How Many Lands Should You Run in a Commander Deck?

Start with 37–38 lands for a typical casual Commander deck. Move toward 39–41 if your deck has an expensive commander, a high mana curve, or plenty of ways to spend extra mana. Consider 35–36 when your spells are cheap and your early ramp and card selection consistently support a lower count.

Those are starting points, not a deckbuilding rule. The right number depends on what you need to cast, when you need to cast it, and how your deck finds its next land.

Commander uses a 100-card deck, including your commander. With one commander in the command zone, you normally shuffle 99 cards into your library. Your land count determines how reliably those cards let you participate in the early turns. Magic: The Gathering

A practical starting point for Commander land counts

For this table, count conventional land cards first, then account for spell/land modal double-faced cards separately. We’ll cover those below.

Specialized combo decks and competitive lists can operate outside these ranges. Their land counts depend on specific packages of acceleration, selection, and win conditions. Borrowing the low land count without those supporting cards is a good way to end up watching everyone else play.

Look at the spells you actually need to cast

A deck full of one- and two-mana spells has different needs from a deck trying to cast six-mana creatures. Look at your mana curve, but also look at your intended turns.

Do you want to cast your commander on turn four? Cast a creature and hold up protection? Recast your commander after it has been removed twice? Those plans all require more mana than simply casting one cheap spell each turn.

Your commander deserves particular attention. A five-mana commander that supplies your card draw still needs five mana before it can help. If the rest of the deck depends on that engine, missing early land drops is especially costly.

Before cutting lands, check whether a few expensive spells are making the deck clumsy. Replacing an awkward six-mana card with an efficient two-mana card may improve your draws more than changing the mana base.

Ramp helps, but you need enough mana to cast it

Ramp can support a lower land count. Its cost matters.

Arcane Signet needs two mana before it produces anything. Cultivate needs three. A hand with one land and several ramp spells can still leave you waiting for a second land while those spells sit unused.

Separate your ramp into cards that help you get started and cards that reward you for already having mana. One- and two-mana acceleration can influence your early consistency. A five-mana ramp spell usually belongs in your plan for the middle turns.

There is no dependable rule that says “add two mana rocks, remove one land.” The answer changes with their costs, their colors, and how vulnerable your mana becomes to removal. Our guide to Commander mana rocks can help you compare those roles.

Before you cut a land: Check whether your ramp functions in a normal opening hand. If you need to draw a third land before most of your ramp becomes castable, those cards are not solving your early land-drop problem.

What changes when you add a few lands?

Small changes do affect consistency. Here is the chance of seeing enough land cards for your third and fourth land drops at several different counts:

These are hypergeometric calculations for a 99-card library with one commander outside it. They assume a seven-card opening hand, no mulligans, no extra draws or selection, and only conventional lands. In standard multiplayer Commander, everyone draws on their first turn, so you normally see ten cards by your turn-three draw and eleven by your turn-four draw. The Comprehensive Rules explain that multiplayer draw rule.

The table measures land cards seen, not access to the right colors or untapped mana. Mulligans, ramp, and card draw also change how a real game plays out.

Moving from 34 to 38 lands raises the chance of seeing four lands in those first eleven cards by about 11 percentage points. That is a meaningful improvement for a deck that needs four mana to get moving. You still need enough useful spells, which is why the goal is to match the mana base to the deck rather than maximize the land count.

How to count MDFCs in your mana base

Some modal double-faced cards, or MDFCs, have a spell on one face and a land on the other. Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is one example: you can use the card as a spell or play its land face.

These are useful flexible slots. They can supply an early land when you need one while giving you something else to do with a later draw. But one card still occupies one slot and supplies one choice at a time.

A deck with 37 conventional lands and two spell/land MDFCs has 39 cards it can potentially play as lands. Each MDFC still counts only once toward your 100-card deck.

Check the land faces carefully. A land that enters tapped may delay the spell you wanted to cast that turn. Also ask whether you are willing to use the card as a land early. Holding every MDFC for its spell face makes your practical land access worse than your decklist suggests.

The rules distinction matters for searching, too. A spell-front MDFC has its front face’s characteristics while it is in your library. Cultivate cannot find Bala Ged Recovery as a basic land. Wizards explains choosing and identifying these faces in the Zendikar Rising release notes. MAGIC: THE GATHERING

Card draw matters most when it works early

Cheap card selection can help a deck find its next land. A draw engine that costs five mana helps only after you reach five mana.

When you evaluate your draw package, ask what it does with two lands in play. Can it find another land? Does it require your commander, a creature surviving combat, or a board full of permanents?

A lower land count is easier to justify when the deck repeatedly sees extra cards in its opening turns. It is harder to justify when every draw spell needs the mana you are struggling to find.

Your opening-hand decisions matter as well. Use a consistent Commander mulligan plan when testing, rather than keeping speculative hands one session and rejecting them the next.

Three example builds

A low-curve spellslinger deck: Start testing at 36 lands if the list has plenty of cheap spells, early selection, and low-cost acceleration. Check whether it can still function without drawing its best mana rock or resolving its commander.

A three-color casual midrange deck: Start at 38 lands. Suppose it wants a turn-two ramp spell, a turn-four commander, and enough mana afterward to cast threats while holding up interaction. Reliable early land drops support that sequence.

A landfall deck with extra land plays: Start around 41 lands. Additional land plays need lands available to use them, and repeated landfall triggers give those draws value beyond producing mana. Recursion and card draw will determine how much you can adjust from there.

For each build, test whether its opening hands can support the sequence of plays you planned.

Fix your colors and tapped lands separately

You can run 38 lands and still have an unreliable mana base.

If you regularly have enough lands but cannot produce green for your early ramp, examine your colored sources. Splitting basics evenly among your colors may not match what your opening spells need.

If you have the right colors but your newest land keeps entering tapped, examine your sequencing and the number of lands that always enter tapped. Adding another land does not automatically fix that timing problem.

Utility lands deserve the same scrutiny. Their abilities can be valuable, but every colorless source makes colored costs a little harder to support. Our guide to MTG lands explains how the different land types fit together.

Test the land count before cutting more cards

Shuffle the deck and play through several opening turns on your own. Repeat ten to twenty short starts, using the mulligan decisions you would make in a real game.

Record four things:

• How often you mulligan because of too few or too many lands.

• Whether you make the third and fourth land drops your plan needs.

• Whether your early ramp and draw are actually castable.

• Whether a delay comes from land quantity, missing colors, or tapped lands.

This is a quick diagnostic. Follow it with actual games, where opponents can remove your mana creatures, destroy artifacts, and force you to change plans.

Track the cause of a bad start. “I had four lands but no second blue source” calls for a different change from “I kept two lands and never found a third.” Both feel like mana trouble, but only one points directly toward your total land count.

Adjust one or two slots at a time. One game with too many lands is weak evidence; a recurring pattern across opening hands and real games is more useful. If you keep drawing lands after your hand empties, check your card draw and ways to spend mana before removing several lands at once.

For casual playtesting, PrintMTG lets you print the cards you want to compare before committing to a revised list. Test a cheaper ramp package, different lands, or a lower curve, then keep the version that consistently lets you play your deck.

Common Commander land-count questions

Is 36 lands enough for Commander?

It can be, especially with a low curve, cheap acceleration, and reliable early card selection. For an untested casual list, 37–38 is a more forgiving starting point. Judge 36 by how the deck opens and plays, rather than treating it as a standard requirement.

Should a mono-color deck run fewer lands?

Not automatically. One color simplifies fixing, but it does not reduce how much mana your spells cost. A mono-color deck with an expensive commander may need more lands than a three-color deck built around cheap spells.

How many of those lands should be basics?

That depends on your colors, your search effects, and the cards you expect to face. Keep enough legal targets for your ramp and fetch effects, then balance colored sources, utility, and resilience to nonbasic-land disruption. Total land count and basic-land count are separate decisions.