The Other 99: Ramp Spells in Commander

Ramping It Up

In "The Other 99" we look at deck building in Commander. Today's article is dedicated to ramp. While ramping isn't something exclusive to Commander, it certainly is at home in a format that's all about big plays and long-lasting games, making cards like and enduring staples. This article will focus on ramp through the means of acquiring lands, whether to your hand or directly to the battlefield. I'm leaving out artifacts, creatures, and other means of generating mana, as this is another topic that deserves an article itself. Keep in mind that we're talking about casual Commander here; competitive EDH can almost be considered a different format.

Another quick note; I've decided to split the lists in this article in two, green and nongreen. Ramping is an inherently green power, but you don't have to be in green to make sure you hit your land drops or to accelerate your mana supply.

Ramp Away

As with most cards in Commander, there's a plethora of options available. To filter our selection, we need to set some qualifications to what makes a ramp spell good.

• Low casting cost

This a no-brainer. Ramping is especially good in the early turns of the game. High-cost spells often have a larger impact on a game and it's the cheap cards that help you get there. While there are no official rules for ramping, I would say that we like to spend no more than the first two to four turns on ramping. This means that the perfect ramp spell would preferably cost 4 mana or less.

• Basic land versus land type

This is an interesting part that is often overlooked by newer players, and that's understandable. Let's look at these two cards; and . On first sight, these cards seem to be very similar. The main difference is that Rampant Growth can even search a basic Forest, while Farseek can find anything but a Forest. However, if we take another look at Farseek, it doesn't mention that the land you search must be a basic land. This opens the door to many dual lands, including shock lands, Battle lands, Amonkhet cycle lands, and other lands that include the basic land type. Good ramp spells don't limit us to only basic land cards, but rather let us search multicolor mana sources.

• Untapped versus tapped; battlefield versus hand

The best ramp puts a land card into play directly and untapped, allowing us to use the extra mana immediately.

Ramp's Hall of Fame

Green:

Let's look at what are, in my opinion, the very best green ramp spells that Commander has to offer.

• — and for the diehards, its Portal counterpart — is everything we want. It's cheap to play, finds nonbasic lands and puts them into play untapped. The fact that it must find a Forest might seems like a restriction, but if you're playing green anyway, there are plenty of options to find, with , , or as some examples.

• , for the same reasons mentioned above. It's a bit worse than Nature's Lore but still more effective than most ramp spells, including .

• is twice Nature's Lore for twice the mana. I mentioned that a cost of 4 should be the absolute maximum, and I believe Skyshroud Claim should be at the top of your ramp curve. If you want a card that does something similar, I suggest you take a look at .

• is another card that allows you to look for any kind of Forest and puts it onto the battlefield. The bonus creature can attack, block, or feed .

• works amazing in decks that already care about sacrificing creatures with and [Muldrotha, Grave Titan] as prime examples. But even without a commander dedicated to sacrificing, good old Steve is an excellent card that will often make the cut.

• and are well known cards for a reason, they are just incredibly efficient. While they don't fetch nonbasics — nor do they have lands enter untapped, unless you didn't play a land that turn — two lands for 3 mana is a rate you won't see on many other cards.

Colorless:

• There aren't a lot of nongreen cards that directly put lands onto the battlefield, and at 4 mana, is on the expensive side. Its cost is the only downside, however, and the fact that it's both an artifact and a creature that replaces itself upon dying makes it usually worth running in nongreen decks.

• I couldn't write this article without mentioning everybody's favorite deer, . It's slow, clunky, and fragile, but also incredibly effective at ramping up decks that have trouble hitting land drops early. The fact that it has a cost of 3 also makes it the perfect target, earning itself a spot in the hall of fame for nongreen ramp.

• While doesn't advance your mana on the battlefield, it's still amazing at tutoring any land without requiring the investment of a certain color.

• is a very underrated card. Paying 3 mana over two turns to get any basic into play is a good deal for nongreen decks. Play the Bauble on turn one, crack it turn two and untap turn three with 4 mana.

Runner-Ups and the Best of the Rest

The following aren't the best of the best but still viable choices that get the job done. Run these if you already use the spells mentioned above and are looking for extra ramp.

Green:

• is the definition of a double-edged sword and can be either ridiculously broken, or cause a huge backswing based on your playgroup and their decks. Keep in mind that this card can fetch any land, so if there's a monoblack player at the table you might need to think twice before giving them plus .

• is the namesake card of ramping. It's not a very wild or interesting card, but gets the job done at a pretty effective rate.

• is a worse and should only be considered for decks that have a very high average mana cost and need to ramp as much as possible before being able to do their things.

• sits at 5 mana in an uncomfortable spot where it's a bit too expensive for a ramp spell that only gets you two lands. The main advantage here is that it can instantly fetch two-card combos such as the aforementioned plus , plus , or plus . But if you don't run any of these combos, Hour of Promise shouldn't be at the top of your list.

• While you bear the risk of it getting countered for the absolute worst feeling in the world, is a pretty decent spell that can be played at instant speed and brings two lands into play untapped.

Colorless:

• is an excellent card for decks that can recycle artifacts through the means of or . I'm not sure if you should play this card outside of red-based artifact decks, but it's worth mentioning the card for exactly those decks.

• I'm not a huge fan of this card, but I know there are some decks out there that are looking for an effect such as this one, so let's talk about . It's slow and clunky and by no means efficient. However, when you are playing your Casual Boros Tribal Angels deck, sometimes having to pay 3 mana to find a land is better than having no lands at all. I'd even go as far as saying that the Kite is so underpowered that most people will leave it untouched, making sure you hit a land every turn.

• While casting and then equipping to a creature is by no means an easy feat, it will reward you with a (somewhat) steady stream of lands straight from the library. I'm not saying this should go into every deck, but if your focus is on equipment, which usually also means a toolbox-element, the Sword can play a vital part in your ramping capabilities.

Ramp in Specific Nongreen Colors

There are a few cards that allow you to find lands outside of green or colorless cards. While they are often nearly not as effective, it's still worth mentioning them.

White:

White is probably the second best color at ramping. With this, I don't mean to say that white is a color that provides mana acceleration, but there are a few cards that have strange abilities on them:

• finds lands at a rate that even green players can get jealous about. But, in typical white fashion, there's a condition that needs to be met, making Land Tax only good in situations where you are going last, or when you're not doing as well as your opponents.

• and are basically a single use Land Tax.

• is probably one of the better white ramp cards. It still has the condition that opponents need to have more lands than you, but it's a 2/2 first striker that can be easily brought back by a large number of cards: , , , to name a few.

• is a card that looks strong on paper, but for some reason I always end up cutting it. It feels slow and clunky, though when it does work, is amazing as there is no restriction to the lands that you can search.

• [Boreal Charger], , and aren't specifically great, but still worth to consider as options.

The upside of most these white cards is that they search for a Plains card rather than a basic land, allowing you to find shock, Battle, and other Plains such as .

Black:

While I'd personally strictly stick to artifact ramp in black decks that don't have access to green or even white, there are some nice cards that allow you to find additional Swamps:

• is my favorite. If you're planning on making a Monoblack Good Stuff list with , , , or even , Liliana is a pretty solid inclusion to make sure you're not missing any land drops.

• is another interesting card that allows you to convert creatures into lands and Zombies. It's expensive and slow, so I personally never ran it in any Zombie deck I built, but that doesn't mean that the card is not capable of doing some serious work.

• Last but also least, for the meme factor. If you're building some janky Liliana tribal deck this card is for you. In any other scenario, just play instead.

Blue and Red:

Red being a color mostly focused on destroying lands, rather than getting them into play and blue being the color that does pretty much everything except ramping, there aren't that many spells available:

• is at least a very unusual card that can help thin your deck and ramp in a way that isn't very common for blue.

• Modern Horizons brought us which can find any Mountain, including nonbasics.

Ramp Away

That concludes this installment of The Other 99. What are your favorite green ramp cards? What cards do you use when you don't have access to green? As always, thanks for reading. Until next time!

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.