The cube potential of this card has been discussed on various threads before. However there has been an increase in utility lands for cube with the introduction of the newest manlands, Mirrorpool and Westvale Abbey. Therefore I believe the playability of the Map has increased and is worth another look.
I feel like Expedition Map has the same problem that Titania has where it's best in smaller cubes where you have a higher chance to draft whatever lands you need but generally can't fit all those pieces in said smaller cube unless you really want to push it. Most decks don't have room for a lot of utility lands since it can really hamper your manabase.
I would only run this if I were going all in on Dark Depths / Thespian Stage shenanigans along with full Titania support in a cube no larger than 450.
We're playing Stage depths combo and have a ten card cycle with Gavony Township (partially custom), but this is still only barely hanging on. It's been surprisingly relevant with Tolaria West. Definitely wouldn't recommend unless you have Stage Depths and an additional land theme, but if you do it can pull some weight.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
I’m looking at Map as possible Stage/Depths and Field of the Dead support. It seems like something I’d also play in an Academy deck and is interesting to fetch both for and with Urza’s Saga. It might still be too narrow.
I experimented with Lands Matters for a while and I've found its best iteration is often a fast/ resilient green ramp deck. It never did anything really broken/ consistent and was just an occasional fun deck to play if you wanted to experience playing 4-5 lands by turn 2-3 or strip mine all your opponent's once or twice.
I wouldn't recommend going into a full-blown lands matters archetype, beyond the lands cube staples.
However, I've learned that crop Rotation/ Expedition map was at its finest searching up Misrha's Workshop/ Tolarian Academy/ Urza's Saga / Shelldock Isle - they were great land tutors for the Artifact Ramp and helping these decks with consistency.
Similarly, Fastbond, Exploration, Search for Tomorrow, Heartbeat of Spring, Dictate of Karametra (other play extra land spells) were great in the UB untap storm with Time Spiral etc.
I also experimented with the Dark Depths combo - I found its best iteration is in a GW midrange shell with cards like Knight of the Reliquery/ Elvish Reclaimer/ Exavator/ Sevinne's Reclamation/ Mirage Mirror etc. and occasionally as a backup win con for an infinite mana sink - Devoted Druid/ Zirda, the Dawnwaker etc. I feel its lacking a bit of support - I would prefer some redundancy for Knight/ Sevinne's Reclamantion or an additional Green-White Infinite mana combo or additional card for Solemnity to combo with outside of Saga/ Dark Depths.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
The cube potential of this card has been discussed on various threads before. However there has been an increase in utility lands for cube with the introduction of the newest manlands, Mirrorpool and Westvale Abbey. Therefore I believe the playability of the Map has increased and is worth another look.
Pros:
I would only run this if I were going all in on Dark Depths / Thespian Stage shenanigans along with full Titania support in a cube no larger than 450.
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I wouldn't recommend going into a full-blown lands matters archetype, beyond the lands cube staples.
However, I've learned that crop Rotation/ Expedition map was at its finest searching up Misrha's Workshop/ Tolarian Academy/ Urza's Saga / Shelldock Isle - they were great land tutors for the Artifact Ramp and helping these decks with consistency.
Similarly, Fastbond, Exploration, Search for Tomorrow, Heartbeat of Spring, Dictate of Karametra (other play extra land spells) were great in the UB untap storm with Time Spiral etc.
I also experimented with the Dark Depths combo - I found its best iteration is in a GW midrange shell with cards like Knight of the Reliquery/ Elvish Reclaimer/ Exavator/ Sevinne's Reclamation/ Mirage Mirror etc. and occasionally as a backup win con for an infinite mana sink - Devoted Druid/ Zirda, the Dawnwaker etc. I feel its lacking a bit of support - I would prefer some redundancy for Knight/ Sevinne's Reclamantion or an additional Green-White Infinite mana combo or additional card for Solemnity to combo with outside of Saga/ Dark Depths.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
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