Season 10 Mana-Fixing
Written by Quentin C.
This season’s mana is sooooo fetch!
“…it’s like slang, from England!” (Mean Girls)
The Fetches are back and have something better to grab than basic lands! The often overlooked manabase is impossible to ignore this season due to its texture and intricacy. We have “Schrodinger Mana”, Man Lands, a plethora of utility lands, and even a “sixth color”.
The Triomes
Slow, but fetchable and supports splashes
The Ikoria Triomes are tapped tri-color wedge lands with cycling and basic land types (Mardu, Temur, Abzan, Jeskai, Sultai).
Besides fixing for three colors, the main allure of the Triomes is their typing. This lets them come into play off of the Zendikar Fetches, as well as effects like Kor Cartographer, Merfolk Wayfinder, and Liliana of the Dark Realms. As swamps, Zagoth Triome and Indatha Triome will be instrumental in satisfying the Torment Tainted Lands. Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Cabal Coffers, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle decks can support Black/Red, White/Green, or White/Blue, respectively, while playing the correct land type every turn. Evasive Action will be a staple in the format and maybe we’ll even see Last Stand make an appearance.
Having basic land types does come at a slight cost. Cliff Threader, River Boa, and Colossal Whale have landwalk abilities that won’t be difficult to satisfy. More brutally, Stern Judge shreds against swamps and Mask of Intolerance may be a fast clock against slower 4/5 color strategies.
Previously narrow cards have increased diversity in deck construction
The Fetches
Fuels a variety of strategies and allows a depth of creative applications
The Zendikar Fetches replace themselves with a land from your library that includes a basic type of their enemy color pair (Orzhov, Boros, Izzet, Simic, Golgari).
This searching fuels the graveyard for Torment threshold cards and more. They also thin out your deck of lands to increase the odds of drawing a spell. If you need to draw lands, try saving your Fetches. Holding onto Fetches also amplifies the power of Landfall abilities, as each Fetch represents two triggers instead of one. If needed, these lands allow triggers to occur at instant speed.
For decks with instant-speed spells, the Fetches act as Schrödinger’s mana. The default action is to develop your colors by fetching a Triome, but you can fetch a basic land instead if you need to respond right away! This option is so powerful, that even some top tier Vintage decks are playing a single fetchable tap land (the MKM Surveil lands).
Fetches also change the top card of your library, giving you a second chance to find a relevant typing for cards like Oracle of Mul Daya and Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate. Sometimes, you won’t want to draw whatever an opponent Temporal Springs or Time Ebbs, or whatever their Goblin Guide reveals, and Fetches can shuffle them away.
Be careful with Fetches, as cracking them at the wrong time might leave you vulnerable to a Nimble Obstructionist “stone-raining”. Too many Fetches might also weaken you against aggressive damage strategies, power up a Cosi’s Trickster, or trip an Archive Trap / Lavaball Trap / Ravenous Trap.
A beacon of power, an interesting interaction and a warning
The Gain Lands
A life buffer against aggro is relevant, and this time lifegain has payoffs
The Ikoria Gain Lands are tapped duals that gain you one life on entry. All color pairs have access to them.
The Gain Lands are outclassed in almost every way by the Triomes besides the few downsides that basic typing can have, though you are likely to be running these in conjunction with Triomes. They could be a substitute for some number of Fetches to gain life instead of lose it, but this would come at a huge tempo cost that would need to be supplemented with comeback cards.
Scoured Barrens is likely to see the most play, as Orzhov contains a potential lifegain strategy. Archangel of Thune, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Sanguine Bond benefit from having multiple instances of lifegain. Meanwhile, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Path of Bravery and Felidar Sovereign ask you to cross a certain threshold of life to get the most out of them.
Needlebite Trap and Punishing Fire are the only cards that punish lifegain, but I don’t see this as enough of an incentive to run the tapped duals that don’t gain you life.
The Man Lands
Mana advancement that doubles as an evasive threat
The Man Lands are an exception to this rule. Izzet, Golgari and Boros each have one dedicated to their colors while Mutavault can fit into most decks and Hostile Desert can fit into a few. While you may be missing out on the benefits of other duals/triomes, having access to a damage threat from your manabase is worth looking into.
They evade most sorcery-speed removal, such as Journey to Nowhere, Chainer’s Edict and board wipes. They dodge Into the Roil and Mythos of Nethroi since those specify a nonland target. They slip under countermagic. Even though they can be stopped by Vindicate, at least it acts as a lightning rod for your other permanents.
The “Sixth Color”
Colorless costs add an extra layer to deckbuilding
Oath of the Gatewatch introduces cards that specifically require colorless mana to pay for mana costs and abilities. The Tainted Lands, the Pain Lands and Deserts can all pay for colorless costs making them more textured this season than previous ones. Take note that the only fetchable colorless source is Wastes with cards that find basic lands, including Evolving Wilds, Traveler’s Amulet, and many green cards.
The Tainted Lands
An untapped and painless “triome” when well supported
The Torment Tainteds are untapped duals that tap for colorless and require a swamp to tap for color. They come in all black color pairs (Orzhov, Dimir, Rakdos, Golgari).
While these lands don’t produce colored mana alone, it isn’t difficult to get a swamp into play. If we treat having a swamp on turn 2 as a two-mana spell, then you would need 13 ways to access a swamp to consistently activate the card. With eight Fetches, four Triomes, and a single basic swamp, we see that this isn’t too difficult to accomplish.
However, land interaction might prey on the reliance of swamps and make Tainteds a liability. Vindicate, Rancid Earth and Spreading Seas are early and unconditional interrupting pieces. While less likely, Nissa’s Defeat could see some play with Triomes running loose, making Savai Triome safer to grab than Indatha Triome or Zagoth Triome.
Land interaction is likely commonplace in season 10
The Pain Lands
Painful yet necessary fixing for those who want to play spells early
The Apocalypse Pain Lands are untapped enemy duals. They can create colorless mana without issue, but tapping for color costs 1 life.
Pain Lands are more reliable than Tainteds early on, and being able to tap for mana on turn one is a plus. However, the self-damage can really start to add up over time. It will come down to how pip-intense your deck is, how long you expect your average game to go and how much you can insulate yourself from damage from the opponent to figure out which lands you want.
The Deserts
Utility lands to get an extra something when flooding out
Besides the cyclers, the Hour of Devastation Deserts tap for colorless and typically have some additional effect involving sacrifice. They synergize well with each other, but are narrow/slow/painful in their colored mana production. It is recommended to use them sparingly in decks with solid mana already or to take full advantage of their synergies in a more dedicated colorless-adjacent strategy.
Rainbow Mana
Rainbow fixing takes many forms in this format, and may or may not include colorless fixing too
As is archetypical, cheap mana of any color is largely reserved for green where Lotus Cobra and Manaweft Sliver double as fixing and ramp. Oath of Nissa is a great cantrip that also allows for an ambitious planeswalker strategy. However, ambition isn’t limited to green alone— just take a look at False Dawn!
The Fetches act close to tapped rainbow lands when they can fetch any color through the Triomes. Shimmering Grotto actually taps for all “6 colors”, though filtering mana can be quite slow. More narrowly, Corrupted Crossroads supports a “6-color” Devoid strategy, especially when paired with Survivors’ Encampment to take further advantage of Eldrazi Scions.
Conclusion
Ketria Triome (Variant) illustrated by Robbie Trevino
As a brewer, I love turning deck concepts into a reality and figuring out what the best cards for that idea are. With the complexity of the mana this season, it will be just as important to discover the optimal way to cast the spells as it will be to find the optimal spells themselves. This may be daunting, but I’m excited for the challenge and look forward to everything that’s possible in Fantasy Standard Season 10. What will you brew?
