Spoiler Highlight: Tarkir Lands in Competitive Formats

In a set where multicolored spells are all the rage, it was expected that Tarkir: Dragonstorm would bring a new cycle of rare Tri-Lands to Standard.

And it delivered and brought a cycle of Tri-Lands: the original lands from Khans of Tarkir like Mystic Monastery to correct a mana base that, let's face it, is already very well-structured with the abundance of rare duals present in Standard today: Fast Lands, Surveil Lands, Pain Lands and Verges allows playing with three- or even four-color archetypes without much difficulty.

So, to the community's surprise, the return to Tarkir did not bring a cycle of duals or even manafixing in its rare land cycle, but a cycle of cards that care about having land types on the board and that have recurring utility value. While there is no name for them, we can call them Tarkir Lands.

In this article, we will explore the potential of each of them for the main competitive Magic formats!

Half land, half action for long games, this cycle is comparable to others we have had in Magic before, such as the Castles of Eldraine like Castle Locthwain or, more recently, the lands of Modern Horizons 3 like Arena of Glory. They are also partially comparable to the utility land cycle of Innistrad and the Deserts of Hour of Devastation like Ramunap Ruins.

Each of them has a specific ability that partially fits what their color demands, while also interacting with the theme and proposal of each of the Tarkir clans, but under the condition that one of the two other land types of the clan's colors is required to enable them.

Obviously, this condition becomes easier to circumvent as more cards with land types are inserted into the formats. Standard currently has Surveil Lands and also Overlord of the Hauntwoods to enable them more easily in multicolored archetypes, but it is from the moment they enter the formats with Fetch Lands that they become easily comparable to other cards that succeeded in competitive Magic due to this interaction.

The question remains whether these interactions and the flexibility of their abilities will make them as useful as some of the lands that stood out between these cycles were in competitive Magic, and to reach a conclusion about them, we need to evaluate them one by one.

The white land of the cycle, Dalkovan Encampment cares about the player having a minimum board position to take advantage of it, technically making it more useful for Aggro decks, proactive Midrange, and especially when you are already ahead in the game.

In Standard, there is no shortage of potential archetypes for this card, but the format's mana base does not necessarily reward using it with multicolored archetypes at the moment. Archetypes like Boros/Jeskai Convoke or even Boros Mice are strategies that benefit from a copy of Dalkovan Encampment, not to mention the possibility of a Mardu or Jeskai Aggro in the post-Tarkir to take advantage of the card.

The same proposals apply to Pioneer, perhaps with the small relevance of it being able to enter archetypes like Mardu Greasefang as a one-of for when we need to attack with Fear of Missing Out on an opponent trying to stall the combo too much. In addition, it is worth noting that, just like the Mobilize ability, the tokens created by the land are sacrificed at the end of the turn, which allows for some interactions with Mayhem Devil and other death triggers.

The real potential for Dalkovan Encampment may lie in Modern. In addition to the interaction with Fetch Lands that allows the land to enter untapped easily, it is another potential tool for Boros Energy in longer games. The land only needs one creature attacking to generate tokens, and Boros tends to always have at least one creature on the board.

Its importance, however, lies in the interactions: when the two tokens enter, they can trigger Guide of Souls and contribute to the City’s Blessing of Ocelot Pride. At the end step, it is possible to arrange the triggers of Ocelot and the land so that the tokens created are copied before being sacrificed. Add to the sum the possibilities with Goblin Bombardment and the card becomes even more attractive, since they can pull four more damage on their own, or remove creatures from the board before blocking every turn.

Dalkovan Encampment competes primarily with Arena of Glory in the Boros Energy's land slots. The interactions with Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury make Arena much more attractive for the deck’s explosive potential, while Encampment benefits more from longer games where it provides constant attrition with Goblin Bombardment and an attacking creature, and with an average of three Arena of Glory in the maindeck today, it’s possible that players will forgo a copy in favor of another attrition tool in longer games.

Mistrise Village essentially reads like a free pass to close out your combo while bypassing your opponent's Counterspell. The first place it should become a staple is in cEDH, but that's far from the only one.

It's already clear that Tarkir: Dragonstorm could have a huge impact on the Standard Metagame and be the most important expansion to the format since Duskmourn, but among the major archetypes available today, Omniscience Combo would easily "spend" an extra turn to resolve an Abuelo's Awakening if it means bypassing Spell Pierce or any other counterspell in the format.

The same could easily apply to other possible combos in the current Metagame, or combos that could still emerge with the new expansion. Not to mention the possibility of it guaranteeing that the format's "bomb spells" will resolve.

The same logic applies to Pioneer, but the color and mana requirements of Mistrise Village combined with access to Thoughtseize could make it a bit difficult to include the land in any combo list. Archetypes like Greasefang have Esper colors as the least successful combination in the current Metagame, while Transmogrify and Indomitable Creativity would need to go back to the Izzet versions to extract value from the land.

The biggest winners in Pioneer will probably be Quintorius Kand and the Lotus Combo, in addition to, obviously, the blue decks of the current Metagame, such as the Bounce lists or Azorius Control itself, which can use Mistrise Village to resolve a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria in the Control mirrors.

Despite the potential chances of bans, we cannot disregard the possibility of a no changes for Modern on March 31st and the chances of Mistrise Village serving mainly to make a crucial part of the Underworld Breach combo resolve without worrying about Counterspell, and the same goes for Goryo’s Vengeance, with the bonus of returning the creature from the graveyard at the end of the opponent’s turn and without interruptions.

Besides these, while it's rare for Breeding Pool to be used in Temur Eldrazi lists, the archetype has no problem with a splash with Utopia Sprawl or Talisman of Curiosity, and having a land that interacts with Stomping Ground and basic forests while also ensuring that your Eldrazi bomb and/or Karn, the Great Creator resolve is a considerable advantage, despite the archetype already having Cavern of Souls for the first case and not risking running many copies of it.

With Legacy’s perfect mana, the new land should primarily show up in the Show and Tell and Mono Blue Painter’s Servant lists that have been growing in the Metagame with Stock Up recently, but there is a fair amount of other cards that opponents don’t want to see resolve in the format, and Mistrise Village bypasses the format’s primary interaction, Force of Will, but at the expense of being an easy target for Wasteland or Blood Moon.

Great Arashin City feels too conditional to have any significant competitive impact, and it would have been much more efficient if it exiled cards from a player’s graveyard instead of just yours. is a very high cost to interact only with your graveyard and only with creature cards, although there are some possible interactions with it.

Ketramose, the New Dawn decks could be one of the potential archetypes where the new land has space. Probably not in Modern, where Relic of Progenitus already does its job, but in Pioneer and Standard where the lists don't have as many ways to feed off their own graveyard, turning Great Arashin City into a pseudo-Castle Locthwain with benefits and at a relatively low deckbuilding cost, since a considerable amount of Plains is expected to be used in a deck.

Insidious Roots is the other card that could benefit from Great Arashin City due to interactions similar to those of Ketramose: the land, on its own, removes creature cards from your graveyard, triggering the enchantment once per turn. However, there is still something missing for the Roots archetypes to ascend to the competitive Metagame, and the land is probably not the piece needed.

If there is any room in Magic today for Cori Mountain Monastery, it is most likely in Standard and Pioneer, but other utility lands have more relevant and/or havecheaper effects: it is preferable to pay for a Den of the Bugbear or to deal two damage with Ramunap Ruins before paying the same cost to generate an extra draw per turn.

On the other hand, Castle Locthwain has been the most competitively successful card among the castles of Eldraine, and the red land of Tarkir offers the same possibility for card advantage, but at a slightly higher cost. However, Lochtwain is in a color that is mostly focused on Midrange and Control, while Cori Mountain Monastery features in more aggressive color combinations, especially with a value effect that requires playing the card the following turn.

In Standard, it may fill the role of Castle Locthwain in the red-based Midranges, especially if Jeskai/Mardu/Temur Dragons is a viable strategy, but it is not limited to them: lists like Boros Mice can also leverage the card as a one-of for longer games - which is not ideal, but happens more often than Aggro players would like.

Red decks in Pioneer today fall into many categories. Rakdos Demons has better cards for this slot with Castle Locthwain, but Izzet Phoenix, with a mana base that supports the untapped land, can use it as a one-of for longer games where it needs to assume a bit more of a "Control" stance, while for red Aggro like Rakdos Prowess and Atarka Gruul, the cost of seems too high.

Kishla Village is a weird card: it is a topdeck manipulation in green. The color has had the usual characteristic of putting cards in the graveyard since Mulch, but it usually does so without the possibility of selecting cards to go on top, and the land is a kind of Castle Vantress for this color.

Obvious interactions include Delve, Flashback, or any card that can feed directly from the graveyard for some reason, such as the Golgari Self-Mill that Zevin Faust popularized after his performance at Pro Tour Aetherdrift.

In practical terms, Kishla Village is a Midrange card. It seems like it's made for a Golgari Midrange or any variant of the genre that can benefit from top manipulation to find the ideal answers, making it one of the most versatile of the lands, but also one of the hardest to assess exactly where we can fit it: in addition to the aforementioned inclusion in Midranges with green and strategies that feed from the graveyard, Abzan Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks may want a copy for longer games.

At first glance, the activation cost of seems too high for the card to be worth slots in Modern decks that could use it, and the same goes for Legacy.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!