Tainted land

The original cycle of tainted lands as it was first printed in Torment.

Tainted lands are a 4-card cycle of dual lands.

They tap for one colorless mana. If the player controls a Swamp, they can also tap for either or a second color that depends on the individual card.

History

Tainted lands were introduced early 2002 in Torment as part of its "swamp reward" theme, as this set was specifically centered around black.

Aside from Tainted Peak, each card has since been reprinted in a special set: Tainted Isle in Planechase 2012, Tainted Field in Sorin vs. Tibalt and Tainted Wood in Jace vs. Vraska. Both Tainted Field and Tainted Wood also got reprinted with new frame in Commander 2015.

List of tainted lands

• Tainted Field (/)
• Tainted Isle (/)
• Tainted Peak (/)
• Tainted Wood (/)

Notes

• Tainted lands work with nonbasic lands that have the swamp subtype, like Leechridden Swamp or Watery Grave.
• Check lands are another cycle of lands that provide an upside if the player controls a land of a particular type. They enter the battlefield untapped if the condition is met.

Trivia

• The tainted land cycle is unique in that it centers around all possible color combinations with one particular color — black. Each other dual land cycle in existence centers around either allied colors or enemy colors.
  • As of now, no cycles for any of the other basic land types has been printed.
• They are also the only uncommon dual lands with the potential to produce colored mana without any delay, as opposed to cycles like slow lands or storage duals.
• The artwork of each tainted land is based on that of a respective basic land from Odyssey, representing a darker version of the original. Specifically, Tainted Field matches Plains-332, Tainted Isle matches Island-335, Tainted Peak matches Moutain-346, and Tainted Wood matches Forest-348.