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I've been thinking about which basic lands I use in my cube, because that's what psychos like me do late at night. I'm currently using the Rebecca Guay basic lands from Commander 2016. If you don't remember them, here they are:

They're pretty classy looking and not too expensive. The artwork is a little dark though. (Actually, when I was putting together this image, I was reminded that Kev Walker and Mark Poole also did basic lands for Commander 2016, and they look pretty nice!) But the real problem is the frame. If you know anything about me, it's that I prefer the old card frames when possible.

So I set out to choose a set of basic lands using all old frames. A key criterion is that they can't be too expensive--so no APAC lands, as much as I wish I could! Another interesting choice for old frame basic lands is that some have the full rules text and others just have a mana symbol. Obviously I can't mix the two--that would be crazy! So I first tried to put together a set of basic lands that all have the full rules text. This limits me to Mirage, Tempest, and Urza's Saga. (Why not Ice Age you ask? The Ice Age text box is narrower and wouldn't match. I told you I'm a psycho!) Anyway, here's what I came up with:

You probably notice that one land isn't like the rest. All the lands are from Urza's Saga with the exception of the Forest. The problem is that the Urza's Saga Forests aren't that nice. I mean, which of the following would you choose?

So this is why I chose the Mirage Forest instead. But I'm not sure I really like it that much more, and my OCD probably can't take having 1 land out of 5 from a different set.

For these reasons I started thinking about old frame basic lands that use the mana symbol in the text box instead. This actually provides more options, because now I can choose from Mercadian Masques, Invasion, Odyssey, and Onslaught. Soon I realized that I might be able to choose all lands from Rob Alexander. This would be pretty sweet because it would match many of the fetch lands, dual lands, and shock lands all painted by him. After a bunch of searching, here's what I came up with:

There are some other options for the Swamp or Forest to think about, but the Mountain in particular is one of my favorite basic land arts of all time.

So what do you think? Should I go with all Rob Alexander? Should I mix and match the Urza's Saga and Mirage lands? Should I suck it up and go all Urza's Saga? Is there an option I'm not even thinking of? Let me know in the comments.

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Comments

Jeffrey Clinard

I think you should go to Etsy with the intent of buying unofficial Magic Full Art Land and then make yourself even crazier.

Alex_Crow

Go all urza's saga. 👌🏻

Dan Livant

Well, Odyssey has my favorite land art, but not that one. This one - https://scryfall.com/card/ody/333/plains I'm a huge fan of old-border lands. Actually, looking it over, I vote 100% Odyssey lands. Some of my favorite in the game, especially from that era.

John de Jong

Tough question, and one that I can definitely relate to. I think that going all Urza's Saga is my preferred option; I slightly prefer Forest art #1, but #3 is close behind.

Gareth Pye

Pretty sure that Rob plains is the one I have the colour test for. It's not final art work, but it is still pretty :)

Morten

I love the 5th edition lands, except the Swamps. It sucks that they are only available in white border.

Alkuan

This is a high quality question :) I love the Rob Alexander ones, but all Urza's saga w/ B is also a great option.

Cardboard Crack

I agree. Odyssey is pretty underrated as far as basic lands go.

Cardboard Crack

That's really cool. I would love to see this some time.

Cardboard Crack

Okay, thanks for everyone's feedback. I'm very close to going all Urza's Saga based on your suggestions.

DB

Late to the party, but don't forget about Portal + Portal Second Age for the "symbol" variant. There are some sweet artworks there, like the yellow swamp, the mountains with portals, and multiple John Avon islands.

Cardboard Crack

I agree, the Portal lands are super underrated. Rob Alexander's mountains are super sweet, and I also like many of the swamps from those sets.