What if a Plane existed where all of the colors shifted by one spot?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Nov. 6, 2022, 10:17 p.m. by TypicalTimmy
A world where each of the five colors of Magic had sever color breaks, shifting counterclockwise.
So white takes red's spot, red takes green's spot, green takes black's spot, black takes blue's spot and lastly blue takes white's spot.
So, for example, perhaps a white card now looks like this:
Cold Defiance
Instant
Target creature gains vigilance and haste until end of turn. It must attack if able.
A hundred men strong stood before an army of a thousand. Though wading deep in the trenches of fear, the responsibility of each was to take at least ten of the other's side. If not, the city falls.
Or for example,
Ravenous Maakla
Creature - Beast
Lifelink
As an additional cost to cast Ravenous Maakla, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, destroy target creature with power 3 or less.
Territorial, vicious and ravenous; The Maakla eats anything in their path, including their own young.
3/3
I think a fully printed set of around 280 cards would be a really fun and interesting experience for Draft, but would also tremendously assist eternal formats such as Modern and EDH because your colors get some toolbox aid not typically seen. So, naturally, many of these cards would become staples in various decks because they help fill a slot that has been vacant over time.
In eternal formats, imagine how a deck with allied colors works, then make that one less color and more flexible. As a few examples, Jund midrange could fit into Gruul midrange, with the black cards (discard, removal) being covered by this set's red, and some of the old red cards being covered by this set's green. Azorius control would become closer to mono-blue.
Something like the Modern blue-red deck Raggy/Ragey/Reggie deck could start using white and black effects, probably mostly discard, recursion, and efficient removal. A white deck like Death and Taxes would get access to heavier creatures, which I'm not sure it would actually take advantage of, and better ramp, which it certainly would.
November 7, 2022 1:47 a.m.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #4
You don't have to imagine, there’s 'Planar Chaos' (PLC) from 2007..
November 7, 2022 6:33 a.m.
What you list as a benefit for longer-lived formats is exactly why such a plane should never exist. The colour pie is not just a flavourful element of the game - it established an opportunity cost for deck building. Want a flexible deck? Your opportunity cost is going to be a more challenging mana base and risk of colour screw. Want a deck that can more reliably hit its mana targets? You have to sacrifice your response options.
This limitation is good for the game, and one of the reasons things like Green presently encroaching into other colour’s territory is a bit of a problem.
legendofa says... #2
For some reason, I always think the blue and black dots on the card back are on the left of the white one. I don't know how many card backs I've seen, but the correct pattern just never seems to stick.
Anyway, going counterclockwise, the order would be White -> Green -> Red -> Black -> Blue -> White. Not really the main focus, but just a side point. (And I just got it backwards and had to rewrite, literally five seconds after I checked the order. Why do I have it mentally mirrored?)
This set will almost certainly remain in the realm of the hypothetical, after Planar Chaos did something similar while ransacking the color wheel. Still, it's interesting to think about. More black counterspells, green burn, white beef. Black and white would be the "instants and sorceries" colors, so possibly kind of Strixhaven Silverquill-ish.
November 7, 2022 1:10 a.m.