The team at Wizards of the Coast revealed plans for Magic: The Gathering's future earlier today, but its most recent set, Zendikar Rising, will be bringing back fetch lands - at a premium, as part of the Expedition variants that were so popular in the previous sets based on the plane of Zendikar. Magic: The Gathering is the popular tabletop and digital trading card game from Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro, and the game has seen some serious growth since the launch of its Magic Arena client.
For those unfamiliar with some of the games most popular cards, Magic: The Gathering fetch lands are powerful additions to any deck that they're legal in. They help decks bridge the gap between two and three color mana bases much easier, and reduce the variance of the game in a productive way by helping ensure that players are able to cast their spells when they want to - or, at least, that the color requirements of those spells won't be the reason they cannot. Although many players feel the fetch lands are too powerful, they're one of the most iconic parts of eternal formats like Modern and Legacy, and fetch a premium price in the secondary market as a result.
With Magic: The Gathering Zendikar Rising set to bring back Expeditions as Box Toppers, the expansion will also be bringing back fetch lands, which were previously printed as Expeditions in the Battle for Zendikar block. Fans will be able to get all ten different fetch lands as Expeditions, including the extremely valuable and popular Scalding Tarn.
Though not a fetch land in the traditional sense that players use the term for, there will also be a more recent inclusion from Modern Horizons getting the Zendikar Rising Expedition treatment in the form of Prismatic Vista.
Of course, some of the most powerful and memorable lands go beyond fetch lands and into even older formats like Legacy and Vintage. Luckily, Zendikar Rising Expeditions will have that covered too, with a sample of that - the gorgeous new art version of Wasteland - indicating they'll look just as good as their flashier Modern counterparts.
It's interesting to see Zendikar Rising fetch lands as Expeditions, given how recently Wizards of the Coast reprinted fetch lands as a premium offering in the form of a Secret Lair Drop. More premium offerings don't necessarily solve the accessibility problems that some players feel plague the oldest formats in the game, but from a collector standpoint, the sheer number of art options for cards as ubiquitous and powerful as Magic: The Gathering fetch lands is an appealing way to show off some personality in their manabases. While Expeditions are Box Toppers in this set, which means they won't be as easy to acquire as regular rares or mythic rares, they'll still be desirable gets for fans.
Magic: The Gathering Zendikar Rising will launch on Magic Arena on September 17 and for tabletop on September 25.