Investing In Real Estate

When I first started to think about building an all retro commander deck, the only dual lands were either the OG Duals or pain lands.  At that time, we did have access to enemy fetch lands but they were close to $100 each and lacked decent fetchable lands (unless you happened to be independently wealthy or lucky enough to buy OG Duals long ago).  Now, two years later we have access to all 10 fetches, all 10 shocks, 10 pain lands and 6 scry lands.  This mana base can prove to be painful in a 5-color deck but it is actually possible now.  When I decided to go with retro cards only, it was a way to reduce spending on every new set that comes out and every new land cycle that presents itself.  But, the initial investment was still high as I purchased one of each of above lands cycles.  Now, they're sleeved up and placed in a binder for when I need them.  

This next group of lands offers major color fixing even on a budget.  None of these cards were available, with the exception of Reflecting Pool, until the Brothers War precons were released.  These precons did so much for me in making actual relevant cards available in retro frames.  The only downside as you can see from the images above is the color of the frames for lands is a little odd. With that said, they're worth running.  Reliquary Tower does not fix your mana but helps you keep all of the cards you work so hard to get.  As they say, the best thing to do in Magic is drawing cards!

Fetching basics is an important way to keep your game flowing in the direction you want it to.  Prismatic Vista & Fabled Passage will allow you to do this without a tempo loss and Fabled Passage can even do it on a budget.  Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse will provide this same service for you but will require the lands you fetch to enter tapped.  They are able to do this at an extreme budget though and are included in the Brothers War precon decks.  Have I mentioned how great these decks were?