Yes, it was designed to be flexible and played with either type of mana. But most Magic cards were also designed to be played in a 60-card deck and without a legendary creature available to you at all times. I mean, pick any legend designed before Commander came along - Wizards didn't intend for those to be in the command zone, right? So, would you argue that they shouldn't be played as commanders?ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑4 years agoI am not arguing its not both. I am arguing that it was intended that they are playable in either. That was the design for the cards. They were not supposed to need to be played in a deck that had both colors and could produce them. They were intended to be played in either color. The popularity of commander came long after these cards were first designed and printed. Wizards never intended you to need to be playing both colors to play them.
I guess there are those who don't like that off color fetches can be played.
Commander chooses to enforce additional deckbuilding rules, and that includes color identity; I don't know of any other format (beyond Commander and its off-shoots) that cares about color identity. In a 60-card deck, whether Standard, Modern, or kitchen table, there's nothing to stop you from running a single off-color card in your deck; maybe you have the means to cast it, maybe you don't. I've seen reanimator decks that run off-color creatures that they plan to discard and reanimate but couldn't possibly because they can't generate that color. Nothing in the rules states that you can't do that. Commander, though, cares about color identity, and you can't have a card that has mana symbols not found on your commander. Hybrid is both, so unless your commander is also both, you can't run it. This has nothing to do with how the cards were designed. It has to do with the format being played. No, you can't run Avacyn in your Chainer deck, and no, you can't play Kitchen Finks in your Yisan deck.
What about that is a problem?