How many lands, ramp, draw and removal in a Commander deck?

Updated October 15, 2026 · Commandarium

How many cards are in a Commander deck?

Exactly 100, including your commander: the commander plus 99 other cards. With two partners, or a commander and a Background, it is the pair plus 98. No two cards may share a name except basic lands (and the few cards that say otherwise, like Relentless Rats), and every card must fit your commander’s color identity.

Commander deck ratios at a glance

For a typical, balanced (“midrange”) Commander deck, a good starting structure is:

The rest — usually 15 to 25 cards — are your deck’s theme: the cards that do what your commander wants to do. Many cards count twice, for example a creature that draws cards.

How many lands in Commander?

“37 lands” is the classic rule, but the right number depends on two things: how expensive your spells are and how many colors you play. Commandarium uses a simple formula:

Lands = 28 + 2 × number of colors + average mana value, rounded, and kept between 33 and 40.

• A mono-red deck with an average mana value of 2.5: 28 + 2 + 2.5 = 32.5 → 33 lands.
• A three-color deck averaging 3.2: 28 + 6 + 3.2 = 37.2 → 37 lands.
• A five-color deck full of big spells, averaging 4: 28 + 10 + 4 = 42 → capped at 40 lands.

Cheap ramp (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, two-mana rocks and land search) lets you trim a land or two. Modal double-faced cards that can be played as a land count as roughly half a land.

How much ramp in Commander?

About 10 pieces — 9 in a fast aggro deck, 11 or more in a control deck or one with an expensive commander. Ramp is anything that gives you more mana than your land drop: mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, the Signets and Talismans), mana creatures, land search like Cultivate and Rampant Growth, and extra land drops. Cheap ramp matters most — a two-mana rock on turn two casts a four-drop on turn three.

How much card draw in Commander?

About 10 sources — 8 in aggro, 12 in a spellslinger deck. Repeatable draw engines (Rhystic Study, Phyrexian Arena) count most, because they keep giving; one-shot draw spells count too. Card selection alone — scry, surveil — doesn’t. The best draw cards often reward what your deck already does: creatures dying, spells cast, tokens made.

How much removal in Commander?

About 8 targeted answers plus 3 board wipes in a midrange deck — 7 and 1 in aggro, up to 11 and 4 in control. Removal is anything that deals with one permanent: destroy, exile, bounce, or a counterspell for the threat. Flexible answers that hit any permanent type, like Beast Within or Chaos Warp, are worth more than narrow ones. Board wipes clear most creatures or permanents at once.

Protection is the last role: hexproof and indestructible effects, equipment like Lightning Greaves, and counterspells held up for your own key spell.

Ratios by strategy

Not every deck wants the same mix. These are the targets Commandarium builds toward — then scales down if the theme needs more room:

An aggressive deck wipes its own board rarely and wants bodies; a control deck wants answers and cards. These numbers follow the widely used community template popularized by The Command Zone podcast, adjusted per strategy.

Check your own deck

Commandarium counts every role in your deck on its Analysis tab. Cards are counted once, under their main role, so the numbers are honest. Each count is shown next to its target — Ramp 8/10 means two short — whether you imported an existing list or built the deck from your collection with the Commander deck builder. The targets come from the table above, for the strategy Commandarium reads from your commander; the creature target follows the average EDHREC deck for that commander. Roles below their target are listed in the deck’s rules report: check your deck’s ratios, step by step.

More guides