5 Color EDH Mana Base
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on July 18, 2017, 6:27 p.m. by madsurfr728
I was hoping to get suggestions for a good framework for a 5 color commander deck. I apologize if this is already an existing thread but I could not find one that matched.
killroy726 says... #3
If you can't afford the expensive mana base cheaper options can include the vivids i.e. Vivid Crag, if your deck is creature heavy Ancient Ziggurat works. And then there's always the three color lands like Crumbling Necropolis. Also cards like Chromatic Lantern, and Prismatic Omen can help as well!
July 18, 2017 6:52 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #4
How are you going to run 15-20 fetches when only 10 exist?
Vivids and all taplands are bad.
Everything else is easy. Run 10 fetches, 1 of each shock and the BFZ lands. Mana Confluence and City of Brass, Reflecting Pool, and Exotic Orchard. Aside from those, ABUR Duals, Pain Lands and basics
July 18, 2017 7:22 p.m.
There are actually quite a few ways to build a good 5-color manabase. It depends on your budget, playgroup, etc. Frankly, playing taplands and stuff like Cultivate should be completely fine if you're on a budget and in a fairly casual playgroup. You should be able to fix your mana pretty easily, if a little slowly. Heck, if you're just playing "budget fetches" then you could probably jam in nonbasic hate as well. But if you're comboing off on turn 5, it's too slow, and you should follow the advice given by others above, which is overall the "optimal" manabase you'd like to have.
July 18, 2017 7:51 p.m.
You could check out Budget MTG on youtube, they did a 5-color Cromat if I recall, may have some goodies in it.
July 18, 2017 8:18 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #7
10* fetches. Was busy running from zombies to really see what I was typing.
July 18, 2017 8:21 p.m.
killroy726 says... #8
@buildadeck dude if it's the budget route and you can't afford fetches vivids are better than nothing
July 18, 2017 8:29 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #9
Fetches are not expensive. Nor are the BFZ lands. Better to save up than buy crap lands.
July 18, 2017 8:33 p.m.
@buildingadeck dunno about you and your financial state but those are pretty darn expensive all together for a good amount of people. Took me awhile to get mine, and that was a bitch to trade into.
July 18, 2017 11:51 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #11
@ZeGinger: They aren't expensive in comparison to the heavy hitters of EDH, and they're a great investment. You can play them in literally any deck outside of standard, and they allow you to build basically any EDH deck well. I'm not saying they're cheap by any means, but they aren't Timetwisters. I simply don't like playing with bad mana bases. I'll substitute Praetor's Grasp for Grim Tutor any day, but playing with wonky lands is the worst.
My point was: don't buy bad cards to complete a deck. Save up and buy good ones one at a time, and swap basics out as you go along. No sense in spending money on bad cards.
July 18, 2017 11:58 p.m.
madsurfr728 says... #12
Thanks guys, really appreciate it. I think this is a good place to start.
July 19, 2017 12:59 a.m.
Winterblast says... #13
I play 5 colour combo and even though I have all fetchlands, shocklands and duals available, I don't play all of them. Of course, you can play all 10 fetchlands, that's for sure. In my case my dominant colour is green, so I play all duals and shocklands with green. The second most important colour is White, followed by black and blue...so I play all the duals (not shocklands) that include White as well. I have left out UR because that combination is something I don't want to draw into at all and I'm still unsure if BR is justified.
Depending on the deck you might want to play stuff like Gaea's Cradle or Cavern of Souls, Gemstone Caverns and of course Command Tower because it's better than a dual when in play (even though not fetchable). You should leave some space for a few Basic lands, preferrably in the colour that helps you best in dealing with Blood Moon. And then it's pretty much over with the free Slots, because you will either have a shitload of mana dorks like Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, Bloom Tender, Elves of Deep Shadow and whatever you Need, or you have a similar amounnt of artifacts, such as Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic, Fellwar Stone,...or a combination of both. You don't want more than 33 lands if you run enough nonland mana sources.
Do yourself a favour and don't play lands that come into play tapped or even worse, the ravnica bounce lands...bringing a land tapped can be a free timewalk for your opponent and you don't want that to happen, do you?
July 19, 2017 3:56 a.m.
Really, though, you should tell us about your playgroup. If you're fine playing stuff like precons, fetches, shocks, etc. are unnecessary. If you're playing competitive EDH then you have to include ABUR duals, fetches, and the like.
July 19, 2017 7:19 a.m.
Game_of_Cones says... #15
In my 5-color Sliver Overlord commander deck i got a Reflecting Pool (essential!), plus Mirrodin's Core and Forsaken City to help get me the colors I need.
July 19, 2017 9:26 a.m.
DarkMagician says... #16
buildingadeck There are way more than ten fetch lands and the Vivids aren't that bad depending on your deck build. If you're aggro then definitely a no go but in midrange they're decent fixers.
July 19, 2017 10:42 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #17
The only fetchlands worth running are the Zen and KTK ones. Like I said, Vivids aren't great if you want to play anything T1. Which is usually something you want to do
July 19, 2017 10:51 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #18
Playability is relative. Like I said aggro wouldn't want Vivids but many decks can utilize them. Just playing devils advocate here
July 19, 2017 11:07 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #19
What exactly do you mean by "aggro"? I mean, my point remains: why by bad cards just to replace them later? It's an eventuality; he will eventually get better lands, so why buy bad ones now?
July 19, 2017 11:18 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #20
Aggro, faster more aggressive decks. As for why to buy worse cards, a cards power is relative to the shell it's in. Yes the Khans/Zen fetches will usually be the best but there are exceptions to that rule. Also many play groups cap how many proxies (if any at all) that they allow a deck to have so many people use the cheaper cards to play with the deck as they're aquiring the cards they need to finish it. Some people take months or even years to complete some decks, especially when the deck in question costs 10k or more.
July 19, 2017 11:25 p.m.
Winterblast says... #21
DarkMagician it's still wrong to assume that "midrange" just means playing nothing until turn 3 or 4...even a "slow" deck does stuff in the early game, just not attempt to kill so early.
July 20, 2017 2:37 a.m.
DarkMagician says... #22
Winterblast I'm not assuming that most midrange decks don't do anything in the early game, they're just more likely to be cool with playing a land and passing turn. Most midrange decks are multi-colored making mana fixing important in the early game.
July 20, 2017 2:47 a.m.
buildingadeck says... #23
Faster does not convey aggro. Fast combo is not the same as aggro. Nor is adaptive combo, both of which are the only viably fast decks in the format. Midrange, as Winterblast noted, still wants to use its early turns to its advantage. There is not a single type of deck that does not want to use its resources.
Also, there isn't really a deck that doesn't want the fetches in EDH. Hell, I run fetches in Yisan for the thinning and the shuffle, which is actually relevant, believe it or not (Sylvan Library is a thing; helps you not accidentally draw Craterhoof).
If you're playing with friends, as long as you are actually working toward building a deck, they're usually okay. If you're taking an incomplete deck to an EDH tournament or something, good luck. It's very challenging to beat tuned decks with an untuned list.
July 20, 2017 3:17 a.m.
DarkMagician says... #24
buildingadeck I didn't say fast combo was the same as aggro, you asked me what I meant by aggro and I answered. Perhaps I should have said faster more aggressive decks that are creature heavy but at that point you're just nitpicking.
Point out where I said decks don't want fetches.
Not everyone plays at tournaments but even a lot of casual groups get annoyed when 90% of someones deck is proxied.
July 20, 2017 4:23 a.m.
Winterblast says... #25
I think no one will have a Problem if you use proxies in a deck for Cards that are in another deck instead of switching Cards before every game...that's definitely more annoying. It's a good Investment to buy all fetchlands at least once if you plan on playing EDH for a longer time and it's not even that much Money if you look for a good offer, on ebay or some local selling platform for example. The KTK fetchies can be acquired for around 10-15 euro if you look for a while and the others are twice the Price...I would recommend buying cheap playsets and reselling the three copies you don't need as singles to make a small profit in the process.
July 20, 2017 4:43 a.m.
buildingadeck says... #26
DarkMagician: "Yes the Khans/Zen fetches will usually be the best but there are exceptions to that rule." I don't know an edh deck that doesn't want them, they're played in every format in which they are legal, so it's best to just pick them up while they're still low from MM3 and KTK.
I've never seen anyone get annoyed at me proxying a deck while I'm working on trading into pieces.
July 20, 2017 4:54 a.m.
buildingadeck Decks with Kozilek or something as your commander probably don't want fetches. A nitpick, but a valid one all the same.
Actually, none of my commander decks really want fetches because they hardly help for the price. Some people have difficulty purchasing so much as precons at retail, and fetches each cost at least half as much for a single decent land - likewise for shocks, but to a lesser degree. Plus, proxying kind of ruins it. If I ever wanted to play competitive, I'd do it, but I'm fine playing more casual decks, since everyone else does in my meta.
Raging_Squiggle says... #2
This works pretty well in telling you what your mana base should be.
Ideally, you'll want 15-20 fetch lands, all 10 shock lands, and the ABUR duals. But since the ABUR's are generally expensive as hell, cheaper searchable versions like Canopy Vista work too.
July 18, 2017 6:43 p.m.