How come bounce lands aren't that popular outside of EDH?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 9, 2014, 10:29 a.m. by Headers13
I've always wondered why bounce lands (Golgari Rot Farm , Azorius Chancery , Dimir Aqueduct , etc) aren't used more often in 60 cards decks.
They effectively give you 28 lands in a 24 land card deck (assuming a dual colour deck) increasing the chance of consistently playing a land each turn. Also assuming you've tapped the land your returning that turn, they only set you back 1 mana on one turn (when compared to playing a conventional untapped land), which I feel is outweighed by the increased consistency in lands drops each turn.
They're also useful when combined with scry land or 'lands with benefits' e.g. life lands. As an added bonus they're also a hell of a lot cheaper to buy that other dual coloured lands
Admittedly they slow the deck down a little but no more than other lands that either come in tapped for some reason or have to be paid for on entering the battlefield and of course are more high risk when coming up against land destructions decks.
I'd love to hear the thoughts of the community on these cards and maybe why they're not favoured as much as other dual colour lands.
VampireArmy says... #3
Well I'll try to break it down
In modern we have decks that aim to kill by turn 4, to do this, they have to have access to all of thier colors at any given time and be able to use them the same turn the land is put out of needed. That being said, there is the Amulet of Vigor
deck that does use a lot of these lands.
Legacy is a format of land destruction and free counterspells. You can't afford to waste any tired doing nothing because people will get you drag by turn two
October 9, 2014 10:43 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
In competitive formats, any land that enters the battlefield tapped needs to have a very good reason for being in the deck at all. In Standard, people play ETB-tapped lands out of necessity. In Legacy and Modern, there are enough ETB-untapped choices to make any deck you want.
Casually, I use them in pretty much any 60-card deck they can fit into, and so do most of my friends. Like you say, they're great for the long game because they minimize missed drops, and multiplayer games tend to go much longer than duels.
October 9, 2014 10:54 a.m.
@Rhadamanthus, that's probably it then, since I'm a casual player (who normally plays multi-player) a turn 4 win is almost unheard of, therefore it makes sense to run these lands in my decks.
This also makes the price of shock lands a lot more rational as who cares about losing 4 or so life it it gives you all the colours you need to win.
Thanks.
October 9, 2014 11:46 a.m.
It's worth noting they're used in a few decks, namely Summer Bloom Combo in Modern (which VampireArmy mentioned).
I've seen them in the occasional Legacy deck list, but the reasons have to be good to use them. One example is the deck Lands playing a singleton bounce land so it can bounce Bojuka Bog or Glacial Chasm when it doesn't have a Life from the Loam .
You really need a strong reason for playing them in older formats. They're more of a niche card with a specific purpose in specific decks.
Unforgivn_II says... #2
Wasteland , Ghost Quarter , and Tectonic Edge . Not to mention the fact that you set yourself back in tempo pretty hard. The loss of speed plus the prevalence of the lands I listed make the possibility of getting absolutely blown out way too easy
October 9, 2014 10:40 a.m.