Tolarian Tutor: Building Better Limited Mana Bases in Draft and Sealed for Magic: The Gathering
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
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You’ve finally built your deck after drafting three packs, crafting a cohesive and powerful combination of creatures and non-creature spells that will hopefully help you take down your pod during FNM. But no Magic player can exist on spells alone - you’re going to need to add lands to make a playable deck, but how many and what should you choose?
This is the question we’re looking to answer in today’s Tolarian Tutor. When constructing your deck from either a Sealed pool or a draft, there are many different elements you’ll need to balance to become victorious. We’ll cover all of these in today’s session, including balancing multiple colors in a deck, good mana sources, how our mana curve affects our mana sources, what to do when splashing a color, and reexamining the color ratio theory we introduced in our Mana Curving and Land Base lesson.
We’re not beginners anymore, but we’re not at the Pro Tour yet! This is for people who already play at Friday Night Magic but want to improve and get better. This is for intermediates, and this is Tolarian Tutor!
First, we need to talk about balance. Building a deck is like putting together a recipe for cooking, part inspiration and part science. You’ll need to compare and evaluate different ingredients, like spices, sugar and salt in order to create a delicious dish. In Magic, you’ll be balancing spells and lands when making your deck to create a cohesive, game winning whole.
This is particularly crucial in a Limited environment, where you’ll usually be playing a 40 card deck. With fewer cards, every card you draw will be crucial in making sure your strategy comes through. Though most Limited decks run 15 - 18 lands, we’ll be going over some of the broader elements you’ll need to keep in mind before focusing on specific recommendations.
The different elements we’ll need to balance when considering our mana base are:
Spells: Mana Curve, and Colors: How Many Are We Playing? Where Are They On Our Mana Curve?
These parts need to come together harmoniously in your game plan. As we’ve been reiterating time and again, you always need to know what your deck is trying to do and how it’s going to win to be an effective Magic player.
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"Vintage Education" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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I Play The Core Set 2019 Booster Box Game here, check it out: ua-cam.com/video/QWBTot7B5Ps/v-deo.html
Tolarian Community College
I was wondering if you could review the zoopin card sleeves.
".... like spices, sugar, and salt.... a lot of salt "
😂 😂 😂 😂
Models Workshop I like to think I lean towards "spice" more than salt 😂
Gareth M same here :D
Spicy-salt, like Tajin!
This is exactly the video I needed. Thank you. I just recently started actually drafting and (while I'm ok in constructed) have had a hard time learning the on the spot deck building of draft.
Removal, always grab removal:P
Exactly my thoughts!
Dang. I wish I came across this video a year ago when I started drafting. This is great info! Thanks, Professor.
Each time these videos become better and better. Congratulations
Going to nationals on the weekend and Ive been rewatching all the tolarian tutors. thanks much prof for all the great lessons
Hi Professor! As I told you at GP São Paulo, I love you Tolarian Tutor series! Its current format is great, thr content is deep enough and the lessons are gold! Hope you publish more videos more frequently!
Force mono-red so you never have to think about lands.
Stephen Mahoney I mean I'm probably gonna do that at my first draft, seeing as how my first deck was a mono-red goblins starter deck
True
But do you play 15 or 16? O.o Orrrr is mono red in a weird spot right now and you need to mix in artifacts to make it a midrange deck so it works? So then do you play 15, 16, 17, or 18???
Thx, i'm going to my first fnm darft and this is helping me a lot. Thx for being here prof.
I like your tag at the end, "It's not about winning, it's about getting better." Good Stuff.
Digging the beard Prof (:
I'm putting this in my back pocket for my good friend and coworker while he teaches his daughter the different ways to play magic. Your "Better Than Homework" video certainly got them thinking, and thinking is good. Thanks Professor.
Hey professor i just wanted to thank you for making tolarian tutor it has really helped in learning to play and assembling my first modern deck. Thank you :)
Be sated, demons of the UA-cam algorithims, for I have commented and deem this content; engaging.
Hahaha. Ok that's hilarious. :P
"Blood painted on this thumbnail, I shall pass."
I concur in regard to the engaging nature of this educational UA-cam video content
What is this algorithm thing about
There's a video exactly about it on this channel from a little over a week ago. You asking kind of validates the point it makes haha
Thank you so much for this! I always shy away from building 3 color decks in draft mostly because of the land and balance. This will help me so much.
Blood for the blood god, and comments for the UA-cam algorithms.
Joakim Hansen if it helps, it helps
FOR THE ALGORITHMS!!!!!
I'm in the comments for the same reason. Useful video, but the cruelty of UA-cam's algorithms demand tribute.
What does this algorithm business mean?
Tolarian made a video about it recently. Basically he wanted people to act in ways that would prevent UA-cam's algorithms from ignoring him and other content creators.
Again a post just to support the channel, because Tolarian Community College makes my day every time there's a video out.
Definitely need to keep this video bookmarked. Sheesh Professor, all those years as an adjunct gave you a talent for compressing a lot of useful information into a small space of time.
Prof! I love that you always start with who should watch this video! Just like a real teacher! LOL Keep up the good work.
well, he actually was an adjunct prof in a previous life :P
I know... it was sarcasm. I really feel like there should be a sarcasm font.
Kyle Wilson I agree 100%
I usually watch Tolarian Tutor because I enjoy watching Prof's videos, but I feel like I've got most of the stuff the videos cover down already. This time, however, I really felt like I could take a lot away from the lesson (as well as being entertained throughout the video)! Thanks for the video Prof. Keep up the good work :)
Mana bases are the most important part of any deck! Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the matter!
I can’t say enough good about this series Prof. I love that you know who your target audience is and seek only to speak to them, I love that the information is sourced from a successful and experience pro, and I love how clear and concise (no long digressions or filler) but still lengthy enough to cover the topic these videos are. Perfect product. Wizards should be commissioning these and paying you and Emma a ton for them.
I d love to get a weekly episode of this
Great video to watch again to refresh before a prerelease!
Hey Proff, i just wanted to let you know that even in 2020 this video series is still apreciated. I have always played constructed, but now i want to start with drafted and this video is a really good introduction to the format. Thank You!!!!
I’ve played Magic for years and I really needed this video.
As a fairly new player, I really enjoy your tip and deck tech videos. Very appreciative for a great source for learning new MTG skills.
Great video proffesor, it's obvious that you are indeed a professor by the structure of the lesson and I like it.
Keep this awesome videos coming!
I am just about to draft for the first time, so I really needed this video! Thank you!!
It's like this video was made for me. This is exactly the level I'm playing at right now. Thanks, Prof!
Glad to have another Tutor session from the Prof.
I’ve only been drafting for a couple weeks, choosing spells is a little easier and getting the right mana in my deck is getting better, but I’m always happy to see more tips on this part of the strategy, it’s one of those things that’s so basic, everyone just skips over it with platitudes. But I’m old enough now to say ‘no, explain it to me like I don’t know anything,’ more often than not, I know a lot less than I think I do. Keep it up prof.
Thank you for covering the splash theme. It helps me daring to splash next time. Greetings from Germany.
Another excellent Tollarian Tutor! And this one hits perhaps the most ovelerlooked spot in intermediate players' understanding of deck building. Great breakdown and advice, and I'm glad you brought up skewing mana sources based on color apearance in the curce.
I don't think you can count llanowar elves as a true green source. Sure, it provides green mana, but you need green to cast elves in the first place. Elves may help for spells with multiple green symbols, but not for the first green
Zombiepvdel completely agree. Since elves require green they do not help you get your first green source. Therefore, they do not count as green/fixing, but ramp only.
I always enjoy and appreciate your Tolarian Tutor videos. I always go through and watch them before a tournament or to remind myself of various rules when building decks.
I just played my first prerelease ever today, the new Kamigawa set, I had a lot of fun and managed to end 3-1. I followed these video guidelines. Thank you very much!
I hardly ever play Draft or Sealed; mostly EDH. But I always do enjoy these quick tutorials and try to incorporate details into modifying each of my commander decks. Great work as always Professor.
These tutor vids are so good for a huge part of the player base. Thanks for continuing this series.
I've been trying really hard to get into draft, and your videos are making it so much easier.
Great video! Learning how many and what kinds of lands are really important to Magic, I always learn something from these videos.
Prof. Thanks for making these videos. It really is great to have magic brush up lessons to help become better players. Tonight I just went 3-1 at a modern tournament, and I cant help but to think that part of my grand ability to play modern decently has come from some of the tutoring videos you have done. Again, thank you.
Thanks Prof! Good things to think about. I've figured out some of these on my own but, as someone else commented, didn't necessarily know how to put them into words.
Love the video Professor. I don't draft often but I've been using this method for awhile. It is a good basis
This video was actually super helpful seeing as I'm going to my first Friday Night Magic event, and it's a draft
Just used this for help drafting. Brilliantly broken down. Thanks Prof.
Always love Tolarian Tutor! This one was especially helpful since I play limited a lot and am always questioning the mana base.
I once forced mono green in pack one of a HOU draft, and splashed for Nicol Bolas in pack two. Greatest draft deck I've ever played.
Thank you for this! Those baseline numbers might have been exactly what I needed as a reference.
To be honest, half the reason I like Tolarian Tutor is for the music.
Still a great series, but the music gets me in the mood to learn, haha.
I did Rivals prelease, and while my 2 color deck did fine (even without a dual land), this video may have given me the needed confidence to venture into 3 colors. Thanks for the great content!
I'm currently building a three colored deck so this video was very helpful for me. I've never built anything other than mono or two colored decks until recently.
You have my bow. You have my axe. And you have my comment
But wait, what about second breakfast??
Great content! I’ve learned to do this on my own but I couldn’t put it into words before!
This video helped a lot! This makes me a lot more confident for my draft tomorrow! Thanks a lot Prof!
Great video, tutorials are always welcome for the good of the community
Tolarian Tutor is the best series on MTG youtube
I found this to be be really helpful. Especially about the ration between early game to late game spells. I know I have fallen into the "resplendent angel" scenario when you end up messing up your mana in an attempt to be able to play your finisher. Can't play your finisher if you have already been finished by a deck who got all their stuff out on time/on curve with no mana issues.
Great video. You provided some much needed perspective for building my draft mana base.
This definitely helped me because I've always been afraid of drafting more than two colors, yet I've seen other players splash a third color to great effect.
Thank you Professor :3 as a noob I am still trying to figure out how to build well balanced limited sealed decks in store. I won my first 2 games at the Friday prerelease, so I guess I'm doing something right! This is really helpful too, I am so timid about building with 2+ colors
I want to say a big thank you professor not just for showing me the way of magic but being there to make me laugh of it wasn't for you I would have gone to my first fnm and honestly I can't thank you enough
Your
Sincerely
Kieran
Wizards should make a card named "tolarian tutor"
u say that now, let's not be reminded of Tolarian Scholar though
Zeydaan The Dragon yeah, that card should have professor's face in it
Someone should do an altered art for Tolarian Scholar with the Professor
Gabriel Azolini i've saw one in instagram one time
Moacir Melo WotC might give that card a drawback like "nagging about all our products" by using "cumulative upkeep" ;)
I love this series! Thanks for making helpful videos like these Prof!
Creating a mana base is important and sometimes overlooked by new players. Good stuff.
High quality! This series is amazing :D
Preparing for the prerelease of New Cappena. The Professor alwalys has exatly what many magic the gathering players need! 😁😁 Thank you so much.
Yeah, good video … though i am not entirely sure it's for Intermediate players, this is actually good info for New Player, as building a mana base (any) it actually pretty hard as you start out... also, there are obviously just people enjoying watching the Prof just ramble on about a particular topic for 15min that this video is great for too :)
I went to a Shards of Alara prerelease event at my LGS. The guy that won the whole thing did indeed run all five colors in his deck, and he was EXTREMELY scary to play against!
The judge present that day also seemed to indicate that that guy would win everything else he went to LOL
Oh, memories... loved 5-color green in Mirrodin-Darksteel-5th Dawn draft
I looooove tolarian tutor please don't stop
Love these Tolarian Tutors!!!
The end of the video is really motivating
Love your tolarian tutor vids they help us play better
Thanks for the explaination. Always good to know how to weight the mana. I'll have to find that other video you mentioned about curve.
Good lesson Prof. I knew most of this, but never considered your last point with more of the land you need early game. I kinda wish your examples didn't use the duel lands, but I guess when going to two or more colors they really help.
I'd love to see the Professor do more videos on drafting.
Good stuff as always, I wonder how many people you've introduced or re introduced to the community. Having an online resource like this is a brilliant and effective way to make it easy for people to pick up magic the gathering in the modern age. This video in particular addresses a subject that I've seen many newish players confused about, to a degree of specificity and depth they often won't get around a playing table. Thank you for being a pillar in the community. Wizards is more in debt to you than they realize I think
I'm not sure I'd consider llanowar elves as a full green mana source though, since you need green to cast it. It's only a mana source for double green cards or the second green card in a turn. The more cheap spells and card draw or color intensive spells you have, the more it works as a source; but if your game plan is to curve out by dropping one spell a turn, and you don't have any double green cards, llanowar elves can functionally only tap for generic mana
I'm excited to apply these principles to my edh Mana bases. I am excited to analyze my curves for Mana fixing.
Professor you are the best much love
wish I knew this when I first went to draft last year xD. but this video is going into one of my playlists for future reminders
This was really informative, and I’ve been looking for a better consistent experience with draft and sealed
I love these videos, there's always something to learn or be refreshed on. Keep it up.
Great video. I will share it with some of the newer players i know, it'll help them out a lot, and it's more straightforward than how I do it.
Played in the M19 Draft Weekend event, and went 3-0. I played 4 colours (didn't run black because I didn't feel I needed it), and it really splashed green for one card, and red for a few. While I did get colour screwed a few times, it still worked consistently enough for me to be first overall.
When I build limited manabases (or manabases in general, although I treat duals differently for constructed), I usually consider only the colours for basic lands, treating any dual lands as a basic of one of the colours IF the other colour is considered a splash (example being a Timber Gorge counting as a Mountain in my draft deck, since I only used green for a singleton Skyrider Patrol and used red for a bit more than just Heroic Reinforcements). This means that sometimes I don't have at least 6 of each colour, but it does make for a good mana base.
That animated Cruel Tutor guy just rocks!
Thanks for the video Mr. Dr. Prof. Brian!
Nice Outro! You are in fact the Professor! Cheers!
Very helpful, and now I want to head back home to grab my mtg stuff to optimize my decks
I always have a problem with this, this might fix that. Thanks prof.
Looking fresh prof! I love this series
Just reviewing this, great guide overall.
Very informative. Great video. Thank you prof!
Don’t forget that if you’re relying on one color (usually green) to ramp or fix your mana then you need to skew a little towards that color as well. If you’re a blue green deck that has Thunderherd Migration then you need to make sure you hit green so you can play the Migration which will get you your blue, if necessary.
This is so useful! Can you do a video on League play? I recently joined one at a new game store in my area and would love tips like this for 30 card decks
This is just what I needed to improve my decks
Prof you da best
*spills blood on the ground* My tribute to the algorithm, may your fury be quelled by this offering
As a professional Chef by trade, I appreciate this metaphor in the intro.
Thank you for this lesson Prof. I always seem to muddle the mixture when I build a limited mana base and end up not curving out every game. I think this will help with that problem.
Who does the animations for the openings? They're so much fun