have you thought of using any of the fetchlands? i know they're pricey, but it would be good way to get the right. since it's bant, i guess misty rainforests are the answer. otherwise, i'd say get creature mana fixers like birds or noble. noble is especially good because not only does it ramp in the right colors, the exalted is great for aggro.
sadly i don't know any articles off the top of my head
the core set pain lands are a great alternative. adarkar wastes, yavimaya coast and brushland all come into play untapped and give you mana. the life loss might be annoying, but decent cheap lifelinkers in your colors are very common. they shouldn't cost you more than 2-3$ each. to know your numbers, do the following
1) count the number of different mana symbols in your deck (IE: sigiled paladin would count for 2 white symbols) for each color as well as the total number of mana symbols. write these down.
2) average each color's mana symbol number with the total number of mana symbols and put those into percentages. for example, let's say you have 67 different mana symbols. 23 white symbols, 32 green symbols and 12 blue symbols. put 12/67, 23/67 and 32/67 on a calculator. you should get 0.xxxx numbers. the first two numbers after the dot are your color percentages. with those numbers (rounded up) that's 18% blue, 34% white and 48% green.
3) find out the number of basic lands you need using those percentages and the total number of lands. you play 23 lands. considering 18%= 18/100, then 18%= 0.18. multiply 0.18 by 23. you get 4.13. do this for every percentage.
4) now you have basic lands. using the previous operation, this is your manabase so far.
Time to fit in the nonbasics. there are many ways to do this, but what I do is trim them until I have 2 basic lands of each color. say we want to add 4 adarkar wastes. since these produce U and W, we can safely remove two plains and two islands. for 4 brushland, 2 plains and 2 forests. for 4 yavimaya coast, I'd remove 4 forests since we're at 2 islands after adarkar wastes. for 4 seaside citadel, remove any basic land.
5) look at your two drops and three drops. do you want your blue mana early to cast coral merfolk, or is air elemental the only blue card in the deck? add or remove blue-producing lands. are all your two drops green? play 4 brushland, 4 yavimaya coasts and 2 adarkar wastes.
this might seem daunting, but you should strive to learn how to build 3-4 colored manabases on the fly. this will make you a better limited player overall, which is important considering we're going back to ravnica in a few months
Your mana production should be proportionate to the color weight of your creatures and spells; if you run mostly white creatures, with a few blue and green spells, then you should include mana white producing lands, with a splash of blue and green producing lands. Of course though, you then run the problem of getting mana screwed quite easily. Of course dual mana producing lands will negate this problem to a certain degree. I would advise that you run lands like these:
1) Anyone knows how to integrate 2-colors lands into a 3-colors manabase?
The ratio of White:Green:Blue is 9:11:3 (lands).
2) How do i effectively use a land that states "Spend this mana only to play creature spells"?
3) "Glacial Fortress enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island." / "Sunpetal Grove enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Forest or a Plains."
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Island
7 Forest
8 Plain
I wanted to introduce non-basics into the manabase. My cardpool consists of:
But after introducing several of these non-basics, I found myself, experiencing more color-screw situations and slower plays.
4 seaside citadel
4 terramorphic expanse
4 glacial fortress
4 sunpetal grove
2 forest
3 plains
2 island
As my deck is Aggro-based, the 1st three turns are critical. What i want my first 3 turns to be like:
Turn 1: G/W
Turn 2: G/W
Turn 3: G/W/U
I will like to learn some do's and dont's of building 3-colors manabases. Kindly refer some articles that i can readup on. Thanks.
sadly i don't know any articles off the top of my head
1) count the number of different mana symbols in your deck (IE: sigiled paladin would count for 2 white symbols) for each color as well as the total number of mana symbols. write these down.
2) average each color's mana symbol number with the total number of mana symbols and put those into percentages. for example, let's say you have 67 different mana symbols. 23 white symbols, 32 green symbols and 12 blue symbols. put 12/67, 23/67 and 32/67 on a calculator. you should get 0.xxxx numbers. the first two numbers after the dot are your color percentages. with those numbers (rounded up) that's 18% blue, 34% white and 48% green.
3) find out the number of basic lands you need using those percentages and the total number of lands. you play 23 lands. considering 18%= 18/100, then 18%= 0.18. multiply 0.18 by 23. you get 4.13. do this for every percentage.
4) now you have basic lands. using the previous operation, this is your manabase so far.
11 forest
8 plains
Time to fit in the nonbasics. there are many ways to do this, but what I do is trim them until I have 2 basic lands of each color. say we want to add 4 adarkar wastes. since these produce U and W, we can safely remove two plains and two islands. for 4 brushland, 2 plains and 2 forests. for 4 yavimaya coast, I'd remove 4 forests since we're at 2 islands after adarkar wastes. for 4 seaside citadel, remove any basic land.
5) look at your two drops and three drops. do you want your blue mana early to cast coral merfolk, or is air elemental the only blue card in the deck? add or remove blue-producing lands. are all your two drops green? play 4 brushland, 4 yavimaya coasts and 2 adarkar wastes.
this might seem daunting, but you should strive to learn how to build 3-4 colored manabases on the fly. this will make you a better limited player overall, which is important considering we're going back to ravnica in a few months
Wooded Bastion
Mystic Gate
Flooded Grove
Temple Garden
Hallowed Fountain
Breeding Pool
Razorverge Thicket
Seachrome Cost
Hinterland Harbor
And run a small amount of lands; aggro decks should usually be around 22-24 lands at most.
Also, this article is amazingly helpful:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/890_MmmmmmmmmanaFive_Rules_For_Avoiding_ManaScrew.html
The ratio of White:Green:Blue is 9:11:3 (lands).
2) How do i effectively use a land that states "Spend this mana only to play creature spells"?
3) "Glacial Fortress enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island." / "Sunpetal Grove enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Forest or a Plains."
How do i balance Basics with this land?
4) Is Rupture Spire worth playing?
5) Is Terramorphic Expanse strictly better than Bant Panorama?