Encroaching Wastes
Land
: Add 
.
, , Sacrifice this land: Destroy target nonbasic land.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Arena New Player Experience
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #10120
Encroaching Wastes trades itself to destroy any nonbasic land — a clean one-for-one that answers utility lands, tribal payoffs, and mana engines that other removal can't touch. The cost is real: you're down a land drop, so it belongs in decks that either run extra land recursion or simply don't need the mana past the early game. Wyleth, Soul of Steel runs it as cheap equipment fodder that doubles as targeted disruption, which is exactly the kind of two-way value that earns a slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Wyleth, Soul of Steel
Wyleth, Soul of Steel wants cheap equipment to trigger his draw engine, and Encroaching Wastes delivers that while also threatening an opponent's best nonbasic — a land slot that actually does two jobs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Encroaching Wastes fills a niche that most decks underserve: repeatable-free nonbasic land removal that fits on a land line rather than a spell slot. Cradle, Coffers, and Maze of Ith all fold to it, and because it occupies a land slot, it doesn't compete with your removal package. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Legacy, Encroaching Wastes is too slow — paying four mana and a land to kill a land is a losing exchange when your opponent is already ahead. Pioneer falls in the same camp; the tempo loss is too steep against efficient proactive strategies. Where it quietly earns a spot is in slower Commander builds that can afford to cash in a land for a game-changing answer on a key nonbasic.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Encroaching Wastes isn't currently available in our feed, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number. Historically it's been a bulk rare, the kind of card you can pick up for under a dollar without thinking twice.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.