Desert

Desert
Land Type
(Subtype for land cards)
Storm Scale	6
Statistics	31 cards 25.8% 6.5% 6.5% 6.5% 6.5% 6.5% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 3.2% 9.7% as of Outlaws of Thunder Junction
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type:"Desert"

Desert is a nonbasic land type used for cards that depict a sandy or rocky region that is arid because of little rainfall and supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all.

History

The subtype was created in the Eighth Edition rules update when all land types were cleaned up. For a long time, the only card featuring the subtype was the archetypal Desert from Arabian Nights. It was printed as such in Time Spiral/Timeshifted.

Apart from the ability to tap for colorless mana, the original Desert also can do 1 damage to attacking creatures. The subtype was needed because the Camels and Desert Nomads are immune to the damage done by deserts and refer to them by type.

Amonkhet finally featured four deserts, mirroring the harsh and punishing deserts of Egypt. They were inspired by the original card. The original Desert was not reprinted because, according to Mark Rosewater, it slows games down and isn’t fun.

The theme evolved quite a bit with Hour of Devastation, which features fifteen lands with the Desert subtype and sixteen cards that mechanically care about Deserts (there's some overlap between those two lists).

Deserts returned in the Wild West themed Outlaws of Thunder Junction, with the first dual-colored deserts. Like Sunscorched Desert, they deal one damage to an opponent, which is a low-investment way to commit a crime.

Ruling

• Desert is a land subtype with no special meaning. It doesn't grant the land an intrinsic mana ability. Other cards may care about which lands are Deserts.

List of desert cards

Arabian Nights

• Desert

Amonkhet

• Cradle of the Accursed
• Grasping Dunes
• Painted Bluffs
• Sunscorched Desert

Hour of Devastation

• Desert of the Fervent
• Desert of the Glorified
• Desert of the Indomitable
• Desert of the Mindful
• Desert of the True
• Dunes of the Dead
• Hashep Oasis
• Ifnir Deadlands
• Ipnu Rivulet
• Ramunap Ruins
• Shefet Dunes
• Survivors' Encampment
• Scavenger Grounds
• Endless Sands
• Hostile Desert

Outlaws of Thunder Junction

• Abraded Bluffs
• Bristling Backwoods
• Conduit Pylons
• Creosote Heath
• Eroded Canyon
• Festering Gulch
• Forlorn Flats
• Jagged Barrens
• Lonely Arroyo
• Lush Oasis
• Soured Springs

List of cards caring about deserts

• Cactarantula
• Camel
• Colossal Desertwurm
• Desert Nomads
• Desert's Hold
• Gilded Cerodon
• Hashep Oasis
• Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
• Hour of Promise
• Ifnir Deadlands
• Ipnu Rivulet
• Ramunap Hydra
• Ramunap Ruins
• Sand Strangler
• Scavenger Grounds
• Shefet Dunes
• Sidewinder Naga
• Solitary Camel
• Wretched Camel

List of storyline deserts

Amonkhet

• The Broken Lands

Dominaria

• Erg Mirab
• Megheddon Defile
• Great Desert
• Sand Seas
• Sukurvian Desert
• Surr
• Western Wastes

Mirrodin/New Phyrexia

• Glimmervoid

Rabiah

• Karun Desert

Rath

• Flowstone Desert

Shandalar

• Osai Desert

Tarkir

• The Shifting Wastes

Ulgrotha

• Dead Zone

Trivia

• Many lands that are technically deserts are instead typed as plains, such as Esper's dunes or Tarkir's deserts. This comparison seems to be directly referenced in the flavor text of a Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Plains.