The missing broken lands

[Maraxus of Keld]

You've heard of Tolarian Academy. You've heard of Gaea's Cradle. Some of you have even heard of Serra's Sanctum. "But that only covers blue, green, and white," you say. Where are the lands for red and black that work this way? Well, here they are.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Phyrexian Palace
Legendary Land

: Add to your mana pool for each card in your graveyard.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Shivan Volcano
Legendary Land

: Add to your mana pool for each point less than 20 life you have.

[thekadar81]

THese are waaaay too powerful i think. (although the originals are too). THe black one could let you produce 7 mana on turn two with a putrid imp and a swamp in play. use it to play necropotence to daw more cards. combine it with teh red land to lose life and make a huge soul burn. follow up with another soul burn or a drain life and its all over. thats a deck that could reliably kill by turn 3 or 4.

[thekadar81]

Heres my alternate suggestions
I think the black one should say " Add to your mana pool for each creature card in your graveyard."

I think the red one should be something like " Add to your mana pool for each nonbasic land your opponent controls"

[Maraxus of Keld]

thekadar81 said:

THese are waaaay too powerful i think. (although the originals are too). THe black one could let you produce 7 mana on turn two with a putrid imp and a swamp in play. use it to play necropotence to daw more cards. combine it with teh red land to lose life and make a huge soul burn. follow up with another soul burn or a drain life and its all over. thats a deck that could reliably kill by turn 3 or 4.

Have you seen the Tolarian Academy deck? It could reliably kill by turn 2-3, and first-turn wins were not unheard of. In case you aren't familiar with it, this is how it worked:
Drop Tolarian Academy, play a few free/cheap artifacts (like Spellbook, Urza's Bauble, etc.), tap the Academy to cast Mind over Matter. Then, if you have anything left in your hand, discard a card to untap Academy and re-tap. Play Stroke of Genius to draw some cards, discard one at a time to untap Academy and generate massive mana. Repeat the process (casting another Stroke of Genius when needed to replenish your hand), until you have enough mana to drop your last Stroke on your opponent for 60, forcing them to draw their entire deck at once. Boom, game over.
Gaea's Cradle really isn't much better. The fact that these lands are totally broken is not in question. I just kinda thought the other two colors were getting the shaft (although, to be honest, Serra's Sanctum isn't that bad, as you can't really pump out enchantments as quickly as you can creatures or artifacts, and to be honest, white really doesn't have anything to do with that much mana, other than maybe Alabaster Potion, or maybe generating some tokens with Sacred Mesa or something like that. Still, it's definitely not on the level of the other two...
So yeah, these two cards are definitely overpowered, but look at the company they're in, after all.

[thekadar81]

THeres no doubt theyre overpowered. But Tolarian Academy wasnt made to be THAT powerful. I was just trying to make versions that werent so crazy overpowered that they wouldn't see pring today.
On another point, Ive seen the Tolarian Academy/Stroke of Genius deck done with Time Spiral and Frantic Search so that automatically untaps your land and Time Spiral gives you more cards to play

[Maraxus of Keld]

Indeed, neither of the cards as I designed them would see print today. But if we make them balanced, then they're really not on a level with Academy or Cradle, which is kinda the idea, so I thought a little overpowered was warranted. I like the suggestion about changing the black one to just creatures in the graveyard, that isn't so bad. Not to keen on the red one relying on what the opponent's playing, though.