In Commander, lands are more than infrastructure. They're loopholes. They're the only card type that slips powerful text onto the battlefield without consuming your precious nonland slots. When a land fixes, protects, draws, ramps, or outright cheats a spell past a counter war, you feel it. Because experienced players know the secret. Lands don't compete with spell slots and the best lands break games while pretending to be harmless rectangles.

And 2025 delivered some of the most interesting utility lands we've seen in years. Let's talk about highlights.

The Verge Land Cycle

Five two-color fixers that come in untapped as long as you control either land type. They're simple, reliable, and a blessing for Commander mana bases that already juggle tapped lands, MDFCs, and your friend who insists on running Terramorphic Expanse in every deck.

Each one also lines up beautifully with the flood of 2025 commanders.

Synergies with 2025 Commanders:

• Wastewood Verge (Golgari): Long Feng, Grand Secretariat from Avatar the Last Airbender - A synergistic commander that cares about lands and creatures hitting the graveyard.
• Riverpyre Verge (Izzet): The Emperor of Palamecia // The Lord Master of Hell from Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy - With a name like that, you know this Izzet commander packs a punch.
• Sunbillow Verge (Boros): Ragost, Deft Gastronaut from Edge of Eternities - a fun and Food-centric Lobster Citizen from space.
• Bleachbone Verge (Orzhov): Mister Negative from Marvel's Spider-Man - an expensive costing legendary at 7 mana but this villain swings games!
• Willowrush Verge (Simic): Aloy, Savior of Meridian from Secret Lair x Horizon: Into the Forbidden West - a Secret Lair release goodie that plays well with big artifact creatures.

This cycle is frictionless mana for the newest legends. Commander players will be slotting these in for years.

Accursed Duneyard

Colorless mana is fine. Regenerating your undead squad is better. Accursed Duneyard gives staying power to Skeletons, Spirits, Vampires, Wraiths, Zombies, Specters, and Shades. Basically, if it shambles, floats, or moans, this land keeps it around for the encore.

There is no trick here. If you play a deck filled with the dead or the immortal, this land is your insurance policy. It's not flashy. It's just annoyingly effective at making your board stick.

Key Cards:

• Corpse Knight - a Zombie aristocrat piece
• Morophon, the Boundless - hey, this dude's ALL types and has an effect you'd love to have stick around
• Unsettled Mariner - a shapeshifter that protects your board from targeted removal
• Bloodthirsty Conqueror - a strong splashy vampire that is poised to be a kindred staple

Mistrise Village

A land that taps to make your next spell uncounterable is exactly the kind of utility all Blue mages adore. No negotiation, no stack geometry, no three minute debate about priority. You get one spell, and it gets through. Mistrise Village is a tiny house with a massive "your spell resolves" sign hung above it.

Key Cards:

• Vivi Ornitier - the little Izzet terror from Final Fantasy 9
• Will of the Jeskai - a big Red spell that enables a lot of Flashback shenanigans
• Valley Floodcaller - a nifty critter from Bloomburrow that gives flash to noncreatures
• Expropriate - need I say more? Unresolved, this wins you the game.

Midgar, City of Mako

Card draw stapled onto a land is already suspicious. Making that card draw tied to sacrificing artifacts or creatures is even better. Aristocrats, tokens, Treasures, and death-touching value piles all adore Midgar. Midgar fits any deck that treats permanents like renewable fuel.

Key Cards:

• Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel - Perfect thematic fit and loves death triggers.
• Mirkwood Bats - drains opponents if you sacrifice a token
• Pitiless Plunderer - Token making from death triggers? Perfection.
• Liliana, Dreadhorde General - adds more card draw tied to creatures dying

Uthros, Titanic Godcore

Blue's artifact super-land that is reminiscent of the powerhouse land (and banned) Tolarian Academy . Uthros enters tapped, yes, but once you start loading charge counters through Station, it becomes one of the best mana engines for artifact-heavy strategies. Uthros has a high ceiling, and when it works, the late game becomes a one-sided lightshow.

Key Cards:

• Urza, Chief Artificer - who better to use as your Commander than the OG 'walker, Urza?
• Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter - makes your artifact deck play on instant speed
• Sai, Master Thopterist - easily widens your board to feed a big mana burst
• Foundry Inspector - discounts your artifacts by 1 which is a huge deal

Prime Real Estate

Commander, as a format, always loves the cards that hold a deck together, and this year's lands leaned into that philosophy in clever ways. Lands in 2025 offered new toys for every kind of deck, and reminded us why this card type is one of the most flexible tools in the format. If this is the kind of design space we keep exploring, players are in good hands heading into 2026 and beyond.