MTG Fetch Lands | What are they and Why are they so Popular? 2026

TLDR

MTG fetch lands trade 1 life (and some shuffling) to fix your colors, fuel synergies, and make greedy mana bases actually function.
The “true” fetch lands are the 10 Onslaught/Zendikar-style ones that can enter untapped and grab lands with basic land types.
Deck thinning is real but small. The big wins are mana consistency, landfall, graveyard fuel, and shuffle value (especially in Legacy and Commander).
Pioneer doesn’t allow the Khans fetch lands, and sanctioned events still require real cards. Proxies are for casual play and testing where allowed.

Buying expensive lands in Magic the Gathering sucks.

MTG fetch lands are a special kind of annoying.

Especially lands that you almost always immediately put in the graveyard to find other, less expensive lands.

A Scalding Tarn these days can fetch (pun intended) anywhere from “not cheap” to “why is cardboard like this,” depending on the printing. Either way, it’s a lot for a land that essentially does nothing but find another land and make you lose 1 life.

If I’m going to spend a lot of money on a card I tend to want some big, splashy Timmy card like an Eldrazi or something, not a land that hurts me and goes to the graveyard immediately. Seems like such a lame thing to spend money on (of course if you proxy them for casual play, you bypass the expense).

Thankfully, fetch lands have shown up in multiple reprints and special printings over the last few years, so they’re not always at their historical highs anymore. Still, it’s a hefty investment to own a playset of each.

That’s the gist of my love-hate relationship with fetch lands anyway; they’re expensive and if you want to play competitive Modern and Legacy, they’re hard to avoid.

So, what exactly are fetch lands?

What are MTG Fetch Lands?

Fetch lands are a type of land that allows you to search your library for another land card and put it into play. While there have been a few cycles of fetch lands in Magic’s history, we’re going to be focusing on the best and most popular cycles.

The “true fetch” cycles (the ones people actually mean)

Allied fetch lands were first introduced in the Onslaught set and they’ve been a vital part of Magic ever since. A few years later, Zendikar brought us the enemy fetch lands, and now there’s a fetch for every color pair.

The “slow fetch” lands (yes, they exist, no, they’re not the same)

While Mirage brought us the original fetch lands, the problem is they enter the battlefield tapped, making them too slow for most competitive formats. In many cases it’s not worth even reading the text on lands that unconditionally enter the battlefield tapped; with the exception of triomes and a few utility lands, they kinda suck.

Compared to standard fetches, slow fetch lands are extremely weak. In many cases, you are better off running a basic land in the slot. Onslaught fetch lands and Zendikar fetches are excellent because they come into play untapped. And frankly, the hit of one life is a small downside for the tempo.

Why are Fetch Lands so Popular?

If you’re a standard or draft MTG player and have never played modern or the eternal formats then there’s a good chance you may never have heard of fetch lands in the first place.

There are many reasons why MTG fetch lands are so important in the game. But first, here are the standard fetch lands (the links will take you to our product page):

Mana Consistency

Fetch lands are important because they allow you to get the lands you need in order to cast your spells, especially in decks with multiple colors that require greedy mana bases. If you are using four or five colors for your deck, you need mana fixing.

The most common use of fetch lands is to fetch a shock land, however, if you want to tap the shock land on the same turn that you fetch it, you’ll end up paying 3 life. In many cases though, the extra tempo is worth taking a free Lightning Bolt to the face.

If you have original Dual Lands, fetching them is even better.

This is the secret that makes fetches so strong. They aren’t just “two-color lands.” In a deck with lands that have basic land types (shock lands, original duals, triomes, and other typed duals), a fetch land often turns into whatever color you’re missing right now.

Example: Misty Rainforest can only search for a Forest or Island card. But if your deck includes typed lands like Steam Vents (Island Mountain) or Temple Garden (Forest Plains), Misty can suddenly function as access to red or white too, because it is really fetching the land types, not the colors printed on the fetch.

This makes three, four, and five color decks vastly more playable, and opens up new opportunities for deck building. A lot of Modern “Domain” and multicolor goodstuff piles simply do not work the same way without fetches plus typed lands.

Deck Thinning

First off, they allow you to thin out your deck a little. When you crack a fetch land, you remove a land from your library, which very slightly increases the odds you draw spells later.

This does matter over long games, and it stacks up when you’re cracking multiple fetches. But if someone tells you deck thinning is the main reason to run fetches, they’re either selling something, coping, or both. The real payoff is still color fixing and synergy.

Enabling Shuffling

Whenever you fetch, you can search your library, and then you are required to shuffle your deck. This one’s more for commander but it’s also applicable to modern and legacy too with their numerous blue library manipulation spells like Brainstorm and Opt.

Important 2026 footnote: Sensei’s Divining Top is banned in Modern and Legacy. Fetches plus Sensei used to be OP.

Combining with Landfall

Wizards of the Coast introduced Landfall in Zendikar (seems like an important set for fetches overall), reintroduced in Zendikar rising, and revisited the ability in Modern Horizons 2. It’s a strong mechanic, but with MTG fetches, the triggers go brrrrrr and things get out of hand very fast.

A fetch land can give you multiple landfall triggers in one turn because you get:

the land drop (the fetch land entering), and then
another land entering when you crack it.

One rules correction that matters: lands themselves do not use the stack, but landfall is a triggered ability and it does go on the stack. People can respond to the trigger. The reason landfall is still hard to “stop” is that you usually can’t prevent the land from entering in the first place, and fetches make repeated triggers reliable.

Learn about Shock Lands and Dual Lands in our other deep dive articles.

Fetch Land Value Engine

Now, Wrenn and Six is quite a card, but with fetches his +1 ability gives you a guaranteed land drop every turn until you run out of fetchable lands.

Not only is this amazing for consistency, but also for thinning too; the longer the game goes on the more likely you are to draw a spell rather than a land.

No wonder he’s banned in legacy; his +1 with Wasteland or Strip Mine is disgusting.

Fueling the graveyard (quietly a huge deal)

Fetch lands put themselves in the graveyard, which matters for a lot of mechanics and cards:

Delve style spells that care about cards in graveyards
Delirium style effects that care about card types
Anything that wants lands in the graveyard, or wants you to have “a permanent card” in there

Even when you are not “doing a graveyard deck,” fetches casually turn on stuff that would otherwise take work.

Lowering your own life total

Some cards, like Death’s Shadow and Scourge of the Skyclaves, encourage you to damage yourself. As far as I know, there’s no more consistent method of losing 5 life on turn 1 than fetching a shock land, shocking and then Thoughtseizing.

Without fetches, modern Death’s Shadow decks would hardly be viable anywhere in Magic the Gathering.

Fetches Enabling revolt

A niche use case, but a use case nonetheless. Revolt requires that a permanent you control has left the battlefield this turn. Fetch lands do that on demand.

This is one of the reasons that even some decks that could be mostly mono-color still run a few fetches; Fatal Push wants reliable Revolt sources to be at its best.

Playing around problems (and sometimes dodging land destruction)

Another niche use case, but one that does come up: if your opponent points targeted land destruction at your fetch land, you can crack it in response and at least convert it into a real land before it dies.

This does not save you from mass land destruction. If the table has decided nobody is allowed to have nice things, your fetches are not going to negotiate your way out of it.

Avoiding removal

Again, a niche use case but one that I’ve stumbled across in a few games in my time. If your opponent is playing targeting land destruction effects like Pillage then keeping your fetches in play gives you some way to avoid all your lands getting destroyed.

Sadly this doesn’t work against mass land destruction, as when it resolves it doesn’t matter if your fetches stay in play or not; your lands are getting destroyed.

How Many Fetch Lands Should You Run?

This depends on format, colors, and how much you hate shuffling.

Commander (EDH)

Two colors: you can play none and be fine, but 2 to 6 is common if you own them.
Three colors: fetches get noticeably better because typed lands and triomes start doing real work.
Four to five colors: fetches do a lot of heavy lifting, especially if you are trying to keep tapped lands under control.

If your deck is casual and your mana is already smooth, you do not need to max out on fetches. If your deck is tuned, fetches are one of the easiest ways to reduce “I can’t cast my hand” games.

Modern and Legacy

In formats where speed and consistency are everything, fetches are often core infrastructure. You usually start with your on-color fetches, then add off-color fetches if your mana base and typed lands support it.

Also, the better your spells are at punishing stumbles, the more your mana base needs to stop stumbling.

A very real “paper Magic” factor

Fetches add time. Shuffling is not free. If you play a lot of paper events, or your pod already takes 3 minutes to resolve a Cultivate, you should factor this in.

What are the other Fetch Lands to Consider?

Prismatic Vista

Prismatic Vista is a good option. It can only fetch basic lands so it doesn’t have the flexibility of something like a Scalding Tarn or Flooded Strand which can grab a dual land or shock land.

That said, its line type is simply “Land.” This means you don’t have to match the color identity in Commander, for example.

It may also be better for 3 to 5 color decks, because you can pick any basic land you need, you aren’t limited to two color options. For some formats, this is worth running alongside other fetches.

Evolving Wilds

Evolving Wilds is very budget-friendly. That said, it’s significantly weaker than the true fetch lands. It only allows you to fetch a basic land, and worse, that land comes into play tapped.

You also have close cousins like Terramorphic Expanse and Fabled Passage that live in the same “budget fetch-ish” space. They are not the same thing as true fetches, but they are often good enough for casual decks that just want smoother mana.

We typically recommend the standard allied and enemy fetches:

Windswept Heath
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Bloodstained Mire
Wooded Foothills
Marsh Flats
Scalding Tarn
Verdant Catacombs
Arid Mesa
Misty Rainforest

Side Effects of Fetch Lands

There is debate about whether fetch lands are too dominant for formats like Modern. And while I don’t see them getting banned anytime soon, their sheer power and utility mean that their price tags represent a barrier to entry for older formats.

They also come with real gameplay costs:

Life loss adds up, especially when you pair fetches with shocks.
Nonbasic hate is a thing, and fetches often push you toward nonbasics unless you intentionally fetch basics.
Search punishment exists. Some cards actively punish you for searching your library, which makes fetch lands awkward at best and suicidal at worst.
Time and logistics: shuffling, presenting, cutting. Paper Magic is already a hobby. Fetches make it more of a hobby.

Their power also has consequences inside Wizards of the Coast too.

Now every new land cycle they create needs to be sorted into two categories, either fetchable or not fetchable. If they somehow managed to make fetchable lands that are better than shock lands, Modern could be in for a real shake up.

Format Note: Pioneer and Fetch Lands

Fetches are effectively not part of Pioneer. More precisely, the five Khans of Tarkir fetch lands are on Pioneer’s banned list, and that choice is a big reason Pioneer is not just “Modern, but cheaper and slightly sadder.”

Final thoughts

Fetch lands can be annoying because they’re expensive and in so many modern, legacy, commander, and vintage decks. Many modern decks, in particular, wouldn’t be that pricey if it weren’t for the fetches in the mana base.

Commander decks, on the other hand, can live with or without fetches or even dual lands for that matter; that said, they do greatly enhance the consistency of your mana base, spell casting, and card draw. Most MTG players can benefit from them.

The bottom line is that while fetches are often obstructively expensive, they allow for much more diverse metagames and encourage more brewing.

Prices ebb and flow, but in general Magic the Gathering is getting more expensive. If you still really hate fetches or don’t want to spend money on cards that you effectively toss in the graveyard and ping yourself for then we recommend buying a set of quality custom proxy fetch lands. Swap out some basic lands for a fetch land or two, and your deck will immediately improve. Fetches are actually banned in pioneer to keep the format from becoming mini-modern.

Just make sure you avoid the slow fetches.

FAQs

Do fetch lands actually “thin your deck” in a meaningful way?

A little. Over many fetches and long games, it adds up. But the main reason to run fetches is mana fixing and synergy, not thinning.

Can fetch lands get any color of mana?

Not by themselves. They search for land types (like Forest or Island). In a multicolor deck with typed lands, that often translates into access to whatever color you need.

Are fetch lands legal in Modern, Legacy, Commander, and Pioneer?

Modern and Legacy: yes, fetches are legal, but some related cards (like Sensei’s Divining Top) are not. Commander: fetches are legal. Pioneer: the five Khans fetch lands are banned.

Should I run off-color fetch lands?

Sometimes, yes. If your deck has the right typed lands, off-color fetches can still fix your colors. This is more common in Modern and Legacy mana bases than in casual Commander.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/november-18-2019-banned-and-restricted-announcement

https://magic.wizards.com/en/banned-restricted-list