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 on Google Docs here(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y1d7vBZozSEmkARSeGYj4onyty6uAXlooaXKR9WxLOI/edit)). I should also mention that today I am focusing on MONO-Blue as a color philosophy. This means some specifics here may not apply to every color combination that includes Blue. It is also important to remember that the color pie is ultimately a vague philosophical archetype, not a personality archetype(even if a personality can be influenced by one’s personal philosophy). 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/encourages or discourages. Also, the color philosophies are all about what people find most important. So when I say something like Blue likes knowledge and Black cares about the self that does not mean that it is all those colors care about. Even Blue may care about emotions, Black may still care about others, and White often still cares about the individual. It’s just that those things come second fiddle to other things and should not get in the way of their primary goals. I should also note that because this article is about Blue and I do not have infinite time I will mainly be covering things from Blue’s perspective. So sorry if it comes off like I’m just bashing Red and Green philosophy at any point but I promise that those colors will get their chance to shine in their own articles one day. What I’m saying is don’t base your entire view of Blue’s enemy colors on this article since it probably won’t be the most flattering perspective.

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 Blue’s case, its phrase is “Perfection through Knowledge.” In this case, the end goal is “Perfection” and the means is “Knowledge.” What this is supposed to tell us is that Blue philosophy is all about perfecting one’s self and the world around it and creating a world where everyone and everything can be the best version of themselves. I think it’s important to clarify the wording here for Blue is not saying you literally need to be perfect or never make a mistake. Only that you should strive to be the best version of yourself you can be. In the case of Blue, perfection isn’t an end goal but an endless process and a mindset saying you should be constantly striving to do better. Since Blue is all about being the best you can be, its philosophy is often summarized as perfection since if you’re striving constantly to become better and better constantly then you are always striving to get as close to perfection as possible. If I had to put it in a simpler way, Blue is about “Improvement/Progress through Knowledge.”

The way Blue believes we should achieve this is through the aforementioned knowledge. Blue is a philosophy that believes anything and everything can theoretically be understood and made possible as long as you have the knowledge, tools, time, and dedication. To this end, it is important to properly obtain and use knowledge since Blue believes almost anything can be achieved if you have the proper knowledge, resources, and time. In order to utilize this knowledge it is important to use your head and think through your actions as much as possible. Blue is a philosophy that strives to be open to any possibility but not too hasty to action because everything has a theoretical solution if the right amount of time, energy, and understanding is applied. This tends to mean Blue is generally against both impulse and instinct. Now Blue isn’t inherently against any and all emotions and it often acknowledges emotions as a powerful force(which makes discipline and forethought all the more important). Blue is simply arguing that you shouldn’t let things like emotions and instincts control you without tempering them with thought and reason because they often spur short-sighted actions that can hurt you in the long run. While they can grant you quick satisfaction, if improperly controlled they can come back to bite you later(or even immediately). Also, just going with whatever you immediately feel tends to conflict with Blue’s ideal of not making hasty decisions because Blue wants to strive to make the best and most optimal decision as much as possible. Part of doing that is keeping in mind more long-term goals over transient short-sighted ones and keeping the big picture in mind so that you can properly understand the ramifications of your actions and choices. Blue also understands that there are typically a limited amount of resources and time one has access to and to Blue it is important to maximize these resources by making informed, thoughtful, and considered decisions.

Similar to how White has some notable ways it tends to use structure, Blue has some notable ways it tends to approach and use knowledge. First off, since Blue believes knowledge, understanding, and thought are the key to everything it is often advocating for as much knowledge as possible and gathering any knowledge it comes across since you never know when the knowledge may become helpful in the future. There is also the fact that Blue may not always know or be aware of the knowledge it may need which can also often encourage it to collect as much knowledge as possible in order to increase the chances that it finds out something it didn’t know it needed or if the knowledge becomes helpful later. This often gives Blue an emphasis in regard to learning and education as these are some of the best tools to acquire more knowledge. This also tends to extend to a more structural level and not just individual levels. From Blue’s perspective, being the best self you can also mean that the society in which individuals reside needs to also be the best it can be. So Blue tends to prioritize things like education systems, libraries, schools, and other structured systems in regard to education. These can act as vectors for people obtaining the knowledge to become whatever it is that they consider to be their best selves as well as allow for Blue to obtain even more knowledge in order to give it an edge and allow it to overcome obstacles. If Black’s goal can be described as attempting to become as close to omnipotent(all-powerful) as possible so that it can get everything it needs, Blue’s can be described as one that strives to be as close to omniscient(being all-knowing) as possible. 

Mark has given us 4 notable ways Blue may like to use knowledge in his “True Blue Revisited” article. Firstly, knowledge can be used to control people or get them to act in a way that is beneficial for you, others, or society via withholding pieces of information. Secondly, it can act as a key, allowing those with the right info to access or do things others do not know how to do. Those who know the proper words or actions may know how to do things others cannot. Thirdly, it can act as a form of protection. It goes without saying that if you know something’s coming you can better prepare for it and if you know what exactly something even is you may be able to use it to your advantage or exploit a weakness. Fourthly, it can be used as a weapon or a form of attack. This sort of ties into the first point since while controlling knowledge gives you the ability to exercise control over others, knowing/exposing the right piece of knowledge or secret information can be quite devastating(think stuff like blackmail or exposing weaknesses to the public). 

Also, restricting someone’s information by lying, deceiving, hiding it, etc. can give a tactical advantage since they may not even realize there’s anything to fight back against or how to do it.

Blue is also a color philosophy that is more likely to take advantage of technicalities or utilize loopholes in laws and/or rules to get what it wants since it is a philosophy that is all about nuance and understanding the world around it and how they function. This emphasis on knowledge and understanding means that Blue often has a respect for science, since science is quite literally defined by the dictionary as “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.”, “a systematically organized body of knowledge on a particular subject”, or “knowledge of any kind” and science is literally all about understanding how things work. Now just to be clear, you don’t need to be a scientist or specifically engage in science first and foremost per se to be Blue, but that’s something I’ll get into later. Tying in with Blue’s themes of knowledge and understanding, Blue is a philosophy that believes every phenomenon that exists or happens has an explanation for how and why it occurs even if we have yet to figure it out. This adds an aspect of questioning basically everything as much as possible since anything and everything can theoretically be understood in due time and under the right circumstances. Where colors like White or Green may see events as holy miracles or some sort of occurrence that cannot always be explained, Blue argues that there is an explanation for how and why these events occur. Although, this is not to say that Blue could never attribute something to a god or some sort of magic(even if I would say that in general Blue would probably usually, but not always, subscribe to the “Magic is just science we don’t yet understand yet” style of thinking. Although it is important to acknowledge that for some people and places within the multiverse some sort of magic, supernatural occurrence, or similar explanation could be a valid one for them).

This brings us to Blue’s themes of perfection, self-improvement, and technology(as they are all related). As mentioned, Blue is all about being the best self one can be via knowledge and forethought. This ties in with some of Blue’s philosophy as Blue believes anything is possible and everything is a blank slate. When I say this I don’t mean Blue believes you can just magically start flying because you think about doing it hard enough or that it doesn’t believe in genetics or being more likely to be predisposed to certain things. Rather that everyone basically has infinite potential and there is a way to achieve what they want or want to be. Let me put it this way, if someone is born blind then they may be able to have perfect 20/20 vision via glasses, contacts, or surgery. 

If something is born without wings to grant it the ability to fly then it may be possible to grant it flight using something like a jetpack, flying vehicle(such as an airplane), or maybe even some crazy futuristic genetic engineering to change someone’s very DNA.

This is all to say, Blue isn’t claiming you can just will yourself to grow wings or have perfect vision but rather that with the right amount of knowledge, one can do these things in order to make themselves better if they so choose. This is where Blue’s themes of technology come in since said devices and technology allow you to alter yourself and/or do things that you could not do on your own. 

Normally, humans cannot fly but airplanes change that. Normally, nearsighted people cannot just manifest 20/20 vision but glasses change that. So Blue’s idea of a blank slate is more the idea that there is a path that allows you to become whatever it is you want to be if you take the right steps and make the best-informed choices possible and that it is possible for you to overcome and/or break free of things like genetics, fate, destiny, etc. 

Blue also has a mindset that encourages one to never give up since there is basically always a way to get what they want. In Blue’s eyes even if it were to assume there is some hypothetical that could literally never be achieved no matter how much knowledge one obtained and no matter how advanced technology became there would be no way of knowing unless you are actually trying to achieve it anyway. The best way I can put it is through an example given in Mark Rosewater’s “STRIVING FOR PERFECTION” article: “For years no human was able to run a mile in under four minutes. Physiologists at the time claimed that it was quite possibly beyond the ability of the human body and that the mere attempt at such a thing would be dangerous to the athlete that tried it. Then one day a man named Roger Bannister did it. Forty-six days later another runner broke the four-minute barrier. Within three years, fourteen more runners had also done it. Now it’s the standard for mid-distance runners… It was an impossible task, that is, until someone did it. Then it became a doable task and many people did it. The only barrier was a mental one. Runners couldn’t do it because they didn’t believe it was possible. Once it was proven possible, it completely changed how they approached the problem. People can do things they believe they can do. If you take a task at hand and assume you can do it, guess what happens? You do it.” This type of perspective in regards to the potential most people have is what Blue’s mindset may often be likened to. In a way in order to understand what is truly possible Blue is saying we must approach everything with the assumption that it is somehow possible. All the color philosophies basically have an answer for what your goal in life should be and how to achieve that and in Blue’s case that goal is basically pushing yourself to the limit and being the very best you can be while constantly seeking to better yourself and the world around you so it can in turn encourage and facilitate ways for you and others to be better. Blue is interesting in that it stresses that one must be flexible and open to all the possibilities while also not being too hasty or quick to action(as to give yourself time to figure out the best possible decisions). Of course, like all color philosophies, Blue usually wants a society that encourages this. So it will typically advocate for citizens being granted good opportunities for education, places to safely experience things through trial and error(as outside of controlled situations you should strive to make as few errors as possible), and some way to access the best and most recent tools and technology so they to can gain the knowledge and understanding needed to better themselves, the society they live in, and the world around them. Blue philosophy is ultimately, and succinctly, revolving around self-actualization(which is defined as “the realization or fulfillment of one’s talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.”)

Blue’s emphasis on knowledge, understanding, information, and forethought means that within Magic it often has an emphasis on academics, books & other repositories of information, mind/thought, control, memory, manipulation, artifice, trickery, subtlety, complexity, and illusions. Of course, the emphasis on knowledge means that Blue also has symbolic associations with the mind, and by extension abilities and magic relating to the mind and information regarding it, like telepathy and telekinesis. On the other hand, Blue’s emphasis on utilizing your time to the absolute fullest in order to gather as much information and time to think as possible tends to associate it with time-based magic and passivity and Blue’s emphasis on progress, betterment and what could be what gives it some future symbolism. Meanwhile, Blue’s emphasis on technology, improvement, and tools gives it a strong symbolic connection to construction/technology, artifacts, and man-made items.

Requirements

As with my previous discussion about White philosophy and beliefs, I think it’s important to help cement a more concrete understanding of what one needs to believe in to be Blue aligned. I’ll do this by discussing the most basic and barebone ideals needed to potentially qualify for being Blue aligned. Of course there are a couple of disclaimers. 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 Blue character can end up being hot headed and overemotional, although they would normally see this as a flaw/mistake or potentially have some sort of self justification for it, and not every person who values knowledge is necessarily Mono-Blue or even has Blue in their color identity at all because they may have a different outlook on life or value something more important than progress and knowledge. They may also think knowledge should be used for a purpose different from that of what Blue says. Also, this article is specifically about Mono-Blue so these requirements are only meant to apply to just Blue, and any color combinations that contain Blue mixed with other colors may not necessarily follow the same rules, for example: it is possible to be Blue-Red aligned and believe that your emotions are more important than thinking things through.

First off, in order to be Blue aligned, one must believe that theoretically anything is possible and can be understood with the right amount of time, advanced enough technology and/or a certain amount of knowledge. As mentioned before Blue isn’t foolish enough to believe that you can just grow wings with the power of thought but it may be possible in the distant future to create artificial wings, jetpacks, or vehicles that could carry you just as well, or even better, than any naturally occurring wings. Blue can also concede things like the fact that being literally perfect and without flaws is impossible. It’s a philosophy that believes that everything in the universe can theoretically be understood with enough time, advanced enough technology, and/or a certain amount of knowledge and thus believes everything has an explanation even if we do not know what said explanation is at the moment. We might not be able to grow wings or understand all the mysteries of the universe now but who knows? Maybe in a 1,000 years, these things and how they work will be as common as running water or something. If it wasn’t clear from some of my examples you don’t need to believe that LITERALLY anything and everything is possible or that there are no limitations. Like Blue isn’t about to say that a random ass roaches on the sidewalk is about to start inventing advanced technology just because it wills it or that it could reach the same kind of thoughts as a human without outside interference. It’s also important to remember that one tends to only have a limited amount of resources and time(which is why Blue would often say you need to make the best decisions possible). There are plenty of Blue characters that would argue one can never become completely perfect or that achieving something isn’t feasible within a certain amount of time or time frame and for many it would be utterly ridiculous to believe that a human could do something like break the sound barrier while running through sheer force of will and no outside technology to aid them or that you can achieve omniscience and understand all of the universe with the current level of technology.

Secondly, and most obvious, one has to believe in following their mind and using forethought over one’s emotions. This also ties in with the idea of knowledge being powerful and most important since the knowledge you gather allows you to make better decisions and letting your emotions have you just constantly make shortsighted and hair-brained decisions would just put that knowledge to waste. Doing something because “I just felt like it” outside of specific situations(such as a game or something) usually isn’t going to cut it even if you can understand where it is coming from.

Thirdly, you must believe that everyone is a blank slate. As mentioned before this does not mean one needs to straight up completely not believe that things like being predisposed towards certain things via genetics or biology or even destiny and/or fate exist. Rather that it is possible, in one way or another through willpower, discipline, knowledge, technology, etc. to change, overcome and/or break free of these things in one way or another. 

Essentially, these are not the end-all-be-all limits for what we can and can’t do as long as we have the technology, time, and/or knowledge to do so. Blue philosophy tends to fall under various types of tabula rasa style schools of thought(that the human mind receives knowledge and forms itself based on experience alone, without any pre-existing innate ideas that would serve as a starting point. Tabula rasa thus implies that individual human beings are born “blank” (with no built-in mental content) and that their identity is defined entirely by their experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world… ).

A Colorful Quote

In order to hopefully better understand where each color is coming 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/ideals in order to help package the color in a philosophical form of thought you may be more familiar with or understand.

The first quote is Lao Tzu’s “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” I feel like this quote does a pretty good job of showing why Blue tends to put all its stock in knowledge and understanding. As that knowledge allows you to do anything and can also be used to aid and better yourself. Understanding and knowing how to fish and how fishing works puts people in a better position than just never accumulating the knowledge while continuously buying fish without thought. Teaching people how to fish instead of just hoarding the knowledge can also allow for a better society and the world. Since dispensing the knowledge of how to fish allows more people to gather food which means society has more food. Having this knowledge also puts one in a position of power since if you know how to fish but your clients do not then they are more likely to have to rely on you and do what you say for food. “Knowledge is power” as they say(a phrase we’ll come back to later). Similarly, the famous Sun Tzu quote “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” also shows how a philosophy that puts all its stock in knowledge might be appealing to Blue, and both quotes display that when Blue is faced with a problem it almost always advocates to tackle it from the angle of knowledge. The first quote also shows how knowledge can be used to make the world a better place, by teaching others, and this Sun Tzu quote also displays that while knowledge can be used to make the world a better place it can also act as an offensive or defensive weapon by understanding a situation or knowing something your enemies do not.

“Mind over matter” is a popular phrase and is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as  “-used to describe a situation in which someone is able to control a physical condition, problem, etc., by using the mind.” As mentioned before, Blue doesn’t necessarily believe you can say just start growing wings through sheer force of will but I feel like this quote still tends to embody a very Blue mindset or goal. Mind over matter situations are going to be the types of situations Blue tends to gravitate towards, and views problems as, because Blue believes that knowledge, willpower, and time can allow you to overcome many different kinds of weaknesses and problems. 

The emphasis on mind over matter is also why in the game of MTG Blue tends to get things like telekinesis, an ability that allows one to perform physical actions using the mind and may even allow them to do things they could not do physically. While Blue can still believe in getting jacked and perfecting one’s body/physique it will argue that the best way to approach this is through knowledge and understanding. At the end of the day if you can understand the why and how something works it is possible to exert your will over it in some way and get the desired result. You may be able to increase your stamina while running by pushing yourself to the limit and exercising or by using some specific running technique. As pointed out earlier, from the perspective of Blue how can we know what truly is or isn’t possible for both the world around us and ourselves if we don’t push ourselves. I’m sure everyone had a situation or thing that they thought they would be bad at but turned out to be actually decent at or enjoy it. Or maybe you thought something like “I’ll never be a good artist” only to see how far you’ve come a couple years later.

“Knowledge is power” is a phrase that one could argue may apply a bit more to Dimir(Blue-Black) philosophy but I think it also applies to Blue quite well, and while Black and Blue do overlap in an emphasis on knowledge, Black sees power somewhat differently than Blue and doesn’t always see knowledge as being synonymous with power. However, I’ll get into that later. Of course, the color philosophy that believes knowledge and understanding can be used as a way to achieve anything would also see those things as the vectors for obtaining power and control if it really wants or needs to. This quote is also meant to emphasize the importance of passing on knowledge and education which is usually going to be important to Blue philosophy. Knowledge gives you the power to gain control over your own life. Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr’s “Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control” hits a lot of the same beats(even if it might be overall a more White-Blue or Bant(Green-White-Blue) quote).

“Measure twice cut once” is a quote that I feel perfectly encapsulates Blue’s ideals of trying to take as much time as possible while using the knowledge you have to make the best possible decisions. One only has so much resources and so much time so it is best to avoid careless mistakes or accidents as much as possible. You shouldn’t just go with whatever your emotions or gut tells you but always be trying to use your brain. Your emotions and what you want aren’t always the things you need and may sometimes only offer short-term gratification at the expense of more important or long term goals. You also shouldn’t rush things and try to take the time to understand a situation/problem as much as you can. Doing this can also save you even more time down the line than just rushing in would have.

Finally, “knowledge is its own reward” is probably one of the most Blue quotes out there. Out of all the colors Blue is the one that is most likely to be concerned about knowledge for knowledge’s sake because it wants to accumulate as much as possible since you never know when said knowledge may come in handy and it may reveal yet another bit of knowledge you didn’t know you needed. While Blue does have its own reasons for wanting to obtain knowledge, such as perfection and self-betterment, the other colors, such as White and Black, are less likely to care about knowledge for its own sake and are more likely to see it as just a means to an end.

Philosophical Strengths

Despite all of Blue’s themes of perfection, nothing is truly perfect and that goes for all color philosophies, including Blue. However, before I go over Blue’s philosophical weaknesses it is vital to go over Blue’s philosophical strengths in order to show some of the upsides and positives its philosophy can often encourage.

Blue’s most obvious and noteworthy strength is how it can encourage the use of knowledge and information. Blue does not only seek to figure out the best ways to acquire knowledge but also how to properly use knowledge as a tool. This encourages a way of approaching things that involves taking the time to utilize said knowledge by looking at the big picture/plan, and trying to figure out the consequences of each and every action they take. Blue strives to never act careless or without great thought and this can lead it to being less likely to make obvious or avoidable mistakes and consequences(but this does not make them immune to them mind you. No one is perfect). This also ties in with how Blue values restraint due to prioritizing using one’s knowledge and forethought over letting one’s emotions control them. This is another factor that can encourage the avoidance of careless mistakes. Blue argues for preparing for the long game and big picture and tries to not let its emotions ruin more important or bigger term goals for short term gratification. Blue’s prioritization of knowledge and understanding also makes it more likely to notice, understand, and/or utilize nuance(s) that may otherwise be missed. 

Going back to knowledge being a powerful tool, it is important to remember that one such way it can act as a tool is by being a weapon. It’s easy to see Blue and assume it just wants to spread knowledge constantly at all times but since Blue sees knowledge as vital when it’s approaching an opponent it seeks to not only use its own knowledge but restrict the knowledge of its opponent. This means Blue is more likely to lean into things like secrets, trickery, disinformation, and lies. By restricting someone’s access to information/knowledge you gain a tactical advantage because at the end of the day there’s only so much someone can do if they don’t even know they’re in any danger or what you even plan to do. 

Due to this, Blue can have a bit of an underhanded sneaky quality that some people may miss when discussing its color philosophy, but I mean it is ally colors with Black(a color that’s all about doing literally whatever it takes to get on top.) so this trait is to be expected to one degree or another. 

Philosophical weaknesses

Now for the weaknesses. A philosophy all about knowledge and understanding may be seen as being objectively all upside by a lot of MTG players at first, but nothing is perfect. Even Blue still has some weaknesses.

For one, Blue philosophy is one that can encourage being very passive to a fault. Striving to think just about everything through and utilize all the time available to do so can make quick decision making or taking immediate/spontaneous action difficult unless you already knew something was coming. This means that Blue may be prone to being outsped by others or opponents taking initiative and making a decision before it can figure out the best course of action. Simultaneously, this can also severely limit Blue’s flexibility. Blue is ultimately a philosophy that is extremely adaptive since it’s all about “anything is possible,” and “everyone is a blank slate” but it is not the best at encouraging on going with the flow and/or being flexible enough to change and adapt on a dime. Blue is all about finding answers and improving but via an overall slow process of carefully considered knowledge and thought. This also segways nicely into my next point. While it can act as a strength, Blue’s restraint can also become a weakness when pushed too far. Due to Blue doing all it can to take its time and fully understand what’s happening in order to make the best decision possible it may end up becoming paralyzed and not making a proper decision. Think of it this way, Blue is all about being the best you one can be and part of doing that is trying to make as few mistakes as possible while also making the best decisions one can make. This means that Blue can sometimes end up becoming “paralyzed” while it tries to figure out not just what choice(s) to make but what is the very BEST choice(s) it can possibly make while considering all the nuances and trying to avoid any mistakes. 

This can encourage inactivity and even potentially not making any choices at all or not making a choice in time out of fear that one may make a mistake, bad decision, or a suboptimal choice. This is another factor that can encourage a mindset that leads to one not making decisions fast enough.

Another way that Blue’s emphasis on knowledge can end up acting as a weakness is that Blue is a philosophy that tends to want to put all its eggs in the metaphorical basket of  understanding what’s going on. This can once again add on to Blue’s weakness of acting too slowly or not at all, as Blue may struggle to come to a decision if it is put in a situation in which it can’t or has trouble understanding what’s going on. The other colors are more likely to advocate for taking action or make a choice even if they don’t or can’t completely understand the full picture of what is happening or what they are facing. This also means that Blue is usually the slowest out of the five colors in mindset, flavor, mechanics, and gameplay.

Another thing to consider is that Blue believes almost anything is possible. Which can, when pushed too far, encourage an outlook that pushes someone way too hard or tries to force things to change/happen in order to prove something or because it feels like it can. This can be sort of seen with some of the Green-Blue Simic Combine’s, the Blue-Red Izzet League’s experiments, as well as some of the horrifying creatures created by Innistrad’s various Blue mad scientists and Blue-Black stitchers. The best way to think about it is there is a sort of Victor Frankenstein side to Blue. The idea that everything can be known and mastered. This can sometimes lead to this philosophy pushing things a bit too far in the same way most people agree that Victor probably shouldn’t have been messing with life in the way he did. To Blue, The world is everyone’s sandbox in a way, anything can be improved and fiddled with.

Sometimes Blue encourages one to push themselves, others, or the world around them too far just to see if it can or in order to better understand it. To Blue, the world is its canvas in a sense.

Common Misconceptions

This brings me to what is becoming one of my favorite parts to cover in regards to color the Color Pie. 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. I also want to hopefully make any conversations someone may have about the Color Pie more informed, nuanced, and productive. 

One of THE MOST common misconceptions I see is that being Blue makes you smart, or that being smart must mean you’re Blue. This also tends to extend to people who begin to self identify as Blue and identify other people as Blue because they are smart and not because they actually agree with Blue philosophy. First off, just thinking a lot or appreciating thought doesn’t make one any more Blue then having emotions makes someone Red, having to eat makes someone Green, or wanting rules/regulations makes someone White. The color pie is a VALUE system; it ultimately comes down to what one values as more or less important. The other colors can all value or like being smart or intelligent but may not see gathering knowledge and information in order to improve yourself as the most important thing we should strive for. Furthermore, it also comes down to how you would argue one should use said knowledge. Blue would argue you should use knowledge and understanding to better oneself(although if you want to include multicolored identities it is possible to have Blue in a color identity and see knowledge as a thing that should be used for some other goal. However, my point still stands). This brings me to the other point. Blue VALUES knowledge but simply valuing something doesn’t automatically mean you have it in spades. Just valuing information doesn’t mean you have it and just valuing being smart doesn’t mean you are smart. Let me put it another way, not all Black aligned characters are powerful just because they value power and ruthlessness and not all White aligned characters are kind and just people simply because they value those things. That’s like saying that just because you want to be rich that means you are rich. You can have weak Black aligned characters and asshole White aligned characters. Likewise, you can have stupid or uninformed Blue characters. 

The truth is, just merely being smart is a trait that anyone of any color or color combination can have in the same way that something like being emotional or shy is. This kind of goes hand in hand with the misconception that the Red alignment is somehow inherently stupid even though Red can be quite smart. 

In fact White, Black, AND Green all greatly value knowledge in their philosophies, but just in their own different ways. 

Now it is important to acknowledge that personal philosophy can influence traits or personality even if they aren’t one to one. You don’t need to be super emotional to be Red aligned but, since Red is all about following your heart and doing whatever your emotions tell you one could argue or acknowledge a Red aligned character is more likely to act emotional. So one could argue that a Blue aligned character may be more likely to come off as smart or knowledgeable because they are likely to reward themselves for going out of their way to seek knowledge and information, and a Black character is more likely to seem powerful because they have a philosophy that rewards being power hungry. However, there can easily be an overly emotional Blue aligned character who struggles to control their emotions, sees their emotions as justified, or feels that they aren’t letting their emotions control them even if they actually are(people are weird and aren’t always perfectly rational. Sometimes people convince themselves that what they are doing fits in line with their world view or is justified). I would also be remiss not to mention the impact Magic’s cards themselves may have on the general public’s perception of a color. It is important to remember that most(but not all) cards are depicting things from their associated color(s) perspective. 

So the reason Blue cards may often come off as “smart” is the same reason so many White cards may invoke heroism and all kinds of heroic and “good” traits. That’s how the color itself tends to view said action or person being depicted on the card. Blue wants to be smart and make the most calculated and logical moves by utilizing all the information it has available. Also, being Blue doesn’t mean you are well rounded in your knowledge or have a perfectly even field of expertise on almost all subjects while spouting fun facts the entire time. Blue is ultimately all about using knowledge to better yourself so if your best self involves idk becoming an artist or something then one may tend to seek out information regarding art and art techniques and is less likely to go out of their way to understand how a car engine works. 

I mean, yes Blue will argue you should obtain knowledge as you can because you never know if it will be useful or reveal something you didn’t know would help you(I mean I’m sure everyone has heard stories of how say a football player learning ballet helped them play football better and the like) but Blue also acknowledges that most people have limited time and resources. Which in its eyes, Making careful and considered decisions through knowledge in order to avoid as many mistakes as possible and make the best decisions possible is so important. Not everyone has the time to read through an entire library so it is important to carefully pick and choose what you want to do so you can better yourself. Additionally, Blue isn’t even saying you need to be good at everything. Your best self may specialize in a very specific category or may not be a jack-of-all trades. The point here is that Blue philosophy isn’t one that is just about being the smartest person in any given room. It is about self-improvement.

From this misconception I think stems from the idea that Blue is the “correct” philosophy because it is some sort of weird “fact don’t care about your feelings,” cold and calculating philosophy that is unbiased and only cares about what is objective, not opinions. This is quite far from the truth. While it is possible Blue might see itself like that sometimes the thing is all the colors probably think they’re being rational or objective a decent amount of the time. It is totally possible for a color like Blue to frame something irrational as rational due to biases. Furthermore, the Color Pie is an archetype meant to represent BELIEF systems. What we see each color and what they represent is what they believe to be how the world works and, unfortunately, how people believe something should/does work does not mean this is always the case. The best example can be seen within Magic the Gathering itself. There are a countless number of planes each with their own rules and workings. On some planes objective morality does literally exist or have some sort of tangible impact with certain forms of holiness while on others destiny is physically proven to exist. If we take the idea of “destiny” for example, how is it that in a hypothetical plane where destiny exists and cannot be broken from, unless you’re a planeswalker or something, can anybody Blue aligned exist. Such a natural law proves Green is right and Blue is wrong on that Plane.

(Theros isn’t the prefect example but bare with me)

Well the Blue alignment would still exist as long as there are people who BELIEVE that destiny can be changed/overcome or that it can be understood and mastered. Another way to put it, is how can the White alignment exist in planes with no gods or anything to imply or enforce an objective morality. The answer is that even if there isn’t a god someone can still believe one exists or they can still believe in an objective morality or holiness. Likewise, the vice versa can also be true, even if there is a god someone may believe that the god has some sort of other explanation or see a god  differently then those worshiping it might. Blue can also care about non-objective things. The best example I can think of is with the Blue-Red Prismari. In Strixhaven one thing that is highlighted is the philosophical disagreements between each color and how they view each college subject. In the case of the Prismari the conflict is between Blue-Red over art. The thing about art is that it is usually pretty subjective. However, Blue, or other colors, could see some parts of art as objective or still seek to understand it and become a better artist as well as produce better and better works. 

It comes down to how the color views these things and how they feel we should approach them. Also, even if Blue is aiming to be unbiased that doesn’t mean it is unbiased. Just because you are aiming to be smart does not mean you are actually smart just like how wanting a lot of money does not make you rich. Also, Blue tends to be very clearly biased in many cases because if it wasn’t then its conflict with its two enemy colors would probably be less pronounced or non-existent.

A lot of people also view Blue as the “science” or “academia” color. As if being a scientist or teacher somehow makes you Blue or being Blue gives you a very sciency quality about you. So here’s the thing, like all the color philosophies Blue philosophy is ultimately kind of vague and while Blue philosophy may be telling you a lot of things it is NOT telling you WHAT to be good at. It is just saying that whatever you choose to be good at you should strive to be the best version of you one can be in regards to it. Yes, Blue may tend to value science and academia as vectors of knowledge and understanding but the overall point of Blue is a form of self-actualization through knowledge and understanding. For example, if I choose to be an artist, Blue is saying I should learn as much as I can about art and try to apply what I learn through study, careful consideration, and careful testing to become the best artist I can be. That I should do things like put thought behind my art and the techniques I use as opposed to just making whatever on whim.

Likewise, if I want to become a weightlifter then the best way to do that is to learn all I can about things involving lifting things(such as strength, gravity, technique, leverage, diet, etc) and use carefully considered choices that prioritize thinking and forethought in order to become the best version of myself I can be. 

Soccer player, youtuber, business person, actor, it doesn’t usually matter what you choose to become as long as you do it right. I would also argue that Green is just as much of a color with emphasis on science as Blue is even if it’s for different reasons. It’s also important to remember that once again the colors represent value systems. Almost anyone can become a doctor or scientist but it ultimately comes down to why you’re doing it or why you admire the job. 

Do you want to be a doctor for the sake of putting others first and helping others? Is it just for the money or because you feel like it? Are you becoming a scientist because you find the natural world beautiful and seek to better understand and live in harmony with? All these values can, and often do, fall under other colors. None of this is to say Blue doesn’t value science at all. I mean Blue wants information and, even if you are not a scientist, utilizing science and/or the knowledge it provides can help you become a better artist, singer, card player, etc.. However, it is important to reconcile that this “science” is not what makes someone Blue or not.

It is also important to mention that one who is Blue aligned is capable of being superstitious. Blue believes that everything has an explanation but that does not mean Blue is the opposite of believing in ghosts and the supernatural. It’s just that if it does believe in them it would usually believe those things are yet to be understood and/or have some explanation. This is not to say that someone Blue aligned can’t be against superstition or that someone who is Blue can’t not believe in those things. It’s just that the philosophy itself doesn’t inherently conflict with those things.

The point about Blue being the “science” color segways to yet another topic. A lot of people think Blue only cares about intelligence even at the expense of everything else. When some people think of Blue they just imagine some scrawny stereotypical geek who makes up for being physically weak through 5 head 4d chess level strats and fun facts, but once again Blue doesn’t ONLY care about intelligence. Furthermore, being Blue doesn’t mean you can’t be a meathead or jock. I mean Simic(Green-Blue) often care about +1/+1 counters for a reason and the Temur(a Green, Blue and Red faction) have a mechanic that cares about you controlling one or more creatures with power 4 or greater(and we see Mono-Blue cards in both those factions that care about those things). Blue does not only care about perfecting the mind and technique but can also care about perfecting the body.

I think part of this misconception comes from the fact that within the game of Magic, Blue creatures tend to be smaller than creatures of other colors, like Green, Black, and Red. As I mentioned in my article covering White philosophy, a lot of people have a habit of taking power and toughness too literally when a lot of the time it is symbolic. Blue has a lot of creatures with lower power and toughness because it idealizes outsmarting the opponent and using your head over just mindless brute strength or recklessly running headfirst into a situation. Also while Blue values intelligence and information over something like brute strength the point of Blue is using that knowledge to be the best you can be. If the best involves becoming physically stronger and becoming absolutely jacked then go for it. It is important to remember that people don’t always have to choose between being smart and being physically strong.

In fact, Mark Rosewater has gone as far as to say that having a workout routine can be extremely Blue in philosophy. You are using the knowledge of the human body and calculating when and how much you should work out along with taking into account diet in order to improve yourself as a person in some way. Now if forced to choose between the body or the mind Blue will basically always choose the mind but that does not automatically mean it neglects the body. Saying that it’s more important to drink water because you can live three days without food doesn’t mean you should just not eat food for two days at a time. The key is Blue thinks knowledge and understanding is the MOST important as a means for bettering yourself but it’s not the only thing that can matter. 

An example of what I mean is how in Ixalan’s story Jace was trapped on an island and instead of accepting the things his mind illusions were telling him about not being suited for strength or physically weak he decided to train his body and become physically stronger and better at surviving.

Finally, there’s the idea that Blue inherently hates emotion or is anti-emotion. Now, yes you can have a Blue aligned character that’s anti-emotion but Blue philosophy isn’t inherently against any and all emotions, and it’s just a tiny bit unrealistic to expect everyone to turn off their emotions like a light switch.

Blue isn’t anti-emotion but more about using your intellect and knowledge to make the best decisions and reach a state of self-actualization. In Blue’s eyes, your emotions and instincts aren’t always right or helpful. Simply doing something in the moment because you felt like and decided not to think it out is more likely to be irrational and cause problems down the road. In Blue’s eyes, your emotions and instincts are your body telling you what you want, and while there may be plenty of situations where what you want and what you need are the same thing this is not always the case. Punching someone or running away may be what you want to do but it may not be the best decision, and it probably won’t help you overcome whatever issue is causing that. For example, punching someone because you feel angry does not necessarily fix what made you angry in the first place(especially if the person you’re punching had nothing to do with the situation). Overall, Blue is a philosophy that calls for more evidence and reasoning, not just doing stuff because “you felt like it.” Plus, just following emotions can get in the way of you bettering yourself. That is not to say that emotions can’t be a powerful force if harnessed correctly, but in order to do that Blue would usually argue you need to properly use your mind and have the necessary discipline. Blue is about getting better and better results and not just acting out because you can or want to.

A much less prevalent misconception for Blue, but an overall relatively common one that pervades all the colors, is the misconception that while White and Green represent the good guys, Black and Red represent the bad guys, and Blue represents some sort of good or neutral alignment. Just like with my article covering White philosophy, this misconception ultimately comes down to a misunderstanding of perspective. The reason why White cards have so many stereotypically heroic traits is because that’s how White wants to see itself and White is a color that believes in an objective evil. So White wants to do things that are often seen as good and will often want to see itself as being good(I go into more detail about this in my White article but let’s get back to Blue). I feel part of the reason people may view Blue as one of the supposedly “good” alignments is because Blue still wants to make the world a better place as well as improve upon itself. Not to mention Blue is an ally color of White. So Blue is more likely than say White to see what it’s doing as the objectively right thing and Blue is less likely to be quite as ruthless and selfish as Black. 

The reason that some may view Blue as some neutral aligned color is probably because Blue’s emphasis on raw information, data, and logic can sometimes lead it to coming off as a cold ideology at times. This ties into Blues ideals of using knowledge, forethought and logic to make the best possible choices one can make. Blue is capable of believing in good and evil but it tends to require more physical evidence for its existence than White. Blue’s focus on knowledge means that it is more likely to be data driven than other colors like White, as Blue often seeks some way to make sure it is getting better results. Blue wants to see itself as logical and prioritizes the use of its head when making decisions. If you have 20 pieces of bread and 20 people White would usually argue that the right thing to do is to make sure each person gets 1 piece of bread. While data may determine White’s choice, White is more likely to say one should do it because it’s the right thing to do and saves as many people as possible. However, Blue wants to come off as if it is making things better through careful consideration and the gathering of information, and not just going immediately with whatever its heart tells it to without thinking first. So in the bread example, Blue would usually still argue sharing the bread but for different reasons. The truth is that none of the colors are inherently good or bad and any one of them can be good or bad depending on the specific person, and/or circumstances. There’s also a bunch of nuance in regards to how each color views itself and how it may display itself or ideology to others but that is for each color’s respective article.

Ally and Enemy Colors

This finally brings us to the topic of Blue’s ally and enemy colors as well as Blue’s relationship with them. Due to the fact that this article is about Blue and is already going to be RIDICULOUSLY long I’m going to be explaining the relationships between each color, as well as their philosophical agreements and disagreements, from Blue’s perspective for the most part, since I don’t really have time to do a deep dive into every color. I will cover how the other colors view Blue 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 case of this article, I will start with the philosophical agreements Blue has with its ally colors before moving on to the disagreements and then flipping that order for the enemy colors. Just to be clear, I’m only going to cover Blue’s general relationship and perspective with the other colors and I will not be going in depth into specific color combinations. Multicolor identities involving Blue, such as White-Blue and Blue-Black, will have their own article(s) dedicated entirely to them. So I won’t be going into things like the positive and negative traits of Blue-Black, only what Blue and Black agree on and disagree on. Also, if you somehow don’t know what an ally and/or enemy color is you should read my previous articles(like seriously how the fuck did you get this far), and ally color(s) are the color(s) next to a specific color on the color pie while the enemy colors are the colors opposite to said color. So the ally colors for Blue are White and Black because they sit on either side of Blue, while Blue’s enemy colors are Red and Green because they sit opposite from Blue.

Ally Color: White

When it comes to understanding why two colors, such as Blue and White, are allies, a good starting place is to simply look at their shared enemy color. So what does opposing Red tell us about these two color philosophies.

Red is ultimately a philosophy that is about “freedom through action.” Red is a philosophy that believes if you want to live a fulfilling life then you should follow your heart and do whatever it is your emotions or feelings are telling you to do, if you feel like crying than cry, if you feel like laughing than laugh, if you feel like yelling than yell, etc. Meanwhile, White wants “peace through structure.” White is a philosophy that strives to create a world where everyone has what they need. In order to achieve this people must be willing to take care of and put others along with the good of the group first even if it means making personal sacrifices. White also aims to use things like rules, laws, and morality to help guide people into taking care of each other and the group, or at the very least not hurting each other and the group or doing anything White deems immoral. The problem Blue and White both end up having with Red philosophy is that, to them, Red is ultimately a philosophy of chaos. Red is all about living in the moment and doing almost whatever you want whenever you want. I mean yeah, sometimes the thing it wants to do is fight for its friends but it can just as easily start a fight with an ally or destroy something just because it felt like doing. To White, Red is a selfish ideology that overemphasizes personal freedom. It is one that will praise hurting others as long as you feel like it and will do whatever it wants, even if that may come at the expense of others or the group. White will argue that freedom shouldn’t come at the expense of needlessly hurting others while Red believes people should just be able to do whatever they want. Meanwhile, Blue is all about using forethought, information, and considering the ramifications of your actions so that you can better yourself and the world around you. On the other hand, Red philosophy doesn’t inherently care about whether it’s making things better or worse as long as it is happy or satisfied in the end. It’s an ideology that just wants to live in the here and now. Red just wants to do what it feels like doing now and be impulsive, even if that means messing with progress or ruining something’s potential. White and Blue are philosophies that stand opposed to these shortsighted goals. These philosophies care about the bigger picture and believe in thinking things through over just letting selfish and/or short-sighted emotions control you since you need to understand how your actions may have ramifications on yourself, others, or world around you in the future(and thinking things through allows one to better apply the knowledge they’ve obtained. White tends to encourage the use of knowledge and forethought on a wide scale). Similarly, both colors also have themes of order and discipline to them as a way of bettering yourself and not making rash decisions. White also has an emphasis on prolonged planning in order to avoid unnecessary suffering and make sure as many people as possible get what they need. This is also to help better the world and keep people in check and doing the right thing. White can, and often does, both understand and advocate bettering one’s self for the sake of the group. Something that can parallel how Blue wants to allow everyone to be the best version of themselves they can be while also crafting a better society and world. Blue, like White, also has themes of wanting to make the world the best version of itself it can be. So it will want ways to encourage people to improve themselves and the world around them and allow access to information. If things are just a chaotic mess it becomes much harder to improve anything or keep things in check. This also means that both philosophies have an emphasis on rule and order to keep people in check and/or make sure they aren’t hurting themselves while also doing what is best for the world, society, or just the bigger picture. 

Unlike Red, Blue and White both believe that the things you or other people want aren’t always the things they need. You can’t just break rules whenever and wherever just because you feel like it. Many of those rules exist for a reason, and if everyone was just doing what they wanted in the moment there would just be chaos. White and Blue aren’t inherently against freedom but they do not believe freedom should come at the cost of needlessly hurting other people and/or damaging society.

As mentioned earlier, White and Blue both want to make the world a better place and this also means bettering society and the systems within it. So both colors want people to go out and fix flaws in these things in order to make the world a better place. Blue’s desire for perfection and prosperity can go hand in hand with White’s desire for a peaceful and happy world. They both want the world and society to be the best version of itself. White is all about helping others and putting others first and Blue, at the end of the day, wants to not just help itself but as many people as possible in order to craft a better world. Both philosophies also believe that we have some level of responsibility in making the world a better place. The emphasis on the broader picture also makes both philosophies have a massive emphasis on even small details and their importance. In Blue this is because any and all knowledge might turn out useful later down the line and even seemingly miniscule details might matter later or could be used to your advantage. In White it is important to consider how things may impact the group or other people. While Blue doesn’t take it as far as White, Blue understands that sometimes in order to make things better as a whole or to better yourself you must be willing to put others, or the greater good, first and not just yourself first at all times. Blue, unlike Black, isn’t willing to ruin or set society back just to make things better for itself, and is thusly willing to put the greater good and bigger picture before itself or the good of the individual.

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 these two colors?

An easy place to start at when concerning the conflicts between two ally colors is looking at which ally the colors do not share. In the case of White this ally is one of Blue’s enemy colors, Green, and in the case of Blue this ally color is Black, an enemy color of White. One of the things Black and Green disagree on is nature vs nurture. In essence Green believes that the world is fine the way it is and that if one wants to live a fulfilling and satisfying life they should simply learn to accept and live in the world as it is now. Black believes that things like morality or what is and isn’t natural are subjective concepts that are used to control people. Black also believes that if changing the world or yourself means making things better for oneself then you should do it. Black does not care about the natural order unless said natural order helps it obtain what it wants/needs. This highlights some of the differences between White and Blue. Firstly, Blue is a color that believes in due time with the right level of technology and information everything can be understood. White and Green, on the other hand, believe there are things that can never be understood, or things that don’t need to be understood. This means that White tends to be more proactive than Blue and is less likely to encourage questioning and understanding everything. Blue might start toeing the line and messing with things White thinks shouldn’t be messed with. White is more likely to be willing to smite anything it sees as evil and take care of anything it sees as good even if Blue would rather wait to fully understand what that thing is before choosing what kind of action it wants to take.

Blue is ultimately a color that has a strong physical component to its beliefs. Sure it might believe in good and bad but it’s going to want to take the time to understand it and the information or evidence it might provide. This leads to a bit of a disconnect, as White does appreciate knowledge and forethought but will have more situations where it is willing to act before attempting to fully and completely understand something than Blue is. From White’s perspective, there are some things that can’t just be understood or measured with graphs and charts. Like you are not about to just calculate that someone is exactly 3.56 parts good and 45.2 parts evil. Things like good and evil or kindness are not always things that can be measured. Similar to Green, White is also a philosophy that believes some things are concrete and can never be changed. For example, White believes that morality has objective components to it. Which is something that gives White more of an emphasis on tradition. It also shows that White isn’t as concerned with understanding everything, and there are more things that White may not want to question, may argue there is no need to question, or even that some things shouldn’t be questioned. 

This can conflict with Blue as it is a color that believes anything can be understood and it’s all about questioning everything in an attempt to understand and improve upon it. 

White is more likely to have traditions, ceremonies, rules, or laws that Blue no longer sees the point of or believes should be changed. Blue isn’t completely against tradition but Blue is a philosophy that is about improvement and trying to question everything. Blue is more likely to want to break or change traditions if it doesn’t find them immediately beneficial/helpful or sees a way in which they can be improved upon. This can lead to Blue seeing White philosophy as being too inflexible or unwilling to adapt and change at times. While White is more likely to see laws and rules as upholding moral goodness and protecting people, Blue is more likely to see laws and rules as just tools to keep things progressing and running as efficiently as possible. This also means that where White may appeal to morals Blue may not, and likewise White’s appeals to morals may not always satisfy Blue.

Going back to Green and Black, another conflict we can see is one that is about the community and one that is more about the individual. Green believes in understanding your role in the world and Black believes that at the end of the day you have control over what or who you are and thus you can be or do whatever you want, even if it comes at the cost of a larger group or others. This shows us that White tends to lean more towards uplifting the community while Blue skews a little more than White towards uplifting individuals. White wants to prioritize making the community and world better while Blue wants to make everything better but it’s all about becoming the best version of YOURSELF one can be. It just so happens that Blue believes in order for people to be able to become their best selves they need to live in the best version of society and their respective groups. Now, Blue doesn’t take this quite as far as Black and it’s not going to argue to screw over the entire community if it just helps you but the conflict is still there. This goes even further with White desiring more equality while Blue ends up typically being more merit-based because Blue is all about bettering oneself and wants to encourage others to do the same. Let me put it this way, White is more likely to believe in a true democracy, a system where everyone gets an equal say in what a society or group does via some sort of voting system. A place where everyone gets an equal say in what decisions the country makes. Blue is more likely to believe in some form of a meritocracy(which is defined as “government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability” or “a ruling or influential class of educated or skilled people”). Such a system is specifically built in such a way that some individuals wield more power over others. Blue is more likely to believe that certain individuals or groups are better than or more deserving than others, even if that superiority is not usually inherently so. Blue’s ideals of a perfect society are not always that of one where everyone is treated equally. 

Blue also has less of an end goal than White. Remember, in Blue perfection is not so much a goal as it is a process. It is a philosophy of self-actualization(the realization or fulfillment of one’s talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone). An example we are given in Mark Rosewater’s “PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING” is with world hunger. White wants to end world hunger because White doesn’t want people to go hungry or suffer while Blue tends 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 as well as create a better world and society. So in a hypothetical world where world hunger has somehow been solved White is more likely to move on and focus more on other things while Blue might want to continue seeing how much food it can generate because it wants to understand the issue as much as possible, as well as continue to improve upon it. Plus, to Blue, you never know when the information you get from continuing to improve upon something like that may help later. Blue is also more likely to improve things because it can or to test itself while White is more likely to do so because it is morally right or for the welfare of others.

Another point to be made about the differences between the two color philosophies here is that Black is a color philosophy that believes the ends always justify the means as long as you get what you need/want. White is a color that believes the ends do not justify the means and some things are just morally wrong to do even if you are trying to do something good. Obviously, since Blue falls smack dab in the middle of these colors a conflict between it and White can be seen. Blue does have lines it is unwilling to cross but it is more likely to advocate for doing something that a color like White may not condone if the end result is a bigger net positive than what was lost. 

This can be seen in how Blue is more likely to view doing things like using unfair tactics to win a fight, lie, manipulate, etc. as ok to do, where White may see them as bad and never worth doing. This also means that Blue tends to encourage being a bit more secretive and dishonest than White usually is. Blue also encourages being a bit more emotionally detached than White does since it has more emphasis on using your knowledge and head over emotions. 

Ally Color: Black

As with White in the last article, the most obvious philosophical agreements between Blue and Black can be seen between the enemy color the two share, Green.

Green is a color that believes in “growth through acceptance.” It is a philosophy that believes all we need to be happy in the world already exists and instead of fighting to change the world we should simply accept it for the way that is and learn to accept our place and role within it. This pretty obviously conflicts with Blue because it should be pretty clear that Blue is like the total opposite in mindset. Blue is constantly trying to improve upon things and make things better through knowledge, not just rolling over and accepting whatever status quo has been set. Black is a color that believes in “power through opportunity.” It believes in doing what’s best for yourself at all times even if that comes at the expense of others, the natural order, or the larger group. Blue is trying to make the world a better place in general while Black wants to make the world a better place for itself, in order to create a world where it can call as many of the shots as possible. From the perspective of these two colors, Green basically fights to keep the status quo.  While Blue wants to constantly fiddle with the world and push it to its limits Green has a much more hands off approach and wants to let things take their natural course.

Blue and Black are all about subverting and changing the world when they feel it is necessary or good to do so because there is an overlap between Blue’s desire to improve and progress with Black’s desire to be the driving force that is in control and calling all the shots. Both of these color philosophies are also the ones that tend to subscribe to the idea of free will the most. Green is a color that believes in something akin to destiny, fate, predeterminism, etc. Blue and Black, on the other hand, believe that at the end of the day you are in control of who and what you are and aren’t locked into being something just because you were born into it, fate, or because someone told you that propping someone else up is the role you’re supposed to play. Blue believes anything is possible with sufficient knowledge and resources while Black believes people are free to do what they want. Now these people who align with these colors may believe in fate but if they do they will not see it as concrete and will believe it can be changed.

To these philosophies “the natural course/nature” is a made-up construct anyway and, like many things, can potentially be made better. To Blue and Black, Green can come off as just sort of lazy. Just fighting for nothing to happen or nothing to progress. 

This disagreement with most forms of determinism also gives both philosophies an emphasis on usually being the ones in charge and control. Blue believes it can become just about anything with the right resources and it believes in improving upon tradition and nature. It also believes that you are in control of your own fate. So usually Blue wants some say in what is happening so it can change the world for the better or to be the best version of itself. Blue is against just being constantly under the thumb of someone else in most circumstances unless said person is greatly improving the world or something. Black wants to be in charge because it believes that at the end of the day power is what matters and it wants to be able to get what it personally needs through any means necessary(and at the end of the day the best way to ensure you always get what you need is to be the one in charge).

Interestingly, Blue and Black overlap for reasons that are sort of similar to that of Blue and White. The main overlap between Blue and White is the desire to build a better world while the main overlap between Blue and Black tends to be the desire to build a better self. From Blue’s perspective, Black’s goals of power and influence can be a form of self-improvement, self-actualization, or striving to be the best version one can be of themselves. Remember, Blue isn’t a philosophy that is usually telling you what to be good at. Just that you should strive to be the best version of yourself and that the way you should approach your goals is by prioritizing the use of knowledge. Black believes that in order to build a better world we have to emphasize individuals and put ourselves first while Blue understands that sometimes if you want to create a net positive you need to put the individual or the self first. Blue also wants to create a world that encourages people to be the best versions of themselves. On top of that, as mentioned before, Blue philosophy is ultimately one of SELF-actualization. Where White prioritizes improving the world, Black prioritizes improving oneself. Black is also a philosophy that understands the importance of knowledge and that sometimes in order to win or get ahead of opponents or problems you either need to have enough information or to restrict the knowledge of one’s enemies. To Blue, knowledge is power and sometimes the power Black seeks so happens to be in the form of knowledge, such as education, etc. If Blue seeks omniscience(to know everything) then Black seeks omnipotence(to be all powerful) and knowing everything(or as much as possible) can be a very valid form of power. I mean it’s pretty hard for people to mess with you if you know everything they can and are going to do before they’ve even started, and if they know nothing about you then that is just icing on the cake.

Blue’s emphasis on using forethought and knowledge means that it can often appreciate Black’s focus on being pragmatic and willingness to do what needs to be done to change the world. Blue has more lines that it advocates for crossing than say White or Green if it feels the outcome is a net positive. Both colors have a theme of not letting your emotions cloud your judgment too much in order to make the best logical decision(s). Blue says you should always prioritize your head over your heart and Black says you should do whatever it takes to win. This can also make both philosophies come off as cold or uncaring to some outsiders. This emphasis on knowledge also gives both colors themes of lies, and secrets. Since from their perspective, opposition to their goals can be pretty easy to take out if the opposition isn’t even aware you’re there in the first place. To these opponents, you may come off as completely unstoppable if no one knows you even have a weakness.

So what are the philosophical disagreements between these two colors? Well, let’s start with the two differing ally colors Blue and Black do not share. For Blue that is White and for Black that is Red.

First off, White is a color that is ultimately about putting the good of others and the group before one’s self as much as humanly possible. Red is all about following your heart and ultimately doing whatever it is you feel like doing. This immediately shows us that Blue tends to care more about the greater good, others, and the group than Black does, and that Black is ultimately a more selfish ideology. Remember, at the end of the day Blue wants to create net positives and make both itself and the world a better place. So from Blue’s perspective Black completely disregards the importance of the group and is always trying to put itself first even if it comes at the expense of creating a better world. Which can drive Blue up the wall because Blue believes that in order to be our best selves we need to live in the best world possible. To Blue, putting yourself first is fine to a degree but it shouldn’t create a net negative while Black might be fine with an overall negative outcome for others or the world as long as it gets a positive outcome for itself. Blue argues that there are some cases where you should put others first even if it doesn’t tangibly benefit you because it may make the world a better place or help you become a better person in some way. To Blue, Black’s goals can also come off as shortsighted as if you are willing to watch the world or society burn to get what you want then that limits the best version of yourself you can be and you are potentially screwing over the world in the future. Black is changing the world to make it a better place for itself while Blue wants to make the world better for just about everyone. White also has an emphasis on laws and structure to keep everyone safe while Blue sometimes also has an emphasis on laws and structure to keep things running as smoothly as possible and to improve the world. However, Black is usually only going to be completely down with these rules and regulations if it believes they aid it in some way.

This is also hinted at by the fact that Red is an enemy color of White for prioritizing individual freedoms even if they may hurt others. This also imbues a little of White and Red’s “order vs chaos” in the relationship between Blue and Black. Blue usually wants things done in the most optimal or efficient way possible while Black may not care as much about how something gets done as long as doing it benefits Black at the end of the day. While Blue may advocate to spend more time looking for the best answer Black might see doing something like that as inefficient or lacking proactive measures.

Another difference between White and Black is that White is a philosophy that says the ends do not justify the means due to its emphasis on morals. However, Black is willing to do whatever it takes because it believes morality is a subjective construct. This hints that another conflict between Blue and Black is how far each philosophy says you should be willing to go to reach your goals. Blue ultimately wants to create an overall better world, so while its ideology may be more selfish than White, it does not want to do something at the expense of the bigger picture. Blue isn’t about to say that making sure you have a lifetime of political power if it means setting society back several decades is a justifiable course of action. But Black says you should do whatever it takes. If making sure your set for life means screwing over the entire group you’re a part of then so be it. This also leads to conflict with how much control each color wants to have. Blue and White don’t necessarily always care about being in complete control as long as the world is being made a better place or functioning optimally. However, Black basically always advocates for being the one in control of its own actions, and often the actions of others, due to its emphasis on power. Black’s methods also mean that it is willing to create chaos and disorder that Blue sees as needless or disruptive in order to get what it needs or wants. Similar to White, Blue isn’t willing to do literally anything to get what it wants and it has stronger ideas of the morally right or wrong ways to get the job done.

To further this point Blue wants to prioritize using information, time, and logic to make the most informed decision possible. However, Black is fine with advocating for the use of irrationality or emotions as weapons to manipulate other people or get what it wants. There is also a disagreement on how important knowledge and understanding is. From Black’s perspective you do not need to always attempt to understand how something works in order to use it or destroy it. Blue wants to gather as much information as possible so when it comes across say a magical artifact it would usually argue for studying and researching it. While Black could also want to do the same for its own ends, it is more likely than Blue to not care about how it works or what exactly it is unless the information is somehow relevant to Black’s goals. 

From Blue’s perspective you never know when the information might come in handy or reveal important insights and from Black’s perspective it is less likely to waste time looking into something it thinks won’t matter or won’t help it. While Blue is busy studying that magic sword in order to understand why it works the way it does Black has probably already brought it into battle once it understands its effects even if it doesn’t understand how or why it does what it does and all its ins and outs.

As mentioned earlier, one of the things that bring these two colors together is the fact that Black’s “power through opportunity” can be a form of the self-improvement and betterment that Blue strives for. However, disagreements obviously arise from the fact that Blue would argue that there are things more important than yourself and power as well as the fact that gaining more power or influence isn’t the only way to improve yourself, and to think so can be a narrow minded way of looking at the world. 

Enemy Color: Red

As many of you may have expected, this is the part where I go over Blue’s relationship with its enemy colors. I will be starting with probably one of the most iconic Color Pie enemy colors, second to only White and Black, Blue and Red(but unlike White and Black there are fewer misconceptions about what the conflict is). Since these are enemy colors I will be starting with the disagreements of each color this time before moving on to their agreements because of the fact that enemy colors tend to have more emphasis on their philosophical differences.

The core disagreement between these two colors is probably the easiest to explain and understand. From the perspective of Blue this is usually a conflict between carefulness versus recklessness but it is actually a debate of “head” vs “heart.” What will lead to people having a happier life overall. Following one’s head or following one’s heart? Will someone live a more fulfilled and enjoyable life by thinking things through and prioritizing using their head in order to better themselves and make as few mistakes as possible while prioritizing long-term goals or by following what their passion and emotions tell them to do and doing what they want in order to live in the moment while trying to make the most of it? Are you going to end up happier if you stick through college in order to potentially get a good stable job in the future or dropping out and following that dream job you want or doing what you are truly passionate about? 

Both colors understand that typically you only live once. Blue looks at this conundrum and comes to the conclusion that because you only live once with finite resources and time you should strive to spend it bettering yourself and trying to make as few mistakes as possible while Red basically says “YOLO.” Blue strives to take the time it believes you need to get as many of the details of your life correct while making as few mistakes as possible and Red argues that mistakes are an unavoidable part of our life so we should just live in the moment and not end up regretting not following our heart or passions at the end of our life, and at the end of the day what’s the point of getting everything we think we are supposed to want or need if it doesn’t make us happy or emotionally fulfilled. Blue argues that more mistakes in life tend to come from rushing and not properly using the knowledge available while Red believes more mistakes tend to come from not listening to your gut and not following your emotions. This makes Red seem irrational to Blue, as Red usually advocates for just doing what you feel like without always caring about information or attempting to use it.

An interesting dichotomy between Blue and Red is how they view emotions. You see, like the other colors besides Red, Blue draws a distinction between needs and wants. Your feelings only tell you what you want and not always what you need. While your hunger may tell you that you need to eat soon, your craving for a hamburger specifically doesn’t necessarily mean you need to eat the unhealthy fast food from McDonald’s. Emotions and feelings can be a powerful force but they need to be properly directed. Red, on the other hand, argues that your wants are emotional needs. Sure it’s easy for some to argue a laundry list of things you need to do to succeed in life but ultimately if you’re not emotionally happy or satisfied by doing so then what’s the point? Sure one could technically spend most of their time working and making money to buy stuff in the future but if you end up too emotionally drained or unfulfilled what’s the point? While the other colors may see many emotions and feelings as “irrational” or invalid Red would argue that our emotions and feelings in of themselves are rational and valid. What we feel is our body trying to tell us what we need and ignoring that will just leave us either unfulfilled or eventually overwhelmed by our emotions anyway. Red just sees Blue as a philosophy that argues for bottling up your emotions. However, Blue believes that while emotions are an important thing to consider they can still be properly controlled in order to allow us to make better and more informed decisions. The fact that your emotions are usually just your body telling you what it wants and not what it needs means that you don’t always need to do the things your emotions tell you to and it is possible to overcome them. If you don’t need to punch that person you’re angry with then there are ways to not punch that person. Sure punching people when angry may technically make you feel better but it may not actually solve anything. Some of the things we feel are just outdated or extraneous/inaccurate biological processes. This is not to say the Blue rejects all bodily processes as being unusable or outdated(I mean thinking itself is a biological process) but we shouldn’t just be slaves to any and all random emotions or instincts our body feels. For example, some instincts or processes are holdovers that haven’t caught up with the times or make sense in a given situation. Evolution is a painfully slow process, so sometimes our bodies may not have completely caught up with the times and to Blue it is important that we consider that fact and try to compensate for that.

The easiest thing to point out in the conflict between these colors is the often recurring theme of the future(Blue) vs living in the present(Red). This symbolism is not to say that Blue literally doesn’t care about the present at all but in the case of Blue and Red it is a representation of a sort of long-term/big-picture prioritization vs a short-term/living-in-the-moment one. Blue prioritizes using all the information available as efficiently as possible and that means not only taking the time to properly gather and use the information but also creating a better world and a better self while making as few mistakes as possible. Since if you are becoming a better person you are probably going to be making fewer mistakes. Sometimes in order to do this you need to give things up in order to get something you need more later. The way Red sees it is that there might not always be a later so you should just base what you’re doing on how you feel in the moment. If you really want to go eat candy for dinner or pick up that new hobby then just do it. This can lead to the obvious problem where it encourages behavior that may create a myriad of things that could bite it in the ass later. From Blue’s perspective, emotions aren’t always telling you what you need, only what you want. While your needs and wants can and do overlap this is not always the case and why it is important to not let your emotions control you. Blue sees Red’s ideology as one that is willing to throw away long-term goals and plans for short-term gratification. At the end of the day, Red wants you to decide what you do based on how you feel. A philosophy that usually requires you to live in the moment since it is going to be based on how you feel in the present. If you feel like completely breaking down and crying right now then cry and embrace the emotional release. But Blue might say that crying and succumbing to sadness doesn’t actually resolve the situation even if it could make you feel better.

One thing that I have stressed over the course of this piece is that Blue basically believes it is our job to improve. To improve ourselves and improve the world around us. This is clear in how Blue is allied with White(a philosophy that wants to better the lives of others and the world as a whole) and Black(a philosophy that wants to better one’s self). But Red doesn’t automatically care about making anything better. It just wants to fulfill its emotional drives and live an overall happy life, even if it comes at the expense of squandering its potential or leads it to not becoming the best version of itself. This can cause Red to advocate for things that Blue may see as chaotic or counterintuitive. If I were to describe life as being like a videogame, Blue is basically playing to have the best run with the least amount of deaths possible and Red is just playing to have fun. It may argue for doing something that is counterintuitive based on the fact that it feels right even if Red itself acknowledges that there technically are better or more efficient ways of doing something. Blue is always trying to advance to a larger ultimate end goal of improvement while Red is just trying to be emotionally fulfilled in the moment. This also means Red may be willing to undo the progress that others, or even it itself, has made in a spur-of-the-moment decision and then proceed to argue that making said choice was okay. 

This causes Blue to often see Red as a destructive and chaotic philosophy. One that will undo a whole bunch of progress for a stupid or nonsensical reason. Blue’s goal is a constant march of progress and Red’s goal is… well whatever Red feels like doing I guess. If we want to use art as an example, Blue would argue that if you want to become an artist you should strive to be the best version of your artistic self while Red says you should just have fun.

Like with the other colors, we can also gain a bit of a better understanding of some of the things I am talking about by looking at the placement of Blue on the color pie. Specifically, the overlap White and Blue have with both being enemies of Red. As mentioned earlier, and in previous articles, White and Blue are both colors that prioritize the long term and creating a better world. White and Blue want to improve the world and make it a better place but Red just wants to do whatever it wants and basically have fun. This conflicts greatly with White and Blue because they both prioritize the big picture, greater good, 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 wants to do something without thinking about what it needs and its action’s long-term consequences. To Blue, Red often comes off as anti-thought and/or anti-intellectual. 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. White and Blue also have a big emphasis on discipline and forethought. Red argues that you shouldn’t usually try to fight your emotions as they are telling you what you need. White and Blue both believe that what you feel or want isn’t always what you need. If that was the case then there wouldn’t be a need for things like discipline, rules, laws, etc. People can be directed and one can control their emotions.

Another thing that’s interesting to consider from a philosophical perspective is that Red tends to be more reactive while Blue is a more proactive philosophy. Now I know I sound like I got my head hit with a fucking rock while I’m saying this. I mean Red is probably the most aggro style color in the card game and Blue has counterspells(which is probably one of THE most reactive mechanics I have ever seen because you are literally banking on your opponent doing something so you can react to it. If your opponent does nothing then your counterspell is literally useless). On top of that, Red is more in the moment while Blue is about potential and the long game. But it all makes a lot more sense when you consider what Red philosophy revolves around, emotion. Emotions tend to be a more reactive force. If you feel something it is in response to something(for example rage is something you might feel if you feel you have been wronged, and pain is something you feel if you are getting hurt). Blue is all about constantly progressing and actively gathering all kinds of knowledge but Red is usually just about reacting to your feelings. Not to mention that one of the major themes in Blue is control. That you can control how you react to your emotions, your actions, who you are, what you are, etc. This all ties in with Blue’s idea that we are blank slates. Red doesn’t see the point of proactively trying to control your emotions and just wants to run with them. None of this is to say that Blue can’t be reactive and that Red can’t be proactive, far from it. Just that Blue tends to lean towards more proactive, if long term, goals while Red tends to lean towards reactive short term ones. Which can act as another point of conflict for the philosophies. This long term vs short term juxtaposition is also where the fact that Blue’s gameplay tends to be slower while Red’s is usually much more aggressive and fast comes from. In a magical fight if Red wants to win it will often just try to beat you as fast as possible because it’s following its gut and doing whatever it immediately feels like doing while Blue will try to take the time to understand as much as it can about its opponent so it can find a way to beat them.

However, as you can probably surmise if ally colors can have disagreements then it only makes sense that even philosophies that seem to be polar opposites can agree on certain things.

As an example, both Blue and Red have major themes of freedom. This seems weird considering how restrained, thoughtful and considerate Blue usually wants to be because it seeks to improve things. And yeah, Blue may not be as freedom based as Red since Blue doesn’t want to undo progress or efficiency, but let me explain. Red is a color that says “I think we should be able to do whatever it is we want to do” and then Blue comes along with its blank-slate style of looking at the world and goes “Well you CAN theoretically do just about whatever you want and potentially even become just about anything if you have the proper knowledge, resources, and technology.” Hopefully, you see what I’m getting at here. There are definitely situations where the colors can align and Red has something it wants to achieve and Blue believes that there is a way to achieve said thing and may even advocate for it. Sometimes the knowledge Blue is so fond of can help Red gather more freedom. Another thing to remember is that while Red doesn’t care about perfection by default, if someone or something has the emotional desire to improve or better something then it would indeed often advocate for doing it. 

As mentioned way earlier, Blue can also be greatly driven by wants. Blue just says that if you want to do something you shouldn’t immediately jump into it but carefully consider and gather the knowledge available and then try to become the best version of yourself in the process. In some cases the disagreement can be caused by the process as opposed to the end goal. Either way, Blue and Red can both definitely feed into this idea of freedom. Something that can definitely be seen in how the Prismari chose to express themselves using art or how the Izzet may unleash wild and uncontrolled experiments despite the fact that these factions contain Blue within them. This idea of freedom can also be seen in how Black is the ally color of both Blue and Red. Black is a philosophy of amorality that believes nothing should be off the table when it comes to getting what we need to stay ahead. Black wants to create a world that best suits it and where it holds power and can call the shots. A world where it is in control of its own life. The connection between all these colors is not too much of a stretch when you consider that power can act as a form of freedom, allowing you to do what you want unopposed. This is where I imagine part of the agreement between Blue, Red, and Black can come from. Blue wants the power to become the best version of whatever it wants to be and it believes most things are basically a blank-slate. Red wants the freedom to follow its emotions and express itself while doing whatever it wants and Black wants the freedom to do whatever it can to amass power and take control of its life. 

Black is also a color that has the most emphasis on the individual, which can sometimes overlap with Blue’s ideals of self-actualization and Red’s ideals of following your own heart.

This is also sort of where Red and Blue’s themes of creativity and change can sort of manifest from(not that other colors can’t be creative). At the end of the day if there is one thing Blue philosophy tends to like its things getting better. Blue wants to make things better than before and this can often lead to an emphasis on new things as well. Stuff like new technology that can allow us to surpass our previous limitations and broaden our understanding, and new information that allows us to change the world. Now this doesn’t seem to immediately have anything to do with Red until you consider Red’s desire to act on its emotions as well as how sporadic and chaotic it can sometimes come off as. Red is all about following your emotions and doing what you want so if Red finds some sort of new technology or information that enables it to do that then it’s going to embrace it. Blue might invent a jetpack in order to make traveling somewhere more efficient and Red could be down with helping out with that invention because it finds flying fun and it wants to be able to fly where it wants. This also gives both colors a theme of sudden change.

Blue’s desire for new and better stuff also means that it can’t always keep doing the same thing over and over, and while Red may often come off as stupid in the eyes of Blue, sometimes Red’s philosophy can lead it to doing something that isn’t so obvious and ends up uncovering new better results by making emotional leaps in logic in order to achieve something. Sometimes doing seemingly “random” or “stupid” things can yield unexpected results that turn out useful or helpful(this is also where the Blue-Red theme of experimentation comes from).

However, we can discover even more about Blue and Red’s overlap of freedom and creativity by looking at their enemy colors, Green and White. Now, like all color combinations, Green and White can represent and overlap in a lot of things but one of the main areas they overlap in is the theme of tradition. Part of this stems from Green and White’s emphasis on the idea that there are some objective laws that cannot or should not be changed. In the case of Green this is often the natural order/law and in the case of White this is often moral law. Something that is further emphasized by the fact that both colors believe there are things in the world that cannot be changed. This tradition is often where Blue and Red can buttheads with these philosophies as Red just wants to do what it wants whenever it wants and Blue believes that virtually everything can be understood or changed under the right circumstances and with the right information. As mentioned previously this is made even more apparent by the fact that both Blue and Red are allied colors with Black. A philosophy that is amoral and believes societal laws, morality, what is and isn’t natural, etc. are purely subjective concepts. So to Black this means that since these rules are subjective then one should usually do whatever it takes to take care of themselves and gain power. Sure Black may be totally fine with enforcing laws when it serves its ends but at the end of the day Blue, Black, and Red are more likely to conflict with tradition then White and Green. They are completely fine in advocating for the breaking, abolishment, or ignoring of tradition if it produces the desired result, and they don’t want to be as restrained by them as White and Green. As far as change goes Blue sees itself as a blank-slate and wishes to better itself while Red wants the freedom to do whatever. In this way stagnation can drive both Blue and Red up the walls. Both colors may see color(s) like White and Green to be a little too stagnant in their philosophy.

Both colors can also have a sort of “trickster” theme. Other colors can also be just as tricky as Red and/or Blue but this theme of tricks tends to spawn from Blue wanting to calculate and read a situation or opponent via the knowledge it has gathered in order to anticipate an opponent while in Red it usually comes from Red wanting to act spontaneously and in the moment based on its emotions, which can make it hard to read. Blue believes that information is power so by denying someone information you can deny them power. Which means that sometimes making sure someone has trouble reading you or predicting what you are about to do through various means can work to Blue’s advantage. Sometimes what might seem random and chaotic actually has a point behind it.

Enemy Color: Green

This brings us to Blue vs Green. Now, this color conflict is probably going to take a bit more legwork to explain because even though this article is supposed to mostly be from the perspective of Blue philosophy there are a lot of misconceptions about what Green philosophy actually is and it is important for me to not just completely bash a color using any means necessary just because their the enemy color of a philosophy I’m talking about.

At its very core Blue vs Green is NOT a battle of technology vs organic, brain vs brawn, or any of that jazz. It is actually a conflict of nurture(Blue) vs nature(Green). If you recall, earlier in this article I said Blue believes in a tabula rasa style school of thought. The idea that we are born as mostly blank slates and can theoretically become and do just about anything with the proper amount of time and knowledge. Blue says we should use this to achieve a form of self-actualization, or become the best version of ourselves, and create the best version of the world possible to further aid in doing this. However, Green is about “growth through acceptance.” At the very core of Green’s philosophy is the idea that the world is fine/beautiful just the way it is and instead of fighting to change the world we should learn to cherish and embrace it for what it is. 

This directly conflicts with the ideals of Blue that I just mentioned, since Blue is about constantly striving for better and trying to make the world a better place. Blue tends to view this as a conflict between progress and stagnation, while Green tends to view it as acceptance vs denial.

As always, one can gain a greater understanding of the conflict between one color and one of its respective enemy colors by looking at the ally color that shares the same enemy color. In the case of Blue, Black is the philosophy that shares Green as an enemy color. This relationship further emphasizes this nurture vs nature conflict. Green is a philosophy that believes in things like destiny. 

Now to be clear, while Green can and does believe in things like predeterminism it is not a requirement that it needs to believe in literal destiny. Sometimes this “destiny” is things like biology, tradition, a natural order, etc..

Green believes we are born with all the attributes that will eventually define us and shape who we are, whether that come from destiny or our own DNA. If something is born without wings then it was probably never meant to fly, and it doesn’t need to have a jetpack strapped on to it. We already touched on how Blue believes in the idea that people are born as blank slates but what about Black? Well, Black is amoral. That is to say it doesn’t believe in an objective morality. Similarly, Black doesn’t believe in any sort of natural order. Like Blue, to Black what is and isn’t natural is arbitrary and subjective. Blue and Black are also both philosophies that directly oppose Green’s ideals of destiny. While Blue and Black can believe in destiny and the influence of things like genes, they are colors that believe people are in control of their own lives. No one is bound to an immutable or predetermined destiny. 

Black sees natural order as something that is made up and often used to control people. Black also believes in artificially changing things and not just rolling over and accepting things as they are if they can be better. Although, in the case of Black it is concerned with making things better for itself. The thing that unites Blue and Black against their shared enemy is the idea that people are in control of who and what they are. To Blue and Black, Green conflicts with their ideals of free will that individuals have and the idea that someone can shape their own future. To Blue, Green is constantly making assumptions about what it can and can’t do without even trying. How will we know the limits of ourselves and the world around us without testing them? 

But it’s important to also look at the qualities that Blue’s enemies share if we want to better understand it. So what do Red and Green have in common that Blue philosophically disagrees with? Well that would be instinct for the most part. 

As mentioned earlier, Red is all about following your emotions, and your body. The things you feel are the ways your body and mind tell you what you need. Green believes in accepting the world as it is. That you are born a specific way and there are lots of things you cannot change. This also extends to accepting yourself for what it is, and this my friends is where the overlap takes form. If you were born a certain way for a certain reason and should accept the way things are this also means that you should listen to your naturally occurring instincts and bodily functions. Your emotions and feelings are a natural part of yourself and you should learn to live with and embrace them. Blue doesn’t really prize instinct in that way though. Blue says that you should try to think things through as much as possible and your instinct isn’t always right.

Evolution is a slow and long process and our bodies’ instincts haven’t always caught up. Not all instincts are “up to date” and for this reason you should rely more on your mind and active thought over just being slaves to outdated instinct and emotion. Our instincts could be reacting to problems that no longer exist. So to Blue just blindly following your instincts can make you a slave to the past and perform more illogical decisions. Just because you feel like punching someone out of fear because of a fight or flight response does not mean that doing so is the correct course of action or that one lacks the self control needed not do so. To Blue, Red and Green are philosophies that are enemies of progress and change due to encouraging chaos and/or stagnation while also wanting to bind themselves to flawed and outdated behaviors and practices because their body or tradition told them to. Red and Green are also colors that often believe the answer to your problems or shortcomings lie within you while Blue believes they reside without. Red says if you want to be happy you need only to follow your gut. Green says that everything you need to live a fulfilling life already exists within you. However, Blue believes that by obtaining knowledge and understanding of not just yourself but from without there are ways to get what you want. Blue says that the answer to being happy may need to come from some sort of outside source of knowledge or equipment that you may not just naturally have.

One of major thematic conflicts between Green and Blue is that of different types of growth. Specifically natural growth vs artificial growth. I don’t think Blue’s themes of growth are that difficult to comprehend. Blue is all about self-actualization and personal growth is a major part of Blue philosophy. 

Using the knowledge you have obtained to become the best version of yourself and constantly improve upon the world. It should be noted that while some people may see Green as a completely stagnant color that is not always the case. Green is about accepting the world as it is and while that can seem like never letting anything change it is important to remember that change itself is a natural part of the world. To Green, trying to fight natural change instead of accepting how things may be changing around you is also bad. What Green tends to be against is change that it deems to be artificial. Instead of trying to be in control at all times we should take a more hands off approach to ourselves and the world and just let them progress naturally. 

This is an idea that Blue will usually disagree with. Blue usually wants a more active form of change because it is a philosophy that wants to make the world a better place. Whether doing so requires natural or artificial change is irrelevant to it. Also, Blue believes that basically anything can be improved, including things that Green might deem as fine just the way it is(even if it’s not perfect). Not to mention that Blue is trying to improve the world. So if a change is occurring that it sees as detrimental it would argue for stopping it even if that change might seem like something that should just be accepted to Green.

This brings us to another conflict between the colors. One that instead of asking what kind of change should occur instead begs the question if we should change anything at all? Here’s the thing, a lot of people sort of misunderstand Green… like a LOT of people REALLY misunderstand Green. Many just write it off as the “nature philosophy/color or the might makes right color” but what if I told you that nature is merely an extension of one of Green’s ideals. Where the nature part actually comes from is the fact that Green believes we should accept the world as it is, as it provides us with all we need. Usually if one is to accept the world as it is it means to accept it in its natural state. Nature is essentially what is usually the default state of the world. Some of the definitions of nature include “the basic or inherent features of something, especially when seen as characteristic of it,” “the innate or essential qualities or character of a person or animal,” and “inborn or hereditary characteristics as an influence on or determinant of personality”(which are all things Green tends to focus very heavily on). Concepts like “artificial” usually imply something that is not naturally occurring and thus created. Artificial things are usually things that are not really the default state of the world for this reason. It is important to stress that Green philosophy is not opposed to any and all technology and you can have technologically inclined Green characters…

but this article isn’t about Green, it’s about Blue. Blue doesn’t really care about what is or isn’t artificial, just what it considers to be an improvement on what came before. This leads to one of the common themes of Green and Blue being the past vs the future. Green in Magic tends to have an emphasis on the past and tradition while Blue usually has a focus on the future and progressivism.  

This also feeds into a symbolic stand off in the form of “reality” vs “illusion” but I’ll go over that as we go along. Green’s emphasis on the past, tradition, and what came before is tied to the fact that Green philosophy cares more about accepting the world. Don’t try to be what you are not but just accept the world as it is right now and live with it. One of the best ways to understand one’s place in the world and its natural order is to look at the past. For example, looking at the impact and role bears have had on the ecosystem in order to understand their place in it as predators. This often extends into tradition as Green philosophy is usually about learning to live with the world and its traditions instead of fighting it. This is also where Green’s focus on “reality” comes in. 

It’s not that Blue doesn’t care about reality but rather that Green is not as concerned as what could potentially be. Blue is all about progress, improvement, and knowledge. Meaning it is a philosophy that says you should question just about literally everything and improve or replace anything it doesn’t see as valuable or useful. It is a philosophy that usually encourages questioning why traditions exist and is more likely to want to constantly replace them with “better” things. Blue is also a color that believes we are blank slates and have near limitless potential. Which is where its future themes come in. The “future” symbolism is a representation of Blue’s focus on how we can better ourselves and the world around us. In essence how we can craft a better world and a better future. 

This is also where the theme of “illusion” comes from. Illusions are a common creature type in Blue and they represent Blue’s focus on all the things that could be. As opposed to getting stuck only on what is. Basically, imagine all the wondrous things and technology the future could hold in store. So tl;dr Green believes all the answers you need can be found by just living with the world in the moment while Blue believes in changing the world for the better.

Finally, if we want to understand Blue a little bit more let’s look at the allies Blue and Green share. While shared allies can tell us similarities between the colors they can also show differences. So why is White ally colors with one of Blue’s enemies? Well, as mentioned earlier in my article going over White, as well as this one, White and Green are both colors that believe not everything can and/or needs to be understood. This conflicts with Blue since it is a color that believes everything has an answer with the right knowledge while White and Green believe that some things are either just beyond our comprehension or don’t need to be understood/questioned. Some things are just the way things are. This is also what gives White and Green a more tradition based theme than Blue.

This finally brings us to the major agreements between the color philosophies. Even though I just said Green doesn’t think everything needs to be understood and neatly categorized that doesn’t mean it sees knowledge as a useless tool. In fact, understanding how nature and the world around you works is something that both philosophies can usually agree is a good thing. Remember, Blue says we should try to understand as much as possible including nature and our place in it. Green is all for learning about the natural world, or its default state, because it can help us find the beauty in it and better understand our place within it, as well as why the world is the way it is.

Also, Blue does usually have stakes in taking care of the natural world. Blue wants to understand nature and if nature is completely destroyed it becomes a lot harder to do that.

Another major theme the colors often share is growth. Which is odd because I just went over artificial growth vs natural growth as a core conflict between these colors. However, I also said that Blue doesn’t care about what is natural or unnatural as long as it is an improvement on what came before. If doing things naturally is more efficient than Blue is all for it, which can lead it to agreeing with Green sometimes. Blue likes progress that is both natural and unnatural in essence. While Blue is constantly trying to change the world, the natural state Green tends to idealize is always slowly changing and evolving, and not all change is unnatural or bad. Blue and Green also both have themes of adaptation and evolution for the reasons listed above and also some other diverging reasons. 

Let me put it this way, Green is a color that says we should accept the world as it is. Part of doing that is essentially natural selection. Since nature is always slowly changing people or things that can adapt to it and survive and things that can’t simply die out or get left behind. Blue is constantly trying to improve itself and the world around it so Blue also has this emphasis on adaptation. If things are changing around you then there lies an answer in how you can adjust to it. The most obvious example of these themes is with the Green-Blue Simic Combine on Ravnica but they will get their own article eventually.

But let’s take a look back at the ally colors that Blue and Green share, that color being White. By looking at this shared color we can find some of the overlaps that Blue and Green both share. In this case the main overlap is a greater emphasis on the bigger picture/greater good or group than more individualistic colors like Black and Red. All three colors believe that there are things bigger than yourself and you are obligated to put said things before your more individual needs or desires in order to create a bigger net positive. White is all about putting the needs of the many above the needs of the few. Green believes in a sort of natural order and that everything has a place in this order. To Green, you also shouldn’t disrupt this natural order or ecosystem as it exists the way it does for a reason. Blue is all about bettering not just yourself but the world around you. Blue believes that in order to truly become your best self you must exist in the best possible world. 

Meanwhile, as mentioned previously, Black and Red tend to be much more individualistic. Black says you should basically put the individual first at all times and only do something if it gives you some sort of benefit. Red is more emotion based and while it is a philosophy that can prioritize putting others first it is a much more emotional one. It is one that states you should act on your emotions. So if you don’t care about the greater good, people, or group as a whole Red is not going to argue you have any responsibility to help it. With this we can see that thanks to White, Blue and Green both have an acknowledgment of systems, workings, and/or needs of the many/world that are more important than individuals(even if they don’t always agree on what those are). This can be seen with how Green, White and Blue can all often have an emphasis on things like laws and rules (which can be seen with the Brokers on Capenna and the strong traditions of the Bant shard of Alara).

Placement on the Color Pie:

Like the last article in this series, I think it is always interesting to look at why Blue is where it is on the color pie and what that can tell us about its philosophy.

White and Black being next to Blue is actually quite easy to understand despite their seemingly opposing ideals. Blue wants to make itself and the world around it a better place. This is because by making the world a better place it by proxy creates a world that allows it to be its best self. Meaning that the Blue’s alliance with White represents a desire to improve things on a larger scale, ie. improve the world and society, and making things better for the group as a whole. Similar to White, Blue is usually unwilling to improve things for a single individual if it means sacrificing something bigger than the individual.

Black being next to Blue represents an improvement on the self. Blue is a philosophy of self-actualization(becoming the best version of yourself) and Black, in its own way, does prioritize the individual becoming the best version of themselves. Interestingly, Black does also want to improve the world. However, unlike White it is trying to make the world better for itself rather than better for everyone else. 

With this laid out it makes perfect sense that Blue is so focused on perfection. It is basically sandwiched between the aspects of colors who want to improve the world around them even if it comes at the expense of individualism and a color that wants to better itself even if it comes at the expense of almost everyone else or the larger group. When you mix these aspects together you get a philosophy that cares about improving almost everything it can. Another aspect all the colors usually share is the desire to make things better wherever they can. They, in their own ways, all want to change the world. Another way all these colors overlap is through the ideals of control. 

Blue believes we are filled with almost endless potential and can become just about anything. So Blue is saying we have almost complete control over who and what we want to be. Blue is also more likely to prioritize laws and rules to make things better or more efficient and also to make sure a bunch of progress isn’t undone because of one or more less than logical people or groups. White is more likely to emphasize things like morals, and to make sure people are doing the right thing and prioritizing the group. It is likely to rely on things like laws and rules to keep everyone in check. White understands that sometimes people need outside aid or factors to keep them in line. Black’s entire goal is “power through opportunity.” It literally wants as much control over its own life and the world around it as possible so that it can ensure it gets what it needs.

Which brings us to Red and Green. One of the conflicts between Blue and these colors is that Blue tends to be more external in its answers while Green and Red are generally more internal. This is not to say that Blue isn’t introspective. If anything this entire article should show you that is usually the opposite, Blue prioritizes being thoughtful and using knowledge. Rather, Blue believes that at the end of the day the answer you want or need exists somewhere out in the universe and you only need the right piece of knowledge and/or technology along with the proper amount of time to find it. Everything has an answer or explanation. If you want to fly then there exists a jetpack or plane that you can learn to fly. Maybe the pain you’re experiencing can be solved with the right medicine, surgery, or a specific exercise technique. Meanwhile, Green argues that you already have all the answers you need to live a satisfied life within yourself. Instead of fighting and trying to force things to change you need only accept yourself and the world for what they are. And Red… Well, Red is just saying that you’ll be happy if you just follow your emotions, your body, and how you feel instead of trying to fight or suppress them. So Red’s answer to life still tends to lean towards a more internal one. I would go as far as to say that the thing Red and Green have in common is that they are both sort of “go with the flow” colors. I don’t mean go with the flow as in a relaxed or layed back personality but rather that these colors want to approach the world with a more hands off approach. Red is just following its emotions and sensations while Green is all about just embracing the world for as it is. Both of these colors generally want you to embrace who/what you are, even when colors like White, Black and especially Blue might advocate for changing those things. Colors like Blue actively advocate for fighting to change the world but Red and Green have what I can only describe as a more “laid back” approach. Green believes everything will just sort of work out if you usually take a more hands off approach to let things progress naturally and Red believes you will live an overall happier life if you just do whatever it is your body and emotions tell you to. This also conflicts with the more controlling aspects of White, Blue, and Black. Red and Green are basically telling you to throw control to the wind. 

Don’t try to control your emotions, just roll with them, says Red. Don’t try to artificially change the world, just roll with it, says Green. I need to make it clear that this does not mean that Red and Green are relaxed or take everything in stride, it’s just that they are more about letting go of control. Everyone should note that Red and Green can be far from relaxed. For example, if Red wants to punch someone it doesn’t want to try to fight against that feeling.

Elemental and Metaphorical Associations

This brings us to one of my favorite Color Pie topics, and one that I don’t think is talked about enough. Symbolic and elemental associations that colors have. Not just what Blue is associated with but WHY they are associated with Blue. A lot of the things the colors are associated with are more symbolic in nature rather than a literal requirement for the alignment. You don’t need to be a pyromaniac to be Red or like swimming to be Blue. That is purely symbolism used within the game to convey the alignment in the same way angelic imagery might be used to convey Lawful Good.

Let’s get the most obvious Blue symbol out of the way. Water is all over the place in Blue MTG art, so much so that the symbol for Blue mana itself is literally a drop of water. Then there is also Blue’s connection with air and wind. 

I am talking about both water and air in the same explanation because the reasons they are associated with Blue are connected. Which in turn is due to the fact that MTG takes a lot of inspiration from the classical 4 “western” elements of water, earth, fire and air. These 4 elements are also used in other parts of the world and other cultures, not just “western” ones and the term “western” itself is vague, arbitrary and debatable. However, I’m going to use this term for this conversation and to be more specific I am referring mostly to how alchemical and Greek culture viewed these elements. First of all, water and air elements are both more tied to the spirit and the mind rather than the body. Earth and fire also tend to be more associated with physical things, while water and air are more likely to be associated with non-physical or spiritual things. They are “higher” elements. This makes sense for Blue since Blue is literally all about knowledge and the mind, and how one can use those to keep their emotions, instincts, or bodies in check while bettering themselves. This is further reinforced by the fact that fire is often associated with emotion and earth is more often associated with the body and the physical. Another thing about both water and air is that they are both very malleable. They can take on almost any physical shape and water is quite well known for how easily it transitions between a solid(ice), liquid(water), and gas(vapor). This is a pretty good representation of Blue’s ideals because it believes you are in control of what and who you are and can become “shaped” into just about anything under the right circumstances. Also, just because I know someone will bring it up. While fire is plasma and has a less defined shape then something like earth it tends to be way harder to control and manipulate than water and air. I mean sure there are lighters and stuff but imagine trying to perfectly fit a flame into a bottle and then closing it to save it for later. And I don’t just mean put a little candle in it, I mean fill that bottle to the brim. When it comes to air you don’t even have to try, and filling a bottle full of water is child’s play. Another thing to consider about Blue’s water and air theme is how they reflect Blue’s conflict with Red and Green. In Magic Green has a strong association with the element of earth while Red has a strong association with the aforementioned earth in addition to fire. 

This is because earth and fire tend to be more symbolically connected to physical attributes like the body and instincts. With fire in particular often being associated with emotion. A good example of this is the term “burning passion.” Fire is also harder to control than water and can suddenly spread or go out if left unchecked. Which is a pretty decent representation for how strong emotions can be and how Red can seem very chaotic, irrational and destructive to colors like Blue. It also highlights how Blue wants to use its mind to control and overcome our emotions and instincts. 

Water and air tend to be a lot easier to control than fire. Red and Green are very philosophically deep but they want to be more concerned with living in the moment than Blue is. Green’s goal of accepting the world as it is also highlights why it is connected to earth. Earth is a solid and tends to be much harder to shape and change, way harder than pure water or air anyway, especially when you consider things like rock. Which makes perfect sense for the color arguing that you are born a certain way in a certain world and there are a lot of things you cannot change, whether that be due to biology, destiny, or something else. In this sense Green’s view of the world is a lot more concrete(haha get it) than a philosophy like Blue’s. Blue believes the world and the people in it are almost as malleable and fluid as water and air itself while Green believes much of the world to be set in stone. Mark Rosewater also mentions that part of the reason air and water were chosen for Blue is because they also represent a sort of mental manipulation or acuity/sharpness, and thought. This connection to water and air is also part of the reason Blue has so many flying and sea creatures but that is something we will get to some other time.

One thing I forgot to cover in the original version of this article is Blue’s association with lightning, electricity, clouds, storms, and other similar weather phenomena. 

Lightning and electricity tend to be associated with Red more often than they are with Blue but I figured that they show up consistently enough to be worth covering. 

The thing that lightning, clouds, storms, etc. all have in common is their association with the sky which is something that just acts as an extension of Blue’s association with the classical element of air for many of the same reasons, which means that there isn’t much for me to cover for most of the stuff here. Most of the reasons as to why Blue is associated with air are the same reasons it’s associated with weather and the sky in general. I guess you could argue that the sky is also associated with freedom which ties into Blue’s “you can achieve anything” philosophy. However, in the case of lightning and electricity there also exists an association with technology, machinery, and modernity simply because most more advanced forms of technology are powered by electricity or other similar energy sources. Another thing about lightning is that it’s also heavily associated with inspiration. For example, the idea of a quote unquote “flash of inspiration” can often connect to a sudden flash of lightning and furthermore the term “catch lightning in a bottle” is an idiom that is defined as “to accomplish something extraordinarily difficult; achieve rare success,” which one could relate to Blue’s idea of anything being possible and continuously striving to improve oneself despite the odds or seeming impossibilities (what I’m saying is that lightning has a strong association with rare or nearly impossible occurrences and Blue believes almost anything is possible).

However, I’ll admit the whole lightning in a bottle thing is more tenuous of a reading and the connection to the sky, technology, and modernity is much more likely to be the main or even only reasons lightning and electricity are sometimes associated with Blue. Extra point, clouds are made of water vapor so they connect to both of Blue’s associations with water and air.

Our talk of water and air also connects to Blue’s next association: the cold. I mean water and air are often associated with the cold to begin with. First off, there is the wind chill factor whenever the wind blows. Which can cause sudden drops in temperatures. If someone blows air as if they were blowing out a candle the air will usually feel colder where the air is flowing. When it comes to good ol’ H2O, ice is a form of water. Of course, water only turns to ice when it’s cold enough and water itself can often feel colder than the surrounding environment. However, these are all only side reasons for why Blue is associated with cold. The main reason is because the cold is associated with intellect and a lack of emotion. People tend to associate heat with strong emotions and by proxy coldness with the opposite. If someone has a “burning” passion or “burning” anger it means they are feeling really strong emotions. If someone is “cold” and calculating it means they either aren’t feeling a lot of emotions or they just aren’t showing it. This highlights the conflict between Red and Blue too, since Red wants to embrace and act on all its emotions it is associated with heat. But Blue wants to act based purely on its active thought and not just however it feels. The takeaway here isn’t that Blue is necessarily against feeling any and all emotions but rather that Blue is a philosophy that might come off as “cold” because your active thought and intellect should almost always take precedence over what are possibly shortsighted and/or irrational emotions. Cold and ice can also be used in Magic to freeze things or slow them down in order to stall for time. 

Which ties in with how Blue wants as much time as possible to gather knowledge. By freezing/tapping your creature(s) Blue now has more time in the game to formulate a strategy or look for the proper answer for a threat.

Blue is associated with both telepathy and telekinesis for similar reasons, so I am mentioning them both here. In case you forgot, telepathy is the ability to read minds, and/or mentally communicate. 

Telekinesis is the ability to control objects with your mind. 

There isn’t too much to say because of course Blue is the color that is all about knowledge and the mind. So abilities that allow it to change and manipulate the world around it via using one’s mind only highlights Blue’s emphasis on active thought. Blue leans towards a mind over matter way over thinking, and telekinesis makes the idea literal. Also, various forms of telepathy can be used to allow Blue to gather more information from others, as well as potentially share its own information with others, making it a great way to accrue information.

MaRo states that the reason Blue messes with time is because “Blue’s studies have helped it uncover secrets that none of the other colors are privy to, how to use time as both a resource and a weapon” but I would like to think that this is only part of it. You see Blue is a color that believes anything can be achieved with the right amount of time, information and/or technology. So by mastering time you give yourself the means to look for knowledge and find more possible answers in how to achieve your goals. 

Also, if someone lacks as much time as you they have less time to gather knowledge or find an answer to whatever you are doing. Denying someone time could be seen in a similar vein to how Blue may deny information to gain an upper hand.

We already mentioned why Blue tends to be associated with illusions but there are some extra reasons why illusion magic specifically is associated with Blue. As a reminder, Blue’s illusion theming/matters comes from the fact that Blue has this emphasis on what could be.

All the ways things can be improved or changed because to Blue people are mostly blank slates. Blue isn’t just going to roll over and throw up its hands at the world because it believes the world can be changed. In combat illusion magic also thrives off the ignorance of others. Blue is all about knowledge and it knows how powerful knowledge can be. So when it fights it may often try to target its opponent’s knowledge to prevent them from finding an answer. Illusions do this by making it so the opponent either doesn’t know what is real or fake, or because it tricked them(causing them to receive incorrect knowledge, believe that they are being hurt, or are in an unwinnable position). Ironically, illusion magic often has a weakness to knowledge, since if you know that they aren’t real they cannot usually directly hurt you due to being fake. This is also why many illusions tend to have a gimmick where if they are targeted or interacted with they are sacrificed or returned to your hand(it’s because they aren’t really there).

Blue is often associated with construction/technology. While Blue is a philosophy more likely to embrace newer technology than say Green, a lot of people have a habit of oversimplifying Blue’s relationship with technology. Luckily, I’ve already gone over Blue and technology in this very article. So as a short recap, Blue is associated with technology and tools because it can allow someone to become a better version of themselves or achieve something that they couldn’t before. For example, if you want to fly Green might say you should just accept that you can’t. But Blue might get you a jetpack or plane so that you can. A much better example of this in action is how glasses and/or surgeries can allow people who are basically blind to see with 20/20 vision. Blue is also focused on improving things and it doesn’t really care if those improvements are from technology or not. While Green may argue that the creation/use of something is disrupting some natural order, Blue is just itching to take advantage of it if it sees it as beneficial. 

All the reasons I went over for construction and technology are also why Blue is often associated with artifacts and man-made objects in general.

There is also the very color blue itself to consider. Out of all the colors, why was blue chosen to represent this philosophy? It goes without saying that I am approaching this analysis from a generic “western” idea of what blue is often associated with. I am not covering literally everything the color blue is associated with, such as sadness, and I think it is important to remember that different cultures may strongly associate the same color with different things. For example, one group of people may associate yellow with happiness while another may be more likely to associate it with sickness. On a surface level blue is often associated with the water and the sky(and by extension the air). It is worth noting how the ocean and sky are usually shades of blue. This is also symbolically tied to Blue philosophy in MTG. Blue is also a “cold” color where a color like red is associated with heat. This is important because while if you were to look at a color wheel the color opposite to Blue is some shade of orange it is red that most people consider to be the opposite of blue. Fire, red, and heat are things that are often associated with emotion. There is the earlier mentioned “burning passion” and “burning rage” but red is a color that is often associated with strong emotions like anger. Red is considered a “warm” color while blue is considered a “cool” color. This also ties into how coldness can be associated with someone or something that isn’t showing a bunch of emotion, i.e. “they are stone cold.” While blue can be associated with sadness, which can be a strong emotion, more often the more important association in this situation is that of blue and calm/tranquility. This is because Red doesn’t want to try to control its emotions, it wants to lean into them. But Blue wants to keep a cool and clear head and not let its emotions dictate its every action. Blue wants to try to keep calm, collected, and in control as much as possible so it can try to gather information and properly use the time it has to make the best choice possible based on its information. Meanwhile, Red believes that whatever your emotions tell you to do IS in itself the right choice.

Mana Symbol

This brings us to the most common representation Blue, it’s very mana symbol. Like all the mana symbols in Magic there’s not a lot for me to talk about here due to how simple it is.

The symbol itself is literally just a drop of water. So all the reasons Blue is associated with water is why it has this mana symbol. Water is a “higher” element associated with things like the mind and it is fluid. Meaning it can be shaped in countless different ways. Representing Blue’s idea that people are blank slates that can be molded and shaped in almost countless ways.

However, this brings me to another topic. Why is Blue represented with a U? For those who don’t know, sometimes people will type out single letters as shorthands for each of the colors. W for White, B for Black, R for Red, G for Green, and of course Blue gets… U? Why? Well everyone asks this question eventually, so the reason for this is actually explained in an article by Mark Rosewater called “NUTS & BOLTS: CARD CODES.” So each Magic card has something called a card code, which is something that I won’t really be diving into for now because all the specifics aren’t really important. All you need to know is that card codes are used so people working at Wizards designate and recognize cards because the names of cards aren’t always finalized and can change overtime. Part of the card code refers to what color a card is. This is where W, U, B, R and G come from. With this we finally get the answer. In order for the code to actually function each color needs its own unique designation. Representing both Blue and Black would mean that it would be impossible to tell the difference between what is going to be a Blue card and a Black card. Both Blue and Black start with the letter “B” which means only one of them can have it. Then the second letter for each color is both “L”. Now it’s already bad enough that only one color can have this letter but on top of that the designation of “L” is taken up by lands. So since L is used by lands we have to move the next letters for both colors. Bringing us to “U” and “A”. Another question you might have is why doesn’t Blue get B and Black get something else since Blue comes first in WUBRG order? Well, it’s because A is saved for artifacts. Which means Blue has U and E available and Black has C and K. U is Blue’s third letter while C is Black’s fourth. Since U shows up earlier in the word Blue than C or K does for Black it basically gets priority and gets picked . Which means Black defaults to B since the alternative is Black having to reach all the way for a C or a K(tl:dr Blue gets U because U comes earlier in the word than Black’s C/K and L and A are already taken by the designation for lands and artifacts respectively.

Lands Association

This brings us to the land type that is associated with Blue, the island.

Honestly, the explanation here is pretty straightforward. Blue is associated with water for the reasons mentioned in the “Elemental and Metaphorical Associations” section. Islands are a type of land that is literally defined by water. In order to be considered an island a land mass must be surrounded on all sides by water. To quote the dictionary, an island is “a piece of land surrounded by water.” The only thing I find weird about some of Magic’s land types is that islands and mountains are more like landmasses and plains, swamps, and forests seem to be more specific biomes, since you can have say a swamp or mountain on an island, but I’m not an expert on these sorts of things(and I guess you could also have small islands in swamps to be fair). So maybe one of you can explain to me all the wide variety of swamps or how they actually are a type of land mass in the comments below.

I figured I might as well bring it up, if the reason islands were picked is because of their association with water then why wasn’t an ocean, lake, or river picked? Those definitely scream WATER!!! Way louder than an island since they literally are just water. In MaRo’s Drive to Work “Basic Lands” he goes over how each land type was picked for each color. For some of the colors, such as Blue, in order to get the full picture we have to go all the way back to before Magic even existed. Originally, Richard Garfield was making a game called “5 Magics,” with each magic being represented by a color that would later become MTG’s 5 color philosophies. It is important to mention that 5 Magics wasn’t a card game but a resource game more akin to say Catan or something. 

These lands would eventually be adopted for Magic as the explanation for where the players get their mana from when casting spells. Blue’s land originally started off as “Coasts” because of the fact that it has a connection to water and at the time Richard wanted each land to be something that could be connected to each other due to the fact that 5 Magics was a tile based game. But as the game moved away from being tile based and towards being card based Richard had a lot less restrictions on the kinds of lands he could pick. Richard actually considered using something like “Ocean” as Blue’s land but ultimately decided that it needed to be some sort of land that was tied to water. Which led to “Island” being picked. Part of the reason a land was chosen was to add a sense of cohesiveness or balance, since it would be weird if Blue had the only basic land that wasn’t a land. Also, if you included an ocean as a basic land type it makes the name “basic lands” kind of weird. While probably not intentional, it’s also important to mention that islands are a lot easier to fit onto various planes, worlds and locations than entire oceans. Islands can be in any sufficiently big body of water, such as lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.. You can also have islands of varying sizes, such as really small ones or really big ones. Oceans all kind of have to be massive.

General Gameplay Philosophy

One thing that I think is underappreciated about each color in Magic is how well their gameplay tries to put you in the shoes of each color and encourages you to try to tackle a situation in a way that their philosophy would encourage you to do(even if it isn’t always perfect). For example, Black is more ruthless so it is more likely to use whatever it can to win a fight. Thus, the color rewards you for doing things like sacrificing your creatures to get ahead, and by not doing those things you often put yourself at a noticeable disadvantage when playing as Black. So how does Blue try to get you to think and play?

Well for one, Blue is the slowest out of the five colors in terms of gameplay. Red tends to be very aggressive and tries to finish the game quickly, White can pump out a bunch of small creatures and swing in early in the game, Green can ramp to play big things faster, and Black is clearly more aggressive than Mono-Blue in terms of playstyle. This probably makes a lot of sense if you’ve made it this far into the article. At the end of the day when you play a game of Magic it metaphorically represents a fight between planeswalkers and their allies. So the reason Blue tends to play so slow in the game is simply because Blue typically wants to take the time to use it’s brain by using it’s knowledge to find ways to beat its opponents and if it does not yet have the knowledge needed to understand its opponent(s) it wants to take as much time as it can to fully understand all the various factors involved, such as how spells work, their opponent, etc.. Also, unlike colors such as Red, Blue’s philosophy tends to be more long term. So of course, it would be a color that prefers to play the long calculated safe game and not just making rash and risky decisions. Once it has gathered all the information it needs then it will want to use that to ensure its opponent’s defeat. To Blue, it doesn’t usually matter how much weaker it is than someone if it can basically outsmart it or find some sort of weakness. This is also sort of reinforced in how Blue tends to have creatures with a lower power and toughness than that of some of the other colors. It’s not that Blue is necessarily literally weaker but rather that the color is trying to encourage the player to not just rely on using the brute strength of big creatures all the time to rush and to instead focus more on using your mind. Likewise, the flavor is often that the Blue creatures themselves don’t usually just want to brute strength things and they would rather use their intellect to solve things(this is not to say Blue is always opposed to overpowering something though. It just wants to think it through and not run in swinging with no plan).

While Blue may generally have smaller creatures, these creatures also tend to have a lot more evasion than some of the other colors so it can slip past threats. This can be seen with abilities like “flying” and “can’t be blocked.” Blue is trying to use its knowledge to avoid even being hit or stopped in the first place. Its evasion also represents how it may fight others by restricting their knowledge. So if an opponent’s creature doesn’t even know that yours is attacking or exists because they are being stealthy it becomes a lot harder for them to stop you.

The fact that Blue’s gameplay tends to be so slow means that Mono-Blue decks are usually control or tempo by default. A control style deck is one that, according to the MTG wiki, “aims to control the opponent’s cards and progression with, ideally, the end result where one has full control of everything that is done during the game. Control decks typically get their edge through card advantage. Control decks intend to trade resources until the opponent falls behind on card quality” and wikipedia defines Magic control decks as “a type of deck or archetype that focuses on dominating the game using some or all of the following kinds of strategies: long term card advantage, resource denial, permission, and inevitability.” What this basically means is that control decks basically stretch out the game until they either meet their win condition or accrue incremental advantages over their opponents over the course of the game(and when the player has enough of these advantages they can overwhelm their opponent or put them in a situation where they can’t win). In essence, a control deck is basically an attrition style deck. On the other hand, a tempo deck is one that seeks to win through timing and mana advantage. Tempo decks are one of the archetypes I think people have the hardest time explaining and/or understanding. Basically what winning through timing and mana advantage means is that the player wants to use their knowledge and resources to know exactly when to play a card in order to either pull themselves ahead or push an opponent back. Tempo is sort of trying to exchange cards in order to put itself ahead. It usually aims to win by using under-costed threats that are protected and most tempo decks prefer more versatile cards that will almost always be relevant to the board state, such as Unsummon and Decision Paralysis. 

Despite this versatility tempo decks tend to rely more on conditional disruption that is more punishing for specific answers, for example Fading Hope and other similar bounce spells tend to focus on creatures and spells such as Lightning Bolt are a good answer to creatures like Centaur Courser but not Baloth Gorger. 

Tempo also tends to care a lot more about drawing cards in the right order. Powerful tempo decks also tend to fucking love counterspells for this reason. While counterspells can answer a variety of threats and are almost always relevant if they are a flat “counter target spell” they also have specific windows in timings in which to use them. The difference between tempo in control is that tempo is kind of just trying to stay ahead while control is holding out until it gets its win cons. Basically, tempo decks are the Dick Dastardly of MTG decks. It’s not trying to win so much as it is trying to make sure your opponent is losing.

Speaking of counterspells, Blue is the color famous for having a lot of them. If you ask me this makes perfect sense and has some serious flavor. Blue is all about foresight, knowledge, and understanding. So what better way to use knowledge in a game like Magic than to predict what your opponent is going to do and planning accordingly so that you can stop it before it gets out of hand. Flavorwise, this also represents Blue’s ideal approach to magical combat. If you are a Blue aligned planeswalker getting into a magical duel you will usually want to understand as much about magic and spells as possible so you can combat it. 

Sometimes counterspells represent Blue having researched and understood magic well enough to know how to simply prevent or stop it. 

This knowledge is also why Blue tends to be the premier instant and sorcery color. Blue magic users tend to seek to understand all they can about magic so they tend to have a better understanding of it and how its spells work. Its emphasis on spells over creatures also further highlights its emphasis on the mind and knowledge. You aren’t relying on the magic of other creatures but rather your own magical spells that you have learned and/or accrued.

This is also why Blue tends to care about non-creature spells in general. Artifacts represent Blue’s emphasis on technology, instants and sorceries represent the mind, and enchantments tend to either represent transformation or a non-physical/mental concept(such as laws). Enchantments can also just represent more permanent effects.

Some people seem to think Blue is a color that’s really good at removal and, Pongify aside, Blue actually tends to be bad at it in comparison to other colors. This is because it lacks a lot of ways to permanently deal with threats outside of counterspells. Even then counterspells require very precise timing and cannot be used to stop something after it has hit the board or resolved. The most common Blue answers to threats is stuff like bounce effects(cards that return a target card to its players hands) which tend to be only temporary solutions or just stall the other player. 

Blue also has transformation effects like Turn to Frog and Gift of Tusks. 

But when these effects are on an aura/enchantment there’s always the possibility that they can be undone if said enchantment is destroyed or removed and when they are on an instant or sorcery they are usually temporary. 

Occasionally, Blue will get stuff like Ravenform and Pongify but this isn’t super common and even then these effects usually give the opponent something in return(flavorwise this typically represents something that is transformed and is really hard to turn back). 

Colors like Black and White tend to have better more permanent removal than Blue. 

Blue’s lack of permanent removal usually ties in with its reluctance to destroy things. Not to say that Blue never kills and destroys but remember Blue wants to understand as much as possible, and understanding something becomes a lot harder if you just destroy it the second you see it. This is also further emphasized by the fact that Blue can steal a lot of an opponent’s permanents. Which becomes a lot harder to do if you are also destroying all those permanents early on. There’s also the fact that to Blue something may prove useful later, whether that be directly or through knowledge it provides. Because of this, Blue’s gameplay tends to take a more subtle approach. To put it another way, Blue doesn’t want to just destroy something it doesn’t fully understand unless it absolutely has to.

Last but not least, Blue has an infamous amount of card draw. 

The library in MTG can represent a lot of things depending on the situation, such as an excavation, but it usually represents a part of the player’s mind. More specifically, the subset of all the spells the player, who is supposed to be a planeswalker, knows. It is not always literally every spell because then the decks for some would have to be massive. Meanwhile, the hand represents the conscious mind of the player. It is the spells you can remember or are thinking about in that specific moment, and when a game starts the cards in your hands represent the first seven, or less if you mulligan, spells in your head when the duel starts. I have seen some people confused about this metaphor so let’s do a little extra explaining. Some people have asked things like “well if this represents the mind why are my spells random and not in a specific order.” A lot of these questions can be explained by the fact that MTG is at the end of the day a card game and having a deck that played out literally the exact same way in the same order would be boring. Second is that flavor-wise there are any manner of factors. Maybe the player forgot about a spell until they drew it, maybe they don’t want to use it, maybe something reminded them of it mod-fight, maybe when you draw a new card you’ve learned a new spell, maybe someone thinks they only need the cards currently in their hand/head to win, it could be that you remembered how to counter the first spell but then panicked or got tricked when the opponent cast the same spell later, etc.. What the library and your hand represent in relation to the mind is very flexible and can vary. Blue’s connection to things like the library and hand size makes perfect sense due to its emphasis on knowledge. Blue is all about taking as much time as you can to gather knowledge so it gets the most card draw and is most often the one with effects that increase hand size. 

While in this magical duel Blue often wants to gather as much knowledge as it can in order to win so it often draws a bunch of cards to do so.

Blue, along with Black, has a lot of mill. Blue understands how important information is which means that it often understands that messing with or removing information that someone has can weaken them or leave them unable to fight back. If someone has their entire library milled they lose the game because they have run out of spells they can think of or use. Milling also reduces the number of times someone can use a spell or if they even have the chance to use it at all if it gets milled.

So what does this all mean? What is the usual gameplay of Blue trying to get you to do? Well, it’s basically trying to get you to focus on playing smart and carefully by gathering all the knowledge available and using it. Blue thinks it can do just about anything with the right knowledge, including win, so its gameplay is all about rewarding you for using knowledge and forethought. Whether that be through gathering information or predicting what your opponent is about to do. Blue is trying to get you to play the long game. You can’t just run in with a bunch of big creatures while smashing everything and expect to win. You have to play smart and patiently for the long game, not the shortsighted, instant gratification, short game. You need to take the time to accrue as much knowledge as possible by drawing cards so that you can find the best knowledge/spell you need to beat the opponent. If you obtain enough knowledge you can figure out what your opponent is going to do and stop it prematurely with a well timed counterspell. By understanding magic you can also do things like cast a wide variety of instants, sorceries, and various combat tricks. Blue wants you to think everything through and stay one step ahead of your opponent by using knowledge. Of course, this gives Blue a huge weakness in gameplay. If an opponent comes at it too fast or before it can set up it’s probably boned. This is because it doesn’t have enough time to try to understand what’s happening or gather information. Blue philosophy puts a lot of its eggs in the basket of understanding as much as possible. So it can get put in troubling situations when it can’t do this. Blue can easily become paralyzed while looking for the perfect answer to a problem or threat because it emphasizes not making the wrong or suboptimal decision.

Evergreen Keywords

Even though I just touched on general mechanics I figured I would take the time to look at some of Blue’s keywords and the kind of flavor they represent. Like the title of this section suggests, this will only be focusing on evergreen keywords(and other mechanics that I felt were close enough or have similar flavor) as opposed to every deciduous keyword and the like. Other mechanics will be covered in the next article that dives deeper into Blue’s mechanics. Because of that, I’m going to try to keep these explanations brief here. If you already read about keywords in the White philosophy article you can just skip this section and scroll down to the part with the list of keywords.

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 2023 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, i.e. 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 Counter target activated/triggered ability and Taxing– Blue is famous, or perhaps infamous, as being the one and only color to be primary in counterspells. Which sometimes seems to give it almost a monopoly on the mechanic. Flavorwise, Blue’s counterspells represent its emphasis on forethought and knowledge and how Blue would usually approach magic. The forethought and knowledge part comes from the fact that counterspells usually require thinking ahead and trying to predict when an opponent will try to play an important or devastating spell that you need to counter. The more magical emphasis is due to the fact that when it comes to magic and magical combat Blue is going to want to try to learn and understand all it can about magic, spells, and how they work. Which can often allow it to do things like stop spells before they can even finish resolving. This also extends to abilities too.

Blue is secondary in taxing effects and a lot of the same flavor also applies to Blue’s taxing effects but instead of completely stopping a spell, ability, or action, it makes it harder to cast or perform. Taxing also connects to some of Blue’s themes of laws and rules being used to make sure things run smoothly and efficiently as well as how laws can be used to make society as a whole a better place.

Flying, Can’t be blocked, Deal damage when blocked, and Trample– Blue is primary in flying due to its strong association with the classical element of air, something that is often associated with the sky and flight. Blue cards often getting flying also has to do with Blue just generally getting a lot of evasion in order to represent how its philosophy encourages trying to outsmart the opponent by using things like knowledge, stealth, and evasion when possible instead of just trying to overpower a problem with brute strength or direct combat.

The stealth and evasion flavoring is also why Blue is primary in “can’t be blocked” abilities, which prevent cards from being blocked at all altogether. It’s meant to emphasize Blue’s focus on cunning and using your brain over just charging in. Why fight directly when you can sneak past your enemies and focus on just defeating enemy players instead?

This stealth and evasion flavoring is also why Blue is tertiary in “deal damage when blocked” effects. It is probably meant to evoke the idea of dealing damaging indirectly or stealthily sneaking damage past an opponent. If you don’t block the creature then it gets a free hit on you and if you do block the creature it finds a way to sneak past you and hit you anyway. Mark states that he lists Blue as being tertiary in this ability because of the afflict mechanic in hour of devastation(which is a mechanic that reads “whenever this creature becomes blocked, defending player loses N life(with N being some set number).”). The Blue parts of Bolas’ Eternal Zombie army use this mechanic(and the army was a faction that had the same alignment as Bolas(Blue, Black, and Red)).

Then there is the fact that Blue is tertiary in trample. In the case of Blue I think trample sometimes leans into its focus on evasion. A way to sort of sneak damage past an opponent or get damage through to harm the enemy player. It could also be seen as an extension of Blue’s unblockability with Blue being able to guarantee that some damage gets through if the enemy blocker isn’t big enough. Of course, like with all the colors, basically any creature card can have trample flavorwise as long as the creature in question is big enough.

Hexproof, Ward(for mana), Can’t be countered, and Protection– Blue is primary in both hexproof and ward. Hexproof comes from a flavor that is similar to that of counterspells. The idea being that when approaching magic and magical combat Blue will usually try to learn and understand all it can about magic. Which means it can often have ways of preventing magic/spells or sort of “magic proofing” its stuff with things like anti-magic to prevent its enemies from messing with it. The exact same flavor also tends to extend to ward, which is basically just a less powerful hexproof. On top of that, the ward also counters any spells it prevents, meaning it’s technically a counterspell. It’s also important to mention that Blue is primary in ward abilities that force someone to pay extra mana to target something as opposed to say paying life.

This same “magic proofing/anti-magic” flavor is also why Blue is secondary in abilities that prevent spells from being countered and tertiary in abilities that grant protection from things. 

Protection also tends to function very closely to counterspells since if a creature you control becomes targeted by a spell your opponent controls you can counter it or grant your creature protection to said spell much to the same or similar result, the spell doing nothing. Also, technically every color gets protection to some degree. Usually they get protection against things they hate or oppose mechanically(such as enemy colors), for example a Blue card may have/grant protection from Red and/or Green and a Green card may grant protection from Black, Blue and/or artifacts.

Protection just also has a lot of the same anti-magic flavor as hexproof and protection also grants a form of evasion since if you have protection from something then permanents with that trait cannot block you, which ties into Blue’s themes of evasion.

Indestructible– Blue is tertiary in indestructible and honestly there isn’t really much to say about it in the case of Blue. Typically when colors like Blue or Red get indestructible it’s because it’s on a creature that is just really hard to kill, like a god or something. While White having indestructible represents its more protective and selfless ideals, Blue doesn’t usually grant indestructibility so it lacks a lot of the same flavor(but that is not to say Blue doesn’t have more protective aspects, as seen with things like hexproof and ward).

Card Draw, “Curiosity(when this creature deals damage to an opponent, draw a card)”, Looting , Scry, Card Filtering, “Restocking(Putting cards from graveyard back into your library)”, Casting spells from your graveyard, Casting spells out of graveyard(s), “Tutor” for a creature(Search your library for a creature card and put that card in your hand), “Tutor” for a land(Search your library for a land card and put that card in your hand), and Playing cards off the top of your library while paying their mana cost (You may look at the top card of your library and if it’s a [blah] you may play it)– I’m really not sure how much I need to explain here since Blue is basically the king of card draw. It is of course primary in card draw, having the widest variety of card draw options out of any color. Having access to cards in all different card types that can provide card draw with no strings attached outside of paying the mana to cast the spell. If there’s one thing that you probably get by now it’s Blue’s emphasis on knowledge and putting in the time to understand as much as possible so you can make the most informed and best decision possible as much as you can in order to better yourself. This is basically what Blue’s card draw reflects. Blue takes as much time as it can to research and obtain knowledge so it can make the best choice possible. By drawing more cards you are gathering more information. Plus having more cards in your hand means you have more options increasing the likelihood that you will have access to the best card possible for a given situation. Blue is primary in scrying for the same reason. Scrying not only emphasizes Blue’s reliance on knowledge but also the idea that it is taking the time to think about and question everything so it can look for the best possible answer via looking at the top card(s) of a library and sorting them so that they are drawn in the correct order or filtering out anything that is deemed not helpful to the current situation. This exact same flavor also applies to card filtering(which are effects that say “Look at the top N cards of your library and put M inTO your hand and and the rest on the bottom of the library in any order.”)

Blue is also primary in “restocking(putting cards from graveyard back into your library)” and secondary in casting spells from their owner’s graveyard, as well as casting spells from any graveyard. Furthermore, Blue is secondary in affects that tutor for creatures(search your library for a creature card and put that card in your hand) and tertiary in affects that tutor for a land(Search your library for a land card and put that card in your hand). I would argue that these abilities actually have pretty similar flavor to scrying and card draw due to Blue’s focus on knowledge. If the library represents your mind then putting cards from your graveyard back into your library basically acts as a way to “remember” your cards or recover lost knowledge to accrue even more knowledge and possible answers. This flavor applies to casting spells from graveyards and in addition you could argue that it represents learning or using knowledge from the past(“Hey that spell you cast was pretty cool actually. If I do enough research then I should also be able to cast it”). 

Casting stuff from the graveyard also relates to Blue’s ability to steal permanents and spells, since Blue believes that you can control or master anything as long as you understand it enough. You may even be able to use something of the opponent’s against them with that knowledge. Also, Blue cares a lot about instants and sorceries mechanically and can even do things like recover them from the graveyard and on top of that there’s abilities like Flashback and Jump-start that allow you to cast instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard. 

Tutoring on the other hand just has the exact same flavor as card draw in the case of Blue. I should also add that every color can tutor for creatures that often appear in their colors, such as iconic and characteristic creature types(so for example White can tutor for angels and Blue can tutor for things like merfolk and faeries), and in the case of tutoring for lands literally every color cares about lands to some degree since they at the very least care about the basic land that generates their respective mana.

I would argue that in the case of Blue, being secondary in casting cards off the top of your library basically acts as a form of card draw or at least card advantage since it gives you access to more cards you can play. This also adds to Blue’s emphasis on the knowledge since the library usually represents the mind, so by playing cards off the top of your library you are gaining access to more knowledge within the mind. This is further reinforced by the fact that while the other colors are usually restricted to specific card types or subsets, Blue has the potential to cast any card off the top of your library.

Mill– It might seem weird for a color like Blue to have the ability to mill when it has so much emphasis on knowledge but, as mentioned previously, it is that very focus on knowledge that leads to Blue having the ability. Blue believes that basically anything is possible with sufficient knowledge and technology. This would mean that Blue not only believes that it can overcome almost any obstacle with the right amount of knowledge but that Blue’s enemies/opponents can defeat it if they gather the right knowledge. So sometimes Blue will basically go “If knowledge is power then by taking away your knowledge I take away your power.” So the philosophy can encourage things like keeping information away from opponents, secrets, hiding information, giving your opponent incorrect information, using stealth or, if you have access to magic, just pulling the information straight out of a target’s mind. At the end of the day how can an opponent fight you if they don’t even know you’re there or anything about what you’re doing or planning. This is also reflected in how within the game of MTG when your deck has zero cards left in it then you lose the game if you attempt to draw or mill a card. This usually represents the fact that you ran out of options or ideas and you cannot defeat your opponent because of that. Of course, the rule mainly exists so games don’t last forever or end in constant stalemates. Milling can represent Blue removing information or hiding it away via magic. This idea of fucking with an opponent’s information also carries over to some of Blue’s other mechanics. 

Another thing to consider about mill is that it also acts as a way to reveal information. Normally a player cannot see the cards in their opponents library which means that at the beginning of a game you might not immediately know what kind of deck your opponent is playing. However, if you cast a card that forces them to mill cards then those cards into the graveyard which means that they become visible to you. So if you mill an opponent early in the game it can allow you to gain information about what kind of deck they are playing or what to expect since you can put cards from their library into the graveyard and then check to see what kinds of cards they are running. Something that can give a lot more information if formats where you can have multiple copies of a card. So if you see that your opponent milled a certain card you may be able to use the cards you see to understand some of the exact cards the opponent is running in their deck before they’ve even had a chance to play them. This all ties into Blue’s themes of knowledge very well I would say. This aspect of mill might also be why some mill cards have themes of stealing information or subterfuge.

Tap/Untap, Freeze, Lockdown, Twiddle, and Vigilance– Blue has the ability to tap and untap creatures and other permanents. Blue can not only tap creatures but also prevent creatures from untapping with things like freeze and lockdown abilities. These abilities usually come from its more defensive aspects. This is because Blue is usually trying to keep in mind the big picture and not just act on any and all shortsighted emotions. Not to mention Blue is also trying to take as much time as possible to gather as much information as it can so it is the slowest out of all the colors. This is where tapping things comes in, since by tapping the right permanents Blue can buy more time to look for an answer to a problem. Untapping comes from Blue’s more tricky side. Blue believes information to be extremely important so it will often attempt to mess with the opponent’s information to throw them off. Untapping something is basically attempting to trick your opponent into thinking they do not need to worry about said creature attacking or blocking only for it to suddenly be capable of doing so. For example, it may look like you are defenseless because all your creatures are tapped only for all of them to suddenly untap and block all your opponent’s stuff(throwing them off), or maybe your opponent assumes you can only cast one spell due to have only 4 lands open only for you to be able to cast 2 spells because you were able to use a spell that untapped two lands.

This also extends to Blue’s twiddle style abilities since these abilities allow Blue to suddenly tap or untap something important to confuse or trick the opponent. Blue’s ability to mess with tapping is also the reason it gets vigilance, since Blue basically has ways to prevent stuff from tapping or untapping them in order to block. Vigilance also plays up Blue’s more defensive aspects by allowing a creature to attack and then remain able to block or use an ability. Which can allow Blue to attack while still stalling for time to look for an answer.

Defender– Blue, along with White, tend to be a more philosophically defensive color. In Blue, defender usually represents stalling for time or protecting something so you can look for more information or answers to a problem. Something that is also reflected in how Blue’s creatures tend to have a higher toughness than power.

Flash, Putting creatures from hand onto the battlefield, and Putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield– Blue is primary in flash. We are told by Mark that Blue getting flash typically represents Blue’s thirst for knowledge and how that affects its approach to magic. Since Blue is more likely to understand all it can about magic it is more likely to know how to do things like optimize it in order to cast spells faster. But I would also argue this could also represent Blue’s more tricky side and how it plays with information in order to get the upper hand on its enemies. An opponent might think a board state is one way only for a creature or another spell to flash in a lightspeed and put the opponent in a less advantageous position because they did not know about it. By keeping mana open to cast something like a flash spell it also leaves the opponent guessing as to what Blue is going to do, sort of like how Blue suddenly untapping or tapping permanents can throw an opponent off by adding or taking away blockers/attackers to the equation. Sure maybe that Blue player will cast a flash spell or maybe it will cast a counterspell or some other instant.

I think this flavor can in some instances apply to Blue being tertiary in putting creatures from hand onto the battlefield and putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield since if you are putting them on the battlefield at instant speed you are also casting them whenever you could cast a flash card. Which highlights Blue’s approach to mastering magic as well as how it can confuse or throw opponents off. When you are putting permanents from your hand onto the battlefield at sorcery speed or the like then it more so just represents Blue having fully understood magic and using its knowledge to cast things with a different spell, at a reduced cost, with loopholes, and/or for free.

Goad, Stealing permanents(permanently), Playing cards off the top of opponent’s library, and Casting spells from opponent’s graveyard/exile– Blue is primary in goad(which is an ability that forces target creature to attack a player other than you if able), along with Red, but since Blue is no stranger to abilities that manipulate, mind control, or take control over other permanents I decided to talk about Blue’s ability to steal permanents as well as how it is primary in playing cards off the top of an opponent’s library and casting spell from an opponent’s graveyard(which I included here due to them being forms of stealing or otherwise controlling stuff your opponent controls). These abilities in Blue typically represent Blue’s more manipulative side or its emphasis on understanding. Blue is all about understanding as much as you possibly can so if it understands something well enough it may be able to hijack, copy,  or take control of it. Sort of like if I understand the ins and outs of your car I can steal it and drive it or if I understand who you are as a person I can convince you to join me(or maybe even just take control of your muscles because I know how your body works). Going back to the manipulative side, Blue is also a color philosophy that has an emphasis on control. Blue believes you can control not only yourself but the world around you with the right knowledge and understanding. Blue may also adopt, incorporate, or steal things as a way to research and better understand things in of itself. 

It should be noted that while Red also has the ability to steal permanents, it usually only does so temporarily. This is because Red’s stealing is a more in the moment and emotionally driven thing. Red stealing a creature is usually representative of Red appealing to that creature’s strong emotions which may quickly fade with time but when Blue steals a creature it is usually using more logic or manipulation in order to more permanently bring that creature to its side. Also, when Red takes control of creatures it usually gives them haste and untaps them because it is trying to act quickly but Blue is more patient and plays for the long game, so it usually does not give them haste. Blue tends to steal non-creatures permanently because it is playing for the long game or wants to understand them but Red does so out of usually short term emotions so it may discard them when it is no longer interested or cares about them. Red also gets goad for similar reasons.

Why Doesn’t Blue Have Life Gain?

This is a question usually thrown at Red, for a reason we will get into during Red’s article, but I’ve seen a couple of people also raise this question towards Blue and I figured I would answer that. Well, unfortunately there isn’t really a strong flavor reason for why Blue can’t, the answer is more mechanical and game design based. While yes Blue does want to improve the world and does have a side that cares about helping, which would in theory fit in with some of the flavor of life gain(on top of that gaining life helps colors stay in the fight longer which ties in well with Blue’s themes of stalling for time to gather for information), the unfortunate truth is you have to also consider the game of MTG and balance. Blue is already pretty powerful in a lot of the eternal formats and it really REALLY doesn’t need life gain on top of its insane card draw and counterspells. You could also argue that Blue’s lack of life gain also plays up its emphasis on the artificial and technology as a way to improve the world. Life gain tends to be connected to living things and/or life force but artifacts and technology are not usually alive. I would argue that this kind of works for a sort of cold unfeeling machine and technology vibe but it isn’t really a satisfactory answer, and at the end of the day the core answer is for game balance and to give Blue clear weaknesses in the game, such as being slow and unable to gain life. Well, being unable to gain life without stealing or copying White, Black, and/or Green spells or permanents from your opponents anyway. The thing about mechanics and flavor is that you can come up with a flavorful justification for a color having just about any mechanic under the right circumstances(for example you could flavor the fight mechanic as an honorable duel and give it to White), but doing this too often or too liberally can cause a lot of Color Pie breaks or gameplay issues.

The End

And with that, we have come to the end of this article. Shout out to LevDev(https://twitter.com/PGDHanson) on Twitter for responding to my questions and helping me figure out what tempo was. This article is actually only part 1 since, like with White, there will be a part 2 focusing just on Blue’s mechanics based on Mark Rosewater’s 2021 Color Pie article. How do you feel about Blue philosophy? Did this article make you realize something about it that you didn’t before or dispel any misconceptions? Do agree with Blue philosophy’s stance or disagree. Either way, I hope you join me next time as I attempt to analyze and dissect a bunch of Blue’s mechanics and why it has them.

Sources

• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-revisited-2015-07-20
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/hate-enough-2002-02-19
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/improving-upon-nature-2006-05-22
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/creative-differences-2006-02-27-0
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/pretty-sneaky-sis-2005-11-07-0
• 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/what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-stronger-2015-02-23
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/striving-perfection-2008-11-17
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/looking-out-number-one-2008-10-20 
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/peace-love-and-understanding-2008-10-06
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/smart-thinking-2014-11-03
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/whatever-it-takes-2015-02-02
• http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2014/11/11714-episode-173-whiteblue.html
• http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2014/12/121914-episode-185-blueblack.html
• http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com/2015/06/6515-episode-233-bluered.html
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/nuts-bolts-card-codes-2009-01-12-0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD87RkKeutI&ab_channel=TolarianCommunityCollege