Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #65 - Red

Episode Date: October 25, 2013

Mark discusses Red's role in Magic color theory.

Okay, I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today I'm continuing one of my mega-series on color philosophy. So today I'm talking about red! Dun-da-dun-dun! Red! That's my introduction to red. That's my introduction to red. Anyway, I, for starters, I love color philosophy. I actually believe when you dig down deep into the core of magic, that what magic is built around, the very thing that makes magic so special, is the color wheel. And as such, I've become one of the color pie gurus,

meaning I've made it my job to understand the color pie, both flavor and mechanics, so I understand how it represents itself. And thus, I've been doing five podcasts, one for each color, to explain the color philosophy. I've already done white, blue, and black. And you guys know your color pie order, of course, that means today's red. If you've not listened to them, I recommend you do. You don't really need to listen to any order, because each one stands alone. But I do believe if you understand the color pie, that magic is enriched. That magic is a better game if you understand it. Not that you have to understand it, but I think the color pie and the color philosophy, it's one of my favorite parts of the game, that I think as you dig deep into it, it's fun to sort of take it and apply it to other things.

Okay, so one of the things that I actually did not bring up in the other color pie things, but I will bring up here, is that every once in a while we find some pop culture element that hits all five colors. And one of my favorites is that the Simpson family, the Simpson family, my friend, is all five colors. So let me explain. So I talked about how white is all about the good of the group and setting rules, and that is Marge. Blue quests for knowledge and just wants to know things. That's Lisa. Black is very selfish and is in it for its own gain

and kind of enjoys watching others suffer that's Bart red as I'll talk about today I'll get to in a second green is very natural that wants the status quo doesn't like to see things change works on instinct

that is Maggie okay so that means red red is a color that is impulsive that follows its emotions, whatever its body is telling it. And that is Homer. So let me talk a little bit about red today, the Homer color, if you will. Okay, so red says, this is red, here's what red believes. Red believes my body is talking to me.

It wants things. It needs things. And it understands what it needs. It knows what it wants. That when my body says I'm angry and it feels the need to do things that are anger, I should listen to it. It knows what it's doing. You know?

When my body's happy, I should laugh. When my body's sad, I should cry. You know? The red just feels like, look, live the motion. Follow your heart. You know? Do what feels right. Red is very much about feel and emotion.

Okay, so now, that contradicts with blue. Blue and red are enemies. Why are blue and red enemies? Because blue believes do not let emotions run your life. Use intellect. Think, you know. Blue believes, like, one of the greatest dangers of life is letting your emotions run wild and getting into trouble because you're not thinking things through.

That you're not thinking in the big picture. Blue plans. Blue plots. Red? Red does none of that. Red lives in the moment. Red is about now. Red does what it wants to do when it wants to do it. Consequences? Consequences. That's what Red says. Red does what it wants to do when it wants to do it. Consequences? Schmonsequences. That's what Red says. Red does not care.

You know, Red is like, if you live in the moment all your life, then you're always living in the moment. And things are awesome. And you feel things. And you can express things. And, you know, when you feel something, you feel it. And that's Red. Red's thing

is all about, you know, being true to yourself and being true to your heart and your beliefs and your gut and doing what feels right. Now, one of the things where, so, the reason red doesn't like blue is blue is all about, no, no, no, resist your inner

emotions and follow your intellect. The problem red would have with white is, what red really wants is red just wants freedom. You know why? Because red wants to do what red wants to do. Red wants to be able to act. Red wants to follow its passions and be able to do that. And what red

does not like are rules because rules keep him from doing that. Red wants to, you know, red's like, if I'm mad I want to hit somebody. And somebody goes, well, there's laws saying you can't hit somebody. And red's like, whatever, you know, red's like, if I'm mad, I want to hit somebody. And somebody goes, well, there's a law saying you can't hit somebody. And red's like, whatever, you know. And white is the king of the laws. White likes making laws and rules.

And so red and white do not get along. See, white sees red as chaotic. Because to white, white is like, I'm orderly. Red is chaotic. Red sees white as being stuffy. That white just doesn't live. Or blue, red is chaotic. Red sees white as being stuffy. That white just doesn't live. Or blue, for that matter. Red's about

just really experiencing things and being present in the moment. So, for example, the reason that red and green get along is green understands the sense of instinct. You are the way you are. An animal will do what an animal does. And red is like, yeah, well, humans will do what a human does, or whatever creature you are.

You know, that creatures have their own feeling. Let them be. Let them do what they want to do. You know, that a human punching another human because they're mad, that's as natural as a cheetah chasing a gazelle. I mean, that's just how we are.

And the reason Red and Black get along is that they share, I mean, black is king of selfishness, but red gets it. Red is like, I'm about me. What do I follow? My emotions, what I am feeling. And that, you know, black and red get that.

Red gets the idea of, look, there's some selfishness that goes on here. Now, I don't think, I mean, black is much more selfish than red. Red is more selfish in that it's following its own gut instincts and not thinking about others. So, I mean, that's the biggest downside of red. I mean, is that red does not think of consequences. Red is not a long-term thinker. Blue, long-term thinker. White, long-term thinker. Red, short-term thinker. Because red is sort of like, I have great anger in me,

and this person has caused me to be angry. You want to make me less angry? If I hit them, then I would be less angry, and I would feel better. And are there consequences of me hitting somebody else? Yeah, but that's not what red's going to worry about. In fact, red's kind of philosophy is, look, if everybody just sort of follows their passion, nah, it'll work out, you know. And white looks at that and just sees utter, utter anarchy, right?

But red is sort of like, ah, let people live by their passion. And, you know, red wants a world in which people, you know, do what matters. That too much, that red looks at the world and red says, hey, you know, this is a world devoid of passion. That's not living. I've talked a lot about how I am blue and red. I'm is it. And one of the reasons I understand red is I get it. I am an emotional person. For those who have not ever dealt with me in any way or perhaps never listened to my podcast before, I am an emotional person. When those who have not ever dealt with me in any way, or perhaps never listened to my podcast before,

I am an emotional person. When I feel something, I feel it. If I'm happy, I'm happy. If I'm mad, I'm mad. If I'm sad, I'm sad. Whatever the emotion is, I feel, and I feel it strongly. And one of my problems in general is, I'm not good at shutting that off.

I'm not good at going, well, I'm upset right now, but it would be best for me not to talk about that. That's not my way. And so I get red. I have passion in my life. I love the passion in my life. In fact, one of the reasons I think I'm as happy as I am is I embrace my passions. I said, you know what I want to do?

I want to make games for a living. So I did it. Not that that's easy, but I mean, I feel like I'm living my passion. Now, I have a blue side, so I'm not so I don't fly off the handle at every waking moment, and I don't just punch people because I can. Not my style, but I am very emotional. Okay, so let's talk about how this feeling of red plays into what red does. Okay, now, red, probably more than any other color, maybe blue, red

has a mechanical identity that is tied to one thing more, like, red is the direct damage color. Now for those that don't know, I assume most of you do, but, so direct damage means any spell or ability which does damage

directly to a creature or player. You don't tend to do damage directly to a Planeswalker because you redirect it from the player. So essentially hitting a player is like hitting a Planeswalker with damage. And red is king of direct damage. Now here's the weird thing. The thing that I find strange

is a lot of people think that red doesn't have that many abilities but they then count direct damage as one ability. And the reality is that, like, let's say red has, you know, a shock, you know, or

even a spell that, you know, did damage to attacking or blocking creatures. And then red has this spell that, like, does six damage to all creatures. Okay? People go, oh, that's all direct damage six damage to all creatures. Okay? People go, oh, that's all direct damage. That's direct damage.

Let's go to white. So white has an ability we call Rangestrike, where it does damage to attackers or blockers. You know? And then white has Wrath of God, which destroys all the creatures. Now, what I just described in red, oh, that's all direct damage.

But in white, that's not seen as the same thing. One is Rangestrike, and one is mass destruction. And, like, they not seen as the same thing. One is Rainshrike, and one is Mass Destruction. They're seen as completely different things. Yet, in red, it's like, oh, those are all the same thing. And so I think people take too much. Red has this tool that's very useful, that it gets used in all sorts of different ways. Now, here's another thing about red.

There's a pro player named David Price. Dave Price was a pro player for a long time. He won the third Pro Tour in Los Angeles. It was Tempest only. And he won with a mono red deck. And Dave was known for playing aggressive aggro decks. Aggro means aggressive. It's short for aggressive, I believe.

And a lot of people, one of Dave's pet peeves was, he said that people thought of control decks as being very, you know, required a lot of thought. But that, you know, aggro decks, weenie decks and stuff, were mindless. And what Dave said is, no, it bugs him how people didn't understand the amount of thought that went into playing an aggressive deck. Because one of the things that he said is, okay,

he wasn't saying a control deck is easy, but he's saying in a control deck, you have the answers, and when the right threat comes up, you have to figure out how to assign your answers to the threats. But you know the threats when you choose what answer to make. He goes, but with an aggressive deck,

you're making the threats. You're the beatdown, to use Mike Flores' language. You're the one who's setting the tempo of the game. Well, you don't know the answers your opponent has, so you have to choose your threats, sort of gauging on what answers you think your opponent has. That's very hard. That's hard to do.

You know, you're not being reactive in which you have information to work with. You have to sort of glean from lots of little tiny bits of information. And what Dave's saying is, it's hard to play. It's not easy to play. And I think that one of the things about red is I think of all the colors,

red is the most misunderstood. I think green is not understood at all. And I'll get to green in my next, not next week, but my next podcast on this series, I'll talk green. And I think green is a color most people just don't understand. But red is a color most people misunderstand. And for starters, they think of red as being very simple, and it's not. Red is actually very complex, and even mechanically it's very complex. You know, how you use direct damage.

Like, one thing that's very interesting that I find fascinating is, you take a shock or lightning bolt, you put it in a beginner's hand, and they'll just keep hitting the opponent. And then you learn, oh, that's not the way to play it. You know, usually creatures are much better. Creatures will do damage over turns, and using one shock to kill a 4-2, you might

save yourself 12 damage. But, as you get more advanced, at some point, you get good enough that you realize that sometimes, you know, you're working on the clock, and like, you know what, the exact right thing to do is bolt the opponent. The very move that was the beginner, you know, the beginner mistake proves to be correct in the right context. And that's one of the things that I love about Red is that it has a lot of nuance. It's very sort of blunt, but it still, in gameplay, has a lot of nuance in how you play it. I mean, Red doesn't even have to be aggressive. Red does have control strategies.

Red can be defensive. But it's defensive in a much more open way. It's not as sneaky. I mean, it has a sneak quality. We'll get to it. Okay. So red basically is all about embracing one's passion, one's emotions, one's feelings.

Okay. So another thing that gets misunderstood is red embraces the entire emotional spectrum. You know, red can be happy, red can be in love, red can have passion, red can, you know, be sad. I mean, red feels things with its heart. It feels them. But in magic, well, we're showing you a game of combat. So in the game of combat, you know what you tend to see? Well, more aggressive emotions, anger being the biggest one.

You know, when I'm fighting, what emotion both helps me? Well, things that get me pumped and get me to sort of fight better. Well, anger is pretty good. And when I'm fighting somebody, you know, anger does a pretty good job of sort of, you know, firing you up. And now anger, also anger in some ways is a great if you want to embody red anger is the kind of thing where you act because you feel a certain way but there's all sorts of ramifications that come from anger

that can cause you problems and that's red's thing so we like using anger, anger works well anger gets a little overused probably in red although because we're combat oriented it works the best so obviously direct damage comes out of red sort of...

Black uses death as a resource. Red uses destruction as a resource. Red is like, I have powerful magics. Whatever it be, fire, lightning, earth, whatever's thrown at it, red is good at destructing things. And the reason red is bad at, I mean, the reason it's good at artifact and

land destruction, but bad at enchantment is it's good at destroying things that are tangibly there. You know, oh, there's an artifact causing me problems? Well, I can shatter it. I can break it. You know, there's a creature causing me problems? I can throw a bolt at it. I can break it. You know, there's a creature that caused me problems, I can throw a bolt at it.

I can hit it with a giant fireball. But there's an enchantment, it's intangible. It's not, I can't bolt it. You know, I can't destroy it directly. I can't tangibly destroy it. And so that's why Red has problems with enchantment removal. Okay, so Red definitely uses its emotional spectrum. Part of it is to fuel

itself, but part of it is to affect others. For example, panic is making other people get jumpy and using fear. You know, a lot of power pumping in red is sort of, you know, getting creatures sort of using their inner passion to give them drive.

It has Thread, which is I steal your creature and use it on my turn. And that is the idea of taking it and sort of pushing certain emotions that make a creature temporarily forget its loyalties because it's so caught up in the moment that it's not thinking about what it's doing. It also, Red also has a big flavor

of living in the moment that it wanted to do things now right, that red is like I'm gonna I'm gonna survive now in fact, one of red's strategies is red says, you know what, you know how I'm gonna win I'm gonna hold nothing back

you know, the other colors they'll fight you, but they're holding something in reserve. They're assuming, oh, maybe later on I might need something. And red's like, you know what? I'm not doing any of that. I'm going to hold nothing in reserve. I'm just going to full out. And that one of red's strategies is it uses speed

and it uses tempo to say, if I just hit you fast enough that you can't recover, well, I will beat you. And it definitely has... One of the things that it's done some in the past, and we're looking to do more of, is the idea that it does things, but it does it temporarily. It's threatened, it's definitely that. I can steal things, but temporarily.

Mana rituals are like that, which is I can get mana, but I've got to use it right now. Whereas green, as a concept, green will go get land. Green will set up things that slowly ramp it, so that in future turns it can produce mana, that its mana production keeps ramping up. Red gets mana, use it now, and it's gone. And next turn, it's got no more resources than it did before. Another thing that we've been playing around with in this area recently

is we moved looting into red. But to try to keep looting in flavor of red, what we did is we said, okay, well, you discard first. Blue sort of thinks about it. Blue loses looting to sort of properly upgrade. But red is more reckless. Now, people have said to me,

I don't understand. If red's so reckless, I mean, why do you make looting worse than red? I get this question all the time. Why does blue get the good looting? And the answer is that it's contextual. Red is all about using up every resource at its availability to try to beat you as quickly as possible.

Blue is about a long game. So red's greatest weakness is it runs out of things. That if it can't beat you and it runs out of things, red will lose. So when red has a land, that red could trade that land in to get a spell that could somehow help it win is huge for red. You know, for blue, blue gets a land.

Blue probably is going to play the land. I mean, maybe if it really needs it, it'll trade it in for something else. But blue is going to build up its land because it wants to do bigger spells later in the game. It's playing a longer game. And so, looting in red can be very valuable for red. In fact, the reason that we kind of like that red has the looting that's a little less accurate is that it's more powerful in red.

The ability mid-game to get the card you need to finish them is so powerful that we kind of had a weekend a little bit, just so it's on even keel. Red looting is not bad. Red looting can be very good because it fits in the style that red is doing. So also, I realize I jumped over some of the keywords. Let's talk a little bit about keywords for red. So red is passionate. Haste is trying to represent that drive. I mean, Haste is perfectly speed.

But also, the idea of Haste is, uh, when you summon a creature, they're summoning sickness. You know, meaning that they're disoriented. Like, what's going on? Where am I? Where Red creatures are so focused, that doesn't bother them. You know, if you get a creature that just wants to attack, another ability of Red is must attack every turn. That, you know, Red just has some creatures that are like, whatever. You know, I am focused.

I'm attacking. That is what I'm doing. You know, or I'm just not disoriented. You call me. I'm ready. You know, there's no disorientation. We also put trample in red. Trample secondary in red, primary in green.

Because that would have sort of the passion and the drive. Like, you're just not stopping me. You know, whether it's anger or passion or whatever it is, you know, red comes fully charged. Okay, now next, the other thing about red is red and white are the two combat colors in that they're the colors that are the fighters. Now, white, it organizes. It is an army. It trains itself, that its strength comes from all its things working together because they're a unified group. Red doesn't have that.

What Red has is Red's just a brawler. Red's creatures, or some of Red's creatures, they fight all the time. You know why they're good fighters? Because they fight a lot. You know how you get good at fighting? You fight. And so first strike and double strike were put in red as well as white to represent just being a good fighter. I'm faster than you at fighting represent just being a good fighter. You know, I'm just, I'm faster than you

at fighting. I'm a better fighter. And we get in a fight, odds are I'm just going to hit you before you can even hit me, because I'm the better fighter. Also, sometimes we use red sort of building up, like the slith ability we've used a couple times. Red also has fire

breathing that can show, I mean, sometimes it's actually fire breathing, but sometimes it represents just Red's passion of how he can sort of push his emotions and get a little stronger. We've definitely done a few abilities with power pumping sometimes where it gets a boost, but it burns itself out. There's the slith ability, obviously, we've used it a few times. There's the slithability, obviously, we've used it a few times. So, another aspect of red is red definitely has a joker mentality, a trickster mentality, that part of what it wants to do is it, red in some ways, of all the colors, has a sensibility,

I'm going to be careful how I say this, but red in a lot of ways is like Timmy. Not that Timmy, I mean, Timmy does like Red, but what I'm trying to say is that Red, like Timmy, lives for the experience. That if Red's not enjoying what Red is doing, Red is not going to do it. Red's not in it for a long, Red's not like, well, I have to do something I don't enjoy to later do something I enjoy. That's not Red. Red's like, you know what I want to do? How about the thing I enjoy? I'm going to do that right now. I'm going to do the thing I enjoy right now. And so, I think

that the reason the trickster stuff plays so well in Red is that Red just, like, loves messing with other people. In the same way a practical joker loves messing with other people. It's fun. It's fun to do it. It's fun to see their face, you know. So, like, Red has misdirecting

and it has copying. You can do something like, I got this. It has thread and it can steal your stuff. Red definitely likes to mess with you. I think that's a big part of what Red... Red embraces and has fun. I think if you look at all the colors,

the color that is most enjoying fighting is red. Because red prioritizes enjoying the combat. Now, red also embraces chaos. I mean, like I said, I don't think red sees it as chaos as much as red sees it as fun. Or red is like, I'm willing to embrace chaos because, you know, just like black will do whatever it takes to get the power once, red is like, I'm willing to embrace chaos because, you know, just like Black will do whatever it takes to get the power at once, Red is like, this is fun, as long as I'm having fun, whatever, you know. And so Red gets the coin flipping, and we have the crazy Red enchantments, usually at Rare, that just, you know, that just sweep the board, or just crazy things happen, and you don't know what's going to happen until you cash it, you know.

But Red definitely has some spells, like, what's going to happen? Let's see. I have no idea. So, oh, the other thing that red will do is some of the way that red answers things is red is focused on what it likes to do. So, for example, red loves doing direct damage. So sometimes, instead of changing what it does,

red has the ability to sort of adapt its damage or its spells in general, to fight the person it's fighting. So Red will exile things when it destroys them. It will make damage that can't be prevented. It will make damage or spells that can't be countered. You know, that one

of the ways that Red deals with having things that are problematic is not necessarily changing its style of play, but sort of, you know, equipping its magic with some answers that help. You know? Because one of the things in general about red, philosophically,

is that, I mean, each color, the way to think of the color philosophies is that each color prioritizes something. And I've talked about this before, that one of the things, I like writing the colors as characters. In fact, one of the reasons that, to me, you know, like if we ever made a magic movie,

or one day maybe we will, I think that having characters based on colors is fascinating, because I think the colors make great characters. So there's a very famous expression in writing, which is bad decisions make good stories. And that if you

can take your character and get them to make a decision that's true to the character, that makes perfect sense, that you understand why they'd make that decision, but it's a horrible decision, you get good stories out of that. You know? And that red to me, the reason red is so much fun to write

is that red is very understandable. Red just wants to do what it feels. It wants to follow its heart. It just wants to follow its impulses. And you understand that. Every single person's been somewhere and something's happened and they're like,

oh, I just want to do this. Now, a lot of times your brain overrides you and goes, that would be bad. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you go, screw it, I'm doing it. And who knows, sometimes there's ramifications for doing it. But it feels good.

You get how when you make that decision, it feels so good. You understand why a character will make that decision. And then it's fun to watch the character have to live up to the revocations of what they do. That's why I read it's great. So, one of the things in writing is they teach a thing called the fatal flaw. So,

the idea is, when you write a character, if you can understand the fatal flaw of the character, what is the thing most wrong with the character, that you can build a good character on that? That having a juicy fatal flaw just makes for a fun and a good character.

Because you want your characters to be flawed. I mean, humans are flawed, and you want your characters to be flawed. Your character being perfect in every way does not make for the best story. You know, you have to have your main character make mistakes. That's part of what makes a good story,

is not everything they do works. And so, one of the things that's interesting is when you sort of look in deep and look at Red, what is Red's fatal flaw? And Red's fatal flaw is that it just prioritizes the moment for the future. It prioritizes, like, at any one moment, it just wants something so bad. And it's like, why are we not following that? If you have passion, why not follow the passion? If you have emotion, why not follow the emotion? And so red is very future be damned. And the funny thing is that

so one of the things that you learn when you look at something like when you learn the fatal flaw, and I talk about this a lot, is as a writer, you always look internally. Well, if all characters have a fatal flaw, shouldn't all humans have a fatal flaw? And fundamentally, I believe they do. I mean, humans are a little more complex than characters in general.

But, I mean, so for example, I've looked at it internally. I think kind of my fatal flaw, and this is why I really relate to red, is I'm not good at suppressing what I'm feeling. That when I feel something, I feel it. And I'm, I cannot hide it. I am horrible at hiding it. And in life, sometimes you can't always let people know what you're feeling.

It is not necessarily the best strategy. And my problem is I do not hide my emotions one iota. I mean, I don't punch people, you know, on a whim or anything. But I do feel things and I do express those things. And I've gotten in trouble many times in my life because I just don't... I'm not good at not expressing those things. And that is that, that is the red in me, you know, that definitely that, uh, the, one of the reasons I really, I understand

red is I see the, the desire to give into passions and I see the desire to, to express what you were feeling. And I'm very sympathetic with that. And so that that's what I like. And I think, one of my beliefs, real quick. I'm perking now, so I will have to finish this up. One of my beliefs is, the reason the color pot is so valuable and such a major part of magic is, what Richard had done when he made the game is he tapped into just basic human needs and desires. And every color has a desire

that's understandable. That everybody can say, understand the idea of looking out for the group and needing rules to make sure that people are safe. Or the idea of being curious and just wanting to know what something is. Even to the point

where you're kind of doing things you shouldn't because you really need to know. And black is just the idea of just being selfish and just wanting something and really, really wanting it and knowing that what you're doing isn't necessarily good for other people, but it's something that you want, you know.

And green is just about the idea of enjoying the thing you have and not wanting to see it change. And it's kind of wanting to live in the moment and slow things down so that you can enjoy that thing. You know? And obviously with red, just having passion and wanting to live to that passion.

I mean, each of the colors of the color wheel speak to human nature and speak to how people are. And each one has a fatal flaw that makes its own mistakes, that does its own problem. And that one of the fun things about the colors is that they do that. You know? And that I think the reason people really identify with colors is there's something

that matches them. You know, one of the guilds, for example, and I think color combinations work a little bit better, is that of the ten combinations there's something that just, you know, that is you. Like, is it, that is me. You know, I'm intellectual. I strive for knowledge. But I'm emotional.

And, you know, I think when you mix those two things together, you get passion and creativity. And, you know, you get this desire to just create things because you have to create things. That your passion and your curiosity smash together. But anyway, that is me talking about red. Like I said, I wanted red to sort of feel red. I haven't been doing this super consciously, but like, it's honest

for me when I talk about the color that I kind of embody the color a little bit. So today I wanted to be passionate because I was doing red. Not that I'm not normally passionate. Anyway, thank you very much for listening. It's been fun. I love talking color pie and next week won't be green but I will eventually get to green

and then I'll wrap this up and then I'll get a few other podcasts on colors I have a few other ideas of types of podcasts to talk about with color because I love color philosophy really if you don't I wrote an article on all the colors and

if you've never spent some time reading it, I think the color philosophy is one of the most fascinating things about magic. So if you're into magic, which I assume because you listen to my podcast, check it out. I think literally the magic color philosophy is one of the coolest things ever. And I'm a big fan. Anyway, I am passionate, but I also am passionate

about going and making, making magic. So, I'll talk to you guys next time. Ciao.