Ranking The New Star Trek Lands That Will Be Best in Commander

Last updated on November 3, 2026

Final Frontier | Illustration by Jessica Rossier

Star Trek is all about exploring strange new worlds, and this set wasn’t shy about printing new lands; between the main set and the Star Trek Commander decks, 23 new lands were printed into Magic, with most of them be sorted into cycles. Let’s see if Wizards managed to print any staples!

#10. Planet Gain Lands

Kicking things off is a cycle of common dual lands that are gained lands with the planet subtype. Overall, pretty meh. Star Trek has the odd card or here that tutors for planets, like Warp Drive, but that’s not enough to make these exciting. Unless Wizards finds an excuse to flesh out planet synergies, I’d consider these inferior to gates.

#9. Anomaly Cycle

The Anomaly cycle echoes the Blighted lands from Battle for Zendikar: Colorless lands that can be sacrificed for an effect, except these replace themselves with a New Planet token, so you aren’t down mana. Overall, these are unimpressive as the activated abilities are costed for Limited. I’m sure they’ll be fine there as mana sinks and an enabler for strange new worlds, but they’re unlikely to see play beyond Draft or Sealed.

#8. Q Continuum

Another cycle of lands deserves a little more attention: These modal lands, or dilemma lands, have a modal ability that triggers when they enter, and they untapped if they’re land three or later, similar to the slow lands. When they enter, you may surveil or choose a mode that’s color-appropriate. The surveil is universal strong, so I’ll be evaluating these primarily on the other option.

For once, green gets the short end of the stick as Q Continuum has a pretty useless ability. +1/+1 and vigilance is so nothing that I can’t imagine ever picking that mode.

#7. Ni’Var Science Academy

I still don’t love a temporary keyword ability because it feels narrow, but Ni'Var Science Academy’s flying-granting at least enables an attack; it’s far more consequential than ++1/+1 and vigilance (aren’t Qs supposed to be omnipotent or something?). Stick this in decks that are interested in evasive creatures or with commanders that want evasion; maybe Felix Five-Boots or Narset, Enlightened Master.

#6. Unexplored Territory

A functional reprint of Promising Vein looks good. As far as budget lands go, you could do worse than Unexplored Territory. The original version of the effect already sees play in Tifa Lockheart decks, and it’s a great way to make landfall commanders or commanders like Titania, Protector of Argoth work on a budget that doesn’t allow for real fetch lands.

#5. Starfleet Academy

I’m not sold on Starfleet Academy. Most creatures have two creature types, so in general, you need to control four creatures to make this mana positive. And since they have to have diverse creature types, you can’t just count to four off Secure the Wastes. So it’s a colorless land until you already have a developed board, and then it starts popping off. Sounds pretty win-more to me.

#4. Federation Outpost

Lifegain on a land isn’t horrid; that’s a free trigger for cards like Kwia Vigorbloom, Dina, Soul Steeper, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, etc, etc. Whatever lifegain payoffs you have profit off this.

This is leagues better than similar lands that exist in Magic: Adventurer's Inn and Radiant Fountain are colorless, so they wreck your mana fixing, and Kabira Crossroads enters tapped. I wouldn’t play any of these in my average deck, but since Federation Outpost enters untapped most of the time and fixes my mana, I’m fine with playing it.

#3. Quark’s Bar

Quark's Bar has very narrow but useful synergy applications. Pinging your opponent is great if you can make that more than a ping with a damage doubler commander like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, or extract so value other than damage from cards like Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin or Rakdos, Lord of Riots. It’s a narrow application, but triggering your commander off a land drop is exceptionally strong.

#2. The Unicomplex

Wizards kept the dilemma lands pretty tame, which makes since. I like The Unicomplex best because putting a creature on top of your library feels substantial. You’re not drawing a card, but recurring your best threat pressures your opponent more than a one-off effect. The surveil is at its best here as playing this probably means you’re in a graveyard-based deck.

#1. Shore Leave Planet

Shore Leave Planet’s clone ability is very costly but could be extremely impactful as it skirts the legend rule. A second copy of your commander goes a long way to closing a game. While this is by no means broken, it definitely seems like the most interesting land in the set.

Final Thoughts

Though Star Trek printed many lands, few of them really seem high-impact. Shore Leave Planet has some interesting applications as a clone that skirts the legend rule, but that’s about it. The dilemma lands remind me of the land cycle from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In many cases, they’ll be better than a basic land because they have more text, but are never so central to one strategy that you’ll miss them.