Frank Karsten's article: optimal land/ramp count for Commander

[anjinsan]

That might actually be fine, but only because colourless ramps better with artefacts - so not really anything to do with the commander. In fact I think the commander’s cmc should be almost irrelevant - it might change how much and what type of ramp you use, even assuming that you actually do want to play them ASAP, but average cmc of the rest of the deck seems, like, way more important when thinking about lands. And even then, we use ramp in EDH so I’m not sure that even matters as much as you think - you’d just run more ramp, not necessarily more lands.

[SIRrobthenob]

I like to run less lands and more ramp than karsten is suggesting.  I think 37 lands and 13 ramp is a good starting point but I tend to do 36 lands-14 ramp

[stuffnsuch]

One of the really interesting points to consider is not just what is technically optimal for what you want to do, but what is considered normal for your playgroup.  If you're in a group that regularly misses a few land drops in the first several turns, who cares if you do as well.  I've always run very "greedy" mana bases and have encouraged my friends to do so as well.  We all get more cool pieces in each of our decks, have more likelihood to do something awesome over the course of several games, and our games last a bit longer as we wait for that last land to play our wincon or whatever.  It's fun, and balanced, and that's what matters.  I've seen overly competitive players get caught up in optimization, for sure, but most players aren't that way, and the stats support that, with popular media and EDHRec all suggesting 36 lands to be fairly average.  As long as you're fairly average, you have an average chance of winning and an average chance of getting mana screwed as well.  If I was planning on playing basketball in an NBA exhibition, I'd be preparing differently than when I play with my church youth group.  If I'm playing cEDH, I might run some stats on my mana base, but right now, I'm happy taking my time, along with those I play with, to get to play my 7 drops.