Commander Quest — Lands
With the explosive popularity of Zendikar Rising’s modal double-faces cards (MDFCs), landfall decks are getting a big boost. Solid performers like Flagstones of Trokair and Undiscovered Paradise see a sharp uptick in play and price, but are there any dark horse cards that can benefit from the landfall synergies Zendikar Rising brings to Commander without putting a hurt on your wallet?
Riftstone Portal
Obviously green wants as many lands and landfall synergies as it can get, but white hasn’t necessarily been the most obvious partner color for lands decks in Commander. However, powerful cards from Zendikar Rising like Felidar Retreat are making big waves in Selesnya (Yasharn), Naya (Obunn), and even Four-Color (Omnath) decks in the format. Riftstone Portal offers advantages of its own with a much smaller price tag than something like Flagstones.
And just like how you want to get Flagstones into the graveyard to reap its full benefits, there are plenty of staple ramp cards in green/white color that both put lands into your graveyard or want them there — Harrow, Crop Rotation, Elvish Reclaimer, and Knight of the Reliquary to name a few.
Color-fixing options on a land that enters untapped? Sign me up.
Dunes of the Dead
As mentioned above, there are plenty of lands staples that put or even want lands in your graveyard. Adding to your board when you sacrifice a land is just extra value. Coming into play untapped means you’re not losing tempo by playing this, but tapping for colorless means you probably aren’t running it in decks with three or more colors.
Mono-red or mono-green feel like good homes for this since they don’t have access to Bojuka Bog and will be more likely to play Scavenger Grounds, which gives you multiple opportunities to exile graveyards.
Red also has access to Geomancer’s Gambit and the new Cleansing Wildfire that turn on landfall and draw cards while cycling a land. All that plus a body.
Lair Cycle
Lair was a land type introduced in Planeshift that didn’t really go anywhere. The five lands in the cycle tap for each of the shards, like tri-lands, but they come into play untapped and force you to bounce a non-Lair land or sacrifice it. Taking a look at the rising price of Undiscovered Paradise shows just how valuable repeatable landfall triggers mixed with color-fixing can be.
Obviously some of the Lairs are going to be more relevant than others, with Rith’s Grove (Naya) and Treva’s Ruins (Bant) being among the most useful in Obunn and Omnath decks.
But all of the Lord Windgrace decks looking to power up from the recents additions in Zendikar Rising may want to consider picking up Darigaaz’s Caldera over Savage Lands to boost the effectiveness of Valakut Exploration or to return multiple lands for extra landfall opportunities with Ancient Greenwarden.
Ghost Town
This one’s another budget option to get repeated, guaranteed landfall. Only tapping for colorless is a small drawback on this untapped land, but it also makes returning itself to your hand optional. So whereas Undiscovered Paradise might be setting you back when you’re trying to ramp or just advance your mana production on-curve, Ghost Town offers the flexibility to return when you need and leave your mana-production intact when you need.
From the Ashes
This is by far the most controversial pick on the list since it’s a.) not a land and b.) a mass land destruction spell. It’s also a risky play if you’re playing against another lands deck that might also stand to reap the benefits of a pile of landfall triggers of its own.
This is something that you want to play to set up a big swing with Moraug or Phylath or a game-ending blow from Valakut Exploration.
If you aren’t ending the game with this card, you’re likely having your game ended by the rest of the table.
