Mana

My project this week, besides looking for a Mana-Charged Dragon, is to watch the mana for this deck.

Specifically, I want to trim out dual lands -- particularly my shocks -- in favor of basics or Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. I'm leery of utility lands; the very last thing I want in this deck is to make all my land drops and have something idiotic like RU3 on turn five. I'm also leery of unnecessary duals, and I've got way too many in the deck.

So, I'm going to keep track of what lands I play; how hard I lean on my signets; what mana I'm behind on (hint: it'll be black or green); and how often I hit WUBRG on turn five. Secondly, I'll be tracking how long it takes me to hit my minimum mana requirements -- WWBBGGUR -- every game. That particular combination of mana allows me to meet the color requirements for every card in the deck except Nicol Bolas and Chord of Calling, but Chord cheats mana costs and I doubt I'm ever going to hardcast Nicol Bolas.

Typically, my fetches are for Scrubland, Savannah, Bayou, Tropical Island, Taiga and Underground Sea; I'm pretty sure Volcanic Island only gets played when I topdeck it and need a land. (Shocks are second-class citizens in this deck, and are probably going to be scaled back pretty severely. The 2-life penalty happens a lot more than I like.) I'm guessing that, when I've got mana a little better tuned, I'll be looking at five or six more basics. There's also room for improvement in the signets -- Coalition Relic and Darksteel Ingot are probably both better than Dimir Signet, for example. (Golgari Signet is solid gold, though.)