Mana

During play, mana powers up Cards to allow them to be played.

Mana of any of the five colors can be used to pay the casting cost of cards of any color. Other specialised types of mana exist. In paper Magic the Gathering, the system of Colored mana being required for colored cards replaces the MtGPQ requirement that colored cards can only be played by Planeswalkers of matching affinity.

Each Match of 3 or more Gems on the Gem board provides an amount of mana according to the number of gems matched, and the mana bonuses of the Planeswalker.

Mana may be gained in several ways.

When gained, mana is automatically assigned to the cards in your hand, from the top down, filling the casting cost of each card fully before charging up the next card

The Colors of Magic event has a permanent support that reduces cards' casting cost by 11, which can reduce the cost to to zero, as can some cards. When this happens, the card is displayed as though it had full mana.

Gaining Mana

Matching Gems on the Gem board is the most common way of gaining mana. Each gem match provides an amount of mana which is the sum of the following:

• The number of gems of the same color which were matched
• The Planeswalker's mana bonus of the color of the gems which were matched

Very large amounts of mana may sometimes be gained in a single turn via cascades on the gem board, where one match leads to another.

In events which are Supercharged, each color match provides an additional 3 mana.

Mana can also be gained from certain cards which provide mana when played, or while in play.

Some Planeswalkers have Loyalty abilities which provide mana. Others have abilities which benefit their mana bonuses.

Mana in hand

Mana accumulates on the first card in the player's hand; the Mana required to cast it appearing as a number. Creatures and supports will always be cast when full after a gem match, unless they are disabled by tapping the circular Type icon. Spells: it depends. Targeted spells will always prompt the player with a decision to cast and a targeting popup, unless there is a second valid part of the spell that is u targeted. A good example of the latter is Cruel Revival, which always returns a Zombie from the graveyard if there is one there and Cruel Revival is not disabled, even though the first part of the spell destroys a Target non-Zombie creature. Another is Sleep with the Fishes, which must be disabled or it will summon a Fish token even after the player chooses not to target an enemy creature.

The mana required to play a card corresponds to the card's casting cost, which may range from 1 to 30.

Where in MtG the focus must be what can be accomplished each turn, and high cost cards may be effectively impossible to cast, the accumulation of Mana means that, eg, larger creatures are feasible. Because of this, and the disabling of cards, a hand of cards can represent an investment in not just just cards but Mana too.

Color

Like its parent game Magic: the Gathering, Color in Magic: the Gathering Puzzle Quest is a core mechanic whose thematic flavor influences all aspects of the game, albeit not the mechanic of colored mana being required for colored cards. This is instead roughly analogous to the requirement that cards can only be played by the same color Planeswalkers.

Each of the five colors — White (W) , Blue (U) , Black (B) , Red (R) , and Green (G) — is associated with distinct magic and cultural principles, and different mechanics and abilities. They, and second and third colors combined with them, are usually listed in that order.

Mana Color

Mana of any of the five colors can be used to pay the casting cost of cards of any color. Mana from specific color matches may be required for certain abilities such as Converge .

Color	Principles	Associated land
White	Peace, law, structure	Plains
Blue	Knowledge, intellect, deceit	Island
Black	Power, selfishness, death	Swamp
Red	Impulsiveness, freedom, destruction	Mountain
Green	Nature, growth, interdependence	Forest

Other specialised types of mana exist.

Void	Gained by matching void gems. Pays only for cards with the Devoid  ability. Void gems are created by cards with the Ingest ability.
Loyalty	Loyalty is not mana, but behaves similarly. Loyalty pays for Planeswalker abilites rather than cards in hand. Loyalty is gained by matching loyalty gems. Also, each colored gem match generates 1 loyalty in addition to mana.

In Planeswalkers

Most Planeswalkers have an affinity to one, two, or even three colors, and Mana bonuses which strongly tend to favor those affinities. A Planeswalker's deck may only include cards which have at least one color matching an affinity of the Planeswalker. Colorless cards can be used by any Planeswalker.

In Events, some nodes have color restrictions. Such nodes may only be played by a Planeswalker sharing a color with the node, or a colorless Planeswalker.

Like card abilities, Planeswalker abilities tend to be thematically linked to certain colors. For example, giving creatures Vigilance and First Strike tends to be a White Planeswalker ability. Drawing cards and draining the mana out of opponents' cards tend to be Blue PW abilities; Black PWs may draw cards, but they often have to pay Life or some other cost. Black PWs Reanimate creatures out of the graveyard straight into play and make opponents lose life. Red typically does Damage directly to the opponent or their creatures, and destroys gems of the opponent's colors. Green Converts gems to their own colors. Green PW's identity beyond that is less clear; they often tend to be a showcase of the abilities featured in their set, or in the case of dual color walkers, have abilities of the second color. Almost 40% of Planeswalkers Summon some sort of token creature; along with the broad category of Buffing creatures it is an ability that all the colors share.

Always-Standard Origins lands are only in the "Opposed" colors, and so can be optimally used only by Planeswalkers of opposed pairs of colors. They also favor the Tarkir Clan Planeswalkers over the Alara Shard Planeswalkers. For example, WUR "Jeskai" Narset of the Ancient Way receives direct benefits from both Battlefield Forge and Shivan Reef, where the UBR "Grixis" Nicol Bolas trio only directly benefit from Shivan Reef. WBR "Mardu" Dihada, Binder of Wills benefits from Battlefield Forge and Caves of Koilos, where WUB "Esper" Dakkon, Shadow Slayer only directly benefits from Caves. The reverse tends to be true of the Puzzle Masters 2 lands.

Colorless planeswalkers

Some Planeswalkers are colorless. Cards may only be included in the deck of a colorless Planeswalker which share a color with the Event node on which the Planeswalker is playing. If a node is locked to a specific color, they cannot be used. If a node is not associated with a color, they can use any color cards.

Mana bonuses

Origins Planeswalkers' mana bonuses add up to five. Between Origins and Hour of Devastation, mana bonus totals wavered but gradually increased. Planeswalkers released from Ixilan onwards follow simple rules for their mana bonuses:

1. Three-color Planeswalkers' mana bonuses add up to seven.
2. Two-color Planeswalkers' mana bonuses add up to eight.
3. Mono-color Planeswalkers' mana bonuses add up to nine.

There are clear benefits to playing Planeswalkers with high spike bonuses with mana conversion, and when playing without mana conversion, to use Planeswalkers with a balanced spread of bonuses.

5 colors in 2 games

All rewards in a single Story mode battle can be earned in two games. Use a three color planeswalker (such as Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh) in a first game, and another two or three color planeswalker (such as Huatli, Radiant Champion or Tamiyo, Field Researcher) in a second game to meet all five color objectives. The two optional objectives may be completed simultaneously.

An incomplete list of the two-planeswalker combinations which cover all 5 colors:

First planeswalker		Second planeswalker
	Dakkon, Shadow Slayer		Arlinn, the Pack's Hope, Domri, Chaos Bringer, Samut, the Tested, or Wrenn and Six
			Sarkhan Unbroken
			Lord Windgrace
	Narset of the Ancient Way		Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, Vraska, Golgari Queen, or Vraska, Relic Seeker
			Lord Windgrace
	Tamiyo, Field Researcher		Angrath, the Flame-Chained, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, Sarkhan the Mad, or Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor
			Dihada, Binder of Wills
			Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, or Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
			Lord Windgrace
	Dihada, Binder of Wills		Kasmina, Enigma Sage, Kiora, Master of the Depths, Nissa, Steward of the Elements, Oko, Thief of Crowns a or Tamiyo, Compleated Sage
			Tamiyo, Field Researcher
	Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, or Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God		Ajani, Unyielding, Calix, Destiny's Hand, or Huatli, Radiant Champion
			Tamiyo, Field Researcher
	Sarkhan Unbroken		Daxos the Returned, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, Kaya, the Inexorable, Kaya, Geist Hunter, or Sorin, Grim Nemesis
			Dakkon, Shadow Slayer
			Dihada, Binder of Wills
	Lord Windgrace
			Dakkon, Shadow Slayer
			Narset of the Ancient Way
			Tamiyo, Field Researcher

In Cards

Each card is either colorless, or has one, two, or occasionally more colors.

Moreso even than Planeswalker abilities, card abilities tend to be thematically linked to certain colors.

Ability separation by color is weaker in Magic: the Gathering Puzzle Quest than Magic: the Gathering for two reasons:

• The gem board and mana system force changes in card design, which in turn makes color principles less strictly applicable.
• Dual color cards can be used by any Planeswalker sharing any one of those colors, so any color-specific mechanics on such cards are more easily accessed.

In Story

Other Magic the Gathering sets have featured the single colors in their story, but in Puzzle Quest, only Throne of Eldraine.
Eldraine's Kingdoms: White: Ardenvale. Blue: Vantress. Black: Locthwain. Red: Embereth. Green: Garenbrig.

Ravnica Guilds (2 color), the Clans of Tarkir (3 color), and the Shards of Alara (3 color), have given their names to the combinations of colors.

The Planes of Ikoria and Capenna are distinguished by flows of the same three color mana combinations as Tarkir and Alara, respectively.

There may be stories of the four color combinations, but if so, they are not yet widely known:
Glint: No White. Dune: No Blue. Ink: No Black. Witch: No Red. Yore: No Green.

Dual color: Ravnica Guilds

The Ravnica cycle of Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark introduced the current names for two-color combinations. There are multiple Planeswalkers for each.

Complementary

Azorius: White/Blue

Selesnya: Green/White

Dimir: Blue/Black

Rakdos: Black/Red

Gruul: Red/Green

Opposed

Orzhov: White/Black

Boros: White/Red

Izzet: Blue/Red

Simic: Blue/Green

Golgari: Black/Green

Strixhaven

Strixhaven Schools of magic represented Opposed colors by new names.

Silverquill

Lorehold

Prismari

Quandrix

Witherbloom

Tri color: Clans of Tarkir

Wedge. Two consecutive colors at the "blunt" end opposing one color at the "sharp" end. Narset of the Ancient Way is Jeskai. Sarkhan Unbroken, originally Mardu, joined Temur. Dihada, Binder of Wills uses the same colors of magic as, but is otherwise unrelated to, Mardu.

Jeskai: White/Blue/Red

Mardu: White/Black/Red

Abzan: White/Black/Green

Sultai: Blue/Black/Green

Temur: Red/Green/Blue

Ikoria triomes

The triomes of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths are wedges of mana as Tarkir.

Raugrin

Savai

Indatha

Zagoth

Ketria

Tri color: Shards of Alara

Arc. Adjoining colors, an arc of the color wheel. Dakkon, Shadow Slayer uses the same colors of magic as, but is otherwise unrelated to, Esper. Nicol Bolas is Grixis. Tamiyo, Field Researcher is Bant.

Esper: White/Blue/Black

Bant: White/Blue/Green

Naya: Red/Green/White

Grixis: Blue/Black/Red

Jund: Black/Red/Green

Streets of New Capenna

The crime families of New Capenna channel the same three color Arc, or Shard, mana combinations as in Alara.

Obscura

Brokers

Cabaretti

Maestros

Riveteers