Duals such as Tropical Island are the best two-colored lands in competitive one-versus-one Magic. The same cannot be said of casual multiplayer formats such as Commander. This article will explore better alternatives to duals as well as situations when you still might play these most expensive of multilands.

Don't call Rejuvenating Springs a budget option. The multiplayer lands from Commander Legends and Battlebond don't simply cost less. They are so much cheaper that the money you save by not buying a dual is enough to build an entire other expensive Commander deck, or multiple budget ones. Having more decks not only gives you more variety to your play but also more options for finding a suitable experience for your playgroup. Tropical Island may be the more expensive land, but Rejuvenating Springs has the greater value.

Most of the arguments against duals such as price would not hold against a proxy of Tropical Island. The use of proxies is a different discussion you should have with your playgroup. We will not continue it here.

You could argue that the dual is still better than Rejuvenating Springs, situationally. If all your opponents except one have been eliminated then the land enters tapped. That said, if I've reached the final two in a four-person game I'm already pretty happy, and play rarely progresses too many more turns. There is a low likelihood you would draw Rejuvenating Springs and its entering tapped would matter. If what makes Magic fun for you is squeezing the last few percentage points of win equity out of every card, I suggest trying any competitive format. Legacy is a great one if you love duals.

Another obvious difference between Tropical Island and Rejuvenating Springs is land type. They both count as a non-basic land as far as Ruination is concerned, but the dual is also a Forest and Island. This can be another disadvantage, when facing cards like Carpet of Flowers. It can also be an advantage, if you have cards that care about land types, such as Utopia Sprawl or Misty Rainforest. But even in those cases, you have better options.

Fetch lands can find the shock land cycle from Ravnica. If you need two forest cards for Ranger's Path, you can also search for Cinderglade (from Battle for Zendikar), Highland Forest (Kaldheim), or Sheltered Thicket (Amonkhet). If you need those lands to enter untapped from Skyshroud Claim, remember you can search for a basic Forest. Chances are you won't need more than one multiland to fix your mana in two-colored decks, and in the case of three or more you now have a great option in Ketria Triome (Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths).

Say, however, that you really don't want to lose two life. This would give me pause because, in Commander, life is your least valuable resource. Now, I have heard cEDH (competitive Commander) players say they were happy to buy dual lands, since they have since gone up in value. I'm not here to advise you on your investment portfolio. I will simply point out a few facts. The format of cEDH is vastly different from casual multiplayer. Commander games are often decided by twenty-one commander damage, and the more competitive a table is, the more likely it'll be ended by an infinite combo. I hope you'll consider what percent of games the damage from a shock land would actually matter.

That said, in one deck I am playing Taiga, and I'll tell you why. There are reasons to battle with dual lands, first and foremost that you already own them. That was true for me. Years ago I bought a Collector's Edition Taiga. It was damaged, but it still looked beautiful. The land reminded me of my early days playing Magic. Nostalgia is a valid reason to want a dual. In casual formats, what's written in a card's text box matters less than how a card makes you feel. If a dual land stirs something deep within you, value that. You could want a piece of Magic's history, or a specific art might strike you in the right way.

Owning duals doesn't mean you have to play them in casual formats. Carrying around expensive cards leaves me stressed. I'm afraid of losing them. I can relax more with cheaper lands. I still play the Taiga because it's important for my deck, which happens to be not Commander but Oathbreaker, where you start out at twenty, and life loss matters more. Also, it's led by Wrenn and Six with a strategy of landfall, where I also play Stomping Ground because I need all the fetch-land search targets I can get. Before you set your sights on owning a dual, evaluate how important it is to you and, to a lesser extent, your deck's strategy. Avoiding life loss is not a good enough reason.

Losing life can be an advantage in multiplayer, for obvious reasons like Scourge of the Throne but also those more subtle. Imagine one opponent plays Underground Sea turn one. Another drops the more humble Underground River. Who appears to be the greater threat? All else being equal, whom would you attack first? Dual lands may seem to be multi lands without penalty, but they carry with them a hidden drawback of drawing aggro. Someone with dual lands may well have given their deck more attention, and they're taking the game more seriously. It only makes sense to see them as a serious threat.

Commander is a tabletop game of politics that only happen to use Magic cards. The stats in a text box must be balanced against a card's perceived political impact. The more powerful ones you play, the more the table will focus its attention on you, and the more likely your better cards will be overwhelmed. Consider also the player who stumbles on lands, is discounted as a non-threat, and comes back to win the game. It happens all the time.

With all that in mind, I am happy to pay one life to Underground River, and yes, to draw attention to it I'll say, "Ouch!" The drawback seems small compared to that of the more threatening Underground Sea. Further, I would expect to win more games with the pain land. To be precise, if the same player had two decks that were identical apart from this one land slot, I suspect the deck with the less ostentatious land to do more winning.

That's not to say winning is the only thing. Say you don't like the art of Tundra, but you love John Avon's piece of Cloudcrest Lake. That is sufficient reason to play the Champions of Kamigawa land. Don't worry about the drawback. The political points you'll gain from bringing such a beautiful card to the table will balance it out. For the same reasons you should never feel bad about including Azorious Guildgate, Sejiri Refuge, Tranquil Cove, or any other uncommon option. They're budget but also politically potent. Play them with a secret smile.

A single ETB tapped land won't slow you down too much, especially if it's among many basics in your two-color deck. But what if you want to build a five-colored mana base? One reason I wrote this article is because a friend told me with a sigh that he was having trouble completing his Sliver Overlord list because he needed ten fetches and ten duals. Please, please, don't think that's necessary.

My Sliver Apocalypse list has no need of duals. I play five vivid lands, five basics, several five-colored lands like Gemstone Mine, pain lands, and bounce lands like Rakdos Carnarium, to give me effective card advantage. Not only are they cheaper and less threatening, but I also don't have to waste time fetching. (Again, if you love fetching, go crazy, but fetch shocks or triomes.)

Since I wrote out that list, we now also have The World Tree and Jumpstart thriving lands like Thriving Grove. Don't forget Unclaimed Territory for tribal. Best of all are the new pathway lands. These rares from Kaldheim and Zendikar Rising may be just behind duals in raw power and, in my opinion, far ahead in design.

No matter how many colors you're playing in Commander, you don't need duals. They won't win you more games than less-threatening alternatives, but even if they did, casual Magic isn't about winning. It's about having fun. When evaluating a card for Commander, you should not only consider its power and price, but if you will enjoy playing it. There is only one dual for each color pair but a myriad of alternatives. Never default to the most expensive but instead to the option that makes you the most happy.