Multicolor Strategies
This isn't so much a "color philosophy" in and of itself--it's more a blending of two or more color philosophies into something new. A good multi-color deck has colors that depend on each other for their individual strengths, and with expansion blocks like Invasion, Ravnica, and Shards of Alara, multi-color is very much in vogue. Below is a quick list of what each two-color and three-color combination is about. The Ravnica two-color "guild" names follow in parentheses, so you know what types of cards to look for when you start your two-color searching.
Natural (Friendly) Two-Color Combinations
The following colors "get along" well together and play pretty similarly:
- White/Green (Selesnya): either passive and highly defensive, or ultra-stompy. Requires some "build-up" time, but is well worth the wait.
- White/Blue (Azorius): White's quiet board control and troops mixed with Blue's counter, bounce, or draw, whatever you prefer!
- Blue/Black (Dimir): Blue and Black both control and counter the opponent--a hard combo to beat!
- Black/Red (Rakdos): Red's Burn plus Black's control = a strong one-two punch.
- Green/Red (Gruul): Chaos and nature get along very well--very, VERY aggressive!
Interesting (Enemy) Two-Color Combinations
The following colors have a little harder time playing nice with each other, but it can be done!
- White/Red (Boros): Orderly (White) troops mix with aggressive (Red) troops, and the result is surprisingly well-rounded!
- White/Black (Orzhov): An unlikely alliance, but both colors contain life-gain, some little creatures, and even field control.
- Green/Blue (Simic): Blue's draw, Green's mana acceleration, and both colors' creatures = a tidy combination of resources.
- Black/Green (Golgari): Green makes big stompy creatures, and Black can bring 'em back to life when they die.
- Blue/Red (Izzet): Red gives Blue the early-game punch it needs to take control fast, and Blue gives Red some staying power in later turns.
The following list gives the friendly three-color combinations, with Shards of Alara "shard" names following the color listings.
Natural (Friendly) Three-Color Combinations
- Green/White/Blue (Bant): A big White-like army of little creatures with some unexpected Green punch and Blue utility.
- Red/Green/White (Naya): Green's stompy creatures, Red's burn spells and White's defense combine well!
- Black/Red/Green (Jund): Red and Green's stompy damage allied with Black's control is enough to make even a veteran opponent cringe.
- Blue/Black/Red (Grixis): Red's burn, Blue's counter, and Black's creature destruction means a lot of dead (and undead) things!
- White/Blue/Black (Esper): White's defense and Blue's love of artifacts join with Black control to make a surprisingly well-oiled machine.
You can also make a deck around enemy 3-color combos, but they aren't as well-supported. However, they did make Dragons in Planar Chaos that were associated with the enemy-color combinations. Those Dragons' names are listed in parentheses after the color listing.
Interesting (Enemy) Three-Color Combinations
- White/Black/Red (Oros, the Avenger): White and Black's control mixed with armies from both Red and White.
- Black/Green/Blue (Vorosh, the Hunter): A subtle, poisonous combination of Blue's counter/draw, Black's field control, and Green's ability to land-search.
- Blue/Red/Green (Intet, the Dreamer): Blue keeps the opponent at bay with spells while Red/Green armies tear their Life Points up.
- Red/Blue/White (Numot, the Devastator): Red's burn, Blue's draw and control, and White's massive army? DANGEROUS.
- White/Green/Black (Teneb, the Harvester): White and Green keep mana flowing and toughnesses high, while Black is the "just-in-case" control.