Random Generator gave me Shivan Oasis and Arenson's Aura. I've been mulling over this one for days. I thought I got somewhere with something like...

Land
Sacrifice ~, : Add or to your mana pool, then destroy target artifact.

Except... yeah... mana ability tied into a targeting, plus artifact destruction at Split Second speed. I could fix this, but it would get too messy to bother.

So, I'm still thinking about this. I didn't want to not do it, so I wrote the speed bump down. Currently I like the line:

Sacrifice ~, , : Destroy target artifact.
Sacrifice ~, , : Counter target artifact spell.

Or maybe White and Green doing the same thing for enchantments. I just don't know what to do with that. Seems too good on a land that taps for . Seems too rude to add ETB tapped.

Hmm. Artifact destroying Taiga with etb sac another land you control? Actually that doesn't sound half bad. Let's do that.

I'll just note in passing that the first proposed version works fine: the presence of a target is enough to stop something being a mana ability and move it to normal stack-based resolution (605.1a). I wouldn't actually like that card, though, because it's not really a land, more of a Lotus Petal. At least, not unless you could tap it for without saccing it.

But I really don't like the version that you've ended up with here either. It slows down your mana development a turn, and for what? A Shivan Oasis? And in the event I do have an artifact I really want to get rid of, I'm automatically 2-for-1-ing myself to do so, losing not just this land but also the one I sacced to this. Yuck.

I mean, why would you ever play this in your deck over Oxidize? This isn't a land in any meaningful sense of the word; it costs you mana not just the turn you blow something up but every turn before and after that.

I don't really like the "ETB sac a land" trigger on lands. Very occasionally it can be a fair balancing point; I'm thinking of Kjeldoran Outpost. But otherwise, if the land makes 2 mana, your mana progression is unaffected but you've got more eggs in one basket; if the land only makes 1 mana, then you've given up a land drop and a card for whatever enchantment-effect the other abilities on the land are. In some cases that might be worth it (Outpost). In this case I really don't think it is.

I think artifact destruction is marginal enough that it'd be fine on an ETBT land. Put the costs at about ", , Sac ~" and have the rest just be Shivan Oasis. That way it works like Keldon Megaliths, a marginal-upside ability that didn't cost you much opportunity. There are plenty of upside versions of Shivan Oasis already.

Fair enough. The truth is, I kind of like the 'play as your last land' spot that the Lairs have a tendency to take up. But I may be the only person who actually likes the idea of it. It does read terrible. It probably plays worse.

But the alternative you mentioned just reads too... pedestrian. Like you said, there are plenty of upside versions of Shivan Oasis already. I mean, there's nothing wrong with Shivan that sacs. I wouldn't think twice if it appeared on a land. It wouldn't excite me, either.

Hmm. Tough nut to crack. I'm going to have to have another go at this tomorrow. Probably by throwing the whole non-basic land thing out the window. It's not yielding any results I like.

Okay, much better. Now this card is one half Oxidize (minus regen) one half Artifact Blast with the restriction that it comes into play tapped. Which, to be honest, I think that's a nifty tweak on seals/capsules. I wouldn't mind seeing a cycle of these cards... though, they probably wouldn't all be so single-minded. Seems like a neat way to staple two sorceries/instants together.

As for the flavor: Shiv ain't got no characters in it. Not that I can remember, at least. a Gatherer search for 'Shiv' didn't give me anything, either, except for Shivan Harvest with a quote from 'Viashino Heretic'. Strange. I guess I'm forced to use the equally uninspired 'Shivan Guide'.

Oh, nice solution. I particularly like that you've got three pieces of Shivan Oasis here - ETBT, , and :)

You resisted the temptation to call this "Shiv of Shiv"? :)

That was the original name. ;)

­:)