The 31 Best White Blue (Azorius) Lands in Magic

Last updated on February 8, 2024

Celestial Colonnade | Illustration by Kekai Kotaki

Regardless of the strategy, format, and color combinations, having efficient mana fixing is beyond important for any deck. Being able to spend your mana consistently, deploy threats, and interact with your opponents is the best way to take control of the game and set the pace. Failure is akin to death and a surefire way to lose the game as fast as possible.

Azorius () is certainly not exempt from requiring mana fixing at every level of play. That’s why today I’ll be coming at you with a breakdown of the top 31 lands in the Azorius colors, including why they’re good and how they stack up against the competition.

Let’s get started!

#31. Seaside Haven

First up on the list today is Seaside Haven, an Azorius utility land from Onslaught that taps for a single colorless but also acts as a bird sacrifice-outlet if you pay to draw you a card.

Card draw built into lands is usually pretty good. The downside is that it requires an actual playable land, which this is not. I can see this having some kind of use in a bird Azorius Commander deck, but not tapping for any colored mana under any condition is just really poor.

#30. Prahv, Spires of Order

Prahv, Spires of Order is another utility land that only taps for a colorless and has some kind of activated ability. In this instance it costs and prevents all damage from a single source.

While this isn’t much better than the previous bird sacrifice land, it’s less narrow in scope and can actually be useful in specific instances. Like maybe an Azorius stax Commander deck?

#29. Moorland Haunt

Moorland Haunt is an original Innistrad landmark utility land that exclusively taps for a single colorless mana. It has an activated ability that plops out a single 1/1 flying spirit creature token.

While I’m really disappointed this isn’t a tapped dual land, or even one that taps for just a single color, I’m still somewhat happy with the activated ability. Especially compared to the last two lands!

#28. Calciform Pools

Calciform Pools is an untapped dual land that taps for on top of providing colored mana in exchange for storage counters. Storage counters can be put on for and then used the next turn.

This is okay but pretty bad overall. I suppose you can store mana on turns 2 and 3 to cash it all out and in turn ramp up, but it’s still just not good enough.

#27. Land Cap

Land Cap is a depletion counter based land that can tap for either white or blue at the cost it won’t untap for a single turn afterwards. This has some room for manipulation with things that remove counters, like Clockspinning, but I don’t think that’s really worth it. This is a truly bottom of the barrel land here.

#26. Thalakos Lowlands

Thalakos Lowlands is an Azorius dual land that can tap for colorless as well as white or blue the turn it comes in, but it doesn’t untap for a turn if you go the colored route. This is pretty poor overall and is F-tier fixing beyond that, even if it might have use in decks that want to consistently go off on turn 1 with blue or white mana.

#25. Meandering River + Coastal Tower (and similar lands)

Next up are all of the regular old-fashioned dual lands that tap for both colors and enter tapped. This includes Meandering River, Coastal Tower, and everything that performs identically with a different name.

These are generally only every used in Limited where they’re decent fixing. But they’re the bare minimum when it comes to dual lands outside of that. They do have a home in budget or casual Commander decks, though.

#24. Boreal Shelf

Boreal Shelf is the snow dual land for Azorius that taps for both white and blue and always enters tapped.

This is technically strictly better than the non-slow lands like Meandering River, but only in decks that care about snow mana or having a specific number of snow permanents. It’s obviously premiere fixing in those decks but is equal in power to the non-snow variants otherwise.

#23. Tranquil Cove

Next up we have Tranquil Cove. This is your average dual land that enters tapped with a slight upside. The upside in this case is gaining one life when it enters the battlefield.

This is a big upgrade since it’s much more widely positive compared to Boreal Shelf just being a snow land. Azorius is also a color combination that can make adequate use of lifegain, which we love to see.

#22. Glacial Floodplain

I’ve already covered Boreal Shelf as Azorius’ snow dual land, but now we’re greeted with Glacial Floodplain. Notice anything different? That’s right, you can actually fetch this dual since it counts as both a Plains and an Island.

That also means you can reveal this for Port Town and other cards. This is much better than Boreal Shelf, but still not exactly what I’d call “good.”

#21. Razortide Bridge

Razortide Bridge is the artifact dual land that also has indestructible. While these artifact lands aren’t all that powerful compared to other options, this land is used in Modern and even some Legacy Azorius affinity decks.

Having high artifact count matters a lot, which means having an indestructible land that taps for both white and blue is very potent.

#20. Skybridge Towers

We’re going down the list of tapped dual lands with small upsides, and Skybridge Towers is up next. This land’s upside is particularly strong. It lets you pay and cash it in for a card later in the game.

These are absolutely insane in Limited where games very often go to the late game and the first player to stick a threat wins. Having just one extra draw when you draw your ninth land can be that threat.

#19. Azorius Chancery

Azorius Chancery is the bounce land for the color combination, which means it requires you to bounce a land back to your hand the turn it comes into play while also still coming in tapped.

This makes it unable to be played on turn 1, and still pretty bad on turn 2. It also opens you up to wasteland which would be devastating, but it’s still pretty good in casual Commander as fixing.

#18. Nimbus Maze

Nimbus Maze is a dual land that can tap for either color or colorless the turn it comes in, but it has a catch. You actually have to have a Plains or Island in play to activate it for each color of mana respectively. The colorless mana doesn’t have any requirements at least, but the fact you need exactly Hallowed Fountain to make this good on turn 2 is somewhat disappointing.

#17. Fortified Beachhead

Fortified Beachhead is a single style of land printed in The Brothers' War that comes in untapped if you're able to reveal a soldier card from your hand. Not only does it tap for either color, but it also has an activated ability that costs to buff up your entire board of soldiers until end of turn.

Playing a deck with a lot of soldiers? This is an S-Tier inclusion. Otherwise, it's in the worst-half.

#16. Temple of Enlightenment

Next up we have Temple of Enlightenment. It’s your good ol’ fashioned scry land, which means it always enters tapped, but it lets you scry 1 when it does!

These are great in slower formats like Standard and Limited where midrange is king, but not much else. Occasionally in the control Pioneer deck if the format is slow, but not so much anymore.

#15. Irrigated Farmland

Irrigated Farmland is a regular tapped land with a very powerful upside. Instead of gaining life or also being an artifact, this card has cycling for .

Drawing a card is one of the most powerful things you can do in the game, and having this be a decent late game draw as a result of the cycling is a superb upside.

#14. Skycloud Expanse

Skycloud Expanse is the semi-efficient and slightly worse version of Mystic Gate. It’s a filter land, which means it requires some kind of mana input before deploying two mana of a different combination.

But this one it exclusively gives instead of or . The upside here is that it costs instead of the typical hybrid mana cost.

#13. Mystic Gate

Now we have the actual filter land, Mystic Gate. This land actually gives any combination of white and blue instead of just one of each. That’s an important difference, especially in blue where you need for cards like Counterspell, Archmage's Charm, and Cryptic Command.

#12. Prairie Stream

Next up is Prairie Stream. This is a much more difficult land to have enter untapped, and its condition is that you need to have two or more basics already in play. This is significantly worse than Deserted Beach since it makes its inclusion in 3-color decks almost obsolete.

#11. Glacial Fortress

Glacial Fortress is up next, and is the Azorius check land, which means it’ll enter the battlefield untapped if you control an island or plains already. This is a decent land that’s strong in formats like Pioneer where shock lands are available but fetches aren’t.

#10. Deserted Beach

Starting off our top 10 today is Deserted Beach from Midnight Hunt. This is the slow land for Azorius, meaning it enters untapped as long as you already have at least two other lands in play. Having untapped mana into turn 3 is important, but it also means this card is fine to play as your turn 1 land if you don’t have a 1-mana spell to cast.

#9. Seachrome Coast

Seachrome Coast is the fast land for Azorius, which means it enters the battlefield untapped if you control two or fewer other lands. This is extremely important because it means it comes into play untapped on curve for turns 1 through 3.

The fast lands are undoubtedly stronger than the previously mentioned slow lands since having access to mana on turn 2 is important in just about every format. Not being able to deploy threats or interact efficiently is often a swift way to lose the game.

#8. Hengegate Pathway / Mistgate Pathway

The Pathways are some of the best fixings in Standard and Pioneer but severely fall off in Modern and older eternal formats. Hengegate Pathway enters untapped which is always great, but you only get access to one of the colors. And you can’t get both colors by including shock lands in your list unlike fetch lands, which make this significantly worse.

#7. Port Town

Port Town is the Azorius dual that requires you to reveal a Plains or Island from your hand to enter the battlefield untapped. This is one of the more efficient dual lands and works well in 3-color decks where you’ll have things like Steam Vents to reveal on top of your basics.

#6. Adarkar Wastes

In the #6 spot we have the Azorius pain land, better known as Adarkar Wastes. This is a dual land that taps for colorless on top of white and blue, which means you can just get if you need it but don’t want to pay the life.

But most importantly you can get this untapped on turn 1 and have the mana you need. The only downside is that life may end up costing you the game later down the line. Oh, and you can’t fetch it.

#5. Sea of Clouds

Starting off the top five is Sea of Clouds when used in multiplayer formats like Commander. It’s one of the best duals in those formats, assuming nobody has died before you managed to play it.

You’ll always get value out of this card regardless of whether it’s your first or fifth land drop, unlike the slow or fast land. That consistency is very important when judging the strength of these lands.

#4. Celestial Colonnade

Celestial Colonnade is one of the best manlands in all of Magic. This card was, and to an extent still is, the win condition for many Azorius or Jeskai control decks. It still dominates the battlefield as a late-game threat or blocker and offers both white and blue mana for its controller even now.

#3. Flooded Strand

Flooded Strand is up next as the Azorius fetch land. The fetch lands are, at the very worst, better versions of their Pathway counterparts. They can fetch either color but work especially well when going for shock lands or original dual lands. They’re also an on-demand shuffle effect, which pairs well with cards like Brainstorm.

#2. Hallowed Fountain

In the runner up spot today is the wanna-be original dual land, Hallowed Fountain. This is the Azorius shock land, which counts as both a Plains and Island so it can be fetched by any fetch land that can find either of those.

This is premiere fixing, with the only downside being the 2-life payment to have it come in untapped. But that can easily be worked around if you fetch it on your opponents end step or play it on turn 1.

#1. Tundra

In first place is, of course, Tundra! This is an original dual land that taps for both colors of mana and enters untapped. But the real kicker here is that it can be fetched as an Island or Plains! This makes it incredible fixing since it turns fetches like Arid Mesa into a blue source, or Misty Rainforest into a white source.

Unfortunately you’ll be looking at spending at least a few hundred dollars for a revised edition of this card since it’s on the Reserved List, so don’t get too attached.

Wrap Up

Moorland Haunt | Illustration by James Paick

That wraps up everything today regarding Azorius nonbasic lands. I love putting these ranking listicles together, and I hoped you enjoyed reading as much as I did pondering the rankings.

Were there any ranks for specific cards that you’d rank differently, or that didn’t make the list today? I want to hear your thoughts, so let me know what you think down in the comments or over in the official Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!