5 Color Mirror

Old School Magic Battle Box - Magic from 1994 reimagined

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 is a very interesting game to play:

• Several interesting options and decisions each turn.
• Focus on thinking and skill, less focus on luck.
• 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 losing a game, 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 versus the same person over and over without getting bored.
• Learn something new each time you play: synergy, trick, tactic, strategy etc. There exist a huge amount to discover.
• All cards are restricted (single copy of each card). Keep in mind which cards are in the graveyards.

Rule difference compared to regular Magic

• Starting life is 10 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 starting hand cards (in total 13 if no mulligan was done).
• There is no sideboard.

The 6 Extra Starting Cards (same for both players)

The deck (same for both players)

• Green provides mana ramp and has big creatures.
• Red is the most dangerous color.
• White is focused on providing more life and removal.
• Black is evil and is focused on destruction.
• Blue is manipulation.

A lot of thinking and playtesting have been put to make this deck list. Many other cards has been 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).

Abu Ja'far Alabaster Potion Animate Dead Ashnod's Transmogrant Atog Black Knight Blight Boomerang Brass Man Brothers of Fire Careful Study City of Brass Counterspell Craw Wurm Crumble Cursed Land Desert Disenchant Drudge Skeletons Elves of Deep Shadow Evil Presence Fire Drake Fissure Flood Fog Forest Fountain of Youth Gemstone Mine Goblin Rock Sled Goblins of the Flarg Guardian Angel Healing Salve Holy Strength Impulse Ironroot Treefolk Island Jalum Tome Ley Druid Mountain Nevinyrral's Disk Paralyze Plains Power Sink Recall Samite Healer Scavenger Folk Sea Serpent Shock Siren's Call Spell Blast Swamp Swords to Plowshares Thicket Basilisk Twiddle Unsummon Wall of Wood Weakness Web Wild Growth Wrath of God Xira Arien

Updates

July 13, 2025: Standing Stones removed from starting hand and replaced by Gemstone Mine which is moved from the deck. This after playtesting with different old school players in Madrid. Destroying the Standing Stones early gives 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 removed.

July 6, 2025: Release of version 2.0 which replaces the old version.

August 22, 2024: Lightning Bolt 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 this in May 2023. We live in Täby Sweden and we love to play card and board games. As for Magic we also currently play the old school format 7pts Singleton as well as regular Swedish Old School on a regular basis including in tournaments.

For the new version 2.0, valuable feedback and contribution received from Magnus de Laval (creator of old school).

Jim is an aspiring game designer, check out his other creations:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.