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I bought the 5 artifact lands from Mirrodin to add to my artifact deck; it works with the artifact theme (having all of my cards be artifacts) and goes well with my Darksteel Juggernauts.

The thing is, the other day a friend told me that, because they are artifacts and not basic lands, I could play a basic land and as many artifact lands as I have in my hand in a single turn. Is this true?

I find it hard to believe as that would make then overpowered and everyone would use them.

Can anyone verify this or point me to an article where artifact lands are discussed?

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    As an aside, they are overpowered, just not for that reason, and were banned from the standard format when they were new and are banned from the new 'modern' format presently. Just mentioning, don't be surprised if your friends get irritated by how easily you kick their butts using a metalcraft deck powered up by Mirrodin lands :)
    – Affe
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 4:45
  • @Affe I created an artifact deck and thought it was cool that I could make every card an artifact :) I have no metal craft and was using them as normal land until my friend told me they had other rules. On a side note some of the people I play have spent over £200 a deck and have 20 + mythic in them and have attempted to use over half the banned list lol
    – Skeith
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 8:25
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    @Skeith You can do pretty cool things with artifact lands, like tutor for them, sacrifice them, count them towards Affinity, count them towards Metalcraft and various other things that key on having an artifact on the battlefield!
    – adamjford
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 19:14
  • Tried my artifact deck over the weekend and had 2 33/33 dark steel juggernauts on the field :) very overpowered with artifact land
    – Skeith
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 15:24
  • I think your friend has artifact lands and Moxes confused - you can play one land per turn unless something specifically says you can play more - basic land, artifact land, snow land, or any other land, it's still one land per turn.
    – Andrew
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 19:30

2 Answers 2

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Artifact lands may be artifacts, but they are also lands, and all the usual rules about how often you can play and land (i.e. once a turn, on your turn) still apply to them. The same goes for creature lands like Dryad Arbor from Future Sight: if you've played a land already that turn, you can't then play your Dryad Arbor.

If you want to dump out a ton of mana production on your first turn, you're going to have to invest many thousands of dollars for a large collection of Moxes, I'm afraid to say.

From the Comprehensive Rules, section 305, Lands:

305.2. A player may normally play only one land during his or her turn; however, continuous effects may increase this number. If any such effects exist, the player announces which effect, or this rule, applies to each land play as it happens.

305.9. If an object is both a land and another card type, it can be played only as a land. It can't be cast as a spell.

Essentially, the fact of an Artifact Land being an artifact doesn't mean it is no longer bound by the rules for lands; it must follow all the normal rules for lands, and all the normal rules for artifacts too - so it is a valid target for Shatter, and so on.

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    Oh, I don't know, there are a ton of cards which allow you to dump a bunch of lands down or otherwise accelerate your mana without investing in Moxes. ;)
    – ghoppe
    Commented Aug 12, 2011 at 15:09
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    @ghoppe - Good point, I've changed my answer to say "on your first turn". Obviously there are ways to ramp your mana if you're willing to work hard at it; the OP seemed to be looking for an easy short cut, and THAT doesn't exist except at a price :D
    – thesunneversets
    Commented Aug 12, 2011 at 15:27
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    @Skeith: Also, it sounds like your friend has the idea that basic lands have different rules than nonbasic lands when it comes to playing them; this is not true. Rules-wise, the only differences between basics and nonbasics is how many cards with the same name you're allowed to play in your deck, and the supertype or lack thereof.
    – adamjford
    Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 19:58
  • Technically, the newly-unrestricted Fastbond allows you to dump a bunch of lands into play on the first turn, too.
    – user22925
    Commented Sep 3, 2019 at 2:04
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Just because artifact lands are artifacts it doesn’t mean you can just spam them on your turn. The normal land rule applies to these lands meaning you can only place one land each turn unless other card texts say otherwise. If wanting to create lots of mana in early turns, expensive cards such as moxes and other 0 mana costing cards that produce mana - like black lotus - would be needed

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    I don't really see how this adds anything over the 10 year old existing answer.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 13:33

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