What's not to like? It's a dual land with
practically no drawback. As long as it's not the
first land you drop, and it shouldn't be unless
you kept an opening hand you should've
mulliganed, you get both colors of mana as you
need them.
Once upon a time, lands that could produce more
than one color of mana were special and rare. I
remember the awe on my old playgroup's faces
when someone finally got an Ice Age Brushland in
a booster - until then, we didn't really know
that there were any nonbasic lands that produced
mana like basics. These days, though, we get a
new cycle of dual lands every year or so. What
makes Dragonskull Summit so special? Why
should its be the "core" dual lands? Quite
simply, they do everything a good dual land
cycle should do. They obviously let you play two
colors quite easily, and two is generally the
most common number of colors for a deck to have.
But they preserve the internal relationships of
the game while doing it - we are taught that
allied colors are supposed to work together, and
the lands also give an important role to basic
lands, which are expected both by flavor and by
the rules to be the most common cards in any
deck. The Dragonskull Summit cycle is a powerul
and elegant set of dual lands for Magic's modern
era.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day:
Dragonskull Summit
Welcome back readers today's card of the the I
am assuming represents the cycle as a whole not
only Dragonskull Summit. Each of these lands has
seen extensive play in popular archetypes in
standard and I don't see this ending anytime
soon. The effect is negligible the fact you cant
drop them first turn is an inconvenience but not
a deal breaker. They smooth out a decks mana and
allow multicolor decks to flow easier, Jund
being the primary example. In extended these
lands are not popular we have the Shock and Pain
lands available making these redundant, although
being able to drop a first turn shock land then
have one of these bad boys come into play
untapped sets you up color wise although leaves
you vulnerable to Blood Moon.
In eternal these lands will not see play at
all. In casual and multiplayer, casual and new
players shy away from damage but could still
benefit from mana fixing, these cards are a
Godsend to them other then the price tag of
course. In limited its a solid grab if there is
nothing better in the pack and smooths out your
mana if you need the color fixing or are
thinking of going a particular color a must
have. Overall a powerful set of lands, not on
par with the duel lands of past but still worth
playing, now I want to see the enemy colored
cycle of these lands.
Today's card of the day is Dragonskull Summit
which returns to 2011 from 2010 and remains an
excellent second turn or later dual land drop.
There is a risk of an opening hand with these
lands as your only mana sources, but having that
happen at the same time as holding a card or
cards that could be played before they can be
untapped is a relatively slim chance. For a two
color deck running a large number of basic lands
this cycle of allied cards works quite well as
support with minimal risk of any drawback
compared to tap or pain lands.
For Limited this is a great card to open up in
Sealed for the value, but you may not have the
pool of Red and Black cards to justify actually
playing this in your deck. For Booster
this is worth rare drafting, but again putting
together both Black and Red cards can be
demanding from a first pick land. Even if
drafting this try to keep your options open and
as this is a support card and not necessarily
something to build an entire deck around.
This will be an obvious staple for decks running
B/R, or splashing either color into a deck.
Dragonskull Summit, like the other dual lands in
the set is going to obviously be as popular as
whatever decktype uses the colors. It'll be in
what remains of Jund decks, it'll be in Vampires
that might splash red, it'll be wherever. A
necessity for your B/R mana base and will
probably be priced as such.
Competitive: 5/5, if you're playing B/R
or splashing it
Casual: 5/5, if you're playing B/R or
splashing it
Sealed/Draft: 5/5, if you're playing B/R
or splashing it
