Mana Curve

artificer · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 66

As far as I understand a limited deck will usually have around 16 lands and 24 spells. I heard that when choosing the spells I shouldn’t have for example more spells of converted cost 3 and 4 than other bigger spells in order to make casting more efficient. Of course I understand the general idea but given that in a limited tournament one will get so little time for deck building I wonder if there is some kind of recipe that will make easier to choose how many spells I should have of each converted cost.

str8 · Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 12

first, you should be playing either 17-18 land (most of the time)

a mana curve is basically a bell curve. you start with few low casting cost spells --> to more middle casting cost ---> to less high casting cost. Its not really a reciepy, but think of it this way. If you have 3 cards with a cmc of 3 and 7 with a cmc of 4 there is a large chance that you will not get to play a 3 cost thing on turn 3 and end up with 2 cards that cost 4 to be played on turn 4. You ultimately want to be playing at least one spell each turn, using your mana fully. to do this you might want to consider cutting a better card with a mana cost that you have a lot of cards on for something with less or more mana cost that you have few cards with.

Trotsky1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 766

What Str8 said is right.

Lovecraft · Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 15

What Trotsky said is right.

artificer · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 66

Thanks a lot!

Daffie999 · Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Posts: 11

The only thing that is incorrect here in terms of limited, is that a "perfect" curve is very rare. You can't choose the cards so you have to do the best with what you get. Since games tend to draw out longer, pushing the curve up to higher cost spells isn't a bad idea.

str8 · Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 12

that depends entirely on the type of limited you are playing. You can choose in draft. In sealed you can also choose a color combination that would allow for a better curve. Now depending on the sets you are doing the sealed with it can be more or less important if you curve out perfectly, and more about bombs. In other sets that is not the case.