Landfall
| Landfall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ability Word | |
| Introduced | Zendikar |
| Last used | Alchemy: Edge of Eternities |
| Typical Text |
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, … (nonland permanents) Landfall — If you had a land you control enter this turn, … (instants and sorceries) |
| Storm Scale | 2[1] |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
Landfall is an ability word which signals triggered abilities that respond to a Land entering the Battlefield under the control of the player with the Landfall card.
Description
The landfall ability word rewards a player each time a land enters the battlefield under their control. With land drops generally being a sorcery-speed action, most landfall abilities are geared toward proactive gameplay (usually attacking) and incentivize playing more lands, even in aggressive decks. Without any other considerations, land drops typically trigger Landfall only once per turn and are more consistent within the first three or four turns of a game as players use the lands from their opening hand. As the game continues, land drops become more scarce, necessitating a deckbuilding cost in order to trigger landfall abilities twice or more in a turn cycle. This lets Design scale the abilities differently for Constructed and Limited formats.
Because an ability word doesn't have inherent rules meaning it can be left off reprints, being removed or added at the discretion of each set, without changing the mechanic.
Mark Rosewater considers Landfall to be the second best mechanic of all time after flying.[2]
History
Landfall was introduced in Zendikar,[3][4][5][6] and expanded upon in Worldwake [7][8] with the only landfall instants; the Battle for Zendikar block[9] with land-type boosted landfall and paid-mana effects; and Zendikar Rising [10][11] with sequentially different landfall effects. The next major applications were in consecutive sets Final Fantasy and Edge of Eternities; the texture of these landfall abilities were varied by the existence of Lander tokens in the latter set, providing more instant-speed or double landfall than would normally occur.
Landfall was one of the non-evergreen, non-deciduous ability words included in the Unfinity sticker sheets. Shortly after Unfinity's release, in October 2022, R&D promoted Landfall to a deciduous mechanic and errata'd mechanically similar cards like Architect of the Untamed and Vinelasher Kudzu to have the ability word.[12][13]
As of Bloomburrow, the explaining text for Landfall, "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control", was replaced by "Whenever a land you control enters".
Rulings
- A landfall ability triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability (such as Rampant Growth) puts a land onto the battlefield under your control. It will even trigger when a spell or ability causes another player to put a land onto the battlefield under your control (as can happen with Yavimaya Dryad's ability, for example).
- A landfall ability doesn't trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
- Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve.
Examples
Example
Plated Geopede 
Creature — Insect
1/1
First Strike
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, this creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (2025-07-03). "It appears frostedflakes5965 asked you about landWALK and you responded about landFALL.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 18, 2024). "Looking Back, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 14, 2009). "Achieving Zendikar, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05.
- ↑ Tom LaPille (September 25, 2009). "Making Landfall, Part I". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Tom LaPille (October 9, 2009). "Making Landfall, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (October 7, 2009). "The Moment of Discovery". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22.
- ↑ Tom LaPille (January 22, 2010). "The Second Landfall". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-01-20.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 25, 2010). "A Multikick in the Seat of the Pants". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Matt Tabak (August 31, 2015). "Battle for Zendikar Mechanics". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08.
- ↑ Matt Tabak (September 1, 2020). "Zendikar Rising Mechanics". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Eli Shiffrin (September 10, 2020). "Zendikar Rising Release Notes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 15, 2022). "Mark... gatherer had a weird update this morning. Are surveil and landfall becoming evergreen?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Jess Dunks (October 18, 2022). "Unfinity Oracle Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2022-10-18.
External links
- A Planeswalker's Primer for Worldwake: Landfall (Video). YouTube.
- A Planeswalker's Primer for Worldwake: Landfall Revisited (Video). YouTube.