Apocalypse marked a significant milestone in the
history of dual lands. It was the first time
since the age of the original duals that
Standard had had a cycle of ten lands, one for
each two-color combination, that all used the
same mechanic. This put all of those
combinations on an equal footing, at least
theoretically. As I'll mention again when we
talk about Ravnica, a dual land is fundamentally
just something that lets you cast spells, and
people will still gravitate towards strong cards
in tournaments and towards cards they like for
more casual settings.
But beyond that, Apocalypse's pain lands were
emblematic of a set that wanted to do things. It
was the first hint we got that Wizards of the
Coast was thinking seriously about whether and
how Magic should involve enemy colors. Although
we didn't know it yet at the time, the idea that
enemy colors should be hard to use together was
beginning to crumble, and the designers were
thinking about what would happen when green
teamed with black or when red hybridized with
white. It was a set of innovative designs, not
all of which took - I'm still waiting for a
modern-day reference to the Volvers.
Don't look at your Origins Yavimaya Coasts and
think about how painlands are a well-trodden
road. Look at them and think about how, without
Apocalypse, there would have been no multicolor
in the modern era.
Today's cards of the day are the enemy color
pain lands or dual lands that deal one damage to
you when tapped. These are obviously
inferior to the original dual lands both in not
having the basic land types and in the
cumulative damage dealt over time from using
them. They do have the backup option of
tapping for a colorless mana which is very
beneficial after the first few turns and keeps
the land from being unusable later in the game.
Being enemy colors can impact the types of decks
they are used in, but they are equal in ability
to the allied color lands and add overlap for
multiple color builds.
Overall these are solid lands that are useful
when the original dual lands aren't available
due to cost or format.
It's pretty much the same as the regular
painlands. Great for filtering early, good for
colorless "free" mana late game. There's never
really a bad time to have them, but you never
want to run them as your complete landbase for
obvious reasons.
Also, If you've got a minute, I'm doing a
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