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Most spells come in one of five colors.[16] The colors can be seen on the back of the cards, in a pentagonal design, called the "Color Wheel". Clockwise from the top, they are: white, blue, black, red, and green (abbreviated as W, U, B, R, G, respectively; "U" stands for "blue" because "B" denotes Black and "L" land[17]). To play a spell of a certain color, mana of that color is required. This mana is normally generated by a land with one of the basic land types: in order, plains, island, swamp, mountain, and forest.

The balances and distinctions between the five colors form one of the defining aspects of the game. The various strengths and weaknesses of each color are attributed to the fact that each color represents a different "style" of magic.[18]

* White is the color of order, righteousness, healing, law, community, absolutism and light (although not necessarily "good"). White's strengths are a roster of small but proportionally very powerful creatures that if used together in large groups can overwhelm an opponent quickly, such as soldiers, knights and paladins; protecting those creatures with enchantments; gaining life and/or preventing damage; imposing restrictions on players; destroying artifacts and enchantments; and the ability to "equalize" the playing field. White creatures are known for their "Protection" from various other colors or even types of card, rendering them completely impervious to harm from those colors or cards. White's weaknesses include its difficulty in directly destroying opposing creatures, its inability to change game plans due to inflexible cards, and the fact that many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally: one of its signature spells, Wrath of God, kills all creatures in play, including the player's own.

* Blue is the color of intellect, reason, illusion, dreams, creativity, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Blue's cards are best at letting a player draw additional cards; permanently stealing control of an opponent's cards; returning ("bouncing") permanents to their owner's hands, thus forcing that opponent to replay them; and "countering" (canceling) an opponent's spells, causing the mana to go to waste while the spell itself has no effect. Blue's creatures, which include shapeshifters, sea creatures and wizards, tend to have weaker base statistics than other colors, but commonly have abilities and traits which make them difficult to hurt or block, particularly Flying. Blue's weaknesses include having trouble permanently dealing with spells that have "resolved" without being counterspelled; the expensive nature of most of its spells (especially its creatures), which is exacerbated by its complete lack of ways to rush more mana into play; and the reactive nature of most of its spells, letting an opponent take the initiative that it may not be able to take back. Having said that, card-drawing and denial are critical elements found in all constructed formats.

* Black is the color of power, ambition, death, corruption and amorality (although not necessarily "evil"). Black cards are best at removing creatures, making players discard cards from their hand, and raising creatures from the dead. Furthermore, because Black seeks to win at all costs, it has limited access to many abilities or effects that are normally restricted to the other colors (Green's mana acceleration in "Dark Ritual;" both Red direct-damage and White life-gaining in "Drain Life"; Blue's card-drawing in the infamous Necropotence), but these abilities are disproportionately expensive compared to the colors that normally feature them, often forcing payment of life, creatures, or other permanent resources. Black is known for having "Fear" on its creatures, a trait that makes Red, White, Green and Blue creatures unable to block them in combat. Black's main weaknesses are an almost complete inability to deal with enchantments and artifacts, its tendency to hurt itself almost as badly as it hurts the opponent (especially when attempting to deal with White and Green, its ideological enemies), and difficulties in removing other black creatures (though this restriction has been lightened in recent years).[19]

* Red is the color of freedom, chaos, passion, impulse and fury, as well as lightning, the classical element of fire, and the non-living, geological aspects of the classical element earth (the color Green representing Earth's living side).[20] Red is one of the best colors for destroying opposing lands and artifacts; sacrificing permanent resources for temporary (but hopefully game-winning) power, such as with Final Fortune; and playing spells that deal "direct damage" to creatures or players, like "Lightning Bolt" or "Fireball", which gave rise to another term for direct damage: "burn". Red has a wide array of creatures, but with the exception of the extremely powerful (and infamous) dragons, most of them are fast at the cost of being small and weak, or unbalanced with strong power and weak toughness, rendering them easily destroyed by a weak blocker; it has the vast majority of cards that involve random chance; and some of its cards can turn against or hurt their owner in return for being more powerful for their cost, such as the classic Jackal Pup. Red also shares the trickery theme with Blue and can temporarily steal opponents' creatures or divert their spells, although generally not permanently. Many of Red's most famous creatures have the "Haste" trait, which lets them attack and use many abilities a turn earlier than normal. Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments, the random or self-destructive nature of many of its spells, and its generally weak late-game play: most of its cards are designed to win fast or not at all.

* Green is the color of life, instinct, nature, evolution, ecology and interdependence. Green has a large number of creatures, which tend to have the strongest base statistics in the game for their cost. Many of its spells make them stronger still temporarily, such as Giant Growth; these spells are often referred to as "pumps" or "tricks", as many of these can be played when an opponent believes his creature will win the combat. It can also destroy "unnatural" artifacts and enchantments, increase a player's life total, and accelerate its mana production by strengthening the output of its lands, drawing new ones directly from its deck, or even deploying creatures who themselves can generate mana, like the famous Llanowar Elves. Green also has ways to easily produce the other four colors of mana. Green creatures often have "Trample," an ability which lets them deal attack damage to an opponent if blocked by a weaker creature. Green's biggest weakness is that it has few ways of destroying creatures directly, which usually forces it to rely upon the superior efficiency and flexibility of its own creatures in combat. It also has a distinct shortage of flying creatures, though some of its creatures, such as Spiders, can block as though they had flying, as well as having many very powerful cards that specifically target flying creatures. Finally, it has few gameplay options besides large creatures and "pump" spells, leaving it in dire straits if an opponent can somehow neutralize or destroy its army.

The colors adjacent to each other on the pentagon are "allied" and often have similar, complementary abilities. For example, Blue has a relatively large number of flying creatures, which it shares with White and Black, which are next to it. The two non-adjacent colors to a particular color are "enemy" colors, and are thematically opposed. For instance, Red tends to be very aggressive, while White and Blue are often more defensive in nature. The R&D team at Wizards of the Coast balances the power between the five colors by using the Color Pie to define the colors' differences.[21] This guideline lays out the capabilities, themes, and mechanics of each color and allows for every color to have its own distinct attributes and philosophy. The pie is used to ensure new cards are thematically in the correct color and do not impede on the territory of other colors.

Multi-color cards were introduced in the Legends set and use a gold frame to distinguish them from mono-color cards. These cards require mana from two or more different colors to be played. Multi-color cards tend to combine the philosophy and mechanics of all the colors used in the spell's cost. More recently, two-color "hybrid" cards that can be paid with either of the card's colors (as opposed to both) were introduced in the Ravnica set. Hybrid cards are distinguished by a gradient frame with those two colors. Multi-color cards tend to be proportionally more powerful compared to single-color or hybrid cards as requiring all the mana colors in the card's casting cost is considered to be a major handicap.

Artifacts are cards that exist without specific colors of magic. Within the story-telling milieu of Magic, artifacts are magical machines or objects that are created by para-magical or technological means; as such, they do not require a specific color of mana to play (they are "colorless") and can be used by any color. Due to their object-based nature, as of yet there are no artifact sorceries, instants, or enchantments. Typically, artifacts provide abilities that are not unique to any color, or which the designers wished to make available to all colors. Many artifacts are also creatures, often with abilities reflecting their mechanical nature or having abilities from the colors such as flying and fear. However, while generally artifacts are completely colorless in terms of their mana requirements, since the Mirrodin, Ravnica and Future Sight blocks, many artifacts have broken that rule for gameplay-interest purposes

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