Spider-Man Spoilers Drops Second Powerhouse Tri-Land

Last updated on September 4, 2025

Spara's Headquarters | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Just one day after Oscorp Industries was spoiled, and just a day after this writer in particular said it was likely the only 3-color land in the Spider-Man set, a new tri-land has been previewed, and it's an absolute hit.

It takes a lot to topple a triome, but the new Urban Retreat land might have what it takes to put Spara's Headquarters in second place.

Have a Stay at the Urban Retreat

Fresh off the spoiler presses comes the second tri-land previewed from Marvel's Spider-Man, now making it look like there will be a full cycle of shard-colored tri-lands in the set. Maybe it's just Oscorp Industries and Urban Retreat, but it's starting to seem like a half-cycle of rare lands is coming our way.

Urban Retreat starts off as Seaside Citadel, a simple tri-land with no extra utility. From there, it tacks on a powerful activated ability, essentially a riff on the new web-slinging mechanic that lets you return a tapped creature to your hand to put a creature into play for a cheaper cost. Here, you get to put the land into play instead, essentially ramping you, while [hopefully] returning something cheap and useful back to your hand.

Sure, there are a lot of hoops here: The creature you return needs to be tapped. It's a sorcery-speed activation only, so you can't save something in response to removal. There's a 2-mana cost to activate the ability in the first place. But this sort of utility can't be overstated; combine Urban Resort with any sort of useful ETB creature and you're not only getting a shot at reusing that creature, but also ramping in the process. Worst-case scenario, you can always just run this out as a slow 3-color fixer, which might be useful in a Standard format with notably unimpressive mana fixing options.

Retreat vs. Triome

Spara's Headquarters | Illustration by WFlemming Illustration

Urban Retreat has obvious utility written on the card, but the question for non-Standard players might boil down to how this new land stacks up to the current best Bant land, Spara's Headquarters.

Triomes like the Headquarters have established themselves across multiple formats. Their basic land types make them fetchable in any format with traditional fetch lands, and having three types on one land supercharges decks like Domain in Modern. You might even argue Domain only exists because the triomes exist. Beyond that, Headquarters is just great mana fixing in general, giving your fetch lands more bandwidth with the types of mana they can find.

There's also the matter of cycling on Spara's Headquarters. The triomes all cycle for 3 mana, which comes up rarely, but is also useful utility to tack onto pretty much any land. Once your mana's looking good and you don't need any additional lands, you can cycle a triome into another card, not to mention combos with Wrenn and Six and other land recursion cards.

So maybe Urban Retreat won't dethrone Spara's Headquarters in formats where the added triome utility is essential, but Retreat will have so much more to offer the decks that can truly capitalize on its activated ability. Ever play a Bant deck with good ETB creatures (AKA every Bant deck ever)? Here's an easy way to pseudo-blink your creatures while also putting you up on mana. Ever have your commander stuck on board with a Darksteel Mutation nerfing it? Attack that bad boy in (with indestructible) and scoop it back to your hand with the Retreat. Hell, trying to wipe the board and just want to keep one of your creatures in hand? Urban Retreat can do a pretty convincing Time Wipe impression.

And here's the real secret the experts don't want you to know: You probably want to stick with Spara's Headquarters in Modern, but in Commander, you can just run both! Just maybe bring a Springleaf Drum or Cryptolith Rite so you can tap your creatures on demand.