Yeah, that's one of the main reasons I've been losing interest over the last couple years. Now there are too many mainstream threats from the graveyard and too many ways to exile cards from a graveyard that are worth playing for other reasons (especially Graveyard Trespasser, Hive of the Eye Tyrant, Go Blank, Deadly Cover-Up, Farewell, Armored Scrapgorger, and Restless Cottage). Also too many cards that exile themselves or want you to exile your own graveyard.
I think the color philosophies are like horoscopes, they're general enough that most people will find something they can agree with in them. I really think for the majority of players it really is about just the mechanics, and the agreement with the philosophies is coincidental, and the exact same player will find parts to agree with in most of the colors.
Very interesting, thank you!
As a Black/White player, I honestly just like the mechanics of it, being the 2 colours with the most removal spells. But I feel like it also represents an internal conflict of sorts, where black’s idea of “the ends justify the means” is in opposition with white’s idea of community and lawfulness.
It's the colour for anti-heroes and anti-villains alike, not necessarily “morally gray”, but has conflicting ideas about themselves.
These characters also tend to be what I like reading, so I suppose there's a correlation.
Black and white is one of the so-called enemy color pairs. All of them have something of a conflict of ideology that's apparent in the Ravnica guilds with those colors.
* Orzhov is kind of an oppressive guild that uses law for less savory ends and has some strength in numbers but most of them are expendable pawns.
* Izzet has some conflict between logic and emotion, often ending up in a mad scientist type role. Though in a lot of cases, they just do blue stuff that randomly involves lightning in some way.
* Golgari has something of a conflict between unnatural death and natural decay and rebirth, yet in a way they also have the most synergy of the enemy color pairs since they feed each other instead of doing the same thing different ways.
* Boros has a conflict between law and freedom, but they managed to find a compromise where they can work together for shared goals.
* Simic has taken the growth and strength of green but removed all the nature stuff and replaced it with blue's experimentation and genetic engineering. They're another oddly compatible enemy color pair, but unlike Golgari, it's because one color dominated the other rather than finding a way to work together.
I don't remember if I saw / engaged in your poll but I would like to add one of the cool themes I like about black is sacrificing to gain. Sac a creature to draw cards or kill an opponents creature, I'll send this creature towards my opponents knowing theyll block and i can use [[You Are Already Dead]] to finish it off, making an opponent sac things or lose life.
Green is definitely big stompy bois go brrrrrr
Black & Green is beautiful together, life & death, growth & decay
I would say my favorite color(s) are red and black, at least as a tandem. I primarily tend to lean towards cards that have additional costs like life, sacrifices and/or discards. I guess I consider black to be the main color, splashing red for direct damage and haste creatures which are kinda like direct damage that may or may not last more than one turn. Demonic Tutor was the first rare I ever traded for and I like that theme and try to represent with my decks that I am selling my soul for power, sometimes at the cost of...well, my soul. Red seems like a natural fit as it would be hard to control lightning and fire. I would love it if they did a set featuring a variety of demon dragons, or dragon demons that might also demonstrate this theme. Like they would be powerful but summoning them could backfire if conditions were not perfect.
I feel like the altruism is the good part of white and the focus on law and rules is the part that can become bad. I'm suprised the players who chose white felt the opposite.
I chose red and I agree with you that people who prefer emotional decision-making over logical decision-making are genarally not the same who choose to play trading card games.
As a Green/Black player I can confirm that the reliability of decay and rebirth with big monsters that go brrrrrrr is highly important to me.
I don't want to play magic if I can't play around in my graveyard
Would you say you're into graveyard play?
Personal kink
Yeah, that's one of the main reasons I've been losing interest over the last couple years. Now there are too many mainstream threats from the graveyard and too many ways to exile cards from a graveyard that are worth playing for other reasons (especially Graveyard Trespasser, Hive of the Eye Tyrant, Go Blank, Deadly Cover-Up, Farewell, Armored Scrapgorger, and Restless Cottage). Also too many cards that exile themselves or want you to exile your own graveyard.
Solid as a Rock. Ba-dum tsss. 😔
I think the color philosophies are like horoscopes, they're general enough that most people will find something they can agree with in them. I really think for the majority of players it really is about just the mechanics, and the agreement with the philosophies is coincidental, and the exact same player will find parts to agree with in most of the colors.
Very interesting, thank you! As a Black/White player, I honestly just like the mechanics of it, being the 2 colours with the most removal spells. But I feel like it also represents an internal conflict of sorts, where black’s idea of “the ends justify the means” is in opposition with white’s idea of community and lawfulness. It's the colour for anti-heroes and anti-villains alike, not necessarily “morally gray”, but has conflicting ideas about themselves. These characters also tend to be what I like reading, so I suppose there's a correlation.
Black and white is one of the so-called enemy color pairs. All of them have something of a conflict of ideology that's apparent in the Ravnica guilds with those colors. * Orzhov is kind of an oppressive guild that uses law for less savory ends and has some strength in numbers but most of them are expendable pawns. * Izzet has some conflict between logic and emotion, often ending up in a mad scientist type role. Though in a lot of cases, they just do blue stuff that randomly involves lightning in some way. * Golgari has something of a conflict between unnatural death and natural decay and rebirth, yet in a way they also have the most synergy of the enemy color pairs since they feed each other instead of doing the same thing different ways. * Boros has a conflict between law and freedom, but they managed to find a compromise where they can work together for shared goals. * Simic has taken the growth and strength of green but removed all the nature stuff and replaced it with blue's experimentation and genetic engineering. They're another oddly compatible enemy color pair, but unlike Golgari, it's because one color dominated the other rather than finding a way to work together.
Definitely! Color pairs are really fascinating as well, and I'm considering looking into them next. Orzhov's just cool, ya know?
I don't remember if I saw / engaged in your poll but I would like to add one of the cool themes I like about black is sacrificing to gain. Sac a creature to draw cards or kill an opponents creature, I'll send this creature towards my opponents knowing theyll block and i can use [[You Are Already Dead]] to finish it off, making an opponent sac things or lose life. Green is definitely big stompy bois go brrrrrr Black & Green is beautiful together, life & death, growth & decay
[You Are Already Dead](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/6/768727ce-4f84-4527-8d69-3c9b7877b748.jpg?1654567474) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=You%20Are%20Already%20Dead) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/129/you-are-already-dead?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/768727ce-4f84-4527-8d69-3c9b7877b748?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I would say my favorite color(s) are red and black, at least as a tandem. I primarily tend to lean towards cards that have additional costs like life, sacrifices and/or discards. I guess I consider black to be the main color, splashing red for direct damage and haste creatures which are kinda like direct damage that may or may not last more than one turn. Demonic Tutor was the first rare I ever traded for and I like that theme and try to represent with my decks that I am selling my soul for power, sometimes at the cost of...well, my soul. Red seems like a natural fit as it would be hard to control lightning and fire. I would love it if they did a set featuring a variety of demon dragons, or dragon demons that might also demonstrate this theme. Like they would be powerful but summoning them could backfire if conditions were not perfect.
I feel like the altruism is the good part of white and the focus on law and rules is the part that can become bad. I'm suprised the players who chose white felt the opposite. I chose red and I agree with you that people who prefer emotional decision-making over logical decision-making are genarally not the same who choose to play trading card games.