5 Color Mirror is a creation based on an imagination of how the game of Magic card game could look like if it would be designed to be more similar to a stand alone board game.
It’s a very engaging and thought-provoking game to play:
- Every turn presents multiple interesting options and decisions.
- Emphasis is on skill and strategy, with less reliance on luck.
- It’s all about playing your cards at the right time and in the right order.
- No pay-to-win - both players have the same deck, and proxies are allowed.
- When you lose, instead of thinking that you should have drawn a certain card you think about which mistakes you made.
- A game of high variance, no two games are the same. You can play repeatedly against the same opponent without it getting boring.
- Each game teaches you something new: a synergy, a trick, a tactic, or a strategy. There’s a huge amount to discover.
- All cards are restricted (only one copy of each). Keep in mind which cards are in the graveyards.
Rule difference compared to regular Magic
- Starting life is 7 instead of 20.
- There is no maximum hand size limit.
- There are 6 "Extra Starting Cards" added to your hand in addition to the normal 7 starting hand cards (in total 13 if no mulligan was done).
- There is no sideboard.
- Mana burn is in effect (loss of life for unspent mana when a phase ends).
The 6 Extra Starting Cards (same for both players)
The deck (same for both players)
- Green provides mana ramp and large creatures.
- Red is the most dangerous color.
- White focuses on life gain and removal.
- Black is evil and centered around destruction.
- Blue is about manipulation.
A lot of thought and playtesting has gone into creating this decklist. Many other cards were considered and tested but removed (see list here). In this kind of game, more cards are not better and the amount right now is a good amount. The current selection has been proven to be a good balance.
List of all cards
Both players need 1 copy of each card (proxies are allowed).
Why is some cards not 93-94 old school?
Gemstone Mine is very good for the starting hand, as it is fair for both players (City of Brass would favor the player having life gain spells) and has a clear and strong restriction. Lightning Bolt is too good for this format so I replaced it with Shock which works very good. I wanted some card drawing as part of blue but Ancestral Recall and Braingeyser are too good cards. I chose Careful Study and Impulse instead and they work perfectly. Mana Prism was added as the format need a mana fix artifact that was better than Standing Stones but worse than Fellwar Stone.
If you anyway prefer a pure old school experience, I recommend the following (beware that the game is worse):
- Move City of Brass to the starting hand and remove Gemstone Mine.
- Replace Shock with Chain Lightning or Aeolipile.
- Replace both Impulse and Careful Study with Braingeyser.
- Remove Mana Prism.
- Increase starting life from 7 to 10.
Updates
August 21, 2025: The card Flood is very weak because of the double blue for activation and was replaced with Demonic Torment which is a black card very suitable for the format.
August 3, 2025: The card Savaen Elves added. It is a very good answer to Cursed Land, Blight and the other 2 enchant land cards.
July 27, 2025: Starting life reduced from 10 to 7, how it originally was. Making it a more exciting game since the beginning.
July 24, 2025: After playtesting in Stockholm, Jim and Alvin decided to remove Fountain of Youth and add Mana Prism. Fountain of Youth often provided too much life, which prolongs the game significantly. Mana Prism was added to offer an additional way to fix mana, following strong requests from playtesters in both Madrid and Stockholm. The card is stronger than Standing Stones but weaker than Fellwar Stone, which is a good balance.
July 13, 2025: Standing Stones removed from starting hand and replaced by Gemstone Mine, which was moved from the deck. This change followed playtesting with various old school players in Madrid. Destroying Standing Stones early created an unfair advantage.
July 8, 2025: Grizzly Bears replaced by Ironroot Treefolk. Web added. Tranquility removed.
July 7, 2025: Drain Life and Tawnos's Weaponry were removed.
July 6, 2025: Release of version 2.0, which replaced the old version.
August 22, 2024: Lightning Bolt was replaced by Chain Lightning.
May 18, 2023: Release of version 1.0.
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Who is the Best Player?
Undoubtedly, the title belongs to the legendary Old School player Elof "The Mighty" Gottfridsson (owner of 3 Giant Sharks). I introduced him to the format during Easter 2025, just after the n00bcon tournament in Gothenburg. That night, in the hotel room, we played. Despite it being his first time, Elof instantly played at double the speed of me and Alvin — the very creators of the format. Over the course of ten intense games, he emerged victorious in nine - a 90% winrate. His opponents included seasoned Old School player Pefken, myself, and Alvin. It was a performance worthy of his reputation.
Who created this?
Jim Westergren and his son Alvin created 5 Color Mirror in May 2023. We live in Täby, Sweden, and we love playing card and board games. As for Magic we regularly play the following formats: 7pts Singleton Old School, regular Swedish Old School and Premodern including in tournaments.
For version 2.0, we received valuable feedback and contributions from Magnus de Laval (creator of Old School). Additional feedback came from Martin Berlin (creator of Premodern) after playtesting and as well from the old school player Charles Klein. Thanks also to all the playtesters in Madrid and Stockholm.
Jim is an aspiring game designer, check out his other creations:
- The Space War Card Game - Card game similar to Magic but with some very interesting changes of mechanics (no resource cards etc). All cards included for free. Play for free in your browser or offline.
- Advinsula - The Adventure Island MMORPG (work in progress). Free, immersive and simple browser game that anyone can play on their mobile phone for 15 minutes per day.
- CLESTO - The Jungle Chess Game - Similar to chess but more simple rules and more fun. Play for free in the browser.
- Budget 100 - A casual old school Magic format that is more budget friendly.
- Luris - Fun, quick, simple and challenging bluff game using normal poker cards. Easy to learn and hard to master.
- Race to Chicago (work in progress) - A strategic finance game for 2-6 players without any luck factor.