Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1086: Black-Green-Blue

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

This is the tenth and final podcast in my three-color philosophy series. This time I talk black-green-blue.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Okay, so today is my 10th and final three-color philosophy podcast. So I talked about all the Arc Chard cards. I talked about four of the five wedges. And today is the final wedge. It is time for black, green, blue. So the way this works is I will talk through all the individual colors. And I've been trying to mix it up. For those that listen to the whole series, I try to say things slightly different. So I'm just not repeating the exact same thing.

I will talk about the two colors and then I will talk about the three colors. Okay, so let's start. First, we will start with, what did I say? Black, green, blue. So we'll start with black. Okay, so black is the color that says, look, I understand the way the world works. Every other color is trying to, like, they want the world to be a way that it isn't. People are inherently selfish. People are going to do things in their own self-interest. So I think that's okay. I think it's okay.

That's a fine system. Everybody has somebody else looking out for them. And the people that are able, you know, Black believes in a merit-based system. That the people that are able to get stuff deserve the stuff. And people that aren't, they don't deserve the stuff. So Black really has this mindset of, hey, I'm out for me.

And there's nothing wrong with that. People are inherently greedy. People are inherently self-focused. That's not a flaw in the system. It's just like, hey, who else has the motivation to look out for me like me? And so black's just a big believer in, hey, sort of, you know, you're in charge of you. And as such, so black's thing is it wants power through ruthlessness. And basically what black is like, you know what makes me, you know what's the best for me? If I have total power, if I have total control of everything, then I can do whatever I want and be whatever I want. And I have just total control of everything. I want total control. That's all black wants, just the power to have total control. But what black realize is that one of the challenges to getting what you want is you have to be able to do what it takes to get what you want.

And most colors are not willing to do that. Most colors are like, you know, oh, I have morals, whatever. Black doesn't believe in morality. Black is like, you do what you got to do. And that, hey, everything is a resource. Death is not this horrible thing that's taboo. It's a resource. You know, black looks at things

and a lot of tools that black uses are things that other colors sort of shun because they're wrong for some reasons. As black is concerned, look, if something is powerful, the other thing that black does, by the way, is that it says, hey, I have to take calculated risks. Red takes uncalculated risks. Red just does stuff without thinking about them.

Black is like, look, if I'm going to get everything I want, I have to be willing to take risks. That's one of the costs of doing things. That sometimes you have to do something and you don't know the payout. But black makes calculated risks. It makes risks that make sense. Sometimes black gets burned by them because black will definitely meddle in forces

that others won't. But it recognizes that there's great power there. And so black, there's nothing off limits to black. There's nothing that black won't do. And that is kind of black's nothing off limits to black. There's nothing that black won't do. And that is kind of black's superpower, if you will. The ruthlessness in that black says, I will do what it takes to get what I want. There's nothing, nothing is off limits.

How I feel about other people, my emotions. Nothing is going to stop me from doing what I need to do. Black doesn't believe in morality, doesn't care about laws. Like, black's going to do what black's got to do. And that, um, that is a lot what powers black. A lot of what powers black is just this desire and willingness to, like, see things through. To really think things honestly. Um, now if you look at black's allies, like, blue also has this desire.

We'll talk about blue, I guess, in a second. But blue shares black's desire to sort of think things through. And I guess when I get to black, blue will talk about that. Anyway, so black power through ruthlessness. Okay, next up we have green. So green is growth through acceptance. is growth through acceptance. So green believes that there's a natural order that exists

and that if we could understand the natural order, like your goal as a human being is to understand the natural order and understand your role in the natural order. Every living thing serves a purpose. Your job is to understand

the purpose you fill, fill it, and be as much about the natural order as possible. And so green is very much about sort of, of the five colors, it's the philosophy that's most kind of Eastern philosophy, sort of like

be one with the world and understand the world and, you know, green has a sort of like be one with the world and understand the world and you know green has a sort of sense of spirituality to it. Not so much religion. Religion is a little more white but the idea of respecting all those that exist and understanding them and

it's not that green by the way green understands that there are natural systems and that there are predators and preys and green is not necessarily anti-death or anything. Green focuses on life. But when we say life for green, it's also sort of the cycle of life. Green, along with black, are the two colors that really care about the graveyard. We'll get into that when we get to green-black.

But green is a color that are like, hey, the more I understand the world around me, the more I understand my place, the more I understand the community that I am part of, the web of life that I belong to. The more that you sort of understand your role, the better you are equipped to fill it. And in green, the idea is, look, things will change. Things will adapt. But slowly, naturally. Green is not against change per se, but it's against unnatural change. And green, I think, by the way, of the five colors, is the most misunderstood, partly because I just think the philosophy that most aligns with green is less something we in Western philosophy,

yeah, Western, not philosophy, the Western Hemisphere study quite as much, that there is a lot of being and existing and coming, you know, learning what you are. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in green that is not sort of as natural in some of the way the western hemisphere operates. So I do think that over the course of the game, for example, green has the most color pie breaks because it took us the longest to really grasp and understand green. And I think that over time, especially in early magic,

there were a lot of things that were sort of, you know, it had a good name that sounded green, so it did mechanically what it wanted. And looking back, there's a lot more breaks because of that. It's one of the reasons I think green is so powerful in Commander. Part of it is Commander leans toward green strengths. That helps. But also just green's weaknesses are, you know, if you can play all cards in magic, green's the color that has the most answers to its weaknesses. Okay, next up, blue.

So blue, blue really says, blue is perfection through knowledge. So blue is a big believer in potential. That you were born and you have utter potential. The tabula rasa, the bling slate. And so Blue's thing is, okay, how do I go from an empty vessel to something that is the best version of me? And there's a bunch of different ways to do that.

One is Blue's big on education. That if you want to understand something, you've got to study it. You've got to learn it. You've got to go to experts and learn from them. You know, blue is big on teaching. And blue is just big on gathering knowledge and learning from experience of others that we'll know. It also is big on technology. Hey, there are tools and things that will help us and make us stronger and better.

Let's use those tools. Blue is very much about experience. Hey, maybe I have to go and do things so that I have some hands-on experience. Blue is very much about I got to do all the things I got to do so that I understand what is the right choice for me. Now, blue definitely is the most cerebral of the five colors, and it's the most cautious of the five colors. And the reason for that is there are things that you could do that you can't be undone.

Maybe you make a choice, and then only later you realize, oh, that was the wrong choice, and you can't fix it because not everything that you can do, you can undo. And so blue is extra cautious. Blue and red are very much the opposites here. Red just sort of in the moment does what it wants. Blue is like, okay, I don't want to be spontaneous. I want to be carefully thought out.

And when I do something, it's because I've researched it and I understand it. I don't want to do something and I know exactly what's going to happen when I do it. I don't want any surprises. I don't want, you know, I don't want to risk anything. And blue, we're blue and black separate a little bit, is black is like I want to be the best that I can be. And some of that might involve risks. Blue is a little more risk averse than black. Blue is sort of like, well, I want to understand it, study it.

than black. Blue is sort of like, well, I want to understand it, study it, and I'm willing to do things that once I study them and understand, if I do thing A and thing B happens and I can understand that and I know what's going to happen. So the risks that blue takes are educated, knowledgeable, I've studied what's going to happen. Where black does things where there's a percentage chance, you don't know for sure what's going to happen. Blue does not like the unknown. Blue is very afraid of the unknown.

Blue gets scared by the unknown. Blue wants the known. Blue wants to know where it's at. And so a lot of blue's motivations are in trying to do things that set itself up to do that. Okay, so now let's talk about the color pairs. Okay, so as with any wedge, there are two enemy combinations, two conflicts and one ally. So we're going to start with the enemies. So black and green. So kind of on the surface level, people love to look at like green

is life and black is death. But I think that's a little, the way I prefer to look at it is black is about free will and green is about destiny. Black very much is like, I want to be the best that I can be. I will do what it takes to be there. You know, my role in life, my purpose in life is mine to make. That I want to have the ability to do anything. I want the power to be anything. Green is like, no, no, no, no. You are a thing.

Your job is to figure out what that thing is. You know, you are born with a destiny. You are born, from the moment you're born, what your life should be is spelled out. You have to figure that out. I mean, part of a green is like figuring out what your life should be is spelled out. You have to figure that out. I mean, part of a green is like figuring out what your destiny is. But then once you understand your destiny, live your destiny, be your destiny. And black is like, no way. Black's like, I want to do

what I want to do. I'm not, no one's, no one's, no one, including my destiny, is telling me what to do. And so, like I said earlier, green is very much against unnatural change. Green is like you have a role, service your role. Green's not against adaptation. Green's not against even natural mutation. But black is like, hey, let's say I want to do something that somebody else is doing. Person A is doing the thing I want to do. Well, Black goes, you know, if I kill them,

then they won't be there to do the job, and then I can do the job. And so Black is like, hey, mission accomplished. I wanted to do the job. I got played right out of the way. Now I can do the job. You know, I've done what I need to do. But Green looks and then says, but no, no, no, no, no.

A, that person had a role to fulfill, and you killing that person disrupts the system. And B, you're not supposed to do that role. They're supposed to do that role. You know, that's not your role. And so black and green really come to grips with this fighting about sort of how much control you have. Green is about self-discovery. Green is about realizing what is. Black is about making what you want to be.

And so they come to loggerheads. They bounce heads a lot. On top of that, there's lighter things like the life and death. I mean, there's other, in any color combination, there's different things you can play into. For example, like green is about symbiosis, right? Where two things work together in a way where one helps the other. Well, black is about parasitism, where one thing takes advantage of another thing.

So those are, you know, the idea of two things living in harmony versus one taking advantage of the other are opposites, right? That's, if you're parasitic, you're not being symbiotic. And so there's a lot of things like that. And it just has a lot to do with sort of, green is much more about the idea of different things working together. Like black as enemies of green and white. And I talked about in a former one that green and white are very much about community.

Well, that's a big part of it. Green wants to figure out how things work together. Black, it's not that black won't work together. If black realizes that working together will get them something, black will do that. But at the moment that's not to black's advantage, black won't honor that deal anymore. Black will use other people if it helps black get what it wants. But the second that other person's needs come up in conflict with black's needs, they're out of here. Okay, next up, the other conflict is blue and green. Again, you'll see a common theme here. Blue is very much about, I want to become what I want to be, right? My self-identity, what I am, I want to have perfection. I want to figure out, I want

to learn. I'm a blank slate that wants to become something. Well, green is like, you're not a blank slate. You never were a blank slate. You were born slated. You have a certain role. And green looks at blue and just thinks blue is being irresponsible, right? Blue is neglecting the role it's supposed to fill. That the key to life, as far as green is concerned, is self-actualization. That you have to understand what your role is. And blue's whole existence, blue's whole goal seems to fly in the face of that. Blue is like, I don't care. Green is sort of like, what are you naturally good at?

And blue is like, well, I could learn things. I could study things. I could get tools that could help me. Just because I'm not naturally good at something doesn't mean I can't do that thing. And so, once again, it's an issue of change. Black is more about changing the role you fill in the world and blue is a little bit more about changing

who you personally are so what black and blue care about are slightly different but the conflict with green is very similar green says this is the way you are you were born this way your job is to accept that's the way you are like green is all about acceptance you know what am I supposed to do well what are my inherent strengths born this way, your job is to accept that's the way you are. Green's all about acceptance.

What am I supposed to do? What are my inherent strengths? Do those. And that's what I am. That's the role I fulfill. The other big thing is now, one of the things that's interesting, I talked about how black and green have a shared interest, or I didn't talk about it. Black and green have a shared interest in stuff

like the graveyard. Black is obsessed with death. Green is obsessed with the circle of life. And so those are the two colors that most interact with the graveyard, for example. Blue and green are probably the two colors that most want to study the world. Blue wants to study the world because it wants to learn about the world. Green wants to study the world because it wants to understand the world. It needs to understand its place in the world. But blue and green get together, you get science. You know, I mean, blue-green is kind of where science lives in the sense that blue has a

love of knowledge and green has the love of sort of the natural order. And putting those two together, depending on whether blue or green is sort of the ends of blue-green. If you have green ends, blue's just using its knowledge to learn about the world. But if you have blue ends, it's using green's understanding of nature to change nature. So depending where your leads are, it can be a little bit different. Anyway, that is green and blue. Finally, we have the allied pair, blue and black. So the way to think of an allied pair is think about their shared enemy, in this case green, we learned that.

So blue and black are very much about change, about you having the power to shape who and what you are and what you do. Blue and black definitely together. Blue has a sense of perfection. Black has a sense of wanting absolute power. But they share this idea that you can be whatever you want to be. That you shape your future. And that blue and black are both very much in, I need to get information, I need to understand things,

and I need to take that information and act on it. So blue-black is probably one of the sneakiest color combinations because it's very much about understanding the inherent weaknesses of things and then taking advantage of them. Blue is great at learning about things, so it learns the weakness. Black is great at doing what it takes to get what it wants. It can exploit the weakness. And so blue and black are a very sneaky color combination.

That they kind of get, they kind of do damage to you without you realizing that they've done it. That they're sneaky. You know, that they prey on your weakness in a way that you're maybe not even aware they're preying on you. That's why when you play against a blue-black deck, a lot of times, especially if you're not an experienced magic player, you kind of lose. Like, how did I lose? What happened?

You know, it's sort of like, it just sort of seemed to happen because blue and black are going to slowly nibble away at you and little bits of card advantage in a way that it's hard to understand the advantage it's getting because it's so little, but each little thing gets it further and it's controlling the board in a way that's more invisible than other color combinations. Okay, so we have black, green, blue. Okay, so when I talk about three colors, what I say is you only can have the ends of one color.

Your ultimate goal can only be matching one color, but the means by which you can accomplish that can be multiple colors. So in a wedge or any three-color combination, you have one ends and two means. So let's start with green as the ends because green is the center color here. So green wants a world that, or just let the world evolve, let the world be. So blue is knowledge, blue's tools are knowledge. And black is ruthless. And so green, when it has the knowledge of blue, it has a lot of insight and understanding of what are like, part of what you want to understand is green is what are the conflicts? If I want things to stay the same, what's going to try to make it not stay the same? You know, a lot of Green's sort of conflicts are against arbiters

of change. And so when Green has Blue's knowledge at its base, that Green is much more willing to say, hey, what are the threats? You know, I want nature to survive. Okay, what are the greatest threats? And then the ruthless is the black, says the Green says, well, one are the greatest threats? And then, the ruthless is the black, the green says, well, one of the things that black really does, we talk about being Machiavellian, so Machiavellian means the ends justify the means.

He's an Italian philosopher. So the idea that when you observe a black philosophy is like, well, I want to bring, I want nature to win out. The blue side of me is showing me what the threats are, and the black side is like, well, let's take to win out. The blue side of me is showing me what the threats are. And the black side is like, well, let's take those threats out.

So green, blue, and black, green centered with blue and black, it's very much about I'm going to get to a natural state. I'm going to get the world that I want. But I'm going to be sneaky in the process. That I'm using black and blue as my tools. I'm going to learn everything I can about my enemies. I'm going to learn about in the process. That if I'm using black and blue as my tools, I'm going to learn everything I can about my enemies. I'm going to learn about the weakness of my enemies. I'm going to learn about where they are

and what they're doing, what their modus operandi is. I'm going to learn everything about the people that are trying to cause change. And then, I'm going to use the ruthlessness that I have to take everything in my power to stop them permanently. How will I bring about, you know, how will nature win the day?

By crushing every obstacle. Okay. So now let's take a center of black. So black wants ultimate power, right? So with black ends, black is like, okay, I need to get ultimate power. How am I going to do that? Well, once again, with blue as a resource, you have a lot of knowledge at your hand. So if I want to get power, oh, that's good. Adding blue means not only, you know, for starters, I can learn where is power? What do I need to do to get power? Like black wants the power, but black in a vacuum doesn't always know where that is. With blue's help, it can know exactly where that power is. Okay, if I want to wrest power away from somebody, how do I do that? With green, green's biggest advantage

is understanding the nature of the natural systems. And that much, for example, one of the things that black uses all the time is death. But there's other natural forces that are available. And so when you have green as a resource, you really have access to those natural forces. Maybe it's a matter of getting creatures to help you. Maybe it's a matter of just understanding how, you know,

I don't know, some force of nature works. That using green really means that Black says, I want to get power, I'm going to figure out where I need to go to get the power and what I need to do to get the power, and then I will use some of the ferocity of green

and the green's know-how of sort of natural systems to enable me to go get what I want. And the thing that happens, by the way, when black and green get together, and this is true of all of them is the graveyard it becomes a very attractive place that the graveyard that green sort of understands death

and black is willing to harness death in a way that really makes the graveyard as a tool multiple times obviously black green as a two color pair uses the graveyard but whenever you get black and green together in a three-color combination, now the interesting thing is, well, I mean, I guess black-green-white is the strongest

interaction with the graveyard, because black-green-white are the three colors that interact with the graveyard. But black-green-blue still has a lot of interest in it. Okay, so let's say we have a blue center. So blue wants to be perfect. Blue wants perfection. Blue wants everything to be the best that it can be.

Okay, well, first off, using green to understand the natural way, that there's a lot, like, it's not that green has a disrespect for nature or any of the strengths of nature. Blue generally wants to understand them. I think that with green by its side, it's able to tap into them in a way that it's not normally. Some of understanding

green goes at a level that's beyond observation. That's sort of a feeling thing that blue's not good at, but green is very good at. And so there's a lot of things that green can learn that blue has trouble learning. Because blue's good at knowledge. Blue's good at facts. But it's less good at understanding less tangible things, which green is very good at.

And, once again, you have black, right? Black will do what it takes. So if I want to perfect myself, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to perfect myself, you know, I have a connection to understanding sort of the world around me and I have the means to take what I want. You know, it's perfection, but it's perfection that comes through some amount of more brute force than blue kind of in a vacuum does. more brute force than blue kind of in a vacuum does. Blue is trying to be the best that it can be, but blue, there are limits that blue will draw.

There's things that blue won't do. And when you add in black, and to some extent green, the other thing to remember about green is green has a feralness to it, something that red and green sort of share, is that green is the color that probably does the least amount of thinking. I mean, red also doesn't think a lot. But green is very instinctual. Green is very much like I can sense things and act on those things.

And so green has a sensibility to it that blue can never really understand. But when blue partners with it, it can get that. Blue can never really understand. But when blue partners with it, it can get that. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about black, green, blue as a whole. I think the interesting thing about black, green, and blue is

blue and black, like I said, are the agents of change. And green is the color that best understands what is. And so this is true when black and green or blue and green get together as a two-color pair, but even more so when you have a three-color. That is definitely the three-color pair that is the most willing to use nature as its arsenal. The most willing, you know, that black and blue are definitely the sneaky colors and the most intellectual colors. And that, you know, when you sort of combine the sneakiness along with like green's inherent knowledge and green's inherent understanding

of things you really get a three color faction that is able to sort of take advantage of sort of the world in a way that others aren't that there's something almost primal

in the way that they're interacting with it. And I think that as a color combination, black, green, blue is very dangerous. In a way, in general, black and blue when you get together are very sneaky and dangerous.

And then you can combine, like you can have black, blue, red. You can have black, blue, white. you can have black, blue, red. You can black, blue, white. You can have black, blue, green. Black, blue, white very much is influenced by a lot of white's desires and white's structure. You know, white sort of hampers down some of the more negative side of black and blue. You know, there's a sense of morality offsetting things. You know, there's a sense of morality offsetting things. When black and white get together with red,

there is this impulsiveness of red that sort of drives their actions. Yes, they can be up to no good, but they're a little bit more short-sighted than they are. Like, red definitely inflames them with emotions. And, you know, red adds a little extra to them that makes them a little more reckless in how they function. When you get together with green, green doesn't have the morality of white. It doesn't have the sort of recklessness of red. That green actually,

green has a lot of patience. Green is one of the most patient colors. And green has a real intrinsic understanding of the world at a deeper level. And that when you sort of combine that really one with the world, with the sort of sneakiness and willingness of black-blue, you get a very, it's a three-color combination.

I'm not saying that black-blue, white, or black, blue, red can't be dangerous. They can. But black, blue, green is dangerous in a way that is the most subtle. That is the hardest to understand. Because the way it's getting an advantage is taking note of things that most people don't even recognize. That one of the things about tapping into green's larger sense

is that you're playing around in things that a lot of other colors aren't even aware of. And so take black-blue sneakiness and add that to green's awareness, and it's a very potent combination. And I think in some ways, of the three color combinations, it is the one that you most have to watch out for. That it's the one that you'll least see coming. That when it's taking advantage of things, you're not going to quite understand why.

Like black, white, red is going to be in your face. You're going to see it. They're going to attack you pretty fast. But black, blue, green is going to take its time and it's not going to be quite so easy to understand what's going on. Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this series of three-color podcasts.

This was a common request for years. I put it off for a while just because it's kind of intimidating. Three-color is kind of tricky. Like, it wasn't until I figured out

the means and ends. Like, I sort of figured out how exactly to explain it that I decided I finally was going to do it. Anyway, if you haven't listened to it or not, this is number 10, so there are nine of them now. So I hope you guys will enjoy it.

And for those that don't know this, for people who don't listen to my podcast constantly, I think the color pie is the most awesome thing of Magic. Magic is awesome. There's many, many things to love about it. My favorite thing about it is the color pie. It adds an ethos to the game. It gives motivations.

It adds psychology. It does all sorts of cool things. If you haven't, I have infinite podcasts on the color pie. Nine more of the three colors. But I have all ten of the two colors. I have three or four different versions of cycles of the one color. So this interests you.

If you enjoyed hearing about philosophy, I have a lot of these podcasts. I'm sure I will do more in the future. But anyway, thanks you guys for joining me. But I am now at work. So we all know what that means. It means this is the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic,

it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.