I had a reader write in and ask a very interesting question. I was about to simply reply and give him a quick answer, but I stopped to think that there probably would be many readers that could benefit from an article on this subject. Here is the e-mail I received:
 

Hey,

 

I have a big question when it comes to magic and mana bases.  I'm building a sliver deck much like the one that appeared on the MTG website a few days ago written by BDM.  The only problem is, is that I'm on a budget.  So I was wondering a) how do you know which type of duel land to buy (bounce, pain, shock, etc.) and how many b) and what are some standard budget replacements for those expensive duel lands?

 

thanks for all the help and keep up the good work!

 

Sincerely,

 

An Avid Reader

 

A very good question indeed. The nature of Magic makes it progressively harder to play spells with each color you add to your deck. To some players, that simply means that they are going to play one or two color decks. But other players embrace the challenge of fitting three, four or even all five colors in a deck. Let's take a look at what options are available to help you put that multi-color deck together, whatever your budget might be. I'll start with cards available in Standard right now (I'll go ahead and look forward to when 10th is officially available). All prices are approximate low end costs as of 7/24/07.

 

Lands:

 

Expensive ($10 or over):

 

Ravnica Block "Shock" Lands

Pros: Can produce 2 colors of mana, Count as both basic land types (search for them with Yavimaya Dryad, Farseek, etc.), Can be used the turn they come into play, Don't cost you any life if you allow them to come into play tapped

Cons: 2 life a pop can come back to hurt you, 2 life is a cost - not damage (it can't be prevented)

 

Moderately expensive: ($5-10)

Horizon Canopy

Pros: Can produce green or white mana, Can draw you a card when you don't need the land anymore

Cons:Can't produce mana without life cost, life cost can be an issue, 1 life is a cost - not damage (it can't be prevented)

 

Flagstones of Trokair

Pros: Can search for any land with a basic land type, resistant to land destruction, can tap for white when they come into play

Cons: Only produces white mana while in play, It takes 2 of them before you can search for other lands, when second Flagstones comes into play, you don't get to tap it for mana, searched-for lands come into play tapped, can only search for basic land types

 

Graven Cairns

Pros: Provides 1 or 2 red or black mana, useful for paying casting costs with 2 or more of one color, no life cost, Can produce colorless mana

Cons: Costs 1 mana to produce colored mana

 

Nimbus Maze

Pros: Can produce blue or red mana, can produce colorless mana with no life cost, no life cost for colored mana

Cons: Won't give you the right color if you don't have the right lands out with it

 

Grove of the Burnwillows

Pros: Provides green or red mana, no life cost, can produce colorless mana

Cons: Gives opponents life

 

River of Tears

Pros: Provides blue or black mana, no life cost for colored mana

Cons: Can be hard to manipulate what color mana it provides

 

10th Edition "Pain" Lands

Pros: Can produce 2 colors of mana, can produce colorless at no life cost, Land damages you instead of making you pay life (you can prevent that damage)

Cons: Life loss can be an issue

 

Affordable ($1-5)

 

Gemstone Mine

Pros: Can produce mana of any color, no life cost

Cons: Can only be used 3 times before it goes away

 

Gemstone Caverns

Pros: Might produce one mana of any color, no life cost

Cons: Will usually produce colorless mana, costs an extra card to put into play if it's in your opening hand

 

Tolaria West

Pros: Can search for any land when transmuted, rare ability to search for land with blue mana, can also search for other 0 casting cost cards.

Cons: 3 mana plus a card to search for a land is resource intensive, comes into play tapped if transmute not used, searched-for land goes into hand instead of in play

 

Pillar of the Paruns

Pros: Provides mana of any color, no life cost

Cons: Must be used for multi-color spells

 

Inexpensive (less than $1)

 

Ice Age Snow Dual Lands

Pros: Provides mana of 2 different colors, Provides snow mana, no life cost

Cons: Comes into play tapped

 

Time Spiral "Storage" Lands

Pros: Can get colored mana without tapping, can provide large amounts of one of two colors of mana

Cons: Takes time and mana to put counters on, can't provide colored mana without counters, vulnerable to land destruction

 

Ravnica Block "Bounce" Lands

Pros: Provides mana of 2 different colors, Helps smooth out your land drops (Playing a bounce land ensures you can play a land next turn as well), 2 mana on one land means you can sometimes get away with a couple less lands in your deck

Cons: Come into play tapped, useless in opening hand unless you have another land to play first, 2 mana on one land might cause mana burn, vulnerable to land destruction

 

Terramorphic Expanse

Pros: Can search for any basic land

Cons: Land you find comes into play tapped

 

Non-land cards:

 

Expensive ($10 or more):

 

Birds of Paradise (you might find one for under $10 if you're lucky)

Pros: Can produce any color, accelerates you mana, cheap mana cost, on a flying creature

Cons: Easy to kill

 

Moderately expensive ($5-10) 

 

Lotus Bloom

Pros: Can produce 3 mana at once, Costs no mana to play, Builds up storm count

Cons: One time use, takes 3 turns to come into play

 

Coalition Relic

Pros: Can produce mana of any color, can produce up to 2 mana in one turn

Cons: 3 mana to cast, counters must be removed - could cause mana burn

 

Affordable ($1-5)

 

Joiner Adept

Pros: Makes all your lands produce mana of any color, attached to a 2/1 creature that could attack

Cons: Attached to fragile creature - easy to kill

 

Inexpensive (under $1)

 

Utopia Mycon

Pros: Can produce mana of any color

Cons: Have to produce and sacrifice saprolings to get mana, creatures are easy to kill

 

Greenseeker

Pros: Can search any basic land, thins out your library

Cons: Costs a mana and card each time you search, creatures are fragile, land goes into hand - not in play

 

Civic Wayfinder

Pros: Can search any basic land, thins out your library, gives you a 2/2 creature

Cons: Costs 3 mana, land goes into hand - not in play, creatures are fragile

 

Wild Cantor

Pros: Can produce mana of any color

Cons: One time use, creatures are easy to kill

 

Dreamscape Artist

Pros: Can find you two lands at once, thins out your library

Cons: Costs 3 mana, a land, and a card in hand each time you use it

 

Perilous Forays

Pros: Reusable land search, thins out your library

Cons: Costs 5 mana to play, and a mana and a creature for each acitvation

 

Evolution Charm

Pros: Search for a land, has other uses if you don't need land search

Cons: Land goes to hand instead of into play

 

Gemhide Sliver

Pros: Can produce mana of any color, empowers all your slivers to produce mana of any color

Cons: Creatures are easy to kill

 

Edge of Autumn

Pros: Can search for any basic land, can be cycled if you don't need lands

Cons: Can only be used if you have 4 or fewer lands

 

Farseek

Pros: Can search for any land with a basic land type (including shock lands), land comes into play, not into hand

Cons: Can't find basic Forests, lands come into play tapped

 

Into the North

Pros: Can find any snow land - even non-basic, land comes into play not into hand

Cons: Lands come into play tapped, can't find non-snow lands

 

Vesper Ghoul

Pros: Can produce mana of any color, black sources that produce mana of any color are hard to find

Cons: Costs 1 life each time, creatures are easy to kill

 

Elemental Resonance

Pros: Adds mana every turn for no cost

Cons: Can cause mana burn, can't change what mana it gives you, costs 4 to cast

 

Rampant Growth

Pros: Can search for any basic land, land comes into play - not your hand

Cons: Land comes into play tapped

 

Search for Tomorrow

Pros: Can search for any basic land, only costs 1 to suspend, land comes into play untapped

Cons: Costs 3 to hard cast, or wait 2 turns to suspend

 

Sylvan Scrying

Pros: Can search for ANY land - even non-basic

Cons: Land comes into your hand - not into play

 

Utopia Vow

Pros: Adds one mana of any color, can cripple an opposing creature (hard to find ability in green)

Cons: Crippling if you use it on your own creature, you lose 2 cards if they kill the creature this enchants

 

Coldsteel Heart

Pros: Adds mana of any one color, doesn't cost to activate, produces snow mana

Cons: Comes into play tapped, can't change what color it gives you

 

Verdant Eidolon

Pros: Can produce 3 mana of any one color, can be reused

Cons: Costs 4 to cast, inefficient if you are not playing a lot of multi-color cards

 

Paradise Plume

Pros: Produces mana of any one color, gains you life

Cons: Costs 4 to cast, can't change what color it produces

 

Composite Golem

Pros: Provides 1 mana of each color, attached to a 4/4 body

Cons: One time use, Costs 6 mana (!), creatures are easy to kill

 

Prismatic Lens

Pros: Produces mana of any color, can produce colorless

Cons: Costs 1 mana to get colored mana

 

Ravnica Block Signets

Pros: Budget friendly, Help smooth out your mana production, gives you two colors of mana

Cons: Takes mana to activate, doesn't help with mana costs that take multiples of one color

 

Silhana Starfletcher

Pros: Can produce mana of any one color, can block flying creatures

Cons: Can't change the color it produces, creatures are easily killed, costs 1 green and 2 colorless to play.

 

Terrarion 

Pros: Produces 2 mana of any combination of colors, draws you a card

Cons: Costs 2 mana to activate, comes into play tapped

 

Chromatic Star

Pros: Can produce any color, draws you a card

Cons: One time use, costs to activate

 

 

Whew! That was quite a list! There are even more ways than I thought to help your mana - and this is just in the past two blocks (plus Coldsnap and the core set), and I'm sure I missed some. After looking back over this list, the old adage is true: you get what you pay for. If you can get shock lands and Birds of Paradise, they are your best bet. But if not, you have your whole range of choices as to how to produce that mana! A few pointers as you choose which budget option to use:

 

1) Do you need to accelerate your mana or just smooth it? In other words, is it more important to have more mana or just to have mana of the right colors? For instance, Ravnica block bounce lands help give you the right colors, but can actually slow you down since they come into play tapped. They work well for slower decks, but are no good in aggro decks.

 

2) How easily is this mana source destroyed? Most often, creatures are the easiest to kill, followed by artifacts and enchantments, and lands are usually the least likely to take the brunt of a destruction spell. Putting all your stock in Gemhide Silvers works well until your opponent casts a Wrath of God.

 

3) Don't dedicate too many cards to producing mana. If you have too many mana fixing cards, you have less "business" spells to play. Even a 5 color deck should have no more than 4-8 non-land mana fixers.

 

4) When building your deck, thinning out even 1 color can help. A 4 color deck is easier to play than a 5 color deck.

 

5) Green is the color of mana fixing. Putting more green sources will make it more likely that you can play your mana fixers and get your other colors.

 

But which mana fixers are the best? It depends on your deck. Okay, I know that was a cop-out answer, but it's really the truth. But in general, here's my opinion which affordable and inexpensive mana fixers are the best:

 

Lands:

Gemstone Mines, Tolaria West, Terramorphic Expanse

 

Non-lands: 

Gemhide Sliver, Search for Tomorrow, Edge of Autumn, Ravnica Block signets

 

For those of you running 3, 4, and 5 color decks, I hope this has helped you build your deck without feeling like you need to spend $15 a piece to buy Ravnica lands! Remember also that these were only the choices from the current Standard card pool - there are dozens of others from older sets that I just don't have time to get into!

 

I'd be interested to hear your response to this article - did it help? Did I miss something you consider crucial? Were you surprised as I was to find so many ways to get colored mana? As always, your feedback is appreciated.

 

-mattedesa