I Think I Broke the Color Pie | MTG Theories 

Well that took a dark turn

In the early days of MTG fiction, Serra's plane was artificial and all white but the lore wasnt deep enough to get into these details. Great to see all this material to enrich it

I don't think an imbalanced plane necessarily has to happen these two ways. I can see a third option, cooption. A plane where one color outweighs all others, but each other color, ally or enemy, is *used* by the primary. As one example, an all-red plane, where the land itself shifts and changes in a wild tumult of volcanism. The strongest factions are still necessarily going to be alloyed with allies, with wild mages and beast packs running rampant among volcanic mountains and nutrient rich forests (Red/green) and raiding tribes constantly warring and slaughtering between themselves for dominance amongst the craggy landscape (Red/black). But out in the wild explorers travel to see everything they can, experimenting with barely controlled magics to glean secrets from chaos (Red/blue). And out on what stable land can be found, enclaves of religious and philosophical zealots strike out at anything that comes near to their holds, going on wild crusades against each other and the rest of the world (Red/white). Everything is very RED, but it achieves a kind of off-kilter balanced imbalance by showing itself through the other colors.

Thank you for the provocative thought experiments! The black mana-dominated plane sounded terrifyingly close to home. But that got me thinking. What if the white powers were convinced that the best way to achieve peace and prosperity was "balance"; that black and evil, in general, were a necessary evil [lol] while the self-indulgent wickedness of red was seen as the enemy of both black and white powers. The white mana users care more about hierarchy and peace and prosperity and do not really care who is running the hierarchy. There is this quote from Tolstoy, paraphrasing: The only people who seek power are evil or wicked since the good would never use it. What if white mana users are the secret collaborators with the black mana users running things? And the black mana users are only too happy to use white mana mages to keep dissent in check? What if Tolstoy was hinting at what he knew of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? Much love!

Really interesting topic! I do have a small disagreement on the Black dominated plane, as described. I don't think the way the White communities would be attacked would be through such hedonistic raiding. Rather I think those small tight communities who seek order would be exploited by black, perhaps by those in black who couldn't compete with black greater hierarchy and settled with manipulating and exploiting the simpler white community.

While watching, I'm actually picturing, a world in D&D where each kingdom, or maybe even each continent, has a different dominant color. Wonder how the characters would feel when they have to travel to different continents.

The idea of one color dominating the others is nifty. It becomes so consuming that it nit only alienates its allies, it all but forces their enemies to reconcile their differences to the point of becoming indistinguishable from each other. It would almost make the color pie 4 colors. Say you have black as the dominate color, the white and green would set aside their differences and unite entirely, losing any individual identiy and just becoming one combined color. This joint color can then act as the bridge between blue and red, making one big shard in a way. I need to use this for worldbuilding or something this is cool.

Okay I REALLY like that angle of one dominant color while the other 4 band together to stand against it. It kind of creates an "Empire VS Rebels" vibe and I am totally here for it. In this idea, the dominant color is completely dominant with no room for the others to even gain a foothold. let's look at a white-dominated plane through this lens. White crushes blue's progress for the sake of safety and domesticates green to the point of being controlled. Red is oppressed and subjugated while black is imprisoned and forgotten. White gets everything it wants within its own society; safety, community, law, order, and peace. Everyone works together for the sake of the greater whole and for a better society. Everything is uniformed, ordered, and stamped correctly. Everyone has their place in society with everything they need provided for them; governed by priests and angels who look over them. But let's look at the other 4 who have joined together into their own society. They reject white completely, so there is no law, no order, no religion, and no peace. Now this isn't to say that there isn't unity. However, it is not driven by white's desire for society, but instead like-minded individuals banding together for a common goal. So lets see what happens without white and how the other colors create checks and balances. Blue would see things progress at any cost, but black will give blue a clear and focused direction while green will help keep blue's advancements in check. Black wants power, but is tempered by red's compassion and green's need for community. It would be chaos incarnate if red was left to its own devices, but black and blue step in to help guide and focus red's rage rather than stifling it. And the green just wants to let nature take its course without white holding it back, so blue comes in to help with its careful thinking to make sure nature survives while red adds just a dollop of chaos to the mix just as green would want. All of these colors mixed together without white's influence creates a more chaotic society, but also one where the bonds between people take priority over the laws written on a piece of paper.

It's interesting to see the parallels to dominant colours and the way phyrexians present their colour identities

Great video! Video idea: what planes would look like with one colour missing entirely.

Love this concept! I'd love to see a similar but opposite take of "five planes that ENTIRELY lack one color"

Here's another take on the same concept: What if instead of the colours being seperate like here we have a plane with a dominant colour that mixes into the others. In other words: You don't have much of a mono red faction in the green dominated world but a red-green one for example. This would make things much more harmonious.

That was great for getting to understand the subtle aspects of each color. Possibly your best video so far

This was amazing. I loved your ideas! Your grasp of color pie is refreshing, your voice is really soothing, and the way you present your topics is always a treat! Thanks for all your great content!

There are actually examples of planes that pretty closely meet these expectations. White has planes like Kaladesh and Kamigawa. Blue has Mirrodin/Phyrexia. Black has Innistrad and Capenna. Red has Ixalan. And Green has Tarkir. All of these planes do manage to have a mostly balanced color pie, but they do lean towards a color more then others as you describe them here.

Great video! Yet, I missed a bit your usual abstractization of color concepts. I expected the talk to be more about the prevalent traditions/mindsets, more than how exact forces of each color would be placed. But still, the pictures you've painted are very valuable both in terms of world examples, but also in showing how color-dominated *regions* may look in the same plane, how they form their surroundings. Also... aren't we living in a black world o_o

super fun video~ i'm now picturing Piltover as a world dominated by Blue (allied with White), and Zaun being dominated by Red (allied with Black). Silco being mono Black affects both worlds, all-the-while Green is shunned from these two sister cities, cropping up only in the people living there.. i guess it's time to rewatch your Arcane video!

I think you put this out before the story came out, but you really hit the nail on the head with the white dominant world when we look at New Phyrexia under Norn. Black was subjugated under her authoritarian rule. Green and blue were permitted to exist so long as they bent to Norn's will, and red was in outright rebellion against Norn, even willing to make temporary allies of the Mirrans and planeswalkers from other worlds if it meant topping the regime set up by Norn. I think Phyrexia is going to be a really interesting setting in general for this kind of analysis, especially if and when they come back around as this next time there's a good chance that the plane will be blue dominated with Jace having become the new Father of Machines.

I remember hearing there was a story in the early days of Magic set on a plane that only had green mana. I think it was called the cursed land, or something in those lines.

I LOVE this video! I will slightly disagree with one thing though… I don’t think a Black-dominated plane would be lawless and leaderless, overrun by gangs and clans. I think that structures and governments are an inevitability for a color obsessed with selfish ambition because the “most ambitious” person would (in theory) eventually seize control and would need a way to subjugate the rest of the plane. Ironically enough, both a White-dominant and a Black-dominant plane would gravitate toward absolute monarchies (for entirely different reasons). However, I think that a reliable governmental structure would only be sustainable for so long in a Black-dominant plane because there would be double-crosses and Shakespearean power struggles constantly. It would be a society of bottomless coups and endless failed dynasties, oppressive laws amended and struck down before the ink on the parchment dried. I think the end result would of course ULTIMATELY be anarchy, but not quite in the way this video essay presents it.

I have to admit the four verses one color planes sounds like a very interesting video especially since you technically did not cover for colors in your color pie series.

How did i miss this video?! I came here from the four-color video that you posted yesterday (11/12/2023).

An idea in a similar vein to this one that might be fun to explore is a world where one of the colors is completely absent, and seeing how the other colors change and act without it

First video of yours I’ve seen but now I have something to binge through. I love the ideas presented here. A plane with 4 vs 1 colour would be really interesting to explore!

I like the idea of a faction set where there are either 4 two color groups that each share a color, or 5 factions, each two color combo of one color and a mono color faction. I feel like that's a more natural outcome of one color being dominant, that the outliers in the dominant group that favor one color or the other would band together, or that the other colors would adopt some of the characteristics of the main one to survive

This would be a really interesting set. Much like Tarkir or Alara. Not sure how they would do it.

I love to see these sorts of deep dives into color dynamics so, if you have more ideas for them, I say full speed ahead! I definitely feel like there's still a lot of room for wotc to explore concepts like this both lore-wise and mechanically. I think planes like your examples would be a great time for them to also flesh out the colors' mechanics. What I mean is red is pretty much *always* designated "the aggro color" but mechanically it has gotten a lot of punisher cards over the years (whenever a player/opponent ____ deal damage). On the flip side, every other color has some way of going about an aggro strategy. I'd like to see wotc rotate which color(s) is the aggro, mid-range, and control deck(s) for each set so we get some variance in both flavor and mechanics while still following the color pie for the most part.

Excellent Video! very interesting line of thought. I guess we live in a Black dominating society, anyway... BTW I would love to see your thoughts on the Big 5 Personality traits and/or the MBTI Personality Test and how they conceptually align with the color Pie. That would be awesome

Amazing Video that completes your circle of explanation for all the colors and pairs.

Strangely enough, the restructuring of Mirrodin into New Phyrexia's layers, we get an idea similar to these depictions: realms each defined by singular traits, adversed to their opposed identities, and tolerant of adjacent ones. The white dominant plane wonderfully mimicking Norn's orthodoxy for example.

Unsurprisingly, I think that most of these planes wouldn’t be able to maintain that status quo forever for one reason or another. Societal unrest and overextension on some or planewide resources shortage on others. All it would take is something like an errant Planeswalker to overturn these unnatural balances. Maybe the colors never achieve equality, but I think the multiverse tends to self-correct.

Great video. In the end I think to me the 2 vs 3 color split is the most interesting way to build your plane

We did have an example of that for a brief time. Serra's Realm was created out of just White mana, and it even had flights of angels to keep the flow of the other colors coming into their plane in check. And before Urza happened, it was a realm of pure peace.

great video man and the 4 v1 sounds like an interesting video topic

I feel that the conflict between the dominant's colour allies should be more expected in those planes too. For example, how would a plane dominated by White mana deal with the conflict between Green and blue? If the conflicts were dealt with too much brutality i believe that the allied colours would eventually turn into enemies

I think an interesting design for a Plane using this premise would be that each color has the dominant color as a choice when casting their spell. So for example, a White Dominant Plane has each of the other colors needing either their color or white. So a 2 mana 2/2 for Green would be 1 G mana and 1 G/W mana. White would in a sense replace the generic mana. The enemies of the non-dominant colors would not have the good graces of using their color or white, but instead are forced into submission as Gold cards that need White. So, in gameplay, the enemies of white would exist infrequently in decks that don't dedicate to them, and every deck would be a variation of dual/tricolor decks that use White. You could still technically use a mono color Green or Blue deck, but White would be so easily splashed in that it'd be easier to throw some white spells in for being flexible. Meanwhile, 5 Color Decks just feel so strange, probably even feeling similar to a mono white deck that just stole the tricks of other colors.

Really enjoyed this one, I appreciate your creative, worldbuilding-type videos. I'd be interested in having this idea developed further, and hearing more ideas for different ways the colors could be expressed in new planes. Just to toss an idea your way - what would five religions each based on one of the colors look like? There could be a plane that was a battlefield of a holy war between the five fanatical religious factions.

I like this thought exercise and I would like to see the specifics of these hypothetical planes fleshed out further.

This is a really interesting way to explore the relationships each color has with its allies and enemies.

Those are some interesting thoughts that you put out there. It would be interesting to see Wizards do something like you pose in the video.

wow, we really live in the black aligned plane

Now we need videos on Nephilim combos

The white dominated plane made me think of New Phyrexia under Elesh Norn. The black Platorean been eliminated and red dwindling but still trying to rebel. With most of the Mirrodin resistance defeated. All unified and completed, whether one wants it or not

If you put all the colors into Obsidian MD (a note app that allows you to make associative links between ideas) and then link each color via their wedge, shard and guilds; there's actually SUCH a finetuned balance that every single node pulls on the other, and the tiniest upset will cause every node to go piling in one direction or another. Even in mono color, the influence of every other color is always there, just as part of the shadow.

I've wondered about this idea also! It seemed to me like New Phyrexia was heading in this direction, with Elesh Norn's faction gaining the most dominance over the plane, conquering Sheoldred and Urabrask and gaining the compliance of Jin Gitaxias and Vorinclex. I thought it would become a plane dominated by the white mana faction in which all other factions have elements of the Machine Orthodoxy's version of compleation. Either that or an evil version of Bant, which would be awesome.

Interesting thought experiment. I would imagine that each type of world would develop a shard. Maybe this can become a view for Alara or even New Capena. The white world is like Bant. The blue world is like Esper. The black world is like Grixis. The red world is like Jund. The green world is like Naya.

It's definitely interesting to think about. I always had an idea of a plane where one of the leylines never reached it or was shut off somehow and one of the colors didn't exist... but your showing of what the creatures if the planes would do in a maligned plane make me believe that a plane like that couldn't exist. That there would always be some creature expressing or being an avatar of that color in the world no matter how small. Like trying to imagine a universe without carbon

Not sure if it's just my bias playing into this, but the Red-dominant world doesn't sound bad, actually! There's this twisted and sad irony that the Black-dominant plane sounds like our Earth...

Great video this idea is really interesting and cool. But all I can think about is how much I love Alara and it's shards. I really feel like each shard has a dominant colour similar to the ideas in this video. Esper is definitely blue dominant Naya is Green dominant Jund is red dominant Bant is White dominant and Grixis is black dominant.

black just felt like you described the United Space....

After watching, I think I’m certain in the fact that I can’t survive in a red dominant plane. I like to have *some* sort of structure in my life 😅

Most interesting, though I have to quibble about blue shoving off green and destroying nature. I think, for my own lore development, that a blue schism between working with green (biomimicry) and not presents some fascinating opportunities. Kudos for sparking thought!

I like the ideas here another that would be interesting is where a color is almost missing

We need the 4 colour combination videos!

A hint for a 4 color study at the end?

Instead of mostly just shards, I think it would be more likely that the dominant colour would absorb their allies leaving very little left if those colours. For example if green was the dominant colour, it would reclaim it shared portfolio of red and white. Slowly eroding away at its ally’s claim to existence. You have a wG faction a rag faction and a G faction. The capitals shown a dominant role in the colour pairing. And then the next dominant force would be the union of the enemy colours, green couldn’t as easily take their identity so they wouldn’t be assimilated. So a black and blue faction. That does only give us four factions so maybe it would look more like Gw, Gr, rB, BU, Uw with mechanical overlap between the Gw and Gr oppressor factions making them branches of the same super faction. rB and Uw would be refugees, spies, divergent thinkers and freedom fighters who sort asylum with like minded people and communities adding value but not an equal part, the asylum factions. And last BU would be focused of opposing the G super faction completely using kill spells, creature focused counterspells, maybe even poisoning or bouncing land. Fully capable of utilising the mechanic of the asylum factions, why playing their roll as the rebels faction. This gives us more of a wedge shape to the colour pie, not because those colours are all dominant but because of the size of greens representation taking up 1/4 to 1/2 of white and red territory and purpose. The best way to do that from a game design aswell would be to make sure white and red have quality over quantity like cheap wraths, cheap exile effects, good burn and haste creature. That way if you do find yourself in red or white you’re not struggling to get playables.

I wanna see the four vs one video! The sooner the better!

Something similar would be one color being absent and the other four trying to fill that void as best as they can.

Interesting video, though I wonder if, on a plane with one color dominant, the enemy colors would be bent towards the dominant one, like the allies are. So, for example, on a blue dominanted plane, red would become more like Izzet, utilizing chaos and emotion to gain bursts of insight, or expressing oneself through research and invention. Meanwhile green would become more like Simic, seeking to understand nature and their traditions and see what could be improved.

While watching the white segment, my mind continuously thinks of the world of Elden Ring. Not in its current state, but the way it was before the inevitable crumbling. A land ruled by kings and the holy order, nearly everyone worshipping one pantheon, and outside of some places I would consider multicolored (rays lucaria denizens as Azorius, Caelid denizens as Mardu) the widest population of the Lands Between want for order, unity, and one rule. The places and people that are distinctly Not White, like Ranni or the inhabitants of Volcano Manor, are outcasts and forced to live fringe lives in the shadows. It really feels like a mono-white world fallen to the ultimate ruin that being as unbalanced as that would lead to.

There are already panes with predominant colors like Innistrad being black, Amonkhet black-white, Zendikar green...

I think there's another option where there is a dominant color and it influences how the other colors behave without directly controlling them.

a green dominant world sounds the most ideal to me

I made a plane like this once. It's where my Planeswalker concept originally came from. Basically a Plane that was forcibly conquered by angels, pushing everyone unwilling to comply into the dark and treacherous parts of the plane to foment rebellion. A rebellion "lead" and fueled by said Planeswalker concept who has yet to spark. A bitter old man driven by spite and loss to raise the dead and bind spirits to fight for said rebellion, making their armies endless even as they fall because what is a person but their meat and their soul and he can sew them back together as many times as necessary as long as they have drive to get back in the fight.

The combination of these colours would be interesting and pushing it "beyond simic and rakdos". I feel like there are more expressions to be had and it's a great topic. The Gruul world would be something i would love to explore as it personally seems ideal

i think inastrad is a good example of an unbalanced plane but its that black is warping every color around it.

Always appreciate the rather nuanced take on color from you. When you only understand the surface of colors, it's easy to think something like "Red will let everyone have freedom and will never be the oppressor." While in actuality, Red can the oppressor despite being the color of freedom. White can the one who fight for the oppressed despite being the color of strict lawfulness. MTG colors aren't just defining themselves in a vacuum. They're defining and being defined by each other, perhaps even more so.

And this is why the colors need their enemies to balance themselves out.

So basically White: totalitarianism Blue: technocracy Black: unregulated capitalism Red: tribalism Green: anarchy

I would watch several videos based on this maybe one based on each guild

Congrats. You rebuilt shards of alara

Consider the inverses of these theories... Dominant color planes where enemy colors are allowed to thrive instead of ally. Where one color dominates, the differences of the enemies are needed or fostered, making the three of them stronger through competition and adversity. A very green and white idea, unsurprising since each wedge has green or white

Black dominated plane is basicly Phyerxia

You could even go a step further by an omnipresent controll color . That color would be the only one appearing as monocolor and everything else does include this color. While this may appear even more oppressive toward other colors it dosent necesssrily is so, since even enemy colors are more incorpprated in this system. For example in a Blue world, nature would still exist only that would be far more ordered and controlled, things like emotion and passion would also exist only more directed and guided toward progress.

"With no one color truly overpowering the others" WotC: Hold my beer

my set project idea was alittle like this but most likely be too gimmicky being 1/5 monocolored and 4/5 multicolored of one color and it would take 5 sets to complete all five colors; i would make an interesting cube

Black shard sounds like new capenna almost

Would that not be the perfect explanation for something like Ravnica's Nephilims? What else could have brought together so many colors?

Could you make a "colors in other media" about whole universes and whether or not the story's philosophy differs?

White: Fascist Blue: Fascist Black: Capitalist hellscape Red: Everything is fucking awesome! Green: Ecofascist Reject modernity. Go back to Goblin!!!

Still hoping to see a deeper look into this.

The reverse of this would be just as interesting, world's where 4 collors are in balance and one of them is completaly absent. would they stay balanced or would one collor become dominant? What would the society be like?

Genius on channel name tho.

Another way this could go is not with the enemy colors being oppressed, but incorporated. For example, Simic characters may exist in a Blue dominated world as botanists and zoologists and conservationists, while on a Green dominated world they exist as druids and shamans. On a White dominated world Orzhov characters would exist as corrupt politicians and priests, while on Black dominated worlds the may instead be working to ensure someone powerful that funds them stays in power.

Okay, so, correct me if this is a different idea, but I'm not sure this goes deep enough into such an imbalance in the colors. If you think what I'm saying constitutes the same idea, great. If not, let's say my thought might be called Infection by a mana color. So hear me out. In a realm that was dominated by one mana, I feel like what we would see is that color being the only way to survive with any power. To exist in that realm would be to have a touch of that color, at least from a power center perspective. As an example, in the white dominant realm, instead of the color pie being white, blue, black, red, and green, we would instead see white, azorius, orzhov, boros, and selesnya. If we think in terms of the card game, imagine a set where only one color was allowed basic lands. Plenty of people use special lands that provide multiple mana or allow you to pick the color, but if the only basic land allowed were plains, a player trying to use a Rakdos deck might find themselves on the back foot, especially considering a lot of special lands have costs to them. From a roleplay perspective, in that same example, to not include white mana is to be risking death. Sure, someone on that realm might be a combination of red and black mana, but in a world where all the groups of power either are pure white, or include white, that Rakdos person would likely be stamped out quickly like a cigarette in a forest by *any* of the power centers. Essentially, if white is not a part of your mana pool, you're choosing to play at a severe disadvantage.

Blue dominated sounded a lot like new Phyrexia to me Black sounds very... Familiar.

There are a few Black dominant planes in other media. Like in Dark Souls or Warhammer. When it comes to the Force Star Wars is Green dominated if you think about it. Discworld as far as I know is Red dominated. LotR seems Green or White dominated. But I can't think of anything for Blue...

You can also assume that it may be that there is a triplicate society (TS), and the apposing two colors having a union (TCU). Instead of being suppressed, TCU is at about equal power to their wannabe oppressors.

How would a colorless dominated world work?

This reminds me something I read, but can’t remember where, that some Planes feel one Colour dominated. The example given was Ravnica feeling very White. Here’s another way a one Colour dominated Plane could look regarding its enemies, taking White as an example. One this Plane; Black would be the ruthlessness used to maintain the order White desires, Red the use of extra-legal actions to that end.

Is it me or do these example planes not illustrate the organic process by which shards are formed? When white dominates red and black are pushed out, and a Bant identity emerges centered around the ideals of white

I would also be interested in an examination like this on an elemental level or on the level of the peoples psyche: White Dominant might be a plane of orderly geography with an eternal day where people have a conformative spirit and good and evil are laws of nature. Everyone is happy with the security of this clearly defined rule of law. No one misses their ego. Blue Dominant could be a plane of gravitational and temporal anomalies that nonetheless follow a certain logic. Nature is fundamentally made of unused potential but people don't have traditions or passions. Everyone is indistrious and visionary however. Black Dominant could be dark and deadly. No beauty or appreciation for it is possible. Nature and culture is steeped in disharmonious powerstruggles and the concept of compassion and acceptance is psychicly impossible to comprehend. But everyone can rise to the top and impose their will on this world. Red Dominant would have chaotic topography, weather and creatures. Quick erosion, and heat in the world and hearts. Peoples will for freedom and passion is so strong that any kind of structure or restrained is unheard of. And people experience life full and carefree. Green Dominant would be nature, time and tradition at it's strongest. The world dictates. Every house collapses, every visionary fails to bring their change and even deceit is hardly possible. Everything is predetermined giving people a sense of inner peace.

Breaking the color pie by remaking the shards of alara

Black dominated is just cyberpunk

Yes. I am a broker 😂😂😂

So, a black dominant plane would be the cyberpunk world?

Black for the Win

ok hear me out W: Fiora U: Kamigawa/Kaladesh B: Capenna R: Tarkir(dragons) G: Ikoria

Okay so you literally just described Bant. Basically verbatim

Actually there was that 1 set that was almost entirely black