Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #766: Black-Green

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

The pandemic is lasting a little longer than expected, so I've decided to have one podcast interview a week and have the other be similar to the old solo podcasts where I talk about Magic design. Today is another in my two-color philosophy series. In this podcast, I talk about black-green.

I'm not pulling out of the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, now I've been doing a lot of interviews while I've been at home, but I've come to realize I'm going to be at home for a while longer, and while I want to continue doing interviews, I realize that a lot of people enjoy my normal shenanigans when I drive to work. So what I've decided to do is I'm going to keep doing one interview a week, and then I'm going to do one podcast where I talk about normal things like I do when I drive to work,

except I won't be driving to work. I'll be at home. But you guys can imagine I'm driving to work. Anyway, I'm going to pick up where I left off on, I was doing a series on two color pairs. I'd gotten up to black green. I'd done everything up to black-green. So today is black-green. So I'm going to talk all about black-green, what the color pair is, what the color is like and like, and how they get along. Okay, so let's start as I always start with, let's talk about the two colors in isolation. Okay, so black wants power through opportunity. Black believes that you can do whatever you want if you are just willing to take the steps to do it. And so black is like, I want the things I want.

And hey, the way I'm going to get them is do the things that other people might not be willing to do. Green wants growth through acceptance. Green says the world is perfect the way it is don't change it uh the key to life is understanding and accepting your place and role in the universe in nature in the grand web of life uh and so green is very much about accepting what is and saying, hey, I don't want to change anything. I want things to be as they are. Okay, so what we always do when I talk about the two colors is I go through a series of questions. So the first question is, what do the two colors have in common? Okay, so with enemy colors, the thing I like to do is look at their shared ally.

So green and black have a shared ally of red. Okay, so normally if you look at red, you can sort of get a sense since red sits in between green and black. Well, what is red about, right? Well, red is all about following your heart, about doing, you know, listening to your impulses and your emotion and doing what feels right in the moment. Okay, so let's think about that. to your impulses and your emotion and doing what feels right in the moment. Okay? So let's think about that. That's the center of black and green, at least the shared ally of black and green.

So black and green, I think the thing that they, both of them have this ability to look a little bit inward and say, hey, I need to address... How black and green addresses it different? Black addresses it by saying, hey, I have needs. I need to look internal to my own needs. I need to address my needs. It's not that black necessarily is so emotionally driven as red, but at least it understands the importance of individualism.

It understands that it's important that I Understands that, like, I... It's important that I think about what I need and I address what I need. Green has this sense of instinct and the idea that Green's listening to itself is, look, there's a sense of intuition that part of life is not looking outward, it's looking inward. And part of realizing who you are and what your role of life is not looking outward, it's looking inward.

And part of realizing who you are and what your role in life is is kind of realizing that a lot of that lies within you, within your instincts, within your genes. And there's a lot of, on that side of green, a lot of internal looking. So one of the things that black and green have in common is there is this sense of self that comes from them. There is this sense of looking inside of saying

what is necessary from a philosophical standpoint. The other big thing about black and green is one of the neat things about opposites is a lot of time they're playing around the opposite of a singular thing. In the case of black and green, they're very much about death for black and life for green. But the idea is you can't care about death without, in some level, caring about life. And you can't care about life without some level caring about death. And what that means is there's a very circular nature to life and death. For example, black

does gain life. Now, he gets it by draining life from other things, but, you know, or, I mean, black can sacrifice creatures for life or can drain other people by damaging them to gain life. You know, black gets its life at somebody else's expense, but black understands the nature

of the cycle of life and death. Likewise, green is not afraid of death. Green believes that death has a role. Like, black is the color that most harnesses death. Green is the color that most sort of lives in harmony with death.

Green is the color that accepts death. And there's an important difference there in that black sees death as a tool. Green sees death as a part of the system, of a thing that exists that is a necessary element of what goes on. So, for example, black and green are the two colors that go to the graveyard, right?

They're the two colors that are willing to recycle the most. Black and green have creatures that can get themselves out of the graveyard. They're the colors that care about the graveyard and have elements that care. They also are both colors that get things out of the graveyard. Black tends to get creatures out of the graveyard. Well, green can get anything out of the graveyard. Black and green also, while we don't actually have regeneration anymore

as a keyword, black and green were the color, and when we do indestructible to end of turn, black and green kind of the replacement for regeneration, we put that in black and green. Black and green definitely are the ones that sort of, because they linger the edge of death, are easier to sort of find means to come back

or to stave off death if they need to. So the two colors, black and green, while they really admire different aspects of the death-life cycle, are very both understanding of the need of the death-life cycle. You know? The funny thing is that Black looks at it as realizing that the power of death is how much people

cling on to life. That if you threaten someone with death, the reason that they are threatened by it is because life matters so much to them. And likewise, Green sort of understands the value of life. The reason that life is so meaningful

is that death plays a role in it. And so, life seems like the idea that green would not want forever, eternal life. That's against the essence of what green wants. Green likes the idea of there's a natural system, and green really says that death and life is

a cycle. So anyway, that is what they have in common. So the next question is, how are these two colors different? What is the opposite? Okay, so the thing to look at when you're looking at enemies is there's just an inherent conflict between them, right? So the main conflict I like to talk about philosophically is that black is very much in the idea of free will, and green is very much in the idea of free will, and green is very much in the idea of destiny. So let's start with green for a second. So green believes that you are, you,

you are born, and you serve a role. You, you play a role in the great web of life, and your job is to figure out what that role is, and then do it. As far as green is concerned, you have a destiny. Like you are, you are, when you are born, there's something within you that you are who you are. You are born the thing you're supposed to be. And the key of life is accepting your role. You know, the big part of green is saying, hey, this is who I am. Accept that's who I am. And now I fulfill that role. Black is saying, hey, this is who I am, accept that's who I am, and now I fulfill that role.

Black is like, no, no, no, no, no. Black is like, I want to do what I want to do. You know, black is like, I should have the, I want to, I'm all about opportunity. I'm all doing, you know, I'm all about climbing the ladder because I do what needs

to be done at the time that it needs to be done. And so black is like, I have no set role. Don't tell me that I have to do something. I can do whatever I want. And in fact, black is very much about warping the things it needs to get what it wants. And so that, philosophically, is the core conflict. I mean, obviously, there's death and life.

There's different conflicts there, but the core philosophical conflict is kind of how you live your life. And black looks at green and says, you're a stooge, you know, you just accept everything, and so, hi, you're trapped in that sort of do-nothing life,

where I, I'm going to go make whatever I want to make of myself. I'm going to have whatever role I want to have in the world. I'm going to do the things that I want to do. Where Green looks at Black and sees Black is just so misled that Black is using elements in the wrong way.

It's not that Green... Green isn't afraid of death, but Green recognizes that death has a role and Black is harnessing death in a very unnatural way. And that's another big conflict, by the way, about them, is Green is all about things being natural, about things being symbiotic, right? That in Green's philosophy, every element works with another element, that they work together. That the web of life says, I'm not alone, that I do my job because that thing does that job, because that thing does that job, and it all comes together. It all works because we're each doing our own thing.

Symbiosis, right? We live in harmony with one another. Black is about, you know, the idea of parasitism, right? Black is like, no, no, no. The strong, the weak live to serve the strong. And the idea is, in Black's mind, the reason there's so much resources is so that you can use them. So that you can abuse them, right? So that you can take what you need to get what you want.

And so this sort of parasitism up against green sort of symbiosis is really the counter of the conflict and the idea of green seeing that you understand and represent what is there and represent nature as it is, where black really kind of tears that down because to black, nature is just yet another thing it can abuse. Okay, so when black and green get together, what exactly do they care about? What happens when you get black and green together?

Okay, so, one of the interesting things to look at... Oh, one thing I didn't really get to real quickly. One of the things, when you want to look about some allied things that I like to do, is I like to take the allies that aren't the allies of...

that aren't the allies of... that aren't the allies of... Sorry. Green has an ally of white. That's black's enemy. Black has an ally of blue, which is green's enemy. But the interesting thing, when you want to understand

sort of what black and green want, I like to look at what sort of the shared enemies there overlap. So if you think of black and green and the idea that white and blue, in some level, it's the opposite of black and green from a structural standpoint.

So, okay, so what do white and blue have in common? Well, white and blue are very much about restraint, are very much about we, we are the, they're the two colors that are the most careful, the most forward-thinking, the most strategic, you know. They're like, look, if we make an

intricate system, we can have the things we want. And the key to not upsetting that is to make sure that you stop anything that could be harmful there. Well, black and green, interestingly enough, when you get them together,

are very the opposite of restraint. That when black and green get together, what tends to happen is that black looks for the elements of nature that play more in the selfish vibe, right? That, for example, the perfect example of this will be disease. Disease is very natural. It's a natural thing. But black realizes that if you take something like a disease,

and green as well, so, like, one of the interesting things is when you get black and green together, they get a little more death-focused. They get a little more cycle-of-life-focused. You know, nature has a lot of things that kind of prey on one another, be it funguses, be it parasites. And so when black and green get together,

it's sort of looking for the overlap where there's some shared interest there. And part of it is that black and green together realize that there are elements of things that green admires that black also admires.

And disease is a great example there. Some of it is very natural but very deadly. You know, it's a tool that if used appropriately... And the nature of a disease is to spread. Likewise, if you look at stuff like fungus, like a lot of the things that black and green as a color pair look at are things that are kind of definitionally want to grow.

And that when you take green's desire for growth with black's desire for power, what happens is you get unfettered growth that's seeking to sort of dominate. And on some level,

if you think about like white and blue, white and blue are all about building the perfect society and making cities. And what they want is nice, clean, orderly, pristine sort of life. And black and green is kind of the antithesis of that. Like what is the greatest danger to civilization? Disease, right?

That's very apropos right now. But like, you know, one of the things that when black and green get together is they're looking to use growth as a means to get power or use power as a means to get growth. So let me explore those. One of the

things I've explained before in these is the thing with two pairs is you can take any colors, you can take the desire of a color with the tools of one color, and you can swap them either way. So let's say you have black ends with green means. So black wants power, green uses growth.

So the idea is there's a lot of tools available in nature. If you're saying, okay, I'm going to use nature and I'm going to use it in a means by which to get what I want, right? I'm going to use nature as a force, as a tool.

Black and green can go that direction. That direction is something like pop culture, something like Poison Ivy from Batman Villain, right? Where she's up to no good most of the time. I guess there are versions of her where she's more monogreen, where she's just trying to save

nature. But there are definitely a lot of versions of her that are black-green, where it's like she's trying to do evil, but her means to do it is nature, right? And, like, for example, Poison Ivy literally uses poison. She's immune

to poison, so, like, she puts poison lipstick on and kisses people and stuff. Now, the reverse is green ends with black means, right? So, green ends is, like, I want growth. I want unfettered growth. So, what black means is, I will do whatever I want unfettered growth. So what black means is,

I will do whatever I need to make sure that growth happens. That, you know, I want, like, if anything gets in my way, for example, let's say somebody tries to build a city or something or starts chopping down trees, you know what? I'm going to kill them. It's funny, it's funny. Actually, Poison Eye is a great example of this because the character has been done two different ways, now that I realize it. One is, some of the time, they make

her just a normal criminal that just wants what she wants, and plants are her tools to do that. So that is the Poison Ivy that is green-focused with, I'm sorry, that is black-focused with green tools. But another way they play her sometimes is her real goal is protecting nature. And what she does is she goes and finds people that are harming nature, and then she kills them. You know, she'll find people that are doing logging

or whatever, doing things that are harmful to environment. So it's very interesting. This is an interesting character where she's very a black-green character, but you can see her being more black with green means or more green with black means. And that's, I think, an interesting example of showing how you can,

black-green can go in those different directions. Okay, the next question is, what does the guild despise? Not the guild. What does the color pair despise? I'm reading off an old article here, but the article is talking about the guilds. I'm talking about the colors more directly. Although the article, I guess, was talking about the colors. But anyway, what don't they like? Well, once again, I guess let's look at white-blue, which

is their enemy there. In some ways, while it defines what they... It helps define what they are, it defines what they dislike. Black and green does not want order. Black and green does not... Black and green wants to sort of do its thing and go full-throttled.

You know what I'm saying? If you take kind of the disease metaphor, the last thing a disease wants is protocols or throttle, you know what I'm saying, that if you take kind of the disease metaphor, the last thing a disease wants is protocols, or like, the ways in which you fight the ways in which you fight Black Green,

and the thing that Black Green fundamentally has issues with is it it doesn't want anybody checking its sort of unfettered growth, right? It doesn't want anybody taking steps. It doesn't want the restraint that white and blue represent. And so the thing that it really has trouble with is a lot of how black and green sort of thrive is by thriving places that people aren't paying attention. If you look at Unfettered of any

kind of growth, the more that it gets to act without something watching it, the more it gets to sort of do its thing. And so in some level, it is the light of structure and care and attention that is antithesis to what Black Green... Black Green,

in some level, loves the dark, loves the deep, loves, you know, like, Black Green kind of thrives. For example, when we made the Golgari, which are the Black Green in Ravnica, like, it's not a mistake we put them underground, right? In some ways, they thrive in the dark.

They thrive where people aren't watching. And the cool thing about Black Green is, it goes where no one's watching and then it spreads. And by the time someone notices it, it's hopefully done its thing and it's spread everywhere. But the problem for Black Green is it doesn't want to be watched. It doesn't like

the light on some level. It likes being sort of where people aren't paying attention. Because where people aren't paying attention is where you can really thrive and grow and sort of form, you know, you can sort of spread your influence. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about the strengths and the weaknesses of black-green. So I think the greatest strength of black- is that, um, it is very hard to stop. Uh, it, it is not a super, like, it is a very, um, scary and dangerous enemy because it has

a lot of component pieces to it. Like, um, and I keep going back to disease because I think disease is a very good metaphor for black-green. Because black-green is like, how am I going to do what I want to do? Well, I am going to attack you, not in one singular place, but sort of as many places as possible. And I use the fact that I have my growth to my advantage. The reason disease tends to thrive is people not paying attention. Or people not, like, green,

black-green likes being under the radar. Black-green likes, you know, it is it is a very um it is a, it harnesses something that is very potent and very scary and very, um viral, you know. Something that is very potent and very scary and very viral, you know, something

that is hard to stop, which gets us into the weakness of black-green, which is it doesn't have a lot of control. That black-green, while it can be very powerful and very potent, doesn't have, you know, the problem with the disease is the disease just wants to spread itself, right? It doesn't have any guardrails or any support. It's just going to do what it's going to do. And sometimes you spread places you don't mean to spread. Or, you know, the black-green, the things,

and in some level, I like to say how your greatest strength is your greatest weakness pushed too far. So black-green's greatest strength is it has an attack that's hard to stop. It's kind of just spreading everywhere. And how do you stop that? You know what I'm saying? A really potent disease is hard to stop. But, okay, push that too far. And now, sometimes black-green, it doesn't control where it goes. You know what I'm saying? It's, on some level, the lack of direction makes it hard to stop, but it also means that you have a lack of direction. That if I spread the disease out there, it's going to go

somewhere, and it's going to do its thing, and it's going to be powerful, but you don't have control of that. And so one of the biggest weaknesses, I think, of Black-Green is that lack of control. That it is going to do its growth, and it's going to be dangerous, and it's going to... You know,

on some level, when black and green get together, it creates something that is very, very viral, but very sort of the uncontained. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about, let's say you have a black-green philosophy. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to have a black-green philosophy? So the idea is, and what I like to do is, I like to take the two philosophies and then combine them. What does that mean? Okay, green is like, I want to accept the world as it is, right? I want to find my place and role in the world.

Black is, I want power. I want to do what I need to find my place and role in the world. Black is, I want power. I want to do what I need to do. Okay, well, black and green get together. What that means is somebody who really says, I want to take advantage of the systems that exist. I am not... Black by itself doesn't mind breaking systems. It'll do whatever it takes. Black with green combined is

like, I'm going to get the power I want but through the systems. There are so many sort of natural things there that can get me what I want. And so when black and green get together, green curbs black's sort of willingness to look at everything. Like,

green sort of says, hey, I have an arsenal of tools for you to look at. And so, anyway, philosophically, let's get into the philosophy of this, because I like getting into the philosophy. So black green is kind of like, believes in the inevitable of it. You know what I'm saying? believes in the inevitable of it. You know what I'm saying? Black is like, black looks at green growth and says, hey, there is power in growth.

There is something that I can gain by understanding and harnessing that growth. And so, the thing that black is willing to do is say, hey, whatever tools of that growth I can use, I will use. You know what I'm saying? And so the philosophy

kind of there is of a black-green person or character is I want to embrace what I am and I want to embrace, but want to embrace what I am, and I want to embrace, but I want to find the potential of what I am,

and I will use it to get what I want. So a black, a black person is like, I'm willing to accept the limitations that I am what I am. I'm willing to say, look, this is who I am. I'm not trying to be what I'm not, but within the realm of what I am what I am. I'm willing to say, look, this is who I am. I'm not trying to be what I'm not, but within the realm of what I am, I'm going to go

full throttle at that thing. So it's the idea that I'm not trying to be something else. The green part is where I'm embracing who I am, but I'm not stopping at any limitations. I am going to be the most of that that I can be.

And so a black-green person is very much about maximizing the role of what they naturally have. so a black green person for example might be very much into learning as much as they can about things that they naturally are there's a lot interestingly of there's a little bit of self actualization that goes on there there's a little bit of like okay

I'm what I am I want to learn how to harness that in the way that lets me do what I want. So the black-green is very much this idea of I am going to be my own force of nature. I'm going to be my own, you know, there are, within everybody,

there are powers within that you can unleash. And so Black Green really has this strong sense of the way to get what I want is through the understanding of who I am. And then I'm going to use those elements of who I am to, I'm going to find my strengths and really push my strengths. to, I'm going to find my strengths and really push my strengths. That a black green person is sort of about hey, who am I?

What am I? And then I want, I need to take those aspects of me that I am, that naturally are what I are, and I need to get those, like work on those and make those the best that I can be. So black-green, interestingly, black-green really has this idea of, and interestingly,

where black-green differs from blue. Blue very much is about finding perfection, right? Blue is about being the best that you can be. But blue is like, I can do anything. I'm a blank slate. I can learn anything. You know, blank slate. I can learn anything. You know, blue believes that it's just a matter of going out there and finding what I need. Black green is like, no, no, no. I understand that there are things I'm good at and there are things I'm bad at. The things I'm bad at, eh, I'm bad at those. The things I'm good at, I will get better at, you know. And that black green is willing to sort of put the energy in where it sees the strengths, which differs from blue.

Blue is like, hey, if I want to do something, even if I think I'm naturally bad at it, I'll get good at it if I learn about it and get tools and get, you know, training. And where black-green leans into what it is. Black-green accepts that it has its limitations. And black-green doesn't see that as a bad thing. Black Green is like, okay, I have strengths. If I spend my time and energy making my strengths better,

man, I'm going to be an unstoppable force. And so Black Green sort of looks at how it can take what it has and then use the, like, the, where Black Green kind of get together is the idea that I'm going to self-actualize. I'm going to figure out who I am and what makes me me, and then I'm going to figure out how to utilize

all of that things to get what I want, to get the things that I need. So bringing black and green together really has this nice internal sense of if you are strong in black and green, it's like you are very accepting, but you still have a quest for power. And that is the combination of those two things. So anyway, I'm hoping...

So I want some feedback from you guys. I mean, obviously, I know how long I'm in the car, and I can talk for that long, so I'm hoping that this replicates... You get a little less driving noise, I guess. But I'm hoping this replicates, uh, sort of the, I'm, what I realize is, I, when I first started this, I, I, I didn't

expect to be home as long as I am. So, uh, this is me trying to get back to my roots. So, um, people have been joining the interview, so right now I'm going to do a little of both. Um, I'd love to hear from you if you like more of the old, more of the old school, this style thing. Or, no, no, no, I love interviews.

You know, mix and match them. Or do more interviews. Stop talking. All that is feedback I'd love to hear. But anyway, that is Black Green. So I'm now at my desk. So we all know what that 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.