MTG List: Proliferate Mana Base & Ramp in EDH/Commander

gaiden.17


Description

Proliferate deck strategies in EDH/Commander open up some unique mana base and ramp options. While many cards in this list would be subpar to unplayable in many other EDH deck types, its members are advantageous (and sometimes broken) paired with proliferate. Not every card in this list will go in every EDH proliferate deck. The mana batteries, for example, are going to be niche. Similarly, not every green deck will want, say, Mana Bloom. However, there are cards in the list that will likely go in any proliferate deck (e.g. respective storage lands). Generally, storage lands put you net behind on mana for a single turn boost. That's not good enough in today's mtg-verse. However, with proliferate, you only need to make the investment up front once (if you play it right). I need to playtest to determine the right ratio between these ramp lands and more traditional lands. The end state of having multiple proliferate triggers stacking storage counters absolutely breaks the curve. However, there is an upfront delay that is slower than traditional ramp (without enablers). Proliferate will generally come online turn 3. You dont want to be in the position where you have to use up all the counters (therefore having nothing to proliferate) activating your proliferate ability. Cards that put charge counters on artifacts (e.g. Energy Chamber) can mitigate the delay in conjunction with cards charge counter mana rocks like Astral Cornucopia. The end goal is to get to a position where proliferating X times will yield at least X mana/storage land/turn (leaving initial counter on the land). The depletion counter lands are in many ways even better because they already have counters on them - inherently ramping. They are advantageous early when you can't get multiple proliferate triggers/turn but less so late-game when the storage lands really start to shine. Key enablers are cards like Lotus Cobra, Dryad of Ilsyan Grove, and Amulet of Vigor that can all help alleviate the upfront mana cost. The icing is that with the exception of City of Shadows, every one of these storage/depletion lands is under $1 with most in the $0.30 range. Listed Ramp cards follow a similar principle and also generally run in the cheaper range as far as an eternal format is concerned (generally $1-3).