Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #79 - Green

Episode Date: December 13, 2013

Mark finishes his series on color philosophy. He saves the most misunderstood color for last.

Okay, I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today I'm going to be doing another one of my mega series, this time on color. So I've done a podcast on white, on blue, on black, on red, which means I only have one left. Today, it's all about green. So, I feel green is, in some ways, the most misunderstood color philosophy. I mean, I think people pigeonhole red, and red is more than what people think of red, although what they think of red is true of red, just there's more to it than that. But green, I think people don't understand green. So, let me explain what green is up to. Okay, so here's how green looks at things. Every other

color wants to change the world. That every other color believes that the world is flawed in some way, and that if they make some adjustments to it, they can make it the perfect place to be. Green is the color that goes, no, no, no, no, it's perfect just the way it is. Don't change anything. Green is all about saying, look, there's a natural process, there's a natural order, that it's good, that it took forever to evolve this way, and it's a thing of beauty. And that green puts its energy to having things not change.

That while every other color is trying to change the world, green is trying to keep the world the way it is. And if you kind of look at green's two enemies, blue and black, the reason that they are the enemies of green is that blue and black most want to change the world. Blue believes in the idea of tabula rasa. It believes in nurture over nature, right? Blue believes that anybody can become anything, that you could learn and you could adapt and that it embraces technology

and embraces anything it can to help change things. Blue believes in change. Blue's a big believer that you can become anything you want to be. Well, that flies in the face of what green wants. Green believes you are what you are. You know, and so the blue-green conflict is very much the nature versus nurture conflict. Green believes you are born with the qualities that define you. And blue believes, I mean, green believes believes you are born with the qualities that define you, and blue believes,

I mean, green believes that you are born with the qualities that define you, and blue believes that you can become anything, that you're, you know, a tabula rasa means a blank slate. It's the philosophy that anybody can become anything, that all it takes is knowledge and training and know-how to do something. So blue is like, every person has the potential to be anything.

Green is like, no, you were born with your potential. And so there's a lot of conflict between blue and green because blue wants to change the world to make it better. And green is like, no, no, no, no, no. All you're doing is moving away from the perfect state that the world already is in. And so the green-blue conflict is very much about that.

You know, blue embraces technology. Green does not like technology. It's one of the reasons green is the biggest artifact destruction color. You know, I mean, the reason green is naturalized is it doesn't like artificial things. And so when it sees artificial things, it will destroy them because it believes in a natural sense. The other problem that green and blue have is blue is very much about illusion. Blue is very much about perception, where green is very, quite literally, down to earth. You know, that green believes that what is is what matters.

You know, green believes in reality. Green believes in reality. Green believes in history. Green believes in that there is a legacy to who you are and who you stand for. It believes in heritage and lineage. And, you know, it very much cares about where you come from. Where Blue is like,

it doesn't matter where you come from. You can become anything you want to be. And so Green looks at Blue and Green is like, here's somebody that does not remotely respect the natural order. You know, like green believes, like, for example

green is not big on technology nor is it big on civilization. You know and blue is all about, I mean building civilizations and using technology to wipe away nature to improve, they believe. But to green, it's like, what are you doing?

Now, green-black, green's issue with black, black basically is like, I'm going to do what I need to do to get it done. And black has embraced death as a very potent tool. Now, the funny thing is, green respects death. As far as green is concerned, death is part of the natural order. Green has no problem with things dying. But Green's issue is when you use death artificially, which Black does all the time. Black, for example, Green understands that there are destructive forces,

and Green respects there are destructive forces. That's just part of nature, and that's okay. Nature needs to be destructive at times. But Black observes that. Black is sort of like, I'm going to kill the strongest thing because, you know, black looks around and says, anything stronger than me, I see as a threat. So I'm going to kill the stronger things. And green is like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The stronger things kill the weaker things. The weaker things do not kill the stronger things. That is not how it works. In fact, let's talk about fight a little bit. So, one of the things that I think is very important for understanding colors is that every color has an area of

vulnerability, which makes the game more interesting. And green's is it very much has this respect for life. And that it does not believe, like green does not believe in artificially killing things. So, what green does is not believe, like, Green does not believe in artificially killing things. So, what Green does is Green says, okay, if I need to deal with a creature, well, I will use my creatures to deal with your creatures. You know, Green has nothing wrong. If two creatures

fight and one creature beats another creature, well, the weaker creature lost. That was okay. That's the natural order. You know, creatures will fight. That's okay. So, Green is like, well, I don't, I won't kill a creature. That is wrong. I won't destroy a creature. Wrong. But, I am willing to say I will put my creature up against your creature. And if my creature beats your creature, hey, you know,

they had a fair fight. They fought. And your guy was weaker. Green very much enables strength. Green very much, bigger is better to green in the sense that, hey, the bigger you are, the more you are capable of doing the things you're able to do. Now, that doesn't say that green doesn't believe that small guys can't have abilities. For example, green is the color of death touch.

So green understands that, hey, that size isn't everything, that in the wild, that there are other tools you have at your disposal. And hey, a creature that has poison or some sort of poisonous type ability, that's fine. That's fine. That's a resource. You know, that's a weapon that a creature can use.

Creatures can have a lot of, you know, things. But ultimately, Green believes, like, look, you've got to defend yourself. You know, survival of the fittest is very much Green's belief. And Green is not like how Black just observes that, and Black sort of will take elements that Green believes are natural elements and use them unnaturally.

Okay, so what does Green... Why does Green look at... Let's talk about allies real quick. So Green very much believes... Another big difference that Green has with Blue is blue is very much about intellect. Where green is about instinct. Green is about, look, there's just a way things are. And that you should know that internally, that green trusts its gut. It doesn't think things through.

It feels things. It has a sense of what is right and what is wrong. And it trusts its instincts. Because creatures are born with instincts. And that, you know, those are natural processes that green has great faith in. So, look, a creature does what a creature is going to do because its instincts lead it that way.

Where blue is all about, you know, thought and such. And, you know, that is not how remotely how green thinks it's supposed to function. Now, green looks at red, and green says, you know what, we share our dislike of blue and blue's intellect. Now, red is more impulsive than it's instinctual. Red is more about emotions, where green is more about natural instinct. But, you know, green respects that red lives by its heart. You know, red feels things and it acts. And green can understand that.

Green respects that. Also, green has a sense of a wild sense of nature, of a ferocity. And red definitely shares some of that. Green and red have this shared sort of sense of, you know, the bigger is going

to win and ferocity is okay and, you know, red kind of just lives in the moment. And green understands that. Green gets living in the moment. Green is not at all about planning ahead or about thinking about, you know, consequences of things. Green feels like, you know, the natural instinct will pay off and that, you know, nature will come through for you. Green feels like the natural instinct will pay off and that nature will come through for you. Green, by the way, is also very much about a sense of there is

a natural order to the way things are and then if you live true to that order, then you will be okay and things will be okay. Now, green definitely as part of its desire and its belief that kind of bigger is better, one of its main weapons is giant growth, right?

One of its main weapons is the ability to make its things, using magic to make its things larger. And green sees that. Green, in some ways, green sees some of its magic much like animals have natural abilities. And that green is like, look, if my creature is bigger, it will win.

Well, I can use my magic to make my creature bigger so that it can win. Green is willing to help enhance its creatures. It's willing to do that. Green also is very much tied to the land. Look, what is more tied to the land. What is more nature than the land itself? And so green, of all the colors, has the strongest affinity with the land. And because of that, it has a strong affinity with mana.

Green is the ramping color, meaning green has access to get mana quicker than anybody else. And it does in a couple of ways. One is it has access to land searching, quicker than anybody else. And it does it in a couple of ways. One is it has access to land searching, a rampant growth type of fact. And that is the idea that green understands the land the best, that green is able to locate, you know, if you need to find, the flavor of land, for those that don't know, land doesn't really represent as much physical places of land as it represents the tie to the manna that

comes from that land. So when you see a forest, it's not necessarily representing a particular forest as much as representing the manna from that area of the forest. And green has this affinity with manna and with land. So when you're searching out, you're just finding the land. Green, it knows the land like the back of its hand. It knows, you know, it very much cares about the environment

and it is in tune to where things are. So when you're searching for mana and land, green's good at that. Green can find it for you. Now, green also has creatures, like land or elves is the, you know, perennial classic, that tap for mana. And one of the differences is red has access to mana, but red is very touch and go. It's

very in the moment. Where green, it's not that green plans ahead as much as it respects things. Like, green is about growth. One of the keys to the way green function is green believes, how do I defeat my enemy? Well, if I believe in the natural way, one of the great tools of nature is growth. That you can't stand in the way of nature. Green is like, you know,

maybe you can start against nature. Maybe you can make inroads against nature. But you know what? In the end, nature will win. Nothing man can do can stop nature. Nature is a powerful force that cannot be stopped. And part of it is green believes in the sense of growth. I mean, giant growth.

Even land searching is speeding up the growth of your mana. You know, a lot of green strategies are about, I will overrun you. In fact, it has overrun, exactly. I will overrun you with something. I will use growth, you know, I will build things. And it shows its growth through a whole bunch of different ways. You know, one is it makes things bigger.

One is it has bigger things. It has the biggest creatures in the game. Like green common, green just has the biggest creatures in common. And overall, on average, it has the bigger creatures. It just. Like green common, green just has the biggest creatures in common. And overall, on average, it has the bigger creatures. It just skews on the higher end. Green might overrun you by the number of creatures it has.

It can make a lot of tokens. It can overrun you by just having lots of creatures. It can overrun you by having one giant creature that's just the biggest creature. You know, trample is a green thing in that if you're just large enough, it just beats through you. How do you stop the thing? Well,

it just keeps going. It's giant. How do you stop it? So green can beat you that way. It can make it larger. It uses plus one, plus one counters as a mean to do growth, make things bigger. Green is also king of the variable power toughness. That if you look at green, green is the number one that creatures suggest, hey, I look at something and I get bigger based on that thing. And usually I will, you know, I look at something and I get bigger based on that thing. And usually I will outstrip you and outgrow you and at some point I will beat you down. Essentially that is green strategy, which is if you don't stop green, green will grow bigger in some means. Its creatures will grow bigger. Its number of creatures will grow bigger.

Individual creatures will grow bigger. Its mana base will grow bigger. Something, its forces will grow bigger. It's going to overrun you with something. That is green's way. Green is not the fastest color. Green is not a speedy color. Green is about, I mean, green has a mid-range. Green is a good mid-range color in that it can quickly get mana and build up and get larger things out faster than anybody else. That is its speed, if you will, is that it gets larger things out faster.

But it's not as fast as white or red. It's not a speed color. But it can ramp in and get in sort of mid-ranges where it's like, oh, I quickly get out something that would take my other colors more turns to get out. I get out quicker. And that, a lot of green's threat is,

look, I just have lots of power of creature. Perhaps it's all in one creature. Perhaps it's all in one creature. Perhaps it's all in a bunch of creatures. But I will overrun you in some way or other. I will use growth as a weapon. Okay. So in order to do that, green needs access. So one of the things that green definitely does is,

while blue is number one in card drawing, green is number two. And the reason is, is that it uses the sort of growth as part of my growth is I'm going to grow in cards. I'm going to grow in what I have. Now, green has the ability to get two things out of a library. One is it can get land, it's land searching. And the second is it can get creatures. It does creature tutoring. It also does what I'll call mulching, I guess, which is it can get creatures and land off the top of the library as well as go into the library. But green has the ability from the library

to get land and to get creatures. Why? Because those are the two most natural things there are. There's nothing more natural than the land itself and the creatures that live on it. And green very much is about land and creatures. Now, it has some other aspects we'll get to. It has some affinity with enchantments,

but the main two things it does is land and creatures. Now, it can get them out of a library. It also has the ability to make tokens. We've recently sort of split between white and green. White tends to make more small tokens now, where green makes bigger tokens. But the point is, green and white are the token collars. Green can make tokens.

That's playing right into its wheelhouse. It's about creatures. It's about growth. So making more creatures using tokens is very much green's thing. At higher rarities, green does a little bit of cloning, but usually it does it through tokens. In fact, it'll do cloning in two different ways. One is it'll actually make tokens to copy things.

That's one of the things green will do. And the second is it will go through your library and get duplications of things that are in play. It's done some of that. So green definitely is, part of it is using, it can adapt. I mean, green definitely has a quality. Green and blue share some qualities, even though they're enemies, one of which is both are very adaptive. For different reasons,

green's a natural adaptation, but very much green is a color that can sort of adapt to what's going on. Now, green, one of the side effects of its land searching is that green happens to be the color that is the friendliest at splashing other colors. And the reason for that is green very much sees mana and sees the making of magic to be a very natural thing. So green does not have a problem with searching out other lands, of getting access to other colored manas. And because of that, because green does not see other colors as threats, it allows green ... green has the ability, one of green's strengths is that it can kind of splash other colors easier, because it has access to all the colors mana you need.

So green is also very much about the natural way, life gain ties into that, that green believes in life, green much is the color of life. Green is also the color of creatures. So one of the divides, I mentioned this I think in the White Podcast, in that one of the things we decided recently, for a long time green was the color of creatures, and it had

both the most creatures and the biggest creatures. Meaning it had the largest percentage of creatures, and it had the largest creatures. What we decided was it was better if we split those up, and so to divide white and green, which are already similar, we said, okay, white is more about number of creatures, white's about the army, white's about beating you up with lots and lots of little creatures,

where green is about getting out the bigger creatures, and so we made the divide, now White has more creatures than green has. White has the larger number. But green has the larger amount of power. So if you add up the number of creatures in the set, white will be one and green will be two. But if you add up the power on the creatures, green will be one.

Green has the beefiest creatures. And life game ties obviously into its love of nature, its affinity. It is very much the color of life, so it has a tie to life. A lot of times it'll connect its life gain sometimes with creatures. Interestingly, it does not have lifelink. That is given to white and black. There's plenty of arguments that green thematically could have it,

but we like to sort of limit where we put things. And white is kind of like rewarding off the life, and in black season, it has a more drain-like feel. But anyway, it does not have a light flick. Okay, so part of its growth, besides having counters, is also plus and plus one counters,

hiding tokens, is plus and plus one counters. Green very much wants to grow, and so it has a lot of creatures. So, I explained before that green has the most variable creatures. And there's a couple ways to do that. One is star star, which is I'm equal to some amount. And that amount usually will grow during the game. Number two is I have the means to get plus one, plus one counters.

That I can add plus one, plus one counters. And that's the way I grow. As something happens, I get bigger. Now all colors have a little bit of access to that. That's not uniquely green. But green has more plus and plus encounters than anybody else. Green also puts on plus and plus encounters more often than anybody else.

In fact, green's iconic creature is the hydra. And the reason that we decided the hydra was a good fit for green, because obviously it started in red back in Alpha, was that the hydra is very much all about growth. It is a creature that by its nature wants to keep getting bigger, and it usually uses plus one, plus one counters to do that. Well, green is the color of growth and the color of plus one, plus one counters, and it's the color of ferocity, and so the idea of these giant, wild creatures that have a growth component to them felt like a very, very good fit for green.

And I'm happy, because we spent a long time searching for green, and I think we finally found something that really is kind of exciting, speaks to green, and as development starts pushing some hydras, and we start seeing some more good hydras, I think hydras are starting to grow as green's thing.

I mentioned this before, the term overrun, but it also literally has overrun, which is green not only has giant growth, but it can essentially giant growth its team. Now, one of the dividing points we do between green and white is that white tends to do little bursts, so it will give plus one, plus one, or plus plus two to an individual creature, usually with another bonus, another ability, and it can grant its whole team plus one, plus one, or plus two, plus two.

But once you get a plus three, plus three, once that line is drawn, even individually or in group, that's a green thing. Green does the giant boosting. So green does overrun, you know, the plus three, plus three to your entire team, and usually adds trample. Trample is big on green. Green believes in beating things down.

And I talked about card draw. So not only does it have any in green green is access to card draw but it has to be tied to creatures in some way so for example it has the curiosity ability which is in both blue and green which is when I hit you I get a draw

that's in green it has card drawing based on how many creatures you have or the power of a creature. Usually we try to try the card drawing into a way that has something to do with creatures in green.

To give it some identity. It gets its growth from its creatures. We think that's important. Also, green has some access to natural elements, to nature. It definitely can manipulate nature some. Fog is kind of the classic.

It uses nature as a defense mechanism that as the enemies attack, it can bring in the fog. I mean, green is definitely one of the colors that has more natural-type spell effects. The reason it is fog, for a while we moved fog into white because it seems very defensive, but what we found was white has so many different ways to be defensive, it didn't need it,

and green really needed a defensive thing. Part of if I'm beating up a giant creature and I keep swinging, that I need it to have some defenses. And fog seemed like a good defense. It was kind of creature-oriented. And like, well, a color that's very much about attacking creatures has some answers to attacking creatures itself.

So, also, well, green does not like killing creatures. It has two exceptions. One is it hates artifice. It does not like artifacts. The reason it has a naturalizability is that very much the blue-green conflict is against artifice. And so green, most artifacts green does not like if it feels they're artificially made. I mean, there are a few artifacts it gets along with where they're natural things. But more often than not, green is not like artifacts. It blows them up.

The other thing is it does not like flying. Another big dichotomy between green and blue is blue is the air and green is the ground. And that green does not have great faith in the air and it's one of its greatest enemies lives in the air, which is blue. And so green is much more grounded and as such green does not like flying. Now some people might say, but wait, there are many flying things in nature. And the answer is, well, green is about nature.

It is not about every single aspect of nature. And that, in order to make magic work, we also had to trim a few things mechanically. I mean, yes, if you cared about nature, you would care about things

that fly, they were natural. But we've sort of shifted that it's mostly out of green, that birds and creatures of the sky are not really green's thing. Green is more about the things on the ground. The reason green has

reach is that because of its anti-flying nature, green can kill flying creatures. I'm not the biggest person to destroy a target flying creature. It can do it. I prefer green to sort of do damage or something that we can play up a little bit more as

natural elements. I don't mind it using storms and things to take them down. I just... I don't... Green is not philosophically much about killing

other creatures, although it does believe... It, in some ways, doesn't see flyers the same way it sees other creatures, that it sees us as somehow being unnatural

because they're not tied to the earth. And very much green is very centered to the earth. I mean, another thing it shares with red, red very much is also about the earth, and that green and red share that love of the earth. Oh, green and white, by the way, I didn't mention green and white. So green and white are all about community. The black, green's enemy, is about selfishness and about the individual. And green says, no, no, no, for us to survive, there's a web.

We're interlinked together. Now, white is very much about civilization, where Green is very much about a natural community. But Green definitely feels that there's an interlink between us and thinks it's important. And so Green and White share that love and sense of community. And they also, obviously, are the two colors that care most about creatures. They're definitely the ones that say, oh, well, it's important.

We have a bond and we have abilities that are shared between each other. Green and white also share the vigilance ability. And the idea there is that green and white have the most patience that they green has patience because it believes in the natural order and that sometimes it takes time for things to happen

green is a very patient color green is like if you beat up nature nature will overcome you but not necessarily quickly nature is not always fast it can be times, but it's not always fast. And because of that, green is the color of patience. Now, white is the color of planning and strategy, and very much white has a very strategic quality to it. And white also has a patient quality.

And vigilance is very much white and green, sort of being willing to be out there but always being on the look and watching. Green also has flash that it shares with blue. Green and blue use it differently. In blue, it has to do with manipulating magic

and the idea of speeding along what you're getting. In green, the idea is that a lot of green's creatures are so instinctual by nature that you can bring them in, you know, that green has a touch with its creatures in a way that it has an affinity and, you know, there is a speed that comes to green, that green has the ability to pounce and to attack and to ambush to a certain extent. Green uses magic sometimes to call forth creatures that can do the ambushing.

Green's flash is less about magic manipulation and more about infinity with its creatures that allows it to get it faster. Green is hexproof. What hexproof represents is a dislike of artifice in green, that it is a protection against magical entities. And the idea is, if you have hexproof, I mean, blue's hexproof is, because it's so good at magic, it's learned to inoculate its creatures against magic. Green is about a natural resistance.

Green is about that there are things that, at times, sees magic as being artificial, an artifice. And so there are creatures that have grown sees magic as being artificial and artifice. And so there are creatures that have grown with a natural defense against it. And that is what hexproof is in green. Also, you'll notice that green also cannot be countered. And that's solely on creatures. So both of those represent a similar thing

in that there's some creatures that have evolved so that they have a natural affinity against magic. And it's very hard for magic to get a hand on them, that the magic can't locate them or touch them because of this anti-magic quality. Other abilities you'll see in green, green has what we call the stalking ability. First thing, it's stalking tiger and mirage,

which means that only one creature can block it. That shows kind of a caginess of the creature, the idea that I know my environment and that I'm a good enough fighter that I don't let you team up on me. That I'm able to take you one-on-one. That I see you coming and I'm able to

keep the fight down to a one-on-one fight. Landwalk, by the way, also a very green ability. The reason is, the same reason that it has affinity with land, it understands the land. That allows it to sort of blend into the land, and that it can sneak through land and you can't see it. So green is the number one color with land walk.

Obviously there's more forest walk than anything else because it knows the forest, but green also adds access to the other land walks. It's allowed to have all five land walks. It has the root wall ability. So the root wall ability, first seen on root wall in Tempest

is the ability to temporarily boost itself and essentially what that is is if you want to think of it is a built in giant growth is the idea that there are creatures that can naturally

make themselves larger but it's limited to once per turn because you know they puff themselves up it's not as if they can forever make themselves bigger it's just they have two states and one state is larger,

and they have the ability to get to the larger state. And so green has the root wow ability. A few other abilities that it has. We use these not as much as others. It has what I call new rampage. Bushido also falls in this area, which is the idea of that when I get into a fight, I can get bigger. That as things

approach me, that I can have an affinity to fighting. I mean, green obviously has the fight ability. Green is a natural fighter. And so, there are definitely creatures that are good at fighting, that in combat they get better. And there's definitely some things that do that. Also, it has

the trample ability, and so occasionally we do what we call super trample, which means that I can put my damage through to you even if I'm blocked. And that makes me super, super hard to deal with because you might block and kill me, but I'm going to just come through with all the damage. Usually super tramples are on really big things,

so they're hard to deal with by being really big, and then being hard to block also makes them, you know, the damage comes through. Other things that green can do, let me talk a little bit about enchantments. So green definitely has, green believes

that there is some natural magic, that part of, green is number two in auras, I mean, white is number one, but green is number two in enchantment, love of enchantments, if you will. White is number one on it, but green is number two. You'll see enchantresses from time to time that draw you

cards off enchantments. That's one of the few card advantage cards you'll see in green that are not creature-based. I mean, it's on a creature. That helps. So, I mean, it's on a creature. That helps. So, I mean, it's creature-based in that way. But it has an infinity of two enchantments. And green definitely, if you notice, has a lot of in common.

Usually we'll have slightly bigger auras. Once again, green has this sense of growth to it that's very important. And that green is fine with using its magic to make things bigger. Whether that's using auras, that's very important and that green is fine with using its magic to make things bigger. Whether that's using auras, that's plus one plus one counters, that's giant growth, whatever,

green definitely has this belief that it will grow and it will defeat you. And as I said earlier, that its growth tends to be more vertical and less horizontal in the sense that we've allowed white to do a little bit more growing horizontally. If you go back in Magic's path,

there's a period in time where green very much were overrunning you with lots and lots of 1-1 tokens. It still can do that. It still has some access to it. Nowadays, we tend to make bigger tokens. Green makes a lot less 1-1 tokens than it used to. It's making more 2-2 and 3-3 tokens. It still has the ability to make a bunch of tokens, but we've allowed white to make more of the

make 2-1-1s as more become a white thing and less of a green thing. Another thing you'll see green do from time to time, by the way, is, and white does this a little bit, but green does it more, is the bringing a buddy, is the idea that I have one card that represents more than one creature, so I'll come and play with a card, and that

card brings with it a token, usually. Ambassador Oak is a class example where... We used to call it Moose and Squirrel in Playtest, where it comes with a big creature and then brings a little token creature with it. And white will do that a little bit. We have some squire-type flavor stuff, but, I mean, green is the color that does it the most.

I think I covered most of the abilities in green. Let me spend a little, I'm not too far from work, let me wrap up a little bit on philosophy. That green, when it looks at magic, it looks at a duel, green is like, okay, let me figure out what my advantages are. Here's my advantages. Number one,

I just got the better creatures. My creatures will win in fights. They're bigger, they're better fighters, they'll win. So I gotta get them out. I also have a natural affinity for land. I'm better at anybody else at finding land, at using land, at building up land. Okay, so my major plan is, I'm gonna use those two abilities to try to win. What that means is

Green's number one strategy is sort of a ramp strategy, where it's like, I'm gonna use my affinity for mana to get out my larger creatures that are bigger than your creatures and beat you on the ground with creatures. Now, green has some other strategies, obviously. It can grow in different ways.

Green has control strategies in that it has some card advantage, it has some good defensive creatures. Green definitely at times can be a little bit speedy, although white and red are more the speedy creature colors. Green is much more about, I mean, green wants to overrun you in a couple different ways.

One of the ways, by the way, is to get more creatures and just overrun you with creatures. Although, like I said, we've moved the token part of that away from green. Although it still has, like, make lots of 2-2s, so it can do it that way. And green also tends to have more creatures in general, so it just sometimes has more creatures in its deck and just gets more creatures out. But the key

is, green is very much about saying, I'm going to use my natural resources to my best advantage, and that green, green's belief is, if you don't stop me, if you're not able to stop what I'm doing, if I can get established and do my thing, I will overrun you. I will defeat you because you will not be able to handle me.

And the other thing that's important to understand in Green is that Green believes philosophically that it's going to win in the end. It believes you can't stop nature. And so green does not feel a great need to rush. Green feels like as a strategy, in some ways, in some ways, I mean, it has a mid-range strategy where it ramps up, obviously. But green also has a slow strategy

where it's like, I'm just going to grow at a faster rate than you do. And you know what? 15 turns in, I will have more resources than you. I will have bigger resources than you. And I'm going to grow at a faster rate than you do. And you know what? 15 turns in, I will have more resources than you. I will have bigger resources than you. And I'm going to win. And so green also has, like I said, green is the most patient color. It has a strategy which is about patience.

Which is just about... Because green, by the way, can destroy things. Green is able to destroy every card type but creature. And it has the fight ability and lure, you know, it can lure things and it can do a couple different things to make fights happen.

So green has a lot of ability. Green has a lot of control elements to it. But once again, it's not fast because that is sort of green's thing. I will win out. Green believes it will win out over time. That if it is patient, it will, in the end, be the last one standing.

Okay, I am now at work. This is the final of my five color podcasts. I'm just finishing mega series this month, right and left. So, at some point, I might go on to explore color combinations and stuff. I'm not going to do that right away.

Sort of wrap up this little mega series. Hopefully you've enjoyed this I love color philosophy I think it's fascinating one of the things I keep stressing is that underneath everything

at the core of the game when you dig down deep not just underneath flavor but underneath mechanics the core of it is the color pie and the color wheel same thing

and understanding that is what makes magic magic is what really makes it's magic secret sauce, if you will. And so that's why I want to spend a lot of time and energy explaining it. And not just talking about it philosophically, but explaining mechanically how the mechanics reflect that philosophy.

That's what I think is so neat about the game and one of the things that really makes it stand out. So anyway, that is green. Hopefully you have a little better understanding of green. I know that green, it's much easier to understand like blow things up than it is hey relax trust our way over time it will win

a little harder to understand but anyway I hope you enjoyed today's podcast it was a lot of fun sharing green with you but I have to go be making magic talk to you next time guys bye bye