MTGNexus

I was thinking I would start a thread on a topic that i personally find really interesting, what basic lands do you use in your decks?

At one point, up until I was sort of entrenched in competitive Magic it didn't really matter to me what lands I used in a deck. After a few months of playing competitive events, I started paying a bit more attention to the lands I played. Not long after BFZ came out, I acquired a lot of them and used them for years. Then I got sort of bored with more or less how common they were. Now I've settled on the GP Promo basics from last year. I also have a love of Odyssey era basics as well but don't have many

here they are for reference.

mountain|pgpx
swamp|pgpx
island|pgpx
forest|pgpx
plains|pgpx

what are your favourite basic lands?

I play any, but I do have my favorites. When I think of a swamp the art that comes to mind is sixth edition's, with the dead ttunks with decay clinging. Same with mountains, I pictire the red outline of sixth edition mountains. With Islands, the peak style with the storm from Urzá's time is what comes to mind. I don't get that with Plains, but I remember the zebras on Mirage Plains.

With forests, I have something worth of starting a thread called "stupid mistakes only I seem to make", as I get them often mixed up with random green cards when not paying enough attention. I have kept awful hands only to discover that what I had thought to be a Forest on a quick look was actually a green spell.

up until recently I was in the same spot of not caring too much which basics I played (BUT being an avid foil/promo collector my basics were always foils)
then Unstable come, and they become my basics of choice for all my commander decks, with the only exception of my Tajic deck that got the Boros guild kit basics just for flavor

CalebLost wrote: ↑

4 years ago

up until recently I was in the same spot of not caring too much which basics I played (BUT being an avid foil/promo collector my basics were always foils)
then Unstable come, and they become my basics of choice for all my commander decks, with the only exception of my Tajic deck that got the Boros guild kit basics just for flavor

Same here really. Most decks I tend to just batch basic lands together but my Elemental and Hapatra EDH decks use special basics (they're like my favourite children). Unstable for the Elementals and foil Golgari lands (from the recent Standard Showdown packs) for Hapatra.

I'm not one to pimp out decks but I like old school lands with the text still on. I still look up people selling Ice Age, Mirage, Tempest and Urza's Saga basics now and then and have a decent collection of original Snow-covered lands. Fifth Edition lands seem strangely hard to find and I only have a few, even though I was playing regularly back then.

More recently I love the full-art Amonkhet lands. That whole setting agreed with me.

I only have a handful of sexy promo land but I'm pleased with my pair of Rebecca Guay "Great Wall of China" plainses!

I have a set of 4 of each basics lands that I alreted myself and slowly expanding it. I try to fill the basic slots with them and if I need more I use a revised land.

folding_music wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm not one to pimp out decks but I like old school lands with the text still on. I still look up people selling Ice Age, Mirage, Tempest and Urza's Saga basics now and then and have a decent collection of original Snow-covered lands. Fifth Edition lands seem strangely hard to find and I only have a few, even though I was playing regularly back then.

More recently I love the full-art Amonkhet lands. That whole setting agreed with me.

I only have a handful of sexy promo land but I'm pleased with my pair of Rebecca Guay "Great Wall of China" plainses!

a lot of the basics from the Ice Age-Urza's block are so nice, I just can't be bothered acquiring them

I don't have favourites, but the few basic lands I use in constructed I like to be fullart or foil, in that order.
Since I don't have many of those, the choice is easy.

you all are completely next level with your lands. . .and im for it!

as a sorta. . .how do you say lightly. . .ocd player. . .I like my lands either the same art per deck or completely different arts on each on

so whats the deal with snow lands
are they broken cause they are strictly better than a basic?
and now they are full art. . everyone knows you buy modern horizons packs for the art land. . .second card you see when you open it

the full art land thing destroyed the classic art frame
before the print of additional full arts old zendy lands were like a 1$ ea. (cashmoney) then they went ahead on the new un lands and now where are we.

ranks
snow lands (full arts)
unstable lands
full art lands
basic snow lands
basic art lands
white bordered oldschool lands (even though they deserve respect as a elder should)

did I get that right?

anyway love you love your show

For Bant, I had a very specific set. Anyone know how to form the tag for a specific version of the Island?
https://scryfall.com/card/ody/348/forest
https://scryfall.com/card/m12/230/plains
https://scryfall.com/card/ody/338/island

For UR Decks, its easy.

The greatest UR Mountain of all Time. https://scryfall.com/card/bfz/267/mountain
My favorite Island for the pair. https://scryfall.com/card/ust/213/island

The Rebecca Guay basic foil promos from the showdown packs. I went out of my way to buy/trade aggressively until I hit ~15 of each. I have 10 of all of them non-foil from commander. Two of my foil plains are crimped, which makes me happy. This way I have enough for any deck and even some mono colored commander decks really.

I do have a bunch of the Tom Warnerstrand mountains from ice age (or around then, not at home and I can't remember). I typically use those in goblin/sligh decks.

I have a alpha plains and an alpha forest that I use in counters company since the deck is pretty light on basics.

And I use some of the Veronique Meignaud full art zen lands if I play eldrazi with any colored spells.

Short answer: It depends on the deck I'm running.

Long answer: I usually go old frames for EDH/Oathbreaker and find art that I either like, or fits the theme of the deck I'm building. My "special/pet" decks get the un-lands treatment, and my modern decks get new framed lands.

I match all the art too : )

John Avon, Rebecca Guay, Rob Alexander, and Terese Nielsen are my favorite basic land artists.

All the forests of my modern rg ponza are drawn by Guay.
Also like to be on flavor. For example, my cat deck with King of the Pride + some amonkhet cats.. almost all the plains of the deck are from Mirage, because Mirage set has an african theme.

idSurge wrote: ↑

4 years ago

For Bant, I had a very specific set. Anyone know how to form the tag for a specific version of the Island?
https://scryfall.com/card/ody/348/forest
https://scryfall.com/card/m12/230/plains
https://scryfall.com/card/ody/338/island

For UR Decks, its easy.

The greatest UR Mountain of all Time. https://scryfall.com/card/bfz/267/mountain
My favorite Island for the pair. https://scryfall.com/card/ust/213/island

for tagging lands, all you need to do is add |setname for whatever set the basic is in after the name. For example with my lands I add |pgpx for Gp Promos to make island|pgpx

Was still picking the wrong island for me.

On a whole I like the Ravnica ones. They give a different twist to the regular natural landscape.
These 5 ones to be specific: Even if I'm really pondering on switching to the guildkits ones.

Exception made for the floating plains from Dominaria. Playing mostly angels, those plains are perfect for the decks.

Original Ravnica had great lands but the Guild Kit ones are nice.

That Dominaria Plains is really nice

on the Dominaria plains. Nice indeed. Those floating lands in the sky with buildings in them look like places people who can fly would live in. The art style somehow reminds me of Serra's Sanctum.

I use 4th Edition basics, identical arts, for nostalgia and easy recognition. Very helpful. I'm collecting a set of Unlimited basics to replace the 4th Editions. Anyways, I highly recommend white bordered lands when drafting.

I have a lot of decks (about 30-something Pauper decks), so I can't be too picky on which lands I use.

My favorite basics are probably the Unglued full-arts. I opened a lot of Unglued packs as a kid, so they have a certain nostalgia to me. Compared to other full-arts, the Unglued lands have this old, arcane mystique, like you could picture them hanging in a museum or a wizard's study.

My favorite deck (Corrupt Control) has just 23 Unglued Swamps for the manabase. It also tends to get lots of lands in play, and plays almost zero non-land permanents, so the aesthetic effect is very nice.

I generally always prefer old frames to new frames, and when I do have to use new frame basics, I don't mix/match old and new. I generally try to keep all basics in one deck from the same expansion.

I feel like my favorite expansion, with the highest overall quality, is Mirage. The 1st Portal set also has some awesome lands, especially since the arts feel so obscure. Tempest mostly feels ugly to me, Urza's Saga is hit or miss (not a fan of the Mountains and Swamps, too same-y). Ice Age has some good ones, especially the Mountains.

A lot of other decks have theming to them. Like, UG Turbofog has foggy art, a heavily Selesnya deck has Ravnica art, Goblins has Onslaught mountains with goblin villages built into a cliffside.

I try to match the basics to the plane the commander is from, usually.

Like, in my Savra deck all the swamps and forests are Ravnica art.

In Melek, I use these Mountains and Islands from the Izzet guild kit.

In Grand Arbiter, I use promo Plains and Islands. DGM Prerelease Plains, M19 (Danner) Standard Showdown, XLN (Guay) Standard Showdown, 2017 Gift Box (Poole), GP 2018 (Donato), MF 2019 (Burley - currently out getting signed!), and soon the M20 promo pack basics will be added.

In Burn, I use these Mountains from the Coldsnap Theme Decks.

On Arena, I use the RTR basics in Izzet Phoenix. I have the GRN Mountains in RDW, but I'll probably use the Mirage Mountains when those are available. I have the Guay basics in Grixis.

When I played competitively, all the basics had to match. I used Unhinged lands because boxes of Unhinged were selling for around $45, so I had a lot of them (how times have changed). These days since I play almost entirely casual/EDH, I'll just grab a handful of my favorites and mix it up. For Plains I prefer Rob Alexander's floating skyscape from Urza's Saga, although John Avon's wheat field from Invasion is a solid runner-up. Islands, I like Vince Proce's "Cup" island from Zendikar. Swamps I don't really have a favorite, although Ron Spencer's Invasion Swamps keep finding their way into my decks. For Mountains I really like the pinline on the PDS foils, so I use those to fill out my decks - I only have a couple of my absolute favorite Mountain, and it's too expensive to buy more. For Forests I like Glen Angus and John Avon from MMQ, INV, and ONS.

Forgot to say. I like the designs of the plains and island from the Guild Kit.

Using azorius basics as the basic lands of my Azorius Titan deck.

SquirrelToken wrote: ↑

4 years ago

When I played competitively, all the basics had to match. I used Unhinged lands because boxes of Unhinged were selling for around $45, so I had a lot of them (how times have changed). These days since I play almost entirely casual/EDH, I'll just grab a handful of my favorites and mix it up. For Plains I prefer Rob Alexander's floating skyscape from Urza's Saga, although John Avon's wheat field from Invasion is a solid runner-up. Islands, I like Vince Proce's "Cup" island from Zendikar. Swamps I don't really have a favorite, although Ron Spencer's Invasion Swamps keep finding their way into my decks. For Mountains I really like the pinline on the PDS foils, so I use those to fill out my decks - I only have a couple of my absolute favorite Mountain, and it's too expensive to buy more. For Forests I like Glen Angus and John Avon from MMQ, INV, and ONS.

I feel that a lot of people picked up Unglued and Unstable lands because boxes were so cheap, but it didn't really happen as much for Unstable because people had learned to expect that by then. Odyssey/Invasion lands are really nice I just don't have many