Legion’s Landing / Adanto, the First Fort – Ixalan- MTG Card of the Day

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

It’s interesting how popular cards that imitate other card types are. The land that becomes a creature has a history going all the way back to Mishra’s Factory, which set a precedent of not just having a certain mechanical effect but also of being basically the most popular card in the set. Legion’s Landing does make you work a little for that promised stream of creatures – and it literally is constant now that Stone Rain isn’t in Standard any more – but the condition is hardly difficult to meet in a white deck. The only wrinkle is that in larger card pools, it has the same cost as older staples such as Figure of Destiny, but I doubt there will be too much trouble getting everything to work together when the potential payoff is this good. (Plus, it’s fun to make use of the reference to Christopher Columbus.)

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

King Of
Hearts

Today we cover another one of the Ixalan transforming enchantments (Enchantformers?) It is pretty hard to complain about a card that costs only a single white mana. The neat thing about this card is that during the mid game you can cast it and transform it right away, essentially creating a 1/1 for free. During the late game you get to sink excess mana into weenie blockers. This card has a function during all phases of the game.

The biggest “downside” of this card is that, like the rest of the cycle, both sides are legendary. This isn’t a bad thing as creating four tokens a turn would be way too powerful. Keep in mind that Legion’s Landing must transform, making it harder to bait out Field of Ruin. Despite this, a lot of Black – White Vampire decks are still running four copies. Another issue is that Legion’s Landing in multiplayer is a bit weak due to the lack of defense and the constant threat of board wipes. That being said, the Lifelink and tokens provided by Adanto help counter those problems.

White aggro decks tend to run out of steam pretty quickly. With Lifelink to give an edge over other aggro decks and with token generation for when you start top decking, Legion’s Landing can give your deck an extra boost.

Constructed: 4
Limited: 4
Casual: 4
Multiplayer: 3
Commander (EDH): 3

On the surface, it’s a 1/1 with lifelink for 1 that offers a lot of tribal synergies. It has a reasonable flip trigger: attack with three creatures, which can happen as early as turn 3 in a white deck. And when it does flip, your reward is a land able to make more of those 1/1/ lifelinking tokens. You might think that 3 mana for a 1/1 is a poor rate of return; in this case, it’s not. You’re not using another card to do it, and Adanto can easily take over a lategame by making sure you always have at least one more blocker or attacker.

This is a very powerful tool in any deck capable of enabling it. It provides a small up-front benefit before turning into a massive value engine that also helps pay for your spells. I strongly recommend using it, if you can support it, and it’s a house in Limited.

Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.5