Last updated on December 28, 2024
Mana. Love it, hate it, it honestly doesnโt matter. Itโs a necessary evil that all of us must keep in mind and take into consideration whenever we play a game of Magic. Getting lands on the battlefield is one thing, but getting the color you need when you need it is a different story. Likewise, you donโt always need a colored mana at the ready all the time. Thatโs where pain lands come in.
As you can probably tell from the name, pain lands aren't the most user-friendly lands to slot into your mana base. You have to know the right time and place to run these, though they have some advantages that other land cycles don't have. There are several different iterations of these, so letโs take a look.
What Are Pain Lands in MTG?
Shivan Reef | Illustration by Andrew Mar
A pain land refers to a land card that requires a life payment to produce mana. Some pain lands have an alternative mode that allows them to tap for mana (usually colorless) without paying life or dealing damage, but others require a 1-life payment to produce colored mana.
When people mention โpain landsโ colloquially, they're usually talking about the Ice Age/Apocalypse dual land cycle that's been reprinted many times. These lands enter untapped, tap for colorless mana, or tap for one of two respective colors in exchange for dealing 1 damage to the controller.
For the purposes of this list, we'll focus on lands that deal 1 damage or cost 1 life, so anything with a bigger payment, like Hall of the Bandit Lord or Ancient Tomb won't qualify.
Ice Ageโs Allied-Colored Pain Lands
Apocalypseโs Enemy-Colored Pain Lands
Tempest Tapped Pain Lands
These lands from Tempest are strictly worse than the cycles above, since they enter the battlefield tapped. For that reason, these see basically no play in any format.
Odyssey Threshold Lands
These mono-colored lands from Odyssey tap for a single color and always deal damage to you, but can be sacrificed once you hit threshold for an alternative effect.
Hour of Devastation Deserts
This cycle of mono-colored deserts from Hour of Devastation allows you to tap your land for colorless mana, or pay a life to produce colored mana. Each land has an alternate activated ability that taps to sacrifice a desert (itself or another one) for a different effect.
Horizon Lands
These lands don't have the option to tap for colorless mana, instead acting as untapped dual lands that cost a life to tap for either of two colors of mana. They can also be sacrificed by paying and tapping the land to draw a card. While they're very similar to pain lands, they're often considered their own cycle, nicknamed the โHorizon landsโ or โCanopy landsโ after Horizon Canopy, the first card in this incomplete land cycle.
Alternative Pain Lands
These lands aren't part of any particular cycle and exist as one-offs in various sets. Some have alternative mana abilities that let you bypass taking damage, while others don't.
Prices and Where to Find Pain Lands
We'll focus on the main ally- and enemy-colored cycles, since those are the quintessential โpain landsโ in MTG. These lands can be bought just like any other, really. A good thing to note though is that, since theyโve been reprinted several times (more on that in a bit), their prices tend to stay low. As โlowโ as powerful non-basic lands go, anyway.
Here are the general prices youโll probably be paying for singles from a seller like TCGplayer, as of December 2024. These prices reflect some of the cheaper printings, while older versions of most pain lands hover between the $2-7 range:
- Adarkar Wastes (): $1.50
- Battlefield Forge (): $1.09
- Brushland (): $2.49
- Caves of Koilos (): $0.72
- Karplusan Forest (): $4.75
- Llanowar Wastes (): $1.58
- Shivan Reef (): $0.87
- Sulfurous Springs (): $2.59
- Underground River (): $2.53
- Yavimaya Coast (): $0.50
These wonโt set you back much in the long term for a decent set of lands, especially compared to fetches, shocks, or any land that was printed in Zendikar Expeditions. Their pricing seems to be on par with check lands in the current market, considering that theyโve been reprinted quite a few times already.
When Should You Use Pain Lands?
Caves of Koilos | Illustration by Jim Nelson
Pain lands have uses in many decks depending on the format that youโre playing. If they're in Standard, they might be one of the only multicolor land options available, so you might be forced to use them. Outside of Standard where options are more plentiful, pain lands are a great choice for more aggressive strategies that arenโt concerned about their life total and just need access to a splash color.
A great example of this is Boros Aggro in Modern or Pioneer. It's primarily a red-colored deck that splashes some white cards like Boros Charm.
Outside of this, theyโre also a really great choice for decks that need to worry about having access to actual colorless mana as well as colored mana, such as an Eldrazi deck playing something like Thought-Knot Seer. Lastly, pain lands are solid for decks like Death's Shadow that want to lose life.
Pain Lands vs Other Duals
Karplusan Forest | Illustration by Sam Burley
Pain lands are just one of the many options available for dual-colored lands in Magic: The Gathering. As we mentioned, these lands have their uses, but how do they stack up against the other lands?
One of the big pros of pain lands is that they enter the battlefield untapped, which lets you use them immediately for either color. The big downside is that they have a repeated life cost to use that colored mana.
The main lands that these will be competing against for deck slots are going to be shock lands, fetch lands, check lands, fast lands, and depending on the format, the original duals. Whether or not these make the cut will also depend on the deck. As far as strength goes, pain lands fall pretty far down on the list, with the original duals, shocks, fetches, and fast lands typically taking priority over pain lands. Many decks canโt afford the consistent life cost for colored mana over the course of the game, so they fall behind. They do beat out check lands though because they will always come into play untapped, where check lands may not.
Alternatives to Pain Lands
Llanowar Wastes | Illustration by Rob Alexander
If youโre looking for an alternative to pain lands, or want to double up on the effects of them, then thereโs a few different options that you can pick up.
Talismans
The Talismans from Mirrodin and Modern Horizons are the artifact versions of the pain lands. They have the same effects, but only cost to play. Since they're artifacts, they're easy to slot into any deck as part of the mana rocks package.
Alternative Fast Lands
If you're specifically looking for untapped dual lands, you have plenty of other options, each with their own caveats. You can try the Verges from Duskmourn, the slow lands from Midnight Hunt/Crimson Vow that always come in untapped as your third land drop and beyond, or the actual fast lands that always come in untapped as one of your first three land drops.
If colorless mana is something you're actively looking for, try the Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands, which can fix for two colors but also tap for colorless mana.
Can Pain Lands Be Searched?
You canโt search for a pain land with a fetch land because the pain lands donโt have basic land types. If you want to search for a pain land, you need an effect that can specifically tutors for a nonbasic land, like Archdruid's Charm or Hour of Promise.
Note that Thran Portal has the gate subtype, and can be found by cards like Circuitous Route, and Murmuring Bosk is a forest, and can be searched up by effects that find nonbasic forests, like Skyshroud Claim.
How Do Pain Lands Work?
Pain lands are just like any other land, but they have multiple mana abilities. Theyโre dual lands that give you two colors of mana to choose from instead of one, but at the cost of 1 life. However, they can still be tapped for a colorless mana with no life loss.
The life-payment ability on a pain land is a mana ability, so activating it doesn't use the stack, and players can't respond to the loss of life. If you're at exactly 1 life when you activate one, you'll lose the game immediately.
How Many Pain Lands Are There?
In total, there are 10 traditional pain lands. Similar to other dual land cycles, the pain lands each have a card that corresponds to each of the main 2-color pairs or guilds. Five of the colors are allied colors, and five are enemy colors.
If you count all the adjacent lands that require life payments for mana, there are well over 40 pain lands in MTG.
Why Are Pain Lands Better Than Things Like Gates?
Pain lands offer the flexibility of providing two colors or a colorless mana right away. Most guildgates come into play tapped, as do basic dual lands like Meandering River. For more competitive decks, the loss of life is minimal considering the colorless mana on a pain land is used maybe 60-70% of the time, and decks need access to mana right away to stay competitive in Constructed formats.
It Pains Me to Go
Yavimaya Coast | Illustration by Anthony S. Waters
With an appropriate name, pain lands can benefit any deck theyโre in. While they may not be as versatile as fetch lands or have the immediate impact of a check land, they still allow for great tempo and a small cost to use if the color is necessary. Thankfully, these cards made a return in the current Standard rotation, though they'll be leaving soon enough.
I hope you found some use in our little chat today. Donโt forget to keep an eye out on our blog for more stuff like this, or even consider becoming a Patron. Find us on Discord/Twitter for more discussion!
Stay safe out there, and Iโll see you next time!
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