Lands are one of the most important parts of Magic: the Gathering. In many ways, land cards may be the most iconic and defining feature of the game. Games like Hearthstone use a system of gradually building mana to play spells. Yugio generally doesn’t require you to pay for many spells. Magic, however, requires you to add cards to your deck in order to pay for your other cards.
Making the most out of your lands can be difficult. Luckily, Wizards of the Coast have continued to print lands with extra functionality. Using these lands, you can take your game to the next level.
Whether you’re new to the game or trying to get better, it never hurts to have more cards in your toolbox. With these new tips under your belt, you’ll be sure to terrorize your gaming table in no time.
Drawn Land
One of the most grueling experiences in Magic is being “mana flooded.” This is a term the community uses, meaning that you keep drawing land cards and almost nothing else. This can lead to games with a ton of lands on the board, a handful of lands, but nothing to cast. This is where cycling on land cards comes in handy.
While lands are critical in Magic: the Gathering, sometimes you’d rather pay anything to have another card in your hand. Luckily, the cycling mechanic lets you do just that. For just a few mana, you can discard a card with cycling to draw another card.
While cycling a land away can be a bit risky, it is usually incredibly useful. If you have a deck that draws a lot of cards, or already does a lot of ramping, these cards may be life savers. You can only play one land a turn, so being able to pitch lands you can’t (or won’t) play is excellent.
There are several great options for cycling cards to add to your deck. The cycling dual lands enter tapped, but can provide two different colors of mana. The cycling tri-lands do the same, but give three colors instead. There are also cycling lands that can tap for a single color, useful for decks that only run a few colors.
Finally, the landscape cycle includes some of my new favorite lands. It added a bunch of lands that cycle but also enter untapped, letting you tap for mana on the turn you play it, or letting you sacrifice it to fetch a basic land tapped. The usefulness of these cards cannot be overstated.
Casting a Land
Famously, lands are not cast in Magic: the Gathering. However, in recent years, Magic has been releasing lands that effectively allow you to cast them. These cards are incredibly potent, effectively allowing you to play an extra card in your deck for each one you include.
The first Modal Dual-Faced Lands (also known as MDFCs) are a great example of the power of these cards. The mythic cycle of these lands had powerful spells on the front side, and lands that can enter untapped on the back. These cards can either be normal lands with little downside or strong spells later in the game, allowing for lethal versatility.
Meanwhile, the other MDFC lands released in this set were still potent, though the lands came in tapped. The ability to have board wipe, or a mana dork, or a card draw spell stapled to a tap land is incredibly potent. Some of these first MDFC lands have become format staples, common at many commander tables due to their power.
More “spell lands” have come from Modern Horizons 3 and Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. Many of the Modern Horizons 3 MDFC lands can enter untapped or have their front side cast, such as Sink into Stupor, a counterspell on a land! Meanwhile, the channel lands from the new Kamigawa set are famously powerful. “Boseiju, Who Endures” is so widely played that it has become incredibly expensive.
In my personal opinion, these cards are not played enough. While some of these cards can be expensive, many are cheap to buy. Slot in a few of these in for some basic lands, and you may see massive improvements.
A Helping Land
Having a ton of mana is not a problem if you have mana to spend it on, and luckily, some lands allow you to do that. Magic has released cards with game-changing abilities with increasing frequency. While these lands may be somewhat more situational than “spell lands” or “cycling lands,” there are some incredibly useful options. These cards can help you overcome mana flooding by giving you something incredibly useful to spend your mana on.
The most Dragonstorm lands are a great example of what ability lands can offer you. These lands can do everything from creating creatures to helping you with card selection. Just like these cards, the Modern Horizon 3 ability lands use uncommon abilities to help you advance your gameplan. Similarly, the Innistrad cycle of lands adds a ton of options for each two-color combo that can help you make use of extra mana.
Aside from lands that give you abilities, manlands are a very useful type of land that can turn into a creature. There are a lot of manlands now and a lot of ways to use them. They won’t be useful for every deck, but having a card that can turn into a creature can be very useful. I use them in my Planeswalker deck, which doesn’t run many creatures, as well as my Elder deck to gain more Elder creatures.
Outside of specific cycles of cards, there are a lot of lands with abilities that can be useful to you. Some of these cards may be useful in specific circumstances, and some may be generically useful. Which cards to use is ultimately up to you, but finding helpful lands is one way you can get ahead in your game.
99 Problems. Land Ain’t One.
Adding lands to a deck can be one of the more boring parts of deck building. However, with these new options under your belt, it doesn’t have to be. While not every land needs to have powerful abilities, testing your deck to find which lands could use upgrading is always worthwhile.
Don’t settle for boring lands! With just a little bit of effort, upgrading your land base can take your skills to the next level.
