The Kamigawa block introduced a range of rare
non-basic lands that produce colored mana along
with some other ability, making themselves
immediately useful in a wide array of decks.
Flagstones of Trokair is better than those
lands, and four copies of Flagstones are
featured in almost every white Standard
constructed deck these days. Flagstones is the
unusual card that can really turn the Legendary
rule disadvantage into a distinct advantage.
Let’s say you have a Flagstones in play already
and you need another land in play, but the only
land in your hand is ANOTHER Flagstones of
Trokair. With other legendary lands this would
be a problem, but Flagstones is so awesome
because when it goes to the graveyard you get to
search your library for a Plains and put it into
play tapped. Obviously it’s not perfectly
optimal for your land to come into play tapped,
but it is normally worth it to thin land out of
your deck and give yourself the ability to
search out Ravnica block dual lands from your
deck whenever one of your Flagstones goes to the
graveyard. Just awesome for Standard
constructed, but possibly too slow for Extended.
Flagstones is not especially useful for limited
play since there would very rarely be more than
one of them in your deck.
This thing is a powerhouse. You play two, and
they both die, letting you search for two
plains. Remember, Sacred Foundry and the like
are Plains. And that's the secret to the power
of these cards-- they act as free land search
for your half-white dual lands. So high-tier
decks with expensive land bases are spending
even more money on a couple of these.
Constructed- 4.5
Casual- 2
Limited- 1
Aethereal
Flagstones of
Trokair
A solid anti-LD land, but more importantly, this
thing is legendary. The ability to drop 2 of
these and replace them with two dual lands is
very strong, and is why this is a 4-of in many
decks running white. It's a land, it fixes your
mana, and it has no drawbacks compared to a
basic plains. In most white decks, you play
this.
In casual, you can use it against the occasional
LD deck, but outside of that, I don't see a lot
of use. You have plenty of time to set up mana
here.
In limited, I wouldn't waste a pick on this, as
it's basically a plains here.
Flagstones of
Trokair - There hasn't been a land without any
non-mana abilities this valuable since the days
of Dual lands or perhaps Tolarian Academy.
Nearly any deck that plays plains can benefit
from the Flagstones, and as such they're very
much in demand. This card will rarely win you a
game, but it will almost certainly never hurt.
Even if you're being mana flooded, multiple
flagstones only helps to thin your deck and
prevent future flooding. A very simple and very
good card.
