Lands - What Even Are They? 

I've always thought Catan's resource system looked a lot like Magic's system. Yes, the tiles do more and they actually represent a map for the board pieces to go on. But basically everywhere you have a settlement, you can pull resources from. And it's not like the players of a game of Catan are the representation of a settlement or city. The player controls multiple settlements, and like in Magic, will get to make plays that expand the land they cover, increasing their resources.

Very interesting video. Two things that came to my mind: The Middle Earth CCG uses lands/locations heavily both as a base for playing certain cards (e.g. certain artifacts can only be played in certain locations) and the aspect of travelling through the land (much like the idea of both the Hobbit and LotR) and each area you travel through influences what cards can be played (a sea serpent would require travel through locations that are themed "Sea"), and as a matter of fact, this CCG was often played with the use of a map of the game world. Second: There is a very old D and D setting, Dark Sun, where magic is worked by drawing energy from the land/environment. Each time, a spell is cast, the environment is depleted and destroyed a little more (although there are exceptions to it). So, when I first thought about "lands" as providing "mana" years ago, it really reminded me of that. And again: Super video!!!!

Lands are resources rather than settings, even in the part of the story you read out. The cards represent the memories of the lands available to the duelist. They don't represent the setting where they're fighting. I think I mentioned on a previous video, in the Arena novel, they're little sachets of dirt the duelists pull out of their satchels. That was why they got rid of Islandhome - it didn't fit with the idea that you and your opponent are each using memories of islands, not actually transporting islands and seas to the battle. Landwalk - I believe - works by having a creature that can infiltrate the enemy's energy lines rather than "sneaking through the terrain." It tends to feature on creatures that are so intrinsically linked to that type of land that they can manipulate the enemy's connection to that kind of land to evade their defenses. That dark interpretation of the beings fighting each other against their will is canon, at least early on. Apart from the start of the Whispering Woods novel, which you read, there's a story in one of the original anthology books of two beings who are friends with each other - a Black Knight and something else, I forget what - summoned to the same fight on opposite sides, and the Black Knight is forced to kill his friend in the fight. He comes back after to bury him.

It occurs to me that, in addition to is obvious origin in leylines and other beliefs in the land being a source of power, lands as the ultimate resource make sense from a very material standpoint too as they are the origin of, like, pretty much all forms of resource extraction. Food? Comes from the land (or the animals that are part of said land). Metals? They come from the land. Textiles? Wood? Oil? Freshwater? Even the people of a city (for lands that aren't wilderness environments) are a resource representing their workforce or manpower. Whether it's intentional or by coincidence, it works out pretty well.

Sorcery tcg is similar to magic in its resource system, with the addition that your "sites" (lands) actually make up the battlefield and your creatures exist on them.

5:50 Lor mentioned!!!

I think none of these ludonarrative interpretations are mutually exclusive. "Tapping" a Land can mean different things for different mages. To a boros mage being there to rally his summons might matter while a Dimir mage might more easily pull from far off places with no care for consent. At the same time it's easy to imagine a Planeswalker summoning entire landscapes into different planes.

First !!