#MtgWhitePhilosophy
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The Flavor of MTG Color Philosophy: White, the Color of Morals
Prologue
Before we really dive into this color philosophy I have to get the usual stuff out of the way. If you haven’t read the previous, albeit really long, article covering some of the more general aspects of the Color Pie then you should probably do so, even if only to decrease the chance that you ask a question I’ve already gone over or to make sure that I don’t have to repeat myself over and over(You can read said article on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/private/672979718186975232/tumblr_r5hjo0WAWg1ycm9nu) and you can read said article on Google Docs here(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y1d7vBZozSEmkARSeGYj4onyty6uAXlooaXKR9WxLOI/edit)). I should also mention that today I am focusing on MONO-White as a color philosophy. This means some specifics here may not apply to every color combination that includes White. It is also important that the color pie is ultimately a vague philosophical archetype and not a personality archetype. When I say things like a color’s “strength and weaknesses” there are definitely exceptions and know that I am speaking broadly and mostly talking about the behaviors and personalities that such a philosophy either attracts or encourages. Also, the color philosophies are all about what people find most important. So when I say something like White likes moral and order and Blue likes knowledge that does not mean that it is all those colors care about. Even White may care about the individual and Blue may still care about emotions. It’s just that those things come second fiddle to other things and should not get in the way. I should also note that because this video is about White and I do not have infinite time I will mainly be covering things from White’s perspective. So sorry if it comes off like I’m just bashing Black or Red philosophy at any point but I promise that those colors will get their chance to shine in their own articles one day.
General
One thing that all the color philosophies in Magic have is a little phrase that helps summarize their philosophy. This phrase basically has two parts, the end goal of the color and how they seek to achieve that. In White’s case, its phrase is “Peace through Structure.”
When it comes to these little phrases, the first part of the phrase is the overall end goal of the color and the second part is the means by which the color thinks those goals should be achieved. In this case, the end goal is “Peace” and the means is “Structure.” What this is supposed to tell us is that White philosophy is all about creating a world where as many people are happy and have what they need as possible and that it strives for a world with no unnecessary suffering. However, the only way this can happen is if enough people can work together towards this goal and put the needs of the community and the greater good while also doing things that aid said larger picture even if it might not benefit them immediately or personally. It is important to mention that White believes it is possible to create a world where everyone has what they NEED but not necessarily what they WANT. This goes into some of White’s themes of self-sacrifice since White argues that if we must choose personal wants vs the needs of the group we should choose what aids the most people possible. Now, despite what some may believe White is not necessarily naive or stupid and it understands that at the end of the day some people will need guidance or help to keep on the right path or encourage them to do the right thing. This is where White’s themes of “Structure” come in.
In the case of White philosophy, this idea of “Structure” can mainly be broken down into two parts, moral laws and civil laws. Moral law, as you can probably guess based on the very name, is defining and understanding what is and isn’t morally wrong and defining the broader concepts of right and wrong. One thing that is key to White philosophy is that it believes in an objective morality so it is important to encourage moral and good actions while discouraging immoral and evil actions in order to guide people to do the right thing and prioritize the bigger picture and group. It is important to consider that White is not saying it's always easy to do the right thing or be morally good, if it was then White would not have so much emphasis on things like law and guidance. Furthermore, not all moral laws are obvious religious doctrine and the like, with some being quite subtle. The most basic form of what one may consider a moral law is the idea of conscience.
As we all know, conscience is something that’s supposed to guide you to do the right thing and may cause you to feel guilty or, if you are religious, have some sort of negative effect on your soul or afterlife destination in some way. It is also mentioned that the use of guilt, either by others or even just self-inflicted guilt, can be used to guide people or keep them in line.
Of course, there tend to be repercussions for those who fail to abide by these rules. As pointed just now, some of these punishments can be subtle like guilt and it is important to mention that these repercussions can also include things like social ostracization and the like. It is also important to remember that not all of White’s methods for morality or a better world come from a state or institutional level level and, besides the earlier mentioned conscience and guilt, can also include things like personal codes, honor, chivalry, etc. Although, I guess you could still argue these examples still make use of guilt because what’s the point of feeling like you have been dishonorable if you and/or no one else cares. To this end, it is also important to consider the themes of civil laws as they occur in White philosophy.
Civil laws in this case are meant to clamp down, reduce, punish and/or prevent unwanted or immoral actions. If you do X there will be a consequence, as pointed out by Mark Rosewater himself in the “THE GREAT WHITE WAY REVISITED” article this most often takes the form of a loss of resources, usually money(think stuff like fines or parking tickets), . . .
and/or a loss of freedom(such as prison, house arrest, confiscation, etc.).
An example of a positive form of this in action would be if you see murder as being immoral so you and your society, group of friends, or what have you may decide to put into place rules and restrictions that make murder illegal as a deterrent and by extension punish whoever commits murder and potentially rewards those who don’t.
It is important to acknowledge that White doesn’t ONLY use punishment to get people to do the right thing as it can and does use positive things to encourage people to do the right thing. For example, if guilt is a negative emotion caused by doing something wrong then fulfillment, pride, and/or satisfaction can be used to reward people for doing the right thing. There are, of course, rewards outside of just emotional ones, such as rewards, protection, privileges, etc..
It is important to remember that this tends to make White in general, but not always, a defensive and reactionary color in both gameplay and philosophy because of the fact that White usually doesn’t want to go around punishing innocent people, so it tends to either reward those who stay in line or punish those who actively step over the line. Not to mention that White’s ideal world is one with as little unnecessary suffering as possible and so it usually tries to avoid inflicting it if possible.
Plus, White’s belief in moral and immoral actions means that it usually needs a moral justification to do something. Killing in self-defense is probably fine for most of those who believe in White philosophy but killing a person just because you felt like it isn’t going to fly.
This also means that White’s goal is usually to protect people, whether that be from themselves or others. However, White can become more proactive if it sees something as a moral threat or evil or if it feels it has to do so to protect others. White is definitely not saying you should just sit around and let someone you know is about to hurt someone hurt people or let people get hurt.
At the end of the day, as pointed out by Marro, in the case of White moral laws are meant to be a guide for how you should think and civil laws help control how people act. This helps ensure that individuals are working for the benefit of the group, helps protect people from either themselves or others, and helps encourage people to not do immoral things. The focus on moral and civil laws mean that White tends to put emphasis and importance on things like religion, law, court systems, politics, government, honor, and chivalry as these are all things that help keep people on the right track and if used correctly can help avoid unnecessary conflict while also making sure people get the things they need while encouraging people to put the needs of the group above that of their own wants and desires.
White’s emphasis on the group and others over the individual and individual wants also leads to an emphasis on community, cooperation, self-sacrifice, charity, strategy, organization, and even the military(as it involves many individual soldiers coming together to create an army that is more powerful than any single individual person in order to protect their cause or people as well as take down dangerous threats. Also because White believes in good and evil it is willing to fight for good and against bad things or fight to protect others).
Requirements
In order to hopefully help you get a greater understanding of White philosophy and its beliefs, I think it is important to beg the question of what does one have to believe in to be White aligned? What are the most basic barebone ideals you have to have in order to be White-aligned? Now it’s important to remember the color pie is a vague philosophical and value archetype. The color pie is ultimately about VALUES and IDEALS. A White character can end up being hot headed and selfish, although they would usually see this as a flaw or mistake or righteous anger, and not every person with morals is necessarily White or Mono-White because they may value something they deem more important. Also, this article is specifically about Mono-White so these requirements are only meant to apply to just White and any color combinations that contain White mixed with other colors may not necessarily follow the same rules, for example, it is possible to be White-Black aligned and not believe in an objective morality.
First off, in order to be White-aligned, one must believe in some sort of objective morality. This belief in an objective morality often gives White religious themes and iconography in Magic, since most religions believe in some sort of objective morality or proper way to live and this factor ties back to the thing about moral laws in the previous section, but I would argue that you don’t necessarily need to be super religious to be White aligned. You just need to believe that there are things that are moral and there are things that are immoral, that there is good and evil in some capacity, even if we have yet to fully discover this objective morality. This also means that in White’s eyes the ends do not justify the means. If you need to get something done you should do it right.
Secondly, and most obvious, at the end of the day one must believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. To be clear it’s not that White is literally incapable of caring about the individual or argues you should never treat yourself but rather that these things shouldn’t come at the cost of other people and you should go with whatever option helps as many people as possible. This also extends to encouraging forms of selflessness and putting others ahead of yourself. Now, this doesn’t mean that White is saying to literally just do whatever someone tells you as long as it's for a group because remember it still believes in morals and the right thing so it wouldn’t automatically argue that you should accept that offer of unpaid overtime on a graveyard shift just because your boss asked you to in order to help the company but understand that sometimes you will need to make personal sacrifices to help others.
White’s goal is basically to do the right thing and help as many people as possible as it also must believe it is possible to create a hypothetical world where everyone has what they need eventually.
A Colorful Quote
In order to hopefully better understand where each color is from, even if you may ultimately disagree with it, I thought it would be helpful to pick a quote that I felt really resonated or matched with the color's themes in order to help package the color in a philosophical form of thought you may be more familiar with or understand. In this case, I have picked three, one of which I have already used in this very article already.
"The single raindrop never feels responsible for the flood" -Douglas Adams. I feel like this quote does a pretty good job in showing why White believes so strongly in the power of the group over the individual and how what individuals do can add up, for better or worse. Yes, technically a single raindrop isn’t going to hurt anyone or do anything but in White’s eyes we all have some level of responsibility in doing the right thing, and with its emphasis on the group it understands a lot of these things can add up. It also helps highlight why White encourages attention to detail and does its best to try to keep people on the right track through things like laws and rules.
“Treat others as you would like others to treat you.” I feel like this simply helps people understand that one of the things White cares about is fairness and justice, which makes sense for the color all about morals, right, and wrong. A color like Black usually won’t necessarily care about treating people fairly or how it would want to be treated as long as it gets what it wants.
“With great power comes great responsibility” is probably one of the most White aligned quotes I can think of. While Black might say you should use power to take what you want and live a nice life and Red says you should do whatever you want with your power, it’s yours after all, White says you have a responsibility and moral obligation to use your powers to help others and to make the world/society a better place.
The final quote “The ends do not justify the means.” White believes in an objective morality and thus there are lines that it argues you should never cross. This also means that if you are doing something or trying to achieve a goal you should do it right and not at the expense of others unless it is truly absolutely necessary to reach a goal that has a solution to the needs of the many. In fact, if forced to pick in a trolley car problem-esque situation White would usually argue that whatever option saves the most lives is the right answer since it generally views most lives as equal. The needs of the many will ultimately outweigh the needs of the few.
Philosophical Strengths
Nothing is truly perfect and that goes for the colors too. While I will be going over White’s philosophical weaknesses I will first be going over White’s philosophical strengths in order to show the upsides and positives of following White's philosophy.
The most common one you see mentioned is how White encourages a propensity for teamwork and organization. Due to the fact that White is all about trying to put others first and putting the needs of the community over one’s selfish desires, it makes sense that White tends to do a decent job of encouraging people to work together with others. Since it is able to see the bigger picture and values putting aside selfishness. White is definitely less likely to stab you in the back for a quick buck than Black and will probably tend to be easier to reason than Red.
This emphasis on organization, teamwork, and institutions can also lead to White having many people joining its cause and it can make it very hard to take down in the grand scheme of things. Since White believes in the group over the individual it usually acts and creates things with that in mind. This also means White tends to spread out its power since it's all about individuals coming together to accomplish a bigger goal. Think of it this way, killing one soldier in an army of hundreds isn’t going to do much and likewise White tends to encourage similar groups of many people working together like an army or team towards a goal. If you want an example in Magic itself, if twenty tokens are swinging at you then a single Lightning Bolt or Unsummon isn’t going to save you since on their own they will only remove one token of an entire army attacking you. Then you have to also consider White’s propensity to use things like laws and morals to set up potentially complex systems used to protect and/or control people. When used correctly this plays into another one of White’s common strengths, stability. Since White is all about the bigger picture it sets up all kinds of stuff to keep things in place and this can make it very arduous or hard to take down since you not only need to deal with individual people but potentially an entire system since White usually at least tries to make sure these systems will last, whether or not any given system is good is another matter. This also means that White tends to know how to use laws and rules to get what it wants if it has the chance. The focus on community and the bigger picture also tends to encourage a detail-oriented way of doing things which can aid it in organization and using things like rules. Plus, laws can be used to potentially restrain or hinder threats to White. In the best-case scenario, White can basically force someone to deal with them on White’s own terms.
Terms that White will probably be fine with or used to working under but may be a serious hindrance or setback to people fighting an uphill battle against those things. Basically, if you want to take out White it’s usually going to force you to think on a large scale, whether that be a large-scale attack or political movement.
White is also a color that tends to encourage discipline. White is all about planning ahead and doing what’s right for the long term, think of going to Church every Sunday to help you morally, training every day to become a better soldier and help aid your army, practicing shots to become a better play for your team, etc..
Philosophical Weaknesses
No color is all upsides though, so what are some common weaknesses for White philosophy?
Well the first and most obvious weakness is that White can often lead to inflexible and/or stagnant ways of thinking. Firstly, White is by default the color that tends to offer the least wiggle room philosophically since it believes in an objective good and evil of some sort which means it has the fewest gray areas and it encourages people to see the world in, ironically, black and white terms. This can also stunt potential creativity and can encourage conformity to an unhealthy degree since White will obviously not want to do anything it sees as objectively evil and it wants to make sure everyone does the right/good thing. However, this can spiral into forcing everyone to be one way if White believes that way is “good” or is for the sake of the community and bigger picture. Everyone has a specific role for the sake of the greater good and you must be sure that you are helping the collective.
Not to mention that it is usually a lot harder to convince someone of another opinion or new way of doing things if they see whatever you are trying to pitch as evil and whatever they are doing is good. Plus, due to White’s use of law, you may also have to contend with attempting to change entire laws. This is also where White’s use of structure can come to bite it in the ass since this use of it can potentially make things like the changing of laws or opinions slow to a crawl and extremely hard to change. Not to mention that White is probably going to want things done by the book even if you do want to change something which can of course suffocate and slow down anyone who attempts to change things in a way that White doesn’t approve of and playing by the rules to get the desired result may take even longer and make potential innovation more difficult.
Essentially, White’s reliance on structure, morals, and thought can make it very inflexible and extremely slow to adapt and change. Also, since White tends to be caught up on specific details because of the bigger picture, how everyone needs to come together it may, and morality it can get caught up in something that might not be a big deal. Like maybe the skirt someone wore only goes down to one inch above their knee as opposed to exactly at the knees, maybe that kid wore a red shirt to school instead of a white one, or maybe Jimmy showed up 1 minute late to work. It is by no means a stretch to say that at its worse White can encourage authoritarianism and even become an enemy to free thought or any other kind of deviation. Now, this isn’t to say that all White characters are heartless and won’t give any leeway or forgiveness for anything but White philosophy can definitely encourage being uptight and by the book based on how different parts of its philosophy come together. White’s potential inflexibility can also mean that it can end up restraining or hindering itself with its own laws or rules as it attempts to follow them. The easiest example would be someone who vows never to kill no matter what with no exceptions. This can potentially trap the one following the rule in an awkward situation if they need to say kill in self-defense or something.
Another potential issue White may have is that of discrimination in some form. Now it is important to note that it’s not like White-aligned characters are necessarily racist or anything and White does also believe in equality so they can easily be a champion for rights and equal treatment. On the flip side though, White’s emphasis on moral structures and objective morality means it will usually have fewer qualms about excluding others who think differently because White could see those ways of thinking as immoral, evil or dangerous. If someone’s belief falls outside of what they deem to be acceptable, even if said belief is harmless, then they will either punish them or try to guide them back on the right path by trying to get them to conform.
A final weakness that White philosophy often encourages is the neglect of the individual. Now I want to make something very clear. It’s not that White doesn’t care about individuals, some people think that White is a heartless machine willing to do anything for the greater good and that it will just throw away people’s lives continuously and constantly. Which is a weird conclusion to come to because the whole point of White philosophy is that we should strive to make a world where as many people are happy and have what they need as possible. So it’s not like White usually enjoys taking or sacrificing lives, in fact White philosophy definitely encourages empathy and selflessness so watching someone else die is something that it will rarely find pleasant. However, it still prioritizes the needs of the community and the many over the needs of the few because that is ultimately what will help the most people. This means it can sometimes disregard or neglect the individual.
It’s not that White never props up individuals, especially when it comes to heroes or role models, but those tend to be because they help serve a moral or bigger picture, ie someone saved a lot of people, heroes, propaganda, they're a good leader, they’re a good person, etc... So when White makes arguments on why you should do something it is often based on ethics or the bigger picture so it may end up disregarding individuals' wants and desires when trying to appeal to people. This is to say that White tends to be really good at appealing to groups and communities but it might have a harder time appealing to individual people since it wants to focus on the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Not to mention that White is totally advocating to sacrifice one life if it means saving the lives of hundreds.
One thing you might have picked up on or seen throughout this article or Magic, in general, is White can encourage a controlling mindset. White is trying to do what’s morally right and it wants as many people as possible to do the same. This means that if White thinks it knows what’s right it may do what it perceives as being good for someone or a group without giving them enough choice in the matter because it’s trying to do what’s best and it may even think it knows what’s best for them and that they should prioritize what’s best for the group. White can definitely encourage a “father/mother knows what’s best vibe” since it may force things upon individuals in the name of doing what’s best for that person, society, or group.
Common Misconceptions
One thing I’ve noticed about the color pie is there tend to be a lot of misconceptions about it in general. This is understandable because most people aren’t losers who will read and listen to all of Mark Rosewater’s color pie teachings and probably won’t technically need to know much about it outside of general gameplay mechanics. Although, of course, I still want to tackle these common misconceptions to show some of the work and understanding that Magic’s designers and writers have that people may overlook and to hopefully make any conversations someone may have about the color pie more informed, nuanced, and productive.
Easily the most common misconception that you see being reiterated and dispelled all the time is that the White alignment is used to indicate “good guys.” I think lately this misconception has been less prevalent and is only held by extremely new players or players who have as little interaction or knowledge with the color pie as possible. Either way, for the sake of those who may not know I should address this. The most obvious way to disprove this point is that White-aligned characters can make mistakes. A White-aligned character can do something that is bad in hindsight or convince themselves they are doing the right thing or what’s best for people. However, to dive further into it I think a lot of this stems from Magic itself and how White often seems to have a “heroic” or “righteous,” along many other traits people would consider good, bent to it.
Especially when White is the home of creature types like angels, figures that are almost always associated with the idea of “good.”
One thing to remember about analyzing and understanding the cards and how they are portrayed in Magic is understanding what each philosophy’s ideal is and how it wants to see itself. White is a color that believes in an objective good and evil morality. If one has such a belief why would they want to do things they know are bad or evil? Obviously, they are going to try to do things they perceive as good and will think there are good and bad people. A color like Black wouldn’t really believe in heroes, or at least not objectively good ones, and since colors like Black don’t believe in an objective morality and Red is about just doing what you want they are not going to see what they are doing as heroic and are less likely try to sugarcoat stuff as much as White. What I’m basically saying is that the reason White might appear “good” on Magic cards is because it sees its goals and what it's doing as good and even if it is failing it wants to do the right thing and encourage good morals. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all White-aligned characters are good rather that most White-aligned characters are going to see their actions and stances as good, morally just or at the very least that’s what they are striving for(because most people who believe in good and evil are going to not want to be evil). Plus, while I do think Magic could do a better job representing it, there are a few White-aligned villains that most people would consider evil, Heliod, Elesh Norn, and Takeshi Konda are some notable examples, and the Azorius are definitely an example of an antagonistic White faction, even if they are also Blu. If you were to ask any of these people if what they are doing is right, just, good and/or necessary they would probably say yes, unlike a Black character who may not care about doing what’s “right.”
I guess the best way to summarize this is that most White-aligned characters have good intentions, and this is reflected on their cards and portrayal, but simply having good intentions does not make what you are doing right or mean you’re the good guy. I would also argue that part of the reason for this misconception is that humans, in general, tend to lean towards having White in their alignment or color philosophy. Most people believe in some sort of moral baseline and think being a selfish or greedy person is usually a bad thing. Also, within media, in general a lot of traits that would be associated with Black tend to be cast as villains(such as being power-hungry, greedy, selfish, and stuff. Also if a villain is the embodiment of all evil or something that implies some sort of objective moral truth in the context of the narrative). Meanwhile, heroes in media tend to be selfless and the like. This is something I’ll probably go into more detail in another article covering humans as a creature type or something.
Another, more subtle, misconception I’ve seen is that White cannot be tricky or underhanded. I do see where this is coming from since White is the color philosophy all about honor and fairness.
However, there’s a major difference between being fair and not being tricky or using strategy. The best way I can put this is that yes White may not use as many underhanded tactics as Black or Blue because it doesn’t want to be unfair, dishonorable or do evil things but that does not mean it isn’t willing to use tricks that fall, or technically fall, within their accepted moral range.
Let me put it this way, White philosophy says that the ends do not justify the means but there’s a massive difference between “the ends do not justify the means” and “you cannot use tricks or cunning.”
Not to mention that White is also philosophically all about justice. This means that sometimes it may be a bit more ruthless or underhanded when dealing with something it deems evil. White also definitely encourages an “eye for an eye” way of thinking and probably isn’t going to just sit around watching the people they want to protect die from a bunch of underhanded tactics even though White still has lines it is going to be unwilling to cross.
I think it’s easy to assume that because Black is all about gaining power for yourself and White is about being selfless and putting others first that White straight up does not care about power. This is sort of true? White doesn’t think power is the most important thing and would philosophically argue that you need to be willing to give up individual desires and power if it helps the community function or other good people prosper. However, this does not mean White completely disregards power. Power when used correctly or in the hands of the right people can be used to help and rescue people. I would go as far as to say that the quote “With great power comes great responsibility” from Spiderman is one of THE most philosophically White quotes out there. Black says you should use power for yourself, Red says power gives you freedom and you should do what you want to, but White would argue that ultimately helping others and morals are more important than power. So when you are given a great amount of power you have a moral obligation to put others first and use your powers first and foremost to help people.
Also, there are some things you shouldn’t use your powers for. Using power to do things like steal or force your way to the top would usually be frowned upon by White. Superman, at least the default Superman and not some weird alternate timeline where he is evil or landed in Russia or something, is definitely a character that abides by White philosophy.
I’ve seen a lot of talk about White as a villain as a form of pushback and rebuttal against the idea that White is always the good guy. I think this is all well and good but this does end up coming with its own misconceptions. The two most common I see are that colors like Black and Red are “rebel” and “underdog” colors while White is the oppressor and that White does not care about individual people at all. Firstly, While White is a philosophy that can easily encourage oppression it can also easily be the philosophy of rebellion. To begin with, Black is a color philosophy that can easily encourage just as much oppression as White, but for different reasons. Black argues that you should prop yourself up and gain as much power as possible. If this requires you to step on the downtrodden, plebs, or persecuted so be it. If it requires you to use bribes or leverage your social/economic status against people then so be it. Black is also totally willing to use laws to keep its power if it knows people will listen.
Plus, if you’ve read the article so far you should know that one of the things White cares about the most due to its beliefs in moral objectivism is justice, fairness, doing the right thing and equality. If White believes a group is being mistreated or unfairly hurt it is going to try to help them. Not to mention that if White believes the rebels are in the moral right it is going to want to side with them.
Ultimately, White philosophy encourages sticking up for the unfairly treated just as much as, honestly probably more than, Red or Black does because it believes everyone should be treated fairly, putting others first, and moral things like potentially basic human rights since it believes some moral lines shouldn’t be crossed. White is also a philosophy that argues you should always be trying to do the right thing. I guess the best way to describe it is that one is a Black and/or Red rebel their philosophy means they’re probably fighting on behalf of the individual, freedom to do what they want, or for themselves but if White-aligned rebels usually fight for justice, the many, fairness, and morality. In essence, I think all three philosophies have a rebellion and stand up for the underdog theme but the reasons for why they do so are different.
When it comes to how White feels about the individual, yes White is a philosophy that argues the needs of the many outweighs the needs and wants of the few. However, White ultimately wants to create a world where the fewest number of people suffer or don’t have what they need as possible. So to say White is a philosophy that straight-up says you shouldn’t care about people at all and only care about groups is incorrect. White also tends to view people, assuming it doesn’t see them as evil, as equal, and thus their lives, desires, and needs are all equal by default. White philosophy simply argues that the needs or wants of an individual should not come at the expense of the greater good, the community as a whole, or other people. If you want an American example of this take the idea of free speech. With free speech you can say whatever you want and the government cannot arrest you or anything for it. However, there are some exceptions. The most common example is that you can't yell “FIRE!!!” in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire since that is not only inconvenient but could lead to someone getting hurt. Just because you have the right to wield a weapon does not mean you can just hit whoever you want with your sword and others have a right to not get stabbed without permission. Meanwhile, a color like Red would say your freedom and desire should trump everything else and everyone should be able to do whatever they want. To White, the needs and good of the group and others trumps individual desires that come at the expense of others. I would also like to argue that democracy(especially direct democracy), at least when it’s functioning properly, is definitely a political system that falls under White philosophy since the idea is that it's the entire group coming together to make a decision as opposed to single individuals making decisions at the expense of the group. However, this is not to say that democracy is the only White-aligned political system and that White can’t use other more negative political systems, such as authoritarianism. White also understands that sometimes bettering yourself as an individual or individually can allow you to better help others or the community, it’s just that bettering yourself should be done for the sake of the greater good. It is more accurate to say that White cares about individuality usually through the lens of a bigger picture or society and the individual’s place in it.
A less common misconception I’ve seen floating around is the idea that divinity and/or being a god makes one White aligned, like being divine or a god is a White-aligned thing. This is actually a little funny since technically a majority of gods we have seen in Magic do not have White in their color identity and I could easily point out the numerous Non-White aligned gods on Theros, Amonkhet and/or Kaldheim to prove my point and just move on.
Now this misconception isn’t completely unfounded but it’s still a misconception and will take some explaining. As I will go on later in this very article, yes White has themes of divinity or caring about the divine. There are two reasons for this. First off, White believes in an objective good and evil. So if something is labeled as divine by White it is probably saying it is holy or good while if it is unholy or demonic it is probably evil. This whole objective morality thing also tends manifest in the form of religion because if one believes in an objective morality then they usually believe it comes from somewhere and sometimes this somewhere takes the form of some higher power, like a god.
However, being divine or a god doesn’t make something White-aligned anymore than being a living thing makes something Green-aligned or being a machine makes something Blue-aligned.
It’s important to acknowledge that when you look at a Magic card you are probably viewing the events or actions from that color’s perspective. So what may be seen as divine to one color philosophy may be seen as something else to other color philosophies or even different people in the same color philosophy. There’s also the fact that depending on what kind of gods we are referring to there can be evil or neutral gods and not every god is necessarily just the good and divine kind of god. Plus, the other colors are capable of being religious albeit for different reasons and with different priorities.
What I’m trying to say here is yes White has a divine and god theme but it’s important to remember that it’s due to White’s themes of religion and morality and that Whites cards tend to view things from White’s perspective and also not all gods, even from a purely White-aligned perspective, are good and/or divine. Color philosophy isn’t some specific immutable trait someone is born with(because being born tall isn’t going to mean you’re Green aligned) but instead a worldview, philosophy and ideology not necessarily a state of existence(like good/evil, living/machine, etc). Of course it is important to remember that certain philosophies and ideologies will value certain things so said ideologies may encourage or look favorably upon certain states of beings as a good thing. I mean, imagine if people argued that being a god makes you Black-aligned because gods are powerful and Black likes power or if people argued being a god makes you Green-aligned because many gods embody forces of nature and the like. It really isn’t that simple.
Ally and Enemy Colors
This finally brings us to talking about White’s ally and enemy colors and White’s relationship with them. Things like “Why is this philosophy White’s “ally” and this philosophy White’s “enemy.” Due to the fact that this article is about White and is already going to be pretty long already I am going to be coloring the relationship between each color, as well as their agreements and disagreements mostly from White’s perspective since I don’t really have time to go into a deep dive of each individual color. I will however, cover how the other color’s view White philosophy later down the line in their own respective articles as a way to make sure that each color gets the fleshed out analysis they deserve. In the meantime for the ally colors I will start with the philosophical agreements White has with the color before moving on to the disagreements and then flipping that order for the enemy colors. On top of that, I’m only going to be going over White’s relationship and thoughts on the other colors and not color combinations. Color combinations like White-Blue and Green-White will get their own article dedicated entirely to them. So I won’t be going over things like the positive and negative traits of White-Blue. Only what White and Blue agree on and disagree on. Also, if you somehow don’t know what an ally and/or enemy color is you should of read my previous article and an ally color are the colors next to a specific color on the color pie while the enemy colors are opposing colors. So the ally colors for White are Blue and Green because they sit on either side of White while White’s enemy colors are Black and Red because they set opposite from White.
Ally Color: Blue
When it comes to considering why White and Blue are allies the two things that immediately stick out to me the most is the overlapping line of thinking in regards to the importance of forethought, planning and consideration and the desire to create a better world.
Let’s start with that first point because I feel it does a great job showcasing that if you want to fully understand each of Magic’s color philosophies you need to understand their relationship with each color in order to help highlight the similarities and key differences to reveal nuances you may not have noticed otherwise. Case and point we can understand some of the similarities between White and Blue by looking at their shared enemy color, Red. Red believes in “Freedom through Action.” Red philosophy says you should just follow your heart and do whatever it is you want in an attempt to reach a life that is as fulfilling as possible. If you want to confess your love to someone do it, if you want to punch senior citizens on the street then do it, if you want to create art then do it. This conflicts greatly with White and Blue. White and Blue both prioritize the big picture, end game and long term plans. From Blue’s perspective Red philosophy is just stupid because it seems to argue for ruining its own life or long term plans and progress just because it wanted to do something without thinking about what it needs and its action’s long-term consequences. White thinks Red philosophy is dangerous because Red philosophy is ultimately a selfish and shortsighted one. Red is saying YOU should do what YOU want even if it means hurting people or if those desires come at the expense of the group or community. If there is a table with twenty pieces of bread and twenty people White will say you should give each person one piece of bread to ensure everyone eats and Blue would probably agree because that is the most logical or rational option. However, Red wants to try to eat as much bread as it wants, whether that be twenty pieces of bread or no pieces of bread. In essence White and Blue are all about discipline and forethought(you cannot always have what you want and not everything you want is what is needed or helpful. Just because you want five pieces of bread doesn’t mean you should take five pieces of bread), which Red philosophy flies in the face of. White and Blue also both prioritize thoughtfulness, and long-term goals over what they see as fleeting wants and desires. White would argue that what you want isn’t always what you need and ultimately it prioritizes the needs of its people and others first and foremost. Blue sees emotions as potentially irrational and says that you should use knowledge and thinking to chart out what needs to be done as opposed to flying by the seat of your pants and making needles mistakes or errors. In a way White and Blue both have a serious problem with the chaos that Red champions, as they see the chaos as destructive and unproductive. To them doing things right is more important than freedom and doing whatever you want whenever you want. Blue also overlaps in its connection to law with White because of this reason.
Blue is trying to make sure things are done in the most logical and efficient way possible and rules can help make this happen while also making sure to guide people on the right path. White and Blue are also both philosophies that tend to value taking the path with as few risks as possible and playing it safe. While Red is all about doing what you want even if that thing is dangerous. Also, Blue’s emphasis on knowledge and forethought and White’s emphasis on the big picture and order means that both colors tend to encourage being very detail oriented. I guess if I had to summarize their philosophical agreement here, both colors believe in thoughtfulness and restraint and see Red’s philosophy as shortsighted and troublesome.
As mentioned earlier, another major overlap White and Blue have is their desire to make society and the world a better place. This means that White and Blue both tend to have an understanding of the bigger picture in mind and that only putting yourself first all the time can make things worse. White ultimately wants to make things better to promote peace and decrease the amount of suffering people have to deal with while Blue is all about “Perfection through Knowledge.” In essence, Blue wants to make the world better so it becomes more efficient and so both the world, and Blue, can reach their fullest potential and be the best they can be(this is also another reason why Blue has a bit of a law theme). Where White seeks peace Blue seeks prosperity and of course, prosperity can be a huge factor in creating a world of peace and reducing suffering.
As I always say though, if even just allied colors agreed on literally everything then they would end up being the same color philosophy and there would be no need for a distinction between each color and its allies. So what are some of the disagreements between White and Blue?
Well we can easily pick out a few of the obvious philosophical disagreements by looking at the specific placement both colors have on the color pie.
While White and Blue are right next to each other. Blue is allied with one of White’s enemy colors, Black. Meanwhile, one of White’s allies is Green. This immediately tells that Blue is more individualistic of a philosophy than White. Blue is also more likely to do things like lie or withhold information than White if it means furthering its own goals and White would argue you should almost always put others and the community or greater good first while Blue is less likely to do that unless doing so helps improve efficiency, reach its goals, gain information, aid a long term plan, etc... Thus, White believes Blue could be a bit more focused on society and the community. A major reason Green and Black are enemy colors is because Green thinks you should accept the world and your place in it for as it is and to put the ecosystem and nature above yourself. However, Black is about “Power through Opportunity.” It is trying to make life better for itself at any cost and does not care about a “natural order.” Blue philosophy puts a bit less emphasis on caring about people when improving the world. In essence Blue philosophy tends to want to improve things because it wants to learn and prove it can while White is looking out for the community. An example we have been given is in the article “PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING” by Mark Rosewater. In this example we are given world hunger. White wants to end world hunger because White doesn’t want people to go hungry or suffer while Blue wants to end world hunger because it wants to use the knowledge it has obtained to see if it can maximize its resources and learn what the most efficient way to create food is. This also means that White is usually more likely to stop doing something once it feels like it has adequately helped everyone while Blue will keep pushing the limits and learn. Once White ends world hunger it is more likely to move on and focus more on other issues but Blue is more likely to continue trying to see how much food it can generate because it wants to obtain more knowledge. For Blue perfection is not an end goal but a process.
Blue is a philosophy that is also more calculating, data driven, and numbers based than White. Not to say Blue doesn’t care about anybody but it tends to be more concerned with bringing things to their fullest potential and making them as efficient as possible. Blue uses laws and shapes lives to bring out things to their full potential while White uses laws and shapes lives to help the greater good and make sure people do the right thing. Blue’s philosophy is ultimately one of self-actualization(the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone) and Blue philosophy sees things like structures and laws as just tools to help keep things running smoothly and efficiently rather than a means of protection and spreading moral goodness or moral ideas. White also wants to bring peace and help as many people as possible but Blue is more concerned with information, data and efficiency. This also means that Blue tends to have fewer moral lines it is unwilling to cross than White usually does since what Blue does and doesn’t do will tend to be determined by efficiency, numbers, and/or results rather than things like moral specific moral codes or doctrine. In essence, Blue is less likely to do something because it is morally good and just and is more likely to do something because of whatever reason it considers to be logical or most efficient. This also means that Blue is more likely to be willing to cross lines or push on the boundaries of things White thinks it shouldn’t. I mean, Blue is way more likely to do things like use unfair tactics to win a fight, lie to gain an upper hand. or actively manipulate other people than White is.
This also means that Blue tends to be a bit more secretive and dishonest than White usually is.
Blue’s philosophy also tends to encourage a bit more emotional distance than White does. White is all about caring about others and putting others first but Blue argues that you should use logic and reason before emotions (not that Blue inherently hates all emotion or anything. It’s just that to Blue emotions can be irrational and shortsighted so you should use your head and logic to think things through and make sure emotions don’t get in the way of that).
It is also important to consider that Green, White’s other ally color, is a deterministic philosophy that believes that everyone is born to be a certain way and can’t change that. However, Blue believes everyone has the potential to become whatever they want as long as they have the knowledge, time, and proper means to do so, something that is often expressed through technology. White believes in a more concrete world. The most obvious form this takes is an objective morality, since such morality is, in theory, immutable, but White is also a color that often has a heavy connection to tradition and believes that some things have been established or born a certain way and cannot be changed, i.e. parts of society, potentially your role in society, certain traits, etc. While Blue may see certain traditions as useful or worth keeping around it is definitely a color that champions progress and moving forward way more than White, after careful consideration of course, and Blue believes that under the right circumstances anything can be changed. Blue and Black are both colors that believe you are in total control of your own fate.
If I had to assign a description of their conflict it would be being guided by morals vs just advancement and/or progress.
Ally Color: Green
When it comes to considering why White and Green are allied the two things that immediately stick out to me the most are the overlapping line of thinking in regards to the importance of community and the idea that there is a right and proper state for things to be in as well as the fact that they often turn to the ideas of higher powers and bigger pictures
This first point can be highlighted by White and Green’s shared enemy color, Black. What White and Green abhor about Black philosophy it’s all about the individual. Individuals should be putting their own individual needs above all else even at the expense of others, the group, and, order. Black philosophy always values the individual over the group and the bigger picture. Black will and can thrive at the expense of others if given the opportunity. To Green, there are things that will always be bigger than yourself and should always take priority over the individual. White and Green both believe that there is a greater good or big picture that should always take priority and thus tend to prefer selflessness over selfishness and prefer to act with the welfare of the group in mind.
Green also has an eye for detail similar to that of White. Green understands that we are all interconnected in a complex ecosystem, web of life, food chain, etc. and that affecting one thing will of course affect the entire group or system due to domino and butterfly effects.
Both colors also support the idea of putting the needs of the group over the needs and wants of the individual. White uses laws and order to keep things in line while Green tends to call upon the natural order to keep things in line. These ideals tend to overlap in the form of traditions. White wants to protect its community and as many people as possible and Green wants to protect the ecosystem and the creatures living within it from outside interference. This also gives both philosophies a defensive angle since they are all about protecting people/creatures from outside interference.
Both colors also care about order, White cares about order to help protect people and guide people in the right direction as they work together to achieve a larger goal for the group and Green cares greatly about the natural order and seeks to protect it. Both colors also believe that everyone has a place in their society and/or world and can contribute to it.
White and Green also believe that there is an objectively correct state for the world or the things in the world to be in. In the case of White this comes about due to its belief in morality and thus it labels certain things as good and certain things as evil. Obviously, White wants to create a world that leans towards good as much as possible and dislikes people doing evil things. Also, things that create evil or harm good/innocent things are bad for the world and must be dealt with. Green believes in the natural order and thus believes that natural state is the ideal state for the world and the things residing in it. Things that damage or interfere with the natural order must be dealt with. In essence White and Green both believe that there is an objectively correct state for things to be in and that there is a greater good. White and Green also tend to call upon higher powers or things bigger than the individual to guide both themselves and others. In the case of White this takes the form of morality, which often extends to religion and spirituality, and in Green this takes the form of nature and the natural order, which also often extends to spirituality, which can also lead to both colors often coming up with rules or guidelines on what should and shouldn’t be done and propagating the belief that some things should never be done because they cross the line, this tends to be reflected in how both colors tend to use tradition to keep everything in place. For White, those things would be things it deems immoral and for Green those things would be things it deems unnatural or as harmful to nature. Both colors understand that there are things bigger than us that determine what actions we should take and have a sense of responsibility in protecting something bigger than themselves.
Inevitably, White and Green still have some key ideological disagreements. Mainly about changing the world vs accepting it and how much they care about the natural order of things.
The thing about White is it is a philosophy that stresses actively changing the world for the better and reducing the suffering that people need to go through. This also makes it more proactive than Green. Meanwhile, Green argues that all we need to be happy and fulfilled already exists in the world, and in order to be truly fulfilled we must accept the world for as it is and not unnaturally change or attempt to reject it. Green is basically a philosophy that says you should go with the flow and stop anything trying to disrupt the natural flow of the world while White is fine with changing things if it leads to what it views as a better world. This is further highlighted by the fact that White is an allied color with Blue, an enemy color of Green that believes that everything can be changed and improved upon. Green philosophy tends to use things like the natural order to stagnate and try to prevent things from happening while White uses its morals to not only stop things but encourage people to actively change things for the better. Of course, there is also the matter that White doesn’t care about the natural state as much as Green because it does not believe all of nature is the end all be all. Green sees some poor sap get ripped apart by an apex predator and argues “That’s just how it is. We either can’t change it or should accept that we aren’t at the top of the food chain and that’s just the circle of life. Who knows what kind of effect it could have on the ecosystem if we were to try to prevent the creature from preying on people.”
Meanwhile, White would argue that we should save that poor person and prevent other people from being eaten, the food chain be damned. We should try to save as many people as possible and reduce the amount of suffering in the world as much as possible. White wants to do things like save as many people from dying as possible while Green thinks dying is not inherently bad and a part of the natural process. In essence Green is more concerned with how and why things die than White is. If something dies because it is hunted by a lion then Green would usually argue that it’s only natural that the prey fight back but if it dies then that is just part of the circle of life. In White’s eyes Green is way less concerned with helping the weak and defenseless and is more likely to be willing to let them die or be consumed if it means upholding the natural order. In this way you could argue that Green tends to care about the system and keeping it running. White’s laws are also built around morals instead of the natural order so White’s focus on civilization and law can conflict with Green’s ideals of nature.
This also means that Green may find White’s laws arbitrary. While White would probably chastise someone doing something like stealing an apple from someone else's tree Green would probably not see it as stealing. Likewise, Green has more emphasis on instincts and emotion. Green believes that you should follow your natural instincts, something that is highlighted by the fact that Green is allied colors with Red, an enemy color of White. Green would say that if you’re hungry you should probably eat till you're full as long as you aren’t doing something unnatural or continuing to eat even after you’ve had your fill while White might say you need to be patient and wait your turn. Nature itself can also be pretty chaotic, meaning Green does not love order as nearly as much as White. Random stuff occurs in nature all the time and that’s just life. Green is okay with letting stuff devolve into whatever it sees at its natural course while White wants to step in and actively guide and control things more often than Green, who just wants to accept the world for as it is. This also means that Green relies on structure less than White and is more willing to fly by the seat of its pants as it follows its natural instincts while White says you should also use forethought and morals first and foremost. Green is more likely to revolve around what it does and doesn’t do around biology and/or nature. White might say you should wait until marriage to have sex while Green may say that sex is a natural part of life and it is ok to have sex whenever you feel horny since that’s how nature does it. White thinks more things are, or should be, spelled out than Green’s more go-with-the-flow approach. Green is totally willing to let loose and go wild when White thinks it should restrain itself more often. Green is less likely to fight for a noble cause if it feels it isn’t disturbing the natural order, unlike White. Ultimately, as mentioned earlier, White and Green are guided by morals and the natural order which can come into conflict sometimes.
If I had to assign a description of their conflict it would be being guided by morals vs being guided by nature.
Enemy Color: Black
The reason that White philosophy tends to be the antithesis of Black philosophy is that White philosophy says you should always put others and the group first while Black says your first and foremost concern should always be what’s good for you, even at the expense of other people. There’s also the fact that White believes in an objective morality while Black believes that there is no objective morality.
Now when it comes to enemy conflicts there may be a concerning amount of people who think the conflict of White vs Black is one about good vs evil, and in fairness White philosophy is no stranger to arguing that Black philosophy is evil and immoral. However, I would hope that if you’ve read up to here you would understand that the color pie isn’t nearly so black and white(HA) and that the conflict is actually one between the good of the group(White) and the good of the individual(Black). Is the needs and good of the group more important than your own personal needs, goods and desires? Should you strive to be selfless or selfish? Ultimately, this is why White philosophy decries Black philosophy so much. Black is a philosophy that says that you should do whatever it takes to gain power and make things better for yourself. Black is willing to screw over and leech off others if it feels like it can benefit from it and it is usually unwilling to sacrifice what it may want/have to help or aid others. If every individual was looking after themselves so selfishly then that would mean a majority of people would suffer since people would never help each other if they felt they might be losing something or don’t gain anything. If there are twenty pieces of bread and twenty people then White would argue you should basically always make sure to share and ensure each person gets one piece of bread. However, Black would probably try to steal more bread for itself, maybe bribe others, or create a monopoly on the bread to force everyone to give it something in return. Black is willing to let those that it doesn’t see as useful to its goal starve if it means amassing more power or hoarding food to ensure it’s less hungry. To White, Black is dangerous because it actively encourages letting more people suffer or get hurt if it means gaining more power and it is willing to thrive off the pain and suffering of others without hesitation. Black is a direct obstacle to all of White’s plans and goals in most situations.
Then there is also the matter of morality. White believes in a good and an evil and Black philosophy subscribes to amorality. That is to say Black believes there is no objective morality, and amorality is not to be confused for immorality since in order to be immoral you have to believe in an objective morality since immoral things are bad/wrong. Someone who is amoral doesn’t believe in morality/immorality or an objective good/evil. This facet of Black philosophy means that Black often acts ruthlessly and by any means necessary. At the end of the day Black believes that victory is worth almost any cost. It is advocating to lie, cheat, steal, keep secrets, etc. if it means it can obtain what it needs or wants.
This flies in the face of White’s morality and the idea that there are some things that shouldn’t be done because they are immoral and that the ends do not always justify the means while Black believes the ends basically always justify the means. To White, if you want something done there are certain ways you can and can’t do it but Black has no scruples. White argues you should try to fight with honor and Black doesn’t care about honor. Black is willing to prey on the weak and defenseless that White wants to protect and sees as being just as valuable and important as the strong or cunning. White tends to be defensive and only strikes out or becomes proactive when it sees something as a moral or physical threat but Black will just remove whatever it feels is standing in its way even if it isn’t actively harming it. White will usually only kill in self defense and Black is more willing to kill just to take someone’s money. Black is definitely a more aggressive and proactive philosophy
This ruthlessness is probably why Black is more likely to come off as “evil” to some. Black is just less concerned than White about doing the right and just thing. The only kind of “good” Black advocates for is doing what’s good for yourself at all times. To White most of the world’s suffering comes from selfish ways of thinking like Black philosophy screwing things up for everyone or screwing things up for an overall short term and selfish benefit. White strives to try to protect as many people as possible while Black doesn’t really care about the average person by default.
Of course, if ally colors can disagree on things then that means enemy colors probably agree philosophically on some things. First off, both colors understand the need for sacrifice and more long-term planning. Plus, both colors understand the potential power of laws and structure and the importance of self-improvement.
Both color philosophies have some major themes of sacrifice. In the case of White it is usually self-sacrifice while in the case of Black it is often the sacrificing of others but both colors understand that sometimes you need to make sacrifices for a bigger picture or plan, the long game is more important than the short game. Also White would argue that if forced to choose between the needs of a few and the needs of the many you should choose the needs of the many so it does understand the grim necessity for sacrifice sometimes, but Black sees the people and things it uses as pawns more often than White does. Black is definitely a philosophy that at the very least would try not to let the sacrifices of others go to waste, even if that means Black might just be using it for its own selfish desires sometimes, and it probably wouldn’t just throw the sacrifices away.
There is also the fact that both philosophies tend to be very need focused and they clearly separate wants and needs. To them not everything you want is necessarily what you need. White and Black are both advocating to give up stuff they may want to do now if it means getting something they may want more or need later.
Heck, one thing Black conflicts with Red on is that Red tends to focus too much on being shortsighted and emotional as well as the fact that Red doesn’t have much of a distinction between most needs and wants. An opinion that White can definitely agree on, meaning both White and Black tend prioritize longer term goals than colors like Red. They definitely are going to argue against ruining long term plans and goals just because you were angry and wanted to punch that old man or start a fight you couldn’t win. Black may be immoral but it is not without focus, goals and plans, and it is willing to use its head(which makes sense for a color allied with Blue).
Black is often thought of as a lone wolf rebel type of ideology but it’s important to remember that Black is willing to win by almost ANY means necessary. Black is totally willing to use laws, religion, and teamwork if it gives it some sort of tangible benefit, allows it to gain and retain power, or achieve other such goals.
There’s a difference between saying you need to look out for yourself and you need to do everything alone. This means both White and Black understand that working together and using laws can help foster behavior you want or need. Likewise, Black may be willing to help others or a group even if, unlike White, it is probably unwilling to do so without some sort of clear and tangible benefit. This also means that Black is at least capable of being loyal as long as you keep giving it what it wants, even if it might betray you the second you stop giving what it wants or if it sees a better opportunity.
White can also understand Black’s emphasis on self-improvement. White’s idea of what is self-improvement would probably differ and when the philosophies would agree on the matter White would probably say you should use such improvements to help others first and foremost(“With great power comes great responsibility”) but it can still understand that self-improvement can make someone a better person or more useful to the group and others. Remember, White wants to make the world a better place and it also wants to guide people to become better people and it itself strives to do good.
Enemy Color: Red
I feel like there are two main reasons White philosophy tends to deride Red philosophy so much. First off, there’s a Freedom vs Security angle between Red and White, as Red philosophy is one that puts freedom and emotion above White’s moral and civil laws as well as the good of the group. Then there’s also the fact that Red philosophy encourages a shortsighted living in the moment type of belief system that heavily conflicts with White’s ideals of the greater good, good of the group, and long term goals.
While the conflict between Red and White is ultimately one of Freedom(Red) vs Security(White) White philosophy would usually see the conflict as a battle of Chaos(Red) vs Order(White). The conflict is ultimately one that asks if we should follow our hearts and embrace freedom, even if that freedom potentially leads to us hurting ourselves/others, or if we should play it safe and try to minimize suffering even if we give up some of our freedoms and desires to do so? Also, how much personal freedom is worth societal protection? It is important to remember that Red believes in “Freedom through Action,” which means Red believes you should follow your heart and do what your emotions and instincts tell you to do if you want to live a fulfilled life. Red believes that you should be able to love what you want to love, do what you enjoy, or cry if you feel like crying but this also extends to potentially harmful things too. Red says that if you feel like yelling or punching someone then you should do so, if you want that food you should take it even if other people may need or want it. Using the bread example mentioned in a couple of the previous sections of this article, if there are twenty pieces of bread and twenty people White says we should probably make sure each person gets one piece of bread but Red is likely to try to eat until it’s full or getting the tastiest pieces of bread even if that means eating more than one piece. Now Red isn’t as ruthless as Black philosophy but it’s living in the emotional moment lifestyle is a force of chaos to White that conflicts with its long term and group oriented goals. If Black murders someone it’s probably for some selfish desire or goal(ie first degree murder) but if Red murders someone it’s probably because it didn’t reign in its emotions and acted in a moment of passion(manslaughter). Red philosophy encourages shortsightedness, carelessness, and flying by the seat of your pants.
Red believes you should be able to just do what you want even if it conflicts with or encroaches on the freedom of others. White is not necessarily against freedom but it usually draws the line at being able to hurt others, perform immoral actions, or cause unnecessary conflicts and it sees Red as just arguing for chaos. So White will usually try to put regulations, laws or limits on people to protect others and the group which in turn conflicts with Red wanting to live in a world or society that puts individual desires and freedoms first, even if this means encroaching on the freedom of others or creating conflicts. Basically, Red wants a world where it, and other people, can do whatever their heart desires with as few limitations as possible. To White, there are things more important than freedom and desires and needs of the group and the greater good should come before those things. White is totally likely to advocate for giving up things like freedom and that you might want if it benefits the group or prevents you from unnecessarily hurting others. Also, Red is all about following its own emotions. Since Red is following its own emotions it is also way more individualistic than White(see the previous bread example). Red can be loyal but it usually only cares about people or things it has an explicit emotional connection with. If Red is forced to choose between letting one person they really care about die or letting 500 people die it will usually choose the one person while White will usually advocate for the other choice since it is trying to help as many people as possible. While Red is less individualistic than Black philosophy it is still one that emphasizes putting one’s own emotions, instincts, and feelings first even if that may mean hurting others or comes at the expense of the community. Red is still very focused on the self even when concerning people it loves or willing to put before itself. To White, Black philosophy comes off parasitic and sadistic while Red philosophy is irresponsible, careless, and shortsighted. Although, White will often see both modes of thinking as equally dangerous even if they are dangerous in their own ways.
Both Black and Red disrupt White’s long term plans in a way. Black is willing to destroy White’s plans to prop itself up and Red is willing to destroy and hurt others in an act of passion.
Due to Red valuing freedom above all else it also means that Red philosophy heavily clashes against the laws, limitations and rules White philosophy usually wants to make. Red doesn’t care for most laws and may argue against what White sees as necessary rules since it thinks people should have the freedom to do whatever they want with little to no restraint. In essence, Red believes in a largely unrestricted freedom while White does not believe freedom should come at the cost of others, the group, or create needless conflicts.
One of White’s major themes is restraint, which Red philosophy directly conflicts with because of its emphasis on wants, impulses, and emotion due to it arguing you should always try to act on your emotions. Red is something that is more likely to advocate for doing things like starting fights and it is more likely to get people hurt or cause situations it could have avoided. In essence, White wants to create restrictions to help protect people while Red wants to remove most of those restrictions.
Red and White do have some key agreements though. First, is that White is not heartless and thus understands how emotions can be important or used to win people over. There is also the fact that Red is still a philosophy that would say willing to put others first even if it doesn’t offer you a tangible benefit can be a good thing.
Starting with the first point, it is important to remember that White genuinely cares about people in general. It wants to make sure that the net happiness or satisfaction of the group is as high as it can be. Red is not just about rage but it is also a philosophy of things like love and care and White does usually want to display emotion because it generally does care about the people it is trying to help. While White doesn’t like how Red will just follow its emotions without regard to what it should or shouldn’t be doing, White does value passion in its organizations and it does genuinely want to show its comrades and the people it is trying to help and/or protect that it honestly does care about their well-being along with the fact that White isn’t just a dispassionate robot. White and Red can also be extremely loyal characters a lot of the time. Red’s loyalty is emotion based but it is capable of being extremely loyal to its friends, family and/or groups it is a part of. White is also extremely loyal to the causes it believes to be righteous and is willing to sacrifice things in order to help others. While White definitely has emotions, it is more willing to sacrifice itself for people outside of its emotional circle. Think of a hero sacrificing themselves to save a bunch of innocent people, like a city or something, even if their friends and family are not involved. White is actively trying to improve the world and help people so it can understand the importance of taking action and taking more proactive approaches to get desired results, such as removing something that threatens you or society or striking down evil. So while White is definitely more defensive of a philosophy than Red it can go on the offensive or see how going on the offensive can be useful. White isn’t going to want to just sit around and let people get hurt if it feels it is unjust and can help it.
A common White and Red theme you see explored in Magic is that of military or armies. Which is something that actually highlights another philosophical agreement between the colors. Unlike Black, Red is not saying you should always put yourself first and while it usually won’t just help people it doesn’t emotionally connect to for no reason Red can still encourage an extreme passion or loyalty to a person, group or cause in the same way White might have for religion, morality, groups or causes. Red and White also both advocate for being willing to fight for others you care about even if it might put you in danger. This means that despite being enemy colors Red and White both understand and tend to like to use tactics that involve masses of people. In Red this tends to manifest as a giant rioting emotional mob while White usually prefers more disciplined groups that have the people making them up strategically work together.
White and Red are also philosophies that can encourage or uphold loyalty a lot of the time. Red’s loyalty is more likely to be on a whim due to being emotion based but it can encourage being extremely loyal to its friends, family and/or groups.
This emotional connection and loyalty also means that Red is reasonably likely to be willing to sacrifice itself for the people it cares about, unlike Black who would say you should always take care of yourself first. Of course, as mentioned before this loyalty and sacrifice is emotion based so it definitely tends less consistent or all-encompassing than White tends to be because as mentioned before Red is just going to protect those it has an emotional reason to care about and is way less likely to die for those it doesn’t know or care about. When you combine all these philosophical agreements you can end up with someone who is passionate about a moral cause or belief and is willing to actively fight for it. I’m going to cut myself off here and the army themes of Red and White will be covered in depth in the inevitable Red-White or Boros Legion philosophy articles.
Placement on the Color Pie
One thing I haven’t seen talked about is why colors are where they are on the color pie. In fairness, a lot of this is implied when you are talking allied and enemy colors in general but I figured it would be cool to briefly go over their placement on the color pie anyway. This should be pretty short since a lot of this stuff has already been covered in this article.
White being next to Blue highlights how both philosophies do want to actively change the world. Now unlike Blue, White does not believe literally everything can be changed with enough time and knowledge but both colors actively seek to make the world a better place and improve upon it when possible.
The fact that Green is next to White highlights the fact that White philosophy is one that unlike Blue does not believe everything is malleable and White believes some things are set in stone and can’t be changed, as it believes that there are inherent and objective moral laws. So it would make sense that White ends up falling between a color that’s all about changing things and a color that doesn’t want to change anything. In essence White is down to change but it usually does so slower than Blue, Black, or Red due to a combination of caution and wanting to make sure it is making the morally correct choice as well as the fact that it believes some things can’t or shouldn’t be changed.
One thing that Blue, Green, and White have is the understanding that there are things bigger than oneself or that these things come before oneself. In the case of Green this takes the form of nature and the ecosystem and for Blue this takes the form of progress and improvement. All the colors care about the bigger picture and would probably advocate for giving something up if they felt it helped the group or the world as a whole. Unlike, Black and Red which would probably do what helps you or what you want to. Blue and Green also both have an emphasis on boundaries, rules, and laws to help keep things orderly or in check like White does, in the case of Green this takes the form of natural laws. The colors tend to overlap even further with White and Blue tending to rely on man-made laws and White and Green tending to have a love for the use of tradition.
Black and Red are of course basically the complete opposite of Black and Red philosophies. Out of all the colors they tend to be the most individualistic and self-concerned philosophies and Black would argue you should always put yourself first while Red would argue you should always put your emotions first. At the end of the day Black, Red, and Black-Red are all colors and color combinations that focus on the self instead of others and are the most willing to disrupt White’s laws or groups for gain(Black) or because they didn’t want to control their emotions(Red). Black’s selfishness and explicit amorality is usually the biggest enemy to White’s moral laws while Red’s recklessness is usually the biggest enemy to White’s civil laws.
Elemental and Metaphorical Associations
This is a topic I figured would be very interesting to cover because I don’t see a lot of people talk about it. Well, that’s not true. I see a lot of people talk about the elements and some of the symbols associated with each color but I rarely see people discuss WHY that is the case even though it has been stated by Marro himself. In the case of White this section will be a bit short since it doesn’t have as many elemental or metaphorical associations as the other colors tend to, and I would say it's also about the same for Black because of the fact that White and Black don’t use the classical four “western” elements like Blue, Red and Green tend to. I should also mention that I’m talking about all these symbols from a generic “western” perspective unless I say otherwise because that’s the perspective Magic the Gathering tends to use. The exact same iconography may have a totally different symbolic meaning in different cultures or heck potentially different symbolic meanings in the same culture when under different contexts.
Light is easily the most recurring symbol in White magic cards. It shows up not only in a metric buttload of White card art and imagery but a seemingly countless number of White card names. White uses so much light imagery that I wouldn’t blame someone for thinking they were about to go blind just from the mere thought of how many White cards use it.
There are a couple of interesting reasons why White cards tend to have so much light. First of all, light is often associated with truth or guidance. Light is associated with truth because obviously if you are in a well-lit area you can usually see what’s happening and thus it is harder for things to be unnoticed or hidden from people in well-lit areas. If something is operating in the shadows or darkness it usually becomes much harder to see what they are doing and, of course, this means that people who probably don’t want to be seen doing something might operate in such places.
There is also the fact that things like flashlights or torches can be used to better see and reveal things hiding in the dark, things that could metaphorically represent secrets. This all falls in line with White valuing truth and morals while usually saying that things like lying are a bad thing. White usually wants people to be honest because lies allow people to act like they are working towards the good of the group or doing the morally right thing even if in actuality they are not. Which can of course endanger the group or other people.
Light is also associated with the idea of “good.” This can be seen especially in a lot of Christian and Catholic imagery concerning the holy or divine. Spring boarding off this, White would obviously use holy and divine imagery in general because something that is holy or divine are usually(but not always) considered good, such as angels, as opposed to something that is seen as unholy or demonic.
This association with goodness ties in with White believing in an objective good vs evil and how White tends to play up those ideas in conflicts. It is important to remember that good vs evil is how White views some conflicts and is not necessarily how the other colors would view it. For example, Black doesn’t believe in any sort of good or evil. Light is also associated with guidance, think the stars in the night sky or something lighting the way, which I would say ties into how White wants to help or guide people to doing the right thing and just take care of people in general.
While not an element or anything physical, White is also heavily associated with purity. This ties into how White tends to see its ideals in absolutes and is less likely to have morally gray areas. Someone or something being “pure” would usually imply some sort of objective morality since being whatever is deemed morally or spiritually “pure” is being seen as a good thing. If someone is “impure” then they have either done something wrong or have some sort of sin on them.
Another thing White tends to be associated with is life. This is most obvious in the healing magic and life gain and those tend to represent how White is all about helping others and the group. White is trying to encourage all of us to look out for each other.
There is also the fact that White philosophy tends to care about the group and the masses so its connection to life also extends to the fact that it usually wants to save as many lives as possible and how White is all about the bigger picture and greater good. So it usually cares about lives on a mass scale.
There is also the matter of the very color of white itself. I would say that the specific reason for the color white being chosen to represent this philosophy is because it is a color that is often associated with purity which ties into White philosophy's strong focus on moral truth and the morally correct, since being pure would mean you are good. Because of how the color is associated with purity it is sometimes associated with good itself in some ways. It is also interesting to consider that the color Black, one of White’s enemies, is the opposite of White and tends to be associated with evil or corruption. Which highlights how White often sees Black’s way of thinking as evil or bad as well as just the conflict between the colors in general. White cards also tend to use a lot of gold and yellow and part of this is because there are a lot of places where using literal white might make things hard to see or look weird, plus it’s important to have some good secondary colors. The other part of this is that things like yellow and gold are similarly associated with sunlight and light in general.
I also feel like White card art has a decent amount of shields and shield imagery where shields are explicitly the main focus. Which highlights its overall more defensive philosophy and how it strives to protect others and protect as many people as possible.
Mana Symbol
Let’s cover one of the most common symbols for White philosophy out there, it’s mana symbol. White’s mana symbol, like all of the other colors’ mana symbols, isn’t too hard to explain I mean it’s just a stylized sun.
I’m sorry but White’s original mana symbol is really hard for me to take seriously. It looks like a circle with squiggles around it or like me whenever I give up on trying to draw White’s mana symbol proportionally correct and patterned.
I’m not going to cover these symbols separately because ultimately the symbology is exactly the same(they are both stylized suns) and there isn’t really much to say about them anyway because I already covered most of the symbolism they allude to.
First off, the fact that the symbol is a sun immediately brings to mind White’s association with light, because light is associated with goodness, truth, guidance, and blah blah blah. If you want to go even farther there’s also some potential day and night symbolism since the day is when most humans are awake and are often associated with good and the night associated with evil or bad things, concepts like the witching hour occur at night. This theme is actually sort of played up in the Innistrad based Crimson Vow and Midnight Hunt sets as the story involves the night getting longer and longer, and by proxy causing monsters that prey on the mostly White aligned humans to become more active and powerful.
The reason the night can be associated with bad things is for the same reason darkness is associated with secrecy and evil. The sun is also associated with life, kindness, light, and warmth because of how said light and heat it provides is what allows virtually every living thing on earth to exist and thrive. White also tends to have a bit of a life theme because ultimately it wants to help as many people as possible and, similar to the sun, wants to provide feelings of safety and “warmth.” White is trying to help as many people as possible in the same way the sun helps all kinds of living things.
Land Type
Probably the second most iconic thing to each color, behind the mana symbols, is their land types and I would argue that every basic land actually has some interesting symbolism for each color. White’s associated basic land is the famous plain cards.
I think the choice of plains for White is interesting because I think it sort of ties in with White’s themes of truth and honesty. One thing that has been mentioned is that the now unused keyword Plainswalk, which was a keyword that made a creature unblockable if the opponent it was attacking controlled a plains, rarely showed up(like there are literally only 4 cards with plainswalk in existence) and we actually have been given a flavor reason for this. Plains are typically wide open and relatively flat areas so there isn’t usually a good place to hide or sneak up on someone in plains. I would argue this actually hints at part of what plains symbolize for White because as mentioned earlier White usually dislikes lying because lies can be used to hurt others or the group under the guise of seemingly doing the right thing or helping. So plains in this case basically play up that aspect. The wide open areas of plains also means that when they are bathed in light there will usually be very few shadows, unlike all the shadows and darkness that may appear in say a dingy swamp. This further ties in with White’s themes of light, truth and honesty. This connection is also something further reinforced by the fact that almost all MTG artwork featuring plains are usually depicting the plains at some point in the day, as opposed to the night. Something that also connects to White’s sun imagery.
Mark Rosewater also states in his “Drive to Work” episode 943 “Basic Lands” that when Richard Garfield was designing the lands he wanted the White land to be somewhere that was easiest to live and would usually be most appealing for a community to live and set up at. This sort of tells us that an aspect of White’s Plains is that they usually look welcoming and easy to live/settle on. This makes sense since building a house on a flat surface is probably easier than building it on like a Mountain or a muddy Swamp. It is also less likely to have dangerous land formations or have dangerous things like landslides occur. On top of that due to the aforementioned wide and open areas, it would at least be harder for predators or enemies to sneak up on you. All these aspects of Plains also tie in with White’s themes of peace and stability due to Plains since it is less likely for the environment to hurt you(unless there’s a tornado or something) and it is harder for other people or creatures to hurt you without your knowledge. Some of the precursor ideas to White’s basic land included things like Farmland, Countryside, Pasture, and Prairie. We know that lands like Farmland were dropped because Richard wanted lands that didn’t necessarily require things like cities, buildings, artifice, and civilization to exist. Having the lands be things that could be natural formations and/or have civilizations on them meant that they could be put in basically any plane or setting without sticking out like a sore thumb.
Also, Plains is notably the only basic land type that is pluralized and we are actually given a reason for this in the aforementioned podcast. The simplest answer is that it can potentially be really confusing because you have Plain like the type of land and words like plain are also commonly used to refer something simple, straightforward, unremarkable, etc. So by having Plains you are referring specifically to the plural version of the type of land as opposed to anything else. This also means creatures referring to the land type such as a “Plains Beast” wouldn’t sound like “Plain Beast” as in a simple beast. This is something that the other land types don’t really have to deal with since while I’m sure some smart aleck is already typing that technically an island can refer to “a detached portion of tissue or group of cells” such definitions aren’t as common for other land types. Whether the basic Red card says Mountain or Mountains ends up not really mattering since it is unlikely there will be much confusion, because when most people think Mountain they will assume you are talking about the landmass. Mark also assumes that Plains sounded better by ear to Richard Garfield.
General Gameplay Philosophy
I actually plan to do an entire separate article on White’s general gameplay and mechanics along with the flavor reasons for why White generally can or can’t do a certain thing but I will still touch on some of White’s mechanics and gameplay here. One thing that I don’t see talked about a lot that I discussed in some of my Kamigawa NEO articles is how the general gameplay style of each color hints at their philosophy and tends to reward you for playing in a way that matches the color’s ideals. There are obvious exceptions, for example you could make a Mono-Red control deck even if Red usually wants to win the game quickly, but those usually require more hoops to jump through and aren’t as common as a more general playstyle each color has. Just to be clear, this segment is meant to be brief and will cover the broadest of White’s mechanics and gameplay as opposed to literally every single keyword, deck, card and/or faction. Think of it like this, if you were to open a core Magic set what kind of White cards would you probably see?
White is famous for a few gameplay things in Magic. The most famous probably being its ability to make lots and lots of creature tokens as well as the fact that White’s creatures tend to be very small, including its tokens. White usually makes 1/1 tokens while a color like Green usually makes 3/3 tokens and Black typically makes 2/2 tokens and in general White prefers “weenie” strategies(strategies that focus on using small and usually efficient creatures). So what does this all mean? Well by now it should probably be clear that White is all about the group and people working together. When it comes to power and toughness in Magic I think people have a habit of taking it too literally sometimes when it is often meant to be symbolic. White having small creatures isn’t necessarily because it is physically weaker than other kinds of magic or colors but because ideologically it prefers to work as a team and views the group more important than the individual, but in fairness White is all about helping everyone(including the weak). So by having such small creatures the gameplay reinforces this theme, since it forces the player to think of most of their creatures as pieces of a larger whole that work together instead of just sending a massive 10/10 with trample to smash the opponent’s face in. An individual creature blocking that 5/5 probably is only a chump block but having your creatures work together so 5 1/1s are blocking it will probably take care of it. Your opponent may be able to block a 10/10 that doesn’t have trample or flying but they probably won’t be able to deal with 20 smaller creatures all attacking them at once. Trying to win with only a couple of big creatures in Mono-White tends to be an uphill battle because that’s not the way White would usually argue you should approach the situation. If you want to win you shouldn’t get hyperfixated on one or three big creatures but take into account the bigger picture and goal of the group in order to get people to work together towards said goal. This also means that if a creature dies or sacrifices themselves the overall objective is probably not in vain since the opponent will probably still have to contend with an army of other creatures. So if you want to win with White you need to acknowledge the fact that individual creatures aren’t usually going to matter as much as the entire group of creatures and if an individual creature does matter the most it is usually going to still be dependent on, or at least benefit from, you have a large group of other creatures to back them up.
What White is basically saying here is that you shouldn’t stand alone and you should put the needs of the group of creatures you control over the needs of any one creature, and White itself would usually want to put the needs group first and thus wants to be more concerned about others and the group than itself. So it is less likely to go out of its way to do things like amass power unless that power is being used to help others. I should also mention that in comparison to some of the other colors the power-to-toughness ratio of many of White’s creatures tend to lean towards a higher toughness than power. Which mechanically reinforces White’s usually defensive philosophy and how it’s goal is often to protect, which in the game often takes the form of protecting you or other creatures you control.
In combination with its numerous small creatures White also has anthem style effects, for those who don’t know anthem effects are those that buff your entire time(ie giving all your creatures +1/+1 or +2/+2 effects).
These anthem effects don’t reach their full potential unless you control as many creatures as possible. So having them show up frequently in White is a good way of signifying to the player that White usually wants to reward you for playing many creatures and that philosophically White wants to help groups of people and it tends to value groups over individuals.
White also tends to have a lot of combat tricks and growth style affects(giving a creature +n/+n). These power and toughness boosting effects tend to not be as big as Green’s version of those effects though. White’s boosting and combat tricks can be used to represent its defensive nature as doing something like suddenly granting a creature you control protection from a threat, boosting toughness, making it bigger, or giving it first strike can save it and help it survive something that would normally be fatal, and White is trying to save as many as it can.
The fact that it’s boosts tend to be smaller +1/+1 and +2/+2 style effects could relate to how White usually wants to work as a team, so by making these effects smaller you as a player are being encouraged to try to have the rest of your team work with the boosted creature and trying to just make said creature massive is usually going to be an uphill battle. Which can represent how White typically values the group over the individual. These boosts and combat tricks, such as first strike or protection from a color, can also allow White to be more aggressive which reflects White’s more proactive nature and how it does encourage actively fighting evil or righting wrongs instead of just sitting around all the time. These effects also keep your creatures safe as they attack.
This also ties into White’s themes of justice and stuff. White does also tend to have a sort of “eye for an eye” or “you mess with me I mess with you” flavoring a lot of the time.
White also sometimes gets the Keldon Warlord style ability of having a creature with its power and toughness being equal to the number of creatures you control, typically represented by a */* for their power and toughness. This once again displays that White is in its element in groups working together.
White’s number of enchantments and subsequent enchantment matters or enchantment-related mechanics is also a pretty notable aspect of its gameplay. As I’ve mentioned in my Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty articles it’s important to remember that card types in Magic can represent all sorts of things and we shouldn’t pigeonhole them too much since they may represent multiple things in equal amounts or there is probably any number of exceptions to my broad sweeping generalizations. Not to mention card types may represent different things in different contexts. In the case of White, its enchantment themes come from several different things. First off, enchantments in White are often used to represent, the often nonphysical, laws or rules being enforced via magic or other means.
In essence they can represent putting some sort of restriction or rule by creating structures and laws and they can help either White or others stay in line and keep their morality correct. Enchantments are also used to represent confiscating or locking away items or creatures. This basically represents jail and a lot of the time it may also represent how White’s moral code usually prevents it from doing things like just killing people willy-nilly.
Plus, White’s trying to save as many people as possible so from its perspective exiling the creature with your Banishing Light is to make sure that creature doesn’t hurt itself or others, and possibly getting that creature to behave one day so it join the group as a beneficial member.
Another thing that White’s enchantments often represent is the part of its philosophy that wishes to make things better. Enchantments in Magic can often represent some sort of unnatural or natural change and in White’s case it can often represent trying to change things for the better or change something’s nature into something better.
It should be noted that usually White’s enchantment answers can usually be undone or that they tend to have some sort of answer, i.e. its enchantment answers are either temporary or potentially have some answer the opponent can use to get around them. This usually represents one of two things. First off, if the opponent is playing by White’s rules and doing whatever it deems the right thing then it’s usually going to get punished less harshly(if at all) or White may have a hard time fighting against it because it sees little to no issue or doesn’t really have enough of a moral high ground. White is all about morality so if someone is doing something the right way or is morally just then there is probably going to be less White is willing to do about it. The second point is that White usually doesn’t like to permanently ruin things. Remember, White’s end goal is to try to help and save as many people as possible so it is usually trying to take the route with the least amount of destruction and suffering. Plus, White idealizes having a strong moral compass so it may prohibit itself from doing things like killing outside of self-defense, think Superman and how he refuses to kill. In a way, this can be thought of as an extension of how White philosophy can easily be inflexible or see the world in black and white, to the point where someone who is White aligned may refuse to do something a certain way because it is morally wrong. White is also really good at destroying enchantments which I guess could be perceived as White abolishing or changing laws.
White is also the undisputed #1 color when it comes to board wipes, also known as board sweeps(which are effects that destroy or exile all permanents of a certain type, ie. destroy all creatures).
These board wipes represent two main things about White philosophy. First of all, that White cares about fairness and justice. So it chooses to destroy all creatures on the board and not just like it's opponent’s or something in order to literally even the playing field. It also represents White’s focus on the big picture. White usually wants to think on big scales so when it’s board wiping it's not just targeting one creature but engaging the opponent’s threats as a group(and thus taking care of them as one) and if you are board wiping you should be playing for the long game, i.e. it gives a better chance of winning down the line. You are potentially giving up your creatures and stuff now to be in a more advantageous position in the future unless you have no creatures but now you and your opponent have been put on an even playing field. You could also say this ties in with White’s themes of sacrifice since if your board wiping your creatures are being sacrificed to hopefully help you secure a win or not lose the game. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that.
Life gain is something I touched on earlier in this very article but I’m going to touch on it again here because it would be weird to leave it out of this section. Plus, if someone just skipped to this section specifically they might miss it. White is the color that tends to be most associated with healing and healing magic so its life gain usually represents how White philosophy says you should help and look out for others.
The life gain also ties into White’s more defensive and long term goals by helping people or the group withstand something they normally couldn’t or to save as many people as possible. White also sometimes gets a little bit of graveyard recursion(putting things from the graveyard onto the battlefield or in your hand) but this is usually restricted to smaller things and tends to represent White saving someone from dying or the like in some way.
Furthermore, White also does somewhat of a sacrifice theme, although unlike Black the theme is that of self-sacrifice instead of the sacrificing of others. This ties into how White values the greater good and group over the individual and would argue that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. So there are a decent number of White aligned creatures that are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect others or for the sake of doing the right thing.
Overall White’s general gameplay can be best described as a form of go wide control style gameplay that seeks to whittle the opponent’s options down until the opponent is either cut off from any win condition or you can overwhelm them with sheer numbers. The encouragement to play a restrictive and controlling playstyle reflects White’s emphasis on moral laws, civil laws and structures to keep people in check as well as how White philosophy can encourage one to be controlling in general in order to make sure they are doing the right thing and to keep evil/opponents in check. White’s slower gameplay also ties into how it prefers long term and bigger picture planning over short term in the moment actions and its usually more defensive philosophy and how said defensive way of thinking is used to outlast or slow down opponents. White focusing on having a bunch of small creatures encourages the player to focus on having all their small creatures come together to execute something that a puny 1/1 could never dream of achieving on its own and how White often wants to protect and help everyone, including the weak, but as mentioned before power and toughness in magic shouldn’t always be taken so literally and having small creatures shows how White aligned creatures will usually value working together as a group over striking out on their own. On top of that White usually values the group over the individual so it is usually trying to raise the group as a whole up rather than just an individual. So in White you are likely to be punished for just trying to play a couple of really big powerful creatures over a large team working together. White’s slower playstyle also means it is potentially vulnerable to being outsped by a more aggressive playstyle which in some ways reflects how White philosophy can be inflexible or slow to change and adapt because of some sort of moral or law related angle. White’s answers also tend to either require your opponent to have met a certain condition such as attacking or blocking,...
which flavorly represents your opponent doing something wrong or breaking some rule, Either that or said answers will in turn have very clear answers. Which shows how White wants you to play by the rules and if you do then you will either be rewarded or avoid any sort of punishment. White can also do things like destroy creatures but have to give something that is theoretically of equal value to the opponent in return which represents White’s themes of fairness and balance.
Evergreen keywords
Now I know I just touched on general mechanics but I thought it would be helpful to look at some of White’s keywords and the kind of flavor they represent. Like the title of this section suggests this will only be focusing on evergreen keywords as deciduous keywords and the like will be covered in the next article that dives deeper into White’s mechanics. Because of that, I’m going to try to keep these explanations brief here.
In case you don’t know what an evergreen keyword is in Magic they are “keywords or keyword actions that can be used in any set.” Basically they are a list of keywords that can, and often are, present in basically every Magic set regardless of things like the flavor of a plane since they are usually designed in such a way that they can fit on just about any world. As of the writing of this article in 2022 the official list of evergreen keyword actions consists of activate, attach, cast, counter, create, destroy, discard, exchange, exile, fight, mill, play, reveal, sacrifice, scry, search, shuffle, tap/untap, and goad while the official pool of evergreen keyword abilities consist of deathtouch, defender, double strike, enchant, equip, first strike, flying, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, protection, reach, trample, vigilance and ward. Now I know this sounds overwhelming and like a lot but we can actually ignore most of these in this article for two main reasons. First of all, some of these keywords are so broad or vague that there isn’t really much flavor to discuss and they end up appearing in every single color pretty evenly. Things like play, cast and reveal are things that all colors have because they are just like general gameplay mechanics inherent to Magic itself so all colors get them. Second, this article concerns White so I am also skipping over any keywords that White doesn’t get, ie deathtouch, menace, etc. I am also skipping over things that White gets but not often enough to justify not just saving the topic for the sequel to this article.
Also, I’m going to be mentioning the terms primary, secondary, and tertiary a lot and I will explain with that means in this context for those who don’t know or didn’t read my previous articles. If one or more colors are primary in an ability that means said ability shows up in that color the most and the color has the ability to grant the ability to other permanents. If said ability is one that appears in every set then a color that’s primary in said ability will get in in a majority of sets, like how Blue virtually always has cards with Flying in every magic set you come across.
In Mark’s 2017 and 2021 mechanical Color Pie articles he makes it clear that there is a wide range of what being primary in something can mean because of the fact that in Magic different effects and abilities appear in different amounts at different levels. A great example that he gives is how a color that’s secondary in Flying can have a greater number of cards with that ability than the number of cards with extra-turn creating abilities in a color that is primary in said ability.
This is because there is just a massive difference in the number cards made with an ability like Flying and the number of extra-turn-based spells and abilities that are made. Extra-turn spells in general also tend to be at higher rarities than Flying, which helps bring me to my next point. If a color is primary in an ability then that ability is more likely to show up at lower rarities in that color, i.e. it's more likely to appear in common or uncommon rather than strictly mythic or rare cards. Colors that are primary in an ability can also have cards that are capable of granting said abilities to others, i.e. Blue being able to give creatures Flying.
If a color is secondary in something that means the color has the ability show up on its cards on a somewhat regular basis, but not as often as any of its primary abilities. Secondary abilities will not always be in as low of a rarity pool as any abilities a color is primary in. Also, abilities that are secondary in a color usually appear in said color within most sets but sometimes they do have certain restrictions or drawbacks regarding when or how they can be used. An example that is given to us would be how Red is secondary in Flying but its Flying is usually restricted to the Dragon and Phoenix creature types specifically.
Similar to primary abilities, colors that are secondary in an ability do have the ability to occasionally grant other targets said ability.
Finally, there are tertiary abilities. Colors that are tertiary in something get said ability occasionally and they don’t get them in every set. Maro points out that sometimes an ability a color is tertiary can go literal years at a time without showing up on any cards of that color. Similar to that of some secondary abilities, tertiary abilities often come with special rules or restrictions that limit when the keyword can be used.
An example would be how Black is tertiary in First Strike and while it can get First Strike on other things the keyword tends to be more limited to Black-aligned Knights.
So with that out of the way we can get started. Also, I’m using Mark Rosewater’s 2021 Mechanical Color Pie article as my main reference if you’re curious, https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021-10-18.
Counterspells and Meddling- Now I know this is a really weird start since counterspells might as well be Blue’s mascot. On top of that, technically the keyword I’m talking about is “counter” as in “counter target spell/ability” and not counterspell but I didn’t want to confuse people by making them think I was talking about +1/+1 counters or something, and throughout the rest of this series I am going to refer to this mechanic as counterspells. Moreover, White is actually tertiary in counterspells so Blue doesn’t have a complete monopoly on counterspells like some would have you believe. Being tertiary does mean that White’s access to the mechanic tends to be a lot more limited though and is thus restricted to having taxing and delaying style counterspells. Y’know spells that force someone to pay extra mana for the spell to resolve or stall for time by sending a spell back to the opponent’s library or hand and the like.
White can also get defensive counterspells that protect it or creatures it controls.
White is the premier color when it comes to taxing effects that force the opponent to pay mana in order to do something but flavorwise the taxing style counterspells represent White’s rules and laws basically radiate “Sure you can cast this spell as long as you meet these conditions, work hard and pay your taxes” sort of vibe. You can cast all the spells and abilities you want as long as you do it in a way White considers right or else the law, rules or White itself will have to come down on you for being immoral or doing something wrong.
The delaying style of counterspells is sort of just a reflection of how White is usually a slow color and philosophy that tends to play for the long game and big picture. It is one that prioritizes strategic planning and long term goals so delaying a spell like that gives it more time to get everyone together and come up with a plan.
Defensive counterspells are just a reflection of how White usually wants to save as many people as possible and thus advocates for protecting people. The reason White gets counterspells that specifically protect it and its creatures from being targeted by a harmful spell or ability is the same reason White can grant things like protection from a specific color or source. In fact spells that grant things like protection from a color or hexproof are often mechanically compared to counterspells by Mark Rosewater a decent amount and it's easy to see why. There is a very thin line between protecting that 1/1 creature you control from a Shock by granting it protection from Red and by countering the Shock. In fact, in a lot of situations, the distinction probably wouldn’t matter all that much except unless the opponent has a spell that can’t be countered or a board wipe.
White also has the ability to prevent spells with a certain quality or type from being cast in the form of “meddling” effects. These meddling mechanics are something that Mark describes as a proactive counterspell in his White/Blue drive to work so I’m including these types of effects here. They are a representation of White’s rules and laws. “You can no longer cast this spell because I have deemed it illegal or dangerous but you can cast all the other unbanned spells.” This essentially sets up new rules during a Magic game and it is still usually possible for the opponent to find an out via playing within the new parameters in the same way someone is allowed to go about their day if they don’t break any laws or rules White has set, and depending on the opponent White may also be restricting itself using these types of abilities.
Scry- White is secondary in Scrying and the reason for this can most easily be seen in the fact that it’s enemy colors with Red. Now I know Red also gets scrying but if you read the previous parts of this series you would know that that’s mostly for gameplay reasons. Getting back on track, as covered in this article earlier, one of White philosophy’s major problems with Red is that Red strives to live in the moment which conflicts with White’s ideals of a greater good, the group, and long-term prosperity/planning for as many people as possible. What I’m saying is that Scrying in the context of colors like White and Blue is a representation of the colors’ emphasis on forethought and using your brain and mind over emotions and more rash decision making.
Tap and Untap- Now, technically I shouldn’t be covering tapping and untapping based on the previous criteria I laid out. I mean, literally almost every Magic card can tap itself to do something. However, I feel like in the case of colors like White and Blue it is worth noting because they have the ability to tap other things and untap themselves so I figured it was worth exploring since one of White’s primary abilities is being able to tap other creatures.
The flavor here represents both White stalling for time because of its preference for preparing for the long term and a way to safely or nonviolently prevent a creature from fighting or being able to hurt others. White is also secondary in being able to untap its own creatures is mechanically a neat combat trick that can be used to help protect yourself and just play defensively, which ties even further into the protection theme. This whole defensive theming in regards to untapping or not tapping at all is something that is further reinforced by Mark Rosewater’s comments on the Vigilance keyword(which we’ll get to later). Untapping can also represent White’s ideals of helping others by helping creatures you control recover quicker or get back up on their feet as well as give them an extra chance to defend you or themselves.
Defender- White is primary in Defender and I feel like that doesn’t need much explanation if you have managed to stick with me this far. Creatures with Defender can’t attack so by being more likely to have creatures with a mechanic that makes it so they can only block White is reinforcing its goals of wanting to protect and defend others.
First Strike and Double Strike- White is primary in First Strike which is interesting to consider. Because at first blush First Strike may seem completely offensive since the most obvious use of the keyword allows your creatures to deal damage before other creatures which acts as a pretty good incentive to give your opponent unfavorable blocks, in fact in Red the offensive nature of this keyword is usually the center highlight of the flavor.
However, it’s also a pretty good defensive tool since it allows your creatures to strike first when blocking in self defense. Which means that by leaving your First Strikes untapped on order to defend yourself makes the opponent’s attacks less favorable, not to mention that granting First Strike or Double Strike to one of your creatures can help keep it safe. So some of White’s signature love of protection and defense is still there. Although, Mark Rosewater also points out that most of the flavor here is one revolving around discipline. Specifically, the idea is that since White is all about long-term planning, order, armies, and discipline having First Strike and Double Strike reflects having well trained individuals or soldiers. Kind of like training every day to better support your team or going to church every Sunday. So then said creature in question has now trained so much they can attack quicker than others. It should also be noted that First Strike is used to represent creatures who are notably fast, extremely skilled, or have some sort of long-ranged weapon(like polearm or bow).
While Double Strike is a better First Strike, causing a creature with it to deal First Strike damage before striking again for a normal hit, I feel like the flavor for Double Strike overlaps enough in the fact that it is often used to represent exceptionally skilled or fast creatures and occasionally creatures with some sort of ranged weapon(like polearms or bows), so it doesn’t really justify its own category.
White is primary in it for basically the same reason it's primary in First Strike. Although, I guess unlike First Strike it is more likely to be used to represent the fact that someone is wielding multiple weapons of some sort(usually via dual wielding).
Flash- White is secondary in Flash, which is an ability that allows you to cast a card at any time you could cast an instant. In the case of White specifically Flash is usually flavored in a more defensive or heroic angle. Like someone rushing to save or protect you and/or creatures you control. This of course ties into White’s themes of striving to help others and take care of each other.
Flying- White, along with Blue, is primary in Flying and the ability is probably one of its claims to fame. Mechanically, this makes sense because having a bunch of small creatures but no way of ensuring any of them have a way to actually hit the opponent outside of purely overwhelming numbers sounds like it would suck and stifle the number of combat situations you could find yourself in. I feel like White having a large number of fliers is more of a mechanical necessity than flavor but do not think I am saying there is no possible flavor here or that it’s purely mechanical with no flavor taken into account. First off, White philosophy tends to have this play-it-safe angle to it. It is trying to keep as many people as it can safe. It also says using forethought and planning for the long term takes priority over the fleeting whims of emotions and short term goals, and it doesn’t like actions needlessly endangering other people or one’s self. So one could view Flying as a way of White playing it safe and making it more likely that its creatures can swing in and deal chip damage while remaining safe and unharmed, kind of like how granting a creature protection from a certain color means said creature can’t be blocked by a certain color and can thus attack safely(and White is actually primary in protection to represent its protective nature and emphasis on safety). I mean even though White usually doesn’t get stuff like unblockable abilities like Protection from *insert color/name here*, First Strike, and Double Strike all have an obvious emphasis on attacking and making your stuff impossible to block for certain creatures or discouraging your opponents from wanting to block them unless they have a combat trick or it's absolutely necessary. White keeping its units safe is not restricted to just blocking but also extends to attacking as it prefers to plan and on top of that make sure to save as many people as possible.
Hexproof, Indestructible, Protection, and Ward- White is tertiary in Hexproof, primary in Indestructible, primary in Protection, and primary in Ward. I’m lumping all these things together in the same category for White because while they are technically different things mechanically they basically all just emphasize White’s defensive and protective ideals and how it wants to save as many people as possible and keep them safe from a flavor perspective. Hexproof prevents spells and abilities an opponent controls from targeting your creature, Indestructible keeps things from being destroyed or killed from damage, Protection means something can’t be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by specific sources(most often colors), and White usually gets Ward effects that require an opponent to pay an extra mana cost to target a creature you control or else said spell or ability gets countered. Ward in particular also plays into White’s taxing counterspell theme of “sure you can cast this spell but only if you sign the required paperwork and cast it how I say you should cast it.”
Lifelink- White is primary in Lifelink, and if you’ve read this far this probably doesn’t need much explanation. Lifelink is a keyword that means whenever said source with Lifelink deals damage that source’s controller gains that much life. In Black this ability flavors as parasitism or draining your opponents' vitality, resources, or health to make yourself stronger.
But in White it represents healing and aid. So when you do something like have your creatures swing in for damage it represents them taking actions to heal, repair or aid. Also, gaining life helps you survive longer which is in line with how White wants to prioritize preparing and surviving for the long term as well as trying to keep good things going for as long as possible. This also means that the keyword has a really defensive angle to it since it helps you tank more damage than normal. This also ties in with White’s general life themes, metaphors, and motifs because White is all about the greater good and the needs of the many over the few. So in essence it is trying to save as many lives as possible. This also means that White generally values life as it tries to save as many as possible and it tends to see each life as equal in value. Thus, its aligned mana and cards often seems to have life theming, along with Green of course.
Reach- White is tertiary in Reach and to be honest all things considered this is kind of weird one since White, along with Blue, is primary in Flying and Reach just allows a non-flying creature to be able to block other creatures with Flying but since White gets so much Flying anyway this seems like it would usually be mechanically redundant just like it would be in Blue most of the time. In fairness this isn’t like the worst thing ever since this isn’t a color pie break due to the fact that technically any color with a lot of fliers could mechanically also support Reach. This is just because Reach is really just a crappier version of Flying and if a color has a lot of creatures with Flying it can already block creatures with Flying anyway so no weaknesses of said color are being undermined. Anyway, Reach is usually flavored as a creature having some sort of long ranged or projectile weapon and as such in the case of colors who get it in a tertiary capacity they are usually on archers and the like. It is also used for spiders since spiders use their webs to catch unsuspecting flying creatures. However, at the time of this article there are no Mono-White spiders with Reach sooooooooo...
I think it would also be unfair to mention that from a flavor perspective Reach is an ability that revolves purely around blocking and allows you to block a wider variety of threats. So having Reach once again emphasizes how White strives to protect and defend and encourages the player to do the same when possible.
Trample- White is tertiary in Trample and this is another sort of weird one to think about. Not to say this makes literally no flavor sense or anything, it's just that colors like White and Blue usually have the smallest creatures power wise in Magic so it is definitely going to have the least amount of chances to have a card with Trample stapled on it. However, this is not to say that White never has any big creatures, and really from a flavor perspective, any creature that is big enough or hits with enough force could probably have a pretty solid argument made for having Trample, especially if it is at a high enough rarity. This aspect is even mentioned in Mark Rosewater’s 2021 Color Pie article and from a game design perspective, it makes sense. It helps prevent almost all big creatures from being made objectively inferior to small ones via endless chump blocks. I think there is also an argument to be made that colors with forms of evasion getting Trample as a way of sneaking in more damage since Flying creatures can’t be blocked unless you control a flier and Trample creatures deal excess damage unless you block with enough creatures or have a single big enough creature.
Vigilance- Last but not least is Vigilance, which White is primary in. Similar to life gain Mark Rosewater has gone through some great lengths to make some notable comments on its flavor. Similarly to keywords like First Strike and Double Strike, the offensive uses for this keyword are probably what will immediately jump out to players viewing this for the first time. However, while Vigilance is definitely a combat thing it is also a really really defensive thing due to the fact that it causes attacking creatures you control to not tap when attacking. This means that said creatures can be used to swing while also still being able to block later in order to protect yourself. This obviously ties in with White’s themes of protection and safety. In fact if one is paying attention this can easily be seen in how White creatures with Vigilance are often portrayed or represented in cards as protectors, guardians, people looking out for others, or looking for anything dangerous/amiss. It’s Magic trying to tell you that “Hey these creatures want to go out of their way to protect.”
The End
And with that, we have come to the end of this article. This article is actually part 1 as it will have a part 2 focusing just on White’s mechanics based on Mark Rosewater’s 2021 Color Pie article(and then maybe I might make something for White’s timeshifted color pie if I feel up to it). How do you feel about White philosophy? Did this video make you realize something about it you didn’t before or dispel any misconceptions? Do you agree with its stance or disagree? Also is it your favorite or least favorite color philosophical and/or mechanically and if so why? Either way, I hope you join me next time as I attempt to analyze and dissect a bunch of White’s mechanics and why it has them.
Sources
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/lets-talk-color-pie-2021-10-11
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-revisited-2015-07-13
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/White
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/peace-love-and-understanding-2008-10-06
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/we-will-survive-2014-09-29
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/smart-thinking-2014-11-03
http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2013/11/3222013-episode-26-white.html
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/slow-and-steady-2006-05-01-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/playing-their-own-rules-2006-03-27-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/evergreen-eggs-ham-2015-06-08
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/improving-upon-nature-2006-05-22
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/disorderly-conduct-2005-12-05-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/searching-within-2008-11-03
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/group-think-2005-10-03-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/finishing-first-2014-11-17
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/slow-and-steady-2006-05-01-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/hate-enough-2002-02-19
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/colorful-replies-2018-07-16
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/return-colorful-replies-2019-07-29
http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2014/11/11714-episode-173-whiteblue.html
http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2015/04/41715-episode-219-greenwhite.html
https://media.wizards.com/2017/podcasts/magic/drivetowork402_colorpieconflicts.mp3
https://media.wizards.com/2017/podcasts/magic/drivetowork402_colorpieconflicts.mp3
https://media.wizards.com/2017/podcasts/magic/drivetowork403_colorpiealliances.mp3
https://media.wizards.com/2019/podcasts/magic/drivetowork679_changingthecolorpie_Hd83Uds1.mp3
https://loreleywrites.tumblr.com/post/92827570154/color-pie-friday-the-philosophy-of-white
https://cdn.transistor.fm/file/transistor/m/shows/21454/9fe1986cec69f9db16ae1da26d8e1f9f.mp3
#mtg#MagicTheGathering#ColorPie#WhitePhilosophy#MtgWhitePhilosophy#TheTasteOfMagicTheGathering#TheFlavorOfMagicTheGathering
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The Flavor of MTG: White- Part 2(Mechanics)
Intro and Disclaimer
Welcome to the second article that attempts to be an extensive coverage of the flavor of White philosophy and mechanics in Magic the Gathering. Since this is indeed a part 2, you should probably read or reread the first part here(https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/douglysium/690564941578665984?source=share) if you haven’t already to avoid confusion. If you really feel up for it you can even start with my first article that aimed to tackle the Color Pie in general here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/private/672979718186975232/tumblr_r5hjo0WAWg1ycm9nu). I am also going to be assuming you have read the previous part so there is a lot of stuff regarding how mechanics and flavor work in Magic the Gathering that I’m not going to re-explain here because if I re-explained them every article the articles would be twice as long for no reason and each one would become obnoxiously repetitive for anyone attempting to read these articles in order.
So suffice to say, despite the importance, I will not go over things like what primary, secondary, and tertiary keywords are since the information exists in the previously mentioned articles.
For the sake of clarity, this article will cover all the named mechanics and keywords present in Mark Rosewater’s “MECHANICAL COLOR PIE 2021” article(https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021-10-18). Things like specific faction related keywords are planned to be covered in due time and, as mentioned in previous articles, the mechanical color pie actually shifts over time so if you are reading this from the far future and there are all new mechanics that haven’t been included or mechanics that a color has gained and/or lost that is why. It is inevitable that this article will eventually become out of date to one degree or another. This is also super important when looking at older color pie articles because you may see mechanics and keywords in different places. These usually have their own interesting, often equally valid, flavor reasons for being like that in the past but I will not touch on them here. Also, any mechanics that have similar enough flavor I am grouping together to make my explanations less repetitive. With the disclaimers out of the way, we can finally get started.
Counterspells and Meddling- Now I know this is a really weird start since counterspells might as well be Blue’s mascot. On top of that, technically the keyword I’m talking about is “counter” as in “counter target spell/ability” and not counterspell but I didn’t want to confuse people by making them think I was talking about +1/+1 counters or something, and throughout the rest of this series I am going to refer to this mechanic as counterspells. Moreover, White is actually tertiary in counterspells so Blue doesn’t have a complete monopoly on counterspells like some would have you believe. Being tertiary does mean that White’s access to the mechanic tends to be a lot more limited though and is thus restricted to having taxing and delaying style counterspells. Y’know spells that force someone to pay extra mana for the spell to resolve or stall for time by sending a spell back to the opponent’s library or hand and the like.
White can also get defensive counterspells that protect it or creatures it controls.
White is the premier color when it comes to taxing effects that force the opponent to pay mana in order to do something but flavorwise the taxing style counterspells represent White’s rules and laws basically radiate “Sure you can cast this spell as long as you meet these conditions, work hard and pay your taxes” sort of vibe. You can cast all the spells and abilities you want as long as you do it in a way White considers right or else the law, rules or White itself will have to come down on you for being immoral or doing something wrong.
The delaying style of counterspells is sort of just a reflection of how White is usually a slow color and philosophy that tends to play for the long game and big picture. It is one that prioritizes strategic planning and long term goals so delaying a spell like that gives it more time to get everyone together and come up with a plan.
Defensive counterspells are just a reflection of how White usually wants to save as many people as possible and thus advocates for protecting people. The reason White gets counterspells that specifically protect it and its creatures from being targeted by a harmful spell or ability is the same reason White can grant things like protection from a specific color or source. In fact spells that grant things like protection from a color or hexproof are often mechanically compared to counterspells by Mark Rosewater a decent amount and it's easy to see why. There is a very thin line between protecting that 1/1 creature you control from a Shock by granting it protection from Red and by countering the Shock. In fact, in a lot of situations, the distinction probably wouldn’t matter all that much except unless the opponent has a spell that can’t be countered or a board wipe.
White also has the ability to prevent spells with a certain quality or type from being cast in the form of “meddling” effects. These meddling mechanics are something that Mark describes as a proactive counterspell in his White/Blue drive to work so I’m including these types of effects here. They are a representation of White’s rules and laws. “You can no longer cast this spell because I have deemed it illegal or dangerous but you can cast all the other unbanned spells.” This essentially sets up new rules during a Magic game and it is still usually possible for the opponent to find an out via playing within the new parameters in the same way someone is allowed to go about their day if they don’t break any laws or rules White has set, and depending on the opponent White may also be restricting itself using these types of abilities.
Scry- White is secondary in Scrying and the reason for this can most easily be seen in the fact that it’s enemy colors with Red. Now I know Red also gets scrying but if you read the previous parts of this series you would know that that’s mostly for gameplay reasons. Getting back on track, as covered in this article earlier, one of White philosophy’s major problems with Red is that Red strives to live in the moment which conflicts with White’s ideals of a greater good, the group, and long-term prosperity/planning for as many people as possible. What I’m saying is that Scrying in the context of colors like White and Blue is a representation of the colors’ emphasis on forethought and using your brain and mind over emotions and more rash decision making.
Tap and Untap- Now, technically I shouldn’t be covering tapping and untapping based on the previous criteria I laid out. I mean, literally almost every Magic card can tap itself to do something. However, I feel like in the case of colors like White and Blue it is worth noting because they have the ability to tap other things and untap themselves so I figured it was worth exploring since one of White’s primary abilities is being able to tap other creatures.
The flavor here represents both White stalling for time because of its preference for preparing for the long term and a way to safely or nonviolently prevent a creature from fighting or being able to hurt others. White is also secondary in being able to untap its own creatures is mechanically a neat combat trick that can be used to help protect yourself and just play defensively, which ties even further into the protection theme. This whole defensive theming in regards to untapping or not tapping at all is something that is further reinforced by Mark Rosewater’s comments on the Vigilance keyword(which we’ll get to later). Untapping can also represent White’s ideals of helping others by helping creatures you control recover quicker or get back up on their feet as well as give them an extra chance to defend you or themselves.
Defender- White is primary in Defender and I feel like that doesn’t need much explanation if you have managed to stick with me this far. Creatures with Defender can’t attack so by being more likely to have creatures with a mechanic that makes it so they can only block White is reinforcing its goals of wanting to protect and defend others.
First Strike and Double Strike- White is primary in First Strike which is interesting to consider. Because at first blush First Strike may seem completely offensive since the most obvious use of the keyword allows your creatures to deal damage before other creatures which acts as a pretty good incentive to give your opponent unfavorable blocks, in fact in Red the offensive nature of this keyword is usually the center highlight of the flavor.
However, it’s also a pretty good defensive tool since it allows your creatures to strike first when blocking in self defense. Which means that by leaving your First Strikes untapped on order to defend yourself makes the opponent’s attacks less favorable, not to mention that granting First Strike or Double Strike to one of your creatures can help keep it safe. So some of White’s signature love of protection and defense is still there. Although, Mark Rosewater also points out that most of the flavor here is one revolving around discipline. Specifically, the idea is that since White is all about long-term planning, order, armies, and discipline having First Strike and Double Strike reflects having well trained individuals or soldiers. Kind of like training every day to better support your team or going to church every Sunday. So then said creature in question has now trained so much they can attack quicker than others. It should also be noted that First Strike is used to represent creatures who are notably fast, extremely skilled, or have some sort of long-ranged weapon(like polearm or bow).
While Double Strike is a better First Strike, causing a creature with it to deal First Strike damage before striking again for a normal hit, I feel like the flavor for Double Strike overlaps enough in the fact that it is often used to represent exceptionally skilled or fast creatures and occasionally creatures with some sort of ranged weapon(like polearms or bows), so it doesn’t really justify its own category.
White is primary in it for basically the same reason it's primary in First Strike. Although, I guess unlike First Strike it is more likely to be used to represent the fact that someone is wielding multiple weapons of some sort(usually via dual wielding).
Flash- White is secondary in Flash, which is an ability that allows you to cast a card at any time you could cast an instant. In the case of White specifically Flash is usually flavored in a more defensive or heroic angle. Like someone rushing to save or protect you and/or creatures you control. This of course ties into White’s themes of striving to help others and take care of each other.
Flying- White, along with Blue, is primary in Flying and the ability is probably one of its claims to fame. Mechanically, this makes sense because having a bunch of small creatures but no way of ensuring any of them have a way to actually hit the opponent outside of purely overwhelming numbers sounds like it would suck and stifle the number of combat situations you could find yourself in. I feel like White having a large number of fliers is more of a mechanical necessity than flavor but do not think I am saying there is no possible flavor here or that it’s purely mechanical with no flavor taken into account. First off, White philosophy tends to have this play-it-safe angle to it. It is trying to keep as many people as it can safe. It also says using forethought and planning for the long term takes priority over the fleeting whims of emotions and short term goals, and it doesn’t like actions needlessly endangering other people or one’s self. So one could view Flying as a way of White playing it safe and making it more likely that its creatures can swing in and deal chip damage while remaining safe and unharmed, kind of like how granting a creature protection from a certain color means said creature can’t be blocked by a certain color and can thus attack safely(and White is actually primary in protection to represent its protective nature and emphasis on safety). I mean even though White usually doesn’t get stuff like unblockable abilities like Protection from *insert color/name here*, First Strike, and Double Strike all have an obvious emphasis on attacking and making your stuff impossible to block for certain creatures or discouraging your opponents from wanting to block them unless they have a combat trick or it's absolutely necessary. White keeping its units safe is not restricted to just blocking but also extends to attacking as it prefers to plan and on top of that make sure to save as many people as possible.
Hexproof, Indestructible, Protection, and Ward- White is tertiary in Hexproof, primary in Indestructible, primary in Protection, and primary in Ward. I’m lumping all these things together in the same category for White because while they are technically different things mechanically they basically all just emphasize White’s defensive and protective ideals and how it wants to save as many people as possible and keep them safe from a flavor perspective. Hexproof prevents spells and abilities an opponent controls from targeting your creature, Indestructible keeps things from being destroyed or killed from damage, Protection means something can’t be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by specific sources(most often colors), and White usually gets Ward effects that require an opponent to pay an extra mana cost to target a creature you control or else said spell or ability gets countered. Ward in particular also plays into White’s taxing counterspell theme of “sure you can cast this spell but only if you sign the required paperwork and cast it how I say you should cast it.”
Lifelink- White is primary in Lifelink, and if you’ve read this far this probably doesn’t need much explanation. Lifelink is a keyword that means whenever said source with Lifelink deals damage that source’s controller gains that much life. In Black this ability flavors as parasitism or draining your opponents' vitality, resources, or health to make yourself stronger.
But in White it represents healing and aid. So when you do something like have your creatures swing in for damage it represents them taking actions to heal, repair or aid. Also, gaining life helps you survive longer which is in line with how White wants to prioritize preparing and surviving for the long term as well as trying to keep good things going for as long as possible. This also means that the keyword has a really defensive angle to it since it helps you tank more damage than normal. This also ties in with White’s general life themes, metaphors, and motifs because White is all about the greater good and the needs of the many over the few. So in essence it is trying to save as many lives as possible. This also means that White generally values life as it tries to save as many as possible and it tends to see each life as equal in value. Thus, its aligned mana and cards often seems to have life theming, along with Green of course.
Reach- White is tertiary in Reach and to be honest all things considered this is kind of weird one since White, along with Blue, is primary in Flying and Reach just allows a non-flying creature to be able to block other creatures with Flying but since White gets so much Flying anyway this seems like it would usually be mechanically redundant just like it would be in Blue most of the time. In fairness this isn’t like the worst thing ever since this isn’t a color pie break due to the fact that technically any color with a lot of fliers could mechanically also support Reach. This is just because Reach is really just a crappier version of Flying and if a color has a lot of creatures with Flying it can already block creatures with Flying anyway so no weaknesses of said color are being undermined. Anyway, Reach is usually flavored as a creature having some sort of long ranged or projectile weapon and as such in the case of colors who get it in a tertiary capacity they are usually on archers and the like. It is also used for spiders since spiders use their webs to catch unsuspecting flying creatures. However, at the time of this article there are no Mono-White spiders with Reach sooooooooo...
I think it would also be unfair to mention that from a flavor perspective Reach is an ability that revolves purely around blocking and allows you to block a wider variety of threats. So having Reach once again emphasizes how White strives to protect and defend and encourages the player to do the same when possible.
Trample- White is tertiary in Trample and this is another sort of weird one to think about. Not to say this makes literally no flavor sense or anything, it's just that colors like White and Blue usually have the smallest creatures power wise in Magic so it is definitely going to have the least amount of chances to have a card with Trample stapled on it. However, this is not to say that White never has any big creatures, and really from a flavor perspective, any creature that is big enough or hits with enough force could probably have a pretty solid argument made for having Trample, especially if it is at a high enough rarity. This aspect is even mentioned in Mark Rosewater’s 2021 Color Pie article and from a game design perspective, it makes sense. It helps prevent almost all big creatures from being made objectively inferior to small ones via endless chump blocks. I think there is also an argument to be made that colors with forms of evasion getting Trample as a way of sneaking in more damage since Flying creatures can’t be blocked unless you control a flier and Trample creatures deal excess damage unless you block with enough creatures or have a single big enough creature.
Vigilance- Last but not least is Vigilance, which White is primary in. Similar to life gain Mark Rosewater has gone through some great lengths to make some notable comments on its flavor. Similarly to keywords like First Strike and Double Strike, the offensive uses for this keyword are probably what will immediately jump out to players viewing this for the first time. However, while Vigilance is definitely a combat thing it is also a really really defensive thing due to the fact that it causes attacking creatures you control to not tap when attacking. This means that said creatures can be used to swing while also still being able to block later in order to protect yourself. This obviously ties in with White’s themes of protection and safety. In fact if one is paying attention this can easily be seen in how White creatures with Vigilance are often portrayed or represented in cards as protectors, guardians, people looking out for others, or looking for anything dangerous/amiss. It’s Magic trying to tell you that “Hey these creatures want to go out of their way to protect.”
Mechanics
+1/+1 Counters(creation and caring)- +1/+1 counter-related abilities are extremely common in White, to the point that White is actually primary in creating and caring about +1/+1 counters. They typically represent White’s emphasis on wanting to help, support, and uplift others as well as trying to save as many people as it can along with aiding in helping people prosper.
Let me put it this way, -1/-1 counters usually represent permanently damaging, hurting, or corrupting something…
So their mechanical opposite, +1/+1 counters, usually represent the inverse, i.e. someone being permanently aided, helped, boosted, repaired, healed etc. So by having these +1/+1 abilities show up everywhere in White reinforces that said color’s goal and gameplay tend to revolve around aiding and uplifting over just destroying and damaging.
Plus, putting +1/+1 counters on something makes it harder to kill via damage, which means in certain cases it can be interpreted as healing a creature or making it healthier. Also, making things harder to kill and healing ties into White’s entire theme of saving as many people as possible and stuff, and is something that is further reflected in how White can remove -1/-1 counters from creatures as a form of healing of fixing.
+1/+1 counters can also represent improving something in order to make it better than it was before which ties into White’s themes of striving for improvement and making both people and things better.
Banisher Priest-like effects- I already went over these types of effects in my previous article but it wasn’t covered in the mechanics section so I’ll cover them here to keep things clear, concise and less confusing. White is primary in Banisher Priest-like effects(which are affects that cause a card to exile target creature/permanent until said card leaves play). As mentioned in my previous article, enchantments in White often represent laws/rules and said laws/rules being enforced in order to help/reward or restrain people through the utilization of civil structures or magic in order to punish or restrain a creature. It’s a way of saying “Hey this artifact or creature is dangerous so I’m confiscating, jailing it, or containing it so it can’t hurt/corrupt people, or until I can reform it.”
Interestingly, these Banisher Priest effects tend to be answers with clear answers. That is to say, while they do tend to do a good job of removing a wide variety of threats such a removal may end up being temporary or easily undone since they are permanents that can be destroyed or bounced(returned to their owner’s hand). This usually represents one of two things. First off, if the opponent is playing by White’s rules and doing whatever it deems to be the right thing then it’s usually going to get punished less harshly(if at all) or White may have a hard time fighting against it because it sees little to no issue or doesn’t really have enough of a moral high ground to justify continuing the punishment. White is all about morality, so if someone is doing something the right way or is morally just then there is probably going to be less White is willing to do about it. The second point is that White usually doesn’t like to permanently ruin things unless it feels like it has to or said thing is evil. Remember, White’s end goal is to try to help and save as many people as possible so it is usually trying to take the route with the least amount of destruction and suffering. Plus, White idealizes having a strong moral compass so it may prohibit itself from doing things like killing outside of self-defense(think Superman or Spiderman and how they refuse to kill). In a way, this can be thought of as an extension of how White philosophy can easily be inflexible or see the world in black and white, to the point where someone who is White aligned may refuse to do something a certain way because it is morally wrong. Which is something that can end up restraining themselves and limits how many ways they may be willing to approach a situation.
Bring back creatures/permanents that went to the graveyard this turn, "Reanimate" permanent, "Reanimation,” and Returning target creature from the graveyard to hand- White is primary in bringing back creatures/permanents that went to the graveyard this turn, "Reanimating" permanents(returning a permanent card from a graveyard to the battlefield), "Reanimation"(return a creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield), and returning target creature from the graveyard to hand. I always find talking about graveyard recursion in other colors outside if Black interesting because I always see a couple of, typically new, players who seem to think Black has a monopoly on it but colors such as White also have a lot of ways to bring stuff back from the graveyard. Although, in fairness it tends to have more limitations on how and when it can do it than Black does. Which is a pretty good representation of how White is not usually going to want to do literally whatever it takes to get what it wants. While in Black graveyard recursion is usually flavored as a desecration of a corpse or creature to resurrect them as a harder to kill zombie, in White it it represents someone’s life being saved through more savory means. Remember, White wants to help as many people as possible so if it can save someone from dying, without resorting to “evil” magic, it will. It also tends to idealize things like mercy and kindness so saving things from permanent destruction or repairing things that have been damaged or destroyed makes sense.
White’s “Reanimation” effects are usually limited to smaller creatures, typically ones with mana cost two or less, to set it apart from Black. This tells us some things about each respective color. Firstly, that Black has no line it is unwilling to cross to win so it inevitably has less restrictions when it comes to bringing things back. Meanwhile, while White is all about saving people there are lines that it would argue one shouldn’t cross or certain actions that are immoral/evil. The fact that White tends to be restricted to smaller creatures is just a representation of how White usually has and cares about smaller creatures because it is all about people working together for the sake of a bigger picture more than any emphasis on the individual.
So by having a bunch of smaller creatures the player with said small creatures is usually going to be forced to play smarter and have all their creatures work together to achieve a larger goal that no single creature could achieve on its own.
Black and White can both sometimes resurrect large swathes of creatures at once. In the case of White this just represents how it focuses on the needs and wants of the many over the few, and thus it wants to help and save as many people as possible in order to reduce suffering
Rules setting, Taxing, Can't be attacked, Can't lose the game and opponents can't win, “You don't lose," and Pacifism-like effects- White is primary in Rules setting, Taxing, Can't be attacked(creatures can't attack you), Can't lose the game and opponents can't win, Pacifism-like effects(enchanted creature can't attack or block.), Preventing actions (Your opponents can't cast spells this turn.), and secondary in “You don't lose"(permanents that prevent you from losing the game while they're on the battlefield, usually with an alternate means to lose). I ended up putting all these different abilities in the same section because they all basically represent some facet of White’s love of rules and laws as a way to keep people safe and on the right track. When it comes to taxing I’m just going to repeat what I said earlier “flavorwise the taxing style counterspells represent White’s rules and laws and basically radiate “Sure you can cast this spell as long as you meet these conditions, work hard and pay your taxes” sort of vibe. You can cast all the spells and abilities you want as long as you do it in a way White considers right or else the law, rules, or White itself will have to come down on you for being immoral or doing something wrong/dangerous.”
All the other rules stuff represents pretty similar things “this thing is legal and this thing is illegal,” “this thing is immoral and this thing is not,” etc. These rules can also represent how White values long-term planning and thought over short-sighted spur-of-the-moment actions since these rules typically allow you to drag out the game and live longer or just slow down your opponent(s). The ability to make it so you can’t lose the game but your opponents can’t win the game further highlights this. Since leaving each player in a state where neither can win allows you to stall for enough time to find a way to win the game or just stall out the opponent until they give up or can’t do anything to fight back. “You don’t lose” effects have basically the exact same flavor(stall while you set up a plan).
Creatures not being able to attack represents White playing the long game by delaying attacks but also doing things like avoiding unnecessary conflict so people don’t get hurt or protecting your creatures from a fight since White is trying to have as few people suffer as possible in its ideal world.
Destroy target attacking or blocking creature, Deal N damage to target attacking or blocking creature, Deal direct damage to multiple targets, Destroy target creature and its controller gets compensation, Destroy target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn, Destroy target tapped creature, Destroy target creature with power 3/4 or greater, Destroy all creatures, and Destroy all creatures with power 3/4 or greater- White is primary in being able to destroy target attacking or blocking creatures, destroying target creature at the cost of giving that creature’s controller some sort of compensation, destroying creatures that dealt damage to you or a creature you control this turn, destroying target tapped creature, destroying target creature with power 3/4 or greater, destroying all creatures, or destroying all creatures with power 3/4 or greater, and secondary in dealing some amount of damage to target attacking or blocking creature, and dealing direct damage to multiple targets(usually targets that are attacking or blocking). Now destruction in White can be sort of a weird topic sometimes because there seem to be some people who think White can just do it without any sort of condition or prerequisite like Black can but this is a common misconception(I can only assume that when some people see a color do something with a drawback they assume it must be able to do it without the drawback too which is not always the case since some colors are limited in how and when they can do things as part of their slice of the mechanical, and even philosophical, Color Pie).
White ain’t about to just bust out a timeshifted Mono-White Murder, but there actually is a flavor reason for this. If you have read my articles so far then one thing you should know about White is that it tends to care about morality and its end goal is to create a world where there is as little suffering as possible, so running around justing murdering people is usually going to be a hard sell. This tends to make White in general, but not always, a defensive and reactionary color in both gameplay and philosophy because of the fact that White usually doesn’t want to go around punishing innocent people, so it tends to either reward those who stay in line or punish those who actively step over the line. Plus, White’s belief in moral and immoral actions means that it usually needs a moral justification to do something. Killing in self-defense is probably fine for most of those who believe in White philosophy but killing a person just because you felt like it isn’t going to fly. The fact that White’s creature destruction usually has some sort of caveat reflects this fact. It is basically destroying something that did something wrong/evil or something that it sees as a threat. In fact, I’ll go through them all.
I feel like the ability to destroy or damage target attacking or blocking creature is pretty self-explanatory. It basically represents self-defense. An attacking creature is one that will hurt you or creatures you control and a blocking creature is one that is basically about to fight, and hurt, an attacking creature you control. So when you are destroying an attacking or blocking creatures you are protecting either yourself or your creatures. Of course White can also deal damage to multiple attacking or blocking creatures.
Being able to destroy a target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn basically represents justice or the law. A creature is hurting you or your allies and you must remove it before it continues to hurt people or just because the way/reason it hurt you or your creatures was morally wrong and it needed to be punished.
White’s ability to destroy tapped creatures takes a bit of extra consideration to understand but I would argue that the flavor is not usually that much of a stretch. In order to understand you have to simply ask why a creature would usually be tapped. Sure, it can sometimes be due to a spell/ability but a lot of the time the reason a creature becomes tapped is because it either attacked or utilized one of its own abilities to do something.
So what we have is basically White punishing a creature for presumably taking some sort of action that White it views as reprehensible in some fashion. Honestly, the flavor is pretty similar to the “destroy target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn” one.
Destroying a target creature at the cost of giving its controller compensation represents White’s themes of fairness or balance and often represents some sort of exchange. “You give me that creature and I give you something in return.” It can also be seen as some form of reparation or some such. Sure it may have destroyed something but it repaid the player with something that is, theoretically, of equal value to keep things fair and just.
The ability to destroy a target creature with power 3, 4, or greater is actually some pretty interesting flavor that I love to talk about. So White is typically a more defensive and reactionary philosophy but it can become very proactive since it is actively trying to make the world a better place. So by extension it definitely values actively doing things like getting rid of evil, taking actions to prevent people from getting hurt in the future, or removing what it may see as dangerous. What I am saying here is that the reason White can destroy creatures with power 3, 4, or greater is because it is basically seeing them as dangerous or a threat that could hurt others. This is further emphasized by the fact we are talking specifically about power here. Y’know, that stat that denotes how much damage a creature will deal to you, planeswalkers, or other creatures you control if it hits you. A stat that literally signifies how badly a creature is planning to hurt you. So it’s White basically going “wow this creature is too dangerous or too willing to hurt us so we must remove it to prevent people from getting hurt.” It also ties into the fact that White usually just likes utilizing small creatures to work together as a team over utilizing a few big ones. I guess a creature with massive power could also kill a lot more of your creatures than a bunch of small ones. White’s ability to destroy all creatures with power 3, 4, or greater has the same flavor, albeit mixed with some of its board wipe flavor.
I’ve already discussed White’s ability to board wipe things like creatures, enchantments, and artifacts so I’m just going to repeat what I said there. “White is also the undisputed #1 color when it comes to board wipes, also known as board sweeps(which are effects that destroy or exile all permanents of a certain type, ie. destroy all creatures). These board wipes represent two main things about White philosophy. First of all, that White cares about fairness and justice. So it chooses to destroy all things on the board and not just its opponent’s or something in order to literally even the playing field. It also represents White’s focus on the big picture. White usually wants to think on big scales and about the group over individuals. So when it’s board wiping it's not just targeting one creature but engaging the opponent’s threats as a group(and thus taking care of them as one), and if you are board wiping you should usually be playing for the long game, i.e. it gives the player a better chance of winning down the line. You are potentially giving up your creatures and stuff now to be in a more advantageous position in the future. Unless you have no permanents of the type you are wiping but now you and your opponent have been put on an even playing field. You could also say this ties in with White’s themes of sacrifice, since if your board wiping your creatures are being “sacrificed(not sacrifice like the mechanic though)” to hopefully help you secure a win or not lose the game. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that.
On rare occasions there exist cards like Devout Decree, which exile or destroy a creature that is Black or Red. All the colors have some form of mechanical hate for their respective enemy colors(even if it isn’t always in the same form), because they tend to ideologically oppose them. In White it should also be notable that it has themes of conformity and may often see philosophies like Black and Red as dangerous or evil and something that must be proactively stopped.
Deal N damage to creature, planeswalker, and/or player- White is secondary in dealing N damage to target creature/planeswalker and/or player.
You can probably guess based on the mechanics I just covered up above but a lot of people also don’t seem to realize that White is actually pretty decent at dealing direct damage. However, just like its creature destruction it can usually only do so in specific ways or when specific conditions have been met. As mentioned previously, the most common condition is a creature being tapped, attacking, or blocking in order to symbolize White punishing someone/something for doing something wrong or as a form of self-defense and/or protection.
However, White is also capable of dealing direct damage to a creature, planeswalker, and/or player based on how many creatures it controls. The fact that doing damage like this is based purely on how many creatures you control highlights White’s emphasis of the needs of the many and groups over the needs of the few and individuals since such an ability becomes more powerful the more creatures you have. So having one giant 10/10 isn’t going to synergize with this kind of mechanic at all but having an army of 10 1/1 tokens come together to allow this mechanic to take care of a massive threat will be very effective and can allow you to take down something a single individual could not take out on its own by compiling their strength together.
+N/+N(on Auras), +0/+N(on Auras), -N/+N(on Auras), +0/+N(on spells), -N/+N(on spells), +0/+N(on creatures), +N/+N(on spells), +N/+0(on creatures), +N/+0(on spells), +N/+0(on Auras), and -N/+N(on creatures)- White is primary in having auras that grant +N/+N, +0/+N, and/or -N/+N and having spells that grant +0/+N, -N/+N as well as having creatures that grant +0/+N. It is also secondary in having auras that grant +N/+0, spells that grant +N/+N and/or +N/+0, and creatures that grant +N/+0 and/or -N/+N.
It’s important to remember that every color has some way of boosting creatures in some way mechanically. While some of these boosts are purely mechanical they can also come with different flavors or conditions that add some differentiation or tell us about the color’s philosophy. Plus, some colors have more ways of boosting or pumping up their creatures than others. One of the colors that tends to pump up and support their creatures the most often is White. The general reason is pretty obvious at this point, White prioritizes helping as many people as possible by trying to get them what they need or protect them in order to reduce net suffering. So White is one of the colors that is most likely to prioritize helping you without any strings attached due to the emphasis on aid and putting others and the group first(this is also why White has a noticable emphasis on things like +1/+1 counters). A lot of boosting effects also act as a form of defense or healing since the bigger your creature becomes the more it takes to hurt them via damage. However, let's dive deeper into specifics.
First off, White having a lot of buffs relating to auras makes sense since it, along with Green, is the color that cares about enchantments the most. As told in my previous article “...enchantments in White are often used to represent, the often nonphysical, laws or rules being enforced via magic or other means… Another thing that White’s enchantments often represent is the part of its philosophy that wishes to make things better. Enchantments in Magic can often represent some sort of unnatural or natural change and in White’s case it can often represent trying to change things for the better or change something’s nature into something better…” Auras are an extension of this point. White’s being primary in auras, creatures, and spells that grant +N/+N, and/or +0/+N all help keep your creatures from dying through damage and helps keep them safer as a form of protection. This ties into White’s themes about trying to help as many people as possible. The fact that White has a lot of access to +0/+N effects and -N/+N effects shows its emphasis on defense and protection over hurting others due to White prioritizing the idea of keeping the amount of unnecessary suffering to as low of an amount as possible.
-N/+N effects can not only be used to make your creatures harder to kill but in theory can also help protect them or yourself from an enemy creature by lowering their power. However, Mark states that this effect is typically a defensive trick, which means that it usually shows White sacrificing offense and damage to better protect those around it.
It should be noted that White’s pumping tends to be smaller than Green’s.
Usually, because White prefers to use a wide number of smaller creatures working together as a representation of how it values the big picture and needs of the many over the needs of the few.
White’s aura-based +N/+N tend to cap out at +2/+2. Its ability to grant +N/+0(on spells) is stated to always cap out at +1/+0 and probably shows that White isn’t nearly as aggressive or offense-focused as Black and/or Red.
It’s +N/+0 on auras tend to be +2/+0 or lower and send a similar message. The fact that White’s +N/+0 effects tend to be one time use upgrades of +1/+0 further reinforce this theme.
White doesn’t tend to get +N/+0 effects as often as colors like Red in order to emphasize the more defensive and protective aspects of its color philosophy. However, as mentioned before White does have a more proactive side to its philosophies and it would argue that it is good to actively fight back against evil. So being able to increase something’s attack like this might often just be a generic buff but can also represent White encouraging or rewarding proactively fighting and coming down on bad things. There’s also just the fact that having a bigger attack helps you fight better so it may just simply represent some form of support.
+N/+N to your team, +N/+N to your team(ongoing), and +N/+0 to your team- White is primary in giving your team +N/+N in the form of either a temporary one time affect or an ongoing affect, and it is secondary in giving +N/+0 to your team. If you’ve read the previous article or know even a decent amount about White’s mechanics, you are probably well aware that White tends to like to use a bunch of small creatures for going wide strategies rather than a couple of big creatures. These anthem effects don’t reach their full potential unless you control as many creatures as possible. So having them show up frequently in White is a good way of signifying to the player that White usually wants to reward you for playing many creatures and that philosophically White wants to help groups of people and it tends to value groups over individuals. In addition to this flavor, there is also the flavor from the previous section involving +N/+N being used as defense, protection or healing(due to making your creatures harder to kill), and +N/+0 representing proactivity or aggression.
-N/-N(on spells)- White is tertiary in granting -N/-N via spells, which may be a bit surprising to some since Black is probably the color most synonymous with these sorts of effects and Red sometimes dabbles in them. Typically, colors outside of Black are restricted to granting creatures -N/-N in the form of -1/-1 counters in place of normal damage on their creatures in sets with a -1/-1 counters theme or are otherwise prevalent in a given set or block. There’s not much to say about creatures dealing damage in the form of -1/-1 counters or -1/-1 effects because it’s usually just representative of a creature dealing damage in a more permanent and ongoing form.
White does seem to have the ability to grant large swathes of creatures -N/-N or give -N/-N to creatures that have met a certain condition(like attacking/blocking or being Non-White). I think in terms of flavor this comes from a weird combination of things.
Firstly, White has the ability to shrink the power and toughness of creatures to 1. Which represents White’s proclivity for smaller creatures in order to emphasize it caring about having a large number of creatures and its philosophy prioritizing the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Furthermore, turning something into a 1/1 also makes it less dangerous and less appealing for its controller to swing with it. Meaning it can act as a way to “disarm” or discourage unnecessary combat without outright killing a creature. There is also White’s ability to destroy creatures by either wiping the board or destroying creatures that have met a certain condition as a form of balance or punishment. So when we combine the flavor of these two things we get the flavor of White weakening creatures to make them smaller, a weaker board wipe, or as a form of punishment or retribution for a creature doing or believing something wrong.
Damage prevention, Damage redirection and "Fog"- White is primary in damage prevention(effects that prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player) and damage redirection(effects that prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player before dealing damage equal to the amount of damage that was prevented this way to target creature/player). White is also tertiary in and tertiary in “Fog” effects(Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn).
The reason White is primary in damage prevention and similiar Fog effects is the exact same reason it is primary in the ability to grant protection to creatures. It emphasizes White’s idealization of helping and protecting as many people as possible. The damage redirection also emphasizes this but throws in a bit of justice, retribution and/or law enforcement by not only protecting you and/or your creatures but punishing the person who was attempting to hurt them in the first place.
"Enchantress" ability, Friendly to enchantments, "Tutor" for an enchantment, Animating Enchantments, Return target enchantment from graveyard to hand, Enchantment destruction, and Putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield- White is primary in “Enchantress” abilities(Whenever you play an enchantment, draw a card), being friendly to enchantments, being able to “tutor” for an enchantment(Search your library for an enchantment card and put that card in your hand), animating enchantments(Target/all non-aura enchantment(s) you control become an enchantment creature(s)), returning target enchantment from your graveyard to your hand, enchantment destruction, and putting enchantments from your hand onto the battlefield.
White has a pretty heavy enchantment theme and I ended up grouping all these seemingly disparate abilities together because of that common thread tying them together. I’ve already gone into an in-depth discussion about White’s association with enchantments so I’ll keep this version of the discussion brief. White gets enchantments because they represent its non-physical laws, rules, and morality as well as the ways it may enforce those things(either physically or non-physically) in order to help protect people and make sure they are doing what’s right and what’s best for the group or the bigger picture.
White’s desire to change the world to something better also means that sometimes its enchantments represent changing something for the better or improving upon something, similar to how Blue can use its enchantments to change things.
There really isn’t much to say about White being friendly to enchantments, being able to tutor for them, returning enchantments from the graveyard, putting enchantments on the battlefield from hand, and its “enchantress” abilities other than its just that White likes enchantments and how they can be used to set rules, laws, morals or improve upon things and by rewarding you for playing enchantments you as a player are more likely to lean into what enchantments represent in gameplay.
Animating enchantments is probably just more “enchantment matters” theming but could represent the non-physical being given some sort of physical impact or form via enforcement or magic and enchantment tutoring or recursion could represent White coming up with new rules in some way or just reusing them.
Notably, White’s enchantress abilities tend to be limited to drawing one card per activation but White’s card draw is something I’ll get to later.
Enchantment destruction probably represents White engaging with rules and morals on their level. That is to say, White doing things like abolishing unhelpful, bad, or outdated laws.
Exiling cards from graveyard- White is primary in being able to exile cards from graveyards.
I would argue that this is probably some form of indirect hate towards Black, since hate towards mechanics a color’s enemy uses a lot or tends to heavily rely on shows up a decent amount in each color. The best example that I can think of is how some Red and Green spells can’t be countered as a form of fuck you towards their shared enemy color Blue since 99% of counterspells are Blue. So from that angle, it might make sense for White to have some way to counteract Black, a color that is #1 when it comes to many different forms of graveyard recursion and abilities revolving around the graveyard.
You could also argue that White being able to exile things from graveyards is representative of it preventing graves and/or dead bodies from being desecrated.
"Flicker", "Gaseous Form," and Return to hand- White is primary in “Flicker” effects(which are effects that exile target creature/permanent and then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control, sometimes the creature/permanent returns at the end of the turn), "Gaseous Form" effects(which are effects that cause a creature to neither deal nor receive damage), and secondary in returning target creature/permanent to its owner’s hand.
These all pretty clearly fall under White’s protective flavoring and its philosophy in regards to trying to save and help as many people as possible. These effects also offer a way to keep creatures from hurting each other or being hurt through more non-violent means.
As a side note, White tends to grant the gaseous form effects to creatures while Blue is more likely to have the effect on creatures.
White’s return to hand abilities ultimately have basically the same flavor but require a little extra explaining. White is secondary in being able to bounce permanents(return permanents to its owner’s hand) because it is restricted to bouncing its own permanents to represent a way of protecting them.
If you return something to your hand at instant speed whatever spell or ability your opponent was trying to target with it misses. Flicker has the same kind of logic as far as the reason for why White has the ability in terms of flavor(you can’t hit what isn’t there).
Similarly White also has the ability to phase things out(things that are phased out are treated like they don’t exist until they phase back into the battlefield)
I should mention that there have been a rare occasions where White a card can bounce an opponent’s permanent which usually represents White taking care of things nonviolently or just stalling for time so it is more likely to achieve its long term goals. It should be noted that some flicker cards can target your opponent’s stuff in order to stall for time or temporarily remove them for a similar effect.
Friendly to creatures, "Tutor" for a creature, and Putting creatures from hand onto the battlefield- White is secondary in being friendly to creatures, being able to tutor for creatures(which is an ability that searches your library for a creature card and puts that card into your hand), and tertiary in putting creatures from your hand onto the battlefield.
White generally caring about creatures to a noticeable degree is no surprise since White is about trying to help as many people as possible and reduce suffering. This is further represented by White utilizing many small creatures working together in its gameplay in go-wide strategies. While White’s creatures may usually be smaller it is tied with Green when it comes to relying the most on creatures. The main reason why White isn’t primary in these abilities is ultimately because it is typically restricted to caring about small creatures to represent its go wide and good of the many ideology over putting all your eggs in one basket and putting one person’s needs above all else.
When it comes to tutoring for creatures there is also the additional fact that each color has ways to at least tutor for specific creature types that are typically within their colors, such as Red searching for dragons and/or goblins, etc.. Also, being able to tutor for creatures enables White to be able to go wide and gather more creatures together faster.
These reasons also sort of applies to White putting creatures from its hand onto the battlefield since all the colors dip their toes in this ability as long as it revolves around a creature type that is normally in their color.
Friendly to planeswalkers, "Tutor" for a planeswalker, and Putting planeswalkers from hand onto the battlefield- White is primary in being friendly to planeswalkers(it can also bring them back from the graveyard and tutor for them), being able to tutor for a planeswalker by searching your library for a planeswalker and putting it into your hand, and putting planeswalkers from hand onto the battlefield. Honestly, there’s probably an argument to be made that I could have combined this with the previous section but the reason White cares about planeswalkers in these ways is basically the exact same reason it tends to care about creatures. White wants to help as many people as possible for the greater good and since planeswalkers are people too they would fall under that umbrella.
Friendly to low mana value cards- In case you didn’t know a “low value” card in Magic gameplay refers to one with a mana value of 3 or lower. White is primary in being friendly to low mana value cards(it can even tutor for them and bring them back for the graveyard) and this is mostly due to the fact that White tends to use, rely on, and reward playing small creatures. Of course, most creatures with a low power and toughness tend to also have a low mana cost. I won’t go into too much of an indepth explanation here, but the reason White wants to encourage playing small creatures is because of its emphasis on teamwork, not elevating one person’s selfish needs over the needs of the group along with how it prefers to focus on going wide and looking at the bigger picture.
Friendly to artifacts, Putting artifacts from hand onto the battlefield, "Tutor" for an artifact, Return target artifact from graveyard to hand, and Artifact destruction- White is primary in being friendly to artifacts, secondary in putting artifacts from hand onto the battlefield, tutoring for artifacts(searching your library for an artifact and then putting into your hand), and primary in returning artifacts from the graveyard to hand while also being secondary in artifact destruction.
White being friendly to artifacts in various ways makes a bit of sense when you consider that even though it’s allies with Green, which has heavy themes of nature and artifact destruction, it is also allies with Blue, a color that embraces technology and artifice to achieve what is normally impossible(however, this is not to say Green hates all technology or can’t like certain forms of technology).
White is a philosophy that wants to make the world a better place, help as many people as possible and reduce the amount of suffering and since it is not as considerate about living in harmony with nature or the natural world as Green is it is much more willing to jump at the opportunity to use things like technology to make things better even if it conflicts with the supposed natural order.
White and Blue are also colors that Magic likes to associate with civilization due to White’s emphasis on community, Blue’s sense of progress and their overlapping values of laws, playing it safe and not caring about nature nearly as much as say Green. When it comes to putting artifacts from hand onto the battlefield White is usually restricted to caring about equipment, which represents the more military imagery it often has and it helping or bolstering its allies by giving them equipment to better help them survive and stuff. White’s artifact tutors also tend to be limited to similar subsets of artifacts, such as equipment and vehicles, for the same reason.
However, White is still allies with Green and both colors share artifact destruction, unlike Blue. White may not usually care about that natural order or ecosystem as much as Green usually does but it still idealizes having a strong sense of there being some sort of order or correct way the world is supposed to be and the existence of an objective morality. This in addition to the fact that most artifacts aren’t people or living things means White is way more likely to be willing to confiscate or destroy technology it sees as dangerous, evil, blasphemous, etc, and is overall less likely to embrace any technology it comes across than Blue is. In White’s eyes some forms of technology are just plain dangerous, evil or inhumane and cannot be allowed to be used by just anyone, and in some cases should just not be used at all. Plus most technology or artifacts that are destroyed could probably be repaired anyway.
Friendly to legendary permanents- White is primary in being friendly to legendary permanents. If you asked me why this is the case the first thing that comes to mind for me is White’s morality. Due to the fact that White believes in an objective morality it is also the most likely color to believe in things like heroes, villains, holy/sacred objects or demonic/evil items, etc. So White caring about legendary permanents could be a reflection of this. It is also more likely to elevate or admire those it sees as heroes or sacred as an example to uplift and follow.
Friendly to lands, Animating lands, Basic land counting, and "Tutor" for a land- White is secondary in being friendly to lands, primary in being able to animate lands(which is the ability to turn lands into a creature with a certain power and toughness until the end of the turn). and basic land counting(effects that scale equal to the number of basic lands you control). Finally, it is tertiary in being able to tutor for lands.
The important thing to remember about lands in Magic is that while Green tends to care about them the most(for reasons I will get to in a later Green centric article) all the colors tend to have some sort of land matters ability because they at the very least care about their corresponding basic lands or just lands that produce their corresponding color.
For example White is going to have creatures that care about plains and Blue is going to have creatures that care about islands because those are the lands/leylines that produce white and blue mana respectively in gameplay.
Ultimately, like 98% of land matters abilities outside of Green can probably be attributed to this kind of flavor.
Interestingly, White does have cards that allow it to put extra plains on the battlefield like Green does but unlike Green this is only when there is another player with more lands than White. This ties in with White’s themes of fairness and equality along with the aforementioned leyline stuff.
Life gain, Lifelink, "Drain Life"- White is primary in life gain and Lifelink while being tertiary in Drain Life effects(which are effects that deal damage to a creature/player and gain you life equal to that damage).
White’s life gain is something that I have already talked about in depth so I’m just going to copy and paste what I’ve said before “White tends to be associated with life. This is most obvious in the healing magic and life gain which tend to represent how White is all about helping others and the group. White is trying to encourage all of us to look out for each other... White philosophy tends to care about the group and the masses so its connection to life also extends to the fact that it usually wants to save as many lives as possible and how White is all about the bigger picture and greater good. So it usually cares about lives on a mass scale… life gain also ties into White’s more defensive and long-term goals by helping people, the player, or the group withstand something they normally couldn’t or to save as many people as possible.”
Due to the fact White and Green are primary in life gain they can often just gain life with little to no hoops to jump through. Lifelink often represents a creature’s ability to heal or take care of others by taking action. You could see the fact that they usually have to attack or block to activate the lifelink the ability as also representing White’s selfless goals as these creatures will often have to put themselves in danger or tank an attack to heal others.
I imagine the reason why White is only tertiary in drain life effects is because a lot of those effects come off as parasitic or are flavored as draining energy from something which can easily come off as cruel or more Black aligned in flavor.
However, White is still capable of healing or aiding people while punishing enemies(lifelink is technically an example of this).
A lot of the time when White gets a drain life affects it’s when it's in specific factions, like the Black and White aligned Orzhov or for the portion of Phyrexians that are White aligned which come with their own layer of flavor connected to their color alignment. Being forced to pay life when you do something could also tie in with White’s laws, rules, and/or structures theme.
Token generation, Increasing counters and/or tokens, and "Warlord"- White is primary in token generation and “Warlord” cards(which are creatures that have a power and toughness equal to the number of creatures you control) while being secondary in being able to increase counters and/or tokens. I kind of went over most of this stuff so I’m just going to copy and paste the pertinent information
“White is pretty famous for its ability to make lots and lots of creature tokens as well as the fact that White’s creatures tend to be very small, including its tokens. White usually makes 1/1 tokens while a color like Green usually makes 3/3 tokens and Black typically makes 2/2 tokens and… in general White prefers “weenie” strategies(strategies that focus on using small and usually efficient creatures). So what does this all mean?... White having small creatures isn’t necessarily because it is physically weaker than other kinds of magic or colors but because ideologically it prefers to work as a team and views the group more important than the individual, but in fairness White is all about helping everyone(including the weak).” So having the ability to easily make or summon more small creatures and being able to go wide more often “forces the player to think of most of their creatures as pieces of a larger whole that work together instead of just sending a massive 10/10 with trample to smash the opponent’s face in…
Trying to win with only a couple of big creatures in Mono-White tends to be an uphill battle because that’s not the way White would usually argue you should approach the situation. If you want to win you shouldn’t get hyper-fixated on one or three big creatures but take into account the bigger picture and goal of the group in order to get people to work together towards said goal. This also means that if a creature dies or sacrifices themselves the overall objective is probably not in vain since the opponent will probably still have to contend with an army of other creatures.
So if you want to win with White you need to acknowledge the fact that individual creatures aren’t usually going to matter as much as the entire group of creatures and if an individual creature does matter the most it is usually going to still be dependent on, or at least benefit from, you have a large group of other creatures to back them up.”
Warlord effects also reflect this philosophy’s theme of the good of the many by being a mechanic that rewards you for playing lots of creatures and prioritizing the group over just having a couple of creatures. Without the help of the group the creature becomes tiny and less helpful. It is the metaphorical power of your group working together being made literal. It should also be mentioned that while White’s tokens tend to be smaller it tends to make more of them than other colors do at one time.
White being secondary in being able to increase the number of one’s tokens either during or after they are made is basically the same flavor as White in general relying on the many and the group. So it of course has abilities that allow you to reach this goal easier. White having the ability to increase the number of counters either during or after they have been put on something relates to its ideals of helping and supporting others.
It also makes sense when you consider White is primary in +1/+1 counters and how these sorts of counters can often represent things like healing or strengthening people. So with these effects put together you are increasing how much you can strengthen or boost a creature. Not to mention that White is just friendly to tokens in general and has ways of boosting them.
Playing cards off the top of your library and paying their mana cost- White is secondary in being able to play cards off the top of your library by paying their mana cost(You may look at the top card of your library and if it's a (insert a type of card here) you may play it).
This is another one of those abilities that literally every color gets to one degree or another since they can at the very least care about specific subsets of cards or cards with specific attributes, such as cards of a matching color, specific creature type(s), certain card type the color cares about(such as enchantments and some artifacts for White), etc. I think this ability is a bit too vague to have any specific flavor and probably usually just reinforces existing flavor by allowing you to play cards a color would care about philosophically or mechanically off the top of their library.
The one exception to this COULD be why Blue does it but that’s for another time. I guess you could potentially see this mechanic as indicative of some sort of forethought or actively thinking, kind of like scrying or card draw, in some way if you really wanted to depending on the situation.
Rewards for death, "Lhurgoyf", and Cast spells from your graveyard- White is secondary in having rewards for death(which are effects that trigger whenever you or another creature you control dies), tertiary in “Lhurgoyf” abilities(which just have your creature's power and toughness be equal to the number of cards in your/all graveyard(s)), and tertiary in casting spells from the graveyard.
As mentioned in the previous article, despite how much people seem to think Black has a monopoly on sacrifice, White does actually have a bit of a sacrifice theme.
White is a philosophy that is all about putting the needs of the group above that of individuals and putting others first. So sometimes one may need to make sacrifices or forgo things they want in order to help others or the group. White is a philosophy that would argue if sacrificing yourself saves a greater amount of people than it loses you should usually do it. Now to be clear White tends to lean towards self-sacrifice in both mechanics and flavor while Black argues you should have no qualms about sacrificing others to get what you want.
This means while White may care about death mechanically sometimes, when it comes to sacrifice abilities White creatures almost always sacrifice themselves as opposed to others.
White often does things like gain life, creates token creatures, or helps the dying creature go somewhere other than the graveyard(it may even save them by returning them to the battlefield).
Gaining life can be seen as the creature’s sacrifice or death helping to heal you and aid others in order to help other’s survive, creating tokens just ties into White’s themes of the group and how a sacrifice may aid the group, and putting a dying creature somewhere other than the graveyard often represents a creature you control being saved from dying.
Discard as a cost, and Life loss as a cost- White is tertiary in both using discard and life loss as some sort of cost.
In Black this discard and/or life loss as a cost is representative of its philosophy of using any means necessary to get what it wants and in Red it often represents its reckless or shortsighted ideals but, similar to mechanics like scry, all the colors end up getting both these effects to one degree or another. In this case it is often used as a mechanical drawback or limitation on some of their cards or abilities.
I mean abilities like Channel and Cycling go in all colors and revolve around discarding a card to activate the ability. Let’s also not forget about Phyrexian mana which allows you to pay 2 life in place of paying a mana in order to cast a card.
Often these colors may also pay these extra costs to do something that fits within their color pie. For example, White may discard cards or pay life to grant something indestructible, gain life, create tokens, etc. I guess it's also important to consider that in the case of White discard and life loss as a cost tie in very well to the themes of self sacrifice. So to me, sacrificing a little bit of life or discarding a card to protect or save one of your creatures/someone else definitely has a strong flavor for White philosophy and mechanics
Color changing- White is tertiary in color changing(Target/this creature becomes the color(s) of your choice until end of turn). This is sort of a similar case to lands where there is a specific color that has strong flavor reasons for being able to do it and thus also more access to color changing abilities and mechanics(in this case it's Blue and its ability to change and creature’s color to anything and Green being secondary in the effect) but at the end of the day all colors have this ability to one degree or another because they can all at the very least change creatures to their own corresponding color. Such as a White card being able to turn a creature into a White creature. Not much to discuss other than the colors are more likely to synergize with those that have similar philosophies and changing a creature’s color may often represent it being converted to White philosophy and such.
Card draw- White is tertiary in card draw as it is typically restricted to drawing over time rather than all at once. This means that White is typically restricted to having effects that draw one card per-turn or abilities that allow it to draw multiple cards but also cause an enemy to draw that many cards.
White being often restricted to one card being drawn per effect ties into one of White philosophy’s weaknesses that have been mentioned in the previous article. That being it’s a philosophy that can easily encourage inflexible or stagnant ways of thinking. White is by default the color that tends to offer the least wiggle room philosophically since it believes in an objective good and evil of some sort which means it has the fewest gray areas and it encourages people to see the world in, ironically, black and white terms.
This can also stunt potential creativity and can encourage conformity to an unhealthy degree since White will obviously not want to do anything it sees as objectively evil and it wants to make sure everyone does the right/good thing. This can encourage a conservative way of approaching the world that is slow to change, slow to adapt, and slow to accept new ideas. This means that the limiting card draw may often represent White encouraging stagnation, being less open to new ideas and information, or having a philosophy that can make it hard to adapt. White’s ability to draw multiple cards if it is also causing someone else to draw the same amount of cards ties in with its theme of helping as many people as possible, and equality, fairness and balance.
It also allows for interesting politics in multiplayer formats(like Commander) which can encourage you to work together with another player to solve a bigger issue or resolve an issue nonviolently for as long as possible. Which ties into White’s themes of wanting to avoid conflict where it feels like it can and focusing on teamwork.
Now I don’t mean to go onto a tangent but I know White is notoriously bad at card draw but I don’t think its current card draw limitations are as bad as most people think it is. Now I’m not saying it's good, that Wizard’s couldn’t handle it better(good lord could they handle it better), or even that having card draw isn’t absurdly powerful mechanically. What I am saying is that there is actually a decent amount of wiggle room within White’s current card draw limitations and it's not as suffocating as people think. Being able to draw one card per turn sounds terrible but it's more like being able to draw one card each instance. Meaning White can draw multiple cards per turn they would just need to come from different sources or from different triggers.
A card like Opt could actually fit into White’s mechanical color pie perfectly since it can scry and it only draws one card. On top of that there are other spells in White like Revitalization that have “draw a card” stapled on and cards like Archivist of Oghma that draw a card whenever a condition is met.
Now just drawing one card is no substitute for card advantage and you're still not net gaining anything if the trigger only goes off once but again White cards are typically restricted to drawing one card in each instance of their activation or ability and White can actually draw more than one card each turn in order to gain card advantage. Plus, there is plenty of potential card design space to expand on White’s card draw(like maybe drawing multiple cards if an opponent is ahead to represent White’s balance and equality).
Plus, who can forget about staple cards like Esper Sentinel.
Speaking of which, while drawing one card per-turn or whenever a condition is met is the most common limitation White does also get tax effects that allow you to draw a card unless a certain amount of mana is paid.
Extra Attack- White is tertiary in extra attacks(Untap all creatures that attacked this turn. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase.)
This tends to flavor as White’s more proactive change the world ideals but also ties heavily into how White often has military theming due to its focus on all its combatants working together as a well-oiled machine to achieve something they couldn’t together and how armies are made up of these people working together.
Plus, since White often has so many creatures it can reward you for having all those creatures by allowing you to swing with all those creatures again. It ends up being only tertiary in it because it does not lean into as much proactive aggression as Red does.
Prowess- White is tertiary in prowess, which is a keyword that reads “Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn” and started off as the signature keyword for the Jeskai Way in Khans of Tarkir before being turned into an evergreen word and then being demoted to a deciduous keyword(and just barely at that!!!).
I’m probably going to do more of a dive into the keyword when I inevitably go over the Jeskai’s flavor and mechanics but considering it originated with a faction of monks who embody the aspect of dragons’ cunning and strive to reach a form of enlightenment I assume the flavor here is one of discipline and strategy(at least in the case of White). A creature with Prowess can suddenly get bigger when you cast a noncreature spell which adds a depth of strategy to using or fighting against them due to the fact they could get bigger at any time. Also, as mentioned previously, making creatures bigger with +1/+1 counters/effects makes them harder to kill and acts as a way to help keep your creatures safer. Plus, there’s still the effect of whatever noncreature spell your casting in the first place to consider.
The End
I apologize for the massive wait on this article and how long it took to make. The next article will be all about Blue philosophy and some of its mechanics. Although, I might choose to write an article about the flavor of angels and/or humans and why they are so often White aligned before then. My point is that I am still working on more articles to come and this isn’t the end, well it's the end but not the end of the series. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day and feel free to tell me your favorite White keyword or mechanic either from a flavor and/or mechanical perspective. It doesn’t even need to be from this article and can be faction or plane specific.
#mtg#MagicTheGathering#ColorPie#WhitePhilosophy#MtgWhitePhilosophy#TheTasteOfMagicTheGathering#TheFlavorOfMagicTheGathering
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