<p>As noted by others, the 'aligned' color triplets - that is, those that consist of a color and its two siblings to either side on the usual Black-blUe-White-Green-Red color wheel - have nicknames (but not formal names!) based on their 'shards' in the Shards of Alara block: Esper (Ubw), Bant (Wug), Naya (Gwr), Jund (Rgb), and Grixis (Bru).</p>

<p>As for the non-aligned color triplets (which of necessity are one color and its two enemies), the 'dragon' scheme that Lee Abraham mentions based on the names of <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&amp;subtype=%20%5Bdragon%5D&amp;set=%7C%5B%22Planar%20Chaos%22%5D">the dragons that were in Planar Chaos</a> (Intet for Urg, Oros for Wrb, Vorosh for Gub, Numot for Rwu and Teneb for Bgw) is one that I've seen; the other (and slightly more common, at least in the playgroups I play with) is based on the 'shards' that were in Apocalypse, the original 'enemy colors' set - there's a consistent name there that's used on both <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&amp;set=%7C%5B%22Apocalypse%22%5D&amp;name=%20%5Bsanctuary%5D">enchantments</a>
and <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&amp;set=%7C%5B%22Apocalypse%22%5D&amp;name=%20%5Bvolver%5D">creatures</a> that care about the enemy-color combinations.  That set is:</p>

<ul>
<li>Ana for Gub</li>
<li>Ceta for Urg</li>
<li>Dega for Wrb</li>
<li>Necra for Bwg</li>
<li>Raka for Ruw</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T19:43:35.880Z
Those are the names. Not widely-used, though. Just saying "WBR" will get you much more recognition.
Alex P
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T11:36:07.030Z
I agree with Alex fully on that point. They may accurately suggest the colour combination, but they have no actual terminological "currency" among most Magic players.
thesunneversets
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T13:07:01.643Z
I will stick with Dega. Sounds awesome.
wesdfgfgd
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T15:49:57.440Z
I would go so far to say that the shards (and guilds, which are sadly missing from this answer) are formal names. They are routinely referred to by shard and guild by wizard's employees in their Daily MTG columns.
corsiKa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T16:28:43.080Z
@corsiKa Where this gets a bit annoying is that they're also archetype names. "Jund" is a thing beyond just being a BRG deck. Ditto not every Esper-colors deck in Standard is "Esper control."
Alex P
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T17:10:30.477Z
@Alex That's true, Jund these days is more of the creature aggressive playstyle characterized by the alara block (which, for the record, were pretty well designed because they were essentially decks everyone was playing anyway!)
corsiKa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T17:55:11.217Z
@corsiKa Well, event Alara-block-era Jund basically excluded Jund's block mechanic (the all-your-eggs-in-one-basket devour) in favor of its opposite: relentless 2-for-1s.
Alex P
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-10T01:31:32.230Z
Is it ironic that when you take Boros (rw) and add black (b), you get Oros (which is boros minus a b)?
corsiKa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T19:12:01.983Z
2013-03-20T19:12:01.983Z
Steven Stadnicki
<p>In addition to the Ravnica Guilds listed in corsiKa's <a href="https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/11563/25333">answer</a>, <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/first-lesson-introduction-strixhaven-2021-02-18" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Strixhaven</a> adds the following (each of which represents one of the colleges):</p>
<ul>
<li>White + Black = <strong>Silverquill</strong></li>
<li>Blue + Red = <strong>Prismari</strong></li>
<li>Black + Green = <strong>Witherbloom</strong></li>
<li>Red + White = <strong>Lorehold</strong></li>
<li>Green + Blue = <strong>Quandrix</strong></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T21:10:47.530Z
This is technically correct, but it's unlikely to be widely adopted in place of the existing common names Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros and Simic
Andrew
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-25T06:09:34.900Z
Raj, feel free to edit them in appropriately
corsiKa
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-25T16:26:00.740Z
Nobody has started referring to the shards via their Ikorian names, even when Ikoria was the most recent standard set. I'd be 99% sure that same will happen with the Strixhaven colleges.
Philip Kendall
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T21:10:08.600Z
Thanks for adding this; these are worth including for completeness, even if the Ravnica guild names remain more widely used. One further note: we will see how it plays out in practice, but the Strixhaven design team has said there is a distinction in how color pairs interact in Strixhaven vs prior sets (Lorehold / RW is *not* traditional Boros aggro, for example). So perhaps a deck built around the Strixhaven RW mechanics will retain the "Lorehold" name, and other decks will go back to being called Boros? Hard to say.
BradC
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-02T15:29:31.740Z
2022 update: It's safe to say, since Strixhaven has rotated out of standard, that these names aren't still in widespread use; **Prismari** may be the only exception due to the relative success of UR control decks featuring *Prismari Command* and/or UR dragon decks featuring *Galazeth Prismari* in combination with *Goldspan Dragon*.
BradC
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-21T23:03:05.237Z
Are Modern players today really not using the Ikorian names? The Ikorian "triome" lands turned out to be quite playable....
Karl Knechtel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T19:42:23.100Z
2021-03-25T13:15:24.197Z
2021-03-25T13:15:24.197Z
Raj
<p>WUB: Esper<br/>
UBR: Grixis<br/>
WUG: Bant<br/>
GRW: Naya<br/>
RBG: Jund<br/></p>

<p>The other colour combos (two allied colours, plus their joint enemy) have not yet been "named" by another Shards of Alara-esque block, but I'm sure it will happen one day...</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T18:18:10.950Z
2013-03-20T18:18:10.950Z
thesunneversets
<p>Other answers have addressed the 3 color combinations (aka Allied colors correspond to the Shards of Alara and Enemy colors are much less clear) but the two color combinations correspond to the guilds of Ravnica:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>WU - Azorius<br>
  WB - Orzhov<br>
  WR - Boros<br>
  WG - Selesnya<br>
  UB - Dimir<br>
  UR - Izzet<br>
  UG - Simic<br>
  BR - Rakdos<br>
  BG - Golgari<br>
  RG - Gruul</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T21:56:25.837Z
2013-03-21T15:23:28.940Z
2013-03-21T15:23:28.940Z
WPickett
<p>I've seen some people call the other color combos by the names of the elder dragons.</p>

<p>For instance RWB - Oros after the card Oros, The Avenger. Other times I've seen them called based on a national flag that contains their colors. For instance RWU is regularly called American.</p>

<p>However the moment there are no "official" names for the wedge colored decks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T18:56:21.447Z
Oros (and the other dragons in the same cycle) is **not** an Elder Dragon. "Elder" is a creature type, and there are 5 Elder Dragons represented as cards: Arcades Sabboth (Bant), Chromium Rhuell (Esper), Nicol Bolas (Grixis), Palladia-Mors (Naya), and Vaevictis Asmadi (Jund). The five Elder Dragons are siblings in the storyline, survivors of the Elder Dragon Wars, and Nicol Bolas is the last (known) living Elder Dragon in the "present" time of the story. The Elder Dragons are ancestors of **all** other dragons, or at least those on Dominaria.
Brian S
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T18:56:31.110Z
2013-03-20T18:56:31.110Z
Working Title
<p>Blue white Azorious,
Blue black Dimir,
Blue green Simic,
Blue red Izzet, 
White black Orzhov,
White green Selesnya, 
White red Boros, 
Black green Golgari,
Black red Rakdos,
Green red Gruul.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-30T04:44:36.333Z
2014-02-10T18:34:09.320Z
2014-02-10T18:34:09.320Z
MTGPlayerOfAwesomeness
<p>I don't believe there is an answer to black-red-white. Esper refers to one of the Shards of Alara, of which there are five. From a post on <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/what-exactly-is-bant-and-jund-ive-tried-looking-around-and-still-have-no-idea-what-it-is/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TappedOut</a> and <a href="http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Shards_of_Alara" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MTGSlavation</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bant - primary white, secondary blue/green</p>
<p>Esper - primary blue, secondary white/black</p>
<p>Grixis - primary black, secondary blue/red</p>
<p>Jund - primary red, secondary black/green</p>
<p>Naya - primary green, secondary red/white</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T17:22:14.247Z
The problem with the "secondary" language is that that's not how most decks with these names actually play in practice. Many Jund decks often get more from its BG axis than its red part, for instance.
Alex P
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-20T18:19:01.740Z
2013-03-20T18:19:01.740Z
2020-06-17T09:01:24.697Z
SocioMatt
<h2>One color</h2>
<p>In the most common environments, decks with a single color are not competitive in tournaments (due to the fact that you're settling for the top ten cohesive cards in a color instead of two sets of the top five in two colors. The difference in power level between the top 1-5 and the top 6-10 can be massive and game deciding. The other colors also make up for each others weaknesses). But they do exist, especially in older formats where consistency is required to win in a couple of turns and where you have such a large pool of powerful cards to pick from, and are then referred to as &quot;Mono X&quot;. For completeness sake, mono color tribes have been included here even though they are unlikely to be labeled as such.</p>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono white</strong>, <strong>Ardenvale</strong> (kingdom on Eldraine), <strong>Auriok</strong> (human tribe on Mirrodin)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono blue</strong>, <strong>Vantress</strong> (kingdom on Eldraine), <strong>Neurok</strong> (human tribe on Mirrodin)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono black</strong>, <strong>Locthwain</strong> (kingdom on Eldraine), <strong>Moriok</strong> (human tribe on Mirrodin)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono red</strong>, <strong>Embereth</strong> (kingdom on Eldraine), <strong>Vulshok</strong> (human tribe on Mirrodin)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono green</strong>, <strong>Garenbrig</strong> (kingdom on Eldraine), <strong>Sylvok</strong> (human tribe on Mirrodin)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Two colors</h2>
<p>They are usually referred with the names of the guilds of Ravnica. Since the guilds were released (and especially now that we've returned) the color pairs have become common names for duo-color decks. Both allied and enemy color pairs are common to see, although allied more so (due to higher deck cohesion).</p>
<h4>Allied colors</h4>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> White + Blue = <strong>Azorius</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Ojutai</strong> (Dragonlord on Tarkir)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> Blue + Black = <strong>Dimir</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Silumgar</strong> (Dragonlord on Tarkir)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> Black + Red = <strong>Rakdos</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Kolaghan</strong> (Dragonlord on Tarkir)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> Red + Green = <strong>Gruul</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Atarka</strong> (Dragonlord on Tarkir)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> Green + White = <strong>Selesnya</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Dromoka</strong> (Dragonlord on Tarkir)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Enemy colors</h4>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> White + Black = <strong>Orzhov</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Silverquill</strong> (College on Strixhaven)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> Black + Green = <strong>Golgari</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Witherbloom</strong> (College on Strixhaven)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> Green + Blue = <strong>Simic</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Quandrix</strong> (College on Strixhaven)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> Blue + Red = <strong>Izzet</strong> (Guild on Ravnica), <strong>Prismari</strong> (College on Strixhaven)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> Red + White = <strong>Boros</strong> (guild on Ravnica), <strong>Lorehold</strong> (College on Strixhaven)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Three colors</h2>
<p>The first of these are the shards of Alara. They jive well because they give two sets of allied colors each. The less commonly used are the wedges, which involve two enemy color combinations: they're derived from <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?type=%20%5Bdragon%5D%7C%7Csubtype=%20%5Bdragon%5D&amp;set=%5B%22Planar%20Chaos%22%5D" rel="noreferrer">the dragons of Planar Chaos</a>, <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%20%5Bvolver%5D" rel="noreferrer">the volver cycle</a> from Apocalypse, five clans from <a href="http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Khans_of_Tarkir" rel="noreferrer">Khans of Tarkir</a>, or more recently the <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/planeswalkers-guide-ikoria-2020-04-02" rel="noreferrer">triomes</a> of Ikoria. Having only one allied color pair (the two enemies of a single color will be allied) limits deck cohesion, making their use infrequent, although this obviously varies as the meta changes.</p>
<p>Note that if one of the colours is not particularly present in the deck, for example there's only a single card of a given color, you may see a two color name with a third listed as a &quot;splash.&quot;</p>
<h4>Allied colors</h4>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> Green + White + Blue = <strong>Bant</strong> (shard of Alara), <strong>Brokers</strong> (New-Capenna's crime family)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> White + Blue + Black = <strong>Esper</strong> (shard of Alara), <strong>Obscura</strong> (New-Capenna's crime family)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> Blue + Black + Red = <strong>Grixis</strong> (shard of Alara), <strong>Maestros</strong> (New-Capenna's crime family)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> Red + Green + Black = <strong>Jund</strong> (shard of Alara), <strong>Riveteers</strong> (New-Capenna's crime family)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> Red + Green + White = <strong>Naya</strong> (shard of Alara), <strong>Cabaretti</strong> (New-Capenna's crime family)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Enemy colors</h4>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> Red + white + black = <strong>Mardu</strong> (clan on Tarkir), <strong>Savai</strong> (Ikoria triome), <strong>Oros</strong> (dragon from Planar Chaos) or <strong>Dega</strong> (from Degavolver)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> Green + blue + red = <strong>Temur</strong> (clan on Tarkir), <strong>Ketria</strong> (Ikoria triome), <strong>Intet</strong> (dragon from Planar Chaos) or <strong>Ceta</strong> (from Cetavolver)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> White + black + green = <strong>Abzan</strong> (clan on Tarkir), <strong>Indatha</strong> (Ikoria triome), <strong>Teneb</strong> (dragon from Planar Chaos) <strong>Necra</strong> (from Necravolver), <strong>Junk</strong> <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/246" rel="noreferrer">citation</a>, or <strong>Doran</strong> <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/246" rel="noreferrer">citation</a></li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> Blue + Red + White = <strong>Jeskai</strong> (clan on Tarkir), <strong>Raugrin</strong> (Ikoria triome), <strong>Numot</strong> (dragon from Planar Chaos) or <strong>Raka</strong> (from Rakavolver)</li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> Black + green + blue = <strong>Sultai</strong> (clan on Tarkir), <strong>Zagoth</strong> (Ikoria triome), <strong>Vorosh</strong> (dragon from Planar Chaos) or <strong>Ana</strong> (from Anavolver)</li>
</ul>
<p>Informal usages:</p>
<ul>
<li>Red + white + black = Borzhov</li>
<li>Red + white + blue = USA/American/Patriot<br />
(although note that <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/659" rel="noreferrer">Team America</a> is actually black + blue + green)</li>
<li>Red + green + blue = Grizzet<br />
(although it's usually Simic splashing red)</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, it's especially common for red + blue + green and black + blue + green to be called by their abbreviations — &quot;RUG&quot; and &quot;BUG&quot; — because these are names that are easy to remember and pronounce, even though those are not the proper color orders.</p>
<h2>Four colors</h2>
<p>Most decks do not have four full colors. As with three color enemies, if they reach this many colors, it's a shard with a splash of another color. So you're more likely to see something like &quot;American splash black&quot; instead of &quot;Yore&quot;, and lately simply &quot;four color&quot; is rising in popularity.</p>
<p>Names for four-color identities come from one of two sources:</p>
<ul>
<li>The names of <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%20%5Bnephilim%5D&amp;set=%5B%22Guildpact%22%5D" rel="noreferrer">the Nephilims from Guildpact</a>.</li>
<li>The names of <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/designing-commander-2016-edition-2016-10-24" rel="noreferrer">the four-colour “guild identities” defined during Commander 2016's design</a>.</li>
<li>Reference the one color the four-color combination is missing, thus Non-(color).</li>
</ul>
<p>The four colour identities' names are:</p>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> Blue + black + red + green = <strong>Glint-Eye</strong>, or <strong>Chaos</strong>, or <strong>Non-white</strong></li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /> Black + red + green + white = <strong>Dune</strong> (or <strong>Dune-Brood</strong>), or <strong>Aggression</strong>, or <strong>Non-blue</strong></li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /> Red + green + white + blue = <strong>Ink-Treader</strong>, or <strong>Altruism</strong>, or <strong>Non-black</strong></li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /> Green + white + blue + black = <strong>Witch</strong> (or <strong>Witch-Maw</strong>), or <strong>Growth</strong>, or <strong>Non-red</strong></li>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /> White + blue + black + red = <strong>Yore</strong> (or <strong>Yore-Tiller</strong>), or <strong>Artifice</strong>, or <strong>Non-green</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Occasionally, some informal usages of four color decks, especially when it involves a typical three color deck with a splash of a fourth, will be to include some kind of pun or other indicator to an established name. For example, taking a Jund (Red, Green, and Black) deck and adding Blue would be more likely to make it something like &quot;Wet Jund&quot; than it would be Glint-Eye or Chaos. Or if only splashing Blue for a single card might make it &quot;Moist Jund&quot;, that is Wet Jund that is slightly less wet than Wet Jund. Similar puns can be made for Dark Jeskai (Blue, Red, and White adding Black) and I could envision something along those lines for a splash like Dim Jeskai (Blue, Red, and White splashing Black) although admittedly I've never seen it in the wild.</p>
<h2>Five colors</h2>
<p>Decks with all five colors usually revolve around a single combo that they hope to pull off. It takes a lot of mana fixing and a massive amount of playtesting to get a reliable five color deck. For this reason, you don't often find them in tournaments. You find them often in Commander (giving the player access to every card ever, greatly increasing the power level of the deck) and in skill challenges where a player just tries to come up with a crazy deck idea to see if he can make it work. Obviously there's only one five color deck, it uses all five:</p>
<ul>
<li><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif" alt="" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Rainbow/Domain/Five-Color/WUBRG</strong> (pronounced Whoo-Burg)</li>
</ul>
<p>Sometimes, four color decks will also be called Rainbow just because they have so many colors.</p>
<h2>No colors</h2>
<p>Sometimes, particularly in formats with a very large card pool, you'll see colorless decks as well. The most common name for these is a reference to <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5730" rel="noreferrer">the old card frame for artifact cards</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Quh6B.gif" alt="" /> <strong>Mono brown</strong> (not to be confused with BrownTown which is a draft deck leaning heavily on minotaurs)</p>
</li>
<li><p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/SUIog.png" alt="" /> Some newer colorless decks have come to be referred to as &quot;<strong>Diamond</strong>&quot; decks in reference to the diamond-like new symbol for colorless mana</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-21T18:16:16.057Z
Okay, I thought this was a silly question, but +1 just for insane levels of completism :)
thesunneversets
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-10T21:09:44.653Z
No one calls the mono colors based on mirrodin or eldraine single color tribes/kingdoms...
Andrew
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-11T23:51:34.777Z
@Andrew the same could be said for Quandrix; it would be silly to break the pattern.
corsiKa
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-12T13:06:40.757Z
@corsiKa mostly true. I have heard players who started around that era use strixhaven schools, but still never heard anyone call say green Garenbrig or slyvok. Id argue thats more a case for removing noise from the pattern though, not adding more.
Andrew
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-14T08:18:06.310Z
no-color can also be simply called *artifact*
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2013-03-21T15:48:07.093Z
2024-11-11T23:52:15.027Z
2024-11-11T23:52:15.027Z
corsiKa
<p>For example, <em>Esper</em> refers to decks made up of White, Blue and Black cards.</p>

<p>What are the names of the other colour combinations? In particular, how do we refer to a Red-White-Black deck?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-08T22:28:18.270Z
Thank you so much for asking this. I'm just now getting back into Magic, and seeing like "Bant X" and "Temur Y" without any cards with those names in the list was driving me nuts. And it was surprisingly hard to find the answer. Very much "tribal knowledge".
Brian Sullivan
<magic-the-gathering>
What are the names for Magic's different colour combinations?
wesdfgfgd
# What are the names for Magic's different colour combinations?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-03-20)

For example, *Esper* refers to decks made up of White, Blue and Black cards.

What are the names of the other colour combinations? In particular, how do we refer to a Red-White-Black deck?

**Tags:** magic-the-gathering

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Thank you so much for asking this. I'm just now getting back into Magic, and seeing like "Bant X" and "Temur Y" without any cards with those names in the list was driving me nuts. And it was surprisingly hard to find the answer. Very much "tribal knowledge".  

---

## 8 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-03-21. Score: 230 | Accepted answer

## One color

In the most common environments, decks with a single color are not competitive in tournaments (due to the fact that you're settling for the top ten cohesive cards in a color instead of two sets of the top five in two colors. The difference in power level between the top 1-5 and the top 6-10 can be massive and game deciding. The other colors also make up for each others weaknesses). But they do exist, especially in older formats where consistency is required to win in a couple of turns and where you have such a large pool of powerful cards to pick from, and are then referred to as "Mono X". For completeness sake, mono color tribes have been included here even though they are unlikely to be labeled as such.

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) **Mono white**, **Ardenvale** (kingdom on Eldraine), **Auriok** (human tribe on Mirrodin)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) **Mono blue**, **Vantress** (kingdom on Eldraine), **Neurok** (human tribe on Mirrodin)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) **Mono black**, **Locthwain** (kingdom on Eldraine), **Moriok** (human tribe on Mirrodin)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) **Mono red**, **Embereth** (kingdom on Eldraine), **Vulshok** (human tribe on Mirrodin)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) **Mono green**, **Garenbrig** (kingdom on Eldraine), **Sylvok** (human tribe on Mirrodin)

## Two colors

They are usually referred with the names of the guilds of Ravnica. Since the guilds were released (and especially now that we've returned) the color pairs have become common names for duo-color decks. Both allied and enemy color pairs are common to see, although allied more so (due to higher deck cohesion).

#### Allied colors

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) White + Blue = **Azorius** (guild on Ravnica), **Ojutai** (Dragonlord on Tarkir)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) Blue + Black = **Dimir** (guild on Ravnica), **Silumgar** (Dragonlord on Tarkir)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) Black + Red = **Rakdos** (guild on Ravnica), **Kolaghan** (Dragonlord on Tarkir)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) Red + Green = **Gruul** (guild on Ravnica), **Atarka** (Dragonlord on Tarkir)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) Green + White = **Selesnya** (guild on Ravnica), **Dromoka** (Dragonlord on Tarkir)

#### Enemy colors

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) White + Black = **Orzhov** (guild on Ravnica), **Silverquill** (College on Strixhaven)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) Black + Green = **Golgari** (guild on Ravnica), **Witherbloom** (College on Strixhaven)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) Green + Blue = **Simic** (guild on Ravnica), **Quandrix** (College on Strixhaven)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) Blue + Red = **Izzet** (Guild on Ravnica), **Prismari** (College on Strixhaven)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) Red + White = **Boros** (guild on Ravnica), **Lorehold** (College on Strixhaven)

## Three colors

The first of these are the shards of Alara. They jive well because they give two sets of allied colors each. The less commonly used are the wedges, which involve two enemy color combinations: they're derived from [the dragons of Planar Chaos](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?type=%20%5Bdragon%5D%7C%7Csubtype=%20%5Bdragon%5D&set=%5B%22Planar%20Chaos%22%5D), [the volver cycle](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%20%5Bvolver%5D) from Apocalypse, five clans from [Khans of Tarkir](http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Khans_of_Tarkir), or more recently the [triomes](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/planeswalkers-guide-ikoria-2020-04-02) of Ikoria. Having only one allied color pair (the two enemies of a single color will be allied) limits deck cohesion, making their use infrequent, although this obviously varies as the meta changes.

Note that if one of the colours is not particularly present in the deck, for example there's only a single card of a given color, you may see a two color name with a third listed as a "splash."

#### Allied colors

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) Green + White + Blue = **Bant** (shard of Alara), **Brokers** (New-Capenna's crime family)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) White + Blue + Black = **Esper** (shard of Alara), **Obscura** (New-Capenna's crime family)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) Blue + Black + Red = **Grixis** (shard of Alara), **Maestros** (New-Capenna's crime family)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) Red + Green + Black = **Jund** (shard of Alara), **Riveteers** (New-Capenna's crime family)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) Red + Green + White = **Naya** (shard of Alara), **Cabaretti** (New-Capenna's crime family)

#### Enemy colors

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) Red + white + black = **Mardu** (clan on Tarkir), **Savai** (Ikoria triome), **Oros** (dragon from Planar Chaos) or **Dega** (from Degavolver)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) Green + blue + red = **Temur** (clan on Tarkir), **Ketria** (Ikoria triome), **Intet** (dragon from Planar Chaos) or **Ceta** (from Cetavolver)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) White + black + green = **Abzan** (clan on Tarkir), **Indatha** (Ikoria triome), **Teneb** (dragon from Planar Chaos) **Necra** (from Necravolver), **Junk** [citation](http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/246), or **Doran** [citation](http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/246)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) Blue + Red + White = **Jeskai** (clan on Tarkir), **Raugrin** (Ikoria triome), **Numot** (dragon from Planar Chaos) or **Raka** (from Rakavolver)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) Black + green + blue = **Sultai** (clan on Tarkir), **Zagoth** (Ikoria triome), **Vorosh** (dragon from Planar Chaos) or **Ana** (from Anavolver)

Informal usages:

* Red + white + black = Borzhov
* Red + white + blue = USA/American/Patriot  
  (although note that [Team America](http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/659) is actually black + blue + green)
* Red + green + blue = Grizzet  
  (although it's usually Simic splashing red)

In addition, it's especially common for red + blue + green and black + blue + green to be called by their abbreviations — "RUG" and "BUG" — because these are names that are easy to remember and pronounce, even though those are not the proper color orders.

## Four colors

Most decks do not have four full colors. As with three color enemies, if they reach this many colors, it's a shard with a splash of another color. So you're more likely to see something like "American splash black" instead of "Yore", and lately simply "four color" is rising in popularity.

Names for four-color identities come from one of two sources:

* The names of [the Nephilims from Guildpact](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%20%5Bnephilim%5D&set=%5B%22Guildpact%22%5D).
* The names of [the four-colour “guild identities” defined during Commander 2016's design](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/designing-commander-2016-edition-2016-10-24).
* Reference the one color the four-color combination is missing, thus Non-(color).

The four colour identities' names are:

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) Blue + black + red + green = **Glint-Eye**, or **Chaos**, or **Non-white**
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif) Black + red + green + white = **Dune** (or **Dune-Brood**), or **Aggression**, or **Non-blue**
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif) Red + green + white + blue = **Ink-Treader**, or **Altruism**, or **Non-black**
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif) Green + white + blue + black = **Witch** (or **Witch-Maw**), or **Growth**, or **Non-red**
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif) White + blue + black + red = **Yore** (or **Yore-Tiller**), or **Artifice**, or **Non-green**

Occasionally, some informal usages of four color decks, especially when it involves a typical three color deck with a splash of a fourth, will be to include some kind of pun or other indicator to an established name. For example, taking a Jund (Red, Green, and Black) deck and adding Blue would be more likely to make it something like "Wet Jund" than it would be Glint-Eye or Chaos. Or if only splashing Blue for a single card might make it "Moist Jund", that is Wet Jund that is slightly less wet than Wet Jund. Similar puns can be made for Dark Jeskai (Blue, Red, and White adding Black) and I could envision something along those lines for a splash like Dim Jeskai (Blue, Red, and White splashing Black) although admittedly I've never seen it in the wild.

## Five colors

Decks with all five colors usually revolve around a single combo that they hope to pull off. It takes a lot of mana fixing and a massive amount of playtesting to get a reliable five color deck. For this reason, you don't often find them in tournaments. You find them often in Commander (giving the player access to every card ever, greatly increasing the power level of the deck) and in skill challenges where a player just tries to come up with a crazy deck idea to see if he can make it work. Obviously there's only one five color deck, it uses all five:

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/X6h3y.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/GCKpg.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/tmNHI.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/RblrF.gif)![](https://i.sstatic.net/Zf0Ef.gif) **Rainbow/Domain/Five-Color/WUBRG** (pronounced Whoo-Burg)

Sometimes, four color decks will also be called Rainbow just because they have so many colors.

## No colors

Sometimes, particularly in formats with a very large card pool, you'll see colorless decks as well. The most common name for these is a reference to [the old card frame for artifact cards](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5730):

* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/Quh6B.gif) **Mono brown** (not to be confused with BrownTown which is a draft deck leaning heavily on minotaurs)
* ![](https://i.sstatic.net/SUIog.png) Some newer colorless decks have come to be referred to as "**Diamond**" decks in reference to the diamond-like new symbol for colorless mana

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Okay, I thought this was a silly question, but +1 just for insane levels of completism :)  
> **username_7**: No one calls the mono colors based on mirrodin or eldraine single color tribes/kingdoms...  
> **username_5**: @username_7 the same could be said for Quandrix; it would be silly to break the pattern.  
> **username_7**: @username_5 mostly true. I have heard players who started around that era use strixhaven schools, but still never heard anyone call say green Garenbrig or slyvok. Id argue thats more a case for removing noise from the pattern though, not adding more.  
> **username_16**: no-color can also be simply called *artifact*  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-03-20. Score: 11

As noted by others, the 'aligned' color triplets - that is, those that consist of a color and its two siblings to either side on the usual Black-blUe-White-Green-Red color wheel - have nicknames (but not formal names!) based on their 'shards' in the Shards of Alara block: Esper (Ubw), Bant (Wug), Naya (Gwr), Jund (Rgb), and Grixis (Bru).

As for the non-aligned color triplets (which of necessity are one color and its two enemies), the 'dragon' scheme that Lee Abraham mentions based on the names of [the dragons that were in Planar Chaos](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&subtype=%20%5Bdragon%5D&set=%7C%5B%22Planar%20Chaos%22%5D) (Intet for Urg, Oros for Wrb, Vorosh for Gub, Numot for Rwu and Teneb for Bgw) is one that I've seen; the other (and slightly more common, at least in the playgroups I play with) is based on the 'shards' that were in Apocalypse, the original 'enemy colors' set - there's a consistent name there that's used on both [enchantments](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=%7C%5B%22Apocalypse%22%5D&name=%20%5Bsanctuary%5D)
and [creatures](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=%7C%5B%22Apocalypse%22%5D&name=%20%5Bvolver%5D) that care about the enemy-color combinations. That set is:

* Ana for Gub
* Ceta for Urg
* Dega for Wrb
* Necra for Bwg
* Raka for Ruw

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Those are the names. Not widely-used, though. Just saying "WBR" will get you much more recognition.  
> **username_4**: I agree with Alex fully on that point. They may accurately suggest the colour combination, but they have no actual terminological "currency" among most Magic players.  
> **username_0**: I will stick with Dega. Sounds awesome.  
> **username_5**: I would go so far to say that the shards (and guilds, which are sadly missing from this answer) are formal names. They are routinely referred to by shard and guild by wizard's employees in their Daily MTG columns.  
> **username_3**: @username_5 Where this gets a bit annoying is that they're also archetype names. "Jund" is a thing beyond just being a BRG deck. Ditto not every Esper-colors deck in Standard is "Esper control."  
> **username_5**: @Alex That's true, Jund these days is more of the creature aggressive playstyle characterized by the alara block (which, for the record, were pretty well designed because they were essentially decks everyone was playing anyway!)  
> **username_3**: @username_5 Well, event Alara-block-era Jund basically excluded Jund's block mechanic (the all-your-eggs-in-one-basket devour) in favor of its opposite: relentless 2-for-1s.  
> **username_5**: Is it ironic that when you take Boros (rw) and add black (b), you get Oros (which is boros minus a b)?  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-03-24. Score: 4

In addition to the Ravnica Guilds listed in username_5's [answer](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/11563/25333), [Strixhaven](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/first-lesson-introduction-strixhaven-2021-02-18) adds the following (each of which represents one of the colleges):

* White + Black = **Silverquill**
* Blue + Red = **Prismari**
* Black + Green = **Witherbloom**
* Red + White = **Lorehold**
* Green + Blue = **Quandrix**

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: This is technically correct, but it's unlikely to be widely adopted in place of the existing common names Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros and Simic  
> **username_5**: username_6, feel free to edit them in appropriately  
> **username_8**: Nobody has started referring to the shards via their Ikorian names, even when Ikoria was the most recent standard set. I'd be 99% sure that same will happen with the Strixhaven colleges.  
> **username_9**: Thanks for adding this; these are worth including for completeness, even if the Ravnica guild names remain more widely used. One further note: we will see how it plays out in practice, but the Strixhaven design team has said there is a distinction in how color pairs interact in Strixhaven vs prior sets (Lorehold / RW is *not* traditional Boros aggro, for example). So perhaps a deck built around the Strixhaven RW mechanics will retain the "Lorehold" name, and other decks will go back to being called Boros? Hard to say.  
> **username_9**: 2022 update: It's safe to say, since Strixhaven has rotated out of standard, that these names aren't still in widespread use; **Prismari** may be the only exception due to the relative success of UR control decks featuring *Prismari Command* and/or UR dragon decks featuring *Galazeth Prismari* in combination with *Goldspan Dragon*.  
> **username_10**: Are Modern players today really not using the Ikorian names? The Ikorian "triome" lands turned out to be quite playable....  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-03-20. Score: 0

WUB: Esper  
UBR: Grixis  
WUG: Bant  
GRW: Naya  
RBG: Jund

The other colour combos (two allied colours, plus their joint enemy) have not yet been "named" by another Shards of Alara-esque block, but I'm sure it will happen one day...


---

### Answer by username_11 on 2013-03-20. Score: 0

Other answers have addressed the 3 color combinations (aka Allied colors correspond to the Shards of Alara and Enemy colors are much less clear) but the two color combinations correspond to the guilds of Ravnica:

> WU - Azorius  
> WB - Orzhov  
> WR - Boros  
> WG - Selesnya  
> UB - Dimir  
> UR - Izzet  
> UG - Simic  
> BR - Rakdos  
> BG - Golgari  
> RG - Gruul


---

### Answer by username_12 on 2013-03-20. Score: -1

I've seen some people call the other color combos by the names of the elder dragons.

For instance RWB - Oros after the card Oros, The Avenger. Other times I've seen them called based on a national flag that contains their colors. For instance RWU is regularly called American.

However the moment there are no "official" names for the wedge colored decks.

> **Comments:**
> **username_13**: Oros (and the other dragons in the same cycle) is **not** an Elder Dragon. "Elder" is a creature type, and there are 5 Elder Dragons represented as cards: Arcades Sabboth (Bant), Chromium Rhuell (Esper), Nicol Bolas (Grixis), Palladia-Mors (Naya), and Vaevictis Asmadi (Jund). The five Elder Dragons are siblings in the storyline, survivors of the Elder Dragon Wars, and Nicol Bolas is the last (known) living Elder Dragon in the "present" time of the story. The Elder Dragons are ancestors of **all** other dragons, or at least those on Dominaria.  

---

### Answer by username_14 on 2013-12-30. Score: -1

Blue white Azorious,
Blue black Dimir,
Blue green Simic,
Blue red Izzet,
White black Orzhov,
White green Selesnya,
White red Boros,
Black green Golgari,
Black red Rakdos,
Green red Gruul.


---

### Answer by username_15 on 2013-03-20. Score: -3

I don't believe there is an answer to black-red-white. Esper refers to one of the Shards of Alara, of which there are five. From a post on [TappedOut](http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/what-exactly-is-bant-and-jund-ive-tried-looking-around-and-still-have-no-idea-what-it-is/) and [MTGSlavation](http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Shards_of_Alara):

> Bant - primary white, secondary blue/green
>
> Esper - primary blue, secondary white/black
>
> Grixis - primary black, secondary blue/red
>
> Jund - primary red, secondary black/green
>
> Naya - primary green, secondary red/white

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: The problem with the "secondary" language is that that's not how most decks with these names actually play in practice. Many Jund decks often get more from its BG axis than its red part, for instance.  

---

