Magic: The Gathering Color Guide, part 7 - Combinations

Decks for Magic: The Gathering don't need to be built with a single color, and my previous posts discussed some basic ways the colors can combine. This final article will give a brief overview of the possible color combinations with links to outside sources for more detailed info. The game has a huge backstory around many of these colors and their possible combinations. There is an in-depth wiki article covering the game theory and philosophy behind the colors, but you can also check out my previous posts on the basics behind red, black, green, white, blue, and colorless.

The colors are always shown arranged in a specific order. Colors that are adjacent are considered "allies," while those opposite one another are "enemies." This has little bearing on the game except for a few specific game formats, but is depicted on the back of every standard card used in the game:

Multicolor decks have been possible since the beginning of the game, and over the years, many cards have been printed with more than one kind of mana symbol in the casting cost or activated ability text. A deck may be fairly evenly split between the colors used, or it may have only a "splash" of a color to give a specific desired effect.

The ten possible two-color combinations are connected with the story behind the game through the guilds of Ravnica. The possible three-color combinations are divided into five "shards" from the Alara block and five "wedges" from the Khans of Tarkir block, with the former forming an arc of allied colors, and the latter as a color combined with its pair of enemy colors. There are only five 4-color cards in the game, and the 2016 Commander sets are the first time Wizards of the Coast has designed anything around 4-color decks. Five-color cards and deck archetypes have been around for a long time though. This handy site offers a convenient way to check out the names and symbols connected to the various combination options.

Due to the sheer number of cards printed over the years, there is no way to offer a concise guide to the best ways to combine the colors and build a winner deck. The internet is full of deck lists, arguments over which cards are better, debates over strategy, and rants over which deck is underpowered or overpowered. None of that really matters. Build a deck, play a lot of games, and decide what YOU enjoy. If you are new to the game, you will lose a lot and make a lot of mistakes as you learn. It's part of learning any game, so don't worry about it. Get a grasp of the fundamentals first, learn the basic rules, and think about what you like in the decks you have tried or find yourself playing against.

Explore the game at your own pace. Collect cards, try ideas, and decide where to go from there on your own terms. As always, I suggest using Pucatrade (2026 update: dead link) to trade cards with other players online.