MTG Fetch Lands Explained: The 10 Classic Fetches and What They Can Find

Fetch lands let you sacrifice a land to search your library for another one. The ten classic fetches each search for either of two basic land types, such as a Forest or an Island. That includes matching nonbasic lands, which is why fetches work so well with shock lands and Triomes.

The key word is type. A card does not have to be named Forest or Island, or be a basic land, to qualify. Its type line needs to contain at least one of the land types the fetch can find.

The ten classic MTG fetch lands

These are the familiar two-type fetches. Each normally requires you to tap it, pay one life, and sacrifice it to activate its search ability.

The shock lands in the last column are examples. Each fetch can find many other lands that have a matching type. Wizards’ Zendikar Rising variants gallery includes all ten classic fetches.

How a fetch land works

Take Polluted Delta as an example. You play it as your land for the turn. When you activate its ability, you tap it, pay one life, and sacrifice it. When the ability resolves, you search for an Island or Swamp card, put it onto the battlefield, and shuffle.

You choose the land you find during resolution. You can take a basic Island, a basic Swamp, or an appropriate nonbasic land. The fetch does not require both types on the same card.

These ten fetches do not normally tap directly for mana. They get you another land that can. Also, putting a land onto the battlefield with the search ability does not use an additional land play.

This is fixing rather than ordinary ramp: you sacrifice one land and replace it with one land. Your land total usually stays the same.

Read the type line: “Forest or Island” can find a basic Forest, a basic Island, or a nonbasic land with either type. It cannot find every land that happens to produce green or blue mana.

Why fetch lands work with shock lands

Shock lands have two basic land types. Breeding Pool is a Forest Island. Hallowed Fountain is a Plains Island. Temple Garden is a Forest Plains.

That means Windswept Heath can find all three:

• Breeding Pool: It has the Forest type.

• Hallowed Fountain: It has the Plains type.

• Temple Garden: It has both matching types.

One fetch can therefore provide access to several color combinations, depending on which lands are in your library. That flexibility is the main appeal of a fetch-and-shock mana base.

A shock land still applies its own entry condition. You may pay two life to have it enter untapped under normal circumstances. If you do, the fetch activation and shock payment cost three life altogether. If you do not need the mana immediately, you can let the shock enter tapped and keep those two life.

Wizards explains the distinction between basic lands and basic land types in the Edge of Eternities release notes. Our complete shock land list gives you all ten pairs.

Can fetch lands find Triomes?

Yes, when the Triome has a matching land type.

Ketria Triome is a Forest Island Mountain. Misty Rainforest can find it through Forest or Island. Scalding Tarn can find it through Island or Mountain. Wooded Foothills can find it through Mountain or Forest.

Ketria Triome still enters tapped. Being found by a fetch does not remove that restriction. Fetching it can be a useful way to establish several colors on a turn when you do not need immediate mana.

The same matching principle applies to other typed three-color lands. See our Triome deckbuilding guide for more on their role in a mana base.

Fetch lands and Commander color identity

The ten classic fetches have colorless color identity. Mentioning Island, Swamp, or another land type in their rules text does not give them that color identity.

For example, Polluted Delta can go in a blue-green Commander deck. It can find Breeding Pool because Breeding Pool is an Island, even though Polluted Delta also mentions Swamp.

The lands you include as targets must still be legal in your deck. That blue-green deck cannot include Watery Grave, because Watery Grave can produce black mana. A fetch’s search options do not expand your commander’s allowed colors.

The Comprehensive Rules cover both color identity and the additional Commander restriction for lands with basic land types.

What else makes fetch lands useful?

Fixing is the first benefit, but fetches can also support your deck’s other mechanics.

Landfall: Playing a fetch and then finding another land creates two land entries. That can produce two landfall triggers from a permanent that sees both events.

Graveyard resources: The sacrificed fetch goes to your graveyard, where it may support recursion or other graveyard-based cards.

Shuffling: Fetching lets you shuffle after effects that arrange cards on top of your library. That can matter when you want to clear away cards you would otherwise draw.

Removing a land from your library also changes its composition, but that small thinning effect is usually less important to your decision than reliable colors and useful interactions.

Choosing fetches for your deck

Start with your targets. Identify which typed lands you want to find, then choose fetches that reach them. Check the colors you need in your opening turns, rather than simply collecting fetches associated with your commander’s color pair.

Keep an eye on remaining targets during longer games. A fetch drawn late is much less useful if every matching land has already left your library.

You do not need all ten: A fetch earns its slot by finding useful lands at the right time. Several overlapping targets, enough basics, and sensible sequencing matter more than completing the cycle.

Other land-search options

Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse search for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped. They cannot normally find shock lands or Triomes.

Prismatic Vista also finds a basic land, but its ability does not require that land to enter tapped. Fabled Passage puts a basic onto the battlefield tapped, then untaps it if you control at least four lands, counting the one you just found.

Choose the package that supports your actual spells. For casual testing, you can print the fetches and matching targets through PrintMTG, then compare how the revised mana base handles your opening turns.