Ever since Shards of Alara I've loved to see how three color cards are like. The shards where easy to figure out but the wedges not so much. So I've loved seeing the other posts about the other wedge philosophies and figured I'd start the last wedge
For me I think is like a fungus. A ever growing force of nature that feeds on death but has a "hive mind" like mentality. With no , work based on its instinct in a traditional since. Grow and feed but always in the same patterns.
Anyone agree or disagree?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Green and White are the colours of life. Black and Green are the colours of death. White and Black are the colours of religion.
A world of BWG mana would be focused on purposefully manipulating life and death. The idea of an afterlife or reincarnation would be prevalent, or even the actual physical state of things. At the same time, the weak would give way to the strong (perhaps through tributes or consumption), satisfying Green and White's need for interdependence while reinforcing Black and Green's contrary ideals of personal triumph. Life would be a resource, but it would be a completely renewable. Outsiders would be destroyed or forcibly converted (or both).
It'd be an inward consumptive vortex, forever feeding on itself and paradoxically growing as a result.
Mechanically, you'd be in for the long haul, grinding out resources and claiming victory once you reach critical mass.
I'm not sure if the fungus angle is the best take on it. Sure, as of Time Spiral block, all three of those colors get spore counters, but I don't think they do the best job of representing what BGW is all about.
BGW is all about death. As a black-centered shard, this shouldn't come as a surprise. On Grixis, it was ever-present and inevitable, though occasionally twisted. In BGW land, though, it's the opposite: death is meaningless. Mechanically, the three colors are the masters of graveyard interaction. Green gets cards from your 'yard to your hand, White puts them straight onto the battlefield, and Black does both. Flavorfully, it's the same way. Green and black have mastery over the physical side of death, the cycle of growth and decay, while black and white have mastery over the spiritual side, the realm of the immortal soul. When you combine all three, you get a world where death still comes, but it never stays for long. Every (semi-) living thing there is, by some means or another, immortal.
Incidentally, this ties into what the shard is lacking. BGW is missing two colors, red and blue, and the tie between them is creativity. It makes sense that BGW would be lacking this; nothing new ever needs to be created, because nothing is ever used up. Everything can be recycled. This is great for the environment, but bad for society. It would be an incredibly stagnant place; there would be no great thinkers or revolutionaries, just drones going through the same motions they've gone through for countless thousands of years. The leaders of the place (they should be a group; BGW would want many to be ruled by many, but not too many), spirits or lich-kings of some sort, have probably ruled the place for eons, their power preserved in the same way as their lives. The introduction of the two missing colors could cause a major upheaval, bringing entropy into the picture after an eternity of inertia.
Looking at the conflict between the central color and its enemies, black is all about selfishness, while green and white are all about the needs of the many. These two conflicting mindsets would have to somehow reach a compromise. I suspect it'd end up resolving itself into some kind of hierarchical arrangement. Everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others. You serve the needs of the group because it's in your best interest to do so. You help them out, you get a promotion. You take money out of the till, and Patrick Swayze knocks you down a few pegs (death isn't a big deal, so demotion is the closest thing). It wouldn't be perfect, of course, and at the higher rungs of the ladder it would get surprisingly cutthroat. At the top, of course, you have the rulers of the plane doing anything they have to to stay in power (they must stay in power, of course, it's for The Greater Good). Black and white bring religion to the table, so the entire power structure would probably be one big church. It wouldn't be quite as wheeling and dealing as Orzhov, but it'd still be plenty corrupt, mostly used to keep people in line. Opiate of the masses and all.
Mechanically, you have a lot to work with. If they have a keyword, it should have something to do with the graveyard (it's basically Odyssey Block: The Shard), but it should probably be limited to permanents (instants and sorceries are tied to red and blue, and they're too ephemeral to represent BGW) and it shouldn't exile anything (it's all about recycling; putting cards from your graveyard into your library would be fine, though). Basically, the exact opposite of Flashback (like how Unearth is mostly Flashback for creatures). A sacrifice theme would work too, since it combines black's "whatever it takes" attitude with green and white's whole deal with the group being more important than individuals. For creature types, you've got all sorts of undead to work with: zombies, skeletons, vampires, spirits, specters, shades, wraiths, even mummies (please say mummies!). Being undead probably wouldn't even be seen as a big deal. Maybe it's even a sign of status; the more dead you are, the more respect you get. Of course, you'd have other creatures with their own ways of living forever. Primeval treefolk, forever-regenerating trolls, and yes, maybe even ancient fungi. You could still have other living things, too. There's more than one way to resuscitate a skinned cat in BGW world, and some of them even put the skin back on! Anyway, you've gotta get clerics somewhere. There should be no shortage of clerics. Oh, and thrulls. Thrulls would be perfect. The ultimate recyclable creature.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
For me I think is like a fungus. A ever growing force of nature that feeds on death but has a "hive mind" like mentality. With no , work based on its instinct in a traditional since. Grow and feed but always in the same patterns.
Anyone agree or disagree?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
A world of BWG mana would be focused on purposefully manipulating life and death. The idea of an afterlife or reincarnation would be prevalent, or even the actual physical state of things. At the same time, the weak would give way to the strong (perhaps through tributes or consumption), satisfying Green and White's need for interdependence while reinforcing Black and Green's contrary ideals of personal triumph. Life would be a resource, but it would be a completely renewable. Outsiders would be destroyed or forcibly converted (or both).
It'd be an inward consumptive vortex, forever feeding on itself and paradoxically growing as a result.
Mechanically, you'd be in for the long haul, grinding out resources and claiming victory once you reach critical mass.
BGW is all about death. As a black-centered shard, this shouldn't come as a surprise. On Grixis, it was ever-present and inevitable, though occasionally twisted. In BGW land, though, it's the opposite: death is meaningless. Mechanically, the three colors are the masters of graveyard interaction. Green gets cards from your 'yard to your hand, White puts them straight onto the battlefield, and Black does both. Flavorfully, it's the same way. Green and black have mastery over the physical side of death, the cycle of growth and decay, while black and white have mastery over the spiritual side, the realm of the immortal soul. When you combine all three, you get a world where death still comes, but it never stays for long. Every (semi-) living thing there is, by some means or another, immortal.
Incidentally, this ties into what the shard is lacking. BGW is missing two colors, red and blue, and the tie between them is creativity. It makes sense that BGW would be lacking this; nothing new ever needs to be created, because nothing is ever used up. Everything can be recycled. This is great for the environment, but bad for society. It would be an incredibly stagnant place; there would be no great thinkers or revolutionaries, just drones going through the same motions they've gone through for countless thousands of years. The leaders of the place (they should be a group; BGW would want many to be ruled by many, but not too many), spirits or lich-kings of some sort, have probably ruled the place for eons, their power preserved in the same way as their lives. The introduction of the two missing colors could cause a major upheaval, bringing entropy into the picture after an eternity of inertia.
Looking at the conflict between the central color and its enemies, black is all about selfishness, while green and white are all about the needs of the many. These two conflicting mindsets would have to somehow reach a compromise. I suspect it'd end up resolving itself into some kind of hierarchical arrangement. Everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others. You serve the needs of the group because it's in your best interest to do so. You help them out, you get a promotion. You take money out of the till, and Patrick Swayze knocks you down a few pegs (death isn't a big deal, so demotion is the closest thing). It wouldn't be perfect, of course, and at the higher rungs of the ladder it would get surprisingly cutthroat. At the top, of course, you have the rulers of the plane doing anything they have to to stay in power (they must stay in power, of course, it's for The Greater Good). Black and white bring religion to the table, so the entire power structure would probably be one big church. It wouldn't be quite as wheeling and dealing as Orzhov, but it'd still be plenty corrupt, mostly used to keep people in line. Opiate of the masses and all.
Mechanically, you have a lot to work with. If they have a keyword, it should have something to do with the graveyard (it's basically Odyssey Block: The Shard), but it should probably be limited to permanents (instants and sorceries are tied to red and blue, and they're too ephemeral to represent BGW) and it shouldn't exile anything (it's all about recycling; putting cards from your graveyard into your library would be fine, though). Basically, the exact opposite of Flashback (like how Unearth is mostly Flashback for creatures). A sacrifice theme would work too, since it combines black's "whatever it takes" attitude with green and white's whole deal with the group being more important than individuals. For creature types, you've got all sorts of undead to work with: zombies, skeletons, vampires, spirits, specters, shades, wraiths, even mummies (please say mummies!). Being undead probably wouldn't even be seen as a big deal. Maybe it's even a sign of status; the more dead you are, the more respect you get. Of course, you'd have other creatures with their own ways of living forever. Primeval treefolk, forever-regenerating trolls, and yes, maybe even ancient fungi. You could still have other living things, too. There's more than one way to resuscitate a skinned cat in BGW world, and some of them even put the skin back on! Anyway, you've gotta get clerics somewhere. There should be no shortage of clerics. Oh, and thrulls. Thrulls would be perfect. The ultimate recyclable creature.