Pointed Discussion

Sorrow's Path is much worse, if you ask me. At least Teferi's Isle can find use. Combos well with Armageddon.

i guess it can be pretty good with Garruk. But overall, pretty horrible.

or you could just play two of them. legendary rule will never trigger since they are never on the board at the same time

Flavor wise, I love the idea behind the card. It's a very cool card. It may not be the most efficient card, but it does spare itself to a few combos with Land Destruction cards. I like it, but I won't rate it any higher than a 2.

Phasing happens before you untap, so this land would always come into play untapped after the first instance. However, having phasing means that you get the :u: you should be getting every turn in 2 turn clumps instead. 2.5/5

i like it, if you use the Armageddon combo mentiond earlyer than it is defenitly worth it. but also i know many infinite mana combos based around land that provide 2 or more mana. and so that is much more usefull than a basic land.

but still no more than a 3

I only comes into play tapped once. While phasing in and out permanents don't actually change zones. Even if it did leave play and come back, phasing happens before untapping, so it would untap along with everything else.

Add Amulet of Vigor and we're cooking!

First turn: Teferi's Isle (0 mana)
Second turn: Island, Teferi's Isle phases out (1 mana)
Third turn: Island, Teferi's isle phases in (4 mana, compared to the 3 mana three islands would give)
Fourth turn: Island, Teferi's Isle phases out (3 mana)
Fifth turn: Island, Teferi's Isle Phases in (6 mana, compared to 5 from five islands)

So no, themicronaut, you won't always be down one mana. Not that this makes the card much better, but it is one of the most interesting lands in all of magic :P

Run with Limited Resources, your 7 mana vs their 5.

Would this trigger landfall while phasing? If so, It deserves a much higher rating now.

Awesome idea, I wish they would use phasing more, it is so much fun! Sandbar Crocodile is one of my favorite cards EVAH!!!!

The aesthetics of phasing two past each other is more than enough to make me want this. Not to mention, 2 blue for one card makes this worth it's card slot.

"The three wizards knew only that this isle held a great mystery—and that patience alone would solve it."

Is this flavor text implying that Wizards was expecting someone out there to "break" this card? Yeah -- they're going to need a lot of patience alright. Infinite patience, almost certainly.

Isle of Poo.

I thought that I should play 2 of these in order to "break" this card, but it's not the correct way to use this land. In fact, as exterion suggested, with only one of these, you can have a turn in which you are behind a mana, and another turn in which you are ahead... Think it as a island enchanted with Fertile Ground fixed to "blue" that untap like a Root.water Depth... (or simply think it as a Teferi's Isle...)

Flavor since Teferi's Isle is an Island that drift in time, but maybe I would have preferred a "Karoo" Island, like Izzet Boilerworks. As it is, it's not so tempting... However, it benefits of every "untap target land" effect, and the "ahead every else turn" is valuable. If you play casual, give it a try...!

Trivia: this legendary land is a part of a mega-mega-cycle of legendary lands, each of them appearing in a different block:
Mirage: Teferi's Isle
Tempest: Volrath's Stronghold
Urza's Saga: Yavimaya Hollow
Mercadian Masques: Kor Haven
Invasion: Keldon Necropolis
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/41

@sonorhC: have you ever tried to read what exterion said? Some turn you're down 1 mana and the others turn you're up... You're not even right if you play a pair of this, in that you'll find yourself always at the right amount of mana. The upside is that you're more resilient against Armageddon effects...

You can play another one of these when your other one is phased out... which would be similar to just playing two islands, but just more prone to nonbasic land destructors.

This is really cool with the urza's blue "untap mechanic" cards, AKA snap, frantic search, rewind, treachery, time spiral. Using this land and temple of the false god, one can generate tons mana with these cards without needing to run high tide to combo off. This is how I would use it.
I can't wait to get 2 of this card for my mono-blue "Turbo-Draw" deck!

This land is interesting because it's the only land I know of where it doesn't provide mana on its first two turns. Other lands come into play tapped, but I believe this is the only one that makes you wait two turns.

Interestingly, most lands that provide two mana actually don't come into play tapped, but they almost always have a unique drawback (City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb, etc.) And most of these types of lands can only produce two colorless mana (See Temple of the False God). Teferi's Isle, on the other hand, comes into play tapped AND can provide colored mana, which is quite different from the others.

I'd say Teferi's Isle is most similar to the Ravnica bounce lands, like Simic Growth Chamber. Like them, it provides two colored mana and comes into play tapped. I'd say the Simic lands are better in most circumstances, because they let you play the other land later.

But this land can be better than the Ravnica lands in a few situations. If you play Sands of Time, cards stop phasing out, so this land will let you tap for UU every single turn.

All in all, a cool card with a unique function, but one that's difficult to use to your benefit.

Coming into play tapped killed this land. Had it been able to provide mana on the turn it was played, it would have served as an interesting, but not world-shattering bit of quasi-mana-acceleration for blue.

One copy would provide one more mana than an island on the turn it was played, and subsequent turns would alternate between having one additional mana, and one less mana than with only islands for mana production. Cumulatively, the total mana theoretically available would similarly alternate between being equal to running only islands, and being one greater than having run only islands.

With two copies, the legendary rule could be circumvented via their phasing attribute. This could be used to gain a boost of one mana on the turn that the first was played, as compared to playing an island. The second could then be played on the following turn, canceling out the loss of the first copy. This effectively costs two land drops to ensure that you have two mana available on each turn from at least one copy of this card. Each subsequent turn would have no greater availability of mana as compared to having used islands. The cumulative total of mana that was available on each turn would only be one greater than having played with islands alone.

This would make Teferi's Isle marginally better than Island in the long term. In the short term, however, they could be used for quick early mana at the cost of a slightly unstable mana base, which could be stabilized by the playing of a second copy.

For reference, here's my math on the matter:

With Islands only:
Land Drop #1 (Island): 1 Mana (1 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #2 (Island): 2 Mana (3 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #3 (Island): 3 Mana (6 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #4 (Island): 4 Mana (10 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #5 (Island): 5 Mana (15 Cumulative mana)

With one copy of Teferi's Isle, as it is printed:
Land Drop #1 (Teferi): 0 Mana (0 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #2 (Island): 1 Mana (1 Cumulative mana) TI Phased Out
Land Drop #3 (Island): 4 Mana (5 Cumulative mana) TI Phased In
Land Drop #4 (Island): 3 Mana (8 Cumulative mana) TI Phased Out
Land Drop #5 (Island): 6 Mana (14 Cumulative mana) TI Phased In

With two copies of Teferi's Isle, as it is printed:
Land Drop #1 (Teferi): 0 Mana (0 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #2 (Teferi): 0 Mana (0 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased Out
Land Drop #3 (Island): 3 Mana (3 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased In, TI-2 Phased Out
Land Drop #4 (Island): 4 Mana (7 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased Out, TI-2 Phased In
Land Drop #5 (Island): 5 Mana (12 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased In, TI-2 Phased Out

With one copy of Teferi's Isle, without the tapping clause:
Land Drop #1 (Teferi): 2 Mana (2 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #2 (Island): 1 Mana (3 Cumulative mana) TI Phased Out
Land Drop #3 (Island): 4 Mana (7 Cumulative mana) TI Phased In
Land Drop #4 (Island): 3 Mana (10 Cumulative mana) TI Phased Out
Land Drop #5 (Island): 6 Mana (16 Cumulative mana) TI Phased In

With two copies of Teferi's Isle, without the tapping clause:
Land Drop #1 (Teferi): 2 Mana (2 Cumulative mana)
Land Drop #2 (Teferi): 2 Mana (4 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased Out
Land Drop #3 (Island): 3 Mana (7 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased In, TI-2 Phased Out
Land Drop #4 (Island): 4 Mana (11 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased Out, TI-2 Phased In
Land Drop #5 (Island): 5 Mana (16 Cumulative mana) TI-1 Phased In, TI-2 Phased Out

@Drunyon,

The cycle of uncommon storage counter lands from Mercadian Masques (eg. Fountain of Cho) also don't provide mana until three turns in.

Paradox Haze + Teferi's Moat = Good times

If phasing triggered "enters the battlefield" abilities, then this just might have been useful with Landfall (if anyone ever uses Landfall in any format where this is legal). But of course, it doesn't, so even that hope is gone.

And yes, you're always down at least one mana with this, sometimes two. You can sometimes get more at once, but you'll always have gotten less total mana out of this than an Island.

@leomistico: Look at the total amount of mana you've gotten, not just the mana you get on any one turn. Your first turn you get 0, compared to 1 from an island. Your second turn you get 1, for a total of 1, compared to 2 from the islands, for a total of 3. Your third turn you get 4, for a total of 5 (1 on turn 2, 4 on turn 3), compared to 3, for a total of 6 (1+2+3), from the islands, and so on.

If you use Terferi's Realm and choose lands each time, this will be a permanent ramp as well as keeping your opponent from casting things on your turn because you will control when it phases out. Every turn it'll phase in before you untap. Kinda neat..

Can't believe J.J. Abrams ripped this off.

BOOOO!!! This is the worst land ever! Do the math, you will always be down 1 mana compared to a basic land. It comes into play tapped, then phases out next turn. I would give it 0 stars if I could.

Edit: I see the error of my math. But this card still sucks--for half of your turns you are out one mana in BLUE. Please, everyone play this against me, I would love to pick this off with a Wasteland or any other form of land destruction.

Teferi's Timeshare.

hedron crabs would love to live there