Today we are going to take a look at mana fixing and how I addressed it when crafting my cube. While there is quite a bit of color fixing in green and some in other colors as well today we are going to only look only at the non-color specific versions of fixing in my cube. If you wish to view the contents of my cube links are available on the side navigation to the full listings.
Below is a list of the current color fixers in my cube:
Mirage CIPT fetch land cycle
Bad River - swamp/island
Flood Plain - island/plains
Grasslands - plains/forest
Mountain Valley - forest/mountain
Rocky Tar Pit - mountain/swamps
Lorwyn vivid land cycle - 2 time mana fixer
Vivid Meadow
Vivid Crag
Vivid Creek
Vivid Grove
Vivid Marsh
Other Lands
Gemstone Caverns - Luck based but works better in a 40 card deck
Shimmering Grotto - mana fixing at the cost of tapping an extra land
Reflecting Pool - Helps fix issues where you need multiple of one type of mana
City of Brass - Fixing at the cost of life
Artifacts
Lotus Petal - One use fixing and acceleration
Expedition Map - Fetch the land you need
Elsewhere Flask - Fix to one color while removing all others
Prismatic Lens - Shimmering Grotto the artifact
Compared to most cubes, this is very limited color fixing. Many other cubes run as many as 30 mana fixing lands alone. They use the full cycles of rare pain, fetch, shock, and duel lands, etc. While in the future I plan on adding the cycle of 10 pain lands to my cube (once I get the five I am missing that is), one of my design goals of my cube was to make sure that people wouldn't be able to splash color using non-basic lands/artifacts alone. To complete this goal I started out with a small amount of color fixing to err on the side of caution. I plan on building on this foundation as I grow my cube beyond 360 cards however.
The correct amount of fixing for your cube is really a matter of preference of you and your other players. The more fixers you have the easier it is to splash colors for powerful spells and the more powerful the drafted decks will be. Finding a good balance may take a few drafts so feel free to experiment to find the amount that works for you. Keep in mind that most of the cards I have included in my cube are some of the weakest fixers that you can include.
Have any experience creating a mana base for a cube? Let us know what lands/cycles you have used in your cube in the comments.
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