Purple Mana and the History of the Sixth Color in Magic: The Gathering

Liliana's Contract | Illustration by Bastien L. Deharme

For a long time, purple cards in MTG and purple mana have been teased as a possibility. The sixth color of mana, so to speak. The rumors started in 1997 as a joke, but purple almost became an integral part of MTG in Planar Chaos (2007) as an alternate reality to the game.

Sometimes MTG players design custom purple cards or cards that require different sources of mana to play with them in their cubes or custom Draft sets. Today we look at everything there is to know about purple mana in MTG and the role it would serve if it were ever properly introduced.

What Is Purple Mana in MTG?

Purple Dragon Punks | Illustration by Rose Benjamin

Purple mana in MTG is the hypothetical sixth color of Magic that has been often teased. It doesn’t exist right now, but it hasn’t ever been discarded.

The closest we actually got to having six colors of MTG cards was in Planar Chaos, back in 2007. At that time, they had actually designed some 20-25 purple cards that would be powerful enough to think about adding purple to your Constructed decks or to pivot in the middle of a draft, like a 1-mana purple Essence Scatter, a purple Mana Drain, and a two-for-one purple removal spell.

The official word from Mark Rosewater and WotC on purple cards is that they could use it in a set or two, but that they don’t want it to become universal. It’s very similar to the colorless approach. It was a big theme for a set or two, but it’s not official as a sixth color.

InQuest Prank Article

Source

Back in 1997, InQuest published a prank article on April Fool’s that mentioned the purple color of mana as something that would come to MTG in a future set. We can see the “Portal” land that produces purple mana and two interesting example cards.

The article also introduces the shapeshifting Finori, which would be an important part of purple in MTG. Remember that there weren’t many changelings back then, but these days that effect is mainly blue.

Finori Doppelganger is a card that lets you pay 2 purple mana to copy another creature in play. Invasion of the Soul does basically what Mindslaver does, but as an instant. InQuest’s article also cites the “anchoring” mechanic, where a creature would be tied to another noncreature card, so anything that happens to one is mirrored on the other (like tapping, untapping, destroying). But you’d also get benefits for the anchored permanents as well.

Purple Mana in Planar Chaos

During the development of Planar Chaos in 2006, WotC considered adding a sixth color of mana, purple mana, with a new cave or city land type. In a 2007 feature, they explicitly say that during the development of the set, they wanted to convey an alternate reality by putting purple cards in the boosters, even if it was for one set only – a similar take on 2016’s Oath of the Gatewatch.

There was a huge internal discussion on what the purple color should do. I confess I loved the “time” aspect, where the color would synergize with suspend, time counters, and the like – a similar approach to blue (it does what other colors can’t, basically). Other ideas mixed things that other colors can do, like haste (red), discard (black), trample (green), lifegain (white), and counterspells (blue).

The New Color Wheel

In this official WotC sketch, purple mana would sit between blue and black. The we all know would be WUPBRG. An interesting implication of this design is that each color would have allies, “soft enemies”, and a “hard enemy”. These would be the opposing colors of white and black, blue and red, purple and green. This mimics what Alpha had from the beginning with mirrored pairs like Blue Elemental Blast and Red Elemental Blast, or White Knight and Black Knight.

So for example, green could have some variation on Autumn's Veil: “Spells you control can’t be countered by purple spells this turn, and creatures you control can’t be the targets of purple spells this turn.” At one point, a purple card was designed like this, according to WotC: 1P – Instant – “Choose one: Counter target green spell, or destroy target green permanent, or destroy target Forest.”

Purple would hypothetically add four 2-color combinations (WP, UP, BP, RP, GP), though green+purple would be rare since those two colors would be “hard enemies”.

Was Colorless Mana Supposed to Be Purple Mana?

It’s not, actually. Colorless mana made sense in the Oath of the Gatewatch set as a theme, and in that set, you needed to draft basic Wastes or lands that produce colorless mana if you have cards with colorless mana requirements, like Matter Reshaper and Thought-Knot Seer. The only coincidence is that a sixth basic land was introduced.

Colorless mana aligns with what Mark Rosewater actually thinks about a sixth color in MTG: It can do stuff other colors can, and it can do something no other color can, and it’s currently very tied to the Eldrazi mechanically and flavorfully, as seen in Oath of the Gatewatch and Modern Horizons 3.

We even got a recent “6-color card” in Thanos, the Mad Titan with its activated ability. We were promised six Infinity Stones in Marvel sets, so it’s fairly safe to think that the sixth one will be either colorless or five colors, or it’ll have a 5-color activated ability to harness it.

What Is the Purple Rarity in MTG?

In Time Spiral, back in 2006, WotC used a timeshifted rarity for the first time. All boosters had a special timeshifted card from the past with a purple expansion symbol on it (at that time, the only rarities were common, uncommon, and rare). The timeshifted sheet contained 121 cards from old border sets, so you can find cool reprints like Lord of Atlantis, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, or Dragonstorm. They even put weak cards like Squire there as a joke.

The set symbol on timeshifted cards was purple, but had no associated with purple mana.

Will MTG Ever Get a Sixth Color?

Although possible in theory, I don’t think MTG will ever get a sixth color. From the beginning, MTG has had five colors and 10 2-color pairs. That’s an important identity to how Constructed and Limited MTG works.

If you draft a set with eight people in a pod, you’ll have people fighting over colors and color pairs: One or two colors will be more disputed, while some color pairs won’t be drafted at all. Adding a sixth color means diluting the color pie and creating five new 2-color pairs.

From Mark Rosewater’s 2019 article, he believes that if MTG had a sixth color, it would be at the center of the color pie. We would have some hybrid cards between, say, red/purple or black/purple, and some new abilities would only be done in purple. Maybe we’d have purple cards that fetch lands, deal direct damage, kill creatures, counter some spells, and even destroy all creatures. But if we think about it, many of these effects are already provided by colorless cards in some shape or form.

It’s interesting to note that other card games on the market already have six colors. Riftbound has six domains: Red (Fury), Green (Calm), Blue (Mind), Orange (body), Purple (Chaos), and Yellow (Order). Star Wars Unlimited has six colors: Blue (Vigilance), Green (Command), Red (Aggression), Yellow (Cunning), as well as White and Black for the Light and the Dark Sides of The Force.

Wrap Up

Purple Worm | Illustration by Olivier Bernard

Today, it’s safe to say MTG doesn’t need a sixth color, and the five colors of mana are tried-and-true and well-balanced. Plus, the 5-color color pie is frequently evolving and being iterated upon. When MTG wants to make something similar to a sixth color, it’s usually a draft or set gimmick, like snow mana or colorless mana in Oath of the Gatewatch.

Ironically enough, if MTG were to have a sixth color, the biggest reason would be Commander. It’s the format that would be most impacted by having a sixth color, so people would be all riled up at the possibility of having mono-colored purple commanders, green and purple commanders, plus all those new 4- and 5-color possibilities.

What do you think of the sixth color and purple mana, guys? Would it be good for the game, or would it be hated to the level of Universes Beyond? Let me know your opinion in the comments section below or on the Draftsim Discord. Thanks for reading, and for more on MTG and Commander, please check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time, stay safe!