Spoiler Highlight: Unlucky Lands in Modern and Pauper

Duskmourn, the newest Magic: The Gathering set, features a "horror movie" aesthetic and is just around the corner! This means we're now in the Duskmourn spoiler season, and one of the first reveals we got was a new cycle of common dual lands.

These Unlucky Lands, as they were affectionately nicknamed by the community, are ten lands, each representing a color combination, that don't have types and go on the board tapped unless a player has 13 life points or less.

These lands might see some play in constructed formats. In this article, I'll go through the strategies that can gain a lot from this new cycle.

It is not difficult to see the potential these new lands have in Modern.

It's not everyday you see common lands in Modern, even more considering that everything these Unlucky Lands offer, other lands in this format already offer - and some of them are even better. However, I believe there might be some space for this cycle in this format, particularly the Dimir land, for a few reasons.

Firstly, Modern thoroughly enjoys fetch lands and shock lands, which lower your life points quite a lot in some decks. With them, enabling an Unlucky land and improving your mana base will be even easier. Fetch lands are one of this format's pillars and help you manipulate your top deck. They're widely popular in practically every Modern deck.

Secondly, Death's Shadow is alive and well in this format. This deck basically wants to lower your life points because of Death's Shadow, the card that inspired its name and is stronger when you have less life points than usual. As a result, this deck also plays many fetch and shock lands, which will lower your life points and thus let you play a huge Shadow.

This deck also includes cards like Street Wraith and Thoughtseize, which also lower your life points. Furthermore, Duskmourn's entire theme, horror stories, fits Death's Shadow perfectly. I definitely believe Unlucky Lands can find some space in this archetype.

One of Pauper's greatest weaknesses is certainly the mana base, which works slower in decks with two or more colors. That's because the dual lands available in this format, despite incredibly useful, nearly always go in play tapped, which gives a sort of drawback to the decks that need to splash other colors.

More recently, this format gained a few new cards that make using two or more colors easier, like the Lórien Revealed and Troll of Khazad-dûm cycle, Dominaria's dual lands, and the new Modern Horizons 3 fetch lands.

The "basic" land type is incredibly relevant for the mana base of many decks. Particularly as it affects your ability to get these lands and improve some cards, like Skred and Snuff Out, which interact with the type of land you use in your deck.

So, it's easy to say that Unlucky Lands will most likely not see any play in Pauper, but there are a few decks that can benefit from them. One detail that makes this possibility stronger is their text.

Unlucky Lands interact with the life points of any player, not only their controller. So, if one player, any player, has 13 or less life, you can put them in play untapped.

With that in mind, Snuff Out's popularity looks relevant to the success of this new cycle in the Pauper metagame. It may all depend on which side of the battlefield you are.

Rakdos Burn is one of the archetypes that should make the most out of these lands. More specifically, the Rakdos variant, as you will easily be able to deal enough damage to lower your opponent's life points to 13 on the first few turns. Putting a dual land untapped into play on turn 3 or 4 is significant.

This deck already plays many tapped lands, so swapping a few of them for Razortrap Gorge won't be that prejudicial and should bring more pros than cons.

Carnarium can share a slot with the Rakdos unlucky land. The same applies to Jagged Barrens, which, despite having a relevant effect for this deck because it deals damage, still enters play tapped. Having access to two colors straight away gives this deck speed, so using less Jagged Barrens makes sense. You can't really replace Drossforge unless you give up Galvanic Blast, which, I, particularly, don't like. However, there are versions that play Chain Lightning and don't rely on Metalcraft.

Unlucky lands will add a new element to the mana base in constructed formats. Despite being common cards, they should see their share of play if they're explored well.

In formats that have a higher power level, like Modern, these lands can even be replacements for more expensive lands and thus can help you start playing this format, though you'll definitely swap them for better versions in the future. I believe there is more space to explore unlucky lands in the Death's Shadow archetype.

As for Pauper, I see a lot of potential in this new cycle of dual lands, particularly in aggressive decks, which can easily lower their opponent's life points. Furthermore, mostly black decks that play Snuff Out and tend to work with just enough life points to win can explore these incredibly powerful cards and their drawback to improve their mana base. I also see some future for unlucky lands in Rakdos Burn and similar, and I believe this format will welcome these cards with open arms.

What did you think of this new cycle? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!