Sac land

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Sac lands is a slang term for utility lands whose late-game ability requires the sacrifice of the land, as a way to mitigate mana flood. The most common design lets the player draw a card. The original set was taplands, which can be sacrificed to produce more or different colored mana, which did not protect against mana flood or mana screw.

Fetch lands do not fall under this category, as their mana-production ability is contingent on being sacrificed: they have little capacity to mitigate flood. Striplands are in a category of themselves.

Original sac lands

The original sac land cycle of uncommon Fallen Empires lands illustrated by Mark Poole. Giving an extra burst of mana would be able to help play something ahead of the curve, but if the player was already missing on land drops, it meant they would play one card one turn faster, but be behind from then on out. As such, they see a greater play as combo pieces, where assembling a single high-mana turn that ends the game is more effective.

They share the text The tap symbol.: Add M. The tap symbol., Sacrifice [this]: Add MM., where M is the respective color of the land.

Three-color sac lands

Invasion triple lands that sacrificed for one of each of that color's allied colors.

All-color sac lands

Odyssey includes Sac lands that sacrificed for one mana of any color. These lands were not designed to give a burst of mana, but rather to be a way to fuel threshold.

Card draw sac lands

Horizons lands

Introduced as a preview land design in Future Sight (Horizon Canopy Green mana/White mana), the Horizon lands were printed in Modern Horizons that tap for M and N at the cost of one life, in enemy colors, and could be sacrificed for 1 generic mana, The tap symbol.: Sacrifice this land: Draw a card. These lands are one of the most aggressive costs for card draw as they were designed for Constructed.

New Capenna Locales

In Streets of New Capenna, a cycle of taplands that tap for M and N, which are the allied colors in each of the families. They have the common ability 2MN, The tap symbol.: Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.

New Phyrexia Spheres

In Phyrexia: All Will Be One, five common Taplands were printed with an activated ability of 1 generic manaMulticolored, The tap symbol. and sacrifice to draw a card. Each of these five represents the realms of each praetor. Together with the The Monumental Facade, Mirrex, The Mycosynth Gardens and The Seedcore lands, they represent the nine Spheres of New Phyrexia.

Avatar lands

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, a double cycle of taplands that tap for M and N were printed that have the common ability 4 generic mana, The tap symbol.: Sacrifice this land: Draw a card. In this way, the allied color ones are strictly better versions of the New Capenna locales.

Variants

Threshold lands

In Odyssey, a set of pain lands was printed that had an ability that could be activated when Threshold was achieved. In contrast to later designs, white and blue were not card neutral; the red and black ones would only be if they had good creature targets, and the green one would only be if the opponent was forced into an unfavorable combat.

Blighted lands

These lands from Battle for Zendikar produce Colorless mana and have an activated ability that sacrifices the land with an activation cost that requires the colored mana as well as a varying amount of generic mana. It has a distribution similar to the threshold lands. The blue member is the only one that draws, but as card draw has diminishing returns when flooding, it draws two cards. The green member is unique as the set had an element of playing expensive Eldrazi, and so it is a ramp land rather than a mana sink.

Spell Deserts

Hour of Devastation printed a cycle of mono-colored pain Deserts. They can produce colored mana for a life cost, can produce colorless mana, and can be sacrificed for their ability. Uniquely to this cycle, they can sacrifice other types of lands for their ability, and due to this, all but the black one push a victory condition rather than be card-neutral effects.

Memorials

In Dominaria a tapland cycle with a common naming pattern was added each depicting characters from Dominaria's past.[1] Like the Blighted lands, the blue member draws two cards. Three others are card neutral in other forms, and the last one creates two 1/1 tokens.

Kaldheim Realms

In Kaldheim, a double cycle of ten uncommon lands that enter the battlefield tapped was printed to represent each of the realms. They tap for color M and have abilities that cost XMNN and sacrificing them, where M and N are the colors associated with that realm. Like with the Blighted cycle, only Gates of Istfell draws cards, and it draws two; five of them generate tokens, and the others consist of tutoring, board wiping, adding +1/+1 counters, and forcing the discard of a card.

An eleventh utility tapland was printed at Rare with The World Tree.

Ixalan Hidden Caves

In The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, five common Taplands with the subtype Cave and an activated ability of 4 generic manaMulticolored, The tap symbol. and sacrifice to Discover 4. While Discover casts the card found, they all have the worst-case scenario of drawing a card. Each of these five represents subterranean versions of basic land types, as some of the geography would not make sense underground.

References

  1. ↑ Chas Andres (April 4, 2018). "Memorializing Dominaria". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2018-04-04.
Basic lands
Nonbasic lands
Unreleased lands
and test cards
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