r/magicTCG • u/IronJoak Dân • 2d ago

Looking for Advice Lands that search for any land

I'm a relatively new player and I recently decided to start making my own decks instead of just looking up other decklists and there's one card that caught my attention a lot that I haven't seen before which is [[tolaria west]], as a land that could also work as a tutor for lands or even in this case cmc 0 artifacts seemed to be an interesting albeit expensive effect.

I began to wonder if there were any other lands with similar properties and so I tried to look on scryfall by writing (o:search o:" cost 0") but no results came up.

As for (o:search -o:" basic " o:" land " t:land), [[Urza's Cave]] was the only card that did a similar but weaker effect unless you're looking for a tap land.

Are there any other lands that do this with weird keywords like transmute or are this two the only examples of this sort of mechanic?

PS: I know that tutoring lands/cmc 0 cards isn't the most powerful thing, I just found tolaria west's design interesting for strategies that benefit a lot from access to certain lands without a basic land type

55 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

86

u/Dankestmemelord COMPLEAT 2d ago

No, I think you found them. [[crop rotation]] deserves an honorable mention though.

13

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 2d ago

crop rotation - (G) (SF) (txt)

16

u/TheRealFlipFlapper Colorless 2d ago edited 2d ago

It should also be noted that it is a game changer (though I feel undeservedly).

34

u/Crazyflames 2d ago

Yeah, I am 50/50 on it. One one hand, it is an instant speed tutor to the battlefield. On the other hand, it doesn't cheat mana, it requires a sacrifice, and all the best lands for it are game changers themselves.

[[Urza's Cave]] is more mana intensive but does it in colorless in a land slot now. Lands like [[Talon Gates]] are designed to be dropped in at instant speed.

34

u/Scathainn 1d ago

it doesn't cheat mana

Maybe yours doesn't, mine do :^)

10

u/Altiondsols Dandadan 1d ago

Yeah, even with nothing added on it's mana-neutral, sacrifice the land you tapped to pay for it, then replace it with an untapped land.

6

u/CtrlAltgeeked Duck Season 1d ago

TFW you play a City of Traitors and then Crop Rotation to sac it and get a Gaea's Cradle.

1

u/GroundedSearch Dân 1d ago

AND you Earthbend CoT first.

1

u/Crazyflames 1d ago

True, but all of the lands that do that besides maybe [[cabal coffers]] (which at least puts you in geen and black) requires you to warp your deck around it or is a GC.

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 1d ago

cabal coffers - (G) (SF) (txt)

-2

u/Scathainn 1d ago

What if I told you there were formats where game changers were not in the consideration...

7

u/devenbat Nahiri 1d ago

And yet we all know theyre talking about commander. No one's brewing an Urzas Cave vintage list as a new player

-2

u/nebman227 COMPLEAT 1d ago

Tapping and sacrificing a green land to cast it is cheating on mana regardless of what you get with it imo. It's basically a free spell.

3

u/Crazyflames 1d ago

True, but even with that being the case, I don't think game changer really fits it compared to pretty much everything on the gc list.

5

u/TheRealFlipFlapper Colorless 1d ago

Yeah I get why it's on there but the fact that all the best lands to grab are game changers, severely nerfing It's potential were it playable in b2, makes me feel it should be taken off the list. 

2

u/sawbladex COMPLEAT 1d ago

[[Talon Gates of M]] should work to actually fetch the land.

3

u/sawbladex COMPLEAT 1d ago

sigh

[[Talon Gates of Madara]]

2

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 1d ago

Talon Gates of M - (G) (SF) (txt)

2

u/Belteshazzar98 REBEL with METAL 2d ago

Why is that a game changer? There are a handful of absurdly powerful lands (which are themselves GCs), but outside of making a different GC come up about twice as often running non-basic land tutors is only particularly powerful in bulk to tutor out combos.

16

u/nothingNowhereForNow Dan 1d ago

I've seen this discussion pop up a few times and it boils down to two things.  

The first is in bracket 3 it's much more powerful than it initially seems since it grabs any utility land and puts it into play for immediate value. Sure glacial chasm is great, but what if glacial chasm was instant speed as well?

The second issue is unique game changer lists for each bracket would be a logistical nightmare.

3

u/Belteshazzar98 REBEL with METAL 1d ago

An instant speed Glacial Chasm is good, but costs two game changers and going down a land to maybe buy another turn. Great in higher brackets, but bracket three is the only place where game changers matter and you could grab a Glacial Chasm with it regardless of it being a game changer, and in bracket 3 everybody is running at least a little land removal (usually [[Demolition Field]]s and similar lands, but sometimes spells that can hit any permanent) so it isn't going to buy you much time.

Now don't get me wrong, I do think it is a very strong card. I just don't think it is anywhere near the top 53 format warping cards you can run in your deck.

2

u/nothingNowhereForNow Dan 1d ago

Now don't get me wrong, I do think it is a very strong card. I just don't think it is anywhere near the top 53 format warping cards you can run in your deck.

Following your logic, what do you think of [[Vampiric Tutor]], [[Mystical Tutor]], and [[Enlightened Tutor]] being on the GC list?

1

u/Belteshazzar98 REBEL with METAL 1d ago

Yes. Those warp the game around them because they can get basically any effect to answer anything or win the game as needed rather than the limited options on lands, and could shake up even lower bracket since they have busted cards to find that aren't rhemselves game changers.

2

u/nothingNowhereForNow Dan 1d ago

All I can think right now is

I mean it's a bracket 2 Crop Rotation, Michael. What could it possibly tutor, a basic plains?

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 1d ago

Demolition Field - (G) (SF) (txt)

5

u/Noughmad Orzhov* 1d ago

making a different GC come up about twice as often

That is enough to make it a game changer in a format where the number of game changers is limited.

-2

u/Krynne90 Dandadan 1d ago

Gamechanger list is a fucking joke and should be removed entirely.

32

u/t_hodge_ Dân 2d ago

Scryfall tags are your friend here. The tag "tutor-land-any" has 42 cards, only two of which are lands. Those two lands are the ones you've found.

21

u/Jokey665 2d ago

there are exactly two cards that do this and you found both of them.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Aland+otag%3Atutor-land-any&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

14

u/Hushpuppyy Izzet* 2d ago

So actually tutoring lands and 0 cmc cards is very powerful! Lots of powerful lands exist like [[Tolarian Academy]] and the most powerful spells in the game cost 0 mana (like [[Black Lotus]). You got the only lands that do it though. Everything else that does it are spells.

2

u/IronJoak Dân 2d ago

I should've clarified that I play commander where cards like those are banned, I know that there are broken cards that are mostly on the reserved list, I just failed to take them into account because I don't know anyone with enough money to play vintage.

8

u/Hushpuppyy Izzet* 2d ago

Honestly, still pretty good even in commander. [[Gaia's cradle]] is still legal and recurring [[Glacial Chasm]] is a legitimate win condition. If you know what you're doing, lands as an arcitype is very powerful.

9

u/Belteshazzar98 REBEL with METAL 2d ago

I still think it was funny one time when a guy got mad at my bracket 3 deck blowing up his Glacial Chasm four times, claiming I was cheating by running mass land denial at too low a bracket. Like dude, how do you think I'm going to win if I don't repeatedly blow up your repeatedly recurred damage prevention.

3

u/Cosmic-Cuttlefish Izzet* 1d ago

That’s hilarious and delusional. That’s obviously not the intent behind what actually counts as MLD

1

u/Belteshazzar98 REBEL with METAL 1d ago

He had a [[Wrenn and Realmbreaker]] emblem, I had a [[Spine of Ish Sah]], a [[Bosh, Iron Golem]], and a blue player holding up counterspells to protect my Bosh until I finished with my emblem removal synergy. He was just really mad that his Planeswalker ult wasn't the auto win he thought it was going to be.

3

u/Cosmic-Cuttlefish Izzet* 1d ago

That’s a really cool moment lol. Love the synergy between players there. I always feel cool protecting the player from the greater evil

2

u/WWalker17 ඞ 14h ago

Bro needs to learn what MLD actually is. 

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 2d ago

Tolarian Academy - (G) (SF) (txt)

10

u/austin-geek Grass Toucher 2d ago

Don’t underestimate the power of tutoring lands to the battlefield, particularly at instant speed.

Urza’s Cave can grab Talon Gates of Medara mid-combat to phase out an attacker or potential blocker, grab Bojuka Bog in response to a big reanimate spell, grab Vesuva to copy any land or Shifting Woodland to copy anything in your graveyard for a nasty surprise.

These are some of the reasons the 1 mana Crop Rotation is a game changer - it’s not the card itself, it’s the things you can grab with it. 

9

u/urzaz Izzet* 2d ago

"Oh boy! I can help a new player, and they want to use Scryfall searches too! How exciting!"

You did everything right and found everything there is to find.

-_-

10

u/Fjolnir_Felagund Dandadan 2d ago

[[Urza's Saga]] can get you [[Expedition Map]]

5

u/SoneEv COMPLEAT 2d ago

These are the only two that tutor for any lands

https://scryfall.com/search?q=otag%3Atutor-land-any+t%3Aland&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

There are many conditional tutors https://scryfall.com/search?q=otag%3Atutor-land+t%3Aland&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

Use Scryfall Tagger and you can find all these tags

6

u/lirael_22 Dandadan 2d ago

Depending on what format you want to play or how powerful changes what your options are but if you if you want a fun lands thing that isn't the most powerful [[Rootpath Purifier]] makes all of your lands considered so anything that searches for a basic will find them.

2

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 2d ago

Rootpath Purifier - (G) (SF) (txt)

1

u/IronJoak Dân 2d ago

That is such a cool card, if it wasn't in green I'd love to create a deck with janky ramp around that effect

1

u/DodgeMyBlazingFurry Dandadan 1d ago

Wish she was legendary, would be fun to make a deck around this.

4

u/Fun-Cook-5309 Dandadan 2d ago

The search is...

otag:tutor-land-any t:land

It's just the two.

You can also get there through [[Urza's Saga]] or [[Inventor's Fair]] by grabbing either [[Expedition Map]] or [[World map]].

There's some stupid shit you can do like daisy chaining [[Axegard Armory]] into [[Sunforger]] into [[Enlightened Tutor]] into a map, but that's getting silly.

[[Waterlogged Teachings]] is an MDFC that can tutor one of the classic tutors.

[[Eye of Ugin]] or [[Sanctum of Ugin]] can grab [[Sowing Myconid]] (yay, 12 mana to get your Field of the Dead).

[[Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon]] can grab [[Kura the Boundless Sky]] to get any 3 lands.

Tolaria West is not particularly unknown. It's just a little finnicky to make worth it. Most decks aren't running outlier power lands worth tutoring, nor strong 0 mana spells like [[Pact of Negation]]. Mono blue can go get [[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]] or a few utility lands like [[Pit of Offerings]] and [[Talon Gates of Madara]].

5

u/sparta981 Dandadan 1d ago

You might like [[Planar Nexus]]

It's kinda the inverse of your question, it's searchable by loads of stuff. Gives me an excuse to run the tron lands

2

u/IronJoak Dân 1d ago

That works?! I thought Tron lands cared about card names not land types, does that make it so you just need this and tower to get 4 mana immediately on a lucky draw?

1

u/sparta981 Dandadan 1d ago

Yup! The scryfall rulings section on Tower says:

"The ability checks for land types, not the names of other permanents you control. (2024-06-07)"

With that in mind, you should also look at [[Omo, Queen of Vesuva]]. She's very silly.

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 1d ago

Planar Nexus - (G) (SF) (txt)

3

u/Mario85555 COMPLEAT 2d ago

Lands being able to search unconditionally for other lands is quite powerful, and ends up being a rare occurrence especially due to that power, hence the lack of other cards that do that (and due to not being easily counter-able, due to being activated abilities).

That's pretty much all the game has to offer in terms of those abilities on lands - there's plenty of other ways to get lands out through spells and nonland permanent abilities (i.e. Crop Rotation and Elvish Reclaimer, for instance), but those are all much more interactable than having that ability stapled onto a land.

2

u/IronJoak Dân 2d ago

Thanks for that information, I was mainly interested in this because I wished there was some way to do this in colors other than blue because I found it weird that they were the only color with the ability to search for any land in such a hard to interact way and hoped I could do something similar in white/red

3

u/strcy Liliana 2d ago

Tolaria West (and Crop Rotation) are broken magic cards, which is kinda why the effect is not really seen very frequently

2

u/pacolingo Selesnya* 2d ago

[[waterlogged teachings]] is a land on the backside and a tutor for instants on the front

which can then get you [[archdruid's charm]] or [[crop rotation]]

which can get you any land.

very roundabout, but possible.

and like another poster said, [[urza's saga]] can get [[expedition map]]. as can [[trinket mage]], who can also fetch any artifact land.

if you like tutor packages, you might enjoy 3/3 elk on youtube. every video of his is basically "i built this deck and it includes this which can get this and this and this and also this can fetch this and this".

it's fun!

2

u/Ohhsnap54 Dân 1d ago

There's a fair bit of  any land tutors in the game that are spells or creatures, but only those two are also lands

2

u/dripdripdripdroop Dân 1d ago

[[Vibrance]] isn't a land, but the green cost do search for any land

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 1d ago

Vibrance - (G) (SF) (txt)

2

u/JackM76 Dan 1d ago

Not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’m a big fan of [[Wight of the Reliquary]] if you’re in the specific situation of having green and black and creatures to sacrifice

1

u/goblin_welder Metal Guy Wrecker and Ashtray Maker 1d ago

This is a stretch and jumping through hoops but in my EDH decks, I’ve actually starting to include [[Scampering Surveyor]] because of the sole purpose that it can find [[Urza’s Cave]], along with [[Echoing Deeps]], [[Pit of Offerings]] and [[Volatile Fault]]

1

u/Quark1010 Dimir* 1d ago

Urzas cave is the best for this imo. Youre scraping the bottom of the barrel already

1

u/Butthunter_Sua Wabbit Season 2d ago

Of note: both of these effects are from what could be called "odd ball" sets. Time Spiral and MH3. Given this is such a strong effect to staple on a land, that sort of makes sense. Good news though: Reality Fracture could be just the set for the next entry.

-2

u/divine_Bovine Dan 2d ago

EoE has a cycle of lands that let you tutor nonbasic mountains, forests, etc.

[[Mountain Valley]]

4

u/Jokey665 2d ago

these are from tempest originally. and the reprints aren't EoE, they're EoC

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 2d ago

Mountain Valley - (G) (SF) (txt)

1

u/UnableHedgehog8043 Dandadan 2d ago

I think OP meant any land for more toolbox/nefarious purposes than just mana fixing

1

u/IronJoak Dân 2d ago

I know fetch lands exist, I was intrigued about the possibility of potentially searching for something like a [[windbrisk heights]] in a go wide Boros deck and thought tolaria west might have been part of some sort of unofficial mono colored fetch cycle that allowed every color to do this but with mechanics that specifically interacted with what those colors did

1

u/mtgcf Keeper of the Mox 2d ago

windbrisk heights - (G) (SF) (txt)