Design Deep-Dive #6: Lands Week – Discard/Sac Lands

(orig. published Jan. 17, 2024)

I’ll be the first to admit I’m playing with fire with this one. I’ve designed several cards in this set with “Discard or Sacrifice” activated abilities, including today’s cycle of mono-colored lands! Most real Magic cards stick to one or the other, but these have the versatility to do both. They can be played out as (slow) lands and later cashed in if the game goes late enough that land count matters less than some action, or they can be discarded straight from hand as pseudo-sorceries!

To account for this flexibility, I aimed for lands with 3-mana effects that would feel about right if they were standalone 2-mana sorcery-speed cards… Time and testing will tell if this is a fair tradeoff. The abilities themselves should be fairly familiar for each color, so let’s dive into how I landed on the current text for each one.

White – Eldoris

Eldoris is a simple blink effect a la Flickerwisp. While the set doesn’t have a ton of “enters the battlefield” triggers in white to double up, there are several synergistic cards that care about, say, other enchantments entering or leaving. Beyond that, it can also disrupt an opponent’s board by removing a key blocker for the turn or making quick work of a token.

Blue – Loam

Loam is a blue, single-use Rogue’s Passage, inviting you to either find that perfect moment to strike, or find ways to get lands back from your graveyard to do it turn after turn.

[UPDATE]: After testing, this card required too much cost for the effect, especially since this set doesn’t offer many high-impact single attackers in blue — instead, the focus is now flipped to lock down a single threat from the opponent’s side of the board for several turns, either relieving pressure or creating a new opening for attacks!

Black – The Indigo

The Indigo is a reanimate effect with a fun condition: instead of limiting a creature based on mana cost, this one only cares about its power! (Can you tell my first-ever commander deck was Nethroi?) This meant I could print some key signpost cards in Black/Red and Black/White with high costs, low power, and strong effects. This particularly synergizes well with many of Red’s Inspire cards, as they quickly offset natural low stats with Inspiration buffs.

Red – Frosttip Peaks

The distant northern mountains known as the Frosttip Peaks are rumored to contain untold treasures, guarded by fierce and powerful monsters! Here, you can ramp the way Red knows best: impulsively, making as many Treasure tokens as possible!

Green – Memnos, the Giantwood

Lastly, I expect Memnos, the Giantwood is the strongest of this batch. While cards like Atraxa’s Fall have proven that this is a 2-mana effect at sorcery speed, it’s some powerful conditional removal. Beyond that, Green naturally has the most ways to take advantage of a land, either through graveyard recursion or simply by ramping enough that sacrificing a land won’t really set you back. I first tested this one at instant speed and it immediately stood out as an oppressive card!

Final Considerations

These lands are difficult to assess. They behave almost like MDFCs that don’t ask you to choose up front between land or effect, so I’m curious to see how players work them into their mana bases when deckbuilding.

Also, alarm bells may have been ringing when I compared these to sorcery spells – “Hold on! It’s much easier to interact with a sorcery than an ability!” Fret not, there are enough abilities like this in the set that the Unwell Kingdom has several counterspells and other effects which can target activated abilities as well… Players won’t get to fire these off risk-free.

Tomorrow on Lands Week: Utility Lands

UWK Lands Week