Originally Posted by
Mr. Safety
I've been messing around quite a bit lately, building decks that have the spells it needs but lacking in true dual lands. Is the format in a place where shocklands, as a budget option, could actually work? Even the most aggressive of matchups are rarely won based on 2 damage you do to yourself from fetching a shockland. I know each game is unique, and plenty of races still happen in legacy. However, without a true aggro deck (Delver variants and Maverick are the closest to a 'true' agro deck in legacy, IMHO) in the format, does that 2 life matter? Burn is still a deck, but fairly fringe, and giving up one rarely seen matchup is something I'd be willing to accept in order to play some high-powered spells. I've evaluated my collection lately, and I have tons of competitive cards to build good decks. Then I remember that even 1 dual land is $100 at a minimum, and that's for a heavily played Plateau (the least expensive one, IIRC.) It's really only a matter of time before the dual lands are out of reach for even old timers like me to buy or trade into. I'd like to get some objective discussion going on how bad shocklands are in the format as budget substitutes for true duals.
Are shocklands really a deal-breaker when it comes to legacy deck building?