Spoiler Highlight: Verge Lands in Modern, Pioneer, and Standard

Verge lands are a new land cycle that will be released in Duskmourn. They are, in all, five lands in allied colors that inherently give you mana of their first color, and then give you mana of their second color if you meet their main condition.

These new lands work similarly to check lands, which go on the board untapped if you control certain basic types, and that's their greatest strength. In this same sense, having a dual land that goes untapped on the board and gives you mana of its primary color can be great for some mana bases that need speed and consistency. Even if they force you to meet a condition.

With this in mind, I believe these verge lands have a lot of potential in some eternal formats, and may replace other land cycles in some strategies.

We'll possibly see the enemy versions of this cycle in a future set, like we've seen with other cycles before. This will make these cards even more consistent in some formats.

In Modern, where many decks with two or three colors are popular, these new lands could be incredibly efficient. Even more considering fetch lands and shock lands are still very popular in this format and these new lands will most likely improve your mana base.

Furthermore, fetch lands can easily enable the second mana color in these verge lands and this way spare you from using too many shock lands. This means you'll be able to smooth out the mana curve of some decks and, at the same time, maintain their speed.

A great example of that is Ruby Storm, which is basically a mono-red deck that splashes green. You could give up some slots in its mana base to add Thornspire Verge without further issues. This land would act like a mountain early on and then easily give you green mana whenever you need to.

There are no fetch lands in Pioneer, but this format heavily relies on pain lands, fast lands, and pathway lands, which could share slots with verge lands in some decks. Particularly aggro decks, which rely more on one primary color, but still need to splash other colors.

In this case, ideally, you'll need to work on your mana base really well to add these verge lands. However, surveil lands and shock lands are incredibly popular in Pioneer, and the number of basic lands you use in your mana base doesn't really matter for some decks. So, I believe using one or two copies of a verge land won't be too difficult in these cases, particularly if they bring you a lot of value in that strategy.

Another possibility is that primarily mono-color decks might end up using verge lands to create mana of a second color if they need to.

For instance, a deck that could gain a lot of value from Floodfarm Verge is Azorius Spirits, as you'll be able to take advantage of the speed this land offers and get a lot from splashing other colors.

In Standard, there is no doubt in my mind that verge lands will find some space, particularly considering this format lost, in the most recent rotation, important mana base pieces. Furthermore, nowadays, Standard welcomes a great portion of aggro decks, which could gladly use this new land cycle.

Gruul Prowess is one of the decks that will probably gain a lot from Duskmourn. Its mana base is basically red with a slight splash of green, and you won't lose anything if you swap some of its lands for Thornspire Verge. It will still be a fast deck, and you'll still be able to splash other colors without losing any consistency.

Verge lands will be a common figure in Standard and should conquer space in other formats as well. They'll be a great option for mono decks - particularly if you want to splash a color to add a few surprises to your list, or improve a matchup. They'll also be great for two-color decks that need a faster mana base for their dominant color.

The only question that remains is whether this cycle will only have ten lands, with allied and enemy colors, or if we'll also get inverted lands, as in, their second colors would be their first colors. This would give us a total of 20 lands for this cycle.

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Thank you for reading, and see you next time!