Ghost Town

Land

Tap: Add (1) to your mana pool.

(0): Return Ghost Town to its owner's hand. Play this ability only if it's not your turn.

Discussion (51)

xaarvaxus on Land chucking

1 week ago

Quirion Ranger will let you get forests already played back into hand to chuck. Untapping a creature is gravy. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove will let you play out your heavy land count faster as well as allow the Ranger to bounce land as they will all count as forests. Both Undiscovered Paradise and Ghost Town can return themselves to hand. Nylea's Intervention puts the lands to hand plus can double as Hurricane if needed. Creeping Renaissance can name land and restock [twice!] all at once to help burn people out.

WUBRG97 on [[Primer v3.4]] - OM_RATH!!! (M20 Update!!!)

3 weeks ago

zaytsevi: VexenX's updates are quite large and have multiple sets in between, probably to make them have more content than just a single card substitution each time. In regards to Lotus Field he has earlier commented on this page that it has just been a placeholder and would probably swap it for a Fabled Passage.

He has not made an official update for this swap, but the deck does contain Ghost Town, the card that was originally swapped for Lotus Field. In addition, the deck does not contain Burgeoning, which is the only card in the deck that really justifies the inclusion of Ghost Town, so he has probably taken that single change back until next update where Fabled Passage will be included.

chapman.luke27 on Mina and Denn Love Lands

3 months ago

Hey! I have a Mina and Denn deck too, and it's my personal favorite. Some suggestions on additional lands: Glacial Chasm is a good way to protect yourself if you're in dire straights and your commander can return it to your hand to avoid the upkeep cost. Ghost Town is great for some free extra land plays.

Here's a link to my deck, we've each taken different approaches, but here it is in case you were interested. Also, just wanted to say that I love Mina and Denn and the extra landfalls and instant speed trample on demand and I get really annoyed when people tell me I should switch my commander to Omnath. Don't give in, and keep playing lands! :) https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mina-and-denns-huge-tracts-of-land/?cb=1572946269

Tzefick on Ability challenge

3 months ago

In response to DwaginFodder's feedback on last challenge:

The feedback Show

-Tzefick: While the intent of your mechanic is clear, it has memory and complexity issues. Marking something for extraction is neither well-defined nor obvious when looking at the battlefield, and would need the use of a special kind of counter to mark it. The combination of the Extract reminder text and the associated ETB take up a lot of space on a card, and means that many of your designs feel too similar. The combination of a trigger for the alternate cost, the cost itself, marking for extraction, and the associated ETB all work to make your commons feel too complex for commons. The only differences between Deft Platoon, Extraction Mage, and Armored Caravan are costs and P/T; that's not a good look. While your support cards are well-designed, the mechanic itself is very weak.

Response Show

I disagree on the issue of memory. There's little difference in marking for extraction and a target for a spell. If you need memory due to multiple uses of extractions at the same time, (remember that each Extraction can only target one permanent) you just plop the Extract cards directly on that permanent as you would say a Lightning Bolt .

I get that the mechanic is wordy and I tried to think of ways to decrease the word count and combine them instead of having a separate trigger on ETB - however that would ruin the use of the card's function when not casting through Extract.

It is definitely a more wordy mechanic than average for a common, but I wouldn't say it is more complex than what has already been done with say Transform, Cascade, or Evoke.

As for designs being too similar, the entire mechanic is on par with what most mechanics are; it does this particular thing. The mechanic is: "Oh no, someone targets one of your permanents, that usually means you're about to lose it or have it affected in some negative way, you can cast this Extract card for an alternative cost at instant speed in response to save that permanent and possibly get a different/better body on the field. There might even be a benefit to self-bouncing this permanent in terms of a bounce-trigger or the possibility for new cast/ETB-triggers."

And to avoid the mechanic merely falling flat in case no one targets anything on your side, you can play them naturally and get an optional free bounce for one of your nonland permanents.

So I don't quite understand this criticism that the mechanic is too similar. Would you say the same about Madness?

The mechanic is pretty self-parasitic, in terms that you don't want too many of these cards in a deck as their main function is from hand and sitting with open mana is not something you want to do all the time. The intend of the mechanic is to trade tempo for card advantage. Your opponent is likely down one removal spell, and you might have upgraded or downgraded the target to a new buddy.

You have to be careful about making the alternate cost too low, as the mechanic is a "gotcha"-feeling and being unable to interact with your opponent's board because of undercosted "gotcha"-costs will be very frustrating and problematic for the player experience. I might have costed some of these alternate costs too high, but that was to make it more safe than blatantly overpowered that nullifies any attempt at interactions with targets while providing meaningful bodies to replace them.

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As for Geography, I'm kinda drawing a blank here. Obviously it presents itself as a land-centric theme. At first I thought in the lines of Flinthoof Boar but figured an entire mechanic around that would be rather... shallow.

There's already landfall on triggers with lands, there's sunburst and domain when considering mana diversity.

I thought about something with explore or discovery, basically a landfall-esque mechanic with conditions. But it would essentially be that; landfall with conditions.

It could lend itself to an external game mechanic like Planechase. But then it's basically just Planechase or Planechase 0,5.

I don't think I'll suggest anything for Geography, sorry DP.

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Feedback on other suggestions:

Woiteck's unique land name mechanic Show

Woiteck There's some wild differences in power level on those enchantments. I don't really like how the mechanic effectively punishes mono color and rewards multicolor.

I especially worry about the power level of the green and black ones in tandem with Jund and Lord Windgrace for Commander. It's not cEDH but should be relatively easy to go off with either of these and a few other components.

It plays very nicely with Ghost Town though.

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Boza's basic/non-basic proportion Show

Boza Interesting idea to divide effects based on the proportional amount of non-basic lands you control vs basic lands. Although I cannot help but feel like the power comes from controlling non-basics, and non-basic lands already have additional value, that's why you play them over basic lands, so in my eyes it would make more sense to empower the basic side of the effect.

In the case of the Sea Gate, it doesn't make much sense that the non-basic and basic side is just two different colors, especially in those colors. Why not just play any other untapped land that fits either land mass?

You cannot manipulate the proportion of your land mass that much in white and blue, without playing some of Blue's land self-bounce mechanics which in general is not something you want. It could make sense in Jund, as they have black and red's sacrifice themes and green's ability to ramp that can skewer the proportions in any direction you require.

Interesting concept, but I would flip the power over to basic lands.

Ubykh on Competitive Azusa

4 months ago

I'll consider my thoughts further the next time I compose, but I just had to stop in here (after maybe a decade of inactivity) to give you super props on Urborg! I had to double check the Oracle on it, and, of course it could give your opponents an advantage that you could otherwise avoid, but I am very seriously considering adding one in right now just for my Ghost Town s et al.

P.S. Please don't look at my ancient decks from like 10 years ago lol

Azeworai on Naya 43 Lands.dec

4 months ago

May I recommend the addition of Ghost Town ? I've had success with it specifically in the case of Borborygmos loops or discarding it to a retrace effect. And cycling lands can combo well with Life from the Loam , but your list may have evolved beyond such vulgar acts. xD

lifemtg on Lord Windgrace Hired an Orcish Lumberjack

5 months ago

Ghost Town sometimes helps with landfall, though I doubt you will need to, just before I suggest anything, I have to say this type of deck is not in my comfort zone, Wrenn and Six is ok, but really quite expensive, Crop Rotation , Birds of Paradise is quite good itself, I am guessing you already know why, as said beforehand, I really suck at this type of deck, and also sorry for not commenting after posting my deck,

F3A5t on Hazezon 2.0 Lands Make Him Dance

5 months ago

Since you have krosan verge, I would put in Mountain Valley as well. Ghost Town is great with Burgeoning. Blast Zone is a good utility land. Pir's Whim is a great land tutor. How are the man lands doing for you? I am not a huge fan of them, they don't really help out the game plan and get worse when you have multiple opponents.