Understanding the Barren Beauty: The Complete Guide to Wastes in Magic: The Gathering
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Wastes. A seemingly simple card, yet it carries a fascinating history and a unique role within the landscape of Magic: The Gathering. Wastes are basic lands that tap for colorless mana. Crucially, they lack a basic land type (like Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, or Forest). This seemingly minor detail has major implications for deckbuilding and gameplay. The primary rules surrounding Wastes are: You can include any number of them in your Constructed decks. However, in Limited formats (Sealed and Draft), you can only include Wastes if you open them in your sealed pool or draft them; you cannot simply add them from a “land station” like other basic lands. Their mana can only be used for paying colorless mana costs. And finally, Wastes have no color identity, allowing them to be played in decks of any color combination. These rules impact their deckbuilding versatility and their specific functions in certain strategies.
Delving Deeper: Key Aspects of Wastes
Let’s dissect some core aspects of Wastes in more detail:
- Basic Land Status: Being a basic land means you are generally unrestricted in the number of Wastes you can include in a Constructed deck. This is where they truly shine.
- Colorless Mana Production: Wastes tap for colorless mana {C}. This mana can only be used to pay costs specifically requiring colorless mana.
- No Basic Land Type: This is the trickiest part. While they are basic lands, they do not possess any of the five basic land types (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest). This has implications for cards that care about land types (like Domain abilities).
- Limited Availability: In Limited formats, Wastes are treated differently. You cannot simply add them like other basic lands. You must open them in your Sealed pool or draft them. This makes them rarer and potentially valuable in Limited, especially in sets that heavily feature colorless costs or colorless creatures.
- Color Identity: Wastes have no color identity. This means they can be included in any Commander deck, regardless of the commander’s color identity. It’s like including an artifact.
Wastes and Eldrazi: A Symbiotic Relationship
Wastes were primarily introduced in the Oath of the Gatewatch set to support the Eldrazi, a race of powerful, colorless creatures from beyond the Blind Eternities. The Eldrazi often have costs that require colorless mana. Wastes provide a reliable source of this mana, allowing players to effectively cast these monstrous threats. The introduction of Wastes as a basic land alongside the Eldrazi allowed for more consistent colorless mana bases in Constructed decks. The design was intentional, showcasing the alien nature of the Eldrazi and their dependence on a unique energy source.
Constructed vs. Limited: Different Realms for Wastes
The role of Wastes varies greatly depending on the format:
- Constructed: In Constructed formats like Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Commander, Wastes are primarily used to support decks with colorless requirements, especially those featuring Eldrazi. They provide a consistent source of colorless mana, enabling players to cast spells and activate abilities that require it. The fact that you can include as many as you want makes them a reliable component of a mana base.
- Limited: In Limited, Wastes are much rarer and more valuable. Their limited availability makes them a premium pick if your deck requires colorless mana. If you open a Wastes in your Sealed pool or draft one early, you may consider building your deck around colorless cards to take advantage of it. Because you cannot add Wastes outside of your pool or draft, they become strategic assets, influencing your deckbuilding choices.
Strategy Tips for Using Wastes
Here are some strategic tips for using Wastes effectively:
- Know Your Mana Costs: Before including Wastes in your deck, carefully analyze the mana costs of your cards. Ensure that you have enough cards that require colorless mana to justify including Wastes.
- Balance Your Mana Base: Even if you’re playing a colorless deck, you still need to balance your mana base. Consider including other lands that produce colored mana to support cards with colored costs.
- Consider Color Fixing: If you’re playing a multicolored deck with some colorless requirements, you might want to consider lands or artifacts that can fix your mana, allowing you to produce both colored and colorless mana.
- Draft Strategically: In Limited, be mindful of Wastes during the draft. If you see one early, it might be worth picking to open up the possibility of playing a colorless-focused deck.
- Prioritize in Sealed: In Sealed, if you open one or more Wastes, evaluate the colorless cards in your pool. If you have enough powerful colorless cards, building around Wastes might be a viable strategy.
Understanding Color Identity in Commander
In Commander, the color identity of your commander dictates which cards you can include in your deck. Wastes have no color identity, which means they can be included in any Commander deck, regardless of the commander’s colors. This makes them a versatile addition to any Commander deck that needs to produce colorless mana. However, if your commander is colorless, then you are limited to only including colorless cards in your deck, including Wastes. You can learn more about card game strategies by exploring resources like the Games Learning Society at GamesLearningSociety.org.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can I add Wastes to my deck in Limited like I can add other basic lands?
No. In Limited formats (Sealed Deck and Booster Draft), you can only include Wastes if you open them in your sealed pool or draft them. You cannot add Wastes to your card pool in the same way that you can add other basic lands.
2. Can I use colored mana to pay for colorless costs that Wastes would normally pay for?
No. You must use colorless mana to pay for colorless costs. Colored mana cannot be used to pay colorless mana costs unless a card specifically states otherwise.
3. Can I include Wastes in any deck, regardless of its color identity?
Yes. Wastes has no color identity, so it can be included in any deck of any color combinations, including Commander decks.
4. What kind of mana do Wastes produce?
Wastes tap for colorless mana {C}.
5. Are Wastes legal in all formats?
Yes, Wastes are legal in all formats where basic lands are allowed, unless specifically banned.
6. Why are Wastes sometimes more expensive than other basic lands?
Wastes were printed in a smaller quantity than regular basic lands, and their unique utility in certain decks and rarity in limited formats often makes them slightly more valuable.
7. Why isn’t Wastes a basic land type?
The designers chose not to give Wastes a basic land type to avoid interactions with cards that care about the number of basic land types you control (like Domain).
8. Can I discard Wastes?
Yes, you can discard Wastes just like any other card in your hand. You might do this if you have too many cards in hand during your cleanup step, or if an effect requires you to discard a card.
9. Is colorless mana the same thing as generic mana?
No. Colorless mana (represented by {C}) is a specific type of mana. Generic mana (represented by numbers inside circles) can be paid with any type of mana.
10. Do Wastes count as a color?
No, Wastes do not count as a color. They produce colorless mana, but they themselves are not colored.
11. Can I have a colorless commander and use Wastes?
Yes, you can have a colorless commander and use Wastes. However, if your commander is colorless, all other cards in your deck must also be colorless.
12. What happens if I have more than seven cards in my hand, including Wastes?
During your cleanup step, you must discard cards until you have only seven cards in your hand. You can choose to discard Wastes if necessary.
13. What is the point of playing Wastes over other lands?
The point of playing Wastes over other lands is to produce colorless mana, which is required by some spells and abilities, particularly those associated with the Eldrazi.
14. Does Wastes trigger abilities that care about lands entering the battlefield?
Yes, because Wastes are basic lands, they trigger abilities that trigger when a land enters the battlefield.
15. If a card destroys a “non-basic land,” can that destroy wastes?
No. While Wastes are basic lands, they lack basic land types and do not meet the criteria to be destroyed by cards that target nonbasic lands, as Wastes are basic.