Roiling Terrain MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Common
Type	Sorcery
Released	2010-02-05
Set symbol
Set name	Worldwake
Set code	WWK
Number	88
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Steve Prescott

Key Takeaways

Roiling Terrain can offer indirect card advantage by disrupting your opponent’s mana base and strategy.
Despite not accelerating resources, it effectively slows down opponents, giving you a tempo advantage.
Requires strategic play and hand management due to its sorcery speed and discard requirement.

Text of card

Destroy target land, then Roiling Terrain deals damage to that land's controller equal to the number of land cards in that player's graveyard.

"The trembling lands ruptured, leaving an open door for things from below to emerge." —Screed of the Mul Daya

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Roiling Terrain shines by potentially dealing damage while disrupting an opponent’s mana base, an underlying strategy that may yield indirect card advantage. By destroying a land, you force your opponent to lose not just the land but also any future plays that specific land could have enabled, potentially hindering their strategy and gaining you an upper hand.

Resource Acceleration: Although Roiling Terrain itself does not directly provide resource acceleration, it can certainly slow down your opponent’s. Removing a key land has the potential to set your opponent back turns, while you continue to develop your board unimpeded. This kind of tempo play can be pivotal in resource-denied strategies that look to outpace the opponent.

Instant Speed: As a sorcery, Roiling Terrain requires strategic planning for the right moment of execution. While it doesn’t offer the flexibility of an instant, the effect complements this by aligning with sorcery-speed land destruction strategies that aim to meticulously dismantle an opponent’s resources during your turn, preparing the stage for more decisive actions or combinations in later turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One aspect that might deter players from using Roiling Terrain is the need to discard a card. This requirement can place a strain on your hand, especially when you’re short on cards or struggling to maintain a presence on the battlefield.

Specific Mana Cost: With its reliance on a red mana setup, Roiling Terrain’s mana cost can hinder its integration into multicolored decks. Players focusing on deck flexibility might find this cost restrictive, leading them to consider other options that fit a broader range of mana bases.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Weighing the mana investment against the benefits, some players may find the card’s cost on the higher side. In an environment where efficiency is key, Roiling Terrain’s four-mana demand competes with numerous cards offering similar or superior board impact, potentially relegating it to a lesser-used option in many decks.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Roiling Terrain is a flexible card that can seamlessly fit into land destruction or landfall decks, giving dual utility by dealing damage while setting opponents back on their mana base.

Combo Potential: This card works well in combination with effects that put lands into graveyards, amplifying the damage dealt. Strategies involving cards like ‘Crucible of Worlds’ can also capitalize on repeatedly playing lands from the graveyard to trigger landfall again.

Meta-Relevance: With many decks relying heavily on nonbasic lands, Roiling Terrain can act as an effective disruption tool. In metas where decks are heavy with manabases that stretch beyond the basics, it could tilt the game in your favor significantly.

How to beat

The Roiling Terrain card is a dynamic piece in the landscape of Magic: The Gathering. Players face a challenge as this spell not only destroys a land but also inflicts damage to the landowner based on the number of land cards in their graveyard. This can be a powerful finisher in land destruction strategies.

To successfully navigate against Roiling Terrain, one must focus on land protection and graveyard management strategies. Cards such as Terra Eternal can safeguard your lands from destruction, mitigating the dual-threat Roiling Terrain presents. Additionally, employing graveyard shuffling effects like Elixir of Immortality can keep your graveyard free of land cards, drastically reducing the potential damage Roiling Terrain can do.

It’s also prudent to maintain a versatile mana base and to diversify your land plays. Utilizing non-basic lands with abilities that offer protection or instant-speed land recovery ensures that the impact of losing a single land doesn’t cascade into a loss. Remember, staying one step ahead of land destruction tactics is key to negating the dangers posed by Roiling Terrain in your matches.

Cards like Roiling Terrain

Roiling Terrain stands out in Magic: The Gathering’s vast pool of land destruction cards. It is often likened to cards like Stone Rain, a basic yet staple choice for players aiming to disrupt their opponent’s land base. Though both cards destroy a land, Roiling Terrain has the added burn effect, dealing damage equal to the number of lands in the opponent’s graveyard, which can turn the tide of a game.

Another relative in this category is Molten Rain. Similar to Roiling Terrain, it not only destroys lands but also deals additional damage, in this case two points, to the opponent or a planeswalker. However, Molten Rain lacks the scaling damage potential that makes Roiling Terrain more formidable in the late game. Lastly, we have Demolish, which also destroys lands, but without any direct infliction of damage, placing it at a tactical disadvantage compared to the other options.

In assessing the strategic advantages of land destruction cards, Roiling Terrain with its damage-dealing capabilities, definitely captures a unique position, offering potential for both board control and direct player damage, making it a card worth considering for any deck that aims to inhibit opponents while chipping away at their life totals.

Cards similar to Roiling Terrain by color, type and mana cost

Draconic Intervention - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Roiling Terrain MTG card by a specific set like Worldwake, 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 Roiling Terrain and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Roiling Terrain has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2010-03-01	If the targeted land is an illegal target by the time Roiling Terrain resolves, the entire spell doesn’t resolve. No damage will be dealt.
2010-03-01	The effects of the spell happen in sequence. By the time Roiling Terrain checks how many land cards are in the affected player’s graveyard, the land Roiling Terrain destroyed is (most likely) already in that graveyard.
2013-07-01	If the targeted land regenerates or has indestructible, Roiling Terrain still deals damage to the targeted land’s controller.