u/abafda

I thought I would do a deep dive on manabases for 2 color decks. If there’s enough interest, I’ll do another post on 3+ color decks as well!

This primer is geared towards decks with approximately 38 lands. This also doesn’t include cEDH, which has its own rules and expectations, and specific decks like landfall decks, which often want way more lands.

Part 1: How many dual lands should I include in my decks?

To answer that question, I ask another question first: How badly do I need mana of a specific color by a specific turn? Let’s say you’re playing a blue/black deck, and you want to be certain to have a land that produces untapped blue on turn 1. Using hypergeometric probability, you can calculate the number of lands you need to figure out how many non-basic lands you need.

80% probability: 20 sources.
90% probability: 27 sources.
95% probability: 34 sources.

If you’re running 38 lands, and want even distribution of your two colors, that means that you should be running 2 dual lands if you want an 80% chance of having each color in your opening hand, 16 dual lands if you want a 90% chance of having each color in your opening hand, and 30 dual lands if you want a 95% chance of having each color in your opening hand. Note that if you’re including colorless utility lands like reliquary tower, you’ll want to include 1 extra dual land for every 2 utility lands you include. Personally, I aim to have somewhere between 12 and 18 dual lands in each of my 2 color decks. 

Tier list of land cycles for 2 color decks.

Tier 0: The money tier.

1. ABU Duals. These are obviously the best dual lands you can have for your decks, the only limitation is their absurd price point. If you’re proxying or have a ton of money and no pod-imposed budget limits on decks, these should go in every 2 color deck. Realistically, you will never see one of these in a commander game unless you are playing with proxies or Post Malone.

Tier 1: Should be included in every deck if it’s within your budget.

1. Onslaught/Zendikar Fetchlands. With the printing of the surveil lands, having the versatility to search up an untapped land when needed or a surveil land when you don’t need the mana this turn puts fetches at #1. Every deck that can afford them should play 1, most decks should play 3, and some decks should play all 7.
2. Shocklands. Despite being strictly worse than ABU duals, they’re still the best lands you can fetch by a wide amount that don’t also cost a down payment on a car.
3. MKM Surveil lands. Fetchable lands that are pseudo card advantage make up for the fact that they come into play tapped.
4. Battle Bond lands. Another commander staple, and should go in every deck that supports them. The only reason they’re below the top 4 lands is that they aren’t fetchable.
5. Marvel Lands (ally only). They tap for the color you need no matter what the turn you play them, and probably every other turn as well. They also tap for colorless, which can matter in some colorless matters decks. I could see these being better viewed as better than battle bond lands in some 2 color decks.
6. Verges. Another auto include for 2 color decks, these are about 80% as strong as Battle Bond lands.
7. Slow Lands. If you’re not playing cEDH, these should absolutely be going in your deck. The downside is almost nonexistent.
8. Pathways. Always enter untapped? Check. Give you the color you need the turn you play them? Check. Doesn’t hurt you? Check. In a 2-color deck, these are better than a prismatic vista (unless you’re playing landfall), they do get worse in a 3+ color deck where you have stricter mana needs.
9. Check lands. The bottom of tier 1. Auto includes, but can sometimes betray you.
10. Turbulent cycle (enemy only). On average these come into play untapped on turn 4, compared to slow lands which come into play untapped on turn 3. What I like about these is that they’re a budget(ish) dual land that can be fetched painlessly in the mid to late game.

Tier 1b: These lands are also auto-includes, but aren’t part of a cycle.

1. Command Tower.
2. Exotic Orchard.

Tier 2: Not needed for every deck, but are fine to include in most decks.

1. Pain Lands. Greatness at any cost, if any cost is 1 life per activation. Still worth including in most decks.
2. Filter Lands. These are fine, but don’t tap for colored mana on turn 1. Include them in decks where you don’t consistently need to play a colored spell on turn 1.
3. Reveal Lands. These are much worse than the checklands, especially as a topdeck. They’re definitely playable, but are aggressively mid.
4. Tango lands. These are fine, but won’t come into play untapped until at least turn 3, and sometimes later than that.

 

Tier 2b: These lands can go in most 2-color decks, but aren’t auto-includes. They are not part of a cycle.

1. Fabled Passage. Definitely include it if you’re playing landfall or have some graveyard/recursion synergy, otherwise you can pass on this.
2. Prismatic Vista. Not budget friendly, and in a 2-color deck not required.

Tier 3: Fringe. Only play these lands if you’re on a budget, or if they synergize with your deck.

1. Cycle lands. These are somewhere in between tier 2 and tier 3. I wouldn’t play them in a deck that doesn’t have a way to recur lands from the yard.
2. Bounce lands. I would only include these in landfall decks, or if you’re playing a commander that lets lands enter untapped.
3. Temples. Not being fetchable, and scrying instead of surveilling really pushed these down far. I wouldn’t play a temple unless I was on a strict budget.
4. Sol Lands. These lands do nothing if you play them turn 1, can’t pay for double-pip cards of the same color, and will often leave you unable to cast the spell you want if you’re not paying close attention to the mana you have. The fact that you can’t leave these lands untapped as your only land also makes it hard to hold up/bluff having spells at instant speed. They’re probably powerful enough to be in tier 2, but the headache they create isn’t worth the hassle for me.
5. Tainted lands. Fine in a deck that is heavy black, but doesn’t do much on turn 1.
6. Horizon lands. Play them if you are a land recursion deck, or if you’re playing cEDH and your life total super doesn’t matter. At fair magic tables, you can pass on these.
7. Fastlands. I would not play these in a deck outside of cEDH.

Tier 3b: Fringe lands that aren’t part of a cycle.

1. Path of Ancestry. I’d avoid this unless you’re playing a kindred deck.
2. Hidden Hideout. Fine if you’re playing a counters deck, otherwise it’s a pass.
3. Reflecting Pool. This goes up in a 3-5 color deck in playability, but it really isn’t needed in 2-color decks.

So which lands should you play? If budget isn’t a concern, and you choose to play 3 fetchlands in your 2 color decks, then there are 13 tier 1 lands that you should include in your decks. If you have 1 utility land in your deck, that puts you at an 87.9% chance to get a specific color in your opening hand, and a 77.8% chance to have both colors in your opening hand. Given a free mulligan, that means you’ll only be colorscrewed 5.2% of the time. If you’re on a budget, you can replace some of the expensive tier 1 lands with tier 2 or tier 3 ones.