Is building your land base the most skillful part of MTG?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 5, 2015, 8:06 p.m. by xpire
Had some really useful suggestions for my budget mana base but after some playtesting of what I already have set up I've been running into consistent problems which have really been delaying my win conditions and sometimes straight up causing a loss. I've been offering some cards from friends to help streamline my land (info in comments on Jeskai ) - and could really use some advice from more experienced modern players on what I need to cut out, and what I should make space for based on what kind of drops I'm going to need/want to play on each turn!
I am not very experienced, so I cannot give much great advice, however I can say that I find your lack of actual lands disturbing in the deck posted. You've got 13 lands that tap for mana and 9 fetch-lands. If you're looking for budget, this surely isn't the way. Maybe using some cards like City of Brass might help you even the budget whilst also getting rid of your mana problem. The fact that you can only fetch basics can also be somewhat of a problem as whatever you fetch only helps with that single color of mana, not the rest that you're looking for.
These are just the thoughts of a person who is looking to get into Modern now, so take everything with a grain of salt.
November 5, 2015 8:19 p.m.
wakawakawaka says... #4
so run 1 of each color of fetchland you need, and a bunch of fetches, a few random taplands and a smattering of basics.
tailor the above formula to your budget and color config and wala you have a landbase.
I would also cut down on the number of abbots you have. maybe you can trade them for fetchlands who knows.
November 5, 2015 8:45 p.m.
Im not a Modern player, I'm more Casual now that my Standard deck phased out. But i find that having a 2:3 land to non-land ratio works or is a hair high. If its high, take out a land or two and run it again. As for if mana is the most important part, I dont think it is. Yes, mana is important, but if you have all the mana in the world, and not a good strategy to do with it, its a loss every time. Thats just my two cents.
November 6, 2015 10:04 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #6
Going budget on your land base in any competitive format (besides maybe Standard) is one of the biggest no-nos. It is well known that the land base is the very first thing you should be spending your money on. Once you've got your land base down pit-pat solid, everything else flows quite nicely as you can make whatever you want.
Basically, the simplest of land-bases always contain fetches, shocks and basics. At least one of each in your colours, barring really special conditions that more experienced players notice with their deck during building and playtesting. Nothing else really matters in the simplest of forms, however, utility lands are added (and needed) for when you really start to learn how to play modern really well. But for the moment, the cheapest, and most effective, land base in modern is just running 3-6 basics, 6-10 fetches and 3-8 shocks. Shocks generally run less than $40 a playset.
For the most part, Ghost Quarter as a 1-2 of is the most common utility land added. Junk out of all decks will have the most utility lands, with Jund second, and their mana bases are far more complicated. Affinity, infect and Tron are pretty close, but affinity's and Tron's land base isn't complicated at all. In your colours, Celestial Colonnade is the only other utility land that you will need, when you go out of budget.
November 7, 2015 6:27 a.m.
wakawakawaka says... #7
oops I said fetchland when I meant shockland. oopsie
Coinman1863 says... #2
Basically I would add shocks instead of basics so that you can fetch two colors instead of one like you can now. You usually want to be left with 3-4 basics when you are done for those pesky Blood Moon matchups.
November 5, 2015 8:16 p.m.