Forsaken City MTG Card

Planeshift (PLS)
2001-02-05 - Number 139

The List (PLST)
2020-09-26 - Number PLS-139

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Rarity	Rare
Type	Land

Key Takeaways

Forsaken City ensures card flow by allowing players to skip draws to untap, aiding in card advantage without extra spells.
It accelerates resources in decks that use alternate costs, potentially enabling earlier plays of significant spells or threats.
Operates at instant speed without the stack, offering reactive decks mana availability without sacrificing land utility during the untap phase.

Text of card

Forsaken City doesn't untap during your untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove a card in your hand from the game. If you do, untap Forsaken City. oc T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Forsaken City is a unique land that helps players ensure a continuous flow of cards. With its activation ability, it provides you with the option to skip your draw step to untap it, contributing to a subtle card advantage as you’re not forced to use other resources or spells to achieve this.

Resource Acceleration: Forsaken City can be quite the boon for resource acceleration in decks that capitalize on alternate casting costs or cards with activated abilities. Though it doesn’t directly increase the number of lands in play, its ability to untap each turn if you skip your draw can lead to deploying larger threats or playing key spells sooner than usual.

Instant Speed: The ability from Forsaken City doesn’t use the stack, which means it can be ‘activated’ at instant speed by simply having no cards in hand during the untap phase—a pivotal asset in reactive decks that thrive on keeping mana available to respond to an opponent’s actions without compromising land utility.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Forsaken City necessitates the discarding of a card if you wish to untap it during your untap step, which could deplete your hand and resources, making it a challenging card to utilize effectively if you’re not able to maintain a solid card advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Being a nonbasic land, Forsaken City taps for colorless mana but requires a colored spell to be set aside to maintain its untap ability. This can be restrictive and not always synergistic with decks that need specific color combinations to function smoothly.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The cost of keeping Forsaken City active may indirectly be high, as it does not just entail discarding a card but potentially forgoing more efficient land plays. This can hinder your mana development, especially in faster paced games where every land drop counts.

Reasons to Include Forsaken City in Your Collection

Versatility: Forsaken City offers a unique mana-fixing ability that’s not dependent on the land type or color, a boon for decks that struggle with color consistency or require a wide array of mana for their spells.

Combo Potential: This land can be a core piece in decks that aim to utilize cards with untap abilities or those that want to avoid tapping out. With Forsaken City, players can fuel intricate combos by ensuring mana is always at their disposal.

Meta-Relevance: In game environments where players often face mana disruption or resource denial, Forsaken City provides a dependable land drop that circumvents common hindrances, maintaining strategic fluidity and resilience amid fierce competition.

How to beat

Forsaken City is a nonbasic land card that occupies a unique space in Magic: The Gathering. The stealthy strength of this card lies in its ability to not untap during your untap step, but rather to skip untapping it to generate mana of any color. This peculiar mechanism demands an asterate approach to disrupt a player’s reliance on Forsaken City’s mana generation.

To effectively tackle Forsaken City, consider cards that force untap actions or land destruction. Land destruction spells, such as Sinkhole or Ghost Quarter, provide a concrete solution by removing the threat from the battlefield entirely. Targeted untap cards could potentially waste a turn for your opponent, especially if they depend on specific colors that Forsaken City could have provided.

Another avenue is to pressure the card’s secondary ability that requires discarding a card to untap Forsaken City. Strategies that limit an opponent’s hand size or discard cards such as Thoughtseize or Mind Rot can turn Forsaken City into a liability rather than an asset. In sum, targeting the land’s linchpin abilities can turn the tide, making Forsaken City an obsolete piece on the MTG battlefield.

Cards like Forsaken City

Forsaken City stands its ground among lands within Magic the Gathering with an exceptional feature of untapping at a slight sacrifice. Comparable to other unique lands like Maze of Ith that prevent combat damage without producing mana, Forsaken City offers the utility of mana production without the traditional untap phase action. This is a significant advantage, especially in formats where holding cards for the right moment is crucial.

In comparison, we see the likes of Serra’s Sanctum and Gaea’s Cradle, which capitalize on specific board states to generate significant mana advantages. While Serra’s Sanctum thrives on the density of enchantments you wield, Gaea’s Cradle counts on the swarm of creatures you control. Unlike these two, Forsaken City’s mana production is not contingent on other permanents’ presence, granting it a unique form of reliability albeit with the cost of exiling a card from your hand during the upkeep.

Therefore, analyzing the versatility and utility of Forsaken City within Magic the Gathering, it becomes apparent that it provides a consistent albeit unconventional mana resource under circumstances where card retention is less of a hindrance and more of a strategic decision.

Cards similar to Forsaken City by color, type and mana cost

Terramorphic Expanse - MTG Card versions

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Forsaken City MTG card by a specific set like Planeshift and 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 Forsaken City and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Forsaken City Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2001-02-05 and 2001-02-05. Illustrated by Dana Knutson.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2001-02-05	Planeshift	PLS		139	1997	Normal	Black	Dana Knutson
2	~~2020-09-26~~	The List	PLST		PLS-139	1997	Normal	Black	Dana Knutson

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Forsaken City has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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