A lot of new cards were spoiled yesterday during Wizards of the Coast’s announcement. It was a smaller one, so we didn’t get a ton of new things to see. This is likely due to the unfortunate delays encountered with the Warhammer collaboration coming out. We still got to see some goodies, and this one is, by far, the weirdest card decision that WOTC has made in a while.
Why are These Plains???
After seeing these on stream during the Wizards of the Coast announcement stream on June 30, 2022, I immediately got excited for a flavor win in my Crab Tribal EDH brew that I have been creating. Another friend of mine, however, runs a Charix, the Raging Isle Voltron EDH deck. The fact that you can’t play these in blue-based crab decks seems like such a huge missed opportunity.
To make things even stranger, crabs, in general, are aquatic animals. When thinking of a crab, without knowing what colors the crab is in MTG, I would immediately assume at least part of its color identity is blue. For the most part, this is true. Of the 32 crabs currently a part of MTG, only two do not have blue in their color identity. Neither of those cards is white (Uchuulon is black, and Growth-Chamber Guardian is green). This makes WOTC’s decision to make a crab land Plains even weirder. For those curious about the Crab Tribal brew mentioned above, I was going to use Morophon, the Boundless as the Commander. Since it has five colors, I could technically use the crab lands.
For those curious as to why these lands could be Plains, Planes are a genus of crab. Even with this consideration, there’s a lot of confusion in the MTG community as to why these lands are white.
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Cancer in Mythology
In Greek Mythology, Cancer is a secondary character in the 12 trials of Heracles. During his fight with the Hydra, Hera sends over a giant crab (Cancer) in the area to try and help the Hydra out. Heracles gets annoyed and crushes the poor guy with his heel. Hera grants it a constellation for its efforts, but he basically shows up and immediately gets owned. Poor crab deserved better.
In the Zodiac, Cancer is considered to be a water sign. It might just be me, but I think that would translate to an Island better than a Plains.
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Give us Island Crab Lands!
For the few MTG crab enthusiasts, Island crab lands are fascinating. Due to the mismatching nature presented in the Cancer lands, they might sell surprisingly well. That being said, it won’t be easy to find a way to use these lands in a flavorful fashion because there aren’t any white-only crabs (there is an Azorius one). I would love to get some feedback as to how Wizards of the Coast reached this decision.
