Lay of the Land MTG Card
2001-06-04 - Number 81
2013-07-19 - Number 183
2016-08-26 - Number 185
2019-11-07 - Number 1257
2020-09-26 - Number CN2-185
| Card sets | Released in 5 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
Text of card
Search your library for a basic land card, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Victory favors neither the righteous nor the wicked. It favors the prepared.
Cards like Lay of the Land
Lay of the Land is an essential spell for players who want to ensure their land drops remain consistent in Magic: The Gathering. This card fetches a basic land from your deck, similar to Rampant Growth. However, Rampant Growth has the added ability to put the land onto the battlefield tapped, thus advancing your board state. Lay of the Land merely places the land in your hand, which requires it to be played as a land drop.
Exploration is another card with a related theme, allowing players to play additional lands on their turns. While Exploration provides a more potent effect in the long run, it does come with a higher casting cost and is reliant on having those lands in hand, while Lay of the Land actively thins your deck. Then there is Farseek, it seeks out non-basic lands but they come into play tapped and the card is limited to lands with specific subtypes.
Ultimately, Lay of the Land offers the purity of its effect—simple land tutoring without modification—which is a valuable tactic for deck consistency among Magic: The Gathering players, particularly in decks that focus on meeting color requirements early in the game.
Cards similar to Lay of the Land by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: While Lay of the Land doesn’t directly put more cards into your hand, it ensures your next draws are more likely to be actionable plays rather than additional lands, subtly shifting the odds in your favor.
Resource Acceleration: By fetching a basic land card from your deck to your hand, Lay of the Land can lead to ahead-of-curve plays, letting you deploy threats earlier than the usual land-per-turn limit would allow.
Instant Speed: Despite being a sorcery, the strategic timing of playing Lay of the Land can set you up for subsequent turns – leveraging land plays at the right moment can capitalize on the flow of the game and keep opponents guessing.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For players looking to maximize hand size, Lay of the Land requires you to discard a card post-resolution, often leaving you with one less option to play. This could present a problem in decks that rely on having multiple cards in hand to execute their strategies effectively.
Specific Mana Cost: Lay of the Land demands a green mana to cast. This specific mana requirement can be restrictive and may not align well with multicolored decks that don’t prioritize green mana or have a diversified mana base, limiting its versatility across a variety of deck builds.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite its ability to fetch a basic land, the single green mana investment does not put the land onto the battlefield but rather into your hand. When we consider the pace of the game, there are alternative spells or creatures that could provide a more immediate impact on the battlefield for the same or less mana.
Reasons to Include Lay of the Land in Your Collection
Versatility: Lay of the Land effortlessly slides into various deck archetypes due to its basic yet pivotal ability to search for a land. It’s an asset for ensuring land drops and smoothing out your mana curve.
Combo Potential: This card shines in its subtle power to enable bigger plays. It can set up landfall triggers or synergize with cards that interact with lands entering the battlefield.
Meta-Relevance: Whether the current competitive scene favours aggro, control, or combo decks, Lay of the Land holds its ground by providing a consistent way to access your essential mana sources right when you need them.
How to beat
In Magic: The Gathering, facing off against a card like Lay of the Land presents a unique situation that requires strategic planning. This card, famous for its ability to search a library for a basic land card and put it into your hand, accelerates your opponent’s mana availability. Dealing with this advantage requires disabling or disrupting your opponent’s ability to use their mana efficiently.
One approach is to utilize land destruction cards to remove the pivotal lands before they can be tapped for a drop that could turn the game. Another strategy is to employ counterspells to prevent Lay of the Land from ever resolving, thus maintaining mana equilibrium. Players should be prepared with a diverse deck to adapt to such mana advantage strategies, which might involve using aggressive creatures to pressure the opponent early on, not giving them the chance to fully benefit from their expanded mana base.
Overall, overcoming the advantage granted by Lay of the Land involves a mix of anticipatory plays, understanding the pacing of your opponent’s strategy, and executing timely counters that disrupt their game plan. By doing so, players can mitigate the card’s influence and maintain control of the match.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Lay of the Land MTG card by a specific set like Apocalypse and Magic 2014, 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 Lay of the Land and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Printings
The Lay of the Land Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 2001-06-04 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2001-06-04 | Apocalypse | APC | 81 | 1997 | Normal | Black | Mark Zug | |
| 2 | 2013-07-19 | Magic 2014 | M14 | 183 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Chuck Lukacs | |
| 3 | 2016-08-26 | Conspiracy: Take the Crown | CN2 | 185 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Chuck Lukacs | |
| 4 | 2019-11-07 | Mystery Booster | MB1 | 1257 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Chuck Lukacs | |
| 5 | The List | PLST | CN2-185 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Chuck Lukacs |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Lay of the Land has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Lay of the Land card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | Because the “search” requires you to find a card with certain characteristics, you don’t have to find the card if you don’t want to. |