Izzet Possible to Play Izzet Without Spell-Slingizzeting?

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Biomechan Engineer" href="#" target="_blank">Biomechan Engineer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://artofmonztre.carrd.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Monztre</a></em></p>
<p>Are Landers going to be the next big thing taking over every local EDH table?</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Lander"></div></div>
<p><em>Edge of Eternities</em>’ formal release date has almost arrived, and with it comes a new, exciting <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>-on-a-token in Landers. Made by a variety of cards throughout the set, Lander tokens have players perking up their ears and ready to claim spots in their Commander decks, especially in sans-green piles.</p>
<p>Ramping and color fixing are things that every deck needs, so why wouldn't one be playing a ton of these? More importantly, are Landers a token type that <em>Wizards of the Coast</em> is likely to use time and again? Let's get into it.</p>
<h2>What Are Lander Tokens in <em>Magic: The Gathering</em>?</h2>
<p>First things first: What <i>is</i> a Lander token, and what do they do? Landers are a token artifact that are created by a variety of spells in <em>Edge of Eternities</em>, either from a creature entering or leaving the battlefield or from the result of a spell like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lithobraking" href="#" target="_blank">Lithobraking</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>They have the following rules text:</p>
<p><span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-2" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-tap" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, Sacrifice this token: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.</p>
<p>Lander tokens have some obvious utility for Commander gamers. For one, by being an artifact that enters the battlefield and also hangs around before being used, it incidentally adds artifact synergies to decks that care about such things.</p>
<p>However, the main juice here is the effect. Pay two generic mana and sacrifice it to get any basic into play tapped - effectively adding a color-agnostic <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> in play for any deck. Since it sits on the battlefield until its controller is ready to use it, it works effectively as a mana sink for the last few mana on a turn… or can be cashed in immediately to find the last color or land needed to cast a powerful spell.</p>
<p>This is obviously so good that any deck that would want it could have it! But how does it stack up to the other omnipresent tokens? And will <em>Wizards</em> continue to put this into sets?</p>
<h2>Investigating the Omnipresent Artifact Tokens</h2>
<p>First, let's take a look at the other artifact tokens that are regularly seen throughout Commander games everywhere. These tokens are also used consistently by <em>Wizards of the Coast</em> in development of new premium sets and preconstructed EDH decks.</p>
<p>I’m not bothering with creatures here, just other utility pieces like Landers. There’s an easy top three:</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Treasure</li>
<li aria-level="1">Clue</li>
<li aria-level="1">Food</li>
</ul>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Treasure|tfin|23"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Clue"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Food"></div></div>
<p>One could also give an honorable mention to Blood here, but <em>Wizards</em> has seemingly leveled off usage in the last year or so.</p>
<p>What makes these tokens popular and prolific? Obviously, they’re well supported by sets, but that’s besides the point. Each of these tokens has been landed on and used consistently for three reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>They’re flavor-agnostic.</li>
<li>They fit in the color pie (mostly).</li>
<li>And they’re all fair bonuses.</li>
</ol>
<p>While there was definitely a time of <em>Magic</em> sets overindexing on Treasures and their creation, it has slowed down as WotC realized their mistakes. Each of the token types now feel fair, on average, with Food being the outlier in maybe being <i>too</i> expensive, often relegating it to a Food-specific role.</p>
<p>Clues? Two generic mana has long been the established price for drawing a card. What does one do to make <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Unsummon" href="#" target="_blank">Unsummon</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> draw a card? Add <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-2" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> to the cost and get <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Repulse" href="#" target="_blank">Repulse</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>Treasures are obviously the most powerful but I’ll basically never begrudge someone getting a one-time burst, especially now that the most abuseable Treasure-producer, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dockside Extortionist" href="#" target="_blank">Dockside Extortionist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is banned. This level of fairness makes it easy to stick any of these tokens onto an otherwise slightly-underpowered spell as a “freebie” to get it across the finish line.</p>
<p>We live in a world where most colors can make Treasures, Clues, and Food with no problem. Each of them could be considered color pie bends for specific colors, especially Clues in red, for example. But, none of them blatantly break the rules. This makes it that much easier for <em>Wizards</em> to trot them out in any context, on any card, if they so wish.</p>
<p>All three have continued to pop up time and again because they're flavor agnostic, allowing them to fit into any world. One can conceivably have Food, Treasure, and Clues in any society. This is where Blood tokens fall short. Hard to have Blood out and about in most places not named Innistrad, yeah?</p>
<p>Lets compare Landers on each of these three axes and see how they fare.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rampant Growth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cultivate"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Migration Path"></div></div>
<h2>Are Landers Fair?</h2>
<p>To start with, Landers definitely succeeded at the “fair” test. Two mana has long represented the cost of grabbing a basic from your library tapped, as seen from <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and similar spells.</p>
<p>Go one step farther, up to three mana, and see the ability to get a tapped basic and an additional one in your hand, a la <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Four mana for the longest time got one <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Explosive Vegetation" href="#" target="_blank">Explosive Vegetation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but now usually comes with a bit more upside (<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Circuitous Route" href="#" target="_blank">Circuitous Route</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Migration Path" href="#" target="_blank">Migration Path</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, etc.).</p>
<p>While <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-2" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> is a more accessible cost than the traditional <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-1" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-g" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, it still fits the test already set up for us, with Clues as the most direct comparison.</p>
<p>It’s also obvious that <em>Wizards</em> views Lander tokens as a solid “add-on” candidate, with every card in <em>Edge of Eternities</em> that makes one giving it to you as a form of bonus on creatures entering or leaving or through the resolution of a spell.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Divert Disaster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Emergency Eject"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Scrounge for Eternity"></div></div>
<h2>Do Landers Break the Color Pie?</h2>
<p>Now <em>here</em> is a test that the Landers fail, no question. The latest concrete and consolidated information we have concerning the mechanical color pie (which effects belong to what color and how often they can do it) came in Mark Rosewater’s article <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mechanical Color Pie 2021</a>.</p>
<p>My short analysis here will be based on that, combined with a few more recent observations about how these things may have shifted.</p>
<p>First, let’s look at the color breakdown of cards in <em>Edge of Eternities</em> that make Lander tokens.</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Green: 11 (including gold cards)</li>
<li aria-level="1">Red: 4 (including <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Biotech Specialist" href="#" target="_blank">Biotech Specialist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>)</li>
<li aria-level="1">Blue: 2 (including <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Biomechan Engineer" href="#" target="_blank">Biomechan Engineer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>)</li>
<li aria-level="1">White: 2</li>
<li aria-level="1">Black: 2</li>
<li aria-level="1">Colorless: 1</li>
</ul>
<p>Green having the most cards and also the most liberal creation on those cards is by no means surprising - they are primary in grabbing lands out of your library and putting them onto the battlefield. Past the green cards (and the green-containing gold cards), one finds a very limited selection of Lander creation that all involve jumping through some specific hoops.</p>
<p>Getting to grab lands and put them onto the battlefield directly is not in any other color’s share of the pie - save the traditional white method of ramping, caring about how many lands opponents have and tutoring something to make up for it. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sunstar Expansionist" href="#" target="_blank">Sunstar Expansionist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> fits this mold perfectly.</p>
<p>The other white card, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Emergency Eject" href="#" target="_blank">Emergency Eject</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, fits a now-common effect: “Destroy target creature. Its controller gets compensation.” This has been flexed over time to include all nonland permanents, rather than just creatures. Black also asks hoops to be jumped through, its two cards requiring quite literal sacrifice to get Landers as a resulting bonus.</p>
<p>Red is shockingly high in Lander creation, but if examined closely they make them at poor rates and with specific restrictions or payoffs.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kav Landseeker"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sunstar Expansionist"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Terrapact Intimidator"></div></div>
<p>The cleanest producer, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kav Landseeker" href="#" target="_blank">Kav Landseeker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, gives you a limited window in which to use it. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lithobraking" href="#" target="_blank">Lithobraking</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> makes a token at way over cost while then letting the controller cash it (or another artifact) in immediately for a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pyroclasm" href="#" target="_blank">Pyroclasm</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Terrapact Intimidator" href="#" target="_blank">Terrapact Intimidator</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> lets the opponent deny your Lander tokens.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, Blue’s sole option, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Divert Disaster" href="#" target="_blank">Divert Disaster</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, only makes one if the spell it's attempting to counter is, in fact, not countered.</p>
<p>While all of these cards technically fit within their own colors pie and have a good reason to give a bonus, it’s obvious via distribution alone that <em>Wizards</em> is aware that bending the color pie in order to give each color access to basic land searching is not smart.</p>
<p>I would go so far as to posit that the white, black, and blue spells here represent the whole of the available design space for those colors and Landers.</p>
<h2>Are Landers Universal Flavor?</h2>
<p>Perhaps the largest death-knell of Landers becoming omnipresent is the very flavor itself. Flavor is a potent tool consistently used to make or break the reprint potential of a card. Over time, for example, nonbasic land cycles have gotten more and more generic names to unlock any associations with a specific plane. Blood tokens currently have this problem.</p>
<p>The very name of “Landers” is directly connected to the sci-fi vibe and setting of <em>Edge of Eternities</em>, making it difficult to imagine them being used in any setting other than, maybe… Ixalan? Like, people on a ship landing on a new location?</p>
<p>I would go so far as to say that this naming choice was specific by <em>Wizards</em>, purposefully limiting them from using this token heavily in the future. After all, it’s fair but powerful, and also breaking of the color pie. Not that great to use over and over!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ceremonious Rejection"></div></div>
<h2>In Conclusion</h2>
<p>As the old newspaper saying goes, if a headline asks a question, the answer is probably no. Fulfilling the prophecy, my conclusion here is that Landers are <i>not</i> the next big artifact token that <em>Wizards</em> will turn to again and again.</p>
<p>As already seen by their own limited use in <em>Edge of Eternities</em>, its very purposeful creative choices, and also the fact that it does quite blatantly fly in the face of the color pie, I posit that Landers are more of a one-off set-specific token rather than the next great artifact to take over EDH games the world over.</p>
<p>Honestly, as much as I would love to put them into every Azorious deck I do have, we’re probably much better off because of it.</p>
<h3>More <em>Edge</em>:</h3>
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