how many land in magic the gathering should i have in a deck

[Nik]

how many land in magic the gathering should i have in a deck

[Urza]

Around 24 for 60 cards in deck, but depends a lot on what type of deck you got

[seba1983]

im not disagreeing with the above statement i just think it might be worthwhile elaborating on that statement.

first a quick history lesson on the land count (no. of lands you play in a deck):

at the beginning people went with very simple math i need about 2 lands on my starting hand and then draw some more to play everything i want to ... so 2 lands on the starting hand would be about a thired so 20 lands should be fine.

from there things developt bit by bit. some good players realised that thier particular deck needed more mana than others. i play some more expensiv spells or if i dont have land 3 on turn 3 im in trouble or even some simple things like i play this super powerful land but i need to sac a land to play it so i dont count it to my 20 lands. for whatever reasons the land count went up to 22. people then realised that these decks had a much greater consistency so it started to become the new rule of thumb. later that went from 22 to 22/23 lands depending on your deck to 23 lands to the "modern" 23/24 lands.

note however this is a mere rule of thumb. there are decks like the recent 5-color-control that played 27+ lands because it needs lots of mana and cant afford to miss playing a land every turn. other decks liek burn (direkt damage and nothing much else) usualy only plays 17-18 lands because it want about 3 lands but non more. some bizzar (but very cool) decks like the socalled 43land.deck actualy play 43 lands however there most lands fill more than just the land role doubling up as creatures removal etc.

all of this is in regard to tournament play not casual. casual tends to be a much slower enviroment(multiplayer definately is). so in casual the good ol' 20 land count is perfectly ok you have more turns to draw your lands and it gives you more space in your deck to play cards you consider fun. casual is not so much about winning every game (concitency) but having fun ...

so to summ it up if you want your deck to run consitant 24 is a good rule of thumb ... when going to a tournament constency is key to success (among other things).

[Nik]

tnx!

[Twanos]

I recommend you put in 1 land for every 2 symbols in casting costs of that color...

So if you have 4 Savanah Lion in your deck at "W" as a casting cost then for all 4 cards that's 4 "W". At 1 land for every 2 that in turn means you need to have 2 plains.

If you have 1 Serra Angel with a casting cost of 3WW then you have 2 symbols so you need 1 plains...

This will normally put you at about 22-24 like others have stated but for multicolor decks it also makes sure you have the right amount of each type of land.

On an advanced note: Non-land mana producing cards like artifacts with casting costs greater than 1 should not affect your land count. Non-land mana producing card like Llanowar Elves with a casting cost of 1 can take to place of lands at a ratio of 2:1 meaning for ever 2 cards with a 1 casting cost that can produce mana you can remove 1 land from your deck.

On an even more advanced note: For multicolor decks I recommend you start by putting all basic lands in then start replace the basics with multi-color producing land such as city of brass at a ratio of 3:4. Meaning you can put in 3 multicolor producers but take out 4 basics. This thins your deck of a few land but the efficentcy makes up for it. Only in VERY VERY rare and extreme circumstances should your total number of land dip below 17.

[seba1983]

On an even more advanced note: For multicolor decks I recommend you start by putting all basic lands in then start replace the basics with multi-color producing land such as city of brass at a ratio of 3:4. Meaning you can put in 3 multicolor producers but take out 4 basics. This thins your deck of a few land but the efficentcy makes up for it. Only in VERY VERY rare and extreme circumstances should your total number of land dip below 17.

on a even even more advanced note: non-basics are fantastic. however when building for a tournament try to figure out befor hand how strongly non-basic hate is beeing played. if every second deck runs magus of the moon and blood moon you might want to step back a little (not compleatly) from those non-basics. in addition when playing multicolored and you have the luxury of running green also think about some of the fantastic color fixers green hase to offer liek brids of paradise, noble hierarch, sakura tribe elder etc.

as for the very rare instances where you play with fewer than 17 lands, chances are you already know what your doing anyway. if you dont know what ichorid.deck, tpes, draintendrils, 10-land-green or 2-land belcher means just dont go below 17 lands probably not below 20 unless you dont play any cards that cost more than 2.if your intruiged by decks that run an abnorme number of lands, either very few or a whole lot let me know and i can tell you more about it but non of it is casual and most of it is for the old tournament formats.

[Twanos]

about 10 years ago I had a deck with only 6 land but I normally played them all on turn 1. (Type I of course) With it I once did 1046 damage on my opponent's first turn upkeep.

[seba1983]

nice i know belcher normaly plays 1-2 lands, vintage ichorid 8, berserk stompy 10 and most other vintage and legacy combo decks between 9 and 12.

what did you play back then that did that much damage ? some infinite mana combo with fastbond and zuran orb + fireball ?

[Twanos]

No, It was power 9, 4 crypt, 4 vault, 1 ring, 3 lions eye, 4 hyrkul's recall, wheel, demonic tutor, prosperity, 4 black vise, 4 storm seeker, 1 fork, 1 feldon's cane, 1 braingeyser,

Basically it was drop artifact mana tap it hyrkul it replay it tap, draw a bunch of cards... repeat. The guy had put together a deck of over 100 cards just to try to stop it and I put all of his deck into his hand, let the 4 vises go on the stack storm seekered him 4 times and forked 1 so he took 1046 damage on his first upkeep with it all combined. Had he somehow gotten to his draw step he would have lost again due to no cards to draw.

[seba1983]

^^ nice. but sadly decks like that cant be played any more.

almost your entire deck has gone to the land of banned everywhere exept vintage and restricted there ... but if you still have spare power 9 and stuff i'd always be interested :P sadly enough i dont have the finances for them . would realy love to play vintage because its just so diffrent from standart or even legacy and it gives you no room for mistakes thats what i like most about it you always have to play your best in vintage or lose ^^

[Twanos]

I sold my collection about 9 years ago when I got out of the game for a while. At the time of the sale I had...

1 Complete set Alpha - Weatherlight
4 Complete Tempest - Urza's Destiny
2 additional playsets beta power 9
6 playsets unlimited power 9
2 playsets beta dual lands
8 playsets unlimited dual lands
1 un-opened (still in the plastic) box of Arabian Nights boosters
and extra 750,000 commons, 175,000 uncommons, and over 50,000 misc rares.

The collection sold for just under $102,000

[TauntingElf]

whoa thats a lot of cards and lotsa money

[seba1983]

do you regret selling all of it back then ? what have you "reaquired" since starting again ?

ohh and yes very nice collection *droolingonkeybord* ^^