Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and Brendan Murphy, check out the green rare in the cycle of Mastery spells from Strixhaven: School of Mages — Verdant Mastery!
This cycle of rare spells allow you to pay a discounted cost for the card with the drawback of letting an opponent also get a benefit. Let’s look at the green one.
You may 3G rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.
Search your library for up to four basic land cards and reveal them. Put one of them onto the battlefield tapped under an opponent’s control if the 3G cost was paid. Put two of them onto the battlefield under your control and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle.
For six mana, you get to put two basics onto the battlefield and put two more into your hand, making it a decent four-for-one. But if you pay four, you get most of the effect, but instead of getting two lands for your hand you only get one and have to give an opponent the other one.
This type of card will shine in Commander, where you not only want an abundance of lands, but the discounted cost will help you much more than one other player getting an extra land. Plus, by getting the option of any opponent, you can target the opponent it will help the least to get the most out of the spell, or you can target someone that you need on your side to help out instead. Now you can make a deal for some help later in the game for getting them out of a mana stall or even leverage at the time for whoever wants it the most.
What do you think of Verdant Mastery. Is there a specific Commander deck that would want this spell more than others?
Strixhaven: School of Mages releases April 23. Check out our official preview gallery.