Post by Xxsuperheroxx on Apr 20, 2019 12:00:14 GMT -6
Magic: The Gathering
Colors of Magic
Most spells come in one of five colors. The colors can be seen on the back of the cards, in a pentagonal design, called the "Color Wheel" or "Color Pie". Clockwise from the top, they are: white (W), blue (U), black (B), red (R), and green (G). To play a spell of a given color, at least one mana of that color is required. This mana is normally generated by a basic land: plains for white, island for blue, swamp for black, mountain for red, and forest for green. The balances and distinctions among the five colors form one of the defining aspects of the game. Each color has strengths and weaknesses based on the "style" of magic it represents.
White is the color of order, equality, righteousness, healing, law, community, peace, and light. White's strengths include a roster of smaller creatures, as well as the ability to create creature tokens, both of which are strong collectively; protecting and enhancing those creatures with enchantments; increasing one's life points; preventing damage to creatures or players; imposing restrictions on players; disabling the capabilities of opposing creatures; and powerful spells that "equalize" the playing field by destroying all cards of a given type. White creatures are renowned for their defense-favoring abilities, many of which include "Protection" and "Vigilance". White magic opposes artificial fabrication, this being represented by many of its spells that can destroy artifacts and enchantments. White's weaknesses include the fact that many of its spells favor smaller creatures; its passive playing style in which it relies on an opponent's actions to maximize its own effects; and the nature of its most powerful spells that usually affect all players equally—including the casting player.
Blue is the color of intellect, reason, illusion, logic, knowledge, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Blue's strengths include allowing a player to draw additional cards; permanently taking control of an opponent's cards; returning cards from the battlefield to their owner's hand; forcing cards to go directly from a player's deck to their graveyard; and negating spells before they are successfully cast. Blue's creatures tend to be weaker than those of the other colors, but commonly have abilities which make them difficult to block, "Flying" being the most common evasive ability among Blue creatures. Blue's power of extra-sensory perception is represented by the ability "Scry", which allows the player to look at the top cards of his or her deck and choose whether he or she will draw those cards the subsequent turns. Since Blue magic revolves around advancement and technology, it has the highest number of cards having beneficial interactions with artifacts. Blue's weaknesses include its inability to destroy spells already placed on the field, having them returned to the hand instead; the fixation on negating and delaying enemy actions, while itself lacking an aggressive plan; and the way it prolongs the game and victory, thus allowing the opponent a possibility for a sudden comeback.
Black is the color of power, ambition, death, illness, corruption, selfishness, amorality, and sacrifice. It is not necessarily evil, though many of its cards refer directly or indirectly to this concept. Black's strengths include the ability to destroy creatures instantly; forcing players to discard cards from their hand; decreasing a player's life while you usually gain that same amount lost; evasive abilities are common among Black creatures; and resurrecting creatures from a player's graveyard. Furthermore, because Black seeks to win at all costs, it has limited access to many abilities or effects that are normally available only to one of the other colors; but these abilities often require large sacrifices of life totals, creatures, cards in hand, cards in library, and other difficult-to-replace resources. One of the most notable abilities among Black creatures is "Deathtouch", which always causes creatures damaged by those possessing this ability to be sent to the graveyard, regardless of the damage amount assigned. Black's main weaknesses include an almost complete inability to deal with enchantments and artifacts; the tendency to inflict itself with severe negative effects in order to defeat the opponent; the way in which it overly relies on cards inside the graveyards; and difficulties in removing other Black creatures.
Red is the color of freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare, lightning, the classical element of fire, and the abiotic geological aspects of the classical element earth.[57] Red's strengths include the ability to directly damage creatures or players; destroying opposing lands and artifacts; and sacrificing permanent resources for temporary but high-profit power. Red has a wide array of creatures, but (with the exception of late-game powerhouses, such as Red's notable dragons) most tend to be defensively weak, rendering them easier to destroy. As a trade-off, some of these weaker creatures have the ability to temporarily raise their offense value, leaving their defense value unaffected; many other Red spells focus on this concept of glass cannon offense. Much like Blue, Red explores the element of trickery, this being represented by spells that are able to temporarily steal an opponent's creatures; divert or copy other spells; and those involving random chance. In terms of keyword abilities, Red tends to focus on quickness and speed, this being represented by the popular abilities "Haste" and "First Strike". Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments; the self-destructive, single-use nature of many of its spells; the overall lack of defense value or toughness of its creatures; and the way in which it trades early-game speed and vulnerability for late-game staying power, in which it may not last that long.
Green is the color of life, nature, evolution/adaptability, ecology, interdependence, instinct, and indulgence. Green's strengths are on the battlefield, usually winning by means of combat with creatures, of which it has a broad menagerie. These tend to be notably strong at a low mana cost and have abilities that make them more survivable, the two most common being "Regenerate" and "Hexproof". Many of Green's creatures also possess the ability "Trample", which allows the attacking creature to deal combat damage to an opponent even if blocked by a weaker creature. Recurring elements among Green spells include increasing a creature's offense and defense value, temporarily or permanently; forcing two or more creature to fight with each other head-on; the opposition against creatures with "Flying"; and the ability to create creature tokens. Green spells often focus on growth, this being represented by gaining life points; generating extra quantities of mana; and directly obtaining land cards, thus allowing the player to cast their more expensive spells quicker than usual. Since Green magic revolves around natural order, many of its spells can destroy opposing artifacts and enchantments; notably, Green has the fewest cards having beneficial interactions with artifacts. Green's weaknesses include its inability to prevent non-combat-related attacks, namely actions that affect the hand, library, or graveyard; its one-track method of destroying enemy creatures through combat only; and its trouble stopping attacking creatures that have bypassed Green's own powerful creatures, beyond them being very little protection left.
The colors adjacent to each other on the pentagon are "allied" and often have similar, complementary abilities. For example, Blue has a relatively large number of flying creatures, as do White and Black, which are next to it. The two non-adjacent colors to a particular color are "enemy" colors, and are thematically opposed. For instance, Red tends to be very aggressive, while White and Blue are often more defensive in nature. The Research and Development (R&D) team at Wizards of the Coast aims to balance power and abilities among the five colors by using the "Color Pie" to differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of each. This guideline lays out the capabilities, themes, and mechanics of each color and allows for every color to have its own distinct attributes and gameplay. The Color Pie is used to ensure new cards are thematically in the correct color and do not infringe on the territory of other colors.
Multi-color cards were introduced in the Legends set and typically use a gold frame to distinguish them from mono-color cards. These cards require mana from two or more different colors to be played and count as belonging to each of the colors used to play them. Multi-color cards typically combine the philosophy and mechanics of all the colors used in the spell's cost, and tend to be proportionally more powerful compared to single-color or hybrid cards, as requiring multiple colors of mana makes them harder to cast. More recently, two-color "hybrid" cards were introduced in the Ravnica set, and appeared extensively throughout the Shadowmoor and Eventide sets. Hybrid cards are distinguished by a gradient frame with those two colors, and can be paid with either of the card's colors; for instance, a card with two hybrid-red/white icons can be cast using two red mana, two white mana, or one of each. Several sets have made multi-colored cards a theme, including Invasion, Shards of Alara, both Ravnica blocks and others. Core sets do not typically include multi-color cards in them, although the Core 2013 set was the first to do so.
Colorless cards belong to no color, and most often appear in the form of Lands, Artifacts, or cards related to the Eldrazi creature type. Unlike the five colors, Colorless cards do not have a specific personality or style of play. Sometimes, colorless cards will imitate the mechanics of a particular color, though in a less-efficient manner than a similar colored card. Often colorless cards are linked to one or more colors via their abilities, through story references, or through flavor text on the cards themselves. With the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion, however, colorless cards that are neither artifacts nor lands have been introduced for the first time in larger quantities. These cards have been more recently featured in the Battle for Zendikar set that was released in 2015.
Colors of Magic
Most spells come in one of five colors. The colors can be seen on the back of the cards, in a pentagonal design, called the "Color Wheel" or "Color Pie". Clockwise from the top, they are: white (W), blue (U), black (B), red (R), and green (G). To play a spell of a given color, at least one mana of that color is required. This mana is normally generated by a basic land: plains for white, island for blue, swamp for black, mountain for red, and forest for green. The balances and distinctions among the five colors form one of the defining aspects of the game. Each color has strengths and weaknesses based on the "style" of magic it represents.
White is the color of order, equality, righteousness, healing, law, community, peace, and light. White's strengths include a roster of smaller creatures, as well as the ability to create creature tokens, both of which are strong collectively; protecting and enhancing those creatures with enchantments; increasing one's life points; preventing damage to creatures or players; imposing restrictions on players; disabling the capabilities of opposing creatures; and powerful spells that "equalize" the playing field by destroying all cards of a given type. White creatures are renowned for their defense-favoring abilities, many of which include "Protection" and "Vigilance". White magic opposes artificial fabrication, this being represented by many of its spells that can destroy artifacts and enchantments. White's weaknesses include the fact that many of its spells favor smaller creatures; its passive playing style in which it relies on an opponent's actions to maximize its own effects; and the nature of its most powerful spells that usually affect all players equally—including the casting player.
Blue is the color of intellect, reason, illusion, logic, knowledge, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Blue's strengths include allowing a player to draw additional cards; permanently taking control of an opponent's cards; returning cards from the battlefield to their owner's hand; forcing cards to go directly from a player's deck to their graveyard; and negating spells before they are successfully cast. Blue's creatures tend to be weaker than those of the other colors, but commonly have abilities which make them difficult to block, "Flying" being the most common evasive ability among Blue creatures. Blue's power of extra-sensory perception is represented by the ability "Scry", which allows the player to look at the top cards of his or her deck and choose whether he or she will draw those cards the subsequent turns. Since Blue magic revolves around advancement and technology, it has the highest number of cards having beneficial interactions with artifacts. Blue's weaknesses include its inability to destroy spells already placed on the field, having them returned to the hand instead; the fixation on negating and delaying enemy actions, while itself lacking an aggressive plan; and the way it prolongs the game and victory, thus allowing the opponent a possibility for a sudden comeback.
Black is the color of power, ambition, death, illness, corruption, selfishness, amorality, and sacrifice. It is not necessarily evil, though many of its cards refer directly or indirectly to this concept. Black's strengths include the ability to destroy creatures instantly; forcing players to discard cards from their hand; decreasing a player's life while you usually gain that same amount lost; evasive abilities are common among Black creatures; and resurrecting creatures from a player's graveyard. Furthermore, because Black seeks to win at all costs, it has limited access to many abilities or effects that are normally available only to one of the other colors; but these abilities often require large sacrifices of life totals, creatures, cards in hand, cards in library, and other difficult-to-replace resources. One of the most notable abilities among Black creatures is "Deathtouch", which always causes creatures damaged by those possessing this ability to be sent to the graveyard, regardless of the damage amount assigned. Black's main weaknesses include an almost complete inability to deal with enchantments and artifacts; the tendency to inflict itself with severe negative effects in order to defeat the opponent; the way in which it overly relies on cards inside the graveyards; and difficulties in removing other Black creatures.
Red is the color of freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare, lightning, the classical element of fire, and the abiotic geological aspects of the classical element earth.[57] Red's strengths include the ability to directly damage creatures or players; destroying opposing lands and artifacts; and sacrificing permanent resources for temporary but high-profit power. Red has a wide array of creatures, but (with the exception of late-game powerhouses, such as Red's notable dragons) most tend to be defensively weak, rendering them easier to destroy. As a trade-off, some of these weaker creatures have the ability to temporarily raise their offense value, leaving their defense value unaffected; many other Red spells focus on this concept of glass cannon offense. Much like Blue, Red explores the element of trickery, this being represented by spells that are able to temporarily steal an opponent's creatures; divert or copy other spells; and those involving random chance. In terms of keyword abilities, Red tends to focus on quickness and speed, this being represented by the popular abilities "Haste" and "First Strike". Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments; the self-destructive, single-use nature of many of its spells; the overall lack of defense value or toughness of its creatures; and the way in which it trades early-game speed and vulnerability for late-game staying power, in which it may not last that long.
Green is the color of life, nature, evolution/adaptability, ecology, interdependence, instinct, and indulgence. Green's strengths are on the battlefield, usually winning by means of combat with creatures, of which it has a broad menagerie. These tend to be notably strong at a low mana cost and have abilities that make them more survivable, the two most common being "Regenerate" and "Hexproof". Many of Green's creatures also possess the ability "Trample", which allows the attacking creature to deal combat damage to an opponent even if blocked by a weaker creature. Recurring elements among Green spells include increasing a creature's offense and defense value, temporarily or permanently; forcing two or more creature to fight with each other head-on; the opposition against creatures with "Flying"; and the ability to create creature tokens. Green spells often focus on growth, this being represented by gaining life points; generating extra quantities of mana; and directly obtaining land cards, thus allowing the player to cast their more expensive spells quicker than usual. Since Green magic revolves around natural order, many of its spells can destroy opposing artifacts and enchantments; notably, Green has the fewest cards having beneficial interactions with artifacts. Green's weaknesses include its inability to prevent non-combat-related attacks, namely actions that affect the hand, library, or graveyard; its one-track method of destroying enemy creatures through combat only; and its trouble stopping attacking creatures that have bypassed Green's own powerful creatures, beyond them being very little protection left.
The colors adjacent to each other on the pentagon are "allied" and often have similar, complementary abilities. For example, Blue has a relatively large number of flying creatures, as do White and Black, which are next to it. The two non-adjacent colors to a particular color are "enemy" colors, and are thematically opposed. For instance, Red tends to be very aggressive, while White and Blue are often more defensive in nature. The Research and Development (R&D) team at Wizards of the Coast aims to balance power and abilities among the five colors by using the "Color Pie" to differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of each. This guideline lays out the capabilities, themes, and mechanics of each color and allows for every color to have its own distinct attributes and gameplay. The Color Pie is used to ensure new cards are thematically in the correct color and do not infringe on the territory of other colors.
Multi-color cards were introduced in the Legends set and typically use a gold frame to distinguish them from mono-color cards. These cards require mana from two or more different colors to be played and count as belonging to each of the colors used to play them. Multi-color cards typically combine the philosophy and mechanics of all the colors used in the spell's cost, and tend to be proportionally more powerful compared to single-color or hybrid cards, as requiring multiple colors of mana makes them harder to cast. More recently, two-color "hybrid" cards were introduced in the Ravnica set, and appeared extensively throughout the Shadowmoor and Eventide sets. Hybrid cards are distinguished by a gradient frame with those two colors, and can be paid with either of the card's colors; for instance, a card with two hybrid-red/white icons can be cast using two red mana, two white mana, or one of each. Several sets have made multi-colored cards a theme, including Invasion, Shards of Alara, both Ravnica blocks and others. Core sets do not typically include multi-color cards in them, although the Core 2013 set was the first to do so.
Colorless cards belong to no color, and most often appear in the form of Lands, Artifacts, or cards related to the Eldrazi creature type. Unlike the five colors, Colorless cards do not have a specific personality or style of play. Sometimes, colorless cards will imitate the mechanics of a particular color, though in a less-efficient manner than a similar colored card. Often colorless cards are linked to one or more colors via their abilities, through story references, or through flavor text on the cards themselves. With the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion, however, colorless cards that are neither artifacts nor lands have been introduced for the first time in larger quantities. These cards have been more recently featured in the Battle for Zendikar set that was released in 2015.