I remember the first time I heard about 5-Color in an Inquest, in which the basics of Five were detailed in part one of a four-format article. I vaguely remember assembling a lovely pile, with gems such as the mana-fixing fiend Skyshroud Elf, the six-mana bomb Cauldron Dance, and that savage beater Charging Troll (Mystic Enforcer has nothing on him!). Despite the questionable choices, I had tons of fun with it. In fact, a guy in our playgroup actually made his own deck, complete with anti-tech like Phantom Tiger and Mana Cylix. Good times indeed.

A couple years go by and I actually acquire some expensive cards - the perfect time to revisit Five! Well, between doing research (via www.5-color.com and on this very fine web site) and random trading, I've actually managed to amass a semi-decent stack. In this article, I'll hopefully convince you to give this incredibly fun format a try, and perhaps even divulge some useful information.

250 Cards Minimum
More or less the heart of the rules, the 250-card limit is what makes Five so very different from "normal" Magic. In the same vein as a normal deck, 250 should really be the absolute minimum size of your deck. As daunting as the 250 may seem, you'll find that you can still never fit in all the cards you want to use. And unfortunately, it is those last few cuts that are so agonizing - and so necessary.

No more than four of any card (except basic lands). Banned and restricted lists do apply.

As of today, there are nineteen banned cards and a whopping seventy restricted cards - although in recent months a number of cards have been unrestricted. The list more or less boils down to more or less restricted "staples," such as the Power Nine, various tutoring or recursion effects, and a few miscellaneous cards. Note that recent sets make up a large percentage of the list, and the potential inclusion of Portal may bring about a "critical mass" of tutors. Luckily, we casual players won't be hugely shaken by this development. (Note that playing four of any one card is basically the same as playing one copy in a sixty-card deck.)

At least eighteen (18) cards of each color are required. Multicolored (including split) cards count toward any one of that card's colors.

This is the "five" part of 5-Color. Certainly, you could be unscrupulous and just use cards of certain colors that have a colorless cycling mechanic - but what's the fun in that? The number eighteen may seem a little unwieldy, and there was talk of bumping the number up to twenty (a more aesthetically attractive number), but the proposal didn't go through. As it is, eighteen allows you to play four playsets of quality cards and a couple restricted gems in a color you're minimizing. I'll touch more on this subject later.

Ante
This is a very controversial issue. Personally, I'm unwilling to take any risk greater than resolving a Gamble - and as a result, I don't play for ante. Even without Power Nine, and hardly many cards in the ten-dollar-and-beyond area, ante isn't for me. Of course, it's an exciting and significant aspect of the format, and you should absolutely try it out sometimes. It's easy to simply play pseudo ante, whether it be Drink Ante (a la Ashnod's Coupon without the errata), Trade Binder Ante (the winner receiving a relatively inexpensive rare), or simply giving back the cards and shaking hands.

Oh, and the ante rules work like this: after cutting the decks, the top card gets flipped over until it's either a foil non-land card or a rare non-land card. At any point your opponent can accept the anted card, or else the flipping continues. This means that your foil John Avon forest (pretty as it is) or Battlefield Forge won't stop the ante, but your foil Etched Oracle or nonfoil Grim Lavamancer will. Also, the player whose anted card has the highest mana cost can decide whether or not to go first or draw first.

Mulligans
5-Color features very liberal mulligan rules. There are four of these: Zero Land, One Land, All Land, and Paris. The land-based mulligans allow you to draw up to seven, and note that there's no distinction between mana and non-mana producing lands (then again, players affluent enough to own Maze of Ith, Library of Alexandria, and Sorrow's Path should have no problem with the mana base). Paris mulligans are the "standard new hand, but one less card" deal.

In addition to these four options, Five allows you to "ride" another person's mulligan. In other words, if your opponent takes a zero, one, or all land mulligan you can join him or her and take your own "free" mulligan, regardless of the number of land you have. With all these possibilities, you'll rarely have to stick with a risky hand in terms of mana development.

That more or less covers the basic rules. To view them in more detail, check out the official website at www.5-color.com. Now that you know how the format works, on to the meat of the article.

Excuses
I'm going to make a shocking confession: My gaming experience with actual 5-Color is quite limited. In fact, no one else in my gaming group actually plays Five. I suppose this puts a major disclaimer on this entire article. On the other hand, I'm much more motivated to get people to play (meaning you, the reader), and my view of the format is on a much more approachable level, in my opinion. There's no surer way to frighten someone off than to act as if forty duals, the Power Nine, and a bonanza of other expensive cards are mandatory. After all, it is certainly intimidating enough just to look at a decklist, never mind an actual deck.

So there's my little disclaimer/excuse. What's yours? Well, there seem to be a number of issues when it comes to not playing games or creating a 5-Color deck, and I'll go over them here.

"I Don't Have The Cards"
This is a valid reason. You certainly do need a pretty large collection to support a 5-Color deck. Nevertheless, as a player, you should be looking for many of the cards (especially the "staples") that appear in a 5-Color deck. It is also completely viable to build a budget deck, an all common deck, or a block deck (sure, Invasion's a no-brainer, but how about a Kamigawa Spirit and Arcane deck?). Let's face it: you need income to play Magic. While a 5-Color deck requires over four times the resources of a sixty-card deck, it's also going to be viable for far longer than the hottest new Type 2 deck. 5-Color is not a good idea for someone just starting out, but for those of you with an established collection, try it out.

"The Deck Is Too Unwieldy/A Pain To Shuffle/Search Through"
There's no denying that a 5-Color deck is hard to handle. In sleeves, my deck approaches six inches in height. I'm also almost relieved that they banned Gifts Ungiven; forget the broken combo potential, I'd never be able to decide on the cards!

Having said that, just don't sweat it. Compulsive mana shuffling and such is pointless, a little variety and unpredictability adds some much needed spice to your games, and is a heck of a break from the monotony of seeing the same X cards in your Extended deck. Of course, it's easily possible to create a finely-tuned engine of a deck - and if that's your cup of tea, have at it.

When it comes to logistics like transportation and shuffling, there are a couple of ways to go: None of the old-school players use sleeves, and if you do the same your deck will be much more manageable. The downside, of course, is that the quality of your cards will deteriorate. Anyway, just purchase an appropriate-sized cardboard box (and sleeves, if you're inclined), and you'll have a durable, transportable deck.

"No One Else Plays"
It's unfortunate that 5-Color is not a mainstream format. I'm in this boat as well, and I know how pointless it can seem. Try to introduce your playgroup to the format, you might have some takers. I've found one effective method is to just split your deck in two (or three, or four...) and give each player a half. After all, the best way of converting someone is to have them experience it. If all efforts fail, you can still play sixty-card decks and still enjoy yourself - I know I do. Of course in this case, Crumbling Sanctuary is very bad manners, but if it's what you have to use to convince them to play Five...

Okay, I hope I've won you over. For the rest of the article, we'll be looking at building a deck, and the many principles behind it.

Principle I: The Basics
In your first build, you're going to want to adhere to some basic principles. You have 250 slots to fill. And you'll want somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety lands to start off (more on this in a moment). That leaves roughly a hundred and sixty slots for spells. In this young and impressionable stage, you'll want to decide what colors you're going to concentrate on.

Green is an almost automatic emphasis for a beginning player, being very strong in mana fixing, effective creatures, and other useful effects.

Blue is also another strong contender, being strong in counterspells, card drawing, and a number of utility creatures.

Black is paramount when it comes to tutors, discard, creature removal, and overall disruption. A deck usually runs either very few black creatures or many, many black creatures.

Red usually has a secondary role, but the abundance of burn is invaluable, especially in a casual environment.

White is probably known as the color that is easiest to minimize in many decks, in which case it will simply be a couple of restricted cards and Disenchant effects. Oh, and four of the best creature removal spell ever (and possibly the Best Stone Rain ever, but we'll get to that later).

So, start off by picking two colors as your dominant ones, and try your best to minimize the other three as much as possible. At this point, you'll probably want to ask yourself what the theme of your deck is. This theme can be anything from weenie beatdown, control, Living Death, or the always-popular Sliver tribe. Your theme is what really brings the whole deck together.

Well, I guess I'm obliged to use my own deck as an example. My current incarnation was developed relatively recently, and I focused on the colors Green and Blue and attempted to a varying degree of success to minimize white, red, and black (hence, you might find the above color review a little biased). My theme isn't actually that defined, but basically focuses on two important aspects of Five, versatility and card advantage. We'll be getting to those.

Principle II: Mana, Land, and Other Resources
This one's a biggie. As I mentioned before, you'll want to start off with roughly ninety lands. This translates to almost twenty-two lands in a normal deck - and while that seems somewhat low, you'll be able to supplement it with a variety of mana fixers.

A full compliment of original Dual Lands and Onslaught fetchlands are the optimal build, and you can certainly aim for the latter if not the former. It's incredible how much even one dual land will boost your deck's power. (And how cheap they are from the StarCityGames.com Online Store, hint hint hint - The Ferrett) I haven't experienced this phenomenon quite yet, but I can imagine it. Suddenly, all your fetch lands can fix for twice the color, your Tithes, Land Grants, and Krosan Verges get that much better. So yes, I think it's quite obvious that Dual Lands are good.

But for those of us who aren't wealthy enough to own any of these multicolored beauties, what are the alternatives? Well, when it comes to land, there are a number of groups. Basically, it comes down to what you favor more, speed or reliability. Aside from the venerable Tundra and excellent Flooded Strand, you have two solid options: Adarkar Wastes and Coastal Tower (Skycloud Expanse is playable, but Cloudcrest Lake and its ilk are pretty sub par). Usually, a competitive player looks towards the Adarkar Wastes if he or she doesn't have the duals or fetches. Note that this applies to all color combinations, of course.

So why is this? Well, in competitive 5-Color (and most formats), the early game is very important. "Comes into play tapped" lands are usually shunned. Speed, even for Control decks, is really crucial, as it can mean the difference between being able to play that double-blue Counterspell and getting all your lands blown up by an opponent's Armageddon.

Luckily, we casual players have more flexibility. Your preference of land type may be based on personal preference (are you willing to take some pain for the color you want, or would you rather wait a turn?), deck type (Aggro and Control), and perhaps the most important part - what cards you have access to.

Onslaught cycling lands provide another dilemma. Depending on your environment, in either case it can become tempo-screw whether you're playing it tapped or spending one mana to cycle it. They are perfectly reasonable in casual, however.

Someone could (and perhaps eventually will) write an entire article discussing lands in Five alone, but I'll wrap it up here. In short, here's a rough list of what you should be looking at.

"Tier 1":
Original Dual Lands, Onslaught fetchlands, City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, Strip Mine, Wasteland and Dust Bowl (depending on environment), Mishra's Factory

"Tier 2":
Ice Age and Apocalypse painlands or Invasion Taplands, Mirrodin's Core, Grand Coliseum, miscellaneous utility such as Urza's Legacy manlands, Odyssey threshold lands, Odyssey filter lands, and possibly Onslaught cycling lands, depending on your environment

Of course, there's more to mana than lands. Generally for mana fixers, you'll want to look for spells no more than three mana that hopefully fetch more than one land. Shaun Cranford did an extensive article on the more popular ones in his article "Land Express," which you can find on the official website. Although they don't fetch lands, Birds of Paradise and Joiner Adept are also extremely useful. I personally run them as well as Crop Rotation, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Land Grant, Kodama's Reach, Harrow, and Yavimaya Elder in my deck. Generally, these cards smooth at mana development, and net you positive card advantage. Speaking of which...

Principle III: Card Advantage, Versatility and Why 187 = 241 (or more!)
The term card advantage is used often, but what exactly does it mean? Well, whenever you play a card, you lose a card. Hopefully, the impact the card has will make up for the cost of the card, as well as the cost of mana (which is related to Tempo - a whole other can of worms). So how does one acquire card advantage?

Let's say your opponent has a Gray Ogre in play. Why? Because using a vanilla creature as an example makes things easier. On your turn, you play the superstar Solemn Simulacrum. His 187 (or "comes into play") ability lets you search for a land. Therefore, you've used up a card by casting the Simulacrum and gained a card by being able to fetch a land, meaning you break even.

(Magic Trivia Time: Some techy fellow coined the term 187, the police code for murder, for creatures like Nekrataal that destroy a creature when they come into play. It has since spread to include all creatures with a "comes into play" ability, even if the effect is far more benign, such as Mr. Thoren's mana fixing.)

Now if your opponent is foolish enough attack with the Ogre, then you'll really get ahead. You block with the Simulacrum, and barring some nefarious combat trick both creatures will die... and then Jens goes into the graveyard and you draw yet another card.

So, let's see, you used up a card by playing (and blocking with) Solemn Simulacrum, but you got a land, a card when he died, and you took down your opponent's Gray Ogre. That's a three-for-one (341) trade off and a wild swing of card advantage for you.

So how the heck does this relate to Five? Well, with such a massive library and unpredictable draws, each individual card you use really has to strive to do more. Solemn Simulacrum is an excellent example of this, doing three things (mana fixing, card draw, and being a warm - or at least sentient - body). The only reason he isn't an auto- include in every deck is because of the unfortunate four mana casting cost, but he's very, very good nonetheless (Flametongue Kavu on the other hand, is very much a virtual auto-include, perhaps because his behavior is far more malignant!).

This card advantage goes hand in hand with versatility. Solemn Simulacrum is an excellent example of a fusion of the two, and other excellent examples include Thornscape Battlemage, Fire / Ice, and Quiet Speculation.

Quiet Speculation brings forth a whole separate aspect of Five. It's quite simply ridiculous. Once again, the only detrimental factor here is speed, as it takes a while for the whole extent of card advantage of the Speculation to manifest itself. And of course, in the competitive arena of savage beats and broken combos, a player just won't have enough turns. Thankfully, we're talkin' casual here.

Roar of the Wurm gives you undercosted fatties, up to a trio of them. Krosan Reclamation and Ray of Revelation provide silver bullets. Deep Analysis gives you even more card advantage, albeit at a loss of life. All of these cards work absurdly well in conjunction with the Speculation. Having said that, there's the other side of the coin: cards that have low casting cost and high flashback costs. In other words, Chainer's Edict and Firebolt. There's a reason that these Odyssey-block recruits are used sometimes at the expense of the more venerable Diabolic Edict and Lightning Bolt. Despite having flashback costs of 4R and 5BB, which seem prohibitively high at first glance, these two cards virtually give you a starting hand size of eight if you happen to draw one. These cards become even better in casual, where speed is much less of a factor.

Principle IV: Playing What You Like and Liking What You Play
Finally, I'm going to discuss something totally different. 5-Color is a casual format at heart, and with the rainbow goodness available, it's no surprise that players are inclined to run multicolored dragon legends (Nicol Bolas), the occasional flying hippo (Phelddagrif), and everyone's favorite patriot, Lightning Angel.

You know what I say to them? Good for you guys! 5-Color, and Magic in general, is about having fun. Netdecking, bannings, and expensive cards have slightly diluted the purity of both of the format and the game. Those competitive players who take such pleasure in their Armageddons and Time Walks are really missing out on of the most important aspects of Five.

My personal pet of the moment is Arc-Slogger. Sure, he costs five (that number should be more of a positive than a negative anyways in this format, don'tcha think?), which is considered too expensive. Sure, his ability might be a little slow if you don't have a ridiculous mana base. But all the turn three wins in the world don't compare to untapping with a Slogger and Joiner Adept in play.

My point is, 5-Color is about many things. It's about deck tech, it's about efficiency, and it's about speed. But it's also about enjoying the tension of a hard fought game, the pleasure of splashy effects, and a chance to really bring out some of the Timmy inside of you. And believe me, 5-Color is fun. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed.

Well, I think I've blathered for just about long enough. For additional information, I suggest you check out the official site (www.5-color.com), especially the Article and Forum sections. You can find some really great articles here on StarCityGames by Kurt Hahn, Abe Sargent, and many other high quality writers.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Roland Li
UberDrive@mindless.com