Battle land
The battle lands are a cycle of allied color taplands introduced in Battle for Zendikar.[1][2] Their enemy color counterparts were printed through Commander decks in 2025-2026.[3]
Description
Battle lands enter the battlefield tapped unless their controller controls at least two basic lands.
The battle lands were noteworthy for being the third dual land cycle with basic land types, after the original Alpha dual lands and the shock lands. Their design points towards supporting two-color mana bases plentiful with basics, but they played badly with themselves: a player with two battle lands and one basic has no ability to play on curve for two of three turns, and this compounded with other dual lands, as playing any other nonbasic land delays the untap clause another turn. As conventional mana wisdom goes, two-color decks would normally run upwards of ten dual lands and so Battle lands were not conducive to smooth mana, and the surrounding format was already glutted on tapped lands.[citation needed]
Hypothetically, Khans of Tarkir's allied fetchlands would support Battle lands as dual lands that are functionally basic lands, but with powerful wedge cards promoting their use as fetchable duals, most players eschewed expecting to have early on-curve plays.[1] Much of the metagame during this period was made up of three-color wedge decks, many of which splashed a fourth color, and in Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar, only two of the top eight decks were two colors.[4] Even these allied two-color decks opted to play six to eight more fetchlands rather than play the third or fourth battle land.
This land design was not reconsidered for Standard since its printing and hence the enemy color cycle was not completed for a decade. Since Fallout's Commander decks, however, Design has begun a program to complete the ten color-pair cycles of lands that aren't viable for Standard legality.[5] The battle lands began getting this treatment with the Edge of Eternities Commander decks.
Examples
Example
Smoldering Marsh
Land — Swamp Mountain
(
: Add 
or 
.)
This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.
List of Battle Lands
- Prairie Stream (
/
) - Sunken Hollow (/)
- Smoldering Marsh (/)
- Cinder Glade (/
) - Canopy Vista (/)
- Vernal Fen (/)
- Radiant Summit (/)
The three remaining two-color pairs have yet to be printed.
- (/)
- (/)
- (/)
Trivia
- A name for this land cycle was not immediately obvious, and suggestions included "base land" (they work best with basics) and "tango land" ("it takes two to tango") lands.[6][7] The issue was eventually settled by the use of "battle lands" in a Wizards of the Coast article.[1] Ten year later. designer Gavin Verhey preferred the name "tango lands".[3]
- Between February 13 and April 16, 2017, shops could run a series of fun Standard. If a player participated in six events during this window of time, they received a special Battle land promo card using normal card frame but Masterpiece Series art.[8]
References
- ↑ a b c Luis Scott-Vargas (September 18, 2015). "Building a Better Battle". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
- ↑ Sam Stoddard (June 26, 2014). "Making Mana". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
- ↑ a b Gavin Verhey (July 11, 2025). "Why are New Dual Lands in Edge of Eternities Commander Decks?? (Video)". Good Morning Magic. YouTube.
- ↑ https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pro-tour-battle-for-zendikar#paper
- ↑ Gavin Verhey (July 10, 2025). "Last year, we finally made enemy Odyssey filterlands.". Bluesky.
- ↑ Magic: The Gathering on Twitter (30 Aug 2015) "#MTGBFZ introduces a new cycle of dual lands! #PAXPrime"
- ↑ David Lane (September 3, 2015) "Battle for Zendikar Dual Lands Analysis". MTG Grinders.
- ↑ Blake Rasmussen (January 25, 2017). "The January 25, 2017 Update". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
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