Historical Rules · Effective 1 October 2009
Read Section 305 continuously, or open any rule on its dedicated page.
Chapter 3 · Card Types
Section 305
9 rules
A player who has priority may play a land card from his or her hand during a main phase of his or her turn when the stack is empty. Playing a land is a special action; it doesn't use the stack (see rule 114). Rather, the player simply puts the land onto the battlefield. Since the land doesn't go on the stack, it is never a spell, and players can't respond to it with instants or activated abilities.
A player may normally play only one land during his or her turn; however, continuous effects may increase this number. If any such effects exist, the player announces which effect, or this rule, applies to each land play as it happens.
A player can't play a land, for any reason, if it isn't his or her turn. Ignore any part of an effect that instructs a player to do so. Similarly, a player can't play a land, for any reason, if that player has used all of his or her land plays for that turn. Ignore any part of an effect that instructs a player to do so.
Effects may also allow players to "put" lands onto the battlefield. This isn't the same as "playing a land" and doesn't count as a player's one land played during his or her turn.
Land subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash. Land subtypes are also called land types. Lands may have multiple subtypes. See rule 204.3h for the complete list of land types. Example: "Basic Land -- Mountain" means the card is a land with the Mountain subtype.
The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words "basic land type," it's referring to one of these subtypes. A basic land type implies an intrinsic ability to produce colored mana. (See rule 605, "Mana Abilities.") An object with a basic land type is treated as if its text box included "{T}: Add [mana symbol] to your mana pool," even if the text box doesn't actually contain text or the object has no text box. Plains produce white mana; Islands, blue; Swamps, black; Mountains, red; and Forests, green.
If an effect changes a land's subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text and its old land types, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn't remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Changing a land's subtype doesn't add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.
Any land with the supertype "basic" is a basic land. Any land that doesn't have this supertype is a nonbasic land, even if it has a basic land type.
If an object is both a land and another card type, it can be played only as a land. It can't be played as a spell.
