Desert

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Desert
Land Type
(Subtype for land cards)
Introduced	Arabian Nights (updated) Eighth Edition (printed)
Last used	Modern Horizons 3 Commander
Storm Scale	6
Scryfall Statistics
cards
artworks

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 as it both slows down an opposing attacker and incentivizes the defender to play off-curve.

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).

Planar Nexus, having all nonbasic land types, is a Desert as well.

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.

Lazotep Quarry from Modern Horizons 3 is a one-off Desert that represents the power of Eternalize.

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 cards caring about deserts

The two main sets that have "Deserts matter" apply them differently. In Hour of Devastation, the cards generally check for one Desert, which may be in the graveyard as the main cycle of Deserts have cycling. Most Deserts in the block produce one or fewer colors, so they are often at an expense to one's mana base. In Outlaws of Thunder Junction, however, the main Deserts are dual-colored lands, which incentivizes players to play more for mana fixing and more cards search for Deserts or scale with Deserts.

• Arid Archway
• Cactarantula
• Camel
• Colossal Rattlewurm
• Dance of the Tumbleweeds
• Desert Nomads
• Desert Warfare
• Desert's Due
• Desert's Hold
• Failed Fording
• Gilded Cerodon
• Hashep Oasis
• Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
• Hour of Promise
• Ifnir Deadlands
• Ipnu Rivulet
• Lazotep Quarry
• Map the Frontier
• Outcaster Greenblade
• Ramunap Hydra
• Ramunap Ruins
• Sand Strangler
• Scavenger Grounds
• Shefet Dunes
• Sidewinder Naga
• Silver Deputy
• Solitary Camel
• Spinewoods Armadillo
• Wretched Camel
• Yuma, Proud Protector

List of storyline deserts

Amonkhet

• The Broken Lands
• Shefet

Dominaria

• Aerona
  • Erg Mirab
  • Surr

• Corondor
  • Sand Seas

• Jamuraa
  • Great Desert
  • Sukurvia
  • Tivan Desert
  • Western Wastes

• Otaria
  • The unnamed desert in central Otaria

• Terisian Isles
  • Adarkar Wastes
  • Erg Desert
  • Kovria
  • Megheddon Defile
  • Western Desert

Mirrodin/New Phyrexia

• Glimmervoid

Rabiah

• Karun Desert

Rath

• Flowstone Desert

Shandalar

• Osai Desert

Tarkir

• The Shifting Wastes

Thunder Junction

• Spinegully

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.

Tokens

Test cards

Token name	Color	Type line	P/T	Text box	Source	Printings
Desert Vehicle		Artifact Land — Desert Vehicle	4/4	: Add . Whenever this token or a Gamer you control becomes tapped, remove an hour counter from this token. Then if it has no hour counters on it, each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life, and put eight hour counters on this token. Crew 2	The Bus Runner