MTG Salvation

Hey guys! I'm looking for some good budget utility lands for my new Lord Windgrace commander deck. Any ideas?

This is my current list. I could probably use a land or two that destroys an enemy land.

• Memorial to Folly
  
• Mortuary Mire
  
• Rogue's Passage
  
• Skarrg, the Rage Pits
  
• Mystifying Maze
  
• The Mirrorpool
  
• Grim Backwoods
  

For one use: Field of Ruin, Ghost Quarter, or Tectonic Edge, Memorial to War
For repeat use: Dust Bowl

Only one that isn't really budget friendly is Wasteland which is closer to $30. Strip Mine is more budget friendly for only $16 or less in its white-bordered 4th edition printing.


Depends on what angle you want to play at the table. Cards like Field hate out nonbasics, but also gift your opponent a basic. Wasteland-like cards if want to hate out nonbasics but gift them nothing. And Strip Mine and its variants if you don't care about heat from the table OR that you just are good at politicking to not need training wheels.

In my list, I run the following (not all are budget, but the ones on top are):

• 1 Barren Moor
  
• 1 Bojuka Bog
  
• 1 Canyon Slough
  
• 1 Forgotten Cave
  
• 1 Glacial Chasm
  
• 1 High Market
  
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
  
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
  
• 1 Tectonic Edge
  
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
  
• 1 Badlands
  
• 1 Bayou
  
• 1 Bazaar of Baghdad
  
• 1 Blood Crypt
  
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
  
• 1 Cinder Glade
  
• 1 Command Tower
  
• 1 Diamond Valley
  
• 7 Forest
  
• 1 Miren, the Moaning Well
  
• 3 Mountain
  
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
  
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
  
• 1 Stomping Ground
  
• 1 Strip Mine
  
• 4 Swamp
  
• 1 Taiga
  
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
  
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
  
• 1 Wasteland
  
• 1 Winding Canyons
  
• 1 Wooded Foothills
  

Of the budget options, I think I like the cycling lands a lot. Glacial Chasm can also be huge in the deck. I am also thinking on adding a Kessig Wolf Run at some point so that might be worthwhile depending on your creatures. I know this doesn't seem like a huge selection (most just produce mana) but I haven't found a need for much else.

Beyond these, maybe Blast Zone, Emergence Zone (if you want the effect), Arch of Orazca for some card draw, maybe Castle Locthwain (though I can see where this would be a lot of life), Command Beacon if you find yourself casting Windgrace a lot, Forge of Heroes (I am not a huge fan, but for what amounts to 1 extra mana, you get 1 loyalty counter). I am sure there are others and I didn't actually look up the price on all of these so apologies if some are still outside your budget.

The only interesting nonbasics I run in Windgrace (that is, do more than produce a single mana or fetch a land lands that produces a single mana) are Bojuka Bog, Drownyard Temple, Lotus Vale, Lotus Field, Scorched Ruins, Ancient Tomb, and the three Ravnica Karoos in my colors. Vale/Field/Ruins are great value when I can get the sacrificed lands back for free or nearly free (not to mention Titania, Protector of Argoth). Ravnica Keroos give me my land drop and ensure I have a land to discard to Windgrave's +2. Temple can be discarded to Windgrace and come back on its own. Bog is nearly-free grave hate.

The lands that produce multiple mana serve additional value in the deck with land untap effects (Argothian Elder, Krosan Restorer, and Ley Weaver are all in the list), Keldon Firebombers, and Mana Reflection.

In my Windgrace, I run a bunch of utility lands. Keep in mind that I run Prismatic Omen, so I can often get away with a high amount of colourless sources.

Field of the Dead, Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage are my wincons.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle often acts as removal for planeswalkers, or a boardwipe.

I've been trying Raging Ravine, again, as an answer to planeswalkers.

Witch's Cottage is a new card from Eldraine, but one I have been very happy with. I have several ways to sac lands and then recur them, so getting more than 1 use out of it is great. Also, it is fetchable.

Maze of Ith and Glacial Chasm are pretty great, too. Maze is essential for Windgrace, since it allows you to protect your commander. Chasm can set up some nasty situations with Crop Rotation or breaks parity on Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, and it even lessens the damage you take from your own manabase (Ancient Tomb comes to mind).

Speaking of which, Ancient Tomb and Crystal Vein are my 'Sol lands'. Especially Vein is good in Windgrace, because of obvious reasons.

My land destruction suite is Wasteland, Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge and Dust Bowl.

A card that is very good in most Windgrace decks is Dakmor Salvage. It provides you with a constant source of lands to discard to Windgrace, as you can keep recurring it.

Blast Zone is a must, it's a boardwipe that can be recurred. It is a tad slow, but in my experience, most Windgrace decks don't lack ways to slow the game down, and it's nice to have as a red button of sorts.

Other than that, I run the standard Jund lands, but with more duals added (Tango duals and Cycle duals), because they're Mountains for Valakut purposes, along with the other cycle lands that can be discarded for one coloured mana. (Forgotten Cave, Tranquil Thicket, Barren Moor)

Oh and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers are good, provided you run a number of tutors, since being stuck with just a Coffers is hellish.

EDIT: And obviously Bojuka Bog is a must, especially if you run Crop Rotation.

EDIT 2: Boseiju, Who Shelters All can be a consideration if you're facing lots of counterspell-based strategies.

Quote from TyranidBill »

Blast Zone is a must, it's a boardwipe that can be recurred. It is a tad slow, but in my experience, most Windgrace decks don't lack ways to slow the game down, and it's nice to have as a red button of sorts.

Blast Zone is very rarely a board wipe, since it only hits things that have exactly the cmc of the counters on it, not equal or lesser. It's more akin to spot removal than a sweeper.

In fact, in all the games I've seen my opponents play Blast Zone, I have literally never seen it used to destroy anything at all, and I can count on one hand the number of games the counters were increased beyond 1.

True, it is a bit more like a 2 or 3 for 1 then a true sweeper. But you shouldn't discount the thing, even if in most games, it just sits there. There's gonna be games where you can do it for 2 or 1 and nab a couple mana rocks or something, and the great thing is that it can usually be tutored for should the need arise. And even if you don't activate it, it's still a land, so it still taps for mana.

Again, I have literally never seen Blast Zone's last ability activated. Ever. With that performance rate, a basic land would be better.