2

How do Blood Moon and e.g. a Snow-Covered Plains interact?

When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect. I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

1
  • Basic lands are lands where the type line (the line between the art and the text box) says "basic" on normal forests the type line is "Basic Land - Forest" on Snow Covered Forests the type line (at least in more recent printings and the oracle text) is "Basic Snow Land - Forest" Distinct land count is based on the unique names of the lands, making Forest and Snow Covered Forest different, distinct, lands.
    – Andrew
    Dec 15, 2020 at 20:56

3 Answers 3

12

Blood Moon does nothing to Snow-Covered Plains, because Snow-Covered Plains is a basic land.

Blood Moon says:

Nonbasic lands are Mountains.

“Nonbasic” here means “not basic”, the same way “noncreature” (Negate) means “not a creature”.

Snow-Covered Plains is basic; we can see this on the type line:

Basic Snow Land — Plains

So Blood Moon will leave it alone.


When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect.

They have different names, which is what Field of the Dead cares about, so yes, they'll matter for Field of the Dead too. And whether they have distinct names has nothing to do with whether they're basic.

I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

That's effectively true for most formats, so that's a good enough summary most of the time. But the basic snow lands are basic—they say so right on the type line—and are recognised in the rules as such. In formats that include them, like Modern or Commander, they are just as much Basic Lands as the usual five.

Note that Wastes is also a basic land. (It doesn't have an associated basic land type though.)

4

I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

This is incorrect, the snow-covered are explicitly named in the rules as being basic lands, even for the older printings that do not say "basic land" on the card. Quoting from CR 205.4c:

Cards from those sets with the following names are basic lands [...]: Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, Swamp, Snow-Covered Forest, Snow-Covered Island, Snow-Covered Mountain, Snow-Covered Plains, and Snow-Covered Swamp.

therefore Blood Moon has no effect on the snow-covered lands and they can continue to produce the appropriate colour of mana.

2
  • 2
    This doesn't address the question in the post at all (how does Blood Moon interact with snow lands).
    – Becuzz
    Dec 15, 2020 at 12:31
  • 2
    I think it implicitly does because the OP clearly understands that Blood Moon affects only non-basic lands but I'll make it explicit. Dec 15, 2020 at 12:37
-1

The words "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", and "Swamp" are both names of lands, and land types. Normally, a Forest is both a Land named "Forest" and a Land with Land-type Forest. But there are a variety of cards that have the Land-type Forest even though their name isn't "Forest". A Snow-Covered Forest is a Land named "Snow-Covered Forest" with the Land-type Forest. A Dryad Arbor is a Land Creature named "Dryad Arbor" with the Creature-type Dryad and the Land-type Forest. A Bayou is a Land with the name "Bayou" and Land-types Forest and Swamp.

Blood Moon doesn't say anything about changing names, so if you have a nonbasic land, it will have Land-type Mountain but not be named "Mountain". For instance, if Pendelhaven is on the battlefield, it will be a Land named "Pendelhaven" with Land-type Mountain. If a Forest is enchanted with Contaminated Ground, it will be a Land named "Forest" with Land-type Swamp. If all your other lands are Forests, your Swamp named "Forest" will not count as a differently-named Land.

There is the further confusion that "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", and "Swamp" are Basic Land types, but "Basic Land" doesn't refer to a Land with a Basic Land type, it refers to a Land with the supertype "Basic". There are 11 Basic Lands: the five basic Lands, their snow-covered counterparts, and Wastes. Other Lands may have basic Land types, but they are not Basic Lands.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .