Temple Garden MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 14 setsSee all
RarityRare
TypeLand — Forest Plains

Key Takeaways

  1. Temple Garden boosts deck consistency with immediate access to white and green mana.
  2. Speeds up gameplay by entering untapped; a vital play for resource acceleration.
  3. Enables reliable casting of spells, especially vital instant-speed spells.

Text of card

(: Add or to your mana pool.) As Temple Garden comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, Temple Garden comes into play tapped instead.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Temple Garden may not directly draw cards, but it significantly boosts deck consistency by providing you access to both white and green mana sources. This means you can reliably play spells of either color, effectively improving your chances of utilizing every card in your hand.

Resource Acceleration: As a shock land, Temple Garden has a dual-purpose. It comes into play untapped if you pay 2 life, giving you a speed boost in resource availability. This immediate access to two types of mana on turn one can lead to powerful early-game plays that put you ahead of your opponent.

Instant Speed: Though the Temple Garden itself isn’t an instant, having it in your deck means you can more reliably cast your instant-speed spells. Its presence ensures you’re able to adapt to the battlefield as needed without worrying about the colors of mana you have available.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Not applicable to Temple Garden as it enters the battlefield without needing to discard a card. Discard requirements are more common in instants, sorceries, and creatures that offer a powerful effect at the cost of card advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: While Temple Garden is flexible, providing either green or white mana, its need for one of each for its typesetting can make it less ideal for decks that are heavy in other colors or that require a more varied mana base outside the Selesnya guild.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Entering the battlefield untapped requires 2 life, and while this can be bypassed by having it enter tapped, the cost can add up in games where life totals are under pressure. Additionally, in decks that require a faster mana curve, the option to have it come in tapped may not be ideal, potentially slowing down early game strategy.


Reasons to Include Temple Garden in Your Collection

Versatility: Temple Garden is a dual land, being both a Forest and a Plains, providing essential mana fixing in decks that run green and white. This feature allows it to seamlessly slot into a variety of deck archetypes, from aggro to control, enhancing consistency and reducing the likelihood of being mana-starved.

Combo Potential: As a land with the ability to come into play untapped, Temple Garden can be instrumental in enabling turn-one mana dorks or accelerating out combo pieces ahead of schedule. The flexibility it offers in mana sequencing can lead to powerful plays and combo setups earlier in the game.

Meta-Relevance: In the ever-changing MTG meta, being able to respond to threats efficiently is key. Temple Garden’s dual land status makes it perpetually relevant as it supports strategies that require both speed and stability in their mana base. Whether the meta favors aggressive Selesnya tokens, midrange value decks, or versatile toolboxes, this card offers a dependable land choice for competitive play.


How to beat

Temple Garden is a widely-used land card that can be a cornerstone in many MTG decks, especially those that run Green and White spells. As a dual land, it offers the flexibility of providing two types of mana, allowing for a more seamless and efficient mana base. However, despite its advantages, there are strategies to counter Temple Garden and the decks that utilize it.

Land destruction cards are a direct way to challenge Temple Garden. By using spells that target lands, you can disrupt your opponent’s mana base, potentially causing delays or preventing them from executing their game plan. Cards like Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin can unseat Temple Garden from the battlefield while providing an additional strategic element to your game. Another approach is to use land-specific hate cards like Aven Mindcensor to restrict your opponent from searching their library for lands, which is a common play with fetch lands that might be used in tandem with Temple Garden.

While these approaches require specifically tailored cards in your deck, they can pay dividends by throwing a wrench in the well-oiled machine of a Green-White deck’s strategy. Leveraging these methods can give you the upper hand against decks that rely on the stability and resource access granted by Temple Garden.


Cards like Temple Garden

The Temple Garden card is an essential piece in Magic: The Gathering, offering both mana richness and versatility. Known as a “Shock Land,” it can be compared to other lands like Stomping Ground and Hallowed Fountain, which share the ability to tap for two different types of mana. Temple Garden provides access to green and white mana, fundamental for Selesnya guild decks, while Stomping Ground caters to red and green and Hallowed Fountain to blue and white.

What sets Temple Garden apart is the strategic advantage it provides in the early game. Like its counterparts, you can have it enter the battlefield untapped at the cost of 2 life—a small price for maintaining tempo. Sacred Foundry, another Shock Land, offers red and white mana, but in strategies focused on creatures and life gain, Temple Garden’s color combination might be more beneficial.

Examining the options, it’s clear that decks benefiting from green and white mana will find Temple Garden an indispensable element, harmonizing with decks’ nature-centric strategies and life-linking abilities. Its provision of crucial colors and flexible entry conditions make it a highly-sought card among diversified MTG playstyles.

Stomping Ground - MTG Card versions
Hallowed Fountain - MTG Card versions
Sacred Foundry - MTG Card versions
Stomping Ground - Guildpact (GPT)
Hallowed Fountain - Dissension (DIS)
Sacred Foundry - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)

Cards similar to Temple Garden by color, type and mana cost

Savannah - MTG Card versions
Brushland - MTG Card versions
Vec Townships - MTG Card versions
Elfhame Palace - MTG Card versions
Nantuko Monastery - MTG Card versions
Riftstone Portal - MTG Card versions
Overgrown Farmland - MTG Card versions
Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway - MTG Card versions
Temple of Plenty - MTG Card versions
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree - MTG Card versions
Horizon Canopy - MTG Card versions
Graypelt Refuge - MTG Card versions
Sunpetal Grove - MTG Card versions
Selesnya Sanctuary - MTG Card versions
Selesnya Guildgate - MTG Card versions
Blossoming Sands - MTG Card versions
Stirring Wildwood - MTG Card versions
Canopy Vista - MTG Card versions
Saltcrusted Steppe - MTG Card versions
Tranquil Expanse - MTG Card versions
Savannah - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Brushland - Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC)
Vec Townships - Battle Royale Box Set (BRB)
Elfhame Palace - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Nantuko Monastery - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Riftstone Portal - Judgment (JUD)
Overgrown Farmland - Doctor Who (WHO)
Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway - The List (PLST)
Temple of Plenty - Wilds of Eldraine Commander (WOC)
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree - Wilds of Eldraine Commander (WOC)
Horizon Canopy - Doctor Who (WHO)
Graypelt Refuge - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Sunpetal Grove - Fallout (PIP)
Selesnya Sanctuary - Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)
Selesnya Guildgate - Ravnica Remastered (RVR)
Blossoming Sands - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (NEO)
Stirring Wildwood - Ultimate Masters (UMA)
Canopy Vista - Fallout (PIP)
Saltcrusted Steppe - Commander 2017 (C17)
Tranquil Expanse - Commander 2018 (C18)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Temple Garden MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Ravnica: City of Guilds, 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 Temple Garden and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Temple Garden Magic the Gathering card was released in 10 different sets between 2005-10-07 and 2024-02-23. Illustrated by 8 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 723032015normalblackAlayna Danner
22005-10-07Ravnica: City of GuildsRAV 2842003normalblackRob Alexander
32012-10-05Return to RavnicaRTR 2482003normalblackVolkan Baǵa
42015-10-02Zendikar ExpeditionsEXP 102015normalblackMin Yum
52018-10-05Guilds of Ravnica PromosPGRN 258p2015normalblackTitus Lunter
62018-10-05Guilds of RavnicaGRN 2582015normalblackTitus Lunter
72019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 1272015normalblackTyler Jacobson
82022-10-07UnfinityUNF 5322015normalborderlessPiotr Dura
92022-10-07UnfinityUNF 2812015normalborderlessPiotr Dura
102024-01-12Ravnica RemasteredRVR 2902015normalblackRob Alexander
112024-01-12Ravnica RemasteredRVR 4141997normalblackRob Alexander
122024-01-12Ravnica RemasteredRVR 414z2015normalblackRob Alexander
132024-01-12Ravnica RemasteredRVR 3002015normalborderlessAlayna Danner
142024-02-23Ravnica: Clue EditionCLU 2822015normalborderlessLorenzo Lanfranconi

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Temple Garden has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PredhLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2018-10-05 If an effect puts this land onto the battlefield tapped, you may pay 2 life, but it still enters tapped.
2018-10-05 Unlike most dual lands, this land has two basic land types. It's not basic, so cards such as District Guide can't find it, but it does have the appropriate land types for effects such as that of Drowned Catacomb (from the Ixalan set).

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks