Tournament Grounds MTG Card

Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Land
Released	2019-10-04
Set symbol
Set name	Throne of Eldraine
Set code	ELD
Number	248
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Cristi Balanescu

Key Takeaways

Enables casting key spells by offering mana for knights and equipment, bolstering deck efficiency.
Mana fixing abilities may pose deck building challenges due to color-specific demands.
Considered essential for competitive play in multicolored knight or equipment strategies.

Text of card

: Add . : Add , , or . Spend this mana only to cast a Knight or Equipment spell.

No one knows when the tournament began. All they know is that it will never end.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Tournament Grounds provides a strategic edge by ensuring you have access to the mana needed for knights and equipment spells, streamlining your ability to cast pivotal cards seamlessly.

Resource Acceleration: This land card efficiently accelerates your resources by offering you the choice of three different colors of mana, which is essential for expanding your gameplay options without compromising your mana base stability.

Instant Speed: While Tournament Grounds itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, its ability to tap for mana instantly allows for greater flexibility in your turns, enabling you to respond to opponents’ actions effectively and utilize your knights and equipment spells whenever the opportunity strikes.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Tournament Grounds is that it comes with a discard clause which can be quite taxing. When a player is already managing a lean hand, losing an additional card can put them at a distinct disadvantage, particularly in tight situations where every card counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Tournament Grounds has a mana cost that might not always align seamlessly with a player’s deck strategy. Because it can require specific mana colors, it may not be the most flexible option for decks that have a diverse color demand or for those emphasizing a single color. This can limit the card’s utility and influence deck building decisions.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Additionally, when evaluating mana efficiency, Tournament Grounds may fall short in comparison to other cards. Its relatively high mana cost for the benefit it provides can be a considerable setback. Especially in formats where speed and efficiency are key, players might opt for lands that offer similar benefits without such a steep mana investment.

Reasons to Include Tournament Grounds in Your Collection

Versatility: Tournament Grounds serves as a multipurpose land card that can seamlessly integrate into Knight, Warrior, or Equipment-based decks. It offers an efficient mana fixing for three distinct colors, improving the consistency of your gameplay across various deck builds.

Combo Potential: This land is prime for synergistic plays, especially in strategies that capitalize on tribal themes. Its ability to tap for colored mana that complements your key creatures or activates pivotal equipment can become a cornerstone for creating powerful combos on the battlefield.

Meta-Relevance: In a rapidly evolving game where multicolored strategies are prominent, Tournament Grounds holds a place in the competitive scene. It’s particularly useful in a meta where speed and efficiency are crucial, allowing faster deployment of threats that can outpace the opponents.

How to beat

Tournament Grounds is a unique land card in Magic: The Gathering, providing mana fixing capabilities specifically for knights, equipment, or legendary artifacts. Understanding its strengths is key to effectively countering this card. To beat Tournament Grounds, disrupting the mana base it provides is crucial. Employing land destruction or cards that inhibit land abilities can be effective. This can hinder your opponent’s ability to smoothly cast knight-related spells or equip their creatures.

A strategic move would be using cards that target nonbasic lands, such as Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter, to take Tournament Grounds out of play. Another tactic is to deploy cards like Blood Moon, transforming all nonbasic lands into basic Mountains, thus nullifying the benefits that Tournament Grounds offers. On a broader scale, utilizing strategies to suppress your opponent’s knights and equipment through board wipes or targeted removal means that even with Tournament Grounds, their battlefield presence is minimized.

Overall, though Tournament Grounds can be a linchpin for certain decks, there are multiple approaches to undermine its influence, ensuring it doesn’t dictate the tempo of the match in your opponent’s favor.

Cards like Tournament Grounds

Tournament Grounds has carved its unique niche in the realm of land cards within Magic the Gathering, offering specialized mana support for Knights, Equipment, and more. It’s akin to cards such as Unclaimed Territory, which provides a similar role for tribes, allowing the casting of creatures of the chosen type with any color of mana. Yet, Tournament Grounds also facilitates the casting of legendary artifacts and Equipment spells, a boon for synergistic deck themes.

Command Tower could be seen as a parallel, supplying any color of mana for a commander spell. While it doesn’t limit its mana to specific card types, it does narrow its utility to only commander games. Tournament Grounds stands out in its flexibility in various game formats, not just commander-centric play. Then we have Battlefield Forge, offering red or white mana at the cost of life. While it provides mana without limitations, Tournament Grounds shines by enabling multi-colored decks to seamlessly cast their focal spells without life penalties.

By examining their unique characteristics, it becomes clear that Tournament Grounds offers a valuable asset for those playing the specific archetypes it supports, providing a seamless and efficient mana base critical for the success of knight and equipment heavy decks in Magic the Gathering.

Cards similar to Tournament Grounds by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Tournament Grounds MTG card by a specific set like Throne of Eldraine, 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 Tournament Grounds and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Tournament Grounds has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2019-10-04	If an effect refers to a “ -ubtype] spell,” it refers only to a spell that has that subtype. For example, Knights' Charge is a card with “Knight” in its name and benefits Knights, but it isn't a Knight card.
2019-10-04	Mana produced by the second ability of Tournament Grounds can't be spent to activate abilities, including equip abilities.