How many Lands?
Standard forum
Posted on June 2, 2017, 12:16 p.m. by clayperce
I've read a couple articles recently that have really changed the way I think about how many Lands I want in a brew.
Sorry for the spam if you've already read them, or if you already knew all this. But on the chance they'll be helpful to you too, I wanted to share ...
- How Many Lands Do You Need to Consistently Hit Your Land Drops? by Frank Karsten, from over at ChannelFireball. As usual, Frank does ALL the math, so you probably just want to skip to the table at the bottom.
- Play More Lands by Emma Handy, from over at StarCityGames
Good luck (and good skill) with your brews!
Tremblayk19 says... #3
I read (and loved) both of these articles when they were published. I thought the equation that Karsten came to was very interesting. (TL;DR) 3.14X + 16. Where X is the average CMC of the deck.
That means for a deck with average CMC of 1 it should have ~19 lands. Average CMC of 2 it should have ~22 lands. Average CMC 3 should have ~25 lands. And average CMC of 4 should have ~28.
These are obviously loose guidelines and the numbers would change with mana dorks and other ramp, but interesting nonetheless.
How much various ramping methods should affect the amount of lands in a deck, the debate of Mana screw/flood, and the value of cycling lands are all huge components to deck building. Thank you for sharing those articles!
June 2, 2017 2:53 p.m.
loricatuslupus says... #4
Definitely an interesting equation, but to be honest there are are so many variables that I don't think it's ever that simple. The idea of "average" CMC dictating your lands seems a bit pointless if you've constructed the deck with any notion of a curve: ie, ensuring that you'll have options throughout the game as your available mana escalates. It's interesting that she comes to the conclusion of 19 for one, when I find 16 (4 of which enter tapped) to work perfectly for my mono red deck. Don't know about anyone else, but I realised that I'd started thinking about Magic differently once I began factoring in exactly how every land needed to work in my decks. That moment where I truly recognized the inherent value of fetch lands was a total breakthrough. Thanks for sharing!
June 2, 2017 3:43 p.m.
We're talking about Lands in Standard, though.
At the moment there are no Fetch Lands in Standard.
June 2, 2017 4:55 p.m.
Technically.
I could be wrong but I don't think that's what the poster above was referring to.
You don't really hear Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse really referred to as "fetch lands".
Argy says... #2
I start with 24 in my Standard brews.
If I can squeeze one more land in I will, unless the deck is quite aggressive.
I will consider dropping to 23 if I get constantly mana flooded in testing.
I play 26 in proactive Control, and 24 in reactive Control (Black and White).
June 2, 2017 12:19 p.m. Edited.