With every new set, I always look at the lands that come with it. Usually, I'm just assessing the dual lands that are there to determine if they are any good. This time around I'm excited to see something a little different! As a confessed land junkie, new lands that are more than just a new type of dual land excite me. To see two cycles of lands in the set makes me especially happy. Let's take a look at the new stuff and see if it is worthy of a spot in the lands section of your deck!

Before getting into the cycles, I wanted to mention Fabled Passage. Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse have been useful cards for a long time. I have always felt that these were practical ways for players with limited funds to help their mana base along. Sac it, get a basic, put it into play tapped. It isn't ramping, but it is fixing. There are better ways to make that happen, but Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are acceptable options.

Fabled Passage is strictly better, giving you that land untapped when you have four or more lands. My issue is that I still don't think it is better than other options in most decks. Add in a hefty price tag, and my decks will be taking a fabled pass on this land.

Searchable Land Cycle

There are three things to note about all of these lands. Let's start with the good. I sat a little straighter when I saw that you could search for these lands whenever you can search for a Plains, Island, etc. That adds dramatically to their usefulness. The likelihood that you can get one of these cards in your hand when you actually need it goes way up. Every land I've seen that includes a type of land is always just a bit better. There are plenty of ways to search for specific land types, so these cards get a boost from that.

Then there is the bad. The need for three other lands of the same type if you want it untapped is a real drawback. There is no point in searching for Mystic Sanctuary if you don't have three other Islands. If you don't wait, all you are getting is an Island that enters the battlefield tapped. You might as well just search for a regular basic Island at that point.

Then there is the ugly. Which decks can practically run these lands? Mono-colored decks can handle the requirement. Simply mulliganing properly will keep these cards out of your opening hands and that should be enough to stop them from entering the battlefield as lame basics. But what about a two-colored deck? With all the dual lands, lands that search for other lands, and other lands that aren't basic lands, how many turns in will you be before you can reliably have three basic lands of that land you need? Think of how difficult it is to run a creature with or in the mana cost in a deck that is running more than one color. Now think how much harder it will be when you can't use mana from dual lands or creatures, because in essence, that is what this costs. These issues only get worse in decks with three or more colors.

So, given that these lands are searchable, but will only ever be useful in mono-colored decks, let's take a look at each in turn.

Idyllic Grange gives you a +1/+1 counter on a creature I control. I know this is a cycle of common cards, but am I willing to jump through the hoops that have been set, just to get a +1/+1 counter?... Okay, yes, I am that guy, but I don't recommend you go down that path.

Dwarven Mine gives you a 1/1 Dwarf token for free. This is not going to be a token creature that you get on the first turn that allows you to hit for a few points before everyone else gets started. This dwarf will take a while to get out of the mine and onto the battlefield. Realistically, you are using it as a chump blocker or as a sacrifice to something else. However, when a land offers me something for free, I'm excited to take it, even if it is just a chump blocker.

Mystic Sanctuary is the real deal. You don't want to play it until later in the game when you can use it and its ability is best saved until later in the game anyway. Putting an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard on top of your library is a seriously good ability for a common land. This will likely find a sorcery that lets you draw more cards. While Blue doesn't have a lot of ways to search for lands, simply drawing more cards will increase the likelihood of Mystic Sanctuary showing up when you need it.

Witch's Cottage must be great too right? It puts a creature card on top of your library, just like Mystic Sanctuary does for sorceries and instants. Not so fast. You are looking for cards that put creatures onto the battlefield. The benefit of Black is that it treats the graveyard like a second library. Putting those cards on top of the library just limits the new cards you are drawing. When you consider that this is a card that would be going into an all-Black deck, there is very little upside here.

Gingerbread Cabin is the one I saved for last because I expect big things. Green has so many ways to search for a Forest, that Gingerbread Cabin will be the card of the cycle that you will most often be able to cast effectively. There is also a chance that you could run it in a multicolored deck because Green searches for lands so well. I'm still a little hesitant to recommend it in multicolored decks, but you could at least try it.

The problem with Gingerbread Cabin is that it gives you a food token. If the card said that when Gingerbread Cabin enters the battlefield untapped, gain three life, how excited would you be? Yeah, me either. Look, I'm happy for the life bump, I'm not sure I'm going to get all that excited about Food tokens. Clue tokens are far better and you don't see much of them. I'm not ready to dump on Food tokens, but I'm coming into this with low expectations.

Overall, unless you are a land junkie like me, take a pass. These belong in very select decks and aren't something you want to sprinkle into your decks without a lot of thought.

Castle Cycle

There are two things about every land in the cycle that I want to mention up front. Each requires a land of its type to enter the battlefield untapped. This bothers me almost not at all. A land that taps for mana and does something else often enters the battlefield tapped. I consider that just par for the course. That these lands give you a way to avoid that is great. When you consider their ability, you a generally going to want a Plains or Swamp on the battlefield before they hit anyway.

The second part is far more concerning. The non-mana abilities on the cards cost three or four mana to activate. Just remember, that is a lie! You have to tap the land as well, so in reality it costs one more. These are not irrelevant activation costs! Each of them demands two mana of its respective color, so this means you are going to be using up three sources of one color to do the ability. This means there are going to be games where you have four lands and the Castle in play but still can't activate it because you don't have enough mana of that color. I expect you'll be fine in two color decks, but as soon as the decks move to three colors, you'll want to take special care when deciding if the Castles should make the cut.

Castle Embereth is probably the weakest of the bunch. You are tapping four lands to give your creatures a +1/+0 bonus until the end of the turn. This gives your goblin horde a nice power bump and I appreciate that. However, don't you have something better to do with the four mana you just spent? This isn't me suggesting you not run Castle Embereth. Each of the cards in this cycle has such a limited downside, I expect I'll be running them in a LOT of my decks. I just think the utility of this particular land is limited. I almost like it better on defense when you can threaten to pump your blockers and really mess with their combat math

Castle Ardenvale is next up. Kjeldoran Outpost gives me soldier tokens for half the activation cost. I'm supposed to tap five lands to get a single 1/1 that doesn't even get the bonuses if I was running a soldier deck? The saving grace for Castle Ardenvale is that I don't have to use it on my turn. Using Castle Embereth means that at some point, you are going to be tapped out and vulnerable. Castle Ardenvale lets you wait until the end of your opponent's turn before you activate it. Once you realize that the best way to handle this ability is to treat the 1/1 token as a throw-in bonus when you have nothing better to do with your mana, it doesn't feel so bad.

Castle Garenbrig to me is a land that you can tap for . Green is going to be spending its mana primarily on creature spells and activating abilities of creatures. If you tap Garenbrig and four other lands, you get six Green mana. This is also Seedborn Muse country and the color of elves that like to untap lands. I think Castle Garenbrig, in the right scenario, can get out of hand. I know this is a little like picturing the best case scenario, but the joy with all the Castles is that the downside is almost zero, so when I card offers a fun peak that you'll rarely ever see, run it anyway and enjoy it when it eventually happens!

Castle Vantress demands a lot just to Scry 2. However, much like Castle Ardenvale, you can do it on the end of an opponent's turn! As the Blue player, you are expected to be tricky and have a response. Castle Vantress allows you to bluff the response, then just use the mana to scry, or hide your response since everyone thinks you have nothing and are just holding the mana to scry.

Castle Locthwain is my favorite and it isn't close. You only use it when you have the mana at the end of your opponent's turn. You are doing it before your draw step, so you are losing one less life than you would otherwise. It is no Phyrexian Arena replacement, but this can be added to virtually every deck that runs Black with no downside. If you have a ton of cards in hand, don't use it. If you absolutely need another card, go for it. Of all the lands in the set, this is the best one and it isn't close.

Of all the lands in Throne of Eldraine, I'll be looking for a playset of each of the Castle lands. With minimal downside, I will be happy to put them into my mono-colored, and two-colored decks without even thinking about it. You lose virtually nothing and get lands with great art and an upside your opponents might very well forget is even available to you!

Bruce

@manaburned