Sand Scout was printed in the Desert Bloom Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander deck, and has been a bit of a sleeper card for the past couple of years. It’s criminally underplayed, and serves as one of the best white ramp cards available. Here are five reasons Sand Scout should be ramping you in your white Commander deck.
SAND SCOUT
Sand Scout is a 2/2 Human Scout for one and a white. When it enters, if you have fewer lands in play than an opponent, you get to tutor up a land card with the Desert subtype and put it into play tapped. You also get to make a 1/1 Sand Warrior token, once per turn, when you crack a fetch or discard or mill a card. That’s a pretty nice bonus.
The gold standard for white land based ramp has been Knight of the White Orchid. It gets you an untapped Plains (which could even be a Shockland or other dual land) and doesn’t force it to come in tapped if it ordinarily wouldn’t. A 2/2 first strike body with the Human and Knight types sets a high bar. Sand Scout is the next best white land ramp creature to Knight of the White Orchid, and it’s not even close. Here’s why.
1. IT’S TWO MANA CATCH UP RAMP
Being at two mana is the ideal mana cost for catch-up ramp in white, as you can drop it on Turn 3 before making your land drop, and sometimes even trigger it on Turn 2 if a player has already cast a Three Visits or similar ramp spell.
We’ve had similar cards to Knight of the White Orchid over the years, but none quite live up to it; the one toughness of Loyal Warhound (and restriction to a tapped Basic) is a big step down, and Claim Jumper usually comes down when a player has missed a land drop, meaning it triggers way less often against non-green turbo ramp decks.
Sand Scout, meanwhile, is a two-drop and easy to cast at {1}{W}, making it suited for multicolor decks as well as white-heavy decks.
2. SAND SCOUT FIXES YOUR COLORS
Unlike Loyal Warhound, Sand Scout fixes your colors. While the land it searches for is restricted to being a Desert and coming in tapped, this is still better than a tapped basic Plains in all decks except decks trying to get Emeria, the Sky Ruin online (or when playing a Dog or Rabbit or whatever specifically helps your gameplan).
Sand Scout lets you grab an Abraded Bluffs or Forlorn Flats for access to other colors of mana, and you could even grab a non-white producing land.
You also have access to some niche Deserts that fix mana, such as Cactus Preserve or Survivors’ Encampment. The former is useful in decks where your Commander is six mana or higher, and the latter within in decks that encourage you to somehow tap your creatures to trigger abilities (or untap abilities) without going to combat.
3. IT CAN GET YOU A BOUNCELAND TO KEEP YOU CATCHING UP
This is perhaps the most important reason that you should be playing Sand Scout on the list, and that’s because it allows you to go and grab Arid Archway. Arid Archway is a bounceland, meaning you have to return a land to your hand when it comes into play. Because you can tutor this up and into play with Sand Scout, you can effectively give yourself your next land drop, ramp yourself, and leave yourself down a land compared to your opponents despite ramping a land into play.
This is the perfect position for white decks to be in, because it means flicker or copying Sand Scout, or playing another catch-up ramp card, will still allow you to grab another land.
It’s also great for decks that play Pip-Boy 3000 and Sword of Feast and Famine, because untapping Sol Lands is really good.
4. SAND SCOUT GIVES ACCESS TO A SMALL TOOLBOX
While Deserts aren’t the widest supported niche, they do have some really good effects that are worth tutoring up.
The best of these is, no doubt, the ability to go and grab Scavenger Grounds. Tutoring this at any point is great, but tutoring it early as an on-board threat against graveyard decks is the kind of virtual card advantage to get behind.
You also have the Modern Horizons 3: Commander land Lazotep Quarry, which acts as a better High Market if you’re using your own graveyard. It has a one-shot version of The Scarab God’s reanimation tech stapled to it, too, which is the kind of Hail Mary effect you want access to in your back pocket. When it eventually comes up, it’ll win you games.
The other Desert cards are a little more niche, but have their uses. If you’re milling, Ipnu Rivulet can be nice. Ramunap Ruins is especially useful if you’re in a burn deck with damage modifiers. You might even consider Endless Sands if you’re piloting a Flicker deck.
5. SAND SCOUT WORKS GREAT ALONGSIDE FETCHES
Everything we’ve discussed thus far has been about Sand Scout’s first ability. The second ability might well be the icing on the cake, but don’t sleep on how often you can trigger it. Those 1/1 Sand Warrior tokens can pile up, and are useful not only for chump blocks, but also if you’re in a go-wide kind of deck.
First up, Fetchlands. Fetches are great in white decks because they can be recurred by Sun Titan and Sevinne’s Reclamation, among other effects. Sand Scout gives you a Sand Warrior whenever you crack one.
Sand Scout triggers when a land is put into your yard from anywhere, meaning it triggers when you cycle or otherwise discard a land, too. So, to a Thrill of Possibility, or a Windfall wheel, or when a Rad Counter forces you to mill. It even works when you Channel the Neon Dynasty Legendary Land cycle.
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There aren’t many cards I’m willing or even happy to call staples these days, as most effects at the higher end of card power level are either replaceable or not necessary. That said, when it comes to a card like Sand Scout, it really does feel like it’s earned its place alongside Knight of the White Orchid as premium white land ramp.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.