MTG Salvation

Since Modern Horizons came along to wreak havoc on our land sections I thought it might be worth a thread to discuss what the best options are for each guild and why? List your top 2 lands for each guild excluding Duals, (e.g. Plateau) Fetches, (e.g Scalding Tarn) and Shocks, (e.g. Overgrown Tomb).

Options include:
Checklands (Rootbound Crag)
Scrylands (Temple of Epiphany)
Fastlands (Inspiring Vantage)
Painlands (Brushland)
Filterlands (Fetid Heath)
Cycling Lands (Fetid Pools)
Manlands (Celestial Colonnade)
"Horizon" Lands (Horizon Canopy)
Other One of's (Nimbus Maze, Grove of the Burnwillows, Etc.)

I think (excluding dual/shock/fetch) that Horizon lands are the best, Manlands are the second best, and after that, I'd get guild-specific. I don't really care what guild I'm playing, lands that can be converted into cards that fix your mana untapped on T1 are just clutch. Horizon Canopy is an insane land, and there's no reason to think any of the others won't be.

If anything, the biggest problem with Horizon/Canopy lands is that they're too good. They're so good that decks that don't even need the fixing will take them from you. Which can be a problem if your mana fixing plan involves relying on them to contribute. Basically, every deck will steal the Canopy lands from other color combinations since they're so good. Which would be fair and equitable if we had a cycle of 10. But since we don't, BR may have more fixers in the draft than UR now, because the Horizon land is more likely to be stolen than the Fastland. But if a card being too good is a "problem" sign me up for more of those problems. I'll just deal with it, because one way or another, I think every cube should play every Canopy land. Count them as hybbrid cards or something if you need to, but they're bonkers good.

I mean, I think I'd play a basic land that pinged me but I could pay 1 and sac it to draw a card. In fact, I'm positive I would. Horizon lands are strictly better than those designs, so excluding them seems wrong.

So your list would be the 6 horizon lands followed by the manlands for the 6 guilds that have a horizon land and then the manlands followed by what for the remaining four?

Horizon Canopy gets snatched up so often by non-G/W decks that I just classified it as colorless, since it largely played out that way. Never had a problem with balance or anything, but I'm not sure it's wise to add 5 more clones to my colorless section.

Quote from BlackWaltz3 »

So your list would be the 6 horizon lands followed by the manlands for the 6 guilds that have a horizon land and then the manlands followed by what for the remaining four?

Whatever your playgroup considers the next best land to be. I like Cycling Lands for WU and UB, and Fastlands for BR and RG. But that can change from group to group. If you support C, for example, Painlands and/or Filter Lands might take precedent over other options.

At first I cannot see the big deal about the Horizon Lands, but now I see the value.

Ideally I’d go:
Duals
Shocks / Fetches
Horizon Lands
Man Lands

But I do not own all the duals so for UW, UB I will use the Bicycle lands.

For the canopy lands, the question that I ask myself for perspective is - if I had my cube before Zendikar block, would I run all 5 allied fetches, or would I wait until the cycle was complete? Even in hindsight, I would never have waited - the fetches are too good. I feel similarly with the canopy cycle - they should be in the cube if your aim is high power level.

For some guilds, I actually put the man land fifth, especially in the enemy guilds, so these Canopy duals will probably replace that land for me instead of the current option I'm running in that guild. The enemy guild man lands are quite good, but the power level on some of them has been lacking when compared to Colonnade and Tar Pit. Needle Spires is one that I'm definitely replacing. ETB tapped on that land has hurt me way more often than the double strike man land has helped.