From: jbwillia@lns598.lns.cornell.edu (Jeremy Williams)
Subject: Mana curve statistics -- NY Final 8
Date: 11 Jan 1997 04:40:33 GMT

This is an analysis of the mana curves of the final 8 Pro Tour-New York
decks.  I will not post contents of the decks here; my source is
the Library of Dominia at http:/www.tranquility-base.com/magic/
I ignored sideboards.  I define my terms at the end.

So, if you want to know how much mana champions put in their decks
and how mana-intensive their spells are, here is a small sample.
(This was a type-II tourney).

Summary of results:
                   Minimum  Maximum  Median Average(mean)
Colored land:         17       21     18.5   18.75
Multiland:             0       10      4.5    5.25
Colorless land:        2        6      4      5.12
Aux mana:              0        6      2.5    3.00
%mana-producing land: 33       39     38     37.5    
% all mana sources:   38       48     41.5   42.38
mean CC (colored):    0.5      1.5    1.0     1.04
mean CC (total):      2.0      2.7    2.35    2.31
median CC (colored):  0        2      1       1.12
80% CC (total):       2        4      3.5     3.38
maximum CC (total):   4        6      5       5.00
casting ratio:        3.2      5.4    3.7     3.90
color ratio:          2.5      7.0    3.9     4.08

Overall distribution of spells by casting cost was
(Notation is C for color, number for generic):
0:   10 (mostly Zuran Orbs) Total C.C. 0 spells:  10
1:   10
C:   57                     Total C.C. 1 spells:  67
2:   25
C1:  65
CC:  33                     Total C.C. 2 spells: 123
3:    2
C2:   7
CC1: 11
CCC:  4                     Total C.C. 3 spells:  24
4:   24
C3:  26
CC2: 14                     Total C.C. 4 spells:  64
CC3:  5                     Total C.C. 5 spells:   5
C5:   1
CC4:  4
CCC3: 1                     Total C.C. 6 spells:   6

====================================================================
Individual deck descriptions (statistics follow list):

Eric Tam (Direct Damage/misc, G/R/W/u)
Bertrand Lestree (Ernigeddon, G/W)
Mark Justice (Winter Orb, G/R)
Leon Lindback (Necro, B)
George Baxter ("Necroless", B/g/r)
Michael Loconto (Millstone, U/W)
Preston Poulter (Erniegeddon, G/W)
Shawn Regnier (Millstone, U/W)

Player's initials       ET  BL  MJ  LL  GB  ML  PP  SR
Colored land:           18  18  17  19  21  18  19  20
Multiland:              10   4   6   0   9   4   4   5
Colorless land:          2   4   4   4   2   6   6   3
Non-mana land:           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
Aux mana:                6   2   3   4   6   1   2   0
% mana-producing land:  33  37  35  38  38  39  42  38
% all mana sources:     43  40  40  45  48  40  45  38
mean CC (colored):     0.9 1.0 0.5 1.5 1.5 1.0 0.9 1.0
mean CC (total):       2.7 2.4 2.0 2.5 2.0 2.3 2.5 2.1
median CC (colored):     1   1   0   2   2   1   1   1
median CC (total):       2   2   2   3   2   2   2   2
80% CC (total):          4   4   2   3   3   4   4   3
maximum CC (total):      6   6   4   4   6   4   6   4
casting ratio:         5.4 4.1 3.8 4.1 3.2 3.6 3.6 3.4
color ratio:           7.0 4.2 2.5 2.8 5.1 4.1 3.3 3.7

Notes on terms:
1)"Colored land" is all land producing colored mana, including
"multilands."
2)"Multilands" are all lands capable of producing more than one
type of mana.  Exception: Wizard's School, found in Loconto's deck,
is not counted in this category.
3)"Colorless land" is all land which produces colorless mana.
Wizard's School is counted in this category.
4)"Auxilliary mana" is a card which converts mana from one type to
another, costs mana to cast but generates mana, or brings lands
into play.  Examples: Dark Ritual, elves, Thawing Glaciers,
Wizard's School, Barbed Sextant.
5)A deck's "main colors" are all colors in which a deck has a
spell which costs at least two of that color mana.
6)A deck's "auxilliary colors" are all non-main colors in which
the deck has spells.
7)"Casting ratio" is the casting cost of all spells in the deck, 
divided by the total number of mana-producing lands.
8)"Color ratio" is the sum of the colored mana required to cast
all the spells in the deck, multiplied by the number of colors in
the deck (a main color is 1 color, an auxilliary color is .5
of a color for this purpos), divided by the number of colored
lands in the deck.
9)"80%CC" is the number of mana necessary to cast 80% of the
spells in the deck.
10)All "X"'s in casting costs were arbitrarily set to 1.

--J
"The river's just a river. . ."