Scoured Barrens

Land

This enters tapped.

When this enters, you gain 1 life.

{T}: Add {W} or {B}.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

plakjekaas on Mind Games

1 week ago

I stopped runnin the lifegain lands like Scoured Barrens if I don't have lifegain synergy in the deck. It's a very real phenomenon that players will attack opponents with the highest life total if they can. Fetch-Shock yourself to 37 makes it a lot less likely to be attacked in the early game. Ironically enough, my decks that need a little time to start up, don't play Sol Ring for the same reason.

Think carefully about how your opponents would react to the cards you play, don't make yourself the threat at the table if you can't defend against the shared attention of your opponents.

Austin_Smith_of_Cards on Deathmonicon - Teysa Karlov Aristocrats EDH

2 months ago

Updates to the list:

Can't remember what got cut for them, but Bloodsoaked Champion and Skrelv's Hive have been added to the list. Bloodsoaked acts as a secondary 1-drop Reassembling Skeleton, and Hive as a redundant Bitterblossom fodder generator.

-1 Vat of Rebirth +1 Victimize

The Vat was in the list for a bit as a cheap 1-drop artifact that could help steadily recur creatures from our yard, but at sorcery speed activation was a little slow. Vicimize has been swapped in for double duty as a death trigger and instant gratification reanimation.

-1 Scoured Barrens +1 Despark

This list doesn't struggle with clearing out hordes of creatures at all between plenty of wipes and Grave Pact effects, but it did need more versatile noncreature removal. Despark replaces a tapland to offer an additional answer to problematic permanents.

DubbleDecker on Magnificence

2 months ago

Thank you so much for the advice! I've considered turning some other decks I have into Commander, but you're right, I think this would be the best candidate for doing that. I have some cards that I want to add to it, and all the two-ofs that I cut can be used to make another black-white deck I've been thinking about. I want to focus more on the Vampire side of it all. I looked at that land link, and I really like Forlorn Flats, Restless Fortress, and Scoured Barrens as well.

I'll look into making those changes, and going through the cards I have. I'll hopefully update it within the next few weeks.

Thanks again for your help!

kamarupa on Tripwire

4 months ago

While I think this deck has a lot of places that can be improved on, one thing you've done well is keep most of your spells to 3 or less mana to cast. Your mana curve looks pretty good - well done!

Now, on to some broad stroke places for possible improvements:

I think you should add "Budget" and "Casual" to your listed hubs.

I'm not sure what your reason for so many singletons is - are you constrained by what you have in paper? Or basing this off a Commander build? I'd strongly recommend reducing your singletons as much as possible by focusing on 3-5 creatures that are your strongest, most synergized. This will improve the deck's consistency and that makes it win faster and more often. It can also help allow for a more effective sideboard. You seem to have the most Vampires, so perhaps going for a Vampire tribal build? If you do go for Vampires, you might consider dropping white altogether. That would make your mana-base a lot cheaper to make consistent and help you cast the spells that require two or more black mana.

I notice you also have 67 spells here. I suggest reducing the deck by 7 to hit the minimum, as this, like narrowing which creatures you include, will drastically improve consistency.

Finally, if you keep the deck b/w, I'd suggest trying to improve your land base by incorporating some dual lands. While it's never great to slow down a deck with lands that enter tapped, it's even worse to not have the right color mana to cast spells. I lean toward the scry lands (Temple of Silence) as being the most valuable trade off for entering tapped, though you might prefer the life gain lands (Scoured Barrens) to fit your lifegain theme. Or conversely, if you gain enough life, a pain land might fit well (Caves of Koilos). If you can swing the money, the path lands are pretty nice (Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip) or fast lands (Concealed Courtyard). I don't like the check lands (Isolated Chapel) or reveal lands (Shineshadow Snarl) because they work best with the always expensive shock lands (Godless Shrine) and I don't have the kind of money.

I hope that helps!

TheRoaringRegisaur on Ajani's Pride

9 months ago

Also, since it's a modern deck, I'd add some Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant). I also like Lunarch Veteran  ^Flip, but he's not as good. With all these Clerics/Angles, consider Righteous Valkyrie. Daxos, Blessed by the Sun is another worthy consideration. ... Instead of Revoke Existence, I really like Banishing Slash, even if you don't get the token from it. From the same set, Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is a great land with good utility. Also, if you wanna drop Scoured Barrens/Blossoming Sands entirely, I'd look at Kabira Crossroads. And although it's not actually out yet, you'll want Essence Channeler from Bloomburrow.

TheRoaringRegisaur on Ajani's Pride

9 months ago

If you want a land that has you gain life, I'd do Blossoming Sands instead of Scoured Barrens because you actually have a card (Shalai, Voice of Plenty) that could potentially use it. It's extremely you'd have the two green mana, but it's better than nothing. I also wouldn't run 4 Shadowspears because they're legendary... you can only have one out at a time and since they're artifacts they're more likely to stay on the battlefield than a creature.

Angel_Zero on Ally Do Is Win

1 year ago

Bone Shards is a good upgrade to Bone Splinters, I'd run 4 Scoured Barrens to better fix mana and trigger Cliffhaven more. 4 Shambling Vent could also be worth throwing in.

Rasaru on Zombies 2.0

1 year ago

Do you want to the deck to stay within a certain budget? How much money are you okay with spending to upgrade? $25, $50, UNLIMITED?! :)

My first thought is to fix up your mana base. You have a LOT of lands that come in tapped no matter what your board state or hand looks like. That's going to slow your game plan down quite a bit. Let's make these simple swaps to start. Then, we I have a better idea of what your budget looks like, I can recommend additional swaps.

Vivid Marsh -> Takenuma, Abandoned Mire Utility lands are excellent because you don't have to play them as lands if your mana flooded AND it doesn't come in tapped

Vivid Creek -> Otawara, Soaring City Same as above

Scoured Barrens -> Godless Shrine Same colors, just has the option of coming in untapped and satisfies your other land requirements you're playing, like Shineshadow Snarl

Dismal Backwater -> Morphic Pool Same colors, comes in untapped 90% of the time in EDH

Jwar Isle Refuge -> Drowned Catacomb Same colors and at least has the opportunity to come in tapped vs ALWAYS coming in tapped

Reliquary Tower -> Raffine's Tower Land comes in tapped, but produces all three colors and can be cycled to draw a card if you're mana flooded.

If those options are too expensive, you could easily justify just swapping them all out for basics. :)