Top 10 Best MDFC Lands in Commander

MDFC Lands are one of the best ways in Commander to make your deck slots go further. You can play them in place of lands as long as you’re disciplined, and they can give you less chances to flood. Kristen is here with 10 of the Best MDFC Lands for Commander. 

Modal-Double-Faced-Card (or MDFC) Lands are great. I personally play them in place of actual lands, but then, I’m also a big believer in playing them as lands. If you want to “skimp” on land counts in your deck, then I have two things to say to you:

Firstly, don’t. Just don’t do it. You need to play enough lands and enough card draw to hit your land drops every turn. 

Secondly? If you are gonna play some MDFCs, then make sure you play your bounce lands: Guildless Commons or the Guild-themed ones from Ravnica. They can help you buy back your effects.

TOP TEN MDFC LANDS FOR COMMANDER

The selection criteria for these is based loosely on how much you’ll want the effect in an average deck, and how crucial the effect can be. So while in some decks Valakut Awakening is a slam dunk pick, in just as many, it’s not doing as much for you because you’re using impulse draw and don’t have many cards in hand at any given point. Hell, it was tenuous of me to put Agadeem’s Awakening on here, given black decks get so much reanimation.

Alas, we have 10 slots to work with, so this is how it’s going to go. 

10. DISCIPLE OF FREYALISE // GARDEN OF FREYALISE

Disciple of Bolas has long been played in Commander. It’s a format staple, more or less, combining card draw and life gain – the two things that give you, for all intents and purposes, an extra turn. 

Green decks have enjoyed cards like Momentous Fall for this reason too, but when you’re given the opportunity to shift this effect onto a land – especially one that can come in untapped by paying 3 life – you’re taking it. This is often much more than a hand refill, and it’s stapled to a land. 

9. KABIRA TAKEDOWN // KABIRA PLATEAU

White decks manage to fit plenty of removal in usually, and so getting extra removal on one side of a tapped land isn’t the most incredible upgrade to white’s arsenal. In practice, though, this is fantastic removal for a go-wide deck. Go-wide decks don’t want to draw excess lands in the late game, and they do want to remove blockers and haymakers in order to get through. 

Kabira Takedown is a MDFC I used to run less often than Sejiri Shelter, but these days, I favor Kabira Takedown more. Not giving an opponent a resource when I remove their thing is great – as are the cards I pick over Sejiri Shelter (Bolt Bend, Ephemerate, etc). 

8. BOGGART TRAWLER // BOGGART BOG

Boggart Trawler is an extra copy of Bojuka Bog, the black staple land, stapled… to a creature. Staples stapled to staples? Yo dawg!

A 3/1 is a reasonable blocker in the mid to late game, because unless you have trample coming your way, there’s a good chance this will trade with something given it has three power. You’re probably playing this over a Swamp.

7. LEGION LEADERSHIP // LEGION STRONGHOLD

I love playing with the power of creatures, even more so when they don’t have to be ones I control. There’s a reason cards like Duelist’s Heritage and the surprise infect from Tainted Strike are still so popular. MH3 put MDFC technology onto dual-color cards, and this makes them eminently more playable than single color cards even at a base level.

Legion Leadership should make waves in any Voltron deck or Aikido deck.

6. KAZUUL’S FURY // KAZUUL’S CLIFFS 

Removal spells and fogs are no match for a good Fling at your side, kid. – Han Swolo, probably

The truth of the matter is that Kazuul’s Fury is a finisher for any go-tall deck. In the late game you often have to pick a lesser of two evils when choosing who to attack and knock out first, and that’s even if your creature gets through without being removed.

Kazuul’s Fury lets you either yeet it at their face in response to removal, or just use it to kill the other player after you slay the first in combat. 

5. AGADEEM’S AWAKENING // AGADEEM, THE UNDERCRYPT

Black doesn’t really need the redundancy of this effect on a land, but given it’s such a good one, it warrants an inclusion here. With Cabal Coffers or Nykthos, you can readily get back a whole swathe of creatures from the yard. Hell, treasure can get you there too.

4. WITCH ENCHANTER // THIS ENCHANTER

Witch Enchanter is probably the litmus test for whether you’re being serious about including removal in your decks. If you don’t have more than one Disenchant effect and you aren’t running this either, then you need to go back to the drawing board – or be content to lose a lot.

White decks don’t even care about paying the 3 life, generally, so this gets even better. Flicker it to your heart’s content. 

3. MALAKIR REBIRTH // MALAKIR MIRE

Malakir Rebirth might be one of my most-played MDFC lands. It’s just too good at what it does. Putting a “scam” effect on a land is incredibly efficient, and basically every black deck is happy to play this. 

2. STRENGTH OF THE HARVEST // HAVEN OF THE HARVEST

I really wanted to put this in the number one slot on pure power, but the fact it’s more niche in deck types means I couldn’t possibly do that. Still, Strength of the Harvest is nutso. Putting a classic enchantress staple on a two color land?! The two color land that is most commonly the enchantress colors? Yeah, that’s kinda good. The flexibility of what color of mana to spend to cast it is the icing on the cake.

1. BALA GED RECOVERY // BALA GED SANCTUARY 

If you play with this card, then you probably expected it to be in the number one slot today. Yup, it’s Bala Ged Recovery. Who doesn’t want staple recursion tied to an MDFC land?

It can often be hard to fit every effect you want into 100 cards, but this MDFC land has one of the most powerful effects – Regrowth – as an option on a tapped land. 

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What are your favorite MDFCs? How do you choose which ones to run? Let us know on Socials.