Out of the Wastelands…

There was a big outcry when Wasteland got banned. Players were enraged, and asked us – why ?! So let’s analyze the change and see, if it is really this big of a change.

First of all, we try to stay as close as possible to the other formats – Duelcommander and the official free for all Commander Rules. That means, if they suggest a change, we will have a closer look into their intentions and try to figure out if the change will also add to a Teamplay oriented format. The reasons for the bannings of Wasteland from the Duelcommander Team were plausible and do contribute to our Teamcommander format:

Wasteland is used 3 ways :

1. 1. Solving very problematic lands. Most extreme lands are banned. Against strong, but not critical lands one can play slower cards like Field Of Ruin or even spells to tackle that problem. If one’s commander-centric deck loses on Maze of Ith, is it really a problem for the format?
  2. Recursion with Life From The Loam / Ramunap Excavator etc. This is inexorability. Blue can’t be shifted from combo to control under high inexorability. In this case, players will still choose combo over control.
  3. Randomly mana-screwing an opponent. Which is not a great addition to the format.

These 3 problems being evaluated as “not valuable” for the format, Wasteland now joins its mentor Strip Mine in the list of forbidden cards.

So, do these points also apply to the Teamcommander format ? Absolutely.

Adding a Wasteland to a deck has little drawbacks.

+ Advantages

You can play it as a normal landdrop – as Wasteland does enter the battlefield untapped and produces mana, you don’t waste a turn / landdrop.
Wasteland offers you a „spellfree“ solution of problematic lands without needing to add a special landdestruction card / destroy permanent card as universal solution.
Wasteland can set up a lock with permanent recursion from cards like Ramenup Excavator or thelike. This may result in destroying up to all lands from an opponent or at least hindering him to accumulate a certain amount of mana, so that he could never play spells with higher cmc.
Wasteland can be used to manascrew an opponent, expecially multicolored decks. You can hinder an opponent from playing his commander or cutting off a major part of his cards by denying him access to a color. When a player sees an advantage in manadenial, he will use it in about 99% of all cases, so Wasteland is mainly used for mana-screwing.
Wasteland has little requirements: you can destroy about any nonbasic land, and as a landdrop and instantly being able to activate its ability, there is little which can prevent this besides a Stifle effect. A spell like Stone Rain can be more easily countered, and costs mana.

– Drawbacks

Wasteland produces colorless mana – if your deck / Commander needs lots of colored mana, this can be a little drawback. Example: Commanders like Animar wants to be put into play as early as possible – ideal would be a turn 1 Manaproducer like a Birds of Paradise and turn two another land which produces the 3rd color for this threecolored spell.
By activating Wasteland you also lose one mana / a landdrop.

So, in general, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. As Wasteland is a colorless land, it can be included into any Commander Deck, making it literally to a „must-include“ for any commander Deck, similary and resembling to a Sol Ring. „Must-Includes“ are never good for a format.

So, are there any other, similar card options ?

Yes.

But what do you need landdestruction for ?

As mentioned above, besides the handling of „problematic lands“ its use is either randomly mana screwing an opponent or building up a lock to for a constant landdestruction, which is still possible in the Teamcommander format with other cards, too, but is not a highly desired playstyle we like to see commonly and in excess.

Which other lands do destroy lands and offer similar funtionality ?

Dust Bowl – has a build-in „constant landdestruction“ as far as you play enough other lands by youself.

Field of Ruin – costs mana, gives lands, so it’s a „fairer“ solution as it just handles problematic lands and does not mana-screw.

Tectonic Edge – costs just 1 mana, can be used if opponent has at elast 4 lands, so it’s a „fairer“ solution it does not mana-screw that much, leaving at least 3 mana which enables most basic plays (e.g. get back into the game with a Cultivate).

Encroaching Wastes – no big restrictions, but costs 4 mana to activate, meaning it mostly can’t be used in early game turns, and it mostly takes you also a turn and can’t be used „along the way“.

Ghost Quarter – does not even cost mana, gives lands, so it’s a „fairer“ solution as it just handles problematic lands and does not mana-screw.

Which other nonland cards do destroy lands and offer similar funtionality ?

Round about a hundred or even more ? We haven’t counted.

So, to sum it up:

There are still enough other, similar lands which offer about the same funtionality. You can still handle problematic lands with them. If your deck heavily relies on strategies which can be disturbed by certain land – like Commander-Damage based Voltron Decks vs. Maze of Ith then you should reconsider to actively approach countermeasures: include a Tectonic Edge, a nonland based Landdestruction spell, a universal solution with cards like Beast within or think about other ways by giving hexproof or shroud to your creature.

We are aware that there are still other strong, game effecting lands out there: [C]Cabal Coffers[/c], [Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle[/c], Phyrexian Tower and thelike. Normally, they don’t effect the early game plays. In a late game, they can heavily impact the game. But other cards can (and should) do this, too. If your meta is permanently dominated by such cards, you should reconsider to adjust your decks with more universal remover cards (Beast within, Vindicate,…), but there is no need to ban every land which has a (strong) function. We think there are enough ways left besides Wasteland which still can handle such lands adequately. Replacing all your Wastelands by Ghost Quarters or Tectonic Edges is one of the easiest ways. So, to be honest, the change has a smaller impact as most players who groan loudly think.

Have Fun and Good Games ! – The Teamcommander-Team