[If you missed Part One - Go Here.]

It used to be unheard of. Sure, there were a few ‘trick cards’ that made some lands into creatures, but no one ever got them to work very well. But Magic was a very young hobby still, and the full potential of the format was yet to be seen.

Antiquities rolled in, and we all saw this odd little land. It only made colorless mana, but it could turn itself into a 2/2 artifact, or tap to give another of its friends +1/+1.  I don’t think many players gave it a great deal of thought. But slowly, people realized the peculiar power of Mishra's Factory. It dodged Sorcery removal as long as you didn’t stoop to using it as a blocker. It could not be stopped by Counterspell. Much later on, when the rules on using a ‘tapping’ ability changed, it could even block a 2/2 and live by pumping itself up after the damage was put onto the stack. Overall, it gained acceptance as a good, solid card over the years.

After that, for a long time, every thing was quiet in regards to lands that were creatures. Then suddenly, in Alliances, a new contender showed up. But instead of becoming a creature, it made creatures. Every turn.

Tempest added one as well. Then Urza’s Legacy unleashed one specific one for each of the colors. More and more people realized the power of the little lands that could smack your opponent repeatedly. Suddenly the traits of ‘uncounterability’ and the ability to dodge many forms of removal were becoming a increasingly strong force in tournaments.

Lets take a look shall we, at the realm of ‘manlands’ and ‘critter farms’.

Mishra's Factory : The original and still good at what it does. It activates cheaply, and can still catch people off guard by pumping itself or friends at random moments.

Kjeldoran Outpost : The original ‘sick little dude ranch.’ Outpost supplied a constant stream of 1/1 tokens to use for anything from attacking, blocking and sacrificing to special cards. Unopposed by any blockers or spells, a single outpost would kill your opponent in seven turns. An entire school of decks (Counterpost) grew up around this card.

Stalking Stones : Tempest brought us this one, and it seemed expensive but was still a interesting card. Once turned into a creature, it did not turn back. So you basically had a land waiting to be used as a 3/3 until the coast was clear for it to step up. Because it still counted as a land, it could also still tap for mana, as well. Overall a very interesting attempt that provoked a lot of thought.

And then came Urza’s Legacy. Suddenly we had not one or even two, but a stunning five new ‘manlands’ that were each set to a specific color. Each one showed certain strengths that seemed to mesh fairly well with the style of their given color. Though they all come into play tapped, they also could all tap for the appropriate color of mana.

Faerie Conclave : A land that turns into a 2/1 flier is definitely a nice thing to have. For the first time, a ‘manland’ had an evasion ability that allowed it to dodge some blockers and keep heading for your opponent. This combination of being hard to block and hard to remove made it of great use to many decks.

Forbidding Watchtower : In comparing this to the others of its kind, I think White got a bit of a raw deal. This does make a wonderful defensive creature for its cost, but using a ‘manland’ for defense exposes it to the exact sort of thing its supposed to be good at dodging: Sorcery speed removal. Still, at 1/5 it does make a pretty darn good wall.

Ghitu Encampment : a 2/1 First strike creature that’s hard for spells to get rid of? Sounds like a great idea to me. Sure it’s a little fragile, but it wins the small creature on creature fights handily and repeatedly, which means you can use more of your burn to take out larger creatures… or your opponent.

Spawning Pool : Another defensive land. However, what I said about the White version doesn’t always apply here. Regeneration isn’t perfect, but it is usually quite helpful in letting a creature survive a high percentage of removal. It also allows the Pool to block large, non-trampling, non-flying creatures all game long.

Treetop Village: Bigger then all his friends, and it has trample as well. This was one of the most used of the Urza manlands in my area, but we had a lot of Mono-Green control versus Accelerated Blue match-ups. And this little land, more then once, was the Green mages secret weapon. I have seen (and even done) the infamous trick of using this and a Rancor on it sort of like a bad sorcery every turn to make it a 5/3.

After the Urza lands, everything was quiet for a long, long while. No new ‘manlands’, no new lands that could generate creatures. It seemed like WOTC might let the idea go. Then Judgment rolled along and suddenly we had a new ‘manland’ in town and it was a brutal one.

Nantuko Monastery : Yes it requires threshold to be used as a ‘manland’ but it comes into play untapped, and can tap for colorless mana. And once you gain threshold, you suddenly have a 4/4 first striking wrecking ball to use on your opponent. There weren’t many real creatures that could stand up to this new land, and it still retained the abilities of slipping through Blue’s counters and dodging sorcery removal spells as well.

The next contender showed up in Darksteel. It didn’t seem like much at first, but when it joined up with the already overpowering deck in the format, suddenly it became a cruise missile of ultimate destruction.

Blinkmoth Nexus : Doesn’t seem like much. A 1/1, flying Mishra’s for all intents and purposes. But then you realize that an Arcbound Ravager could accumulate a huge amount of counters, and then dump them onto the Nexus as soon as it got in unblocked. It simply became another great tool for an already unfairly powerful deck.

Kamigawa block brought us a few interesting lands as well. But they were not always good ones.

Forbidden Orchard : Hey, it makes 1/1 tokens for free and produces any color of mana! Wait, what do you mean I don’t get to control them? Hey, stop hitting me!

All joking aside, this was certainly one of the more interesting drawbacks attempted on a City of Brass clone land. It’s definitely not something you want to use without a lot of thought, but I found it very interesting that it was welcomed with open arms by Vintage Oath of Druids decks. Of course, if you can find a way to twist the ‘free’ creatures against your opponent like those guys did this could actually be a very fun card to try and use.

Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai : Not exactly a overpowering Legendary Land by any means. The best use people seemed to find for it was to play a second copy, netting themselves two 1/1 spirit tokens. Pretty sad really. UPDATE: I actually saw a deck running this and for a reason even. Shocking. It used Akki Avalanchers and Akki Raider’s to form a synergy with the Gods’ Eye lands. Sacrificing one not only triggered the abilities of both the above creatures, but also gave you an extra 1/1 body to swarm with on the next turn. Not a bad little idea!

Tomb of Urami : This has to be one of the most, hands down, punishing ‘manlands’ to use. Sacrificing all your lands including this one, just to get a 5/5 flier token? I think I’ll pass on that ‘bargain’

Not exactly a stunning selection of lands, is it? I certainly wasn’t impressed with the entire Kamigawa block overall myself. And no, I’m not forgetting the various “Genju” enchantments. But I am saving them for another possible article in the future, along with other cards that aren’t lands but can make lands into creatures, instead of the land itself becoming a creature with no outside assistance.

But afterward, it seemed like WOTC realized their flop with the Kamigawa Block, and tried to come roaring back with a very cool block to make amends. And with the coming of Ravnica Block, we gained some great cards for all sorts of decks, as well as two really nice lands as well.

Svogthos, the Restless Tomb : Now this is a ‘manland’ to fear. Combined with a set that specializes in throwing things into the graveyard, and you’ve got a serious potential for large-scale mayhem. Add in the fact it comes into play untapped, taps for colorless, and isn’t even limited by being legendary, and you’ve got the makings of a great thing. I personally run two copies of this in my Green/Black control deck, and its been the game winner so many times I’d never even think of taking it out for any reason. In fact, I’m debating going up to four copies after the Kamigawa block leaves Type II and will do some testing in that configuration as well.

Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree : Outpost, Mark II. It taps for colorless, instead of white. And the ability is twice as expensive to use. But you don’t have to sacrifice a land when it comes into play, and like the Restless Tomb, it’s not legendary. I also find that saprolings, as a creature type, seem to have just as many or slightly more cards affecting them specifically, then Soldier tokens. So I guess you could judge it not quite as good, despite the fact that it’s the only land since Alliances that can pump out turn after turn of tokens under your control.

The great thing about lands that make creatures is that they’re so hard to stop. It’s rare for a deck to play land destruction cards unless that is the major theme of the entire deck. Enchantments, artifacts and especially creatures all get tons of cards aimed after them. But how about the land cards? Almost never does a deck run anything to kill lands. Green decks don’t even run Creeping Mold all that much anymore, as Naturalize has more or less taken its place. So if your opponent isn’t prepared to neutralize your City Tree, his only hope is to win as fast as possible before the tokens add up and swarm him under.

The only card (to my knowledge) in Type II that completely neuters a City Tree offense in one shot is Rolling Spoil, and only if played with Black and Green mana. But man, when it works, it really works. You lose your generator AND all your tokens unless you have some way to pump them up in response. I almost start to miss good old Echoing Courage.

Okay folks, just a few words on Dark Depths. If you actually believe this is in any way a good card, please seek immediate psychiatric care. In no reality whatsoever should you pay thirty mana for a threat. And yes, I know the Aether Snap "combo" for this card means you might get it rolling on turn four.... but thats Extended. Their used to stupid stuff

Here's a short list of cards that 'answer' the almighty indestructable token and/or the land that made it. Boomerang, Condemn, Stone Rain, Creeping Mold, Keiga, Annex. Notice that even if you do the 'combo' pop of this card, most of these cards answer it just as fast. It also hates Cage of Hands, Pacifism, and Faith's Fetters, just an FYI.

Now, as always, I’ll hand out a few deck lists to illustrate some ideas and concepts along the lines of what we’ve discussed. First, two examples of the original Kjeldoran Outpost decks:

These are both ideas in the style of “The Deck”, the infamous Brian Weissman creation that had only three ways to actually win, and every other card was a way to keep your opponent from winning. These two decks are much the same; tons of control cards abound, and the victory conditions are few and far between, though very hard to stop.

I noticed some interesting things as I was going through those deck lists. Mainly, that a lot of the cards are currently being reprinted in Type 2. Their sometimes the exact same card (Wrath of God, Blinking Spirit), a new name for a old card (Gerrard’s Wisdom versus Presence of the Wise) or even new cards that are downgraded versions of old classics (Swords to Plowshares and Outpost versus Condemn and City-tree). Definitely starts to make you wonder if we’re getting one of those unsubtle WOTC hints.

So, without further side treks, here’s a look at a possible version of ‘Counter-Post” for Type 2:

By no means perfect but it’s an interesting concept. Green is needed to activate your City Tree, so I figured while we’re using it we might as well throw the best accelerators we could into the mix to help the deck speed up a turn or three. Also, it gives you access to Naturalize out of the sideboard, which is never a bad thing.

I much prefer Telling Time over every other option open to Blue for card drawing/sorting. It’s really the only worthwhile ‘Dig” spell that you can cast at instant speed. Compulsive research just isn’t the same, even though you all but certainly have the land you need to mitigate it’s drawback in this deck at least.

One of the problems I forsee with the deck is that with two different spells stuffing cards onto the bottom of your opponent’s library, you really, really don’t want to let them shuffle after a few go off. This starts making cards that let your opponent shuffle into ‘must counters’ which could turn out to be a serious weakness in this decks armor. Only some testing will tell.

Some other random thoughts. Ravnica “bounce” lands would let you do more with less lands on the table, which will increase the effect of your “Presence of the Wise” when it drops. Cage of Hands and/or Faith’s Fetters would probably be a good call, as they both stall very well in this deck, though in slightly different ways (fetter just gives life, while Cage can return to your hand, plumping it for a Presence).

Blinking Spirit, in addition to being annoying, returning to your hand to pump up your card count for Presence, and only vulnerable to counter magic, is also creature type “spirit”, go figure. I'd figure you might be able to make something out of that, considering all the spirit and arcane mumbo jumbo that Kamigawa block dealt out, but it seems to be kamigawa is simply on its way to being one of those sets that will rank near the very bottom in the best of/worst of polls in years to come.

Update: shows this article has been on hold a LONG time with forum and site updates and such, when not one but two sets have rolled on in since I started writing it. ColdSnap brings some interesting weapons to the control arsenal, especially for blue. Rune snag might be a very effective helper for Mana Leak. That first one isn't as effective, but they pile up fast. FlashFreeze gives you a great sideboard hard-counter against Gruul decks as well. Perhaps the most fun is Perilious Research. Yes you have to sacrifice a permanent, but it is instant speed and only needs one blue to cast. Besides, in this deck you'll always have a extra land or a Saproling token to give up for the cause. Controvert, though it would have a fascinating interaction with your token's going to the graveyard, is probably far too expensive to be good, even as a hard counter.

Coldsnap Green doesn't seem to add a great deal. Ohran Viper would be a great source of additional cards, but compared to the other threat's in this deck, it would be too easy to eliminate.

Soulscour, though it goes against your mini-strategy of conserving cards in hand to maximize life gain off Presence, might be a very good backup for Wrath of God, especially against very fast matchups. A wrath that you can cast with no lands untapped can be a powerful weapon in the very early turns, whee you'l probably be sorely tempted to tap all or a great deal of your mana to maximize your own speed every turn.

Though it is a lot easier to kill then your other creatures, Jotun Owl Keeper might be a very interesting inclusion in this deck. Yes it has a cumulative upkeep that would seem to be the very essence of the sort of thing a control deck want's to stay away from, but after a turn or two, you might find your opponent expending a lot of effort to kill, before you stack any more counters onto it! In a long game with decent protection, Owl Keeper can easily net you far more power in birds then it did as a giant, plus your creatures now have evasion to boot! The synergy with Wrath of God is just icing on the cake as well. It's that much harder to to punch through a control players plans when the creatures you carefully held back to bounce him after the first Wrath are suddenly met by a army of chump blocking bird tokens.

For the record, I'm not particularly impressed with the Blue 'pitch' card, Commandeer. For that price, I just don't see why it shouldn't be able to affect creature spells. A great deal of the time, the creatures are the only spells you really need to focus on nuetralizing anyway.

Anyway folks, thats all for now.

Greyfell

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Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!
Lands-More than Mana: Part One