Ramos - King of the Monsters

Commander / EDH* Counters

homemaderum

Lands (36)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 5x Forest
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 4x Island
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 4x Plains
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of the False God

Hate (10)

• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Jund Charm
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Status / Statue
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Vona's Hunger

Wins (3)

• 1x Animation Module
• 1x Mayael's Aria
• 1x Simic Ascendancy

Counters (11)

• 1x Abzan Falconer
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
• 1x Loyal Guardian
• 1x Mer-Ek Nightblade
• 1x Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1x Sharktocrab
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Zegana, Utopian Speaker

Cards (10)

• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Give / Take
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1x Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

Mana (10)

• 1x Animar, Soul of Elements
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie

Commander (1)

Utility (11)

• 1x Abzan Charm
• 1x Dauntless Escort
• 1x Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• 1x Marchesa, the Black Rose
• 1x Muldrotha, the Gravetide
• 1x Pir's Whim
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x The Mimeoplasm
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Sac (8)

• 1x Brion Stoutarm
• 1x Dragon Broodmother
• 1x Ghave, Guru of Spores
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
• 1x Thraximundar
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Vraska, Golgari Queen

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Ramos commands a deck built around +1/+1 counters, sacrifice, and creatures. Suggestions are very welcome!

Origins

The idea here originated out of a prior Pir, Imaginative Rascal / Toothy, Imaginary Friend +1/+1 counters-based voltron deck, using a spellslinger shell, and a desire to use a lot of really good cards from my collection that synergize well and aren't already sleeved up elsewhere. As a general rule, tutors aren't on my list for a variety of reasons, and this is for friendly play, so lock-down effects are frowned upon. Good cards, absurd shenanigans, and unexpected synergy should get us there with lots of fun along the way.

Strategy

The original vision for the deck is to get tremendous value from a combination of Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker , Marchesa, the Black Rose , and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan to generate crazy amounts of counters to win the game with. The keywords here are +1/+1 counters, sacrifice, and flying. Ramos provides the perfect commander, as he plays into the strategy well, and adds a layer of multicolor to the scheme.
Mayael's Aria , Simic Ascendancy and Animation Module are our win-cons. The first two should be obvious, but the third is a really fun, underrated engine that combos with other cards but isn't completely worthless on its own. Combined with the likes of Cathars' Crusade and Crystalline Crawler , it goes infinite - you get an entire army of servos, and unlimited +1/+1 counters. If you add an extra counter-producer or token doubler, you get infinite mana. If you add a sac outlet, you get unlimited sac outlet triggers. You get the idea.
Ramos, Dragon Engine provides us with a completely secondary victory strategy. The dragon is an evasive threat that gets bigger by playing the game. With a little help, we can push him over the top in a hurry. Taking a queue from the Pir/Toothy deck mentioned above, spells we sling at instant speed can unexpectedly get the dragon to full Mecha-Godzilla mode - a 4/4 suddenly becomes a 9/9 with a simple Abzan Charm . Or even bigger, if stacked with an extra-counter producer like Pir, Imaginative Rascal . Or also clear the path with Crackling Doom ? Oh, and he generates a metric ton of mana, so ways that we can sink it, like Torment of Hailfire and Grenzo, Dungeon Warden get bonus points.
Because we're playing a deck heavily invested in both board state and sending things to the graveyard, we need many methods of playing into the late game. We will always want protections like Dauntless Escort , Swiftfoot Boots or Plaxcaster Frogling . Since we're sending things to the yard, we might as well get them back with Muldrotha, the Gravetide , too.

Playtesting

The deck is not built around Ramos, he's a massive threat, and he's potentially expensive to recast. The first observations are that dropping Ramos in the early to mid game is not a great idea; instead, playing the utility creatures and grinding some value out of +1/+1 counters synergies seems a more reliable way to make it to the end game.

Synergies

Here's a few of the good synergies that have played out well for me:
1. Skullclamp and Animation Module . Together, they read "As you play this deck, pay 2 colorless to draw two cards."
2. Marchesa, the Black Rose and Ghave, Guru of Spores . Marchesa protects the +1/+1 team masterfully, and Ghave puts in a lot of work making bodies come and go. Shenanigans ensue: you can sacrifice things with impunity or attack into situations you otherwise wouldn't, and then move +1/+1 counters back onto those Marchesa-restored creatures at instant speed before your turn's even up.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.73
Tokens	City's Blessing, Dragon 1/1 RG, Emblem Vraska, Golgari Queen, Saproling 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C