Manland is community slang for a nonbasic land that can turn itself into a creature, usually through an activated ability that lasts until end of turn.
It is not an official Wizards term, but it has been used by players consistently enough that it now shows up in strategy articles, deck lists, and even Scryfall's own search syntax.
Roughly 50 cards across Magic's history carry this mechanic in some form, stretching from a 1994 expansion all the way to recent sets.
This guide covers what actually makes a card a manland, the one genuine exception to the rule, and where the mechanic's most iconic examples come from.
A true manland is a land card with a printed activated ability that turns it into a creature, almost always until end of turn, almost always for a real mana cost.
Outside of that activation window, it functions as an ordinary land, meaning it can tap for mana like any other land in your deck on turns you have no reason to animate it.
Dryad Arbor, first printed in Future Sight in 2007, is a genuine Land Creature, Forest Dryad, and it is permanently both a land and a 1/1 creature with no activation required at all.
Because it is a creature the moment it enters the battlefield rather than only when you choose to animate it, Dryad Arbor is vulnerable to instant-speed creature removal in a way an ordinary manland simply is not.
Mishra's Factory comes from Antiquities, Magic's second expansion, released in March 1994, and it becomes a 2/2 Assembly-Worker artifact creature for a single generic mana, still a land the rest of the time.
Its low activation cost and colorless casting have kept it playable across decades of Constructed Magic, making it arguably the mechanic's original template even before the word manland existed.
Worldwake's 2010 ally-color cycle, Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, Raging Ravine, Stirring Wildwood, and Lavaclaw Reaches, is widely considered the mechanic's high point, with Celestial Colonnade's 4/4 flying vigilance body still seeing Modern and Legacy control play today.
The same set also printed Dread Statuary, a sixth, colorless manland that sits outside the five-color cycle but follows the same design template.
Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch followed in 2015 and 2016 with an enemy-color counterpart cycle: Shambling Vent, Wandering Fumarole, Lumbering Falls, Hissing Quagmire, and Needle Spires.
Most players consider this cycle a notch weaker than the original Worldwake lands, but several of them, especially the lifelinking Shambling Vent, still saw years of real tournament play.
Blinkmoth Nexus from Darksteel and Mutavault from Morningtide both animate for a single generic mana, making them among the cheapest and most efficient manlands ever printed.
Mutavault's ability to become every creature type at once made it a genuine Modern, Legacy, and Pioneer staple for years, while Inkmoth Nexus later added infect to the same one-mana template.
Playing a manland from your hand still uses your one land drop for the turn, exactly like playing any other land, with no special exception for the fact that it can later become a creature.
This matters for sequencing, since a manland you drew but haven't played yet is competing with every other land in your hand for that single land drop each turn.
A manland animated the same turn it enters the battlefield is affected by summoning sickness just like any other creature, meaning it can't attack or use tap abilities that turn unless something grants it haste.
This is a common rules mix-up for newer players, since it's easy to assume a card that's already been sitting on the battlefield as a land is exempt from the rule once it becomes a creature.
The activated ability is always printed directly on the land itself, listing the mana cost, the resulting power and toughness, and any keyword abilities the creature form gains, like flying or vigilance.
Reading that text carefully before including a manland in a deck prevents the common mistake of assuming a body's stats or abilities based on a similar-looking card instead.
A nonbasic land that can become a creature through an activated ability, usually until end of turn.
No, it is community slang rather than official templating language.
Roughly 50 cards carry the mechanic, based on Scryfall's dedicated search tag.
Not technically, since it is permanently a land creature rather than one that gets activated.
Manlands reward decks built to play a long game, since they add a real threat to your board without costing you a card in hand.
Protect the rest of your deck with a set of matte card sleeves, and keep a full 100-card build organized in an EVORETRO plastic deck box between rounds.
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