Editing Magic: The Gathering (section)

===Colors of ''Magic''===
[[File:Magic the gathering pentagon.png|thumb|The five colors of ''Magic: The Gathering'']]

Most cards in ''Magic'' are based on one of five colors that make up the game's "Color Wheel" or "Color Pie", shown on the back of each card, and each representing a school or realm of magic: white, blue, black, red, and green. The arrangement of these colors on the wheel describes relationships between the schools, which can broadly affect deck construction and game execution. For a given color such as white, the two colors immediately adjacent to it, green and blue, are considered complementary, while the two colors on the opposite side, black and red, are its opposing schools.<ref name="Mark Rosewater">{{cite web |url=https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/value-pie-2003-08-18-0|title=The Value of Pie |access-date=September 30, 2006 |publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] |author=Mark Rosewater |author-link=Mark Rosewater |date=August 18, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304223314/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom%2Fdaily%2Fmr85 |archive-date=March 4, 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":7" />

The Research and Development (R&D) team at Wizards of the Coast aimed 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.<ref name="Mark Rosewater"/><ref name=":7" />

The concepts behind each of the colors on the Color Wheel, based on a series of articles written by [[Mark Rosewater]], are as follows:<ref name="marocolor">As part of the ''Making Magic'' (2003-2005) article series on the game's official site, [[Mark Rosewater]] described each color in depth (as well as multicolor cards, artifact or colorless cards, and color-hybrid cards). [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-2003-02-03 The Great White Way] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160021/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-2003-02-03 |date=August 22, 2022 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-2003-08-11 True Blue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160104/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-2003-08-11 |date=August 22, 2022 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-2004-02-02 In the Black] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160046/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-2004-02-02 |date=August 22, 2022 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/seeing-red-2004-07-19-0 Seeing Red], [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-2002-10-21-0 It's Not Easy Being Green] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160049/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-2002-10-21-0 |date=August 22, 2022 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/just-artifacts-ma%E2%80%99am-2005-02-28 Just the Artifacts, Ma'am] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160042/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/just-artifacts-ma%E2%80%99am-2005-02-28 |date=August 22, 2022 }}, and [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/midas-touch-2005-11-14 Midas Touch] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822160027/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/midas-touch-2005-11-14 |date=August 22, 2022 }}.

These articles were updated and republished in 2015: [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-revisited-2015-07-13 The Great White Way Revisited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607084016/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-revisited-2015-07-13 |date=June 7, 2021 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-revisited-2015-07-20 True Blue Revisited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606113020/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-revisited-2015-07-20 |date=June 6, 2021 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-revisited-2015-07-27 In the Black Revisited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531043206/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-revisited-2015-07-27 |date=May 31, 2021 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/seeing-red-revisited-2015-08-03 Seeing Red Revisited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531043547/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/seeing-red-revisited-2015-08-03 |date=May 31, 2021 }}, [https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-revisited-2015-08-10 It's Not Easy Being Green Revisited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531043337/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-revisited-2015-08-10 |date=May 31, 2021 }}.</ref>
* White represents order, peace, and light, and draws mana from plains. White planeswalkers can summon individually weak creatures that are collectively strong as a group such as soldiers, as well as powerful creatures and leaders that can strengthen all of the player's creatures with additional abilities or strength. Their spells tend to focus on healing or preventing damage, protecting their allies, and neutralizing an opponent's advantages on the battlefield.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|date=2020-03-02|title=What do the different Magic: The Gathering mana colours mean?|url=https://www.dicebreaker.com/series/magic-the-gathering/how-to/what-do-the-different-magic-the-gathering-mana-colours-mean|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Dicebreaker|language=en|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031032403/https://www.dicebreaker.com/series/magic-the-gathering/how-to/what-do-the-different-magic-the-gathering-mana-colours-mean|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite news|date=2018-06-06|title=Getting into Magic: The Gathering – Color Profiles and Archetypes|url=https://nerdist.com/article/getting-into-magic-the-gathering-color-profiles-and-archetypes/|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Nerdist|language=en|archive-date=January 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128122351/https://nerdist.com/article/getting-into-magic-the-gathering-color-profiles-and-archetypes/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Orf|first=Darren|date=2020-08-11|title=So You Want to Play 'Magic: The Gathering'|url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a26331076/how-to-play-magic-the-gathering/|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Popular Mechanics|language=en-US|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022332/https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a26331076/how-to-play-magic-the-gathering/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Blue represents intellect, logic, manipulation, and trickery, and pulls its mana from islands. Its magic is typically associated with the classical elements of [[Air (classical element)|air]] and [[Water (classical element)|water]]. Many of Blue's spells can interact or interfere with the opponent's spells as well as with the general flow of the game. Blue's magic is also associated with control, allowing the player to gain temporary or full control of the opponent's creatures. Blue creatures often tend to be weak but evasive and difficult to target.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />
* Black represents power, death, corruption, and sacrifice, drawing mana from swamps. Many of Black's creatures are [[undead]], and several can be sacrificed to make other creatures more powerful, destroy opponent's creatures or permanents, or other effects. Black creatures may be able to draw the life taken in an attack back to their caster, or may even be able to kill creatures through a deathtouch effect. Black's spells similarly coerce sacrifice by the player or their opponent through cards or life.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />
* Red represents freedom, chaos, fury, and warfare, pulling its power from mountains. Its powers are associated with the classical [[Fire (classical element)|fire]] and [[Earth (classical element)|earth]] elements, and tends to have the strongest spells such as fireballs that can be powered-up by tapping additional mana when cast. Red is an offense-oriented class: in addition to powerful creatures like dragons, red planeswalkers can summon weak creatures that can strike quickly to gain the short-term edge.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />
* Green is the color of life, [[nature]], evolution, and indulgence, drawing mana from forests. Green has the widest array of creatures to draw upon, ranging across all power levels, and generally is able to dominate the battlefield with many creatures in play at once. Green creatures and spells can generate life points and mana, and can also gain massive strength through spells.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />

Most cards in ''Magic: The Gathering'' are based on a single color, shown along the card's border. The cost to play them requires some mana of that color and potentially any amount of mana from any other color. Multicolored cards were introduced in the ''[[Legends (Magic: The Gathering)|Legends]]'' expansion and typically use a gold border. Their casting cost includes mana from at least two colors plus additional mana from any color. Hybrid cards, included with ''[[Ravnica: City of Guilds|Ravnica]]'', use a two-color gradient border. These cards can be cast using mana from either color shown, in addition to other mana costs. Finally, colorless cards, such as some artifacts, do not have any colored mana requirements but still require a general amount of mana to be spent to play.

The color wheel can influence deck construction choices. Cards from colors that are aligned such as red and green often provide synergistic effects, either due to the core nature of the schools or through designs of cards, but may leave the deck vulnerable to the magic of the common color in conflict, blue in the case of red and green. Alternatively, decks constructed with opposing colors like green and blue may not have many favorable combinations but will be capable of dealing with decks based on any other colors. There are no limits to how many colors can be in a deck, but the more colors in a deck, the more difficult it may be to provide mana of the right color.<ref name=":7">{{cite web|last=Rosewater|first=Mark|date=November 14, 2016|title=Pie Fights|url=https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/pie-fights-2016-11-14|access-date=February 28, 2020|publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]]|archive-date=February 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207114928/https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/pie-fights-2016-11-14|url-status=live}}</ref>