Game Trail

Believe it or not, my goal is to make every deck that I build the best deck I can build. While it is true that some concepts are just too weak or don't have the necessary support to really be a contender, I still want to turn every concept into the best possible execution of it as time and money will allow.

I also have 233 decks built. All of those decks are Legacy legal, even if they aren't Legacy competative, which means that all of them need mana to function. Of those decks, 22 of them are Commander decks. So, if I use some rough math (23 lands per standard decks, 37 per commander) that means I've got 5,667 lands in rotation right now.

That is a lot of mana. Since mana is the foundation for any Magic deck, it's important to get that right and my recent experiences with Knives has been reinforcing this: I really like the mana for that deck and how it allows me, even on a budget, to play three colors.

This is one reason why I try to purchase dual lands whenever new ones arrive. They're always useful and they can be put in any deck that uses the appropriate colors, for as long as I play the game. Magic is complicated though and I've probably increased that burden by having so many decks, but the quest to make each deck better is still there.

Which brings me to why I was looking at Game Trail last night and starting to feel overwhelmed. I have no less than 22 possible 60-card decks that this card could go into. If I wanted to put Game Trail into Commander decks, there are at least 3 of those. I don't want to put these into Commander decks though, as that format is quite a bit more forgiving when it comes to allowing players to develop their mana.

Which brings me to the Standard decks. Four R/G/W decks, three R/G/U decks, four R/G/B decks, and another nine straight R/G decks.

How the heck do I decide where to put these? What's best?

I have to do this for Choked Estuary and Foreboding Ruins, too.

I must confess, I'm a little reluctant to add these cards to the "best" deck-in this instance, Mobile Shooting Gallery, a R/G big creatures deck-because I can replace some of the weaker lands with Game Trail. Which I know sounds crazy but I have a weird need for balance and symmetry and everything to be equal.

However, I don't play my decks against me. I play them against other people and I need them to be the best they can be.

The issue really is that making this decision had me going down a rabbit hole of decks, looking at what I was doing with the mana, and I wasn't always thrilled with what I saw.

It was a little bit of a bummer, to see so many questionable decisions, to look at these decks and think, 'Do I have to start all over?'

That can feel really discouraging, especially since I don't want to just throw these lands into a deck. That's how I got into this mess to begin with! But I also don't want good cards just sitting in my binder when I could be using them to make my decks better. The foundation for any deck is good mana and these cards help that and shouldn't be ignored.

Still, sometimes I just want to throw my hands in the air and concede.