How many Snow-Covered Basics for Field of the Dead?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 10, 2024, 12:50 a.m. by BarfQuackers
Basically the title, I started running Field of the Dead in some of my EDH decks and to minmax, I wanted to add some Snow-Covered basics. My question is, do I run one of each Snow-Covered or just a 50/50 split? For example, in my tokens deck I currently run 4 forest, 2 mountains, 6 plains; so to minmax, do I run 2 forest 2 snow-covered, 1 mountain 1 snow-covered, 3 plains 3 snow-covered or; 3 forest 1 snow-covered, 1 mountain 1 snow-covered, 5 plains 1 snow-covered? Which one is optimal? Does it not really matter? Would the answer to this apply to any decks running Field of the Dead?
Don't think the list is relevant but just in case Rith, the Tokener
I would say it depends on on how much land tutoring you have. The usual suite like Cultivate, Rampant Growth, Kodama's Reach, all the green stuff, one of each snow land (or non-snow land) is probably fine, if you can get them reliably.
For something like a deck that might have less heavy draw or land tutors, closer to 50/50 is safer. You won't be able to pull them up at will as much. If there's no difference outside of Field of the Dead going off, a simple 50/50 would be the least brain load.
I'm not sure what kind of deck would want a more moderate split, like 70/30 or whatever. Either a 50/50 split or a bunch of 1-ofs would cover most situations I can think of.
February 10, 2024 3:45 a.m.
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February 10, 2024 6:10 a.m.
BarfQuackers says... #5
Thank you both for your responses, pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. After I posted I tried to look at some decks and most are split between the two options with no rhyme or reason. I can't think of a reason for it to matter besides the off chance an opponent is running Extraplanar Lens.
SteelSentry I specifically like this take but it's definitely got me over thinking this now lol. I guess it matters more when there's less colors and more basics, specifically in my mana base, 10 basics split 4/4/2, once I tutor out 3 or 4 basics there's really only a few left so that chance I draw a unique named one are pretty high so a 50/50 split wouldn't be damaging.
Thanks again for your insights!
SteelSentry says... #2
My Field of the Dead deck is two-color, so make of that what you will, but with 15 basics I only run 1 of each non-snow covered and the rest are snow-covered. To make it work effectively, make sure you always grab the one-ofs first when you're land tutoring; any lands you draw afterward are guaranteed to have a different name.
February 10, 2024 3:16 a.m.