These dual lands more easily allowed players to build multi-color decks. They also promoted strategic diversity by including these dual lands. To that end, they included powerful color hosers in the game in order to compel players to diversify their strategies both tactically and by color. One way of fostering this diversity was encouraging players to play multi-color decks. The designers of the game sought strategic diversity. The creators of the game of Magic made a critical and profoundly long-term decision when they included the original dual lands in Alpha.Īlpha only had 15 lands in the entire set, and each land was a mana producer: 5 basic lands and 10 dual lands, one for each combination of colors. (Just to be clear, the scope of this article is limited to dual lands, so I will not review the history of tri-color, fetchlands, or rainbow lands.) Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, and Revised Dual Lands I will close by identifying potential approaches that might be used in Theros or beyond. In doing so, it is also a good opportunity to look back and examine more carefully how dual lands have been designed in the past, what differences and general approaches exist to designing dual lands, and what design space remains untapped for dual lands. The mystery of what Theros may hold is an opportunity to speculate as to how the current design staff might approach dual land design. We do not know what dual lands will be in Theros or what they look like, but with Theros scheduled for release on September 27, the entire set will be spoiled within weeks. “I will let you in on a secret-there will be a cycle of dual lands in Theros block.” Most importantly, Sam Stoddard announced that Theros block would introduce a new cycle of dual lands: As is the case with every fall expansion, new mechanics, new designs, and new ideas are in the offing. Theros, the 62nd Magic expansion set, is upon us, and promises new design possibilities. They shape and constrain the strategic possibilities in the game. While there are many forms of mana production, and while it is possible to build decks without mana producing lands (or even lands at all), mana producing lands are the most basic building block in the game of Magic. Lands are the building blocks of mana production. This is why Zvi Mowshowitz once claimed that he began analyzing a format by examining the possibilities inherent in that format’s mana production capacity. More importantly, the possibilities for mana production define the range of strategic possibilities in Magic. Although it is possible to design and build decks without mana production, it is extremely difficult.
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