Why Don't People Run 4 of All the Dual Lands In Their ColorsP

Legacy forum

Posted on Jan. 4, 2015, 11:04 a.m. by mdw2402

Title. I see a lot of top-tier lists that have only 1 Volcanic Island, but they also have 5 Islands. Can someone explain this to me?

mdw2402 says... #2

Same with fetches. Just why?

January 4, 2015 11:05 a.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #3

It depends what decks they are. If they are single colored decks, playing four of the dual land is probably recommended. In multicolor decks, sometimes you want to play more basics to avoid getting wrecked by Wasteland and sometimes Price of Progress and Blood Moon.

As for fetchlands, some decks play all lands of a certain type. For example, Temur Delver of old normally ran 3 Tropical Island, 3 Volcanic Island, 4 Wasteland and 8 fetchlands. These fetchlands could be any blue fetches you wanted (or Wooded Foothills in this case), because all of your lands could be fetched by them. Decks will often change up their fetchland array without cost to throw people off.

January 4, 2015 11:08 a.m.

ChiefBell says... #4

January 4, 2015 11:08 a.m.

naynay666 says... #5

$?

January 4, 2015 11:33 a.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #6

Even among players who have the money for all sorts of dual lands (those who play competitively), your landbase needs to be able to resist Wasteland.

January 4, 2015 11:36 a.m.

Hjaltrohir says... #7

As has already been said, cash to buy 4x Volcanic Island, 4x Tropical Island and 4x Taiga is hard to come by and also the landbase would completely fold to land destruction like Wasteland.

January 4, 2015 12:03 p.m.

julianjmoss says... #8

Other cards to watch out for are Back to Basics, and Stifle. Depends on the deck, it's weaknesses, how much fixing it needs, amount of money you have etc

January 4, 2015 12:24 p.m.

There are plenty of dual heavy lists. RUG Delver, BUG Delver, Jund, Patriot, etc. If a deck is not playing a ton of duals, it's probably playing around Wasteland or simply doesn't really need them and uses things like utility lands or man-lands in place of them, like Infect does

January 4, 2015 1:17 p.m.

sylvannos says... #10

Fetch lands are stronger than ABUR dual lands anyway because of Brainstorm, Ponder, Treasure Cruise, Tarmogoyf, Sensei's Divining Top, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

I.e. it's not an issue of budget at all, but rather synergy with the rest of the cards in the format. Fetch lands are basically all five colors, immune to Wasteland, and let you play 5+ copies of Ancestral Recall.

January 6, 2015 8:24 a.m.

mckin says... #11

Fetches thin decks out and essentually add every color as the get the dual you need at that time. Very powerful in blue decks resetting the top and shuffling away brainstorms & fixing tops. They find all your mana colors, they fuel delve, goyf, tombstalker, nimble mongoose, cruise, etc. Notice how death and taxes doesnt run them but omnitell does forbetter brainstorms and fuelling dig.

in 3 color decks such as jund a taiga doesnt add black but a wooded foothills can get a badlands id you already have a grove of the burn willows

January 8, 2015 4:39 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #12

Fetches don't really thin the deck, not in any meaningful way that a legacy or even a modern play will see. They are mainly used for graveyard filling and for shuffling if their main purpose of fetching is not necessary.

January 11, 2015 4:54 a.m.

This discussion has been closed