Remote Farm

Two depletion counters, two activations of double white, and then the land checks itself and dies the instant the last counter comes off: the entire transaction is a four-mana loan of fixed color paid out across at least three turns (it enters tapped) against a permanent that erodes itself out of play. The depletion lands as a cycle were built around a balance question that has never stopped mattering: how do you print something that produces double mana of one color without simply gifting every deck a strictly-better dual? The counters are the friction. A source that taps for two white and stays would distort manabases badly; one that taps for two white twice and then sacrifices itself is a calculated tempo advance, front-loading mana against a disadvantage you accept going in. The math rarely rewards patience: a single white-producing source that survives the long game usually out-earns a depleting one that doubles up briefly and vanishes. These lands carve out a narrow niche, where a deck wants a precise burst of one color right now and is happy to let the source go once it has spent itself. As mana-ramp design it is unusually honest about its trade: it shows you exactly how many activations you get, counts them down on the battlefield, and removes itself when the well runs dry.