MTG Salvation

What are people's thoughts on the cycle of lands that include Azorius Chancery, Boros Garrison, etc, that come into play tapped and have you return a land to your hand, but can then tap for two mana at a time of their respective colors.

Every time I have tried using or testing with them, they just seem to slow me down too much, especially if I am using them in conjunction with Guild Gates and cycle lands. I think the best play for them is to tap the land you want for mana, then play the land and return that land you tapped back to your hand so that way you still have at least a mana in your pool to use, correct? I assume you're able to do that, correct me if I have been doing this wrong the whole time. I still feel like you essentially have to have an untapped land (basic land) to use when doing this, and at the earliest you can get one out is on turn two unless you want to be behind, particularly if one is going up against a mono deck that hits each drop and utilizes them.

Has anybody found a good way to utilize these lands? Or the ideal numbers to use in two or even three colored decks in pauper? Thank you!

Yes, you can return a tapped land to pay for a bounce land. That's probably their biggest upgrade from the original Karoolands.

I don't like them. They are just a loss of tempo. With a Bouncelands your first turns mana curve goes: 1-1-3. That's intrinsically worse to simply playing 3 lands.

Then there's also the issue that they need other land drop, meaning that a hand with only a bounceland will force you to mulligan. Guildgates and fetchlands (the pauper ones, that is) do not have this problem.

Bouncelands are also terrible when you topdeck them, as they not only cost you a useful resoucre, but also take a turn to become usable.

That said, bouncelands are attractive targets for untap spells like Snap or Cloud of Fairies. Also, some Freed From the Real combo decks tried them too, but it looks like Utopia Sprawls were more reliable.

The advantage to these lands is that you basically can create three lands with only two lands.

They fit best in a deck that runs 23+ lands. They also work very well with the cycling lands, which are relatively popular in Pauper.

If your curve is very low (and it most likely is), then going 1-1-3 is not a terrible play. These lands basically encourage you to skip the 2-mana spells and go straight to three, which makes it ideal for midrange style decks (there are yet to be any successful, multicoloured midrange decks that would use this, as far as I know).

Ups and downs, as always.

Also good with Halimar Depths ,
Khalni Garden , etc...

Quote from Obermeir »

These lands basically encourage you to skip the 2-mana spells and go straight to three, which makes it ideal for midrange style decks (there are yet to be any successful, multicoloured midrange decks that would use this, as far as I know).

The main places you see these lands succeeding are U/B Trinket Mage Control lists (which fell by the wayside when Gray Merchant of Asphodel showed up) and various Tortured Existence lists. Both decks are trying to play the late game with mainly cheap spells, which are exactly the conditions for these lands to be good.

Thanks for clarifying. Too bad these decks are only fringe in playability, as they're both very interesting.