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Autor Tema: Mana Base Question  (Leído 996 veces)

Jbomba53

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Mana Base Question
« en: Junio 05, 2016, 04:07:20 am »
In perusing some of the top decks of the magic world, I always wonder about mana bases.  How are they determined?  For instance, very few (aside from red aggro really) use basic lands.  Why?  also, the basic lands used, why are the number of lands used that number?  For instance, I was looking at a slivers deck and the mana base was as follows:

4 Mutavault
4 Sliver Hive
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
1 Forest

Why is that?  Thanks. 

G. Moto

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #1 en: Junio 05, 2016, 05:17:14 am »
   The thing with competitive decks is that they want to get the colors they need quickly. Since most decks are designed to win within so many turns it basically becomes a race to see who can get their NEEDED colors first in order to secure their victory. Personally I'm quite the opposite. I prefer basic lands over non-basics unless they're absolutely needed. My reasoning is that YOU can pay a land that is multiple colors but have to wait to use it. I can play multiple lands and use them all as soon as I play them.

     Also it depends on how you play the deck. If you're running swell of growth, stoic builder and such cards then you can get away with the non-basic lands because you can recover and play them faster. That and it also frees up more space in your deck for other spells. For example, most tournament decks are at 60 cards. If an aggro person had only 20 lands (all non-basic) then that's 40 creatures and spells. Now if another tournament deck had nothing but basic lands but the same build it will have to balance balance color ratios because now instead of getting both B/R on one card you have to worry about getting either Black OR Red. That's my reasoning behind it: Saves space in the deck, Saves time with your draws, and Creates a faster deck since you have a larger variety of mana by using only a few cards. I'm not a major tournament person but I go to quite a few FNM games every other week and the experience pays off.

robort

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #2 en: Junio 05, 2016, 04:43:43 pm »
It's about resources. Utilizing those resources to it's maximum advantage. The quicker you get to use those resources the quicker that advantage becomes. Per you example with slivers, paying life is a minimum cost to quickly get an advantage.
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KouriNick

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #3 en: Junio 06, 2016, 08:45:09 pm »
I agree with G. Moto and robort. I play a 3 color deck in competitive modern and I spend way to much time thinking about my mana base. I think the best way I can help is to pretend I'm the sliver player (assuming this is modern) and walk you through each choice in that mana base.

4 Mutavault - probably the best manland available in the format. being able to turn into a 2/2 for 1 mana is huge, and since the vault is all creature types, it gets the additioanl advantage of being a sliver and getting all the perks of the ther slivers. It's biggest downside is it makes colorless mana, and since slivers can be as many as 5 colors, being stuck with grey mana can be a problem.

4 Sliver Hive - Pretty self explanatory. A land that can be used for any color as long as it's for slivers and can spit out tokens. its an easy 4 of.

4 Cavern of Souls - Much like Sliver Hive, as long as we name sliver, Cavern of Souls gets us any color we want, and makes the slivers uncounterable to boot. This is especially good for slivers, since they tend to run a higher creature count than most decks.

4 Verdant Catacombs - Fetch lands are staples in Modern. They let us find whatever color we need. In this case, this fetch can find any of the lands remaining in the deck (Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, Blood CryptSwamp, Forest) because all of them are either a swamp, or a forest. this would let me find exactly what I need. For example, I have a red sliver and Path to Exile in hand. I play Verdant Catacombs and pass the turn. If my opponent plays a huge threat, I use the fetchland and find Godless Shrine (pay the life to untap) and use Path. if my opponent does nothing, i fetch the Blood Crypt (tapped) and play my red sliver on my next turn.

Remaining Non-basics - These were mentioned above, and are going to be distributed based on the number of each color card in your deck. In this case I'm guessing the deck is mostly green / black, since every land produces at least green or black. The other colors may be splashes for specific cards.

Basic Land - Basic land are more important than you might think in competitive formats. In Modern, Path to Exile is a staple you can expect any white deck to run 4 of. Having at least a couple basic land to find means you aren't just letting your opponent exile your creature for 1 mana. Same goes for Ghost Quarter (which you might expect some people to sideboard in against you). The final (and most important) reason to run at least 1 basic is to play around Blood Moon. Blood Moon is very common competitively and this sliver deck is very susceptible to it. Having two basics means if blood moon comes down, we may be able to play around it. As for why our basics are black and green, it probably has to do with Gemhide Sliver, which would let us get around Blood Moon entirely.

Blood moon also explains why (as you mentioned) red decks seem to be the only ones who use a lot of basics, because they don't care if they get hit with blood moon and in many cases, they run it themselves. There are cards that shut down basic land (Boil, Choke, Flashfires) so having too many can be dangerous.

Other general tips when thinking about mana base.
1. Always coming into play tapped is a major disadvantage, and the land needs serious upside to makeup for it. Shambling Vent is a good example. It always comes into play tapped, but once its untapped, you have access to 2 colors and the potential for a 2/3 lifelink. Darkslick Shores is another good example. It can come into play tapped, but only if you have at least 3 land. And in a format as fast as Modern, knowing you can have one of 2 colors on turns 1, 2 or 3 from one of these land (or any in the so-called "lonely land" set) is major upside.

Well I hope you found this helpful and didn't mind reading my novel of a comment. Good luck and Happy Hunting :)
« Última modificación: Junio 07, 2016, 12:26:44 am por kourinick »
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G. Moto

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #4 en: Junio 07, 2016, 07:40:37 am »
  @Kouinick, I like how detailed and on point you are with your explanations. I respect you for your thoughtful insight.

KouriNick

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #5 en: Junio 07, 2016, 09:03:38 am »
@G.Moto Thank you for saying that! I just want to do what I can to help the forum.
When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

G. Moto

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Re: Mana Base Question
« Respuesta #6 en: Junio 07, 2016, 04:43:03 pm »
   Keep up what you're doing and this forum will definitely see some growth. Welcome to deckstats.net.