Planeshift Limited Review: Artifacts and Lands

Gary Wise

After the Herculean effort of the gold segment of this series, this installment is going to seem anemic by comparison. With the dramatic increase in the number of gold cards throughout this block, something had to suffer, and you're looking at it.

Where in the past powerhouses like Belbe's Armor and Predator, Flagship have dominated Limited formats, this first expansion to the Invasion standalone doesn't have such powerhouses. Sure, Draco is a fun prestige card, but as a whole, the artifacts and lands in this set are lacking in power and usefulness. This of course makes a lot of sense, as the entire format seems to be based on balancing your mana base. With amazing artifacts, that would be too easy to do.
Commons

None. Wow, that was easy.
Uncommons

Mana Cylix  
Ever draft one of those decks with a third color splash that you planned on playing 18 land in? Well, if you're playing that 18th land because of the three-color aspect, try this thing out instead. It completely stabilizes your mana and does so cheaply. Also usable in 4- and 5-color decks, you should only be playing the Cylix when your mana is extremely shaky.

Star Compass
There are two sides to this card. On the one hand, it propels your mana, giving you four mana on turn three and helps you with double colored casting cost spells. On the other hand, if you play it anytime after turn two it's virtually useless and it doesn't help diversify your mana, only solidifies it. If you have a lot of mana intensity in your deck (Like Andradite Leech, for example) and very little in terms of 2 casting cost creatures, the Compass is playable. Otherwise, I'd recommend leaving it in the board.

Stratadon  
So basically, you have a 5/5 for 7 Mana. That's too slow regardless of what deck you're playing. I suppose that if you're five colors with a couple of Harrows it could be really good, but realistically, it doesn't do enough for the complication it creates.

The Lairs
The best cards in this segment, the Lairs diversify your mana without actually slowing you down all that much, allowing you to tap the land you return. If you're playing two of the three colors on any Lair, it's worth playing, though I'd suggest that you not play more than two of them.

Terminal Moraine  
With the stress I've been putting on tempo in this column, it would be almost hypocritical of me to suggest that this card should be good enough for any deck. Costing the equivalent of three mana to activate, the Moraine is very effective at ensuring you draw all your colors of mana, but at the same time, it does it very slowly. Don't run it in every deck, but it's good for helping out your splashes.
Rares

Draco  
Well, this card is obviously the coolest way to win in the set, but it's pretty low on practicality. 10 mana is too much for any spell, 8 is a real stretch, so you really need it to cost 6. Throw in the fact that you need at least a couple of Harrows in your deck to try to help get all five land types in play, and you have a creature who will more often be a liability than a win. Of course, if you have those Harrows, you could do worse than a 9/9 flyer.

Skyship Weatherlight
I know it seems like this card can really dominate a game, but like Planar Portal, it just doesn't work its magic fast enough. Yes, it does act as if a Jayemdae Tome, but artifact removal and/or bounce like Recoil and Rushing River make it a lot more dangerous to try. Commit a lot to it and you'll be sorry. That you can't commit means it isn't very playable, at least not for me.

Forsaken City  
As far as I can remember, there's no Stasis in this set. That means that it isn't worth playing this card.

Meteor Crater  
If you have the creature in play, this helps you cast it, if you don't have it in play, this doesn't help you. Anyone see a problem here?