Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor — a thrilling event that would’ve more accurately been named PT Murders at Markov Manor — concluded with the Pro Tour Ixalan champion and American Hall of Famer Seth Manfield taking home the top trophy. Using a deck that has since been dubbed “Sorin Tell” after a play pattern that, on occasion, resembles the Legacy “Show and Tell” archetype, Magic players around the world can finally celebrate having a top deck with an excellent pun for a name once again. But is the rogue choice of deck the real story of the Pro Tour? Or is it the rogue choices for which basic lands each of the top player selected?

At a Magic event at the caliber of the Pro Tour, most top players will not be able to personalize their lists very much: this can be seen with the previously mentioned Sorin Tell decks used by the Channel Fireball team, which rarely strayed more than a handful of cards different from the team’s consensus. Thus, with this deck and most others, the best way for a pro player to represent their individuality is with the basic lands they sleeve up. Pioneer is a format where the tier 1 decks run precious few basic lands on average, so every single one counts. And with over 1,600 unique basic land pieces to chose from, the potential for individuality is massive. 

So what did the best of the best at Magic’s big weekend choose?

1st Place: Seth Manfield

Rakdos Vampires | Swamp – J22 104

Our Pro Tour Champion, Seth Manfield, ran the Channel Fireball team’s surprise tech of the weekend: Rakdos Vampires, a deck that exploits Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord’s -3 ability to throw down an early Vein Ripper, a new bomb from Murders at Karlov Manor. What makes the deck so good, though, is that its B-plan is nearly as good: most of the rest of the deck could be mistaken for RB midrange, a top tier deck for most of the format’s history.

More importantly, though, the list runs just two basic Swamps. For his selection, Seth called upon Mike Bierek’s Jumpstart 2022 Swamp, with art first printed more than a decade ago in M13. This is a handsome Swamp that’s been seen at the top tables before, but not a particularly notable one for any other reason.

The visual package of a “standard” basic land, with the mana symbol taking up the bottom half of the card, is excellent for ease of play. It makes finding a basic in your library a much easier task, and for someone like Manfield who would rightfully anticipate a good amount of time spent in the featured match area, the clarity provided by the format is a huge bonus to viewers and commentators. That said, I was impressed by Seth’s choice of the OG Ice Age Sulfurous Springs, and think his deck would’ve been served better with a matching Ice Age Swamp or a vampire-themed basic, like the Dracula Secret Lair or the Jumpstart vampire castle. 

2nd Place: Simon Nielsen

Boros Historic | Plains – TSP 285

Runner-up Simon Nielsen is now a mainstay in this series of articles, popping up with classic Time Spiral basics time and again. In fact, this particular Plains is becoming more and more iconic due to how frequently it specifically has made it to the semi-finals of Magic’s biggest tournaments under Simon’s leadership! I have endless respect for the player who has found their home in the multiverse and is rocking out their personal brand in such a stylish fashion. Considering how regularly this man can show up to an event and breeze through days 1 and 2, I anticipate this isn’t the last time we’ll see Time Spiral fare at the Pro Tour.

3rd Place: Christoffer Larsen

Amalia Combo | Plains – UST 212

For the sole Plains in his Amalia Combo, Christoffer went with John Avon’s modern masterpiece of a broad field. The vertical orientation of the piece, often a more challenging frame for a land type that’s easiest to express with its horizontal vastness, here gives room for a full story: a storm, beams of sunlight occasionally breaking through, and the bountiful fields below. It’s a moodier Plains than we typically see, while still capturing the collectivism and optimism that help define white’s slice of the color pie.

Unstable’s cycle of full-full art basics was immediately celebrated upon their release in 2017, and have become a mainstay of competitive players’ 75s ever since. Avon was prolific on basic lands in the early years of the game, and has produced over 100 unique pieces of art for the card type. While his output in the space has slowed down considerably in the last half decade, Magic players have been more than satisfied to dig through his impressive catalog and frequently return to favorites such as this cycle. 

4th Place: Mingyang Chen

Lotus Field Combo | Forest – GURU

In a lands-focused deck, it was rare to see a basic on Minyang’s side of the battlefield, but his Lotus Field combo deck did run a single basic Forest, which the Cardboard by the Numbers team was happy to spy briefly hit his graveyard during a single on-camera game. Going for what is perhaps the most ostentatious of the event’s top 8 picks, Terese Nielsen’s cycle of GURU promos are amongst the game’s most expensive basic lands and, in this writer’s opinion, some of the most beautiful. This particular Forest will run you at least $600 — no small amount, but only a fraction of Chen’s $15,000 prize purse from his fourth place finish.

(And shoutout to Mingyang for using the Dalek invasion version of Botanical Sanctum!)

5th Place: Sam Pardee

Rakdos Vampires | Swamp – LEB 294

Another member of the Channel Fireball team to run “Sorin Tell”, Sam Pardee opted for the most classic basic land of all: a Limited Edition Beta Swamp from the Dan Frazier. Better known for the original cycle of Moxen and their derivatives, Frazier has only lended his talents to the great cause of basic lands four times total, with all but one as part of Magic’s first release. 

The lands from Beta have held up incredibly well, even in an era of hundreds of new basic lands printed each year. They have only growing more iconic in age, and it’s hard to look at anyone slinging these basics with anyone but respect. 

6th Place: Alex Friedrichsen

Lotus Field Combo | Forest – ZEN 249

As with the Un-lands, Zendikar full-art basics has been one of the most popular choices at the top tables of Magic history since their release in 2009, nearly half of the game’s lifetime ago. While not necessarily the most popular original world in the multiverse — that honor likely goes to Ravnica — Zendikar has nonetheless been the most well-represented plane in Pro Tour top 8s when it comes to basic lands, and PT MKM shows that trend is nowhere near slowing down. 

7th Place: Adam Edelson

Izzet Phoenix | Island – DMU 278

Adam Edelson earned an impressive seventh place at Magic’s most competitive event of 2024 so far with Izzet Phoenix, a deck buoyed by a trio of Dominaria United Islands. One of the best-selling basic lands of 2023, the stained-glass style of these full-art lands has become incredibly popular, frequently surpassing even Magic’s other favorite recent full-art, the so-called “Pokémon Energy lands” of Theros Beyond Death. 

8th Place: Jean-Emmanuel Depraz

Izzet Phoenix | Island – ZEN 236 & Mountain – BFZ 268

The only player in the top 8 to wield more than a single style of basic land, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz’s Izzet Phoenix included not just a Zendikar Island, but a matching Mountain from the 2015 follow-up set, Battle for Zendikar.

Who do you think had the best taste in basics in Chicago? Let us know in the comments or on our social channels, and thanks so much for reading! We have basic land coverage on the regular as well as new Magic: the Gathering infographics and analysis every week, so if you’ve enjoyed this article, sign up for our newsletter and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Threads!!

Miles Atherton is the editor-in-chief of “Cardboard by the Numbers” and has been playing Magic since 2006. Since studying Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, he’s built a career as an award-winning marketing executive in the entertainment industry with a love of data journalism. He’s also written for Anime Buscience,  Anime News Network, and Crunchyroll News, serving as Executive Editor of the latter from 2016 to 2021.