Jungle Basin MTG Card


Jungle Basin provides card advantage by returning Forests to your hand. It accelerates mana production, allowing for powerful spells earlier. The card aids instant-speed play, keeping opponents on their toes.
Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
RarityUncommon
TypeLand

Text of card

Jungle Basin comes into play tapped. When Jungle Basin comes into play, return an untapped forest you control to owner's hand or bury Jungle Basin. oc T: Add o G and one colorless mana to your mana pool.


Cards like Jungle Basin

Jungle Basin is an intriguing land card in Magic: The Gathering, inviting compelling comparisons with similar cards in the realm of MTG land cards that provide both mana and utility. Jungle Basin itself grants access to green and colorless mana. It also bears the tap-to-add-mana feature reminiscent of the Vivid land series. However, unlike the Vivid lands, Jungle Basin comes into play tapped and returns a forest you control to its owner’s hand, slightly delaying your mana curve.

Likewise, the Ravnica bouncelands like Simic Growth Chamber offer a parallel to Jungle Basin, tapping for two specific types of mana while also bouncing a land back to your hand. These bouncelands offer immediate card advantage and mana fixing but at the cost of tempo. Comparatively, Jungle Basin specifically requires a forest to bounce, which may limit its flexibility in multi-color decks that are less focused on green mana.

Evaluating these qualities, Jungle Basin is balanced among its land card peers, offering a mix of advantages and strategic considerations. It represents a useful building block in decks designed around landfall abilities or strategies that leverage lands in the hand while carefully navigating the potential slowdown keeping pace with opponents.

Simic Growth Chamber - MTG Card versions
Simic Growth Chamber - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Jungle Basin enables a subtle advantage by allowing the return of a Forest to your hand. This can be tactically beneficial, particularly when looking to reuse lands with useful enter-the-battlefield effects or simply to ensure a land drop for the next turn.

Resource Acceleration: By providing an additional green mana upon tapping, Jungle Basin can be a key card in ramping up your mana production, making more expensive spells accessible sooner than your opponent might anticipate. This plays a crucial role in outpacing your opponents in resource accumulation.

Instant Speed: Though Jungle Basin doesn’t operate at instant speed itself, the returned Forest can be played again, setting you up to unleash instant-speed spells with your newly regained land. This strategy keeps your opponents guessing and allows you to adapt quickly to the evolving state of the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Jungle Basin demands that you discard a card upon its entrance to the battlefield, which can lead to card disadvantage especially if your hand is already sparse or if the discarded card is crucial to your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: The mana provided by Jungle Basin is specifically green and colorless which can be restrictive if your deck relies on a diverse color palette and needs access to other types of mana for spells and abilities.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Given that Jungle Basin enters the battlefield tapped and requires a return of a forest to its owner’s hand, it has a relatively high mana cost for the ramp benefit it provides, potentially setting back your game tempo in comparison to other land options.


Reasons to Include Jungle Basin in Your Collection

Versatility: Jungle Basin is a land card that fits nicely into decks that need mana fixing and can benefit from returning a forest to its owner’s hand – ideal for triggering landfall abilities or reusing lands with enter-the-battlefield effects.

Combo Potential: By returning a forest to your hand, Jungle Basin works well with cards that gain advantage when lands are played or cycled back into play, enabling intricate combos and synergistic plays within a green-centric deck.

Meta-Relevance: With a meta that emphasizes tempo and value, Jungle Basin ensures that green ramp decks stay ahead by providing additional access to green mana and enabling recurring land-based strategies without falling behind in land drops.


How to Beat

Jungle Basin, a card from the Visions set of Magic: The Gathering, is known for its utility in mana ramp strategies, allowing players to return a Forest to their hand upon entering the battlefield and then subsequently tapping for green and colorless mana. Despite the initial setback of losing a land drop, it provides a significant advantage in the long run, especially for decks featuring landfall mechanics or strategies that capitalize on having numerous lands in hand.

To counter Jungle Basin, focus on land disruption tactics and speed. Aggressive decks can exploit the turn spent bouncing a Forest back to a player’s hand by establishing a formidable board presence. Land destruction or denial strategies can also be effective, as they prevent the utilization of Jungle Basin’s mana-generating ability, thereby stifling an opponent’s development. Additionally, decks that can accelerate their own mana production without relying on specific lands can outpace the advantages gained by Jungle Basin, securing victory before the card’s benefits fully manifest.

In essence, overcoming Jungle Basin involves minimizing its impact and strategizing around its initial tempo loss. Whether through quick aggression or precise control, there are multiple paths to ensuring that Jungle Basin’s lush mana doesn’t grow wild and unchecked in your games.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Jungle Basin MTG card by a specific set like Visions and Commander 2014, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Jungle Basin and other MTG cards:

TCGPlayerBUY NOW
BurnMana is an official partner of TCGPlayer
Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See MTG Products

Printings

The Jungle Basin Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 1997-02-03 and 2020-11-20. Illustrated by John Avon.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11997-02-03VisionsVIS 1641997NormalBlackJohn Avon
22014-11-07Commander 2014C14 3022015NormalBlackJohn Avon
32017-06-09Commander AnthologyCMA 2582015NormalBlackJohn Avon
42020-11-20Commander LegendsCMR 4842015NormalBlackJohn Avon

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Jungle Basin has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Jungle Basin card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2006-02-01 This has a triggered ability when it enters the battlefield, not a replacement effect, as previously worded.