All 15 Bolt Lands in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 12, 2025

Agadeem, the Undercrypt | Illustration by Dmitry Burmak

Shock lands have been a staple of Constructed MTG ever since their first printings, and their best feature is entering untapped by paying 2 life.

Enter bolt lands, Modal Double-Faced Cards (MDFCs) and allow you to “bolt” yourself so that they enter untapped. The EDH format helps with this matter because paying 3 life when you have 40 to begin with is a little different than when starting from 20 life.

With over 60 MDFCs that are lands on at least one side, and a fourth of them bolt lands, it’s time to rank all 15 bolt lands in MTG. Let’s dive in!

What Are Bolt Lands in MTG?

Boggart Trawler | Illustration by Randy Gallegos

A bolt land is a specific type of MDFC, one with a downside on the back and a spell, like an instant, sorcery, or creature on the front. Unlike transforming double-faced cards, MDFCs don’t switch back and forth between the two sides. You pick a side and play it.

The “bolt” nickname comes from the fact that you can Lightning Bolt yourself so the lands enter play untapped, as a way to circumvent that downside. Paying 3 life isn’t good, but it’s a good option to have if you really need that land untapped on a key turn.

The first five bolt lands were introduced in Zendikar Rising as a cycle of five mythic rare cards. Modern Horizons 3 further enhanced this number by adding 10 more designs, two for each color at the uncommon rarity.

To judge how good the bolt lands really are, we have to check how good their spell side is, as well as the flexibility they provide. The best bolt lands go into virtually any deck, while the worst ones require a little extra to warrant inclusion.

Honorable Mentions: Tarnished Citadel + Hall of the Bandit Lord

Tarnished Citadel and Hall of the Bandit Lord are very weak lands: You have to pay 3 life, or get bolted, each time you activate their special mana ability. At least with bolt lands you only have to pay the 3 life once, and only if you want to use them right away.

Honorable Mention: The Black Gate

The Black Gate behaves exactly like a bolt land, so you can pay 3 life to have it enter untapped. It's a gate though, no an MDFC, and that’s why we’re leaving this out of the ranks.

#15. Boggart Trawler / Boggart Bog

Although not the best, Boggart Trawler is a somewhat better Bojuka Bog when you need it. Black decks can use this in a creature toolbox, but keep in mind this will be a disappointing 3/1 at best.

#14. Razorgrass Ambush / Razorgrass Field

Dealing 3 damage to an attacking or blocking creature can be bad due to the limitations, but having this on a land gets a little better. Razorgrass Ambush is a nice combat trick, but this will be played as a land most of the time.

#13. Bridgeworks Battle / Tanglespan Bridgeworks

Bridgeworks Battle is very comparable to Stump Stomp/Burnwillow Clearing, but a little worse because you’ll pay 3 mana for a fight effect, despite the buff. I’d be interested in playing this bolt land basically in mono-green decks. It gets better if you want to buff your creature’s power for damage or trample purposes, or if your creatures have an ability like enrage.

#12. Sundering Eruption / Volcanic Fissure

Sundering Eruption is very, very situational, and many times you’ll play this as a land. But sometimes you can destroy a problematic land and get in an attack, and this can be a situational and clunky finisher. You can also add this card to your deck if you’re playing the indestructible lands to do the ramp trick.

#11. Hydroelectric Specimen / Hydroelectric Laboratory

Hydroelectric Specimen reminds me of a card like Spellskite, but with flash. It only works for instants and sorceries, so you’re probably using this one to protect your best creatures and commanders from spot removal. It’s also a freeroll with damage-based removal like Lightning Bolt due to its 4 toughness.

#10. Disciple of Freyalise / Garden of Freyalise

Disciple of Freyalise is a “good” version of Disciple of Bolas, and gives you an early game option with the land and a very good late game option as well. Like Sea Gate Restoration, this offers a good late game play with card draw and lifegain, although it’s situational at best.

#9. Pinnacle Monk / Mystic Peak

A good card to pair with Sink into Stupor, cards like Archaeomancer are already somewhat playable. Pinnacle Monk is a good, flexible 2/2 prowess red creature that can see play in burn decks or spellslinger decks. A card like Shipwreck Dowser is marginally better as a 3/3, but Pinnacle Monk offers more flexibility.

#8. Sink into Stupor / Soporific Springs

Here we have an Unsubstantiate/Unsummon mix in Sink into Stupor, and that can save your board from a stray Cyclonic Rift or Farewell. Having this very situational effect on a land is cool, and blue decks wanting to up their instant count for spellslinger decks should look carefully into this one.

#7. Turntimber Symbiosis / Turntimber, Serpentine Wood

For a whopping 7 mana, you get to put the best creature from the top seven cards of your library into play. Even if you fail to find a strong one, you can boost a small creature. Turntimber Symbiosis can definitely miss sometimes, and having a 1/1 Llanowar Elves with three +1/+1 counters isn’t what you’re hoping for after paying 7 mana – or it can even whiff completely by revealing a bunch of lands or noncreature cards. I’d put this in decks with a high concentration of creatures, or in decks with a considerable amount of expensive ones.

#6. Witch Enchanter / Witch-Blessed Meadow

Having access to a Reclamation Sage-style card is very good, especially in EDH where everybody has a mana rock lying there or a strong enchantment that’s vital to their deck’s plan. Replacing a Plains with Witch Enchanter should be fairly easy in most white decks. It’s even better if you have graveyard recursion, small-power-matters, or blink strategies.

#5. Fell the Profane / Fell Mire

There it is, your unconditional black removal, hitting any creature or planeswalker. When people say you should play more lands and more removal in your Commander decks, play Fell the Profane since it fits both requirements.

#4. Emeria's Call / Emeria, Shattered Skyclave

As strong as getting two 4/4 fliers with Emeria's Call looks, it usually pales in comparison to good 6- or 7-mana spells. The white sorcery gets better if you care about angels or flying creatures. I see this bolt land mostly for 60-card Constructed formats, in that you’ll play this one card that can give you a strong advantage in a top-deck war.

#3. Shatterskull Smashing / Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass

Shatterskull Smashing can be a good mix of spot removal or sweeper depending on how much mana you’re able to generate. It gets better in decks that generate Treasure. You won't cast the red sorcery often when X is less than 6 since the difference is huge. I’d play this in most RX decks.

#2. Sea Gate Restoration / Sea Gate, Reborn

One of the best aspects about Sea Gate Restoration is that you have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game. Yes, drawing one or two cards when you're empty-handed is bad, but that’s the floor for the blue sorcery. Top-decking this in the late game when you have two or three cards in your hand is a huge boost in card advantage, and in the early game it’s simply a blue land.

#1. Agadeem's Awakening / Agadeem, the Undercrypt

Since many black decks have a graveyard component or sacrifice component, reanimating some creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield is strong, even if you’re getting as few as two creatures. Having this as a black land means that Agadeem's Awakening is mostly a free include in black decks, unless you care about swamps for stuff like Cabal Coffers or Mutilate, and even then it should be good. It works very well in value GB or WB decks, aristocrats strategies, and more.

Best Bolt Land Payoffs

Bolt lands are ways to increase the amount of lands you have in your deck while also mitigating the risk of flooding because they’re also spells. And there are a few payoffs for including these lands in your deck.

Landfall strategies get better. You can get more consistent triggers from cards like Avenger of Zendikar, Lotus Cobra, Felidar Retreat, or Rampaging Baloths this way. If you have cards that allow you to play additional lands each turn, you’ll make more land drops and ramp more reliably.

MDFCs are very good with cards like the bounce lands (Selesnya Sanctuary, Dimir Aqueduct) or Karoo lands. You can play the bolt lands early in the game as lands, then bounce them back to your hand later in the game to use the spell side.

A card like Mina and Denn, Wildborn works both ways. You can play an MDFC as an extra land, and later return them to your hand to play the spell.

Finally, you can think of ways to benefit from the life loss. Cards like Vilis, Broker of Blood, the bats from Bloomburrow, and many others can be triggered by playing these lands. Death's Shadow decks already play shock lands to lose 2 life, what about losing 3 on demand?

Wrap-Up

Sea Gate, Reborn | Illustration by Adam Paquette

Replacing a land with a spell will almost always improve your deck. Think about it this way: We used to replace our basic lands with marginally better lands like Kabira Crossroads and Khalni Garden, and now he have powerful and flexible bolt lands. Even the worst MDFCs and bolt lands are playable, and the worst thing that can happen is that you’ll pay 3 life to put a land into play untapped. Bolt lands are awesome because they give you something relevant to do early and late game.

What about you guys? Which bolt lands do you slot in any of your Commander decks? Which ones only go in certain decks? Let me know in the comments section below or over Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe, and keep upping your land counts.