First printed in Outlaws of Thunder Junction (2024)

Arid Archway

Land — Desert

This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, return a land you control to its owner's hand. If another Desert was returned this way, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
tap : Add Colorless .

Illustrated by: Raymond Bonilla

Legality

Legal in: Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Not legal in: Pauper, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH

Rulings (2)

2024-04-12 Arid Archway will return itself to its owner’s hand if you control no other lands when its enters-the-battlefield ability resolves (or if you choose to return it to its owner’s hand despite controlling other lands). It’s almost never a good idea to play it on your first turn.
2024-04-12 Desert is a land subtype with no special meaning. It doesn’t grant the land an intrinsic mana ability. Other cards may care about which lands are Deserts.

Prices

MTGO price: 0.003 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).

Combos

184 combos, the most popular first:

Infinite artifact ETB, Infinite artifact LTB…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Tireless Provisioner
Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature tokens…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Scute Swarm
Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature tokens…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Rampaging Baloths
Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature tokens…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Springheart Nantuko
Infinite artifact tokens, Infinite landfall triggers…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Tireless Tracker
Infinite landfall triggers: Arid Archway + Retreat to Coralhelm + Walking Atlas
Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature tokens…: Arid Archway + Field of the Dead + Kodama of the East Tree
Infinite landfall triggers: Arid Archway + PuPu UFO + Retreat to Coralhelm
Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature tokens…: Arid Archway + Kodama of the East Tree + Omnath, Locus of Rage
Infinite landfall triggers: Arid Archway + Retreat to Coralhelm + Sakura-Tribe Scout

See all 184 on Commander Spellbook

Pioneer In 2 of 116 decks (1.7%), most in Golgari Midrange

Pioneer metagame

Staple: main deck, 2% of decks (#197) (last 120 days)

Lands

Share of decks

2.0%

▲ 0.2 vs previous 7 days

Weekly, last 90 days

Decks

3 main, 0 sideboard

Avg. copies

1.0

in the main deck

Win rate

53%

0 top 8, leagues excluded

Weekly data

Week from	Share of decks
10 Aug	3.6%
17 Aug	2.4%
24 Aug	2.7%
31 Aug	4.4%
7 Sep	2.1%
14 Sep	0.6%
21 Sep	2.1%
28 Sep	0.0%
5 Oct	1.5%
12 Oct	0.0%
19 Oct	1.8%
26 Oct	2.0%

Archetypes by metagame share

Archetype	Meta	Play it
Golgari Midrange	17.2%	5%
UBG (unclassified)	0.9%	100%

Played together with

Card	Together	Lift
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods	100%	51.0
The Wandering Minstrel	100%	51.0
Aftermath Analyst	100%	51.0
Port of Karfell	100%	51.0
Hedge Maze	100%	38.3
Spelunking	100%	38.3
Scapeshift	100%	38.3
Arboreal Grazer	100%	38.3
Underground Mortuary	100%	30.6
Castle Garenbrig	100%	30.6

Together: decks with this card that also play the other one (main deck)
Lift: how much more often than chance: 1 = unrelated, above 1 = played together on purpose

Best win rate

Deck	Record
Golgari Midrange wkmidori in Pioneer Challenge 16	2-3 40%

Leagues excluded: MTGO publishes only the 5-0 decks.

Latest decks

Deck	Copies	Finish
Golgari Midrange wkmidori, 31 Oct	1 main	#19 of 35 2-3
UBG MasterNeo7, 31 Oct	1 main	#22 of 35 2-2

Commander In 5 of 719 decks (0.7%), most in Lumra, Bellow of the Woods

Commander metagame

Share of decks

0.7%

▼ 0.3 vs previous 7 days