Magic: The Gathering’s Biggest Mistake Was These 32-Year…

Magic: The Gathering has a long history and collection of cards under its belt after over thirty years of sets, new designs, experiments, and many different formats for players to enjoy. The game came out in 1993, 32 years ago, and it can be funny to think that Magic: The Gathering's biggest mistake so far has been to print some very rare, very expensive cards that have dramatically changed its gameplay and possible new designs ever since. There are various card types in MTG, with some subtypes and supertypes that can appear on some cards, but these are more "recent" additions.

When the game first came out, it already had its foundations clear — one could play creatures via "summons," and there were all the staple cards like sorceries, instants, enchantments, artifacts, and lands. MTG's Black Lotus came out in the Limited Edition Alpha set and went on to become one of the most iconic cards of the game to this day, for example, and it's currently part of the so-called "Power Nine" that are considered broken. Limited Edition Alpha also had some peculiar cards called dual lands that may not be the strongest cards out there, but they are broken in today's landscape, and they can't really be reprinted.

MTG's Power Nine are considered the most powerful cards in existence for the game, and they include Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Mox Emerald, Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Jet, and Mox Sapphire.

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Why Magic: The Gathering's OG Dual Lands Are OP

MTG's Legendary lands are not always the most powerful of their kind, and the OG dual lands prove just as much. These are 10 cards from 1993's Limited Edition Alpha, though technically not all 10 came out at once due to Volcanic Island not being printed because of an internal error, and they are the most powerful lands out there. The OG dual lands are the following:

Allied Dual Lands
- Badlands (taps for Red or Black)
- Savannah (taps for White or Green)
- Taiga (taps for Green or Red)
- Tundra (taps for Blue or White)
- Underground Sea (taps for Black or Blue)
Enemy Dual Lands
- Bayou (taps for Black or Green)
- Plateau (taps for Red or White)
- Scrubland (taps for White or Black)
- Tropical Island (taps for Green or Blue)
- Volcanic Island (taps for Blue or Red)

MTG's Alpha Dual Lands Explained

The OG dual lands, often referred to as duals for short, are so powerful because they don't come into play tapped, they don't deal damage to the player when tapping for one of their two colors, and they have no restrictions or drawbacks. They are not basic lands, but they are the most expensive land cards in MTG because their benefits are incredible, and they haven't been reprinted often. On top of that, they share the subtypes with the basic lands they get their colors from, so they can be fetched by cards that don't require players to search their decks for basic lands, but rather for Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, or Forests.

How MTG's Alpha Dual Lands Compare to Modern Versions

Compared to the various types of dual lands with restrictions, the OG ones are overpowered, especially with today's standards. The existing types of dual lands are as follows:

Land Type	Effect
Bond Lands	Come into play tapped unless the owner has two or more opponents
Check Lands	Come into play tapped unless the owner controls one of the two land types they tap for
Fast Lands	Come into play tapped unless the owner controls two or fewer lands
Fetch Lands	Can be tapped and sacrificed while paying 1 life to fetch one of the two land types listed on the card
Pain Lands	Can be tapped for any of two mana colors, but they deal 1 damage to the user
Shock Lands	Come into play tapped unless the owner pays 2 life

Considering how powerful shock lands are in the modern state of the game, cards that can be fetched and don't come into play tapped while retaining all other benefits are incredibly strong, and probably shouldn't exist. The OG dual lands in MTG are on WotC's Reserved List, meaning they won't be reprinted to preserve their original value. In this case, all the dual lands from 32 years ago sell for over $300 at their lowest, which is a testament to how strong they are.

MTG's OG Dual Lands And Commander Are a Match Made in Heaven, With an Asterisk Attached

Currently, the original dual lands are most commonly played in various MTG Commander decks, specifically in the competitive section of the format, called cEDH (competitive Elder Dragon Highlander). However, they are not always played due to their cost, as a WUBRG deck including all five types of mana could theoretically play all 10 dual lands, costing at the very least $4,000 from those alone.

For example, the recent Commander decks based on MTG's Wandering Minstrel from Final Fantasy can benefit from all 10 dual lands, but this specific commander makes them not mandatory thanks to its ability to make lands come into play untapped. This is an exception more than a rule, and it shows how broken these cards are in retrospect.

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