How Much Mana Do I Need?

[G. Moto]

@Soren841, So with all of your devotions that you counted up in your deck what values did you come to when looking at your land counts for your mana base? Did it come close to what you actually have on your deck details when you look at the deck in the simulator?

[Soren841]

I counted fetches as sources for their two,colors which obviously with abur duals and shocks that's not entirely accurate but.. land counts and mana requirements match up actually really well. I might try to cut something for Grim Tutor but I'm happy with where the deck is right now

[G. Moto]

Then that means the process works then. All I showed you guys was how the simulator calculates your mana values but I did it by hand. So if you'r at a tournament and you need time to balance your decks and your away from your computers this is what you do.

[WWolfe]

That formula is the one I use as well. For standard/modern decks I start out at 24 lands, Commander I start out at 38 lands, and for limited I start out at 16 lands and adjust from there based on double mana symbol counts, if I'm using mana rocks/dorks, and how often I have too much or not enough land during play-testing.

I have a few commander decks that use as few as 35 land (one may even use 34 but I'm not sure), and one Modern deck has 18 lands (and ran on 16 fine but I wanted to not risk it as I started playing the deck more).

[G. Moto]

But of course it comes down to the deck itself. Low curve decks don't need THAT much mana when running them. Just enough for casting costs and maybe some effects if you have any mana sinks.

[HowlingLotus]

I'll have to try this with the decks I currently have kicking around that aren't complete.

I usually just use the pie graph on the deck when saving it to figure out the mana distribution, but I suppose it doesn't account for dorks or cost reducers. While I'm still trying to trim the list down for my Dino EDH deck... there are so many small creatures that provide mana or give dinosaur casting discounts that I feel my original mana calculations will be off (that's before factoring in mana rocks and things such as Herald's Horn, too).

[ApothecaryGeist]

HowlingLotus,  This discussion was started around a sealed deck environment.  For EDH it is a bit different.  You typically want 33-39 lands.  I usually run 34-36 myself.  Along with 10 non-land sources of mana/ramp.  You typically want a fairly even distribution of your colors.  If the mana base is too uneven, you will end up with a lot of situations where you cannot cast the spells in your hand due to lack of a particular color.  With an even distribution this happens much less often.

Happy Brewing 

[G. Moto]

@HowlingLotus, if you want an example of how I would factor a 3-color EDH deck then I'd happily give you an example;
    This deck is just going to be an example of, not an actual deck that I have built.

100 card deck
34 Lands
Actual deck count = 66 cards
Colors: B/G/U

Step 1- Devotions:
B:(19) + G:(6) + U:(6) = 31 Total Color Devotion over the entire deck.

Step 2 - Percentage of Color Distribution
B 19/31 = 0.612 = 61%
G 6/31 = 0.193 = 19%
U 6/31 = 0.193 = 19%

Step 3 - Land Count & Mana Base
34* 0.612 = 20.8 = 20 Swamps
34* 0.193 = 6.5 = 7 Forests
34* 0.193 = 6.5 = 7 Islands
                            34 Lands

    Once you get your final numbers you will turn the decimals into whole numbers. I want to make sure that the lesser color values in my deck have the amount that they need so when I am rounding numbers I would round the lesser values UP and the greater value DOWN. So I will round the SWAMP count down and the FOREST and ISLAND count up. I did this calculation using only basic lands so as far as the dual lands, tri-color lands and the advanced lands those will have to be tinkered with. But this process can really be done with any deck type so long as you stick to the formula and know where your sources are coming from.