A Bigger Wheel

Having More Than Five Colors in Magic: The Gathering

I’ve always been a huge fan of games, board games here and there but mostly card games. However, I found myself, especially in my youth, inventing trading cards more than I collected the real ones. Now, years later, I find myself imagining vast additions and expansions to every board and card game that graces the card table in my dorm room.

Magic: The Gathering, is one of these games. I play it lightly with a good friend of mine (who crushes me nearly every game) but I’ve noticed in recent releases it feels as though the game is… expiring, for lack of a better term. It seems the game is exhausting mechanics and slowly running out of fresh, new material. The R&D team for Theros even admitted that Bestow was their attempt to do something new with enchantments, which they feel have run out of options for new and fresh mechanics.

My solution to this issue of running out of “room” in Magic, is simply to add more space at the core. The foundation. The Wheel.

The idea of adding a color to the Wheel is not a new one. The proposition of “purple” has been around for a while, and fans of the idea (for the most part) feel it fits best between blue and black. The “advantages” of such an addition are that the color wheel becomes evenly numbered, giving each color a single enemy color rather than two half enemies. If you don’t know what I mean, each color has two main traits:

In the color Wheel we see each color has two major traits, each of which oppose a trait of the two enemy colors. Blue is opposite of Green and Red because Blue’s LOGIC opposes Red’s IMPULSE, and Blue’s TECHNOLOGY opposes Green’s INSTINCT. To add a color between blue and black, while seemingly simple, would actually create extreme tension. The traits would all need to be completely readjusted. Not to the mention the structure of having two half enemies rather than one whole enemy creates so much potential. The Izzet League, a guild from Ravnica, uses the colors Blue and Red, normally enemies. However, because they are only half enemies the potential always exists for complimentary pairing of the two.

That’s why I think adding a single color would be much more harmful than good. To change the color Wheel in a way that the intricacies could be preserved while also leaving the traits relatively unaltered would require the addition of…

Wait for it…

2 Colors.

Not just any two colors, two opposite colors. Adding two opposites would leave most of the color traits untouched and would allow the half enemy structure to be maintained. Not only this, but it solves another, much slighter yet still existent issue with the 5 Wheel: in the 5 structure each color has two enemies and two allies, however their ally colors are enemies to each other. In a 7 structure each color would have two enemies, two allies, and two NEUTRAL colors. Each color’s allies would be neutral to each other.

I could offer more reasons to compose a 7 color Wheel rather than a six, but lets continue for now. I think seeing the completed Wheel with seven colors offers the best evidence. For now, lets work under the assumption that there is a way to do seven colors effectively, like the 5 wheel is just an unsolved puzzle.

Well, as I explained, the two new colors would need to be enemies. In addition we would need to decide what enemy and ally relationships need to be kept and see where spaces open up for these new colors to fill. So…

Here is the magic Wheel with labeled triangles marking the spaces in between each color. Because the new colors must be enemies, if A was the space for the sixth color, D or C must be the space for the seventh.

Potential spaces for the new colors include: AC, AD, BD, BE, and CE. Let’s start by eliminating the spaces where the new colors cannot or should not go. We’ll do that be defining “vital” relationships.

First of all, we can all agree that Black and White must remain enemies. Because of that decision, BE cannot be a possible pairing, as that would push Black and White into the neutral zone, and they should certainly remain enemies.

Almost as necessary, Black and Green should remain opposite. Life and Death, Growth and Sacrifice, Teamwork and Solitude. The list goes on.

Given that Black must maintain Green and White as its enemies, the E position is no long a possible location for either of the new colors. Given that basis, let’s start plugging colors into the 7 structure:

A, B, C, and D, are now locations to place colors. From the perspective of the three placed colors, Blue and Red are still disconnected.

So let’s look at our options. Red can go in the A or B location. Blue can go in the D or C position. However, Red cannot go in A if Blue goes in D because it leaves B and C as the only remaining open spaces for the new colors, which does not make them enemies.

So lets start with Red. Is red closer to Green or Black? This question probably hurts to think about, as we have always subscribed to the idea that Red is equidistant from Black and Green. You could make a strong argument either way, so let’s hop over to Blue and come back to Red in a second.

Blue is closer to Black. Blue is much more manipulative than selfless. It easily has more in common in Black, but that’s the great thing about this setup: that doesn’t mean it’s an enemy with White, it makes it neutral, which makes sense. So let’s place blue next to Black:

Some of you may still be questioning that course of action, but the space left by D is going to be filled with a fantastic color that’s going to be a very sensible option, not only as a transition between White and Blue, but as an enemy of Red and neutral of Green.

Now, for the most difficult decision. Is Red closer to Black? or Green?

We have two scenarios here:

A. Red’s Allies: Black and New Color. Red’s Neutrals: Blue and Green. Red’s Enemies: White and New Color.

B. Red’s Allies: Green and New Color. Red’s Neutrals: White and Black. Red’s Enemies: Blue and New Color.

I’ve decided to go with scenario B. I feel that despite Red’s destructive nature that makes it seemingly matched for an alliance with Black, I feel that the dragons and ogres and orcs of Red transition well from the wild beasts of green. On a more aesthetic point, I feel like a Red magician would feel more connected to a Green magician than a Black. You can argue this reasoning, but let’s wait and see how the final wheel comes up.

Okay. So here is our 7 structure with two new spaces for colors. Now, what do we make these new colors? Well, they’re opposites, and in terms of elements, what opposites don’t exist yet in the wheel? We have fire and ice, as seen in Red and Blue, we have light and darkness, as seen in White and Black, and life and death as seen in Green and Black. The opposite I propose is simple. Ethereal and physical, spirit and metal.

Lets call these colors, Purple and Orange. I will place them respectively.

So, now that we have our 7 structure filled with all the colors, lets apply the original traits and see how we can integrate the two new guys without causing too much friction with the veterans.

The ten traits we see are defined by the original color Wheel as the following:

Order – The Laws of Man

Morality – The Laws of God

Interdependence – Natural Survival

Instinct – Natural Decision

Impulse – Emotional Action

Chaos – Spontaneous Action

Amorality – Selfishness Above All Else

Parasatism – Selfishness at the Expense of Others

Technology – Intellectual Application

Logic – Intellectual Theory

For the most part I really don’t like these definitions because they appear to say more than they actually do and in a lot of ways they really narrow the scopes of the colors. Replacing a few of the traits to allow the new colors to fit more smoothly will actually prove beneficial for the Wheel.

Order will remain Order – Basing actions off of the laws and rules of men and mortals.

Morality will remain Morality – Working toward the benefit of others and the world.

Interdependence will become Life – The growth and development of living beings. The beginning.

Instinct will remain Instinct – Basing actions off of natural order and animal inclinations.

Impulse will become Passion – Basing actions off of emotional response and creative desire.

Chaos will become Destruction – Expressing creative and emotional ideas through deconstructive means.

Amorality will remain Amorality – Working solely for the benefit of one’s self, regardless of how it negatively affects others.

Parasatism will become Death – The eventual expiration and loneliness that comes with finality. The end.

Technology will become Logic – Basing actions off of artificial laws and systems.

Logic will become Reason – Basing actions off of intellect and human understanding.

These may seem a little awkward, but lets add the traits for the two new colors and look at the overall transition.

For these new colors I have a pretty simple idea.

Purple is all about randomness and chance. Most of the Purple mechanics are gambles. This makes Purple chaotic, like Red, but also dark and selfish, like Black. It ends up being a great ally of those two colors. Where the main race of Green is elves and White humans, Purple would be Djinn (genies). These are spirit creatures of great power that can either be very helpful or very dangerous toward their uses, a fateful dichotomy that is very representative of what Purple is.

Orange is all about defense and improvement. Orange mechanics involve building up a defense while simultaneously holding off attackers with ease. It is technological, like Blue, and orderly and team-oriented like White. The race associated with Orange are Dwarves, and this does a few great things. For one, the top three colors, Green, White, and Orange represent the holy trinity of fantasy races: Elves, Humans, and Dwarves. Not to mention, Orange is opposite of Red, making Dragons enemies of Dwarves, which is fantastic (I loved Desolation of Smaug). Orange is very much about having a few creatures and bulking them up with Equipment and Enchantments. This, like Purple, differentiates it enough from the other colors that it feels like its own color.

So here’s our final wheel with traits:

Ethereal – Absense of earthly concerns and matter. Pertaining to the uncontrollable.

Randomness – basing actions on no particular order or reason.

Creation – Expressing creative and emotional ideas through inventive means.

Physical – Things pertaining to wealth, bodies, and other early matters.

AND THERE IT IS. That took a lot more work than I thought it would, good lord. At some point I’m going to make up example cards and mechanics for each color, but for now, process this. I’m sure its a lot to take in and you have a lot of comments.

But remember, Magic has been evolving for decades and the addition of these new colors may be a little intrusive at first, but after a while everything would fall into place and the game would have so much new room to grow and develop.

Next time, along with sample cards, I’ll talk about potential story lines for seven color card sets. Until next time.

Thank you.