Now that we’ve all had a chance to get to explore playing M15, it’s time to look into what cards to keep an eye on – that’s right folks, it’s Cardwatch! This week, we’ll be looking into multiple cards that you can find on the cheap right now, but I foresee will be going up as older cards rotate out of standard.
The cards I’ll be looking at this week are the enemy “painlands” – Llanowar Wastes, Shivan Reef, Battlefield Forge, Caves of Koilos, and Yavimaya Coast. These are lands that have been printed before but were recently reprinted in M15. Right now, you can get them for pretty cheap – they are all 5 dollars or below!
Right now, the painlands are at low prices for a lot of reasons – the manabases in current standard are very strong without them because Mana Confluence from Journey into Nyx is similar to the painlands – more versatile but you can only run 4 – and because the shocklands from Return to Ravnica are still going strong. However, once rotation hits, I foresee the painlands going places!
For one, the shocklands will be rotating, which means that they won’t be seeing standard play. In addition, this last saturday has gotten us some neat news about the fall set: Khans of Tarkir is what is called a wedge set – groups of 3 colors consisting of a color and its two enemy colors! That means that each wedge will be able to use two of the painlands, and will likely need to in order to maintain a consistent manabase.
These two factors combined say to me that while the painlands are cheap now, it’s a smart idea to go ahead and pick them up now because they’ll be going up. Stay sane and have fun, Magic players!
Note on CardWatch:
CardWatch is a weekly column wherein our local Magic judge, Conner Morrison, talks about which cards to keep your eye on. This week: Enemy Painlands! Cardwatch and all content are TM & Copyright Bel Air Games and Conner Morrison.
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