Pointed Discussion

Naughty, naughty

So there is a card that costs two mana and lets you search for ANY land and you people rate it low beacause it doesn't put that land into play. I guess you think it's better to put a boring meaningless basic land into play than put any land you want into your hand, what a shame.

yeah as obvious as it may seem... Tolarian Academy in case people didn't read the card text properly or it didn't phase them at first glance.

I wasn't aware that people rated this awesome card low.
It's a solid card and I guess people don't realize that there are some uber land out there worth picking over a simple basic land.
Like it's been given here as an example "Tolarian Academy" one of the best lands out there.
Or how about perhaps "Gaea's Cradle ? Or maybe you prefer a Serra's Sanctum ? :D
Or let's go really nuts and pick a dual land out of your library.
Next to that, it has beautiful art to boot as well, nothing wrong with it :)

Jesus christ for the millionth time not every card deserves 5 stars. 4 is a fine rating for this card. The lands you will pull with this will be 5 star cards as they will win you the game or put you in a vastly superior position, but this card itself won't win you the game. What if you draw your tolarian academy or whatever in your draw step and then next turn pull this card? It's a dead draw.

4 stars is not low. Not even 3 stars is low.

Let me just break down the higher end of the star ranking system since people seem to have forgotten it.

3 stars is average, par for the course. Creatures with reasonable P/T for their mana cost and relevant creature types. The better priced card draw spells and lower tier tutoring. 3.5 stars is above average, such as creatures with one or more types of good evasion, or trample and high p/t or the better (but not best) tutoring spells. 4 stars is exceptional. Not necessarily game-winning, but it will allow you to get in a superior position and force your opponent to respond. this is a 4 star card because you can tutor 5 star lands. Finally, 5 star cards are win conditions. You cannot win with this card alone. You build your deck around 5 star cards. They are part of infinite loops.

I base my ratings purely off of hotness ratings. PURELY. Thus this is 5 star. Along with Soaring Hope and Sylvan Ranger.

ahh if this were in standard valakut deks would be unstoppable

Use this to bring out an Eldrazi Temple when you need it.

I'll splash green into my Eldrazi deck to get some of these. They can search for Vesuva, Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, Eldrazi Temple and that single Eye of Ugin should it become necessary :)

So. . . green got Demonic Tutor? But only for lands? Who cares, some lands are better than most spells anyway. However, I prefer the versatility of Tolaria West.

Mmm, Glissa.
@Almighty Abacus
I rated your comment 5 stars! :D

I didn't realize so many people were so one-track that they read this as "get a Tolarian Academy/Gaia's Cradle/Serra's Sanctum". But, power-lands are what they are I guess; I'll never see why this could be better than Crop Rotation, as you can drop it first-turn AND have your land already in-play, untapped, that turn.

I guess, all the commotion over this card, means there probably ISNT a for a 'any land from your deck into play tapped' card yet. Even if it said non-legendary to keep it from wrecking Legacy or something; I figure those formats are hell enough anyway.

It's a 2-mana Tutor. If you don't rate this above at least 3.5 stars, you know nothing about Magic.

Over 4.5 might be a bit extreme (after all, it's not even an instant), but it is a cheap tutor that can fetch you any land you want. Oh, and by the way, all land cards have CMC=0, so in one way, it's better in the decks it goes in than Mytical Tutor because spells do not generally have CMC=0.

While it might 'cost' you your land drop for the turn, you are either going to be ramping your basic lands to cast something really big next turn (I would feel just fine with playing 2 of these on turn four), or you'll be fetching a Ultility Bullet that does something incredibly powerful in your deck.

This is Green's Demonic Tutor. Elvish Tutor.
(errata: does not make you any better at rock n roll than you already were)
(errata 2: apologies for the 'Elvish'-'Elvis' pun. I could not resist.)

I think almighty abacus raises an interesting point- I don't agree that all 5 star cards must be infinite loops- I don't think that 5 star means 'Most Ultimately Ultimate Card Freaking Ever', because their are not enough stars to rate 12,000+ cards with, so while P9 cards are obviously 5 star, cards which are much weaker than that are still 5 star (Phyrexian Obliterator, Eldrazi Legends, Progenitus) because there are just so many cards that '5-star' actually represents a very broad range of power to me, and does not automatically exclude every card that isn't in a broken Vintage Combo.

I also, though, don't think every 'good' card can be 5-star either, and I like his de***ion of 3-star if by 'draw' and 'tutor' he means stuff like Divination and Diabolic Tutor- things you aren't going to bug out over, but are still good enough to try playing in FNM, KT (kitchen table) or Limited, where the pressure to be Spikey is lower than at higher competitive levels.

I would say that this is a 4.3-4.5 star card. "Get's your win-cons" is worth a bit more than just 4-stars. Whenever I hear the phrase "Get what you need", I think the phrase "ACCIO FIREBOLT!", and that is worth an extra star or two, easily. Powerful Tutors, Fetch Lands, deep digging spells like Ponder and Brainstorm, etc., all fall into this category- and they are NOT 5-star, because you cannot win the game with them alone. But they are all at least "ACCIO"-good.

Some of the amazing Black ones, like Vampiric Tutor which is an Instant and gets anything, and Necropotence which gets you both anything AND everything, might be worth at least 4.6-4.7 stars. Which is still extremely high.

But unless it reduces your opponent's life to 0 with reasonable reliability (this includes a large swath of creatures, few of which fit the following other conditions): , causes them to not be able to draw cards from their library, says 'you win', or 'they lose', or is BOTH Banned in Legacy AND Restricted in Vintage, I'm inclined to withold the 5th Star.

Essentially, a non-creature spell is very rarely going to make 5 stars, and a land pretty much has to be Tolarian Academy or I'm not buying it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't give a 4.7-4.9 to the cards you would call 5.0.

It took me a while to figure out the amazement of this card. I was wondering, "Better rated than Rampant Growth? Why?"

But it's the same reason why Primeval Titan is STILL $15: any land has now become your b**ch, if you pardon my language.

4/5. It's a pretty good fetch-land spell. All I'd really need is some kind of foul Cabal Coffers copy that does the same for green... TOO BAD GREEN DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH RAMP!

Grove of the Guardian, Gavony Township, Gaea's Cradle, Kor Haven, Winding Canyons etc. etc...

So many important lands I can tutor for with this, in my Trostani deck... And they may not really look like this, but some lands really can win you games, if played in the right situation (guess it really makes some sense that they b& Primeval Titan in EDH). I think, this really is an awesome card. The artwork is just magnificently beautiful too.

Whats the most expensive part about building a competitive deck? You dual filled land base of course, this will let you pull anything you want. and its splashable.

I've been wondering about a card like this, now I've found it. Yes sir, I'll take my Dark Depths with a side of Vampire Hexmage.

This card is, for me, equal to Rampant Growth. The choice will depend of the deck you build.

In a deck where lands are your keycard, this card will be more efficient than Rampant Growth. If you have Urza's Mine and Urza's Powerplant on the battlefield, tutoring Urza's Tower may give to you a serious advantage over your opponent.

Otherwise, if you have more basic lands and if your nonbasic lands are less important, Rampant Growth will do a great job.

In terms of the 2 mana rampers, it's hard to say one is strictly better than the others. There are likely to be situations where one of them performs its intended role better. However, Sylvan Scrying is a darn good card. There are many powerful non-basic lands that can be used, and having them just in your hand (compared to on the field) is a smile price to pay. Gaea's Cradle, Yavimaya Hollow, Urborg, Urzatron, Valakut... nomnomnom.

I already run Expedition Map in most of my Bx decks (for Cabal Coffers + Urborg engine)... could easily see myself running these in a lot of Gx decks thanks to Cradle and Hollow.

Any card that can tutor for busted cards like Gaia's Cradle, Tolarian Academy, Cabal Coffers, or Strip Mine shouldn't be scoffed at. This card is good.

Hot.....I mean playable.