as elder said, that would be a poor deck then. if you put fluff cards in, then the chances of getting the card you really need becomes slimmer.

i have cards that are there for the purpose of gaining mana, but not for just putting in the mana zone. as i said before i usually aim to get 5 to 6 mana by turn 3, so i need mana acceleration cards.

I put mana in every turn until i get 7.
But then again, I still only play with 20 cards (my brother is going to buy a starter set tomorrow).

I stop playing mana at seven. Why? Because almost all cards in my deck only cost three or less mana to play. Scarlett Skyterror costs eight, and is the costlyest creature I have. With seven cards in my mana zone I can easily play the eighth mana and then cast Scarlett Skyterror.

I'll usually stop at 6. Of course it really all depends on the over all mana cost of your deck. Six or seven are good stopping points for most everyone though.

Me, I am comfortable with 6 to 8 mana being in the mana zone. I can usually get 6 by turn 4 with my current yellow/green deck. I like having about 8 because i can summon multiple creatures out at once, usually 2-3 creatures with 7-8 mana, if not more. I feel comfortable with that and it is usually my stopping point. And no, i don't have any cards specifically designed as mana cards, although a lot of times certain cards always wind up there.. Its just a matter of when you draw them.

i stop at 7-9

Thanks for the info.
This early in the game a bad collection is a consderation for many people.

my control deck stops at 12 preciously

i did some math to come up with that number

wow! 10-14 mana in your mana pool is just over doing it... i usually have about 6-8 mana. My games usually dont last long enough for me to drop 10-14 manas.. plus there are just some cards i want to hang onto.

nah, my deck can last long enough for 12 mana.

the 12 is just a number i came up with since at that time, i can do the most combination of casting certain spell while wasting no mana.

6-8 mana wokrs provided you never want to cast more then one or two creatures at a time. Perhaps three if they are all low but at least 9 for three three's. thats nice. It seems, at least with the people I play with, that shields don't go down one at a time, the game goes to who has the last three or four creatures for a blitz. So being able to drop three creatures for an attack after using all yours do attack their group means that next turn they go through summoning sickness and you can win. At least thats the way things go in my circle