What where They Thinking? Artifact Lands

     I am going to try and start a regular column here dissecting some of the most infamously broken cards wizards has ever printed. Now there are many cards more broken than the Artifact Lands, but I am starting off with them to illustrate how you can miss powerful cards because they are deceptively simple looking.

     The Artifact Lands are a very simple cycle of cards. They are lands and they are also artifacts, nothing more nothing less. By themselves they do not do anything other than tap for mana, and they are more susceptible to destruction than basic lands. At first glance they just appear to be flavorful replacements for basic lands in an artifact theme set. This is no doubt what was going through Wizards' minds when they printed these cards.

      There was one little problem. The set also contained the affinity mechanic. A card with affinity for a cardtype would cost 1 colorless less for each of that card type you controlled. And most times it was affinity for artifacts. Having a free uncounterable artifact was a very powerful thing. With the Artifact Lands and 0 casting cost artifacts like Ornithopter you could get out some very big creatures very quickly.

     The power of the Artifact Lands was not just limited to the Mirodin block. There are many cards in vintage and legacy that either care about artifacts or can do tricky things with them. One of the most obvious of these cards is Tolarian Academy , a card I will be addressing in a future installment of this series. The academy produces one U mana for every artifact you control. The Artifact Lands again provide free uncounterable artifacts to power up academy. And that is the main problem with them, that they are free and uncounterable.

    Probably the two most important things in Magic are speed and card advantage. The Artifact Lands do not provide anything in terms of card advantage, but they are kinds of speed. Not only do they not cost anything to put into play, the speed up so many other cards.

    The Artifact Lands are currently banned in the extended format. And when asked in a recent developer Q & A if they were ever going to make similar Enchantment Lands the developers had to chuckle a little bit before delivering a flat out no. Not bad for a card that at first glance you would give a "Meh, guess it's playable."