How many lands in an aggro deck?

Aggressive decks solve a different problem: they need to cast a threat on turn 1, another on turn 2, and keep applying pressure. Fewer lands, but the colors have to be there early.

Why aggro runs fewer lands

Aggro decks want to spend every mana they have on threats and burn, not on drawing extra lands they will never use. A deck that empties its hand by turn four is punished for every land it draws after the third. That is why classic mono-red lists live at 20 to 22 lands rather than 24 — the fourth and fifth land drops are wasted slots.

The trade-off is that the early game gets tighter. A deck with fewer lands has a smaller cushion when it comes to hitting land drops one, two, and three. That is fine, because the deck is planning to win the game before land drop five matters.

The early-color problem

The catch is that aggro decks also demand more colored mana early. A turn-1 one-drop and a turn-2 two-drop both need their color on the turn they are cast. Missing a color on turn 2 in an aggro deck can lose the game outright — you are behind on tempo and behind on damage.

That is why two-color aggro decks lean so heavily on painlands, fastlands, and cheap fixing lands that enter untapped. Every tapped dual land in an aggro deck is essentially a Time Walk in the wrong direction; it hurts more than the fixing helps for the first two turns.

Practical targets for aggro

Some starting points, computed at a 90% threshold on the play in a 60-card deck (the calculator above is preset to check a turn-2 single-pip cast):

• Turn-1 one-drop, single pip (): 16 sources of that color. (14 sources, the number most builders assume, is 86.1%.)
• Turn-2 two-drop, single pip (1): 15 sources. One extra card seen buys back exactly one slot.
• Turn-2 two-drop, double pip (): 24 sources — and this is the number that should reshape the deck. See below.
• Turn-3 three-drop, double pip: more forgiving, but still 22 sources.
• Turn-1 one-drop, double pip: 27 sources, which is not a mana base — it is a warning that the card is unplayable on curve.

Read the third line again against your land count. A 22-land aggro deck cannot reach 24 sources from lands alone: even if every single land in the deck produced red, 22 sources is 87.2% — still under the bar. A turn-2 double-pip play at 90% is therefore not a mana-base problem an aggro deck can solve by tuning; it is only reachable by adding cheap non-land sources, casting the spell on turn 3 instead (22 sources), or accepting a lower threshold. At an 85% bar the turn-2 ask drops to 22 sources, which a mono-color deck can actually hit.

That arithmetic settles the two-color question on its own. If you want a turn-2 double-pip play in each color, you need 24 sources of both out of 22 lands. There is no composition that does this. One of the two goals has to go — which is why so many strong two-color aggro decks keep their double pips in exactly one color and let the second color carry single-pip cards only.

How to build an aggro mana base

1. Pick your total land count based on curve: 20 to 21 for a very low mono-color curve, 22 for a normal two-color aggro deck, 23 if you have a real four-drop finisher.
2. Identify your most demanding early spell — usually a turn-2 double pip.
3. Use the calculator to find the source count you need for that spell at a 90% threshold on the play.
4. Compose your lands so at least that many produce the color, mostly untapped.
5. Fill the rest with the other color's needs and any utility slots.

FAQ

How many lands in an aggro deck?

Most 60-card aggro decks run between 20 and 22 lands. Mono-red aggro often lives at 20 to 22; two-color aggro sits at 22 to 23 to fit the color requirements. Cheap card selection lets you shave one; heavy double-pip costs push you up one.

How many sources for a turn-1 colored spell?

For a turn-1 single-pip creature at a 90% threshold on the play, you want 16 sources of that color in a 60-card deck — 14 sources, the figure most builders assume, is only 86.1%. Turn-1 double-pip creatures are not viable on curve at all: that costs 27 sources, more than an aggro deck has lands. Treat a turn-1 double pip as a card you will reliably cast on turn 2 or later.

Can two-color aggro deliver turn-2 double-pip spells reliably?

Not at a 90% threshold. A double-pip two-drop cast on turn 2 needs 24 sources of that color in a 60-card deck, and a 22-land aggro deck does not have 24 lands — even if every land produced the color, 22 sources is 87.2%. The workable versions are to cast it on turn 3 instead (22 sources), to add cheap non-land sources, or to accept an 85% bar, which asks for 22 sources on turn 2. Wanting a turn-2 double pip in both colors of a two-color deck is not achievable.