I think you may have misspoke. You said Krosan Verge's sac ability can be used the turn in comes into play, but it comes into play tapped, and in order to use it's sac ability it needs to tap.
lol, I figured he thought it was going into a Derevi deck, in which case you can pretty much use it the turn it comes into play after attacking or something.. I haven't seen this card since Judgment and I thought I knew all the good EDH cards.. hmm, I just realized I got some of these in the planechase anthology box set I bought and didn't realize it because of the different border artwork, lol.. I actually really like this card.. the others I already knew about and have always loved, though.
Amen on practically all counts, aside from the error on Krosan Verge's fetch on the played turn. I personally don't mind Verge stayin xclusiv on Plains + Forest & not seeing completion of cycle. Fetchin up a Murmuring Bosk + Mistveil Plains should b a very unique thing not conveniently availabl to all every color pair. Odyssey filters r probably the R&D lazymen's treasure trove to remember for mana-fixin any future sets. Very under-the-radar in EDH & would probably work great in Standard
I'd really like to see a video going over common (and possibly alongside some uncommon) shuffling methods. Ranking them by how you gauged their effectiveness in properly randomizing your deck as well as which methods were also least damaging (immediately or in the long run) to your cards or sleeves. Keep up the the excellent videos, I've really enjoyed myself ever since finding your channel and have learned quite a bit of useful information as well!
I play two enemy commanders and two allied commanders and even to this day I feel enemies get far less cycles and those it does, haven’t been reprinted (ie fetch) so it’s inflated
Personally, I really love the tainted lands from torment. If you're running black, it's super easy to clear the requirements. Lairs I've discovered by digging through multi-color lands and have been using Dromar's Cavern and Darigaaz's Caldera successfully. Other favorites of mine; Meteor Crater (why does nobody else play this?) and Riftstone Portal (for Selesnya colors).
+SeraphimKnight I use those "budget" multi lands because they didn't cost a kidney to get years ago. :) As for lairs, I try not to run too many because of the return a land -- sort of sucks when so many of your lands already CIP tapped, so the last thing you need is to return that land. It's probably why the lairs are so cheap. Great for casuals.
My favorite dual lands are the ones along the lines of Isolated Chapel and Dragonskull Summit and Rootbound Crag. For just a couple of bucks, these lands come in untapped if you already control a basic land in their colour combinations. They're basically guildgates as a first turn land, but as long as you can throw down a basic land turn one, they don't slow you down at all.
This video is simply the greatest. We appreciate budget choices for our decks and this is a fantastic resource for people who are looking for some budget friendly options to play those 3-5 color decks. Thanks for sharing!
the scrying makes you soft filter the top of your library. if you can get a blink effect from it is also a plus for example: blink it with Venser if you are top decking for anything... It's stricly better than the ravnica guildgates.
Fake Gmale The scrylands are worse when you need Gate synergy but otherwise I do not see any reason for why Guildgates are better than the Scrylands, except maybe for a really, really tight budget
Mikko pöllänen It's less about the fact that they are taplands and more the fact that you are running a 99 card deck which most likely has more than one color. Being able to pick between two colors when tapping a land is always better than getting just a basic land instead, even if the land in question comes into play tapped. Every land counts for something like a 99 card deck so you would want to be able to cover all your needs for colored mana while also being able to be flexible about which mana you get from which land. Unless you of course are playing a mono-colored commander deck, in which case having 30+ basic lands plus some optional support lands is completely fine.
Krosan Verge desperately, IMMEDIATELY needs its cycle fleshed out! I was absolutely devastated when I found out that my new, entry-level Imajund Dragons Prossh deck wouldn't be able to run it like my League-playable Mayael list can. Honestly the fact that the effect isn't actually available in all combinations makes me steer toward having G/W in every deck I make...
Rewatching some of your older videos. What the hell, I had never even heard of these Lair lands! I'm baffled people are STILL not playing these. Forget Secret Lairs! These are the only lairs I'll be playing with! Thanks for the video Prof
My favorite land cycle that helps with mana fix? The Storage lands from Time Spiral. They are just so good for fixing your colors for cards like Krond of the Might. In a pinch, they work like a two colors Unknown shores. At best, you are ramping with leftover mana to unleash massive mana turns when needed.
Small call out here, but with the planeshift lairs, you can also use them for a one-time, one-mana usage. Play the lair, the bounce-or-sac ability goes on the stack, tap the lair for one of its mana, then sacrifice it. It doesn't make much sense to do this, but I could see there being fringe cases where it might be useful this way.
Keep up the good work! What you do is quite inspiring for guys like me who have rediscovered MTG. I'm adding the lands that I'd suggest. These are from my personal attempt on building a Commander deck with "Jenara, Asura of war". The deck didn't do so well (unlike my "home brewed" Brago that I built with my family and friends) but these lands did particularly good in a deck that wasn't all that good: Irrigation ditch and seaside citadel. The former seems to be possible to exploit, and the latter, yes, it comes into play tapped, but hey, it's a three color land! Greetings from Chile
I have been looking in to land alternatives as of late, since I'm starting to get in to Pauper some more. There are a lot of lands I never knew about. This video has shed even more light on the subject.! I hope I get a job soon, and I might be making Pauper decks with really neat, and budget friendly, lands!
My personal fav unsung hero of commander is the ol' dude ranch aka Kjeldoran Outpost. A must for token based white decks. Sure, you must sac a plains, but it sure does come in handy as a speed bump, or just sit quietly and slowly posse up a swarm while your friends bicker about the rules. Heck, selesnia loves tokens, so populate more dudes!
I recently watched this video and ran out and bought a bunch of these lands. I immediately saw an improvement to the decks I added them to. Thanks Prof.
+Tolarian Community College I got my Sungrass Prairie as soon as I saw it in my local store when I was building my Trostani Commander some time ago. Also professor, it reminded me of something, I don't know/remember if you talked about this in your Trostani video, that greatly made me want to play in my less favored colors (given that I play Grixis Delver as my modern deck) and for that I thank you, but back to my initial point, Phyrexian Processor has no color identity, feels so good to go land+sol ring+ signet get 5 mana by turn 2, safely pop it in for 20 life and still rank up to 200 life after a while sporting 20/20's on my field.
I love this video! Numbers 3 and 2 are now a must! I actually LOVE the guildgates, and I even built a 5 color commander (Reaper King) JUST so I could run my favorite land (Maze's End). Say, with all this coming in tapped, I would always recommend Amulet of Vigor. Too bad the price hiked when it found a spot in modern.
As someone who doesn't like to spend a lot of money on mana bases, this video was heaven-sent. I own nine (!) commander decks, and they're all either mono or dual colored, because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of an expensive land base. Being more aware of the budget options, I may need to branch out now...
As others have said, if you're playing B/x, the Torment tainted cycle (Wood, Isle, Peak, Field) is hard to beat for budget mana-fixing. Each is only about a buck and is fully activated by controlling any swamp at all. Any wedge or shard deck involving black should definitely pack these! Also, Murmuring Bosk is amazing for an Abzan commander at just about two dollars. And fetchable as a forest!
I just discovered your channel two days ago and I have been binge watching it! It's so wonderful to have a channel dedicated to Magic the Gathering but not just tournament play! I love the idea of Pauper and I'm going to push it at the two local cardshops I go to! Thx!!!!!! I just decided to support you on Patreon! Just wondering ever thought of reviewing the control deck from Stronghold The Sparkler? I recently bought a sealed copy of it for $20 and I love it! It's a creatureless spell deck and is something wizards would never make now. Just a suggestion! Thank you for making remember what I love about this game.
One of my favorites is Dimir Aqueduct. Sure, it can't be used first turn, but it can make a land bounce back, so you can have those enter the battlefield effects hit again, like the temples for scry. :D
Monastery Siege (2U) is a card I really like. I mostly choose the card filtering effect (draw 2 cards on upkeep, but discard one) since that really helps me stabilize and avoid any mana issues, but the other effect has come in handy to discourage any target-happy opponents.
Spire of Industry from Aether Revolt would fill in a void in the pain lands if you're short one. Reading: Tap: Add Colorless to your mana pool. Tap, Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control an artifact.
All great choices! I fancy the "Vivid" such as creek and Marsh paired with a little proliferate shenanigans allows for pretty much any mana fix. With my deck copying all sorts of creatures, its useful to be able to use abilities of differentiating colors.
This is really nice because i was just looking at my esper mana base and refining it before going out and buying them all in one go. This really helps! thanks a ton!! ( RIP Tarkir wedges )
You know I have to say thanks! I am currently trying to build an effective 5-color ally EDH deck and been running into the problem with mana starve on one or two colors. However with these budget friendly dual lands helps an enormous amount. So again thanks
At your suggestion I just picked up a Mossfire Valley from SCG for a werewolf commander deck I'm building. It's a difference of about $20, and the difference will help pay for a Wooded Foothills, so thanks for the video!
My Commander of Choice is The Mimeoplasm and he can be bought and built for rather cheap and is very effective, Though I play modern more than anything Sporting the U/W Fish but needless to say my choices of decks are of a Winrate to Price ratio that must be met not to mention I absolutely love the Merfolk tribe at all
I've been playing MtG since about M10, but haven't been that serious about it until about BFZ. I have a small, budget collection and only have been upgrading it in the past year or so after the release of C16. I've always had a spare copy of Krosan Verge and when I deconstructed Atraxa to build Ghave, Krosan Verge was brilliant. Not only was I able to fetch non-basics, but my favourite trick was to fetch Murmuring Bosk and Canopy Vista/Mistveil Plains, some great utility/filtering lands that are fetchable. I don't think there are many land combinations as cheap as this for fetching a tri-land onto the field directly, albeit, tapped.
Loved the video! Personally, if I ever have problems building a commander mana base, and I want budget or less used suggestions, I use ManaBaseCrafter. It shows you all the lands that make your colors, as well as prices from TCGplayer.
It's true for Krosan Verge. Tested in my Ur-Dragon deck. It gains a great advantage; Best scenario is ETB in turn 2, before the 4th turn, sac to gain 2 land, then cast Ur-dragon for a mean swing
One overlooked set of cards are the old 1 mana charm spells. They're all instants, in every color, and while not all are relevant, some can be useful in the right deck. Like piracy charm, which phases out an artifact, which can remove it for a while, in commande.
Krosan Verge is a part of a 'complete' cycle, just not an obvious one because of how Wizards handled color representation in Odessy. It's the pair to Cabal Coffers that, together, offsets the 4 card Tainted Cycle and re-balance the White/Green deficit after Torment. They specifically created less White and Green cards to make more Black ones in Torment (when Cabal Coffers debuted). Then, in Judgement, more Green and White cards (even Green/White gold cards in a block with primarily mono-colors) were printed , but with less Black cards in the set to make up for their previous abundance. (You also said it could be used same turn at 5:10, but you need some help with an Amulet of Vigor to do so.)
I have one to add. The tainted lands from torment. They come into play untapped, add colorless mana, and if you have a deal they tap for either one of two colors. In any 2 colored deck that has black they add alot of value
I'm sure I am late to the game but I rarely feel inspired to comment on a video. As I was searching for random land cards, for EDH decks, I happened upon a few cards [Tainted Isle] and [Tainted Wood]. Beautifully simple useful duel lands. When I looked them up they unfortunately were a limited cycle from Torment. Though as long as you're running a duel color general that includes black, they are amazing.
Not to mention that, sure with the Lorwyn filter lands you get any combination of the two colors, but with the Odyssey filters, the mana you put into it can be any color (as opposed to having to put in either green or black mana, for example, to get the outputs), meaning that in 3, 4, 5 color decks, there arguably are situations where these are a little more flexible where the actual filtering goes... at a cost of losing that ability to get any combination of the two colors, tap for colorless mana that you would have if you use the Lorwyn filters...
Great video, but I think you've forgotten about Murmuring Bosk! Of course it will mostly ETB tapped such as the TriLands from Shards of Alara, but this one actually counts as a FOREST =D Which is basically a Fetchable tri mana fixer =) Other than that, keep on the good work Professor, I've always loved your channel =)
My favourite budget land to put in ALL multicolored decks is "Mirrodin's Core". It taps for colorless immediately, or you can charge it up for any color on future turns.
love your videos, I just started playing magic few weeks ago got a Blue/Black Modern Zombie deck going and 2 commander decks going atm so these videos really help me out for budget commander cards.
Well, when I made my first Commander deck with "junk", since it was BRG, putting in a Darigaaz Caldera (assorted Lair land) was a no-brainer. As the Professor said, it's good with lands with comes-into-play effect; I think of them nowadays as strictly better Guild cards (from original Ravnica) since they come into play untapped and give me 3 colors. At least on Green, they get better with effects that put lands into play from your hand like Sakura-tribe Explorer, since you can, for example: tap a Forest for G; play the Lair and tap fron C (color), then use the Explorer to bring that forest back into play and in turn 2 you already gor GGC.
I LOVE the Lair cards. I run them in my Naya deck for easy mana fixing. They are even better when you use cards like "Explore" that let you play an extra land.
Very cool and helpful video! I agree with a lot of people saying the tainted lands are great. Meteor Crater is awesome too. I'm surprised people don't run it more often!
I love the mirage fetch lands I have a play set of them. Walking archive is an underrated card in commander. It may help your opponent, but the draw power for a defender is good. The down side is the color scheme u/w.
Professor, thank you for coming on our show. We are glad you took this message to heart and are no longer promoting the use of Guildgates. Our original appeal to help the less fortunate is here: ruclips.net/video/kiy6G5NevZY/видео.html
I run a Prossh combo deck, and run a very specific mana base with only 6 basics (3 snow, 3 normals) While I am extremely vulnerable to back to basics and blood moons alike, I run Tainted Pact on my deck as a means of tutoring my combo, and its such a great card and I barely paid 50 cents for it.
+egyptcraze I LOVE lair lands. I play them in my casual Jund, Grixis "Guttercipher" and esper artifacts decks. At first I saw the esper ones in a bulk bin, and thought "eh, that looks like poo" but accidentally grabbed the stack of cards that had them in it with the ones I was buying, and bought them too. Eventually, I was sitting down, saw them, and said "Wait, that's not crap, that's amazing! I must have the jund ones for my (at the time new) Jund deck!" Sat at my local shop sifting through lands for hours, and managed to only find one regular and one foil of the Darigaaz's Caldera, but man oh man, was that worth it! Now whenever I get the chance to pick up lairs, I do it on the spot because of how useful they are. Ironically, I don't run them in my commander deck because they seem a bit slow in it, since I have to return a land to my hand. It's better for that deck to keep on its tempo and play tapped lands instead of disrupting it to wait another turn before getting that land down. But what I would want to do is have a deck that has the one card used in Maze's End decks that allows tappy lands to enter untapped on your side of the field, then have the crappy fetches. That combo, plus shocks that come in untapped via that artifact, would be an amazing combination.
+egyptcraze Thank you. Lucky for me I started playing right when Invasion finished and PS came out. My brother and I bought so much product during this block. Played lairs during this time and they worked out so well. Still have my original deck that came in 3rd for our LGS FNM finals in 2001. Has about 11 lair lands in it!
THANK YOU! While everyone is getting hyped for super mythic impossible to get rares in the new Zendikar set, it's nice to know the professor is talking good, helpful sense.
Well, I was going to ask your opinion on the 'cycle' of phase lands, with commander in mind, but I googled it and holy crap. Talk about an incomplete cycle, there's only one!! Tefari's Isle; I run it in my Sygg, River Guide deck and find that it is quite useful. I fear I many be doing the 'phasing' wrong though.
Just a little addition: If you're playing green and white in your commander deck, no matter how many other colours you play in addition you want to play "Riftstone Portal". As long as you can get it into your graveyard it acts as a GW Urborg for ALL your lands. Which is amazing.
At 1:35 and 2:07 there is a misuse of the term "strictly better". It's supposed to be just "better". "Strictly better" means the card is better in all aspects and not generally better. For example, you can fetch any basic land with Evolving Wilds and on the same turn you put it onto the battlefield. Also, at 5:07 there is a mistake, you can't fetch a plains and a forest the turn Krosan Verge enters the battlefield, as it enters tapped and requires a tap to use the ability.
I love the Lair lands! Everyone I know who uses Alara Shard colors (I only play EDH, so color restrictions matter to me) gets told about these lands by me, and they uniformly say, "Wait, these are great! How are these only $3.00? Almost every deck using these colors should have them." And I simply say, "You're welcome."
Let’s not forget the incomplete battle land cycle from BFZ. They have Basic Land types, and can come into the battlefield untapped if you control two or more lands. Similar to the filter lands from Odyssey, they are a couple dollars, but they are consistently reliable turn 3 and on land drops.
I remember when i started playing seriously, i bought 3 judgement boosters there at the register of 711, and got Krosan Verge, Nantuko Monastery, and Phantom Nishoba in those packs. I went strait home and built a white green deck with them.
I started playing Magic in standard, like most people do. I tried playing a proxied commander deck, and I don't like the super long games. Finally, I tried modern and I couldn't take the over-complication of games. Now I just check on the professor and play D&D with my friends.
MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT GREAT LANDS!!! SUCH AS NYKTOS, SHRINE TO NYX, HAVENWOOD BATTLEGROUND, OR EVEN MOSSWORT BRIDGE! would be a great video showing what we can replace basic lands with great lands like those mentioned!
YES!!! I was holding my breath for you to talk about the Odyssey Filters. i honestly dont understand why people praise the Signets, yet berate the Od filters.
+Crimson Vulpes Signets provide more than just color fixing in the decks they're run. Being an artifact can be very important to specific decks and is more conducive to abuse as a result. With untap effects, cards that care about artifacts, and most decks not running artifact hate in the MB (but usually non-basic land hate MB), signets tend to do their job better than Odyssey filters. Plus, the Odyssey lands are lands, which reduces the available space for any specific kind of manabase you could be trying to craft for what are technically inferior lands. Most of the time, if you're going to do manafixing in your land base, it needs to be quality fixing. With that said, Odyssey filters are still strong budget fixing options, especially in the commander format. Since that's what this video is focusing on, it works.
because they do the exact same thing. many of the combos of untapping are largely inconsistent in the way you described. why would you untap a signet if you have that kind of power? any deck that uses untap effects (like Voltaic key) are artifact based decks; like Karn or Daretti.
One of the other great lands for a mere thirty-two cents is Riftstone Portal. It goes in almost every deck that I have that uses Selesnia colors, very powerful either to self mill, just have in case it gets milled, or for any nonbasic land sweepers it gives you great insurance.
This inspired me to make a cube with lands that have a high concentration of bad lands. You don't get basic lands unless you draft them. It will make it interesting to see how people truly value lands when pitted against spells.
i think you would love the list for my lyzolda edh deck, i pretty much run all of these styles of duals that i can like cinder marsh, lantern lit graveyard, lava tubes, both filters, rainbow vale is pretty sweet too, and i also run school of the unseen, and henge of ramos for filtering my infinate mana into both colors
For my 5C commander deck, I use Mana Confluence, city of brass, four duals(Can't afford more), all ten shocks(Hugely helpful), reflecting pool, urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, and ramp spells w basics. Pay 1 health fetches are better than ramp tho
Entering tapped isn't such a big deal in EDH. If you're running 2-3 colors a manland may actually help you more than a dual land, and if you're running 4 or 5 colors, most of your nonbasic lands *need* to tap for 5 colors, whether they enter tapped or not. Dual lands (or even fetches) don't really cut it. That said, this is a FABULOUS list. I can see myself adding half of these to my next EDH deck. Thanks Prof!
Stockpile lands (Subterranean Hangar and such lands) are also amazing for commander. True, they are ideal for mono and guild decks, but I have wiped many fields with simply a Subterranean Hangar and a Killing Wave. All of the stockpile lands are under $5 which is budget to me when faster lands are $40+.
Krosan Verge is my favorite land in the game. Its one of the best lands in my deck and it gets any combination of shocks or duals. it was worth paying the ~$12 for the mirage foil.
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I think you may have misspoke.
You said Krosan Verge's sac ability can be used the turn in comes into play, but it comes into play tapped, and in order to use it's sac ability it needs to tap.
+AA O Yep! I goofed there, but it is still an amazing card for commander.
+AA O Krosan Verge is so good. I still have mine from when I was learning magic and I loved it then and I still like it now.
+Tolarian Community College no professor, you were testing us...
lol, I figured he thought it was going into a Derevi deck, in which case you can pretty much use it the turn it comes into play after attacking or something.. I haven't seen this card since Judgment and I thought I knew all the good EDH cards.. hmm, I just realized I got some of these in the planechase anthology box set I bought and didn't realize it because of the different border artwork, lol.. I actually really like this card.. the others I already knew about and have always loved, though.
Amen on practically all counts, aside from the error on Krosan Verge's fetch on the played turn. I personally don't mind Verge stayin xclusiv on Plains + Forest & not seeing completion of cycle. Fetchin up a Murmuring Bosk + Mistveil Plains should b a very unique thing not conveniently availabl to all every color pair.
Odyssey filters r probably the R&D lazymen's treasure trove to remember for mana-fixin any future sets. Very under-the-radar in EDH & would probably work great in Standard
I'd really like to see a video going over common (and possibly alongside some uncommon) shuffling methods. Ranking them by how you gauged their effectiveness in properly randomizing your deck as well as which methods were also least damaging (immediately or in the long run) to your cards or sleeves. Keep up the the excellent videos, I've really enjoyed myself ever since finding your channel and have learned quite a bit of useful information as well!
Anyone who says Enemy colors get plenty of love are wrong. Just look at this video and you will know
I play two enemy commanders and two allied commanders and even to this day I feel enemies get far less cycles and those it does, haven’t been reprinted (ie fetch) so it’s inflated
Tainted lands are pretty underrated
Personally, I really love the tainted lands from torment. If you're running black, it's super easy to clear the requirements.
Lairs I've discovered by digging through multi-color lands and have been using Dromar's Cavern and Darigaaz's Caldera successfully.
Other favorites of mine; Meteor Crater (why does nobody else play this?) and Riftstone Portal (for Selesnya colors).
+SeraphimKnight I use those "budget" multi lands because they didn't cost a kidney to get years ago. :) As for lairs, I try not to run too many because of the return a land -- sort of sucks when so many of your lands already CIP tapped, so the last thing you need is to return that land. It's probably why the lairs are so cheap. Great for casuals.
+azraelswrd Well the point here is lands for Commander, so of course you're not running multiples of them.
SeraphimKnight There are lots of CIP tapped lands though, so running too many lairs AND tap lands can be a bad budget combo.
+SeraphimKnight I was going to mention these two exactly, meteor crater and riftstone portal!.
I would add thran quarry to that list.
Riftstone Portal has an awesome ability, but it's to easily removed from a graveyard which leaves you high and dry.
I agree! The Odyssey filter lands are totally underrated, as they provide wonderful color fixing and come into play untapped.
My favorite dual lands are the ones along the lines of Isolated Chapel and Dragonskull Summit and Rootbound Crag. For just a couple of bucks, these lands come in untapped if you already control a basic land in their colour combinations. They're basically guildgates as a first turn land, but as long as you can throw down a basic land turn one, they don't slow you down at all.
Even better when in a format with actual Dual Lands. Play the Dual Land first turn and play Chapel and such second turn.
I had all but forgotten about the Odyssey filter lands. Great list!
This video is simply the greatest. We appreciate budget choices for our decks and this is a fantastic resource for people who are looking for some budget friendly options to play those 3-5 color decks. Thanks for sharing!
The music playing during number 3 was awesome.
aight it's 2016. I can easily find scrylands for cheap now.
scry lands are a must have in commander.
Magnus McCloud why so? why its must have tap lands in commander?
the scrying makes you soft filter the top of your library. if you can get a blink effect from it is also a plus for example: blink it with Venser if you are top decking for anything... It's stricly better than the ravnica guildgates.
Magnus McCloud not quite "strictly better" but in almost every situation, yeah
Fake Gmale The scrylands are worse when you need Gate synergy but otherwise I do not see any reason for why Guildgates are better than the Scrylands, except maybe for a really, really tight budget
Mikko pöllänen It's less about the fact that they are taplands and more the fact that you are running a 99 card deck which most likely has more than one color. Being able to pick between two colors when tapping a land is always better than getting just a basic land instead, even if the land in question comes into play tapped. Every land counts for something like a 99 card deck so you would want to be able to cover all your needs for colored mana while also being able to be flexible about which mana you get from which land. Unless you of course are playing a mono-colored commander deck, in which case having 30+ basic lands plus some optional support lands is completely fine.
Krosan Verge desperately, IMMEDIATELY needs its cycle fleshed out! I was absolutely devastated when I found out that my new, entry-level Imajund Dragons Prossh deck wouldn't be able to run it like my League-playable Mayael list can. Honestly the fact that the effect isn't actually available in all combinations makes me steer toward having G/W in every deck I make...
Rewatching some of your older videos. What the hell, I had never even heard of these Lair lands! I'm baffled people are STILL not playing these.
Forget Secret Lairs! These are the only lairs I'll be playing with! Thanks for the video Prof
My favorite land cycle that helps with mana fix? The Storage lands from Time Spiral. They are just so good for fixing your colors for cards like Krond of the Might.
In a pinch, they work like a two colors Unknown shores. At best, you are ramping with leftover mana to unleash massive mana turns when needed.
The music that plays during the Lair explanation is perfect.
THANK YOU for mentioning the Lair cycle. I get so many people looking at me funny when I say they would be useful.
That lightning strike back there is sure a decent piece of art
Small call out here, but with the planeshift lairs, you can also use them for a one-time, one-mana usage. Play the lair, the bounce-or-sac ability goes on the stack, tap the lair for one of its mana, then sacrifice it. It doesn't make much sense to do this, but I could see there being fringe cases where it might be useful this way.
Being fairly new to the commander format myself, this video just made building the mans base a lot easier. Thanks Professor
Keep up the good work!
What you do is quite inspiring for guys like me who have rediscovered MTG.
I'm adding the lands that I'd suggest. These are from my personal attempt on building a Commander deck with "Jenara, Asura of war". The deck didn't do so well (unlike my "home brewed" Brago that I built with my family and friends) but these lands did particularly good in a deck that wasn't all that good: Irrigation ditch and seaside citadel. The former seems to be possible to exploit, and the latter, yes, it comes into play tapped, but hey, it's a three color land!
Greetings from Chile
I have been looking in to land alternatives as of late, since I'm starting to get in to Pauper some more. There are a lot of lands I never knew about. This video has shed even more light on the subject.!
I hope I get a job soon, and I might be making Pauper decks with really neat, and budget friendly, lands!
Thank you for keeping the old intro! Looks so much cleaner and professional
My personal fav unsung hero of commander is the ol' dude ranch aka Kjeldoran Outpost. A must for token based white decks. Sure, you must sac a plains, but it sure does come in handy as a speed bump, or just sit quietly and slowly posse up a swarm while your friends bicker about the rules. Heck, selesnia loves tokens, so populate more dudes!
5:07 I don't think you can do it the turn it comes out, as it comes in tapped.
+BostonBruins115 D'oh, that was supposed to be edited out. Sploops.
Ha, no worries. Just thought id ask to see if I was missing something.
+BostonBruins115 Amulet of Vigor and you can haha
+Tolarian Community College well, if you have an amulet, you can use it.
This made my Progenitus commander deck better because it changed up the mana base and allowed for a little more land ramp, thanks Professor.
I recently watched this video and ran out and bought a bunch of these lands. I immediately saw an improvement to the decks I added them to. Thanks Prof.
+Tolarian Community College
I got my Sungrass Prairie as soon as I saw it in my local store when I was building my Trostani Commander some time ago.
Also professor, it reminded me of something, I don't know/remember if you talked about this in your Trostani video, that greatly made me want to play in my less favored colors (given that I play Grixis Delver as my modern deck) and for that I thank you, but back to my initial point, Phyrexian Processor has no color identity, feels so good to go land+sol ring+ signet get 5 mana by turn 2, safely pop it in for 20 life and still rank up to 200 life after a while sporting 20/20's on my field.
I love this video! Numbers 3 and 2 are now a must! I actually LOVE the guildgates, and I even built a 5 color commander (Reaper King) JUST so I could run my favorite land (Maze's End). Say, with all this coming in tapped, I would always recommend Amulet of Vigor. Too bad the price hiked when it found a spot in modern.
As someone who doesn't like to spend a lot of money on mana bases, this video was heaven-sent. I own nine (!) commander decks, and they're all either mono or dual colored, because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of an expensive land base. Being more aware of the budget options, I may need to branch out now...
Thanks Tolarian you just made my selesnaya edh deck waaaaay better with all of these lands being able to be used in a good way in my deck
As others have said, if you're playing B/x, the Torment tainted cycle (Wood, Isle, Peak, Field) is hard to beat for budget mana-fixing. Each is only about a buck and is fully activated by controlling any swamp at all. Any wedge or shard deck involving black should definitely pack these!
Also, Murmuring Bosk is amazing for an Abzan commander at just about two dollars. And fetchable as a forest!
I just discovered your channel two days ago and I have been binge watching it! It's so wonderful to have a channel dedicated to Magic the Gathering but not just tournament play! I love the idea of Pauper and I'm going to push it at the two local cardshops I go to! Thx!!!!!! I just decided to support you on Patreon!
Just wondering ever thought of reviewing the control deck from Stronghold The Sparkler? I recently bought a sealed copy of it for $20 and I love it! It's a creatureless spell deck and is something wizards would never make now. Just a suggestion!
Thank you for making remember what I love about this game.
One of my favorites is Dimir Aqueduct. Sure, it can't be used first turn, but it can make a land bounce back, so you can have those enter the battlefield effects hit again, like the temples for scry. :D
Monastery Siege (2U) is a card I really like. I mostly choose the card filtering effect (draw 2 cards on upkeep, but discard one) since that really helps me stabilize and avoid any mana issues, but the other effect has come in handy to discourage any target-happy opponents.
Spire of Industry from Aether Revolt would fill in a void in the pain lands if you're short one.
Reading:
Tap: Add Colorless to your mana pool.
Tap, Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control an artifact.
All great choices! I fancy the "Vivid" such as creek and Marsh paired with a little proliferate shenanigans allows for pretty much any mana fix. With my deck copying all sorts of creatures, its useful to be able to use abilities of differentiating colors.
This is really nice because i was just looking at my esper mana base and refining it before going out and buying them all in one go. This really helps! thanks a ton!! ( RIP Tarkir wedges )
I just keep coming back to this every time I'm Commander-ing. Thanks so much! BTW the Tainted Lands are a nice budget cycle
You know I have to say thanks! I am currently trying to build an effective 5-color ally EDH deck and been running into the problem with mana starve on one or two colors. However with these budget friendly dual lands helps an enormous amount. So again thanks
Krosan Verge is in Fact already included in some Precon commander decks.
like Stalwart Unity
I remember playing with the lair lands as a kid, I was trying to remember what the lands were, this was a big help.
At your suggestion I just picked up a Mossfire Valley from SCG for a werewolf commander deck I'm building. It's a difference of about $20, and the difference will help pay for a Wooded Foothills, so thanks for the video!
My Commander of Choice is The Mimeoplasm and he can be bought and built for rather cheap and is very effective, Though I play modern more than anything Sporting the U/W Fish but needless to say my choices of decks are of a Winrate to Price ratio that must be met not to mention I absolutely love the Merfolk tribe at all
+Terran Geotryx In all*
I've been playing MtG since about M10, but haven't been that serious about it until about BFZ. I have a small, budget collection and only have been upgrading it in the past year or so after the release of C16. I've always had a spare copy of Krosan Verge and when I deconstructed Atraxa to build Ghave, Krosan Verge was brilliant. Not only was I able to fetch non-basics, but my favourite trick was to fetch Murmuring Bosk and Canopy Vista/Mistveil Plains, some great utility/filtering lands that are fetchable. I don't think there are many land combinations as cheap as this for fetching a tri-land onto the field directly, albeit, tapped.
Loved the video! Personally, if I ever have problems building a commander mana base, and I want budget or less used suggestions, I use ManaBaseCrafter. It shows you all the lands that make your colors, as well as prices from TCGplayer.
It's true for Krosan Verge. Tested in my Ur-Dragon deck. It gains a great advantage; Best scenario is ETB in turn 2, before the 4th turn, sac to gain 2 land, then cast Ur-dragon for a mean swing
One overlooked set of cards are the old 1 mana charm spells. They're all instants, in every color, and while not all are relevant, some can be useful in the right deck. Like piracy charm, which phases out an artifact, which can remove it for a while, in commande.
Krosan Verge is a part of a 'complete' cycle, just not an obvious one because of how Wizards handled color representation in Odessy.
It's the pair to Cabal Coffers that, together, offsets the 4 card Tainted Cycle and re-balance the White/Green deficit after Torment.
They specifically created less White and Green cards to make more Black ones in Torment (when Cabal Coffers debuted).
Then, in Judgement, more Green and White cards (even Green/White gold cards in a block with primarily mono-colors) were printed , but with less Black cards in the set to make up for their previous abundance.
(You also said it could be used same turn at 5:10, but you need some help with an Amulet of Vigor to do so.)
+Jeremiah Wood i noticed that as well. about using it the turn it came out
Thanks for citing the Invasion dragons' lairs. (I don't play any Magic variant but I 'm still using them)
I have one to add. The tainted lands from torment. They come into play untapped, add colorless mana, and if you have a deal they tap for either one of two colors. In any 2 colored deck that has black they add alot of value
I'm sure I am late to the game but I rarely feel inspired to comment on a video.
As I was searching for random land cards, for EDH decks, I happened upon a few cards [Tainted Isle] and [Tainted Wood]. Beautifully simple useful duel lands.
When I looked them up they unfortunately were a limited cycle from Torment. Though as long as you're running a duel color general that includes black, they are amazing.
I've been using Depletion lands in Atraxa and they're kinda nuts when you can proliferate and keep them going.
Not to mention that, sure with the Lorwyn filter lands you get any combination of the two colors, but with the Odyssey filters, the mana you put into it can be any color (as opposed to having to put in either green or black mana, for example, to get the outputs), meaning that in 3, 4, 5 color decks, there arguably are situations where these are a little more flexible where the actual filtering goes... at a cost of losing that ability to get any combination of the two colors, tap for colorless mana that you would have if you use the Lorwyn filters...
Great video, but I think you've forgotten about Murmuring Bosk! Of course it will mostly ETB tapped such as the TriLands from Shards of Alara, but this one actually counts as a FOREST =D Which is basically a Fetchable tri mana fixer =)
Other than that, keep on the good work Professor, I've always loved your channel =)
My favourite budget land to put in ALL multicolored decks is "Mirrodin's Core". It taps for colorless immediately, or you can charge it up for any color on future turns.
You're not alone professor I like playing the Ravinca Guild Gates as well.
I really like the Time Spiral Storage Lands. If you ever have spare mana, you can just store it up to increase your pool later.
love your videos, I just started playing magic few weeks ago got a Blue/Black Modern Zombie deck going and 2 commander decks going atm so these videos really help me out for budget commander cards.
Great Video. I had completely overlooked Krosan Verge, and it will fit very well in my current deck. Thank You!
Well, when I made my first Commander deck with "junk", since it was BRG, putting in a Darigaaz Caldera (assorted Lair land) was a no-brainer.
As the Professor said, it's good with lands with comes-into-play effect; I think of them nowadays as strictly better Guild cards (from original Ravnica) since they come into play untapped and give me 3 colors.
At least on Green, they get better with effects that put lands into play from your hand like Sakura-tribe Explorer, since you can, for example: tap a Forest for G; play the Lair and tap fron C (color), then use the Explorer to bring that forest back into play and in turn 2 you already gor GGC.
I LOVE the Lair cards. I run them in my Naya deck for easy mana fixing. They are even better when you use cards like "Explore" that let you play an extra land.
Very cool and helpful video! I agree with a lot of people saying the tainted lands are great. Meteor Crater is awesome too. I'm surprised people don't run it more often!
I love the mirage fetch lands I have a play set of them. Walking archive is an underrated card in commander. It may help your opponent, but the draw power for a defender is good. The down side is the color scheme u/w.
Krosan verge is incredible! my Doran deck loves it. They really need to finish land cycles
Professor, thank you for coming on our show. We are glad you took this message to heart and are no longer promoting the use of Guildgates. Our original appeal to help the less fortunate is here: ruclips.net/video/kiy6G5NevZY/видео.html
I run a Prossh combo deck, and run a very specific mana base with only 6 basics (3 snow, 3 normals) While I am extremely vulnerable to back to basics and blood moons alike, I run Tainted Pact on my deck as a means of tutoring my combo, and its such a great card and I barely paid 50 cents for it.
i TOTALLY agree with you about the lairs - i run it in my thraximundar deck, and it puts in some great work! :)
+egyptcraze I LOVE lair lands. I play them in my casual Jund, Grixis "Guttercipher" and esper artifacts decks. At first I saw the esper ones in a bulk bin, and thought "eh, that looks like poo" but accidentally grabbed the stack of cards that had them in it with the ones I was buying, and bought them too. Eventually, I was sitting down, saw them, and said "Wait, that's not crap, that's amazing! I must have the jund ones for my (at the time new) Jund deck!"
Sat at my local shop sifting through lands for hours, and managed to only find one regular and one foil of the Darigaaz's Caldera, but man oh man, was that worth it! Now whenever I get the chance to pick up lairs, I do it on the spot because of how useful they are.
Ironically, I don't run them in my commander deck because they seem a bit slow in it, since I have to return a land to my hand. It's better for that deck to keep on its tempo and play tapped lands instead of disrupting it to wait another turn before getting that land down.
But what I would want to do is have a deck that has the one card used in Maze's End decks that allows tappy lands to enter untapped on your side of the field, then have the crappy fetches. That combo, plus shocks that come in untapped via that artifact, would be an amazing combination.
+egyptcraze plus the very idea of having a lair makes you feel more like a Grixis player, not matter what color you are playing.
I certainly agree! MWUAHAHAHAHAHA
+egyptcraze Thank you. Lucky for me I started playing right when Invasion finished and PS came out. My brother and I bought so much product during this block. Played lairs during this time and they worked out so well. Still have my original deck that came in 3rd for our LGS FNM finals in 2001. Has about 11 lair lands in it!
I'm with you 100%. I run Dromar's Cavern in my Oloro deck.
THANK YOU! While everyone is getting hyped for super mythic impossible to get rares in the new Zendikar set, it's nice to know the professor is talking good, helpful sense.
Honestly, that lair is awesome. Getting to play bojuka bog twice is really, really good against decks that can often play out of their graveyard
Awesome and informative as always professor. Im going to go to my LGS and get a playset of each filter land.
I've always liked the "Tainted" land cycle from Torment if you're running a B/x deck they're a must have
completely forgot about the filter lands, thanks professor!
I guessed Odyssey lands before I even saw the video! I run Drowned Catacombs in my Sygg, so that is probably why. :) Great list!
Well, I was going to ask your opinion on the 'cycle' of phase lands, with commander in mind, but I googled it and holy crap. Talk about an incomplete cycle, there's only one!! Tefari's Isle; I run it in my Sygg, River Guide deck and find that it is quite useful. I fear I many be doing the 'phasing' wrong though.
Definitely going to look into the Lairs & Oddesy filter lands
Just a little addition: If you're playing green and white in your commander deck, no matter how many other
colours you play in addition you want to play "Riftstone Portal". As long as you can get it into your graveyard it acts as a GW Urborg for ALL your lands. Which is amazing.
At 1:35 and 2:07 there is a misuse of the term "strictly better". It's supposed to be just "better". "Strictly better" means the card is better in all aspects and not generally better. For example, you can fetch any basic land with Evolving Wilds and on the same turn you put it onto the battlefield.
Also, at 5:07 there is a mistake, you can't fetch a plains and a forest the turn Krosan Verge enters the battlefield, as it enters tapped and requires a tap to use the ability.
+Nitzan Bueno Fair enough.
I love the Lair lands! Everyone I know who uses Alara Shard colors (I only play EDH, so color restrictions matter to me) gets told about these lands by me, and they uniformly say, "Wait, these are great! How are these only $3.00? Almost every deck using these colors should have them." And I simply say, "You're welcome."
Let’s not forget the incomplete battle land cycle from BFZ. They have Basic Land types, and can come into the battlefield untapped if you control two or more lands.
Similar to the filter lands from Odyssey, they are a couple dollars, but they are consistently reliable turn 3 and on land drops.
I have learned so much from watching your Channel. thank you so much for all of your contributions to the magic community
Picked up play sets of all the lair lands thanks professor!
Careful when using "strictly worse", Professor! The Mirage budget fetches don't make you pay 1 life :)
+Chad Zeluff And aren't disabled by sigarda
+lazyassslothin angel of jubilation
qwerty55353 thank you
I remember when i started playing seriously, i bought 3 judgement boosters there at the register of 711, and got Krosan Verge, Nantuko Monastery, and Phantom Nishoba in those packs. I went strait home and built a white green deck with them.
Not a Commander Deck, I don't think that was a thing then.
I started playing Magic in standard, like most people do. I tried playing a proxied commander deck, and I don't like the super long games. Finally, I tried modern and I couldn't take the over-complication of games. Now I just check on the professor and play D&D with my friends.
MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT GREAT LANDS!!! SUCH AS NYKTOS, SHRINE TO NYX, HAVENWOOD BATTLEGROUND, OR EVEN MOSSWORT BRIDGE! would be a great video showing what we can replace basic lands with great lands like those mentioned!
YES!!! I was holding my breath for you to talk about the Odyssey Filters. i honestly dont understand why people praise the Signets, yet berate the Od filters.
+Crimson Vulpes Signets provide more than just color fixing in the decks they're run. Being an artifact can be very important to specific decks and is more conducive to abuse as a result. With untap effects, cards that care about artifacts, and most decks not running artifact hate in the MB (but usually non-basic land hate MB), signets tend to do their job better than Odyssey filters.
Plus, the Odyssey lands are lands, which reduces the available space for any specific kind of manabase you could be trying to craft for what are technically inferior lands. Most of the time, if you're going to do manafixing in your land base, it needs to be quality fixing.
With that said, Odyssey filters are still strong budget fixing options, especially in the commander format. Since that's what this video is focusing on, it works.
this is the exact argument i receive every time i bring the subject up. welcome to the club
Then I don't know why you're still confused on the subject.
because they do the exact same thing. many of the combos of untapping are largely inconsistent in the way you described. why would you untap a signet if you have that kind of power? any deck that uses untap effects (like Voltaic key) are artifact based decks; like Karn or Daretti.
They have the same effect. A Signet offers more to the deck it's in if you need that kind of effect.
It's not complicated.
One of the other great lands for a mere thirty-two cents is Riftstone Portal. It goes in almost every deck that I have that uses Selesnia colors, very powerful either to self mill, just have in case it gets milled, or for any nonbasic land sweepers it gives you great insurance.
This inspired me to make a cube with lands that have a high concentration of bad lands. You don't get basic lands unless you draft them. It will make it interesting to see how people truly value lands when pitted against spells.
i think you would love the list for my lyzolda edh deck, i pretty much run all of these styles of duals that i can
like cinder marsh, lantern lit graveyard, lava tubes, both filters, rainbow vale is pretty sweet too, and i also run school of the unseen, and henge of ramos for filtering my infinate mana into both colors
thank you professor. now i know what cards are going in my arahbo and omnath (rg) and edgar markov decks.
Thanks for the tips, sir!
My pleasure!
I think I got a good idea of what I want to build now, thanks Professor!
For my 5C commander deck, I use Mana Confluence, city of brass, four duals(Can't afford more), all ten shocks(Hugely helpful), reflecting pool, urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, and ramp spells w basics. Pay 1 health fetches are better than ramp tho
You have the art work of one of my favorite magic card on your wall.
i run temur wedge and i use krosan verge, but with the bvz battle lands. it is incredibly useful to get my colors or fix them, i love it
Entering tapped isn't such a big deal in EDH. If you're running 2-3 colors a manland may actually help you more than a dual land, and if you're running 4 or 5 colors, most of your nonbasic lands *need* to tap for 5 colors, whether they enter tapped or not. Dual lands (or even fetches) don't really cut it.
That said, this is a FABULOUS list. I can see myself adding half of these to my next EDH deck. Thanks Prof!
YAY I need to get 1 of each of these for commander decks! Thanks Professor!
I definitely need some of those for my budget sliver deck! Thanks for the awesome videos by the way :D
Stockpile lands (Subterranean Hangar and such lands) are also amazing for commander. True, they are ideal for mono and guild decks, but I have wiped many fields with simply a Subterranean Hangar and a Killing Wave. All of the stockpile lands are under $5 which is budget to me when faster lands are $40+.
Krosan Verge is my favorite land in the game. Its one of the best lands in my deck and it gets any combination of shocks or duals. it was worth paying the ~$12 for the mirage foil.