Nothing in life is free. It’s also fair to say that nothing, or at least nearly nothing, in Magic: The Gathering is free. Spells cost mana to cast, and the most common way of producing mana is by tapping lands on your battlefield. Players can put one land on the battlefield each turn and unless it enters tapped, it can be immediately used to produce mana. There are five colors of mana that can be used to cast spells - Black, White, Red, Green, and Blue. Additionally, some lands only produce colorless mana. It’s important to choose the right lands for your deck. As part of our New Player’s Guide, this introduction to all things lands will provide pivotal information about the lands found in Magic: The Gathering.
Basic Land
Basic Lands are the easiest and most affordable option for putting lands into your new Magic deck. They are also the easiest to add in because there is no quantity limit on basic lands cards. Where most cards cap at 4 copies in non-Commander formats, Basic Lands do not have a copy cap. Every card in Magic has a type line betwen the card image and the card text. The type line for a basic land will say the supertype - basic and the card type - land. Land type is a subtype of the card and will appear on most lands. The most common basic lands are -
Each of these basic lands use the land type to tell us what color of mana they produce. Plains can be tapped to produce one white mana because the land type, plains produces white. Forest can produce green mana. Mountain can produce red mana. Island can produce blue mana. Swamp can produce black mana. Waste is a basic land without a land type and can only produce colorless mana.
Non-Basic Lands
There is a large variety of options when you branch out from Basic Lands. The most common reason to use a Non-Basic land is to create mana of multiple colors. Dual lands like Badlands produce two different colors of mana - in this case, red and black - without any limitations. Other Non-Basic Lands may have limitations, rules, exceptions, or instructions for use. Unlike Basic Lands, Non-Basic Lands are capped at four copies in a deck or one copy if you’re building a deck for Commander.
Taplands
Taplands is a nickname given to a broad spectrum of Non-Basic Lands in Magic: The Gathering where the land has some instruction about tapping it other than to produce mana. It may be that the card must enter the battlefield tapped. It may be that the card must enter tapped if certain conditions are not met. It may require players to lose life or pay other mana in order to avoid entering tapped. These are some common Taplands varieties:
Dual Taplands - These Taplands enter the battlefield tapped and produce two different colors of mana. There is no way to avoid them entering tapped unless another card in your deck can prevent lands from entering tapped such as Amulet of Vigor which untaps permanents that enter tapped.
Triple Taplands - Like Dual Taplands, Triple Taplands enter the battlefield tapped. As the name suggests, these lands can be used to produce three types of mana instead of two. For decks that use or need up to three colors of mana, these are a great option.
Watery Grave is a hallmark Dimir Shock Land, and it also boasts some incredible art.
Shock Lands - Shock Lands are Taplands that give the player the option to avoid having the land enter tapped by paying two life. In situations where having to wait a turn to be able to create one of the two colors it produces would have major implications, it may be a smart idea to pay that two life so that a spell can be cast immediately. It could also be that paying two life will give the player the option to keep mana available during their opponent’s turn rather than be tapped out with no way to respond.
Battle Lands - These Taplands give players the ability to put out a dual land without tapping them if they already control two lands on the battlefield. This is a great way to get dual lands out later in the game. Because Battle Lands have land types normally only found on basic land cards, they can also be the target of cards meant to grab lands like Myriad Landscape which targets lands that share a land type.
Reveal Lands - Reveal Lands are dual lands that have the option to reveal a Basic Land card to avoid entering tapped. These Taplands are very versatile as the option can be refused in play scenarios where entering tapped gives no additional value to the player or where revealing what Basic Lands are coming poses no real threat.
Check Lands - Like Battle Lands, Check Lands are able to avoid entering the battlefield tapped based on what lands the player already controls. In the case of Check Lands, the land being played checks if the player already controls a land with the land type listed on the card. It may say the card “enters tapped unless you control an Island or a Plains” or any other combination of land types found on Basic Lands. This is a great way to put a dual land on the battlefield and immediately be ready to use it later in the game.
Fast Lands - Fast Lands are great for getting the capacity to produce multiple colors early. That’s because Fast Lands can enter untapped if the card being played is either your first, second or third land of the game. Fast Lands check to see how many other lands you control and if the number is 2 or less, it doesn’t have to be tapped.
Slow Lands - Opposite to Fast Lands are Slow Lands. They too check how many lands you’re currently in control of but only allow the land to enter untapped if you control 2 or fewer lands. This makes for a great land to enter after three lands are already on the battlefield while still giving an option to play it earlier if necessary.
Sac Lands - A unique kind of Tapland, Sac Lands have an additional ability to create two or three mana if you sacrifice it. This ability to create a larger than normal amount of mana by permanently removing the land from the battlefield should be used judiciously as it will likely hinder your future ability to produce mana. In a moment of desperation or supreme confidence, Sac Lands can be what turns the tides of battle in your favor.
Scry Lands - There are two kinds of Scry Lands. One enables the player to scry 1 after playing the land. The other instructs players to surveil 1 after playing it. In both cases, the player looks at the top card of their library and can either put it back on the top of the deck or in the case of scrying, places it at the bottom of the deck and in the case of surveiling, places it in the graveyard. These are great options for players who can benefit from knowing what spells are coming up next or in the case of decks using cards like Crackling Drak it may come in handy to have an extra card go directly into the graveyard.
Bounce Lands - There are two versions of a Bounce Land. In one case, the Bounce Land will require that it be sacrificed upon entering unless you return a land card you control back to its owner’s hand. The other kind of Bounce Land simply requires that when it enters the battlefield, you return a land card you control to its owner’s hand. The difference is minute since there are very few scenarios where you’d play a land just to have it returned back to your hand or to have it sacrificed.
Utility Lands
Utility Lands are the lands in Magic: The Gathering that do more than just produce mana. Some of them have removal effects, the ability to add or remove counters, or even the ability to go find a land in your library. They’re aptly named for their ability to perform a specific function in your deck. Here are some common types of Utility Lands.
Maze's End is a powerful land that can quickly end a game if not checked.
Fetch Lands - One of the most common Utility Lands is called a Fetch Land. Fetch Lands typically don’t produce mana on their own but cards like Maze’s End and Urza’s Cave break that tradition by having the ability to produce colorless mana. The primary reason to put a Fetch Land in your deck is that they give players the ability to find a land that they want or sometimes desperately need to start getting spells on the battlefield. Most often, they require that users pay a life and then sacrifice the Fetch Land in order to search their library for another card but of course the specific cost of each fetch ability will be on the card.
Cycling Lands - Cycling is the ability to pay a cost listed on a card to discard it and then draw another card. Cycling Lands are powerful in that if you find yourself mana flooding, you can cycle your land and try getting something different in its place. Most Cycling Lands have Cycling 2 but there are some exceptions like the Triome Lands found in Streets of New Capenna that have Cycling 3.
Guildhall - Ten Utility Lands from the Ravnica Block are known as Guildhalls. All ten of these cards can be tapped for colorless mana but also include an ability paid for with mana that is specific to the guild it represents. As they’re all very different and there’s only ten cards, they are all listed below:
From Ravnica: City of Guilds
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
From Guildpact
From Dissension
Utility Taplands - Unlike other Taplands, Utility Taplands are not dual color lands. They are Taplands that can produce one color land but also include a utility function. These can be a great way to strategize when building a deck. Some of these lands can deal damage or produce extra mana.
Lands With Drawbacks
Lands with drawbacks refers to lands that are so powerful that they include a limitation or some negative interaction to keep some semblance of balance. Drawbacks are also included in a variety of different card types in addition to lands. These lands will be a good way to bring up the power level in any Magic: The Gathering deck as long as you’re aware of the drawback playing it will have.
Legendary - The Legend rule states that any card with a supertype of “Legendary” cannot share the battlefield with a copy of itself. For example, a player cannot have two copies of Nicol Bolas, Dragon God on the battlefield at the same time. Attempting to put a second one on the battlefield will cause one of them to be destroyed. Similarly, a player and their opponent(s) cannot have the same legendary permanent on the battlefield at the same time. Legendary Lands are powerful lands that have the drawback of being subject to the Legend Rule. Once one is on the battlefield, it cannot be joined by another copy of the same land.
Pain Lands - As the name suggests, Pain Lands cause pain. Most dual lands will give you two options for mana color. Pain Lands do that without requiring players to tap the land when it enters the battlefield. The drawback is that it only makes colorless mana for free. In order to make one of the two colors on the card, you’ll have take one damage.
Lands Using Counters
Some lands use counters to help players ramp up their ability to produce mana. Some of these lands can be used to be more aggressive in the early parts of a match while others help create a strategy to access more mana later in the game. While there are only two types of lands that use counters - Depletion Lands and Storage Lands - there are a lot of minor differences in the cards within them. Knowing which lands to use is important to creating a powerful Magic deck.
Depletion Lands - Depletion Lands use counters by entering the battlefield with counters already in place. They can only create a limited amount of mana based on how many counters are on the land but can provide an early-game strategy for quickly ramping into the mana needed to cast spells.
Storage Lands - Storage Lands have an opposite effect to Depletion Lands in that they can be used to store up counters that can be later removed to add mana to the player’s available mana pool. This can help save up for a more expensive creature or in some way provide a late-game boost of mana that can turn the tides of battle.
Additional Lands
In addition to the lands already discussed there are a plethora of other land types to choose from. Picking lands that will complement the mechanics of your deck is vital to creating a deck that functions in the way you intend. Here are a few of most popular land types you’ll encounter while playing Magic: The Gathering:
Artifact Lands - Artifact is a sub-type that can be added to a land to signify that in addition to its other types, the land is also an artifact. This means that anything that can interact with an artifact can also interact with an Artifact Land.
Verge Lands - Verge Lands are a special kind of Dual Land that creates one color of mana with no restrictions but requires you own a specific kind of Basic Land type to create the other color it can produce. For example, Thornspire Verge can create red mana with no restrictions but to create green, the player must also control either a Mountain or a Forest.
Caves and Deserts - Caves and Deserts are two land types that speak to the terrain of the land being used. They are Utility Lands in that they have a function beyond producing mana. There is a long list of Caves and Deserts with different utility functions to help build the perfect deck.
Urza’s - The Urzatron set created a specific land type called Urza’s. The Urzatron refers to three Urza’s land cards - Urza’s Mine Urza’s Power-Plant, and Urza’s Tower - being used together to have the ability to create seven mana. There are other lands with the land type Urza’s but these three are a powerful combo to have in any deck.
While this is not a complete list of every land card available in Magic: The Gathering, this will be a good starting point to learning more about lands and their interactions. It’s important to research lands thoroughly when deciding what will work best in your deck but the options and functions are seemingly limitless.
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Posted Jan 9, 2025e.g.
"Battle Lands - These Taplands give players the ability to put out a dual land without tapping them if they already control two lands on the battlefield. This is a great way to get dual lands out later in the game. Because Battle Lands have land types normally only found on basic land cards, they can also be the target of cards meant to grab lands like Myriad Landscape which targets lands that share a land type."
You need to control at least two BASIC lands, not just any lands and Myriad Landscape cannot fetch these lands, because Myriad Landscape can only fetch basics!