Theories on sorting Magic cards

[Mara Kalat]

...
So, WU, WB, WR, WG, UB, UR, UG, BR, BG, RG, WUB, WUR, WUG, WBR, WBG, WRG, UBR, UBG, URG, BRG, WUBR, WUBG, WURG, WBRG, UBRG, WUBRG.

I tried to pronounce that in my head, and now I can't stop laughing...

Mara.

[Trisha Lynn]

WUBRG? Who decided that should be the default? (Other than Wizards?) I do my color sort with WRGUB because that's how the color of the visible rainbow goes, skipping the colors that aren't represented by Magic cards.

After having gotten an entire booster box worth of M14 for my birthday, I decided to just screw having them sorted by set (because once a set goes out of Standard, I figure I'll just take ALL of them out at once later). But I do now keep my Standard cards in a separate box from my non-Standard cards.

[Duckay]

All of this just serves to remind me that I'm overdue for a really good sort. My cards since Gatecrash are just in boxes and piles, and it frustrates the crap out of me, but the longer I put it off, the more daunting it becomes, and the more I want to put it off...

[phlip]

"WUBRG" is the order of the dots on the back of the cards, the order of the collector's numbers, and is generally the canonical "order" for the colours.

As for actual reasons why it's that order and not some other order, other than "Wizards did it"... well... it puts the "allied" colours next to each other, and the "enemy" colours across from each other, in the circular form... but other than that, it's pretty arbitrary. But having a canonical order is useful.

As for multicoloured cards, the official standard way to group the colours is so that you skip the fewest colours counting clockwise around the colour wheel. For instance, Boros is RW (since that skips green), not WR (which skips blue and black). Sorting based on that, you end up putting two-colour cards in order according to the art on Tablet of the Guilds: WU, WB, UB, UR, BR, BG, RG, RW, GW, GU. Essentially alternating friendly-pair with enemy-pair. The shards are pretty simple, WUB, UBR, BRG, RGW, GWB. The 4-colour combinations are pretty easily WUBR, UBRG, BRGW, RGWU, GWUB, and the only 5-colour combination is WUBRG.

That leaves the wedges, which are somewhat ambiguous according to that rule... for instance, either RWU or WUR only skip one colour, other orderings of the colours skip more. All the actual cards, though, put the "point" of the wedge first, so WBR, URG, BGW, RWU, GUB.

Ultimately, though, in most actual sets, for the collector number, all the gold cards are put into one group and sorted alphabetically, and then the hybrids are also sorted alphabetically amongst themselves... with no thought to colours. The exception is Alara Reborn, in which every card is gold, and is sorted according to the shards (starting with Esper).

Besides, surely if you were going to sort the colours according to the rainbow, it'd be BRGUW... the canonical extended rainbow has black at the start, and white at the end. ( )

[korvys]

I started playing something like 14 years ago (Urza's Saga, I think?), but took about 6 years off after giving away most of my cards. This time around (started with Dragon's Maze) I'm going to try to keep on top of the sorting. I figure if I keep it sorted, I won't have to do a big sort later.

This will likely work out not at all.

[tamaness]

I've got two sealed events' worth of Theros to sort into my boxes. If I don't do it soon, it's going to get terrible again.

[Lord Hosk]

I dont know what you guys are talking about "too many to sort" dont you just dump all your cards on the floor in a big pile so you can focus on resorting them them once in awhile its very therapeutic?

[Lord Hosk]

Also.

Theory on sorting cards.

Let Jer do it.

[AdmiralMemo]

I dont know what you guys are talking about "too many to sort" dont you just dump all your cards on the floor in a big pile so you can focus on resorting them them once in awhile its very therapeutic?

Like this?

[Lord Hosk]

Exactly! Don't you feel good now that you get to put those all in order?

[AdmiralMemo]

Well, this is an older picture, so "now" = no.
Also, the reason I had taken this picture was that I had JUST sorted them all into piles by color, then I accidentally dropped a pair of socks onto the stack of blues. The rest dominoed down.

[Evil Smurf]

I go colour, separate my lands from everything else and my decks.
Currently I have a black/white deck and a green/red deck.

[mbooma]

I separate the lands, then go set, rarity, then color in WBURG order. With 1000's of cards ive found its the easiest way to stay ordered without going overboard. The annoying bit is when the sets rotate and i have to rearrange my "standard" box.

[AdmiralMemo]

Well, that shouldn't be TOO much of a problem if you've already gotten them sorted by set. Just take out the sets that aren't valid anymore from the back and add the new ones to the front.

[mbooma]

yeah.... apart from my standard box is too small for all the theros i've bought -.-

[WickedBoy6]

I go WUBRG, then gold/multicolor, colorless/artifact, land, then tokens. After that, alphabetical...and then that's it. I think I really should add another step, maybe set or format.

[tamaness]

I'm thinking I'm going to add a step of "pre-modern, modern, standard," but reprints complicate that somewhat.

I've currently got my Theros sorted separate from everything else, as I've no room for it.

[WickedBoy6]

That's understandable, though. I do that with all new expansions, honestly. I keep them all separated from my own greater amorphous card collection until the next expansion, then rotate the majority of them in. I usually keep out what I'm playing with.