MTG Color Philosophy

 This is just something fun I've had bouncing around in my head for a little while and I thought I might as well share it with you all.

Magic the Gathering is a trading card game that I believe has been around since the 90s, and it is still one of the most popular trading card games around.

And one of the reasons for MTG's extended popularity is one of its primary gimmicks, the color pie:

The cards of MTG all belong to one or several of the "colors" shown as the above pie chart. In the game itself these colors all represent different play styles and strategies that a player can choose to focus on based on what works best for them.

Now, I myself have played MTG very little, so the actual play style of each color isn't what interests me. What does interest me however is how these colors also represent different philosophies and ideologies that a player can also choose to favor based on their own personal philosophies. An individual could actually learn something about themselves based on what MTG colors they agree with, which ones they disagree with, and to what degree.

Here are the five colors that form the MTG color pie, and a brief summary of their philosophies.

 

White - Believes that the most important task in life is to build and maintain order through the creation of human societies, and the following of spiritual morals. This color believes that the group always takes priority over the individual, that rules and laws that protect the population should always be followed even if they don't necessarily benefit a select few, and that objective morality should be one of the corner stones that a society is built upon.

 

Blue - Is all about the pursuit of "perfection". It doesn't matter what the definition of perfection is, or even if it is actually possible to achieve such a goal. What matters is the acceptance that no matter how close something seems to being perfect, there is always room for improvement, and therefore, it is our duty to make those improvements however we can. Whether it be the societies we live in, the technology we use, or even our individual skill set, we should always strive to make everything better now then they were yesterday.

 

Black - Believes that (in contrast to White) it is the individual that should be valued above the group. That in this imperfect world people are more often then not going to act selfishly, which means that if you are to live the life you want, you must be selfish yourself or risk being taken advantage of. After all, there is no one else in the world more dedicated to seeing you live a happy and fulfilling life than yourself, so you can only ever truly count on yourself. This color also believes that morality can never be objective, only subjective, and therefore a person who wishes to live a moral life should only ever follow their own individual moral code, and not allow other people to decide what is moral or immoral for them.

 

Red - Believes that the ultimate key to a fulfilling life is personal expression. That each individual should be both allowed and encouraged to express themselves openly and fully, regardless of what consequences they might bring. It doesn't matter if a person wishes to expresses their emotions (such as their love. hatred, happiness, or anger), their sense of creativity, or even their sense of destructiveness. All are valid according to this color, for they are your heat's desires. And according to Red, life is meaningless unless you spend it seeking to full fill your heat's desires.

 

Green - Believes that the natural world, free of any artificial meddling, is already a perfect system. That instead of trying to alter the world around us to better suit our individual wants, we should instead be trying to preserve the natural order by preventing any unnatural change to it, and instead focus on trying to change ourselves to better fit into the world as it is. This color also believes that every individual is born with a predetermined destiny for benefiting the world as a whole (much like how all animal and plant species possess a predetermined role in the ecosystem they live in), and it is our duty to try to fulfill that destiny as well as we possibly can.

 

If anybody out there is curious about what colors they most align with here is a link to an online quiz you can take to find out.

https://still-anchorage-15218.herokuapp.com/

It is basically a personality quiz, but one that can tell you what MTG colors you most align with.

When I took this quiz I got an outcome called "Bant", which is a combination of White, Green, and Blue. Bant is basically about building a human society that is in harmony with the natural world, but also employees human knowledge to make improvements when ever they are needed. 

I'd be curious to learn what results you all get.