Did you know there are over 40 MTG fetch lands? When you read the words “fetch land”, what cards do you think of? I’ll bet you are thinking of the 10 true fetch lands from Onslaught and Zendikar; cards like Polluted Delta and Misty Rainforest. But there are in fact a bunch of other fetch lands you can utilize aside from the 10 true fetch lands.
This MTG Fetch Land Guide will assist you with selecting the right fetches to play in your decks. This guide will cover the 10 true fetch lands, the Mirage cycle of tapped fetches, tri-color fetch land cards, basic land fetching cards and miscellaneous random fetch land cards. Additionally, learn all of the hidden benefits using a fetch land can give you. Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
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MTG Fetch Lands – What Are They?
In MTG, fetch lands are land cards you play that (usually) do not add mana to your mana pool. Instead, your play these lands and then tap & sacrifice them to search your library for another land card of a specific type to place on the battlefield. Some fetch lands even allow you to find fetchable lands with basic land subtypes! This allows you to find the color that you need when you need it, rather than relying on drawing a land that produces the color you want. Not only do they help with your color fixing, there are tons of other benefits fetch lands provide as well.
What are the Benefits of Playing Fetch Lands?
The benefit of playing fetch lands are that you can go and find the specific color(s) you need immediately, right? Yes, that is true. But there are a whole ton of other benefits to playing them as well. On almost any fetch land card, there are ‘hidden’ benefits in it. Nearly every word of text on the cards have meaning to the game.
For instance, the ability to shuffle your library can be extremely beneficial if you know what the top card is and you want a different card to be on the top of your library. Not every fetch land card has all of these benefits, but here are all the potential benefits fetch lands can provide:
- Sacrifice
- Fetch lands make you sacrifice them in order to search your library, there are a tons of cards that care about cards being sacrificed. Rakdos really comes to mind, and specifically, Mayhem Devil. There are tons of cards that care about sacrifice effects and fetch lands give you another card to sacrifice
- Pay 1 Life
- Similar to sacrifice, there are many cards, and even entire deck strategies that care about you have a low life total. A lot of fetch lands require you to pay life in order to use them, and by doing so, you are expediting your low life gameplan
- Gain 1 Life
- Life gain decks and life matter cards will greatly benefit from the fetch lands that gain you life when used. Most notably are the Streets of New Capenna tri-fetches
- Search
- If you happen to be playing Panglacial Wurm in your deck, you may cast it if it is in your deck while you are searching your library. To my knowledge, this is the only card with this sort of effect, but more may be printed in the future
- Entering the Battlefield
- All I have to say is Landfall. Any landfall deck will want to run as many fetch lands as possible as these will increase the number of Landfall triggers since using a fetch land essentially means double Landfall triggers for your land per turn. Even better if you have the ability to play more than 1 land per turn!
- Land Type
- Each fetch land will tell you what can search for. Most of them will be for basic lands, but some of them allow you to find a card with the required land type. This opens up the possibility of search for a dual land rather than a basic. You can of course still find a basic if you’d like, but you have options
- Shuffle
- For the right deck or strategy, being able to manipulate the top of your library is crucial. Fetch lands allow you to do just that by shuffling away the top of your library after you preform a search. For example, cards like Sensei’s Divining Top or Realmwalker really benefit from changing the top card of your library
- Graveyard
- Once you have sacrificed your fetch land, assuming there are no replacement effects, they will end up in your graveyard. For folks playing graveyard decks that let you play lands from your graveyard, you can reoccur these lands to keep getting the effects such as the double Landfall triggers, color fixing, or any of the previously listed benefits! Muldrotha decks love their fetch lands to play out of the graveyard
List of All Fetch Lands MTG Has Printed
Here are all of the MTG fetch lands you can play. Fun fact for Commander players, these fetch lands can be played in any Commander deck since lands have no color identity and there are no mana symbols on these cards.
So this means you can include Windswept Heath or Grasslands in your Green and Red decks because neither Windswept Heath or Grasslands have a white mana symbol on them. And now, without further ado, here is the list of all fetch lands.
If you’d like to see a more visual guide, check out the MTG Fetch Lands visual guide!
True Fetch Lands
True fetch lands are arguably the best lands in MTG, period. Most folks even consider these fetch lands to be better than the reserve list True Dual lands. With that being said, these are also, far and away, the best fetch lands in general. But being the best does come with its downsides… mainly the price. This set of fetch lands are going to be the most expensive of the bunch, aside from maybe Prismatic Vista (mentioned below).
Don’t let the price scare you off, however, as these lands can drastically make your decks run more efficient and consistent. These enter the battlefield untapped and allow you to tap, sacrifice and pay 1 life (at instant speed) to search your library for a land card with the one of the two land types written on them. For example, Arid Mesa allows you to search for any Mountain or Plains card, not just a basic Mountain or basic Plains.
Card | Lands it can find |
---|---|
Arid Mesa | Any Mountain or any Plains card |
Bloodstained Mire | Any Swamp or any Mountain card |
Flooded Strand | Any Plains or any Island card |
Marsh Flats | Any Plains or any Swamp card |
Misty Rainforest | Any Forest or any Plains card |
Polluted Delta | Any Island or any Swamp card |
Scalding Tran | Any Island or any Mountain card |
Verdant Catacombs | Any Swamp or any Forest card |
Windswept Heath | Any Forest or any Plains card |
Wooded Foothills | Any Mountain or any Forest card |
Mirage Tapped Fetch Lands
The cycle of tapped fetch lands from Mirage, while not as good as the true fetch lands mentioned above, are pretty decent. Functionally, they are nearly identical to the true fetch lands mentioned above. Functionally, the only difference between these and those is that these enter the battlefield tapped. Also, when you do sacrifice them, you do not have to pay 1 life.
One benefit over the previously mentioned 10 lands is that theses are also a fraction of the price, coming in at pennies rather than $20+ per copy. If you are playing a budget deck and want some good color fixing options, these 5 ally tapped fetch lands are absolute bangers. Unfortunately, there has not been an enemy cycle of these lands printed (yet, hopefully).
Card | Lands it can find |
---|---|
Flood Plain | Any Plains or any Island card |
Bad River | Any Island or any Swamp card |
Rocky Tar Pit | Any Swamp or any Mountain card |
Mountain Valley | Any Mountain or any Forest card |
Grasslands | Any Forest or any Plains card |
Tri-Color Fetch Lands
Currently, there are 10 tri-color fetch land cards. A 5 card cycle from Shards of Alara, called Panoramas, and a 5 card cycle from Streets of New Capenna based around the 5 crime family’s hangout spots. Interestingly, both cycles are within ally colors.
Currently, there are no enemy tri-colored fetch lands. Additionally, these 2 cycles function a bit differently from each other. These are all very budget friendly and the New Capenna Location fetches are really good in my opinion.
Shards of Alara Panorama Fetch Lands
The Panoramas from Shards of Alara are a cycle of fetch lands that can fetch a basic land. Each of these cards are based around 1 of the ally 3 color shards. Each one can tap for a colorless mana or tap, pay 1 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land among the shard’s 3 colors.
Card | Lands it can find |
---|---|
Bant Panorama | Basic Forest, Basic Plains or Basic Island |
Esper Panorama | Basic Plains, Basic Island or Basic Swamp |
Grixis Panorama | Basic Island, Basic Swamp or Basic Mountain |
Jund Panorama | Basic Swamp, Basic Mountain or Basic Forest |
Naya Panorama | Basic Mountain, Basic Forest or Basic Plains |
New Capenna Location Fetch Lands
These are the 5 fetch lands from Streets of New Capenna based around a location unique to each crime family. These lands only allow you to grab a basic land, but each one lets you find a land that falls within each of the crime family’s 3 colors. Upon entering the battlefield, these lands will immediately be sacrificed and you will search your library for a basic land that is either one of the 3 colors within that crime family and then gain 1 life.
Card | Lands it can find |
---|---|
Brokers Hideout | Basic Forest, Basic Plains or Basic Island |
Cabaretti Courtyard | Basic Mountain, Basic Forest or Basic Plains |
Maestros Theater | Basic Island, Basic Swamp or Basic Mountain |
Obscura Storefront | Basic Plains, Basic Island or Basic Swamp |
Riveteers Overlook | Basic Swamp, Basic Mountain or Basic Forest |
Modern Horizon 3 Landscape Fetch Lands
Modern Horizons 3 has given us an entire cycle of tri colored fetch lands. These lands enter the battlefield untapped and can add 1 colorless. Alternatively, you can tap and sac them to grab a basic land represented by its cycling cost. Speaking of cycle, each card also can cycle by paying 1 colored mana of each of its specified types.
Card | Lands it can find |
---|---|
Contaminated Landscape | Basic Plains, Basic Island or Basic Swamp |
Seething Landscape | Basic Island, Basic Swamp or Basic Mountain |
Twisted Landscape | Basic Swamp, Basic Mountain or Basic Forest |
Sheltering Landscape | Basic Mountain, Basic Forest or Basic Plains |
Tranquil Landscape | Basic Forest, Basic Plains or Basic Island |
Shattered Landscape | Basic Mountain, Basic Plains or Basic Swamp |
Bountiful Landscape | Basic Forest, Basic Island or Basic Mountain |
Deceptive Landscape | Basic Plains, Basic Swamp or Basic Forest |
Perilous Landscape | Basic Island, Basic Mountain or Basic Plains |
Foreboding Landscape | Basic Swamp, Basic Forest or Basic Island |
Basic Fetch Lands
This is the list of all fetch lands that don’t fall into a cycle or category but can fetch a basic land. Some of these can even fetch more than 1 basic land! Most of these are very budget friendly with the exception of Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista and Thawing Glaciers.
- Blighted Woodland
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 3 generic, pay 1 green and sacrifice it to search your library for 2 basic land cards and put them on the battlefield tapped
- Escape Tunnel
- Tap and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Tap and sacrifice it to make target creature with power 2 or less unblockable this turn
- Evolving Wilds
- Tap and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Fabled Passage
- Tap and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped. Then if you control 4 or more lands, untap that basic land
- Myriad Landscape
- Enters tapped
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 2 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for 2 basic land cards that share a type and put them both on the battlefield tapped
- Prismatic Vista
- Tap, pay 1 life and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield
- Promising Vein
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 1 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Shire Terrace
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 1 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Terminal Moraine
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 2 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Terramorphic Expanse
- Tap and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
- Thawing Glaciers
- Enters tapped
- Tap and pay 1 generic to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped. Return it to your hand at the beginning of the next cleanup step
- Warped Landscape
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 2 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped
Other MTG Fetch Lands
The final list of fetch lands are the ones that don’t really fall into a dedicated category; they are somewhat unique. All of these lands can fetch non-basic lands. Each card will have a description detailing how the fetching works, along with any other abilities, such as being able to tap for mana without fetching.
- Maze’s End
- Enters tapped
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 3 generic and return it to your hand to search your library for a Gate card and put it on to the battlefield. If you control 10 or more Gates with different names, you win the game
- Krosan Verge
- Enters tapped
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 2 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a Plains card and a Forest card, then put them both on the battlefield tapped
- Flagstones of Trokair
- Tap to add 1 white
- When it is put into a graveyard, you can search for a Plains card and put it on to the battlefield tapped
- Urza’s Cave
- Tap to add 1 colorless
- Tap, pay 3 generic and sacrifice it to search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped
Final Thoughts on MTG Fetch Lands
That is a wrap on this guide about all of the fetch lands in MTG. I am really hoping Wizards prints the enemy tri-colored fetches in the future. Especially the enemy versions of the New Capenna Location fetches. Those are way too good, but hopefully not good enough to be considered a mistake like the true fetch lands are considered. If you have any questions or if I missed anything, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and good luck tuning your decks for color fixing!
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