Badlands MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 15 setsSee all
RarityRare
TypeLand — Swamp Mountain

Key Takeaways

  1. Badlands excels in deck consistency by supplying red and black mana without eating up valuable deck space.
  2. It brings speed to gameplay, enabling spells without entry restrictions, giving players a crucial quick-start advantage.
  3. Despite flexibility in color, Badlands may limit broader deck designs and come with a higher acquisition cost.

Text of card

Counts as both mountains and swamp and is affected by spells that affect either. Tap to add either o R or o B to your mana pool.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Badlands offers a dual land capability, seamlessly providing access to both red and black mana. This intrinsic flexibility means you don’t have to sacrifice deck space for additional lands to ensure consistent mana availability—preserving the potency of your deck.

Resource Acceleration: As part of the original Dual Lands, Badlands has no enter-the-battlefield restrictions, allowing for immediate mana availability. This accelerates your resource curve, giving you an edge to cast high-impact spells sooner than your opponent can respond.

Instant Speed: While Badlands itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, its immediate mana provision empowers you to maximize instant-speed interactions. Having access to two colors of mana without delay means your instants and flash threats can be played without a hitch, keeping you one step ahead in the fast-paced tempo of the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Badlands does not inherently require discard, it often pairs with cards that do. Running such synergies may force you into difficult decisions regarding how to manage your hand, making the strategy not always ideal.

Specific Mana Cost: Badlands taps for either red or black mana, which while flexible within its spectrum, limits deck-building options and is not universal like colorless mana lands.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Badlands is a land and doesn’t have a direct casting cost, its value might make it a costly acquisition compared to other dual lands, especially for players on a budget, affecting its overall accessibility and incorporation into decks.


Reasons to Include Badlands in Your Collection

Versatility: Badlands seamlessly integrates into multiple deck archetypes, particularly those requiring a strong mana base that taps for both red and black mana without entering the battlefield tapped.

Combo Potential: This land is crucial for activating synergy between red and black spells, serving as a dependable source for initiating combinations, especially in Legacy and Vintage formats where land destruction is minimal.

Meta-Relevance: With an ever-shifting competitive landscape, Badlands retains its status due to the consistent need for efficient mana fixing in decks that rely on speed and resilience, ensuring its place in various metagames.


How to beat

Badlands, as a crucial mana fixing card in Magic: The Gathering, stands out for its ability to produce both red and black mana without coming into play tapped. This increases the speed and efficiency of any deck that runs colors red and black. However, one way to counteract the benefits of Badlands is by utilizing land destruction cards or strategies that specifically target nonbasic lands, such as Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin. These cards can eliminate the advantage that Badlands provides by removing it from play.

Another approach is incorporating cards like Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon to outmaneuver Badlands. Blood Moon turns all nonbasic lands into Mountains, which can disrupt your opponent’s mana base and potentially lock them out of vital colors. Furthermore, consider leveraging color-specific hate cards like Red Elemental Blast or Blue Elemental Blast, depending on what your opponent casts using Badlands. By anticipating the threats that Badlands enables and preparing your deck with answers to those strategies, you can mitigate its impact and maintain an upper hand in the game.

Ultimately, planning your game strategy while bearing in mind the strengths of Badlands can help you formulate a winning strategy, ready to adapt to the dynamic landscape of Magic: The Gathering.


Cards like Badlands

Badlands is a highly sought-after Dual Land card in Magic: The Gathering, revered for its ability to tap for both red and black mana without any penalty. Its closest relatives in terms of functionality are the other Original Dual Lands, such as Underground Sea, which provides blue and black mana, and Taiga, offering red and green mana options. Like Badlands, these lands are prized for their versatility in multi-color decks and the fact that they come into play untapped.

More modern equivalents would be the Shock Lands, for example, Blood Crypt. Although it can enter the battlefield untapped at the cost of 2 life, it mirrors the utility of Badlands by producing red or black mana. Overgrown Tomb and Stomping Ground offer similar duality in other color combinations but come with the same life point trade-off.

Badlands holds its prestige among these counterparts for its scarcity and lack of entering the battlefield tapped or any life loss, making it a timeless asset for players aiming to optimize their land bases in decks that run red and black spells.

Underground Sea - MTG Card versions
Taiga - MTG Card versions
Blood Crypt - MTG Card versions
Overgrown Tomb - MTG Card versions
Stomping Ground - MTG Card versions
Underground Sea - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Taiga - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Blood Crypt - Dissension (DIS)
Overgrown Tomb - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)
Stomping Ground - Guildpact (GPT)

Cards similar to Badlands by color, type and mana cost

Sulfurous Springs - MTG Card versions
Cinder Marsh - MTG Card versions
Urborg Volcano - MTG Card versions
Shadowblood Ridge - MTG Card versions
Temple of Malice - MTG Card versions
Rakdos Carnarium - MTG Card versions
Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway - MTG Card versions
Haunted Ridge - MTG Card versions
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace - MTG Card versions
Tresserhorn Sinks - MTG Card versions
Auntie's Hovel - MTG Card versions
Lavaclaw Reaches - MTG Card versions
Dragonskull Summit - MTG Card versions
Blackcleave Cliffs - MTG Card versions
Blood Crypt - MTG Card versions
Molten Slagheap - MTG Card versions
Bloodfell Caves - MTG Card versions
Smoldering Marsh - MTG Card versions
Foreboding Ruins - MTG Card versions
Canyon Slough - MTG Card versions
Sulfurous Springs - Dominaria United (DMU)
Cinder Marsh - Battle Royale Box Set (BRB)
Urborg Volcano - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Shadowblood Ridge - Fallout (PIP)
Temple of Malice - Doctor Who (WHO)
Rakdos Carnarium - The Brothers' War Commander (BRC)
Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway - From Cute to Brute (PCTB)
Haunted Ridge - Doctor Who (WHO)
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace - Commander 2019 (C19)
Tresserhorn Sinks - Coldsnap (CSP)
Auntie's Hovel - Lorwyn (LRW)
Lavaclaw Reaches - Doctor Who (WHO)
Dragonskull Summit - Fallout (PIP)
Blackcleave Cliffs - Phyrexia: All Will Be One (ONE)
Blood Crypt - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)
Molten Slagheap - Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K)
Bloodfell Caves - March of the Machine (MOM)
Smoldering Marsh - Fallout (PIP)
Foreboding Ruins - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC)
Canyon Slough - Fallout (PIP)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Badlands MTG card by a specific set like Limited Edition Alpha and Limited Edition Beta, 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 Badlands and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Badlands Magic the Gathering card was released in 14 different sets between 1993-08-05 and 2022-11-28. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11993-08-05Limited Edition AlphaLEA 2771993normalblackRob Alexander
21993-10-04Limited Edition BetaLEB 2781993normalblackRob Alexander
31993-12-01Unlimited Edition2ED 2781993normalwhiteRob Alexander
41993-12-10Collectors' EditionCED 2781993normalblackRob Alexander
51993-12-10Intl. Collectors' EditionCEI 2781993normalblackRob Alexander
61994-04-01Revised Edition3ED 2821993normalwhiteRob Alexander
71994-04-01Foreign Black BorderFBB 2821993normalblackRob Alexander
81994-06-21Summer Magic / EdgarSUM 2821993normalwhiteRob Alexander
92002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 436001997normalblackDaarken
102008-09-22Masters Edition IIME2 2251997normalblackRob Alexander
112011-01-02Legacy ChampionshipOLGC 2016NA2015normalblackFilip Burburan
122011-01-10Masters Edition IVME4 2411997normalblackRob Alexander
132014-06-16Vintage MastersVMA 2912015normalblackDaarken
142022-11-2830th Anniversary Edition30A 2732015normalblackRob Alexander
152022-11-2830th Anniversary Edition30A 5701997normalblackRob Alexander

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Badlands has restrictions

FormatLegality
OldschoolLegal
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2004-10-04 Land type changing effects that change a dual land’s land type will remove the old land types completely. Text-changing effects that just change one of the two land types will leave the other type unaffected.
2004-10-04 This card is a Mountain and a Swamp even while in the graveyard, library, or any other zone.
2008-10-01 This has basic land types, but it isn’t a basic land. Things that affect basic lands don’t affect it. Things that affect basic land types do.
2008-10-01 This has the mana abilities associated with both of its basic land types.

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