Windswept Heath MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 10 setsSee all
RarityRare
TypeLand

Key Takeaways

  1. Windswept Heath improves deck consistency by removing lands, raising chances to draw useful spells.
  2. Instant speed activation caters to flexible play and strategic timing for greater control.
  3. Despite its benefits, Windswept Heath’s high demand influences its market price, affecting accessibility.

Text of card

oc T, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Windswept Heath: Search your library for a forest or plains card and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Windswept Heath offers a subtle form of card advantage by effectively thinning the deck. Each activation removes a land from the deck, slightly increasing the likelihood of drawing into non-land spells in subsequent turns, which can be pivotal in closely contested matchups.

Resource Acceleration: This card deftly provides resource acceleration by fetching land directly onto the battlefield. Unlike basic land searchers, Windswept Heath can access dual lands, adapting to your mana requirements and ensuring you are never behind on the valuable resource curve.

Instant Speed: The ability to crack Windswept Heath at instant speed grants remarkable flexibility. React to your opponent’s actions, adapt to the evolving board state, or simply end-step fetch to keep mana open during your opponent’s turn. This tactical advantage can tip the scales in your favor, making it an asset in any strategy requiring precision timing.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Unlike its simple fetch ability, Windswept Heath doesn’t require discarding as part of its cost, but it does come with its own set of limitations.

Specific Mana Cost: While the card itself doesn’t have a mana cost associated with its activation, the lands it fetches might limit deck construction, requiring specific color combinations to maximize its potential.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Fetch lands like Windswept Heath are sought after for their ability to thin a deck for a smoother draw, but their necessity in many competitive formats makes them a pricier investment compared to other types of lands.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Windswept Heath offers unparalleled adaptability by allowing players to fetch the exact land they need, ensuring they are never color-locked and always have the mana for that crucial play.

Combo Potential: This card is a linchpin in landfall decks or strategies that rely on triggering abilities from land entering the battlefield, opening avenues for powerful plays and synergy.

Meta-Relevance: Consistent land drops and mana-fixing are critical in the ever-shifting MTG landscape. Windswept Heath maintains its importance across multiple formats, keeping your deck competitive and responsive to the meta.


How to beat

Windswept Heath is a powerful land card that offers players a unique advantage in the realm of deck manipulation and consistency in Magic: The Gathering. It’s part of an esteemed cycle known as fetch lands, enabling you to search your library for a Forest or Plains card to directly put onto the battlefield. Notably, this ability to “fetch” the necessary mana typifies how it strengthens any deck it’s included in.

Defeating a strategy that involves Windswept Heath encompasses a few different tactics. One effective approach is to use land destruction or cards that manipulate libraries. Think along the lines of Ghost Quarter or Aven Mindcensor, disrupting your opponent’s capability to search their deck. Similarly, effects that tax or counter land abilities, like Leonin Arbiter, can make using Windswept Heath a costly move for your opponent. Another strategy entails capitalizing on the life your opponent pays to activate Windswept Heath, using cards like Price of Progress to inflict damage proportional to the number of nonbasic lands they control.

While Windswept Heath remains a formidable card for deck consistency, knowing the right countermeasures ensures that you can strategically anticipate and effectively neutralize its impact on the game.


Cards like Windswept Heath

Windswept Heath is a highly sought-after land card in Magic: The Gathering, offering deck thinning and mana fixing abilities that are crucial for many strategies. Its resemblance to other cards in the fetch land cycle, such as Flooded Strand or Bloodstained Mire, is apparent as they all allow players to search their libraries for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. While Windswept Heath specifically fetches Forests or Plains, other cards like Polluted Delta or Wooded Foothills cater to different land types, satisfying the needs of various color combinations.

Mirroring Windswept Heath’s utility is the card Misty Rainforest, another powerful fetch land that searches for Islands or Forests. Both enable players to shuffle their library, a subtle yet strategic advantage for deck manipulation. Verdant Catacombs can also be mentioned, consistently fetching key land types and thus optimizing the deck’s consistency and performance. Although each fetch land tends to be dedicated to specific colors, their overall ability to refine mana bases and enhance deck performance binds them together in the landscape of Magic: The Gathering.

Evaluating the utility and adaptability of Windswept Heath amongst its counterparts, it holds a venerable position for players aiming to construct efficient and robust manabases across various formats of the game.

Flooded Strand - MTG Card versions
Bloodstained Mire - MTG Card versions
Polluted Delta - MTG Card versions
Wooded Foothills - MTG Card versions
Misty Rainforest - MTG Card versions
Verdant Catacombs - MTG Card versions
Flooded Strand - Onslaught (ONS)
Bloodstained Mire - Onslaught (ONS)
Polluted Delta - Onslaught (ONS)
Wooded Foothills - Onslaught (ONS)
Misty Rainforest - Zendikar (ZEN)
Verdant Catacombs - Zendikar (ZEN)

Cards similar to Windswept Heath by color, type and mana cost

Cathedral of Serra - MTG Card versions
Mishra's Factory - MTG Card versions
Bad River - MTG Card versions
Griffin Canyon - MTG Card versions
Ice Floe - MTG Card versions
Ghost Town - MTG Card versions
Urza's Mine - MTG Card versions
City of Brass - MTG Card versions
Bloodstained Mire - MTG Card versions
Zoetic Cavern - MTG Card versions
Grixis Panorama - MTG Card versions
Rupture Spire - MTG Card versions
Terramorphic Expanse - MTG Card versions
Tectonic Edge - MTG Card versions
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - MTG Card versions
Buried Ruin - MTG Card versions
Wasteland - MTG Card versions
Eldrazi Temple - MTG Card versions
Maze of Ith - MTG Card versions
Homeward Path - MTG Card versions
Cathedral of Serra - Legends (LEG)
Mishra's Factory - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Bad River - Mirage (MIR)
Griffin Canyon - Visions (VIS)
Ice Floe - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Ghost Town - Tempest (TMP)
Urza's Mine - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
City of Brass - World Championship Decks 2002 (WC02)
Bloodstained Mire - World Championship Decks 2003 (WC03)
Zoetic Cavern - Future Sight (FUT)
Grixis Panorama - Commander 2013 (C13)
Rupture Spire - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Terramorphic Expanse - Commander 2018 (C18)
Tectonic Edge - Zendikar Expeditions (EXP)
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Theros (THS)
Buried Ruin - Commander 2014 (C14)
Wasteland - Zendikar Rising Expeditions (ZNE)
Eldrazi Temple - Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (DDP)
Maze of Ith - Eternal Masters (EMA)
Homeward Path - Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Windswept Heath MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Onslaught, 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 Windswept Heath and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Windswept Heath Magic the Gathering card was released in 8 different sets between 2002-10-07 and 2024-06-14. Illustrated by 6 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 435862003normalblackAnthony S. Waters
22002-10-07OnslaughtONS 3281997normalblackAnthony S. Waters
32004-09-01World Championship Decks 2004WC04 jn3282003normalgoldAnthony S. Waters
42009-01-01Judge Gift Cards 2009G09 92003normalblackAnthony S. Waters
52014-09-26Khans of TarkirKTK 2482015normalblackYeong-Hao Han
62015-10-02Zendikar ExpeditionsEXP 202015normalblackVéronique Meignaud
72020-09-25Zendikar Rising ExpeditionsZNE 52015normalblackJohannes Voss
82024-06-14Modern Horizons 3MH3 2352015normalblackAlexander Forssberg
92024-06-14Modern Horizons 3MH3 4401997normalblackAlexander Forssberg
102024-06-14Modern Horizons 3MH3 3602015normalborderlessSamuele Bandini

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Windswept Heath has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricBanned
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerBanned
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerBanned
PredhLegal
TimelessLegal

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