Lansing, MI - The worldwide Magic community was thrown into an uproar Sunday when a Lansing, MI youth pulled a white card named Aven Trooper from a Torment booster pack. Although the existence of white as a possible "fifth color" of Magic has long been rumored, the Trooper is the first verified genuine white card discovered to date.

"The ramifications of this find are staggering," said Pro Tour regular Zvi Mowshowitz. "Everyone hears urban legends about powerful white spells, like 'Land Tax' and 'Armageddon' and 'Swords to Plowshares,' and I've always assumed they were just some loser making up card ideas. Can you imagine how strange it would be to play with white cards in a tournament?"

"Everyone I know was really surprised by this thing," said Brian Hegstad. "After all, in Type II the four colors already give us Chainer's Edict, Counterspell, Call of the Herd, Flametongue Kavu, Wild Mongrel, Mutilate, Fact or Fiction, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Urza's Rage, Nantuko Shade, and everything else we need for a balanced format. I don't know what's left for white to do. Maybe it will be the color of mediocre pint-sized creatures with no card-drawing or removal to back them up. Or the color that allows Walls to attack."

The existence of white cards, first posited in InQuest Magazine #22 in an article called "The Fifth Color," was always dismissed as hearsay. But with speculation mounting in the hours following the discovery of the "Aven Trooper" prototype, Mark Rosewater issued a statement on MagicTheGathering.com confirming that the card was not a hoax.

"White will indeed debut as Magic's fifth color in the next expansion set, Judgment," stated Rosewater. "However, to insure the balance of the game, white will be designated 'the wussy color.' Basically, it's the color all the other colors beat up for lunch money. White will not be given any kind of useful cards. It will have fair-to-poor creature removal, very few men larger than 2/3, and the ability to gain life and prevent damage, which we expect to be completely useless. However, white's strongest suit is that it is far and away the best color at destroying enchantments and artifacts."

That last sentence only confused the Magic community further, as players everywhere wondered what "artifacts" might be.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

Lansing, MI - The worldwide Magic community was thrown into an uproar Sunday when a Lansing, MI youth pulled a white card named Aven Trooper from a Torment booster pack. Although the existence of white as a possible "fifth color" of Magic has long been rumored, the Trooper is the first verified genuine white card discovered to date.

"The ramifications of this find are staggering," said Pro Tour regular Zvi Mowshowitz. "Everyone hears urban legends about powerful white spells, like 'Land Tax' and 'Armageddon' and 'Swords to Plowshares,' and I've always assumed they were just some loser making up card ideas. Can you imagine how strange it would be to play with white cards in a tournament?"

"Everyone I know was really surprised by this thing," said Brian Hegstad. "After all, in Type II the four colors already give us Chainer's Edict, Counterspell, Call of the Herd, Flametongue Kavu, Wild Mongrel, Mutilate, Fact or Fiction, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Urza's Rage, Nantuko Shade, and everything else we need for a balanced format. I don't know what's left for white to do. Maybe it will be the color of mediocre pint-sized creatures with no card-drawing or removal to back them up. Or the color that allows Walls to attack."

The existence of white cards, first posited in InQuest Magazine #22 in an article called "The Fifth Color," was always dismissed as hearsay. But with speculation mounting in the hours following the discovery of the "Aven Trooper" prototype, Mark Rosewater issued a statement on MagicTheGathering.com confirming that the card was not a hoax.

"White will indeed debut as Magic's fifth color in the next expansion set, Judgment," stated Rosewater. "However, to insure the balance of the game, white will be designated 'the wussy color.' Basically, it's the color all the other colors beat up for lunch money. White will not be given any kind of useful cards. It will have fair-to-poor creature removal, very few men larger than 2/3, and the ability to gain life and prevent damage, which we expect to be completely useless. However, white's strongest suit is that it is far and away the best color at destroying enchantments and artifacts."

That last sentence only confused the Magic community further, as players everywhere wondered what "artifacts" might be.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!