Hey mark, I'm in an argument with a friend. My friend says that Slaughter Games is a color pie break because it shouldn't be red, because it doesn't need red to do anything it does, since black gets surgical extraction, and black can get "can't be countered" if it needs to (eg: thought distortion.) I'm arguing that that isn't how the color pie works, a card is in pie if all its effects fit in its colors, that a card having too many colors isn't a break. Who's correct?

You’re correct, but there’s a little nuance to it. First, a two-color card is allowed if one of the two colors can do the effect. That’s not considered a color pie break. There some aesthetic reasons we don’t do it too often, but it’s allowed colorpiewise.Second, “can’t be countered” is primary in red and tertiary in black. Black really isn’t supposed to be doing it often, and on a two-color card, tertiary abilities aren’t supposed to be used. That means the “can’t be countered” is coming from red.

You mentioned that phyrexian mana is unlikely, but not necessarily off the table. In the hypothetical case that it does come back, are new cards that cost only phyrexian mana (e.g. Surgical Extraction) and therefore can be played "for free" off the table?

Nothing is off the table, but that is the most dangerous space of the mechanic.

Is phyrexian mana an acceptable way to stretch the colorpie e.g. a certain deathtouch flier being printed in black, even though green woul d still have access to it for a comparatively low cost? (seems to work for Dismember or Surgical Extraction)

I believe Phyrexian mana should work like artifacts. It lets colors have access to a few things they normally don’t but at an additional cost. We have to be careful though not to give color’s easy access to specific areas of weakness.

In the past you've said that you dislike spells you can cast for free. How do you feel about Surgical Extraction? Gut Shot?

I don’t dislike free spells, I just feel they cause two problems: 1) They can have power issues. 2) They can break the color pie. If you’re careful about the first two, I’m all for it. I do believe both of the above can be stretched a little but not to the point where it harms things.

I've always been a fan of Mill as a strategy, but I've been wondering something recently. Why is it that Blue (the color of knowledge and intellect) gets the "brute force" milling effects like traumatize, while black (the "win at any cost" color) gets the precision milling effects like cabal therapy and surgical extraction? It seems like the styles should be flipped.

Blue overwhelms your mind while black destroys parts of it.