Lands are the least flashy part of Commander deckbuilding… right up until the moment you don’t hit your colors, or you topdeck the perfect utility land and suddenly you’re the villain.
2025 was an especially spicy year for real estate. Between Aetherdrift, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Final Fantasy, Edge of Eternities, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, we got a bunch of lands that either (a) fix your mana with almost no opportunity cost or (b) sneak a real effect into your manabase.
A couple ground rules before we jump in:
- Only first printings from 2025 make the list. Reprints (sorry, Scalding Tarn) can sit this one out.
- I’m weighting Commander usefulness + low deckbuilding cost very heavily. If a land is amazing but only in one hyper-specific shell, it’s going to rank lower.
Honorable Mention: Multiversal Passage
Multiversal Passage is basically “shock land energy,” but with a twist: as it enters, you choose a basic land type, and you can pay 2 life to have it enter untapped. After that, it is that type.
Why it’s here: it’s a flexible glue card for mana bases that care about land types—especially if you want to turn on lands that check for Plains/Island/Swamp/Mountain/Forest without needing to commit to a full suite of typed duals. It’s also one of the cleaner “budget-but-still-functional” options we got this year.
The big downside is also simple: it’s still only going to produce one color at a time, because you only choose one type.
10. Secret Tunnel
Yes, I also started singing it. No, I’m not sorry.
Secret Tunnel is a colorless utility land that:
- taps for {C}
- and for {4}, {T} makes two target creatures you control that share a creature type unable to be blocked that turn.
This is basically Rogue’s Passage that decided Commander is a multiplayer format and brought a friend.
Where it shines:
- Typal decks that want to connect with multiple attackers (Ninjas, Rogues, Dragons, Humans, Soldiers… you get it).
- Decks that win off combat damage triggers (not just “big Voltron hit,” but “hit you twice, get two triggers”).
It’s not cheap to activate, but it’s the kind of “late-game inevitability” land that wins board stalls without spending a card slot in the 99.
9. Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon
Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon is the exact kind of typal land I love: it’s narrow… but it does everything the deck wants.
You get:
- {T}: add {C}
- {T}: add one mana of any color (but only for Dragon spells or Omen spells)
- {4}, {T}, sacrifice it: tutor a Dragon to hand
In Dragon decks, this reads like:
- early game: “I fix my colors”
- mid game: “I keep my mana up”
- late game: “I go get the Dragon that ends the table”
And because Tarkir’s Omen mechanic ties spells to Dragon cards, the “Omen” clause is a lot more relevant than it looks at first glance.
8. Abandoned Air Temple
Abandoned Air Temple is a mono-white land that enters untapped as long as you control a basic land (which is… not exactly a heroic ask in Commander).
Then it gives you:
- {T}: add {W}
- {3}{W}, {T}: put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control
This is one of those deceptively brutal “manabase upgrades” for:
- Tokens / go-wide
- +1/+1 counters
- Any creature-heavy white deck that occasionally has spare mana
The best part is that it’s an outlet. Commander games love to do that thing where you flood out, everyone has boards, and nobody wants to blink first. This land lets you turn “dead mana” into real pressure.
7. Adagia, Windswept Bastion
Adagia, Windswept Bastion is from Edge of Eternities, and it’s part of the “Planet” land cycle that uses the new station mechanic.
Here’s the pitch:
- it enters tapped, taps for {W}
- once it’s fully stationed (12+), it can copy an artifact or enchantment you control (the copy becomes legendary, and it’s sorcery-speed)
This is not a “jam it in every white deck” land. It’s a ceiling land.
Where it’s disgusting:
- Decks with a few premium nonlegendary targets (think: big mana rocks, engine enchantments, value artifacts)
- Decks that make station easy (token decks, creature decks with incidental big bodies)
Adagia takes a little work, but it’s one of the clearest examples this year of “my land slot is also a win condition.”
6. Agna Qel’a
Agna Qel’a is the blue member of Avatar’s “basic-check utility land” cycle, and it’s clean as hell:
- enters untapped if you control a basic land
- taps for {U}
- {2}{U}, {T}: draw a card, then discard a card
That looting effect is quietly excellent in Commander because it does two things you always want:
- it digs you toward answers/wincons
- it stocks the graveyard for recursion/reanimator synergies
If your deck likes flashback-style play, reanimation, delve, descend, or just smoothing awkward hands, this is an easy include.
5. Final Fantasy’s Adventure Town Lands
Final Fantasy gave us something brand-new: Adventure lands on a cycle of Towns.
Each one:
- is a land that enters tapped and taps for a single color
- has an Adventure instant/sorcery attached to it
- and after you cast the Adventure, you can still play the land from exile later
Think of them like MDFCs in spirit: you’re paying a small tempo tax (tapped land) to get a spell stapled to a land slot.
The five Towns are:
- Ishgard, the Holy See // Faith & Grief (artifact/enchantment recursion)
- Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital // Overture (mills half a library — yes, really)
- Lindblum, Industrial Regency // Mage Siege (makes a pinger token for noncreature spells)
- Midgar, City of Mako // Reactor Raid (sac a creature/artifact → draw two)
- Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis // Lasting Fayth (land-based scaling token)
Are these going to crack cEDH? Probably not. But for the massive chunk of Commander that lives in mid-power pods, these are exactly what you want: more functional cards without cutting land count.
4. The Aetherdrift Verge Lands
Aetherdrift didn’t just give us one good land—it gave us a whole cycle of “why isn’t this always how dual lands work?”
Verge lands:
- always tap for one color
- and can tap for the second color if you control a land with one of the relevant basic land types
The 2025 enemy-color Verches are:
- Sunbillow Verge (W → R)
- Willowrush Verge (U → G)
- Bleachbone Verge (B → W)
- Riverpyre Verge (R → U)
- Wastewood Verge (G → B)
In Commander, these play better than they read because the condition doesn’t say “basic.” Typed duals, shocks, triomes, etc. all help turn them on. In practice, they’re frequently “untapped dual land that doesn’t try to ruin your day.”
If you play 2-color decks (or 3+ colors with a strong typed-land package), this cycle is one of the best “free upgrades” of the year.
3. Mistrise Village
Mistrise Village is the kind of land that gets slotted into decks and then quietly wins games because your most important spell… just resolves.
- enters untapped if you control a Mountain or Forest
- taps for {U}
- {U}, {T}: the next spell you cast this turn can’t be countered
This is protection for:
- your commander (especially commanders that must stick)
- your combo turn
- your “please let this board wipe resolve” moment
It’s not flashy, but it’s one of the highest-impact “one land slot” effects we got this year.
2. Uthros, Titanic Godcore
Now we’re in the “okay, that’s not supposed to be a land” tier.
Uthros, Titanic Godcore is a Planet land with station. Once it’s at 12+, it turns into:
{U}, {T}: add {U} for each artifact you control
Treasures. Clues. Food. Rocks. Servo/Thopter tokens. Random incidental artifacts. This land can go from “slow” to “absurd” real fast.
The only real limitation is the station setup: you need creatures to station it efficiently, so the very creature-light artifact decks have to work a bit harder. But if you’re making tokens (or just playing Commander like a normal person), you’ll get there.
1. Evendo, Waking Haven
If Uthros is “Tolarian Academy but you have to earn it,” Evendo, Waking Haven is “Gaea’s Cradle but you have to earn it.”
Once Evendo is stationed to 12+, it becomes:
{G}, {T}: add {G} for each creature you control
That’s the kind of text that ends games in:
- token decks
- creature-swarm decks
- decks that naturally build boards without trying
And here’s the sneaky part: station already asks you to tap creatures to power it up, which means the decks that want “Cradle mana” are also the decks that can station Evendo quickly.
It’s a mythic, it’s a build-around, and it earns the #1 slot because the payoff is exactly what green Commander decks want most: ridiculous mana from a land slot.
Other 2025 lands worth a look
A few more that didn’t make the top ten, but I’d still keep an eye on:
- The rest of Avatar’s basic-check utility land cycle (including Ba Sing Se, Fire Nation Palace, and Realm of Koh) if your deck cares about their bending/tribal angles.
- If you like the Planet lands, Edge of Eternities has more station cards than just the ones above—you’ll find a few that fit niche strategies better than “make a billion mana.”
FAQs
Are all these lands Commander legal?
Yes—these all come from mainline 2025 releases and are legal in Commander (assuming no bans, and none of these are on the banned list as of this writing).
What does “station” actually mean?
Station is an activated ability found on certain Edge of Eternities cards. You tap another untapped creature you control to put charge counters on the station permanent equal to that creature’s power, and you can only do it as a sorcery. Once the permanent has enough counters (like 12+), it “turns on” the abilities in that tier.
Do Verge lands work with nonbasic lands that have land types?
Yep. If you control something that is a Plains/Island/etc. (even if it isn’t basic), that satisfies the Verge condition. So shocks/triomes/typed duals help them a lot.
How do the Final Fantasy Town lands work if I cast the Adventure first?
You cast the Adventure spell, it resolves, and then the card stays in exile—where you can play the land later (assuming you still have a land drop available).
Are the Avatar basic-check lands actually untapped most of the time?
In Commander, yes. Most decks run enough basics that “control a basic land” is usually true early—and even if it isn’t, you’re still not taking a huge hit for running one or two utility lands with upside.
If I only add one land from this whole list, what’s the safest pickup?
In terms of “goes into a ton of decks,” it’s hard to beat the Verge lands in the color pairs you play. For raw power, it’s the two big Planet mana engines (Evendo / Uthros), but those are more build-around and more table-warping.
Wrapping up
2025’s best lands had a theme: utility without eating deck slots. Whether it’s clean mana fixing (Verge), spell stapling (Town Adventures), or “my land is now a mana engine” nonsense (Evendo and Uthros), the bar for what a land can do in Commander got raised again.
Which 2025 land has overperformed for you so far—and which one are you still trying to find room for?