Storage land
A storage land is a land that can gain storage counters in one way or another, and later be tapped to remove any number of storage counters and add that much mana. Usually, that mana is colored.
Examples
Example 1
Mercadian Bazaar
Land
Mercadian Bazaar enters the battlefield tapped.
: Put a storage counter on Mercadian Bazaar., Remove any number of storage counters from Mercadian Bazaar: Add 
for each storage counter removed this way.
Example 2
Fungal Reaches
Land: Add 
.
, : Put a storage counter on Fungal Reaches., Remove X storage counters from Fungal Reaches: Add X mana in any combination of and/or 
.
History
So far, three singular cards and three 5-card cycles have been printed that are considered storage lands.
The first storage land was City of Shadows from The Dark, which could build up counters by exiling creatures and did not require removing counters to produce mana, but could not produce mana any other way.
Fallen Empires storage lands
In the next set — Fallen Empires — the first cycle of storage lands was created. They enter the battlefield tapped and their controller can choose not to untap them during their turn and put a storage counter on them. The cycle was reprinted for Fifth Edition.
Mercadian Masques storage lands
In Mercadian Masques, storage lands were revived. Though they function identically in a vacuum to the ones from Fallen Empires, they have a much cleaner template and don't force their controller to make decisions on storage before their draw step.
Time Spiral storage duals
Storage lands seen in Time Spiral significantly improved upon the original design, reflecting a much higher standard of power for nonbasic lands. The lands enters untapped, could tap for colorless mana for no cost, and could produce either of two allied colors of mana from the stored counters rather than just one. They also did not have to tap themselves produce the stored mana so they could work as a sort of mana fixer, but this was problematic as it obfuscates a player's access to mana - a player could have one untapped basic land but still have access to seven mana in three colors, for example. However, all this advantages were counterweighed by the fact that adding storage counters cost one additional mana.
- Calciform Pools (
/
) - Dreadship Reef (/
) - Molten Slagheap (/)
- Fungal Reaches (/)
- Saltcrusted Steppe (/)
Fate Reforged storage land
In Fate Reforged a dragon-themed storage land was printed as a rare, in that the stored mana could be only used for Dragons and their abilities. It removed the ambiguity of mana access by having the storage mana be a tap ability.
Magic Origins storage land
A stripped down version of the recent templating was printed in Magic Origins - it cannot produce colored mana, and so was generally worse than the Time Spiral variants.
Trivia
- Early versions of these lands are popular in Card blind formats in which the ability to produce large quantities of mana is rare.
- The Time Spiral "storage duals" also saw significant Standard constructed play in reactive control type decks and combo decks such as Dragonstorm.
Cards similar to storage lands
A number of artifacts and enchantments have similar effects to storage lands, though they do not use storage counters. Most notable is a cycle of Mana Batteries from Legends, which actually precede the storage lands: White Mana Battery, Blue Mana Battery, Black Mana Battery, Red Mana Battery, and Green Mana Battery.
Other cards include Kyren Toy, Iceberg, Petalmane Baku, Gemstone Array, Mana Cache, Rasputin Dreamweaver, Druid's Repository, Crystalline Crawler, Component Pouch, Ventifact Bottle, Coalition Relic, the last of which only stores one counter at a time and the last two of which always removes all counters during the next main phase of their controller.
Mirrodin's Core, Jeweled Amulet, Throne of Makindi, and Cryptic Trilobite also have a charge-up mechanic, but the first two can never produce more than one mana per turn, and the latter two may only be spent on specific cards or spells.
Glittering Stockpile, Lotus Blossom and Shrine of Boundless Growth charge up at no cost, but their mana burst ability comes with a sacrifice.
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