Summary
Fetch lands have been well established as one of the most important land cycles in all ofMagic: The Gathering. They even surpassthe original dual landsin terms of how important they are, making them a key part of just about every format they’re legal in. And of course, that means they’re fairly expensive too.
Mana bases are usually one of the priciest parts of any deck, regardless of format, but Commander players have some budget alternatives that can help alleviate the price of those coveted fetch lands. You’ll take a hit on power and consistency by playing the alternatives, but you’ll have more money in your pocket to allocate elsewhere. Bills, or more Magic cards? That part’s up to you.
Every land listed in this article currently sells for less than a dollar, according to TCGplayer.com.
10Evolving Wilds / Terramorphic Expanse
Old Reliable(s)
IfScalding Tarn and friendsare out of your budget range, you’ll always have access to the tried and true Evolving Wilds and the functionally identical Terramorphic Expanse. These are multi-purpose fixers that get the job done and cost literal pennies.
While these lands give you the option to fetch any basic from your deck, they lock you into a single color once you’ve used them. That and the fact that they always produce a tapped land makes them significantly weaker than the classic fetches, but these are perfectly consistent for multicolored decks working on a budget.
9Escape Tunnel
Secret Tunnel!
Escape Tunnel did the unthinkable and power crept Evolving Wilds at common. To be fair, it’s a very soft upgrade, allowing you to sacrifice the land for an unblockable hit with a small creature. You’ll still use it for mana the majority of the time, butmodality’s a nice thing to have.
You could obviously replace all your Evolving Wilds with Escape Tunnels, since it’s a strict upgrade, but don’t overstate the upside on Tunnel either. It’s a very minor bonus, and best suited for decks that want to sneak small saboteur creatures through in combat,like a Ninja deck, for example.
The Escape Tunnel target will remain unblockable even if its power increases later that turn. Try using Escape Tunnel, then pumping the creature up for a huge unblockable hit.
8Alara Panoramas
An Early Attempt At Multicolor Fixing
The Panoramas originate from Shards of Alara, where Wizards was still figuring out the best approach to mana fixing forthree-color decks. This cycle is functional, but not a top choice if you have access to better alternatives. Their main appeal is that they cost less than a quarter each.
The mana fixing option on a Panorama isn’t great, since it’s functionally two mana to sacrifice the basic land of your choice. However, you’re able to also just tap your Panorama for colorless mana until you need to sacrifice it.
7Family Lands
You Didn’t Hear About ‘Em From Us
The family lands, or ‘hideouts’ to some players, are a batch of lands from Streets of New Capenna, consisting of one land associated with each ofthat set’s three-color crime lords. They follow the basic pattern of sacrificing for one of three different basic lands while also gaining a point of life.
Unlike a normal Evolving Wilds variant, the family landsmustbe sacrificed right away, so you can’t hold off until you’re ready to sacrifice them. That’s usually an inconsequential change, though the lifegain is also admittedly very minor upside at best.
6Slow Fetches
An Underappreciated Budget Option
There’s a lesser known half-cycle of slow fetch lands from Mirage that enter the battlefield tapped, but sacrifice to fetch up one of two different basic land types. They’re essentially tapped equivalents of the more notable Odyssey/Zendikar fetches, kind of like a reverse Evolving Wilds (tapped first, untapped later).
Unlike most budget options, lands like Bad River and Flood Plain can actually fetch nonbasic lands, assuming they include one of the basic land types in their typeline. That means a Bad River could fetch a Blood Crypt, or keeping in tune with budget options, a Geothermal Bog.
5Krosan Verge
Krosan Verge isa bit of a design mistake, or at least a land that was designed without much forethought. The idea was to create a land that could fetch both colors associated witha particular color pair, but this was before the prevalence of nonbasic lands with basic land type.
Krosan Verge isn’t limited to basic forests and plains. It can fetch anything with those types, from Surveil lands to Triomes, essentially giving you all five colors from a single land. That’s the main reason Krosan Verge’s design hasn’t been reused anywhere else.
4Modern Horizons Landscapes
Versatile Three-Color Fixing
The Landscapes are ideal budget lands for three-color decks. They act as an Evolving Wilds for specific color trios, and tap for mana in the interim. They’re basically better Panoramas, and there’s a full cycle of ten Landscapesfrom Modern Horizons 3.
Then there’s the cycling ability. It makes this a cycle of tri-lands that feel like the common versions of Triomes. The cycling ability is basically there to give the designers an excuse to use colored pips on the card, as a quick, clever visual reminder of which colors they’re associated with.
3Ash Barrens
Fixing, Or Quick Mana In A Pinch
Ash Barrens is another upgrade to Evolving Wilds in decks that don’t care aboutlandfall triggersspecifically. It’s not a strict upgrade in the same sense that Escape Tunnel is, but Ash Barrens provides the same level of mana fixing, subbing out for a basic land of your choice.
Unlike Evolving Wilds and other variants though, Ash Barrens can be played and tapped for mana immediately, so it’s not as slow as some of the alternatives. You’dpreferto cycle it, but the buyout of being able to play it as a colorless source of mana is welcome flexibility.
2Urza’s Cave
Any Land You Need, For A Cost
Urza’s Cave is another strong addition from Modern Horizons 3, and its colorless identity means it slots into any deck. It’s a bit costly, but Urza’s Cave can tag out for any other land in your deck, no restrictions. That can be a utility land as strong as Field of the Dead, or simply the color of mana that you’re missing.
There’s also the ‘Urza’s’ and ‘Cave’ card types. This land will charge up some of your other lands in decks that care about those subtypes. Play it next to the likes of Urza’s Workshop or Calamitous Cave-In.
1Lord Of The Rings Landcyclers
Secret Lands In Disguise
The Lord of the Rings crossover setintroduced one-mana landcyclers for the first time, and they’ve been a bit of a revolution across multiple formats. They’re nottechnicallyland cards, but they fill the role of a tapland with the upside of being an actual spell later in the game.
This cycle has proven itself quite malleable, with cards like Troll of Khazad-dum and Lorien Revealed offering tons of flexibility to their respective decks. Troll, for example, can be an easy plant for a reanimator deck, putting itself in your graveyard and smoothing your mana in the process.
The LotR landcyclers do not specify ‘basic landcycling,’ which means you may find nonbasic lands and use them as further mana-fixing for your deck.
