Deserted Beach MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 10 setsSee all
RarityRare
TypeLand

Key Takeaways

  1. Deserted Beach excels in card advantage and mana acceleration, supporting control and midrange decks.
  2. Card drawbacks include discard requirements and conditions affecting its tempo in early play.
  3. A must-have for any collection, it offers combo potential and aligns with the current meta.

Text of card

Deserted Beach enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more other lands. : Add or .

Drownyard floods and unnatural frost made the once peaceful boardwalk deceptively treacherous.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Deserted Beach stands out in decks by smoothing out draws. It’s a dual land, which means it can tap for two different types of mana, fitting seamlessly into a variety of deck strategies while providing a higher likelihood of the right mana exactly when needed.

Resource Acceleration: Essential for control and midrange decks, Deserted Beach enters the battlefield untapped if you control two or more other lands. This early game benefit lets you keep pace with aggressive decks or set up your board without missing crucial land drops.

Instant Speed: While Deserted Beach itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, its ability to provide the right mana at crucial moments enables players to cast impactful instant-speed spells without missing a beat. Its synergy with such cards ensures that you can confidently pass the turn, ready to respond to your opponent’s moves.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: When you play Deserted Beach, you may find the need to discard another land or card to maximize its potential, which can deplete your hand and leave you in a precarious position mid-game.

Specific Mana Cost: The land comes into play tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands, which means you’ll need to plan ahead when integrating it into your mana base, especially if you’re aiming for early game strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Deserted Beach provides both blue and white mana, the conditional nature of its entry untapped can be a setback in mana-fixing when compared to other dual lands that don’t share the same restriction, therefore, affecting your tempo against opponents.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Deserted Beach offers dual mana capabilities without entering the battlefield tapped, provided you control two or more lands. This makes it a seamless inclusion in a myriad of deck builds, particularly those that require mana stability from the get-go.

Combo Potential: As a land with the ability to tap for two different types of mana, Deserted Beach can be instrumental in enabling combos by giving you access to the necessary colors just when you need them, making it a linchpin in execute game-winning plays.

Meta-Relevance: In the shifting landscape of competitive play, the subtle edge provided by versatile land cards like Deserted Beach is critical. It aligns well with the pace of current metagames, where adaptation and efficiency are key to prevailing against a wide array of strategies.


How to beat

Deserted Beach, as one of the dual lands in Magic: The Gathering’s land card category, supports multicolor deck strategies by providing both white and blue mana. These lands are pivotal in enabling a smooth mana curve, essential for casting spells on time. Deserted Beach enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more other lands, which means its utility is delayed in early game scenarios.

Contesting Deserted Beach hinges on disrupting the opponent’s mana base. Land destruction spells or effects that negate the benefits of dual lands can tip the scales. Cards like Field of Ruin can target and eliminate Deserted Beach, while Ghost Quarter grants a similar effect without cost. These strategies oblige your opponent to retrieve basic lands, potentially disrupting their color needs and planned plays. Additionally, cards that tax or limit land plays, such as Thalia, Heretic Cathar, can slow down strategies reliant on dual lands, including Deserted Beach. Applying pressure with these tactics can prevent opponents from establishing the multicolor advantage that Deserted Beach provides.

By incorporating these methods into your game plan, you can effectively challenge an opponent’s Deserted Beach, potentially hindering their strategy and paving the way to victory.


Cards like Deserted Beach

In the vast landscape of land cards within Magic: The Gathering, Deserted Beach offers a unique strategic advantage. It’s part of a cycle of dual lands entering the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more other lands. Deserted Beach serves as a specific match to Glacial Fortress from the earlier series. While both can tap for either white or blue mana, Glacial Fortress checks for an Island or Plains on arrival, allowing for potentially quicker play in multi-color decks.

Seachrome Coast also deserves mention when examining similar cards. It enters the battlefield untapped if you control two or fewer other lands, offering an inverse utility compared to Deserted Beach for early game tempo. However, unlike Deserted Beach, Seachrome Coast lacks the late-game flexibility, as it will always enter tapped beyond the third land. Hallowed Fountain is another relative, providing both colors of mana but with the option to come into play untapped at the cost of life points, giving players strategic choices that can affect the early turns of the game.

Comparing these options underlines the subtle nuances that make each land card fit for different situations and deck builds. Deserted Beach’s balance between flexibility and the two-color mana source is what helps it stand firmly among its counterparts in the game.

Glacial Fortress - MTG Card versions
Seachrome Coast - MTG Card versions
Hallowed Fountain - MTG Card versions
Glacial Fortress - Magic 2010 (M10)
Seachrome Coast - Scars of Mirrodin (SOM)
Hallowed Fountain - Dissension (DIS)

Cards similar to Deserted Beach by color, type and mana cost

Tundra - MTG Card versions
Adarkar Wastes - MTG Card versions
Thalakos Lowlands - MTG Card versions
Coastal Tower - MTG Card versions
Port Town - MTG Card versions
Hallowed Fountain - MTG Card versions
Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway - MTG Card versions
Celestial Colonnade - MTG Card versions
Prahv, Spires of Order - MTG Card versions
Calciform Pools - MTG Card versions
Wanderwine Hub - MTG Card versions
Mystic Gate - MTG Card versions
Glacial Fortress - MTG Card versions
Seachrome Coast - MTG Card versions
Azorius Chancery - MTG Card versions
Moorland Haunt - MTG Card versions
Sejiri Refuge - MTG Card versions
Temple of Enlightenment - MTG Card versions
Prairie Stream - MTG Card versions
Meandering River - MTG Card versions
Tundra - Legacy Championship (OLGC)
Adarkar Wastes - Dominaria United (DMU)
Thalakos Lowlands - Tempest (TMP)
Coastal Tower - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Port Town - Doctor Who (WHO)
Hallowed Fountain - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)
Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway - From Cute to Brute (PCTB)
Celestial Colonnade - Doctor Who (WHO)
Prahv, Spires of Order - Dissension (DIS)
Calciform Pools - Time Spiral (TSP)
Wanderwine Hub - Lorwyn (LRW)
Mystic Gate - Double Masters (2XM)
Glacial Fortress - Fallout (PIP)
Seachrome Coast - Phyrexia: All Will Be One Promos (PONE)
Azorius Chancery - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)
Moorland Haunt - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Sejiri Refuge - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Temple of Enlightenment - Fallout (PIP)
Prairie Stream - Fallout (PIP)
Meandering River - Global Series Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling (GS1)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Deserted Beach MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Promos, 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 Deserted Beach and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Deserted Beach Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 2021-09-24 and 2023-10-13. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 940902015normalblackPiotr Dura
22021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight Hunt PromosPMID 260p2015normalblackJonas De Ro
32021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight HuntMID 2602015normalblackJonas De Ro
42021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight HuntMID 2812015normalborderlessPiotr Dura
52021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight Hunt PromosPMID 260s2015normalblackJonas De Ro
62022-01-28Innistrad: Double FeatureDBL 2602015normalblackJonas De Ro
72023-10-13Doctor WhoWHO 8612015normalblackJonas De Ro
82023-10-13Doctor WhoWHO 2702015normalblackJonas De Ro
92023-10-13Doctor WhoWHO 10792015normalblackJonas De Ro
102023-10-13Doctor WhoWHO 4882015normalblackJonas De Ro

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Deserted Beach has restrictions

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

Rules and information

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

DateText
2021-09-24 If this land enters the battlefield at the same time as any number of other lands, those other lands are not counted when determining if this land enters the battlefield tapped or untapped.

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