Aetherdrift finishes the Verge land cycle started in Duskmourn. These lands are a brewer’s dream in Commander, and contribute to a smoother and more accessible manabase for everyone. Kristen argues you don’t need Duals anymore.
Manabases are important. Hugely important. Just recently, I talked about the kinds of payoffs and interactions that Fetchlands gatekeep. I also had some thoughts on how to use your manabase strategically, which you might also find useful. And, although Utility lands are the most-talked about part of building a manabase, I think it’s high time we looked at balancing your colors, because that’s super important too.
AETHERDRIFT FINISHES A LAND CYCLE IN RECORD TIME
As magic players, we’re used to land cycles taking time to complete. Anyone else still waiting on enemy cyclers and tangolands, or just me with my Boros lands deck?
The land cycle in Midnight Hunt was thankfully finished in Crimson Vow, which is the first sign that Wizards are taking note of the demand for lands in Commander. I still say that Aetherdrift finishing the land cycle from Duskmourn is more impressive, though. The planes aren’t connected, and it would have been very easy to save that other set of lands for another visit to the plan of Duskmourn.
The Verge lands are the catalyst for talking about manabases today, as I feel like they’re a phenomenal land cycle. For all intents and purposes, they’re an untapped source that provides two colors of mana, with a small gating restriction.
You might recall the Tainted lands, actually, when you look at the Verge lands. Both are gated by having access to a land type, but the Verge lands are way better. The Tainted lands require you to have swamp, whereas the Verge lands ask you to have either one of the two land types associated with the colors.
So, in the case of Bleachbone Verge, you need only have a Swamp or a Plains, which is a much easier ask. Most decks will have plenty of Basic lands, and so meeting this restriction is pretty easy – not to mention, it’s a restriction that can be met with typed lands too, like Shocklands or Surveil lands.
The best part about the Verge lands is that they’re incredibly easy to factor into your deckbuilding – you can pretty much just replace a Basic land of the same basic type with it. So, for Bleachbone Verge, you can just replace a Basic Swamp.
RECENT LAND CYCLES HAVE BEEN EXCELLENT
Recent land cycles have been pretty excellent, all things considered. The fastlands from Scars of Mirrodin and Kaladesh were good for 60-card constructed, but not so good for Commander, where they ended up as tapped lands the majority of the time, and were only really useful in cEDH.
Enter the “Slow Lands”, from MID and VOW. This land cycle enters tapped unless they’re your third land or later, which is much more flexible and suitable for Commander. Playing tapped lands on the earlier turns is mostly fine, and getting untapped ones later is what you need, especially where fixing is concerned.
Surveil lands have proven to be even more popular – and useful. They enter tapped, provide two colors of mana, can be fetched up, and crucially – let you Surveil. These are an upgrade in all ways to the Temple cycle of lands, and their power and utility is well represented by their fast adoption in basically every format.
Even in Legacy, the format with Dual lands and Shock lands, they’re sneaking into manabases to provide that little bit of filtering edge mixed with graveyard synergy.
FIXING HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER
Speaking of Duals, let’s talk about fixing. For the average Commander player, fixing will be a matter of how many dual or multicolor lands they can play in their decks. At a Casual level of play, the difference between running Command Tower, Exotic Orchard and Path of Ancestry over Dual lands isn’t so big. Dual lands are good for decks that either play fast and low to the ground, or, more commonly at a Casual level – decks with Fetchlands.
Fetches get you exactly what you need, and combined with Prismatic Vista and Fabled Passage, you don’t have to sweat about getting the right colors on curve. In fact, having access to these in Boros decks, for example, can let you take advantage of the Boros Advantage Engine – so I’d say they’re a boon to deckbuilding if you leverage them in the right ways.
A Golgari deck can play a Surveil land (excellent for graveyard shenanigans), a Shock land, an OG Dual, or even the tapped variants Haunted Mire and Woodland Chasm. All of these can be fetched off a fetchland, and the allied colors can also get the Tango lands (Canopy Vista, et al) and the Bicycle lands (Scattered Groves, et al).
When you factor in the Innistrad Slow Lands, the new Verge land cycle, Command Tower and the other multicolor fixers (and the Triomes in 3+ color decks), that’s a hell of a lot of options for fixing.
And, when you add in the best Utility lands for your deck (and I advocate running around 10 or so in a 2-color deck!), then you’ll have no trouble filling in the rest of your decklist’s manabase.
While Dual lands are nice at the highest levels of play, they don’t feel quite so necessary in Casual play anymore. And, with the price tag associated with them, it’s hard to recommend them as an upgrade except as a vanity piece for your favorite deck. I only own a Plateau, for example – and I’m a Boros nut, so it’s absolutely a vanity upgrade for my lands deck (where it is actually useful for turning on Emeria, thanks to Boros not having access to Tango or Bicycle lands). Another example would be for Cabal Coffers – having that extra Swamp-typed land can be huge.
Overall, the addition of Slow lands, Surveil lands, and (more importantly) the new Verge lands has really helped to make a good manabase much more accessible. They’ve also helped bring down the price of Painlands and other less desirable fixing for those on a Budget, which is a nice bonus.
THE ROLE OF TREASURE
There’s another factor that makes Duals less needed for fixing in Casual Commander, and that’s Treasure. Treasure production is in full swing, and it’s rare to play a game where treasure doesn’t get used by at least one deck at the table. Early access to Treasure is the fixing that smooths your plays before you draw into the right lands.
Treasure impacts fixing in a huge way – it’s why New Capenna’s draft format wasn’t the greatest. When decks could easily splash for the signpost draft uncommons and stronger three color rares, the access to key cards for certain colors could be cut off by greedy drafters.
In Commander, Treasure helps in multiple ways. Dropping an early Professional Face-Breaker, Tireless Provisioner, or Black Market Connections can enable both fixing of mana, and getting to curve out further than whatever turn of the game you’re currently on.
END STEP
The Verge land cycle is a stellar one for Commander players, and it’s so easy to swap out a Basic land to play them, so why not? A good manabase has never been more accessible. Now we just need Surveil land reprints.
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.