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Pointing Out The Obvious

by mattlohkamp, 13 September 2009

  

Landfall - whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, X-Y-Z.

As preview cards slowly make their way to Wizard's Zendikar Visual Spoiler, the new keyword 'Landfall' is something everyone should be paying attention to. It's no coincidence that Knight of the ReliquaryMTG Card: Knight of the Reliquary has gone from selling for a dollar and change to costing nearly $4 - think about what a knight could do when coupled with the Rampaging BalothsMTG Card: Rampaging Baloths pictured above, for instance.

Knight of the Reliquary Terramorphic Expanse Jungle Shrine

The knights can actually trigger landfall twice - tap the knights to sacrafice a Forest, grab a Terramorphic ExpanseMTG Card: Terramorphic Expanse and put it into play, tap the expanse and sacrafice it to put a Jungle ShrineMTG Card: Jungle Shrine into play tapped (it would've come into play tapped anyway, so that isn't even a downside) a Plains into play tapped - and not only have you generated two 4/4 beast tokens and fixed your mana for free, but if you've done all this on your opponent's end-step, your new Plains will immediately untap when your turn starts, completely removing the one drawback to using the expanse to fetch a basic land!

Naya Panorama Arid Mesa Firewild Borderpost

Now that you're in the right mindset, I'm sure you have no trouble thinking of (or searching for) other cards that can help you abuse Landfall. Most obviously, there are 'fetch lands:' a cycle of Panoramas from Shards of Alara, the afore-mentioned Terramorphic ExpanseMTG Card: Terramorphic Expanse, and the upcoming cycle of enemy-coloured fetch lands (such as Arid MesaMTG Card: Arid Mesa from Zendikar. Each of these are a two-for-one deal - put the fetch land into play, sacrifice it, put another land into play - Knight of the ReliquaryMTG Card: Knight of the Reliquary essentially taps to turn any forest or Plains into a fetch land. Double landfall plus mana fixing? Sounds like a good deal to me. In a somewhat similar vein, the Borderposts from Alara can also be a Landfall-enabler - drop two mountains, the Plated Geopede pictured above, swap a mountain for a Veinfire BorderpostMTG Card: Veinfire Borderpost, replay the Mountain, TerminateMTG Card: Terminate your opponent's blocker, and swing for 3 first strike on turn 3 with your mana fixed, and the option to threaten with Lightning BoltMTG Card: Lightning Bolt.

There have been conversations in my own local group of players as to whether 1 Borderpost = 1 land, or 1 Borderpost = .5 land, or whatever - but where Landfall is concerned, I would argue that a late-game Borderpost is nearly always as welcome a draw as a land card itself when hoping to make Landfall, as it allows you to replay the basic land of your choice for free. (Which I've heard lohkampster refer to as 'the Borderpost dance'.)

Rampant Growth Borderland Ranger Gift of the Gargantuan Shard Convergence

Path to Exile Armillary Sphere Exploding Borders Skyward Eye Prophets

Green in particular has a handful of good land-fetching devices (someone has written an article on the subject, in fact) and although we're losing a few (like Farhaven ElfMTG Card: Farhaven Elf and FertilidMTG Card: Fertilid) when Lorwyn/Shadowmoor leaves us, all is not lost - no doubt Zendikar will include more variations on this familiar design. Also, be on the lookout for cards that allow you to return things to your hand - returning lands or recurring land fetching permanents is always good (Sanctum GargoyleMTG Card: Sanctum Gargoyle and Armillary SphereMTG Card: Armillary Sphere?). One last random thing to note - you can't Cascade into a land, but you can Cascade into any of the spells listed above that set you up with a land.

So - whether you're putting a land directly into play, or just stuffing your hand with lands to play on future turns (while also slimming down your deck to make your next draw more viable, according to the theory of Deck Thinning) it isn't hard to put yourself in a situation where you can really milk that Landfall ability.

One last little treat, before I go:

Realm Razer

note regarding Zendikar cards - WotC is lamentably reluctant to make it easy for outside sides to access its card database, so TTappedOut is occasionally missing a few new cards, especially right as a new set is released (or previewed) - if the Zendikar cards linked in this article haven't been added, consider taking a moment to help out and submit them to TappedOut's card database. Your allies and opponents alike thank you!

Additional note - thank you, iroccoi, for pointing out that Terramorphic ExpanseMTG Card: Terramorphic Expanse only grabs basic lands - otherwise, you could use it to grab your next expanse, and pull off a 6-land chain! (expanse-expanse-expanse-expanse-fetch land-basic land). Sometimes I get a little over-excited.

#1 | iroccoi says...
3:13 p.m. on September 13, 2009

I don't believe you can pull a Jungle ShrineMTG Card: Jungle Shrine with a Terramorphic ExpanseMTG Card: Terramorphic Expanse. As per the rules : "204.4c Any land with the supertype basic is a basic land. Any land that doesnt have this supertype is a nonbasic land, even if it has a basic land type."

#2 | DevouringFlame says...
7:02 p.m. on September 14, 2009

Two words: Warp WorldMTG Card: Warp World

#3 | DevouringFlame says...
7:03 p.m. on September 14, 2009

btw Path to ExileMTG Card: Path to Exile and lavaball trap = lawl!

#4 | mattlohkamp says...
8:08 p.m. on September 14, 2009

with Warp WorldMTG Card: Warp World - all the non-enchantment permanents re-enter simultaneously, right? Or do they literally come in waves of Artifacts, Creatures, then Lands? I guess if you could figure out a way to save one guy from being hit by the warp, you could swing it, though...

#5 | iroccoi says...
3:51 a.m. on September 15, 2009

Warp WorldMTG Card: Warp World says put all ... into play so I think the all means at the same time..

#6 | mattlohkamp says...
4:03 a.m. on September 15, 2009

Oh, and that 'Khalni Heart Expedition' card previewed today on wizards.com is so cash.

#7 | yeaGO! says...
6:35 a.m. on September 16, 2009

a perfect 101 article to the new standard. thanks a lot. also, I fixed the formatting.... take note for next time!! =)

#8 | tapanmeister says...
1:56 p.m. on September 20, 2009

Landfall makes me wish that Crucible of WorldsMTG Card: Crucible of Worlds had been reprinted in M10 soooo bad.

Think of the abuse with the Plated Geopede, Knight of the ReliquaryMTG Card: Knight of the Reliquary and Crucible of WorldsMTG Card: Crucible of Worlds.

I think you forgot the most synergy for landfall; Oracle of Mul DayaMTG Card: Oracle of Mul Daya. Its like combining FastbondMTG Card: Fastbond with Sylvan LibraryMTG Card: Sylvan Library.

Naya is going to be a powerhouse when Zendikar is released.

#9 | mattlohkamp says...
3:16 p.m. on September 20, 2009

definitely Oracle of Mul DayaMTG Card: Oracle of Mul Daya combined with a draw mechanic could keep you swimming in land. For this article, I was looking at just Shards+M10 cards, so you could get a feel for which cards in current Standard can already potentially combo with Landfall, so that's why I didn't look at a lot of Zendikar cards, apart from the few up to show the keyword itself.

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