FWIW, I am not convinced that mono cards are easier to play. But multicolor cards do force specific color combinations, which may justify the added power. I can't do it right now, but I read a very interesting article on the subject a while back. The were talking about GG vs GW 2 drops, and why it was actually more difficult for a competitive deck to reliably cast GG cards (obviously or are easier to play than , but that's a false equivalence, you must compare to or ). Basically, they were going over the math, but I can summarize it here:

You need 20 G sources to run GG on t2 vs. 11 G and 11 W to run GW on t2. So on the surface it looks like the GG is slightly easier (it requires a 20 card commitment and the other requires 22). It isn't however, because say you run 4 GW dual lands, you know only need a total of 18 lands to meet the GW card's requirement (4+7+7=18). This would hold true even if you don't follow the hypergeometric distribution theories on how to build decks - and use some other method to build you mana bases, you'd still have some starting point and the dual lands would make GW cards easier than GG, or WW.

On top of that, the majority of the time you are going to run 2 or more colors, so the GG requirement is an even bigger deal, from the perspective of deck building. GG forces you into mono, or maybe dual color decks. GW is believable in 2, 3, and possibly even 4, or 5 color decks.

It gets even more obvious with a card that costs GGG, vs a card that costs GWU - just as an example.

I actually think WotC has it exactly backwards - but for the record the above is the entire reason I believe this to be the case, so if you don't buy into the logic, I unfortunately don't have much to add.

Lol, basically true. Although Big Jace in my eyes is better than this alleged Liliana who's supposed to save everyone from the eldrazi invasion.

4 and 5 color decks don't really exist in competitive Magic. And 1GGG and 2GG are too totally different things. Things with a triple color cost (even three drops like Underworld Dreams) usually ARE amazing cards for their cost. A 4 drop with BB in it's cost isn't very hard to cast on curve and comparing it to 2 drops with the same cost is silly.

Or really? http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11908&d=268176&f=ST

Or really? http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11908&d=268176&f=ST

(I spent less than 10 seconds looking for this)

That's pretty dismissive for something that has been discussed by far more knowledgeable people than you or I for a very long time. It's not silly, it might be off topic though. /shrug

Fwiw, the math is still good for 3, 4, 5, etc... Drops.

And a deck that can run w1 and g1 cards can already handle, with almost no change, a GW card. It probably can't handle a GG or WW card.

For the Tamiyo example, the comparison would be something like 1UGW vs 1UUU, and then we'd ask which should be pushed harder at the same rarity. WotC tend to push the former, but the latter is actually harder to play. That's all I'm saying: basically WotC have it backwards, if it's based on the math.

It's not about whether BB is harder than 2BB... It's whether 2BB is harder than 2UB. And in the second comparison, 2BB is actually harder, but WotC tend to push cards like 2UB instead.

I hope this was a bit more cogent, because I think we're talking about different things.

Erm...yea. I'd hope that isn't real. Following big Jace in terms of "Insert generic X colour abilities". The discard is ok, the -3 is pretty rough given that pretty much ends her, and that ult feels underwhelming.

In comes the "she's great if you do this" crowd, just not very exciting to me.

For the Tamiyo example, the comparison would be something like 1UGW vs 1UUU, and then we'd ask which should be pushed harder at the same rarity. WotC tend to push the former, but the latter is actually harder to play. That's all I'm saying: basically WotC have it backwards, if it's based on the math.

It's not about whether BB is harder than 2BB... It's whether 2BB is harder than 2UB. And in the second comparison, 2BB is actually harder, but WotC tend to push cards like 2UB instead.

I think the point he was trying to make, and I agree with, is that comparatively the difference between playing BB or 1B is not as great as the difference between play 2BB and 2UB. BB is way harder than 1B but 2BB is not that much harder than 2UB.

We're prob getting Damnation

Source for Damnation: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/14 ... nday-since