Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast #1258: History of Colorless
Jul 11, 2025
Dive into the fascinating journey of colorless mana in Magic: The Gathering. Discover how Richard Garfield's early design choices shaped its role in gameplay. Explore the evolution of colorless mechanics, including the influence of Eldrazi and the unique challenges of defining colorless cards. Gain insight into how these elements have impacted game balance and design over the years. A must-listen for fans seeking to understand the complexities behind one of the game's key features!
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Colorless Is The Absence Of Color
- Colorless originally meant artifacts and lands that had no colored mana in their cost.
- Mark Rosewater clarifies colorless is the absence of color, not a sixth color.
Ghostfire As A Design Seed
- Future Sight's Ghostfire showed colorless could be separate from artifacts by being colorless but costing colored mana.
- That card seeded ideas like devoid and introduced Ugin as flavor, inspiring future design.
Eldrazi Made Colorless A Thematic Tool
- Zendikar's Eldrazi used colorless to signal ancient, pre-color beings and to give them a distinct identity.
- Breaking the artifact⇄colorless link let designers use colorless as an independent thematic tool.