The color White in Magic: The Gathering has seen better days, but the design team is aware of its weaknesses and is striving to rectify the situation.
In just about every Magic format, White has become the weakest color. Mono-White was once a force to be reckoned with but has faded into the shadows, while Green has claimed the throne. Addressing the color’s recent decline, Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater said that the team is working on strengthening White in Limited, Pioneer, and Commander.
“White is behind the other colors in how much it’s played,” Rosewater said. “We are taking care to explore what we can do with white that will help make it better in Commander. Second, white has been on the weaker side in many of the recent Limited formats. Play design is working to figure out what choices being made are causing that to happen. Third, white is not seeing much representation in the new Pioneer format.”
But as the design team continues to unravel the mystery as to why White has fallen from grace, it’s discovered that each format has its own reasons.
“Early exploration is showing that problems in each of the formats is not stemming from the same thing, meaning that finding solutions is going to require thinking format by format,” Rosewater said.
With the release of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths just a few months away on April 24, White players are concerned the resolution for the color won’t be in place. Rosewater admits that the design team “pushed a little too hard on green and pulled back a little too much on white,” but feels strides have been made in Theros: Beyond Death to improve White in Standard.
Rosewater also hinted that existing projects that have been in development for some time will help revive White out of the shadows across multiple Magic formats. Green has the throne for now, but the pendulum has already started to swing in favor of other MTG colors.
