<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wastes|OGW|184" href="#" target="_blank">Wastes</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://raymondswanland.com/">Raymond Swanland</a>)</h6>
<h1>What Does It Mean To Be Colorless?</h1>
<p>Hey here's a question for you, is colorless a "color" in <em>Magic: The Gathering</em>? Here on <em>The Monolith </em>we talk about monocolored deck building.</p>
<p>And whilst I'm sure you wouldn't bat an eye if I called an all green deck monocolored, would you consider an all colorless deck to be monocolored?</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Karn, Silver Golem"></div></div>
<p>Back in 1997, Inquest Magazine posted an April fools joke announcement with some huge news. A new color was coming to <em>Magic: The Gathering</em>!</p>
<p>Produced from basic portal lands, purple mana was being introduced into <em>Magic's </em>card pool and it would allow players to do strange things like control their opponent's turn and anchor creatures to other permanents. It was all very strange and cryptic and, obviously, complete nonsense.</p>
<h2>Planned All Along?</h2>
<p>No, <em>Wizards of the Coast</em> didn't have any plans to add a sixth color to the famous 5 pointed star that makes up <em>Magic's</em> core design philosophy. In fact, in the end, they didn't really need to. <em>Magic</em> had given us a sixth color of <em>Magic</em> from the game's very inception.</p>
<p>It was there in Alpha and remains in every set printed since. All the way up to whatever set just released as you're reading this. Colorless mana!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Emrakul, the Aeons Torn"></div></div>
<p>And whilst it did have some key features that separated it from the big five, it wasn't until the dawn of the Eldrazi that we got to see colorless' true colors.</p>
<p>Colorless was now represented by its very nature. Devoid. Inhuman. The spaces between reality. The Eldrazi were a perfect fit for that philosophy.</p>
<p>An unknowable cosmic horror from beyond our understanding. Colorless now had its own kindred strategies. It had mechanical flavor.</p>
<h3>Mechanical Mechanics</h3>
<p>And this was merely a flourish on what was already there. Colorless was already associated with the machine. Artifacts and Urza's inventions. The Tron lands and mana rocks making for strange, colorless ramp tied to permanents.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Urza&#039;s Tower"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Urza&#039;s Power Plant"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Urza&#039;s Mine"></div></div>
<p>Artifact cards in general, whilst playing well with most colors, are predominantly colorless themselves. A few might have a proper pip in them, but for the most part they're all paid for by generic mana.</p>
<p>That is of course then reflected by its sub-type Equipment. Most would associate them with red or white, but equipment cards are overwhelmingly colorless as well.</p>
<p>Colorless had a "vibe" to it that the release of the Eldrazi merely solidified and expanded upon. It was an elegant solution from <em>Magic's </em>designers to fulfill their "what if?" fantasies of a new color. To build on something that was as yet untouched but already bubbling under the surface of the game.</p>
<h2>Still Not Enough</h2>
<p>But despite all this support for <em>Magic's </em>secret sixth primary, there are still those out there that would say, "No! There are five colors in <em>Magic</em>.</p>
<p>Colorless is not a color, it is merely a supplement to the actual five." And they're not unsupported in that claim. In fact, those are the actual rules of <em>Magic: The Gathering</em>!</p>
<p>'105.1. There are five colors in the <em>Magic</em> game: white, blue, black, red, and green'</p>
<p>'105.4. If a player is asked to choose a color, they must choose one of the five colors. “Multicolored” is<br />
not a color. Neither is “colorless.”'</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Angelic Intervention"></div></div>
<p>That's why when this protection spell was printed in <em>March of the Machine</em>, a set that largely revolved around the mechanic of making colorless creature tokens, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Angelic Intervention" href="#" target="_blank">Angelic Intervention</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> had to be worded like this. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mother of Runes" href="#" target="_blank">Mother of Runes</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can't protect you from a colorless spell.</p>
<h2>Then What The Heck is My Eldrazi Deck?</h2>
<p>Now whilst I'm sure this was debated for a long time before hand, I think this really became a point of contention when EDH started to gain popularity.</p>
<p>In Commander of course, your deck has a color identity. If your commander is red, you can only include red cards in its deck. Those are the rules of the format.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Liberator, Urza&#039;s Battlethopter"></div></div>
<p>So what about when I build a deck around <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Liberator, Urza&#039;s Battlethopter" href="#" target="_blank">Liberator, Urza&#039;s Battlethopter</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>? Colorless spells have no color. So they can be included in a Commander deck of any color.</p>
<p>But if my commander itself has no color. Then the color identity of that deck... is colorless. It can only run colorless spells. Does that mean that colorless is a color identity? Or that my deck simply doesn't have one?</p>
<h3>The Evidence is There</h3>
<p>And that might be a technicality but there's plenty of other things in the game that point toward this point's legitimacy. Colorless, for example, has its own basic land type. The <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wastes" href="#" target="_blank">Waste</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wastes"></div></div>
<p>That's something that might seem silly or gimmicky until you realize that there are plenty of spells that straight up require colorless mana to cast. In fact, <em>Modern Horizons 3 </em>added a whole heaping of them to the card pool.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="It That Heralds the End"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Breaker of Creation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Echoes of Eternity"></div></div>
<p>The aforementioned <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Angelic Intervention" href="#" target="_blank">Angelic Intervention</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is worded that way because needing to protect yourself from a colorless threat is just as important in the game as any of the main five colors.</p>
<p>There's plenty of colorless creatures, spells, and abilities. You need to be able to protect yourself from them in some way.</p>
<h2>Colorless KPIs</h2>
<p>So there's a mechanical justification for this aesthetic problem, but what about the actual aesthetics themselves. As our title asks, what does it mean to be colorless? If red is know by its aggression, direct damage, and impulsive draw. What is colorless known for?</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Myr Enforcer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Myr Battlesphere"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Myr Retriever"></div></div>
<p>The Eldrazi are certainly the poster child creature type, but there's also the robots and automatons as well. The Myr of <em>Mirrodin </em>have plenty of iconic cards without a single colored pip.</p>
<p>Not to mention all the Assembly Workers and Constructs. There's also some incredibly influential characters in <em>Magic's </em>lore who don't identify with any of the five colors.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ugin, Eye of the Storms"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Karn Liberated"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tezzeret, Cruel Captain"></div></div>
<p>Ugin has just returned to the fold in <em>Tarkir: Dragonstorm </em>but as the brother of legendary big bad Nicol Bolas, he's been incredibly influential over <em>Magic's</em> history.</p>
<p>Karn is no different, forming Mirrodin itself and inadvertently spreading the curse of the Phyrexians. We've just seen spoilers for <em>Edge of Eternities</em> and Tezzeret has popped once again as well. Despite being largely aligned with blue and black mana in the past, this time around he's completely colorless.</p>
<h3>Solid as Darksteel</h3>
<p>Being colorless when you're a named character is a big deal as well. There's plenty of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skittering Surveyor" href="#" target="_blank">Skittering Surveyor</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>s that only exist to make draft a little easier and don't really impact the story all that much.</p>
<p>We're trained to think that something being colorless means that it doesn't really matter what color deck you play it in, it's a slightly worse card that anyone can play. Or it's generic enough that anyone would use it.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tezzeret, Artifice Master"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tezzeret, Master of Metal"></div></div>
<p>But when a mainline character who's been in color before, turns up colorless? That means something. It's a statement by <em>Wizards of the Coast. </em>His colorless identity means something stylistically, narratively, and gameplay...ly.</p>
<h2>All is Dust</h2>
<p>So what does this all really mean? In the end its semantics really. The only reason I brought it up is as a big fan of monocolored decks, I've always drawn to the strange allure of a deck that runs absolutely no colors at all.</p>
<p>But with the amount of support <em>Wizards </em>has printed for that archetype, it seems in my mind like it's an idea that's officially supported. Even if the official rules of the game perhaps state otherwise.</p>
<p>It's also an interesting look at how our patterns of play can change how we see our favorite card game. This thought may have never crossed my mind if Emrakul or the Devoid keyword was never printed.</p>
<p>If the colorless mana symbol was never introduced. Or if the format we all now know and love as Commander never rose to popularity.</p>
<p>Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Would you die on the hill that wastes produce <em>Magic's </em>sixth color of mana? Or are you staunch five-only truther? If you were going to add a sixth color to <em>MTG </em>which stupid shade would you pick, and why is it <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@officialmagiconline/video/7508864340657769758">Periwinkle</a>?</p>
<p>Regardless, thank you for reading, and I'll see you on the next edition of <em>The Monolith</em>.</p>


Are Colorless Cards Part of Magic's Color Pie?

<h6 style="text-align: right;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tezzeret, Cruel Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Tezzeret, Cruel Captain</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Illustrated by <a href="https://www.rahnart.com/">Chris Rahn</a> | Image credit: Wizards of the Coast</h6>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>On the night of Thursday, June 19th, Wizards of the Coast officially revealed the full card for <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tezzeret, Cruel Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Tezzeret, Cruel Captain</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This <em>Edge of Eternities</em> card is going to be a hit amongst artifact fans of all kinds! But what does the card do, and why is it such a hyped centerpiece for the set? Read on, and learn more!</p>
<h2>Tezzeret's Various In-Game Applications</h2>
<p>Currently, neither we nor Scryfall have a good render of the card handy, as most of the assets available come from photographs of the render. However, the shots we have, all thanks to fans at MagicCon Las Vegas's Black Lotus VIP Lounge, show a complete card. As such, we feel it appropriate to share it here:</p>
<div id="attachment_156786" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tezzeret-Crual-Captain-photo.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-156786" class="wp-image-156786" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tezzeret-Crual-Captain-photo.jpg" alt="A photo of the render for Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, a new card from Edge of Eternities. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast" width="401" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tezzeret-Crual-Captain-photo.jpg 672w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tezzeret-Crual-Captain-photo-215x300.jpg 215w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-156786" class="wp-caption-text">A photo of the render for Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, a new card from <em>Edge of Eternities</em>. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast</p></div>
<p>Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is a 4-loyalty planeswalker card for <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-3" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> with no conventional means to gain loyalty. However, he has a <em>very</em> strong triggered ability that gains him the loyalty needed to survive. And boy howdy, does he ever gain it! Gaining one loyalty counter whenever an artifact you control enters, Tezzeret <em>could</em> activate his -7 ultimate loyalty ability on the turn he comes in. However, he's more useful for his -3 ability, which tutors up an artifact of mana value 1 or less. This is powerful in <em>so many formats</em>. Many Commander players will automatically recognize that this Tezzeret can immediately tutor up a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sol Ring" href="#" target="_blank">Sol Ring</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>And don't misunderstand me. Sol Ring is great, but Vintage players are apt to want to use Tezzeret to tutor up a Moxen card like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mox Sapphire" href="#" target="_blank">Mox Sapphire</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, or a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Black Lotus" href="#" target="_blank">Black Lotus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. In Modern, players will be able to tutor up a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mox Opal" href="#" target="_blank">Mox Opal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, previously banned until very recently. Legacy's expansive player base seems to have it best here. They are able to tutor up <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lion&#039;s Eye Diamond" href="#" target="_blank">Lion&#039;s Eye Diamond</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or basically any Mox that's legal in the format.</p>
<h2>Tezzeret, Living Life on the <em>Edge of Eternities</em></h2>
<p>This card is undeniably strong. Furthermore, his art, illustrated by <em>Magic</em> artist <strong><a href="https://www.rahnart.com/">Chris Rahn</a></strong>, is stunning and dramatic, perfectly fitting for a space opera-style setting.</p>
<p>How would you use Tezzeret, Cruel Captain? Hopefully, the card has its use in <em>Edge of Eternities</em> Limited, so it's not a bust to open him in your Draft or Prerelease Sealed pools. Nevertheless, the card is fantastic.</p>
<p>So with that, let's open the floor to you, dear readers! How do you feel about this new card from <em>Edge of Eternities</em>? Do you think it's strong enough to see play in formats outside of Commander? Which ones do you foresee him being used in? Sound off below!</p>


tezzeret

Are Colorless Cards Part of Magic's Color Pie?

Edge Of Eternities - Tezzeret, Cruel Captain Officially Revealed