Card of the Week: Strip Mine

Man, all I need now is an Anthologies printing. Then I'd have all of the (English) old-school legal Strip Mines!

This Wasted Land

In the years after I left Alsoor, I wandered far and wide across the ruined continent of Terisiare. In one of my journeys, I had just crossed the Kher Ridges into the west. Descending from the high passes into the drier climes bordering the Great Fallaji Desert, I came across a gaping wound in the land. It was the remains of a mine, a pit gouged out from the surrounding land. Perhaps at one time it was overseen by Mishra himself—for this was once his territory—but now it was abandoned, willfully forgotten by all.

Although it was undoubtedly ancient—decades or centuries of rare rainstorms had cut deep gullies into the terraced slopes and water had collected into a deep pool the bottom of the pit—it still festered amidst the surrounding hills. Aside from the odd scrub, nothing grew here. Though the water looked clean and clear nothing swam in it, for it was toxic and acid. The contrast with the surrounding mountains was severe: though too dry to sport lush vegetation, they were bursting with life compared to the pit.

As severe as it was, the mine’s damage did not end at the physical boundaries of the world. The spirit of the land all but cried out in pain, and I could sense the wrongness of its ley lines without even trying. The mountains around felt alive in their usual way, with barely controlled impulsiveness and chaos. But the pit felt like nothing—or more accurately, the absence of anything. Both shocked and curious, I decided to stay and study the mine and so bind its ley line to my soul. The Fallaji Desert could wait.

For the better part of a week I walked the paths of the pit. I climbed up to the highest point of the rim, down to the water line, and to all the terraces between. I crumbled the ore-laden dirt and the discarded tailings in my hands. I tasted (but did not drink!) the poisoned metallic water. As I studied, the tragedy of the place became clear. Here was a place that had blighted its surroundings for hundreds of years, and would continue to do so for countless more. Though the tainted water was low now it had undoubtedly spilled over the edge of the pit many times when the rains came, and each time it had spread its poison to flood the lands beyond. The bones strewn about the pit spoke to flocks and flocks of unsuspecting birds seeking shelter in the caustic waters but finding death instead. I could not imagine the place ever healing again, no matter how many years passed.

After I had bound the Strip Mine’s ley line to myself, I was only too happy to leave for healthier lands. When I came to them, even the most barren stretches of the Fallaji Desert seemed more alive than the pit. And as I traveled farther away from it, the trauma of the pit faded to a dull ache in my memory. Only then did I experiment with its ley line.

At first the ley line was a mere curiosity, only good for supplementing other ley lines or powering artifacts. The mana I drew from it was entirely devoid of any feeling: not the soothing calm of the plains, not the furious excitement of the mountains, not the deep strength of the forests. But there was something else about it, something just beyond my reach. It took me months of tinkering with it to discover its true power, but it finally came to me. I had woven it with other ley lines to shape a spell, but did not complete the casting before I pulled on it just so...and the spell collapsed! The Strip Mine’s ley line was gone, as was one of the other ley lines I had woven. Understanding came in a rush, and I imagined that I could use it the same way against a foe, deactivate another’s ley lines just as I had deactivated my own. I had discovered a new weapon to take into battle, one more subtle and insidious than I had previously known.

Wounds that Do Not Heal

People have mined the planes since there have been people, but Strip Mining is a relatively recent activity. Surface mining—quarrying away stones or minerals from at or near the surface of the land—seems to be the oldest form, followed by shaft mining where veins of minerals are followed into the earth. Strip Mining, which involves removing a large amount of overlying earth or stone from a seam of mineral before digging it out of the ground, requires more effort than simple surface mining or shaft mining—usually in the form of machinery like that employed by the Artificiers.

Berkeley Pit just outside of Butte, Montana, is an abandoned strip mine. The water that's in it is extremely acidic and has so much copper dissolved in it that the metal can be mined directly by precipitation. The water level keeps rising, and when it reaches the surrounding water table it'll poison the rivers and groundwater in the surrounding area.

With the greater effort expended in Strip Mining comes a greater effect on the lands about it. The scale at which it is practiced can be far greater than simpler methods of mining, and as such even the physical damage to the land is greater. Moving such great amounts of earth and stone wreaks havoc on the local streams, and the tailings and ores washed away choke the remaining rivers with pollution. When abandoned, water collects in the pits and leaches minerals from the remaining ores, and the caustic results poison the land further. Even decades or centuries do not heal these wounds, and the effects of these mines will be felt for generations to come.

Mining for Victory

The utility of the Strip Mine in sorcerous combat cannot be overstated. It is so effective that it is used whenever possible by almost all serious strategies. Not only can it deactivate any ley line—from cutting off the knowledge contained in the Library of Alexandria to just destroying a second Island to ward off a Counterspell—it does so instantaneously and unstoppably. So great is its power that most convocations of dueling mages, even many of those of the oldest school, restrict its use to just one instance per spellbook.

The ever-popular land destruction strategy. I distinctly remember a Stone Rain deck (more than four Stone Rains because we were barbaric kids who ignored tournament rules, no Sinkholes or Ice Storms because we were poor kids that started playing during Revised) as being the first deck that I just couldn't beat.

While most mages bind as many Strip Mines to themselves as possible, a few go further and make its feared ability the focus of their spellbooks. Combining their Strip Mines with spells such as Stone Rain, Ice Storm, and Sinkhole, they seek to cut off their opponents’ mana before they can use it to threaten them, and then keep it cut off while they summon threats of their own. And assuming that the Strip Mines and destructive spells keep coming at a steady pace, it is a strategy with results that cannot be denied.

Danatoth of Alsoor


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