Ways to Determine the Efficient Land Cards for the Commander Format

Posted on by

Determining the most efficient land cards for your Commander deck in Magic: The Gathering involves a mix of strategy, understanding your deck’s color requirements, and considering your budget.

Here below is a breakdown of methods and considerations:

1. Analyze Your Deck’s Color Requirements

Key Steps:

  • Mana Base Composition: Check the proportion of colored mana symbols in your cards to understand the demand for each color. Tools like Moxfield or Archidekt can help calculate these ratios.
  • Primary vs. Secondary Colors: Identify if any colors are more prominent or essential in your strategy.
  • Example: A three-color deck heavily relying on blue will prioritize blue-producing lands.

Tools to Use:

  • Mana Distribution Calculators: Online deck-building tools can suggest the optimal number of lands per color.
  • Goldfishing: Test-draw your deck to identify mana inconsistencies.

2. Balance Utility vs. Speed

Fast Lands:

  • Shocklands (e.g., Hallowed Fountain) are versatile and enter untapped when paid for.
  • Fetchlands (e.g., Misty Rainforest) allow you to tutor specific land types and enable synergies with cards like Crucible of Worlds.

Slow Lands:

  • Scry Lands (e.g., Temple of Epiphany): Offer a minor advantage when entering tapped.
  • Cycle Lands (e.g., Lonely Sandbar): Double as card draw in later stages.

Considerations:

  • Budget: Fetchlands and Shocklands can be expensive, so budget-friendly options like Pathways or Pain Lands (e.g., Adarkar Wastes) might be more suitable.
  • Meta Speed: Faster metas favor lands that can enter untapped.

3. Include Synergistic Utility Lands

Ramp or Mana Fixing:

  • Command Tower: Auto-include in multi-color decks.
  • Exotic Orchard: Excellent in multi-color pods.
  • Fabled Passage/Evolving Wilds: Budget-friendly mana fixing.

Deck-Specific Synergy:

  • Gavony Township: Great for token-based strategies.
  • Alchemist’s Refuge: Adds flexibility to instant-speed plays in Simic decks.

Combo Enablers:

  • Thespian’s Stage: Pairs with Dark Depths for instant wins.
  • Karn’s Bastion: Proliferation for +1/+1 or loyalty counters.

4. Test and Optimize

Playtesting:

  • Solitaire Play: Practice opening hands to ensure mana fixing works consistently.
  • Game Simulations: Observe your mana base in multiplayer pods to refine it based on performance.

Tweak for Meta:

  • Color Hate or Specific Needs: If your meta has Blood Moon or Back to Basics, prioritize basic lands.
  • Tech Lands: Add lands like Field of the Dead if your deck supports diverse land types.

5. Budget and Availability

Alternatives:

  • Use Pain Lands and Filter Lands as budget replacements.
  • Look for reprints or discounts on staples like Shocklands during set releases.

Proxy Options (Casual Play):

  • Some groups allow proxies, letting you test expensive options like fetchlands before committing to purchase.

Example Breakdown: A 3-Color Commander Deck

If you’re building a Sultai (Green, Blue, Black) deck:

  • Core Lands:
  • Command Tower
  • Shocklands: Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave
  • Fetchlands: Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest
  • Utility Lands:
  • Alchemist’s Refuge (flexibility)
  • Field of the Dead (synergy with varied lands)
  • Basics:
  • There is more count on the Forests than the Islands and Swamps (adjusted for green ramp).

By analyzing your deck’s needs, balancing speed and utility, and considering your budget, you can fine-tune your land base for optimal performance in Commander format.