<3
You were released into the world on 7 October of 2002. People immediately fell in love with you, because you could fetch up the original dual lands. On 7 October of 2005 the people of Extended fell in love with you because the landscape of that format changed completely with the release of the Ravnica shock dual lands. And people fell in love with you all over again when on the 9th of Februari 2024 the Surveil duals were released. But I didn’t fall in love with you on any of those dates. I fell in love with you on the 4th of May 2025. Let me explain.
When I was 20 years old, in 2009, I built my first cube. A peasant cube, meaning it only includes cards ever printed as either a common or uncommon. I remember in the beginning playing 4/5 color aggro decks that started playing on turn 2. Because all the fixing lands entered tapped. Or 2 color aggro decks always having an 8/8 mana base. And thanks to Frank Karsten we know that aggro needs a 9/9 mana base in limited to be consistent. On the 21st of July in 2023 for the first time in 14 years I broke with my only common and uncommon cards rule to try and fix this by adding 2 of each of the “reveal” lands. Card quality in Magic became so high in those 14 years, 2 color aggro needed better fixing in order to keep competing with the midrange and control decks in that cube and only rare lands offered that.
The reveal lands did what they needed to do. They supported 2 color aggro very well, while not being a lot better than regular tapped lands in 4/5 color control decks. Because those decks didn’t play many basics. But I also broke singleton with this change and that didn’t sit well with me. On the 4th of May 2025 I took out one set of the Snarl lands and included the 10 fetch lands. And that is when I fell in love with you. You were even worse in the 4/5 control decks, because it meant they had to include a basic land of their splash color. Which they hate to do till this day. You even cost the control decks life to activate. But for the aggro decks you did what you needed to do. Bring them closer to their 9/9 mana base.
And as a bonus I finally got to do in that cube, what everyone really loves you for. Play you together with Brainstorm.
With love,
Hanjo
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