Here’s why Magic: The Gathering fans are so damn excited about the new ‘pain lands’
Wizards of the Coast announced a variety of new and returning cards for Magic: The Gatheringin its upcoming set release, Dominaria United, on Thursday. Among these cards are six returning “pain lands,” a nickname they’ve acquired for doing a point of damage to their controller anytime they are tapped for a color of mana.
Three of these six lands are entering Magic’sPioneer format for the first time, signaling a new level of balance to the power level of three popular color combinations that have had to manage with a resource disparity since the format’s inception in 2019.
Pain lands have existed in Magic since 1995, when five of them were introduced in the Ice Age set. Five more were printed in 2001’s Apocalypse set, completing the land cycle for all 10 color pairs. Over the years, these lands have been reprinted periodically in various sets, sometimes all at once, other times in smaller groups, but have often remained a useful if not beloved resource for fans of two-or-more-color decks to smooth out color requirements at the relatively modest cost of one life per color of mana.
Although these lands have been around long enough that all 10 are legal to play in Magic’sbigger formats, such as Modern and Commander, that’s not the case for all competitive players. Especially those playing Pioneer or Explorer.
To fully grasp the disparity in Pioneer’s available lands, it helps to understand a concept in the game called the color pie, a design philosophy that dictates what each of the game’s mana colors are able to do in various cards. The five colors form 10 pairs, and these 10 pairs are often separated into two groups — enemy pairs and allied pairs. For instance, the allied pairs sit next to one another on the pie:
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