Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway MTG Card

Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway - The List

Rarity	Rare
Type	Land
Released	2020-09-26
Set symbol
Set name	The List
Set code	PLST
Number	ZNR-260
Frame	2015
Layout	Modal DFC
Border	Black
Illustred by	Daarken

Key Takeaways

Provides two land options in one card, optimizing mana base and reducing the need for multiple land copies.
Enables playing spells on curve through immediate mana color selection, fostering resource acceleration.
Lets you react to game states with its dual-faced nature, adding a layer of strategy and unpredictability.

Text of card

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"Here, at least, the danger is usually in plain sight." —Zahr Gada, Halimar expedition leader

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Versatility in card choice is a subtle form of card advantage. With Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway, you effectively have two land options in one card, ensuring the right color mana is accessible when you need it. This reduces the need for multiple copies of lands in your deck and can improve the consistency of your mana base.

Resource Acceleration: Lands that offer a choice upon entering the battlefield can be critical for resource acceleration. By selecting the land color that most suits your immediate needs, Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway ensures that you can play your spells on curve, providing a smooth progression of your game plan without interruptions.

Instant Speed: While not an instant itself, the modal dual land lets you adapt at instant speed to the flow of the game on your turn. This ability to choose between Clearwater or Murkwater Pathway as you play the land allows you to react to the board state and maintain a level of unpredictability against your opponent.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Although Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway doesn’t directly require discarding as a cost, being forced to choose between one of its sides upon playing may feel like a discard, especially if your deck is situated to benefit from the color-switching flexibility later in the game.

Specific Mana Cost: This dual-faced card offers a choice between blue and black mana, which is great for those colors, but it doesn’t provide flexibility outside of them. Decks not running blue or black will find no use for it, potentially limiting the card’s inclusion across various deck types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the card itself does not have a high mana cost, its dual nature requires strategic planning for mana curves in multicolored decks. Inefficient planning could lead to suboptimal mana availability and hinder the deck’s ability to play other spells with higher and more demanding mana costs on time.

Reasons to Include Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway in Your Collection

Versatility: Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway offers unparalleled flexibility for decks needing consistent mana fixing. On one side, it serves as an untapped blue source, crucial for early game spell casting. Flip it over, and you have an untapped black mana source perfect for keeping up with efficient removal spells or creature drops.

Combo Potential: In decks built around synergies with land types or landfall triggers, this card shines by providing both Island and Swamp types without entering the battlefield tapped. It can support combos seamlessly while maintaining a streamlined mana base.

Meta-Relevance: Given the card’s ability to switch roles in response to the ever-shifting deck archetypes and strategy trends, its inclusion can make your deck more resilient against a broad spectrum of opposing strategies. Whether you’re up against aggressive creatures or preparing for the long game, having the right mana at the right time can be game-deciding.

How to beat

The Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway presents a unique versatility in land cards, allowing players to adeptly manage their mana resources in a game of Magic: The Gathering. Not only do these cards provide the crucial colored mana needed without entering the battlefield tapped, but they also offer a dual-faced feature giving access to two colors within a single card. Recognition of the potential mana fixing advantage these provide is key.

When facing an opponent using these Pathways, disrupting their land base becomes an effective strategy. Land destruction or denial can impede the color-balancing act these cards readily provide. Additionally, taxing effects that make it costly to tap or untap lands can stifle the benefit these Pathways confer. Keeping in mind the dual nature of these lands, enchantments or spells that outright transform or exile lands, such as Field of Ruin, can serve as a tech choice against a deck relying on the flexibility of the Pathways. Prepare and adapt your strategies when you are up against these uniquely transformative lands.

Ultimately, recognizing and interrupting the seamless mana-fixing these lands provide can be the key to gaining the upper hand. Land-targeted disruption can effectively dilute the advantage that playing a Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway brings to the table.

Cards like Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway

The Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway card brings a strategic dual land element to Magic: The Gathering decks, closely resembling the modal flexibility found in the earlier Zendikar Rising series. Comparable to the card Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway, Clearwater Pathway offers swift access to two types of mana without coming into the battlefield tapped, ensuring immediate impact similar to its counterpart. Both cards avoid the common setback of lands that delay your gameplay by requiring a pause before utilization.

In addition, the Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway features a parallel design, permitting deck builders to weave a smooth mana base between two different colors. Yet it’s the subtleties in color combinations that distinguish these lands, as players can tailor their decks around the specific mana they require for their strategy. Clearwater Pathway, with its blue and black mana capabilities, stands out by fueling spells that hinge on secrecy and disruption.

Thus, when exploring the vast selection of MTG lands, the Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway card is exceptional for its utility in enabling a seamless and versatile mana structure, an essential component for deck consistency in a variety of playing styles.

Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway - MTG Card versions

Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway MTG card by a specific set like The List, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2020-09-25	A modal double-faced card can’t be transformed or be put onto the battlefield transformed. Ignore any instruction to transform a modal double-faced card or to put one onto the battlefield transformed.
2020-09-25	If an effect allows you to play a land or cast a spell from among a group of cards, you may play or cast a modal double-faced card with any face that fits the criteria of that effect.
2020-09-25	If an effect allows you to play a specific modal double-faced card, you may cast it as a spell or play it as a land, as determined by which face you choose to play. If an effect allows you to cast (rather than “play”) a specific modal double-faced card, you can’t play it as a land.
2020-09-25	If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name, the name of either face may be chosen. If that effect or a linked ability refers to a spell with the chosen name being cast and/or a land with the chosen name being played, it considers only the chosen name, not the other face’s name.
2020-09-25	If an effect puts a double-faced card onto the battlefield, it enters with its front face up. If that front face can’t be put onto the battlefield, it doesn’t enter the battlefield.
2020-09-25	In the Commander variant, a double-faced card’s color identity is determined by the mana costs and mana symbols in the rules text of both faces combined. If either face has a color indicator or basic land type, those are also considered.
2020-09-25	The mana value of a modal double-faced card is based on the characteristics of the face that’s being considered. On the stack and battlefield, consider whichever face is up. In all other zones, consider only the front face. This is different than how the mana value of a transforming double-faced card is determined.
2020-09-25	There is a single triangle icon in the top left corner of the front face. There is a double triangle icon in the top left corner of the back face.
2020-09-25	To determine whether it is legal to play a modal double-faced card, consider only the characteristics of the face you’re playing and ignore the other face’s characteristics.