How the Magic: The Gathering Color Wheel Explains Humanity
It is fun to see how much of this overlaps with the official guidelines for colors [0]. I think that the five colors are better explained in terms of deck strategies and win conditions. Crucially, by design, no color is best, nor is any combination of colors best.<p>White represents not dying, both by preventing damage and by healing damage. White wins by having more health than their opponents, and outlasting them in battle.<p>Blue represents drawing the right card, mostly by drawing a lot of cards. Blue wins by controlling spells and hands. (When the article says &quot;knowledge&quot;, note that the MTG deck in play is called &quot;the library&quot;!)<p>Black represents destruction. Black wins by controlling battlefields and removing blockers.<p>Red represents opportunities in the current moment and the random possibility of change. Red wins by playing on offensive tempo (the &quot;upswing&quot;) and attacking vulnerable targets with instant abilities. (&quot;Tempo&quot; here is not quite as in music; it means playing cards turn after turn with a reliable ramping up in cost and effectiveness.)<p>Green represents growth and the potential for planning. Green wins by playing on defensive tempo (the &quot;downswing&quot;) and tilting the battlefield in their favor over many turns.<p>Ideally, this system of categorizing by color works because there aren&#x27;t any big strategies to winning that aren&#x27;t color-aligned. &quot;Milling&quot;, the strategy of deliberately destroying your opponent&#x27;s library, is closely tied to blue and black, which are all about libraries and destruction. Keeping a &quot;zoo&quot;, a battlefield full of mid-range on-tempo creatures, is closely tied to red and green, which are the two colors tied to tempo.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtg.gamepedia.com&#x2F;Color" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtg.gamepedia.com&#x2F;Color</a>