"Land destroying Lands:A Comparison"

"Land destroying Lands"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Lands destroying other lands(LDL). Why that's like people eating other people! At least in the world of magic this is just fine. Lands destroying other lands I mean.

Pin point land destruction is a must for any player who plays in an environment where non basic lands dominate. EDH games are the best example of this where the most competitive decks are chock full of Non-basic lands. There are a lot of these lands that give unfair advantage to your opponents so a little land destruction goes a long way to make sure that EDH games run a bit more fairly for you. Lands that give Mana Advantage likes Serra's Sanctum or Limitless Recursion like Volrath's Stronghold to the Man Land Cycle of cards from World Wake. To the Infective Inkmoth Nexus and Monstrous Dark Depths. There will never be a shortage of targets.

Now why choose lands when there are an abundance of spells that actually do that job. Yes there are spot removals that could take care of creatures in each color but there is just one word for them: Counters. Lands that destroy others do so by mana- activated abilities and are virtually unstoppable when they pop. Who would want to target one of these Land destroying Lands with a Pithing Needle right? 

Now as a given LDL's have one constant feature aside from being able to blow up their own kind. They give you one colorless mana to build your mana base when you get them early. So this is the inherent draw back of using them. If your mana base is screwed up you lose one mana producing land when you use their second ability. The good news though is that in EDH no one really needs to destroy anything early. Over the years Magic has tweaked them a bit to make them less stronger for the standard format.

The 6 best lands to include in your EDH deck are the following:

1)  Encroaching Wastes

Pros: Choice of LDL for Standard

Cons: 4 colorless mana to activate!

- The latest of the line has been hosed down a bit but will still see play because it is the only LDL in standard today.

2) Ghost Quarter

Pros: No mana cost to activate

Cons: Your opponent will be able put one basic land in play

- Your opponent gaining one basic land is better than dying to an activated Dark Depths later on. 

3) Tectonic Edge

Pros: Just 1 Colorless mana to activate

Cons: You need to wait until your opponent has at least 4 lands.

- Very good against Man Lands during its time.

4) Dust bowl

Pros: The great thing about it is that you don't need to sacrifice it. You could sacrfice another land to be able to use it again.

Cons: 3 mana cost and loss of a another land. Most likely a basic land.

5) Wasteland

Pros: Just tap and Sacrifice!

Cons: A weaker version of strip mine but then again no one really just wants to blow up Basic lands. 

6) Strip Mine

Pros: Tap to pop a land and It can blow any land too!

Cons: Aside from losing one land. Nothing

- By far the strongest LDL since it can destroy even basic lands.

There you have it. 6 lands that can make a difference against the Non-basic land menace.

There may be a lot of targets at any given time but these lands are always limited. Choose your targets wisely.