Polluted Delta
Land
, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for an Island or Swamp card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #38
Polluted Delta is a fetch land that finds Islands and Swamps, and it's one of the most-played lands in Commander for exactly that reason — it fixes your mana, thins your deck, and enables graveyard synergies all at once. The only real trade-off is the one life, which matters in cEDH shells like Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver where life is a resource, but in the vast majority of games it's irrelevant.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | banned |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Polluted Delta is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. It's banned in Pioneer, where fetch lands were cut to reduce the consistency ceiling of the format and keep shuffle-and-thin lines from being a free upgrade on every two-color deck. Commander gives it a full pass because the singleton rule already caps consistency — you can only run one Polluted Delta, so its deck-thinning effect is marginal, and the mana-fixing upside is exactly what slower, greedier Commander lists need.
Where It Shines
Where the extra mana on turn one matters most
Big-mana shells like Vivi Ornitier
Vivi Ornitier decks want to land a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt on turn one and start building toward a game-winning artifact chain immediately — Polluted Delta fetches a Swamp or Island untapped to cast those rocks on curve while also setting up graveyard triggers that Vivi herself cares about.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Polluted Delta has been reprinted multiple times, and prices fluctuate depending on which printing is most recently in stock — check current listings before buying, since the spread between a premium foil and a standard reprint copy can be significant. It's worth picking up a copy in whatever version fits your budget; the card sees enough play that it holds value, but cheaper printings make it accessible well below the price of older editions.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver
- Vivi Ornitier
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.