If there’s one thing that consistently defines a Standard format, it’s its manabase. Khans of Tarkir block was renowned for its incredible three-and-four-color manabases, enabled by fetchlands like Polluted Delta. More recently, access to shocklands such as Sacred Foundry has created some memorable formats unhindered by erratic access to specific colors of mana.
Right now, Standard feels like it’s in one of the healthiest states in some time. A robust balance of midrange and aggressive strategies characterize Standard Leagues on MTGO, and the lack of control dominance is arguably a boon depending on your perspective. Part of that boils down to the lands currently available in Standard: here’s everything you need to know about Standard legal lands in Magic: The Gathering right now.
10) Cavern of Souls
Cavern of Souls is a Typal deck’s dream. Any strategy that has one-to-two consistent creature types at its core can benefit from Cavern, which produces any color of mana to cast the named creature and prevents it from being countered. Counterspells aren’t ubiquitous in the current Standard, though, which means Cavern of Souls isn’t as important as it might be in other iterations of Standard.
Demolition Field is a way for decks to answer lands that cause issues for them - anything from the aforementioned Cavern of Souls if you’re piloting a control deck, to the all-important Fountainport. In mono- or dual-colored strategies, Demolition Field is usually an easy card to fit in, but decks with three or more colors of mana will want to stay away from it for the most part.
Fabled Passage is as good a fetchland as we’ve got in Standard currently. It’s flexible, helps with color fixing, and can even fetch a basic untapped late enough into the game.
7) Creature Lands
Creature lands see varying levels of play in Standard right now, with some, like Restless Reef, being staples of their colors while others, like Restless Spire, often require players to be reminded they even exist in the first place. Creature lands are still excellent tapped lands that offer alternative lines to victory, though they’re a better fit in midrange and control strategies than in aggressive decks.
Rockface Village doesn’t look that powerful at first glance, but it has a few things going for it. Standard’s premier aggro decks right now feature an abundance of the creature types it cares about, and it also crucially does not enter play tapped, like many other cards with these kinds of synergies do. That’s a huge bonus for Standard decks looking to go fast, and for just one mana Rockface Village can immediately create a hasty threat out of nowhere.
5) Fast Lands
Fast lands refers to lands that enter the battlefield tapped unless you control two or fewer lands, like Darkslick Shores, for example. These lands are actually more important for midrange strategies than aggressive decks, since they can help fix your mana early so you can use multiple colors to present threats or answer them without falling behind. They’ve been staples of Standard manabases whenever they’re legal, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
4) Pain Lands
Pain lands are lands that tap for colorless, or, for the cost of 1 life, tap for one of two colors of mana. They also enter the battlefield untapped, which is a consistent theme for many of the best Standard lands. Decks don’t want to play too many of these, to prevent a player deal too much damage to themselves and prematurely knock themselves out of a game. Finding the right number of a card like Battlefield Forge helps up the consistency of some of Standard’s best strategies.
3) Surveil Lands
Surveil lands refer to the dual-type tapped lands from Murders at Karlov Manor, which surveil when they enter. While somewhat unimpressive at first glance, they help fix your draw step in slower strategies and have synergy with graveyard-focused keywords like delirium, which makes something like Underground Mortuary such a key player in BG midrange strategies.
2) Duskmourn Check Lands
Check lands are lands that can tap for one color of mana at any time, and a different color of mana if you satisfy their requirement of controlling one of two specific basic land types. For instance, Floodfarm Verge can tap for W whenever, and can tap for U as long as you control a Plains or an Island. These lands enter untapped, always tap for at least one color of mana, and are simple, painless mana fixing as long as you build a manabase with enough basic land types to make them consistent.
1) Fountainport
Fountainport is the ultimate utility land and the best land in Standard right now. It taps for a colorless mana with no drawback and enters untapped, clearing the two usual sticking points for utility lands to make them big players in Standard. From there, Fountainport does everything. Token decks can feed their small creatures into Fountainport to draw cards and keep the advantage rolling, while control decks can pay 1 life to generate 1/1 blockers against aggressive strategies. In mirror matches with decks that use Fountainport well, one player having access to it while the other doesn’t can completely snowball into an insurmountable lead.
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