MTG Fetch Lands: All 10, What They Find and How They Work

A fetch land is a land you tap and sacrifice, paying 1 life, to search your library for a land with one of two basic land types and put it onto the battlefield. There are ten, one for each two-colour pair, and because they name a land type instead of asking for a basic land, Flooded Strand finds Hallowed Fountain or Tundra as easily as a basic Plains.

All ten fetch lands

Every fetch land reads the same way. Scalding Tarn says: "{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for an Island or Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle." The five from Onslaught cover the allied colour pairs and came back in Khans of Tarkir (2014) and Modern Horizons 3 (2024). The five from Zendikar cover the enemy pairs and came back in Modern Masters 2017 and Modern Horizons 2 (2021).

What a fetch land can find

The card asks for "an Island or Mountain card", never for a basic land. Any land card with one of those land types qualifies, and a land with a basic land type but no basic supertype is still a nonbasic land (Comprehensive Rules 305.8). So Scalding Tarn finds:

• A basic Island or a basic Mountain.
• An original dual land with either type. Volcanic Island is an Island and a Mountain; Tundra is a Plains and an Island, so Scalding Tarn finds it too. See the original dual lands.
• A shock land with either type. Steam Vents is an Island and a Mountain, and it still asks for its own 2 life to enter untapped. See shock lands.
• Any other land with Island or Mountain on its type line.

It can't find a land with no basic land type, however many colours that land makes: Command Tower has none. This is why a fetch land fixes more than its own two colours. In a three-colour deck, Flooded Strand (a Plains or Island card) finds Hallowed Fountain, but also Godless Shrine, a Plains that taps for black, or Steam Vents, an Island that taps for red.

The rules that come up

• You can fail to find. A search of a hidden zone for a card with a stated quality never forces you to find one (Comprehensive Rules 701.23b). You shuffle either way: "then shuffle" is part of the ability.
• The life and the sacrifice are costs. You pay them as you activate the ability (Comprehensive Rules 602.2), so if the ability is countered, the land and the life are already gone.
• It isn't a mana ability. It adds no mana (Comprehensive Rules 605.1a), so it uses the stack and opponents can respond before you search.
• The land you find is put onto the battlefield, not played. It doesn't count as your land for the turn (Comprehensive Rules 305.4), and it enters untapped unless its own text says otherwise.
• Two lands enter. First the fetch land, then the land it finds, so an ability that triggers whenever a land you control enters sees both. That is why landfall commanders want them.
• It ends up in your graveyard. That feeds every card that counts lands there or lets you play lands from your graveyard.

Fetch lands in Commander

A fetch land has no mana symbol anywhere on it, so its colour identity is colourless and any Commander deck can include it (Comprehensive Rules 903.4 and 903.5c). It only helps when your deck holds lands of the types it names: in a mono-green deck that runs only Forests, Scalding Tarn finds nothing. Count the ones that name at least one of your types: four in a one-colour deck, seven in two colours, nine in three. You can run one copy of each (Comprehensive Rules 903.5b).

Each activation costs 1 life, and finding a shock land untapped costs 2 more. If basic lands are all you need, other lands search for a "basic land card" instead: Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse put it onto the battlefield tapped, Fabled Passage untaps it if you control four or more lands, and Prismatic Vista pays 1 life like a fetch land and finds it untapped. None of them can find a dual land or a shock land.

Where fetch lands are legal

Read from our card database on November 9, 2026. In Pioneer, our data marks the five Onslaught fetch lands as banned and the five Zendikar ones as not legal.

Frequently asked questions

Can a fetch land get a shock land or a dual land?

Yes, if that land has one of the two land types the fetch land names. Polluted Delta (an Island or Swamp card) finds Watery Grave and Underground Sea, and also Steam Vents or Godless Shrine, which each have one of those types.

Does a fetch land count as your land for the turn?

Playing the fetch land does. The land it finds doesn't: it is put onto the battlefield by an ability, which isn't playing a land (Comprehensive Rules 305.4).

Do fetch lands thin your deck?

A little. Each one takes a land out of your library, so later draws are slightly more likely to be spells. The effect is small. Play them for the colours, the shuffle and the second land entering the battlefield.

Are fetch lands legal in Commander?

Yes. All ten are legal in Commander in our card data, and their colourless identity lets any commander run them.

Build the mana base

Add your fetch lands to a Commander deck in the Mana Grove deck builder, and the Validation tab checks every land against your commander's colour identity. To settle how many lands the deck needs first, use the Commander lands calculator. Create a free account to start; every plan includes the full deck builder, and plans and pricing shows what the paid plans add.

Sources

• Comprehensive Rules, effective September 25, 2026, rules 305.4, 305.8, 602.2, 605.1a, 701.23b, 903.4, 903.5b and 903.5c: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules, read on November 9, 2026.
• Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON card text, printings and format legality, read on November 9, 2026.