Cycle of Lands

[Samite Healer]

I mentioned in my other thread that I wanted to create a cycle of lands that is representative of the zones from the World of Warcraft.  After some consideration, here is what I came up with so far and wanted to see what others thought.  Eventually, I'll have at least 10 lands, with each color combination represented.


Borean Tundra

Land

 : Add  to your mana pool.
 , , Sacrifice Borean Tundra: Search your library for a Plains and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Borean Tundra: Search your library for an Island and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Borean Tundra from the game: Gain 3 life and draw a card.


Burning Steppes

Land

 : Add  to your mana pool.
 ,  , Sacrifice Burning Steppes: Search your library for a Mountain and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Burning Steppes: Search your library for a Swamp and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Burning Steppes from the game: Destroy target non-black creature.


Nagrand

Land


 : Add  to your mana pool.
 ,  , Sacrifice Nagrand: Search your library for a Plains and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Nagrand: Search your library for a Forest and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Nagrand from the game: Search your library for a Forest and Plains and put them into play tapped.


Icecrown

Land

 : Add  to your mana pool.
 ,  , Sacrifice Icecrown: Search your library for an Island and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Icecrown: Search your library for a Swamp and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Icecrown from the game: Draw 2 cards and lose 4 life.  Play this ability as a sorcery.


Un'Goro Crater

Land

 : Add  to your mana pool.
 ,  , Sacrifice Un'Goro Crater: Search your library for a Forest and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Un'Goro Crater: Search your library for a Swamp and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Un'Goro Crater from the game: Sacrifice a creature and return target creature from your graveyard to play.


Ghostlands

Land

 : Add  to your mana pool.
 ,  , Sacrifice Ghostlands: Search your library for a Plains and put it into play tapped.
 ,  , Sacrifice Ghostlands: Search your library for a Swamp and put it into play tapped.
  ,  , Remove Ghostlands from the game: Remove target permanent from the game and gain life equal to its converted mana cost.


Originally, I had each land fetching the other color as the first two abilities are now, but then I realized that they would be inferior to the Panorama cycle that was just printed (which I really like).  Therefore, I figured it made sense to include a third ability, and I started by giving each land the ability to fetch two lands like the Nagrand ability.  Upon further pondering, I decided that would be quite boring, and wanted to give each color combination a sense of their unique flavor and came up with what was posted above.  Some of the abilities probably need work, and I'm curious as to what other people think.

[Matt]

Why do the third abilities RFG?

[Samite Healer]

Since the third abilities are much more powerful and probably take place in the late game, I didn't want them to be able to be recurred.  The thought of a a recurring Vindicate, or any land that was powerful to swing a game on its own with a Crucible or Loam later on seemed too powerful to me.  Of course, this is just a preference.

[The Atog Lord]

,  , Remove Un'Goro Crater from the game: Sacrifice a creature and return target creature from your graveyard to play.

This ability can be used even if you do not have a creature in play to sacrifice. If this is not desired, but you wish to keep the symmetry in cost and not move the sacrifice before the colon, then you can simply make the sacrifice subsequent to the return.

[forests failed you]

I think that the Ghostlands is an interesting card.  These lands would be pretty sweet in a type four stack as well.

The GW land doesn't seem very good if you consider that Krosan Verge does virtually the same thing but for GW1 less mana.  It might be more flavorful to have the GW land put tokens into play, or perhaps, do something involving enchantments.

[Matt]

Yeah, the existence of Krosan Verge makes Nagrand pretty boring. I'm not familiar with WoW, so sorry if this isn't in-flavor for the place, but I think Titania's Boon would be a much more interesting effect.

If you're worried about recurring the huge abilities, just price them such that it can't happen before the late game. You've done this, so might as well make them sac (it looks weird to have 2 sac abilities but the third is RFG).

The U/B one should say "Play this ability only when you could play a sorcery."

Lastly, it's kind of weird that these don't make a complete five-allies or ten-color-pairs cycle. Are you planning on extending them?

[chrissss]

Very nice cards.

[Samite Healer]

Yes, I'm planning to extend the cycle to complete all 10 color combinations, I just cranked these out while at work last week.  I am going to change Nagrand to make it more useful/flavorful and I'll post that when I'm done with the others.  I really don't mind the fact that the third ability is RFG, because I don't want someone to be able to win the game with their land and a Crucible, even if it is overcosted and late game.  Sure, there ARE lands that win in the late game such as Urza's Factory, but that's not what these lands are about.  They're more about providing a solid mana-base in the early game with their fetch abilities, and providing a late-game boost rather than thinning your deck out when you have enough colored mana.  I want a player to sometimes have to decide whether it's worth it to use it as a fetch in the first few turns, or save it to use a few turns later (or many turns later, in some cases).

I appreciate the feedback, and I'll post the rest of the cycle in the next week.

[Matt]

Unless you're playing T4, I really think you're overestimating the likelihood (and impact) of recurring these. As is, I doubt I would ever even play these in most block formats.

I want a player to sometimes have to decide whether it's worth it to use it as a fetch in the first few turns, or save it to use a few turns later (or many turns later, in some cases).

I don't get it. All your objections to making the abilities sac across the board are based on having a Crucible around, but if you have that, then players DON'T have to weigh their options: they just fetch now, and when they get the Crucible, fetch some more, until they finally get comfortable and shoot the 'big' (not actually very big) effect once.

If you're asking me to spend 6+ mana (well, 5 plus the loss of my WoW-land), I think I have every right to expect that I be able to get more than one use out of it. Every turn I use these, I'm not using the card I drew that turn, because I totally tapped out to do this minor effect. Whispers of the Muse would never have got off the ground if, for the same 6 extra mana, it had flashback instead of buyback.

That's what these lands are like: Whispers with Flashback 5U. If I can't keep doing it, I just won't bother using that ability at all.