When building a multi-colored deck, how to know what dual-lands to take ?
General forum
Posted on July 25, 2016, 3:05 p.m. by blabla21
Hey folk.
I'm starting to build myself soon a random R/G deck (Dragons + Mana Acc.) and not only for my deck but in general when building a multi-colored deck what dual lands are you folk suggesting to take ?
Take for example R/G color right now:
There are various lands for dual-color like Shock lands (Stomping Ground), Filter lands (Mossfire Valley), Fetch lands (Wooded Foothills), Scry lands (Temple of Abandon) and some normal dual-land which I'm not sure why nobody uses it (Taiga).
So being a beginner at MTG I'm hoping anyone of you folk who have experience with the game could explain me.
Thanks.
Taiga is part of a set of lands known as ABUR duals. ABUR stands for Alpha Beta Unlimited Revised, and are some of the best cards ever printed. Two reasons they are not played as much. One, they are in some cases prohibitively expensive. Two, they are only legal in eternal formats like EDH (Commander), Vintage and Legacy. They are not legal in Modern.
As for the rest of your question, it really does depend on the type of deck your running, what format your playing, and how well you can handle having a land come in tapped. Modern is manly a fetch/shock mana-base for example.
July 25, 2016 3:15 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #4
Most lands come in cycles and the cycles have a relative ranking. The ranking of how well you like the lands can vary a bit and depends on the legal cards for the format. My personal ranking follows. Some people may disagree on specific order but overall relative ranking should be similar.
Fetches (Wooded Foothills)- This may be a little contentious and it is this high mostly due to 3+ color decks running multi-lands with basic land types. Thinning is a fallacy, but fetches are still the primo land.
ABUR Duals (Taiga)- Comes in untapped, taps for 2 colors, has basic land types. Everything a mage could ask for.
Shocks (Stomping Ground)- Pay life for it to come in untapped, taps for 2 colors, has basic land types. Still cream of the crop, but now it's a little more painful.
Filter Lands (Fire-Lit Thicket)- There is a large difference between shocks and the rest on the list. Here starts the second tier of lands. They are good but a little more situational. Filters come in untapped and as long as you have one color of your mana you can produce any combination of two mana of the land's colors. They have to produce 2 mana to produce colored though so that is a little drawback.
Battle Lands (Cinder Glade)- This one may be significantly lower on other people's lists, but I put a premium on basic land types because of fetches and other cards that grab by basic land type (Farseek, Nature's Lore, etc)
Check Lands (Rootbound Crag)- Again an interaction with basic land types. This time it isn't a type the card has, it is that it checks for types to come in untapped. Most of the time these are going to come in untapped on turn 2+ and tap for 2 colors of mana.
Fast Lands (Copperline Gorge)- Great lands for aggro decks. Comes in untapped early game no matter what. Once you get to turn 4 onward they will likely come in tapped though.
Shadow Lands (Game Trail)- You have to have a land with a basic type in your hand to get these to come in untapped. They are good for early game fixing but are bad mid-late game top decks.
Pain Lands (Karplusan Forest)- Comes in untapped and lets you get colored mana for a life each or colorless with no drawback.
Odyssey Filters (Mossfire Valley)- These are hard to place on the list. Worthless without another mana source but fixing if you have any other land. These cards are often overlooked when making a mana base but should be considered for color intensive decks or singleton formats.
Charge Lands (Fungal Reaches)- Eventually you will have all the colored mana, eventually is gonna be a long time.
Scry lands (Temple of Abandon)- This starts the lands that unconditionally come in tapped. I feel that this third tier of lands should only be used sparingly. Coming in tapped isn't horrible but it can leave you playing a turn behind other players. With that said, these are the tapped lands with the least drawback.
Gain Lands (Kazandu Refuge)- About the only other cycle of tapped land with a benefit. Gaining a life is better than nothing.
Tapped lands (Gruul Guildgate)- They make 2 colors...
The rest of the cycles are all over the place powerwise. Man Lands range from great to unplayable, as do the Time Spiral lands.
July 25, 2016 5:39 p.m.
Gidgetimer, where's utility lands like Kessig Wolf Run and Evolving Wilds style lands?
July 25, 2016 6:41 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #6
Because they also vary wildly in usefulness; lump them, and Ravnica Karoos, in the last paragraph with the ones that need assessed individually per deck. Also add that "Assessed individually per deck" bit into my last paragraph since I was just tired of typing at that point and didn't actually finish the thought. As is evident by the fact that I didn't include utility and Karoo lands in there like I had intended.
Thanks for the reminder.
July 25, 2016 6:49 p.m.
KillDatBUG says... #7
Don't waste money on the expensive lands unless you're planning on building an actual competitive deck. You're better off spending that money on some sweet Dragons, or on some good mana acceleration.
July 25, 2016 9:02 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #8
Or you can spend money on the good lands if you want a consistent and well running deck instead of losing to your deck more often than your opponent. Even my most casual decks run shocks and fetches (I should mention that they run KTK fetches, not ZEN ones). It isn't about being competitive or trying to win every game. It is about trying to have the mana available to play magic.
Now I don't necessarily recommend going out and buying shocks and fetches for the first draft of a deck as you are trying out new ideas. If you find a deck you like to play it is well worth upgrading your mana base. Checks and Battle Lands are cheap enough that I feel that they should be on the buy list for even first drafts of decks. It is amazing how much more consistent decks get when you start converting their mana base over from basics to multi-lands and then as you work up toward the ones that enter untapped.
July 25, 2016 10:11 p.m.
grumbledore says... #9
Sometimes you have to lose a little efficiency and use a few basics in order to make sure you can work around things like Blood Moon. Most modern and legacy lists run at least a couple basics for this reason. Also in modern shock and fetch for 3 life can hurt quite a bit in a long grindy match (really mainly a concern if you are playing a control deck or a long grindy deck like jund). I see it as 1) go for efficiency, 2) make sure you're not gonna bleed out, 3) make sure you're not completely screwed by Blood Moon lol.
July 26, 2016 12:06 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #10
I guess that is a good point I forgot to bring up. Don't decide to make your entire mana base non-basics. Somewhere around 50-75% non-basic lands is about as high as I would go.
sirbar says... #2
It depends on the format you are playing and what your budget is. For example Taiga is only legal in commander, legacy and vintage. It is also the most expensive of the dual lands for this color. If you are just building a casual deck then use whatever you can afford. A modern format mana base is good because the format is so fast, hence taking three damage off of a fetch with a Wooded Foothills getting an untapped Stomping Ground means very little. For a casual G/R dragon deck I would suggest some scry lands as you will be a rather slow deck and a bunch of basic lands so you can use cards like Rampant Growth.
July 25, 2016 3:13 p.m.