-An EDH Staples walkthrough by Blaine Johnson.
Hello and welcome to my final installment of My EDH Staples. Thank you for bearing with me till the end. Let’s hope that something was gained from my extensive piece and it wasn’t just me running my mouth for twenty some odd pages. The nice thing about this writing is that it will stay in the archive of this site and can always be a reference to players looking to throw back and forth different ideas. I will be updating my staples with every new release in the form of a new article. Furthermore, my next few writings will give a breakdown for compiling an initial list and working your way down to a final deck.
Here is my list for capable lands you should check out when designing your mana base. They range from utility lands, all the way too mana mixing. It is a rather short list and this is on the bases that I believe almost every mana base should be mostly basics. Consistence in your mana is far more important than any other aspect of Magic.
Lands:
Academy Ruins, Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Gaea’s Cradle, and Volrath’s Stronghold:
All is these colored aligned lands are great for their given color. They all give you a huge boost either in the early or late game. Cabal Coffers and Urborg fit well together, generating a large amount of mana once you hit a certain number of land drops.
Pain Lands, Tri-Lands, Fetch Lands, Dual Lands, Filter Lands, Worldwake Manlands, Shock Lands, City of Brass, and Reflecting Pool:
This section of lands is the Gold Standard for mana fixing in EDH. Try and put every possible one of these into your deck. You’re still playing a 100 card singleton deck and every piece of mana fixing is important. Examples of each are as follows. Pain Lands: Shivan Reef, Tri-Lands: Jungle Shrine, Fetch Lands: Flooded Strand, Dual Lands: Bayou, Filter Lands: Flooded Grove, Worldwake Manlands: Lavaclaw Reaches, and Shock Lands: Godless Shrine.
Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors:
Some EDH decks really want every single piece of mana ramp that they can get and these two lands provide that service, but at a cost. These lands aren’t meant for every deck but for the one that need it, here they are.
Cycle Lands:
There is a set of Cycle Lands from Onslaught and Urza’s Saga. They provide a great and simple method of turning your late game lands into another card when you don’t need them. Examples: Lonely Sandbar, and Smoldering Crater.
Dust Bowl, Strip Mine, and Wasteland:
Most EDH decks want to run at least a couple of this type of land. They help get rid of pesky nonbasic lands and can keep an opponent out of the game when they fall behind or keep a land light hand.
Hall of the Bandit Lord, Maze of Ith, and Vesuva:
I don’t particularly like playing these cards in most of my decks but sometimes they are necessary. You’d often rather have a smoother mana base then play come into play tapped lands, or have one of your land drops not produce mana. They are all still fine cards. Vesuva can either be removal for Legendary lands or a bump in giving you two of your utility lands, such as Cabal Coffers. I would only recommend playing Hall of the Bandit Lord in a deck where you really want your General to start swinging the turn it comes out, or if your General has a very strong activated ability that it wants to use right away.
… O, I almost forgot:
Plains,Island,Swamp, Mountain, and Forest:
Once again, simplicity in your mana base is key. Never forget to run a good amount of basics.
There you have it, my selection for EDH Staples. I hope for those of you who don’t play the format much, that you gained a better understanding of it. As for the veterans of EDH, I bet there is something you can take away from this piece. Those of you that don’t play the format or have never tried it; I would like to encourage you to take a shot at the game. Players can really gain a better understanding of Magic as a whole by playing with such wide open cards. EDH tends to push you in the number of interactions you can come across in a single game. For the competitive players in the room I would suggest EDH as a way of breaking away from your grinder routine. It can make Magic fun again for any lost soul. I want to thank my EDH play group for all of the great testing and games we’ve had together. To you, the reader, if you’re ever in Tempe, come stop by the Mana Dump and play some EDH with me.
–Comments and Questions can be directed to myself at [email protected] , or just find me in the forums.