In the game Magic: The Gathering, lands are always the most basic stuff the players are required to generate mana.
Without mana, players can do almost nothing in the game. Throughout the year, many lands are created with unique abilities that will affect the game.
With that being said, let’s get into the ten best land cards in MTG.
1. Field Of The Dead
Because of its static ability, the Field Of The Dead is a bane of standard for a short time. Along with seven or more lands with different names, any of them can generate a 2/2 zombie token, which is something easy to do together with cards like Ramp spell, Scapeshift or Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath.
With that being said, Field Of The Dead is powerful and beneficial due to its colorless identity, which allows it to be put into any deck, also making it a leading candidate for Commander decks that are already running unique lands.
Furthermore, using creatures to combo with Field Of The Dead is also an excellent opportunity for a quick, colossal army. However, some players prefer a steady supply of zombies each turn for no mana cost, which is more daunting for certain circumstances.
Being one of the best lands in MTG, Field Of The Dead has its unique ability. With different combos, there’s the ability to generate a significant number of zombies for your use, especially when playing it, along with commanders that can buff a whole bunch of creatures altogether. Or, as stated above, steady and slowly can also be the key to victory.
PS: here are the best Goblin cards in MTG and the strongest MTG clone cards you should check out.
2. Crawling Barrens
Lands that are able to turn into creatures have always been powerful. However, it’s pretty restrictive in where they can be used or best perform their use.
Most have weaker power and toughness, along with the control decks nowadays, which love Celestial Colonnade and Creeping Tar Pits for their evasive abilities. They will be restrictive because of their color, stats, and mana requirement.
On the other hand, this is why Crawling Barrens is such a powerful card, as this land always gets more prominent when you want it to. Providing mana into this land will bring it new counters with each activation, which means it can be used as either a small blocker or a single-hit kill condition while there are enough counterspells to play with it.
This land is more flexible than the previous Field Of The Dead since it has produced no creatures. Additionally, it will get more powerful if you want to. This makes more use of its utility and flexibility. That’s the reason why this land is also one of the best lands in MTG.
3. Arch Of Orazca
The City’s Blessing has been quite a questionable mechanic in a few regards, as it is surprisingly easy to obtain regardless of your deck.
Aggro decks will do with the tokens available, control decks can use the lands and planeswalkers, and many of the combo decks can lead the game with all sorts of artifacts and enchantments that are quite annoying to deal with.
Arch Of Orazca makes use of this even better, allowing you to draw a card for five extra mana if you have ten or more permanents in the game. Slower formats similar to Historic Brawl and Commander will be able to utilize it in any deck as an emergency mana sink.
Meanwhile, the ability to draw at instant speed allows it to perform its use in slower control decks as well, being astonishingly flexible and easy to activate with just a tiny amount of time and few land drops.
4. Field Of Ruin
Even though it sounds pretty similar to Field Of The Dead, the Field Of Ruin functions in a completely different way; this is a more traditional land destruction tool. While there are more vital cards with the same effect before, it’s hard to argue how beneficial this version is.
Field Of Ruin allows the user to destroy a nonbasic permanent, which means that you can take down any card from this list and replace it with a basic. This is impossible for certain decks that highly rely on multicolored lands.
What’s more, it can replace itself for the user, too, allowing the user to put a brand new untapped basic into the play, which has the ability to provide you with the amount of mana to keep playing spells after the activation.
With all these being said, Field Of Ruin can indeed be counted as one of the best lands in MTG.
5. Maze’s End
There are very few lands that can win the game directly. However, Maze’s End is definitely one exception that any player should be afraid of.
With Maze’s End, it’s easy to win the game as long as there are enough different gates and enough mana during play. Furthermore, it only requires one investment or input of mana after assembling them, which will be incredibly easy to defend the holder while building their gates.
Even better after the third visit to Ravnica since there are so many gates that are more than tapped multi-color lands. Due to the only requirement for the user being ten gates with a different names, it is acceptable to use Guild Gates and other nonbasics (like Plaza of Harmony and Gateway Plaza).
Additionally, other cards like gates Ablaze have the ability to provide a cheap board wipe which is beneficial for the land-based strategy.
This card will undoubtedly be counted as one of the best lands in MTG since its strategy for winning is so unique that very few decks will be ready for it.
Since it’s so rare, practical, and defensive, many players can consider Maze’s End as a try.
6. Rishadan Port
Being a pricey card, Rishadan Port is a land that can be put in any deck since it has no color restriction. It can be tapped for colorless mana.
However, most players that use it will more often use its second ability – paying one mana and tapping it to tap another land that the controller wants.
It is not the flashiest and fanciest ability, but it can indeed shut down or at least disturb an opponent’s strategy. Tapping an opponent’s land of a specific color means that there’s a high possibility of preventing them from using particular colored spells or disabling the other land’s ability (especially lands on this list).
Since it has no color restriction, Rishadan Port will perform well in any deck. Casting it and playing it can absolutely cause a problem for other players, especially the ones trying to plan something big.
7. City Of Brass
City of Brass is a classical card that has been reprinted numerous times over the years. This card represents the ideal form of mana fixing, which allows you to play your powerful and effective cards without the need to worry about drawing suitable lands.
City of Brass can be tapped for one mana of any color of your choice – blue, black, red, white, or green. However, powerful abilities often do have drawbacks, and the City of Brass is one of them.
Once tapped, the City of Brass will deal one damage to the owner, which means that a well-placed Rishadan Port can soon become a ticking clock, which will make your life much harder.
Even though access to all colors does have a drawback, they are worth the risk. The City of Brass deserves to be mentioned on the best MTG land list.
8. Library of Alexandria
Library of Alexandria is another colorless land, which leads to its position in any deck. Like many other lands on the list, this land can be tapped for colorless mana.
However, only having this ability does not mean it deserves a place on this list, so here comes its second ability – Library of Alexandria can be tapped to draw a card, but only if you have seven cards in hand.
Even though it has a hand restriction of seven cards, it’s easy to solve with land drops and many other ways to circumvent hand size. In Magic, many cards can allow the player to draw additional cards, so the Library of Alexandria can prove its worth just by a little bit of timing.
9. Strip Mine
We can say that Strip Mine is an upgraded Wasteland, which shares many features in common, including the ability to tap for colorless mana.
On the other hand, the second power of Strip Mine is what set those two apart and made Strip Mine more effective. While Wasteland can only tap to destroy nonbasic lands, Strip Mine has the ability to be tapped and sacrificed to destroy any land of your choice.
Strip Mine can destroy any land, including the lands on this list. However, it can also be used against decks that do not run nonbasic lands. Either shutting down powerful lands or destroying simple lands, Strip Mine is a versatile threat and one of the best lands in Magic.
10. Tolarian Academy
Lastly, here come what may be the most effective, powerful, and notorious land in all of MTG – Tolarian Academy. Its ability is similar to Gaea’s Cradle, and it can tap to add blue mana for every artifact you control instead of creatures.
There are a couple of aspects and reasons why this card is so powerful. Firstly, blue spells come along with synergizing with artifacts, making the feedback loop so threatening as the mana feedback becomes more and more.
Meanwhile, this land allows blue players to keep mana up, which anyone can tell you is always DANGEROUS.
Having such a powerful ability, there is no reason why Tolarian Academy is not one of the best. It is the best.
FAQs
- Q: How many land cards should I include in my MTG deck? A: The number of land cards in your deck depends on various factors, such as the mana curve of your spells and the speed of your deck. As a general guideline, including 24 to 26 land cards in a 60-card deck is a good starting point.
- Q: Are fetch lands worth the investment? A: Fetch lands can be expensive, but they provide significant advantages in terms of deck thinning and mana fixing. If you’re serious about competitive play or building a highly efficient deck, investing in fetch lands can be beneficial in the long run.
- Q: Can I use utility lands in any deck? A: Utility lands are versatile, but their usefulness depends on your deck’s overall strategy. Evaluate how the abilities of utility lands align with your deck’s goals and synergy before including them.
- Q: How do manlands work in MTG? A: Manlands start as regular land cards but can be activated to transform into creatures for a limited duration. They provide additional threats and combat options, making them valuable in certain deck archetypes.
- Q: Should I include all the different types of land cards in my deck? A: It’s not necessary to include every type of land card in your deck. Consider your deck’s color requirements, strategy, and budget when selecting land cards. Focus on those that best complement your overall game plan.
Conclusion
Ending with what may be the most powerful land in Magic: The Gathering, the ten best land cards in MTG are all impressive. With different lands that have unique abilities, they can perform their job in the game.
If you are still lost in finding lands that are beneficial for you, consider the ten lands in this list. They will not disappoint you.
