Hi, I'm new to this forum and I'm currently working on building my first custom Gishath deck, but I'm having a hard time deciding on whether or not I should run the signets, talismans, signet lands, a combination or the three, or maybe even none of them at all? The reason I'm contemplating these is cause I have too many artifacts and I'm right on the cusp of having too many lands. Right now I'm running the arcane signet and the conviction, impulse, and unity talismans on top of things like mana crypt, sol ring, and some other things. I'm wondering out of the three, which one would be the most advantageous for my deck, if any at all?
I wouldn't lump all three groups together - this is really two separate conversations.
Signets and Talismans are mana rocks, intended to ramp you to higher mana production than just dropping one land a turn. Both are excellent options, as they come down early and start accelerating you as early as turn 3 (not counting a turn one drop from a Sol Ring). Signets provide multiple colors at the same time, while Talismans provide specific colors individually. Late game, they're practically the same, but early game, Talismans can prove more flexible for costs that involve multiple pips of the same color - i.e. a Forest and a Gruul Signet can only produce RG while a Forest and a Talisman of Impulse can produce RG or GG. The lifeloss is generally minimal, and once your mana is fixed through lands, you can just tap the Talisman for colorless.
The Signet Lands are a separate conversation because while they mana-fix, it's rather hard to ramp with these specifically. They have no land types to make them searchable, they aren't basics for the purposes of Rampant Growth/Cultivate, and they aren't as powerful as some other non-basics. However, they are still excellent, affordable options to get your colors right. The real question is whether your particular land package has room. Filled with fetch lands, shocks, and triomes, you'll probably skip these. But if you're mostly basics and utility lands, these are a great choice. I know some people like to criticize them for not producing mana on their own, but I find that a ridiculous criticism because you should never keep an opening hand with Mossfire Valley and no other lands - just drop the Forest turn one and the Signet land turn 2 - it enters untapped, which makes it better than a lot of non-basics, and you can produce two mana, fixed to two colors, that turn.
A lot of deck formulas prescribe 10-12 ramp spells, including mana rocks, mana dorks, sorceries, etc that add mana or fetch lands into play. The obvious point is that you really need to check your deck's curve to decide how many to run but also at what mana they should cost. Gishath, Sun's Avatar costs 8, so pretty much any ramp will accelerate it, but if you really want to ramp into a 4-drop, you need two mana accelerants rather than three mana ones to really make a difference and get it out a turn earlier.
Without knowing the specifics of your deck, it's hard to make a blanket statement of "you should run this but not that." Every deck has unique needs and interactions.
The poster above me is giving solid advise. The most important part being the question of what you are planning to ramp into. If your commander is the prime target stuff like Mana Vault, Grim Monolith or even Basalt Monolith/Thran Dynamo might be better picks than any mana rock ramping you by just one in my opinion. In general you also shouldn't discount the fact that your commander has access to green, so when looking at super efficient ramp there's always Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl both of which beat any kind of 2-drop mana rock without even trying as from turn 2 onwards those usually come down for zero. Less efficient land auras like Fertile Ground/Overgrowth/Dawn's Reflection/Market Festival are still nice and (besides Overgrowth) also provide fixing but unless said fixing is really important i probably wouldn't run any of those besides maybe Overgrowth (due to practically being a 1-drop). Also green gives you land ramp, which will be more resilient than artifact ramp as it doesn't just fold to someone casting Vandalblast/Shatterstorm or dropping Titania's Song. Again assuming you want to go huge fast double fetchers like Explosive Vegetation/Hunting Wilds/Ranger's Path would probably be your best bet here outside the obvious one's like Nature's Lore/Rampant Growth/Into The North but like the guy above me said, without knowing your deck giving exact recommendations isn't possible.
I also agree that some kind of 12x ramp by default approach is way to generalizing. Stuff like this very much depends on the type of deck as some profit more from ramping than others. Actually some hardly profit at all making ramp into a dead draw 99% of the time while for some decks it's almost crucial to reliably accelerate during the first few rounds as they aren't really getting off the ground otherwise or are easily overwhelmed by their opponents progress.
Signets and Talismans are mana rocks, intended to ramp you to higher mana production than just dropping one land a turn. Both are excellent options, as they come down early and start accelerating you as early as turn 3 (not counting a turn one drop from a Sol Ring). Signets provide multiple colors at the same time, while Talismans provide specific colors individually. Late game, they're practically the same, but early game, Talismans can prove more flexible for costs that involve multiple pips of the same color - i.e. a Forest and a Gruul Signet can only produce RG while a Forest and a Talisman of Impulse can produce RG or GG. The lifeloss is generally minimal, and once your mana is fixed through lands, you can just tap the Talisman for colorless.
The Signet Lands are a separate conversation because while they mana-fix, it's rather hard to ramp with these specifically. They have no land types to make them searchable, they aren't basics for the purposes of Rampant Growth/Cultivate, and they aren't as powerful as some other non-basics. However, they are still excellent, affordable options to get your colors right. The real question is whether your particular land package has room. Filled with fetch lands, shocks, and triomes, you'll probably skip these. But if you're mostly basics and utility lands, these are a great choice. I know some people like to criticize them for not producing mana on their own, but I find that a ridiculous criticism because you should never keep an opening hand with Mossfire Valley and no other lands - just drop the Forest turn one and the Signet land turn 2 - it enters untapped, which makes it better than a lot of non-basics, and you can produce two mana, fixed to two colors, that turn.
A lot of deck formulas prescribe 10-12 ramp spells, including mana rocks, mana dorks, sorceries, etc that add mana or fetch lands into play. The obvious point is that you really need to check your deck's curve to decide how many to run but also at what mana they should cost. Gishath, Sun's Avatar costs 8, so pretty much any ramp will accelerate it, but if you really want to ramp into a 4-drop, you need two mana accelerants rather than three mana ones to really make a difference and get it out a turn earlier.
Without knowing the specifics of your deck, it's hard to make a blanket statement of "you should run this but not that." Every deck has unique needs and interactions.
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I also agree that some kind of 12x ramp by default approach is way to generalizing. Stuff like this very much depends on the type of deck as some profit more from ramping than others. Actually some hardly profit at all making ramp into a dead draw 99% of the time while for some decks it's almost crucial to reliably accelerate during the first few rounds as they aren't really getting off the ground otherwise or are easily overwhelmed by their opponents progress.