wedge decks with off-color fetchlands
Standard forum
Posted on Sept. 23, 2014, 8:30 a.m. by weisemanjohn
Is it worthwhile to run off-colored fetches? I, playing Temur, see value in running Wooded Foothills but was recently asked why I don't use any other fetch lands. In my mind, I see having to pay 1 life to grab a basic that couldve been in that same slot already. What do y'all think about running off-color fetch lands?
Rasta_Viking29 says... #3
People are silly. Play on color dual/tri lands instead of off color fetches.
September 23, 2014 8:44 a.m.
There may be some... SOME... merit in playing extra fetches if you are playing heavy 
/
, and another color.
This is only because Courser of Kruphix
can turn it into life gain instead of loss, and after you have fetched all you can, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
can allow you to use them for mana. - All this while thinning out your deck. - This is not likely to work well, and could be detrimental in other ways... it would take very careful consideration of your mana base, and still be a big risk.
Aside from the Courser and Urborg interactions, the life loss and missing versatility that Modern uses fetches for (i.e., Shocks), makes running a fetch land for one basic land type pretty bad. Temples and/or Pain-Lands and/or Tri-Lands are all better options.
September 23, 2014 9:45 a.m.
Oh... forgot to mention the other interaction with Courser. - It allows you to pay 1 life to shuffle your deck when you don't like what is being revealed.
September 23, 2014 9:47 a.m.
OP_Magikarp says... #6
Another nice thing about the fetch lands is that you get to use two cards from your library for one land. This way it makes your library just a little bit smaller to raise the percentage of getting to the cards you need more. Of course you could just use Evolving Wilds for this too but the land comes in tapped. Depends on your feel.
September 23, 2014 11:56 a.m.
Oh.... and yet another reason why / could do it... Extra cards in the graveyard for a Sultai Delve deck.
September 23, 2014 1:07 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #8
From experience, running two off color fetches is a decent idea. As long as you have the basics to accomodate it. Most of the reasons quoted already are pretty much why you'd want to. Obviously it's better in Modern when you can pull a Shock that has whatever color you may want, but the "may as well run a basic" argument doesn't really hold up when you have the other factors in play.
I'd try it and see how it goes...if it's a cash issue...then throw some basics (or CIP tapped duals) in...it won't make that much of a difference long-term anyway, depending on the playstyle.
September 23, 2014 1:08 p.m.
Another interesting thing to remember...
Calculations based on the "Deck thinning" argument for using Fetches in Modern showed that due to the speed of the games and the minimal number of turns (typically 4-5 before game is decided), you would see an average of one 'extra' spell every 10 to 20 games (depending on deck type/speed and your Meta).
This is increased drastically in Standard as the format is slower. It's only a guess, but I'm thinking that you will see an extra spell card every 2 to 4 games, if not more often. - For some, this will mean the difference between winning or losing a 3 round match (so long as the life loss is not too high in comparison to the 'thinning')
September 23, 2014 1:53 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #10
The advantage gained by using fetchlands for deck thinning alone is mathematically insignificant and outweighed by the advantage you are giving you opponent with loss of life.
September 23, 2014 3:31 p.m.
That math has something inherently wrong as it pertains to Standard.
- It assumes a deck total of 20 land, and 40 spells. - This is a common average for Modern, but very low for most Standard decks... 23-24 is more common, and with 3 color decks we can expect to see higher... maybe closer to 25.
The site also states that 4.3 is the approximate life lost to get 1 extra spell... for many decks, this is very acceptable. You are looking at 1 extra spell over 25 turns... so you have to look at the life in the same way. 4.3 damage over 25 turns in very acceptable. It's about the same as a 93 turn clock.
Bring this to the Standard scale, where games can easily go 9-10 turns, and you are looking at a possible extra card every Match, and a possible game loss once in a tournament.
September 23, 2014 4:30 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #12
Courser, Urborg, & Fetches work well....
I've been running the combination using Evolving Wilds and Deathrite Shaman since before fetches were announced.
derKochXXL says... #2
I believe you're right in not doing so. While I don't really pay attention to standard I don't know it that well, but it seems rather irrational to run of colour fetches if you don't play a delve heavy deck. Yeah it thins your deck, but that seems like a minimal effect in the standard context. I think people see them at modern events and project that onto standard (and strangely enough limited for that matter).
September 23, 2014 8:43 a.m.