MTG Tumblr Time

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

We'll be at OMG! Games here in Barrie tonight with our latest Magic: the Gathering standard brew so look for us there.  Tonight at OMG! Games is also the last Friday that they will be providing a random prize giveaway of a Dragon's Maze booster box at the start of the 3rd round - so may the odds ever be in our, - I mean your favor.

Anywhoos - We did not get around to get to a Tumblr summary in this week's daily posts to MTG Realm so we'll correct that now.   Here's a few posts to our sister site, MTG Realm on Tumblr covering a wide range of miscellany such as M14 spoilers, promos, news, rumors, and funny gamer stuff - let's go.
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Photoset

June 28, 2013

Magic: the Gathering - Magic 2014 Ultra PRO Line-up
Here’s the Ultra•PRO M14 product offerings - card sleeves, boxes, binders and playmats.  New full-view box design.  If you have a soft spot for a certain red planeswalker, you will approve.

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Photoset

June 27, 2013

33 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Friday Night Magic Promos
Dimir Charm - August FNM Promo
Original Gatecrash art by Zoltan Boros, FNM Promo art also by Zoltan Boros

Experiment One - September FNM Promo
Original Gatecrash art by Chase Stone, FNM Promo art by Jack Wang

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Photo

June 28, 2013

Magic: the Gathering -DotP 2014
Quirion Ranger got an art upgrade for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014!
Original Visions, illustrated by Tom Kyffin
New D14, illlustrated by Allen Williams~

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June 27, 2013

16 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Haz a Sad
… When you go to your LGS to buy a few packs of Modern Masters.

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Photo

June 27, 2013

123 notes

Magic: the Gathering - WOOD!
Srsly - this must be the most epic MTG storage card box / case combo I’ve seen.  Still tracking down who did this beautiful work but I suspect it may be Geek Chic work. 
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Photo

June 27, 2013

50 notes

Magic: the Gathering - What’s Your Game?
Very cool MTG format buttons from the brilliant pen of @inkwell_looter (http://inkwelllooter.blogspot.ca)

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Photo

June 24, 2013

24 notes

Magic: the Gathering - First World Collector Problems
… . Running out of surface area while organizing your MTG foils~ 

Photoset

June 20, 2013

73 notes

 

Magic: the Gathering - Angelic Card Storage
Reddit use krello posted this lovely card case he recently got for his birthday from his wife.  She had created the entire case, including card dividers.  The beautiful art on the front is of course Johannes Voss’ Restoration Angel which was wood-burned into the case front.  The entire project took approximately 2 months in her spare time.

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Photoset

June 19, 2013

59 notes

 

Magic: the Gathering - Zendikar Gear
Zendikar is a world of adventure and reward for those with the courage to brave its perils - click these links - You’re gonna need the right gear to survive.
• Expedition Map
• Adventuring Gear
• Trailblazer’s Boots
• Explorer’s Scope
• Trusty Machete
• Grappling Hook

Zendikar, setting for the block of the same name, is a plane with powerful sources of mana, which flows differently there. Its landscape is constantly shifting and changing. This process is called The Roil. This makes settlements very scarce and only few outposts of civilization are present. Its riches in mana and other wealth has made it a destination for Planeswalkers to explore and exploit. The promise of this is also enough to lure in various local explorers and adventurers.

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M14 Spoilers 6-26

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

As it is Wenesday, here's a link off to a random wiki article for the girl with the same name in the Addams family and a personal note that we think Christina Ricci did a brilliant job at playing this character sent off to summer camp in Addams Family Values.

Anywhoos - let's get along to today's MTG Realm blog post - more Magic: the Gathering news.  This news may or may not be news to you but we're just catching up with some Magic 2014 core set spoilers 'n' previews.

Fist up - RUMORS - unofficial - please only rely upon official previews to the mothersite.  Rumor has it that Darksteel Forge, Millstone and Duress get the tap for reprints in M14.  Here are the card image mock-ups.

 

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Next up - we've known for a while that the buy-a-box promo was to be Ratchet Bomb.  We finally have art for this foil alternate-art promo card.  Expect this puppy to pour the hate on the game table against token builds.

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Finally,  at GP Vegas last weekend, we were treated to this lovely lay out of all the basic lands of Magic: 2014.  The arts are of course beautiful but this does leave us with a slight feeling of dread - why?  With the projections offered of the M14 name and number crunch, there really does not seem like there is room for the regular 'check lands' in the non-basic land slots . . . we'll have to wait just another week to see where this finally goes.

 

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M14 Planeswalkers

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

The next Magic: the Gathering core set, Magic  2014 (M14) is due to be released on July 19th with prerelease events taking place the weekend before.  Next week, official previews begin on the mothersite and will last only one week, which really is no big whoop as we've been treated to quite a few M14 spoilers and previews over the last two months which was kicked off with Duels of the Planeswalkers previews in March at PAX East.  Speaking of DotP, MTV Geek posted an article yesterday previewing both the normal and promo cards for M14's Green PW, Garruk.  The Garruk unique black-on-black promo will be showing up at the San Deigo Comic-Con next month.

Anywhoos - we now have four of the five Planeswalkers expected in M14 with only the fiery red pyromancer Chandra skipping roll-call.  Ajani, Jace and Liliana are getting the tap for reprints (from M13) while Chandra and Garruk get new cards.  We're gonna check our play groups's collection right now and order any missing cards from MTG Mint Card.  Here's the 4.1.1 -
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Ajani, Caller of the Pride, 1ww
Planeswalker - Ajani, Mythic Rare

+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature.

-3: Target creature gains flying and double strike until end of turn.
 
-8: Put X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is your life total.

Loyalty: 4
~Jace, Memory Adept, 3uu
Planeswalker - Jace, Mythic Rare
 
+1: Draw a card. Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
 
0: Target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
 
-7: Any number of target players each draw twenty cards.
 
Loyalty: 4
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Liliana of the Dark Realms, 2bb
Planeswalker - Liliana, Mythic Rare
 
+1: Search your library for a Swamp card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
 
-3: Target creature gets +X/+X or -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of Swamps you control.
 
-6: You get an emblem with "Swamps you control have ‘Tap: Add {B}{B}{B}{B} to your mana pool.'"
 
Loyalty: 3
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Chandra, Pyromaster
Planeswalker - Chandra, Mythic Rare

Burn Baby Burn

Disco Inferno

Face Melt, blah, blah, Burn!  
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Garruk, Caller of Beasts, 4GG
Planeswalker - Garruk, Mythic Rare
 
+1 Reveal the top five cards of your library. Put all creature cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
 
-3 You may put a green creature card from your hand onto the battlefield
 
-7 You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
 
Loyalty: 4 

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Modern Metagame

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Since the release of Modern Masters, the resultant 'Modern Week' on the mothership, and the Grand Prix Los Vegas over the weekend, most Magic: the Gathering players have their heads in Modern format.  Before we get any further, we ant to congratulate Neal Oliver who had won with a UWr build at GP Vegas. GP Vegas was a Modern Masters sealed tournament and although attendance was capped at 4,500, it was no problem sending this tournament into the record books as the largest trading card tournament ever held.  Kudos to the event organizer, Cascade Games as well as the small army of MTG Judges who made everything run smoothly.  We suggest you check out this post to the mothership by Nate Price and our buddy James Arnold.

Anywhoos, onto today's topic - the Modern Format Metagame.  We don't play modern nearly enough as we would likely to but we can offer up some general observations of what we consider to be the next most fun format right after EDH / Commander.  There's a great variety of very kewl builds out there that we've seen and have played against at our kitchen table as well as our local gaming shop, OMG! Games, but we can probably take a stab at nailing down the top five more popular builds we've seen as shown here:

Melira Pod, WBG : Featuring cards such as Birthing Pod, Kitchen Finks, and Birds of Paradise

Jund, BRG: Featuring cards such as Liliana of the Veil, Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize

UWR Control, WUR : Featuring cards such as Snapcaster Mage, Electrolyze and Lightning Helix

Gruul Zoo, RG : Featuring cards such as Kird Ape, Goblin Guide, and Tarmogoyf

RG Tron, RG : Featuring cards such as Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere and Sylvan Scrying

We here at MTG Realm have a few different builds going in our playgroup with RStomp usually playing an Infect build, JD playing BW tokens, RetroTech playing Combo-Elves, and yours truly (CopySix) playing a G/W hexproof or mono-white Soul Sisters.  Drop us a line in the comment thingy - what Modern tech are you playing?
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GP Vegas

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, look for us at OMG! Games here in Barrie this evening to take in a Friday Night Magic event.  This month's FNM promo is a very lovely looking foil Izzet Charm with art from Zoltan Boros.  Speaking of promos, OMG! Games will be giving away to one lucky FNM player a chance to win a booster box of the latest Magic: the Gathering expansion set, Dragon's Maze, so be sure to hang around until the start of the third match for this sweet random draw.
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Images from @Gaming_Pit, @HipstersoftheCoast, ‏@RevEnFuego and ‏@MagicJudges.

Anywhoos, the big MTG news this weekend is of course Grand Prix Las Vegas.  GP Vegas 
format is Modern Masters sealed deck / booster draft and is being organized by Cascade Games.  What caught some gamers off guard in the announcement yesterday about capping the registration at approximately 4,500 players.  

This means that unless you have already registered, you're chances of getting into the GP are slim to none, and Slim just left town.  Right now at the Cashman Center in Lost Wages, players are in line ups around the block to to get into the Friday Events.  For the Main event on Saturday / Sunday, be sure to catch the latest on Twitch TV as well as post to the mothersite.

We'll sign off right now with some pretty amazing GP Vegas facts 'n' details from Nocturnal Nightingale - 

If all 4500 players show up, GP: Vegas will become the largest Magic tournament of all time, beating GP: Charlotte’s record by nearly 2000 players.  If they had not capped the event, at the previous rate of sign-ups, around 7000 players would have preregistered by Saturday morning.

• Around 70,000 packs will be given out total as prize and product.
• That number, plus basic lands, means that roughly 1.4 million cards will be given out.
• If you laid those cards end to end they would be 78 miles long.
• If you laid those cards out they would cover 1 1/2 standard football fields.
• That number is over half the original print run of Alpha.
• Assuming perfect math and foil/mythic distribution, 16 foil Tarmogoyfs will be opened. Somewhere around 400 regular Goyfs will be opened.
• One third of all L3 judges in the world will be there.
• One third of all L4 judges in the world will be there.
• Half of the L5 judges in the world will be there.
• Every single L2 in the southwestern US is on staff, roughly 40% of all judges L2 and up in the US.
• The event was capped at 4500 players.

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Theros Bestiary

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

For today's daily post, we want to provide to you some speculation on some of the creatures we think may inhabit the plane of Theros.  Theros is the first set in the Theros block. This Magic: the Gathering set will be released on September 27,2013 followed by Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx.  There are three different sources we relied upon to provide a thematic background for this set:

• Mothership announcement art preview,
• IDW Comics solicitation for Theros, and
• WotC trademark application.

From the announcement art preview, we can clearly see some sort of demi-god garbed in classical greek or roman robes.  On the IDW comic book cover, we are shown the main character Planeswalker Dack Fayden on a trireme with what appears to be temples and statues in the distance, all with a Hellenic feeling.  This is further confirmed by the text from the IDW soliciation ". . Dack is led to a strange new plane: the realm of THEROS, a sun-dappled ruled by gods and inhabited by mythological beasts!".  

Finally, from a trademark application form (PTO Form 1957) from the WotC, where statements are made how / why 'Theros' was chosen as a name for "fantasy world within which the game is set", namely "Applicant chose THEROS as the trademark for the new MAGIC: THE GATHERING® expansion set for its association with Greece and Greek mythology".  A further statement indicates that in Greek mythology, "Theros" is one of the "Horae" or goddesses representing the seasons.  The four Horae are in fact called Eiar, Theros, Kheimon, and Phthinoporon, the Greek words for spring, summer, winter and autumn respectively.

Anywhos, let's get on topic and the reason for today's post - our speculated Bestiary of what wonderful critters we might just see in September.  In Greek mythology we realise several broad categories including (but not limited to) gods, demi-gods, legendary heroes, and mythical monsters, hybrids, and amimals.  Following are some speculated (existing MTG) creature types from the :

Gods, demi-gods, legendary heroes - we might see Archons, Avatars, Elementals, along with the expected class types like Druid, Cleric, Soldier, Mystic, Shaman, etc.

Mythical monsters and other critters - may include Centaur, Chimera, Cyclops, Demons, Gorgon, Hippogriff, Horror, Hydra, Manitcore, Minotaur, Pegasus, Phoenix, Spirits, Unicorn, etc.

With regards to artifacts, we might see such things as Automotons and other creatures crafted by some divinity as well as the usual array of equipment - we're personally hoping for something like the wings Icarus had used on his ill-fated escape flight with his father Daedalus from Minos of Crete.
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Wallpaper Wednesday

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We have a bunch of Magic: the Gathering wallpapers from the mothersite to catch up with today.  The theme, as you can see is Modern Masters.  These four cards all received epic new arts which you may now enjoy on your desktop or mobile device.  Speaking of beautiful things, MTG Mint Card now has a lovely selection of Modern Masters foils to pimp out your stack.  Anywhoos - onto the MTG wallpapers. 
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Tarmogoyf, Modern Masters Mythic Rare, illustrated by Ryan Barger

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Sword of Fire and Ice, Modern Masters Rare, illustrated by Chris Rahn

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Dark Confidant, Modern Masters Rare, illustrated by Scott M. Fischer

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City of Brass, Modern Masters Rare, illustrated by Jung Park

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State of Standard

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We may have been complaining just a titch in our last post about just how tough our local metagame is so we want to follow up today with this - 

Having 'survived' the Magic: the Gathering monoculture that was a stale format dominated by Caw-Blade, we are definitely most encouraged by the recent results of StarCityGames Open: Columbus.  This tournament took as part of the Origins Game Fair, Greater Columbus Convention Center with two main events (standard and legacy) and a lot of side action.  Anywhoos - here's a quick run down of what we here at MTG Realm consider a good diverse game:  

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Jund - John Wallace, 1st Place

Lands (25) : 2 Forest, 4 Blood Crypt, 3 Dragonskull Summit, 2 Kessig Wolf Run, 4 Overgrown Tomb, 2 Rootbound Crag,  4 Stomping Ground, 4 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures (14) :     4 Huntmaster of the Fells, 1 Sire of Insanity, 4 Thragtusk, 2 Vampire Nighthawk, 3 Olivia Voldaren
Planeswalkers (5) : 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter, 2 Liliana of the Veil
Spells (16) : 2 Ground Seal, 2 Putrefy, 2 Bonfire of the Damned, 1 Dreadbore, 4 Farseek, 2 Mizzium Mortars, 2 Pillar of Flame, 1 Rakdos's Return
Sideboard : 1 Sire of Insanity, 1 Deadbridge Chant, 2 Abrupt Decay, 2 Devour Flesh, 1 Liliana of the Veil, 1 Dreadbore, 2 Duress, 1 Gaze of Granite, 2 Pillar of Flame, 2 Slaughter Games

R/G Aggro - Adam Johnson, 2nd Place

Lands (20) : 10 Mountain, 4 Rootbound Crag, 4 Stomping Ground, 2 Temple Garden
Creatures (28) : 4 Boros Reckoner, 4 Burning-Tree Emissary, 4 Flinthoof Boar, 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager, 4 Hellrider, 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Stromkirk Noble
Spells (12) : 4 Madcap Skills, 4 Searing Spear, 4 Pillar of Flame
Sideboard : 2 Gruul War Chant, 3 Volcanic Strength, 2 Electrickery, 4 Skullcrack, 3 Mizzium Mortars, 1 Forest

Bant Hexproof - Steven Durham, 3rd Place

Creatures (17) : 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim, 4 Invisible Stalker, 2 Strangleroot Geist, 4 Voice of Resurgence, 4 Geist of Saint Traft
Planeswalkers (2) : 2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Lands (21) : 1 Forest, 4 Breeding Pool, 4 Hallowed Fountain, 4 Hinterland Harbor, 4 Sunpetal Grove, 4 Temple Garden
Spells (20) : 4 Ethereal Armor, 4 Rancor, 4 Spectral Flight, 4 Unflinching Courage, 4 Selesnya Charm
Sideboard : 4 Centaur Healer, 4 Advent of the Wurm, 1 Azorius Charm, 3 Rootborn Defenses, 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons, 1 Forest~
We  suggest you take a look at the recent Gathering Magic article, Standard Analysis: Columbus, by Nick Vigabool which may provide some very decent insight.  We don't have too much more to add other than we're ordering up a few extra Ajani, Caller of the Pride from MTG Mint Card for that Bant Hexproof deck we just took apart - perhaps it may work better at our local FNM.
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FNM Standard

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

The MTG Realm crew has a few casual constructed builds for fun with our playgroup and one or two more serious stacks that we take to our local card shoppe, OMG! Games here in Barrie.  After our last Friday Night Magic event, we've decided to put into retirement our Bant Auras / Hexproof build.  The local metagame is well developed and bordering on the competitive which means that we have to move up our game in order just to get to Top 8.  We've also picked up a few extra singles from MTG Mint Card for this reason to get us there, but where to go from here?  As the local game somewhat mirrors what's happening in the pro circuit, we've had a look at the mothersite.  More specifically, Jacob Van Lunen's Standard Compendium from a few weeks ago as well as Channel Fireball's Power Rankings written up by Josh Silvestri and staff.  Here's two recent Power Rankings lists -
Rankings Updated:  06/16/2013
 
1. Voice of Resurgence
2. Boros Reckoner
3. Lingering Souls
4. Cartel Aristocrat
5. Restoration Angel
6. Ghor-Clan Rampager
7. Burning-Tree Emissary
8. Unburial Rites
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Rankings Updated:  05/21/2013
 
1. Ghor-Clan Rampager
2. Burning-Tree Emissary
3. Sire of Insanity
4. Advent of the Wurm
5. Voice of Resurgence
6. Unflinching Courage
7. Olivia Voldaren
8. Snapcaster Mage

In these lists there's a suggestion why our particular Bant Hexproof build may not have been delivering the way it had about a month ago.  We've been nerfed more frequently with the likes of Bonfire of the Damned as well as other cards typically in a Gruul build which ramps rapidly and threatens to blow you out of the water early game.  We've considered adding control / counter elements to that Bant build.  The problem that any control deck has now is that given the current metagame, you don't really know tools you will need until things settle down a titch more.

Our thoughts are now focusing on developing a Midrange of purely Aggro strategy.  Midrange is great given cards like Farseek and other mana-dorks to ramp into massive threats and giving you the fuel needed to cast whatever high cost spells you need.  Similarily, aggro decks are making use of the same green-centric mana sources like Burning-Tree Emissary and with the great selection of non-basic land, a player can easily game in a two, three, or four color stack.
After a weekend in the basement, we've decided on aggro green-white G/W tokens featuring Voice of Resurgence, Advent of the Wurm and the likes.  We had also created a somewhat control-ish black-white (B/W) strategy with Cartel Aristocrat.  We'll let you know next week how we did at the game table.
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Land Ho!

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, we are going to get out to our local gamery shoppe, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario this evening.  They are running a promotion during FNM with a random booster box of a Dragon's Maze each Friday Night Magic event for the month of June, 2013.  Also of note, MTG Mint Card has Modern Masters singles available for order as well as Magic 2014 core set pre-orders.
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Anywhoos - today we wanted to yatter a bit about some of the most important Magic: the Gathering cards in almost any imaginable format of this, our fav game - Lands.  We're interested in talking about this at the moment given all the speculation of Magic 2014 going on at the moment concerning non-basic lands.  Gamers will need lands (which represent a 'mana' source) to cast almost every MTG spell out there.

 

Here's a quick and unpolished summary of the common types of nonbasic lands.  We suggest you take some time to drop by the mothersite and give a read to these two very good articles - A Brief History of Tap Lands, by Tom LaPille / and Mana with All the Fixin's by Mark Rosewater.
No colors of mana/no mana:
• Fetch lands - Fetch lands are a cycle of ten rare lands from Onslaught and Zendikar that can be sacrificed along with the payment of one life, to search the controller's library for a single land that has one of two basic land types specified on the card.
One colors of mana:
• Sac lands - These lands can either come into play tapped or untapped, provided a single mana color or could be sacrificed for one or more of the same or different colors.

Two colors of mana - self explanitory
• Dual lands
• Filter lands
• Gates
• Karoo lands
• Pain lands
• Sac lands
• Shock lands
• Slow lands
• Taplands

Three colors of mana:
• Lairs
• Triple lands

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