Desert
Land — Desert
: Add 
.: This land deals 1 damage to target attacking creature. Activate only during the end of combat step.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Friday Night Magic 2008
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #4522
Desert pays for itself the moment it triggers a Desert-matters payoff or pings a creature for 1 — and it costs you nothing but a colorless land slot. In Hazezon, Shaper of Sand builds and any other Desert-synergy shell, it's a staple, not a choice.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
Hazezon, Shaper of Sand cares about the number of Deserts you control — Desert is the cheapest possible way to pad that count, and at a 64% inclusion rate across over 9,000 decks, it's essentially mandatory.
Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients
Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients triggers off damage dealt to him, and Desert's 1-damage ping to attacking creatures can nudge combat math in ways that keep him alive to generate Dragon Spirit tokens. It's a fringe interaction, but 58% of Vrondiss players run it.
Horobi, Death's Wail
With Horobi, Death's Wail on the battlefield, any ability that targets a creature destroys it — Desert's ping ability targets, which turns it into a free unconditional removal spell every turn. That's why 42% of Horobi lists include it.
Yuma, Proud Protector
Yuma, Proud Protector draws a card whenever a Desert you control goes to the graveyard, so Desert doubles as a cycling land when it's spent sacrificing itself or getting sacked to a synergy piece. It's free card draw stapled to a land.
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph converts any 1-damage source into 3 damage, which means Desert's ping on an attacking creature becomes a 3-damage removal tool that triggers off a land. At 21% inclusion it's far from universal, but in dedicated Ghyrson builds the ceiling is real.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is Desert's natural home — Desert-matters commanders like Hazezon, Shaper of Sand and Yuma, Proud Protector make it a functional piece rather than a novelty. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees no competitive play; a colorless land that produces nothing on the first turn and only pings attacking creatures is well below the rate those formats demand. Pauper is the one non-rotating format where Desert occasionally appears in fringe creature-heavy metas as a zero-cost way to dissuade early attacks, though it rarely makes the cut there either. It's a Commander card through and through.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Desert isn't currently available in the system, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for the latest number. Given that it's a basic-land-adjacent colorless producer with narrow synergy, it has historically been a bulk pick-up — don't expect to pay much.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
- Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients
- Horobi, Death's Wail
- Yuma, Proud Protector
- Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.