTW #28: Planar Chaos. I’d heard about the “6th color” and that it wasn’t/isn’t really a possibility. In an alternate present reality where you did, would you have changed the backs of magic cards to show it? Or left it for the sake of continuity with the rest of the cards?

We wouldn’t have changed the backs on the cards in booster packs. Maybe as a novel promo card.

Has there been any serious push to include purple as the sixth color of Magic since 1997?

Early Planar Chaos design messed with it as we were exploring the alternate reality present.