MTG Mana Base Calculator
Calculate the optimal split of lands between two colours in a Magic: The Gathering deck based on mana symbol ratios.
Results
What is it?
The mana base is the engine of any MTG deck. Too few lands means frequent mana screw (stuck without enough mana); too many means mana flood (drawing only lands). The colour split is determined by the ratio of coloured symbols across all casting costs ? a deck with 12 blue and 8 red symbols should run roughly 60% blue sources and 40% red sources.
How to use
Enter your deck size, total number of lands, count all coloured mana symbols for each colour across your non-land cards, and your average CMC. The calculator gives you the recommended land split and your overall land density percentage.
Example scenario
A 60-card Standard deck with 24 lands, 12 white mana symbols and 8 blue mana symbols: total symbols = 20, white ratio = 60%, blue ratio = 40%. Recommended: 14 or 15 white sources and 9 or 10 blue sources. Land density = 40% ? typical for most 60-card decks.
Pro tip
Frank Karsten's mathematical analysis (hypergometric distribution) is the gold standard for mana base calculation. His work shows that to cast a double-coloured-mana card (e.g. UU) on turn 2 reliably (90%+ probability), you need 20+ sources of that colour in a 60-card deck. Dual lands and fetch lands count as both colours ? prioritise them in two-colour decks.