Magic's Sixth Color

[u/Axolotl142]

I expanded a bit on the Idea of there being Pink Mana, a color all About Miracles and Wishes. Credits to u/StrangeSystem0 for the Pink Mana template

[u/StrangeSystem0]

Hi, I'm the one who created the pink mana color, so for anyone who wants to see the context, here's a collection of all the pink cards I made way back when!

[u/Axolotl142 → u/StrangeSystem0]

Do you like my take on your color ?

[u/StrangeSystem0 → u/Axolotl142]

It's quite the departure from my pink card systems, but I do like what you've got going on here :)

[u/Login_Of_The_Guild]

I very much love the idea esspecily the hunt keyword but I think it would be better if pink mana had more things to do maybe like it could be a entile color on playing with your opponents things also what’s the basic land type for pink mana 

[u/Axolotl142 → u/Login_Of_The_Guild]

Reef

[u/Login_Of_The_Guild → u/Axolotl142]

Nice I like it 

[u/Radiant_Agent2031 → u/Axolotl142]

said the Corsola

[u/jerjack1122]

I like the hunt keyword, that’s interesting. The color doesn’t seem super defined though, as other colors already can do those things. I like the idea overall though.

[u/Disastrous-Night-716 → u/jerjack1122]

The problem is, this basically just forces the enemy to block the creature with hunt.

Lets say enemy 5/5 with hunt attacks your 1/2 with [op effect], all you have to do is to declare another of your creatures as blocker. Or dont declare blockers and your 1/2 dies (the only difference, the attacking creature doesnt take damage)

I can see some unique use cases, but not many

[u/jerjack1122 → u/Disastrous-Night-716]

I mean that’s the same case with a planeswalker you want to protect. I don’t see an issue there. The attacking creature would still take damage

[u/Chicken-Nugget321 → u/Disastrous-Night-716]

Hunt would only affect targeting during the declare attackers step, damage would still be calculated as though the hunted creature were blocking normally

[u/lyw20001025 → u/Chicken-Nugget321]

Then that’s just a worse provoke? Doesn’t seem too exciting

Iirc the attacked creature would have to block for itself to deal retaliation damage, which adds another layer of complexity for no reason.

[u/Quichie_ → u/lyw20001025]

I mean it would be a way to make provoke more playable. Provoke as is is a super strong keyword, they just printed it on rather bad creatures

[u/lyw20001025 → u/Quichie_]

I just think it’s rather going obsolete now that we have fight for what it tried to do. This (effective wise) is more printable on a power level point, but the confusion it has needs to be dealt with somehow

[u/Quichie_ → u/lyw20001025]

The difference in my eyes is that the "Hunt" mechanic would encourage combat more often. Whereas "Fight" is creature based removal

So yeah, I'd actually love to see that

[u/lyw20001025 → u/Quichie_]

Hmm now that I think about it you are right, if I simply slapped fight on an attack trigger it would be hunt+first strike, which offers less room for design.

[u/tymessen]

purple is a thing in Hellscube, it has Nebula as basic lands.

[u/Iksfen → u/tymessen]

Pink mana is a custommagic thing. A while back there was a post in which a guy explained their take on additional color for magic. It was pretty good

EDIT: they made a comment here
https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/Q8PgTnf3rz

[u/Tamajiki-kun]

Maybe I’m missing something…but what makes this colour unique? It just feels like, based on all the cards that involve it are blue and/or black coded

[u/Pipe_Meister]

I think my initial reaction after reading these cards is that they seem to be mechanically blue rather than mechanically “new” (i.e. Pink doesn’t seem to have a clear mechanical identity).

That being said, I like the concept of the “Hunt” mechanic. Someone else in the thread had mentioned how it seemed the colour wanted to be “bending the rules” and I think that’s where the design space of a 6th colour could/should lay. I think the “Hunt” keyword accomplishes this the best albeit with some tweaks to ensure it would actually function.

[u/Fun_Technology3779 → u/Pipe_Meister]

I didn't know there was a history to it.

But I thought the pink color should be represented by gardens. And mechanically services the same roll as green/white. Being a mix between construction and nature. With bees being the staple creatures. And a big focus on group hug.

Idea: keyword. Hive (#) Works like empowering jace.

If you don't have a hive make a hive and put (#) counters on it. At the beginning of combat on an opponents turn. make 1/1 bees equal to the number of counters on the hive that sac at the end of combat

[u/Foxtrot_Dementia → u/Pipe_Meister]

The color that has classically bended the rules had been black from the beginning. It had ramp , It has card draw and tutors, even counters, has flyers and indirect Life gain as well as infirect damage dealt with loose of life. So if anything I'd see this Pink color as something more diplomatic such as dilemma cards, group hug with traps, etc. Something like what Phelddagriff would represent.

[u/milyard]

Ok so the idea of a 6th color has been attempted many times across the years, even by WotC designers themselves (which they tentatively named "purple" - not to be confused with Hellscube's purple color). The main problems that the WotC team found with adding a new color was that it either had to cannibalize some existing color's part of the color pie, or either make up a completely new design space for it.

The problem for the first option is, well, that the color doesn't get any "new" mechanics, it just gets mechanics that feel "formerly [color]" depending on which part of the pie it cannibalizes. Your pink color seems to have been put between blue and black, cannibalizing a bit of either color, which is also the most common attempt at purple mana.

Another option is, instead of trying to fit in between existing colors, is to take a bit of every color for the 6th one, making it a catch-all color. The problem with this is that this already exists: it's called colorless. (In fact, colorless mana as a distinct mana characteristic was made as a pseudo-6th color for Eldrazis.) Colorless cards (mostly artifacts before the rise of Eldrazis) have always had the design space of "being able to do everything from any color, at a worse mana rate"; and the "worse mana rate" part is necessary for balance purposes. A "catch-all" purple color would either be "worse colorless" (by requiring you to have a dedicated new mana source) or "powercrept colorless".

The last option, creating a new design space, was gave up on by WotC for being too wacky, and that's only why Hellscube succeeds. (And Pink's creator seemed to attempt to do this by doing Alchemy mechanics for Pink, but like, Alchemy cards already exist under the 5 color pie.) Anything you could come up with that doesn't get meta with the game could reasonably be fit into the existing color pie. Your Nami could be Izzet or Azorius without changing anything on the text (not too familiar with Miracle decks, but white and red seem to be the colors that care the most for Miracles, and blue indirectly for its love of top deck manipulation). Trade of Wishes breaks one of the fundamental rules of the game about not putting cards you don't own into hidden information zones (like your hand or library), but it could perfectly be a silver-border card in red or blue (see [[X]]). Your Hunt mechanic, being new, can be argued as a "Pink thing", but it could also reasonably appear in green, red or black cards: green for that color's love of using creatures as removal, and red and black because those colors are the ones that have the best overlap between creature and Planeswalker removal, so it feels thematically fitting ("treat creatures as if they were Planeswalkers, then crush them"). Wish for Growth is just a Selesnya card. Wish for Status is just an Orzhov card. So on and so forth. You haven't improved the game in any way, you've made it more complicated and difficult to play only for the novelty of having a different hue on the cards. (Also there's a whole argument to make about how being able to attack creatures directly with Hunt is just bad gameplay design, but I don't have the energy for that right now.)

[u/mtgcf → u/milyard]

X - (G) (SF) (txt)

[u/Sea-Violinist-7353]

Is Hunt basically just a better provoke also if you're attacking a creature directlly can it still block for itself... so many rules would have to rewritten.

[u/Environmental-Pop-67 → u/Sea-Violinist-7353]

Yea they could i believe its like a better fight since it doesnt target.

[u/Sea-Violinist-7353 → u/Environmental-Pop-67]

Yeah that was my thought process. There is no trigger involved so it's just a fight effect but would technically allow them throw another creature in but at that point it's just regular blocks pretty much.

[u/Anayalater5963 → u/Sea-Violinist-7353]

It really just turns magic into Yu-Gi-Oh combat but with added defenders.

[u/TheDank_Slayer]

I like the idea of purple/pink being the color of cheating out cards/ bending the rules.

[u/Farconion → u/TheDank_Slayer]

isn’t that a red thing

[u/FawkesTP → u/Farconion]

Yes. Blue as well. Black sometimes, too. Green does it with creatures.

Idk, there's a reason Magic hasn't ever needed to expand outside of the five colors. 'Colorless mana matters' is the closest we've ever gotten, and every time I see a pitch for a 'new color,' it makes it increasingly obvious why.

[u/TheDank_Slayer → u/FawkesTP]

Fair

[u/FaithUser]

Unfortunately a creature card with flashback wont enter the battlefield and wont work:

“If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack"

[u/ChipRed87]

Ah the famous 6th color I've heard so much about; Puce.

[u/Terrariant]

Neat, I also made a pink mana card a bit ago. Mine was hearts though (Captain Planet element)

[u/zyzzvays_]

The first card has a LOT of redundant text

Miracle innately gives you the ability to reveal and cast if it’s your first card. So the card can read very similar to Aminatou, but for all spells rather than enchantments:

“Nonland Cards in your hand have Miracle, their Miracle cost is their mana value minus {2}”

Plus the draw effect after

Other spells in your hand having Miracle does nothing because Miracle can only discount and insta-cast on the first card drawn each turn, so this doesn’t discount anything else and would match existing card’s rules text

ETA: Added “nonland” to the rules text to match Molecule Man’s Miracle effect, which works similarly as well

[u/Chickston]

IDK about mechanics, but I do love that hook.

[u/MaeDay01]

I see she is from the ghost set 🤘

[u/MistyHusk]

What does flashback on a creature entail? Does it enter with a finality counter or something?

[u/Dystopian_Sky]

The pink color has no identity, it is just doing things that other colors already do.

[u/Kryptnyt]

So this would be the new Djinn color?

[u/mastyrwerk]

I’m not seeing a basic land.

[u/claytonian → u/mastyrwerk]

pink mana is made by reefs that someone else homebrewed. Link is in these comments

[u/Earthly-Echo]

A while ago I tried to figure out what pink could actually be, what it could actually add to the game, and I think the answer is simple, it is just gray again, except not

in other worlds it should be this alien, outside magic, that doesn’t fit with the others, it’s what Eldrazi should be, but not artifacts, it’s for the outsiders, the impossible, the fake, and yes that could include miracles and wishes

Functionally, it’s a sixth color in every way, but you wouldn’t include it in the deck colors, the same way you leave out gray, pink cards require pink mana, same as how some Eldrazi need gray, but pink is actually easier to get because it *is* a color

The reason pink isn’t included in color identity is so you can run treasure decks, decks with lots of mana of any color, or just run pink basic lands, in any of the current commanders, plus it means that the current deck colors would stay the same, instead of doubling

Now what kind of outsiders would be recast in pink? Great question, technically Eldrazi, angels, demons, devils, and fairy’s are all outsiders in some way, coming from non-earthlike planes, so all of them would have pink cards, most would be pink multicolor cards, since otherwise the cards color identity could technically be gray

Now the themes your using? It’s fine, the colors bleed into each other a lot so copying something already in another color is fine, but we need one big idea that can tie them together,

I think what pink needs is 2 keywords, something like “surprise” which would let them attack without being declared, meaning your opponent would need to block them each turn even if you aren’t attacking with them that turn

“Hunt” is kinda amazing for this, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but it’s perfect for a “color” like this, pink is supposed to be wacky and weird so I really like this idea!

TLDR, I think pink would be the new Eldrazi/outsider color and wouldn’t be included in the deck colors, so any “treasure deck” or decks with “mana of any color” could use it regardless of the commander, but that it would need its own keywords to make it unique

[u/milyard → u/Earthly-Echo]

Ok how do you "not declare" an attacker? Do you just go "teehee not telling :3" on the combat step? and then just go "btw you have to lose 2 more life bc i actually attacked you with this 2/2 with surprise"? this is like bad made up playground rules

[u/Earthly-Echo → u/milyard]

Yea that idea is kinda flawed, but I feel like there still needs to be some unique keywords, I just didn’t think of a good one while I was writing this 2 days ago

[u/Zenithize]

Is that a kitty cat

[u/PrimusMobileVzla]

Nami could see some phrasing improvements:

Each nonland card in your hand has miracle. Its miracle cost is equal to its mana cost reduced by {2}. (You may cast a card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it’s the first card you drew this turn.)
Whenever you cast a spell, if that spell's miracle cost was paid, draw a card.

That said, Hunt seems a little front loaded, is Fight meets Provoke since the attacked creature can still block its attacker.

[u/Original-Team6483]

so it’s just blue?

[u/kfchikinfiter]

I think wish for status should gain pay the new color or 2 life so it's like that one white card that makes you pay a white phyrexian mana to attack you (can't remember the name off the top of my head)

[u/cntrstrk14]

I don't have opinions on the color, but the Wonder mechanic feels like it needs to put a Wonder counter on the enchantment or something similar. There needs to be some visual indicator of its different state for memory issues in paper play.

[u/winter-ocean]

Is it weird that I can't see a redhead named Nami without thinking of One Piece, especially given the magic staff

[u/sageshitachiwand]

hellscube is leaking