MTG Top 10: BIGGEST Color Pie Breaks | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 213 

As many have pointed out, Desert Twister can also destroy creatures. I still think Beast Within is a color pie break, but I should have mentioned the Twister.

It aggrivates me to no end that Red on that color pie has backwards text compared to all the others

I really like the subjective top 10's Suggestion: top 10 good cards that were supposed to be bad.

Top ten "you weren't supposed to do that" cards

Just want to say I like these subjective top 10s, I think that a lot of the more interesting topics in magic are usually subjective.

The Dark was a really weird set. There's a part of me that is intrigued about the idea of R&D's modern take on "the dark side of each color" but the more I think about it the more it just sounds like Planar Chaos 2.

3:18 Even though Mana Tithe was colorshifted, I honestly don't consider it a break even if it hadn't been shifted. I personally think "Counter target spell unless its controller pays X" should be in white anyway, as it's a taxing effect, similar to how Smothering Tithe can ramp you a ton in white, but it does so through taxing. Just my personal opinion.

8:10 There is one Futuresight card in Blue that has haste, but its a Looter that also has defender.

One you missed that upsets Mark Rosewatter quite a bit is Chaos Warp, a red instant that shuffles any permanent into its owner's library and puts the top card into play if it's a permanent. The random aspect is on brand for red, but the fact that it can deal with enchantments is something Maro considers a mistake.

4:12 "But I think it should still bee here"

Green does also have Desert Twister. Destroy any permanent. Land, non-land, doesn't matter.

That was a really nice episode. I feel like, since you removed a lot of the cards that people already consider color breaking, we got to see weirder and more specific cards. Thanks !

I mean TECHNICALLY Blue also has Pemmin's Aura as creatire removal - You can always play it as X1UU - Destroy target crature with toughness X

The Dark was certainly a weird set. I think they tried to come up with new themes for each color on porpuse.

>phyrexian ingester "blue doesn't do creature destruction". Merfolk Assassin, Musician, and Reality Shift are all examples of blue doing just that. >Amnesia "no blue discard" There is also Venarian Glimmer, Trapfinders Trick, Minamo's Meddling, Dismal Failure, and Frightful Delusion. Discard is more like a weird offshoot of blue than the main show. Sort of like how lifelink is primarily white but black has a bit of it, too.

beast within... what about desert twister?? it literaly destroys a permanent for 6 mana. peroid

I love discussing color pie. This was a treat! =D

Mark Rosewater strongly likes and dislikes this video.

witch hunter could easily be "Izzet Soldier Mage" or something

Beast Within isn't the only green card that removes a creature, you're forgetting Desert Twister. Beast Within is half the mana & instant but gives them a 3/3 instead.

As far as blue hand attack, there's also Venarian Glimmer (an instant-speed targeted hand attack held back only by extreme inefficiency) and a variety of draw spells and counterspells that make an opponent discard.

I was happy to see good ol “Witch Hunter” and “Darkness” on your list (“Darkness” has my favorite flavor in the whole game), but I was surprised to not see “Preacher” (which I always thought of, together with “Witch Hunter”, as WotC’s attempt to show the dark side of white.)

As far as Beast Within, what about Desert Twister?

Thank you so, so, so much for this video. I had no idea Temporal Extortion existed, but I needed more life-loss gimmicks for my Rakdos demons EDH. You have no idea how much I needed a card like that.

What do you think about Faithless Looting and Ancient Stirrings? Red's identity when it comes to card draw has always been discard, then draw(Cathartic Reunion, Tormenting Voice, Thrill of Possibility) or draw, then discard at random (Goblin Lore, Burning Inquiry). Faithless Looting is the only mono-red card draw spell that lets you draw before you discard. Similarly, Ancient Stirrings, by being able to add colorless cards from your deck to your hand, allows green to add artifacts, something no other green card can do. (Green is allowed to add creatures, lands, and planeswalkers.) Though I'm pretty sure that putting "land or colorless nonartifact creature" on Ancient Stirrings would have been too much text.

Nizzahon literally just took out the first four cards that came to my mind as color pie break...

“[haste] has never appeared on any blue [creature] cards.” Bonded Fetch would like a word with you. 😜

04:13 "But I think it should still BEE here."

Been watching your videos for years. I continue to deeply respect the depth of your research. Cheers!

I am glad you mentioned Psionic Blast (and early). It was one of the first cards I had in mind before clicking on the video. Also there really aren't many mono blue instant type (explicitly, as opposed to being part of a combo) direct damage spells, even to this day. I also thought of Gate to Phyrexia and Phyrexian Tribute, both as mono black artifact destruction (and the first example being kind of okay, especially against certain decks, as well)

The Dark was one funky set. I love Amnesia in commander as no one expects it.

desert twister in green can destroy an permanent in play along with beast within

it is strange that green's answers to flyers are things that sound blue like windstorm and hurricane

I’m sure it’d be a pretty eh and expensive deck, but I think a deck built around color breaks would be pretty neat. Idk if you’d just focus on a specific color or just go all colors, but it sounds like a pretty flavorful deck

i know magic for a long time, but ive never seen this "+X/+Y" before :D

So that's why Oko is so Broko... His +1 is essentially beast within except the original creature doesn't even get to go to the graveyard until the elk leaves play. "Target creature becomes a ____" is a green and blue thing but it's always a card for a card, like pacifism. Oko ends up being a uptick in exchange for effectively a destroy effect. That's bananas.

I love playing unyaro bees in selvala edh. Going infinite and killing someone with green fire breathing is so satisfying

You forgot the original Desert Twister

Number 8 : this video is now an elk

Blue has Venarian Glimmer which is a straight up discard, but yeah, there are very very few of those.

My mum plays witch doctor in all her white decks. I saw it pop up and laughed.

SUBJECTIVE LIST YEAAAAA BOIIIIIIIII

Beautiful. Such a cool topic.

Have you ever heard about Glacial Crevasses? A recurrent fog-like effect card... in red!

Do another 10 cards video, this was so interesting! And there are plenty more to talk about

I like that on the more modern collections, where the color pie is more implemented, the majority of the top are cards from old collections where the colors hasn't a so strong identity, the phyrexia block is the only one which looks to have cards that break the identities, maching this evolve to perfection theme

When i returned to magic this year (through arena) i was suprised to encounter +/+ instant buff w trample from the red tutorial deck with run amok effects that scream green for me. Similar with indestructible combat trick from the black deck which i associate with white/green. White and blue behave as i remember, but with much more +/+ counters for white that was mainly a jund thing back in the day

Great video Nizzahon this is a video I always wanted to see.

Bonded Fetch the only blue creature with haste!

Still bee here 4:15 😛 I saw what you did there

#10 "I think it should just BEE here."

8:11 Bonded Fetch exists

Couple I had in mind were Imp's Mischief for a black misdirection and Mana Tithe or Dawn Charm white counterspell

Never thought of Akroma as a color pie break!

I hate to be the person to bring this up unless no one else has pointed it out but Darkness is actually thematically appropriate. As well it's night time lol it's kinda hard to hit things in the dark.

I know something wierd other people Don't!!! Color pie breaks are sometimes justified with flavor and story reasons. Akroma Angel of Wrath everyone knows. But did you all know about Witch Hunter? In the Gathering Dark novel, the Church of Tal was an organization birthed shortly after the Devastation of Argoth, (approximately 2 or 3 generations Jodah was descended from Jarsyl descended from Urza.) The Church existed at the same time as the City of Shadows, a neutral magic organization, and the Conclave, an evil one. The Church of course hunted the magic users--- but little was known about magic in such ancient history! It was Mairsil the Pretender that made the realization that the Church themselves were using magic to hate magic in the same way his Conclave used it: tapping memories of the lands for channeling mana! The Witch Hunter card? It is a white-shifted Prodigal Sorceror to a T, with a built in Unsummon, also a "Blue Wizard" effect. The Witch Hunter itself is a Witch (wizard) and doesn't know it! The Church leaders conspired that most in the order did not need to know such "Holy Mysteries" to do their job. Straight out of the novels a reason for the White card to do Blue-Red things. Prodigal Sorceror was fair blue for a long time. So that's the story explanation. Its still a color pie break but there was a reason!

I liked this info very helpful thanks keep up the hard work

Entire internet- dEsErT tWiStEr Nizzahon- XD

WRT witch hunter, Icatian Javelineers can also tap to ping a creature or player for 1.

Was waiting for this

Bonded Fetch is a blue creature with haste... It also has defender

I found other white cards that list haste but don’t have it naturally so imma let you have that, but you also mentioned blue in that portion of the video, and I’d like to direct you to a personal fav card, Bonded Fetch! An 0/2 for 2U with haste and defender that also reads tap: draw a card, discard a card. Checkmate

Glad I found u...love ur content..u R what I refer 2 as a point hitter..and u hit all the major ones..within ur own niche...awesome job .....b well....may Yawgmoth bless u w success and prosperity...Matt d NJ

Love the witch hunter in my Sen Triplets deck

Top 10 Reserved List cards safe for a Standard reprint, and Aeolipile had BETTER be at or near the top of that list!

Mind Bomb is a weird mono blue card that feels extremely black/red. One blue mana for a sorcery that deals 3 damage to all players. Each player may discard up to 3 cards to prevent that amount of damage done to them from Mind Bomb.

Akroma is a color pie break for white because it's a good card

Maybe I missed it, but I dont't think anyone pointed it out. Gate to Phyrexia is super color busted.

Haste makes sense for Akroma because she is the angel of wrath. Wrath is pretty red.

This one could use a revisit for sure!

i dont consider Akroma a color pie break because every color technically gets haste- but only when it needs it, like with Suspend and Awaken effects. Akroma has haste for the same reason Suspend does- it feels really bad to cast this huge incredible angel and then have to wait a turn to use it in any fashion (since Akroma is nothing deeper than a big body to attack with)

Avoid Fate. Green counterspell. But, I feel that anything printed pre-Weatherlight only counts somewhat as a color break. Things were just done differently in the beginnings of Magic. Unyaro Bee Sting in Mirage was one of the main reasons that made Maro lock down what the color pie was. Before that, there was no color pie.

Phyrexian Injester is just a blue duplicant with +3/+3. Seems somewhat fitting if you think about what decks ran the original card. I think if you look at how it was originally a colorless spell it isn't as weird.

I think Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is also a card that breaks the colour pie. She's a green artificier, for one thing, and she can pay mana (green mana, even) to create artifact tokens. In the course of magic's history, there are five green cards that create artifacts, but none of them can do it at will like she can. Two of them are Splicers that create golems when they enter the battlefield, and two of them require energy, but Oviya can just create either a 1/1 servo or a construct that's as big as the number of creatures you control every turn.

Top 10 most ambiguous? Ambiguous in the sense of it's flavor (ie Batterskull)

Witch Hunter is wild lol. What a weird card to put in white.

The biggest problem is, that blue is clearly the strongest color. It identifies with magics most powerful aspects (instants, drawing/counter cards,) while having enough color break to have most of the other strong points (like stronc creatures) too

Beast Within is a very weird Pongify effect combined with a Desert Twister. So maybe blue green, if anything. Also, my biggest "color pie" break would be Sensei's Divining Top no questions asked. Take Ponder effects, strip away the shuffling but make it into a permanent with a small activation cost. Top is a very blue effect

Vigilance and haste are general enough that I don't feel the occasional appearance on black is a bad thing, especially with vigilance leaning into a death theme.

Ication Javelineers from Fallen Empires also can also deal damage to a player in white, although only one time.

Karakas can bounce your opponent's creatures, provided they're legendary. I still agree with you about Witch Hunter, though.

Its normalized now, but I still think it strange that Red was given 'control' over time. That is, effects that steal a creature and turn it against a player for a turn (rationalized as 'chaos' in flavor). When it came out, that was usually a blue effect like Ray of Command or Control Magic (along with a sea of other control/prison spells and effects). If anything, I thought a similar effect might appear in White as 'control' isnt a big leap from 'order'. At the time, It felt like another attempt to de-power blue since it had so many game-breaking effects in the early years.

I felt Phyrexian Ingester sort of fits into blues Polymorph effects, similar to Ovinomancer, Pongify and Reality Shift, in that it removes a creature from the opponent’s board in exchange for an effect. I most strongly associate transmutation effects (changing one thing into another) with blue, and I think Phyrexian Ingester fits with that, although I could easily see it being black.

What is the opening music? it does not sound like "I can feel it coming" like in the description :)

Interesting that you included Darkness, but didn't mention Glacial Crevasses. Not only is it a red Fog, but it's a repeatable red fogging enchantment. I always felt like Blue got the shaft for not getting at least SOMETHING that straight up prevented all combat damage.

Akroma's First Strike, Trample, Haste, and Vigilance abilities come from her wielding the Sword of Vengeance. Also 2 of her power. So even though you're correct that mechanically she breaks the pie, the flavor justifies it, imo.

About green not being able to destroy permanents...desert twister

Blue has other discard effects. Mind Culling, Piracy Charm, Riptide Pilferer, Trapfinder’s Trick and others make your opponent discard without letting them draw.

I remember Illusions of Grandeur from a friend of mine in high school

Glad to see chaos warp not getting more hate. Red needs answers to enchantments...

Goddamn the art on the dark cards are hard core

An odd blue card... Curse of the Swine... XUU to "Exile X target creatures. For each creature exiled this way, its controller creates a 2/2 green Boar creature token." That one is extra wacky because it creates GREEN creatures and has only blue in the casting cost.

Gate to Phyrexia is the only black artifact destruction I know of.

I always felt that Vendillion Clique was sort of a color pie breaker. I know its ability is similar to the breakers you showed (Amnesia and Forget), but those are "discard all" and "target player chooses and discards 2 cards" abilities, not targeted faux discard (which is almost exclusively a black ability).

Top 10 deck colours (i.e. Which colour combinations have seen the most success across the history of competitive Magic?) Or if you want to court controversy : Top 5 colours.

8:41 I thought no time spiral

Rosewater is on record as stating Prodigal Sorcerer as the most damaging color pie break in history, as his presence was cited as justification for around a dozen other "Tim" cards in blue that would have never been printed if he wasn't around. Note that Psionic Blast is the only damaging blue card outside of the Tims. So I feel it should be on the list because of how bad the bend was and the damage it did as a bad precedent. Form of the Dragon deserved mention in the opening section as a card that does something out of color that is justified in flavor (the moat effect because RAWR, you're a dragon). Overall though - good list, and agreed on the #1.

mana flare is probably the biggest colour pie break for me, took till kamigawa for green to get their own version.

Phyrexian Ingester is in several of my commander decks

I might just flag Mind Bomb in reference to Amnesia. Whilst it is not a forced discard (being an opponent choice) that almost makes it more a break. If it was printed as 'do 3 damage unless you discard three' it would fit as a variant lightning bolt in red (1 to do 3) with the possibility of higher damage in multiplayer. Equally, with the make a painful choice option and discard focus it would fit black as well. In fact, the discard or lose life is on Painful Quandary. It doesn't create a symmetrical loot/rummage effect, so doesn't copy the Windfall model either. The opponents' choice does help flavour it blue - do you choose to hang on to knowledge at the cost of health? Which is more important to you? - and the symmetrical effect (it hits you as well) marries up with Windfall, but it is still outside the model as I would read it. Of course, both of these are from The Dark, so it could be argued that it fits the flavour of the set, with powerful poisonous magic that saps away at those who use it as much as those whom it afflicts.