MTG Modern: The Beauty of Field of Ruin

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

I love U/W Control in Modern. It may not be the most competitive of lists, but it holds a special place in my heart, partially because it contains the three cards pictured above, which are three of my all-time favorite Magic cards. Because I wanted my list to be as polished as possible, I showed it to one of my friends with way more Magic experience than me (here's the current list if you're interested). Among his suggestions, one question stood out: "Why are you running Field of Ruin instead of Tectonic Edge?" I don't quite remember the answer I gave him then, but I've thought about it a little bit since then and decided to give a good, solid answer talking about the beauty of Field of Ruin.

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

This trio of lands is seen quite a bit throughout Modern; many. many lists have at least a couple of these cards, if only to attack Tron's formula of 1+1+1=7. Ghost Quarter is the likely the most familiar of these, but it raises the question: Why am I running the newbie Field of Ruin when there are these mainstay cards?

Each of these cannibalistic lands have their own strengths and weaknesses, so let's take a look starting with the classics:

Ghost Quarter

Originally printed in Ininistrad, it's clean and simple. You can tap it for a colorless mana, or you can tap and sacrifice it to destroy any land. The land's controller gets to fetch a basic land out of their deck and put it onto the battlefield. Ghost Quarter can help tax a greedy mana base and its ability is free. One of its biggest downsides is the fact that Ghost Quarter forces you to lose a land AND gives the opponent a land, essentially letting them ramp. While this might not matter in the late game and can be necessary to stop your opponent from doing something nasty, it can screw you on mana and can be backbreaking if you're already light on lands.

Tectonic Edge

Out of all these choices, the land born on Zendikar is the only one to get the treatment of an Expedition. It is also the weakest of the trio. It taps for a colorless and it can tap and sacrifice itself to take out an opponents land - but it costs a generic mana to do so and can only destroy a nonbasic land if the opponent has four or more lands. That's a total of three limitations on using it; in particular, the four-land requirement hurts because it can easily be completely ineffective against Tron. There are other uses; blowing up manlands and disrupting an opponent's mana base, but Tectonic Edge generally feels too slow. The biggest benefit to the Edge is the fact that it doesn't allow your opponent to replace a land, which means you're both down one mana and has a greater ability to disrupt a mana base because they can't fetch a basic to help their mana.

Field of Ruin

The relative newbie to Modern since its printing in Ixalan, Field of Ruin has some downsides, but these are outweighed by its upsides. Its largest downside is the fact that it costs two generic mana and has to tap to destroy a nonbasic land, essentially taking 3 mana. However, it allows both players to search their libraries for a basic land and put it on the battlefield, which fills in a lot of the gaps Ghost Quarter has. There's no pseudo-ramp effect with Field of Ruin as both players lose a land then find another one. Additionally, Field of Ruin has the benefit of being nearly-painless color fixing. It's certainly not ideal to be using this card to fix your mana, but it's far less painful than having to Ghost Quarter one of your own lands or staring forlornly at a Tectonic Edge. As a direct benefit to the U/W list in question, it can be quite helpful at taxing the opponent's basic land count; most Modern decks run a fairly low number and the combination of Paths, Settle the Wreckage, and Field of Ruin can make all of these cards way better than they normally would be.

The Beauty of Field of Ruin

In the end, each of these cards has their uses. I'm not trying to claim that Field of Ruin is always better than the other cannibal lands, but it certainly has its upsides. While it's not free like Ghost Quarter and it doesn't force your opponent down a land like Tectonic Edge, its unique color-fixing abilities and the ability to disrupt Tron before its assembled make it a very, very powerful card in the right deck.