This card was so good for me in my first Time
Spiral sealed decks and booster drafts that I
quickly called it one of the best cards in the
set. At any rate, I was sure that Terramorphic
Expanse was good enough that it would certainly
become popular in Standard constructed. Well, it
may be time to tap the brakes a little bit where
this card is concerned. Yes, Expanse is very
good when you need to get your hands on the one
land of a certain color in your limited deck.
However, in two color draft or sealed decks that
need to have two of two different colors of mana
in play as soon as possible, Terramorphic
Expanse can be a bit of a mixed blessing. The
problem is that Expanse brings you your land
into play tapped, unlike the very fine search
lands from Mirage many years ago. Because of
this problem, the play that seems most correct,
playing Terramorphic Expanse on turn one and
then sacrificing it to get a basic land before
your next turn, can backfire.
Expanse on turn one removes a land from your
deck, making it less likely that you will draw a
land on turn two. In decks where you need access
to one of just a couple of basic lands of a
certain type, Expanse is an extremely useful
card.
Terramorphic Expanse is not likely to be fast or
useful enough to appear in constructed decks in
the near future. In limited decks, one or two of
these lands will help you greatly in locating
the mana for your secondary or splash colors.
This card isn't terrible for a multi-color deck.
It can allow you to smooth out your curve a bit.
But realistically it's better for limited than
constructed. In limited it can allow you to
splash a color or two and get away with it.
This is likely the best common nonbasic land
that has ever been or will ever be printed. For
the cost of one turn of development (since the
land it fetches comes into play tapped), you get
to go find one of any basic land you need. This
is one of greatest mana fixers of all time,
aside for the various dual lands that are better
in practice, but require you to be in the right
pir of colors. If you're in three or more
colors, especially in limited, then you pretty
much need this card. Good thing it's a common!
Terramorphic
Expanse - In a set full of throwbacks, this card
seems to be an allegory for Thawing Glaciers.
Clearly it's without the purely ridiculous power
of the Glaciers, but it's still a strong card.
And it's one of a few cards (Gemhide Sliver and
Search For Tomorrow among others) which make
multicolor play not so difficult as it sometimes
is. This card features highly on most people's
list of limited (and constructed) playable
commons from Time Spiral and with good reason.
Most decks that feature basic lands (which is to
say - most decks) can stand to use this card.
It's simple and it's effective. It's being
picked highly in TS draft if Pro Tour Kobe is
any indication, so keep your eyes open for this
one.
This is an exciting little card. It doesn't look
too flashy, and may not make a splash in most
constructed formats, but for those who are
familiar with Peasant Magic, you know already
that this is a very exciting card. Peasant Magic
(5 uncommons and 55 commons per deck) is ruled
by mono-color decks. This set has helped a lot
with that, between last week's Lens, Chromatic
Star and, most importantly, this card.
For constructed, you have better things to do
probably than spend your land drop putting a
basic land of your choice into play tapped.
Although, you could do worse as well. This will
probably be popular in limited, where color
fixing is at a premium. If you are trying to
draft a 3+ color deck, this is a must take.
Casual fans will probably be excited to see a
Sac Land at an affordable cost since most of
them don't care to sell their shirt to buy a set
of the Onslaught Sac Lands.
Constructed - 2
Casual - 4
Limited - 4
PEZ - 5
Aethereal
Terramorphic
Expanse
The omni-fetchland. Unlike the Onslaught
fetches, this doesn't ping you and can get any
land. The catch is it has to be basic and it
comes into play tapped, so no grabbing duals
with this. I've seen a few decks play a couple
of these, and I don't like it that much. It can
only fetch a basic and slows you down. It is
fixing, but you already have shocklands,
painlands, and signets to choose from, all of
which are superior to this.
In casual, again, there are better choices
available.
In limited, it fixes your mana and thins your
deck, so it's decent. Don't pick this over a
more important card, though. It's even better in
sealed, where you're more likely to play 3
colors.
Constructed - I can see this getting some play.
Not a whole lot but some.
It's a neat little card that searches for the
mana you need at the beginning of the game. A
good mana producer but nothing spectacular.
Casual - This would be a fun card with things
like Crucible of the World but again there are
things that are a lot more fun to play then
this.
Limited - At first when I saw this card I
thought. Not that great. Then I played it and if
it's in your opening hand it get's what you need
at the moment. A great card. Pick it up if you
need it.
Constructed - 3.0
Casual - 3.0
Limited - 3.8
Gackley Ferguson
Gackley
Ferguson's Review fro MTG COTD 10-23-06
Welcome back to a whole new week of reviews true
believers!
Today we take a look at the land Terramorphic
expanse. Now I'm going to level with all of
you...I really don't see the point of this card.
Now it may be the lack of tournament experience,
but I really don't see a way this can help you.
It's a land, but you can't tap it for mana.
Instead you can tap it, sacrifice it, and search
your library for a basic land card and put that
into play tapped. Um....why? I mean if you put
this in your deck, you have less odds to draw
and actual land card you can use. At first I
thought you could play this and a basic land on
the same turn...but I then noticed that this was
a land. This is completely pointless.
Constructed 1/5
Casual 1/5
Limited 1/5
All three formats get the same score, and here's
the reasoning. 1) this card doesn't give you
more mana, you just sac it to get a basic land.
2) this takes spots away from something a little
more useful. 3) Just put in more lands if you're
that dry on mana. If you add extra copies of
land instead of these the odds you'll draw them
go up.
See you tomorrow.!
Cyrus Huang
Constructed:
Terramorphic Expanse still has to prove itself.
Some people call it only a little bit worse than
the godly onslaught fetchlands and some people
call it a pointless common land. Let's take a
look at the pros and cons:
Pros:
-Gets any color
-Thins your deck
Cons:
-Gets only basics (as opposed to getting ravinca
duals)
-Gets lands into play tapped
-Requires basics in your deck
My conclusion? It's trash. Two color decks don't
need more then 4x ravinca duals and 4x pain
lands, and even if they need more, gemstone mine
is there. 3 color decks can't afford to run 1 of
each basic when all they can support is nothing
but non-basics. What if they draw that one land?
Then terramorphic expanse becomes a dead card.
Should you add more basics and ruin your mana
base even more? Three color mana bases can well
supported without the help of this card.
Furthermore a lot of the three color decks are
aggro decks (zoo, r/w/u skies, I know some
w/b/splash build is going to pop out), and you
can't afford to not play a spell because of your
land coming to play tapped.
1.5/5
Limited: Terramorphic Expanse has a lot less
proving to do in sealed. It's plain good since
tempo isn't a big deal in sealed, fixing your
mana base is far more imprtant then casting a
spell every turn. You basically play this card
no matter what, I see no reason not to (short of
going mono color -_-).
4/5
