MTG > Tools > Land calculator for decks

How many lands should be in my deck?

You should have enough lands to play spells in the correct turn. Let's say you want to have 4 lands in turn 4. You draw 7 cards from your initial hand and 3-4 more, so, in total you draw 10-11 cards. Since you want 4 lands in 10-11 cards, you need at least 40% of your deck to be land.

Because of this 40% rule, a 60 card deck needs to have 24 lands. Notice here that it really depends on your deck total Mana value, since when you have small mana value spells, you don't need 4 lands in turn 4, so can build your deck with 30% or less lands.

How to calculate the number of lands?

Here, we use a linear regression having the average Mana Value of the deck as independent parameter. The equation starts at 20% of the format minimum deck size and adds 5% lands for each 0.7 inscrease in the average Mana Value.

How many lands should be in a two color deck?

If you want an optimal mana base, you need to have at least 8 to 12 dual lands. Each color needs to have at least 11-17 lands producing mana in a 60 card deck. It all depends in how many lands you want and how much devotion each spell in your deck has. Since you don't want to have too many lands, like 26 lands for example, you remove the necessity of having too many lands putting dual lands.

How many lands should be in a 3 color deck?

3 color decks can be tricky, but the rule of lands maintain the same: 40% of your deck should be lands or 24 lands in a 60 card deck. That said, here you have some things you need to know. First, figure which color you need to play first: for example, if you have a Midrange Abzan deck you want to play Noble hierarch or Thoughtseize in turn 1; this means you want to have a lot of dual lands prioritazing green mana even if your deck is not that skewed to green. Second, you need to have a lot of dual lands or trilands or fetchlands to acomplish the goal of having enough mana producers for each color, like, a lot, 80% of your mana base, leaving small space for basic lands.

How should mana curve look like?

Mana curve will look different in every deck, but mainly it should be like a bell, twisted in the left. You should have a small amount of high mana value cards: the motive is that you have to control the board before casting those cards. You also cannot have too many low mana value cards: to finish the game and turn the waves in your favor you need cards with a good amount of value by themselves and only high mana value cards have this caracteristic. In the end, decks tend to have a small to medium number of small mana value cards, a decent amount of medium mana value cards and a small number of high mana value cards.

Why fetchlands are so important?

Fetchlands can fetch you any two-color shockland. This makes them an essential card for 3 or more manabases decks. Fetching any shockland can make them an essential '5 color' land, since you just need to fetch the shock you need the most. Remember some facts: fetchlands need to be accompained with shocklands or basic lands; having the 'right' fetch for your deck (the one in your deck colors) makes you pay less life, since you can fetch a basic land, but the 'wrong' fetch is still strong.

Can colorless mana be used for anything?

Back in the old days, Colorless mana could only be used to pay for costs that don't require color (for example artifacts or colorless spells). Meaning that a player can use any mana (colored or colorless) to pay for it. Though one can use colorless mana to pay for generic mana costs, they are not the same thing.

Some spells require colorless mana to be played. For example, Eldrazi creatures require lands that produce colorless. Those spells have the cost {C} on them.