10 Most Infuriating Cards In Magic: The Gathering
2. Back To Basics
While on the subject of lands not untapping, this card completely hates against any multi-coloured decks. While Back to Basics is in play, any non-basic land doesn’t untap, meaning you can say goodbye to those double lands and those dual-colour gates. Three colour decks become completely shut down and even some two-coloured decks which are struggling to find mana are completely put on hold, and don’t even mention the rainbow/WUBGR decks out there. Even lands with no colour generation like Strip Mine can’t be untapped, meaning any deck with any sort of mana diversity gets trashed from the moment this is played.
This land favours its owner playing only basics, mana dorks, and it synergises with cards which allow you to untap lands as it only specifies that they don’t untap during your untap step. So, while you’re struggling to build up your own mana, your opponent is using abilities to keep theirs open.