Meticulous Archive (and the other surveil lands)
– Murders at Karlov Manor
Date Reviewed: January 31, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.88
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
With all the chaos going on in Melbourne right now (long story), I didn’t even notice that this will be the first major Ravnica release that doesn’t have shocklands. That might have been in the Seeress’ Prophecy; one of the middle stanzas, I think, after the prophetess proves her knowledge of Odin’s ancient history. In all seriousness, this cycle fits well with Murders at Karlov Manor‘s flavor concept, and there is likely to be a niche for the cards in casual play as well. Tapped lands can make it in constructed decks when they offer something valuable; surveiling for free is a lot more valuable than it might initially look. Meticulous Archive, for example, is in the right colors to benefit from things like Abuelo’s Awakening and Runechanter’s Pike, though in reality all the color combinations have at least some use for it. And if nothing else, the cycle will be in Standard for a long time – that format always needs some flexibility in mana.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Another year, another new dual land cycle. Meticulous Archive and its ilk have the interesting approach of having two land types, coming in tapped, and surveilling 1 on entry. A land that surveils is subtly effective, since it can help you to set up your draw coming up without necessarily costing you mana, and being fetchable is great. In particular, it’s an option for more control-based decks or decks that don’t need to turn their fetchland into an immediate play.
Lands like this may not be flashy, but they’re the backbone of a lot of decks and tend to pull their weight disproportionately. This isn’t as good as the shocklands are, but those are definitely on the very powerful end of the spectrum, relatively speaking, and there’s room for lands that play around in that mechanical space. These will definitely be solid inclusions for fixing colors and for getting needed land types.
Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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