Maybeboard


Only One May Stand!


- Ramos Spellslinger



When Commander 2017 was spoiled, Ramos, Dragon Engine caught my eye and I knew I'd to make a deck with him at the helm. The question then was, what kind of deck should I make. Creature based decks centered around +1/+1 counters theme are popular but I decided to take the path less traveled. I'm proud to present to you this home brewed deck which I had loads of fun piloting - Ramos Spellslinger - Creaturelite Edition

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Ramos, Dragon Engine loves wizardry and magic...

Being a spellslinger deck, this deck aims to:

  1. Chain together a string of instants and sorceries within the same turn;

  2. Generating loads of mana in the process; and

  3. Eliminate all your opponents with one big flashy spell for the win!

Ramos, Dragon Engine is a suitable commander for this deck as he:

  1. Has a color identity of , granting us access to the best spells in each color

  2. Acts as a ritual that can churn out to allow us to combo off

  3. With sufficient counters on him, we can swing in with Ramos for lethal commander damage

Ramos, Dragon Engine celebrates victory...by drinking from the skulls of those who once stood against him

The deck contains several lines to victory:

1. Drain Life

After generating loads of mana, we can drain our opponents to death via Debt to the Deathless or unleash my wrath on them with Torment of Hailfire.

2. Feel my Muscles

Nurturing Ramos, Dragon Engine into a monster and swinging in for lethal commander damage

Ramos, Dragon Engine has the gift of foresight...

Early Game

Being a five color deck, early game is all about ramping and color fixing to ensure that we got not only sufficient mana but in the right colors to do our shenanigans later on in the game.

Pay special attention to the key spells that require , or to cast and decide on the right mix of dual lands to fetch.

Mid Game

As we are extremely creaturelite, we aim to stabilize through the use of board wipes while we dig for our combo pieces.

It is important to note that it is not paramount to the deck that we've our commander out in the field. I've won many games without summoning Ramos even once. At times, we may even want to use Ramos to bait counterspells or removals.

Late Game

With the combo pieces gathered, its time to combo off for the win.

Ramos, Dragon Engine embraces both simplicity and complexity...

Generating loads of Mana

We are able to generate loads of extra mana using spells like Mana Geyser and Turnabout and copying them several times over with Twincast, Increasing Vengeance and the likes.

Lands are paramount for a deck as we're very susceptible to "Color Screw".

Fetch Lands

I'd recommend playing all 10 Fetch Lands (e.g. Polluted Delta, Scalding Tarn) for color fixing.

Dual Lands

Similarly, I'd suggest playing all 10 Dual Lands if you've access to them.

Types of Dual Lands to consider, ranked based on their utility from highest to lowest:

  1. Original (ABUR) Dual Lands (e.g. Underground Sea, Volcanic Island) - Best utility among the lot but due to their rarity and high price point, most of us will not have access to them

  2. Shock Lands (e.g. Watery Grave, Steam Vents) - They're the best substitute for the original duals, as we can have them come into play untapped by paying 2 life

  3. Battle Lands (e.g. Sunken Hollow, Prairie Stream) - They come into play untapped only if the condition is met. I don't play that many basic lands in the deck so more often than not, they come into play tapped

  4. Dual-color Cycling / Bicycle Lands (e.g. Fetid Pools, Irrigated Farmland) - Comes into play tapped but has the added utility of ditching them for a card if you don't need the land

Note:

a) I only included duals which are fetch-able and excluded the Filter Lands, Check Lands, Shadow Lands, etc

b) When you run all 10 fetches and 10 duals, a single fetchland can get you mana of any color!

Lands that produce Mana of any color

Command Tower - A staple in any multi-color EDH deck

Exotic Orchard / Reflecting Pool - While situational, I've included them under this category as they're of tremendous help for color fixing.

Others

Ancient Tomb - Accelerates the game and pumps out your spells fast

Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Grants protection to our key combo pieces and/or wincons.

Notable Exclusions

City of Brass / Mana Confluence - While they're great for color fixing, they're painful to use since the deck combos off by repeatedly tapping and untapping our lands to generate loads of mana.

Artifact Ramp

  1. Sol Ring - Everyone's favorite Ring

  2. Chromatic Lantern - Counts as both a ramp and a color fixer, allowing your lands to tap for mana of any color!

I run very little mana rocks, choosing instead to focus on land ramp spells (see next sextion), which are synergistic with the deck's combo.

Ramp Spells

I run a suite of ramp spells here, favoring the lower CMC spells and those that fetches "lands" instead of "basic lands".

  1. Farseek / Spoils of Victory - Both can fetch dual lands and helps greatly with ramping and color fixing.

  2. Skyshroud Claim - I'd look for a dual with "Forest" land type with this if I need color fixing. The lands also come into play untapped, essentially making this a "2 CMC" spell so to speak

  3. Rampant Growth / Cultivate / Kodama's Reach - Fetches your basic lands

Tutors form the backbone of most combo decks as they allow us to assemble our combo pieces more consistently. I run more than 10 tutors in the deck.

  1. Demonic Tutor / Diabolic Tutor / Dark Petition - The most versatile tutors, allowing you to search for any card.

  2. Mystical Tutor - Instants and Sorceries only.

  3. Mystical Teachings - Instant or a card with Flash.

  4. Merchant Scroll - Blue Instant only.

  5. Supply / Demand - Multicolored card only.

  6. Lim-Dul's Vault - Not your conventional tutor but it has the added benefit of allowing you to rearrange the top 5 cards you wish to keep, setting yourself up for the next few draws or the win.

  7. Bring to Light - Converge mechanic synergizes well with the deck. This card searches for an instant, sorcery or creature and allows you to play it without paying the mana cost

  8. Muddle the Mixture - At best, it allows us to tutor for any of the 2 CMC combo pieces. At worst, who doesn't love a spare counterspell.

  9. Final Parting - This actually tutors for TWO of my combo pieces as many of them can be cast from the graveyard (e.g. Cut//Ribbon, Geistblast, etc).

  10. Intuition - Same reason as above. For example, if I tutor for Increasing Vengeance, Refuse//Cooperate and Geistblast, it doesn't matter to me which card the opponent chose to put in my hand.

Copy Target Spell

I've included a plethora of cards which allow us to copy target instant/sorcery in the deck.

  1. Geistblast / Refuse / Cooperate - A burn spell that transform into a spell copier when it's in the graveyard. Great value from a single card!

  2. Reverberate / Twincast / Fork - The standard spell copiers

  3. Increasing Vengeance - to copy a spell once then to copy twice is just sweet!

  4. Primal Amulet   - Primal Amulet   makes our instants and sorceries cheaper. When flipped into Primal Wellspring, it becomes a spell-copying land. Has great synergies with Turnabout and Rude Awakening.

  5. Reiterate - Grants you infinite mana if you're able to repeatedly copy Turnabout or Rude Awakening when either of them are on the stack and your lands can tap for 7 mana and above when you untap them.

  6. Bonus Round - Simply love this new card from Battlebond, to copy every spell casted for a turn, I'll take that anytime! Even with the minor downside for being a symmetrical effect, it is still an awesome card.

Notable Exclusions

  1. Dual Casting - Requires a body to function and doesn't gel well with this deck with only 4 creatures

  2. Cloven Casting / Pyromancer's Goggles - Only able to copy Multicolored/Red spells severely restrict their usefulness, especially since many of the key spells in the deck don't fall under these categories

  3. Echo Mage - Need investments before he can start copying spells and being a creature makes him very susceptible to removal and board wipes

  4. Insidious Will - A versatile card with 3 useful abilities. The only reason why I've excluded this card is because to copy a spell is on the high side, so we're paying a premium for its versatility

These are the essential combo pieces we want to assemble enroute to victory.

Mana "Generators"

These cards, coupled with copy spells, will generate loads of mana

  1. Turnabout / Rude Awakening - When copied, allow us to repeatedly float mana and untap our lands, generating loads of mana

  2. Mana Geyser - This card will shine in multiplayer and net us a lot of mana

Drain Life

These are game finishers in the deck. I'd cast them with Bosejiu, who shelters all to protect them from counterspells whenever possible.

  1. Debt to the Deathless - Extremely powerful card and drains the most life in most circumstances compared to other cards in this category (Only when X = 1 will Debt perform worst than Exsanguinate)

  2. Exsanguinate / Cut / Ribbons - Both works in the same way, just that the former gains us life in the process

  3. Torment of Hailfire - Works against most decks except those who are able to throw out huge among of nonland permanents (e.g. token decks) or draw and keep a huge amount of cards in their hand.

Ramos, Dragon Engine wishes to reserve this space cause he's got a lot more to say...

More updates coming. All feedback and suggestions are welcomed.

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97% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #24 position overall 5 years ago
Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

4 - 0 Mythic Rares

58 - 0 Rares

19 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.48
Tokens Saproling 1/1 G
Folders Creative Decks, Bangin' Decks, cEDH
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