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Faraway Lands

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I have a bizarre affinity (not the ability word) for nonbasic lands. The idea that a land could do something other than just tap for mana was always interesting to me. Maze of Ith was the first land that really made me sit up and take notice of the value of lands.

Since then, I’ve always been interested in any land that taps for mana and does something else. It is almost impossible to stop a land from being played, and many playgroups have nothing more than very limited land destruction, so these lands (and what they do) will probably stay in play. I thought I would mention ten of my favorites from way back that you may not know in the hopes of sparking your interest or giving you another chance to pimp out your deck.

Hammerheim

This is one of a series of legendary lands in Legends that can be tapped for a particular type of mana like any other basic land but that also has another ability. Back in “the day,” playing these lands was a little dangerous since someone else could play his first, but now, it is essentially another Mountain with a bonus ability.

I know that taking away some type of landwalk ability from a creature for a turn is not really all that impressive. You are only ever going to want to use this on your opponents’ creatures, so if you play this land, you are counting on your opponents to run some sort of landwalking ability. In this day of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth being prevalent in many casual groups, there is usually someone running a bunch of swampwalking creatures. When that happens, this card can really come in handy!

And even if it doesn’t happen, there is minimal downside to running HammerTime in place of a basic Mountain.

Urborg

Urborg
I just mentioned Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, so say “hello” to the original Urborg. I know—bit of a letdown in comparison, isn’t it? I run this one for all the same reasons I run Hammerheim. I know that for most games, I’m never going to need that second ability, but every once in a while, I mess up someone’s combat math and take first strike away from a creature. Who is going to remember that Lavaland here can take away first strike?

Karakas

Karakas
If you play a lot of Commander, you may have noticed this card on the banned list but never actually looked at it. Get a good look. Now you know why it is on the banned list.

Just a note: The Oracle text explains that this land only bounces creatures, but the card text simply says target legend. I ran this in my Captain Sisay deck with the understanding that I could bounce any target legend, including lands. The ability to bounce itself made this deck a monster to try to take down since Captain Sisay was essentially hexproof.

The goal of the deck was to bring Captain Sisay out as fast as possible and start searching out legendary lands using Sisay’s ability. I always started with Karakas since this would let me bounce Captain Sisay if she was ever targeted. Once the Captain and Karakas were out, I would start finding whatever land was needed to put whatever bomb was in my hand into play. This deck is from years ago, so you will see nothing new.

The legendary bombs shifted almost every time I played the deck, so you can treat them as placeholders. The multicolored legends printed in the last four years outclass everything I was using in this deck, so if you are looking to put this together, you will want to upgrade.

The Dragon Arch was added in response to the focused hate the deck began to draw every time I played Captain Sisay. It became difficult to keep her in play, so I started to rely on the Arches to put the bombs into play.

I would love to recommend this deck to you, but if you don’t already own a Karakas, the cost of amassing the deck is crazy, and the deck is far too fragile without Karakas.

Balduvian Trading Post

Balduvian Trading Post
The downside here is that you needed a Mountain in play before you could play it, so an opening seven with the Trading Post but no Mountain was never great. On top of that, you aren’t receiving any colored-mana benefit. You lose your Mountain and get 1r in return. There are plenty of decks that would prefer another Mountain to the Trading Post. You were also setting yourself up for a nasty Wasteland trade since you already cost yourself 1 mana.

The reason I liked this was tagging that extra point of damage to an attacking creature, especially when it was an opponent attacking another opponent. I know that the real cost was 3 mana to do 1 damage, but the ability to reuse the activation and the ability to mess up combat math are things that hold a strong allure for me. Admittedly, it’s not the best land, but it’s a fun one nonetheless.

Kjeldoran Outpost

Kjeldoran Outpost
The Outpost is part of the same cycle as Balduvian Trading Post. At a quick glance, it looks exciting since there aren’t many lands that let you put a creature onto the battlefield every turn. It also appears to only cost 2 mana! You should not be fooled, though. The Outpost requires you to tap it and pay 2 more mana to make the Soldier token, and it required you to sacrifice a Plains. You are tying up what would have been 4 mana just to make a 1/1 Soldier token. You are also sacrificing a Plains to put a land into play that taps for 1 white mana. If you had simply played another Plains, you would be a mana ahead.

In spite of the downside, I loved this card and still do. There are far more efficient ways to make tokens, but running this in my Soldier-themed deck usually gives me a 3/3 token that I can use to repeatedly chump-block troublesome creatures.

Heart of Yavimaya

Heart of Yavimaya
The Heart of Yavimaya limits your mana development the same way Kjeldoran Outpost does, but this is the green version. There are so many ways to find Forests and other lands with green that losing the addition of 1 mana hardly seems a loss. Tapping to add +1/+1 to a creature until the end of the turn is a benefit I can still get behind, particularly when it isn’t just your creature that can receive the bonus!

A side note on the art: Much of the art for the lands in Alliances does not have that wash of color we are used to seeing in the new art. In newer art, if the land produces green mana, the entire palette of the image has a greenish hue. It becomes very obvious, even without the huge green mana symbol in the text box, that the land makes green mana. The Heart of Yavimaya doesn’t have that hue, and in fact, it has very little green in the picture at all. Your opponents will probably be surprised that the land produces green mana!

Kor Haven

Kor Haven
This is the poor man’s Maze of Ith. This legendary land taps for generic mana but stops a creature cold in its tracks, assuming you have the mana available. While I have mostly seen it in Commander decks acting as a second copy of Maze of Ith, it can fill in and give you that last mana you needed for the next big bomb. Kor Haven didn’t make it into my Captain Sisay deck only because I don’t own one. Perhaps in a future rebuild, it will see action . . .

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
Too many people I see playing this are treating it like a controlled Howling Mine. The problem with the Mine is that everyone else is able to draw the extra card before you do. Mikokoro solves that problem, but paying 3 mana (you have to tap Mikokoro and two other lands) for everyone to draw a card isn’t enough. If you are going to use this land, you want to have something set up that punishes large hand sizes, drawing, or discarding cards. This is a great land, but it must be used in the right way.

Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
Giving a legend +1/+1 until the end of the turn is a small benefit—so small in fact that you start to question why you would even bother to run this. The key with cards such as this one is that there is almost no downside. Much like Hammerheim above, it doesn’t enter the battlefield tapped, require you to pay for it, make you sacrifice a land, or anything else. Once it is in play, it is just like any other Forest except you can receive a small bonus. If you are running a legendary creature, why not?

Hall of the Bandit Lord

Hall of the Bandit Lord
This is one land that is probably familiar to most Commander players. This card gives every color access to haste for its creatures. I was initially only using it for the larger creatures so I could surprise with 6 points of damage from a creature that was just cast, but I have later used it to access tap abilities on creatures as well. While on its face, 3 life can seem to be a steep price to pay, you are rarely using the card unless you are receiving a serious benefit from the creatures right away.

 


If you check, the price on most of these cards is negligible (with a couple of glaring exceptions). For pennies, you too can ride the old-school-land train!

Bruce Richard

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