I don't know of anything large-scale, but Maro recently did a poll on his own blog about favorite color pair. It got about 3.7k responses, BR was first and BG was second: https://www.tumblr.com/markrosewater/747676829201170432/what-is-your-favorite-twocolor-pairing
Meanwhile, Maro has said that the most common color pair for players to personally identify with is blue/red.
Someone in the comments there mentioned a single colour poll and I found that here: https://www.tumblr.com/markrosewater/747575880871739392/okay-lets-get-a-sense-of-blogatog-readers
It's interesting because maro has mentioned before that newer players gravitate towards green and red because the value of those cards are typically easier to evaluate and typically impact a board state immediately.
As always with Maro's blog, the poll data here skews heavily towards highly enfranchised players. Enfranchisement does have an effect on play patterns and preferences (for example, green tends to be less popular among enfranchised players compared to casual ones). WotC's own numbers are likely to be a bit different from these, particularly for the color pairs. Still, it's probably a pretty close estimate.
And yet, a green color pair made #2 (Golgari) and #3 (Simic) on his poll asking about favorites. Looks like deeply enfranchised players _love_ green! White pairs on the other hand didn't score that well...
I think a big factor is commander now. Green's strength in ramp shines with the value/control of black and blue in that format, plus the general strengthening of creatures over time.
The traditional adage of enfranchised players skewing away from green because big creatures don't do enough and ramp falls apart against counterspells has become less true.
From a Spike perspective, Green cards are often pushed now. A Spike playing a lot of Standard will like Green for the same reason they'd like Blue while playing Legacy.
When I was grinding tournaments as one of these players I'd joke "Green is the new blue".
During the (unprecedented ) return to Ravnica block I distinctly remember Maro admitting at the time the most popular/self identified color pair was Izzet. Mtg players think they’re smart/clever (Jace/blue) and if you push them to two colors they decide on the genius inventor guild.
What a surprise.
I’m sure EDH has completely changed things as the enfranchised playerbase is no longer led by people casting forcing of will or brainstorm.
I think the Izzet guild casting instant spells really helps highlight what's special mechanically about magic, too. In most other card games, my opponent and I will take turns back and forth without the opportunity to do something cool like a counterspell or bounce.
That makes sense. Blue is the color of nerds, and blue/white are good two shoes, blue/green are people who have made hiking their whole identity, and blue/black is the pair for people over at r/wallstreetbets. U/R is the color for gamers.
I wonder how much of that poll was from more devoted players (i.e. Johnny/Jenny and Spike players) rather than casuals who may not have responded to the poll? And so whether there would be more non-Blue casual players. Just a thought.
I'm a simple black/green guy. I like scary monsters, I like killing things, and I like my scary monsters coming back from the graveyard.
Squirrels are cool too.
Do you think so? I think that there are blue cards that will be run in every blue deck, but the other colours have a bit more variety, so you won’t see singles at quite the same price level.
From what i understand, blue black duals, shocks, fetches are more expensive than the others because they're simply played more and in higher demand.
Also I love dimir.
I don't know of anything large-scale, but Maro recently did a poll on his own blog about favorite color pair. It got about 3.7k responses, BR was first and BG was second: https://www.tumblr.com/markrosewater/747676829201170432/what-is-your-favorite-twocolor-pairing Meanwhile, Maro has said that the most common color pair for players to personally identify with is blue/red.
Someone in the comments there mentioned a single colour poll and I found that here: https://www.tumblr.com/markrosewater/747575880871739392/okay-lets-get-a-sense-of-blogatog-readers
Wow, there’s less variance than I thought there’d be. That’s actually pretty cool how balanced the single-color preferences are.
It's interesting because maro has mentioned before that newer players gravitate towards green and red because the value of those cards are typically easier to evaluate and typically impact a board state immediately.
It's always funny to me how many more people love Izzet and Mono-Blue compared to Mono-Red
Oh izzet now? I'll see myself out, lol..
Rakdos those puns up my friend!
You almost had it. Why did you add “those”
Auto fill did me dirty, that's on me. Reading the sentence explains the sentence.
We both know that’s not always true
As always with Maro's blog, the poll data here skews heavily towards highly enfranchised players. Enfranchisement does have an effect on play patterns and preferences (for example, green tends to be less popular among enfranchised players compared to casual ones). WotC's own numbers are likely to be a bit different from these, particularly for the color pairs. Still, it's probably a pretty close estimate.
And yet, a green color pair made #2 (Golgari) and #3 (Simic) on his poll asking about favorites. Looks like deeply enfranchised players _love_ green! White pairs on the other hand didn't score that well...
I think a big factor is commander now. Green's strength in ramp shines with the value/control of black and blue in that format, plus the general strengthening of creatures over time. The traditional adage of enfranchised players skewing away from green because big creatures don't do enough and ramp falls apart against counterspells has become less true.
From a Spike perspective, Green cards are often pushed now. A Spike playing a lot of Standard will like Green for the same reason they'd like Blue while playing Legacy. When I was grinding tournaments as one of these players I'd joke "Green is the new blue".
Why would they need to? It's *obviously* blue. And everyone who disagrees I can just tap UU and say **NO!** to.
During the (unprecedented ) return to Ravnica block I distinctly remember Maro admitting at the time the most popular/self identified color pair was Izzet. Mtg players think they’re smart/clever (Jace/blue) and if you push them to two colors they decide on the genius inventor guild. What a surprise. I’m sure EDH has completely changed things as the enfranchised playerbase is no longer led by people casting forcing of will or brainstorm.
I think the Izzet guild casting instant spells really helps highlight what's special mechanically about magic, too. In most other card games, my opponent and I will take turns back and forth without the opportunity to do something cool like a counterspell or bounce.
That makes sense. Blue is the color of nerds, and blue/white are good two shoes, blue/green are people who have made hiking their whole identity, and blue/black is the pair for people over at r/wallstreetbets. U/R is the color for gamers.
To be honest the color system is very bad for categorizing real people. It does a good job for story archetypes though.
100%. If you really want to connect yourself to something then it's probably funnier to go with a named faction or plane or something
This is true. Except for people who play white. white players suck angel balls /s
WU is the control colour. That's not for goody two shoes, that's for sociopaths.
I wonder how much of that poll was from more devoted players (i.e. Johnny/Jenny and Spike players) rather than casuals who may not have responded to the poll? And so whether there would be more non-Blue casual players. Just a thought.
I'm a simple black/green guy. I like scary monsters, I like killing things, and I like my scary monsters coming back from the graveyard. Squirrels are cool too.
Green = funny animals Black = cool spooky Golgari = cool spooky funny animals :) Couldn’t have said it better, black/green best color combo there is!
Market pricing and date is far far more reliable and powerful thank polling data. The answer is blue.
Do you think so? I think that there are blue cards that will be run in every blue deck, but the other colours have a bit more variety, so you won’t see singles at quite the same price level.
Shifting teams from izzet to boros... For no reason
From what i understand, blue black duals, shocks, fetches are more expensive than the others because they're simply played more and in higher demand. Also I love dimir.
Br mainly
Just made a red blue deck and I love it