Ramos Dragonstorm 2.0

Commander / EDH

gryffin828

Land (31)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (13)

• 1x Atarka, World Render
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
• 1x Orcish Lumberjack
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Tinder Wall
• 1x Treasonous Ogre

Instant (27)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Abzan Charm
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Delay
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Jund Charm
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Manamorphose
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (9)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Dragonstorm
• 1x Firespout
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Sylvan Library

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Changeling Berserker
• 1x Changeling Hero
• 1x Changeling Titan
• 1x Worldgorger Dragon

Land (3)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Watery Grave

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Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Silence

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Ramos Dragonstorm

This is a competitive Ramos, Dragon Engine deck, based around maximizing Ramos's potential.

Ramos is a mana engine, but he only works once per turn, so he's most useful when you're trying to cast something that costs about ten mana. Enter Dragonstorm , a mana sorcery that wins the game with panache, style, and lots of fire.

Dragonstorm Basic Win Conditions

Dragon Beats

The classic. Cast Dragonstorm , and find stompy dragons to murder people in the combat step. The breakdown is basically as follows:

• First find Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund or Dragonlord Kolaghan . You want to attack with dragons, and those dragons need haste.

• Second find Atarka, World Render . She doubles your dragon damage, no muss, no fuss. Ramos, Dragon Engine (with the +1/+1 counter from casting Dragonstorm ), Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund , and Atarka, World Render is 36 damage. That can usually kill a player, even with a storm count of two.

• Third find Scourge of the Throne . He doubles your dragon damage, no muss, but a little bit of fuss. It's highly unlikely that you're on the throne, but Scourge does have to attack the person with the highest life. In theory that might be a problem, but it's never happened to me. Scourge again doubles the damage, bringing it to 96 damage, which should kill two players no problem, and probably three.

• Fourth find Dragonlord Dromoka or Scourge of Valkas , depending on whether you're worried about removal/fog or need to shoot down pesky blockers. Either of these is 5 power, and at four dragons + Ramos you're looking at 116 damage, which should wipe a table unless no one has taken any damage at all somehow. (NB: if your storm count is 4+, you should find Dromoka or Scourge of Valkas first, to either protect your dragons or to get maximum damage triggers)

So a storm count of 2, you can kill a player, and at a storm count of 3, you can probably wipe the pod. At 4+, you can also fetch removal/protection.

Changeling Loops

So changelings are dragons. Fun fact. You can find Changeling Hero , Changeling Titan , and Changeling Berserker , along with Scourge of Valkas . First find Scourge, then the Changelings. The first can champion either Ramos or Scourge; it doesn't really matter. The second champions the first, then the third champions the second, releasing the first, who champions the third, releasing the second, and so on. Infinite dragons entering the battlefield, and Scourge sees them all and blasts everyone with fire.

This has the advantage of being truly infinite damage, rather than simply quite a lot of damage, but it needs a storm count of 4+ to do anything, unlike dragon beats. It's more all or nothing.

Hellkite Charger

There is a third option: Hellkite Charger , Savage Ventmaw , Lotus Guardian , and Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund makes for infinite combat steps. As far as I can tell, this package has all of the weaknesses of the previous two: it relies on combat, and it needs a storm count of 4+ to do anything. I suppose at a storm count of 3, you can leave out the Lotus Guardian and have a number of combat steps equal to your extra mana, but that seems worse than simply killing everyone with Atarka, World Render and Scourge of the Throne .

Reasons to Play Dragonstorm

So those are the two basic flavors of Dragonstorm loops, along with some extra spice. But why would you play Dragonstorm over other decks? There are a few reasons:

• You want to play a Ramos deck. I do think this is one of the best tacks to take when building Ramos. He cheats on mana, rather than card advantage, so he's naturally suited to a win package that wants a lot of mana and not a lot of cards. That's Dragonstorm in a nutshell: you only need a storm count of 3 or 4 to win off Dragonstorm.

• You really like dragons, but are playing in a more competitive metagame. Scion of the Ur-Dragon is no longer the commander of choice for Hermit Druid stuff, so if you play cEDH but really just love dragons, Dragonstorm might be the answer. I'd describe it as pretty solidly tier 2: it wins its fair share of games, but not necessarily in every metagame.

• There's a good but not certain chance of going up against stax decks. This is a finicky one. Not all stax pieces (stax pieces are cards like Sphere of Resistance , Winter Orb , or Blood Moon , which attack resources or otherwise prevent people from enacting their game plans) are created equal. Ramos Dragonstorm can be a great answer to stax decks, because you can play through or ignore a lot of stax effects--things like Sphere of Resistance , Blood Moon , and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben don't affect Ramos that badly, since he provides mana and you only need two or three spells to win. He's still vulnerable to plenty of stax pieces, though ( Rule of Law , Grafdigger's Cage , Null Rod ). The ability to attack through the air with a big honking dragon is not to be underestimated; dedicated stax decks like Blood Pod can have a lot of trouble with battlecruiser decks, and though it's definitely plan D or E, Ramos can do a reasonable impression of one if you just leave all the +1/+1 counters on him. If I knew I was going to face stax decks, I'd pick something more solidly midrange. If I thought I might be facing stax decks, but still wanted something more proactive in case I got a faster pod, I'd choose something like Dragonstorm.

Mulligans Show

I usually look for a few things when deciding whether or not to keep a hand:

• Ramp: a hand that doesn't ramp at all is pretty dubious. That ramp could be the Vampiric Tutor -> Mana Crypt special, but it has to be something. Also take note of when you can cast Ramos. You don't need Ramos in play to win, but he sure helps; a hand that won't cast Ramos before turn 4 had better have a lot else going for it.
• Gas: a tutor of some sort (e.g. Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor ), a big draw spell ( Wheel of Fortune or Pull from Tomorrow ), or an engine ( Mystic Remora or Sylvan Library ). Of course, sometimes your hand just has everything you need to win; in all other cases, though, you need some way to get the cards you'll need into your hand. I've kept hands that are really explosive but don't have any fuel to keep going. It, uh, it doesn't work out. I don't recommend it. If the rest of the hand is great (lots of fast mana and rituals) I'd keep a hand with just a Preordain or something to see more cards, but it's riskier.
• Rituals: Ways to get counters onto Ramos. This is the least important, but often the difference between a keepable hand a genuinely good hand. Cards like Manamorphose and Abzan Charm , along with one of the aforementioned tutors to find Dragonstorm , usually mean we win if we untap with Ramos in play. Cards like Seething Song and Pyretic Ritual mean that we can win without casting Ramos. You can even ritual into Ramos himself, but be careful; gauge how much spot removal is in your opponents' hands. If they've been keeping up mana, don't risk extra cards on a Ramos that might not live. If there's a Captain Sisay who magically lived through a whole rotation, your Ramos is probably safe. Also, maybe consider killing that Sisay.
• Interaction: Psh. We put interaction in the deck so we could pretend to be good players, but we're here to smash people with dragons, not interact with people. Real talk: interaction is nice to have, but not something that usually makes or breaks an opening hand for me.

Specific Cards Show

• Jund Charm and Abzan Charm : Both of these put five counters on Ramos, Dragon Engine with a single spell. That's potent. Jund Charm is also genuinely useful: Pyroclasm is a great spell, and the graveyard hate is nice too. Abzan Charm is pretty good too, but producing can take a bit of planning ahead. It's our only white spell other than Dragonlord Dromoka , who hardly counts.

• Chain of Vapor : we can do storm things with this, bouncing our own artifacts, but it's usually unnecessary, since we need such a low storm count. Still, it's a top tier removal spell that can help us produce mana for a Ramos-less Dragonstorm in a pinch, so it's definitely in the deck.

• Dark Petition : Somewhat awkward because it only adds one counter to Ramos, so it doesn't work super well on the combo turn, and the refund on mana is a little wasted before the combo turn. I've tried Grim Tutor in this slot; the differences between the two were negligible enough that I settled on the one that's $195 cheaper. I still like having the additional tutor, though, and "somewhat awkward" is not the same as bad.

• Dragonlord Dromoka : She wins games, especially when people aren't expecting her (which is always, to be clear: who expects Dragonlord Dromoka, of all cards?). People might think spot removal is enough against Dragonstorm , but it's really best used against Ramos himself, rather than waiting and trying to hit one of the dragon murder squad. From an opponent's point of view, the danger is that you might be able to respond to a kill spell with enough instants to activate Ramos anyway, but that's much less likely than you just being able to storm to 4+ and finding Dromoka as your first Dragon.

• Firespout : a meta call. It kills things, but not Ramos-shaped things, and is multi-colored, so Ramos gets bigger. That's a lot of synergy for an already-pretty-good sweeper. But if you don't need the sweeper, you don't need the sweeper. Run Countersquall or something. Please. Tell me how it is. I want to know if Countersquall is any good. It seems like it probably is, right? It's like Negate , but adds more counters to Ramos. That's exciting.

• 3 Forest and 2 Island : to play around Blood Moon and Back to Basics . As a mostly red deck with a colorless commander, we're already pretty good into Blood Moon , but Back to Basics is still a pain. If you don't anticipate either of those cards, replace 2 Forest and 1 Island with Tarnished Citadel , Watery Grave , and Blood Crypt .

• Mind's Desire : Plan C. To be clear, Plan A is using Ramos to cast Dragonstorm . Plan B is casting a bunch of rituals and then casting Dragonstorm without Ramos. Mind's Desire is Plan C. Killing people with a giant Ramos is Plan D, and hard casting your other dragons and attacking with them is Plan E. Plan F is attacking with a bunch of Cheatyface .

• Pull from Tomorrow : In a midgame grind, if Dragonstorm got countered or some clown resolved an Aven Mindcensor , you can use Ramos to Pull from Tomorrow for 8, with your normal mana to protect it. That's pretty good. I've even considered other big draw spells like Stroke of Genius or Dragonlord's Prerogative ; for now I'm only running the one.

• Tinder Wall : Helps us cast Ramos, and doesn't need haste to be used in a storm turn. It's the same net mana as something like Pyretic Ritual . It looks plausible on paper and hasn't been bad, per se, but this is definitely card #99. (It's worse than Pyretic Ritual because we lean on rituals the most in cases where Ramos has been shut down--such as when there's a Cursed Totem in play. Also Baral, Chief of Compliance discounts Ritual and not Tinder Wall .)

• Treasonous Ogre : Yes, it's worth paying 18 life to cast Ramos, Dragon Engine . And yes, it's also worth paying 27 life to cast Dragonstorm . Just don't do both.

• Worldly Tutor : for finding Treasonous Ogre .

Notable Exclusions Show

• Enlightened Tutor : Producing isn't always guaranteed, especially early, when Enlightened Tutor is at its best.

• Silence : Strong interaction. The same issue as Enlightened Tutor , but slightly better because you're less likely to want to cast Silence on turn one or two.

• Negate and Countersquall : Over Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm . A matter of personal preference and metagame.

• Ad Nauseam : 🤔

WIP below

Budget Alternatives Show

Buy a color printer and a pair of scissors.

The problem here is that cEDH staples are expensive, but so are big stompy dragons, because casual EDH can drive prices. Dragonlord Kolaghan is over $8, and she's kinda garbage. Dragonlord Dromoka is over $10, and Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund is over $20. Now, the changeling package is much cheaper: the changelings are about 30¢ and Scourge of Valkas is about 50¢. So I'd run the changeling package, then a manabase of painlands and Battlebond lands and fast lands, then replace the expensive card draw like Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister with Dragonlord's Prerogative and Opportunity , and the expensive tutors with cheap card draw like Night's Whisper and Read the Bones , and the expensive counterspellls like Mana Drain and Pact of Negation with cheap counterspells like Counterspell , Negate and Countersquall , and the expensive mana rocks like Mana Crypt and Grim Monolith with rocks like Talisman of Dominance and Izzet Signet .

Tuning for a more casual metagame Show

Dragonstorm is awesome, but sitting down at a casual table with a cEDH deck is definitely not awesome.

The place to dial back the power is in the ramp: you can switch the fast mana ( Mana Crypt , Chrome Mox , etc.) out with either slower mana rocks (Signets, Talismans) or no ramp at all, depending on the speed of your playgroup.

Tune the removal to the metagame; consider replacing Firespout and Fire Covenant with Damnation and Blasphemous Act . Spell Pierce and Carpet of Flowers might be less useful, so you can replace them with Izzet Charm and Elves of Deep Shadow or something. Increasing Savagery is sweet, maybe you can fit that in somewhere.

You shouldn't cut the card draw or tutors; you need those to consistently cast Dragonstorm . In a more casual pod, the goal is just to cast Dragonstorm a little later. Since you have more time to set up, you can even be a little more consistent: cards like Increasing Ambition and Grozoth , which are a little too slow for cEDH, suddenly become options. You have a little more time to sculpt your hand, so cards like Tinder Wall and Orcish Lumberjack can become Night's Whisper or even Serum Visions .

Lastly, when I say cut the ramp I mean the mana dorks and rocks, not the rituals. Cards like Dark Ritual and Seething Song are really easy ways of building storm count, and necessary if you're going to win without Ramos in play. Keep them in the deck.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 1 Mythic Rares 53 - 3 Rares 15 - 3 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.38
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C
Based on	Ramos Dragonstorm gryffin828 EDH