Pointed Discussion

Lavaball Trap

Fun in eternal formats, where your opponents might not even have basic lands.

But that's not the only reason why i love that card.
It's fun with Landfall obviously. Big mana ramp time with Lotus Cobra!
And I've got a deck that uses Greater Gargodon as sac outlet along with cip triggers, and double them with effects like Planar Birth, Second Sunrise, Saffi Eriksdotter or Angelic Renewal.

I wouldn't call Lavaball Trap such a great combo by the way, on the one hand he does not have to search (let alone find) any lands to put into play. That card's more interesting for Zendikar block constructed, since you can expect your opponents to put multiple lands into play automatically. In other formats you could mainly hope for your opponent to use fetchlands.

Oh, and he's a soldier. This might some day come in handy for tribal if we get more besides Hidden Guerrillas and him :P

Best use I have found for this guy is to Sneak Attack him into play on opponent's turn as a chump blocker to immediately get two lands. I have a deck revolving around land manipulation and having a Invader Parasite and a Tunnel Ignus on the field means the opponent either forfeits the mana or takes 5 damage (assuming mono-colored) per land.

Most players fail to realize that lots of legacy and vintage decks are so laden with nonbasics that your opponents will basically get nothing. And, the way mana curves for those decks are built, you'll always benefit from having the extra mana more than they will... I really only see this being a problem vs. Merfolk, which runs like 6 Islands.

This is a wonderful EDH/Commander card, both because it's political, and because your deck can usually see a big benefit from having more mana.

Veteran Explorer is best in the kind of deck that can sacrifice him right before your turn, so that you get the benefit before your opponent does. I once sacced him to Carrion Feeder on turn two, which gave me enough mana on turn three to Plow Under his lands and slow him down immensely. The turn after that, I had six mana and he was drawing into nothing.

Most legacy decks run some basics, and fetch them out with fetchlands when they want to play around Wasteland.
Still good. It's not even card disadvantage if you trade it off one for one (or equip it with good ol' Skullclamp.)
Watch out, though, since the lands do come into play untapped. Never let that catch you off guard, keep in mind that a tapped out opponent will be able to suddenly play things!

Type your comment here.

Soldier Scout? "Needa dispenser here, maggots!"

Accidently went(effectively) infinite with him in my Ghave deck. He was in an opponent's grave, I summoned Puppeteer Clique and brought him back, sacced him to Ghave to get 2 lands. Used one of the lands to sac the Clique and put a counter on Ghave, it persisted back and brought this guy out. Used the other land to sac this guy and put a counter on the Clique. Rinse and repeat. And since it was all at instant speed, I got all my basics out of my deck right before my untap before casting Genesis Wave for about 30.

I really like this little bugger!

You all seem to gloss over the fact that this is missing a word. That word is "tapped".

I want to like this guy in Commander, but I just can't stand giving my opponents free stuff. I'm no group hug player, I guess. I also can't abide the Join Forces cards.

I Natural Ordered this guy to bring out a Worldspine Wurm, and then used my extra mana + new mana to cast a Paralell Lives. It was good.

Goes really well with Orcish Lumberjack in a land destruction deck.
Why? Because he gives you all of the fuel you need for two turns of land destruction + creatures!
Add harvest wurm to the mix for a potentially ridiculous T2

His girlfriend is Cartographer.