All 36 Deserts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 23, 2024

Painted Bluffs | Illustration by Mark Poole

Magic has a lot of different subtypes across all card types and sets. This doesn’t mean that all subtypes are created equal, or even playable.

Deserts come to mind when I think of mediocre lands. Not the best description, am I right? Deserts are very rarely playable outside of filling in Limited decks, but there are still a few I’d consider budget-playable in formats like Commander where land utility is great and fixing is king.

I’m going through all the desert lands in Magic, ranking from worst to best and talking a bit about what gives each one its ranking. Let’s go!

What Are Deserts in MTG?

Ramunap Ruins | Illustration by Florian de Gesincourt

Desert is a land subtype in Magic that typically taps for colorless mana and may have some other ability. They are often less than ideal with some kind of drawback, like needing to be sacrificed, costing to activate, or entering tapped.

These drawbacks and the concept of a dry and barren desert meshing with the mana-rich lands in Magic result in a relatively boring and plain type of card. (And not the Plains or vanilla creature sort of way).

Obviously that all gets thrown out if you’re playing a desert-centric commander like Yuma, Proud Protector or Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, but it’s better to analyze these cards on their own and not in the context of the one card that makes them much, much better.

#23. Painted Bluffs

Painted Bluffs has a bit of general viability than some lands. Be sure you care about deserts because you need to put in a mana to get a different color out often a disappointment, especially in comparison to the likes of Mana Confluence, but I wouldn’t be upset to include this in an ultra-budget Commander deck that’s multicolored.

These kinds of cards have a place!

#22. Conduit Pylons

The surveil aspect of Conduit Pylons is a very small upside to playing this underpowered card. Does it help your Limited deck function? Sure, but it is certainly one of the first lands you'll be able to upgrade when you can.

#21. Dunes of the Dead

Dunes of the Dead just isn’t very good at all. Tapping for colorless isn’t the biggest drawback, especially in a mono-colorless eldrazi Commander deck, but the graveyard ability doesn’t make up for the general blandness.

A 2/2 zombie is practically nothing, even if you can trigger this multiple times.

#20. Grasping Dunes

Grasping Dunes is another colorless tapper than has an activated ability. This time around you can pay and tap to sacrifice it and get a -1/-1 counter on a creature at sorcery speed.

Paying mana and going down a land for such a minor ability at the slowest speed in the game just doesn’t cut it. Especially in today’s environment, and with how far power creep has gotten us.

#19. Desert

Desert is, well, the namesake card! It taps for one colorless mana and can deal one damage to an attacking creature at the end of the combat phase.

It’s better than the previous cards, that’s for sure, but such easy-to-predict and maneuver-around combat tricks aren’t really tricks at all. Not too excited to sleeve this one up.

#18. Endless Sands

Endless Sands has a few things going for it. On top of tapping for a colorless you can pay a total of six mana and tap it twice to blink a creature. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some upside to being able to bring it back at any point and dodge multiple… board wipes?

Yeah, this isn’t as good as it seems at first, especially since you have to sacrifice it.

#17. Hostile Desert

Hostile Desert allows you to exile a land to have it become a 3/4 body until end of turn. I like manlands. They’re a great resource for a lot of different decks, but having to exile a land from the graveyard is just too anti-synergistic with many land strategies to sell me on this card.

In most land decks, having lands in the graveyard is typically no problem and is often an upside. I can’t think of a lot of decks that would have a lot of lands in the graveyard and would also want to be losing them to make a 3/4. Fetch lands come to mind, but decks playing enough fetches to also have this get animated often enough are either the land decks I just mentioned or a much higher power level deck than this card is going to be played in.

#16. Ipnu Rivulet

I love blue utility lands, believe me, but I don’t love Ipnu Rivulet. I’m happy to see that we can get blue mana untapped with this card. That’s a big step from the previous cards on the list. But the activated ability just doesn’t cut it for me.

This is basically only getting played in Commander, and I don’t see this milling anyone out outside of some kind of infinite combo where you can play infinite lands per turn.

#15. Cradle of the Accursed    

Cradle of the Accursed’s claim to fame is that it can be sacrificed to generate a token at sorcery speed… wow. Yeah, this isn’t too great. It’s better than some of the previous lands, but not by a whole lot.

#14. Sandstorm Verge

The falter effect on Sandstorm Verge feels like an expensive one since you're using the land itself to ignore a blocker. You might call it a far worse version of Rogue's Passage, so play it if you need to, but it might be better as a basic land.

#13. Bucolic Ranch

I'll rank this ranch below spicy bacon ranch until more mount creatures are printed. Yes, Bucolic Ranch does well in the Selesnya mounts decks and can help you splash a cool off-colored mount, but it is pretty limited.

#12. Ifnir Deadlands

Ifnir Deadlands gets a little more interesting. It gives black mana untapped which is a big selling point, and its activated ability can actually kill something problematic in the early game.

You might be desperate to increase how much removal your EDH deck has, but this is not an efficient form of removal, not even close. It’s better than the previous deserts I’ve mentioned, and that’s what counts.

#11. Survivors’ Encampment

Survivors' Encampment is a desert that can actually tap for any color of mana! The only drawback is that you’re tapping down a creature to do so. But that’s decent budget fixing if you’re doing this at somebody’s end step or have plenty of bodies!

#10. Hashep Oasis

Hashep Oasis, like the deserts before it, can tap for colored mana untapped and comes with an activated ability if you feel like sacrificing it. This time around you get +3/+3 to a creature for just three mana.

Not the worst exchange ever, but the sorcery-speed limitation feels unnecessary and a larger drawback than it needs to be.

#9. Mirage Mesa

I place Mirage Mesa among the Evolving Wilds of the world, sometimes you don't need the land searching ability, and sometimes you care that it's a desert. This is a fine card and certainly gets better when you get to three colors or more.

#8. Shefet Dunes

Shefet Dunes gives all your creatures +1/+1 at sorcery speed which is, well, pretty good! This can slot into white decks that go wide with tokens or smaller hate bear creatures. With the concept of gearing up for a large attack, the sorcery-speed limitation feels a lot more painless here.

#7. Sunscorched Desert

Sunscorched Desert deals one damage to a player when it enters the battlefield and taps for a colorless. It's not much damage, but it's still better than a vanilla tapped land and you might snipe a pesky planeswalker.

#6. Dual Desert Cycle

These lands commit crimes, and it is so nice to have a full 10-card cycle to hit all the color pairs in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. If Grixis () cards care the most about committing crimes, Eroded Canyon, Jagged Barrens, and Soured Springs are the way to go, but I can also see these being reprinted quite often like the dual lands that gain you one life.

#5. Ramunap Ruins    

Ramunap Ruins is where this list gets really exciting. It’s playable in some Constructed MTGA formats as a burn piece and does well in that role. I personally play a copy in my Purphoros, God of the Forge deck, and I’ve never been disappointed to use it.

Like many niche cards in Magic, just put them in the right deck and you’ll do fine.

#4. Cycle Deserts

Next up is the full cycle of cycling deserts. These cards give colored mana for no drawback other than entering tapped, which isn’t too big of a deal. Being able to give up one card to draw another is one of the most powerful abilities in card games!

#3. Cactus Preserve

A versatile land that can be animated into a decent threat or blocker is great. Cactus Preserve can give you reach out of nowhere. Some commanders will certainly optimize the mana value better than others but say you have a tiny leader and turn your land into a 3/3 that eats a flier, that is nothing to scoff at.

#2. Arid Archway

Arid Archway is a landmark that people come to see from hundreds of miles away. Intended as a complement to dual deserts or Sunscorched Desert, the Archway is a neat colorless way to reset lands with enters the battlefield abilities or ensure you have landfall triggers. Plus, I always appreciate being able to untap a land for extra mana.

#1. Scavenger Grounds

Scavenger Grounds is, simply put, a cut above the rest of the deserts. It taps for colorless, nothing to see there, but the graveyard hate is great that exiles all graveyards at instant speed for two mana.

You’re aware that the graveyard is just another resource at your disposal if you’ve played about two or more games of Magic. Being able to shut that down when you’re not engaged in that strategy is an incredible tool to have.

Best Desert Payoffs

I can think of two major payoffs for playing them taking into account what deserts typically do and their official subtype.

The first, and most powerful, is playing them in a Hazezon, Shaper of Sand Commander deck. This eliminates the drawback of sacrificing the deserts that would otherwise hold them back, and you’re getting some extra benefits along the way. Yuma, Proud Protector is a great way to draw cards and create Plant-based-beefy tokens while you use deserts.

A few premium cards allow you to play lands from the grave, and they do well with deserts.

Otherwise, general landfall decks with commanders like Omnath, Locus of Creation or Soul of Windgrace would be a decent home for these cards. You’re not going full-desert (never go full-desert), but they’ll end up being much stronger alongside these cards than otherwise.

Colossal Rattlewurm needs only one desert to benefit, while Ramunap Hydra wants two deserts in two zones, and Cataclysmic Prospecting wants as many deserts as you can handle.

Wrap Up

Scavenger Grounds | Illustration by Steven Belledin

That wraps up today’s rundown on deserts! They’re not my favorite subtype in the game, don’t be mistaken, but I think they sit in a very niche spot in Magic and Commander that will (hopefully!) only get stronger with time. With the right synergy and expansions, it’s only a matter of time before they grow in popularity.

What do you think of deserts and my ranking breakdown in general? Did I slip up and judge any of them incorrectly? Let me know all your desert experience and critiques in the comments, or come chat about it in the official Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, hydrate!