Last updated on October 23, 2025
Lilysplash Mentor | Illustration by Aldo Dominguez
To splash or not to splash—that is the question. Splashing cards in your Draft or Sealed deck can be the key to maximizing your decks' power level, but it can just as easily lead you astray, dealing a crippling blow to your deck's consistency without adding any meaningful strength.
The keys to good splashing involve card evaluation, mana fixing, and identifying holes in your primary colors. Splashing well can lead to unexpected wins, so it's a skill worth learning for any Limited player interested in leveling up their play.
Let's look at when to splash in Limited, when not to, and how to make your splash successful!
What Is Splashing in MTG?
Splash Portal | Illustration by Caio Monteiro
Splashing in Limited MTG formats is when you play a card or two (sometimes more) that aren't in your deck's primary colors. Most Limited formats are designed so players draft a 2-color deck; for an example of a 2-color deck with a splash, check out this Edge of Eternities Draft deck:
I’m playing two different blue cards for two reasons: value and removal. My deck lacked both, so Codecracker Hound and Specimen Freighter fill that role. It's important to distinguish between a deck with a splash and a true 3-color deck.
See the difference? This deck has a nearly even distribution of colors among its cards, which makes the mana base messier. All three colors compete for slots at 3 mana and above, making it less likely you can play them on curve. Three-color decks lose a lot of consistency, and the extra power rarely makes up for it. Avoid drafting true 3-color decks outside of Draft environments designed to support them, like Khans of Tarkir.
Five-color draft decks aren't supported in every format, but they do crop up. Take this Final Fantasy Draft deck as an example:
I'm essentially playing a green-black deck splashing several colors worth of bombs. Five-color Limited decks often have green as the core color because it contains good fixing. These decks rely on common cards that can fix for all five colors; in FIN, this includes the town cycle, Town Greeter, and Ignis Scientia. Five-color decks rarely come together without good mana fixing at common.
When Should You Splash in Limited?
You should only splash when you have fixing and a good reason for adding an off-color card to your deck. Decks often justify splashing when they lack interaction or when the splashed card is a bomb that wins if left unanswered.
Splashing works best in slower formats because you have more time to draw into your splash color or cards. Faster formats are much more punishing when you’re stuck with a card you can’t cast. The decks that want to splash are usually grindy by nature, even in quicker formats.
Aggressive decks typically don't want to splash. They need to deploy as many resources as possible as fast as possible. Consider this Orzhov deck from Edge of Eternities:
It’s packed with cheap value creatures to build the board, plus removal to avoid losing tempo, and it uses powerful 5-drops to close the game with alpha strikes.
EOE is particularly punishing—if you give your opponent even a single turn to set up, you end up in a lot of trouble. Missing a play on turn 2 or 3 can set you back a lot.
When deciding to splash, you also need to consider whether the card you’re adding meaningfully enhances your deck.
Take Possibility Technician as an example. It’s a very powerful card in red decks full of kavu, providing steady card advantage over the course of the game. But even though it’s a solid creature with decent stats, does our Orzhov deck actually get better with it? Likely not.
Kavu wants to be played in its own archetype, which explains its high win rate of over 60%. As a splash card in off-color decks, however, it doesn’t make much sense.
Some game-warping bombs are worth splashing regardless of synergy, like Quantum Riddler or Nova Hellkite, but our kavu friend isn’t one of them. Don’t be swayed by high win rates on data websites like 17lands—always consider how a card actually works in the context of your deck.
Returning to Codecracker Hound and Specimen Freighter, Golgari decks often struggle with card advantage and value. In that sense, both cards complement what Golgari usually wants. The color pair already excels at trading creatures one-for-one, but when it comes to generating value, sometimes you need the two-for-one nature these cards provide.
If you’re considering splashing, you need to look first at the options within your colors.
For example, looking back at our main Golgari deck, you can see that it could splash almost anything, like a white card or even a double-red one like Nova Hellkite, thanks to the strong amount of mana fixing green provides. Cards like Gene Pollinator, land token generators, and Larval Scoutlander essentially make splashing free.
Note how these cards enable splashes. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be mindful of your fixing. You can splash without it by throwing a few basics into your mana base, but that’s usually the worst-case scenario—especially in today’s streamlined Limited environments. Green has the best fixing, but non-green decks can still utilize lands or even artifacts.
For example, Final Fantasy includes a handful of non-green fixers like Crossroads Village, the landcycling creatures, and towns such as Treno, Dark City, which provides two different mana colors.
The Golden Rule of Splashing in Limited
Before going any deeper into splashing, I want to stress one key rule: Always stick to one main color, and never run fewer than eight lands that produce mana for it.
Why? In most Draft decks, the standard split is 9/8 between your two colors. In best-of-one Drafts with low curves, you can sometimes dip down to 16 or even 15 lands total, but the point stands—your main color should always have at least eight sources. From there, you adjust your secondary and splash colors based on power.
Let’s say you open a bomb like Kefka, Court Mage in your blue-red deck. Every draft pick afterward becomes a question: “Is this on-color card better than my bomb? If not, should I grab fixing to help me cast it?” The stronger your splash payoff, the more you prioritize fixing to support it. There are plenty of nuances, but the core idea is simple—good fixing is worth it if it helps you play your most powerful cards.
What Types of Cards are Good to Splash?
The best cards to splash are big, game-changing bombs or strong removal spells that only ask for one colored mana symbol and don’t need to be played on curve.
Going back to the idea that a splash card should make your deck better, bombs justify the splash because they bring raw power. Cards like Cosmogrand Zenith or Elegy Acolyte can completely swing a game in your favor. Adding cards of this caliber raises your chances of winning simply because of how strong they are.
That’s also why removal spells are so important in Limited and often worth splashing. Even if your opponent isn’t running huge threats, having answers like Dubious Delicacy or Warmaker Gunship keeps you from getting run over by their best draws. Interaction makes your deck more balanced and gives you time to stick to your own plan.
One of the nice things about both bombs and removal is that they don’t need to be cast exactly on curve. Since splashes rely on fewer sources, you can’t always count on having the right color when you want it. But with these kinds of cards, that usually doesn’t matter—you’ll be happy to cast them whenever you draw them.
When you do splash, stick to cards that only need a single pip of the off-color. For example, Celestial Colonnade or Creeping Tar Pit are easy includes. They’re lands, so they not only provide fixing but also become threats once you have access to that third color, pulling double duty in your deck.
On the other hand, cards like Ouroboroid or Nova Hellkite are much harder to splash. Anything that requires two off-color pips is riskier than a card that needs just one alongside your main colors. Unless you’re in a format with excellent mana fixing, it’s usually best to avoid them.
What Types of Cards are Bad to Splash?
You should avoid splashing cards that are situational, synergy-reliant, curve-reliant, and those with heavy colored mana requirements. We’ve already covered the issue with color-intensive costs, but let’s take a closer look at the others.
Situational and synergy-reliant cards often overlap. These require too many things to line up before they’re actually good. The Seriema can be a powerful engine in the right deck, digging up legendary creatures and giving you extra value once you’ve got the right support on board. But what happens if you splash it in a deck without that synergy? Not much. It needs a decent amount of legendary creatures to shine, and without that, it becomes clunky and underwhelming. That makes it a poor splash choice.
Curve-reliant cards are another class you should stay away from. These cards need to be played on-curve to make their biggest impact. For example, Terrapact Intimidator shines on turn 2 in aggressive decks, forcing your opponent into a tough choice between letting it grow or giving you Lander tokens to fuel your game plan.
But that choice isn’t nearly as punishing later in the ame—most opponents will just hand you the tokens, and its power drops off significantly. Since splashed cards are harder to cast on time, anything that depends on early pressure isn’t worth the risk.
What Are Sources of Fixing and Why Are They Important?
Sources of fixing are cards or lands that let you produce mana outside your main colors so you can cast splash cards reliably. There isn’t an exact science, but a good rule of thumb is three lands for each off-color mana symbol you want to cast. If you’re splashing two cards, you may need four or five lands instead, and the number keeps adding up the more splash cards you include.
Fixing is important because it makes your deck consistent. Without it, you risk drawing splash lands when you really need your main colors, or holding splash cards you can’t cast at all. Good fixing smooths this out, letting you splash powerful cards without hurting your main game plan. That’s why cards that can tap for multiple colors are considered premium—they help you get the best of both worlds.
Fixing card examples include: World Map, Jeskai Monument, All-Fates Scroll and Capital City, among others from the common and uncommon rarity.
Best Types of Mana Fixing
While mana fixing changes from set to set, it’s important to know what options you actually have. Some sets include fixing lands at higher rarities—like Floodfarm Verge in Duskmourn: House of Horror or Watery Grave in Edge of Eternities. These are great if you happen to get them, but because of their rarity, you can’t count on seeing them. Instead, focus on the fixing at common or uncommon since those will be the backbone of your splash.
With that in mind, let’s look at the more common ways to fix your mana in Limited.
Dual Lands
Dual lands are some of the best ways to fix your mana in Limited. They can tap for two or more colors, helping you cast splash cards without messing up your main colors too much. I like to think of them in three categories.
The first are the reliable ones—lands that always give you access to two colors, even if they usually come into play tapped. Playing three copies of Gohn, Town of Ruin adds three sources of a splash color without cutting into your main mana base. That’s a small tempo loss, but a big win for consistency.
The second type are what I’d call “choice lands”. These are cards like Night Market that can become any color of mana but lock you into a choice once you play them. They work, but they can put you in awkward spots where you have to decide whether to use them for your main color or your splash.
Finally, you’ve got the more awkward duals that enter tapped and even ask for mana before they can be useful, like Command Bridge. These should usually be avoided unless you’re trying something really greedy, like a full 5-color deck.
Mana Dorks
Mana dorks are creatures that tap for different colors of mana. They’re a great way to fix, especially in the early game, but they come with some drawbacks. If your opponent removes your dork, your fixing disappears, and they can be weak draws late in the game when you’d rather have action.
That said, they do more than just fix. Unlike a spell that only grabs a land, dorks also add board presence, which makes them much better top-decks than something like a Rampant Growth effect in the late game. Cards like Gene Pollinator or even 2-drops like Torgal, A Fine Hound can fix your colors while pressuring your opponent.
While relying too much on cheap mana dorks can backfire, they also let you reduce your land count in Limited, which can be a real upside.
Mana Rocks and Ramp Effects
Ramp effects have always been a classic way to fix mana, but in recent sets we really haven’t seen many true Rampant Growth-style cards. Instead, we usually get mana rocks or 3-mana ramp pieces. Examples include All-Fates Scroll, Blitzball, and Prishe's Wanderings.
Once these are out, they provide steady fixing for the rest of the game. The downside is that they don’t affect the board right away, and in Limited, paying 3 mana for something that doesn’t pressure your opponent can feel slow. Unlike mana dorks, they can’t attack or block, which makes them worse top-decks later in the game.
That said, having one or two of these in your deck smoothes things out and makes splashing easier, especially in slower formats where you have time to use them. Some of them even carry late-game value beyond fixing, whether it’s providing extra utility or helping you scale into bigger plays.
Card Draw/Manipulation
Card draw and deck manipulation aren’t technically fixing, but they work a lot like it. The more cards you see, the more likely you are to hit the color you need. Spells like Combat Tutorial or cheap cantrips like Cryogen Relic and Resentful Revelation make your deck more consistent by digging toward the lands or splash cards you’re missing.
It’s not the same as running an actual dual land, but it gives you an edge. Think of it as a secondary form of fixing that smooths out your draws when your mana base is shaky.
Mana Filterers
Mana filters turn one color of mana into another. You usually find them on creatures, lands, or artifacts. Something like Capital City lets you spend one mana to produce a different color, while Mardu Devotee can sit on the battlefield and fix for you throughout the game.
These aren’t always efficient, since paying extra mana just to get the right color can slow you down. But if the splash payoff is strong enough—say, a big finisher like All-Out Assault—then the cost can be worth it. The key is being selective and making sure the splash is powerful enough to justify the extra effort.
What Can Increase/Decrease the Number of Sources You Need?
The number of mana sources you need goes up or down depending on your deck and the format. You’ll need more sources if you’re splashing multiple off-color cards, running spells with heavy color requirements, or trying to cast your splash cards early on curve.
Aggressive decks and formats with little fixing also push you to increase your sources since missing your colors even once can cost you the game.
On the other hand, you can get away with fewer sources if your splash is just for one powerful card, if the card doesn’t need to be played early, or if the format is slower and gives you more time to find it. Strong fixing, like dual lands, mana dorks, or artifacts that tap for multiple colors, also reduces how many basic splash lands you need. Remember, even card draw spells help since they let you see more cards and dig for the colors you’re missing.
In short, you increase your sources when your splash is demanding or your format is fast, and you can decrease them when your deck has strong fixing, flexibility, or ways to buy time.
How Many Mana Sources Do You Need to Splash?
Splashing One Card
When you’re splashing for just one card, three mana sources is usually enough. Take this Boros deck from Tarkir: Dragonstorm as an example. The only real splash was Sonic Shrieker. Sure, Reigning Victor was also in the list, but most of the time, you could just cast it for 4 mana in straight Boros colors.
In that build, I had a single Swamp, a Bloodfell Caves, and two Mardu Devotee, which I counted as half a source each. That gave me three black sources for one splash card—which worked fine since it wasn’t something I needed to play early in the game.
Here’s another example, this time from a Final Fantasy trophy deck that splashed white for Squall, SeeD Mercenary.
The deck ran just two Plains; to make up for the third source, I leaned on card draw and surveil from spells like Dreams of Laguna, Combat Tutorial, and Swallowed by Leviathan. This made it much easier to hit the splash without overloading the mana base.
Splashing Two Cards
Splashing two cards in one extra color isn’t much different from splashing just one, but three sources usually aren’t enough anymore.
In this deck, I ran four lands that tapped for white to support Yuna, Hope of Spira and Akroma's Will. On top of that, Crossroads Village gave me the option to choose between fixing for my splash or backing up a main color. To make things even smoother, Prishe's Wanderings and Commune with Beavers helped me find more main-color sources, while Torgal, A Fine Hound added extra multicolor fixing.
Looking back, the deck might have overdone it on fixing—I probably could have squeezed in one more splash card. But with green as the dominant base color keeping everything consistent, the splash never felt risky.
Once you go above splashing a third card, you’re basically on the edge of playing a full 3-color deck. At that point, it’s not really splashing anymore. What’s important to stress is that the deeper you go into an extra color, the stronger your fixing needs to be. Every additional splash card puts more pressure on your mana base, so you need to make sure your lands and fixers can keep up.
Is Splashing in Sealed Different Than Draft?
Sealed makes splashing easier than Draft. Games are slower since decks aren’t as streamlined, so you’re less likely to get punished for holding a splash card. Sealed pools also have more gaps, which often pushes you to splash for answers your main colors don’t provide. Honestly, I end up splashing in Sealed more often than I stick to just two colors—unless my pool is absurdly strong.
Wrap Up
Araumi of the Dead Tide | Illustration by Daarken
Learning to splash well levels up your Limited gameplay. It helps you fix holes in weak decks and makes already powerful decks even stronger by adding raw power. Once you understand how to splash, you can avoid bad splashes that destroy your deck's consistency without any reward.
Do you enjoy splashing in Limited? What's the greediest splash you've made? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!
Stay safe and keep drafting!
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