Mana Base for Budget FCG - with Strips or without?

[Kaiser von Hugal]

I don't have the jewlery, so I'm trying to come up with the optimal mana build for a budget FCG.  Would the budget version be better off conceding the control of waste land for other ways of speeding the deck up?  Or does this only further handicap the deck against Tier 1 decks.  

3 Ancient Tomb
3 Elvish Spirit Guides
4 Taiga
6 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring  
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Strip Mine

[Vegeta2711]

6/7 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Ancient Tomb  
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal

24-25 Mana Sources

I'd probably go with something like this for a stripless build. I'm not really sure if a stripless build would be better than one with Wasteland. Assuming you want to run wastes, something like the following would be my thought.

4 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Ancient Tomb  
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
3 Elvish Spirit Guide

25 Mana Sources

Personally I always run Wastes in FCG, but it depends on how much you feel you need them and how powered your meta is.

[Nantuko Rice]

most type 1 tourneys allow for proxies in which case i run...

1 Mox Jet (proxy)
1 Mox Emerald (proxy)
1 Black Lotus (proxy)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
6 Mountains
4 Taigas
4 Fetches

or something like that i forgot

powerless, 1 petal, 1 ancient tomb, 1 spirit guide in place of the power. i personally dont like chrome mox or mox diamond in the deck

i run very few lands in my decks... always works out fine for me though

[Suckamouf37]

I love Chrome Mox in this deck.  I'd try 4 if they were unrestricted.  If you don't have power, its really the only way to get a non-land permanant source of red mana.  I ported it into 1.5 and dropped the wastes, and this is the list for that:

9 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Bloodstained Mire

I'm not sure about Mountain #9, it may be superfluous, and could probably be safely cut for another Goblin.  The rest of the main is the same as in Vegeta's Primer except it has +1 Matron.  Incorporating the restricted sources into this base, I'd try this:

7/8 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Ancient Tomb
2 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Bloodstained Mire/Karplusan Forest
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
0/1 Sol Ring

With the Ancient Tombs, I'm not sure whether or not you need the Sol Ring.  But I'm not sure if the added speed(which is most definitely noticable) is better than the inclusion of the Strips.

[SpencerForHire]

1 Mox Jet (proxy)
1 Mox Emerald (proxy)
1 Black Lotus (proxy)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
6 Mountains
4 Taigas
4 Fetches

I think you mean Mox Ruby.. instead of Jet.

On topic I believe that sometimes to add the extra punch in a meta where not everyone has duals and such ( I use to be in one ) The stripless version can be twice as potent.  First the decks you are facing arent as strong because they dont have duals.  Second the deck is already slightly faster via ancient tomb.

[Cownose]

In my FCG version I found that with the wastes in, I found myself color screwed every so often and decided to remove them, this is the base i think is best for the deck without power or proxies:

(25)
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine (still seemed worth it to run 1 as it can be randomly good)
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Elvish Spirit Guides
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
6 Mountain

I could also see cutting 1 or both of the mires for an added tomb/esg if you feel they are needed, I chose to only run 1 tomb because drawing 2 is never a good thing

[Jacob Orlove]

This is just a list of manabases. There's no discussion. Moved.