What's the rule of thumb with the correct number of lands in a deck?
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on April 13, 2016, 5:29 p.m. by krunchyfrogg
And what influences that?
When I played (I quit in Ice Age), it was usually 20 lands in a 60 card deck.
But right before I quit, I did notice some decks going as high as 24 lands in a 60 card deck.
TIA
libraryjoy says... #3
My rule of thumb for a deck is 40% land (24 out of a 60 card deck). If you have a low curve, you can drop it a bit. For EDH/Commander, I usually go with around 35-36 + some artifact or creature ramp.
April 13, 2016 5:39 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #4
It depends on your mana curve. Aggro decks can usually get away with 18-20 lands (most on the lower end of that subset), control usually has to have 26 or so. Midrange decks are somewhere in between, usually 22-24.
April 13, 2016 5:44 p.m.
You can work it out logically really easily.
If you want 3 lands by turn 3 then you need 3 cards out of 9 to be lands. That gives 20. This will allow you to easily get up to 3 mana but not a lot more.
If you want 4 lands by turn 4 then you need 4 cards out of 10 to be lands. That gives 24. This will allow you to easily get up to 4 mana.
April 13, 2016 6:08 p.m.
ComputerizedMTG says... #6
The correct number of lands, as other have stated already, highly depends on the type of deck you are running.
Are you running a control deck? You may want up to 27 lands.
Are you running an aggressive deck? Then 18 lands, even if greedy, might just work for you.
It all depends on your curve and how soon, or late, your deck needs to be able to win. Even within each different archetype there can be variances, my control deck might work best with 25 lands, while your needs 27 or it just won't work.
In short, it all boils down to what deck you are running and what works best for you after testing and tweaking.
TMBRLZ says... #2
20 lands is typically your bare minimum.
Stereotypical Control decks will usually play as many as 26 lands, playing a bunch of low costing control tech and using the large amount of mana to play some high cost win condition when it's safe like Sphinx of the Final Word or Dragonlord Ojutai or Elspeth, Sun's Champion or Pearl Lake Ancient.
If your deck curves out at three drops and maybe a couple four drops you can usually play 20 or 21 safely.
If you see a notable number of drops higher than that than you want to start considering raising that number.
Another major influence is the number of colors in your deck. The need for mana diversity will drive up the number of lands you play.
April 13, 2016 5:35 p.m.