Pattern Recognition #34 - Dual Lands

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

29 June 2017

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Hello everyone! My name is berryjon, and I am TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass when it comes to Magic the Gathering. I talk about what I want, when I want, and the nice people who run this site let me run my mind in circles for your entertainment and education.

I apologize about no article last week. Real life caught up to me, and I needed the time off to get things sorted. But, on with the show!

Toady's article is a curious followup from three weeks ago. You see, there was a lot of raised voices and ... energetic conversations discussing the nature of the Reserved List, and how applicable it is today. But something in those discussions caught my eye, and that was one particular set of cards that a lot of people wanted back.

No, it wasn't the Power Nine. I wouldn't wish those on Standard or Modern in any method.

Rather, people were pointing out, quite specifically, the possibility of getting the original, best-of-the-best dual lands in game back into print. They wanted fresh printings of Badlands, Bayou, Plateau, Savannah, Scrubland, Taiga, Tropical Island, Tundra and Underground Sea

Uh... wait a minute. Let me count those again... We got , , , , , , , and . Hey! There's one missing!

So yeah, you see, the land, Volcanic Island, was accidentally left off the print sheet for Alpha, but was restored in Beta. You can tell someone is bullshitting you if they produce a full set of ten duals and claim they're all Alpha.

But that and Circle of Protection: Black being forgotten are not what I want to talk about.

I wanted to go through the history of Dual Lands and show how they've evolved over time. From the original ten to the most recent offerings in Amonkhet, the concept of lands that produce two types of mana (and yes, I'm including the triples here) has been a staple of Magic's design in order to allow and encourage multi-coloured decks.

I was going to go through these in chronological order, but I got about five pages in and my head hit the desk. That was a dumb way of doing it, so I had to go back to here and restart from scratch. Lucky you guys!

So, let's start with the original lands. As I've said before, Magic in the beginning wasn't well designed. The original lands consisted of the five basic types, and the ten dual lands with nothing else. And lands weren't that important. Yes, they were a vital resource, but you were never really supposed to worry about them. So the original dual lands were simple. They were, quite literally, two lands played on the same turn.

Badlands, for example, was playing both a Swamp and a Mountain on the same turn, with the cost that you could only tap it for one or the other. And this was described in the type line - eventually -, where you saw that the land had both land types in it.

And this was as simple as Dual Lands could get. This simplicity, as I will describe, has also made them ridiculously powerful.

So what was Wizards to do in order to lower the power of these lands? The first drawback that Wizards experimented with is now called the "Pain Lands". Starting in Ice Age with Underground River, and concluding in Apocalypse with Battlefield Forge, these ones forced you to take damage whenever you tapped them for mana. However, they could also produce colourless mana for no cost - something the original set could not.

On the flip side, these new dual lands lost the land types their predecessors had. At first, this may not seem like much, but when you consider the staggering number of cards that say words to the effect of "search your library for a land that has a basic land type, and put it into play", the aggressive utility of these cards drops rapidly.

I like to think that the Pain Lands represent a stable median in terms of the power levels of the Dual Lands. They have utility in the early game when you might need mana of either colour at only a minimal price, but can still supply generic mana in the late game when you no longer need to worry about colours

Of course, that these were the ones to be first printed in Core Sets - 9th and Tenth editions, before coming back in M15 and Origins - only helps to cement in my mind that these Dual lands are the ones by which all others are measured

Depletion Lands were also introduced in Ice Age, so named for the counter that would be put on them when they were tapped for mana. When you look at Timberline Ridge, you can see how the concept would work. You had to pay a cost for the variety in mana, not in life, like with the Pain Lands, but rather it was an opportunity cost. Using the land for mana now meant that you could not use it until the Depletion Counter had gone away.

On the other side of Depletion, was the Slow Lands. These were another cycle of cards, but this time from Tempest, that would not untap right away once they produced mana. But unlike the Depletion Lands, these could produce without the drawback, and they didn't involve counters. And counters can be manipulated. So in a way, cards like Cinder Marsh were an alternative to Lava Tubes.

But power could still go up in a way. You see, Mirage, then Onslaught (and reprinted in Khans), then Zendikar all had lands that were bound by a common theme, one that technically makes them dual lands, but not.

These are the Fetch Lands. Cards like Grasslands or Windswept Heath that were so named because they could fetch a land out of your deck for a low price, and put it straight onto the battlefield.

Fetch lands had two major advantages over other lands that could pull two types of lands into play. No. Wait. That came out wrong. Fetch lands don't produce two types of mana. But rather, they can search your library for any land with one of the two specified types, and put that into play. So, in their base forms, Fetches are modal dual lands - you can pick which type of mana they produce when you activate them, but you can't change afterwards.

Or could you?

Let me skip ahead for a moment, and introduce you to the Ravnica Shock Lands. Like Steam Vents.

These lands earned their nickname because they would come into play tapped unless you let them Shock you when they entered the battlefield. Now, that by itself would be an interesting contrast to the Pain Lands in terms of cost - are you going to use a Pain land for coloured mana more than twice? If so, Shock yourself instead. Otherwise, take the pain and move on.

But what makes them one of the most sought-after lands in Modern is that they, before Battle for Zendikar and later Amonkhet, were the only ones with basic land types.

Don't understand?

You can Fetch them.

Play a Fetchland, activate it, go for a Shock land, take the damage, and for a low, low cost of three life, you have two types of mana available to you, one extra card out of your deck that would otherwise be a dead draw, and I cannot stress enough just how powerful this combination really is.

Oh. Wait. I can show you.

Kird Ape, Wild Nacatl or Loam Lion. All of these benefit from having another land type in play that's off colour from their casting cost, and they all cost to cast. Stomping grounds is particularly wanted, from my information, as it synergizes with two of those three creatures, and is in colours naturally suited to aggro decks in general.

Next, I'm going to show you one of my favourite cycles of dual lands. Thought mot my most favoured. Filter lands are lands that take an input of one mana, and tap to produce two mana. While this looks even - two lands for two mana - what makes Filters work is their transformative nature.

Skycloud Expanse is a nice example of the first version of this cycle. You put one of any mana in, and you got out of it. Now, this is actually more powerful than you might think. It's not just putting out mana associated with its colours (in this case, White and Blue), but rather it can take any colour in. You can put in or , sure. But you can put in or or and it will still function!

These lands enabled triple coloured decks without being blatant about it. Certainly much better about it than some other blocks I could name. Alara and Tarkir.

Now, there was a second cycle of Filter Lands, this time from Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. Which is probably the one that most of you were thinking of when I said 'Filter'. These ones represented a full set of ten, and for example, I choose Fire-Lit Thicket.

Unlike the original allied cycle, these lands had one drawback and one advantage over them. First is that the output isn't fixed. You can produce two mana in any combination you needed, allowing you to, say, a and put out . The ability to completely fix two mana like that is massive, and one that makes this cycle my favoured. And when it got reprinted as a Masterpiece Expedition, I was elated.

However, the drawback is something to watch out for. Unlike the first time around, this time, you needed a ... primer charge of the same colours as the land. You weren't really getting something new out of the filter, just being given the option to change it half the time. And for a set focused more on the synergies of colours, this worked out.

I love them dearly, but even I know when to put them away and go for something else.

Another type that may, because I'm not about to comment on something I shouldn't, are the Check Lands. These are lands that when they come into play, do so tapped unless some sort of static condition is met. One set can check if you have one of the relevant types of land in play already - such as Dragonskull Summit looking for a Swamp or a Mountain (and yes, this includes Blood Crypt, those crazy, overpowered Shock Lands).

I think Checklands are kinda neat though, as they are the only type of dual land to get into Core Sets aside from the painlands. There's a certain utility to them that I admire, though I wouldn't really like to put them in my deck if it means saving my two-coloured source for turn 2 or later. I want the option to be able to utilize them on turn one, and not later.

Alternately, there are Fast Lands, from Scars of Mirroden and from Kaladesh. Cards like Botanical Sanctum that emphasize fast play, rewarding you for dropping them early. In a way, they're better than many of the other types, because all dual lands share the same basic aspect - you want to use them sooner, rather than later, when their versatility is at a premium.

I suppose I would like them a whole lot better if they weren't in the same block as New Phyrexia.

I could go on and on, but there are just two more subjects I'd like to hit up before I move on to my denouncement.

First, Tap Lands.

A lot of dual lands come into play tapped. In fact it's easier to list the ones that don't without some sort of drawback. They were all printed either in Limited Edition Beta or Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.

You see, for a game built around lands-as-resources, a tapped land is useless. So a land that comes into play tapped? What good is it?

It's not.

(Unless you did it for the Landfall trigger.)

So what do you do with a land that comes into play tapped, with no chance to change that state?

You get Akoum Refuge. You get Arctic Flats. You get Cinder Barrens.

Well, maybe not the last one. But here's the point: lands that are forced to come into play tapped with no real upside (aside from lifegain) can no longer be justified in the Rare slot. The dictates of the New World Order prevent that. Even going across to being a source of three kinds of mana - such as with Crumbling Necropolis still holds you at uncommon.

Taplands are the poor-man's duals, designed to encourage multi-coloured play when you don't have any other options.

Which annoys me as when I look at, say, the Temple of Malady, bumped up to Rare and this is justified by adding a "Scry 1" to it when it enters the battlefield?

New Benalia does sort of set a limit though - being uncommon but only producing one colour of mana. So to produce to mana, the added complexity requires jumping up a rarity notch.

And again, when you compare Amonkhet's Fetid Pools to Polluted Mire or Remote Isle from Urza's Saga.

Yes, I'm being salty. Sorry. Also on my third re-write by this point.

But seeing as how I just talked about New Benalia, it's time to move on to the Future Sight Duals!

Get your drinks ready, my lovely audience, because it's time to talk about Graven Cairns, Grove of the Burnwillows, Horizon Canopy, Nimbus Maze and River of Tears.

Graven Cairns is a filter land, a preview for the next set, Lorwyn. Pass.

Grove of the Burnwillows let's you tap into the power of Burning Trees at the cost of giving one life to each of your opponents. And you know what, one life isn't that big of a deal. Especially when it was printed in the same block (and same colour) as Kavu Predator, which would allow you to pump him up every turn, keeping well ahead of the life-gain versus damage curve, or you could tap for , let the opponent gain the life, then recur Punishing Fire to hit them for two. Inefficient, but repeatable.

Horizon Canopy is not a painland, despite the similar wording. A distinction which will be important in about two weeks, if I keep things up. Of course, when you're done taking damage, feel free to sacrifice it to draw a card - a very slow Cycling if you will. And I really want to see the plane where leaves grow that big. Can you imagine if that was Zendikar? Aside from loosing the Bowl-Island land, you could give the impression of a plane that is full of life and uncertainty just by making the plantlife huge!

Nimbus Maze is another type of dual land I'd like Wizards to come back to moreso than others. Tapping for the alternate colour of whatever you have in play? It's a fixer's best dream! Well, except for the fact it can only produce on its own, but everything needs a drawback, right? And it encourages the use of basic lands (yes, I know, Hallowed Fountain exists, let me dream about non-overpowered synergies, alright?).

And then we come to River of Tears. Did you guys know that this was going to be the Theros cycle of dual lands? Before development happened, and we wound up with the Scrying Temples? Well, back when Theros was still in per-development, the plane was called Arkhos, and would be in the dreaming between wake and sleep (which you can sort of see in the example of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver). Oh, and this land produces when it comes into play, as it checks itself for that ability.

So.... end time here.

Dual lands.

The game can't really work without them. The have to be in each set in order to help new players into the game. The problem, I think I'm having, is that Wizards keeps changing them around. The Pain and Check lands got the most printings, but those were in Core Sets. There's no real sense of ....

effort being put into them nowadays. I mean, sure, the Cycle lands from Amonkhet were neat on paper, until you remember that it was done back in Odyssey and Onslaught. The theory being floated around that the next set will have another returning dual land mechanic gnaws at me in a way that just makes me write off 5-10 cards in the block, sight unseen.

I know that card design is hard. Really hard. And while this series is certainly all about recognizing patterns when and where they emerge, in this case, I think it's too much of a good thing. Be unique or be consistent, please. But don't keep waffling over what is legitimate or not, powerful or not. Scrying and Cycling to not Rares make.

That's it for me today. Join me next week when I celebrate the return of a set I've long admired. No, it isn't Unstable. I have standards you know. ;)

Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping out? Basic donors get a preview copy of the final article, while advanced donors get that as well as the opportunity to join me in a podcast version of the series where I talk and you respond.