Hybrid mana

Hybrid mana (also known as half-half mana) is a type of mana first introduced in Ravnica: City of Guilds. Each hybrid mana symbol represents a cost which can be paid with one of two colors.

History
Hybrid mana was featured throughout the Ravnica block and Shadowmoor blocks. It was also featured in Alara Reborn as an easier way to play three-colored cards, as was the theme of the block. It returned in Return to Ravnica and again in a much smaller role in Fate Reforged. Being especially characteristic for Ravnica, it was used again in the Guilds of Ravnica block.

After that, the usage picked up considerably, as it appeared as the quad-hybrid double-cycle in Throne of Eldraine as a set of monocolor payoffs, three multicolor cycles, and the Companion double-cycle in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths to smooth out a wedge theme, a single two-brid card in Zendikar Rising, and what appears to be its most prevalent usage in Strixhaven: School of Mages since Shadowmoor.

Hybrid mana is now considered deciduous.

Description
The hybrid mana symbol can be of any combination of two colors, or any color of mana and two generic mana. In textual terms hybrid mana symbols are represented as:

Monocolored Hybrid
Shadowmoor introduced Monocolored Hybrid cards (also called "two-brid"). Monocolored hybrid mana symbols represent a cost that can be paid in either of two ways. For example, can be paid with either  or with two mana of any type. It's a black mana symbol. Two-brid returned in Zendikar Rising.
 * A card with a monocolored hybrid mana symbol in its mana cost is each of the colors that appears in its mana cost, regardless of what mana was spent to play it. It is not colorless. For example, Beseech the Queen above is black, even if you spend six red mana to play it. These are also referred to as "two-brid".
 * A card with monocolored hybrid mana symbols in its mana cost has a converted mana cost equal to the highest possible cost it could be played for. Its converted mana cost never changes. For example, Beseech the Queen above has a converted mana cost of 6, even if you spend to play it.
 * If a cost includes more than one monocolored hybrid mana symbol, you can choose a different way to pay for each symbol. For example, you can play Beseech the Queen by spending, , , or.
 * If an effect reduces the cost to play a spell by an amount of generic mana, it applies to a monocolored hybrid spell only if you've chosen a method of paying for it that includes generic mana.
 * Unlike other hybrid cards, which appear in two-tone frames, the Shadowmoor monocolored hybrid cards appear in monocolored frames because they're just a single color.

Gold Hybrid Costs
In the 2009 set Alara Reborn, hybrid symbols were featured alongside the "normal" mana symbols for the first time. For example, Jund Hackblade was given the cost for the reason of it being a card with a converted mana cost of 2 that was needed to be tri-colored, and lets it be a draft pivot for the red shards. The mana cost of is representative of the allied colors of red, black, and green. Black and green are enemies, though they both are allied to the main color, red, or. All the hybrid cards in the set follow this patterning, thus all hybrid symbols were of enemy colors.

Hybrid mana has not been a design focus for many years, and as such costs of this nature have not been seen for a while. Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths showed the other side in the five Apex creatures, which are wedge-colored and have a Mutate cost that has an allied hybrid and their common enemy in the cost. Strixhaven: School of Mages showed a brand new costing in the form of XMHN, where H is a hybrid cost of M and N - this is the first time the hybrid cost was in between two color symbols.

Rules
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Rulings

 * Hybrid mana symbols appear only in costs, such as the mana cost in the upper right corner of a card or the cost to activate an activated ability.


 * A card with hybrid mana symbols in its mana cost is each color that appears in its mana cost, regardless of what mana was spent to cast it. For example, the Deathcult Rogue is blue and black, even if you cast it with only blue mana.


 * As you cast a spell or activate an activated ability with hybrid mana symbols in its cost, you choose which color of mana you will spend for each hybrid mana symbol. You do this at the same time you would choose modes or choose a value for an X in a mana cost. For example, you choose whether you'll cast Deathcult Rogue by paying, , or.


 * Hybrid mana symbols, including monocolored hybrid mana symbols, do count toward devotion to their color(s). However, they add one devotion to each of their corresponding colors and one to their collected colors. For example, a mana will add one devotion to a Phenax, God of Deception and not two.

Trivia

 * Hybrid mana symbols were featured as rules card 3 of 6 in the Shadowmoor set and 2 of 8 in the Eventide set and 1 of 3 in the Alara Reborn set.
 * The design for the hybrid mana symbols was chosen after careful consideration of other possibilities.
 * Three-color hybrid, or "tri-brid" is deemed too close to colorless, ugly, and confusing.
 * Hybrid mana is considered to be a deciduous mechanic.
 * In standard-legal expansions, hybrid cards are numbered after the traditional gold multicolor cards, but in reprint/special products like Commander or Planechase, they are numbered in amongst the gold cards. However, the former tradition has been subverted with the release of Strixhaven: School of Mages.