Land destruction has been a big part of Magic for as long as the game has existed. Cards like Armageddon and Stone Rain were introduced all the way back in Alpha. Since then, tons of land destruction spells of all different mana costs have been printed.
More recently, though, Wizards has begun experimenting with different styles of land manipulation that don’t feel quite as devastating. For example, the recent addition of stun counters as an evergreen mechanic can lend themselves to cards that tap some number of opposing lands for a certain amount of time.
In fact, Tarkir: Dragonstorm just gave us our first card to put stun counters on lands, and it’s sparked a lot of discussion. Is this the new normal moving forward? Should we expect more land-stunning effects in the future? Luckily, MTG head designer Mark Rosewater is here to provide some insight on the matter.
Land Destruction Lite
In a recent post on Mark Rosewater’s Blogatog page, one player asked whether keeping lands tapped down with stun counters would now be a portion of red’s color pie in MTG. This question is interesting, and Mark Rosewater’s response is even more peculiar.
Mark Rosewater stated that Wizards is experimenting with using stun counters on lands as an example of “land destruction lite.” This comes after Magmatic Hellkite was printed, which has the ability to blow up a nonbasic land. The land’s controller can then search for a basic land, but that land enters with a stun counter on it.
Magmatic Hellkite is a great example of land destruction lite. It still has the upside of destroying problematic nonbasic lands in a Commander setting and can mess with the opponent’s ability to play cards on curve for a turn, but assuming the opponent has a basic land to search up, it doesn’t set them behind on mana long-term.
Part of what makes this answer interesting is that this may suggest a small philosophical change regarding land destruction lite moving forward. About a year and a half ago, a different player asked if the introduction of stun counters to MTG would encourage Wizards to revisit keeping lands tapped across turns as a form of land destruction lite.
Mark Rosewater’s response at the time was that even though stun counters could serve as a “memory aide,” that wasn’t the issue with land destruction lite to begin with. The real problem according to Rosewater was with the gameplay these styles of cards promoted. Now, it seems like land destruction lite is back on the table.
Color Pie
As for Magmatic Hellkite’s role in the MTG color pie, the effect it gives isn’t too different from red designs we’ve see in the past. Both Chandra’s Revolution and Stensia Innkeeper were printed with the ability to keep an opponent’s land tapped down in red.
These cards were released roughly a year apart, though. They’re the only examples of cards with this effect in red printed in the last decade. This suggests Wizards wanted to move away from this example of land destruction lite, at least until now.
Perhaps the most notable color pie aspect of Magmatic Hellkite’s printing is the fact that stun counters have now been featured on a variety of different colored cards. It wasn’t long ago Rosewater stated that he didn’t expect colors outside of white or blue to utilize the mechanic, barring rare circumstances. Since then, Pugnacious Hammerskull in green and Magmatic Hellkite in red were released, showcasing the mechanic’s growth over time.
Social Implications
From a gameplay perspective, it does make sense why Wizards has strayed away from land destruction lite. Land destruction in any capacity is often frowned upon in casual Commander settings, which is one of the most popular ways to play MTG.
To be clear, however, players often assume land destruction in Commander with abilities that destroy lands and leave the player at a deficit. Utilizing cards like Field of Ruin to keep incredibly powerful lands in check like Gaea’s Cradle or Dark Depths is not only fine, it’s needed. This new land destruction lite idea straddles permanent land loss and Field of Ruin effects a bit closer. Players will lose out on mana temporarily, but it isn’t gone forever. This theoretically avoids the grief that come from land destruction in Commander while emulating the feeling.
Cards like Magmatic Hellkite that only mess with one land at a time are also significantly different than mass land destruction. In the recently announced bracket tier system for Commander games, mass land destruction is barred from being used in brackets one through three.
Cards like Magmatic Hellkite wouldn’t qualify. Stun counters could potentially create a grey area, however, if cards get printed that keep multiple lands tapped at a time. A similar grey area caused Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger to appear on the Game Changers list for clarification purposes. Even land destruction lite when done without moderation may be too much for your casual Commander pod.
All in all, land destruction lite and red cards with stun counters used probably won’t appear too often from set to set. Regardless, Mark Rosewater’s Blogatog response yesterday shows how certain design frameworks within our beloved game can change in a rather short period of time. It’ll be intriguing to see what other land destruction lite effects that arise in the near future.