For whatever reason, I have an enduring obsession with basic lands. I find it a fun way to customize your deck. There’s a entertaining story (well, for me) behind my favorite Ice Age island as well as an excuse to regale my opponent with ancient tales of bickering about Banding and Hypnotic Spectres running unchecked across the land.

As such, I have a curated set of basic lands that I bring to draft nights. To support a full pod of 8, I have 60 basic lands of each color. This breaks nicely into six sets of 10 lands. I would choose the lands based off a very complicated algorithm of art quality, personal memory, whether or not I played the set, and such like. I also wanted nice lands, but not so nice that I’m out $50 if someone forgets to give them back to me. I also tried for a diversity: give each color one full art, some old school, some new school etc. Can’t have Rob Alexander for every single one.

Though there is a lot of Rob Alexander.

Mountain

Plains

Island

Swamp

Forest

Representation

As I mentioned above, I’m aiming to try and pick lands from sets I played. I started in Unlimited playing through Tempest and a bit of Mercadian Masques. Then I took a break through most of college/post-college (World of Warcraft was a jealous mistress) only picking it back up when Pete lured me into Theros/RTR.

  • Beta: 1
  • Ice Age: 1
  • Mirage: 2
  • Tempest: 2
  • Odyssey: 1
  • Core Sets: 3
  • Return to Ravnica: 1
  • Theros: 2
  • Khans of Tarkir: 2
  • Battle for Zendikar: 2
  • Shadows over Innistrad: 1
  • Kaladesh: 1
  • Amonket: 1
  • Ixalan: 1
  • Dominaria: 1
  • Modern Horizons: 1
  • Ravnica the 3rd: 1
  • Throne of Eldraine: 1
  • Theros: Beyond Death: 1
  • Misc (Unstable: 1, Commander 2017: 1)

So as it stands right now, both Theros and Khans of Tarkir blocks are somewhat overrepresented, those should probably be winnowed down to just one or two. The core sets are also hard to value as a whole since they are similar… but also sometimes quite different.

I’m happiest right now with the mountains, a great mix of the old ways (Tempest & Ice Age) with some fabulous newer pieces that don’t all look interchangeable. I really like the BFZ full-art one as well. Islands and Forests are also in a good place, with only some minor tweaks needed. Plains are a little monotonous, aside from Min Yum’s great watercolor-esque plains, they all look alike with a clear horizon line off in the distance. Swamps… ugh swamps are the worst. I’m fond of the Mirage swamp and the Amonkhet swamp is passable (it’s the only decent basic land in Amonkhet; the rest had giant horns looming everywhere) but the rest are just blah.

3/31/18: Added Rebecca Guay swamp.

11/27/18: Swapped in Odyssey & M19 island, Dominaria swamp

3/14/19: Added GTR Plains

2/23/20: Added MH1 Snow-covered Forest, Eldraine Swamp, and THB Plains.

9/10/23: Added NEO forest, Secret Lair swamp, LotR Island

3/31/25: Added a 7th of each to fill out the box better.