How Many Lands In A Draft Deck
How Many Lands Go in a Draft Deck? The land cards themselves are provided by the host of the game, typically game store owners or sanctioned MTG judges. The average number of lands found in draft decks is 17 but may range from as low as 13 or 14 to as high as 18, 19, or even 20. How Many Basic Lands Should I Bring to a Limited Event (Sealed or Draft)? You should bring 20 of each basic land to more than cover yourself for a Limited event.
Typical decks (one or two colors, curve out around six or seven) will typically to run 12/17 lands. Slower decks (and decks in slower formats) will often run 13/18 lands, especially if they're three-color or hitting a third or fourth land drop is very critical. Nowadays, recognizing the danger of mana screw, decks often contain far more lands.
But how much do you need, and how does this depend on the composition of your deck? A draft deck must have at least 40 cards, usually with 16 to 17 lands and 23 to 24 regular cards. While 40 is the minimum, you should aim to play 40 cards the vast majority of the time to make your deck perform more consistently.
In most cases, drafted decks should aim to be between 16-18 lands. This might surprise some, as constructed formats typically favor 18 lands for a 40-card deck. However, with a drafted decks tendency to be more streamlined and focused, the reduced deck size makes 16-17 lands sufficient.
In draft in a 40 card deck, a general rule of thumb is 17 lands. If your deck is leaning more aggro you can go down to 16, and more controlling can go to 18. For most other formats with 60 card decks, most decks play between 22-26 lands, depending on if they lean more aggro versus control.
The standard number of lands in a draft deck is 1718. Occasionally some decks will require more, while some formats (or deck archetypes) feature enough mana acceleration and cheap spells that they require less. Calculate your deck land needs, how many lands should you put in your deck and how many of each color
Aggressive, low-curve decks can often get away with running fewer lands. 15 or 16 lands might be sufficient, especially if your deck is primarily one color. The goal is to consistently curve out early and apply pressure, and drawing extra lands can be detrimental.