Lands to Mana Ramp Ratio

[Morganator 2.0]

So I was gathering some data from my decks for a statistical analysis (like most sane people do) and I noticed something strange. I've often told people that 8 to 12 forms of mana ramp is a good amount in commander, because that was a rough estimate of how much mana ramp I use in my decks. Turns out, I was very wrong. Here are the actual numbers:

Commander                      |	Ramp Cards  |	Lands  |	Ramp to lands (approximate)
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer	10	38	1:4
Captain Sisay	17	33	1:2
Edric, Spymaster of Trest	11	32	1:3
Grand Warlord Radha	15	33	1:2
Keranos, God of Storms	14	32	1:2
Krenko, Mob Boss	16	33	1:2
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis	19	34	1:2
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy	18	36	1:2
Narset, Enlightened Master	14	37	1:3
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed	20	30	2:3
The Scarab God	10	36	1:4
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire	21	35	3:5
Zurgo Helmsmasher	12	37	1:3

Each of these decks are ones that I kept intact for more than a week, so I had time to adjust the numbers to something I was comfortable with. In case it matters, a commander like Grand Warlord Radha counts as mana ramp, and a card like Ancient Tomb or Gemstone Caverns counts as both ramp and a land.

The first thing that caught my attention is that all but 3 decks fall outside of the 8 to 12 range, so I'm very bad at following my own rule. The second thing was that in almost all cases, about half of my deck is dedicated to mana. That seems... really high. I just get this weird impression that I should not be using this many cards that give mana.

Am I crazy? Is this a really high amount of mana ramp? And how much mana ramp/lands do you typically use?

[Soren841]

27 lands 25 pieces of ramp in Yidris. 46 lands 30 pieces of ramp in Tatyova. Typically I'm at 28 lands and 15 pieces of ramp give or take a couple.

[CleanBelwas]

Looking at it objectively, without knowledge of how the decks play or the meta you tend to be playing in, the ratio does seem a little higher than one would expect, but I think there are a lot of other factors that determine if it's too much.

The meta you play in is very important. When I first started playing Commander, my default was 36 lands and about 4-5 ramp options. I found myself getting mana screwed more than I'd like, so now I default to 37 lands and about 8-10 ramp options. This tends to be fine and consistent enough for my meta, but mine is super casual. If you're playing in a more competitive environment then you probably will prioritise it more.

What else your deck is trying to do is probably the biggest deciding factor though. We're only really looking here at about half of a deck with these numbers. A lot of ramp is great if you couple it up with a lot of card draw for example. Top decking a land or mana rock feels bad late game if you have nothing else, but if it never feels bad if it's not your only option. Also, if your deck has a fairly high average CMC, or a decent use for a lot of mana, then having a lot of ramp is great.

In my experience, and I daresay it could well be the same for you, fixing and adjusting my mana base is always a reaction to games I've played. I kept finding myself with too little mana, so I lowered the average CMC and increased the ramp. So while it does seem that your dedication to mana is higher than one might expect, and you might be able to make a little more room for other things, it might be that that amount just works for you. If the decks feel like they are playing nicely and consistently, then the balance is probably fine.

[WWolfe]

I have some decks where I run relatively high numbers such as yours are reflecting, but I also have a deck or two where I run almost no ramp. I think it depends on the deck, your mana curve, and to some degree your meta. The one consistency in my decks is the number of lands. Almost all are strictly 35-37 lands.

[Morganator 2.0]

Alright. New rule I guess:

Most decks will use 11 to 19 forms of mana ramp.

[Caveman Clay]

                          lands - ramps
Krenko                    31 - 10     
Mizzix                     28 -  8     

Both of these decks seems to run fine for me. 

[robort]

You tell others that 8-12 is a good amount while you realized most your decks fall out of that range. So the 8-12 is a suggested starting point but can be adjusted to how you see fit for your decks. The 8-12 isn't rule of law but again a good starting point and one again can adjust accordingly

[Morganator 2.0]

Alright, so I gathered some data and figured out that my decks actually aren't out of the ordinary when I compare them to the top cEDH decks. Even though most of these decks are not competitive level, it seems like I still use my knowledge of cEDH in deckbuilding.

The attached graphs shows the amount of mana ramp and lands used by the top cEDH commanders. Don't be confused by the two graphs; it's the same data just with the axes flipped. The orange data points follow a regular trend, and the data point in blue are the outliers. Most cEDH decks use between 28 and 31 lands, with 14 to 25 forms of mana ramp.

You might find this interesting, but these graphs are not gospel as to how you should be building. cEDH has a focus on speed, with a lot of decks being fast combo decks, or decks that need to stop the fast combos.