How I Would "Fix" Mana Issues in MTG

I have the worst luck when it comes to Lands...

My biggest gripe and frustration with Magic the Gathering is the mana system. Now, that's not to say that it's broken. In fact, there are solid arguments for why the shortcomings of the mana system are actually a design feature of the game. But let's set all that aside.

I often complain that I just want to play a game of Magic. I don't want one player or the other to win because the other player drew too many lands, or too few lands, or couldn't cast most of his or her spells, despite a reasonable mana base.

So if you wanted to "fix" this problem, what would be the simplest way to do so? I've heard a lot of different suggestions. Here's my favorite:

I would add a simple rule, broken down into two parts: At any time, you can play a non-land spell as a land. Play it face down and add a color counter that corresponds to each mana type it can tap for. Until the card leaves play, it remains a land, but not as a Basic-type land. So how do you determine which mana types it taps for?

• If the spell has only a single color in its mana cost, it taps for that color. As such, it comes into play untapped just like any other land.
• If the spell has multiple colors in its mana cost, it taps for any of those colors (but only one at a time). To compensate, it comes into play tapped.

This not only solves the mana issues, it also adds a new layer of complexity to deck-building. While there would be much less incentive to play Basic lands or come-into-play-tapped duals, cards like Fetch lands or spells like Rampant Growth would still require you to do so.

For Magic Online, Wizards could even add a new Vanguard avatar that "turns on" this rule. I personally would love to see this.

So what do you think of that solution? How would it change the fundamentals of Magic? And would that change be positive or negative, and why? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Mana Bases, Applied

Last time, I wrote about an excellent article by ChannelFireball's Frank Karsten on creating mana bases. I ended the post with the intention of applying his numbers and analysis to a specific decklist from a recent Monday Pauper Deck Challenge event.

Of course, I should have realized that this would be more challenging than I expected. As it turns out, most of the successful decklists right now in the metagame are either mono- or dual-colored, with pretty simply color requirements.

Fortunately, the Dimir Mill archetype is just complex enough to be worth applying Karsten's numbers. For reference, here's the exact decklist I'm referencing, which took 2nd place in Monday's MPDC 23.10:

Dimir Mill

2nd place by Ajcapra in MPDC 23.10

Creatures 4 Archaeomancer 4 cards Other Spells 4 Devour Flesh 4 Essence Scatter 4 Grisly Spectacle 4 Pharika's Cure 4 Pilfered Plans 4 Psychic Strike 3 Thassa's Bounty 2 Cancel 2 Crypt Incursion 1 Tome Scour 32 cards

Lands 11 Swamp 9 Island 4 Dimir Guildgate 24 cards Sideboard 4 Dispel 4 Duress 2 Cancel 2 Mnemonic Wall 1 Tome Scour 1 Negate 1 Crypt Incursion 15 cards

So, what are the mana requirements for this decklist?

• Access to either B or U on Turn 2 (for Devour Flesh or Essence Scatter)
• Access to both B and U on Turn 3 (for Psychic Strike and Pilfered Plans)
• Access to BB on Turn 2 (for Pharika's Cure)
• Access to UU on Turn 3 (for Cancel)

Based on Karsten's numbers, here's the total number of colored sources corresponding to each of these requirements:

• 13 sources of Black and Blue
• 12 sources of Black and Blue
• 20 sources of Black
• 19 sources of Blue

As written, the decklist certainly falls short of these recommendations. It has 15 Black sources and 13 Blue sources. So what are our options?

Well, playing 39 Lands isn't going to happen.  And even with the dual-colored Gates, that only reduces the Basics needed to 16 Black and 15 Blue, which is still excessive. So the question is, how important are these last two requirements?

Turn 2 Pharika's Cure is helpful, but certainly not necessary for this decklist to function, especially since Devour Flesh accomplishes a similar role. In the same way, a Turn 3 Cancel isn't a requirement, since Psychic Strike is a much more viable Turn 3 play.  As it stands, the deck should practically always have access to Pharika's Cure by Turn 6, and Cancel by Turn 8. This same guideline applies to both Grisly Spectacle and Archaeomancer. Is this good enough?

I actually think this is correct as built. With only 2 Cancels in the main, and with Archaeomancer being a late play for this archetype, favoring Black sources over Blue seems to be the right choice. Considering how controlling this archetype is, I might even be tempted to run a 25th Land for a Swamp, easing the BB threshold to Turn 5. What do you think?

I hope you've found this application of Karsten's article to be helpful. Thanks for reading.

Mana Bases

Today I want to write about mana bases. What's a mana base? Here's how it's defined over on  the MTG Salvation Wiki:

The Mana base of a deck consists of all the cards which produce mana to cast spells. This obviously includes lands, but also counts artifacts, creatures, and even enchantments that have a mana ability attached to them.

Further, and I quote, "The mana base is...the most essential part of a deck as a deck that is unable to achieve the requirements to cast its spells is rendered effectively useless."

While the complexity of a mana base is obviously directly related to the complexity of the deck itself, to construct a proper mana base you need to answer three questions:

1. How many Lands do I need to reliably cast my spells on time?
2. How many different color-sources do I need to reliably cast my spells on time?
3. What options do I have that would allow me to use a single card as a source for more than one color?

Needless to say, constructing a solid mana base is essential to success in Magic. And unless you're copying a well-tested deck from someone else, it can be one of the most difficult aspects of deckbuilding.

This past week I read an excellent article over at ChannelFireball by Frank Karsten about mana-bases. While I am certainly familiar with some of the theory behind mana-bases, this was the first time I saw anyone attempt to mathematically demonstrate the numbers behind some of the theory. If you have the time, I strongly suggest you read his article. But if you just want the gist of his analysis, read on:

Obviously this is taken directly from his article, so full credit goes to Frank Karsten.

So what's the baseline? For a simple two color deck that wants access to both color by Turn 3 (with only one of a particular colored mana symbol in any spell in the decklist), you should play 12 basics for each color, leaving you with a reasonable 24 Lands in your deck. But what about a three color deck? If all you have access to are Basic Lands, you would need to play 36 of them to have access to all three by Turn 3! Obviously that's not going to work.

Which is why Lands that produce more than one color mana are so important. For that same three color deck, if you have 4 Nylea's Presence and 8 Gates covering all three colors, you squeeze in 8 colored sources for each color, leaving you with only 4 basics of each color needed to reach the requirements. Once again, this leaves you with 24 Lands in your deck.

Of course, if you have one or more spells that require multiple instances of a single color mana to cast, the calculation becomes even more complex!

I will leave you to these calculations for now. But next time, I want to use this information to analyze some recent decklists from Standard Pauper and see how the theory holds up! In the meantime, if you have some advice or resources to share about mana bases, I'd love to see it in the comments below.

See you next time.