Wasteland

Land

{T}: Add {C}.

{T}, Sacrifice Wasteland: Destroy target nonbasic land.

Combos

• Wasteland + Wrenn and Six

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (42)

ToastedBagl on The Necrobloom

2 weeks ago

I see you too are a man of class!

Things I recommend in this archetype/color combo (since you're dredging!):

Genesis, Unburial Rites, Perennial Behemoth, Reap and Sow, Filth + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , Cabal Coffers, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Brawn, Field of Ruin and/or Wasteland and/or GhostQuarter, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, Riftstone Portal, Wrenn and Seven, Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, Lotus Field

plakjekaas on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

There is an issue with running these in commander; it's an excellent way of making someone feel targeted. If your Selesnya Sanctuary gets blown up by Wasteland while the third player's Thespian's Stage is left alone, prepare for some conflict.

If someone gives up one of their lands to eliminate one of yours in a multiplayer setting, that's very balanced, but also easily interpreted as spiteful vs. proper threat assessment.

Even though Strip Mine is probably very good in any commander deck with 3 or less colors, I'm not running it in any because of those feelbads, because of Commander being a social format instead of a competitive one.

I prefer Ghost Quarter, replacing the land you blow up with a basic, without the mana investment a Demolition Field needs. When that happens to be a Strip Mine, you can blame the target for building their deck with too few basics :P

TheOfficialCreator on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

I think a big part of it, as people have said before, is emergent game design. Wasteland and Strip Mine will only get more and more powerful the more land recursion is built into the game, and related is that it benefits greatly from the graveyard unbalance in the game, in a way that other lands don't.

It's somewhat comparable to the idea that the ABUR lands became much more powerful with the printing of fetches.

Not seeing these interactions with other cards is understandable for new players who haven't had as much time to absorb that knowledge.

legendofa on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

You're giving up a land that only provides {C}--basically the equivalent of a Wastes--to destroy a land that can provide multiple colors, or lots of mana, or some unique near-uncounterable utility effect.

Instant-speed free land destruction provides a lot of versatility and value. There's almost never a wrong time or bad target. Think about it in terms of creatures. If you could sacrifice a Goblin token or whatever to destroy your opponent's biggest, scariest creature for free, no questions asked, that's the same level of power Strip Mine and Wasteland provide.

Are they balanced? Yes, no, maybe, wallisface covered that well. Are they powerful? Absolutely.

wallisface on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

The word "balanced" is quite subjective here, because at face-value these cards are doing fair 1-for-1 interactions. However, these cards are obviously absurdly powerful, and there's a reason Wasteland is in 60% of legacy decks (and would never ever be printed into Modern, Pioneer, Standard etc).

The big reason why these effects are very powerful is because the owning player has agency over abusing them:

• The Wasteland player has no inherent reason to trigger the ability if they themselves require mana. However, if they are fine with their own mana-resources, they can cripple the opponents if they have limited options. Because lands are almost always required to play the game, these effects can quickly lock the opponent out of being able to play the game at all.

• You could compare the effect to something like Blood Moon or Back to Basics, where at face-value the card appears to hit all players equally. But realistically if someone is running one of these cards, they're intending to be entirely unaffected by these effects while preventing their opponent being able to play the game. Wasteland similarly might read like a 1-for-1 at face value, but realistically people play this card with the intention of preventing their opponents from being able to play the game.

• Wasteland is very quickly abusable with recursion effects like Wrenn and Six's +1.

I think overall though, the cards are technically "balanced" - they are doing clean 1-for-1 trades with on-board resources. However, practically speaking, they are played only with the intention create a locked boardstate - one where the opponent doesn't have the resources to cast the cards in their hand.

There is a big reason Wasteland is the most-played land in Legacy, and why it will never be printed into any newer format - but this is more to it being very, very powerful, as opposed to it being "unbalanced". I would say that in multiplayer formats like Commander, Wasteland is entirely fair in insolation, as the player is losing one of their resources to 1-for-1 trade with only one of their three opponents.

DemonDragonJ on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

At a game store where I play, a player who is new to the game believes that cards such as Strip Mine or Wasteland are balanced, since their controller sacrifices those lands to destroy another land, a perfect one-for-one exchange, in that player's mind, but I am seeking to explain to that player that those lands are not at all balanced, since every land that can destroy other lands that has followed has required mana to use its ability and often provides the controller of the destroyed land with a compensation for losing the land, so what words of wisdom can anyone here offer to me, so that I can explain to the new player that Strip Mine and Wasteland are not balanced?

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

3 months ago

Do you mean cheap 'fetch' options like Evolving Wilds, or pricey stuff like Verdant Catacombs? Proper Fetchland are really strong cards, and very few things screw you over for playing them. People typically benefit from Fetches if they have landfall effects, usually you need quite a few, or very good ones, or they are a lot of money for relatively little value, especially 2 colour deck. This changes a bit if you've got other synergies, especially cards that let you play lands from your graveyard, Fetch lands are incredible in decks like Muldrotha, the Gravetide, where getting a single one in your graveyard technically means you'll never miss a land drop (unless something happens). In your colours people often run Fetch lands with cards like Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator (there are more options, these are just very popular ones that synergize with effects that give you the ability to play extra lands, such as Burgeoning). The nicest thing about these sorts of combos is you can also throw in something like Strip Mine/Wasteland to generate a great deal of advantage over time.

Looking at your deck for a bit, it doesn't have a lot of 'bad' cards kicking around, so it's hard to improve your deck without raising it's power level. Arguably fetches don't increase your power level, they just make your deck a lot more consistent, but with enough synergies you can possibly shave a few lands if you ran all of the true Fetchlands that can find a Swamp or Forest (at this point there is a range of dual lands that have the Swamp/Forest typing, but most ETB tapped fwiw. I'd run at least 3 duals you can fetch out if you're going to run a bunch of Fetchlands, as well as a smattering of Basics.

Hope some of this helps!

IHATENAMES on Akiri, Fearless equipment

5 months ago

Ideas.

Bedlam spicy card creatures cannot block. Agro your opponents out.

Imposing Grandeur neat wheel that let's you draw 6 and your opponents probably draw 2 or 3.

Surestrike Trident w/a free equipt cost your creatures tap to deal dmg equal to their power.

Forging the Tyrite Sword slow ramp w/ a equipment tutor.

Skullclamp can be op with all the tokens. Yes most aren't 1 toughness but they will die alot.

Goblin Gaveleer big creature when you add equipment

Goblin Bombardment alot of tokens to throw around

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus Sword of the Animist ramp 1 is a living weapon too.

Most x and y Swords are expensive but feel free to consider them.

Although these are interesting ideas I went back through your list and i think you need more interaction.

Think anything from Wasteland type effects to Path to Exile or grave hate Soul-Guide Lantern protection Blacksmith's Skill I'm sure you have some favorites. I'd add at least 3 or 4 more. I personally like it when even If I don't draw my answer to a problem I at least have one in my deck.

Especially grave hate. I don't think I'd suggest Rest in Peace but I really think everyone should run 1 or 2 pieces of grave hate recursion is so popular and powerful these days you need to have an answer or you aren't playing the game.

Happy brewing!