Three-color mana bases these days.

[RxPhantom]

How are your three-color mana bases looking these days? The last few years have seen a proliferation of options when it comes to lands and mana rocks. I've recently reevaluated what to include in a manabase lately, and I'm wondering if anyone else is doing the same.

My default starting point was always Command Tower, Reflecting Pool, shocks, checks, and any on-color fetches if I had them. Lately though, I've included Battlebond duals, and I'm really warming to pain lands. I also like tango lands, and I'll probably have to do even more reevaluating when that cycle is complete. I've also stopped using temples and bouncelands almost entirely. Oh, and I only own one ABUR dual; I'd run them if I had them, but I'd rather light a pile of money on fire.

What say you, Nexus? How are you crafting three-color mana bases lately, and has it changed substantively in the last few years? Did Arcane Signet find a place in most decks? Have MDFC's made their way into your decks? Did you cut a basic for stuff like Turntimber Symbiosis? How many basics do you run? How many utility lands? Got any cool insights to share with the class? Do you dig Steven Universe? Let's hear it.

[toctheyounger]

I'm mostly whatever shocks I can pull together, tangoes, and checks (although these have crept up in price a little more than I'm happy with lately - not brutally so, just more than I'd like to pay).

Fetches are out of my league, and will likely remain so until WotC decide to start listening to the Professor and PleasantKenobi. My favourites for smoothing at present are the tangoes purely because they can be caught by stuff like Rocky Tar Pit, Wood Elves and such.

Triomes don't hugely apply to me as I have only the one wedge, and I'm quite happy to wait for Indatha Triome to come through at a price I'm happy with and if thats post-rotation I'm alright with that.

MDFC's I have little experience with. Academically I think the pathways are fine if unspectacular - best case scenario you keep your tempo up but not much more. I do, however like the utility of a modal land base so things like Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge and Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt really call to me. The latter is again out of my budget, but the former I've picked up a couple of. The common/uncommon ones I'm pretty interested to try out are Khalni Ambush // Khalni Territory and Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary. Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore seems neat utility too, I just don't have anywhere it really fits well.

In terms of other utility, I do like a little targeted LD. Ghost Quarter is fine, and Field of Ruin is really good. The fact that it ramps the table makes people feel better about it, and if you time it right you can nerf someone's Vampiric Tutor or Approach of the Second Sun. It also works nicely with Ob Nixilis, Unshackled.

I really like Path of Ancestry. It's a slower Command Tower that often scries, and that's pretty damn good. I also like a couple of the hideaway lands in Mosswort Bridge and Spinerock Knoll. Sure they enter tapped, but the effects play so well into what those colours do that it's often money for nothing.

Exotic Orchard is pretty cheap these days and that's a great thing. Also, the Shadowmoor filter lands are really nice for colour fixing.

[Mookie]

I impose a pretty strict limit on the prices of cards I get, which has resulted in an extremely patchwork manabase largely dependent on reprints. That said, I do think there are enough options at this point that three-color decks don't need to be running Guildgates or Refuges. Scrylands, checklands, and tangos have all been pretty cheap at one point in time, so those are what I tend to run. Add in various trilands (including the actual trilands, Exotic Orchard, Path of Ancestry, and Command Tower) and that's generally all the fixing necessary. Green decks have it even easier - just run a bunch of Rampant Growth effect and basics.

I usually run 2-3 colorless utility lands also, depending on what my deck is doing. That said, those slots are pretty competitive. You could run Ghost Quarter effects or something like Scavenger Grounds, but I usually run cards that synergize with my own deck instead. I like having extra mana too much to be willing to sacrifice my lands just to disrupt an opponent.

[ISBPathfinder]

My starting point is generally speaking:

9 Fetches (the real ones)
3 ABU Duels
3 Shocklands
1 Command Tower
3 Checklands

This puts me to 19. I would usually assume with a three color deck I would probably aim for around 10 basics when not using green ramp and maybe up to 15ish if using a lot of green basic land search effects. I often go for something like 3-5 utility lands as well depending on the colors often keeping at least a space for Strip Mine.

From here it would depend a bit on the type of deck and how I plan to play it but I would usually consider shadowmoor filter lands or batlebond duals. If I am excessively low to the ground and color intensive I might consider City of Brass / Gemstone Caverns / Mana Confluence and if I am more of a late game deck I will probably consider maybe a few ramp lands like possibly Temple of the False God / Myriad Landscape. I think the last handful of lands beyond my above list comes down to how I plan for the deck to play and what kind of needs I might have. There are a lot of other lands I would also put as similar priority around here to be honest.

The above is me disregarding budget building as optimally as I can. You can argue against prioritizing checklands over batlebond duals but I honestly don't think there is a difference between them in an optimaly built landbase. The argument against that is like..... if your opening hand is battlebond dual and utility lands...... but that doesn't sound very likely with what I just outlined for building. I also on rare occasion use multiplayer commander decks and 1v1 them for some quick pickup games at which point it does matter.

[Dunharrow]

I personally am more likely to include a cycling land or a triome instead of the tango lands. Though I would rate the painlands higher than all of them.

I don't really run any scry lands or bounce lands in my 3 color decks.

MDFCs... I haven't opened any Zendikar Rising yet, but my plan is to put them in my one and two color decks. Don't think they will be in any 3 color decks barring specific synergies with the spell side (in which case they won't replace a land but a spell). Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt comes to mind as a possibility for Marchesa, the Black Rose.
Also probably the Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn in Maelstrom Wanderer.

[WizardMN]

For me, it really comes down to the deck as to how far I go into the nonbasics. For the most part, I do the following though:

3 fetches (not including Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista)
3 ABUR Duals
3 Shocks
1-2 Tangos
0-1 Triomes
Command Tower

That puts me at 11-13 nonbasics to start with. The others depend on the deck. Karador, for example, runs more things like Bojuka Bog, Vesuva, Phyrexian Tower, etc. And it runs 12 basics since it is a green deck. Karador also uses the Horizon lands.

Queen Marchesa, on the other hand, uses the above base and then adds in the 3 painlands, 2 Tainted Lands, and 3 Buddy Lands. And limits the basics down to just 7.

There are other utility lands in each deck as well, but this sort of shows my progression in terms of what I prioritize over others. I prefer fetchable duals over most others, but then I look at the buddy lands and painlands on sort of equal footing though I will usually go with the buddy lands first. Then, in certain decks, I might add in things like City of Brass and Mana Confluence. Usually in non-green decks if I need them.

I think the new Zendikar Pathways are sort of growing on me, and the Battlebond duals probably should be higher in the list. I picked up the latter recently so I will try slotting those into most decks. I am starting to think the Pathways aren't quite as bad as I thought they were to start with. They do only provide one color during the course of the game, but their flexibility still might make them worth it. I kind of still prefer painlands in those slots though. I am not sure on them yet.

[5colorsrainbow]

I used check lands (my personal favorites), temples and path of ancestry since often the scry can make up for the ebt tapped, shocks (if i have them), command tower . I also run 1 evolving wilds and/or Teramorphic Expanse since they can be helpful fixing. I also will try and find lands that fit the theme of the deck, so Unclaimed Territory for tribal and such.

In general I tend to go for around 33-39 lands depending on the decks needs and try to lean more in basics vs non basic since its easier to ramp and more improperly fix this way.

For mana rocks I go Arcane Signets for anything without green to again fill in for that ramp/fixing part for three colors. Commander Sphere is something I use more often since it can be ramp (fixing) and card draw, similar reasons I used the banners, ikoria crystals and the clue stones. The Clue stone I've found to be really helpful in boros heavy decks. And again theme, for example in Will and Rowan I run Spinning Wheel cause Eldraine and it has a bit of synergy with Rowans emblem.

I haven't gotten any but I've looked at a few of the land MDFC for a few basic effected (I'm pretty sure Kabila Takedown is now one of my white go to removal spells) but I'm gonna be using it in a non-land slots.

Do you dig Steven Universe?

I miss that funky half alien rock robot kid.

[Yatsufusa]

I exclusively play Wedges when it comes to 3C (nothing against Shards, it just ended up like that when I considered Commanders I like / Color Balance across my decks when I planned it out and I daresay the first Commander precons had the most influence, considering Animar and Karador are still around).

My trilands basically consists of Command Tower, triomes and the Tarkir CIPT Lands. I only have one copy of the "5C" lands like Mana Confluence and Reflecting Pool and well, my 5C deck with no fetches/shocks really needs those lands. Animar gets the luxury of Ancient Ziggurat, being Animar, and I accepted Murmuring Bosk for Karador because I could fetch it, even if it's sort of flawed in multiple directions. Alesha has nothing because Tournament Grounds doesn't fix mana effectively enough, although now that foil Path of Ancestry exists I might consider another one over there (I already have one, but 5C snapped it up real quick again).

I give the leeway of CIPT to trilands in my 3C decks, because 5C snapped the rest up, which means my duals have to at least be conditional CIPUntapped. So with that in mind, the typical build of duals in 3Cs goes

3 On-Color fetches (I actually have a playset of each fetch, so I could go the full suite if I wanted to, but the aesthetics-side of me will never live it down)
3 Shocks (Never owned an ABUR dual, not planning to)

... and that's it for "Tier 1" (or so I call it). Between around 10 basics, 3 shocks, mana rocks and the rest of the duals, I never really had fixing problems with just this and with only 3 fetches, it basically never becomes useless (and even if it did, Karador/Alesha runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth anyway). Then I move down to "Tier 2", which basically consists of

3 Checklands
3 Whatever-I-scramble-together

Checklands are the undisputed best conditional CIPUntapped lands out there, especially with fetch/shocks, and even with only 3/3.
Whatever-I-Scramble together basically refers to any reasonably conditional CIPUntapped lands, like SOI Lands, although I've currently filled the enemy color slots out with painlands (which are better, actually, just that the ally pairs haven't been reprinted for so long the foils cost too much).

I round the duals up with 3 filterlands, which I consider "Tier 3", because they literally provide no color in a vacuum, but I like the flexibility of the filtering so much I just can't let go.

The reason I don't run Tango is because despite being fetchable, it's CIPUntapped stands in an awkward midpoint for someone like me running only 3 fetches. It's a reasonable condition, but there's also a reasonable chance I'm more likely not to meet the CIPUntapped condition compared to the SOI cycle, so I value tempo over more fetch targets. Also the cycle is incomplete (and Wedges are 2/3rds enemy pairs). Same reasoning is why BiCycle lands are completely out, they always CIPT.

The battlebond cycle has just recently been completed and I'm in the process of considering it take over the "whatever-i-scramble-together" slots entirely, it's basically better than even painlands in multiplayer games (mine mostly end before it can reach down to 1v1 anyway and I don't utilize colorless).

So in total I run 15 duals, around 3-4 tris and 10+ basics, leaving around 7-8 slots for utility lands (of which some are mono-colored, like Flagstones of Trokair and Urborg). I probably could lose a few basics in favor of another trio of duals, but as it stands mana fixing hasn't been disastrous, since rocks do contribute and I do have basic-ramp as well.

[PrimevalCommander]

I usually start with 5 cycles of duals. Typically Fetch, Shock, Filter, Checks, then down the list depending on what I want. Anything green goes full tilt on the basic-typed lands due to Wood Elves, Nature's Lore, Farseek, and Three Visits

These are the cycles I like, I won't play all of them in a single deck, Tango's and Bi-cycles are waiting in the wing for the cycle to be completed. As stated above I have had Pain lands available to me for years, but an just recently starting to re-discover how efficient they are at what they do. Really underrated, or not since the price seems to be slowly creeping up on them. Might be time to dust them off and get them some action.

3 fetches
3 ABUR duals when available. Currently only available in my 2 wedge decks.
3 shocks
3 filters (filter land fanboi checking in)
3 check lands
3 Tango lands or Bi-cycles when the cycles are completed. Please complete the cycles.
3 Pain lands if on a budget
1 Command Tower
1 Triome where applicable
1 Murmuring Bosk where applicable. I just like the land and will use it in addition to the Triome in Karador.

Battlebond lands are better than I gave them credit for initially. Though the price has me shying away due to my glut of other playable duals and obsession with basic-land-typed lands.
Temples don't make the cut, nor bounce lands most of the time.
Reflecting Pool, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Exotic Orchard, even Command Tower at times, don't get used much just because I like the symmetry of the above cycles and don't find the need to play these lands. I actively avoid City of Brass and Mana Confluence because I don't like the drawback.

[not-a-cube]

3 fetches
3 shocks
Command tower
Path of ancestry
Triome is i have or tap triple land (how are these called)
Bojuka bog if black - scavenger grounds of not
strip mine / tect edge / ghost quarter / wasteland (2 of these, depends on which are not in decks)
Horizon lands > battleland > pain lands > other duals (depends on what i have available) mostly to get another set all color combos

This is about 15 lands,

Basics to fill it out.

There might be some utility lands that creep in, and those take basic spots. But I do try to maintain a good color balance. Also I try to lean more to a 1 color +2 other colors kind of deck instead of an even split between the 3.

Also Arcane signet goes in pretty much all of my 2+color decks

[JWK]

It's not hard to come up with a good 3-C manabase these days. There are lots of complete or partial cycles of duals to choose from, including various of the ones noted above. The triomes are great. Arcane Signet helps a lot. Also, despite what you might hear on places like The Command Zone, Chromatic Lantern continues to be excellent ramp + fixing for 3+ color decks.

[Hawk]

My starting point is:
Command Tower
Exotic Orchard
As many on-color Shocklands and Fetchlands as I have access to.
The appropriate Triland

From there, it depends a bit on the deck. Given my budget though (I almost never get to run the full six Shock + Fetches), the Checklands and Tango Lands that are appropriate are in the vast majority of my 3+ color decks; green decks that have access to Farseek and Wood Elves put a higher premium on tangos.

From there it gets even more divergent.

- Decks with any hope of winning a voltron game usually have Opal Palace although not always.
- Decks with even a mild tribal component get Path of Ancestry.
- Decks with low curves or aggressive gameplans will get the Fastlands and are much more likely to get Painlands, although I like Pains in general.
- Slower, durdlier decks get Bicycle lands and Temples.
- Decks with very greedy compositions (like Phel running Cryptic Command in the same deck as Hour of Revelation while also needing to make GGG to feed people hippos as will) will get whatever Filter lands I own. I generally find filters disappointing and awkward in 3+ color decks though, and reserve the few I own for 2 color decks where they can do more good.
- I almost never run Gainlands or Bouncelands unless the deck has some sort of lifegain or landfall synergy, and even then it's rare. Ditto Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds.
- And I never ever run Guildgates; if I must run taplands like a peasant I at least want to scry or gain a life

I only own two ABU Duals, only own a scattering of Battlebond Lands, and currently own zero copies of the Triomes or Pathways, but suspect I'd run them over some of these other things if I had more. I also across my whole collection own 0 Mana Confluence, 0 Reflecting Pool, and only one City of Brass which definitely makes 3+ colors tricky.

The biggest shift of the last ~4 years is rocks - Arcane Signet, abundant reprints of Guild Signets, and the revelation of Fellwar Stone and Wayfarer's Bauble make these the starting point for any non-green deck while Birds of Paradise, Farseek, Nature's Lore, and now Three Visits form the backbone of any base-green deck. All of these have largely choked old staples like Coldsteel Heart, Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere, and Darksteel Ingot out of consideration - I run 0 Ingots in my decks these days, and only slightly more Spheres and Lanterns in some of the durdlier/greedier ones or ones with Sun Titan or some other artifact synergy.

[3drinks]

It's always the same - 11× fetch, 3× abu, 3× shock, 1× tango, 1× bicycle, 1× triome, cmd twr, r-pool, cavern, strip, wasteland, 6 basics, tomb, sac outlet, and then three - four flex spots pending what I'm up to. These could be nykthos, volrath's stronghold, hall of heliod's generosity, or even extra LD like tectonic edge.

Tower of the Magistrate is especially a fave flex spot. Now if only it'd get it's updated face with the c symbol.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I really prefer monocolored decks in general, so the one three color deck I keep around plays:

3 shocks
3 checks
5 fetches (4 real + fabled passage)
1 triland/triome
1 exotic orchard
1 command tower
1 city of brass
1 mana confluence
1-2 tango lands
And a crap ton of basics.

But holy smoke, do I hate the mechanic of color-fixing. I always run more signets/mana rocks than is necessary just to keep color-screwing off my back. Most of the time though, I'd rather just preemptively shave colors and get creative than go down the big budget landbase rabbithole.

[Antis]

This made me realize that I only have one active three-color deck. Huh. The two others I've made are currently in reconstruction limbo. I do have some more planned, though.

Anyway, the first version of any deck I build is a proof-of-concept build. Throw as much of the things I already own in it and buy only the bare minimum to make the deck work. If the deck at least somewhat works with one painland, two panoramas, and some tapped duals, it deserves an upgrade. The budget for the first-tier upgrade stops at shocklands. If the deck goes on to become really good, I might start getting fetches for it.

Also, I've built a Ramos, Dragon Engine deck specifically as a proof of concept that a cheap 5C mana base is possible. And no, it's not compensated by the nonland cards being absolutely cutthroat. It's a fairly casual Ramos deck which has a manabase that looks like this:

• all twenty uncommon tapped tri-lands (Arcane Sanctum &co.)
• all five Vivid lands
• all the Shimmering Grotto variants
• Rupture Spire and Transguild Promenade
• Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse
• Mirrodin's Core, Grand Coliseum, Command Tower, Pillar of the Paruns, City of Brass (by far the most expensive land in the deck)
• one of each basic land

The deck stil performs reasonably well.

[pokken]

I'm still on 10 fetches 3 duals 3 shocks 1-2 battle lands and 12 basics as the skeleton for my Mana in 3 color. And tower ofc. The tenth fetch is vista

So I start with those 30ish and figure out the rest. I tune the basics (usually 6/3/3 or so).

From there it all is theme and pip requirements. If I have multiple heavy pip needs I'll add filters.

If I need more fetching I may add passage esp in loam decks to help conserve life total.

I do not usually play bond lands in 3 color decks because they crowd out my preference for basics. I prefer to add fetchable stuff

I have not adjusted any Manabases for the better flip land spells because they are overly dollar expensive imho due to standard.

I don't play any of the random stuff like pathways or triomes. Just don't like them.

That said I do occasionally do low shuffle Manabases and those I play 4 fetches and fill in the gaps with Mana confluence and bond lands and such. Just not really the norm.
.

[PrimevalCommander]

While my typical 3 color land base has not changed much in the last 5 years or so, I will give my opinions on some of the more recent land printings for those who may not have some of the older fixing. Recent being relative.

Battlebond duals ala Sea of Clouds: These are great lands and should be high priority to players who are looking to boost their mana base. Get a couple of each stat!

Pathways: these are flexible options with minmial downside. Since they are new and plentiful I would get these if you can find them for a few dollars each. You will not regret nabbing a couple of each of these while they are around just for throwing into decks that might be heavy on one main color, but want the option to splash others. Solid choice if you get them cheap.

Temples/Scry lands: always ETB tapped, cannot be fetched by land type matters cards. These are bottom tier in my opinion and not worth investing over most any other dual that ETB's untapped, or has land types. This is for 3 color decks where better duals take up more space and push these out quickly. Not my cuppa tea.

Bi-Cycles: solid lands. Put them in your decks if you have any cards that care about land types or lands in graveyard. Always ETB tapped means I am looking for some sort of synergy before they get the spot above the Pathways. main issue is you can't run the full cycle in 3 color. Slow, but useful. I'd get 1 of each even if you don't like them in case you ever need them later.

Tango lands ala canopy vista: Excellent lands on a budget. reward you for playing a few more basics and are tutored by land-type tutoring spells. probably my TOP RATED basic-typed dual on a budget. Put these in after Shock lands if you can. It pains me the cycle is not complete. Get these while they are affordable.

Check lands: great lands go go along with the above tango lands. A top pick for me since we have the full set and the pair well with some of the other dual lands in this list. Great lands, look for them when you can.

Pain lands: I'm not sure when the last time they got printed was, and know the prices are climbing, but dig through your binders and boxes and pull out these old gems. They always enter untapped and can always tap for either color when you need them. It is rare I see anyone take more than 2-3 life from a pain land, which is not a bad rate considering City of Brass and Mana Confluence are so highly rated. If you don't have Battlebond duals or Check lands, get those first.

Filter lands: I like them, others don't. Under $10 I think they are worth every penny. They can turn your lone plains into UU for Counter Spell, but don't help much if you open with 2 utility lands and one. Risk:Reward I guess .

On a budget, this is what my mana base would look like.

10-12 basics
3 battle(BOND) duals or Shock Lands. BOTH if you can.
3 check lands
3 Filter Lands
3 Pathways or Pain lands. I own pain lands, but Pathways take this spot easily. This would be my first cycle to cut after upgrading.
1-2 Bi-cycles to allow for land-type synergies in green or white.
1-2 Tangos to allow for land-type synergies in green or white.
Triome where available

• Command Tower
• Fabled Passage
• Terramorphic Expanse
• Evolving Wilds

[DirkGently]

It's gotten so we can be very choosey when it comes to fixing lands. In 3+ colors, we kinda have to be, or we'll be running 50+ lands.

My ranking would be:

on-color fetches
off-color fetches
ABU duals
Battlelands
Shocks (higher if you have fetches)
Checklands
Painlands
MDFC lands
Bicycles (higher with fetches/loam)
Filterlands (could be higher depending on deck)
Karoo lands
Manlands (depending on which and deck)
Fastlands (lower if you're slower)
Trilands
Temples
Tangos (sliiiightly higher with fetches)
Tapped fetches (higher with loam etc)
Panoramas (higher with loam etc)
Reveallands
Gainlands
Tainted lands
Lairs
Tempest pain taplands
Homelands trilands

Probably missed some in there somewhere.

Usually I cut things off around the MDFCs, though it depends on the deck. Some decks love Karoos, some love manlands, etc.

Most of my 3c decks are only running a handful of basics - usually 3-8. 8 would be if I have a lot of basic search that requires them.

[PrimevalCommander]

Land ranking being highly subjective, the only argument I want to make to Dirk's ranking above is on the Tango lands. They should be at least around the Filter and Bicycle range due to the dual-typing, and more importantly, ETB untapped a good portion of the time. Especially for those without 100% manabase with a few more basics. Basic lands get tutored often in all colors due to Wayfarer's Bauble and Solemn Simulacrum. Also Fabled Passage, Teramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Myriad Landscape, Prismatic Vista and other basic land fixing make these really pretty useful lands in general.

Also I think the slow-fetches (Rocky tar pit) are useful to those who want some land>>graveyard synergies but don't have a budget for real fetches. Though they can be VERY slow if you are getting another ETB tapped dual with them, so keep that in mind. Tangos work well with those since the ETB untapped if you have hit a couple basics by that time.

[pokken]

Land ranking being highly subjective, the only argument I want to make to Dirk's ranking above is on the Tango lands.

I agree. I didn't make a stink about it because I interpreted 'battle lands' (which I now see are battle bond lands) as Tangos (they used to get called battle lands for battle of zendikar).

I rank tangos between Shocklands and Checklands personally but I play a lot of basics. I've almost never been burned by them and having additional fetchables almost always pays off. If you're running at least 10-12 basics they're very reliable even in 3-color.

I like them more than Checks, because of land types enabling shenanigans in almost every color. Want to run powerhouse Mystic Sanctuary in a 3 color deck? Running tangos *really* helps with the island count.

[RxPhantom]

One thing that this thread has made evident is how beneficial it is to have been playing for a long time. I got back into Magic in 2011 with the release of M12 and then Innistrad. I drafted quite a bit, and opened way too many packs of those two sets, as well as the subsequent Return to Ravnica block. It was this time that I bought, opened, and drafted a bunch of check lands and shock lands. I did the same thing with the Khans reprint of the original fetches.

Side note, the fact that we don't call Port Town and friends Hand Lands speaks volumes about our failure as a community.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Side note, the fact that we don't call Port Town and friends Hand Lands speaks volumes about our failure as a community.

Dear god, he's right. Hand Lands forever!

[NZB2323]

Reading this thread I realized I'm a bigger fan of filter lands than most, but my 3 color decks tend to be mana heavy and run cards like Necropotence, Kaya's Wrath, and Bishop of Wings, so I run all the filter lands and very few utility lands.

[RxPhantom]

Reading this thread I realized I'm a bigger fan of filter lands than most, but my 3 color decks tend to be mana heavy and run cards like Necropotence, Kaya's Wrath, and Bishop of Wings, so I run all the filter lands and very few utility lands.

I've only recently encountered this problem. I've got a new Kykar, Wind's Fury deck that I've loaded with greedy costs, stuff like Counterflux, Increasing Vengeance, and Grand Abolisher. I'm going to throw in Mana Confluence and City of Brass. I'm even considering Temples again (gasp!). I wonder if the filter lands are the way to go. I don't have the UR one. Hmmmm....you've given me something to think about.

[pokken]

I find because of all the greedy blue mana costs like Cryptic Command and Archmage's Charm that I am pretty prone to running the blue filters in blue decks. Black is another color where the pip count on the cards I like is pretty high.

I definitely prefer them over having to track life totals every time I tap lands. I basically never run confluence/brass in 3 color decks just because the bookkeeping is so annoying.