Scry land

The scry lands are a series of lands that have the capacity to manipulate the top of the library through an enters the battlefield ability. Surveil lands are also listed here due to the mechanical similarities.

Description

All scry lands listed let the player scry 1 when entering the battlefield. As lands have a particular issue with diminishing returns, scrying into or away from other lands is a large benefit even if the ability is not a guarantee in finding the desired category.

Future Sight

A predecessor to the scry lands, New Benalia (), was printed in Future Sight, as part of an uncommon cycle of utility taplands. It is the only scry land to only produce one color.

Dual-colored scry lands

These scry lands can produce one of two colors and are also called temples due to their naming pattern. This was the first batch, introduced as an asymmetrical double cycle in Theros block. The five lands in Theros share their colors with the Gatecrash guilds, with the three remaining allied lands appearing in Born of the Gods and the two remaining enemy lands appearing in Journey into Nyx. The enemy-colored lands were reprinted in Core Set 2020 and Core Set 2021. The ally-colored lands were reprinted in Theros: Beyond Death. All ten Temples were reprinted in the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Beginner Box.

Allied colored

• Temple of Enlightenment (/)
• Temple of Deceit (/)
• Temple of Malice (/)
• Temple of Abandon (/)
• Temple of Plenty (/)

Enemy colored

• Temple of Silence (/)
• Temple of Epiphany (/)
• Temple of Malady (/)
• Temple of Triumph (/)
• Temple of Mystery (/)

Colorless scry lands

Later on, Zhalfirin Void was printed in Dominaria, and was the first scry land to enter untapped as it produced only colorless mana.

A common strictly better version of Zhalfirin Void (and incidentally Shimmering Grotto) was printed in Dominaria United under the name of Crystal Grotto.

The Grey Havens is a legendary land that scries from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. It can only generate colored mana if there are legendary creatures in your graveyard

Alchemy

A digital design from Alchemy: Innistrad, Forsaken Crossroads, allows the player to Scry 1, but also allows them to replace it with being untapped if they were not the starting player. It allows a choice of any color of mana like Uncharted Haven.

Activated abilities

Path of Ancestry, Castle Vantress, Rivendell, Study Hall, and Isolated Watchtower scry as their utility activated ability, alongside the Campus cycle. Soldevi Excavations was errata'd to do so as well. Restless Spire is further unique by having it be an attack trigger as a manland. These play differently to other scry lands as they tend to be mana sinks for Limited formats, as expending multiple mana is more feasible in board stall formats than in the different sorts of stalemates found in Constructed formats.

Surveil lands

Surveil is a counterpart to scry in which the unwanted cards are put into the graveyard rather than the bottom of the library. A full cycle of surveil lands was included in Murders at Karlov Manor. They are similar in design to the Temples but are also true dual lands because they have two basic land subtypes.

• Meticulous Archive ()
• Undercity Sewers ()
• Raucous Theater ()
• Commercial District ()
• Lush Portico ()
• Shadowy Backstreet ()
• Thundering Falls ()
• Underground Mortuary ()
• Elegant Parlor ()
• Hedge Maze ()

Gallifrey Council Chamber, Arid Archway, Conduit Pylons and Hidden Grotto are other lands that surveil 1 as they enter, while Tocasia's Dig Site, Kishla Village and Lilypad Village are lands that surveil as an activated ability. Marvel's Spider-Man brought an ally-color counterpart to the Campuses that surveil 1 at the same cost.