Throne of Eldraine rare land cycle revealed

Rare lands are a special breed of collector’s items in MTG and MTG Arena. Utilized in Standard, Commander, Modern, Legacy, and basically every other format, rare lands will never not be some of the most important cards from a given set. Today, we’re taking a look at the rare lands that are coming out with Throne of Eldraine. These will help to steer us towards the mono-color nature of the next Theros set.

The Castle Cycle

This cycle of lands comes from the latest set: Throne of Eldraine. Let’s take a look.

Eldraine, Rare, lands, MTG Arena, Craft

What makes these lands special is the presence of two very important things:

First, these rare lands can come into play untapped. This is so very important for any land. In fact, most lands will not see any play outside of Standard if they have to come in tapped, so it’s good that the Castle Cycle passes that test.
Second, they all have pretty relevant abilities on them. Scrying, drawing cards, pumping creatures, making creatures, tapping for extra mana… All of these things are really strong.

Because of how they can come into play untapped and because they have these abilities, the Castle Cycle will no doubt be staples in Standard and potentially in older formats as well. There are very few cases where these lands aren’t just better versions of their respective basic land.

Setting up for Theros with rare lands

In a recent announcement, WotC revealed their plan for a return to Theros next year on MTG Arena. We can see really heavy seeding, or preparation, for this return with the mono-color focus of so many Eldraine cards. Theros is home to the devotion mechanic, a mechanic that rewards players for playing in strictly mono-color decks.

We just left Ravnica, however, which is a plane that encourages the exact opposite type of deck with lots of multi-color cards and lands. Eldraine is the stepping block between the two, bringing the focus back on single-colored decks so that Theros and Ravnica can co-exist in Standard without too much awkwardness.

Conclusion

These mono-colored rare lands are here to encourage us to play into the power of single color decks! If you’re looking for more news from Throne of Eldraine, just check out our MTG news page!