Last updated on January 15, 2026
Steam Vents | Illustration by Jonas De Ro
If you’re new to Magic, you may not be aware of some of the game’s older, iconic, or just-plain-useful cards. Some have been reprinted over the years while others have been permanently shelved, never to see the ink of a printing press again. Today I dive into a special kind of rare dual land, affectionately called “shock lands”.
They're also called “shocklands,” but when it comes down to it “space or no space” is just semantics. But let's just get to the lands themselves, shall we?
What Are Shock Lands?
Temple Garden | Illustration by Adam Paquette
Shock lands are dual lands (lands that can be tapped for one of two types of mana) that you can pay two life to have enter the battlefield untapped. There are 10 of them, each aligning with one of the 10 different guilds from Ravnica, and each counting as two different land types.
All About MTG Shock Lands
These are pretty unique, for a variety of different reasons. Shock lands are nonbasic dual lands that come in 10 different color-pair variants, as is typical for a cycle of lands. But the fact that each land “counts” as two different land types is pretty unusual.
For example, Watery Grave counts as both a Swamp and an Island. We'll get to why that's important in just a bit, because it's kind of exciting.
They're a useful bunch, as most other dual lands will enter the battlefield tapped and leave you hanging until the next turn. With shock lands, though, you can have them enter the battlefield untapped if you pay two life. If you choose not to pay the two life, the land just enters the battlefield tapped as dual lands typically do.
This is also where the cards got their name, as their life payment is the same as the damage from the ever popular Shock. The difference is pretty much irrelevant these days, but technically paying two life and taking two damage aren’t exactly the same.
Here are the 10 shock lands from their original sets, Dissension, Guildpact, and Ravnica: City of Guilds:
- Hallowed Fountain
- Watery Grave
- Blood Crypt
- Stomping Ground
- Temple Garden
- Godless Shrine
- Steam Vents
- Overgrown Tomb
- Sacred Foundry
- Breeding Pool
Are Shock Lands Considered Basic Lands?
No, shock lands are nonbasic lands that count as two of the basic land types.
Take Rampant Growth, a good card, but it cannot search for a shock land. Then look at Farseek, it can search for the Island or Swamp on Watery Grave. If you play Wood Elves then you can get Stomping Ground with the option of putting it into play untapped.
The History of Shock Lands
Sacred Foundry | Illustration by Adam Paquette
When it comes to specific decks that shock lands work well in, the first thing that comes to mind for me are fast decks that need the option of two colors and untapped mana, as in they might want to Opt on Turn 1, then drop a Razorkin Needlehead on Turn 2. Something you can't do with a basic land and a guild gate.
I also think of decks that use life payment to their advantage. Working with synergy is always a good option, and a good Pay Life deck lets you really take advantage of your shock lands. A couple of Font of Agonies and Vilis, Broker of Blood with a handful of Godless Shrines work wonders as a wild Orzhov deck.
These duals really shine in tri-color decks. Control decks often want a humble serving of shock lands with a mittful of check lands and basics to match, but you don't need to heap them on.
Aggro really needs to stay ahead of the curve so there's no time for tapped lands. You want the game to be over before you have to worry about your opponent chipping away at your life anyway, so a couple Shocks to the face should be no big deal.
Though shock lands can help make sure you never have to play a tapped dual, make sure they fit in your deck and the current meta. Unless you're like me and are mostly looking to play jank nonsense.
Reprints
Since their first appearance in Ravnica, shock lands have been reprinted, both in Ravnica-focused sets and in sets that visit other planes, this includes promos, and Secret Lairs more than a dozen times though not all 10 duals have been printed each time. Here's a breakdown of sets and promos these shocking nonbasic lands have featured in:
- Ravnica: City of Guilds, Oct. 7, 2005 (Dimir, Selesnya, Golgari, Boros)
- Guildpact, Feb. 5, 2006 (Orzhov, Izzet, Gruul)
- Dissension, May 6, 2006 (Azorius, Rakdos, Simic)
- Return to Ravnica, Oct. 5, 2012
- Gatecrash, Feb. 1, 2013
- Dragon's Maze, May 3, 2013
- Zendikar Expeditions, Oct. 2, 2015 / Jan. 22, 2016
- Prerelease Promos (Guilds of Ravnica), Sept. to Oct. 2018
- Guilds of Ravnica, Oct. 5, 2018 (Selesnya, Boros, Golgari, Izzet, Dimir)
- Planeswalker Symbol Stamped Promos (Guilds of Ravnica), 2018-2019
- Ravnica Allegiance Promos, Dec. 2018 to Jan. 2019
- Ravnica Allegiance, Jan. 25, 2019 (Azorius, Rakdos, Gruul, Simic, Orzhov)
- Unfinity, April 1, 2022
- Ravnica Remastered, Jan. 12, 2024
- Edge of Eternities, Aug. 1, 2025
- Lorwyn Eclipsed, Jan. 23, 2026
They were also added to MTGO as part of the Magic Online Promos in May 2019 with some unique full art, though obviously, this didn't print any new cards to add in circulation out there.
Why Are Shock Lands Good?
Sacred Foundry | Illustration by Titus Lunter
The main reason shock lands are good is because they can be fetched, and potentially come into play untapped.
Shock lands are more expensive than dual lands usually are, though they can be found under $10 nowadays thanks to their reprints over the years.
Early on, shock lands averaged around $30-40, whereas an RTR Temple Garden fits the $10-20 range. The mythic versions from Zendikar’s Expedition like this 2015
Fetch Me a Dual
So, these lands—while nonbasic—are unique among most duals as they also have two basic land types to their name.
Consider our earlier shock land example, Watery Grave. Let's take a look at Temple of Deceit as well as a basic Swamp land up close for a sec:
The thing you need to notice is each card's type line between the illustration and text box. Both the Grave and Temple read “Land” as their card type while the Swamp specifies “Basic Land”. Following that, the Grave and Swamp share a similarity as they both list their card subtypes (in this case their basic land types) afterwards—”Island Swamp” and “Swamp” respectively—while the Temple has no further text as it’s a nonbasic dual with no basic land types to speak of.
Because of their basic-land-type appraisal, while they can't be fetched by cards like Fabled Passage, shock lands can be grabbed by Farseek as well as any other fetch card that specifies land type but not “basic”. This can be incredibly useful in finding you two colors in one land search.
Untapped Potential
We also already touched on how shock lands can enter the battlefield untapped for the measly price of taking a Shock to the face—kind of. While this isn't totally unique among dual lands—think check lands like Drowned Catacomb, to keep the Dimir theme going, that could enter untapped as soon as turn three.
And while you might be hesitant to pay two life for an untapped land, it could give you an important head start and help you get ahead of the curve. Imagine getting a Bloodtithe Harvester out on turn two while your opponent is stuck on one basic and a still-tapped dual.
Don't forget that your life total is a resource that can be spent just like mana, so don't be too stingy with it. Don't go spending two life for untapped shock lands every turn, unless you've got food or enough incidental lifegain going on.
Let’s Talk Formats
All right, we covered what's so good about shock lands and why they're so expensive. What about in different formats, though? Things aren't going to affect Standard the same way they affect Commander, or Cube. Formats can differ wildly, so the impact shock lands have in each are not the same.
Commander
The mana base is crucial for a good Commander deck. Though this isn't really unique to this format, it is potentially much more costly if you mess up this part of your deck. This can also be a huge investment though, especially since the deck is so much larger than most other formats. While shock lands could be useful if you had some fetch power, a shock land is good to go with your colors, but it's not really going to be the star of the show by any stretch.
Cube
Those curated cubes also appreciate shock lands, as they're pretty versatile even on their own and outclass pretty much any other dual save for the originals. Other duals might be more or less sought after depending on the deck you're playing, but shock lands and check lands are especially appreciated in this format.
Modern
Shock lands, are a staple in dual- and tri-color decks. Modern hasn't really been impacted by reprints as they've had them since they were first released.
On average, you'll see a handful of shock lands in decent Modern tri-color decks. They're not useless but Modern has access to a much wider variety of dual lands. Some of which can in fact enter the battlefield untapped without taking a Shock to the face on turn one, so shock lands aren't as big of a commodity to Modern.
Modern mana bases are covered in Reid Duke's Spikes Academy course on Modern if you want to go really in-depth on it.
Pioneer
This is an interesting one, because the only lands other than Field of the Dead that are banned in this format are fetch lands. This voids out some options to take advantage of shock lands' basic land type advantage for fetching, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't grab a couple if you're building a Pioneer deck.
Because fetch lands are banned, your mana base has to be really solid. Shock lands are a decent way to do this or at least supplement it for the same reasons we've already covered. Check lands paired with shock lands, basics, and maybe even some pain lands are a good base.
Standard
All 10 shock lands are legal in Standard and one of the best options for multicolor decks. If you don't have shocks, you're looking to compete with fetchable options like surveil lands that enter tapped, or the verge lands which are great untapped lands, but have no basic land type.
Timeless
The existence of fetch lands on Arena in Timeless separate it from Arena's Historic and both are formats where shock lands are welcome. Shock lands are as powerful as intended in Timeless, and a sweet way to pay a couple wildcards rather than the cash for a paper fetch land and shock land.
How to Get Shock Lands (and Other Options)
Hallowed Fountain | Illustration by Jedd Chevrier
Now, to get your hands on shock lands.
If you play MTG Arena, your main options are to buy Lorwyn Eclipsed, Edge of Eternities, Ravnica Allegiance or Guilds of Ravnica packs and hope you get lucky or craft them.
When it comes to paper Magic, you've got more choices. You could buy singles, packs, or other MTG card products, like Secret Lairs, or Ravnica: Clue Edition which includes a shock land as a box topper.
Cracking Packs
As much as I’d love to be able to say that you can get X shock lands every X packs you buy, it’s really not that simple.
Look among the most valuable Ravnica Remastered cards and you'll find all 10 shock lands reprints. A booster box of Ravnica Remastered is a good option to open the coveted dual lands. In Gatecrash, 10 of the 53 rares are shock lands, and combined with the chance at a mythic rare, your chance at pulling any of the shock lands is 16.5% (or one out of six packs). One Gatecrash booster box can serve up some nostalgia as well.
The Shock Land's Next Appearance
It’s incredibly unlikely that we’ll see shock lands again soon after Lorwyn Eclipsed. Edge of Eternities stuck them into the Standard rotation through 2028. Give shock lands about six years between Standard releases.
Cheaper Alternatives
Shock lands tend to be on the expensive side, but there’s a reason for that. It really comes down to supply and demand, and people really favor these duals which ups the demand.
Similar are the pain lands, most of which run less than $1, so they’re much less expensive overall. These enter untapped and can be tapped for one colorless mana or—if you’re willing to pay a measly one life—can be tapped for one of two mana colors. These are definitely useful but can be much more costly in the long run as you need to pay one mana every time you want to use them for colored mana.
Check lands are a decent alternative as well, though you need to make sure you’ve got enough basics in your deck to make them useful. These go for less than $1 depending on which color pair you need, but they’re all cheaper than shock lands.
When Should You Buy Shock Lands?
Whenever you need to buy shock lands is good for now. The pricing usually stabilizes a few months after release, and with its history and usefulness in eternal formats, shock lands are unlikely to dip much below their stable price.
When Should You Sell Shock Lands?
The main time for price spikes on shock lands is during the hype for a new reprint, and this is likely when the lands are at their longest since they've been reprinted and a better time to sell.
A Shocking Conclusion
Watery Grave | Illustration by Sergey Glushakov
And with that, we’ve come to the end of our little story. Have I made enough shock-related puns, yet?
They’ve more than earned their name, and there’s a reason they’re so sought after and played. If you have a chance to get your hands on some for cheap, you’re likely to have a deck that benefits from them or at least make a profit off them.
What do you think about shock lands? Is there an alternative dual that you prefer to use? Let us know if the comments. If you like our content and want to see more of it, consider supporting us through our Patreon. It’s always appreciated, and a comment or a share of your favorite article on Draftsim's Discord goes a long way!
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2 Comments
What I want to know, is when they rotate out of standard, what will be the new standard-legal dual land?? Kind of bummed since I just invested many WCS on them…
You’ll be able to use them until late fall this year, so you’re still getting a decent amount of use out of them. Shocklands are powerful on their own and can go in just about any dual deck which means it’s definitely not a waste to get them, even if they’ll be out of Standard in the fall.
We’re always going to have dual lands of some kind in Standard, they may just not be as useful/powerful as older duals. Who knows, maybe R&D will give us something new that outclasses even the best duals in upcoming sets (doubtful, but you never know).
After the next rotation, though, all of the duals from THB and ELD (plus M21, Ikoria, and Zendikar Rising) will stay in Standard, so any investment there is gonna last a while. That doesn’t mean that getting cards from sets that will rotate out this year is a waste. They’re still in Standard for the time being, and if they help you get an edge or improve your decks until they rotate out, they’re worth it. 🙂
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