Pattern Recognition #109 - White Filling

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

23 May 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, welcome back to my hopefully in depth review of the slice of the colour pie known as . Depth not guaranteed, but I do still hope to get you to think about what I have said - if only to argue the points I make.

Last time, I left off with some discussion about the two allied colours of and how they cooperate. Now, I'll start us off with how works with its enemy colours, and move on from there.

and have held the single longest and most contentious opposition of any two colurs in the history of Magic. / is a pretty close second, but if you ever want to show off just how much these two colours hate each other, you need only show off the copious amounts of cards that are direct counters to each other, or the exact same card, but replace with or visa versa.

Which is why their synergy and ability to cover each other's weaknesses is also one of the strongest in the game. And the core of this opposition leading to greater heights is how they view resources. More specifically, their life totals.

Now, if goes a bit deeper than that, but let me walk my logic through here. I noted last time that and share a primary Keyword for their creatures, and that is Lifelink. And when I talked about lifegain a few weeks ago, I covered the fact that these two are the two colours that most view life as a resource, and how they either spent or hoarded it. Or at least I think I did. Whatever. I'll cover it again now!

So, and both like to gain life, but for different reasons. views it as a something to be gained, a buffer against defeat and a means to buy time for other solutions to present itself. On the other hand, views life as something to be gained at the expense of someone else, or as a resource to offset the cost of something else entirely.

And while views this as a limited resource, not so with . And here is where they play to each other's strengths perfectly - gains the resource that spends, with no inherent net loss or gain. In fact, you can combine Words of Worship with cards like Phyrexian Arena or Yawgmoth's Bargain to gain life and cards for an easily renewable resource! Mana!

And yes, I'm fully aware just how banned the Bargain is. It's just an example!

This synergy culminates in their mutual Orzhov mechanic from Return to Ravnica - Extort, a mechanic that punishes your opponents by simply paying spells, using a resource that both colours want!

Now, I'm not saying that this is a good mechanic. Rather that is perfectly encapsulates how the two interact and play off each other to gain even more than they - or their opponents - lose.

On the flipside, we have 's correlation with . Whereas those two oppose each other but find synergy on a deeper level, these two opposites share a love of creatures. Small creatures actually. Not to say that they can't go big, but if you want the most ridiculously effective creatures for their cost, and honestly, when you're dealing with Boros Recruit to Cerodon Yearling to Honored Crop-Captain to the absolutely gorgeous - in more ways than one - Feather, the Redeemed. At low mana costs, this color combination looks square in the eye, and says "Up your game, Scrub".

No, I'm serious here. Weenie decks, backed up by 's direct damage and 's utility spells is a terrifying foe to face as they just keep coming. They never stop, and nothing you can do seems to slow them down. I should know, as it's my favorite deck style to play.

What? It's not like I've ever kept that a secret.

Anyway, does go a bit deeper than that. First is something that I just talked about, and that is how these two colors combine to form . No, seriously. Integrity / Intervention is an overcosted Lightning Helix or morel likely the latter is an undercosted Warleader's Helix or words to that effect. deals the damage while gains the life, and together they mimic 's ability to Drain Life from a target.

But you know, now that I'm looking at all the non-Creatures in Gatherer, all ... wait. That can't be right.

57? SERIOUSLY?

And 83 Creatures. Total.

You're telling me that for this color combination, there are a grand total of 140 cards IN THE GAME?

No wonder Commander hates on these guys. They barely rate anything good together!

Yeah, I got nothing here. when combined with really, really loves their creatures and will do anything they can to make them better or to make things easier on them. More creatures? Well, Heroic Reinforcements has your back, as does Blaze Commando. More Tokens! More Creatures! Make them bigger with Rally the Righteous or better with Boros Charm!

I'm... Look, I love this combination. I love what it can promise, but it's not delivering. It's a very focused arrangement, one that every other combination with exceeds by being able to do multiple things on multiple levels. Here? We don't get that. And while I adore the focus, it still leaves me looking for something more to augment it. And while Feather, the Redeemed is a step in the right direction I think, I also think that there is far more room to grow.

Now you might think that I'm done with combinations, but that's not true yet. No, I'm not about to talk triple colours. That's silly. And boring. No, I want to talk about 's association with and Artifacts.

Did you know that for the longest time, was pretty much tied with for their support for artifacts? No? Yes? I mean, sure, Tinker is a thing, but Argivian Archaeologist is a very legitimate card too! Including its Dominaria successor, Daring Archaeologist, and in the everyone-loves-artifacts sets of Kaladesh and prior, we get Aethershield Artificer, Auriok Edgewright, Court Homunculus, Enlightened Tutor and beyond! loves Artifacts, and will support them when it can.

But in equal, if not greater measure, hates Artifacts. Before Naturalize, there was Disenchant. Kataki, War's Wage is a surprisingly adept anti-Artifact card, and wait a minute ... why wasn't Orim's Thunder included in my search earlier? Is it because of the Kicker cost? That's lame. Still, huge hate on Artifacts there.

What I suppose I could say is that loves Artifacts. As long as they're on 's side. On someone else's side? Well, it's time to blow them all up!

Putting my thoughts in order, I want to say that 's primary advantage in this game is the ability to play the long game. No other colour can keep going and chugging along like a good, solid brick of a deck can. Everyone else just runs out of steam faster than this colour does, and once this colour gets settled in, it can be extremely hard to dislodge. There's a reason why the Pillow Fort Archetype hinges on at its core.

And because of this, is also the first and easiest to pull the global destruction trigger, with cards like Wrath of God to Austere Command to Fall of the Thran to Planar Cleansing. will, if it suits them, simply blow everything up and start the game state over from scratch. And with the ability to specify what goes and what stays, they can be in the best position to recover while everyone else is scrambling to put their board state back into something resembling useful condition.

But the downside to this is that is also the slowest colour in the game. Outside of major bends in the color pie like Dawn of Hope, rarely draws more than one card a turn and can't bulk up their hand. Sure, they have a high degree of cantrips - cards that allow you to draw a single card in addition to their other effects - in their repertoire, but they rarely let you get ahead in the game. You need time to win with and time is something everyone else will work to deny you.

is also pretty good a precision strikes as well. They sure do lean on the 'blow everything up' button pretty hard, but they also can single out a target and remove it without affecting anything nearby. Pacifism is a classic answer to creatures too big to remove and you don't have a Swords to Plowshares handy. Conclave Tribunal can go for pretty much any non-land card, and Convoke plays to 's love of creatures.

In a way, has an answer to everything, except counterspells. They can remove individual threats in a variety of ways, they can answer blow for blow and come back stronger. But their problem is that there can be too many threats for them to answer, that something comes that they didn't predict, then is worse than caught off guard. They are helpless. And even then, they don't really have the ability to get to their solutions any faster for the most part unless they get help from some other color.

I love , and please don't get me wrong. It appeals to my sense of planning and development. But even I have to recognize that this colour, like all of them, have weaknesses too. Ones that my opponents will be more than willing to exploit.

So that's it for . Join me next week when I take a look at Time Spiral, what with the sequel set coming out! Man, it will be glorious! I'm even more hype for this than for Dominaria!

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!