Esper is one of the premier color combinations to build around in Magic: the Gathering Commander. The color combo, White-Blue-Black, boasts powerful strategies ranging from card advantage engines to Artifact and Enchantment synergies, with a variety of Commanders to choose from.

When building any three-color Commander deck, it's vital to understand the different tiers of Lands to choose from. It's important that your deck is balanced in not only Lands that can help you cast your spells efficiently, but also with Lands that have utility built into them, that play into your particular Commander's identity.

There are a ton of White-Blue-Black Lands in EDH, and it can definitely be overwhelming to choose exactly which ones to play. Fret not, this guide will help break down the different types of Esper Lands you can play and which might be the best choice for your Esper Commander deck.

The Staples

First things first, let's go over the absolute best Esper Lands to play. For simplicity, I'm going to avoid talking about generally good Commander Lands to play, like Command Tower and Path of Ancestry. Rather, let's hone in on some of the key Lands you need to be playing in Esper.

For starters, the three "pure" Esper Lands you should be running are Raffine's Tower, Arcane Sanctum, and Contaminated Landscape. Tower and Sanctum are pure Esper, adding your choice of White, Blue, or Black; Raffine's Tower even comes with the added bonus of a Cycling ability.

Contaminated Landscape allows you to fetch for your choice of a Swamp, Plains, or Island. Obscura Storefront is another tri-fetch Land you can play as well.

Next up are just the cream of the crop: Shock Lands, Fetch Lands, and the classic Dual Lands.

For Shock Lands, you have Hallowed Fountain, Godless Shrine, and Watery Grave.

Fetch Lands include Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, and Marsh Flats, you can fetch them whenever you want!

You can also play the old school original Dual Lands, Scrubland, Underground Sea, and Tundra, which you can fetch for, but these Lands are several hundred dollars each so there are definitely budget-friendlier options.

Solid Dual Lands

Aside from these "must-haves" there are a slew of other Dual Land cycles to choose from in Esper, and here are the ones I think are worth having.

If you plan on playing in Commander games with more than three players, the "Crowd" Lands, featured in Battlebond and Commander Legends are a set of three untapped Dual Lands: Vault of Champions, Sea of Clouds, and Morphic Pool.

The "Surveil" Lands from Murders at Karlov Manor, Undercity Sewers, Shadowy Backstreet, and Meticulous Archive, are great utility Lands that you can actually fetch for off cards like Flooded Strand.

With these, you can fix your next draw by fetching for them at Instant-speed. They also have relevance with Flashback cards like Dread Return, Memory Deluge, and Siphon Insight.

The "Check" Lands, Glacially Fortress, Isolated Chapel, and Drowned Catacomb, as well as the "Pathway" Lands, Hengegate Pathway, Clearwater Pathway, and Brightclimb Pathway are all easy adds to any Esper deck.

These are some of your more classic Dual Lands, that have a requirement attached in order to be used to their fullest.

The "Tango" Lands, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, and Eclipsed Steppe are another set of fetchable Lands, and the "Filter" Lands, Mystic Gate, Sunken Ruins, and Fetid Heath are solid in that they can give you a combination of colors you need to cast your spells or activate abilities, at the cost of them tapping just for colorless mana without a second Land to activate them.

Overall, you have a lot of pure Dual Lands to pick from. Honestly, your deck can have any combination of these, but I do think the Shocklands, Fetch Lands, and Esper Lands like Raffine's Tower should be at the top of your list.

Utility Lands

In addition to Dual Lands, it's important to note other options that can provide utility, that may only tap for only one color of mana.

For example, Otawara, Soaring City and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire both have Channel abilities that allow you to discard them from your hand for an effect. Another good example is Mistrise Village which makes your spells uncounterable, or Scavenger Grounds, which is an Instant-speed way to stop any graveyard shenanigans.

You can also just play other desert in addition to it. For example, in my Y'shtola, Night's Blessed deck, I run a copy of Approach of the Second Sun, so one Land I like to combo with it is Ipnu Rivulet to draw it faster - but I can also just sacrifice my Rivulet to Scavenger Grounds if needed so I can keep the Grounds around for a later activation.

When considering utility Lands it's also important to be mindful of how to balance them with the rest of your mana base. It's definitely important to include some number of basic Lands in your deck, especially if you face any Land destruction that helps you search for basics.

You also need to have a pretty good number of Dual Lands, like the ones mentioned above, so you can essentially cast any spell you want at any given time. This means that you must choose carefully when it comes to which utility Lands, that aren't Dual Lands, to include.

For example, you can play cards like Cavern of Souls, Wasteland, and Demolition Field in any Commander deck - but due to how constrained your mana is in a three-color archetype I think these Lands are more suited for a one or two-color deck.

Vault of the Archangel is a nice utility Land in that it can provide some pretty big life swings by giving your Creatures Lifelink. Giving your Creatures Deathtouch may also convince your opponents not to block, and when playing a Commander like Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, getting in damage counts.

If you're playing Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir as your Commander, a card like Vault of the Archangel is probably way more valuable and an important inclusion since your deck's inherent design revolves around attacking your opponents. The same goes for a Land like Minas Tirith.

Zendikar Rising and Modern Horizons 3 also provided a handful of double-faced cards that are spells on the front side, and Lands on the back.

For example, if your Commander is Hashaton, Scarab's Fist then a card like Agadeem's Awakening has way more utility than just acting as a tapped Black source, since your deck revolves around putting Creatures into your graveyard.

If you're playing a Commander that revolves around Artifact synergy, such as, Noctis, Prince of Lucis, then your mana base might look completely different than that of a Y'shtola, Night's Blessed or Aminatou, Veil Piercer. When playing these decks, you might have to skew your build towards a certain color, in this case, Blue.

A Noctic, Prince of Lucis deck might include Lands such as Urza's Saga, Academy Ruins, Inventor's Fair, and Archway of Innovation, all Lands that have Artifact synergies baked into them.

It's important to be careful, though, since you still need to be able to cast Noctis, but your mana base can be a bit more Blue and Colorless-focused if your deck is made up of Colorless cards, and not with restrictive Esper costs. This is the type of deck you probably wouldn't reliably cast Void Rend in on turn three.

A Marneus Calgar deck might want a Colorless Land like Fountainport because of token synergies. An Alela, Artful Provocateur or Aminatou, Veil Piercer deck might want Hall of Heliod's Generosity to buy back powerful Enchantments.

Building a mana base for an Esper Commander deck not only requires you to understand which Lands are just generally good and will help you cast your spells, but also which Lands play into your Commander's particular theme.

Budget Lands

Not every player has the budget to own a full set of Shocklands and Fetchlands, so here are a couple of budget-friendly options to include in your Esper decks.

You can certainly start with a decent amount by just purchasing a Scions and Spellcraft precon from Final Fantasy, but there are plenty of Lands you can pick up for under a dollar that can be solid in any Esper deck you build.

Three sets of cheap rare Dual Lands I'd recommend are the

• Painlands: Caves of Koilos, Adarkar Wastes, Underground River
• Fast Lands: Darkslick Shores, Seachrome Coast, Concealed Courtyard
• Filter Lands: Skycloud Expanse, Darkwater Catacombs, Desolate Mire

The first two sets, being reprinted into Standard in the past few years, have lowered their prices significantly, so these are pretty cheap pickups right now.

I'd also recommend picking up cheap "Creature" Lands like Restless Anchorage and Creeping Tar Pit. These Lands are not super powerful, but they can provide some extra value and are nice budget options.

You can also rely on a multitude of uncommon and common Dual Lands. I'd recommend the "Bounce" Lands, like Azorius Chancery, the "Gain" Lands like Dismal Backwater, and Dual Lands that include the basic Land subtype, like Sunlit Marsh.

In Conclusion

Overall, there are a ton of different Esper Lands to choose from when building your Commander deck. While there are some pretty important Lands you should absolutely include, the bulk of your mana base can be left to your discretion and can honestly be built by the cards you have easy access to.

When building your decks, be mindful of your Commander's identity and what sort of utility or combos you can pull off with your Lands, to add a bit of extra oomph to your deck's power level.

As a quick example, here's the mana base I have for my Y'shtola, Night's Blessed Commander deck:

Y'shtola Night's Blessed Mana Base | Commander | Roman Fusco

• Commander (1)
• 1 Y'shotla, Night's Blessed

• Lands (38)
• 5 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 3 Plains
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darkwater Catacombs
• 1 Drowend Catacomb
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Obscura Storefront
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Raffine's Tower
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Watery Grave

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My list is a little less utility Land-focused due to my deck's reliance on Creatures or Artifact and Enchantment synergies, but this is what I usually play in my Commander games of at least three or four people, sometimes more.

Granted, I'm always looking to try new cards and make swaps depending on the updates I make to my list.

Ultimately, what's most important is being able to build a balanced mana base so you can cast your spells on time and without issue. I hope this guide is a good first step for you in building your perfect Esper Commander deck.