Mobilized District – MTG Card Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Mobilized District is a very tempting card. The potential of a creature land with a zero activation cost opens up a lot of possibilities – it’s often hard to use direct damage or other removal spells to clear blockers and activate such a land on the same turn. The main issue I see with this is that some planeswalkers play the same sort of role as resilient threats that creature lands do. Additionally, since legendary creatures tend to be quite strong, a 3/3 with vigilance usually won’t add much if you already have two or three of them in play.

This card might be best when paired with planeswalkers like Jace Beleren or the new Narset that are more focused on drawing cards or similar effects. With one or more of those in play, this land attacking turn after turn, and most of your mana free for counterspells, it could be very hard for an opponent to fight back.

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

Mobilized District is interesting. Manlands in general tend to be particularly intriguing, offering mana correction early and a body with which to whack people later. 4 mana for a 3/3 with vigilance (that you have to pay each turn) is…okay. It reminds me of a worse Celestial Colonnade, and that card is a Modern powerhouse; being a 3/3 is worse, as is lacking flying, but it’s only 4 mana (at most) and can be any color.

Where things get interesting is when you factor in Mobilized District’s mana cost reduction; it’s possible, in this set, to reliably get this online as a 3/3 for no mana. And that’s where this gets threatening…even as a 2-mana or 1-mana activation, it’s a good deal.

I think this is a weird sort of “sleeper card”. I can see an environment where this is a Standard staple. But that depends on what decks are prevalent, as well as if this has a shell it goes into…you need a healthy number of legendary creatures and planeswalkers for this to be a good deal, and being a colorless land makes it slightly harder to jam into “superfriends” decks.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.25