Gruul Turf - 0
Land
Gruul Turf enters the battlefield tapped.
When Gruul Turf comes into play, return a land you control to its owner's hand.
{T}: Add {G}{R} to your mana pool.
Initial thoughts:
I was wondering how long I could do a random card of the day until I got stuck with a land. And to be honest I'm kind of glad it wasn't a basic land. This land is one of my favorite cycles actually. The number one thing I hate about non-basic lands is how expensive they are and yet how seemingly necessary they are as well. Two colors is pretty managable without rare lands like Sulfur Falls or Glacial Fortress. When you hit three colors, if you aren't playing green, it is virtually necessary to have nonbasic lands. Even with green you should be playing them.
I was kind of ticked off that Terramorphic Expanse didn't make it into M12. I was even madder when I realized both Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds were rotating out at the same time. This meant that all the budget players like myself basically had to crack down and get the dual lands. Lucky me, I traded my Snapcaster Mage, a few rares, and a couple copies of Path to Exile for a playset of them for my Patriot Mirrodin Standard deck.
Anyways this is where I think nonbasic lands should go. Right in the common slot. I was even proud of R&D for getting the "comes in tapped, gain 1 life" dual lands from Zendikar, and then the rare lands were manlands. That is perfectly acceptable. Having necessary cards for play at rare status doesn't seem right. And I'm not talking about necessary cards like Snapcaster Mage, Lotus Cobra, or Goblin Guide--I mean lands. And to be honest, in my opinion, the cycle of M11/M12 rare lands could have been placed at uncommon to solve the money problem of trying to enter competitive magic.
As for the land itself, it is good, but not amazing. The best lands are the ones that come into play untapped, but the dual color kind of makes up for. It bounces a land, so if you think about playing it turn 1 it will bounce itself. But also since it bounces lands it makes use of landfall abilities. It also makes sure that you don't miss a land drop. With two of these and a regular basic land, you have turns 1-5 on land drops so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Just make sure the rest of your hand can handle an "out of the gates" deck.
Basically this cycle is auto-include in EDH. But you wouldn't want more than 4 in your deck. Having 3 of these in your opening hand could be the start of a really bad game. Definitely not a 4-of, but having one of them in your deck couldn't hurt. 4/5
If you liked this card you might like the others in it's megacycle:
W/U: Azorius Chancery
W/B: Orazhov Basilica
W/R: Boros Garrison
W/G: Selesnya Sanctuary
U/B: Dimir Aqueduct
U/R: Izzet Boilerworks
U/G: Simic Growth Chamber
B/R: Rakdos Carnarium
B/G: Golgari Rot Farm
R/G: Gruul Turf
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