Does WotC Even Care About the Color Pie, Anymore?

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Posted on April 9, 2021, 10:45 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

The color pie is one of the central elements of this game, or, at least, that is what WotC has stated on multiple occasions, but I cannot help but wonder if they truly care about that, given some of the cards that they have been printing, in recent years.

Cards such as Pongify , Rapid Hybridization , Curse of the Swine , and, most recently, Ravenform , Resculpt , and Oversimplify all are blue cards that destroy or exile creatures, which is supposed to be blue’s major weakness; that it can delay threats, but not stop them entirely. If those cards returned the creatures to their owners’ hands, shuffled them into their owners’ libraries, or temporarily transformed them, as does Ovinize , they would be acceptable, but, in their current form, they go against the philosophy of blue being the least aggressive and combative color; blue is the best color for countering spells, so its deliberate weakness is that it has trouble dealing with permanents that have successfully entered the battlefield.

I feel that I should also mention Beast Within , in this thread, because one of green’s major weaknesses is that it is not supposed to be able to unconditionally destroy creatures, being the most creature-centric color of the game. WotC eventually did print Generous Gift , a white version of that card, which is not a break, since white is allowed to destroy any type of permanent due it having the least emphasis on card advantage of all the colors, but that card has been reprinted only once, whereas WotC has reprinted Beast Within numerous times, including in the most recent Commander set.

Even worse, all of these breaks are examples of green and blue intruding into white’s territory, yet, WotC has not printed any white counterspells in years and has been very slow in providing white with methods of card advantage that work within that color’s philosophy.

I am sorry if I am ranting, but this is severely frustrating, to me, especially since white is my favorite color in the game, and I also worry that newer players to the game will think that it is acceptable for blue to have such efficient creature removal, since those cards have existed since they began playing the game. Hopefully, if a sufficient number of players complain, WotC shall realize that they are undermining a central aspect of the game, and stop doing it.

What does everyone else here have to say about this? Does WotC care about the color pie, at all, anymore?

Hardhitta7 says... #2

I agree, I don’t like them breaking the color pie, especially not this often.

They seem really focused on making blue and green the best colors to play, where you can essentially do everything the other colors can do, sometimes better.

April 9, 2021 11:05 p.m. Edited.

VampDemigod says... #3

I will say, I feel that pongify is essentially just another way of creating Kasmina's Transmutation-type effects, which are solidly blue, so I do feel that those cards are justifiable, but I wish they had been created as enchantments instead of instants/sorceries, purely to see 1: the way they’d format it and 2: less pushback on the effects.

Let’s face it, if pongify was just an aura with flash that turned a creature into a 3/3 green ape, people wouldn’t go insane about “this is breaking the color pie”. I’m not saying your points aren’t valid, they are completely valid. I feel that wizards should have created the cards in ways that held true to blue’s core concepts while still having these effects, which are very important in giving Blue the removal it needs.

April 9, 2021 11:35 p.m.

RNR_Gaming says... #4

So, cards like Pongify and Ravenform aren't eliminating a threat entirely - its usually making them smaller and the person on the receiving end still has a clock. These cards still feel very blue - at least to me.

April 10, 2021 3:22 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #5

VampDemigod, I have no problem with Kasmina's Transmutation, because it is an aura, which means that a player can destroy it and restore the creature to its original form, but an instant or sorcery that does that cannot be undone, so that does not feel blue, to me.

user:MCat1999, thank you, very much; this issue has been bothering me for some time, so I wished to make a thread about it.

April 10, 2021 8:56 a.m.

Dromar39 says... #6

Pongify and Rapid Hybridization seem more simic than white. If you're thinking about Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile take a closer look. First two destroy and replace with a creature. Second two exile and replace with life and a basic land. I feel like this is comparing apples to frog lizards.

April 10, 2021 9:19 a.m.

MagicMarc says... #7

Blue is the transformative color. Given the Clone family of cards and things like Unstable Mutation . Polymorph is one of the most powerful transformation cards you can play. Blue is also, mostly, the only color that can easily change creature types of unwilling targets.

I agree about these cards being closer to Simic than mono Blue nowadays but Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are perfect examples of how a Blue mage could negate or remove a threat that has legs.

Maybe they should have been 2 color spells in line with things like Abrupt Decay and Anguished Unmaking ?

April 10, 2021 12:04 p.m.

shadow63 says... #8

Blue should have to bounce or counter a creature. Green should have fight and bite effects. Red has burn. Black has pure removal. And white has removal but with a trade. But now simic can just do everything

April 10, 2021 1:13 p.m.

Totally fits the blue mechanics... https://www.reddit.com/r/magicthecirclejerking/comments/iaqyus/just_print_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

April 10, 2021 1:35 p.m.

shadow63 says... #10

Mcat1999 I mean we can probably twist any game play mechanic to fit any color if we think about it

April 10, 2021 3:19 p.m.

MagicMarc says... #11

I don't know that I agree its twisting a gameplay mechanic. Morphology has been part of Blue's mechanics since the start of MtG beginning with Alpha.

Shapeshifting and shape alteration have always been part of Blue's identity.

April 10, 2021 3:40 p.m.

shadow63 says... #12

Yes but until recently it was just turning one creature into another. Like Clone or Polymorph . Pognify comes from time spiral which has a ton of pie breaks

April 10, 2021 4:17 p.m.

Now I’m just thinking about Unstable Mutation and when we’re going to get more blue -1/-1 counters ;p (I love that card, by the way)

April 10, 2021 6:08 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #14

FormOverFunction, blue can put creatures atop their owners' libraries, and it can mill cards, but doing both intrudes into black's territory of destroying creatures, so WotC will (hopefully) not make such a card. Similarly, green can have creatures with deathtouch and creatures that fight other creatures upon entering the battlefield, but a creature that has both is too similar to black's ability to destroy creatures.

April 10, 2021 6:47 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #15

Mcat1999, that does make sense, but blue's methods of opposing creatures should be only temporary; i.e., by either returning the creature to its owner's hand or by shuffling it into its owner's library; directly destroying or exiling a creature intrudes on black and white's territory, in my mind.

April 10, 2021 7:02 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #16

The color pie is supposed to be broken, changed, and altered. It is a metaphoric tool use by Wizards and players alike to describe the things different colors can do in an easy to understand way. It is not some set of holy commandments that came from Richard Garfield Himself that entirely dictate everything the colors are capable of doing, down to every tiny detail, and Wizards is not committing any kind of sin by printing any of these cards.

You are complaining about these cards as if they made a real impact on the game, and as if every single person views cards exactly as you do. No sane person looks at Pongify and says "Dang, that's such efficient creature removal, I'm gonna put that in my Modern deck!" Most people, upon first reading the card, will say "Wow, it gives them back a pretty decent sized creature, so I have to be killing something huge for this to actually do anything." Or something to that effect.

The only place Pongify sees play is in cEDH, where it is used to get rid of cards like Tymna, Thrasios, or just Korvold, Dargo, or Godo. Beast Within might see play in EDH, but green has better ways to deal with any given permanent. Generous Gift isn't even good when you could just run Oblivion Ring , or Disenchant + Swords to Plowshares . Beast Within is also a fun card to slap into your cube, as typically fight effects aren't added to cubes.

And yes, WotC does care about the color pie . . . it's quite literally their invention, that they use to explain stuff to you, and they can change it whenever they feel like it. It's not set in stone. Complaining about color pie breaks is a lot like complaining that the US outlawed slavery(but without being racist, obviously) -- the US can change the rules, and they already did. Just like WotC can change the rules. And they already did. Except here, you can't vote, and you have no power to make a change, because you're some random on an internet forum and not a Hasbro executive.

April 12, 2021 9:43 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #17

It seems that another player shared my concern, since they asked Mark Rosewater about it, and Rosewater confirmed that WotC is moving away from blue being able to exile creatures, which I am very glad to hear.

April 13, 2021 9:30 p.m.

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