Mardu in Magic: The Gathering brings together three colors that excel at combat, removal, sacrifice, tokens, and generally being very aggressive. But before you can start turning Creatures sideways or sacrificing half your board for value, your mana base needs to cooperate with your game plan.

Building a three-color mana base means finding the right balance between Lands that reliably produce Red, White, and Black and Utility Lands that contribute to your overall strategy. Run too many Utility Lands and you'll eventually keep a perfectly reasonable hand only to discover that your Lands have decided you're playing Mono-White today.

So, if you're building a Mardu Commander deck, here are some of the best Lands to consider for your 99.

Top Color-Fixing Lands for Mardu

Let's start with the most important job your Lands have: giving you the right colors at the right time to let you cast your spells.

Tricolor Lands & Command Tower

The easiest additions to any Mardu mana base are Lands capable of producing all three of your colors.

Command Tower is the obvious one. It enters untapped, has no real drawback, and taps for Red, White, or Black. Other five-color producers like Starting Town gives Mardu decks another Land capable of producing any color in your Commander's color identity.

Nomad Outpost is the original dedicated Mardu Triland. It enters tapped but afterward gives you access to all three colors from a single Land, making it a solid budget option.

Then there's Savai Triome. Like Nomad Outpost, it enters tapped and produces Red, White, or Black. However, it also has the Mountain, Plains, and Swamp Land types, making it searchable with Fetch Lands and is useful for enabling other Lands that care about Basic Land types.

It even has Cycling for three mana. Drawing Savai Triome when you already have enough Lands doesn't mean you're stuck with another mana source you don't need. Toss it away and try again.

Lands You Need

• Command Tower
• Nomad Outpost
• Savai Triome
• Starting Town, Mana Confluence, and City of Brass

Tournament Grounds

Tournament Grounds is a bit more specialized than the other Tricolor options. It normally taps for colorless mana but can produce Red, White, or Black when you're casting a Knight or Equipment spell.

That makes it an easy inclusion in Mardu Knight Kindred and Equipment decks. Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale happens to care about both, making Tournament Grounds about as close to another Command Tower as you're going to get in that deck. Outside of those strategies, its usefulness drops considerably.

Check Lands

Mardu has access to three Check Lands who earned their name as they enter untapped as long as you control a Land with one of its specified Basic Land types.

• Isolated Chapel for /
• Dragonskull Summit for /
• Clifftop Retreat for /

You don't specifically need a Basic Land, either. Godless Shrine can turn on Isolated Chapel because it's both a Plains and Swamp, while Savai Triome can satisfy the conditions of all three Mardu Check Lands.

This makes Check Lands increasingly reliable as you add Shock Lands, Surveil Lands, Savai Triome, and actual Basics to your mana base.

Shock Lands

The three Mardu Shock Lands are:

• Godless Shrine for /
• Blood Crypt for /
• Sacred Foundry for /

Shock Lands are some of the best color-fixing Lands in MTG because you can either let one enter tapped or pay 2 life to use it immediately.

More importantly, each has two Basic Land types. That makes them searchable with Fetch Lands while also helping your Check Lands enter untapped. Two life isn't free, but Commander gives you 40 to work with from the get-go.

Pain Lands

Mardu also gets three Pain Lands. Each can tap for colorless mana without a drawback or produce one of its two colors at the cost of 1 life.

• Sulfurous Springs for /
• Battlefield Forge for /
• Caves of Koilos for /

The big advantage is speed. There are no conditions to satisfy and they always enter untapped. You also won't necessarily take damage every time you use them once your other Lands will eventually have your colored mana covered. In a 40-life format, taking a few points of damage is usually preferable to having the Land you desperately needed enter tapped.

Fetch Lands

Fetch Lands are where having all those Basic Land types really starts paying off. Mardu's three on-color Fetch Lands are:

• Bloodstained Mire
• Marsh Flats
• Arid Mesa

Bloodstained Mire can search for any Mountain or Swamp, including Blood Crypt, Savai Triome, Raucous Theater, or your Basics. The same principle applies to Marsh Flats and Arid Mesa.

This effectively lets your Fetch Land become whichever color combination you're missing. Need mana immediately? Grab a Shock Land. Need access to all three colors and can afford a tapped land? Find Savai Triome. Want the extra graveyard setup? Find an appropriate Surveil Land.

Bond Lands

Commander also gives Mardu three excellent Multiplayer Lands that enter untapped as long as you have two or more opponents.

• Vault of Champions for /
• Spectator Seating for /
• Luxury Suite for /

In a normal four-player Commander game, that's barely a restriction. With Battlebond Lands, you get an untapped Dual Land without paying life or meeting any requirements involving your other Lands. Their downside only appears once two opponents have been eliminated. But, by that point, your mana situation is hopefully already sorted out. Hopefully.

Surveil Lands & Scry Lands

Mardu has access to three Surveil Lands. All three enter tapped, but you Surveil 1 when they enter, giving you a little card selection while potentially putting something useful into your graveyard.

• Elegant Parlor for /
• Shadowy Backstreet for /
• Raucous Theater for /

Their Basic Land types also make them searchable with Fetch Lands. This gives you an interesting choice when cracking something like Arid Mesa. If you desperately need the mana immediately, you can find Sacred Foundry and pay 2 life. If you can afford to wait, Elegant Parlor enters tapped but gives you a Surveil Trigger.

That becomes even better in Mardu decks with Reanimation or other graveyard synergies.

For more budget builds or if you don't care about the graveyard or the Basic Land types, the Scry Lands are also good options that fix the top of your deck.

• Temple of Malice
• Temple of Silence
• Temple of Triumph

Top Utility Lands for Mardu

Once your mana base can reliably produce all three colors, you can start making your Lands do more than produce colored pips.

White, Black, and Red share a lot of strategies involving combat, dealing damage, going wide, and sacrificing tokens for power. Utility Lands can support those strategies without taking up another spell slot in your deck.

There is a caveat as most Utility Lands cannot produce colored mana. This means that every colorless Utility Land makes your mana slightly less consistent, so choose the ones that actually support what your deck is trying to do.

Rogue's Passage

Mardu Commanders really like turning Creatures, if not themselves, sideways. It's practically in the Mardu job description.

Rogue's Passage can make one of your Creatures unblockable for four mana, giving attack-oriented Commanders a way to punch through once the battlefield becomes crowded.

Terra, Herald of Hope appreciates another way to guarantee an attacker gets through, while Isshin, Two Heavens as One decks are even more obsessed with combat and doubling Attack Triggers.

It also becomes useful when Commander Damage is part of your game plan. An opponent can build the greatest defensive line in Commander history and still watch your Commander sneak straight past it.

Phyrexian Tower & High Market

If attacking with your Creatures every turn is one Mardu tradition, then killing your own Creatures is another. Phyrexian Tower and High Market give Aristocrats and Sacrifice decks an outlet that slides in easily to most builds.

Phyrexian Tower lets you sacrifice a Creature to produce two Black mana, turning an expendable token into another resource. High Market only gives you 1 life, but that life point isn't really why we're here. Having an on-demand Sacrifice outlet is.

Caesar, Legion's Emperor already encourages you to Sacrifice Creatures, while Zurgo Stormrender fits naturally into strategies where Sacrificing and Recurring Creatures keeps your engine moving.

They're also useful when an opponent tries to Exile or steal one of your Creatures.

Vault of the Archangel

If you're planning to attack with an entire army, Vault of the Archangel can make combat miserable for everyone sitting across from you. For four mana, it gives all Creatures you control Deathtouch and Lifelink for the turn.

Deathtouch makes blocking awkward because even your smallest token can trade with an opponent's biggest threat. Lifelink can then produce a huge life swing if your army gets through.

There's also value in simply leaving four mana available. Your opponents know you can activate Vault before damage, which can make blocking decisions much harder even if you never use it. On the other hand, having the ability to grant Deathtouch to your entire board while you're on defense is a huge incentive not to send attackers your way.

Windbrisk Heights

Windbrisk Heights has Hideaway 4, letting you stash one of your top four cards underneath it. After you've attacked with three or more Creatures, you can tap Windbrisk Heights and pay a single White mana to play that card without paying its mana cost.

Fortunately, attacking with three Creatures isn't exactly a tall order in Mardu. Token decks can trigger it almost incidentally, while attack-focused Commanders are probably sending several Creatures into combat anyway.

Slayers' Stronghold

Slayers' Stronghold, despite being a Boros card, might be one of the most Mardu Lands ever. By paying and tapping the Stronghold, a Creature gets +2/+0, Vigilance, and Haste until end of turn.

Haste is the big prize. Casting a dangerous Commander normally gives the table an entire turn cycle to figure out what they're going to do about it. Slayers' Stronghold removes the opportunity from your opponents. The extra power can also help with Commander Damage, while Vigilance lets your Creature attack without leaving you defenseless afterward.

That's three useful combat abilities packed into one Land slot, which makes Slayers' Stronghold a strong contender for most Mardu decklists.

Conclusion

There isn't one perfect mana base for every Mardu Commander deck. A three-color deck may prioritize Fetch Lands, Shock Lands, and Bond Lands for consistency.

Knight decks get extra mileage from Tournament Grounds. Aristocrats decks have more reason to find room for Phyrexian Tower and High Market, while go-wide strategies can make Vault of the Archangel and Windbrisk Heights into legitimate threats.

But remember, the important part is getting all your colors right before loading up on utility. It's tempting to fill your mana base with Lands that Sacrifice Creatures, grant Haste, make things Unblockable, and generate extra value. However, none of those abilities matter if you can't produce the Red, White, and Black mana required to play your deck.

Get your colors working first. Then you can make your Lands work just as hard at smashing face as the rest of your Mardu Commander deck.