Landed

Rampant Growth card art

Today, I continue the 'land' theme of the month, referencing the comprehensive rules to do so.

Lands are unique in many ways. Today, we look at their inherent nature. We start with the concept of permanents.

• 110.4. There are six permanent types: artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker. Instant and sorcery cards can’t enter the battlefield and thus can’t be permanents. Some tribal cards can enter the battlefield and some can’t, depending on their other card types. See section 3, “Card Types.” 
• 110.4a The term “permanent card” is used to refer to a card that could be put onto the battlefield. Specifically, it means an artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, land, or planeswalker card.  
• 110.4b The term “permanent spell” is used to refer to a spell that will enter the battlefield as a permanent as part of its resolution. Specifically, it means an artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker spell.

Note that lands are the only permenant type that is not a permanent spell. Playing a land is a special action.

• 116.1. Special actions are actions a player may take when they have priority that don’t use the stack. These are not to be confused with turn-based actions and state-based actions, which the game generates automatically. (See rule 703, “Turn-Based Actions,” and rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”) 
• 116.2. There are ten special actions: 
• 116.2a Playing a land is a special action. To play a land, a player puts that land onto the battlefield from the zone it was in (usually that player’s hand). By default, a player can take this action only once during each of their turns. A player can take this action any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of their turn. See rule 305, “Lands.”

On to rule 305 we go. This section has 9 subpoints; I omit the five that I listed yesterday.

• 305. Lands 
• 305.1. A player who has priority may play a land card from their hand during a main phase of their turn when the stack is empty. Playing a land is a special action; it doesn’t use the stack (see rule 116). 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. 
• 305.2. A player can normally play one land during their turn; however, continuous effects may increase this number. 
• 305.3. A player can’t play a land, for any reason, if it isn’t their turn. Ignore any part of an effect that instructs a player to do so. 
• 305.4. 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 land played during the current turn. 
• 305.9. If an object is both a land and another card type, it can be played only as a land. It can’t be cast as a spell.

The first point: playing a land does not use the stack, so it cannot be countered. (Hooray!) Pretty much everything else in this game can be, so this is an important concept.

Rule 305.2 deals with continuous effects. One example is the Gitrog Monster:

"You may play an additional land on each of your turns" is a continuous effect, true for the duration of the game until/unless The Gitrog Monster leaves play. Per 305.1, playing that additional land is still a special action and cannot be countered.

Rule 305.4 deals with a similar concept as 305.2, only this time, it is not necessarily a continuous effect. In most cases, this is talking about instants and sorceries. One example is Rampant Growth:

Here, the Rampant Growth spell can be countered (by a typical counterspell effect or ability), but should the spell resolve, you can do as the card indicates, which enables you to play an additional land (but only one time).

Rule 305.9 deals with interesting cases like land creatures. Consider Dryad Arbor:

In this case, the text on the card spells out what to do. Playing this card counts are your one land for the turn, it cannot be countered, and so on.

Lands are pretty easy to grasp, but it is important to understand some of the nuances.