There are a lot of lands in Magic. Lands that do all kinds of crazy things. And that's good! It gives our decks dimension and adds important tradeoffs to the deckbuilding process. But, one thing that always comes up when I build a new deck is how to get the right mix of lands to produce the right colors of mana I need when I need it.
My deckbuilding process usually starts with my Commander, the legendary creature I'm going to build a deck around. You could start with a color combination or a particular card you want to theme a deck around, but for me the Commander is what makes this format what it is.
From there, look for the spells I will use to make the deck work. What creatures do I want to see? How will I draw cards? What control elements make sense in this deck?
After I narrow the list down to about 60 cards, I start thinking about the lands to support all this awesomeness.
For me, selecting the right lands looks something like this. I shoot for about 38-40 lands because I hate (hate, hate) not being able to cast the spells I put in my deck. You can get away with less lands depending on how you build your deck, but that comes later.
Single Color
If I run a Commander in a single color, the mana base is the easiest to build and the most flexible. It is also the least expensive.
Of the 38 lands, about 28 of them will be basic lands. Good old Island or Mountain or whatever basic land I need goes a long way to making sure I hit my colored mana sources. The other 8-10 lands are utility lands, like Temple of the False God or Buried Ruins. Reliquary Tower is another popular choice. Cycling lands like Lonely Sandbar and Blasted Landscape are criminally underplayed, but easily make the cut in my single color decks.
Two Color
At two colors, my manabase is more complicated (and more expensive). I hate lands that come into play tapped. With a vengeance.
It's bad.
My worst play experiences are having the land I need to do something awesome, but knowing that it doesn't matter because my lands come into play tapped. The only thing worse than lands coming into play tapped, is missing land drops entirely.
In a two color deck, I can put pressure on the colored sources of mana but not as easily as in a single color deck. In other words, I pull back on the utility lands to make sure that I have enough colored mana sources. Instead of 8-10 utility lands, I drop down to 5-6. They have to be good to make the cut. Like, Maze of Ith good.
Three Color
This is where things get interesting. I go back through my spells at this point to make sure that I haven't included too many double and triple color requirements in my casting costs. Insurrection requires three red sources. Jamming that into a deck with Necropotence and Future Sight is a recipe for disaster. My best bet is to have two primary colors and a support color. The support color spells should require only a single color to cast. I bend this rule, but following it will reduce the number of times I have a handful of spells I can't cast.
Green and blue are good support colors to have in three color decks. Green ramps and color-fixes with spells like Cultivate and Kodama's reach. With Green, I will almost certainly be able to build a deck that can get the other colors I need. Blue draws cards and manipulates my library with spells like Fact or Fiction and Brainstorm. This helps me hit every land drop and find the right lands to make the colors I need.
Four Color
There aren't any four color Commanders yet, but the mana base would be similar to a five color base.
Five Color
The cost in real money to do this right is frightening. With five colors, I worry about getting the colors I need when I need them. Color costs for spells are all over the map. Utility lands are at a huge premium here and I need to start running lands that can produce all five colors of mana.
It's still best if I stick to a couple of primary colors, with the other colors as backup. Blue is popular for control. Black is popular for tutors. The other colors, white, green, and red, are used for the "greatest hits" from each. Otherwise, I go with a multi-colored deck with lots of multi-colored creatures like Slivers or Dragons. Either way, getting the colors I need when I need them is the most challenging with a five color deck.
If you are new to Commander, a single color deck is by far the easiest, most consistent, and least expensive to build. You could build several single color Commander decks for the cost of a two or three color mana base. But if you expand into multi-colored decks, these are the lands that I would look for first.
(A few words about the original) Dual Lands
The gold standard of multicolored lands are the original Dual Lands. They are old, broken, and very expensive. They are also the best. Although they are non-basic, they count as the type of land that corresponds to the mana they produce, and they come into play untapped. No fuss, no muss.
However, when just one of these lands costs as much as several great Commander decks, you can skip getting these and still do fine. Think of it this way: It'll be one card out of 100. How often will that come up? One in five games? Maybe less? And when it does, you get to make two colors of mana from one land with no drawbacks. It's not, in and of itself, a game changer.
If you want the best, and can afford them, by all means get one each of the original Dual Lands.
Fetch Lands
By this, I specifically mean the ten lands that fetch two colors for one life without coming into play tapped.
For a cost of one life, the right fetch land will "fix" whatever color of mana you are missing by getting you the correct land. The downside is that if you fetch the Island you need at the moment, that Island will only produce blue mana going forward. It's a one shot deal. Still, the fetch lands can turn into whatever color you need at the moment. And! they work wonderfully with the Shock Lands we'll take a look at in a minute. (And yes, they work will with the original Dual Lands for the same reason.)
Shock Lands
These ten lands are as close as we get to the original Dual Lands. Prices are considerably closer to reality, but still expensive for a collection that includes one of each. They count as the land types that correspond to the mana they produce, which means that they can be fetched with the Fetch Lands. They also have a condition that we can easily control, costing two life to come into play untapped.
These lands are really, really close to the original Dual Lands when you consider that we have 40 life in this format. I would start collecting them after the Fetch Lands because the Fetch Lands are more flexible and have more uses.
Check Lands
This is a format where games go long. Ten or more turns is common. The condition on these lands is one that we will typically meet by simply doing what we are doing anyway: playing lands. It's "nearly" unconditional, expect for the first turn where you likely don't have a play to make anyway. They can't be fetched with the Fetch Lands, but they will often come into play untapped and make two colors of mana.
Pain Lands
These ten lands do not count as the land types that correspond to the mana they produce. But, they come into play untapped and produce colorless mana with no drawback. Often, you can play around the damage they cause, unless you really need the color of mana you are missing. In other words, it's land with a drawback, but one that we can easily control in a format where we start with 40 life.
Five Color Lands
These lands tap to make any color of mana. But, the game designers don't want these lands to be so good that you end up playing them instead of other lands that make less than five colors of mana, so get ready for substantial drawbacks.
Er...
Except Command Tower, because hey, let's make sure we sell a bunch of Commander preconstructs.
City of Brass and Mana Confluence damage you (or cause you to lose life). Grand Coliseum is slower, but has flexibility the others don't. Forbidden Orchard has additional functionality for politics.
When in doubt, don't forget Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. Since I hate (hate, hate) lands that come into play tapped, I avoid these. But, if you are running a bunch of colors in your deck, these two lands will get you what you need. Just be ready to burn a turn since the lands come into play tapped.
Other than the list of lands above, here a few other lands to round out this party.
Reflecting Pool doesn't do much on its own, but for making two mana of a single color when you need it, it works great most of the time.
The cycle of Tainted Lands are also great if black is one of your colors. They are similar to the Check Lands, except they never come into play tapped. You will almost always meet the condition, since the condition is simply that you also control a Swamp.
For a great visual reference, check out ManabaseCrafter.com. Head over there, search for you Commander, and flip through the various lands that might work for your deck. But remember, there are a lot of lands that you could use for your deck that actually make things worse. Just because it taps for two or more colors of mana, doesn't mean that you should run every single possible variation of it in your deck. Too many lands that come into play tapped or have a condition you can't often meet, will actually weaken your manabase instead of making it stronger.
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