Which Ramp Spells are Worth Playing? | A Guide to Mana Ramp in Commander 

What do you mean play ramp? I just play dark ritual for my grave titan

Thanks for the love! 😊 not being a budget card anymore breaks my heart because it means I don't show up in Mitch's decks anymore.

I thinking about building a Abzan EDH with the following components: Ramp: Cultivate Stax: Ghostly Prison Win Con: Grave Titan Thoughts?

The nice part about harrow is that the lands enter untapped costing you 1 mana total. Perfect for landfall

Is ramp really worth it if you're not ramping into a Grave Titan?

Speaking from experience here after following your advise on the Tormod Kamahl deck; SYNERGY IS SUPER IMPORTANT!! Cutting all the spells that ramp in place of some mana dorks and ETB creatures has made the deck so much more consistently do it’s thing it’s amazing 👍👍

Okay....so the part at 36:08 with Yavimaya Elder made me giggle way too much, I greatly appreciate you putting that in there! 🤣❤

Anytime you hear a player say “just you wait until I untap” always ends up just dying that turn lmao

Ive been playing Archaeomancer's Map in boros artifacts and been loving it! It gets actual lands onto the battlefield and in the worst case scenario so far im still able to ramp 1 land so it ends up being a cultivate except it works with ALL my other artifact synergies. Also I hope you guys do that lil shuffle everytime you read it on a card from now on hahahaha

I've seen Archeomancer's Map get the player 3 lands into play within two turns, on a couple of occasions. It does pair best with black or blue for card draw, but it's consistent enough to call it a staple.

Guys, omg, you're officially my new favourite content creators. Not to throw shade but the number of times I listen to the command zone go "hur dur white iz bad @ ramps hehe" drives me INSANE to hear you lads actually using your brains and seeing it as the secondary ramp colour brings me no end of joy, bless both your souls!

This video couldn't have been more perfectly timed. Just today I noticed my Nekusar deck was feeling sluggish. Thanks guys! Something to add, you guys forgot to add in Aesi during the extra land per turn segment. Two lands and card draw on the same card I think is great.

Dreamscape artist is one I've always loved in any graveyard/reanimate deck! Fills the yard, and ramps nicely!

One with nature gets the snub once again. Such a good ramp card. Surprised it didn’t come up.

Wayfarer's Bauble is basically an auto include in all of my non-green decks.

I saw three visits as unco, I was, yeah, great ramp... saw the price... kept playing the cultivate and kodoma's reach I got in my preconstructed decks.

Not mentioned, or maybe I missed it: Land Tax Blue: Apprentice Wizard, Dreamscape Artist, Mitotic Manipulation, Retraced Image, Vodalian Arcanist Underrated, not mentioned (but decent in many circumstances): Migratory Greathorn

Tempt with Discovery can look for non-basic lands. So even if every opponents say 'no' and you only look for one land, you can tutor that very important land (like The World-Tree) and put it into play untapped. Its a sneakier Crop Rotation because it camouflages as a ramp spell when it is a tutor for non-basics. :)

Alright the "Shuffle" got me 😂😂

Thanks a lot, guys! I just had to order like 40 dollars of cards because of this video!

You guys should advertise the deck help channel on the discord its always super active and helpful

Into the North is a pretty good ramp card too, especially if you have some snow lands in the deck which will help you build up your "different land name" for field of the dead.

Great list, thanks

I'm working on changing my Quandrix precon to an Esix deck while watching this. Keeping ramp in mind.

Lotus Cobra is definitely one of my favorite ramp pieces!

Definitely agree about higher costed ramp, though ramping into a Boundless Realms is so satisfying.

Luke your practical approach

Bloom Tender is my favorite. Paying 1 to untap it is one of my favorite things to do in commander.

Nice video! You two do a good job analyzing & explaining your reasoning, and even when I don't agree I can follow your thoughts. Gotta say tho: huge fan of rampant growth. While I don't often build budget, I think 2 mana land ramp is premium and this card is just fine. Depends heavily on the MV of your commander; i.e. bad if 3, pretty good if 4. Cultivate/kodama's also quite good for 5 MV commanders as it guarantees you play it next turn. -Def not for every deck though; whole heartedly agree. (Also last note, I've built like 20 decks and sad robot has gone in 2. I just think 4 is too much outside a heavy blink/reanimate deck)

Great series!

12:35 lmao 'GILDED LOTUS' in perfect sync👌

Finally! You guys have been bashing Cultivate and other ramp spells, but not giving examples of what you would rather play. Thank you for explaining.

If the medallions count as ramp, so do taxing effects like Thalia. Setting back an opponent effectively puts you ahead. For R ramp, you have the Jaya that + to add 3, Chandra that + to add 2, Pyro Goggles, etc.

My dear nitpickers, great content as always

Archaeomancer's Map is White card draw, not ramp. The Burgeoning part is gravy (get the boat).

If you're playing blue/red artifacts, I highly recommend Storm The Vault. It costs 4 mana, and flips over to Vault of Catlacan when you control 5 or more artifacts during your end step, which is basically Tolarian Academy. I almost always get it flipped over on the turn I play it in my Brudiclad deck, and it gets me an insane amount of mana.

The new one that makes a fractal is amazing in my standard selesnya counters deck

You forgot isolated watchtower, it might not always ramps you but it could be considered a pseudo Castle Vantress that also ramps you fro time to time, in mono Black, Red and White decks that could be a godsend, clearing the top and simultaneously putting an extra land onto the battlefield for 2 mana and taapping a land can be really nice and if you count Sevine's reclamation as ramp then Isolated is too.

The shuffle made me so happy though. XD

Fertile Ground is my favorite enchant land, goes really well with Earthcraft.

Burgeoning is great, I love it. First turn Burgeon, get maybe 2-3 extra land-drops in before your opponent(s) waste removal on it because it's so frustratingly good and it interrupts their turn. Sounds like a GREAT card to me.

Cryptolith rite and crop rotation can both be a huge burst of mana the turn they come into play, but both are dependent upon the number of creatures you control. So obviously the crop rotations sacs a land when cast as part of the cost, you then put Gaea’s cradle or even nykthos, shrine to nyx into play, and cryptolith rite allows any creature, you have in play that started your current turn already in play, to tap for any color mana. Granted both of my suggestions are situational, but worthy of note. Both cards have low mana costs with potentially high ceilings.

One pretty obvious thing to note is for cards like azusa, if you don't have any lands in hand it is no longer ramp. It more accelerates the lands out of your hand than actually fetching them out of your deck. I always like to distinguish between those two types of ramp.

Harrow ramps 1, but fixes 2. That card is something better than it looks, I’ve always been happy to draw it, esp early game

Hour of Promise fetching Thespian Stage + Dark Depths is my go to combo :D

I agree with everything apart from yami elder is a beautiful card its got devotion its got draw its got land search Sometimes I want land in my hand especially in my landfall its ammo

I will advocate for Burgeoning in a landfall deck. I run it in Omnath landfall, and the value I get off it is insane. I don't even have the space here to list all the value it gets, but let's just say when you have a Living Twister on board, you never miss a Burgeoning trigger. I usually have at least 3 landfall effects in play to abuse.

I think the main difference between burgeoning and exploration is the hand clause on burgeoning. If you are working in a lands matter deck (i wouldnt call it a landfall deck as many of the best lands matter cards dont even have landfall) burgeoning has very little synergy where exploration will have a lot more synergy with like Crucible, Oracle of Mul daya ecetera.

yeah, i cut tempt with discovery from my budget deck when i used it to take out an enters tapped scry land and the other guy used it to get a volcanic island

I have cut Tempt with Discovery for Pir's Whim in my Xenangos deck for that same reason. So many people just say no to the tempt. With Pir's Whim I can help or hurt my opponents while searching for my Kessig Wolfrun.

Ive just put 3 visits in my omnath deck. Took out blue suns zenith and i felt good about it.

I entirely agree with your view on Yavimaya Elder - but doesn't the same apply to Thaumatic Compass? I haven't tried it yet but on paper it seems reeeaaally slow!? What am I missing?

What ramp would you think of for Jadzi? I love the idea of abusing land to hand ramp effects for her Journey to the Oracle ability. Get like 4 landfall triggers, and make the spell free sounds great to me.

Late to the party, but when talking about ramp in the late game, it ultimately depends on the deck. My landfall Obuun deck definitely appreciates any landfall triggers I can get, even late game.

Yavimaya Dryad and Smothering Tithe are also good in my opinion.

I think Kodama’s Reach and Cultivate are best in the decks that want Exploration. Turn 1: Land, Exploration, Land Turn 2: Land, Cultivate, Land

My new favorite red ''Ramp'' spell for my Zada, Sudden Breakthrough ( 2cmc instant target creature gets +2 first strike, create a treasure token), last game I made 8 treasures. LOL I won the game next turn after that. Funny how much Selvala cost till they recently reprinted the card ;p

Personally I haven’t sleeved up a solemn or bauble in forever and never used burnished heart. Even for non green decks. I know it can punished easier but I pretty much only use the talismans/signets/stones etc. with little issue. I just wanna be doing better things by turn 4. Barring some sort of artifact/sacrifice/landfall synergies.

I think tempt with discovery is more viable because even if opponents know the best strategy is just to decline to ramp, there are going to be cases where the opponent might be out of lands in hand or want a shuffle effect etc, where you still probably get 2+ ramp out of it. Still not a wonderful card but pretty effective. I prefer it to 'Hour of promise' in most scenarios because 4 mana feels a lot more playable than 5 mana for grabbing *any* land, and 1-4 compared to 2 is a risk I'm willing to take XD

A video on fast mana/ritual cards like chrome mox and lotus petal would be cool. (DONT FORGET TO INCLUDE TINDER WALL!)

Ramp is always useful, but what is the consensus on Rituals? I'm currently using Dark Ritual in a mono-black deck (as well as terrain generator and walking atlas) and I'm curious if it should stay or if there are better alternatives.

Dang, no mention for Kor Cartographer? Like, I know it's a little overpriced, but it's my go-to for non-green in white since it has no criteria and thus always works, you can grab a non-basic, and you're in white, so flickers and reanimation are available.

I didn't see expedition map, what would you say about it when you have a non green deck with a high end mana base?

by the transitive property of synergy: The Great Henge > Sphinx-Bone Wand => Cultivate < Elvish Rejuvenator

Daily quality videos. I mean why would you NOT like, make a comment and be subscribed to the NN. Get this boys payed people, help them keep up the goodness coming...

Oh I hear cultivate is a good ramp card!

I would argue that Springbloom druid is a solid card for budget players if you are building a 4+ colors commander. To that kind of deck fixing your mana is just as important as ramping itself.

I honestly wish green ramp had gotten a video of its own

I use cultivate and kodama's in my xenagos deck specifically for when I have xenagos and moraug out. Is that a good enough reason to keep them, or should I look for better things?

Something I noticed is that in many green decks I'm playing so many Elves for ramp purposes (Llanowar Elves and co., Wood Elves, Springbloom Druid etc.) that Priest of Titania becomes a very solid inclusion. Other solid cards are Overgrowth in enchantress decks and Devoted Druid in decks in which you care about creatures dying or about +1 counters. By the way, where can we see Joe Cherry's Xenagos list? :)

archeomancer's map is bonkers good in white, boros. I even have one in my oloro esper lifegain deck that's pillowforty with sphere of safety.

In my playgroup the strip mine response to tempt with discovery became the default, if we had a strip mine or wasteland we grabbed it if not we said no. It quickly lost usage.

I play Yavimaya Elder in exactly one deck, and its my Sasaya Orochi Ascendant deck, which wants me to get to 7 lands in hand as quickly as possible. so yeah, not ramp, but there are almost always fringe cases for these cards.

What ramp would you suggest for a selesnya ramp running 20 lands and 4 selenya gates

I'm guessing sky shroud claim is best in 4-5 colour decks or something with a relatively lean average cmc? I don't want to ramp turn 4 generally and would prefer to get a creature or something out to take the heat off my commander but I haven't built a deck with more than 3 colours yet. I have one for Ayula just so I can ramp and play a bear right away but it's not exactly a high powered deck (although she is fun to play)

Simple answer: 2 costing ramspells are always worth playing. Esp three visits and Nature's lore overperform everytime, but also rampant growth, the signets. Every rampspell that costs only 2 gives you something to play at turn two, which is basically free since most decks don't have a turn two anyway, and makes your game so much faster and better.

Bog Witch is amazing!

If I have a 5+ mana commander, I’m playing cultivate and kodamas reach. Keeping a hand of 3 lands and culti feels very safe. If I have a 4 mana commander, I skip them. They often have no synergy and playing them on turn 3 feels bad

What are your thoughts on Verdant Mastery at the 4 mana cost?

Sadly no mention of treasure map, which imo is very underrated. A slow ramp spell for 2 mana and if your deck can make treasures in any way suddenly your land also provides some card draw. PS: pls always cut to both of you when you shuffle.

I do run Diligent Farmhand in a muscle burst deck... it's a Golgari Rat deck that isn't very good, but the Bursts can be enough to protect my Rat Colony or other small rats, though 2 mana sucks. I just like the idea of super-jacked rats maybe? The deck wants the ramp, and it also wants something like Muscle Burst, so it just made sense. Also, rats and farmers? Totally thematic. Blue has a fair bit of old janky ramp cards, some of which are actually reasonably usable. I feel like Dreamscape Artist alone is better than White ramp dorks, and Apprentice Wizard filters U to 3 colorless, which is enough ramp to be relevant. There are a smattering of other ones, so if you have a mono-blue deck that cares about creatures, there is a selection to choose from. Cultivate belongs in a landfall deck I think, where you care much more about that extra land (even if you have to actually play it) than getting a dork with a land. It's not going to do anything bonkers, but it is about the best choice for sheer number of lands for mana. I run them in Tatyova, and in decks that expect to miss land drops after 3 or 4. The biggest issue with Cultivate IMHO is that it costs 3, meaning you can't sneak it into the decks it would work best in, decks running dangerously low mana, because you might not hit 3 mana in time. Such decks like 1 and 2 mana cost sources, so Cultivate won't work where you'd love it to. Beanstalk does get the land in untapped, so it's not complete garbage if you are able to double spell off of it. I actually like the big beater, but only because my deck can probably give it trample. Unless your deck is already giving trample (but needs big dumb beaters for big mana, and will pay for the card efficiency), wants lots of ramp effects, and might benefit from the untapped land, it is indeed a good candidate to cut. Thus, it fits in Multani, Maro-Sorcerer atm, and I've cast the creature a few times, but usually it's just a 3 mana ramp spell that I struggle to find a use for the mana it gives right away.

Cultivate goes well with wingrace. Grab a land and draw 2

I've been cutting Wayfayer's Bauble for Surveyor's Scope in my non Green decks. The upside is bigger, the card cost less to play and is more budget. Getting 1,2 or 3 lands for 2 mana is a better deal.

Birgi is probably the best red creature ramp especially for red storm decks.

Archaeomancers map is really good in not green decks. It works really well.

Important note for this video is to not take any of the segments of it out of context and always keep in mind that the assessments of the cards are all compared to the best ones in the beginning of the video. Otherwise u will get a very different message from what they intend u to. I remember when i first found out about the existance of Skyshroud Claim and the importance of ramp in edh i bought several of them only to realize that all but one of my green+ commanders were at 4-5 cmc which made the card kinda awkward. Obviously u need a lot of dual typed lands to make proper use of it since getting two basics out of it feels bad.

how about recross the path? it can be pretty awesome with the clash in BIG decks.

I love my omnath locus of mana deck is just all the Mana

So guys, in a non blue landfall deck that relies on valakut, field of the deadt, splendid rec, scapeshift, ramunap excavator and all the other lands synergies, is it better to play llanovar elves or sacura tribe scout?

Burgeoning is sick if u have fetches in graveyard and crucible of world effect.. it can scale furthermore then exploration.

Is Once Upon a Time a trap? I feel like the upside is big enough to make it worth it for any green deck, especially since you can also grab a creature in later turns. It's also very budget since it's banned in most formats.

I am a huge fan of recross the path, With some foreknowledge and/or deck manipulation it is repeatable.

Can you make a video on mono black ramp? I can't hardly find anything besides dark ritual.

What about traverse the outlands that’s solid ramp especially for big spell decks

Crop Rotation is a ramp spell that was missed. Even though a land has to be sacrificed, it can fetch for any land.

Ive been using primal growth in my atla palani deck to trigger her ability, i dont think itd be worth running in anything else though!

In the case of ramp specifically, I disagree with saying that (for example) Skyshroud Claim only costs two because you get the lands untapped. Especially right after you said the cost of a ramp spell is super relevant - you need to get to 4 to play it, so it can't be counted as a 2-drop in any real sense. Also, making sure you're always able to hit your land drops (i.e. Yavimaya Elder) may not actually be ramp but it fills the same role. Having a land to play when you otherwise wouldn't is basically the same as putting it onto the battlefield, especially alongside Azusa effects when you run out quickly.

the problem with white ramp is that it never pays to draw the second one. So, even if they print 6 different white catchup spells, you still wouldnt want to run enough to reliably draw them, because after you catchup once or twice, you jusst dont need any more

Burgeoning is great with bounce lands.

What are your opinions on Verdant Mastery?