Help needed for how to building mana bases for decks

[Fringlo]

I have been slowly learning over the past few months on how to try to take existing decks and budget it down so that it will be on more friendly terms with my wallet. The only problem is that I don't know how to actually plan out mana for a deck. I am just wondering if there are any tricks or tips that anyone can tell me about. The format that I play is modern.

[Crusader]

First thing you gotta do is make sure you have enough reasons to run the extra color(s) in your deck. Every card should have 2 reasons for filling the slot. Make sure you have your cards in the right type of deck (archetype), or in a suitable home per say. Have a strict plan, theme, or direction from the start. Do not use cards that rely on a small chance to be beneficial. Do not use cards that rely on rare conditions or other cards to be usable, unless you have a planned combo deck. Keep it simple, be original, and again dont throw in extra colors unless you have two or more real good reasons to.

[G. Moto]

Going off of what Crusader is saying, just know the deck that you want to play. For me I focus on the creatures that I want in the deck first or the spells that I want to try out and use. Once I found out one or the other I fine tune the card pool to fit my theme. Once I've got those three points covered THEN I add mana to the deck. When I build the deck I pt it on deckstats and check what the mana distribution is, this way I know if I need to add more basic lands or more dual lands or not. Did this help any?

[robort]

It comes down to mana distribution and your mana curve. Distribution is based on what color or colors. Not enough or to much and the deck stalls. For instance a mono color and you run 30 land distributors with aggro, it will stall. Mana curve is to high of drops with 0 supprt/synergy or to low of drops with 0 supprt/synergy. This also plays along with the distribution. Good supprt/synergy is useless
especially in a duel or more colored deck when it doesn't have the right distribution. The way to find this out, is to constantly play test,
play test till it runs smooth.

[DelverMage]

The original request for this info dates back to October, but the answers are useful either way for the next person who wants to know.

A fairly simple method to determine a fairly accurate mana ratio.
First count the number of mana symbols of each type on all the spells in your deck.
If the mana symbol shows up twice on the same card, that counts as two.  (1GG counts as two)
If it is a two color spell, say B/G, then it counts one for the green count and the black count.

Once you have counted all the colored mana symbols, add the total up.  Then determine the percentages of each color against that total.  Let's say the total number of mana symbols is 50; 30 green ones, and 20 black ones.  That makes the simple percentages, 60% for green and 40% for black.

If we have 24 lands in our deck, then 15 of them need to be capable of generating green mana, and 9 of them need to be able to generate black mana.  If using all basic lands then that is the ratio.

If you are using Llanowar Wastes, that covers one for each.  Using Unknown Shores covers all colors, including Waste.

It isn't too complicated to determine, and it gives you a very very close curve right out of the gate.

Just don't forget to revisit the ratios as you change out cards on your way to tuning yourself into a friend-beating machine.

[G. Moto]

That was very helpful DelverMage, normally I would just adjust the ratios on this site's deckbuilder but I never had anyone explain how to do that method off the top of one's head. I'll see if I can start doing that more often for now on.

[Tjdojjo]

Wow!  DelverMage  that was great... Thanks for the break down and will be a big help