Cheap versions of the dual lands and fetches?

[AceofAllan]

I'm one of those unfortunates that can't afford to be spending money on the dual lands (like scrublands or tropical islands) or even the Onslaught fetches, so I've limited myself to mono-color decks. I'm sure anyone will understand how much this cripples me from playing true legacy, but it doesn't matter so much because the friends I play with are at about the same budget.

Regardless, I'd still like to try some two color and maybe even some three color decks. They aren't viable with only basic lands, so what are my options here?

Are the Mirage fetches worth buying?

What types of dual lands are the best bang-for-buck?

Thanks for the help.

[Shtriga]

you have the mirage fetches which are very cheap, and the ravnica duals which are still a little expensive. they don't play as well as the onslaught/revised lands but they do almost the same. the cheapest would really be stuff like 10th painlands and 9th CIPT lands, maybe torment lands if you're playing black, but none of those can be fetched

[Zach Tartell]

Are the Mirage fetches worth buying?

If you're paying more than a quarter for each, no. Those were uncommons back in the day. The only thing that should elevate the price would be like foreign-ness (since Mirage was the first set to be printed in Asian Languages).


What types of dual lands are the best bang-for-buck?

Do you mean real duals? Blue duals will never lose their value (barring some sort of mirror-mirror world shit where they actually listen to losers bitching about their relative scarcity and re-print them). As for the Rav cycle duals, I'd go for blue ones. 'Course if you can't afford real duals it's possible you won't shell out for 4 Goyfs, 4 Forces, a Counter/Top set, and anything else expensive related to that.

Of Rav duals non-blue ones are obviously the cheapest. I'd recommend picking up a cycle of Green ones. Survival is pretty playable, and I hear they're into forests.

Come to think of it, if you picked up 3 Gruul Turf and 3 or 4 Blood Crypts you could put together goblins (like, you'd have to save up and wait a while before putting it together since they still have some money cards). And those would probably be cheaper than a green cycle, on account of you wouldn't be picking up breeding pools.


Thanks for the help.

It's fine - I love the sound of my own voice.

[quicksilver]

I think the pain lands are the best bet for your money. I think most of them can be found for no more than a dollar or two and they are pretty descent.

[Maveric78f]

The best bet is to play monocolored imo. And never buy crap. It's better to buy 4 duals than to buy the painlands set. The only good mana-fixers lands in legacy are duals and fetches. The others aren't worth. You'd better buy 4*FoW 4*wasteland and play merfolk (that's not sarcasm, I recommend to play the UB version, but the monoclored is almost as good) or 4*LED and 4*burning wish and play landless belcher.

[Bovinious]

The best bet is to play monocolored imo. And never buy crap. It's better to buy 4 duals than to buy the painlands set. The only good mana-fixers lands in legacy are duals and fetches. The others aren't worth. You'd better buy 4*FoW 4*wasteland and play merfolk (that's not sarcasm, I recommend to play the UB version, but the monoclored is almost as good) or 4*LED and 4*burning wish and play landless belcher.

Or, he could get only 4 LED and play Ichorid, the best deck in the format. It needs City of Brass and Gemstone Mine but those are like 5$ each and useful in other decks as well. This is probably the best option if you dont have expensive lands.

[Bryant Cook]

<Insert shameless plug in for my deck in every post I make>.

Painlands and Ravnica duals work fine if you can't afford real duals, as for fetches. Miarge fetchs work, although painfully slow. Terrimorphic(sp?) expanse isn't all too terrible if your deck runs a lot of basics.

[Bovinious]

Painlands and Ravnica duals work fine if you can't afford real duals, as for fetches. Miarge fetchs work, although painfully slow. Terrimorphic(sp?) expanse isn't all too terrible if your deck runs a lot of basics.

Fine fine, you could ALSO play TES with those LEDs/Citys/Gemstones, though I guess youd need Wishes too. Happy nao?

[Zach Tartell]

Painlands and Ravnica duals work fine if you can't afford real duals, as for fetches. Miarge fetchs work, although painfully slow. Terrimorphic(sp?) expanse isn't all too terrible if your deck runs a lot of basics.

The problem with Terramorphic is that the fetched land comes into play tapped.

[Sims]

I would use Terramorphic expanse in a lot of different decks that are heavy on basics if it weren't for the fact that the lands fetched come into play tapped. That's a major downer.

[Maveric78f]

Yeah Icho is good too. You have to add Akroma and Leylines as the expensive cards. Needles too.

[rleader]

My brother and I re-started playing magic about two years ago (we quit around Visions), and we've taken different paths given our locations/finances/personalities.

He plays in near weekly tournaments and has access to bargain cards locally, where he can get revised duals for as low as $12 sometimes. He pretty much has playsets of all the lands and plays Threshold, although he could probably play damn near anything he wants with the manabase.

I don't play weekly and can only get cards via online shops that really gouge you for staples in the format. I tend to collect decks now, especially ones where you can cheat on the manabase a bit. I started with Pox (now $$$ pox), built Ravager Affinity, Dragon Stompy (although I'm relying on my brother for the Chrome Moxes as he paid less than half it would have taken me to get them), and Rodrigo's Reanimator deck. Mono-white snow (Harleyquinn) will probably be next. Each deck, for the most part, has its own complete sideboard (minus stuff like Pithing Needle that would be crazy to get multiple playsets of), and functions independantly.

None of my decks, strictly speaking, can be as good, nor do they have even close to the same resale value as his collection of lands. I think resale is something to keep in mind. OTOH, he only can pretty much have one deck put together at a time (two at most), while I have a bunch of deck boxes to pass out to guests. Just throwing this out there that there's many ways to be a player and collector.


The problem with Terramorphic is that the fetched land comes into play tapped.

OTOH, Mirage Fetches come into play tapped, meaning they can get destroyed by wasteland before you even get a chance to fetch for a basic. Both those fetches and Terramorphic suck in their own way, I think the choice has to do with when your deck needs your mana (vs. your metagame) and how many real duals you have to fetch for (what Mirage lands can find but TE can't).

[Mr.C]

I'd say also it's not worth it to spend money on sub-par cards.

Looking at my collection, I have zillions of expensive useless crap. I have misprints, foils, random shit I will never use. And I am struggling still to get my playset of duals and fetches finished (curse you, Europeans!).

Instead of spending $10 on a Rav dual, spend $20 on a revised one. Instead of spending $1 on a crappy mirage fecth, spend $10 on a good onslaught one.

Or, better yet, don't spend it. Play Ichorid or whatever.

Magic is a frigging money pit. But don;t go for subpar junk, it's a waste of money.

[xsockmonkeyx]

The problem with Mirage fetches is that they come into play tapped.

fixt.

Wasteland > Mirage fetches. Expanse > Wasteland.

[AceofAllan]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

What I'm getting from this is what I figured I would, I'm just glad to hear everyone confirm it. I'll bite the bullet, save my money for a while and not play any new decks until I can afford real duals and fetches.

Thanks again.

[Internet Hate Machine]

The mirage fetches are probably a bad plan, but the Rav duals aren't all bad. In a good deck the life loss is seldom that much of an issue, save in certain MUs, so I would say they are a perfectly acceptable sub for real duals, espesially if you're having to get them from online, the prices are quite steep on blue duals right now.

[Ozymandias]

I'm going to advocate getting 4 LED/4 Burning wish before you go for duals and fetches.

It's much cheaper, but you still g et to play a wide variety of decks