Mana Ramp Acceleration in Standard
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 21, 2013, 1:42 p.m. by hiddengibbons
Myself and a few others got into a discussion about Sylvan Caryatid in another thread and I thought the whole Mana Producing creature thing deserved its own discussion. With Farseek out of standard, Ramping decks have taken a hit. Its also more difficult to fetch those shock lands now. I've noticed a lot of decks using green and mana acceleration/ramping use Elvish Mystic , But because theres so much removal, I feel like Lay of the Land is better. Sylvan Caryatid produces any color mana, but its no Birds of Paradise . It costs 2 and even with hexproof still gets removed by Anger of the Gods or Supreme Verdict . I guess the question is, Is ramp viable right now and what is the fastest most efficient way to do it?
Devotion Ramp is indeed the only ramp strategy in Standard. The tools aren't present for any other form of ramp.
October 21, 2013 2:17 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #4
Lay of the Land does not ramp, as you can still only play one land per turn. It's a pretty worthless card. Mana dorks are better, and you can ramp quite well with them.
October 21, 2013 3:21 p.m.
PixelBrady says... #5
I use mana ramping in standard for my Colossus Deck The Colossus Is Comin' with mainly just Elvish Mystic , Verdant Haven , Karametra's Acolyte , Voyaging Satyr and Burnished Hart . Since most of them are creatures they are vulnerable to removal, but they're also pretty cheap as well and can produce a lot of mana fast (Acolyte's stack up nicely and Voyagers increase in value with Verdant Havens) as well as Harts being able to chump block while they fetch.
Control can be an issue, but I've still usually been able to get through it and get the colossi down pretty quickly.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Sylvan Caryatid are great though; Nykthos really builds up nicely on devotion, and the Sylvan is pretty hard to take down. It's not so easily removed and...well, you can say that SV and Anger can take it out, but to be honest those cards can take out a lot of creatures. Besides, if they have to rely on using SV/Anger to take out a Caryatid, that's still a win for you.
October 21, 2013 3:38 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #6
@Schuesseled: I agree Lay of the Land does not ramp, but I like it because it pulls lands out of the deck that don't need to be drawn later. Mana dorks are faster, but I've had bad experiences drawing them late in the game.
@PixelBrady: I completely forgot about Burnished Hart . That seems a lot better than Seek the Horizon , which I have been using of late. Although I'm not too big on the Sylvan Caryatid 's mana cost, I think I'll give it a try.
@Jimhawk: I agree that devotion ramp I assume with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is probably the best fastest way to ramp, but devotion ramp almost locks you into a color in a format where currently the best threats (with the exception of Elspeth) are multicolored.
October 24, 2013 2:26 p.m.
I'm working on a Dragon Ramp deck, that seems to work fairly well.
Elvish Mystic , Zhur-Taa Druid , Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx , and Xenagos, The Reveler are all the Ramp it needs. - Mana Dorks, Devotion Ramp, and Ramp based on number of creatures... difficult to stop all the Ramp, and as such there's often a swarm of Dragons dealing mass direct damage by turns 5-7.
Deck: Dragon Ramp... Just working on consistency at this point.
October 24, 2013 2:45 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #9
@Schuesseled: After further testing, I am inclined to agree that Lay is a bad draw in the late game. Right now, since I'm short on cash, I'm thinking of ramping with Elvish Mystic into Sylvan Caryatid or Burnished Hart
Heres another question though, what do you ramp up to? the first bomb that comes to my mind is AEtherling
.
October 26, 2013 1:15 p.m.
If you're using Elvish Mystic , I would assume you want a green 3-drop on turn two. Say Boon Satyr or Witchstalker or Domri Rade . Sylvan Caryatid can produce, I dunno, Desecration Demon or something else turn three, and with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx , the sky's the limit, so if you're planning on staying for a while, look for a good X-spell...
October 26, 2013 1:39 p.m.
I use mana ramp with my deck (Let The Revelries Begin!).
I am using Elvish Mystic , Sylvan Caryatid , Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx , and Xenagos, The Reveler . All great cards to ramp into larger creatures.
I have found that the new monstrous mechanic is an excellent outlet for the additional mana that you end up having mid to late game. Also the new gods and their weapons have some decent activated abilities that can be used for a mana sink. Finally, kwinterstern is right - there is nothing like a nice big X-spell (I'm using Savageborn Hydra and Clan Defiance ) to make the most of all that mana.
November 2, 2013 11:02 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #12
originally I was thinking about ramping into Sphinx's Revelation or AEtherling . But I like Assemble the Legion . A bant ramp would use win-cons that are shut down by Pithing Needle . A Naya build would allow Assemble, which is only really stopped by Maindeck Control, or sideboarded enchantment hate. I'm a bit torn at the moment.
myrxseven says... #2
Most people wont waste their removal on an Elvish Mystic . Chanves are if they see you drop one, or a Burning-Tree Emissary into Sylvan Caryatid they know something big is coming. I feel the fastest way to ramp is Burning-Tree Emissary and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx .
October 21, 2013 2:14 p.m.