I use these in my legacy zombie deck, where they fuel all sorts of tricks. There's a lot that can be done with six mana on turn 3. Just be aware that you can run into mana issues in longer games. Would combo very well with Crucible of Worlds.
Mode
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Fun fact: You can sacrifice a tapped land.
Therefore, as opposed to most other lands with such a cip/etb drawback (like Balduvian Trading Post), you won't even have less mana as if you played a regular Swamp that turn. And in case you can afford sacrificing swamps you'll have three more mana than normal, which is huge mana accel, especially if it can repeatedly be drawn from lands instead of a one-use spell (like Culling the Weak, for example). If you play this land on turn four it allows you casting a spell with a converted mana cost of 7! sure, next turn you'll have far less mana left, but this shouldn't be a big problem given that you can make good use of your lategame-spell. Imagine having casted undercosted creatures with huge drawbacks like Phyrexian Negator instead, this would not have been much easier. Casting a cmc7 card on turn two with Lake of the Dead and a Dark Ritual should be about as awesome as casting a Phyrexian Negator with a Dark Ritual on turn one. This card is also fun with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in case you are using not only swamps.
OpenSeasonNoobs
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(5 votes)
5 mana turn 2. Use 3 to drop your Crucible of Worlds and it's 5 mana every turn. Pitted against a normal land scheme, Normal Mana curve Lake of the Dead curve T1 1 mana 1 mana T2 2 mana 5 mana T3 3 mana 5 mana T4 4 mana 5 mana T5 5 mana (finally caught up) 5 mana. Total-15 mana 21 mana
So, 21 mana total. Not only 21 mana advantage, but also think about using an Ad Nauseum turn 2 in one of them new fantangled Death's Shadow decks that revolve around having 1 cost creatures. 3 of them come out from the woodworks turn 3, and they're all 10/10's beause you drained yourself to 3.
AMAZING combo card, that's why it goes for about 4.50 most places. 4.5/5
Mudbutt_on
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
Would someone explain to me how this gets 5 mana by turn 2? All I get is 2 mana on turn 2.
Turn 1: Can't play Lake, no Swamp to sac, so play a swamp. Turn 2: Tap swamp, sac swamp to play Lake. Tap Lake for a 2nd mana in your pool???
Are people not taking into account that you have to sac a land just to play this card?
spectermonger
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
watch out for the wasteland...worse comes to worse, just eat up all your spare land with a Tombstalker
kowrip
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Mudbutt is right. You can't get 5 mana on turn 2 unless you can somehow get another swamp into play with a card like Fastbond. I've played this card a lot back when Alliances first came out. It's a good card, but not so much on the first couple of turns. It's very useful after you get a few land into play and can generate 8-10 mana for something really powerful. 4.5 / 5
Dack_Attack
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Awesome art. I remember all the anxiety this card caused me in my friend's vampire deck.
A3Kitsune
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Mudbutt_on:
Getting 5 mana on turn two was a trick that used to work until WotC changed the timing of the enters-play cost. Now, you have to sac the Swamp before the Lake enters play, but back then, the Lake came into play first. That meant that if you didn't sac a Swamp to keep it in play, you could still use the Lake's mana abilities before the Lake got buried.
endersblade
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I use this in a mono-black EDH deck with previously mentioned Crucible of Worlds. This card is absolutely amazing.
So it basically comes down to a land disadvantage, and:
Sacrifice a Swamp: Add BBB to your mana pool.
Nifty.
5/5
DarthParallax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I can definitely see how this card has potential- but Gilgamesh, it's hardly 'under-rated'. It's in the Top 100 Lands on Gatherer. More than 4.5 stars. That's not under-rated.
Unfortunately, the kinds of decks this works best in (Phyrexian Obliterator/Urborg/Cabal Coffers) are not the kind of deck I want to build (Kaalia of the Vast R/W/B)
It is terribly difficult to find truly solid, FLEXIBLE, COLORED mana ramp outside of green. (Black and Artifact ramp are everything else Except flexible)
After reviewing a ton of cards trying to find The One, I do believe I'm justified in saying that after various sources of bonkers mana, Land Tax is hands down the best non-green Go-To card for land/mana fixing needs.
AlphaWolfs
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't know, I'm thinking of adding this to my Grandeur deck... Currently I am running, for fun casual, a Korlash Grandeur deck. With all the new Zombie love in this deck, I'm currently playing Four to Eight swamps per turn with the effect of Ghoulcaller's Chant and other such cards that are practically 2 for 1 to 4 Lands!
Advantages: + Gives me massive Mana acceleration compared to normal. ( for 1 of my 2 tapped swamps) + Great use for my 14 or more swamps late game, or easy to get Ob Nixous turn 3 or 4
Disadvantages - Drains Cabal Coffers ability to produce mana (one less per turn) / without a legendary land - Drains Power from Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
What do you guys thing? I would very much like you're opinion.
nemokara
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Mode,
"as opposed to most other lands with such a cip/etb drawback (like Balduvian Trading Post), you won't even have less mana as if you played a regular that turn"
You're right as a general rule, but none of the lands in this specific cycle from Alliances made you have less mana than you would have if replaced with a basic land. They either allow you to tap the land for mana before sacrificing it (Heart of Yavimaya, Kjeldoran Outpost, and this) or make you sacrifice an untapped land but provide an extra {1} themselves (Balduvian Trading Post and Soldevi Excavations).
atemu1234
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So it's a land that is also a Dark Ritual, which can fuel a hand full of Dark Rituals.
Sedris_is_my_homie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I freaking love this card! Combo this with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , and laugh at your friends when you sac a Teramorphic Expanse for BBBB....just because u can! Priceless!
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
{B}{B}{B}{B}! Perfect for a certain Obliterator.
Keldane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What I see when I look at this and some of the other cards mentioned is a potentially convoluted method of mana-ramping.
Whenever you're required to sac, sac the Flagstones and dig up a Plains which, thanks to Urborg, is also a Swamp. Would work okay in a deck heavy on White/Black split costs, I think, but may be limited in utility outside of that.
Aquillion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Mudbutt_on: Notice the printed text. By that wording, the sacrifice when it enters play was a triggered effect and not a cost, so you could tap your swamp, play the lake, and respond to its triggered sacrifice-a-swamp effect by tapping it and sacrificing your swamp for mana instead. Obviously this means you lost the Lake and would be left with no lands, but you get your .
Of course, if you read the Oracle text you'll see they later errated it to prevent this. It's still a good card, though -- six mana on turn three is still pretty good.
Nasferot2
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
From The Vaults:Lands lol well it would be a good idea with this inn there
Natureboy555
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I need a ruling on this card, and if I'm wrong please tell me why. If I'm right , I also want you to tell me why. Turn 1 play swamp land. Turn 2 play lake of the dead, tap first swamp, gain 1 in your mana pool, sacrafice swamp and lake of the dead gain 4 swamps. 4 + 1 = 5 swamps. Yes or no ?
deworde2510
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Natureboy555: Under the original wording that's correct, but they errata'd it because that was never the intent, just a timing loophole that didn't apply when the card was originally created (possibly... pre-sixth rules were a bit sketchy at the sharp end). If you look at the updated wording, you have to sac the swamp to have LotD ever enter the battlefield at all, so therefore it's not available when LotD enters the battlefield.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Land Disadvantage? More like T3 Korlash into Granduer! Now you have up to 7 mana available T4 Liliana of the Dark Realms is also neat T3, with enough mana to drop a 2-drop next to her for protection.
SnrubLeinad
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why has not one person mentioned land tax with this?!
Comments (25)
Therefore, as opposed to most other lands with such a cip/etb drawback (like Balduvian Trading Post), you won't even have less mana as if you played a regular Swamp that turn. And in case you can afford sacrificing swamps you'll have three more mana than normal, which is huge mana accel, especially if it can repeatedly be drawn from lands instead of a one-use spell (like Culling the Weak, for example).
If you play this land on turn four it allows you casting a spell with a converted mana cost of 7! sure, next turn you'll have far less mana left, but this shouldn't be a big problem given that you can make good use of your lategame-spell. Imagine having casted undercosted creatures with huge drawbacks like Phyrexian Negator instead, this would not have been much easier.
Casting a cmc7 card on turn two with Lake of the Dead and a Dark Ritual should be about as awesome as casting a Phyrexian Negator with a Dark Ritual on turn one.
This card is also fun with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in case you are using not only swamps.
Normal Mana curve Lake of the Dead curve
T1 1 mana 1 mana
T2 2 mana 5 mana
T3 3 mana 5 mana
T4 4 mana 5 mana
T5 5 mana (finally caught up) 5 mana.
Total-15 mana 21 mana
So, 21 mana total. Not only 21 mana advantage, but also think about using an Ad Nauseum turn 2 in one of them new fantangled Death's Shadow decks that revolve around having 1 cost creatures. 3 of them come out from the woodworks turn 3, and they're all 10/10's beause you drained yourself to 3.
AMAZING combo card, that's why it goes for about 4.50 most places. 4.5/5
Turn 1: Can't play Lake, no Swamp to sac, so play a swamp.
Turn 2: Tap swamp, sac swamp to play Lake. Tap Lake for a 2nd mana in your pool???
Are people not taking into account that you have to sac a land just to play this card?
Getting 5 mana on turn two was a trick that used to work until WotC changed the timing of the enters-play cost. Now, you have to sac the Swamp before the Lake enters play, but back then, the Lake came into play first. That meant that if you didn't sac a Swamp to keep it in play, you could still use the Lake's mana abilities before the Lake got buried.
So it basically comes down to a land disadvantage, and:
Sacrifice a Swamp: Add BBB to your mana pool.
Nifty.
5/5
Unfortunately, the kinds of decks this works best in (Phyrexian Obliterator/Urborg/Cabal Coffers) are not the kind of deck I want to build (Kaalia of the Vast R/W/B)
It is terribly difficult to find truly solid, FLEXIBLE, COLORED mana ramp outside of green. (Black and Artifact ramp are everything else Except flexible)
After reviewing a ton of cards trying to find The One, I do believe I'm justified in saying that after various sources of bonkers mana, Land Tax is hands down the best non-green Go-To card for land/mana fixing needs.
Advantages:
+ Gives me massive Mana acceleration compared to normal. (
+ Great use for my 14 or more swamps late game, or easy to get Ob Nixous turn 3 or 4
Disadvantages
- Drains Cabal Coffers ability to produce mana (one less
- Drains Power from Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
What do you guys thing?
I would very much like you're opinion.
"as opposed to most other lands with such a cip/etb drawback (like Balduvian Trading Post), you won't even have less mana as if you played a regular that turn"
You're right as a general rule, but none of the lands in this specific cycle from Alliances made you have less mana than you would have if replaced with a basic land. They either allow you to tap the land for mana before sacrificing it (Heart of Yavimaya, Kjeldoran Outpost, and this) or make you sacrifice an untapped land but provide an extra {1} themselves (Balduvian Trading Post and Soldevi Excavations).
Perfect for a certain Obliterator.
Ingredients:
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Flagstones of Trokair
Crucible of Worlds
Lake of the Dead
Plains in your library.
Whenever you're required to sac, sac the Flagstones and dig up a Plains which, thanks to Urborg, is also a Swamp. Would work okay in a deck heavy on White/Black split costs, I think, but may be limited in utility outside of that.
Of course, if you read the Oracle text you'll see they later errated it to prevent this. It's still a good card, though -- six mana on turn three is still pretty good.
More like T3 Korlash into Granduer! Now you have up to 7 mana available T4
Liliana of the Dark Realms is also neat T3, with enough mana to drop a 2-drop next to her for protection.