How many lands can I get away with in a monocolor EDH deck?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 29, 2018, 7:49 a.m. by Darthagnon
Title says it all. I play The Cornerstone, a mono-white Nahiri deck, (based off the Forged in Stone intro deck) with two themes: equipment and number of creatures I control. Recently, I've added back a couple more lands, after playing a green deck, and getting used to that "more lands" feeling. But now Vorthos feel bad about ditching cards for them (hence Maybeboard).
I used to run 34 lands, which worked "okay" but upped it to 36 after playing a Temur landsearch deck (Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: IISFF) I got for Christmas. I remember reading a general rule of starting at 40 lands, with slightly less allowed, as long as manarox (2 per land) were included.
Main question is, how few lands is it possible to get away with in such a deck? What's been your experience?
The deck currently runs:
4x manarox (Sol Ring, Hedron Archive, Pearl Medallion, Marble Diamond)
2x land filters (Oreskos Explorer, Gift of Estates)
5x draw engines (Puresteel Paladin, Mask of Memory, Oblation, Stonehewer Giant, Skullclamp (add to Nahiri, the Lithomancer for +2: Draw 2) (more in the sideboard that I never play)
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Live long and prosper, TappedOut community!
Darth Agnon
I would personally up the land count to 37. You don't have a ton of expensive payoff cards, but you also don't have a ton of ramp. I also usually find that mana screw feels far worse than mana flooding, but maybe that's just me.
January 29, 2018 10:01 a.m.
Suns_Champion says... #4
I'd say anything in the 36-38 range is okay, but I think you need 2-3 more mana rocks/other ramp and 3-4 more card draw spells, depending on how many lands you end up with. It's tough in mono-white but they're out there.
As an example of what I've done for a mono-colored deck(with a similar average cmc as yours), my Neheb, the Eternal deck has 38 lands, 11 ramp, and 13 card draw/card advantage spells. Generally I feel you want a few more card draw spells than ramp spells, but that's personal opinion and depends on the deck.
January 29, 2018 5:20 p.m. Edited.
Steelspike says... #5
I have a rule: mono color decks run 32 lands.
2 colors run 34-36
3 colors 36-38
4 colors 38-40
5 colors 40-42 (42 only if no fetch/ramp effects).
mana rocks don't factor in to my calculations for minimum land inclusions, but to be fair, I usually only run sol ring, Chromatic Lantern, Thran Dynamo and the corresponding tri-color artifacts for 3 color.
For 2 color, I'll use the Simic Keyrune type rocks, but won't use them for 3 or more colors.
Mono color I'll use snow covered lands and Extraplanar Lens, Caged Sun and that's usually it.
January 29, 2018 7:12 p.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #6
Like any Magic deck you should base your land on 3 things. Cards in the deck 40% land then CMC is it all low cost or playing for big payoff cards, if playing a low CMC strategy you can cut a few lands because you don't need to keep drawing lands every 2 draws so you can cut 2 or 3. Lastly if you are a control deck you may want 45% to 47% percent land because you can't afford to fall behind or not be able to counter. Never play 34 in a 100 card deck that's asking for trouble.
January 30, 2018 3:53 a.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #7
Having a correct Dual land mixture and basics is a craft but has little to do with land count. You first do what I suggested then when you know what # of lands your playing based on CMC and whatnot, then you decide what your perfect land combination is based on mana symbol counts and available duel and tri lands exc. Do these things separate.
January 30, 2018 4:01 a.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #8
Mono decks move faster but draw land the same. They seem more efficient because they are, others will stumble when they can't get cards online in their hand stumbling on color where you won't. Don't confuse efficiency with frequency. If you short your deck on land, you take away your advantage.
January 30, 2018 4:07 a.m.
Darthagnon says... #9
Thank you so much for the good advice, guys! I'm not sure I have the Force of Will necessary to drop more spells for lands at the moment, but it sounds like I might have just about almost the right number ;)
January 30, 2018 7:31 a.m.
I only run 25 lands in my Sram mono-white deck:
But he also gives massive card draw, so that makes up for it; since you draw often enough to keep lands in your hand.
enpc says... #2
You should run 36 lands in that deck. Your average CMC is ~3.5 and you only run four mana rocks. Generally 10 ramp cards is a good quantity to start with so you have a decent chance of one in your opening hand. And that would be with 36 lands.
To put it in perspective, I run a deck with 30 lands and an average CMC below 2 and I'm running 19 ramp cards to offset that.
January 29, 2018 9:20 a.m.