Optimal Number of Lands
General forum
Posted on Aug. 30, 2013, 10:47 p.m. by BorosPlayer
I think there may be some complicated formula for decks such as (average cmc -1) * 20. Anybody think they have a good one? Assume no ramp.
Assume no ramp? 22 lands for low CMC. 24 for average CMC. 26 for high CMC. Done. Tweak from there for optimal performance.
August 30, 2013 11:01 p.m.
(Test)(test)(Test)=Number of optimal lands. I usually figure out my decks average converted mana cost and go from there. Two or less and I start out with 18 (mono colored) or 20 (multi colored) lands. Up to three average cmc up to three i start with 22 lands. Greater than that I begin with 23-24. From there I simply test play until I find a comfortable mana base.
August 30, 2013 11:07 p.m.
Bobgalarneau says... #5
Only formula i know is for edh. 40 land - 0.5 for each mana rock. But again. Each deck is different, if your edh deck is around 2-2.5 CMC you could probably go lower. If you play lot of fetch and ramp, it can influence your land count too. Does your deck need to land his early land drops to be effective or can it miss some turns? Usualy you wont want to miss any landdrop but that means more land..... More land mean more dead draw late game.....
The land base need to be finetuned for each deck. Only good formula is, more playtest = a better deck
August 30, 2013 11:23 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #6
A good place to start is 40% of your deck as lands. For 60 card decks, that means 24.
Faster decks use less land because they run cheaper spells and need more gas.
Control decks run more land because they generally have card draw to keep on the gas, and then never want to miss a land drop.
August 30, 2013 11:48 p.m.
i basically run 20-21 blitz, 22-23 aggro / midrange or 24 control. Never had any issues with 24 in control.
August 31, 2013 12:06 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #8
There is a formula.
Let's just say I kind of like math and stuff, so that's how/why I did this:
Take your curve, and I'm going to use an example here:
4 1-drops, 8 2-drops, 10 3-drops, 10 4-drops, 2 5-drops, 2 6-drops.
Okay, now let each card "argue" over how many lands you need. To do this, play out the amount of draws and what each card is happy with (don't assume you draw the first turn). So the 1-drops say you need 1/7 lands, the 2-drops say 2/8, the 3-drops say 3/9, the 4-drops say 4/10, the 5-drops say 5/11, and the 6-drops say 6/12 (and so on). Now you do a weighted average of what they argue. (Basically they vote.)
60x((4/36x1/7)+(8/36x2/8)+(10/36x3/9)+(10/36x4/10)+(2/36x5/11)+(2/36x6/12))=20 lands and that will give you the same amount of mana screw and mana flood in the deck. if you really don't want one or the other, mess with the number of lands in hand per turn. For example, if you really don't want mana screw, then you can let the cards vote for there to be an extra land in hand:
60x((4/36x2/7)+(8/36x3/8)+(10/36x4/9)+(10/36x5/10)+(2/36x6/11)+(2/36x7/12))=26 lands.
TADA MATHS.
August 31, 2013 2:09 a.m.
HarbingerJK says... #9
I always go with 24 or more (my max was 26 with a landfall deck)
August 31, 2013 2:25 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #10
Ohh yeah I forgot to mention, take away a card at a time until the lands and non-lands add up to 60.
Epochalyptik says... #2
There is no "formula." Every deck is different, but you usually go 20-23 for aggro, 23-25 for midrange, and 24-28 for control.
August 30, 2013 11 p.m.