Lands Pile

A Magic: The Gathering Variant Rule

This is an idea I’ve had in my head for a couple years, and I finally took the time to write it down. I don’t know if anyone else has tried anything like this (probably!) but I feel like lands are both the best and worst part of Magic, so a way to ease that pain (especially for new players) seems like a fun option.

Overview

Mana variance most often punishes players at two points in the game: early, when an insufficient land count leaves them unable to get started, and late, when drawing lands instead of spells leaves them unable to act.

Lands Pile is a variant ruleset meant for casual play that reduces the variance of mana availability. Each player has a face-down secondary draw pile of basic lands alongside their library, and may choose to draw from it at the beginning of their draw step.

This variant is intended for bracket 1 play, if I may use that as a shorthand for the most casual games in any format. It’s also worth noting that using the Lands Pile is optional by design: if you’re playing a more efficient deck against a casual one, choosing not to use it is a reasonable way to level the field.

Setup

Before the game begins, each player may set aside any number of basic lands from their deck as their Lands Pile, then shuffles it face-down. (Normal deckbuilding rules apply.) Opponents may cut the Lands Pile after it’s shuffled.

Only cards with the basic supertype may be in the Lands Pile. This includes Snow-Covered basics and Wastes.

The Lands Pile is placed face-down in a visible location. The number of cards remaining in it is public information.

The Emblem

Each player begins the game with an emblem with the following ability:

“At the beginning of your draw step, you may draw the top card of your Lands Pile instead of drawing from your library. If you do, reveal it. You must play that land at the beginning of your first main phase this turn, if able. If your Lands Pile is empty, this ability has no effect.”

Rules

• The Lands Pile is a separate zone; it is not part of your library, nor is it considered in exile or in your sideboard. Effects that interact with other zones do not affect the Lands Pile unless they specifically refer to it.
• Because the Lands Pile is not a library, it cannot be searched, shuffled, or otherwise interacted with by effects that target libraries or cause cards to be milled.
• Drawing from the Lands Pile only occurs at the beginning of your draw step. Card draw from spells, abilities, or any other effect always draws from your library.
• Having cards in your Lands Pile protects you from losing the game due to an empty library during your draw step. Outside of your draw step, drawing from your Lands Pile is not permitted — therefore being forced to draw from an empty library still leads to a loss.

Deckbuilding and other Considerations

The Lands Pile isn’t a bonus — it’s a tradeoff. Choosing to play more basics and a large Lands Pile guarantees a land when you need one, but costs you the utility that non-basic lands provide.

Aside from consistent access to lands, another practical benefit is the freedom to run fewer lands in your main deck, recovering those slots for spells. How many lands you choose to run, and how many you choose to set aside in the Lands Pile, is entirely up to you.

There is no mechanism for restocking the Lands Pile. This means cards from your Lands Pile may end up in your library or other zones through various game effects, therefore sleeving them differently is not allowed.

The requirement to reveal and immediately play any card drawn from the Lands Pile serves as a verification mechanism. A non-basic land in the Lands Pile — whether by accident or oversight — is caught at the moment it is drawn rather than sitting undetected in hand. If a non-basic land is revealed this way, it is returned to the player’s library, the library is shuffled, and the player re-draws from their Lands Pile.

Open Questions

• Should there be a size limit on the Lands Pile? A player could theoretically build a deck with a very small library and a very large Lands Pile, cycling through their key cards quickly while guaranteeing a land every turn. Is this a fun deckbuilding challenge or a degenerate pubstomp strategy?
• Should lands from the Lands Pile enter tapped? Would this prevent overly-fast starts?

Notes

• Size limit on the Lands Pile — a cap of 10 basics in the Lands Pile was initially considered but rejected in favor of letting deckbuilding be the constraint, though this remains an open question.
• Face-up Lands Pile — rejected in favor of face-down with public count. The number of cards remaining is visible; the contents are not.
• Opening hand of 6 with a mandatory Lands Pile draw as the 7th card — rejected, and replaced by a normal 7-card opening hand. The first draw step covers itself under the emblem.
• Drawing from the Lands Pile on any draw — narrowed to the draw step only, to reduce cognitive overhead and limit game-warping effects.
• Mandatory immediate play — refined to “at the beginning of your first main phase” to map to an existing game step and prevent sequencing tricks that could take advantage of a known land draw.
• Treating the Lands Pile draw as a zone transfer rather than a draw — rejected to preserve interactions with draw-based effects.
• Miracle-style reveal on any draw — replaced by the requirement to immediately play the land, and the limitation that only your first draw for the turn comes from the Lands Pile.