Myriad Landscape vs. Thawing Glaciers vs. Wayfarer's Bauble vs. Evolving Wilds

It's a cage match for the ages.

Four cards enter the ring. Who will emerge victorious?

Myriad Landscape vs. Thawing Glaciers vs. Wayfarer's Bauble vs. Evolving Wilds



What we have here are four cards that do something similar: put basic lands from your library into play tapped.

(Terramorphic Expanse is Evolving Wilds' twin brother, so we can think of them as a team in our cage match.)

Because every one of these cards is colorless, every one of these cards can be used in any commander deck you have laying around. But, which of these cards should you use, if any?

It depends.

Are you looking to color-fix in a two, three, or more colored deck? Any of these cards will do that for you, to one degree or another. Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are probably the most straightforward cards in the group for color-fixing since you get a basic land into play tapped without dealing with other funny business.

But what if you want to do more than just color-fix? What if you want to ramp, too?

Now, Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds aren't going to get us there. The other cards give us more to consider.

I like to look at what you give up for running a card in the first place, where it leaves you after you use it, and what are some of the other effects (good and bad) you can build around to get extra value out of a card.

To make this simple, let's take a look at a mono-colored deck.

Turn 1 plays. 

Statistically, there are a lot more turns that aren't turn 1 than there are turns that are turn 1. That seems obvious, but some of these cards will work well in the early turns while others will not. The early turns of a Commander game tend to be where the ramp makes all the difference. You can really put yourself out in front with strong early ramp.



Terramorphic Expanse / Evolving Wilds
Turn 1: Evolving Wilds, tap and sacrifice to search for a Swamp
Turn 2: Swamp
You have two Swamps in play, both untapped

In a mono-colored deck, this isn't a great scenario by itself. You didn't get to do anything turn 1. And you didn't actually ramp. You do get the benefit of a shuffled deck, a land in your graveyard, and one less land in your library.



Thawing Glaciers
Turn 1: Thawing Glaciers
Turn 2: Swamp, pay one and tap the Thawing Glaciers to search for a Swamp
You have two Swamps in play, both tapped, and Thawing Glaciers in your hand

Again, by itself, this isn't great. You were not able to do anything on turn 1 or turn 2 other than search out that Swamp. You do get a shuffled deck, and one less land in your library. But, unlike with Evolving Wilds, this time you end up with Thawing Glaciers back in your hand to do it all over again.



Wayfarer's Bauble
Turn 1: Swamp, Wayfarer's Bauble
Turn 2: Swamp, tap two and active Wayfarer's Bauble to sacrifice, search for a Swamp
You have three Swamps in play, all tapped

This is the first card that actually ramps us. We have three lands in play on turn 2, ready to untap and potentially play another land for four mana on turn 3. Your deck is shuffled, and you have one less land in your library.



Myriad Landscape
Turn 1: Swamp
Turn 2: Myriad Landscape
Turn 3: Swamp, tap two and activate Myriad Landscape to sacrifice, searching for two Swamps
You have four Swamps in play, all tapped

This card also ramps us, setting up a turn 4 with up to five mana if you make that next land drop. Your deck is shuffled, Myriad Landscape is in your graveyard, and you have two less lands in your library.

Without taking any other interactions into consideration, Wayfarer's Bauble probably edges the rest of the cards out. Myriad Landscape comes into play tapped, but actually taps for mana if you decide not to activate it. That's not nothing.


Okay, but here's the neat thing about Magic.

Are you sitting down?

The neat thing is that other cards exist.



Rings of Brighthearth changes the math.

Statistically, most turns in the game are not turns 1 through 3. You are going to have a lot more games where later turns matter. Rings lets you double up on the activations of these cards. For an extra two mana, you get double the effect. Thawing Glaciers searches for two lands instead of one. Myriad Landscape searches for four lands instead of two.

Crazy right?

These aren't mana abilities, so Rings can copy them.

The truth is, you aren't going to have a particular card, like Rings, in most games you play. I mean, if you are tutoring for cards, you could make it happen in a lot more games. But we are still dealing with 99 random cards.

But when it works, it works!