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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 11:26AM
#21
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2010
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It's basically, think of the color of a card as a five-bit number because when you ask "What color is X?", you're really asking five yes/no questions. 10000 =  01000 =  00100 =  00010 =  00001 =  11000 = &c. Something like Hand of Emrakul  simply defaults to 0, while Progenitus  is 31, that is all five colors. It is, of course, not that simple, and Magic is constantly  finding  new  ways  to divorce a spell's mana cost from its colors. You can't even really say that colorless has an enemy. Green hates artifacts, but black/green Eldrazi was a huge part of ROE limited, and green loves lands. Mechanics can shift colors; one ulterior motive for Planar Chaos was to flavorfully put each evergreen creature keyword in at least two colors to make things easier for hybrids. (Sadly, it didn't help blue/red hybrids.)
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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 2:47PM
#22
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Date Joined:
Feb 22, 2005
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As far as the whole 'should we actually get it to print?' question, I think there's a fairly clear answer there:
"Yes, if they can figure out a way to do it without breaking things."
So far R&D has a pretty good track record of not killing Magic. We know they've considered a sixth color since it's come up over and over again. Despite that, they haven't actually put it into Magic. So that likely means they couldn't come up with a safe way to put it into a set that improved the set. We also know they tend to keep looking for solutions to old problems. (Miracle was a solution to a mechanic that MaRo came up with back in Tempest)
I think it's safe to say that if there is a good way to do six colors, it will be done. If there isn't, it won't be. Whether or not you think they should doesn't honestly matter.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 3:49PM
#23
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If there were to be a sixth color, doesn't that mean something would have to be missing from the five colors there are now.
What is missing from the five colors? (or combinations of the five colors, such as red/blue artistry)
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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 7:04PM
#24
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Date Joined:
Jul 19, 2001
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The exact same thing you base yours upon: personal observation. Not terribly scientific because of the low sample size, admittedly. But the ground you stand upon on this arguement is no less shakey than mine.
You'll have to specify which statment you're reffering to. I haven't mentionned any numbers. And I'm sure you understand how pointless it is to use alpha cards to make a statment about the current color pie, so I'm not even going to coment on that.
I think it very funny that you chose Angel's Feather, as it first appeared in the original Mirrodin block, where everything was part machine
How is everything part machine? The inhabitants have metal integrated in their physiology. There is no machinery involved.
That being said, Angels in Magic lore are not a race per se, but are created beings. Which means they are ALL "man" made.
SOME angels are created by mortal beings, but not all. If you've read up on MtG, you already know this.
Horrible Hordes does look like Golems. At least, modern fantasy Golems, which can be made from damn near anything. The Golems of medieval fantasy were made from clay, which means that Magic's metallic Golems are themselves more in line with modern fantasy than historic folklore.
I'm not sure what your point is with this. But horrible hordes are not golems, so the point is moot. What makes them look like golems to you? They aren't made of something. The one in the center is a pot with eyes and a mouth. He isn't made of a pot, he IS the pot.
An artifact could be a wooden sword. There doesn't even have to be metal involved. So it certainly doesn't mean that the card's subject are machines
If there were to be a sixth color, doesn't that mean something would have to be missing from the five colors there are now.
What is missing from the five colors? (or combinations of the five colors, such as red/blue artistry)
Everything they haven't created yet. Plus what it would share with them.
Sorry, getting sidetracked again, this topic isn't about purple.
Colorless can be so many things that I doubt there is any way to define it clearly.
It's basically, think of the color of a card as a five-bit number because when you ask "What color is X?", you're really asking five yes/no questions.
10000 =
01000 =
00100 =
00010 =
00001 =
11000 =
It's funny. Based on that system, making a creature an artifact creature, like any of the esper guys, amounts to adding "nothing" to it  Hard for the self esteem.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 10:06PM
#25
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Date Joined:
Aug 20, 2008
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Okay, here's my thought: "Why is 'Colorless' colorless?" Is it colorless because it is actually colorless, or simply because we cannot comprehend the full spectrum of mana?
It's colorless because it is actually colorless. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to cast it with other colors of mana.
So it offers the lowest-common denominator highest-cost spells that are equally available to all colors.
Coming up with weird ideas to make everyone happy since 2008!     I have now started a blog as an appropriate place to put my crazy ideas.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 12:14AM
#26
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Date Joined:
Nov 18, 2012
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A simple etymological breakdown of the word colorless will tell you that it means "without color". So, it's just mana that doesn't have a color.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 3:44AM
#27
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Date Joined:
Aug 12, 2012
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There is also Phyrexian mana and the link between playing a color or paying life to play as what effectively is a colorless effect.
I view the colorless cards as "freedom from color." This is the reason why a 2-drop 1/1 colorless artifact creature is the equivalent to a 1-drop 1/1 monocolor creature. Its great to play any color to drop an artifact creature.
The color wheel of Magic seems pretty much a core aspect of the design. I don't see how any additional colors could be worked in. Pokemon has had an easier time because the colors are not locked in: the designers could add any color they wanted, give it a theme, and there you go. They just did with "dragon," which is more like gold. In Magic the interactions between the five colors are core, and an additional color will have to steal from these interactions. With so many sets issued, pretty much any possible interaction has been explored at least once, and if it has not been, its usually because it will break the game. A sixth color means more guilds, more shards, and a watering down of the current ability to isolate specific interactions to one or two colors. As a noob that's what I see in this discussion.
Just to hammer it in, imagine if, say, purple, was the new color. What do you give it as its core set of abilities? There aren't that many unexplored abilities. If you think otherwise, look at how similar the ten Return to Ravnica abilities are to the ten used in the original Ravnica-and even to some of the Shards of Alara abilties, and I am thinking here of Bloodrush versus Cycling.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 4:24AM
#28
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2010
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Colorless mana is the devoid of meaning- it's bleached mana, of less quality than colored mana but the same amount of space and matter. Meaningless matter, such that it imitates mana with purpose (colored mana.)
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 8:49AM
#29
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2010
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It's funny. Based on that system, making a creature an artifact creature, like any of the esper guys, amounts to adding "nothing" to it Hard for the self esteem.
Well, Esperites are colored, but that's beside the point.
The thing about Eldrazi is, they follow a pattern:
Avatar of Woe  : All cost  cc, but cost less if a condition was met.
Karona, False God  : We've had creatures before, but she's the first creature to include colorless mana in the cost.
Yore-Tiller Nephilim  : The only four-color cards in Magic.
Divinity of Pride  : The whole cycle can be paid with five mana in any combination of the two colors, but has no colorless cost.
Progenitus : may very well be the gaudiest mana cost of the game.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn  : Colorless, but not an artifact.
Basically, Lovecraftian types (though sadly not Cosmic Horror  ) have wacky mana costs.
Clever deduction Watson! Maybe you can explain why Supergirl is trying to kill me.
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[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] = Lightning Bolt
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 11:02AM
#30
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Date Joined:
Nov 24, 2011
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It's funny. Based on that system, making a creature an artifact creature, like any of the esper guys, amounts to adding "nothing" to it Hard for the self esteem.
Well, Esperites are colored, but that's beside the point.
The thing about Eldrazi is, they follow a pattern:
Avatar of Woe : All cost cc, but cost less if a condition was met.
Karona, False God : We've had creatures before, but she's the first creature to include colorless mana in the cost.
Yore-Tiller Nephilim : The only four-color cards in Magic.
Divinity of Pride : The whole cycle can be paid with five mana in any combination of the two colors, but has no colorless cost.
Progenitus : may very well be the gaudiest mana cost of the game.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn : Colorless, but not an artifact.
Basically, Lovecraftian types (though sadly not Cosmic Horror ) have wacky mana costs.
The Cosmic Horror is nobody but a poor misunderstood and imprisoned soul, and calling him an eldritch abomination is definitely uncalled for. You should be ashamed of yourself.
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