Editor’s Note: New column (like always). Sometimes when WotC does some that confuses or upsets a group of people with the choices that they’ve made, I’ll step in and defend WotC’s actions. Now, I don’t agree with all of their choices either, but I will defend the ones I think are right.
Yeah, I was disappointed too.
I mean, Wizards has so many dual lands to choose from to make this cycle of cards better. They could’ve at least printed the Ravnica Duals, which would be awesome with the Zendikar Fetchlands. Or maybe create even new dual lands that we would have more incentive to buy this Core Set.
But this? We’ve seen this cycle three times now. I’ve got playsets of each and when I open my M12 boosters I really don’t want to be staring down at these guys again. The lands are not all that great for Commander, but it’s not even that. You have to keep surprising players or they get restless. We’ve seen this, time to move on.
Let me come to the M10 Duals’ defense: They had to be reprinted.
Core sets before M10 were separated two years apart. Once the Painlands were in one of the Core Set, they sat there for two years. The allied Duals were in 5th, 6th and 7th, meaning they were in print for 6 years, before taking two years off to see 4 more years of being in Standard when they were in 9th and 10th. We’ve only had the M10 Duals for 2 years, even though we’ve seen them printed twice (this is the third time). It kinda seems like we’ve had these for much longer, but we really haven’t.
In previous Core Sets we had to have reprints and now we’re being spoiled with all new cards. But not every card in the Core Set should be a new one. I’m okay with another year of these guys. The large sets in September (the beginning sets of a block) almost always gets dual lands, so we’d be getting 10 new Duals in 3 months. Remember when these were first announced then in Zendikar we had the enemy Fetchlands? All that scrambling to get all of those lands so you can play in your tournaments as soon as possible? You can’t have that happen all of the time. I would rather see the “better” Duals in Innistrad than in M12.
Plus, this gives a chance for everyone to get these cards, once again. That’s a boring answer, but the more cards players have the more opportunities they’ll play. They’re so inexpensive now and cheap, good Dual lands are never a wrong choice to have. After players were complaining that you had to have a $100 card to play Standard, this isn’t a bad thing. It does allow more players to try to play events like FNM. And for people like me who will end up pulling them, there will always be an audience to snag them up. I don’t have a full set of them on MTGO, this just means I’m ok buying them because I get to use them for another year. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels that way either.
And really, they aren’t bad Dual lands. They’re efficient, and they reward better manabases. You want your Dual lands to be different from each other so they play differently. The M10 Duals are just fine to play and construct decks with. Not everything has to be on power with the Ravnica (or even original) Duals.
Just take a deep breath and relax. The M10 Duals are okay to reprint.
MTG Color Pie 
I kinda like them in Commander. It always seems like late-game mana is ultimately more important than early-game mana. After a couple turns, Rootbound Crag is almost a guaranteed “twisty” dual. Enemy colors would be nice, but I guess that’s what Caldera Lake is for…
I just hope in M13 they have “enemy” M10-M12 duals for 3 years!
IDK, I don’t even use that many nonbasics in Commander… and Karador is my general of choice.
I do like that these have been reprinted again, though. I’m a huge casual player, and I am glad to pick these up for $1 a piece. They are fair and solid duals.