Basic land box

I've finished the first draft of the 'basic land box'. My goal is to have a curated set of lands to fuel an entire draft. 60 lands of each color, six sets of ten. I would choose the lands based off a very complicated algorithm of art quality, personal memory, whether or not I played the set, and such like. I also wanted nice lands, but not so nice that I'm out $50 if someone forgets to give them back to me.  Then I ran out of time and frantically mashed a button for the last few. Especially swamps. Fuck swamps and the people who play them. I also tried for a diversity: give each color one full art, some old school, some new school etc. Can't have Rob Alexander for every single one.

Though there is a lot of Rob Alexander.

Mountain

     

I really like the spread of mountains. A good mix of styles and epochs. The old school is anchored by Ice Age and Tempest classics, with the new school well represented with floating mountains, the kinda creepy shading of Nils Hamm, and the floaty Kaladesh.

Plains

     

The plains are... fine. I splurged for a few extra beta Plains because they are my first love. It's hard to get a lot of variety while still having it look like flat grassland. I feel there is redundancy between the M12, Theros, and Shards. I really like Min Yum's (one of my favorite modern artists, along with Seb McKinnon)

Island

     

I like the Islands. Headlined by Cup Island, it's a fun mix. The Mirage sunset-island is a perennial favorite. I went with double-Khans, partly because there is just a BOATLOAD of different basics in the KTK block but they also look quite different. I think the SOI nighttime harbor is the weakest one, but not tragically so.

Swamp

     

Ugh. Swamps. Same problem as plains except you have to draw something ugly instead of something nice. The Mirage swamp does a decent job headlining the set, but it goes downhill fast. Amonkhet (which had basic lands I by-and-large just hate) has a decent swamp... but it's a carbon copy of the Theros swamp. Also maybe I just like it because it looks like a plains. I have my biases, tis true.

Forest

     

Missing a good full-art option, but I really like the spread here. Good mixture of forest types, perspectives. Even has my favorite of the Ravnica lands, the overgrown/park ruins. Big fan. 

Hunting

There were a couple I was looking for that I thought were neat that I couldn't easily find. 

A nice variety on the island. Maybe swap out the Ice Age

 

Need to find some options for full-art plains. The unhinged ones are fantastic, but now we're looking at upwards of $6 per. The Zendikar one isn't too shabby, at least it doesn't have hedrons scattered across the landscape.



Rebecca Guay did a full set of basic lands for Commander anthologies. A nice little pick-me-up.



Not bad! But a touch pricey at $3.50 apiece. Might be worth it as I do need a 'full art' option for the swamps.



(exaggerated shrug) I might just be out of ideas