Pattern Recognition #105 - White Crust

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

4 April 2019

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Written by myself, berryjon, I aim to bring to my reading audience each week a different look into some aspect of Magic: The Gathering - be it an individual card, a mechanic, a theme, or even just general history. I am something of an Old Fogey and Smart Ass, so please take what I say with a grain of salt. I enjoy a good discussion on the relevant subject matter!

So, today is something that I've been putting off for a while now, and not because I keep getting sidetracked with other things. No, today, I put my foot down, and start writing my job application to work as a Designer for Wizards of the Coast.

Ambitious? Hell yeah. Arrogant? I better hope so. Will it work? Eh, probably not. But it's the fun that matters, right?

My plan is simple, and the first part is going to be an intermittent look at some of the basics of the game, and building up from there. I have to demonstrate that I know what I'm talking about, and not just pulling things out of my ass.

So, today, I start with the Colour Pie.

For those of you who are not fully up to date on what I'm talking about, the Color Pie is the way in which each colour of Magic - , , , and - acts in the game, their strengths, their weaknesses, what they can do all the time, or some of the time, or never. It is a measure of the choices those colors try to make, as well as how they interact with thier adjacent colours.

There is an official image from Wizards showing this, but despite my best efforts, I couldn't get it to appear as an inline graphic, or as a link. I am sad. :(

Regardless, the Colour Pie is one of the core concepts of the game, and its existence helps keeps the focus of the various colours in what they can or cannot do. I could talk about what it does in action, but I think I would rather show you.

In Wizards' official image, the White() section of the Pie is, as with all proper depictions of such, has on its right, with to its left, symbolizing their allied Color status. Across from is to the right and to the left, showing their enemy status. Now, this is not to say that cannot work with their enemies, as it's quite allowable. Rather, there is simply more synergy between a color and their allies than their enemies.

, is, at its core, the color of "Peace". Now, please do not mistake this for all love and harmony, with everyone dancing through the tulips to the sounds of Happy Together by the Turtles. is fully capable of busting out the Wrath of God if need be.

In other words, is the color of the Status Quo. That is, doesn't like things to change, and would rather that they stayed the same. Preferably with on top, but is willing to work with and to accomplish this. On the other hand, when expressed through the lens of and , this desire for "Peace" tends toward cases of either "Peace through Power" in the case of and "Peace for Me at the cost of You" for .

Internally, shows off its desire for "Peace" in a couple of manners. The first is through the idea of Prevention, and the second is through Taxes.

Prevention is just what you may think it is. attempts to prevent any chance in the status quo. Not through the use of counterspells, but rather through the more integral aspect of Damage Prevention. In this, started the game out with cards such as Red Ward and Circle of Protection: Blue. These cards represent the Denial of Damage, and they serve to impose upon all opponents that attempting to attack the player is a useless prospect. Either find another, weaker target, or fall in line. They won't yield an inch, but by the same token, they only gain inches as well, save for the final blows against their foes.

In another way, acts to prevent damage through cards such as Revitalize or Master Healer. These are more reactive ways to prevent damage, but they have the additional benefit of either being a bit more precise in their application, or by having a beneficial side effect, or by being repeatable.

In this way, can treat their ability to hold the line against their enemies not as a single effect, but as a static thing, like with Lashknife Barrier, but also as a repeatable thing, like with Samite Healer.

As a side note, Samite Healer was part of Wizard's initial forays into real-world allegories from the beginning of the game through Arabian Nights (not a long time, I agree), and the word Samite has the same root as Samaria, or to be more specific:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan

The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Let me take a minute here to digress from the Colour Pie itself to showcase just how the initial decisions regarding the colours are still in effect today. In those first days, was associated most strongly with the modern concept of "good" and "just". is the color of Knights, like with the archetypal White Knight, the ability to rend aid with the aforementioned Samite Healer or by simply providing a Blessing to those in need, or by declaring that those who serve faithfully in the defense of the realm are those who act in Righteousness.

If you're detecting a theme here, you're right. It was baked into the game from the outset, and even today, it lingers in the corners of 's existence. From the preponderance of Angels to the existence of the Orzhov - the Church of Deals - on Ravnica. is forever linked to these ideas, and helps form one of the cornerstones of the color, for good or for ill.

Now, the other way that likes to act preventively and protectively of the status quo is through the concept of Taxing.

This is the idea that won't stop you from acting, but rather that they will allow you to act - for a price.

This does not mean that, despite the name, Land Tax is part of this. It's something different. No, what I mean to use as an example of this are cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Aura of Silence, and the most recent offering to the pot, Tithe Taker.

I've mentioned before that Magic is a game of resources, and one of the most important resources out there is mana. All these cards do is act upon your enemies, not by actively harming them, but by passively forcing them to act more conservatively when trying to act out. Now, this is not to say that or cannot get into the game - not when Propaganda and Damping Sphere exist - but rather that is the one most likely to invoke this when taking a random selection of cards to bring to the table.

Thematically, this is part of the 'order' of the Status Quo. That everything has a place, and everything is in its place. Getting out of the hole takes more effort than just staying there.

And speaking of "Order", here is where starts to move toward on the color pie. While I will also approach this subject from the side at a late date, I want to say here that as starts to embrace its "Law" and "Order", it approaches 's understanding of "Intellect" and "Logic". Where these two meet, it is in the logical and ordered understanding and control of the world around them through the use of superior intelligence and the laws one can create, follow or if necessary - deny.

At its worse (for the opponent), the combination of and , or is that of a complete and total Control Freak, who can't let anything go by. At its best, it's the expression of freedom to do as one wills, for when one realizes that as all law and order serves a purpose, one can exceed that purpose and move on to greater and higher heights.

Literally.

and share the creature Keyword Flying, which is one of the more common cross-color Keywords, appearing on 58 creatures at the time of this article. You can build entire decks around this with creatures like Thunderclap Wyvern, Pride of the Clouds, and Kangee, Aerie Keeper.

On the other side of the Pie, is also the colour of Morality and the understanding of ones place in the greater whole. This is expressed in Wizard's image that I mentioned far above, as being Uncreative. This is a weakness in , one that is a deliberate flaw to help keep down, much as every other color has their own flaws. Once is convinced of something it is hard for them to change, and this slowness to adapt is partially represented by their difficulty in drawing cads. While they do have instances of being able to draw outside of their draw step like with with Mentor of the Meek, here we see again the necessity of 's Taxes. They will tax themselves for breaking a rule.

And that rule is that doesn't draw cards fast.

But from here, we start to approach , also from the side of the side of more abstract thoughts and and a desire for their to be order. However, the order that they seek to embrace in this union is not one of laws, but one of nature. brings to the union the greater whole of the world, and ones place in it, a place that enforces.

and is both an easy and a difficult slice of the colour pie to describe. This is, in the words of Mark Rosewater himself, the single biggest overlap between two colors in the game, even bigger than and 's love of destroying things. And the source of this overlap is centered on how they treat creatures.

I can say without a doubt that if you want a creature based deck, and want one easy, you go with . They are both providers of hordes of creatures, but they differ in how they interact with their creatures.

sees each creature as part of a larger whole. That each soldier is part of the army. And as such, each creature does their part, helping others. Angelic Page is an example of a creature that can lend its power and toughness to another creature, while Crossbow Infantry and Samite Healer work to provide aid in one form or another.

And all these creatures cost to cast. What, think I didn't choose those examples without due thought?

(and by extension both love the little creatures, but whereas will try to make each individual creature stand on their own, like with Grizzly Bears at the same cost, but has a higher base power and toughness, rather than a special ability.

But the real difference in how they treat their larger creatures.

As the colour of the army, is also the color of the Champion. What do I mean by that? Well, it's a little-recognized aspect to 's creatures that while the vast majority of them are small, with minor effects - the "White Weenies" - will also, on occasion, bust out a huge creature with powerful effects to 'lead' their creatures to victory. The first, and perhaps most iconic, is Serra Angel, which was larger than any other creature for the longest time, and had the amazing ability to attack without tapping!

No. Seriously, back when the game was starting, Serra Angel was a powerful creature in any White deck.

But this didn't stop Wizards from experimenting with other 'leader' like creatures. My personal favorite, and one that I put into the display case when I worked at my FLGS for the sheer "This is a CARD?!?!?" factor in the faces of the customers was Akron Legionnaire. Literally a guy who is so large and in-charge that no one else can attack! Which makes for all the support guys behind him all the more effective because they can focus on one guy, rather than the rest of the army.

Another personal favourite from this era was the Elder Land Wurm. Because why not?

But creatures are not the only place that and agreed on. They both held an intense dislike for the unnatural, the artifice and Enchantment that defy the course of the world and its order. This started with Disenchant, but switched to Naturalize with the move from 7th to 8th Editions, and since then, the two colours have shared a certain degree of hate for such things. Tranquility, to keep up with the example, moved to Tempest of Light.

But on the flip side of the same coin, the two colours also share a certain love and appreciation for enchantments. These are the two colours with the most Auras in the game, and while shares the Enchantment love in their use, they are not a involved in the concept, instead preferring global effects for the most part, rather than Curiosity-like effects.

So, there is and its two allies for the most part. A summary, I grant you, but one just the same. I'll pick up next time (but not necessarily next week) with a look at how interacts with the other colours and how it actually acts on the battlefield.

But join me next time when I do talk about things! What things? Who knows! I might have something to say about all these War of the Spark reveals, or I might not.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!