This is not blue in any way and i'm not sure giving blue a cmc3 Lay of the Land is a good idea

­dreamscape artist, tolaria west

this is much weaker than tolaria west.

that's what this cycle is about: abilities rarely found in that color, but not totally out of line. blue is about card draw and card search. so occasionally search lands is not that absurd. besides, that's not the only way to cast it. hence the splash with the main color, which is more efficiently costed. unfortunately, the effect is a bit weaker or more narrow than normal due to the versatility in mana cost and the rare occurrence of effect in the second color.

I thought "do not base color pie extensions on Time Spiral block cards" was a basic rule of amateur MtG design?

I wasn't too moved by the Timespiral references, either. How about we cite Merfolk Wayfinder as a reference point instead?

On a separate side note, if I was to rank which colors I would give Lay the Land to, it would probably choose Green first, then Black, then White, then Blue. Black, because black tutors, and while I've never seen a black card that tutors for land, I'm more comfortable with a B/G hybrid that tutors for land than U/G. White often tutors for Plains, so search for other lands is a stretch. But White paying to get any land? I'd consider that fair. Blue has dabbed its toes with fetching/fixing... but I don't think I've ever seen a good flavor justification for it.

­Illusionary Terrain? I could see blue being allowed to turn some other resource into any land it needed.

how about traumatic visions?

and a flexible designer knows when it's ok to do a splash when it's the right time. e.g. white extort.

i doubt black's selfishness allows it. cursory search says zero black cards search basics, not even splash with green. otoh silkwing scout. white already does a lot of land search, mostly plains, but it's not really exciting. based on the few examples just on this page, as i said, it's not that farfetched for blue to have this effect.

@vitenka: Blue has always been allowed to transform terrains.

@amuseum, jmgariepy: Set mechanics such as landcycling (but also Tramsmute and extort) allow a limited amount of bleed. Blue get the occasional tutoring variant like Distant Memories, but usually it's stuff like Advice from the Fae, Uncovered Clues, Court Hussar, Faerie Mechanist, Forbidden Alchemy... Merfolk Wayfinder is an unusual version of this mechanic owing to Zendikar's land theme, but still in color.

I'm just voicing my distaste of this card. Ultimately I'm well aware that a) I can't stop you in any way XD and b) if I played blue in this block, I'd play the shit out of a mono-blue land tutoring/color fixing spell.

Sure; that's why I linked it as an example. I can imagine blue being allowed a dedicated landsearch that way, too.

I'd be wondering whether this or a myr is a better investment. The myr comes online a turn later and is more vulnerable; but means you aren't stuck on 2 mana.

Of course, playing green-blue this is a shoe-in.

theres a lot of cycling and manifest in this block. so you would auto-include it, even if it's redundant and overcosted? for the same cost, is it as good as say divnation's draw 2?

Why bother making this, then? Why not just make it a spell that cycles to begin with? " Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Islandcycling , Forestcycling "

because it's a cool concept? LIKE why bother with Hornet Sting or Pongify. because they teach a lesson about magic's color pie--the crust.

your card is redundant on the cycling. like rampant growth is . so why do you purposely overcost an in-color ability and add two more abilities that do the same thing. i'd just as soon reprint the Traumatic Visions cycle (if it fit the block. also just realized their existence). not to mention it totally misses the point and doesn't exhibit new qualities.

again, this is part of a cycle, a cycle that explores the crust of the color pie and in this block is about exploration and discovery.

Pongify IS in color nowadays (Rapid Hybridization). But I'm in Rosewater's camp about the pie here. You show that a color doesn't do something BY NOT LETTING IT DO IT, not by doing it badly.

The pricing stuff was just because I couldn't be bothered to come up with a bew effect to demonstrate my meaning. The point remains that a random card with both islandcycling and forestcycling, Jhessian Zombies style, would accomplish the basic duties of this card just as well without breaking pie.

Mmm, yes, if this was in the Crop Rotation mould I could see it working in blue a bit better. (Blue gets anything if it gets to "transform" it, even direct creature removal like Rapid Hybridization.)

Not to add more fuel to the flame... but instant speed perhaps? It would feel a tad more blue that way, and the extra mana could have a justification there.

crop rotation is worth considering at instant. but i thought i'd go with a more basic effect.

Makes sense to me - doens't quite strictly-better-than Phantasmal Terrain because you can only hit your own stuff, but does more or less the same thing on your own.