Bazaar of Baghdad (Repaint)

Painted by one of the 25 original Alpha artists, Jeff Menges, Bazaar of Baghdad is a unique land first printed in the Arabian Nights set (1993), offering card filtering without mana production. It is without question one of the top 3 paintings from Arabian Nights set (1993) and arguably Menges’ most valuable Magic the Gathering painting of all time. From a player’s perspective, its lore lies in its unique draw-discard ability enables graveyard-focused strategies across eternal formats. Drawing two cards every turn for “free” even though you must discard three provides an incredible card selection in graveyard-based decks. It functions as an engine on its own since it doesn’t require other cards to be useful. In Vintage, this is the engine behind top-tier decks like Dredge, where this card serves as both a draw engine and combo enabler. It fuels the graveyard instantly, triggering Dredge mechanics like Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, and Narcomoeba. With Bridge from Below, Ichorid, and Dread Return, the deck can win without ever playing a land that taps for mana. Bazaar of Baghdad is also played in Bazaar Aggro/Hollow Vine decks that take advantage of the Madness ability to put creatures into play fast (e.g. Basking Rootwalla and Blazing Rootwalla), triggering Vengevine and making Hollow One cheap to cast. In the Old School (93/94) format it sees play in Reanimator variants using cards like Animate Dead and All Hallow’s Eve to take advantage of Bazaar’s powerful effect. Bazaar of Baghdad is on the Reserved List, so it has never been reprinted, and this is its only painted version that appears on a Magic card.