One thing the Designers at Wizards of the Coast love to do is hide little hints in expansions. Cards that seem a bit random on launch will often receive additional support later, effectively serving as teasers for full archetypes in retrospect. For Final Fantasy, they might have done it again. This set marks the first Standard-legal reprint of Wastes in nine years, and MTG players are, understandably, curious about what this means for the future.
With no colorless mana costs present in Standard right now, even in Final Fantasy itself, this inclusion does look a little suspect. It may well signify an incoming batch of colorless-matters cards, perhaps as soon as Edge of Eternities. Some even speculate that we’ll be seeing more of the Eldrazi in this set, given its connection to their ‘homeworld’ the Blind Eternities. While it’s possible that everyone is way off the mark, I wouldn’t put it past Wizards to set up a tease like this.
Wastes Is Back In MTG Standard
“Now that Final Fantasy is printing Wastes, it will now be standard legal. Do we thing Wotc is planning on giving colorless any viability in standard possibly?”
JamminMan9, via r/MagicTCG
This is the comment that kicked off the discussion on the implication of Wastes coming to MTG Standard. On the surface, it seems silly to make a big deal out of it. Wastes is just another Basic Land, after all, and not a particularly useful one. Once you dive deeper, however, its possible significance becomes clear.
First of all, while Wastes is technically a Basic Land, it doesn’t follow normal Basic Land rules. The five regular Basics are always legal in Standard, regardless of other conditions. Wastes, on the other hand, needs to be specifically printed in a Standard set to be playable in the format. This means that Wizards’ choice to include it in Final Fantasy was a deliberate one.
On top of that, this is actually the first Standard-legal reprint the card has ever had. Wastes first saw print back in 2016’s Oath of the Gatewatch, and it’s only been reprinted in supplemental sets since. If Wastes was to be a regular feature in Standard, Wizards could’ve easily made it so. Instead, it waited until now to return it to the format.
Of course, just because the inclusion of Wastes here is odd doesn’t mean it’s part of a grander plan. As several players pointed out in the comments, the reason could be as simple as rounding out Final Fantasy’s full-art land cycle.
“Probably not, but you never know. There just wasn’t an easy way to fit 16 games into the 5 basic types without it.”
superdave100, via r/MagicTCG
New Eldrazi In Edge Of Eternities?
“I expect we’ll see Eldrazi return in Edge of Eternities, at least as a subtheme. They are from the Blind Eternities after all.”
Routine-Instance-254, via r/MagicTCG
On the other hand, the return of Wastes could be a subtle hint at major developments to come. The next Standard set after Final Fantasy is Edge of Eternities, releasing August 1st. As confirmed by Wizards on Twitter, this set will take place on the titular Edge, a region that “sits outside the Multiverse, bordering the Blind Eternities.” As most long-time fans will be aware, this is the gap between planes, home to Magic’s monstrous Eldrazi.
Given the physical location of the set, it seems fairly likely that we’d see some new Eldrazi in Edge of Eternities even before Final Fantasy. With the reprinting of Wastes, however, the likelihood has gone up another few notches. Modern Eldrazi tend to come with colorless casting requirements, which in turn demands accessible colorless lands. Wastes would help cover that requirement, setting the stage for a viable colorless Eldrazi deck in Standard.
Of course, this still isn’t a guarantee. Standard has plenty of colorless-producing lands already, many at the common rarity. Captivating Cave, Conduit Pylons, etc. Accessible colorless mana isn’t exactly an issue, in other words. Wastes is the best flavor fit for Eldrazi decks, however, and is therefore more of a direct tie to the type than those other examples. Ultimately, it could go either way.
Competitive Colorless Concoctions
“There are some seeds for colourless stuff, and cards like Ugin as payoffs. I mean we also have the Ultima that gives colourless lands double mana.”
GarySmith2021, via r/MagicTCG
Even if we won’t be seeing more of the Eldrazi in Edge of Eternities, there’s a chance Wastes was included in Final Fantasy to tease a more generic colorless-matters deck. As many players pointed out in the comments, we have a few tools for such a deck already.
Final Fantasy’s Ultima, Origin of Oblivion is the most obvious example. While it’s pricey at five mana, it immediately doubles your mana production capabilities in a purely colorless deck. This is a huge boon to any Wastes you happen to have in play. It’s also a hugely powerful source of colorless ramp, which could play nicely with new Eldrazi given how expensive they often are.
Outside of Ultima the breadcrumb trail is thin on the ground, but it’s there. Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s new Ugin is a great colorless-matters card. It produces colorless mana itself, and it turns your other colorless spells into exile-based removal. This is clearly a card that pairs perfectly with Ultima, at the top end of a colorless list.
There’s also Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter, which lets you play colorless spells at instant speed and scales up as you play bigger and bigger spells. Again, this is a card that plays very nicely with the rest of the colorless support suite.
Right now, these three cards alone are nowhere near enough to make you commit to a fully colorless deck. With some extra support from Edge of Eternities, however, that could all change. Whether the return of Wastes to Standard in MTG Final Fantasy was a signpost leading up to such a deck remains to be seen.
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