Magic Fundamentals - Part 1: Mana Sources

Like all sports, hobbies, and pieces of art, Magic has a diverse fanbase with many differing opinions. "Which card is better?", "Which deck is better?", and "What's the best combination of cards to play?" are often asked amongst new and old players alike.

However, all Magic players know (or should know) the basics of the game before attempting to "make it big" and win the next big event. Today I will be discussing the first of many Magic fundamentals

Part 1: Mana Sources

There are many ways to cast spells in the game of Magic, and mana is used in (almost) all of them. Depending on the deck you are playing you may run 0 land (Manaless Dredge), less land if you're a tempo deck (BUG Delver), or if you're a control deck, more land than most.

Regardless of which kind of deck you are playing, it is important to make sure you can cast the spells in your deck! It would be quite silly to run a deck full of cards like Blightsteel Colossus if you don't run enough land to cast it reliably.

In deck construction, you want to ensure that you can cast your 1-mana spells on turn 1 and your 4-mana spells on or before turn 4. For example, when running an aggressive strategy like Mono-Red, running 21 lands is more than enough because your highest costing spell is generally only 3 or 4 mana. (Mono Red Aggro - SCG Columbus)

Contrarily, if you're playing a control-oriented strategy that relies on killing your opponent in the late game with spells like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, you can run more land because your curve of spells is much higher. (U/W/R Control - SCG Columbus)

Mana abilities are abilities from permanents that add mana to your mana pool. There are a few key points to mention about them:

• Mana abilities are written as "T: Add ~ to your mana pool." If an ability is written with the "tap" symbol and a color immediately after and it's ability adds mana to your mana pool, it is considered a mana ability. This means that the first ability on Deathrite Shaman is NOT a mana ability because it involves a target to resolve and add mana to your pool.
• Mana abilities do not use the stack. You can add mana to your mana pool using mana sources at any time, and they cannot be responded to. Because Deathrite Shaman's ability has a target (and therefore goes on the stack), it is not a mana ability (just to clarify). 

Another great resource to understand mana abilities is a video from Gathering Magic's series Judge's Corner. Here is a link to the video about Mana Abilities.

That wraps up Part 1 of our Magic Fundamentals series. We will be posting more of these "basics" articles frequently!