There are a few things in this world I love more than the San Antonio Spurs. Born and raised in the 210, my favorite family memories are from our Dynasty, and now that we’re on the edge of greatness, I can’t help but look at my favorite basketball team through the lens of my other favorite thing, Magic: The Gathering. And what stands out the most is, of course, our alien, Victor Wembanyama.
Sports and Magic go together more than you think, with Seahawks defenders Cassius Marsh and Leonard Williams very loudly sharing their trading card love on social media and at various MagicCons. So why not basketball? While none of the Spurs players have discussed whether or not they play Magic: The Gathering, I can’t help but look at sports through the lens of the color pie, commanders, and the strategies that define them. Competition is competition after all.
If you’re unfamiliar, Magic: The Gathering places cards into five color categories: Blue, Black, White, Red, and Green. Each color corresponds to a different playstyle and strategy, with certain mechanics available only to that color or combination. And now, this is where I tell you, if Wembanyama plays Magic, I find it hard to believe he would play anything without Blue, the color representing logic and knowledge.
The scourge of many Commander nights, blue players have a reputation. Blue cards are built on counterspells (countering cards that other players cast), card draw (to stack your deck), and board control (people play how you allow them to play). Defined by a control strategy, a good Blue player is annoying because they control everything that happens.
But while I know that Wemby would be a blue player, keeping to one color is boring, and with Commander being the most popular format, being Commander (a four-person game with 100-card decks themed around one Legendary Creature), adding another color is a must, and to be honest, Victor Wembanyama is the definition of Azorius, the blue-white color combination.
Magic: The Gathering is a strategy, and it’s defined by universal approaches to competition.
As a player, Victor Wembanyama is in control on the court. As a center and power forward, he’s the definition of a two-way player, but his play in the paint is what defines him. Able to catch lobs no one else can and block even the most ridiculous poster of a dunk, Wembanyama decides what happens in the court.
Throughout the Western Conference Finals series, when he is on, he is incredibly dominant, putting up numbers that have surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Nikola Jokić, just in points scored. Add in Blocks, Rebounds, and assists, and he is up there with the greatest big men in the game, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manute Bol, Wilt Chamberlain, and Shaquille O’Neal.
For context, earlier in his career, Wembanyama became the first player since O’Neal to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds before turning 21. Now 22, he has an astronomical skill ceiling. And while his height at 7’4″ is how he got his nickname, the Alien, his out-of-this-world performance in and out of the playoffs feels tied to that name too.
Off-court, he is also always reading and looking to better himself. Whether it’s with a thick book by his side as he walks to the locker room on game day (which has inspired the San Antonio public library to make a “read like Wemby” program) or if it’s heading to train his mind and body with monks in China, his pursuit for perfection isn’t set by anyone else’s standards; it’s his.
“I’m free in the universe. I do whatever I can, and I know what I want to do, and nothing is going to stop me from doing it,” Wemby is on record as saying. And with all of this, it’s why he fits the Azorius color combination perfectly.
Blue and White’s control focus is what Wemby brings to the court.
When it comes down to it, Blue as a color and its primary planeswalker, Jace, are about perfection. Control as a means of others for the outcome. This is set to come into an even larger focus with Magic: The Gathering’s Reality Fractured Set. In the set, the crux of the narrative is that Jace, so torn by the state of things, seeks to create perfection, fracturing the multiverse and fixing what he sees in his other planeswalkers as negative parts of who they are.
But while Blue sees the fault in others, White, as a color, aims to bring justice, morality, and control in the name of ethics. White, defined by morality and order, offers a complementary strategy to Blue. Blue is driven by the pursuit of perfection, knowledge, and wisdom, with a focus on peace through perfection. White believes in peace through structure, law, and morality. It values the community over the individual. White’s strategy is built around rule-setting, protecting creatures, lifegain, and “taxing” effects that force opponents to pay more.
Wemby’s dedication to perfecting his craft and his chiding of others in the NBA. “We try to propose a brand of basketball that can be described as more old school sometimes; the Spurs way as well,” he said. “So it’s tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.”
Something that NBA fans have taken as a direct shot at his current opponents, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, for being “unethical” in their style of play. And in this Western Conference Finals, Wemby has been visibly frustrated by OKC’s style of play, which relies on baiting fouls and flopping more than on driving hard into the paint. You see where I’m going?
If you look up Azorius in the dictionary, you’ll find Victor Wembanyama’s picture.
Wembanyama controls the court, and if he played a game of Commander, well, he’d pretty much be the perfect fit for my best friend’s The Council of Four Commander deck, which I have only played twice and didn’t win based on controlling the board state, denying Commanders the light of day, or playing a win condition card when the game has run its course.
About Azorius as a combo, Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater has explained, “Philosophically, the largest overlap between the two colors stems from a similar motivation. Both colors want to improve the world. White does this in its quest to promote peace, while Blue does it out of its interest in reaching perfection. The end result is the same. Both colors like to force their rules and ways upon all those around them.” Yup, that’s Wemby.
Not to mention, when asked about what he aims to do on the court, he responded: “Traumatizing, sometimes, is the goal.” That’s a control player if I’ve ever seen one. Never leave a Blue player with two Blue mana open, and never leave Wemby alone in the paint.
The San Antonio Spurs play against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, May 30th at 7pm CT on Peacock.