Color Me Impressed

Today I'm going to move on to another critical element of design that wasn't a huge issue for the first couple of Pokemon. As I'm sure a couple of you have already guessed, color is a huge factor when designing cards, not just in terms of their abilities, but also their base power and toughness, since some colors simply get better creatures than others. Let's think about some issues with translating into Pokemon types into Magic colors and how each color affects the card's outcome.

Rattata | Artwork by RJ Palmer

Nobody brought it to my attention after I published my last article, but I'm sure a couple of you guessed that Rattata was going to be white. If I had to give a name to that line of thought, it would be something like direct-translational bias. Because Rattata had the "normal" Pokemon type, which was colored white in the card games, we impulsively think that it belongs in Magic's equivalent. And without going too deep into the flavor and color wheel of Magic, you wouldn't see anything wrong with this line of thinking. After all, it would be easy to give Rattata an ability that would make it fit in that color, so why not appeal to this direct translation?

The first issue is regarding the history of Magic's creatures. In order to make a set that fits right into the Multiverse (or the world of Magic, for people who are unfamiliar with this term), we need be aware of where Magic has placed its creature types over the years. Over the course of its history, Magic has placed rats in only two colors when making creatures. Red and black. There are a couple instances where you'll see me violate these historical norms, but I would never go so far as to place a common rat in its opposite color. 

The second problem is how creature needs to be represented through top-down design. The flavor of white animals is that they are useful to society in terms of servitude or they have personalities that resonate with white's values. When thinking about rats, they are stereotypically defined as creatures of disease and filth. While I actually disagree with this sentiment, I do know that all rats like cluttered environments and are generally seen as detrimental to society when not bred for science or domesticated as pets. If Rattata was a lab rat or a pet rat, I might see an argument for a color other than red or black, but white is the color of order and posterity. Rats simply don't belong. 

 Artwork by Sycra Yasin

So where does that leave Pikachu? Not only is Pikachu very similar to a rat, it also has the Pokemon type of "electric", which doesn't smoothly align with Magic's color system. 

Click here to see how where Pikachu lies:

Electricity may seem tricky at first, but when thinking about spells in Magic that use it (Lightning Bolt, Shock, and Electrickery, to name a few), they exclusively fall into red. It only makes sense that electric creatures would align with the same color. But Pikachu is also a minor example of how I'll stretch the norms a bit in my set. While I said rats are only found in black and red, I failed to mention that red has never received a mono-color rat; it's always required black in the cost. Pikachu had to be a rat, but its behavior as a Pokemon is nothing like black, so the lines have been blurred to compensate for flavor.

As we move forward, you'll see that I always put the personality and behavior of the Pokemon above the demands of Magic. I'll do my best to stick close to the well-established norms, but I could already name a couple instances where I've found myself on the edge of that line. As I preview those cards, I'll provide more detail on the struggles I faced while making them, but until then, I'll just leave you guessing. Until next time.