Rocky Roads
Land
This land enters tapped unless you control a Mount or Vehicle.
: Add 
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, , Sacrifice this land: Create a 1/1 colorless Pilot creature token with "This token saddles Mounts and crews Vehicles as though its power were 2 greater." Activate only as a sorcery.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Aetherdrift
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #10913
Rocky Roads hits every opponent's nonbasic lands simultaneously, turning a cheap sorcery into a table-wide mana disruption event. At its mana cost, Balthier and Fran decks run it as a tempo piece that doubles as land-type manipulation for their own engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Balthier and Fran
Balthier and Fran rewards playing with nonbasic lands in specific ways, and Rocky Roads pulls double duty by disrupting opponents while setting up the battlefield conditions that commander wants to exploit. It appears in over 60% of Balthier and Fran lists for exactly that reason.
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
Kolodin, Triumph Caster builds around land synergies and landfall-adjacent effects, making Rocky Roads a natural fit that both taxes opponents and triggers any land-change effects Kolodin cares about. At 57% inclusion across nearly 3,500 decks, it's practically a staple in that shell.
Samut, the Driving Force
Samut, the Driving Force moves fast and wants opponents off-balance, and Rocky Roads supplies that disruption at minimal cost. The 23% inclusion rate reflects a more selective fit — Samut decks run it when the meta warrants land hate, not by default.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Rocky Roads is legal across every major constructed format, but Commander is where it actually earns a slot. In a four-player game, the effect hits three opponents at once, multiplying the tempo swing in a way that one-on-one formats can't replicate. Competitive constructed formats like Modern and Legacy have faster, more targeted land disruption available, so Rocky Roads rarely makes those 75-card lists. Pioneer and Standard give it more room to breathe if a land-type-matters shell emerges, but it remains primarily a Commander card by design.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Rocky Roads is deep bulk — you're paying pennies for a card that shows up in thousands of Commander decks. Bulk rares with focused synergy like this tend to stay flat unless a breakout commander pushes demand, so treat it as a cheap pickup rather than a card to acquire in volume.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Balthier and Fran
- Kolodin, Triumph Caster
- Samut, the Driving Force
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.