Landwalk

Landwalk
Keyword Ability
Type	Evasion
Introduced	Alpha
Last used	Magic 2015
Reminder Text	(type) Landwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a (type).)
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keyword:"walk"

Landwalk is a former evergreen keyword ability on creatures that makes the creature unblockable if the defending player controls at least one land with a certain characteristic.

Description

Landwalk was introduced in Alpha. The keyword always appeared in conjunction with a subtype or supertype to denote the appropriate characteristic, and in most cases did not actually appear as "Landwalk", but instead "Islandwalk", "swampwalk", "Snow Forestwalk" and so on. "Plainswalk" has always been the least used basic landwalk type (only 5 card including Old Fogey) because it's not a great fit for its color mechanically nor has particularly strong flavor. Also, the fact that "planeswalk" became an important concept in the game made "plainswalk" confusing.

Lately, landwalk has fallen out of favor with R&D and thus is not getting used very often. It was obsoleted alltogether in Magic Origins.

Rules

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 702.14. Landwalk
  • 702.14a Landwalk is a generic term that appears within an object’s rules text as “[type]walk,” where [type] is usually a land type, but it can also be the card type land plus any combination of land types, card types, and/or supertypes.
  • 702.14b Landwalk is an evasion ability.
  • 702.14c A creature with landwalk can’t be blocked as long as the defending player controls at least one land with the specified land type (as in “islandwalk”), with the specified type or supertype (as in “artifact landwalk”), without the specified type or supertype (as in “nonbasic landwalk”), or with both the specified type or supertype and the specified subtype (as in “snow swampwalk”). (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”)
  • 702.14d Landwalk abilities don’t “cancel” one another.

    Example: If a player controls a snow Forest, that player can’t block an attacking creature with snow forestwalk even if they also control a creature with snow forestwalk.

  • 702.14e Multiple instances of the same kind of landwalk on the same creature are redundant.

Cards that grant Landwalk

Plainswalk

• Aysen Highway

Islandwalk

• Piracy Charm
• Fishliver Oil
• Lord of Atlantis (other Merfolk creatures)
• Master of the Pearl Trident (other Merfolk creatures)
• Part Water
• Sandals of Abdallah
• War Barge

Swampwalk

• Filth (if it's in your graveyard and you control a Swamp)
• Funeral Charm
• Leshrac's Rite
• Nighthaze
• Zombie Master (other Zombie creatures)

Mountainwalk

• Burrowing
• Cave Sense
• Goblin King (other Goblin creatures)
• Volcanic Strength

Forestwalk

• Dryad's Favor
• Eladamri, Lord of Leaves (other Elf creatures)
• Elvish Champion (other Elf creatures)
• Nature's Cloak
• Hidden Path
• Lumbering Satyr

Nonbasic Landwalk

• Trailblazer's Boots

Landwalk of the chosen type

• Excavator
• Traveler's Cloak

Multiple (potentially)

• Concerted Effort (if you control a creature with that landwalk ability)

Anti-landwalk

Anti-landwalk cards allow creatures with a given landwalk ability to be blocked as though they didn't have that ability. The cards are listed below:

Enchantments

• Crevasse (mountainwalk)
• Deadfall (forestwalk)
• Great Wall (plainswalk)
• Quagmire (swampwalk)
• Undertow (islandwalk)

• The Aura Street Savvy permits enchanted creature block creatures with landwalk abilities as though they didn't have those abilities.
• The World Enchantment Mystic Decreel causes all creatures to lose islandwalk.

Creatures

• Gosta Dirk (islandwalk)
• Lord Magnus (plainswalk, forestwalk)
• Ur-Drago (swampwalk)

Artifacts

• Staff of the Ages (any landwalk abilities)

External links

• A Planeswalker's Primer for Magic 2010: Landwalk