What Is Commander – How to Build a Commander Deck

One of the first questions players have when approaching a 100-card deck is, “how many lands do I need?” In a Commander deck, 36 to 40 lands is generally recommended. Of course, decks that include mana dorks and cheap mana rocks might include less, and you can consider double sided land cards as potentially contributing to your land count, such as my favorite Hagra Mauling.

The podcast The Command Zone shared an episode last year that discussed a Commander deck formula, and it is still recommended viewing. However, this is meant to be a guideline, not the rule. One redditor even created a particularly impressive graphic to summarize the following information.

Commander Deck Template:
36-38 Lands
31-33 Deck Plan
10 (minimum) mana ramp
10 card draw
5 targeted removal
5 board wipes
1 commander