Ramp and having and have an advantage over mana resources is pretty fundamental in commander. In the last article we discussed what we can consider as colourless ramp or mana advantage which if you didn’t read you can do so here.
This time we are going to analyse the rest of the colour pie. Green is pretty well founded in ramp, but what if we are not playing green, and what if we don’t have enough rocks or other colourless ramp cards? Well then we need to get creative. Let’s get into it.
Ramp in white
White, for a long while, had been left behind in terms of ramp. Cards like Gift of estates and Land tax being the only white spells widely used in edh, but recently that’s changed with some great editions
First up we have smothering tithe and it’s little cousin monologue tax.
Both of these cards are incredible at generating value or taxing resources to slow them down, either is great. Keeping your opponents honest is sometimes over looked.
Keeper of the accords is a 3/4 for 3 and white that also keeps you in the race, giving you a basic land card at the end of an opponent’s end step if they have more land then you. You can also generate 1/1’s if they have more creatures which pairs perfectly with cards like welcoming vampire or mentor of the meek.
This is not unlike loyal warhound which is 3/1 body for 1 and a white which puts a basic plains onto the battlefield tapped if an opponent has more lands then you, this is an ETB effect so to take advantage flicker spells such as ephemerate will really work wonders with this card.
Boreas charger can search for up to three plains cards, read that again, 3 plains cards, not basic lands, not basic plains, just plains so you can hit up the triomes with this or dual lands. Want to abuse it? Flicker cards again are your friend, put it in Brago for maximum flicker BS.
Archaeomancers map was released in the Strixhaven lorehold precon, it’s a great piece of ramp that first gets land to hand and then if an opponent plays a land and had more land, you can put any land onto the battlefield. I like bounce lands for this, if you play this and then an opponent takes a turn plays a land, you play a bounce land and your land count hasn’t changed, next player does the same and you can put another land onto the battlefield and potentially another before it gets back round to you. Don’t sleep on this one
Ramp in blue
Blue has a hard time with ramp, it’s focus tends to be card draw, which blue is incredible at. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t options for us.
High tide is an instant that doubles the mana our islands produce until end of turn. In decks that care about copying spells or returning them from the yard to play again, you can net some mana in a big way.
Alot of “ramp” in blue revolves around untapping lands that already tapped, such as peregrane drake that untaps lands on etb, in flicker decks you can abuse this trigger, Thassa deep dwelling can accomplish this fairly easily as can Brago, let’s not forget deadeye navigator, when it soulbounds it gives the creature the ability to flicker. We also have access to spells like snap, and rewind, both untap mana, if these can be copied, then you can net positive on mana
Ramp in black
If we are talking ramp in black then ofcourse we have to talk about black ritual and cabal ritual which are absolutely incredible early game, if you have 3 mana value commander you can get it out turn 1 with black ritual. Cabal ritual costs 1 more but it has threshold which adds 5 black, which in black, your going to hit threshold
Songs of the damned which is a single black mana for an instant what gives you a black mana for every creature in your graveyard
Deadly dispute is an instant for 1 and a black with additional cost of sacrificing a creature or an artifact draws you 2 cards and creates a treasure, and another card that cares about sacrificing a creature is Culling the weak. An instant for a single black that lets you sacrifice a creature to generate 4 black mana. Both of these pair perfectly with shambling ghast, a 1/1 that creates a treasure token when it dies.
Ramp in red
Like the rest of the colour pie, ramp in red is limited, but actually does generate mana value little better then some of the others.
First up we have runaway steam kin a 1/1 for 1 and a red that gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a red spell, and then you can remove 3 counters to generate 3 red mana
Birgi god of storytelling, a 3/3 legendary god for 2 and a red that gives us a single red mana whenever we cast a spell
Let’s not forget Storm kiln artist, a 2/2 dwarf shaman for 3 and a red that gets +1/+0 and generates a treasure token whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery. If we are creating treasure we obviously cannot leave out the power house that is Dockside extortionist.
One of my favourites, Simian spirit guide, is a 2/2 for 2 and red but we can exile it from our hand to generate a red mana.
Playing goblins? Brightstone ritual generates a red mana for each goblin on the battlefield (not just yours) and costs a single red mana
Mana geyser is a sorcery for 3 and 2 red, expensive yeah it is when comparing with the rest of this list but it gives us a mana for each tapped lands our opponents play, if this is on turn 5 it could generate 15 red mana. Jeska’s will is a sorcery that can give us 3 extra cards to play with and give us mana equal to cards in an opponents hand, have your commander out and you get both.
And that brings us to the end of the list, what’s your favourite way to get mana outside of green? Leave me a comment and let me know.
