The announcement that Portal cards would now be legal in Type 1 has created a major debate among 5-Color as to whether Portal should be allowed in 5-Color as well. The largest portion of this debate from the side of the people against adding Portal cards was that adding four new tutors to the format at the same time would be horribly detrimental to the nature of competitive 5-Color, further separating the haves from the have-nots even more when it comes to finding $125 lying around for some of the rarer tutors from the Portal sets.

This brought 5-color Ruling Committee person Pat Fehling to state, "I'm afraid that the 'change' to allow the tutors will only result in redundancy of games beyond what we have seen before." Redundancy has been the source of some of the most broken combo decks in the format, eliminating the drawback that is supposed to come from restricting powerful cards.

Adrian Sullivan further noted that, after a discussion with Ed Fear:
"If we look at the inclusion of new tutors, they have been at a slow pace until now. What might have been 'a few years' until critical mass gets hit hard with four new tutors: Imperial Scroll, Cruel Tutor, Grim Tutor, and Personal Tutor. At the casual level, these cards will have a pretty big impact for those that acquire them. Suddenly, those few cards that you play that are game-turners are going to be much more acquirable.

"But that's nothing compared to the people that already have a huge money advantage over other players. These players are going to find that the ways that they build their decks are even less prone to creativity. Control and Combo are the ones that get the big edge here, but the power aggro-decks also get a boost."

Adrian makes an excellent point that as we gain more tutors, we lose the meaning of "restriction" altogether on those cards that are restricted. Eventually, there will be a critical mass of tutors that will allow any player to get any card from his deck, collection, or other game resource - and thereby limit the randomness that was intended when the 250-card format was developed.

At the same time, there are new players here in the states and overseas looking for new ways to play 5-Color who may not have access to the power cards, or even have an interest in playing highly competitive decks. These casual players seem to be the ones who want to see Portal become legal in 5-Color the most.

A while back, there was a discussion about fracturing 5-Color into two groups - a Competitive (Type 1) format and a Casual (Type 2) format. These two formats would have the same deckbuilding rules, but restrictions on what sets one could play with in the casual format would give more playability for the casual crowd.

Here's a proposal that might make some people angry but could make even more people happy and open 5-color up to new crowds around the world... What about making that split happen now?

All competitive tournaments run the current 5-Color format, including 5cWorlds, 5cInvitationals, 5CQs and any other premiere 5-Color formats. But, like when Type 2 was first invented, the casual format would also ban all restricted cards from the competitive format. Everything else (including Portal cards) would be legal. Perhaps the tutors should get a restriction exemption in the casual 5-Color format, being fairly easy to track (namely if f it's a tutor, it's restricted - yes, the creature tutors too). Or perhaps they too are banned. By monitoring what makes it onto the restricted list in one format, you're automatically dealing with the other format as well.

I know that Wizards recently moved in the opposite direction with Vintage and Legacy, separating them to create two separate, viable formats - but they have more paid staff to monitor the web and watch for cards that need banning in both formats. Since the 5crc is voluntary, there is less of a need to worry about the separation of formats - and there's also a need to avoid the extra work to maintain a casual sub-format.

I also know that 5-Color is mostly considered a "casual" format, but it is a format with boundless growth and a competitive player base, made more competitive by the tournaments that get "sanctioned" by the committee. Splitting the format could be good for developing new metagames, bringing in new players, and offering these creative people new possibilities for deck development. If it works out over time, perhaps 5-Color Qualifiers can start using the new format as well - it's easier for most people to borrow a copy of each restricted card once they've qualified (or committed to going to a major 5-color event) than it is for every 5-Color player to buy a complete set of the power cards necessary to make their casual deck competitive... especially if you consider those trying to play 5-Color overseas.

It seems as though the popularity of Prismatic Magic within Magic Online would prove an interest in a more toned-down format similar to the one 5-Color promotes. Deck diversity, accessible cards, synergy not found in sixty-card decks or mono-colored decks... Adapting something along the lines of a stepping stone within the 5-Color community might not be such a bad idea, if only to give online players a chance to take their decks offline and compete. Creating a "Type 2" 5-Color format would welcome those players back into the real world, where windmill slams and relentless taunting can create fun for all spectators and players.

The discussion of adding Portal to the 5-Color format has revealed a few key flaws that will need to be dealt with in order to maintain 5-Color as a growing format. The parallels to early Magic tournaments and competitive 5-Color are not entirely coincidental. As power levels stabilize from set to set, those who maintain these formats come to recognize the need to build in periodic change for the sake of tournament maintenance and stability. This sort of format shift may be necessary for 5-Color to make a trip out of the Midwest and travel around the world properly... and this could be the right time to implement such a change.