Being able to recover one of your best artifacts
can, if used wisely, be the deathknell for your
opponent. Artifact destruction has become more
common in the era of Scars of Mirrodin, but most
players still only pack a limited amount, and
artifacts aren't like creatures-- they don't die
in combat, they need someone to point a kill
spell at them, and your opponent only has so
many of those. Buried Ruin is an easy way to
make your opponent need one more, as well as get
back an important artifact without needing to
draw or tutor for it. And because it's a land,
you don't have to spend a spell slot getting the
effect-- as far as cards go, it's practically
free, if you can stand to lose a land when you
use it. And since the effect is best used in the
late game, when you've already played your
biggest treasure and had it answered, you should
be fine in that respect.
Recurring cards from a graveyard is, in
principle, one of the most powerful strategies
in Magic - note that Regrowth remains restricted
in Vintage after all these years. Buried Ruin
isn't quite at that sort of power level, but it
is quite relevant in the world of Scars of
Mirrodin, and it's also uncounterable. There are
so many artifacts, from Sword of Feast and
Famine down, which absolutely take over a game,
and responding to your opponent's finally
managing to force Nature's Claim through with
something like this is insult on top of injury.
I'd consider it if your deck doesn't have white
for Razor Hippogriff, as the card is almost
"free" because it produces mana itself. And if
you can find a way to recur both lands and
artifacts in the same deck . . . wow.
Today's card of the day is Buried Ruin which is
a land that taps for one mana and for two mana,
tapping, and sacrifice can return a target
artifact to your hand. For any deck with an
artifact focus that can afford to reduce colored
mana sources this is an excellent card to use in
the middle to later stages of the game. The mana
curve of the deck may need to be adjusted
slightly, but getting destroyed or sacrificed
effects back for a minimal cost off a land is a
bargain. Not coming into play tapped really lets
this shine and it is very likely to be played in
myr and other theme decks in addition to any
builds with a few key artifacts.
For Limited this is a land that should be
played whenever your deck has a decent number of
artifacts as the only penalty for running it is
the lack of colored mana production. Later in
the game this gives you an extra chance at
whatever artifact you want most and there should
be no shortage of mana available to both
activate the effect and play the returned card.
Sealed decks tend to run artifacts to balance
out the multiple color builds while Booster can
pick this up if artifacts are already in your
pool.
