Last updated on September 17, 2025
Everybody knows dual lands are helpful. They help you balance out your land count and fix your mana to be more consistent. It can be hard to strike a good balance with just basic lands, and you can sometimes find yourself not getting enough mana of one color or the other during games without the proper fixing.
In the past, we’ve gone over different types of helpful lands to solve this problem, but today we take a look at a bit of a niche land that truly shines in games that have more than the standard two players. Keep your enemies close and take a seat, because it’s time to learn about bond lands!
What Are Bond Lands?
Bond lands, also known as Battlebond lands, are dual lands that can produce one of two colors of mana. They enter the battlefield tapped unless you have two or more opponents.
That’s a pretty odd condition to meet considering most Magic formats are played against one other person. Let’s dive further down the rabbit hole to figure this out, shall we?
The History of Battlebond Lands
When we talk about the bond lands or “crowd lands,” or whatever you want to call them, the first thing to recognize is that there are 10 of them.
Ally-Colored Battlebond Lands
Enemy-Colored Battlebond Lands
Reprints
The allied colored lands were all printed in the Battlebond set released in 2018 and received snazzy reprints as expeditions in the Zendikar Rising set, as well as regular reprints in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. The enemy-colored lands were printed in Commander Legends, which released on November 20, 2020, and then reprinted in Commander Masters in 2023. The value remains fairly consistent between their reprint and original versions, and the alternate frames are generally worth more.
What’s So Special About Battlebond Lands?
Because of their unique condition, the battle lands really only shine in the formats in which they were originally printed: Two-Headed Giant and Commander. In these game modes, you always have two or more opponents. This means that these lands will always come in untapped and ready to go when you play them in these formats, acting pretty much like original dual lands like Volcanic Island, the only downside being that they can’t be grabbed with fetch lands like the original dual lands can.
This makes them insanely powerful free sources of whatever mana you need to cast your cards.
Multiplayer Formats
Many variants, for Commander and otherwise involve three or more players, so you'll know how many opponents you'll have before you shuffle your library. Some favorites are Assassin, Kingdoms, and Planechase. Say players have been eliminated and you're down to one opponent, the bond lands do come in tapped, but hopefully it is late enough to not be a factor.
1v1 Formats
In Vintage or Legacy (the only other sanctioned formats besides Commander where they’re legal), they’re as sluggish as basic tap lands like Elfhame Palace or guild gates, so you'll want to aim for a dual land with upside or spring for a pricey alternative.
Bountiful Promenade | Illustration by Jung Park
How to Get Battlebond Lands
By now, there’s a good chance you’re wondering where to find these neat little pieces of cardboard to put into your Commander or maybe even a Two-Headed Giant deck for an upcoming game night with your friends. Regardless of what you want them for, let’s dig into finding the best deal we can for them.
Find the Right Seller
My immediate recommendation is to check around some of the popular marketplace sites like TCGplayer or eBay. There’s a lot of competing sellers trying to get your money, so naturally, there’s going to be some lower prices here and there. You’ll just have to find them as they tend to fluctuate.
Table could not be displayed.The ally-colored lands can typically go anywhere from $15 to $25 on your average day. The enemy colors, however, go for less and typically stay under the $15 threshold.
Budget Alternatives
If you can’t pay full price but still want the cards, you can probably find some sick deals on Facebook buy and sell groups designated for MTG cards. I actually put together a couple of Commander decks from Facebook recently for a really good price compared to what I would’ve had to pay.
If you can’t be bothered to pay the discounted price and are looking for something else to fill the dual-land-sized hole in your heart, you could always check into other types of duals. Off the top of my head, check lands like Woodland Cemetery are pretty cheap at only a few bucks apiece, and the scry lands from both Theros blocks like Temple of Enlightenment can be found for less than a dollar.
When Should I Buy or Sell Bond Lands?
The playability and demand of bond lands is consistent and not tied to Standard's rotation, so no need to get creative on when to sell or buy them. Get them if you need them, and look to buy bond lands if you see a dip in the price. If you want to sell them, feel out the trends and sell after a spike.
Seal the Deal
Sea of Clouds | Illustration by Florian de Gesincourt
So, now you understand the bond lands and how they fit into your multiplayer games. What’s your opinion on these multicolored cardboard slabs? Have you found any other interesting uses for them outside of Commander or Two-Headed Giant? Let us know about anything like that down in the comments below!
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