Lava Tubes MTG Card

Ice Age (ICE)
1995-06-03 - Number 358

Lava Tubes - Pro Tour Collector Set (PTC)

Pro Tour Collector Set (PTC)
1996-05-02 - Number gb358

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Rarity	Rare
Type	Land

Key Takeaways

Offers mana generation and card drawing, bolstering in-game strategic options and resource availability.
Demands discard, imposing a strategic trade-off, especially when resources are scarce in hand.
Ideal for red or black decks, less versatile for others due to its color specificity.

Text of card

If there are any depletion counters on Lava Tubes, it does not untap during your untap phase. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a depletion counter from Lava Tubes. oc T: Add o B to your mana pool. Put a depletion counter on Lava Tubes. oc T: Add o R to your mana pool. Put a depletion counter on Lava Tubes.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Lava Tubes not only filters your mana but can also be sacrificed to draw a card, keeping your hand replenished and giving you a potentially crucial edge as the game progresses.

Resource Acceleration: As a land card, Lava Tubes provides an immediate boost in your mana pool. It taps for colorless mana or can be utilized to generate red or black mana, ensuring that you have the resources you need exactly when you need them.

Instant Speed: While Lava Tubes itself isn’t an instant, it offers the flexibility to tap for mana at any point during your turn or your opponent’s, allowing for instant speed plays and keeping your options open to respond swiftly to other players’ actions.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Lava Tubes demands that you discard a card to activate its ability. This condition can be problematic when your hand size is already dwindling, forcing you to let go of potentially needed spells or creatures.

Specific Mana Cost: Lava Tubes has a color-specific mana cost that includes red. This rigidity means that the card can only fit into decks that run red mana, thereby reducing its versatility in multicolored or colorless deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The cost to unleash Lava Tubes’ potential can be steep, as this card’s mana requirement is on the higher side. In a game where efficiency can be the key to victory, there may be lower-cost alternatives that provide similar or better benefits without the additional burden of a discard requirement.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Lava Tubes is a versatile land card that serves multiple purposes. It provides color fixing for decks that run both red and black mana, making it easier to cast spells with stringent mana requirements.

Combo Potential: The ability to tap for colorless mana or sacrifice for a quick burst of red or black mana makes Lava Tubes an asset in combos. This flexibility can be a game-changer, enabling the activation of abilities or casting of game-winning spells at critical moments.

Meta-Relevance: Its dual nature ensures that Lava Tubes remains relevant in various metas, particularly in those that favor aggressive or midrange decks that need on-demand mana versatility to outpace opponents.

How to beat

Lava Tubes is a land card from the rather old sets of Magic: The Gathering that taps for colorless mana or can be tapped and sacrificed for a quick burst of red or black mana. While this card can be a useful tool in providing mana flexibility, overcoming it involves a strategic approach to mana denial or land destruction. Targeted removal such as Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin can handle Lava Tubes by turning it into a basic land, reducing its versatility.

Moreover, strategies involving land reanimation like Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator can mitigate the effect of such land destruction. These strategies ensure that even if your Lava Tubes is destroyed, it can be brought back from the graveyard to the battlefield, preserving your mana base. It’s critical to plan for the right time to play or remove lands like Lava Tubes to maintain an advantage in mana access and resource management throughout the game.

Managing Lava Tubes appropriately in your own deck or disrupting their benefit in an opponent’s game plan can prove to be decisive in many MTG matchups. With the correct tactics, you can navigate around this versatile land card and maintain control of the game’s resources.

Cards like Lava Tubes

Lava Tubes is an intriguing land card in Magic: The Gathering that offers both mana flexibility and a sacrifice option for additional utility. In terms of its characteristics, Lava Tubes can be paralleled with cards like Temple of the False God. Both provide access to multiple mana; however, Lava Tubes presents an immediate color choice of black or red mana, unlike Temple of the False God which requires you to control at least five lands to tap for two colorless mana.

Another comparable card is Rupture Spire which also addresses multicolor mana needs, but it comes into play tapped and requires one mana of any color to remain on the battlefield. While Rupture Spire delays mana availability, Lava Tubes allows immediate use at the cost of potentially sacrificing a land. Akoum Refuge is a further relative in this family of lands, giving you a life gain on entering the battlefield but limiting your mana to one red or black and coming into play tapped.

Evaluating these options, Lava Tubes has its own niche providing on-demand color-specific mana without the delay, making it a potentially superior choice for decks that value speed and mana fixing over the additional benefits offered by related lands.

Temple of the False God - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Lava Tubes by color, type and mana cost

Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway - MTG Card versions

Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lava Tubes MTG card by a specific set like Ice Age and Pro Tour Collector Set, 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 Lava Tubes and other MTG cards: