Zendikar Rising's Pathway Dual Lands

 One of my prized possessions in my Magic collection is a Revised Edition Underground Sea (which I'm given to understand is actually fairly valuable.) This was one of the original 10-card cycle of dual lands, complete with Tundra, Plateau, Savannah, Volcanic Isle, Tropical Isle, Scrublands, Badlands, Bayou, and Taiga were the original dual lands. These lands were very simple and straightforward - each simply counted as two types of land. Underground Sea was an Island Swamp, Taiga was a Forest Mountain, etc.

This was before land types were printed on the type line of the card, so the rules had to be a little more explicit. But the thing that made these dual lands so good was that they had no drawbacks (except for land-type specific destruction, such as Orcish Raiding Party, a Fallen Empires enchantment that could wipe out plains, which might also take out your Tundra.)

Nowadays, no land is allowed to be strictly better than a basic land, with dual lands usually coming with some drawback (usually coming into play tapped.)

Ravnica brought us the Shocklands, which I think tend to be considered the best dual lands outside of the originals, and Ikoria gave us the Triomes, which are pretty darn good, especially making three-color decks highly viable these days.

But the new pathway lands are going to possibly give the Shocklands a run for their money.

The Pathways are two-faced cards, and they're simple as can be - you just pick a side and you can get the color you want from them.

The only manner in which they aren't strictly better than basic lands is that they aren't basic and they have no land types, but otherwise, there's really no drawback. They come into play untapped, with no cost.

Where these do fall behind compared to other dual lands is that you make a choice when you play them and you have to be happy with that choice, unless you have some way to return it to your hand or dig it out of the graveyard. Still, in my experience, dual lands are most crucial in the early turns, when you want a card that can give you the color you need for that next spell - and in this case, you'll be able to get that color with no real costs.

Land, of course, is both a brilliant mechanic to govern the pacing of MTG, but it's also a source of frustration when you get unlucky with your draws. It's always interesting to see how new lands like these can help with that issue.

Now, the Pathway lands are rare, which means that amassing a full collection (40 cards) will probably take a bit of luck and persistence. But I think they're going to probably be staples in Standard for the next two years (and are a welcome replacement for the shock-lands, which rotate out of standard when Zendikar Rising releases.)