Field of the Dead – Core Set 2020
Date Reviewed: Feb. 22, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 5.00
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 1.63
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This is one of those cards that it’s technically possible to use in a fair manner, but so few people have actually done so that playing one will put any and all opponents you have on edge and on the attack. The obvious combo is with Scapeshift, and that has done a lot of damage in non-rotating formats; when the “fair” super-ramp or land-cheat combo deck involves Primeval Titan, you know you’re in trouble. But I’d like to point out that control decks have always loved to use their lands to win the game, because that frees up space for more control-type spells. That was true as far back as Mishra’s Factory, and it probably always will be. Most of those lands require you to spend mana to become a creature or make a token or whatever it is that wins you the game. Not Field of the Dead. Remember, too, that back in the day everyone played 22-24 lands because that was “just the right way”, and we are now free of such shackled thinking. If you’re assuming 27 or 28 lands for your build, that is an awful lot of space to make this card always active.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4
Limited: 1.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Card evaluation can be very tricky at times. Case in point: I was quite wrong about Field of the Dead the last time it was reviewed, which was right when the set came out. I didn’t think it had enough legs to be a Constructed card, mostly owing to the homogeneity of decks in their land bases and how it needs quite a while to come online.
Seeing as how it’s banned in Modern and Pioneer now, I was pretty wrong.
Field of the Dead is the kind of card that excels in a long game, if you’re able to put together the time and breathing room to come online. But most decks can easily get to the “seven differently named lands” requirement if they build with this in mind; in particular, snow-covered basics do have different names from their decidedly unsnowy ones, and a mix of those and dual lands/nonbasics will usually get you to online with this card. And seeing as how it rewards you for just playing the game at that point, things get ugly very fast. It also even combos with Scapeshift, but that already has more immediately lethal combo pieces, so that’s probably more for the decks that aren’t in red.
The main thing with Field of the Dead is its inevitability; it’s going to come online sooner than later, and land destruction tends to be pretty scarce in formats that aren’t Legacy and Vintage. And a free 2/2 (or more) each turn adds up very quickly. It does see some play in Legacy, though the fact that Wasteland exists means this isn’t as noxious as it was in formats with weaker land destruction. But the fact remains that this is the kind of card that can win you the game on its own without too much effort, and cards like that are always dangerous.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 1.75 (still not great in Limited, since this is a bad land and the ability to have the ability come online is extremely tenuous at best)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 5 (it’s functionally colorless, so all but the most tightly tuned CEDH lists might have a space for this bit of inevitability)
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