Land Arranging in Play
General forum
Posted on Oct. 23, 2014, 9:26 p.m. by Gruss029
I do something I've noticed that not too many other people take the time to do. When I'm playing a multicolor deck (pretty much all of them) I arrange my lands so the colors flow from one to another.
So from left to right in my Nekusar deck I'd have an Island , Temple of Deceit , stacked on top of a Watery Grave , Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , then Blood Crypt . Makes it easy to see how much of each color mana I have. Do my fellow internet denizens do the same? Does it bother you when others don't?
GlistenerAgent says... #3
I stagger my lands, and usually try to keep lands that tap for similar colors.
For example, all the Island s go together, the Breeding Pool and Flooded Grove go together, the Steam Vents and Cascade Bluffs go together.
I also try unsuccessfully to look cool when I tap mana, so I set my lands up in such a way that I can tap four lands for Scapeshift or Cryptic Command or whatever and look like a professional doing it. :)
October 23, 2014 9:39 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
I keep my lands mixed because I don't want my opponents to be able to look at my board and instantly tell how much mana of what colors I can produce. I won't misrepresent the board, but I'm not going to do them any favors.
That said, I'll play mindgames and keep 
together and slightly off to the side to make people wonder whether I'm holding a counterspell.
October 23, 2014 10:28 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #5
I move my lands around a lot and place them in ways that represent spells I want my opponent playing around. I sometimes arrange my lands to cast spells I don't have in hand or even run in the deck to put my opponents on incorrect lines of play.
During my opponents turn I usually arrange my tapped lands with similar ones. Other times I leave it a mess.
October 23, 2014 10:32 p.m.
miracleHat says... #6
People can stack their lands however they want. tbh, I stack my lands by prettiness (sheepish grin). It goes from uglued lands, to zendikars, to core set, to whatever other crap I have with the basics. It is of course harder with the multicolor producing lands...
October 23, 2014 11:26 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #7
I like to keep my lands mixed up for the same reasons. People should be keeping track of the lands I play and tap, I don't need to make anything easier for them by having nice neat piles for them. If they ask me about the lands I have untapped or tapped, I must tell them truthfully. Nor do I misrepresent the board.
However, I keep things very neat when I'm trying to teach somebody how to play.
Epochalyptik, under tournament rules, is one obligated to answer when an opponent asks about the lands one has in play, and which ones are tapped/untapped? Or can you just keep your silence while taking care not to misrepresent the board?
October 23, 2014 11:38 p.m.
miracleHat says... #8
Also, i forgot to mention that during drafts, i always use revised lands (the faded ones). They are harder to see, and there have been multiple accounts were i was playing a r/x (not u) deck and left lands untapped and my opponent thought i was holding up countermagic. Anybody can ask me, they just never do.
October 23, 2014 11:40 p.m.
I keep my lands in little teepees to shelter over my valuable permenants just in case Chaos Orb shows up.
October 23, 2014 11:50 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
@JakeHarlow: You are under no obligation to answer any questions like that, but any answers that you choose to give must be true and accurate.
If the opponent wanted to identify the fifth card in my land river, I could indicate that the name is visible, or I could remove the land so my opponent could identify it (after which point I would return it to its original position).
tl;dr: You have no obligation to answer the question, and your opponent should be able to answer it for himself or herself.
October 23, 2014 11:53 p.m.
slovakattack says... #12
I've never actually been to an official tournament before, (well, a serious one), but I tend not to shuffle my lands a lot- although that's more because I'm too nubby to constantly deal with that than the fact that I don't want to wig out my opponents lol.
October 24, 2014 1:21 a.m.
I keep my lands in a near constant flux, partially to throwoff opponents, partially to make sure I have the mana to cast things.
On a side note, one of my friends plays with his lands in front of the rest of his stuff like the old way of playing MTG.
October 24, 2014 1:53 a.m.
I like to keep lands stacked up with others that produce the same colors. Mostly that means all the same name, but if I'm running both Jungle Hollow and Temple of Malady I'll stack them together, for example. Partly because I'm an organizational freak concerning anything I care about (a tidy house will never happen, but everything on my game shelf is arranged just so), and partly as a convenience (I need U mana, I don't have to go hunting for it).
I see no reason to take it further than this by ordering them like the color wheel, but neither do I understand why some people play with their land all jumbled up together. Seems like a major pain constantly picking single lands out of a pile every time you cast a spell. But that's me, to each their own.
October 24, 2014 3:11 a.m.
Blizzicane says... #15
I stack them base on what colors they produce (W with W B/G with B/G) because I can't stand mixing unrelated land together and it throws me off when I am playing color heavy spells like Mind Over Matter (but its funny because a opponent with mixed lands does not effect me at all... unless its EDH and there is more than one person >.<).
October 24, 2014 4:09 a.m.
Dalektable says... #16
I keep my lands arranged in stacks of staggered twos or threes, sorted by what colors they produce. So Watery Grave and Temple of Deceit would go in the same pile, etc. When I tap lands to cast a spell I move them to the side of the rest of my lands in a pile of the lands used to cast the spell. Maybe confusing, but oh well haha.
October 24, 2014 9:13 a.m.
nayrash5 that's how I do it too, lands in front. Old school baby!!
October 24, 2014 9:45 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #18
I keep mine mostly with same colors because I'm a n00b and if I don't I try to cast things without having the right colors for them.
However, if we're playing multiplayer EDH or my opponent has somehow stalled out my decks for 10+ turns, I stop arranging them because usually I have enough of each color to not really care at that point.
TheNinjaJesus says... #2
I arrange it by spell I want to play, usually on the right side (so I can hover my finger over it ready to cast), with it stacked so that the names are visible so my opponent doesn't call shenanigans, because I think stacking it so you can't see what lands are in play is shady as shit.
October 23, 2014 9:35 p.m.