30 Lands is Enough
Why play cards if you're not betting the house on a top deck from God?
Every Commander deck-builder is familiar with this situation: You’ve found your commander, you’ve filled the deck with enough bombs to choke King Kong, and you’ve added those few spicy pet cards that can turn the tide in specific game states. You’ve got a stack of straight diesel. Just gotta add in those trusty lands and then it’s time to clap your friends … Right?
You: So, how many lands do I need to add here
Inner You: Optimal land count (on average) is around 37 or 38.
You: Damn it. I’ll have to cut a few cards. But maybe I can get away with 35 lands.
Inner You: How many ramp cards do you have in your deck?
You: Ummmm, shoot.
Inner You: How many mana rocks you got in there?
You: Shoot.
Inner You: How many removal, board wipe, protection cards have you included?
You: Shoot shoot shoot.
Inner You: How, uh … how many cards you got in your hand there, bud?
You: …
Inner You: …
You: 70
Forget that. Live the dream. Grab your commander, your 69 bombs, and drop 30 lands in that bad boy. Shuffle up and trust the heart of the cards.
Disclaimer: This article is satire.
So true dude
It's not so much the number of lands but the number of mana sources. 50 in total split among dorms, lands, and rocks should do the trick for deck with 3.5 average CMC. Exceptions can be made of course such as for my pirate deck which (supposedly) makes a lot of treasure.