Abzan (W/B/G)

All Will Be One Theme

Did All Will Be One have a wedge theme at some point in design? It seems like the sets biggest mechanics all appear primarily in sets of wedge colors (WBG poison, URW artifacts, BGU proliferate, GUR oil counters)

Not specifically, but sometimes designs drift in certain directions.

Abzan (W/B/G) Artifacts Colors Jeskai (U/R/W) Mechanics Poison Proliferate Sultai (B/G/U)

Draft Themes in MH3

Does every Wedge have a draft theme in MH3? Jeskai has Energy, Temur has Eldrazi and Abzan has Modified. I wonder if Sultai and Mardu have something too.

There’s connective tissue, but not a full named mechanical theme.

Abzan (W/B/G) Draft Formats Eldrazi Jeskai (U/R/W) Mardu (R/W/B) Modern Horizons 3 Sultai (B/G/U) Temur (R/U/G)

Future Planeswalkers

If/When? WBG and BGU planeswalkers.

I assume when, but not necessarily soon.

Abzan (W/B/G) If/When Planeswalkers Sultai (B/G/U)

Precon Color Distribution

How do you choose color distribution when designing precons? We have so few Abzan commander precons compared to color combinations like Naya etc

We design to our set themes which dictate colors. We don’t start with “let’s make a Naya deck” and make it fit however we have to.

Abzan (W/B/G) Colors Commander Naya Naya (R/G/W)

First Strike Status

Hi Mark. Is the FIRST STRIKE Evergreen or Deciduous now?This year Premier sets:ONE: C (1R), W (1C conditional and 1R) and BG (1R) = 4 > No uncommon no RedMOM: W (1 C conditional and 1R), R (1C and 1R), BR (1R), UR (1R), BG (1R conditional) and WBG (1M) = 8 > No uncommonWOE: W (1U) and R (1C conditional) = 2LCI: R (1R and 1M) = 2 > No uncommon and no WhiteTotal = 16

It’s still evergreen. We do it a bit more restricted (your turn/on attack) these days.

Abzan (W/B/G) Deciduous Evergreen First Strike Golgari (B/G) Izzet (U/R) Premier Sets Premier Sets Red The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Uncommons White Wilds of Eldraine

Future Planeswalkers Colors

If or when - RGW, WBG and BGU Planeswalkers?

If, but not necessarily soon.

Abzan (W/B/G) Colors If/When Naya (R/G/W) Planeswalkers Sultai (B/G/U)

Color Order Explanation

"They are in WUBRG order. Note that doesn’t mean W is always before U" Can you explain how this works? I'm confused.

Let’s start with allied color pairs. The way we do them is we start with the color and the go clockwise around the color wheel. That means they are: White/BlueBlue/BlackBlack/RedRed/GreenGreen/WhiteNote that means green and white are green/white, the order in which they are consecutive rather than the order of WUBRG. For enemy color pairs we get: White/BlackBlue/RedBlack/GreenRed/WhiteGreen/BlueIn this case two color pairs, red and white, and green and blue, are not in WUBRG order, but in the order where they are closest around the circle.This order makes it so each color is first two out of four times, and last two out of four times.Shard/arc three color trios are done the order that they appear together in the circle:White/Blue/BlackBlue/Black/RedBlack/Red/GreenRed/Green/WhiteGreen/White/BlueRed, green and white, and green, white, and blue aren’t in WUBRG order.Wedge three-color trios, are written such that the shared enemy color is in the center, with each color appearing with it as it appears when it’s written as an enemy color :White/Black/GreenBlue/Red/WhiteBlack/Green/BlueRed/White/BlackGreen/Blue/RedOnly white, black, green is in WUBRG order.Four color quartets appear in the order they appear consecutive in the color wheel: White/Blue/Black/RedBlue/Black/Red/GreenBlack/Red/Green/WhiteRed/Green/White/Blue Green/White/Blue/BlackAll but the first two aren’t in WUBRG order.Five color us in WUBRG order:White/Blue/Black/Red/Green

Abzan (W/B/G) Azorius (W/U) Black Blue Boros (R/W) Colors Dimir (U/B) Esper (W/U/B) Four Color Golgari (B/G) Green Grixis (U/B/R) Gruul (R/G) Izzet (U/R) Jeskai (U/R/W) Jund (B/R/G) Mardu (R/W/B) Naya (R/G/W) Orzhov (W/B) Rakdos (B/R) Red Selesnya (G/W) Simic (G/U) Sultai (B/G/U) Three Color Two Color White

Tarkir Clan Trivia

Hi, Mark. I'm trying to get my birthday trivia for a few days but I'm being unlucky. So, let me ask something different. Any trivia about Mardu or Abzan, my favorite Tarkir clans and color combinations?

Mardu was the first clan to get its keyword in Khans of Tarkir design and Abzan the last. Happy Birthday!

Abzan (W/B/G) Birthday Colors Keywords Khans of Tarkir Mardu (R/W/B)

Mark's Magic Colors

If you were a magic card, what color or colors do you think you would be?

My colors in order: Red/Blue/White/Black/Green

Abzan (W/B/G) Blue Colors Golgari (B/G) Green Red

Character Versions in Sets

Some early constructive criticism: I like a set featuring many versions of a character when it's warranted (Urza and Mishra in Brothers' War, for example). But At some point you just dillute the character's specialness IMO. We have what, five or six Frodos and Gandalfs? And Bilbo's two versions cost 1UR and WBG, which might as well have been two entirely separate characters! Other than that, loving the set so far.

A handful of characters have three different versions in the main set, although most of the major characters have just two versions. One is usually at uncommon, designed for limited. The other is rare or mythic rare, aimed more at constructed formats. The reason they’re different colors is a) because they represent the characters at different points in the story, and b) we want different decks to have access to them. Magic has done this many times (with characters like Omnath or Niv-Mizzet), but usually stretched over time, because with our characters we have the luxury to do that.

Abzan (W/B/G) Colors Constructed Limited Mishra Mythic Rares Rares Story / Lore Uncommons Urza

Commander Archetype Delays

Is there a reason certain highly desired or very clear archetypes don't get commanders built for them? For example, abzan lifegain is something a ton of people want and it's the perfect colors for it, yet we haven't seen a dedicated commander for it. Additionally there's mardu spellslinger that can combine the burn from boros with the drain from black. A personal desire of mine is to get a creature "force feed" commander to give opponents a bunch of tokens and hit em with massacre wurm. Jund pls

Two issues:
There are a lot of moving parts when making Commander decks (aka different needs that have to be addressed).
There are a lot of different Commanders players want.
We will eventually get to the ones that a lot of players are asking for, but it can take some time.

Abzan (W/B/G) Black Boros (R/W) Colors Commander Commander Decks Creatures Jund (B/R/G) Lifegain Mardu (R/W/B) Massacre Massacre Wurm Planeshift Tokens Wurm

More Wedge Commanders

May I request more wedge commanders? There are nearly 2x as many shard as wedge. In case you're interested: Sultai 17, Temur 15, Jeskai 19, Abzan 12, Mardu 23. Wedge total 86. Esper 34, Grixis 39, Jund 28, Naya 30, Bant 29. Shard total 160.

We do them in about equal numbers. The discrepancy comes from the fact that we used to do a lot more of the ally combinations than the enemy ones.

Abzan (W/B/G) Ally Bant Bant (W/U/G) Esper (W/U/B) Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Jeskai (U/R/W) Jund (B/R/G) Mardu (R/W/B) Naya Naya (R/G/W) Sultai (B/G/U) Temur (R/U/G)

ONE Set Color Themes

Hi Mark, I was looking at the ONE cards, and I noticed that a lot of the mechanics seem to fall into 3 color pairs, specifically the enemy color wedges (Temur has oil counters, Sultai has proliferate, Abzan has toxic, and Jeskai seems to have some artifact synergies). I was curious if this was intentional, and if it was, if it means that ONE was a wedge set at some point in design, or if this was a result of some other part of the way you design sets.

It was purposeful that certain themes show up in three colors, but it wasn’t because the set was ever a three-color set. It just lets us have some nuance with draft color pairs. For instance, white, black, and green are the toxic colors, so it lets us do three different draft archetypes that are each distinct from one another.

Abzan (W/B/G) Artifacts Black Colors Draft Formats Green Jeskai (U/R/W) Mechanics Proliferate Sultai (B/G/U) Temur (R/U/G) Three Color Toxic White

Ancient Lumberknot Colors

Is Ancient Lumberknot's effect possible in any other color or colors? I'm really enjoying the effect!

The “Dosan” ability (damage = toughness) is white/black/green.

Abzan (W/B/G) Colors Golgari (B/G) Green

Mana Symbol Order

Why do the mana symbols in some multicolored cards follow WUBRG but not others? i.e. an izzet card will have blue then red, but a golgari card has green first then black?

There is an order to every color combination: WUUBBRRGGWWBURBGRWGWWUBUBRBRGRGWGWUWBGURWBGURWBGURWUBRUBRGBRGWRGWUGWUBWUBRGThe order for each cycle has a pattern which goes around the mana circle in a particular way that is consistent for the cycle.

Abzan (W/B/G) Azorius (W/U) Black Blue Boros (R/W) Colors Cycles Esper (W/U/B) Four Color Golgari (B/G) Green Grixis (U/B/R) Gruul (R/G) Izzet (U/R) Jeskai (U/R/W) Jund (B/R/G) Mana Mardu (R/W/B) Naya (R/G/W) Orzhov (W/B) Red Selesnya (G/W) Sultai (B/G/U)

Design of Tarkir Clans

The three-colored factions of Alara and New Capenna seem to have been centered both mechanically and creatively around a single "anchor color" with the other two colors corresponding to that color's allies (like Grixis/Maestros being "base black"). With that in mind, why was Tarkir not designed the same way? i.e. Abzan/ WBG being centered around white and not black.

Because the clans lost the enemy color between Khans of Tarkir (a wedge set) and Dragons of Tarkir (an ally-color set) and we wanted the clans to feel connected, thus we wanted the same central color, so the enemy color wasn’t an option.

Abzan (W/B/G) Ally Black Colors Dragons of Tarkir Factions Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Khans of Tarkir White

Identifying Contrasting Color Pairs

If UR is the two color pair that is most you, what is the two color pair that is the opposite of you? And would that pair be the "Evil Maro" pairing or would that be a different pairing?

My color order is: (from most to least) red/blue/white/black/green, so the least me color pair is black/green.

Abzan (W/B/G) Blue Colors Golgari (B/G) Green Izzet (U/R) Mark Rosewater Red Two Color

Three-Color Cards Sequence

Hey Mark! I noticed something that got me curious... I'm used to the WUBRG color sequence in Magic, and thought every card followed this pattern, but I noticed that's not true! Speaking about the 3-color cards, Grixis, Esper, Jund, Temur and Abzan cards follow the WUBRG sequence in its mana cost, but Jeskai, Naya, Mardu, Sultai and Bant cards do not, and I have to ask... why?

All ten three-color pairs do actually follow a WUBRG pattern. The central color, the one with two allies in arcs and two enemies in wedges, is in the middle. Then the colors follow the two-color order. For example, we use WU and GW, so the arc mana is GWU. Likewise, we use WB and RW so that order is RWB.

Abzan (W/B/G) Ally Azorius (W/U) Bant Bant (W/U/G) Boros (R/W) Colors Esper (W/U/B) Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Jeskai (U/R/W) Jund (B/R/G) Mana Mardu (R/W/B) Naya Naya (R/G/W) Orzhov (W/B) Selesnya (G/W) Sultai (B/G/U) Temur (R/U/G) Three Color

Abzan, Sultai, Jeskai Clans Return

i would also like to go back to Tarkir, but specifically the Tarkir that had the Abzan, Sultai, Jeskai clans et al and NOT the Kolaghan, etc ones.

We’d return to the current timeline, but the clans are far from dead.

Abzan (W/B/G) Jeskai (U/R/W) Sultai (B/G/U)

Mana Symbols Order

Hey Mark, I was wondering what the rules were re: the order of mana symbols in cards that require multiple different mana types to cast? I was thinking about it recently and assumed that it would always be in WUBRG order, but when I went looking at some revealed cards I noticed Tamiyo, Compleated Sage put the green mana symbol before the blue, and Asari Commander has red before white.

There are official orders for each color combination: WUUBBRRGGWWBURBGRWGUWUBUBRBRGRGWGWUWBGURWBGURWBGURWUBRUBRGBRGWRGWUGWUBWUBRG

Abzan (W/B/G) Azorius (W/U) Blue Boros (R/W) Colors Commander Compleated Esper (W/U/B) Four Color Golgari (B/G) Green Grixis (U/B/R) Gruul (R/G) Izzet (U/R) Jeskai (U/R/W) Jund (B/R/G) Mana Mardu (R/W/B) Naya (R/G/W) Orzhov (W/B) Red Rules Selesnya (G/W) Simic (G/U) Sultai (B/G/U) Tamiyo, Compleated Sage White