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Drowned Catacomb

Land

LegalEDHREC #111

This land enters tapped unless you control an Island or a Swamp.

{T} : Add {U} or {B} .

Why is this card good?

Drowned Catacomb is a workhorse dual land for any Dimir (UB) deck. Its conditional untapped clause is the key selling point: as long as you control a basic Island or Swamp, it comes in untapped, which in practice is most of the time after your first land drop. That makes it strictly better than a guildgate or tapland in nearly every two-color black-blue list. The catch is the "basic" requirement — it cares about typed lands, not just any Island/Swamp. So in a deck packed with shocklands, triomes, and other typed duals it's nearly always untapped, but in a fetchland-heavy or basic-light build it can stumble early. Play it in essentially any Dimir deck: control, mill, reanimator, theft, you name it. The only reason to skip it is if you're going hard on a fast/cEDH manabase where you'd rather run fetch-tutorable typed duals, or if you're mono-color. Otherwise, it's a cheap, reliable staple.

Related cards

Watery Grave

Shock land producing UB, can enter untapped by paying life.

Underground Sea

Dual land with Island/Swamp types, always untapped UB source.

Choked Estuary

Reveal-a-land dual that enters untapped for UB mana.

Sunken Hollow

Battle land untapped when you control two or more basics, UB.

River of Tears

Untapped UB land conditional on whether you played a land.

Darkslick Shores

Fast land untapped early, taps for U or B.

Morphic Pool

Battlebond dual untapped with two-plus opponents, UB.

Tainted Isle

Adds U always, B if you control a Swamp, similar conditional dual.

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Rulings (2)

2009-10-01
As this is entering, it checks for lands that are already on the battlefield. It won't see lands that are entering at the same time (due to Warp World, for example).
2009-10-01
This checks for lands you control with the land type Island or Swamp, not for lands named Island or Swamp. The lands it checks for don't have to be basic lands. For example, if you control Blood Crypt (a nonbasic land with the land types Swamp and Mountain), Drowned Catacomb will enter untapped.