Red

File:Red mana.png

Red is one of the five colors of mana in Magic. It is drawn from the mountains and embodies the principles of impulse and chaos. On the Color Pie, it is allied with black and green, and is enemies with white and blue.

Philosophy

Red looks on the world and sees adventure. Life is a chance to experience something - many things - and for Red, there is no more worthwhile endeavor than to enjoy life by the adventure it offers. Experiences are what life is about, and to appreciate the full range of life's experiences, Red lives by emotion. What makes one laugh, what makes one cry, what one hates and what one loves, these make up what person is. A person can look only to these, believes Red, to find one's wishes and desires in life. Deny these, and life is meaningless.

To accord with its beliefs, Red seeks out new experiences, and new ways to express itself, and seizes on them. It finds these ends in the complementary pillars of Impulse and Chaos. Impulse, to Red, means emotional action. By acting (doing) as one's heart desires, one can only find happiness with the experience one has to show for it. With Chaos - random action - Red creates the freedom for any one to express his or her emotions. In a sense, by opening up new possibilities, Red's Chaos frees novel experiences from the "lattice" of the status quo.

In valuing emotion and adventure so greatly, what Red truly prizes is freedom. To live life the Red way - passionately and imminently - Red must be able to act on its impulses, doing what it feels each moment without delay. It doesn't want to be censored or controlled, because when one's passions are shackled from action, a person cannot be who he is. To disallow him to be who he is, is to destroy him; in Red's view, censorship is death. As such, the idea of rules, of pinning someone to one course even if his emotions urge him down another, is atrocious to Red. Where Red can see, those who dare to speak of rules and limits will meet with a furious ultimatum to shut up. Red will fight against anyone who restrains anyone else, and the tools that Red uses to make this point, and those it uses to seek its own richness of passion, are the basis of card design for Red.

Interactions with other colors

Agreements

Red and Black: In Black, Red sees another color who just isn't afraid to enjoy itself. Red and Black, when put together, are the most individualistic color pair; their common enemy, White, feels a need to create a lawful society, which clashes with Red/Black's desire to just have fun and live without any rules at all. In addition, Red and Black are two of the most destructive colors when paired, and have the most land destruction between them.

Red and Green: In Green, Red sees another color that embraces its emotions on a fundamental level. Green's natural instincts and Red's emotional impulses, when put together, create a very short-sighted and disorganized, and yet very focused color pair that infuriates anybody going against it, especially Blue (Red/Green's common enemy), which finds Red/Green's short-sightedness repulsive compared to its careful contemplation. Also, since Red and Green put most value into emotions and impulses, artifacts, which represent the emotional sterility of technology, are considered abominations and are incredibly easy to bash to pieces. Red and Green, when put together, are the most aggressive creature colors, with such mechanics as trample and first strike being commonplace; if something can't be run over by Red/Green, then to them it's not worth bothering with.

Red and White: When Red and White agree, it's usually more out of respect than actual ideological agreement. Red admires White's ability to gather large, well-organized armies for its cause, much like how Red can gather large, ill-organized mobs for its own cause. In addition, Red also respects White's sheer devotion to a lawful society, which mirrors Red's devotion to a very chaotic and anarchic one. While Red disagrees with White on what an ideal society is, Red acknowledges that White does care about the fate of the people at large in the society it's trying to create. And of course, Red shares White's "smack the other side first" method of dealing with a threat. Red and White, when working together, end up with a very large army comprised of individually small creatures, all fighting for a common cause. Whether that cause is law or chaos depends on how much Red there is compared to White in that particular group.

Red and Blue: Red and Blue's agreements can be summarized in one sentence: Red and Blue both hate being tied down by society's limits. While Blue mostly wants to learn how to subvert society to gain knowledge, Red wants to subvert society to gain freedom. Hence, when Red and Blue agree, it's the overlap between the quest for knowledge and the quest for freedom; specifically, Red and Blue put together are incredibly unconventional thinkers, and have spontaneous bursts of creativity. Red and Blue, when working together, are heavily concerned with instants and sorceries instead of creatures, as bursts of pure magic aid Red/Blue's creative process more than a static being.

Disagreements

Red and White: In White, Red sees a color that has ultimately lost sight of the individual in the quest for a perfect and lawful society. In Red's eyes, even if a White government would result in a completely safe populace, it comes at the loss of civil liberties and individual voices; in short, a White society is nothing short of fascism to Red, and is completely reprehensible. The main conflict between Red and White is Chaos versus Law. Red feels that chaos can be put to good use, and that an anarchic society would ultimately end up with enough individual freedoms to embrace life to the fullest, as opposed to a sterile, law-centric, and dictatorial White society.

Red and Blue: In Blue, Red sees a color that has completely buried emotions in favor of careful, rational thought. Blue seems to completely overthink and overstudy everything, and Red feels that Blue would be much better off abandoning that in favor of listening to feelings and impulses. In Red's eyes, while White at least cares about the people that it's trying to serve, Blue simply doesn't see the need for a person at all outside of study fodder, and has buried the human soul completely in order to try to create perfection. The main conflict between Red and Blue is Impulse versus Logic. Red feels that impulses make human beings who they are, and that any attempt to logically define humanity is impossible; after all, human emotion by its very nature is chaotic and impulsive, and to Red, that's what defines a human being.

Red and Black: Red occasionally can't understand why Black thinks as much as it does. Yes, Black is certainly capable of enjoying itself, but Black can get too caught up in the long term to truly just have fun. Also, Red can't understand Black's willingness to cause human suffering. When Red causes suffering, it's usually unintentional, and Red feels bad about it afterward. However, Black not only causes suffering when it acts, it sometimes goes out of its way just to make others suffer. This utter heartlessness keeps Red from completely agreeing with Black's methods.

Red and Green: Red sometimes notices that Green is too unwilling to just care about itself. Of course, Red sees value in protecting loved ones and close friends, but sometimes Red is astonished at the lengths Green will go to in order to preserve life that Green doesn't even know about. Also, Green can occasionally seem very blind to threats. While Red will usually strike first and try to get rid of something before it attacks, Green usually seems content to leave something alone until it does attack. In Red's eyes, this seems very foolish; just because something isn't attacking NOW doesn't mean that it won't LATER.

Flavor

Red is the color of emotion, impulse, and action. Red sees things in terms of doing, not thinking, and would sooner act now than wait and think about its actions. Red likes to do things as quickly and with as much power as possible, heedless of danger or complication. In its own eyes, its actions are unrestricted and free.

To that end, Red cares little for slowness or control; it would rather just do. Red employs damage, and emphasizes damage through direct means, much greater than by creatures, and far greater than "technical" spells. Red opposes White because White begets the control that Red spurns. Red opposes Blue because Blue's rejection of the "irrational" in its systematically rational approach to life is in direct opposition to Red's highest esteem of emotion (this is the objective against the subjective). At best, Red is independent and free-spoken. At worst, it is dangerous and rash.

Red mages take their most devastating actions when are challenged at the core of their philosophy. Red is the range of personalities that will not travel to the mountain, they let the mountain travel to them (Explosively!). Anything standing in the way of Red will face at least as much destruction as is necessary to blow the obstacle away. When Red meets Red, the flames get high!

Rules

Red is the color that has the most direct damage (e.g. Lightning Bolt and Fireball) and is often used in aggressive decks. Red creatures often feature high power and an emphasis on "damage" abilities like haste or double strike, at the cost of durability. Red is arguably the fastest color on its own, owing to its single-minded focus on getting what it wants to and nothing more. The creature types Goblin and Ogre are primarily red, and several decks based on Goblins have been created.

Mechanics

The following keywords are primarily associated with the color red: Haste, first strike, double strike, flying for dragons, trample secondary to green, rampage

Card Drawing

Like other colors, red has a few cards that allow you to draw more cards, but always at the price of discarding the cards you already have in hand, since red is impulsive and throws away what it has in favor of something new. Wheel of Fortune and Sensation Gorger are examples of this side of red.

Combat

As the primary martial color along with white, red receives a number of abilities that help it dominate the battlefield. First strike and double strike represent red's speed in a fight with cards like Anaba Bodyguard and Ridgeline Raptor. Flanking, on the other hand, reflects red's skill and prowess with cards such as Agility. Though the majority of creatures with trample are green, it fits well with red's beat-'em-up philosophy as seen on such cards as Sunrise Sovereign and Orgg. Likewise, rampage, as seen on Ærathi Berserker and Frost Giant, displays red's focus on rage and blind aggression.

Direct Damage

Red, angry and impulsive, strikes down any opponent with spells and abilities dealing targeted and global damage (such as Shock and Pyroclasm respectively). Along with blue, red invests in magical power with instants and sorceries, especially the latter, but where blue's magic comes from careful study, red casts spells fueled by raw emotion. Originally, blue was the premier color for creatures that can tap to deal direct damage, but this ability eventually moved to red (note the change from Prodigal Sorcerer to Prodigal Pyromancer, for instance).

Haste and sacrifice at the end of turn

Red's aggression pushes it to move quickly, and as such many of red's creatures can attack and activate the turn they enter play. Cards like Raging Goblin and Fervor show off this side of red. Some haste red creatures sacrifice at the end of the turn they were played, effectively acting like direct damage, such as the inconic Ball Lightning or Spark Elemental

Mana Production

Like its ally green, red can produce mana to speed up its spells, but its shortsightedness leads it to throw away resources that could be used better in the long run for a larger boost in the short run. This ability was originally found in black but was later moved to red, with cards like Seething Song taking the place of Dark Ritual. Other red mana producers include Skirk Prospector and Grinning Ignus.

Randomness

Red's blind passion can hurt itself and others indiscriminately. This is reflected in cards dealing with coin flips (Mana Clash) and random card discard (Gamble).