ARTICLE: Learn a bit about MtG

[FM]

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Those without prejudice in their hearts, enter!
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Well, some people have requested this article already for quite some time, so I think it's about time I posted it. As usual, brace yourselves for a long run, 'cause this is yet another big article. However, this time, I strongly advise you against reading it all at once, since the idea is exactly that, teaching the game, so it's better to learn bit by bit. So, without further ado, here's my always handy and trustworthy Table of Contents, to help guide you through the article!


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Understanding the End
2. Upsides & Downsides
2.1. Lord of the Rings
2.2. Magic: the Gathering
3. MtG general analysis
4. Explaining gameplay
5. Card types
5.1. Lands
5.2. Creatures
5.3. Sorceries
5.4. Instants
5.5. Enchantments
5.6. Artifacts
5.7. Tribals
5.8. Planeswalkers
6. Priority and the Stack
7. Phases of the turn
8. Strategies

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1. Understanding the End

To kick things off, I'd like to start with a tribute to one of the greatest TCGs ever created, which is Lord of the Rings. Fresh, inventive, flavorful and resourceful as well, the game amassed a huge number of fans right from the start, myself included, and fought for the top spot in most played TCG around the globe for some time. How, then, does such a great game goes under like this? How can it go down in such shame, having no playtesters, and only ONE guy responsible for keeping it runing?
The main reason, fellas, is plainly simple: greed.
Since LotR TCG  was such a hit right from the start (with a "little" help from the movies, notheless), Decipher saw in it a way to make a quick (and big) buck, so they started exploring it, perhaps a bit too much too quickly. Every new TCG goes through some trouble until estabilishing its "main" core set of rulings, and sometimes they have to turn 180º degrees to correct designing issues. However, as soon as the first block was over and the second one was released, there came the first batch of problems:

a) Sites were obsolete: the sites everyone learned to love and/or hate, all of a sudden, were gone even from Open play, taking with it a big chunk of strategy. And why? "Because it's not flavorful to have the Fellowship going from the Shire to Helm's Deep and then back again." Well, looking at the new policy in sites, we can clearly see that that was not the issue. Thing is, they wanted to encourage players to buy the new sets. Of course, that's not a bad thing! They HAVE to sell cards in order to keep the game going, right? But then, why don't offer something GOOD for keeping up? Like BIG prize support, large tournaments, and such? No, it's easier to just cross out the old cards, "forcing" people to buy the newer ones anyway;

b) Allies were made much less useful: let's face it, allies from the second block were pretty crappy when confronted with the ones from Fellowship block, so they just went and did the same thing as with the sites, stating that site numbers only referred to sites within their own block. By doing this, they ALSO rendered obsolete stealth events like Hobbit Stealth and Hobbit Intuition, turning them into mere strength pumps, when they were SO much superior to the stealth events in the next block;

c) The large X-List: in order to "force" (rather than encourage) new strategies, instead of issueing errata for some older cards deemed overpowered, or creating counter-cards/strategies for them, they just went and X-ed some of the most beloved cards from the block;

d) "The great culture mess-up": D made perhaps one of the biggest mistakes ever, when they simply KILLED the Moria culture, one of the most popular cultures out there, beloved by many players! They seemed to redeem themselves by adding a new, exciting culture full of swarm potential, the Dunland, and then simply killed IT, too, after the second block. Sure, it's flavorful, but is it smart?;

e) Price rise: After the first block was over, the prices sky-rocketed, and due to the high exchange rate for US dollars, importing the game became too expensive, and playing it in other countries became very hard.

Then, of course, when the movie's fever wore down, while D continued to offer very little prize support for the tournaments and kept constantly X-ing some of the cooler cards out there, player's discontempt grew, and they started walking away. When money stopped flowing in as it used too, what did D do? Fired a lot of people. Here, I think, they made their crucial mistake, since this essentially threw then into a loophole, having no money flowing in to rocket the game back up the top spot again, and having fewer people working in making the game interesting and cool, thus lowering player interest, so on, so forth. I believe a good example of this is the creation, with King block, of the threats (a very game-changing design that, in terms of gameplay, blew away a lot of flavor, since threats, flavor-wise, are very similar to good old burdens in lots of ways) and the ridiculous "initiative" rule. I'd say the creation of Followers, and subsequent anihillation of Allies, were just the last droplet of water. Sure, some people might like some of those rules, I, for one, love threats, and think it WAS a very smart move to allow for design space, but the other ones were just not well thought-through, IMO.

And so, it ends. Not in the glorious way it should, going down with a loud bang, but in great shame, with a set full of problematic, unbalanced and unflavorful cards, and with a "last buck" "good-bye" set that does NOT represent the game's greatness AT ALL. With SO MUCH design space available, with so many fans of the stoy world-wide, the game ends. There's really no good explanation, nor a good excuse for letting this happen.
So, I hereby congratulate all of the Cobra Cards player's community, and now the The Last Homely House player's community, who chose to NOT let the great game die, who chose to endure. Of course, we ALL know it's not gonna last TOO long, but still it's a very nice effort.

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2. Upsides & Downsides
So, in order to keep you guys interested from now on, let's take a quick look at what both LotR and MtG have to offer, so you don't think you're being trickied or something:

2.1. Lord of the Rings

Ups:
- Taken from one of the most beloved tales of the world;
- Since it was deemed over, a lot of the cards can be bought now at dirt cheap prices, and it'll only lower from here on, except for a few cards, too rare to get your hands on easily;
- The "bond" with your deck's characters is far superior than that from most TCGs out there;
- The "skirmish rule" makes battles more flavorful;
- There is now a limited amount of cards available, making it quite more possible to collect them all, if you're interested in doing so;
- The unique characters are (mostly) well known due to the books' and movies' popularity, making them even more flavorful and fun to play with;
- Due to the massive handcycling the "reconcile" rule creates, the luck factor is diminished greatly, allowing for strategy to have a greater impact than just sheer luck.

Downs:
- There're no more cards being released, what you see is what you get, no more new stuff;
- Prize support was too low, now it's close to non-existant;
- Player community has shrunk significantly;
- Official tournaments are next to non-existant;
- The matches are a bit too long, making it a less "dynamic" game;
- Too many broken and error-filled cards running loose lately;
- The "reconcile" rule allows for players to cram in a lot of little combos and actually pull most of them out in a given match, lowering deck-building skill and limiting the niche for "tutor" effects;
- Different formats are not encouraged as they should be, the game focusing almost solely on Standard, for official tournament's sake.

2.2. Magic: the Gathering

Ups:
- Not tied to a single story, so close-to-limitless possibilities;
- Games are (usually) quicker;
- Better prize support;
- Much more official tournaments;
- Largest player community in the globe;
- Format-encouraging, as far as possible (Vintage is not that much encouraged, since most players can't afford to buy the cards you need to have a shot at playing it);
- You don't play "2 decks in one", so there're not so many dead cards in your hand at any given time, making the game a little more dynamic;
- Matches tend to be best 2 out of 3, lowering the luck factor a bit;
- Sideboards allow for great deck customization, as well as helping control broken cards/decks;
- Not so many broken cards running loose out there, they're usually kept in check;
- The Stack and Priority rules allow for very cool interactions.

Downs:
- Not as flavorful in relation to characters;
- Combat has much less of an impact;
- A very good, competitive deck WILL cost some money;
- The story behind each block is not as well known (although the novels ARE available for purchase);
- Luck factor is a bit higher due to much less card-drawing;
- Manascrew can ruin a game;
- Colorscrew can ALSO ruin a game.
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3. MtG general analysis

In order to introduce a new game, I think the best thing is to tell people what it's all about, so they grasp the general concept of it. So, what in heaven's name IS Magic: the Gathering, anyway?
Magic's story takes place in different worlds of different planes, each with their own geography, conflicts, races and peculiarities (much like Middle-Earth). Some very strong wizards have the ability to travel through those planes, overseeing them all and playing roles in some of them. These are the Planeswalkers.
The game itself, in it's most raw form (meaning a one-on-one game), depicts a battle between two planeswalkers, you and your opponent. For those of you familiar with the battle between Gandalf and Saruman, well, you have a pretty good idea of how a Wizard's duel go. So, the game features two really powerful wizards in an epic battle, each flinging spells at the other, trying to vanquish the opponent. Each wizard draws power, in the form of mana, from different elements and different sources, but they usually draw it from the land itself, channeling the power drawn into powerful effects, like producing bolts of electricity, shooting fireballs, changing the weather and summoning stuff, from monsters to powerful humanoids, to epic artifacts of great power. All these tools help the wizard in vanquishing his or her opponent. So, when a wizard casts a spell and sends forth a huge, tidal Flame Wave at their opponent, they can shield themselves behind a magic Circle of Protection, or they can just counter the first wizard's spell stopping him dead in his tracks, or even distort it to send it back at him. You can summon almost anything, from an army of Goblins to a huge flying Dragon. This is what MtG is all about, an epic, MAGIC battle!

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4. Explaining gameplay

Ok, so now you've grasped the concept, but, how do you proceed to finishing off the opposing wizard?
There are 4 main ways of winning a game:
1 - Reducing your opponent's life points to 0 (you both start at 20, although you can go above that);
2 - Decking (if a player has to draw a card and can't, due to an empty library, he loses the game);
3 - "Win the game" cards (some cards have an effect that let you instantly win the game, although they're quite hard to build around, and hard to pull off in competitive play, as well);
4 - Earning a concession (in tournaments, matches have a limited amount of time to play out, so if a game becomes unwinable, you might as well concede and proceed to the next game, in order to try and turn the match around in your favor).

You can accomplish these things by means of your spells, present in your library. Your draw deck, in MtG, is called your "Library", and similarly, it must have AT LEAST 60 cards (or 40 cards, for Limited play), having no more than 4 copies of any given card, except for Basic Lands (the basic lands are Swamp, Mountain, Plains, Island, Forest, Snow-Covered Swamp, Snow-Covered Mountain, Snow-Covered Plains, Snow-Covered Island and Snow-Covered Forest).
In order to cast your spells (any non-land card is considered a spell), you have to pay its cost (represented in the upper-right corner of the card), by spending the appropriate amount of mana. Mana is the power that you draw from the Lands (as well as some other sources), and works much like twilight. However, twilight is a 2-way street, with one player adding, and the other player spending, while in MtG each player has their own mana pool, so you pay for your own spells wih your own mana.
However, these are better explained by introducing the card types, so, let's get to it!

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5. Card types

5.1. Lands:
These are the most basic cards, and any deck will have to run them in order to play spells (there ARE a few exceptions, but as a rule of thumb, you need lands). Lands have no correspondent in LotR, since the FP player can ditch their entire hand simply by adding twilight, and the SH player will then proceed to spending it. During each of your turns, by default, you can play ONE land, during one of the Main Phases. Unless stated otherwise, it will come into play untapped, and it can be tapped for the appropriate amount and color of mana right away. Since each turn you untap your permanents (permanents are anything that is in play and not ON a card), you can use a land's mana once per full-turn. In order to play a spell, you need to pay it's cost, by spending mana of the appropriate color, and sometimes some amount of colorless mana. Any colored mana added to your mana pool can be spent as colorless mana, so to play a spell that costs double white mana, you can tap 2 Plains. To play a spell that costs a colorless and a white mana, you can tap 2 Plains, 1 Plains and 1 Mountain, 1 Plains and 1 Mutavault, so on, so forth.

5.2. Creatures:
Creatures are the most obvious way of winning a game, and most newer players' decks are all about creatures. A creature card is a spell when you play it and it's on the Stack, and when the spell resolves, it then summons the monster, and the card becomes a creature, instead of a spell, coming into play. Creatures have the biggest array of abilities (we'll be discussing these later), and each creature card has two numbers in their lower-right corner, the first standing for power (the amount of damage that creature can deal in combat), and the second (after the "/") for toughness (how much damage it can sustain before succumbing), much like strength and vitality. The catch? Toughness, unlike vitality, is restored each turn, so a 4-toughness creature who received 2 points of damage last turn is now fully healed and ready to rumble again!
Creatures can attack in order to deal damage to the opposing wizard, and HIS creatures can block yours, going into combat. Unlike LotR, there's no such thing as "winning side" in a battle between creatures, nor there are multiple skirmishes, action takes place all at once. If a creature is blocked and combat endures, if they deal their damage, they'll both dealt it to each other at the same time, so 2 creatures can, essentially, destroy themselves in combat.
Unblocked creatures deal their damage to the opponent's life points.
By default, creature spells can be played only during your main phases, and a creature cannot tap for an effect from itself that has a symbol the same turn it came into play (this is called "summoning sickness"), and it can't attack that turn.

5.3. Sorceries
Sorceries are similar to events. They all produce an effect in the game, and then are put in your graveyard, the equivalent of a discard pile (there's no such thing as a Dead Pile). Sorceries are, in game terms, "slower" spells, and can be cast only during your main phases of the turn.

5.4. Instants
Instants are ALSO similar to events. However, unlike sorceries, they're "faster" spells, so they can be played freely at any time, provided you can pay the costs and have priority (we'll get to that in a second). Activated abilities of a card, unless noted otherwise, can be used at instant speed as well (respecting summoning sickness). Activated ability is any ability with an activation cost, even it the cost is only tapping, or it is paying 0 mana.

5.5. Enchantments
Enchantments ar ethe equivalent of conditions, they sit there and can either produce a lingering effect, or let you pay a cost to get an effect from it. Some can even be sacrificed for a cost, much like discarding a condition for some benefit. Also, like their LotR counterparts, some enchantments must be played on a creature. These are called Auras.

5.6. Artifacts
Artifacts are the equivalent of possessions. The default rule for artifacts is that they're played to the game area and not on a creature. However, certain types of artifacts, once in play, can be equipped on a creature for some benefit, much like the regular LotR possessions that are borne by a character. Equipping is done at sorcery speed, and you can transfer the equipment by paying its equip cost. Also, when an equipped creature dies, the equipment returns to the game play area instead of going with it. You can only equip your own creatures.

5.7. Tribals
Tribal is a new card type introduced in Future Sight, created mainly to add flavor to the game. There is no such a thing as a card that reads "tribal", tribal will always accompany non-creature card types, and add to them a creature type, so Bound in Silence, instead of being only an Enchantment – Aura, is a "Tribal Enchantment – Rebel Aura", meaning it interacts with cards that care about Rebels, as well as cards that care about enchantments and auras. So, if a card allows you to, for instance, search your library for a Rebel card, you can search a creature like Amrou Scout, or a card like Bound in Silence, or even Nameless Inversion.

5.8. Planeswalkers
Since I have already given a thorough explanation on Planeswalkers, I'll restrain from repeating myself, but you can read all about it [url:]here[/url].
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6. Priority and the Stack

The Stack is a theoric concept, and it's the cornerstone of MtG, what makes it truly unique. The stack is, metaphorically speaking, exactly that: a stack. A big pile of abilities and effects. Every time an effect takes place in the game, like a spell being cast, or the use of an activated ability, or even a triggered ability triggering, it goes on the stack. It "waits" there to resolve, thus taking place in the game. Instead of the LotR rules of alternated actions, the active player (the one playing their turn) has what's called priority, which is like a "permission to play cards". So, he can do whatever he can/want during a given phase of the turn. Whenever he does something he can respond to it himself (it's very rare to be worth doing so, but it's important to know that you can, YOU have priority to respond to your own spells first). After an effect is placed on the stack (from a trigger, an activated ability or a spell being cast), if the active player does nothing else, he ships priority to the defending player (priority is also shipped before moving into a new phase if the active player declined to do something). If he does something that places an effect on the stack, he can also respond to it first (he has priority now), and then ships priority back to the active player, so on, until no one does anything else. Then, the stack starts resolving, top to bottom (although for EVERY spell or ability that resolves, priority IS passed around again; the stack does not resolve "all at once" anymore, like it did before 6th Edition's Rules Update). So, this means "last in, first out", meaning the very last effect to go onto the stack will be the first one to resolve. Why is this good?
Suppose you attack me with an unblocked 5/2 creature. Before it deals its damage, you play a pump effect, giving it, say, +3/+3 (more power AND toughness, pump effects commonly pump both, unlike in LotR). It hasn't dealt damage to me yet, but it will deal a full 8 points once the pump effect resolves. However, while your pump spell/effect is still on the stack, I receive priority to respond. Say, then, that I respond with an Instant (can be played at any time, remeber?) that deals 2 points of damage to your creature. It'll go on the stack (so, from bottom to top, it'll be your pump effect, then my burn spell), and priority will be shipped back to you. Supposing you do nothing else, and I do nothing else, then the stack starts resolving. First, my burn spell will resolve, dealing 2 points of damage to your creature. Since it has 2 toughness, it dies, and when your pump effect resolves, it will be countered since the original target died. Which leads us to the most important procedure of playing a spell or activating an ability:
- Declare that you're doing so, and choose a valid target, if the effect requires one: a spell goes on the stack already with its target assigned, so if anything alters the game state of that target, you can't simply change it to another one, it is countered for lack of legal targets upon resolution (if it had more than one target and at least one is still legal, it is NOT countered, though). Why is this bit of info important? Because it's "lack of legal targets upon RESOLUTION", meaning you MUST have a legal target when you PLAY the spell or activate the effect, even if you might not have it around anymore when resolving it.
Also, one last bit of info, when a bunch of effects go to the stack at the same time, first the active player's are put on the stack, THEN the non-active player's, meaning it will resolve first. Also, when there's one controller to multiple effects happening at once, he chooses how to stack them, which is important, due to what may be altered depending on what order they resolve, so knowing about priority and the stack is crucial to playing well.

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7. Phases of the Turn

This is, by far, the most difficult thing to teach about Magic (except, perhaps, the Layers Rule), properly playing through the phases of the turn. I'll try and give you a rundown on it.

1 – Untap step
2 – Upkeep
3 – Draw step
4 – First Main Phase
5 – Combat Phase
a)Beggining of combat
b)Declare attackers step
c)Declare blockers step
d)Combat damage step
e)End of combat
6 – Second main phase
7 – End of turn
8 – Clean-up step

1 – Untap step:
Simple as it goes, you just untap all your tapped permanents, unless some effect clearly states you can't untap any/some of them for some reason. No player receives priority during this step. This step is ignored during the first turn of the first player of the game.

2 – Upkeep:
A lot of abilities trigger during this phase. Also, players receive priority to play spells and abilities during the upkeep, although they must be instant-speed. Mana added during this phase lasts until the end of the draw step, then the mana pool is emptied and if mana was added but not spent, its owner loses 1 life for each unused mana in his pool. This is called "manaburn", and it takes place whenever the mana pool is emptied and there is leftover mana in it.

3 – Draw step:
Draw your card for the turn. Players receive priority to play spells during this step, but the mana pool is emptied before moving on to the next phase. This step is also ignored during the first turn of the first player of the game.

4 – First Main Phase:
The active player receives priority, and can play virtually any card in his hand, from Lands to Sorceries, Creatures or Instants, shipping priority upon playing/using something that goes onto the stack, or declaring his intention to do nothing. He gets priority back, though, in case the non-active player uses the stack, even if he had declared his intention to do nothing. The mana pool is emptied before moving onto the next phase.

5 – Combat Phase:
a) Beggining of combat:
Triggered abilities that refer to this point of the turn trigger. Players get priority to play spells or abilities (this is the last opportunity for the defending player to tap a creature, thus preventing it from attacking).

b) Declare attackers step:
The active player declares what creatures will be attacking for the turn. At this point, you decide which creature will be attacking which target (in case the defending player has Planeswalkers on the table). Players then receive priority (this is the last opportunity for the attacking player to tap a creature, thus preventing it from blocking).

c) Declare blockers step:
The defending player will choose which creatures will be blocking which  attackers, respecting restrictions, such as creatures with shadow can only block and be blocked by other creatures with shadow, creatures with fear can only be blocked by artifact and/or black creatures, flying creatures can be blocked only by creatures with flying and/or reach, so on, so forth. Players then receive priority (meaning that, if you decide to kill a blocker at this point, it will stop it from dealing damage to the creature it blocked, but WON'T make the creature "unblocked", since the blocking was determined BEFORE you got priority to play the removal spell).

d) Combat damage step:
At this point, combat damage goes onto the stack, and players then receive priority. After they both pass it, combat damage resolves, all at once. Any creature with lethal damage on them is then destroyed, and put into it's owner's graveyard.
EXCEPTION: Creatures with First-Strike deal damage during the "First-Strike Damage Step", a combat damage step that happens only when such a creature is involved in combat, BEFORE regular combat damage is dealt. Creatures with Double-Strike deal damage in both phases.

e) End of combat:
Triggered abilities that refer to this point trigger, and players then receive priority. The mana pool is emptied.

6 – Second Main Phase:
Identical to the first main phase, with the sole exception that, if you played a Land during your first main phase, you can't play one during the second.

7 – End of Turn:
Effects that say "at end of turn..." trigger at this point, and players receive priority yet again.

8 – Clean-up Step:
At this point, damage wears off of creatures (except, of course, wither damage), and players must discard excess cards in their hand to keep it to a maximum of 7 cards. Players normally DO NOT gain priority during this step, but certain things can change that. For instance, if one of my discards is a card with Madness, it's triggered ability will trigger, and it'll go on the stack, allowing me to play it for it's Madness cost, which will, in turn, make each player gain priority to respond. If something like this happens, after it resolves, ANOTHER Clean-up Step happens until nothing disturbs it.

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8. Strategies

Strategies are the different plans your deck will pack to, you know, actually WIN the game (and I've seen a good share of decks that are very good at PLAYING the game, but simply couldn't WIN the game effectively). You can pack a billion different combination of cards to make your avergae 60-card deck, but deck archetypes fall basically into 3 huge categories:

Aggro: Aggro comes from "aggressive", and means beatdown decks that usually pack cost-efficient creatures and some utility spells to either clear the way or dome the opponent to get rid of his few life points left from the early assault. They usually cannot survive the long run, and must look to end the game quickly. Most such decks tend to pack red as a color, for its burn spells, although some green/white variants are also well know, for the combination usually has the most efficient non-expendable creatures, and pump spells function pretty much the same way as burn spells would. Aggro decks should curve out at 4 mana, with a few exception when certain spells excel at the objective, like playing a few copies (usually 2, 3 TOPS) of Siege-Gang Commander. Sideboard should also take this in consideration.

Combo: Combo is a combination of any number of cards (although the less the better) that USUALLY either wins you the game right away or make it almost impossible to lose and let you win in very few turns. Combo decks usually play a bunch of early disruption to keep your opponent from taking away valuable combo pieces as you go about laying them on the board or carving the perfect hand, and will play a lot of "stalling" cards like wrath effects, counters, bounce, etc. Combo decks are usually full of tutor effects as well (any effect that let you search a specific card in your library, as to make it easier to assemble the combo), and as much draw spells as they can cram in the deck, usually not caring too much about mana cost (you ARE winning the game, after all). Combo decks sideboards are usually as messy as the main deck, with outs for pretty much any troublesome card they might face (and by troublesome, I mean "card than can single-handedly wreck your whole strategy).

Control: Control are decks that grind the game early on so as to amass a vast number of resources and basically blow the opponent away, denying him pretty much any way out of your grasp. Control decks and combo decks play very similarly, but combo decks tend to be faster and more disruptable, while control decks will still rely on creatures to win every now and then, although they play only a few, exceptional creatures, usually very large. Control decks will play cheap disruption (early counters, discard spells, etc), middle-ranged wrath effects and "locks" (a combination of cards that traps the opponent in some way) and high-end creatures.




Well, this about sums it up, as an introduction. However, the best way to actually learn the game is by playing. Be sure to get MWS if you plan on playing the game, and our community members will gladly help out, walking you through it.

[SomeRandomDude]

I think you should cover combinations of decks. Like, aggro/control hybrid, such as Angelfire, were really powerful.

Other than that, fix the ugly code tags and it looks good.

[Malachi]

Hey, nice article, now I know at least a bit about MTG

[FM]

Fixed the codes. I'll refrain from covering hybrid builds for now, as that's a more advanced deckbuilding technique (and most hybrid decks could actually be considered Control builds anyway). However, I intend to keep on writing, so I'll probably base a future piece of work on it.

[Kralik]

Very nice writeup! If only I had more time...

[Gate Troll]

Neat! I really like the 'stack' concept. for you.  Now to find some cards...

[FM]

Download MWS, it's far easier than "finding some cards" right away. Just get a hang of it, try some of the decks that come with the program so you can learn how to use it, etc. Or, if you'd like, I could post some decks for you to get the hang of it, which you could build into MWS and try it out. But, yeah, basically, get MWS, it'd be the first step.

[Gate Troll]

MWS being Magic Workstation, right?

[Yanko Markovic]

You forgot to write about each color (strategy and philosophy). That would make a beastly article!

[SomeRandomDude]

Yeah, that would be sweet. Cover the basic color pie, like, this color represents this and is opposed to this, nothing more.

[FM]

@GT: yes.
@ Gizlivadi & NBarden: The main idea of the article was to be a cross-over from LotR to MtG, and colors doens't really fit with the cultures, it's way too different. I intend to cover it in the future, though. Acutally, the very next short article I'm working on is about the color pie.