RAV Block Duals

[Tog]

In the spirit of questions posed by Versus, I have one of my own. Just how much better are the Ravnica Block Dual Lands than the painlands from previous sets in an environment without fetchlands [i.e. Post-Extended Rotation]? In Standard, the Ravnica Lands have been an auto-four alongside the painlands. Guess my question boils down to this: On average*, how much "pain" do you receive from a painland (tapping it for colored mana) vs. On average*, how much damage you receive from a Rav land. Based on this, which is better?

*Emphasis "On average"

[Cait_Sith]

On averagre you will take 1 from a Shock Land (Rav Dual) for Aggro and less than 1 for Control. Pain lands don't really work out that cleanly simply because They rely on your color commitment, your color costs, and your mana fixing.

I have taken 0 damage from them. One game I ended up taking 9 damage from painlands.

[Wallace]

Rav Duals are some much better. First off they are two Land types, which can help out any number of other cards. I rarely take 2 from the Rav. lands. You wait till yurn 3 or 4 to play them, when the "comes into play taped" really does not hurt you. I have taken a lot of damage from pain lands in a game. will gladly risk having to take 2 damage once and a while, over having to take 1 damage every time I need a colored mana.

[Deep6er]

It's more dependent than anything on the type of deck. I took 16 damage from lands in one game. I was playing Zoo. I opened with Stomping Ground, Sacred Foundy, and Temple Garden. Then, when I lost those, I dropped a Karplusan Forest and Battlefield Forge that I had to use for the rest of the game. It was a beating. However, on another fun note, I have used the painlands to kill people. That's humorous. Anyway, Rav Duals are generally superior due to their interaction with Fetches, but in a post Fetch world, I'd still say the Rav Duals are better. As you can use other cards to find them.

[Pinder]

Anyway, Rav Duals are generally superior due to their interaction with Fetches, but in a post Fetch world, I'd still say the Rav Duals are better. As you can use other cards to find them.

Treefolk Harbinger, Farseek, etc, etc.

[Nihil Credo]

Precious few decks have such light colour requirements that a painland will cause less damage per game than a shockland.