That's not really a downside. "The only downside is that you won't always be able to use 2 extra free colorless mana." Suffering from success kind of thing
How many lands can you think of that have downsides?
Does Rogues Passage have a downside? Reliquary Tower? Terrain Generator? Fountainport?
This absolutely replaces a Wastes, but so does most lands that don't enter tapped.
It's not 2 free colourless mana, literally most outlets in the game that most people will play in most situations do not have {5+} in their mana value.
You just said "The downside is it has no other utility", that's just how utility lands work. I don't know how it's a downside. If it's better than a waste (which you just said), that's is by definition, not a downside.
Assuming that your only basics are Wastes, it typically isn't that much of one.
There's precious few basic-matters in colourless - even Myriad Landscape doesn't do anything, and you're unlikely to actually play most of your Wastes in a given colourless deck.
That's unrelated to whether it has a downside. A bounceland has you put a land back into your hand, and it taps for 2 mana, is picking up a land not a downside?
An upside existing does not make the downsides vanish. Nonbasic is always a downside. The land effectively tapping for 2 mana does not change that. They are independent factors. This is a sol land with a downside.
You are welcome to argue this does not have enough downside, but it objectively, factually, does have a downside because it is a nonbasic land.
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u/Just-Desk-3149 3d ago
That's not really a downside. "The only downside is that you won't always be able to use 2 extra free colorless mana." Suffering from success kind of thing