Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1048: White-Blue-Black

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

In this podcast, I talk about the three-color Esper shard, white-blue-black.

I'm pulling up my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so I've started talking about three color pairings. Today, I'm going to talk about white, blue, black. So the blue center. So it's what we call a shard or an arc, which is three colors in a row. Okay, so the way that I've been doing these three-color podcasts is I will talk about each color individually. I will talk about each of the pairings of the colors. And then I will talk about how we do the three-color depending on where we focus it. Because three-color combinations, there's a lot going on.

So usually whatever the focus is, that determines a lot about how the faction sort of plays out. And even then, there are ways to do it in different ways, as you will see today. Okay, so white, blue, black. Let's start by talking about the three colors. So mono-white. White wants peace through structure. Basically, what white wants is white wants... White believes that everybody has...

We have enough resources to make everybody happy. That there's no reason that anybody needs a want of things. Not that people might not want things they don't need, but the idea that everyone's needs can be met. And the key to that, the key to doing that is reacting in such a way and making choices in such a way that you prioritize the group over the individual, the needs of the group. And in order to do that, white uses structure, it uses the law, it uses religion, it creates a lot of systems that teach people, you need to do this thing. Because white knows, sort of left unchecked, people can be swayed by other things. So white very much says, we can all have peace. I will make the structure to inform you

and instruct you to make everybody act in the way they should for the good of the group. And if we all do that, we will all have what we need. Okay, blue. Blue is about wanting perfection through knowledge. Blue is born, it believes everybody's born a tabula rasa, a blank slate. Blue is anybody can be whatever they want to be. You have the ability to learn, you can have education, there's technology, there is experience, that there's all these different ways for you to learn what you can be. And the goal, the purpose of your life is to figure out the best path and make sure that you are doing all

the things you need to do with the right education, with the right tools to become the best you that you can be. And so blue is very much about trying to make itself and this world as perfect as it can be, that it wants to reach perfection. But the key to perfection is that you have to be very knowledgeable. You have to understand all your choices. Before you make a decision, you have to understand the options and ramifications, and you need to know how certain choices will react in certain ways. So blue is much more of the colors, one of the most passive of the colors,

because it wants to make sure that everything is done correctly. Then we get to black. Black is about power through ruthlessness. Black basically says, it is up to me and only me to make sure I get the things I want. I want to make sure I make up a system where I'm able to get those things. And the key to getting sure I get the things I want. I want to make sure I make up a system where I'm able to get those things.

And the key to getting what I want is the willingness to do what it takes to get what I want. Most people aren't willing to do what it takes. But Black says, hey, there are costs, there are risks, you know, there are trade-offs. That part of sort of having the life that you need is recognizing and understanding

that sometimes you have recognizing and understanding that sometimes you have to do things that maybe you're taught not to do. You know, black very much looks at a lot of white teachings, especially like religion and morality. Black does not believe in morality. Black is, it is what it is. And also, black is very much about the idea that it is up to the job of each individual to look out for themselves. That no one's going to look out to the job of each individual to look out for themselves.

That no one's going to look out for you like you're going to look out for you. So your job is to do everything you can to make sure that you're taken care of. And everybody else, that's their job to take care of themselves. Black very much believes in merit-based systems in which people are allowed to thrive. Hey, maybe some people don't thrive, but that's their own doing. If you are willing to do what it takes to thrive, you can thrive. But you have to be willing to do what it takes.

Okay, so now let's talk about the combination of these three colors. Okay, so white and blue. White and blue is the piece of white, the group focus of white, and the perfection of blue and what you get there is civilization you get that white and blue

blue wants to make the perfect system white wants to have what everybody needs so when you put those two together when white's focused toward the group with blue's desire to perfect you come those together and you get a group that wants to perfect society, that wants to use technology and education and all the tools available,

including white structure. It's white structure and Blue's knowledge combined. And so White and Blue get together, and they're very much focused on making the perfect societal system. You know, making civilization, making something in which you're training people and then using the tools you need so that society can be as perfect as possible. OK, blue and black is very much focused on the power of change. So blue and black shared enemy.

It's like white and blue shared enemy is red. Red is all about living in the moment, you know, spontaneity, where white and blue are very much about being careful, carefully thinking things out. So blue and black, the enemy is green. Green is all about accepting your role. Blue and black are like, no, I'm a tabula rasa. I can be whatever I want. Black is like, I want, you know, I'm looking out for me.

I'm going to do what I need to do. No one's going to tell me what I can or can't do. And so blue and black when they get together are very much about the power of change. And while blue moves toward the group when it gets with white, it moves more toward the individual when it gets with black. And so it definitely has this idea of I want to be the best that I can be and I'm willing to do whatever it takes

for that to happen. You know, that when you get the sort of desired perfection with the quest for power of black and the ruthlessness of black, you definitely get a very, it's the sneakiest color combination. They're going to do whatever it takes to get what they want. And what blue really understands is the power of knowledge.

And with sort of the power-hungerness of black combined with the trickiness of blue, you get a very, blue and black is like, it does whatever it wants to succeed. And a big part of succeeding is not necessarily letting the other person know what you're up to. That blue and black are very much into sort of the importance of secrecy and the importance of getting tactical advantage because you understand that somebody else doesn't understand it. So blue black very much is about sort of getting what you want and doing what you want, but in such a way that it is encouraging.

You know, it is everything blue and black does is for the advancement of blue and black personally. Okay, then we get white and black. So white and black is the one enemy combination. So when you get to an arc or shard, you have two allies and one enemy combination. When we get to wedges, you'll have two enemy and one ally combination. So white and black, the core of white and black is that white believes in the good of the group and black believes in the good of the individual. White is all about morality. Black is about immorality.

White is about trying to do what it thinks, you know, so it wants to advance as many people as possible. It wants to, you know, create systems that it believes are fair. And black is like, no, you know, black is like, white wants to treat everybody equally, right? Everybody should get the same thing. So everybody should have what they need. So everybody should get the same thing. And black is like, no, no, no, You know, people should get what they earn. People should get, you know, that system should be set up such that those that are willing to do more can get more. And white and black very much fight over that general principle. When white and black get together, what tends to happen is usually it's white means,

I would say white goals with black means or black goals with white means. So for example, you could be trying to get peace, but you'll do whatever it takes to get there. The idea being that there is usually, there's a subgroup that you care about. And the idea is I'm looking out for that, and I'll do whatever it takes against everybody else to help my group. But my group is not everybody. It's a subgroup. Where when you lean toward black, the idea of I want power, you could say, well, I want power at whatever cost.

I'm going to use the tools of light, which is structure, as a means to get what I want. That my crime will be organized. And so, for example, when you see in, when you see Orzhov in Ravnica, that very much is black means white, I'm sorry, black goals, white means. And so the idea essentially is that white and black want different things. It's more a matter when they get together of where they find

the common ground. Okay, so now that we have those combinations, let's talk a little bit about white, blue, black in general. So we've done two different times of white, blue, and black being together. We did Esper. So Esper was from Alara. So on Alara, the shards of Alara, each world, the world split into five, and each shard only had three colors. So what you're seeing is the color and its allies. So Esper was the blue shard, meaning

it's blue and its two allies, white and black, and what would happen if its enemies, red and green, did not exist? And so what happened in Esper is, so I should say, in both Esper and in Obscura, so Streets of New Compendia was Obscura, they were both blue-centered. Now Obscura was a world of crime, so, sorry, let me talk Esper, then I'llena was Obscura. They were both blue-centered. Now, Obscura was a world of crime. So, sorry, let me talk Esper, then I'll get to Obscura. Esper, the idea is, it was a world in which everything was trying to perfect itself.

And so, it really leaned into technology. The idea being is, how can people be the best they can be? Well, let's improve upon humanity itself. And so, through technology, they started replacing body parts with machines to the point at which they all became sort of cyborgs. One of the things about the creatures in Esper is they're all artifact creatures that they've all enhanced and upgraded themselves. So in a world in which it's all about perfection,

it leaned heavily into the idea of, I'm going to do what I need to do to get there. I'm going to do what I need to do to reach this perfect system. Now in Streets of New Capenna, we have Obscura. Obscura was, they're all crime families and they were very much the information brokers, right? They're the ones that say, hey, the true power comes in the handling of information.

That he who knows the information can control the situation. And so they were very much about brokering and secrets. And they were the ones that were very sneaky and planned very elaborate heists and things that, you know, they outsmarted everybody else. They were very much in the idea that knowledge will win the day and that planning will win the day. And so they were the ones that were most elaborate in their, you know, they would figure out what mattered and then take steps to get there. And their plans were very multi-step plans because they were thinking very carefully. They were trying to perfect their crime, if you will.

Okay, so let's start by talking about blue-centered. Normally in a shard or arc, the color that has the two allies tends to be the center. That's the natural place to put it. So when you have blue, white, and black, you are centering on perfection. And the idea is, in a world in which you are influenced by white and black, you are trying to perfect everything. Not just you personally, not just the community you live in, but both.

That it really wants to find the sweet spot of that. And so a big part of Blue, you know, when it has its allies around it is it has all the tools it needs to get the job done. So it very much controls the environment using white tools of structure and making laws and rules and crafting religion. You know, it's doing everything it can to get what it wants, but it's influenced by its black part to, you know, it definitely is looking out for itself over those of others. So it's trying to create a system that allows it to control things, but it has an impetus

of wanting things. It's not just maximizing the group as a whole, as white-blue would do, but it's maximizing both the group and the individual. Now, when perfection is your goal, when what you're trying to do is your goal, the way I like to think of it is whatever the center color is, whatever the color that's the main color, that's your means. And the other two, I'm sorry, that's your goal. And the other two are your means, what you do to accomplish that.

So blue says, okay, I want perfection. I want to be the best that I can do. Obviously, it uses the normal blue tools, knowledge, education, technology, and such. But it's also making use of the white and black tools. So from white, it's really making use of structure and the ability to sort of dictate others and lay down laws and rules and so create a system by which others have to do what you want to do. But the black part of it says, look, nothing is off limits to me.

Whatever I need to do to get what I want. And so when you start mixing in black's ruthlessness into it, A, black's selfishness, and B, black's ruthlessness. So when you get black's ruthlessness, it's sort of, I'm willing to make systems and abuse those systems to maximize the output that I want. That when blue and white get together without black, white is trying to say, let's think for the greater good.

And when black gets involved, it stops being a little bit less the greater good. And that it definitely pushes blue toward making a larger system that allows it power, allows it control, and allows it to sort of manipulate what it wants. So when white, blue, and black all get together, it definitely, and with blue in the center, it definitely is the most controlling of the three color combinations.

It's the most exacting. It's the most, you know, it makes systems where it can thrive. And the systems are very much set up in such a way that blue is total knowledge of what's going on. And it has lots and lots of power to control things. Okay, so let's look at, now let's change things up a little bit. Now, once again, I should stress, if blue is the center, the goal is perfection more than anything else.

It's not that it doesn't like peace or like power, and those are an element of it, but that's not its goal, right? Its goal is to be the best that it can be. Those are an element of it. But that's not its goal, right? Its goal is to be the best that it can be. So it is using white structure and black's ruthlessness to maximize its ability to be the best that it can be. But still, the driving force is it being the best that it can be. Now, let's look at other centers.

Let's say we have a white center. In a white center, basically the idea is that it wants peace. It wants that society in which everybody gets what they want. But now when you mix blue in, you get a lot of the tools of blue. You get knowledge and education. You get technology. You know, you get the idea of manipulation, of trickery, that when white gets blue involved, it really understands that part of getting what you want, part of getting to the end state is the acknowledgement of understanding of what you need to do.

And then when you mix black in, you mix black's ruthlessness. It's sort of like, I'm going to do what I need to do, whatever the cost. Now, white's end goal is for the good of everybody, right? White's end goal is I want to make a system where whether or not people know it, I'm making something where I get everybody what they need. But the difference when you start adding, you know, white by itself is like it really has its high ideals and I'm trying to live off them. You add blue into the mix, it starts getting this idea of, well, manipulation, trickery.

If I have to sort of trick people into doing something, well, it's for the greater good. That's okay. White by itself is like, well, I'm just going to make the rules. I'm just going to set down the laws. I'm going to show you that you should do the thing you're going to do because there's consequences for not doing it. But white by mono-white is very out in the open.

White mixed with blue starts to say, okay, I need to use the information I have and I need to manipulate things in such a way that I want people to act the way they're going to do. But with blue involved, they get, okay, I understand that maybe I give you information. Maybe I'm not as straightforward. Maybe I'm giving you information

that gets you to act the way I want. You know, I want you to act for the greater good of society. And with blue involved, like, well, maybe if I say thing A, which isn't 100% true, but I know that it'll make you act a certain way, that it's willing to do that. And then when you mix in black, the idea of, look, I'm going to be ruthless. Like, I need to make sure everybody has what they have. I'm trying to get peace. I'll do whatever it takes, you know. And that's when you start getting stuff where you start getting the idea of, I can do immoral things for a larger moral goal.

You start getting a little Machiavellian in the idea of, well, if I have to kill somebody so that many, many other people thrive, white starts to rationalize things because with the rules of black, it's like, well, my end goal is getting as many things as possible for as many people as possible. You know, if I need to do something, like, with the ruthlessness of black, whites start rationalizing things. Whites start saying, well,

you know, for the good of the group maybe a few individuals have to get, you know, hurt, but it's better for a larger group at all. So you start mixing black in, you start really seeing white white white is willing to dip its toe into immoral acts a little more if it believes the larger end result is a moral win.

Okay, so white-centered, you really see, I'm trying to bring peace about, but I'm using the tools at my disposal to make that happen. And I'm willing to do things about, but I'm using the tools at my disposal to make that happen. And I'm willing to do things. I'll be manipulative. I'm willing to do things that might be immoral in the short run to be more moral in the long run. But white will act in very different ways than it does just in like mono white. Okay, what if we get black centered?

Well, black centered is all about power. I want to do what I got to do to be able to have the system that I want. So there, black-centered, once again, we look at the goal of black, which was power, and the means of white and blue. Well, white's means is structure, right? I have law. I have religion. I have rules. And that when black can use those, black is like, hee, hee, hee. I can really use that to, you know, that's yet another tool that can advance what I want.

If I control the rules, I have lots of power. And then black looks at blue, and once again, it sees all these very valuable tools. Knowledge, you know, if I know better than other people what is important, that makes me even more powerful. Technology, I have tools other people don't have, that's just even more access to power. So when black looks at white and blue,

it's very much about saying, I need to get power, what tools are available to me to get power? Now the thing about white and blue is, in general, so white, blue, and black, is that red and green are more the colors of action. You know, the more the colors of living in the moment. Where white, blue, and black all have this sort of longer range thought. Green has some evolution to it,

but red and green live more in the moment. The reason that they're opposite of blue is blue is very much about thinking things through, where red and green are about acting, acting in the moment, following impulses, following emotions, doing stuff now, where blue very much is about thinking things through.

So the thing when you get to white, blue, black is you know, it's very much about I'm going to, you know, white, blue, black is of all the color combinations, the one that probably has the longest range thoughts. The one that plans the farthest ahead. The one that does the most sort of like thinking in multiple steps. Because each white, blue, and black offers something very valuable to the table. And that when you bring them all together, it is the most controlling of the three color combinations.

Structure can be very controlling. Knowledge can be very controlling. You know, the ruthlessness can be very controlling. So when you get them together, there definitely is this aspect of, you know, I, another important thing of this is white, blue, black is the best at understanding systems and understanding sort of the nature of what makes things tick. White, what makes things tick. White, for example, in order to make people function a certain way, if I want people to do the moral right thing, I have to understand how people act.

I have to understand, you know, if I'm going to make rules and laws and religion, I have to understand the nature of people because I have to steer them in the right direction. Blue is like, okay, you know, if I want to act the way, if I want to get to perfection, I want to do the right thing, I need to understand everything there is to know. Knowledge is key. I need to know everything there is to know. And black, in its ruthlessness, is like, if I'm trying to gain power, wow, I really want to, I want to look for power in every nook and cranny.

That white, blue, and black, each in their own way, for their own regards, very much is about trying to understand the system in a way that is very going to the core. Like, the thing about white, blue, black, when you fight against white, blue, black, like, game-wise, is they have a lot of control. They have a lot of card manipulation and card advantage. White, blue, black is definitely the three-color combination that's going to beat you in a way that you're least

understanding what's going on. That it's going to control the situation, it's going to make choices, it's going to spend what it needs to spend, And it's definitely the color combination that will manipulate the most and control the most. Okay. So another thing I like to do when I talk about three colors is spend a little bit of time talking about the two colors that it's not and what does it mean that it's not those two colors. So let's talk a little bit about red and green. So red is about freedom through action. I want to do what I want to do. I follow my heart. I live in the moment. You know, I want to be my true self. I want to bring forth the best that

I can be. And so red is very much about action, very much about spontaneity. Green is about growth through acceptance. The world is awesome the way it is. To become one with the world is your ultimate goal. Your job is to understand your place in the world, your role in the world, and then live that role, be that role, understand how you're part of the greater web of life and fulfill that. And part of that, green really has the sense of being instinctual, right? That I in my core understand what I need to do, that in my genes that in my genes, you know, in my essence, I know what is right. And that part of finding your place is listening to that inner voice.

So red and green both have the sense of an inner voice. Red is a little more emotion. Green is a little more instinct. But the idea that red and green, the thing that red and green share is there's something internal that's telling me what to do. I got to listen to it and I got to do it. I got to act. And so where white, blue, black is very different, so the absence of red and green, is red and green are the colors of action, of living in the moment, of listening to inner voice,

of sort of not thinking, right? Red and green are about, there are things more important that in order to understand your role in the world or your place in the world, you need to really listen internally. And white, blue, black really are not that. They're like, we're not about being internal.

We're about, you know, figuring out the right thing to do. We're not, you know, white, blue, and black are all like, we're going to take our time and get it right. We're going to understand the larger system. We're not going to act impulsively. We're not going to, you know, we're not going to do something like, we're thinking long-term, and so we don't want to jeopardize our long term plans because we didn't think something through.

Because we didn't, you know, once again, the center color, which is blue, really much leads the way for the essence of what this color combination is doing. Which is, I want to take my time. I want to understand the system. I want to understand the system. I want to use the system, maybe abuse the system, but I want the system to get to my ends. I want the system to be there so that I can get what I want out of it. And the idea of doing something spontaneously or instinctually or emotionally or just doing something

in which I might make something that makes me happy in the moment but hurts me long term is very antithetical to white, blue, black. That is very much not what white, blue, black wants. White, blue, black is like I'm king of understanding environment.

I'm king of understanding consequences. I'm king of understanding consequences. I'm king of understanding ramifications. And so Esper is very much focused in trying to maximize the system and maximize the tools that enable it to get what it wants. the tools that enable it to get what it wants. And so, and a perfect example is to take Esper and Obscura. Because it's a good example. The other thing that I like to express is, it's not as if there's only one way to sort of express colors. That once you

understand the nature of it, you can look through different things. So, Esper, the idea of Esper is I have society that I run. You know, I'm in charge. It's my society. My enemies aren't there. And so in a vacuum where I have whatever I want, I have whatever resources I want, I have, you know, I'm not fighting anybody to get what I want. There's no, the big thing about Shards of Alara, the Shards of Alara, is that it is kind of the color living its utopia. Well, imagine Blue saying, you know, there's nothing stopping you. You want perfection? We all want perfection.

You know, everybody is leaning in toward that. And you create a society where perfection is, you know, the essence of Esper is technology. The idea is how can we be the best that we can be? And part of that is we are not limited, you know, we are not limited by nature that is green. We are not limited by recklessness, that we are a society that will take our time and find the right answer. And in Blue's mind, it's created the perfect society where, you know, people have artificial parts and they can do the things they want. And, you know, you have the ability to craft, not just mentally, but physically craft what you want to be. And that's sort of a Blue, you know, utopia. Now, Obscura is interesting.

and that's sort of a blue utopia. Now, Obscura is interesting. Obscura says, okay, the lens that we're looking through is crime. We're going to be about crime. We're a world about crime. And saying, okay, if I'm looking through a blue lens about crime,

I'm looking through the idea of I want the perfect crime, right? I want to be the perfect crime family. Well, how do I do that? And it looks at other crime families and says, a lot of these other families are getting killed left and right. How can I achieve what I need to achieve in a way that's going to cause the least friction? And that's where the Obscura says, okay, I'm going to master the element that other people

don't understand is important. Everybody else is chasing around Halo necessarily. I'm going to go, okay, there's something more important than Halo. And that is understanding what matters. Understanding that the key to being the perfect, you know, the key to the perfect crime is knowing what matters and acting on it in such a way that other people might not be even aware they are committing a crime. That a lot of obscure crimes are done such that the victim of the crime doesn't realize they're even the victim. Sometimes not right away,

sometimes maybe forever. That, you know, sometimes maybe forever. A lot of using its tools is using it in such a way that it is maximizing the power of knowledge. That's something, as you get into blue-centered things, you'll see. Anyway, I'm almost at work here.

The cool thing about each of the color combinations is there's a lot of neat ways you can play them up. And like I said, whether you're white-centered or blue-centered or black-centered, the common bonds you will find is it'll be about control. It'll be about the minutia. It'll be big picture. It'll be thinking longer term.

You know, it'll be about doing whatever needs to get done in a way that it is methodical in it. And that is white, blue, black. White, blue, black, when those three colors get together, they are the colors that have the tools of the larger system and the tools of slow advancement and control over time. But anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed this. It is fun looking through and examining all the three color combinations. So I hope you guys are enjoying this. Like I said, it's a little tricky to do because there's a lot going on,

but I'm hoping the system by which I'm doing them is helping you understand the different ways that you can look at the color combinations. But anyway, I am pulling into the parking lot. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to make it magic. Hope you guys enjoyed today's show. And I'll see you next time.

Bye-bye.