Sacred Mesa

Goes great with Pegasus Refuge

good card in many ways if you use it right you can easily overwhelm an opponent if used with a crusade! good card!

Definitely a great card, but you can't have 4 and probably not even 3 in your deck becuase an extra copy just means you have to sac another Pegasus, but still...Coat of Arms!!

Shiloh, you're completely off base on this one. Sacred Mesa was not top tier tournament viable back when it was first legal in Standard because it was overshadowed by all the other craziness available at the time. Necro ran rampant over Standard for years, and was followed by a slew of other decks that accelerated the format away from decks that accomodated a card like Sacred Mesa. However, times have changed, and there are numerous Tier 1 decks in standard where Sacred Mesa finds a home. The card is helped TREMENDOUSLY by the existence of Azorius Signet and Azorius Chancery, which make huge late game mana generation easy. Obviously it's not a "four of" card in any deck, but it is a tremendously effective and powerful finisher in a dedicated Blue/White, Blue/White/red or Blue/White/black control deck. It also diversifies the threats in a Blue/White/Red aggro control deck, and contrary to what you said in your review, it is far from the most vulnerable permanent type. Main deck enchantment kill in Standard goes about as far as Ronom Unicorn, and most decks don't even start that creature. Everything I've said here has been backed up the results of countless MTGO tournaments, and if you want to see proof of the Mesa's effectiveness, why don't we play some matches for ante online. You can find me online on my accounts, TheCollection or Brian Weissman.

This card is much more desrable than one may believe it to be, in a weenie deck I agree entirely that it is too mana intensive but in standard control after Kamigawa rolls on out this tre drop enchantment will own games, one there is lil' to no enchantment hate in standrad (there is plenty but no one plays it) if interested I could give you the perfect deck list for this card to go into and the deck is not built around this card. Shortly after I started playing magic the counter mesa deck was in high regard in my area and when I had seen it come back I almost died remembering how bad I used to lose to this card.
The casting cost of this card is fair with an upkeep of two it is almost unfair for your opponent, especially in limited where there is almost always a point in a late game where you need a card like this to win I know akroma is more ideal but this card goes all the way in my book.

thanks for the excellent word shiloh! i appreciate it when someone writes an intelligent review. just wanted to say that i use this card with 'eternal dragon' as my only mainboard damage dealers. i will admit to being a bit out of circulation but i'm afraid i'm going to have to learn the hard way! although the fact that this card has been out there a long time(like 'serra's sanctum' also) and hasn't been abused or heard from speaks volumes about your excellent review. still..well..i'd put up my deck but trollandtoad usually edits it. nice hearing from you though! ciao!

play with this in my 1.5 monowhite deck. combos quite well with 'moat.' i always think token generators are worth a second look, especially cheap ones like these. and i believe, on top of being cheap, that this is one of the few to make flyers. so there's that angle too. don't usually care for the "girly" horses with wings but i think the artist did pretty good here. i'm a bit mystified why this isn't played more casually or in the 1.5 environment as i think its a quite excellent card especially in combination with 'serra's sanctum' and 'gaea's cradle' which i also play in conjunction with the aforementioned. in conclusion, give this horsy a second look. you'll definitely have the last
"heehaw"......................

If anyone doesn't remember this running around standard back in the day it actually saw quite a bit of plays after Earthcraft was released with Stronghold. Mesa Craft was a big competitor out there with a single plains with a wild growth or other enchantment being able to be tapped to make a pegasus, Then the pegasus tapped to Earthcraft to untap said land, for an arbitrarilly lage number of Pegasus. It is a good card just not worth going too far out of your way to accomidate. But it is a tournament worthy card and yes Mesa craft was a tier-1 Deck in Type 2, along with Humility and the likes, Ultimately dying out to Recurring Nightmare.

While this card looks quite excellent at first blush, being a cheap way to generate hordes of flying weenies, Sacred Mesa has two drawbacks--neither of which is "fatal" in and of itself, but, when put together, explain why it isn't--and never was--tournament-viable. The first drawback is, of course, that it's an enchantment, making it the most fragile type of permanent there is; that is, there are no end of ways to deal with enchantments. Second, the upkeep requirement of sacrificing a Pegasus every turn is enough to hamstring it--I mean, for all practical intents and purposes, you're paying 1W every turn just for the privilege of keeping it on the board; to look at it another way, you must spend at least 4 mana every turn to get a single 1/1 horsey--not very economical, is it? The fact is, it's too slow for an aggro-white build and too mana-intensive for a control deck. While you could certainly have fun with a card like this in a casual environment (think Crusade/Coat of Arms and/or Overrun), it will never be tourney-worthy.

Control is the only deck type that makes this card useful. Ive played magic long enough to know that any good deck should have you killed by turn 6 with a really good draw, unless your running some kind of control. Unfortunately turn 6 is when this card seems to become useful, unless your running moxes or lotus to get it out early but why do that when you can kill your opponent on turn 1. Could be fun in a multiplayer game with a life gaining deck that uses congregate. But I rate cards based on their power in tournament play.