The Only-Lands Challenge

Legacy Lands Show and Tell Theme/Gimmick

Nayru_Incarnate

Land (60)

• 4x Ancient Tomb
• 4x Blast Zone
• 4x Cabal Coffers
• 4x Crawling Barrens
• 4x Glacial Chasm
• 4x Inkmoth Nexus
• 4x Karakas
• 4x Kessig Wolf Run
• 4x Lair of the Hydra
• 4x Lavaclaw Reaches
• 4x Maze of Ith
• 4x Skemfar Elderhall
• 4x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• 4x Thriving Grove
• 4x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

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Sideboard

Land (15)

• 3x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 3x Radiant Fountain
• 3x Rath's Edge
• 3x Spawning Bed
• 3x Zoetic Cavern

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Maybeboard

Land (2)

• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Thespian's Stage

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The Only Lands Challenge

This challenge is just what it sounds like: You can only use lands. There are a few specifications though.

Rule 1

No basic lands. Every land must be a non basic land. Not sure why you would want a basic land but it is a rule anyway. This may leave you vulnerable to cards that destroy your lands or creature lands and have you search for a basic land. So Path to Exile will screw you over.

Rule 2

Must be legacy legal. This means no Strip Mine, Bazaar of Baghdad, or Library of Alexandria.

Rule 3

This rule concerns the definition of a land in the case of this challenge. A land is a permanent with no played mana cost and type land. This rule must apply to both sides of the card if it is double sided (so no Zendikar Rising spell-lands, no Ixilan enchantment lands, or whatever other crazy stuff people come up with.) These rules must apply to the lands while they are in there printed state. I’m looking at you people who think they can use Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Despite the fact that Ashaya becomes a land after you play them (and would allow you to play any other creatures,) it is not that in its printed state and is therefore illegal. You may still create tokens, or use lands that transform into creatures, as long as the cards in your library do have the land type.

Rule 4

Must have a maximum of 60 cards. No playing every single land in mtg.

The Deck

This deck is essentially my first swing at this challenge (suggestions are welcome, I do not know every land in magic, please give feedback)

The Mana

Content goes here

The Mana

Ancient Tomb, Cabal Coffers, Thriving Grove, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth,

Explination

Your probably thinking “Why the heck do we need a mana base in a deck that is all lands?” The answer is because land effects are expensive. So it’s essentially running the Cabal Coffers-Urborg combo and Ancient Tomb for massive amount of mana. Thriving Grove is being run as a versatile source of colored mana, providing consistent green mana and the choice of black or red mana as well.

Creature-Lands

Crawling Barrens, Lavaclaw Reaches, Inkmoth Nexus, Lair of the Hydra,

Explination

Creature lands are essential for wining with this deck. Crawling Barrens ramps up the more it is used, and serves as a powerful tool for throwing our mana base into. Lair of The Hydra serves a similar function. Inkmoth Nexus’ infect is an important tool for applying early game pressure, while Lavaclaw Reaches is a valuable red source with a useful mana dump ability.

Removal

Blast Zone, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Karakas, Skemfar Elderhall

Explanation

Blast zone is good targeted removal for any permanent, while Karakas and Skemfar Elderhall can deal with legendary creatures and smaller creatures, respectively. The Tabernacle is one of the most crucial cards in this deck as rarely will this deck have actual creatures on the battlefield during your upkeep, making it a great card to deal with token decks and mount general pressure.

Other

Maze of Ith, Kessig Wolf Run, Glacial Chasm

Explanation

Maze of Ith and Glacial Chasm are useful control/stall lands that can tap for mana with Urborg, while Kessig Wolf Run let’s us ramp all of our creatures while giving them trample to get them by chump blockers.

Sideboard

Radiant Fountain works as life gain, Rath's Edge is useful but too big of a downside for the main deck, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is card draw, but again, it also helps your opponent, Spawning Bed generates a few tokens that can be blockers or ramp. Zoetic Cavern is another creature land that can be used to circumnavigate blood moons and Armageddons. It can also be played face down in the same turn as another land.

A Brief History of Lands

The Basic Land

Basic lands are as old as Magic itself. Originally, they had rules text which lasted until 6th edition, where the text was replaced with the large mana symbols we now know and love. It was not until 8th edition where we saw lands gain the “basic” super-type and their 5 subtypes to reflect their nature. The first full art lands appeared in Unglued and were the only black-bordered cards in the set. Full art lands have been extremely popular since. Unstable on the other hand introduced lands that had no borders at all, which also proved to be an extremely popular take on the format, that continued to latter sets. A secret layer drop has also introduced my personal favorite version of the basic land, the full text land, yet again pushing the boundaries of what people consider to be a land, and yet again proving quite popular. The mountain, for example, reads “This card's name is Mountain. Basic is its supertype, land is its card type, and Mountain is its subtype. A deck may contain any number of basic land cards with the same name. You may play this card during a main phase of your turn while the stack is empty and you have priority. You may not play this card if it is not your turn or if you do not have any land plays remaining. while on the battlefield, this card is a basic Mountain permanent. Because it has the subtype Mountain, this permanent has the intrinsic mana ability "T: Add R." This ability can be activated any time you have priority or are prompted to pay mana, but only red Mountain is on the battlefield. To activate it, pay its cost, T. (The T symbol denotes tapping a permanent by rotating it 90 degrees. it is then tapped, and it cannot be tapped again until it is untapped.) Once the cost is paid, you add one red mana , which may then be spend immediately or left unspent for later use. As each phase or step of a turn ends, you lose any remaining unspent mana.”

Cont

Conclusion

Lands are a powerful tool in MTG, and sometimes we forget that. Despite this, this deck still has some major downsides, but some upsides as well. You can only play 1 land a turn, but you can’t be in a mana drought. Hopefully you people reading this will find it interesting, and maybe have your own ideas or suggestions. This took a lot of time and research to make happen, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

Top Ranked	Achieved #86 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #3 position in Legacy 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Splash colors	G
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 6 Rares 8 - 6 Uncommons 4 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Morph 2/2 C