Current Events > How many different color magic decks are possible?

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I wanna have one deck for every combination of colors.. obviously there can only be 5 single colored decks, one five colored deck.. five four colored decks? I think?

I am not an algorithm

32 I think? It's a deck challenge thing for some EDH players with too much time/money iirc.

Where do you stand on colorless?

Will_VIIII posted...

Where do you stand on colorless?

Doesnt count/can be inserted anywhere without penalty

I guess add one deck for a completely colorless deck

MICHALECOLE posted...

Doesnt count/can be inserted anywhere without penalty

I guess add one deck for a completely colorless deck

I think the number is 32 if all colorless/no color is its own deck.

afaik you only want to play 5 colors or 2 colors if you're doing a multicolor deck

Garioshi posted...

afaik you only want to play 5 colors or 2 colors if you're doing a multicolor deck

You dont know what I want

0 color - 1
1 color - 5
2 color - 10
3 color - 10
4 color - 5
5 color - 1

32 total.

The way my girlfriend and I play is I make decks with basically no rhyme or reason, then I put it in a deck box, and then she grabs two random decks and we play.

I want one deck for every combination of colors

sounds like I want 32 decks

Also, should mention, for n colors, the combinations will be 2^n.

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

Also, should mention, for n colors, the combinations will be 2^n.

What

MICHALECOLE posted...

What

Magic has 5 colors, so the number of combinations is 2^5, which is 32. If it had 4 colors it would be 16 (2^4).

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

Magic has 5 colors, so the number of combinations is 2^5, which is 32. If it had 4 colors it would be 16 (2^4).

how does that work with colorless being the one making it 32?

you have 1 way to use 0/5 colors
you have 5 ways to use 1/5 colors
you have 10 ways to use 2/5 colors
you have 10 ways to use 3/5 colors
you have 5 ways to use 4/5 colors
you have 1 way to use 5/5 colors

1+5+10+10+5+1 = 32.

if you don't want to use colorless, then you have 31.

Medussa posted...

you have 1 way to use 0/5 colors
you have 5 ways to use 1/5 colors
you have 10 ways to use 2/5 colors
you have 10 ways to use 3/5 colors
you have 5 ways to use 4/5 colors
you have 1 way to use 5/5 colors

1+5+10+10+5+1 = 32.

if you don't want to use colorless, then you have 31.

Yeah I get that but Im saying his 2^n wouldnt work if colorless wasnt a thing or didnt count

the shortcut works because Xchoose0 is a thing. you are free to discount it, but you then have (2^x)-1 combinations.

it's no different than not wanting to make 4 color decks. you're free to discount them, but then you need to remove 5Choose4 combinations from the total number of combinations.

Garioshi posted...

afaik you only want to play 5 colors or 2 colors if you're doing a multicolor deck

There are a few good 3 color options. So it's certainly viable depending on format.

The only option that has no viability is 4 color. Because unlike 2 and 3 color, there are basically no 4 color cards.

there are commander reasons to be 4-color over 5-color, and it's occasionally right to double splash in limited, but in 60 card magic, 4-color is usually just 5-color good stuff in a format where there is no good stuff in one of the colors.

MICHALECOLE posted...

how does that work with colorless being the one making it 32?

Colorless is 0 colors. The 2^n includes 0 colors as a combination, so if you remove colorless, it's 2^n-1.

Are we counting snow?