What could a new viable cycle of Lands look like?

[Slyvester12]

You mean like the Kamigawa lands but for non legends?

[StevenOs]

What if there was a cycle of lands that had their own special abilities to the colour, like the castles but better and affecting only your creatures? For example:

[name]
Land - Forest
(T: Add {G})
{1C}{G}{G}: Creatures you control gain trample until end of turn.

Maybe Black could give your creatures deathtouch until end of turn, while Red gives your creatures menace. Blue could make your creatures hexproof, and white would give creatures you control flying. They'd be sort of similar to the castles, except with better abilities and fetchable. Maybe too powerful, though. I, for one, would love to see a cycle like this where the abilities of the lands can make a big impact to the game, instead of just letting you scry 2 or make a 1/1 token. This ability could be even better used with the keyword counters used in Ikoria! Something like "Put a hexproof counter on target creature you control" would be nice to have.

Where's the drawback?  A "forest" that could tap from round one but then has added benefits that just take mana could be too good.  Now this would come into play tapped or have some other cost to come into play untapped.  With a benefit that hits all of your creatures it'd also require tapping this lad for it as well otherwise you can just use the land to help pay for its own special ability.

[Potato Chop]

Where's the drawback?  A "forest" that could tap from round one but then has added benefits that just take mana could be too good.  Now this would come into play tapped or have some other cost to come into play untapped.  With a benefit that hits all of your creatures it'd also require tapping this lad for it as well otherwise you can just use the land to help pay for its own special ability.

Good point. If these lands were made, then it would probably have to enter tapped or cost you some life on entering. Too powerful otherwise. And you are 100% right about having to tap the land for the ability; I just forgot to add the 'T', sorry for the slip-up

Edit: And yes, @Sylvester12, basically like the kamigawa lands but with less localized and more useful effects.

[Morganator 2.0]

Long before the release of Battlebond, some friends and I were discussing what a functional replacement to the ABUR duals would look like in commander. We came up with a list of requirements:

• Two colors, fetchable
• Unplayable in Legacy
• Always enters untapped

The bond lands would have been perfect, if they only had subtypes. The best we could come up with was legendary lands with subtypes.

[Slyvester12]

Legendary lands would be a really nice workaround. The only downside I see is I wouldn't put it past WotC to make a legendary land cycle at mythic instead of rare, especially if it could replace duals.

They could also make a more specific cycle, though. For example:

Islandforest

Land - Island Forest

Enters the battlefield tapped unless your commander has UG in its color identity.

T: add U or G.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Land - Island Forest

Enters the battlefield tapped unless your commander has UG in its color identity.

 umm ... If your commander doesn't have blue and green in it's color identity, then this card couldn't be in the deck to begin with.

[Slyvester12]

Land - Island Forest

Enters the battlefield tapped unless your commander has UG in its color identity.

 umm ... If your commander doesn't have blue and green in it's color identity, then this card couldn't be in the deck to begin with.

...that was the point...

Morg mentioned the land cycle should be unplayable in vintage. Making it so only EDH players want them will keep the price down (albeit not a ton given the popularity of commander).

If the cards are limited by something that doesn't affect EDH at all, then they'll be powerful while still being less in demand.

[Morganator 2.0]

It would probably be worded "[Cardname] enters tapped unless your commander is on the battlefield or in the command zone."

[ApothecaryGeist]

It would probably be worded "[Cardname] enters tapped unless your commander is on the battlefield or in the command zone."

This wording seems to be less confusing.  I still doubt that we will see good lands with an "unless" Claus so narrow that it almost never happens.

[Morganator 2.0]

I still doubt that we will see good lands with an "unless" Claus so narrow that it almost never happens.

That's kinda what the bond lands are (Luxury Suite). In a format like Commander they almost always enter untapped. It's only when your other two opponents have been eliminated that it enters tapped. In Legacy, they always enter tapped. They would have been perfect, if only they had subtypes.

With "[Cardname] enters tapped unless your commander is on the battlefield or in the command zone", the land will almost always enter untapped in Commander, but will always enter tapped in Legacy, because you don't have a commander.

With a cycle of legendary dual lands, they would be slightly playable in Legacy, and would be a functional equivalent to the ABUR duals in Commander.

[WWolfe]

They got it half right with the Bond lands (Luxury Suite) and half right with the Battle lands. The Bond lands have the right CIPT clause while the Battle lands have the subtypes (Canopy Vista) to make them more friendly towards multiplayer formats while not drawing the interest of legacy players to drive up the price. 

This almost makes me feel like we'll never see the right combination of the two.

I'd like to see a cycle of lands similar to Krosan Verge

So you want some kind of budget fetchlands? 

They already have half a cycle of budget fetches. Bad River for instance. I think what Shredwick meant was lands that found multiple lands.

[HowlingLotus]

While it feels like more of an enchantment effect, something along the lines of how Bounty Of The Luxa works would be neat. Doesn't have to necessarily rotate between mana and card draw, but maybe something that comes down untapped for colourless that turn. Then something like it gets a counter at pre-combat main phase and if counters are odd or even on it add either colourless or two coloured mana. Or is that too much?

[StevenOs]

So what is the purpose for this "new cycle of lands" supposed to be?  To give commander decks another land or two to add but which will not be any better than current cycles in other formats?  To be a new bomb in legacy formats and drive the price of fetch lands even higher by giving them even better targets?

You want dual lands that include the basic land types?  How about this for the template?
[land name]
Land - Plains Forest
[land name enters play tapped]; if [land name] is the second land to enter play this turn untap it. (similar to Fabled Passage)

Now would that see play?  If you've got fetch lands could there be a better target?  A format without ways to play/put into play that second land it might be dead weight but if running a format where you could play a land and then use that land to find this people would be all over it.

A second "cycle" could be the "not quite the original dual lands"
Not-Underground Sea
Land - Swamp Island
When Not-Underground Sea enters play lose 1 life.

I'm thinking that's a close as you could get to the original dual lands.  It'll always hurt to bring them in instead of just some of the time as with the shocklands but they'd give you the types you want faster and with less early pain even if they may not be quite as good late.  A cycle of lands like this should be printed as Common because you know everyone will want full playsets to use in every format although even at common I believe they'd quickly jump to more than $1 and could quickly come close to other dual lands which may see a drop in demand.

[Morganator 2.0]

What about a land like the reveal lands (Game Trail) except that you need to reveal a card of the appropriate color pair? So for the red-blue land you need to reveal a red and blue card.

[Akira Foxmind]

What about a land like the reveal lands (Game Trail) except that you need to reveal a card of the appropriate color pair? So for the red-blue land you need to reveal a red and blue card.

That sounds pretty nice to me, since I'm a big fan of the reveal-land cycle. I think those are the best lands you can get for low money, if you need consistant etb-untapped lands.