Basic Costs

[Ric_Flair]

Recent discussions on tempo have got me thinking.  I was trying to figure out the basic cards and values of certain aspects of Magic.  With that in mind I wanted to poll the people here to figure some things out.  So here are my questions:

What are the values of the following in colorless mana?:

A payment of two colored mana of the same kind.  If there are any differences between color, note the differences.

One mana of each different color of allied colors (ex. RB in Terminate's cost)

One mana of each different color of enemy colors (ex. UG in Gaea's Skyfolk)

Drawing one card

One life gain (in fractions if need be)

One life lost as against an opponent

One additional point of power on a creature's power.

One additional point of power on a creature's power, going from 4 to 5 (the most important difference in real game terms, 6 to 7 is important too but most creatures aren't priced low enough to be useful in that range).

One additional point of toughness on a creature's toughness.  Bolt range used to be a big deal, but it is not now.

Flying

Please keep Vintage's costs and cards in mind.  In a slower format these costs would be different, obviously.

[TheFram]

A payment of two colored mana of the same kind.

This depends so heavily on the deck and the point in the game I find it hard to generalize. In a mono or 2 colored deck, say FCG or Suicide, BB or RR are ~2 to ~2.25 mana because you will have RR or BB turn 2 most of the time. In a multi-colored deck, it depends what colors we are referring to. UU in 4cC is ~2.25 (because of wastes), whereas WW in the same deck is ~3 to ~4.

One mana of each different color of allied colors (ex. RB in Terminate's cost)

Again, depends pretty heavily on the deck. However, with duals and fetchies, i don't see this as much harder than 2 of the same color. It is easier than assembling 2 of the same color when that color is a splash (ie: WW in 4cC is probably harder than WB because you are more likely to draw a sea and tundra than two tundras.)

One mana of each different color of enemy colors (ex. UG in Gaea's Skyfolk)

Given duals and fetchies this is only marginally harder than the above example with allied colors.

Drawing one card

I would say that it is roughly 2 colorless mana per card. Just an estimate

One life gain (in fractions if need be)

About 1/4 of a mana. Again, an estimate.

One life lost as against an opponent

Not clear what this means. Making an opponent lose one life is rather worthless. However, the value increases with the amount lost. It would be something like Value = (X)^2  / (20) where X is the amount of life lost. This analysis takes into account the clock you are making at the current time.

One additional point of power on a creature's power.

See above. The jump from 1 to 2 power is large since it halves you clock, 2-3 is a medium since it will cut your clock from 10 t 7 turn, 3-4 is minimal, etc. The formula (imo) for the value of a power diff. (ignoring other abilities) is something like Value(dX) = (20/ (X+dX)) - (20/X) where X is the original power and dX is the change

One additional point of power on a creature's power, going from 4 to 5 (the most important difference in real game terms, 6 to 7 is important too but most creatures aren't priced low enough to be useful in that range).

1 to 2 is a bigger jump. It's just that in vintage 1/1's are mostly utility creatures and 2/x's are not played. It is only because of the abilities on the 1/1's that they see play at all in most cases. It is the higher end creatures, used as fat and control win conditions that really fall under the above rule.

One additional point of toughness on a creature's toughness. Bolt range used to be a big deal, but it is not now.

toughness is not so important. I would say that a jump from 1 to anything higher is major, and any other jump is nearly worthless. The jump from 1 avoids Fire/Ice two fors, and thats about the only relevant burn in the format.

Flying

With Angel and Wonder about i think this can ve valued at about 1/2 of a card, so 1 mana seems reasonable.

[Komatteru]

Here's a rule of thumb I used to use for creature costs.

The base converted mana cost of a creature should be equal to the average of the creature's power and toughness.  Now add 1 point for each "normal" creature ability, such as flying, trample, protection, first strike, etc.  Other creature abilities (such as tapping to do damage, etc.) should be priced at 1-2 mana, depending on their effect on the game.  Subtract a mana for each drawback (not something whimpy like Juzam's damage dealing, but a solid drawback).  Obviously, a creature that draws cards should cost more than one that taps another creature in play.  I never really had a system for figuring this part out.

To figure out the number of colored mana required, look at the abilities of the creature and determine how characteristic they are to that color.  A green creature that regenerates and tramples should have at least two green mana in its cost.  A creature that is blue and flies should only have a single blue in its cost.  I suppose for multicolor cards, you should figure out how characteristic the abilties are to each color and assign that way.

That last qualification should probably be applicable to spells as well.  Expect that a counterspell of some sort will have double blue, a white "kill 'em all" (e.g., Wrath of God) effect should have double white, a game breaking black card with a distinctly black ability (trading life for cards, reanimation, etc.) should have triple black, etc.  The double colored requirement keeps the card in an appropriate deck.  A splashable "characteristic effect" should cost more to counteract the cost or have some other drawback.

That's just a suggestion.  I did use to use the creature rule (and still do, when I actually look at creatures), and it seems to be a decent rule of thumb (not exact, but decent estimater).

Check out this question of the day for July 16: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/0704