The foundation of any good multi-colored deck will be its non-basic land setup, so you'll want to weigh the options carefully, to get ideal resource output. All your basic color-pairs should be evaluated against color percentages, to carefully calculate your inventory. Elfhame Palace, and the other lands of its sort, are designed to provide extra power, at a reasonable handicap - Ideally, a basic green and white deck should be divided in a 1/1 ratio (50% each). That way, when you draw land (In a deck with limited non-basics), you'll have as good a chance at getting the type you need as you would drawing something that you don't. Elfhame Palace enhances your likelihood of having the right mana, often putting you a turn ahead. While you'll have to wait for a total converted mana cost one turn longer, you are more guaranteed to make a color cost. You might not want to sacrifice anything at all, and hope to land the right colors (using basic lands), but that is for a gambler. Later, we'll see lands that don't sacrifice a turn, but this is the uncommon (rarity) option, when that is what you have available. Personally, I would only use this type of land when format restrictions don't give me enough dual-mana options. |
