#Nonbasic Land

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Verdant Catacombs by Anthony Avon

[mtg-card-of-the-day]

Today's Date is April 30th, 2024 and today's card is Inspiring Vantage, Miku edition!!

[This card will be available for preorder along with 5 more at secretlair.wizards.com on May 13th, 2024]

[ID This card depicts a slim and tall lady wearing a long flowy backless navy blue dress with a bow tying it shut located on her lower back below her thin waist. She's sitting on a thin crescent moon with her navy blue boot-clad legs dangling below. She has neon blue pigtails that flow so long to be even below her dress, tied with red ribbons. The moon she is sitting on hangs above a field a lavender flowers, with a beautiful starry night sky off in the distance. On either side of the night sky view is waves of grey clouds.

It's a Land and it's rules text reads "Inspiring Vantage enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands.

Tap: Add 1 Red or 1 White."

It's flavor text reads "First Miku takes the stage, then she takes your breath away."

It's artist is Dani Pendergast and its print year is 2024. It's from the Secret Lair set based on Hatsune Miku that becomes available for preorder May 13th, 2024. End ID]

[flyermagic]

Cement Arknights!

I designed this before blummin' Planar Nexus got printed, but I won't let that take away from her unusual buildaroundability

Art source (her E2 splash art by 科学)

[generalb]

The Plan:

1. Have at LEAST 5 mana and a Mirrorpool.

2. Play Defense of the Heart.

3. Have Defense of the Heart Trigger, grab these bad boys:

4. Have this Serra’s Emissary enter choosing Instants.

5. Sacrifice mirrorpool to make a token copy of Serra’s Emissary.

6. Because of Ojer Taq, I get three Emissaries, and I get to pick three different card types. Obviously 2 of them will be creatures and Sorceries, but what will the third one be? Enchantments? Planeswalkers? Lands? I genuinely don’t know.

7. Win? Hopefully

The biggest thing though is that this has to be my last play, as I will no longer be able to affect any of my creatures. I have to have everything I need to win out. I mean, granted with the 4 Serra’s Emissary’s blocking literally everything known to man I could slowly but surely kill everyone. But who knows, I’ve played against guys who see a stalemate as a wincon so I need to be prepared for those type of people.

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than blood moon

damn FUCKING right I am! And so are you! And like 90% of people! Because HOT DAMN that is a LOW bar!

Okay so this is Blood Moon right?

To anyone reasonably familiar with how type-changing effects work, this just removes the land subtypes (if any) of all nonbasic lands and replaces them with the subtype Mountain. If you know how basic land types work, then you also know that this causes the lands to gain the ability to tap for red mana, and lose the mana-granting abilities that those lands got from their former subtypes (if any). Simple.

FUCK YOU! You stupid idiot why would you think the card that changes subtypes would just change subtypes!? This card ACTUALLY removes ALL the abilities of nonbasic lands, including abilities that have nothing to do with subtypes! What's that? That's not what the card says? Psh, come on, it's so obvious what the card text actually means.

It says "Nonbasic lands are Mountains", which OBVIOUSLY is supposed to be interpreted as "Nonbasic lands become copies of THE CARD Mountain", which means the only ability they have is tapping for red mana. What's that? That's not at all what this card does, and it doesn't even change the name of the affected lands or give the Basic supertype? Well, sure, that's not TECHNICALLY what it does, but obviously this effect is a type changing effect that's supposed to be interpreted as a transforming effect that doesn't work like EITHER of those and instead works like an ability changing effect. It's intuitive!

And any way of wording this card that makes the card actually say what it does is IMPOSSIBLE! It would be too LONG and COMPLICATED and WORDY! Just like the oracle text for Animate Dead! It's for the best that this text is kept because there's NO GOOD WAY TO WORD IT!

Okay, sarcasm mode over. Those bits about "it makes lands become the card mountain" and "a reword would be too complicated like Animate Dead" were actual genuine arguments I saw. So, here's how Blood Moon came to be this disaster of a card.

It was originally printed in "The Dark", a set released just one year into MTG's life. Naturally, rules didn't exist, so they could just print whatever they wanted on cards and hope that players understood what it meant. The first serious attempt at rules consistency wouldn't be for another few years. The actual text was even more different, saying that nonbasic lands became "basic mountains", which... idk what happened with that, I guess WoTC decided to not to allow effects to mess with the Basic supertype?

Anyway, at some point, they finally decided to make The Comprehensive Rules where they make everything make sense, but there was a catch: They wanted old cards to still work the same way with their original printed text, but Blood Moon's text clearly only affects subtypes, not abilities. So rather than changing Blood Moon's text to say what it does, they made this rule here:

305.7. If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any copiable effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. blah blah blah ...

This is not how any other type changing effects work, not even for other subtypes that grant abilities. Changing a card's subtype never affects its rules text, especially not abilities that have nothing to do with its subtype, and especially if it never had a subtype to begin with. This is a special exception made purely for basic land types, just so that Blood Moon and the few other cards like it don't have to be reworded. Imagine if they made a special exception in the comprehensive rules just so that they wouldn't have to change the text of Rock Hydra. There is ONE other exception to type changing effects in the rules, but it's the mildest thing since white bread:

205.1b blah blah blah ... Some effects state that an object becomes an “artifact creature”; these effects also allow the object to retain all of its prior card types and subtypes.

And while cards that make things become artifact creatures almost always play exactly as expected, Blood Moon's primary benefit is effectively secret rules text that isn't written on the card.

Also, since this IS technically just a type changing effect, shit gets wack with layers. Normally, type changing effects all apply before ability changing effects, which helps everything run smoothly; "creatures you control are Merfolk" plus "Merfolk you control have hexproof" works exactly the way you expect it to.

But then Blood Moon shows up and starts changing abilities in the type-changing layer! This is usually niche, but it can cause various rules headaches, so much so that the youtube channel JudgingFTW has an entire playlist of explaining Blood Moon rulings. I wrote up this post before watching the most recent video in that playlist, and I was overjoyed to find that judge Dave says this (2:08) about rule 305.7 (the rule that makes Blood Moon take away abilities).

In conclusion, fuck this card and its stupid 4 work text box. Cards should say what they fucking do on the text, you shouldn't have to know an obscure rule buried in a gigantic document just to understand how a card works.

[whatsthatmagiccard]

A poll went around asking people which M:tG rules text isn't real, but it included a card from a set that hasn't released yet. Here's my rectified version. Don't look it up beforehand. All real text is from paper tournament-legal cards. Reblog to spread outside the M:tG community.

[markrosewater]

You said a while back that it’s hard to make nonbasic hate that punishes greedy decks without also punishing fairer ones.

Why? Blood moon or ruination seem like they are inherently fair. The degree they hurt people is directly proportional to how greedy their land base is. If ruination is too extreme for your taste, from the ashes is an even less punishing card, effectively just being a mass field of ruin. How are these cards too punishing to fair land bases?

I'm not sure everyone would agree that Blood Moon is "fair".

[mtgtips]

Mtg Tip: You can make your own basic islands if you cry enough

Magic the Gathering tip: you don’t need that new merfolk to make all nonbasic lands islands with this one easy tip

[magicwithclass]

I never realized that this card has a 5 color identity. It can only be played in commander decks that are five colors. All 5 mana symbols appear on the card but the triple blue in the casing cost made me the think this could be played in mono blue. Your islands would not be affected but your opponent would have to think very carefully about how to use their mana. The fact that this card only fits in 5 cor decks definitely limits its playability. Also, the fact that this doesn't have any effect on lands without basic land types. At least, it works on nonbasic lands like the trilands from New capenna. This seems like a stax card meant to disrupt your opponents mana but there are a bunch of problems. First, people do not like stax and people do not like you messing with their lands. This card is probably going to be frowned in edh and it seem too weak for cedh. Next, I do not like playing cards with triple specific mana costs in a 5 color deck. Triple blue is just not viable in a 5 color deck unless you are primarily blue and splashing the other colors. Furthermore, if your opponent is playing mono blue or heavy blue then this card doesn't do much. The cumulative upkeep is also such a tax on your own mana. 3 mana to keep this in play and it only increases from there? I should also note that naked singularity has a very similar effect for the same upkeep cost but has a generic casting cost at 5 mana. If you are playing one you might be playing the other. Reality twist is certainly a strange and fairly unique card but it does not see much play. The top commanders include all the 5 color commanders but most of those decks skip this. One combo would be to make your opponents lands all one land type to attempt to lock them out of the color mana they need to cast. Blood moon and those effects synergies well with this card as do lands like urborg tomb of yawgmoth. Who knows what the future has in store for this card. Any card that can lock you out of mana can be competitive but there are a lot of reasons why this will never see play in our reality.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Murky Sewer by Martin de Diego

[bittenrabbit]

what a gaaaame that was so fun

so many highlights!

i got my sol ring blown up turn 1

got my commander blown up twice

aster tried to kill her kellan by running it into a big creature, i ith'd it

we all got married and i promptly divorced wren (gandalf polyamory win? 😳🥺💙)

aster ulamog'd us and then exiled all creatures and destroyed every nonbasic land 💥

i threw a wurm at her (🐛💥💀) and then got into such a cool 1v1

after all that i got got by a strip mine from izzys opening hand aaaahhhh

so many ups and downssssss that was the most fun ive had playing commander in awhiiile

[farsight-the-char]

Probably the most Entertaining form of "nonbasic land hate".

I love it.

[inventors-fair]

All Our 2023 Contests:

JANUARY

New Year's Revolution (Design a Rebel)

Running Into Time (Reference two parts of turn)

One Card to Rule them All (Impress R&D)

Chimeric Idols (Combine two cards)

FEBRUARY

Manifestish (Sorcery/Creature art mix)

Counter Intuitive (Two or more kinds of counter)

Hit Singles (Monocolor Partner)

Die Role (Activated Ability w/ Sacrifice)

MARCH

Mini Me (Smaller/Bigger existing card)

Uncommon Ground (Uncommon for unusual gameplay)

Signature Spellbreakers (Supplemental Planeswalker)

Limited Options (Common archetype payoff)

APRIL

Expiration Date (Unique death)

Known by Many Names (U/R/M that references a common)

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work (MOM-style teamup)

March Madness (Non-teamup MOM card)

Within Reach (Desire/Longing flavor)

MAY

School's In (Teacher/school theme)

Alone in the Big City (Monocolor Ravnica Legend)

The Rainbow Standard (Rules text w/ basic land type)

Come to the Down Side (Card w/ downside)

JUNE

Sagas Beyond (UB Saga)

Elevator Pitch (New variant on keyword)

A Type of Perspective (Story Spotlight redesign)

Innovation Nation (New type of draft set)

JULY

Stunning New Marvels (Stun counter R/M)

A Dark and Stormy Knight (Mirrored Pair)

All Play and All Work (Silly moment)

Back to Nonbasics (Design a land card)

Guess Who's Back? ("Return" in OT)

AUGUST

Return to Tarkir (What's Tarkir like now?)

The Next Big Thing (Large theming)

Strength in Numbers (This way/For each/Equal to)

The Power of Friendship (UB Partner variant)

SEPTEMBER

Woe Tidings Upon Ye (WOE card)

Elder Dragon Highlander (Legendary Elder Dragon)

Monochrome is Where the Heart Is

Reborn Again

OCTOBER

Dead Lucky (Using both seven and thirteen)

The Power of Superfriendship (Plays with planeswalkers)

The S Word (Powerful weapon)

Get a Load of Dis-Guise (Change creature type)

NOVEMBER

Dognitive Cissonance (Elemental/Color relationship)

Lost Caverns of Ixalan's Lost Vault (LCI Card)

One For the Money (C/U card with MV 1)

Re: Vision (Redesigning old submission)

DECEMBER

All the World's a Page (Literary UB card)

The Finality Countdown (Card with finality counter)

[dungeonmagister]

Probably terrible MTG Format idea:

- Singleton 30 card decks.

- Life total is 10.

- each player starts with 2 lands on the board.

- 5 round matches, you can't have the same nonbasic land out at the start of the game more than once per round.

- If you try to draw a card while having 0 cards in your library, shuffle your graveyard into your library and suffer 10 damage, then mill any remaining cards yet to be milled.

Lastly, if you were first on round 1, you WILL BE SECOND on round 2 and so on. It's best 3/5, so if the score is even on round 5, it's sudden death, and you do the bottom card on the library thing again.

[dravidious]

I will hate how WotC designs rares until the day I die, but I just saw a Bloomburrow rare that I really like:

This card, TECHNICALLY, is a 4-drop 5/4 with no upsides. All three of its abilities are symmetrical, and in some games (especially in limited) none of the abilities will do anything. The abilities ARE effectively just upsides though, because obviously you're only going to be running this in an aggro or burn deck, but the first two abilities are situational counters to certain cards/strategies, so most of the time they'll be useless.

The third ability is, to be honest, really strong, but in a way that I REALLY like. It punishes players for playing nonbasic lands. I love this because it means that in limited, this really is just a 4-drop 5/4 vanilla. But I also love this because WotC is PUSHING IT with nonbasic lands, specifically rare lands. Players with big enough wallets can stuff their decks full of nonbasic lands and suffer almost no consequences, while budget players who use basics risk not having enough colored mana. That means this card is WEAKER AGAINST BUDGET DECKS! How awesome is that!? This thing is like an un-set card that punishes players for playing rares, except it's standard legal!

I love this, more rares like this please!

[devoid-of-love]

stupid fucking commander lame-ass archetype this sucks so bad

just try to not burn yourself *as much* that's why it's all nonbasics even though i run burning earth. witches clinic is amazing, kessig wolf run x brash taunter is amazing. seedborn muse is mandatory for a win earlier than turn 12