How few is too few?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 19, 2014, 7:13 p.m. by raithe000
Hey everyone, I'm looking to update my deck with the BNG scylands when it comes out, and I'm wondering if I can cut a land or two off my deck. I've got 22 currently, with nothing over 3 CMC, and I've been running into a bit of mana flood in recent games. However, the deck is Bant, so I'm not set on being able to produce the right colors of mana when I need it with so few lands.
Opinions (and reasons behind them) would be welcome.
Scoutin' Your Face With My Ethereal Armor-ed Fist Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 48 | 22 COMMENTS | 5396 VIEWSI would suggest, instead of adding in playsets of the new scrylands you'll get (I don't know if this is what your actually planning though). Stick with 22 lands and add in 2 of each, (G/W and U/W), possibly 3 of each. That should help with mana fixing, and help clear some lands out of your way when you scry and also not overload you on tapped lands.
January 19, 2014 8:12 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #4
22 is about right for the deck. You can try to go down to 21, but it would be risky.
Mana flood and screw will happen to every deck, regardless of land count. Jund Depths, a 30-land deck, has a mana screw game on camera today at SCG Columbus.
January 19, 2014 8:15 p.m.
For me, I like running the math. Anecdotal evidence is 1) a terrible sample size 2) prone to swing emotions. You're more likely to remember the games lost because of mana issues.
Going from 22 lands to say 20 represents about a 10% difference in your expectancy to hit 3 mana on T3, ~72 down to 63%. That might not sound like a lot, but your 3 CMC spells really carry the deck, and at 14 count for nearly 1/4th of it. You're not a normal beatdown deck that can function on a low land count, and uses a sparing number of finishers to serve as flood protection. You either build the voltron or flounder. A few of your low casting cost stuff is high impact, but you're certainly not getting there on most draws with a bunch of 1 CMC spells.
The other thing to consider is the color balance. Currently you're generating 12-14 sources per color, which is a pretty good place to be. 19 sources of each white and green would ensure you had Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Witchstalker on time 90% of the time. 19 is perhaps a little unreachable, and you can mess around with some numbers since say a card like Ajani, Caller of the Pride doesn't always need to come down on time. The other facet is to consider T1 plays, you want at least 14 sources to ensure you can cast stuff like Gladecover Scout . These must be untapped sources obviously, currently you have 8 green sources that can come in T1.
When you put it all together you can start to see how all the facets balance each other. You need a certain number of lands to ensure a proper distribution of color sources and being able to play the necessary spells on time.
Blizzicane says... #2
Personally I would stick with the 22 lands you have right now because unlike modern standard does not have excellent color fixing (ex: fetchs lands) even with such a low cmc it could be risky. But you can go as low as 20 any lower would be suicide.
January 19, 2014 7:24 p.m.