When to actually use the Mirage Fetchlands

The Mirage Fetchlands:

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- Bad River
- Flood Plain
- Grasslands
- Mountain Valley
- Rocky Tar Pit

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Alright, I am pretty sure that there are a lot of players out there that do not have a complete playset of Onslaught Fetchlands. This discussion is about when to use Mirage Fetchlands. This discussion is not strictly for budget purposes. This discussion is also for which decks could actually utilize them.

Would running Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds be simply better than the Mirage Fetchlands?

Here are the pros and cons:

Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds:
+ enters the field untapped
- only fetches basic
- the land it fetches enters the field tapped

Mirage Fetchlands:
+ can fetch duals with basic types (so for budget players, you can fetch Shocklands)
+ the land it fetches enters the field untapped
- comes into play tapped

So which one would be better? Also, which decks can use what as an alternative without being detrimental to the deck itself?

Discuss.

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Originally Posted by (nameless one)

Alright, I am pretty sure that there are a lot of players out there that do not have a complete playset of Onslaught Fetchlands. This discussion is about when to use Mirage Fetchlands. This discussion is not strictly for budget purposes. This discussion is also for which decks could actually utilize them.

Would running Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds be simply better than the Mirage Fetchlands?

Here are the pros and cons:

Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds:
+ enters the field untapped
- only fetches basic
- the land it fetches enters the field tapped

Mirage Fetchlands:
+ can fetch duals with basic types (so for budget players, you can fetch Shocklands)
+ the land it fetches enters the field untapped
- comes into play tapped

So which one would be better? Also, which decks can use what as an alternative without being detrimental to the deck itself?

Discuss.

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In a format as tempo-oriented as Legacy there is no deck that would use either of these and not suffer tremendously for it. There's a reason things like the WWK manlands don't see any play, and it's not because they're not powerful - it's because coming into play tapped is such an insurmountable drawback. Giving up your turn one play to find a land just means you're going to lose to the guy who can find the same land while making his own turn one play.

That said, the Mirage fetchlands are marginally less shitty because they can find dual lands.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

That said, the Mirage fetchlands are marginally less shitty because they can find dual lands.

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The Mirage fetches also get hit with wasteland while they've got their pants down. It's not like you've got to watch out for those in this format or anything... oh wait.

If you can get away with running basics, and you're not put off by not having mana on the first turn, then Expanse is probably the better choice. As much as I want to like the Mirage fetches, I just don't feel like they have a real spot (unless you're epic enough to run Amulet of Vigor :P )

The modern (Zendikar) fetchlands are very very cheap. If you can't get a hold of them, I don't know what you're playing, but it sure as hell can't have duals in it, so fetchlands don't even matter.

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Originally Posted by puppektion

The Mirage fetches also get hit with wasteland while they've got their pants down. It's not like you've got to watch out for those in this format or anything... oh wait.

If you can get away with running basics, and you're not put off by not having mana on the first turn, then Expanse is probably the better choice. As much as I want to like the Mirage fetches, I just don't feel like they have a real spot (unless you're epic enough to run Amulet of Vigor :P )

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Sure. But this argument is basically like saying, "Which is the better car, the Pinto or the Yugo?" The answer is always, "They're awful, but the one least likely to randomly kill you is probably the Yugo." There's no reason to run Terramorphic Expanse or its friend to find basics when you could use the Onslaught or Zendikar fetches to do the same, and run some duals on the side. What playable deck in this format doesn't have any turn one plays at all?

Terramorphic Expanse combines well with Urborg, tapping all over the place for black mana and then BOOM you fetch a Plains and blow them out with Ramosian Rally.

Even during Tempest/Stronghold days when we ran those in Keeper decks (flooded plain mainly), it was virtually unbearable. It's really rough since at the time Wasteland was around. Ignoring the fact that Strip Mine and Waseland were both in the format unrestricted at the same time they were pretty bad. Even after Strip Mine took the hit, they still garnered maybe a one of at best.

These days, the decks are probably several turns faster than those back then. I can't picture them ever coming out of the commons box to grace anything other than an EDH deck.

Aren't they just budget fetchlands?

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Originally Posted by Vacrix

Aren't they just budget fetchlands?

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That's what I think they are. They are cool for budget or casual decks.

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Originally Posted by herbig

Terramorphic Expanse combines well with Urborg, tapping all over the place for black mana and then BOOM you fetch a Plains and blow them out with Ramosian Rally.

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Sigged.

Also agreeing with Anusien that the Zendikar fetches are cheap and plentiful. Also, a large percentage of the time at least, you're likely to prefer them anyway (have you seen Flooded Strands in Thresh recently? or Polluted Delta in Eva Green?).

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Originally Posted by General_Norris

That's what I think they are. They are cool for budget or casual decks.

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They work fine for me at my local shop - not everybody in my local scene has a playset of Wasteland. Also, I get off on the "What the fuck is that?" factor.

Yea this cycle of Fetches is just unplayable in Legacy. There was some argument/rationalization behind the budget aspect of them pre-Zendikar, but with Zen Fetches there is absolutely no argument for running these in any deck.

I can see a couple of theoretical corner cases where Thawing Glaciers, Terramorphic Expanse, and Evolving Wilds might be better choices than regular ONS/ZEN fetches, but there really just isn't that kind of situation with the Mirage ones. They're just strictly worse. Maybe in a CYOS type of format they'd have value, but that's about all I can come up with.

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Originally Posted by Anusien

The modern (Zendikar) fetchlands are very very cheap. If you can't get a hold of them, I don't know what you're playing, but it sure as hell can't have duals in it, so fetchlands don't even matter.

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