I have been brewing up some stuff and I am fixated with trying to develop a deck that has a five color manabase without the use of dual lands and fetch lands. I keep going back to very old Academy lists and these are not very good in today's meta but most decks from that time are not good in today's meta.

I updated my reference to the old Keeper decks back in the early 2000's and those played 4 to 5 colors with a lot of splash for this or that.

So, now I am asking you guys. What is the best way to pull off a 5 color manabase? I am interested in play combo or control. I do see that 5 color humans in Modern works but that deck sucks in Vintage.

All ideas are welcome.

A friend and I have been brewing up a 5c sliver deck. Now at first thought it seems bad, but harmonics have proven pretty decent in play testing so far.

Slivers also get access to 3 rainbow lands.

If you specifically want to avoid fetches and duals, doesn't your base start with Confluence?

Creature decks have Thran Quarry and Ancient Ziggurat. Artifact decks get Glimmervoid and Spire of Industry. Balls to the wall combo decks get City of Brass and Gemstone Mine. Oath gets Forbidden Orchard. Splashing rare colors (dredge) gets Mine and Confluence. If wanted to be a crazy person you could play Tarnished Citadel.

I played Paradoxical Oath for a while and the base was 2 Confluence 4 Gemstone Mine 2 Glimmervoid 2 Spire of Industry 4 Forbiddden Orchard.

I have been giving some thought to a 5c Keeper/SUpremacy style deck with less emphasis on Tendrils, it's what i am working on right now. I was thinking of playing fetches/duals base since it's so UR/b at the core. Some duals fetches moxes and then 4 Confluence? There are problems with Spire of Industry and Glimmervoid but i suppose they are in contention for my deck as well because the life loss could be a liability.

Could do the 4 gemstone, 4 Cob/MC, 1 Academy PO deck, splashing DT, VT (black), Wheel/Empty (red), Regrowth (green), and ET/Balance/Mentor for white. Obv 4 Mox opals don't hurt either. Make broken.dec into 5c restricted list broken.dec

I do just love the idea because i want to brew a 5c dreamcrusher goodstuff deck that wins with huge card advantage.

I'm thinking a Grixis Thieves kind of base. Dack Fayden Notion Thief Timetwister, you play random "oops i win" low-cmc combos with Tinker Blightsteel Colossus and Time Vault Voltaic Key.

I've been experimenting with Gifts Ungiven so a Tendrils of Agony win could still be a thing with 2 rituals and Yawgmoth's Will.

If you are very high on the mana rocks maybe even Paradoxical Outcome base for drawing or Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain because a 3/3 is also good sometimes. Do we need Sai, Master Thopterist if we are playing white for...

Balance and Monastery Mentor for control and win?

I don't know, is Leovold, Emissary of Trest good enough for contention since it poop poops on cantrips, PO, and similar to Thief destroys someone's hand with Twister?

We might play Mana Drains to cast our Gifts and maybe Tezzeret the Seeker which of course fetches and wins with our Time Vault.

Speaking of big mana, i am really itching to play Mind Twist which has potential to randomly blow someone out of the game.

Really itching for Kolaghan's Command to be a big thing. Last year i wasn't going to paly with in my 4c Leovold + Kess, Dissident Archmage deck, but once Thorn of Amethyst was restricted i changed my mind and it was a blast. I didn't always like it but hey.

Can you play Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time if you aren't playing fetches? No one is saying we can't play a bunch of cantrips necesarily, but if we aren't playing the delve spells (or Gush) then i suppose Dark Confidant can be a thing?

If we build for slow grindy control games, maybe we play Burning Wish, which is not only a means of putting stuff like Tendrils in the side but also a great way to access a sideboard of toolbox haymakers like By Force, Balance, Thoughtseize.

Sort of sidetracked from the topic of mana base

@sovarius I love where you are going with the brew. I went back to 2017 and I built a Paradoxical Outcome deck with a 5 color base

Lands
Tolarian Academy
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Mana Confluence
4 City of Brass

Artifacts
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Emerald
Mox Ruby
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
Lotus Petal
Sol Ring

Chome Mox
3 Mox Opal
3 Grim Monolith
2 Voltaic Key

The issue with a base like this is disruption and inconsistency. The upside is just broken turn 1 and turn 2 wins. I removed City of Brass and tested Spire of Industry and it was a descent replacement. I have been brewing something like this centered around Paradox Engine and Tolarian Academy. I am nostalgic about the old academy deck.

The issue is Paradox Engine is usually an I win more card not an I win card. I have been trying Grapeshot over Tendrils since it costs only 1 Red and it is good but hard to pull off.

As for control decks, the Brian Kelly Oath with Savagers and a Saheeli Rai Oath are solid 4 color decks but they run fetch lands. Control decks have a very hard time with more than 3 colors for obvious reasons. I like some of the Commander based cards like Breya and Aminatou but they are very hard to play in Vintage and usually do not add enough benefit to be played.

I've been playing Paradoxical Oath fora few months, so a little less mana rocks and with Orchard. I'm switching from that to some kind of form of the above brew ideas.