Node
4/4/07
As previously mentioned in the “Conquered Lands” article, Node is a sixth basic land type to be coupled with Plains, Island, Swamp, Forest and Mountain.
When Invasion was being designed, Mark Rosewater thought of adding a sixth basic land in order to increase the effectiveness of the block’s “Domain” mechanic (Domain cards and spells get better if you control more different basic land types.) He called the sixth basic land Barry’s land (and here is an article explaining why.) Barry’s Land never made it out of development, but I thought about it while designing Conquest.
As a small spoiler, let me tell you that there is a cycle of four uncommon Basic permanents in Conquest, one for each permanent type. When it came time for me to design the basic land, Barry’s Land popped into my mind right away. I guess it was possible to finally just make Barry’s Land and call it quits, but it is hardly an exciting card. In fact, outside of Invasion Block, I have a hard time imagining anyone playing with Barry’s Land. Instead, I designed Unexplored Wilderness as though Barry’s Land had already been made. This allowed me to make a few assumptions, the most important of which being that whenever they do decide to make the sixth basic land, it will have its own land type.
Is this a safe bet? With Wizards of the Coast you can never be sure. But I do think it is an important step. It just doesn’t make logical sense that there could be six different basic lands, but only five of them have their own type. The Conquest set is very aware of subtypes and the idea of utilizing subtypes on spells and permanents more often than is currently done. Creatures have the monopoly on subtypes for no reason other than an apparent lack of will on the part of design and the tradition of “always been so.” So I felt that just because it hasn’t been done yet is no reason to exclude a new subtype for the sixth basic land. Node has a nice feel to it too. It sounds like the land is holding power, a concept that comes with the “land as mana source” concept. Plus, “node” is a power source that doesn’t feel too much like the other five types. It sounds generic enough to comfortably describe a colorless source.