If there’s one thing that defines Magic: The Gathering as a game, other than the land system, it’s the idea of color identity. All five colors have their own strengths and weaknesses, which in turn makes building a deck an interesting puzzle. The capabilities of each color have expanded and evolved over time, of course, and we may right now be on the verge of a very significant evolution. In a series of Blogatog posts over the weekend, MTG Head Designer Mark Rosewater stoked controversy by noting that blue may be getting access to extra combats in the future.
This is a pretty left-field move in the eyes of many. Blue has always been a color defined by its spells, after all, with less emphasis on combat in general. This move, if enacted, would mark a major shift in the color’s identity. As you’d expect, MTG players have mixed thoughts on the idea.
Blue Is Getting Extra Combats In MTG?
The discussion on blue getting extra combats in MTG started last Thursday, and has been going ever since. Mark Rosewater inadvertently lit the fire when he responded to a question about extra combats in Mono-White.
“qsh123: Is a mono white extra combat phase card in the color pie?
Mark Rosewater: We made a hybrid card with it once. The color pie has been debating who gets it secondarily, white or blue? White because it’s combat-centric, blue because it messes with the nature of the game and time.”
Via Blogatog
From here, the floodgates opened wide. Since this post, 13 of the 82 posts on Blogatog have been related to the topic, which roughly represents a 15% share. For Blogatog, which is typically much more scattershot in terms of discussion topics, this is a big deal. As we’ll see later, many players were concerned about the change.
This concern isn’t unjustified. Extra combat effects have so far been nearly-exclusively reserved for red, with some dalliances into Boros and Gruul colors too. Bizarre outlier Finest Hour aside, this is always the way things have been. Expanding this idea into other colors naturally has big implications.
For now, players don’t need to worry too much. In a different Blogatog post, Rosewater confirmed that extra combats in blue is just a topic under discussion for the time being.
“It’s something the Council of Color is talking about. I just mentioned it and… boom! No such card has been printed yet.”
Mark Rosewater
For those unaware, the Council of Colors is a group of Designers at Wizards tasked with managing the identity of the five colors over time. They look at every card before it goes to print, ensuring that the color pie is respected and maintained. That the idea of blue getting extra combats is under discussion here is significant, but equally, it doesn’t mean we’re going to see the resulting changes soon.
A Major Shift
Whether it’s happening soon or not, blue getting extra combats is a big deal for MTG design. The color has dabbled with similar ideas in the past, but nothing exactly like this. Shadow and Sphinx of the Second Sun provide extra beginning phases, for example. Technically Illusionist’s Gambit is an existing blue extra combat spell, but it’s a very nontraditional version of the idea that only works on your opponent.
The reason this feels so off is because blue is an explicitly non-combat-oriented color. Its strength has always lain in its spells, and in using them to disrupt opponents. As part of a 2003 article on the color pie, Rosewater specifically states that “Blue knows that it cannot win a physical fight, so it uses its abilities to tilt the duel to its favor.” This has been a consistent idea for at least 20 years, then, and one that extra combats would seem to directly contradict.
Looking at Rosewater’s reasoning, which he goes into in other Blogatog posts, does help to better frame the idea. Magic: The Gathering has changed a lot over time, and the last few years in particular have been massive in terms of growth and development. The game has become much more creature-focused than it was in the past, which is obviously a problem for a color with a natural disadvantage in combat.
“Zackdes44: Piling on the no blue extra combat- messing with/adding non-combat phases feels blue, and even Illusionist’s Gambit feels blue, but just straight ‘take an extra combat after this one’ does not. Blue is the least combat oriented color.
Mark Rosewater: That’s one of the problems we’re trying to fix. When 55% of our cards are creatures, all colors have to have some synergy with combat.”
Via Blogatog
Put this way the idea, while still divisive, makes a lot of sense. Blue has also traditionally been the color of time manipulation via extra turns, so extra combat phases do make sense as an extension of that. Rosewater also mentioned in another post “Our current plan is to investigate all ‘mess with the phases’ effects in blue.”
Mixed Reactions
As you’d expect, the MTG community had a lot to say about blue getting access to extra combats. While the feedback was largely negative, there were players willing to accept the idea.
“I personally think that blue can get extra combats, but it shouldn’t untap creatures in the same effect, even though untapping creatures is a thing blue does well”
arcanistlupus
Arcanistlupus was very much in the minority in this discussion. Magic: The Gathering players are often very particular about color pie breaks, and rightfully so. The pie is a huge part of what makes the game fun and balanced, after all. Rosewater himself has expressed huge affection for the color pie in the past, too, noting last year that “my true love is the color pie.”
To the many players who share similar sentiments, giving blue more of an emphasis on combat likely seems like a step toward homogenization. It also has the potential to cause balancing issues. If blue’s biggest weakness, creature combat, is addressed, it will likely overshadow every other color by a wide margin. In most formats, it already does.
“Please no extra combat step in blue. I get that it’s basically a bend from an extra turn spell, but I would rather see blue stick to full turns and other phases, leaving red and white with the zeal and ardour of extra combat.”
banksyguythrowingthings
There are also flavor concerns as well. The color pie is appealing both from a lore and a mechanics standpoint. Messing with the latter also messes with the former. For some, broadening a color’s capabilities actually makes it less interesting, unintuitively enough.
“mrmoustachemm: I don’t want to see extra combats in U for the same reason we don’t see “Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand” in G. It just doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the colour.
Mark Rosewater: Do you have problem with blue copying any other phase? I agree it’s sometimes hard to see the aesthetic when we’ve never done it, but part of paving new ground is finding cool flavorful things we haven’t done yet, and blue messing with time and turn structure is one we’re interested in.”
Via Blogatog
That said, Rosewater’s rebuttal here is solid. Any new innovation in an area as beloved and well-established as the color pie is bound to ruffle feathers at first, but it could bear serious fruit later down the line. Magic needs to keep evolving to avoid getting stale, especially with six mainline sets a year coming out. While it may be sad for some to see blue change, it would be equally sad to see it left behind.
