When you’re playing a Red and White deck, you may not always have the right type mana on hand to cast the spells you’re able to play.  For example, having only Mountains and a bunch of White spells or only Plains and a bunch of Red spells.  In that case, the Arid Mesa will come in handy: being able to search for your choice of either a Mountain or a Plains and putting it directly into play is quite convenient, even at the cost of 1 life and the mesa itself.  (Ideally, you’d want to search your library for a Plateau but if that dual land is legal in your particular format.)

Watch the Arid Mesa in Action

I have Steppe Lynx in play which gains +2/+2 until end of turn every time a land enters your control.  By playing Arid Mesa (which counts as a land) and then sacrificing it to bring another land into play, I’ve effectively played 2 lands in the same turn, transforming it from 0/1 to 4/5.

My final thoughts

Arid mesa will help minimize your chances of being mana screwed when you’re playing a Red and White deck.  If you have a ton of multicolored spells that require both red and white mana, you might be better off with Dual Lands.  But they’re mostly single colored, then this land will be a life saver early in the game even in spite of paying 1 life to search for either a Mountain or Plain.  To learn more about this card, please come to Amazon.com by following the button below: