Feel Free to Enter my Realm

Hello Everyone!

Just 2 hours ago, the newest announcement of future release came up on DailyMTG, and it is..... (drum roll please) From the Vault: Lands! They do get a little cooler with it and call it FTV: Realms, but yeah - lands. This has actually been a very anticipated release, it was just a matter of time. Lands are not very exciting at first glance; they don't have the wow factor of Dragons, or the build-around-me factor of Doran among other legends, but they are the most important part of the game.

Naturally, we shall now play the "what do I think is most likely to be in the package?" game. One thing of note about this release is that normally the FTV sets have a mythic from the next set, but this one does not exclusively mention that it would. Combining that with the fact there has only ever been 1 mythic rare land leads me to believe there will be no future-printed cards in this FTV.

If we were to go on gatherer and list the 15 most highly rated lands by players that aren't on the reserved list, our 15 cards would be (in order of highest rating to lowest):

Kor Haven
Celestial Colonnade
Rishaden Port
Blood Crypt
Cabal Coffers
Maze of Ith
Temple Garden
Sunken Ruin
Glimmervoid
Creeping Tar Pit
Reflecting Pool
Kher Keep
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Karakas
Vault of the Archangel

Now this list has several good cards in it, in fact it has a few I will put on my real list, but there are tons of cards I know will not make it. I think to make this product buyable all of the lands need to actually do something cool. Therefor, Shock lands and Filter lands probably aren't going to make the cut. Both are in 10 card cycles, and thus would be awkward to include just 1 of, but both just do 1 thing - make mana. Compare those to something like Kor Haven, and you can see which card is more exciting to look at. Another case is that WotC isn't going to have a ton of high-value cards in any one of these releases. FTV: Dragons didn't have any card of significant value in it, though Niv-Mizzet and Kokusho are each Hamiltons, but FTV: Exiled had Berserk and FTV: Relics had Mox Diamond. Clearly WotC wants to put in chase cards, but they don't want more than 1 or 2, which is going to make this list a little tricky to put together.

Knowing there can only be so much value in this release, let's look at some of the high value cards that people are hoping to see reprinted:

Wasteland $45
Karakas $57
Mutavault $33
Rishadian Port $30
Maze of Ith $37

Unfortunately for us, I think only 1 of these cards will be in the set to maintain the raw value of the release, and my pick is Wasteland. Karakas should have been printed in FTV: Legends, but they wanted to pour out 15 commanders. Wasteland is such a staple card to Magic, and one of the most relevant lands throughout the history of the game besides basic island even through today. Karakas will have it's day sometime later (which sucks because I need one), Mutavault has Mishra's Factory (a shoe-in), and it's just better than Rishadian Port at stifling manabases. Maze of Ith made get "printed" in FTV: Realms via Mystifying Maze, but I doubt it.

It's important to mention that the art released with the announcement is very obviously Glacial Chasm, with the only competition being Thawing Glaciers, but Thawing Glaciers is on the reserved list (a lot of things are on the reserved list, even Granite Gargoyle and Barreling Attack). Some other cards i believe will be printed are Reliquary Tower because everyone loves it, especially considering its current $4 tag, along with Boseju, Who Shelters All, and Ancient Tomb. This starts the list off with:

Wasteland
Mishra's Factory
Glacial Chasm
Reliquary Tower
Boseju, Who Shelters All
Ancient Tomb

6 colorless lands. There should be at least 1 land that produces each type of colored mana, so maybe we could see the following:

W - Emeria, the Sky Ruin
U - Tolaria West
B - Cabal Coffers
R - Barbarian Ring
G - Pendelhaven

This leaves us with 4 slots, which could be any of these cards:

City of Brass
Command Tower
Vesuva
Dark Depths
Gemstone Caverns
Petrified Field
Tower of the Magistrate
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Volrath's Stronghold
Academy Ruins

If i had to write up an exact list right now, this would be what I would guess for the whole 15:


Wasteland
Mishra's Factory
Glacial Chasm
Reliquary Tower
Boseju, Who Shelters All
Ancient Tomb

Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Tolaria West
Cabal Coffers
Barbarian Ring
Pendelhaven
City of Brass
Vesuva
Petrified Field
Academy Ruins

This is actually a very exciting list of cards, and I would look forward to this release if it were printed as I listed it. If I learned anything while making this list, it is that lands are far more diverse and exciting than I had previously considered! I feel while lands may not seem exciting when you say From the Vault: Lands, they are actually much more awesome than we anticipated!

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
ThingsILack on mtgo