Twenty years after the dawn of Magic, it's
perhaps not a major surprise that a lot of new
designs actually involve combining two or more
older designs. You might say "Well, dual lands
are popular, and animating lands are popular, so
an animating dual land should be super popular!"
In this case, you'd be right, though I do wonder
what happens when we've done literally
everything that can be done. I mean, there are
new Eldrazi that are colorless even though they
require colored mana to be cast, but at some
point you reach the end.
Like many of the lands we're looking at this
week, some players questioned the animating dual
lands when they were new, on the grounds that
they messed with tempo. I've always been puzzled
by things like this - we should have known since
Invasion that a dual land that comes into play
tapped is playable, because obviously you're not
going to cram eight of them into a deck that
relies on one-drops. They were designed rather
cleverly, too, in that the costs to animate each
of them make attacking or blocking with them a
better bet in the mid- to late-game than, say,
Urza's Saga's animating lands, meaning that
you're not so tempted to do so in the early
turns when you need them more for making two
colors of mana.
Today's cards of the day are Worldwake's
creature dual lands, of which several have been
reviewed in the past. Each is different in
activation cost, effect, and power or toughness
which makes a single score for the set more of
an approximation and Creeping Tar Pit being
above the average. Overall they are strong
choices in the tapped dual land extended family
and can fit into many decks with minimal or no
support.
Unlike the other dual lands they also can
function in specialized creature roles, though
with an upkeep cost, and can be serious threats
in the middle or later stages of a game.
A lot of players are fans of lands that turn
into creatures. I am too, sorta. There's some
definite stars in that category. Creeping tar
pit and Mutavault come to mind. 4 out of 5 of
the worldwake man-lands don't exactly make me
super-excited to play them. Celestial Colonade
comes to mind as the standout offender (No, I
don't care that it flies. a potential 4/4 flier
for 5 is not worth 16 dollars per copy,
especially in colors that don't do ramp) Anyway.
All of them, well most of them, have an extra
ability tacked on, which is nice. Most of them
are wildly mana-inefficient, and all of them
enter tapped. They're not crazy great, but
they're utility cards. Swinging for extra damage
is a premium, and I guess some players are
willing to pay for it.
