I'm building my first pentacolored deck, and I'm running into the following dilemma:
I've decided that 36 Lands is about where I want to be. The first manabase I threw together was:
10 Duals
10 Fetchlands
10 Shocklands
One of each Basic Command Tower
As far as color-fixing goes, that's about as good as it gets - but it leaves no room for utility lands (Not playing high market feels wrong), and it makes running ramp effects really risky.
I think it depends on the deck. High market is a good card, but is it necessary for your deck? Each colourless land comes at a high price since it can be the reason you can't cast the spell you need. Make sure each one you add is very important.
How colour intensive is your deck? Are almost all the cards just 1 of each colour at most?
Another solid way to find out is play test it with each different mana base.
If you're using that mana base (and don't need to worry about LD) you should focus on the good green searches like Skyshroud Claim, Nature's Lore, and Three Visits. They'll let you get anything you want, basically you'll be cheating the mana system.
Run mostly green, and cheap t1-2 ramp spells such as rampant growth, search for tomorrow, and/or sakura tribe elder and tutor up the rest of your colors. I'd also run a decent number basic lands in all types, that you aren't blown out immediately by a player attacking your non-basic mana base (ruination is a card I run in practically all my red lists). Finally, artifact fixing can be very fragile, and all it can take is one oblivion stone or shatterstorm to shut you out of the game. Don't get to greedy with non basics and artifacts, especially considering in EDH that there are significant community conversations these days on "how to punish or shut down ramp."
Great 5-color fixing can be easily accomplished on a budget and without over committing to the board. Check out the "pauper dreamcrusher" list in the variant commander section to see how elegantly 5-colors can be done, even with a cheap selection of cards.
If you're using that mana base (and don't need to worry about LD) you should focus on the good green searches like Skyshroud Claim, Nature's Lore, and Three Visits. They'll let you get anything you want, basically you'll be cheating the mana system.
What kind of 5c are you building? Usually, if you're playing 5c, the card quality of the non-land cards should be so incredibly high that there's no need for utility lands.
I'll second this. In the past I used to run a bunch of utility and/or colorless lands in my 5c deck. Starting hands consisting of only 2 colorless lands are crazy bad. If you are building a 5c deck you should exploit the unique opportunity of having access to every card imaginable. Trying to be cute and including utility lands in a 5c deck is a road to awkward deck design. Unless you play 50lands.dec. Then go for it
I just built my first pentacolored EDH and I must say that perilous forays is a complete and utter all star. One of the best cards in the deck. Though I have a fair amount of token producers/ small utility guys.
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5 Color Cromat with tons of tutoring that doesn't reveal the card. Play a few classic playing cards, a couple Uno Draw 4s (Ancestral Recall eat your heart out), some basic Pokemon for defense, a Get Out of Jail Free card, and have assembling all five pieces of Exodia be your win condition. People will flip because EXODIA!? IMPOSSIBLE! NOBODY'S EVER BEEN ABLE TO SUMMON HIM!
Don't forget your non-land manabase for fixing! Chromatic Lantern and Prismatic Omen completely eliminate "I don't have this type of mana" issues. There's also more lands that you're missing that are extremely helpful. Reflecting Pool and Mirrodin's Core can do the same for lands. There's also a land whose name I can't recall that can give you any color, but gives the enemy a 1/1 token when you do -- another exceptionally useful land for 5color.
You can cut some of the duals and shocks by looking at your mana distribution, to make room for helpful fixing lands like these.
Honestly, I'm not 100% sure yet. I know the general is going to be Progenitus. I just have a ton of 5 color cards I've never really gotten to play with and would like to try - Door to Nothingness, Fist of Suns, Conflux and Legacy Weapon spring to mind.
I have a 5c deck that runs pretty good in terms of mana. It wants me to finish adding shocks (I'm missing about half of them), but even with only a couple fetches and without any ABU duels, I've cut both Joiner Adept and Prismatic Omen. Birds of Paradise and Deathrite Shaman on creature ramp, Farseek, Nature's Lore, and Sylvan Scrying as land seekers (might add Tithe if I had it), and Chromatic Lantern and Darksteel Ingot as artifacts (would add Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond if I had them). There should be an emphasis on green, but usually the first couple green sources are the only important ones so the even split you mentioned should be fine. Between those and after draw and filter effects, lands stop being a big issue. (Crucible of Worlds is pretty good too.)
That said, I'm curious what utility lands you were considering that you felt would be worth cutting other lands. For something like Maze of Ith, I generally just think of it as an awkward 0cmc artifact. I can see some others possibly being worth it, but it depends on your deck.
If you're creature heavy, Ancient Ziggurat is great, and if you're playing a 5 color deck that is heavy one creature type, you can't beat Cavern of Souls. If those creatures happen to be elementals (Horde of Notions), Primal Beyond is great.
Thirty-six land is a couple short of the average for most mono-colored lists, and you're trying to do five colors? I wouldn't run less than forty land, and I'd run every non-basic land tutor, and land recursion effect I could get my hands on. Also you should really start with the deck first and build your mana basic with your color needs in mind. You can safely assume you'll want all ten shocks, fetches, and abu duals if you have them, but what are the colors you absolutely cannot live without? Those colors should be given special consideration as to your basics. This is because the more opportunistic your meta is, the more your reliance on non-basic lands becomes a glaring weak point for you.
Your five color deck shouldn't be evenly five colors. You should be heavy on two, maybe three, but access to the others.
That way, it will be clear which shocks you don't need.
Quoted because it's worth posting more than once.
*Build your manabase last. You'll probably naturally end up being heavier in some colors than others; address that in your lands.
*Think about what spells you need to play early (things like your mana fixers, hand sculptors and no-you-won't-kill-the-table countermeasures); make sure you're robustly representing the color of those spells.
*Examine your hard-to-cast spells – ones with double-color or triple-color costs. Think about when you'll need to play them, and which colors they're more common in. (You'll probably find most of your double- and triple-cost spells are in white and black.) You'll want these colors heavily represented in your duals, especially if you plan on paying these heavy color costs early.
*When building your deck, don't get greedy. If you like card X that has a WW cost, but you can get a similar effect for 1W, consider the second card. It's great to get a powerful effect; it's better to be able to cast a serviceable one.
In short, the best manabase won't look pretty. Unless you really like the idea of cycles in your deck, you probably don't even need to run all 10 ABU duals. Depending on your colors, other options will be better (especially Shadowmoor / Morningtide's filter lands).
The best duals are the ones that have your early relevant colors AND your hard-to-cast colors; they'll provide you the on-color mana you want early game and also help ensure your Wrath (or whatever) goes off on turn 4 or 5 without a hitch. Duals with colors you don't have a high demand for are probably better off staying out; if you're not heavy in two colors, drop the corresponding duals for SHD/MOR filters or five-color lands.
I've decided that 36 Lands is about where I want to be. The first manabase I threw together was:
10 Duals
10 Fetchlands
10 Shocklands
One of each Basic
Command Tower
As far as color-fixing goes, that's about as good as it gets - but it leaves no room for utility lands (Not playing high market feels wrong), and it makes running ramp effects really risky.
Armageddon, Ruination, and Back to Basics effects are non-existent in my meta.
So should I cut the 10 shocklands for 5 more basics + some utility lands? (Which would better enable Cultivate and friends)
or
Should I cut the 5 basics for utility lands and use only artifacts to ramp? (Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic, etc.)
or
Should I keep the super efficient color fixing manabase I've got going, and count on my spells to do all the work?
That way, it will be clear which shocks you don't need.
Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
How colour intensive is your deck? Are almost all the cards just 1 of each colour at most?
Another solid way to find out is play test it with each different mana base.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Great 5-color fixing can be easily accomplished on a budget and without over committing to the board. Check out the "pauper dreamcrusher" list in the variant commander section to see how elegantly 5-colors can be done, even with a cheap selection of cards.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
And Farseek.
I write EDH articles on EDHREC and MTGCasualPlay. I hope you like them!
EDH DECKLISTS
RGWUril, the Miststalker WBRKaalia of the Vast Sunforger WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUGDerevi, Empyrial TacticianWUBRGSliver Queen EDH
UB Wrexial, the Risen DeepWU Hanna, Ship's NavigatorWGSigarda, Host of Herons EnchantressWULavinia, of the Tenth
RRPurphoros, God of the ForgeBBChainer, Dementia MasterWWEight-and-a-Half TailsUUMuzzio, Visionary ArchitectGGJolrael, Empress of Beasts
BGVhati il-DalRWTajic, Blade of the LegionUBRZurgo HelmsmasherUBDaxos the ReturnedWBKarlov of the Ghost CouncilWUBruna, Light of Alabaster
RWAurelia Angel Tribal URJhoira Chaos Deck UGVorel +1 Counters BRGProssh Tokens
UBRGwendlyn Discard EDH URG Surrak Dragonclaw UBLazav Mill EDH WUBrago Flicker EDH Deck
I'll second this. In the past I used to run a bunch of utility and/or colorless lands in my 5c deck. Starting hands consisting of only 2 colorless lands are crazy bad. If you are building a 5c deck you should exploit the unique opportunity of having access to every card imaginable. Trying to be cute and including utility lands in a 5c deck is a road to awkward deck design. Unless you play 50lands.dec. Then go for it
"No."
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You can cut some of the duals and shocks by looking at your mana distribution, to make room for helpful fixing lands like these.
GRW Mayael the Anima WRG
Honestly, I'm not 100% sure yet. I know the general is going to be Progenitus. I just have a ton of 5 color cards I've never really gotten to play with and would like to try - Door to Nothingness, Fist of Suns, Conflux and Legacy Weapon spring to mind.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
My Trades
That said, I'm curious what utility lands you were considering that you felt would be worth cutting other lands. For something like Maze of Ith, I generally just think of it as an awkward 0cmc artifact. I can see some others possibly being worth it, but it depends on your deck.
At a minimum I usually play:
Either Wasteland or Strip Mine and either Miren, the Moaning Well or High Market
If I had room I would also consider running some combination of: Bojuka Bog, Academy Ruins, and Volrath's Stronghold.
If you're creature heavy, Ancient Ziggurat is great, and if you're playing a 5 color deck that is heavy one creature type, you can't beat Cavern of Souls. If those creatures happen to be elementals (Horde of Notions), Primal Beyond is great.
Oh Rider, my heart will go on...
Quoted because it's worth posting more than once.
*Build your manabase last. You'll probably naturally end up being heavier in some colors than others; address that in your lands.
*Think about what spells you need to play early (things like your mana fixers, hand sculptors and no-you-won't-kill-the-table countermeasures); make sure you're robustly representing the color of those spells.
*Examine your hard-to-cast spells – ones with double-color or triple-color costs. Think about when you'll need to play them, and which colors they're more common in. (You'll probably find most of your double- and triple-cost spells are in white and black.) You'll want these colors heavily represented in your duals, especially if you plan on paying these heavy color costs early.
*When building your deck, don't get greedy. If you like card X that has a WW cost, but you can get a similar effect for 1W, consider the second card. It's great to get a powerful effect; it's better to be able to cast a serviceable one.
In short, the best manabase won't look pretty. Unless you really like the idea of cycles in your deck, you probably don't even need to run all 10 ABU duals. Depending on your colors, other options will be better (especially Shadowmoor / Morningtide's filter lands).
The best duals are the ones that have your early relevant colors AND your hard-to-cast colors; they'll provide you the on-color mana you want early game and also help ensure your Wrath (or whatever) goes off on turn 4 or 5 without a hitch. Duals with colors you don't have a high demand for are probably better off staying out; if you're not heavy in two colors, drop the corresponding duals for SHD/MOR filters or five-color lands.