Welcome back everyone to Casual Competitive! As it’s been a while since I’ve talked about building up your casual collection of “normal” Magic (unless you’re like me and some of my crazy friendt5s formats like Type 4 and Cube drafting normal!), so this week I thought I would build on an article that I wrote a while ago called: 10 Cards, 20 Dollars and give it a Part 2! So here we go!

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So this week I thought I would take a break from your spell slinging and take a look at what really allows your decks to whip those spells around all day long: Lands. One thing that I have really enjoyed working on over the last couple of years is the manabases that I build into my decks. It seems such an unimportant thing, as when we all started out, we were told to just toss in a bunch of basic lands of the colors of our spells, and give it a go. We had enough trouble finding enough basic lands to go around all of our decks, and certainly didn’t really have time to start to attempt some concepts such as mana fixing or utility lands. But those times are past for many of us, and it is time to start seeing if we can make some upgrades from those basic lands!

Land #1 – Temple of the False God ($0.50)
Just like in the last article, I’m going to start off with something really simple. Having mana in Magic is good. Having more mana in Magic is better. Because it’s a casual setting, getting to five lands is very rarely a problem, and Temple of the False God can give you that extra push to start to lay your power spells on the table quickly. However, before you simply slap four of these in every deck that you are playing, I want to make a quick caveat: Obviously, this land is going to be useless in the beginning of the game. Decks that need to cast a lot of spells early may need to stay away from this, or at least shave down the number of copies. Because in most casual circles the games go long anyway, this shouldn’t be a problem all that often, but keep it in mind while designing!

Running Total: $0.50


Lands #2 – Tri Lands ($1.00)
When these were first released, casual players everywhere sighed a giant sigh of relief, being just uncommon, it meant that casual players finally had a very solid option for mana fixing in their decks. These lands a very simple, giving you access to a lot of flexible mana costsvery quickly in the game, and all without breaking you wallet to get that into your deck. I’ve built multiple Five Color decks using these as the backbone of my manabase. They will slow you down a little bit, but because you can cast just about whatever you want, if you plan that correctly, you should be able to make these go a long way.

Running Total: $1.50

Lands #3 – Bounce Lands - ($0.25)
Another series of lands that had casual players all riled up when they were released, the Ravnica “bounce” lands have seen both competitive and casual play heavily since. While these lands will set your tempo back a little bit, they not only act as mana fixers, but they also act as a pseudo card advantage, as you will be able to bounce another land back to your hand, almost as if you have drawn another from your deck and are able to play it again next turn. These cards are very powerful, and are good at making sure that you have enough mana in your late game to power out your game finishing spells!

Running Total: $1.75

Lands #4 – Storage Lands – ($0.25)
Speaking of the late game, the Time Spiral “storage” lands are another great option when preparing to do something disgustingly powerful. How many times have you sat there at the end of your opponents turn, and realized that you have absolutely nothing to do with that extra mana you have left back? Well now you have something to do with it! Stick a charge counter on these lands a couple of times, and then when you rip that game ending Blaze or Dragonstorm you have all of the mana you need to fling it at your opponent!

Running Total: $2.00

Lands #5 –Lorwyn Vivid Lands ($0.25)
Another mana fixer, arguably up there in terms of power with the Tri Lands, the Vivid lands have been very crucial in competitive play, for they were what made Five Color Control, a format defining archetype in the Lowryn Standard time period, possible. While they are a turn slower, coming into play tapped, they tap for the base color always, and when you need to cast some awkward spells, you have massive amounts of flexibility available to you. Also important to note, you can use the Ravnica bounce lands to “reset” them if you need to!

Running Total: $2.25

Lands #6 – Mirage “Fetch” Lands ($0.25)
With the printing of the new “fetchlands” from Zendikar, everyone seemed to think that they were the second set of fetches ever printed (after the Onslought ones). What many people don’t know is that they are in fact the third set! Mirage had a set of allied pairs, and while they do come into play tapped, they work generally just as well at fetching, and are considerably less of a hit on the wallet. If you can find the newer two versions, I would play those, but just for some casual play, these will do almost as well!

Running Total: $2.50

Lands #7 – Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds ($0.25)
The original Expanse, as well as its new reprinted counterpart, are the first type of mana fixing I ever played with in my career. Adding two Terramorphic Expanse to my decks suddenly made me realize how nice it is to have some easy smooth mana. While they are certainly not as high quality as some of the rare counterparts out there, they are cheap, and even more importantly, in recent sets. This means that you can probably even just go to a local draft and people may even give you some of the extra copies for free! Pick up a lot, and just toss them in decks where you want to make some of the colors stretch!

Running Total: $2.75

Land #8 – Kor Haven ($2.50)
Moving a bit away from mana fixing and generation, these last couple of cards are based more around their abilities than the actual mana. When playing in a multiplayer game every resource is precious, people are looking to push their creatures into the red zone where they are going to do the most damage. The fact that you are just sitting back on Kor Haven and holding up makes them really think twice about if they want their creature to head in a direction that it’s not going to do any good. Also, for bonus points you can try to keep someone else alive in order to keep them in your debt!

Running Total: $5.25

Land #9 – Yavimaya Hollow ($2.50)
There is a joke in my playgroup: no one ever remembers Yavimaya Hollow. Newer players don’t know what it does, and even the vets forget that it’s there, tucked away with all of the other lands. This land doesn’t tend to do anything too aggressive, but I have lost count of the number of times that someone tries to gang up and multi-block to kill my fatty, or used a sweeper, or tried a kill spell, and I have just smiled and for a simple , kept my guy alive. It’s particularly fun in EDH games when you usually want to try to defend your General, and the Legendary rule is far less relevant.

Running Total: $7.75

Land #10 – Vesuva ($3.25)
The last land here is actually a bit of a cop out, but it really does belong here. If there are so many lands in Magic that are good to have on your side of the battlefield, chances are that it’s even better to have two of them! While you can get tricky and try to set up the Urzatron or Cloudpost tricks with it, I have started to add it to more and more decks, picking off annoying opponent’s Legendary lands, as well as cloning a couple of useful dual lands on the table to smooth out my mana. It’s one of those effects that appear underwhelming only until you actually give it a shot!


Running Total: #10.00

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Well that’s it! Ten cards, and not only am I under my twenty dollar budget, but I am actually exactly half of that! What would you do with all of that extra money? Are there other lands that I missed? Or do you want to do what I do and simply get a hold of more copies of the cards I’ve already listed! Head to the forums and let me know what you think! Until next time!

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