MTG: Black and White

From Mark Rosewater's Article "Playing By Their Own Rules", about the Orzhov Guild (The Black and White Guild) in Magic The Gathering, Ravnica Block. I'll add in my own snipets here in there in these fancy little [ ]. Brackets I believe are their correct term... please tell me if that's what they're called *blush* And maybe color coding words made it easier for you, but it was NOT easy for me, so I don't think I can continue to do that anymore. I will highlight certain words/passages that are of interest though, if you're just breezing through. [Slightly edited for our non-Magic playing freinds]

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What do the two colors have in common?

The key to understanding two enemy colors is understanding the conflict between them. Ironically, the conflict between Black and White is the most iconic yet the most complex. White vs. Black represents so many different things: Morality vs. Amorality, The Value of the Group vs. the Value of the Individual; Light vs. Dark; Focusing Outward vs. Focusing Inward.

In short, White is all about doing what benefits the good of the group. You know using things like morals and ethics. Black, on the other hand, benefits itself. Black does what's good for Black. Not even Black as a whole - each Black mages looks out solely for himself, selling out any other Black mages if the needs arises. It's an understatement to say that these two vantage points are in direct conflict with one another. So how does the White/Black guild deal with this dichotomy? Compromises, my dear reader, compromises.

The key is making each half refocus how it thinks and meeting halfway. The way this is done is by focusing on the needs of a small insular group. The White half thinks of the group as its community. The Black half uses its selfish means to advance the group as an extension of itself. This allows both halves to treat the group with foremost importance.

The similarities don't stop there though. One of the defining qualities of the White/Black conflict is that the two colors parallel one another in many ways. For example, White and Black are the two colors most affiliated with religion (and thus, mechanically, have the vast majority of all the clerics). Both colors make use of sacrifice (sure, White sacrifices itself for the good of the group and Black sacrifices others for the good of itself, but that's just splitting hairs). White and Black are the two colors best at mass creature removal (okay, okay Red doesn't suck either). The two both use spirit link from time to time. The list is surprisingly long for two colors that hate each other's guts.

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How do the two colors differ? What is the guild's internal conflict? [How do you deal with your two different ideas?]

As I stated above, White and Black care about diametrically opposed ideals. White lives to serve the group. Black lives to serve the individual. White wants to create rules and laws and morals to protect the welfare of the average citizen. Black couldn't care less about the average citizen. Well, unless there's some way to get something from him to make one's own life better. The average man is just yet another pawn to Black.

The guild conflict that results from this is one of confused loyalties. The White half needs to trust and believe in the group. The Black half is paranoid and skeptical. Trust and paranoia don't play so nicely together. What results is a guild that bands together out of mutual necessity, but never completely bonds. The best parallel I can give for this is a wonderful game called Diplomacy. For those of you that have never played, Diplomacy is a strategy war game. Each person represents a different company in 1900 Europe. The key to the game rests on alliances you make with one another as you each attempt to take control of other people's areas.

Here's the dilemma. You can't win without alliances. Yet everyone ultimately needs to betray you to win. You have to trust people, yet can never truly trust anyone. That, my friends, is White/Black.

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What does the guild care about? What is its end goal? What means does the guild use to achieve these ends? [Know Thyself. Note that a lot of this was written in the view of the Guild in the Game, so take the concept and apply it to real life.]

To understand the guild's goals, we have to first look at the goals of each of the two colors. White seeks peace. White wants everyone to get along. Black seeks omnipotence. Black wants to have all the power for itself. So how does one have both peace and omnipotence? By being the one that controls the peace. White/Black wants a world without pain and suffering. Although it understands it might need to use pain and suffering to achieve this goal. White/Black believes in tough love. It keeps you safe at the cost of all your liberties. After all, what do you need liberties for if White/Black is taking control of everything for you?

The key to making this work is making sure everyone has a clear understanding of their place and order. This is why White/Black loves hierarchies. Unhappiness comes from wanting to achieve something you cannot. If you know your exact place, then you will not deceive yourself into believing that you will ever get any more, and you can be satisfied in knowing you will never get anything less. White/Black trades potential for security. Wouldn't you be willing to give up all rewards to live in a world without risks?

White/Black uses structure as a means of gaining power. He (or she) who makes the rules can make them in their own best interest. At the same time, White/Black feels an obligation towards the individuals who make up its structure. It's kind of like the bully who makes sure that no other bully bothers you... Give me my fair share of your lunch money and then you are guaranteed that no one else will take any more. After all the energy White/Black takes to make its flock, it definitely needs to take steps to shepherd it.

White/Black has one last trick up its sleeve. While it uses its structure as a means to immobilize everyone it comes in contact with, it also, slowly (in the background), saps away the resources of all who oppose it. White/Black is patient. It understands that small gains (or the opponent's small losses) will build up over time. There's no need to rush if you have control of the situation.

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What does the guild despise? What negatively drives the guild? [ To know what you are, you must also know what you aren't, right?]

The best way to examine what an enemy color pair despises is to look at the similarity of the colors' two other enemies. For White that would be Red. For Black it is Green. What do Red and Green have in common? A desire to function off impulse or instinct. Red and Green act with the gut rather than the head. They are the two colors that least like thinking. They prefer acting. White/Black doesn't like that way of thinking (or is that not thinking) at all.

White/Black prefers a docile society. Thoughts can be swayed. Logic can be argued. But mindless instinct is a lost cause. The key to White/Black's success is convincing all those around it that what White/Black is doing is in their best interest. Or at worst stall them long enough to get the dirty work done behind the scenes. It doesn't work if the people never take the bait. White/Black's only choice with people that act before they think is destruction. Because if you can't fit in White/Black's master scheme, you are worthless to White/Black.

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What is the color's greatest strength and biggest weakness?

White/Black's greatest strength is its ability to institute order. You might think this would be mono-White's domain, but mono-White has the problem that what is good for the group comes at the expense of individuals. Selling White's vision requires more effort. White/Black, on the other hand, only focuses on a subgroup. As such, it can offer that subgroup things at the expense of everyone not in the subgroup. It's much easier to be sold a package when someone else is doing the suffering.

White/Black's greatest weakness is its ability to self-destruct. Everything White/Black is carefully building is based upon a shaky trust. White/Black can rely on others within its subgroup most of the time but not all of the time. And when things go bad for White/Black, they can get rather ugly.

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[CRITIQ BACK, So what does this mean for you? It means if you're Black/White, you're (check the previous post) on opposite ends of the wheel, and are generally opposing in ideal. But applied correctly, you are very powerful. Some example people that Mark Rosewater brings up is:]

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Don Corleone – Don Coreleone was the very first character I thought of when trying to identify the essence of the ten Ravnica block guilds. To me, the mafia (as represented in The Godfather) is the perfect example of White/Black. The group is fundamentally very selfish yet is very respectful of “the family” as an entity. Don Corleone, for example, goes to great lengths to look out for his family. He greatly values what the group represents. That said, when he has to whack someone in his own family for his own reasons, he doesn't hesitate. Okay, he probably feels a little guilty, but then that's how White/Black works.

Magneto – Magneto is not your average villain looking to take over the world. I mean, yes he does want to take over the world, but for a cause he greatly believes in. His family is the family of mutants. (And for comic fans out there, I'm not going to even get into the post-“House of M” Magneto.) He is motivated by doing what is best for the mutant race. He cares very much about their welfare, so much so that to care for them he is more than happy to kill all the humans. Humans are not part of his little subgroup and thus get the Black end of the stick.

Spike (from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel) – You don't get much more selfish than Spike. Yet in every incarnation of the character, there's some other person or persons that drives his motivations (starting with Drusilla through Buffy and ending on the Angel gang). He is always looking out for someone else. As the character evolved, he found himself drawn to helping out the greater good. He even sacrificed himself to stop a greater evil. Yet his selfish ways persisted throughout.

Jerry Seinfeld (the character from Seinfeld, not the comedian who actually exists) – Jerry is motivated by selfishness. Yet he has this compulsion for order. (He alphabetizes his cereal boxes as an example.) Like the other White/Black characters, he has his little clique that he values. In Jerry's case, it is his small group of friends. He actually, well for as much as Jerry can, looks out for them, provided, of course, that his own needs don't get in the way.

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I hope some of you read some of this, because even if you don't care about Black/White personalities, it's good to get to know them, if you care at all. If not, wait for my real posts. :D <3