Shefet Dunes MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
RarityUncommon
TypeLand — Desert

Key Takeaways

  1. Shefet Dunes provides card advantage by powering up numerous creatures at once.
  2. The land accelerates resources without compromising spell slots in your deck.
  3. Its instant speed activation offers strategic flexibility during combat phases.

Text of card

: Add to your mana pool. , Pay 1 life: Add to your mana pool. , , Sacrifice a Desert: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Shefet Dunes facilitates deck-building strategies focused on going wide with creatures. By boosting your entire board, it can effectively generate card advantage by making your individual creatures more threatening and harder for your opponent to trade with efficiently on a one-for-one basis.

Resource Acceleration: As a land, Shefet Dunes contributes to your mana base without taking a spell slot in your deck. Its ability to transform into a source of temporary power for your creatures can be seen as a form of resource acceleration, allowing you to apply pressure faster and potentially closing games sooner than expected.

Instant Speed: The power-up ability of Shefet Dunes can be activated at instant speed, giving you the flexibility to enhance your army right before damage calculation during combat, catch your opponent off guard, or decisively alter the course of blocking and attacking scenarios within the combat phase.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The card’s activated ability demands the sacrifice of a desert, which could be a sizable setback when your board presence relies heavily on land resources.

Specific Mana Cost: Shefet Dunes requires white mana for activation, thus its utility is primarily in white-centric or two-color decks that can reliably produce white mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For the boost it provides, the life payment and deserts sacrifice might be too steep when you compare it to other lands or spells able to bolster your creatures’ strength for less restrictive costs.


Reasons to Include Shefet Dunes in Your Collection

Versatility: Shefet Dunes serves both as a mana source and as a means to strengthen your creatures over time. It can be included in a wide range of white-based decks, from aggressive strategies looking to capitalize on the power boost to more defensive decks seeking flexibility in land slots.

Combo Potential: This land’s ability to pump your entire team is particularly powerful in token strategies, enabling surprise victories by amplifying the combat damage of numerous creatures simultaneously.

Meta-Relevance: As games often revolve around creature combat, Shefet Dunes gains importance by tipping the scales in your favor during crucial turns. It fits well in the current environment that values tactical advantages over opponents in battles for board supremacy.


How to beat

Shefet Dunes is a versatile land card with the power to be a game-changer in Magic: The Gathering, similar to the famed Anthems that upgrade creatures’ prowess. With an ability to bolster your creatures’ strength, it shines in decks that flood the board with numerous creatures. To tackle a card like Shefet Dunes, focus on control strategies that limit the number of creatures your opponent can amass.

Utilizing board clear spells like Wrath of God or Doomskar can nullify the advantage Shefet Dunes provides by resetting the battlefield. Similarly, countering creature heavy strategies with spot removal can keep the board state to a minimum, making the Dunes’ activation less impactful. Since Shefet Dunes requires a life payment and the sacrifice of a Desert, it’s also effective to target your opponent’s life total directly or apply pressure to exhaust their resources before they can capitalize on the extra power boost.

Land destruction, though not always a popular tactic, can directly counter cards like Shefet Dunes. Targeted land removal such as Field of Ruin can ensure this particular land doesn’t pose a threat for long. Recognize that the key to overcoming Shefet Dunes lies in proactive disruption to your opponent’s strategy, maintaining card advantage, and keeping their board state manageable.


Cards like Shefet Dunes

Shefet Dunes is a versatile land card from Magic: The Gathering that offers a strategic advantage in white-based creature decks. It provides a unique blend of mana utility and a temporary boost to your creatures. Similar in function to other creature-enhancing lands such as Kabira Crossroads, Shefet Dunes has the added benefit of not entering the battlefield tapped and thus avoids delaying your tempo.

Analogous to Shefet Dunes, Sunpetal Grove stands out as it offers colored mana without coming into play tapped, provided you control a Plains or a Forest. However, while Sunpetal Grove is more flexible with mana production, it lacks the power-up ability that makes Shefet Dunes compelling in creature-heavy strategies. Emeria, the Sky Ruin also elevates creatures, but it demands a more patient setup to achieve its potential, unlike the immediate impact Shefet Dunes can have on the board.

Evaluating these lands, Shefet Dunes demonstrates its worth for tactical plays that can turn the tides of battle. Its capability to pump up a swarm of creatures on a pivotal turn, without the usual downside of entering tapped, positions it as a solid choice in various deck builds.

Kabira Crossroads - MTG Card versions
Sunpetal Grove - MTG Card versions
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - MTG Card versions
Kabira Crossroads - Zendikar (ZEN)
Sunpetal Grove - Magic 2010 (M10)
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Zendikar (ZEN)

Cards similar to Shefet Dunes by color, type and mana cost

Plains - MTG Card versions
Snow-Covered Plains - MTG Card versions
Ruins of Trokair - MTG Card versions
Karoo - MTG Card versions
Drifting Meadow - MTG Card versions
Rustic Clachan - MTG Card versions
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - MTG Card versions
Vivid Meadow - MTG Card versions
Kabira Crossroads - MTG Card versions
Makindi Stampede // Makindi Mesas - MTG Card versions
Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave - MTG Card versions
Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins - MTG Card versions
Eiganjo Castle - MTG Card versions
Secluded Steppe - MTG Card versions
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire - MTG Card versions
Castle Ardenvale - MTG Card versions
Memorial to Glory - MTG Card versions
Karakas - MTG Card versions
Minas Tirith - MTG Card versions
Windbrisk Heights - MTG Card versions
Plains - Modern Horizons 3 (MH3)
Snow-Covered Plains - Ice Age (ICE)
Ruins of Trokair - Masters Edition II (ME2)
Karoo - Commander 2014 (C14)
Drifting Meadow - Anthologies (ATH)
Rustic Clachan - Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret (DDF)
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Commander 2014 (C14)
Vivid Meadow - Commander 2015 (C15)
Kabira Crossroads - Commander 2017 (C17)
Makindi Stampede // Makindi Mesas - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Eiganjo Castle - The List (PLST)
Secluded Steppe - Commander 2021 (C21)
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (NEO)
Castle Ardenvale - New Capenna Commander (NCC)
Memorial to Glory - Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K)
Karakas - Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC)
Minas Tirith - Tales of Middle-earth Promos (PLTR)
Windbrisk Heights - Fallout (PIP)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Shefet Dunes MTG card by a specific set like Hour of Devastation and Amonkhet Remastered, 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 Shefet Dunes and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Shefet Dunes Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2017-07-14 and 2020-08-13. Illustrated by Yeong-Hao Han.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12017-07-14Hour of DevastationHOU 1832015normalblackYeong-Hao Han
22020-08-13Amonkhet RemasteredAKR 3292015normalblackYeong-Hao Han

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Shefet Dunes has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2017-04-18 Desert is a land subtype with no special meaning. It doesn’t grant the land an intrinsic mana ability. Other cards may care about which lands are Deserts.
2017-07-14 If a Desert has an ability with a cost of “Sacrifice a Desert,” you can sacrifice that Desert to pay the cost for its own ability.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks