One thing about the new pace of Magic sets is we blow by them so quickly we sometimes end up missing really interesting things. I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the most recent sets and pick up a few gems we haven't yet touched on. While we're at it, I'm going to look at different specific parts of deck-building in depth to demonstrate how I make the decisions I make. Ready? Here we go!

I have been, for the vast majority of my adult life, a professional musician! I'm primarily a singer and have made a living doing it for a couple of decades now. It's an interesting life, and any time there's a musician card I'm always a bit interested in seeing if there's a way I can use it. A few sets ago in Commander Masters, we got an interesting 3/3 in Abzan () holding an instrument, Creature type Bard, and called a singer.

The art on this card is particularly beautiful, and Narci herself has some great flavor text which is quite ominous and, I think, appropriate to her Magic color identity. She also cares a great deal about Enchantments being sacrificed, which is not normally something we think about (though we've had various cycles, like the Seals, which are Enchantments that sacrifice for an effect), but then she guides us to where she really wants to be: Sagas. Sagas are Enchantments which (often) sacrifice themselves at the end of their story... just like Narci coming to the end of a ballad. Let's build a deck.

Narci, Fable Singer | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Narci, Fable Singer

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Anikthea, Hand of Erebos
• 1 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1 Composer of Spring
• 1 Demon of Fate's Design
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Doomwake Giant
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Herald of the Pantheon
• 1 Hex Parasite
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Sanctum Weaver
• 1 Satsuki, the Living Lore
• 1 Satyr Enchanter
• 1 Setessan Champion
• 1 Starfield Mystic
• 1 Sythis, Harvest's Hand
• 1 Verduran Enchantress
• 1 Wicked Visitor
• 1 Yenna, Redtooth Regent

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Calix, Destiny's Hand

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Damn
• 1 Eerie Ultimatum
• 1 Kodama's Reach

• Enchantments (34)
• 1 Azusa's Many Journeys // Likeness of the Seeker
• 1 Battle at the Helvault
• 1 Battle for Bretagard
• 1 Binding the Old Gods
• 1 Death in Heaven
• 1 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 1 Elspeth's Nightmare
• 1 Enchantress's Presence
• 1 Fall of the Impostor
• 1 Firja's Retribution
• 1 Font of Fertility
• 1 Historian's Boon
• 1 Love Song of Night and Day
• 1 Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko
• 1 Oath of the Grey Host
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 One Ring to Rule Them All
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Seal of Doom
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Seal of Strength
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1 Starfield of Nyx
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Tale of Tinúviel
• 1 The Birth of Meletis
• 1 The Cruelty of Gix
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 The First Iroan Games
• 1 The Huntsman's Redemption
• 1 The Mending of Dominaria
• 1 The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration
• 1 The Weatherseed Treaty
• 1 The World Spell

• Lands (40)
• 5 Swamp
• 7 Plains
• 8 Forest
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Haunted Mire
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Necroblossom Snarl
• 1 Nesting Grounds
• 1 Radiant Grove
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Shineshadow Snarl
• 1 Sunlit Marsh
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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If you've been reading my columns for any length of time, you know I have a few things I regularly do. I almost always go through in My Deck Tickled A Sliver order (that's Mana, Draw, Threats, Answers, and Synergy). I very often will follow my top five deck-building tips for beginners. And I say you should run 40 Lands. I'm going to go through My Deck Tickled A Sliver, but we're going to spend some extra time on Lands in this particular article, because there is more to it than just "run this many" or "based on the Mana Value of your Commander" or whatever.

Unsurprisingly, we have 40 Lands. Why? Because Frank Karsten tells us we should. Look, you want to run fewer? That's fine. Go for it. Your deck will be less consistent and you'll get mana screwed more often, but if you'd rather be mana screwed than mana flooded, it's a good decision. Does your Commander deck have zero cards with a MV of four or higher? You can cut some Lands. This deck, however, has a number of cards with a higher mana cost, as well as a fair bit of specific color requirement, so we're going to give ourselves a good chance of hitting our fourth Land drop naturally, without needing any help.

However, leaning into that means two more things. It means I must run enough Basic Lands to have targets for my Cultivates, and it means I probably want to favor Green as a color in my mana base, because I can have a hand full of Cultivates but if I don't have a Green source I can't cast my spells. (Also keep in mind some of the Cultivates say "Forest card" rather than Basic Land, so then you can look for any card with the Type Line "Forest". There are a bunch of cheap duals that do this now!)

So now I know a few things. I don't have native card draw to insure I'll churn through my Library and get the cards I need. I do have Green, so I'll run at least a few Cultivates (and, as it turned out, there are some great Enchantment-based options which work well with our Commander), which means I need to have at least a few Basics of each color, and it means I really want a Green source early on in the game.

The next thing I care about is triple color costs. Specifically, I want to know if I have a card which costs three of one specific color, like or (those tend to be the most common). Assuming a two- or three-color deck, two of a single color is normally pretty manageable (though do keep in mind if one of your colors is really a splash; if you're in but the Red is only used for the Commander and two other spells, maybe don't put in something with in the cost!), but when you have three it means you need to spend a few more resources to make sure you'll have that. In our case, we have one (though I did notice I have a number of double colors in all three of our colors): Eerie Ultimatum. The nice thing about this is we don't have to cast it early. Everyone's favorite new tutor, Beseech the Mirror, is , and you really want to be able to cast it as soon as you get it, which is going to be rough for non-Mono-Black decks. Eerie Ultimatum is more a late-game let's-close-this-thing-out card, so we're likely to have the colors we require by the time we cast it, assuming we built our base correctly.

Then I run my deck through Deckstats.net. The lovely thing about this is, once I do this, it advises me what my color requirements are and how they're distributed. This will tell me if one color is really underrepresented (maybe even a splash), if one is really dominant, or if I have more-or-less even distribution. In this case, we have 39% White, 38% Green, and 23% Black. Black is also the enemy color of this shard, so there are fewer dual Lands which cover the pairs with Black in them, but that works out, because we need less Black.

Now we need to decide how many Lands which tap for colorless our deck can handle. If our color requirements are really strict, we may not be able to run any, and it gets more difficult the more colors you run. In this case, I felt Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Nesting Grounds, and Karn's Bastion were worth it for their abilities, and Reliquary Tower for the utility. That's it, though; not Temple of the False God or Arcane Lighthouse or Homeward Path. Then we have a selection of Lands which tap for all three, like Command Tower, Sandsteppe Citadel, and Exotic Orchard. The Triome is available but expensive, and we don't need the fixing that badly, but if you have 'em, go ahead. Then we've got some dual Lands to fill out the space and 20 slots left for Basic Lands. Given we want to have Green early, we've got eight Forests, seven Plains, and five Swamps. (I really like the Temples like Temple of Plenty, and run them whenever I can.)

The final thing to consider is how quick you need your mana base to be. If your deck wants to fly out of the gates, you need Lands which come into play untapped. However, that will cost you more, especially as your mana base gets more complicated. If I'm building a deck which really needs Lands to come into play untapped, I'll generally try to be mono- or dual-color so I can run a lot more Basics and keep my costs down.

Let's blast through the rest of the deck so this doesn't go on too long. To draw, we're in the color of Enchantresses, so we have a few Creatures and Enchantments which care about Enchantments and draw us cards. We also have a number of Sagas and other Enchantments which sacrifice themselves, so we can use Narci's ability. That said, I suspect this deck will win off the back of Anikthea, Hand of Erebos as often as it drains people with Sagas. Archon of Sun's Grace can also get us there with a fleet of Pegasi. Kayla's Music Box is a relatively new Artifact which is on-theme with the music thing and might be a decent add, especially if you're finding the deck isn't drawing enough.

We have some Enchantment-based answers; I'm particularly fond of Doomwake Giant in this build, but Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Doom should also do good work.

Finally, watch how all the Sagas work together; as you draw them and play them out, they'll interact with each other similarly to Planeswalkers in a Superfriends build - keep your eyes on your board and make sure you're not missing any triggers.

Was this helpful? How do you build mana bases? Let us all know on socials!

Thanks for reading.