Mana Base

Color theory · beginner

Your mana base is the set of lands and mana-producers in your deck. A bad mana base is the most common reason new Commander decks feel inconsistent.

How many lands?

It depends on the deck. A low curve needs fewer lands and less ramp; a deck full of expensive spells, or one that wants to play extra lands, needs more of both.

The deck builder's build methods each set a land count and a ramp count, with the reason for every number: see the Seven-Step method (recommended), the eight pillars or the precon baseline, which shows what official preconstructed decks run. Pick one and start from its numbers.

Color requirements

Rough rule: count the colored mana symbols on your spells. If you have 30 cards that need {G} in their cost, you want 18-22 sources of green.

For two-color decks, both colors should have ~30 sources of mana available. Three-color decks compress to ~22-26 each. Four/five color decks need extensive fixing.

Land categories

• Basic lands -- always work, can never be Wastelanded into oblivion. Run more than you think.
• Dual lands (Shocklands, Triomes, Surveil lands, etc.) -- enter tapped, untapped, conditional. Trade-offs everywhere.
• Utility lands -- (Reliquary Tower, Strip Mine, Bojuka Bog) cost a slot but provide effects.
• Fetchlands -- expensive, worth it in higher brackets, optional below.

Common new-player mistakes

• Too many tap-lands in a 3+ color deck. If half your lands enter tapped, you're a turn behind every game.
• No basics in a deck that gets hit by Wasteland or Path to Exile. Even one or two basics is better than zero.
• All same-color when running mostly multi-color cards. If you have lots of {W/U}{B} requirements, your basic Plains aren't enough.

Useful tools

• Use the existing dashboard's deck analyzer for a real mana-source count.
• The deck-analyzer skill (/deck-analyzer) reports a deck's color requirements vs sources.