Pointed Discussion

If I were to get some friends together and clean up the delta, would it then only search for an island? Just something to think about.

Threshold, Knight of the Reliquary, and Landfall are a just a few of the reasons to use fetch lands. Many players are fond of these because they allow you to search for your dual lands (Underground Sea) or shock lands (Watery Grave), unlike Terramorphic Expanse (which is also a great card.)

Fetch lands are also good for increasing your odds of drawing nonland cards by thinning out your deck.

Say you want to splash blue into a black deck. You need islands, but you rarely want to draw them. So only put two or three in and your Polluted Delta will do the rest. Also, fetch lands shine in an environment where there is nonbasic land hate. Simply search for basic lands.

I could think of worse ways to spend 1 life.

Paleopaladin, I'm with you on that. Other than helping landfall cards I don't see what the big deal is about this. It's not BAD, given that you can choose which of the 2 land types you need most. It's slightly better than having either an island or swamp in your hand, for the cost of 1 life.

EDIT:

Paleopaladin, not only is the current rating ridiculous but this card is going for about $25. I don't get it.

Even before landfall, search lands are very powerful.

Search lands thin your deck, which means the chance of you drawing a land is reduced every time you uses the search, i.e., the chance of you drawing a non-land is higher. If you tone your mana base right, you won't run out of mana, which makes all extra land you draw in late game pointless. Unless you have other uses with the excessive land/hand size, these search lands gives you higher chance of getting a spell you need.

Besides, if you haven't notice, this land can search for more than basic lands, which means that it can search for dual lands. Polluted Delta, for example, allow you to search for ALL lands that are swamp, that includes FOUR types among original dual lands, and you can also search for island, that's another four. Minus Underground Sea, Polluted Delta can search for SEVEN types of duel lands. Your chance of getting mana screwed is much lower with search lands.

What am I missing? Why is this card so great?

EDIT:
@Zosk: All of that sounds good, but not quite enough to justify a 4.8 rating (current rating as of this writing). I mean, sheesh, this rating is up there with dual lands!

EDIT 2:
@Cyberium - the "thinning" DOES make sense. Thanks! Unless you're a millionaire tho, I'm not too worried about planning for decks where I have these AND Underground Sea. :-P

__________________________
BTW, to whoever rated my comment way down, sheesh, lighten up! I thought it was a good question! Dork! :-P

Another one the people sometimes miss is the relative synergy with other cards that are popular in legacy.

i.e.:

Tombstalker (people play fetches in monoblack for this guy
Terravore
Knight of the Reliquary
Tarmogoyf
Crucible of Worlds
Landfall Critters (Bloodghasts, Lotus Cobra, etc.)

Paleopaladin:

I totally get where you were coming from, though. It took me awhile to realize just how good these fetch lands are...until you think of all the things that kowrip and Cyberium mentioned. Now I'm saving to buy some. :D

The more you know, right?

You missed the big one. It lets you shuffle your library. This goes well with things like the top, scroll rack, counterbalance, etc... Makes hunting for the card you need far easier.

That is also thins and lets you seek out the specific dual land you need is nice but not the reason for the rating.

This is pretty awesome and useful,
but I would seriously consider holding off on a purchase of these right now.

With this half of the cycle not legal in Modern,
it's almost guaranteed they will reprint these so Modern doesn't just have a half-cycle of cards.
I wouldn't be surprised if they reprinted these *and* the Zendikar lands in the next block.

5/5, but I don't think this is a wise purchase at this time.

A friend of mine got me to sort through his old box of cards a while back, didn't really find much good, until I came across this, still in a sleeve and in mint condition. I saw it and said "Mother of god, this is worth something." Next best card was a Rout which is pretty decent.

The entire Legacy format lives off of fetch-lands. Look at a card like Wasteland and you can see why. However, you do run the risk of getting Stifled, though that is hardly a reason to not use them.

I get the feeling this was the most sought after land back in Odyssey becasue of my man, Psychatog

For the record, deck-thinning is statistically nonsense:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=201981

Use fetchlands for their many other benefits--I've never played a Legacy deck without 'em--but do not play them to "thin your deck" unless you're the type to buy lottery tickets every day because technically, that increases your chances of winning a jackpot...

So I get why this type of card is good.
1) It removes land form your library so that you don't draw as much late game (Main reason I LOVE Knight of the Reliquary.
2) In a double colored deck (namely blue black (how do you do color symbols??)), it makes it easier to get the color you don't have.
3) It's actually better than cards like Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds because the land it fetches is untapped.

But what I don't get is (and this is probably mainly because I don't play much black, and I really don't like blue)
Why is this ranked higher than Wooded Foothills or any similar card?

@Deduck: This is ranked higher because blue have a higher presence in Vintage/Legacy formats. Think Jace, counterspell cards, blue dig cards, etc. In fact, duals/fetch lands that are related to blue actually sell for more than their non blue counterparts.

I'd sort of prefer Sensei's Divining Top to keep from drawing a land late game

So I just got this card. In a pack. Very near mint. Also it's foil. From my research, it's worth $300-$400. First off- is this true? Secondly, should I sell it and how much could I get where? Is it worth keeping?

I feel that one of the main obstacles to getting this cycle of cards reprinted for Modern is finding a set where the flavour fits. For example, Theros is hardly likely to be polluted. Same goes for Zendikar, were we to return there.

With Fetchlands, you will almost always, like 99% of the time, have the colors of mana you need. even in 3 color decks, where, if you're running original duals or shocks, 1 fetch land can find any of the 3 kinds of duals you are running. THAT is mana fixing.