[MCD] Typed Land Packages

[Mookie]

I saw someone use Map the Frontier to fetch Arid Archway yesterday and was inspired to start this thread. I feel like conventional wisdom is to focus on untapped lands and lots of fixing when building a manabase, but we have received some interesting land types over the years that allow for more interesting ramp options and extra utility. Has anyone tried these land packages? Which of them are worth consideration?

As of this writing, there are six land types with mechanical significance, plus one supertype: Cave, Desert, Gate, Locus, Sphere, Urza's, and Snow.

Caves

• Highlights: Echoing Deeps, Hidden Nursery, Pit of Offerings, Sunken Citadel
• Notable support cards: Cosmium Confluence, Scampering Surveyor

Caves are the newest land subtype, which means they don't currently have much support. They do have some nice variety in effects, but I feel like this is more of a Draft-only theme.

Deserts

• Highlights: Arid Archway, Scavenger Grounds, Cactus Preserve, Jagged Barrens and other duals
• Notable support cards: Hour of Promise, Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, Yuma, Proud Protector, Colossal Rattlewurm

Deserts received a bunch of strong new options in OTJ, plus some nice support cards. Fetchable duals are nice to have (especially if you care about the ping), plus you have a fetchable bounceland, grave hate, and a nice manland. There are now two commander options for dedicated Desert decks, but I could see them being played elsewhere.

Gates

• Highlights: Baldur's Gate, Basilisk Gate, Gond Gate, various fixing Gates
• Notable support cards: Maze's End, Circuitous Route, Open the Gates, Gates Ablaze

Gates are probably the land type with the most support - they've gotten cards from multiple Ravnica sets, plus the Baldur's Gate set. Nine-Fingers Keene is the only dedicated Gate commander, but you could conceivably run Maze's End in pretty much any 5C deck. There are a bunch of ways to tutor for Gates, which makes them relatively consistent.

Spheres and Loci

• Highlights: Cloudpost, Mirrex, The Mycosynth Gardens

Spheres are like the Phyrexian version of Locus cards. The only support card for both of them is Monument to Perfection. The main appeal of Loci is copying Cloudpost with Vesuva and similar cards to generate a bunch of mana. There aren't any real payoffs for Spheres, although I could see decks like Titania, Protector of Argoth being interested in the ability to cycle The Hunter Maze for value. Otherwise, you're likely looking to use The Mycosynth Gardens in an artifact deck.

Urza's

• Highlights: Urza's Workshop, Urza's Tower and the rest of Urzatron, Urza's Saga

There aren't any support cards for Urza lands, but they are capable of generating a bunch of mana. Similar to Cloudpost, an Urza-based strategy is likely to want to be running land-copying effects, or at least a bunch of tutors to fetch the missing lands.

Snow

• Highlights: Dark Depths, Scrying Sheets, Snow-Covered basics
• Notable support cards: Dead of Winter, Into the North, Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff, Search for Glory

Snow is a supertype, and tends to be somewhat parasitic - many snow cards care about you having other snow cards. One benefit of a snow manabase is that it is pretty easy to swap out normal basics for snow-covered basics. Snow lands don't currently provide much utility, Blood on the Snow and other cards can reward you for having a snow manabase, and Dark Depths is an interesting fetchable win condition. Snow-Covered Wastes suggests that Modern Horizons 3 may have a snow theme, which means snow decks may be getting more support in the near future.

tl;dr: What land packages have people experimented with? Do any of them feel worth running instead of a more 'traditional' fixing-focused manabase?

[gsgfdf]

I use snow in mono Black to support cards like Dead of Winter and Blood on the Snow. The art on the Modern Horizons Snow-Covered Swamp is awesome as well.

I used gates in 5c Shrines and it was really consistent. There is some cards that can make them enter untapped like Spelunking and Baldur's Gate is a nice added bonus.

[Mookie]

I use snow in mono Black to support cards like Dead of Winter and Blood on the Snow. The art on the Modern Horizons Snow-Covered Swamp is awesome as well.

I used gates in 5c Shrines and it was really consistent. There is some cards that can make them enter untapped like Spelunking and Baldur's Gate is a nice added bonus.

Good to hear! Those are the two packages I have either run or considered in the past for Tasigur. I'm currently running a snow manabase for exactly those two cards, and constantly contemplating whether I want to lean in more and run Into the North or other snow stuff. I briefly considered a gate package for that deck when the Baldur's Gate set came out, but I couldn't find my copy of Maze's End (and it spiked in price), so I canceled that plan. I may have to look into it again - fetchable budget Cabal Coffers sounds pretty sweet.

I think the other package currently in contention is Deserts, so I'm curious if anyone has run them. I've seen Hazezon, Shaper of Sand in action, and he seems like a strong payoff, but I'm not sure if I would currently run them outside that deck. I have considered Yuma, Proud Protector for Samut though, so could be interesting to run both.

[darrenhabib]

Nice reference thread for land types.

With Thunder Junction there are more desert matter cards that I'd add to notable support cards in Sand Scout and Cataclysmic Prospecting.
I can see running Sand Scout and Map the Frontier with Arid Archway, Scavenger Grounds, and the untapped deserts like Hashep Oasis, Shefet Dunes, etc as a decent package.
Arid Archway returning a land suits the Knight of the White Orchid, Loyal Warhound, etc type ramp.

[Serenade]

I once cycled a Shefet Monitor to grab a Scavenger Grounds to blow up a few GYs. Expensive effect, but it worked at instant speed!

(This was a jokey Keruga, the Macrosage companion deck.)

[capitacommunist]

Nice reference thread for land types.

With Thunder Junction there are more desert matter cards that I'd add to notable support cards in Sand Scout and Cataclysmic Prospecting.
I can see running Sand Scout and Map the Frontier with Arid Archway, Scavenger Grounds, and the untapped deserts like Hashep Oasis, Shefet Dunes, etc as a decent package.
Arid Archway returning a land suits the Knight of the White Orchid, Loyal Warhound, etc type ramp.

Fully agree with your thoughts on Sand Scout. I'm actually trying out Sand Scout, Arid Archway, Scavenger Grounds, and Shefet Dunes in my Adeline deck for this reason. Having the bounceland fetchable works really well with the other white ramp cards, and when it doesn't fit into the curve I fetch Shefet Dunes or Scavenger Grounds instead.

[Mookie]

Some more analysis for Deserts:

• Cactus Preserve, Scavenger Grounds, and Arid Archway look broadly applicable for most decks
• Creosote Heath and other fixing deserts enter tapped, but are otherwise reasonable fixing
• Ifnir Deadlands, Hashep Oasis, and the rest of that cycle let you sacrifice deserts for value
• Dunes of the Dead likes being sacrificed. Desert of the Fervent and other cycling deserts are also easy to put in the graveyard for Life from the Loam / recursion
• Yuma, Proud Protector and Hazezon, Shaper of Sand both want you to be playing as many deserts as possible, and to be putting them into your graveyard
• Colossal Rattlewurm, Sand Scout, Hour of Promise, Map the Frontier, Outcaster Greenblade, Shefet Monitor, and Spinewoods Armadillo can fetch up deserts
• Dune Chanter makes all of your lands into deserts, and also makes desert-fetching much better

In general, I feel like there are two approaches for desert-based decks. The first approach is to run a small suite of utility deserts and a few ways to fetch them up (usually green, but Sand Scout also works in white). Alternatively, you can run Yuma, Hazezon, and as many deserts as possible, likely as part of a broader lands-in-graveyard strategy. Dune Chanter seems amazing in the latter case, but still worth consideration in the former if you care about its other text. I wouldn't run it just on the off chance of improving the desert-fetching cards, but it seems reasonable if you're interested in the fixing or self-mill abilities.

...I'll need to do some additional analysis to see if I want to convert my Samut deck into a desert manabase. I'm currently running Alpine Meadow and a ton of other nonbasic plains mostly for Emeria, the Sky Ruin, but also for Knight of the Reliquary, Karametra, God of Harvests, and a few other cards. Ignoring any fixing / tempo / tapland considerations, there is a significant opportunity cost if I cut plains - swapping to desert-based fixing would be a slight downgrade for most of those and would likely mean I can no longer support Emeria. On the other hand, Yuma and Hazezon both seem pretty strong if I can properly support them, and the deserts could make Life from the Loam and my other land-based stuff better. Hmmm...

[3drinks]

I definitely have a desert package in Torbran, even picked up an ARN version of the original. Happy to see a desert typed Guildless Commons.

When you talk about snow, you gotta name Arcum's Astrolabe. In snow it's virtually free fixing, and it's an artifact so it can pitch to your other artifact synergies. Snow tends to thrive most in 3c decks as 1-2c will end up with too many basics sacrificing your utility options (typically Sultai - mystical teachings, into the north, dead of winter but there's a case to eschew B and add W for Bant to use Search for Glory).

...I've clearly put way, way too much thought into this.