Dear Riptide Laboratory, 

<3

The kids these days are spoiled. They have so many, very strong, utility lands at their disposal. Just look at cards like Abandoned Air Temple, Boseiju, Who Endures (whole cycle to be fair), Witch Enchanter (also the whole cycle). I like that Magic has more utility lands. I am experiencing this in my Alles-2 Cube, where a lot of my ‘fetchlands’ like Furnace Host Charger are actually modal cards. Utility lands take away some variance that the lands resource system gives Magic and I think that is a good thing. 

I remember those good old days. When Time Spiral was printed Karakas finally became really strong in combination with Mangara of Corondor in Legacy. Academy Ruins gave all the blue control decks of Block and Standard inevitability together with Triskelavus. And you, Riptide Laboratory, suddenly became the utility land in Extended together with Venser, Shaper Savant. I always have fond memories off the blue control decks running 3 copies of you because you were their late game plan. 

I do sometimes miss those old days. Where fixing was not a given, but a blessing. Where not every deck had utility lands to enable mana floods, but that you actually had to design for it (and they usually were colorless lands, and fixing was bad so it was taxing). When it was still a magical thing that your mana base would help you win the game. These days the utility lands are basically modal spells that don’t even care about the late game anymore, they are just spells in the midgame. They help you to make sure you don’t even get into the late game. I miss those late game land grinds you used to offer, I enjoyed playing them. But maybe that is just a blue control player talking, enjoying the nostalgia when playing an old Cube.

With love, 

Hanjo