Battle for Zendikar is nearly upon us and with it comes a bunch of powerful and potentially unintuitive lands that will define the format for the next year. If you’ve never played with man-lands or you’ve never seen dual-lands like the slow-lands, you might not fully understand why they’re so good. That’s why I’m here to help you out.
Here’s why man-lands are so good:
1. They generate two colors of mana!- The Zendikar man-lands all generate two colors of mana and as such they are great for two colored decks! Every two colored deck should play some number of dual lands and the man-lands fit snuggly into that spot with little downside. At the very least, the man-lands replace the Khan’s of Tarkir gain-lands and potentially the pain-lands from Magic Origins.
2. The man-lands are uncounterable, potentially game-winning creatures that dodge sorcery speed removal!- This is the big deal with man-lands. They are effectively game-winning creatures that avoid almost all of the traditional ways that decks can deal with creatures. Since the man-lands are lands, they are uncounterable. This means that your man-lands will always be able to get into play against a blue-based control deck. Since man-lands are only animated for one turn, they also avoid your opponent’s sorcery speed removal if you animate them during your own turn. So no need to worry about End Hostilities, Languish, Ruinous Path, and Planar Outburst. Man-lands are capable of applying pressure to your opponent while being very difficult to remove. Also man-lands are extra hard to kill when land destruction is expensive, like right now for example.
3. Man-lands are win conditions that don’t eat into your non-land count!- This is huge for control decks. Man lands are win-conditions that can be played for free and as such a control deck doesn’t have to lower it’s guard for one second to play one. Since man-lands are only creatures when you want them to be, a control player can safely cast mass removal spells like Crux of Fate without killing his/her own win condition. Also since man-lands are still excellent at being lands, they can easily be added to a control deck at little to no cost. This means that your 32 non-lands can all be dedicated to destroying your opponent’s creatures instead of creating your own. That is level of efficiency that should not be underestimated.
Here’s why the slow-lands are so good:
1. The slow-lands are dual lands!- Like all dual lands, the slow lands help to make a multicolor mana bases more reliable.
2. The slow-lands can come into play untapped!- It is incredibly rare for dual lands to come into play untapped and these lands fit the bill for a relatively low cost! These dual lands let you play two colors without sacrificing tempo by playing lands that come into play tapped.
3. The slow-lands have two basic land types!- Since the slow-lands have basic land types, they can be fetched with those nice fetch-lands from Khans of Tarkir. This means that your fetch-lands are much more powerful as they can now fetch up some honest to goodness dual-lands! Not only that, but in three color decks your fetch-lands can fetch any of the relevant slow lands, making them the perfect mana fixing combo! This also means that cards that fetch forests, like Nissa, Vastwood Seer, can fetch any of the green slow-lands instead of a vanilla forest.
So that’s why you should hoard all of those nice dual lands you open during Battle for Zendikar. I personally can’t wait for all the land based fun!
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