Mana Confluence in 2 colors?
Standard forum
Posted on July 18, 2014, 9:54 a.m. by capriom85
This standard season finds me playing UG Devotion. Is Mana Confluence viable here or is it "less good" not playing a 3rd color. I have 4 Temple of Mystery and 4 Yavimaya Coast . Is running the Confluence unneeded life loss?
Rhadamanthus says... #3
If your deck is skewed pretty significantly towards one color over another, then I don't think you need Mana Confluence . The only reason I play 2x Confluence in my BG Constellation deck is because both colors are pretty evenly weighted and there are CC cards in both of them.
July 18, 2014 10:12 a.m.
With Llanowar Wastes being printed in m15 and the shocks and scry lands being in still, I don't think you would need Mana Confluence .
July 18, 2014 10:31 a.m.
I don't have Breeding Pool though and with rotation so soon have no intention of getting them. Is the Confluence still probably not a good choice?
July 18, 2014 10:38 a.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #7
It really depends on the make-up of your deck. (Crap answer, I know)
If you have mostly only single colour symbols, or doubles in only one colour, then you're probably better off without it. If you've got lots of double colour symbols in both colours, or triples (quads?) then mana confluence starts making more sense.
Also, how much do you expect to need that life?
July 18, 2014 10:43 a.m.
You do need the life if your facing aggro hell at times for me just shocks are a game ender for me
July 18, 2014 11:05 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #9
I does depend on your deck. If all of your spells require only splashes of coloured mana (4G, 5U, 2G = splash / 2GGG = not a splash) then you won't need the mana fixing, but if they are all mana intensive then you will need to mana fix.
If only one colour is mana intensive and the other is a splash, then you'll need to make the deck so most of the land produces, this might mean you'll need mana confluence to reliably get the splash whilst maintaining the intensive other colour, or it might not. It's hard to tell without a decklist to peruse.
July 18, 2014 11:54 a.m.
I am running a UG midrange deck. I have lots of UU and GG, but no triples or up. I also run the playset of Sylvan Caryatid and Elvish Mystic . The deck is mostly green with use of blue for Dissipate , Prophet of Kruphix , and Cyclonic Rift . Taking all that into consideration, I really will only ever need UU on 4 possible occurrences. I guess I can do without the Mana Confluence . So now the question is...what to do with my playset...as in, will they increase in price post rotation? I am going to keep them around for a while I think seeing as I also like to play RUG, and may go back to that if UG Devotion gets stale on me. THanks guys!
July 18, 2014 12:03 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #11
Whether or not they rise depends on how they compare to whatever friendly-color lands the Khans of Tarkir block has and whether those decks are popular.
July 18, 2014 12:21 p.m.
Since they printed Enemy pain lands won't we expect Ally pains in Khans?
Personally, I prefer running Mana Confluence and temples to using pain lands. Only draw back is that the pain lands can tap for colorless with no damage the Confluence is pain everytime you use it.
July 18, 2014 2:44 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #13
Ally lands, but there's no way they're going to be pain lands. All the cards in the Adarkar Wastes cycle are named for places in Dominaria, and having a second cycle of them in the game isn't necessary. They're much better for core sets than expansion blocks anyway. The fact that, for example, Innistrad block got the enemy buddy lands and nearby core sets had the ally ones is just a coincidence.
July 18, 2014 3:16 p.m.
patrickloyd says... #14
I would say no because you may need that life later on in the game plus you can always use scry lands.
July 18, 2014 3:37 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #15
For UG, you will have access to 12 dual lands (not incl. Gates) before rotation, so there shouldn't be a need for Mana Confluence .
On an unrelated note, shouldn't you run Dissolve instead of Dissipate ? The Scry will always be relevant as opposed to exiling, which is very situational in the current format. Personally, I've always liked Simic Charm for a "counterspell" in a UG creature deck since it's cheaper and more versatile. As someone who has played Simic extensively, I would caution against playing a lot of counterspells in a non-Flash creature deck (running Prophet of Kruphix doesn't count) since you're going to tap out often, and you don't want to wait too long to be able to drop a threat with mana up to counter.
July 18, 2014 5:36 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #16
Back to lands- if you want the deck to be competitive in the near future, you will definitely need 4x Breeding Pool . I wouldn't worry too much about the impending rotation since Shocks will hold their value pretty well.
EmblemMan says... #2
In my opinion yes. I play a GW deck with 4 Temple Garden and 4 Temple of Plenty and I never have problems hitting either color
July 18, 2014 9:59 a.m.