Plains-White

In Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Plains are a type of basic land card associated with white mana, one of the five colors of mana in the game. White mana represents order, law, protection, and light, often reflected in the themes of white cards. Here's an overview of how Plains and white mana are used in gameplay:

Plains and White Mana

  • Mana Production: Plains are tapped to produce white mana (symbolized by the white sun symbol). This mana is used to cast spells and activate abilities that require white mana.
  • Basic Lands: Plains are a type of basic land, meaning there is no limit to how many you can include in your deck, unlike non-basic lands.

White Card Themes

White mana cards often focus on the following mechanics and strategies:

Creatures with Synergy:

  • White features creatures like Knights, Angels, Soldiers, and Clerics, often with abilities like flying, vigilance, or lifelink.
  • Creatures in white often emphasize teamwork, with abilities that benefit the entire team, such as granting bonuses or protecting other creatures.

Protection and Defense:

  • White cards include spells and enchantments that protect creatures, prevent damage, or nullify threats. Examples include "Protection from [color or type]" or cards like Pacifism.

Life Gain:

  • White often excels at gaining life, with spells and abilities designed to keep you in the game longer.
  • Cards like Soul Warden or Healer's Hawk synergize with lifegain strategies.

Board Control:

  • White offers powerful board wipes and removal spells like Wrath of God (destroy all creatures) or Swords to Plowshares (exile a creature).
  • White enchantments and artifacts can lock down opponents, such as Ghostly Prison or Rest in Peace.

Enchantment Synergy:

  • Many white decks utilize enchantments heavily, either to enhance creatures (Auras) or control the board (Rule of Law or Banishing Light).
  1. Token Generation:
  • White generates numerous creature tokens, often small ones like 1/1 Soldiers or Spirits with flying, which can overwhelm opponents or synergize with other cards.

Example Deck Styles Using Plains

  • Aggro (Aggressive): Focused on deploying small, efficient creatures quickly to overwhelm opponents (e.g., mono-white weenie decks).
  • Control: Utilizes board wipes and removal to maintain control of the game while building an advantage.
  • Life Gain: Exploits life-gain triggers with cards that create massive advantages from gaining life (Ajani’s Pridemate or Speaker of the Heavens).
  • Tokens: Builds a board with token creatures to swarm the opponent.

Example White Cards That Require Plains

  • Creatures: Serra Angel, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
  • Spells: Path to Exile, Divine Verdict
  • Enchantments: Oblivion Ring, Leyline of Sanctity

Plains form the foundation for these strategies, providing the mana necessary to execute white's diverse and synergistic game plans.

Island-Blue

In Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Islands are a type of basic land card associated with blue mana, one of the five colors of mana in the game. Blue mana represents intellect, strategy, deception, and control, reflected in the mechanics and themes of blue cards.

Islands and Blue Mana

  • Mana Production: Islands are tapped to produce blue mana (symbolized by the water droplet symbol). This mana is used to cast spells and activate abilities that require blue mana.
  • Basic Lands: Islands are basic lands, so you can include as many as you like in your deck, unlike non-basic lands.

Blue Card Themes

Blue mana cards focus on control, card draw, and manipulation of the game. Common mechanics and strategies include:

1. Counterspells

  • Blue excels at countering opponents’ spells before they resolve, disrupting their plans.
  • Examples: Counterspell, Mana Leak, Force of Will.
  • Counterspells allow you to control the game by preventing dangerous threats or combos.

2. Card Draw and Deck Manipulation

  • Blue offers unmatched card-drawing capabilities, ensuring you have a steady stream of resources.
  • Examples: Opt, Brainstorm, Treasure Cruise.
  • Blue also manipulates the top of your deck or your opponent’s deck.
  • Examples: Ponder, Preordain, Sensei's Divining Top.

3. Flying and Evasive Creatures

  • Blue creatures often have flying or other forms of evasion, allowing them to attack while avoiding blockers.
  • Examples: Delver of Secrets, Stormwing Entity, Djinn of Wishes.

4. Tempo and Bounce Spells

  • Blue uses spells to return creatures or other permanents to their owner’s hand, disrupting their tempo.
  • Examples: Unsummon, Cyclonic Rift (overloaded), Aether Gust.

5. Copying and Stealing

  • Blue can copy or steal opponents’ spells, creatures, or other permanents.
  • Examples: Clone, Control Magic, Mystic Reflection.

6. Mill Strategies

  • Some blue decks focus on depleting the opponent’s library (milling), forcing them to lose by drawing from an empty deck.
  • Examples: Traumatize, Maddening Cacophony, Jace, Memory Adept.

7. Enchantment and Artifact Synergy

  • Blue often synergizes with artifacts and enchantments, amplifying their power or protecting them.
  • Examples: Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Enchanted Evening, Sai, Master Thopterist.

8. Tap/Untap Manipulation

  • Blue can manipulate permanents by tapping or untapping them, often rendering threats useless or enabling combos.
  • Examples: Frost Titan, Puppeteer, Vedalken Shackles.

Example Deck Styles Using Islands

Control:

  • Aims to delay or disrupt opponents’ plans through counterspells, bounce spells, and card advantage.
  • Win conditions often include a few powerful creatures or finishing spells (e.g., Shark Typhoon, Torrential Gearhulk).

Tempo:

  • Focuses on efficient, evasive threats combined with counterspells and bounce spells to maintain momentum.
  • Examples: Mono-Blue Aggro or Simic Flash decks.

Combo:

  • Blue often plays a central role in combo decks that rely on card draw and specific interactions to win.
  • Examples: High Tide, Splinter Twin (with red).

Mill:

  • Dedicated to making opponents run out of cards in their library.
  • Examples: Dimir Mill (blue/black) decks with cards like Archive Trap.
  1. Artifacts:
  • Uses artifact synergies, often pairing blue with other colors like white or red.
  • Examples: Affinity decks or Urza, Lord High Artificer strategies.

Example Blue Cards That Require Islands

  • Creatures: Snapcaster Mage, Merfolk Trickster, Sphinx of Foresight.
  • Spells: Ancestral Recall, Remand, Cryptic Command.
  • Enchantments: Rhystic Study, Curiosity, Propaganda.

Blue's identity lies in precision, control, and outthinking opponents. Islands provide the mana necessary to fuel blue’s versatile and cerebral strategies.

Swamp-Black

In Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Swamps are a type of basic land card associated with black mana, one of the five colors of mana in the game. Black mana represents ambition, power, death, and sacrifice, reflected in its mechanics and themes.

Swamps and Black Mana

  • Mana Production: Swamps are tapped to produce black mana (symbolized by the skull symbol). This mana is used to cast spells and activate abilities that require black mana.
  • Basic Lands: Swamps are basic lands, meaning you can include as many as you want in your deck, unlike non-basic lands.

Black Card Themes

Black cards embody power at a cost, often requiring sacrifices of life, creatures, or other resources to gain significant advantages. Key mechanics and strategies include:

1. Removal and Destruction

  • Black excels at destroying creatures and other permanents, sometimes with targeted removal or board wipes.
  • Examples: Doom Blade (destroy target non-black creature), Hero’s Downfall (destroy a creature or planeswalker), Toxic Deluge (board wipe with life payment).

2. Life Drain and Direct Damage

  • Black specializes in draining opponents’ life while gaining life for yourself.
  • Examples: Drain Life, Gray Merchant of Asphodel (synergizing with devotion), Exsanguinate.

3. Sacrifice and Graveyard Synergy

  • Black thrives on sacrificing creatures or other resources for powerful effects.
  • Examples: Village Rites (draw cards when sacrificing a creature), Grave Pact (forces opponents to sacrifice creatures when yours die).
  • Black also manipulates graveyards, reanimating creatures or exiling threats.
  • Examples: Reanimate, Living Death, Tormod’s Crypt (to counter opponents' graveyard strategies).

4. Creature Power and Toughness

  • Black creatures often have powerful stats or abilities with drawbacks, such as paying life or sacrificing permanents.
  • Examples: Desecration Demon (forces opponents to sacrifice creatures), Phyrexian Obliterator (punishes opponents who deal damage to it).

5. Hand Disruption

  • Black has many spells that force opponents to discard cards, disrupting their strategy.
  • Examples: Thoughtseize, Duress, Mind Rot.

6. Graveyard Recursion

  • Black can bring back its own creatures or other permanents from the graveyard, giving it long-term resource advantage.
  • Examples: Animate Dead, Unearth, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

7. Death Triggers

  • Many black cards trigger powerful effects when creatures die.
  • Examples: Blood Artist (drains life when creatures die), Zulaport Cutthroat (drains life when your creatures die).

8. Tokens and Swarming

  • Black often generates creature tokens, especially Zombies, Skeletons, and Vampires.
  • Examples: Army of the Damned, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Cryptbreaker.

Example Deck Styles Using Swamps

Aggro:

  • Focuses on aggressive, efficient creatures, often with the ability to recur from the graveyard.
  • Examples: Mono-black aggro decks with cards like Dread Wanderer and Rankle, Master of Pranks.

Control:

  • Uses discard, removal, and life drain to control the game, often with a long-term plan for victory.
  • Examples: Decks featuring Liliana of the Veil or Phyrexian Arena.

Reanimator:

  • Focuses on putting powerful creatures into the graveyard early and bringing them back to the battlefield.
  • Examples: Griselbrand or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (in multicolor).

Aristocrats:

  • Uses sacrifice and death triggers to gain incremental advantages.
  • Examples: Decks featuring Blood Artist or Midnight Reaper.

Devotion:

  • Black devotion decks utilize cards with high black mana symbols to power effects like Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
  1. Graveyard Strategies:
  • Focuses on manipulating graveyards for advantage, often combined with Zombie tribal themes.
  • Examples: Decks built around The Scarab God or Sidisi, Brood Tyrant (black-blue-green).

Example Black Cards That Require Swamps

  • Creatures: Grave Titan, Bloodghast, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
  • Spells: Dark Ritual, Sign in Blood, Damnation.
  • Enchantments: Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Dreams.

Swamp-Black Strategy Summary

Black’s playstyle is about making sacrifices for immense power, dominating the battlefield through removal, disruption, and recursion. Swamps provide the mana to fuel these dark and ambitious strategies, enabling victory by any means necessary.

Mountain-Red

In Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Mountains are a type of basic land card associated with red mana, one of the five colors of mana in the game. Red mana represents emotion, freedom, chaos, and destruction, reflected in its fast-paced and aggressive playstyle.

Mountains and Red Mana

  • Mana Production: Mountains are tapped to produce red mana (symbolized by the flame symbol). This mana is used to cast spells and activate abilities that require red mana.
  • Basic Lands: Mountains are basic lands, meaning you can include as many as you want in your deck, unlike non-basic lands.

Red Card Themes

Red cards are defined by their speed, power, and chaos. Common mechanics and strategies include:

1. Aggressive Creatures

  • Red creatures are often fast and aggressive, emphasizing early pressure with high power and haste.
  • Examples: Goblin Guide (1-mana with haste), Monastery Swiftspear (synergizes with spells), Fervent Champion.

2. Direct Damage (Burn Spells)

  • Red excels at spells that deal direct damage to creatures, players, or planeswalkers, often finishing games quickly.
  • Examples: Lightning Bolt (3 damage for 1 mana), Shock, Skewer the Critics.
  • Burn spells can remove blockers, weaken opponents' life totals, or be used as a win condition.

3. Haste

  • Red creatures frequently have haste, allowing them to attack the turn they enter the battlefield.
  • Examples: Ball Lightning, Hellrider, Phoenix of Ash.

4. Sacrifice for Big Plays

  • Some red cards require sacrificing creatures or lands for powerful effects.
  • Examples: Ball Lightning (ephemeral creature with huge stats), Fling (sacrificing a creature for damage), Seismic Assault (discard lands for damage).

5. Temporary Mana Boost

  • Red can generate temporary bursts of mana for explosive turns.
  • Examples: Seething Song, Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual.

6. Chaos and Randomness

  • Red embraces chaos through cards with random effects or unpredictable outcomes.
  • Examples: Goblin Game, Chaos Warp, Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.

7. Land Destruction

  • Red has access to spells that destroy lands, disrupting opponents' resources.
  • Examples: Stone Rain, Molten Rain, Blood Moon (disrupts non-basic lands).

8. Artifact Destruction

  • Red is proficient at destroying artifacts, often at a low cost.
  • Examples: Shatter, Abrade (also deals damage), Smash to Smithereens.

9. Combat Synergy

  • Red rewards aggressive combat strategies, often granting bonuses when attacking.
  • Examples: Battle Cry Goblin (buffs attackers), Embercleave (a powerful equipment).

10. Tribal Synergies

  • Red features tribal decks centered on Goblins, Dragons, and Elementals.
  • Examples: Goblin Chieftain (buffs Goblins), Terror of the Peaks (Dragon synergy).

Example Deck Styles Using Mountains

Burn:

  • A deck focused on direct damage spells to reduce the opponent’s life total as quickly as possible.
  • Examples: Mono-Red Burn featuring Lightning Bolt, Lava Spike, Eidolon of the Great Revel.

Aggro:

  • Emphasizes fast, aggressive creatures to overwhelm opponents.
  • Examples: Mono-red aggro with Monastery Swiftspear, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell.

Big Red:

  • A slower red deck that ramps into large creatures or powerful spells.
  • Examples: Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, Inferno Titan.

Land Destruction:

  • Focused on disrupting opponents by destroying their lands.
  • Examples: Stone Rain, Blood Moon.

Goblins:

  • A tribal deck centered around Goblins, using synergy to flood the board.
  • Examples: Goblin Piledriver, Mogg War Marshal.
  1. Dragon Tribal:
  • Focuses on large flying Dragons and synergy among them.
  • Examples: Terror of Mount Velus, Lathliss, Dragon Queen.

Example Red Cards That Require Mountains

  • Creatures: Glorybringer, Chandra's Phoenix, Fanatical Firebrand.
  • Spells: Chain Lightning, Skred, Blasphemous Act.
  • Enchantments/Artifacts: Impact Tremors, Roiling Vortex, Pyromancer’s Goggles.

Mountain-Red Strategy Summary

Red's playstyle focuses on speed, aggression, and explosive power. Whether through hordes of small creatures, powerful direct damage spells, or chaotic effects, Mountains provide the mana needed to fuel red’s fiery and unrelenting strategies.

Forest-Green

In Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Forests are a type of basic land card associated with green mana, one of the five colors of mana in the game. Green mana represents growth, nature, life, and strength, reflected in its mechanics and themes.

Forests and Green Mana

  • Mana Production: Forests are tapped to produce green mana (symbolized by the tree symbol). This mana is used to cast spells and activate abilities that require green mana.
  • Basic Lands: Forests are basic lands, meaning you can include as many as you want in your deck, unlike non-basic lands.

Green Card Themes

Green is the color of big creatures, mana ramp, and synergy with the natural world. Key mechanics and strategies include:

1. Ramp and Mana Acceleration

  • Green specializes in generating extra mana to cast expensive spells earlier than normal.
  • Examples: Rampant Growth (fetches a basic land), Llanowar Elves (creature that taps for mana), Cultivate (puts lands into play and your hand).
  • Ramp allows green to field massive creatures or play multiple spells in a single turn.

2. Large Creatures

  • Green is known for its powerful creatures, which often have high power and toughness for their cost.
  • Examples: Terra Stomper, Gigantosaurus, Elder Gargaroth.
  • Many green creatures also feature abilities like trample (allowing excess combat damage to go through) or reach (blocks flying creatures).

3. Creature Synergy

  • Green cards often enhance creatures or provide bonuses for having many creatures.
  • Examples: Overrun (buffs all creatures and grants trample), Craterhoof Behemoth (finisher for large boards), Beastmaster Ascension.

4. Land Synergy

  • Green interacts with lands in unique ways, such as playing additional lands, fetching lands, or turning lands into creatures.
  • Examples: Exploration (play extra lands), Nissa, Who Shakes the World (lands become creatures), Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.

5. Trample and Evasion

  • Many green creatures have trample, allowing them to deal damage even if blocked.
  • Examples: Garruk’s Companion, Thrun, the Last Troll, Aggressive Mammoth.

6. Life Gain and Resilience

  • Green supports life gain through creatures and spells, often tied to creatures entering the battlefield or combat.
  • Examples: Scavenging Ooze (exiles cards and gains life), Thragtusk (gains life on entering), Pelakka Wurm.

7. Card Draw from Creatures

  • Green can draw cards based on creatures, rewarding creature-heavy strategies.
  • Examples: Harmonize, Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project.

8. Artifact and Enchantment Removal

  • Green is the primary color for dealing with artifacts and enchantments.
  • Examples: Naturalize, Reclamation Sage, Krosan Grip.

9. Tokens and Swarming

  • Green often generates creature tokens, which can be used to overwhelm opponents or synergize with other effects.
  • Examples: Avenger of Zendikar (creates Plant tokens), Deranged Hermit (Squirrel tokens), Saproling Migration.

10. Tribal Synergies

  • Green supports tribal decks such as Elves, Beasts, and Druids, often with cards that buff or generate members of the tribe.
  • Examples: Elvish Archdruid (buffs and ramps mana), Beastmaster Ascension (buffs creatures).

Example Deck Styles Using Forests

Ramp:

  • Focused on generating large amounts of mana to cast massive spells and creatures.
  • Examples: Decks featuring Hydroid Krasis or Genesis Wave.

Stompy:

  • Focused on playing big creatures and winning through combat.
  • Examples: Mono-green stompy with Steel Leaf Champion and Aspect of Hydra.

Tokens:

  • Generates and buffs creature tokens to overwhelm opponents.
  • Examples: Avenger of Zendikar, Hornet Queen.

Elf Tribal:

  • A fast-paced deck centered on Elves that generate mana and swarm the board.
  • Examples: Llanowar Elves, Elvish Clan Caller.

Landfall:

  • A deck that triggers abilities when lands enter the battlefield.
  • Examples: Lotus Cobra, Avenger of Zendikar.
  1. Enchantment Synergy:
  • Focused on enchantments and creatures that interact with them.
  • Examples: Setessan Champion, Sythis, Harvest’s Hand.

Example Green Cards That Require Forests

  • Creatures: Craterhoof Behemoth, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, Ulamog’s Crusher.
  • Spells: Kodama’s Reach, Green Sun’s Zenith, Primal Command.
  • Enchantments: Rancor, Sylvan Library, Fires of Yavimaya.

Forest-Green Strategy Summary

Green’s strength lies in overwhelming opponents with mana, massive creatures, and synergistic spells. Whether ramping into colossal threats, swarming the board with tokens, or dominating with resilient creatures, Forests provide the foundation for green’s natural power and growth-focused strategies.