Should I Have a Third Set of Dual Lands in My Decks?
General forum
Posted on Sept. 3, 2018, 10:01 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have ten two-color 60-card decks (one for each two-color combination), and each of those decks has eight dual lands of the appropriate colors, four copies of each of two different lands. For example, my blue/white deck contains four copies of Glacial Fortress and four copies of Nimbus Maze, and my red/white deck contains four copies of Clifftop Retreat and four copies of Rugged Prairie.
However, with the shocklands soon to be reprinted in the Guilds of Ravnica block, they shall become far less expensive, so I am wondering if I could have twelve dual lands in each of my two-color decks (i.e., four copies of each of three different lands), as that would give me greater options for producing mana, but I worry that an opponent of mine may use something such as Blood Moon or Ruination, so I need to ensure that I have a sufficient number of basic lands to protect myself from such cards.
What does everyone else say? Are eight dual lands sufficient for my two-color decks, or will having twelve dual lands work, also?
multimedia says... #4
Hey, this is a difficult question to answer without seeing your decks and how many lands are in each deck.
To expand on something that hueylicious already said, a reason for wanting more dual lands can be based on the colored casting costs of the cards in the deck. Lets use Golgari as an example. If your Golgari deck has cards that are and others that are then to consistently make both these color requirements you want more duals because you want more sources of each color. If there's Winding Constrictor, Grim Flayer or another two drop of the same mana cost then you'll want 12 duals to consistently be able to cast the card turn two. If your Golgari deck has Llanowar Elves then more dual lands are not wanted unless they can ETB untapped, being able to make green turn one.
Another example could be your Azorius deck, if it's control and there's both Counterspell and Supreme Verdict in the deck. To make these color requirements consistently on curve you'll want more duals.
If you can afford to get Shock lands after Guilds of Ravnica is released then get them. Because of the interaction with Check lands these two types of duals combined with basic lands make very good manabases, much better than the Nimbus Maze cycle of duals or the Filter lands.
hueylicious says... #2
Shocks are topping at $10 at the moment, I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll get cheaper with the re-print, probably more expensive while they're in standard and maybe a bit cheaper when they rotate.
Whether or not you need more depends on your decks, do they require a lot of coloured costs or do they need large amounts of specific colours.
I think Shocks are a bit better than Nimbus Maze or Rugged Prairie. They work better with your Check lands and can give you coloured mana turn 1.
I'd probably replace the others with shocks rather than adding them.
September 3, 2018 10:48 a.m.