Playing one land a turn is so passé. Much better to use one of the best MTG mana ramp cards to shoot out expensive spells while your opponents are still warming up. The best mana ramp cards are found in green, but there are good options available in any colour. Check out the top mana ramp spells below.
Once you’ve got an idea of the best MTG mana ramp cards, you might also want to check out the best MTG commanders, and the top MTG planeswalkers, to continue building up your deck.
Sol Ring
Sorry to be such a normie, but we’re putting Sol Ring in first. Good old Sol Ring – the most played MTG mana ramp card in Commander, because it’s the most played card in Commander, full stop. There’s no other card that gives you two mana for one with no downside, and this ultra-consistent ramp card can go in any EDH deck, making it an auto-include for most people who aren’t making a conscious effort to be hipster.
Mirari’s Wake
There’s a point in most Commander games where a ramp deck goes from having plenty of mana, to having near infinite mana. Turn five isn’t always the right time to start ramping, but doubling your mana is always powerful and enables plenty of fun plays. Mirari’s Wake is also great because it isn’t just a mana ramp card, it also gives all your creatures a minor buff, making it great for Selesnya token decks.
Urza’s Mine / Urza’s Power Plant / Urza’s Tower
The three Urza MTG land cards work together to form an interesting type of mana ramp. They’re fairly useless on their own, but assemble all three and you get a whopping seven mana from just three lands. This some-assembly-required quality gives the cards their collective nickname, the Tron lands (think Voltron). They’re the key cards in the infamous Tron Modern archetype, which relies on their absurd mana ramp potential to bring out scary threats way ahead of schedule.
Cultivate
You might be shocked to hear this, but Cultivate is the fourth most popular Commander card, according to EDHREC. It’s a staple in any deck that has access to green because it’s damn consistent. While it only accelerates your mana by one, it fixes your colours, and gets an extra land to your hand, ensuring you hit all your land drops for turn.
Smothering Tithe
While it’s gained new tools recently, white isn’t a colour known for its mana ramp cards. That makes Smothering Tithe very popular, as it’s one of the few good options available to mono white decks. In Commander it’s absurdly strong, churning out treasure tokens whenever your opponents draw cards. Its best feature, of course, is you get to raise one eyebrow and smugly ask the question: Do you want to pay the two?
Arcane Signet
A relatively new MTG mana ramp card, Arcane Signet was first printed for Thrones of Eldraine in 2019. Designed specifically for brawl or EDH it gets you one mana of any colour in your commander’s colour identity. Like Sol Ring did years before it, it fast became a firm auto-include in Commander decks, providing straightforward, no nonsense efficiency.
Solemn Simulacrum
Solemn Simulacrum is an MTG mana ramp card with plenty of utility. Not only does it ramp you when you play it, it even replaces itself when it dies. Most Solemn Simulacrum’s live an ignoble and short life, swiftly thrown in front of the nearest threat to chump block. But if you have flicker effects to hand, you can get endless value from this card’s useful ETB. The colourless mana cost and artifact typing is just the cherry on top.
The Great Henge
A bit of a rogue entry on our list, since The Great Henge is a better green card draw spell than it is a powerful MTG mana ramp card. However, I’d argue that just makes it the total package. It absolutely dominated during its time in Standard, and now slots into any green EDH deck. You get to draw tons of cards, buff your creatures, gain life, and ramp two mana. In some circumstances, you’ll pay two mana for endless value.
Cabal Coffers / Tolarian Academy / Gaea’s Cradle
We’re sticking all these lands together for ease. While Gaea’s Cradle is older, rarer and more expensive, it’s roughly equivalent in its value as an MTG mana ramp card. All of these cards can provide absurd value in the right decks – getting more than one mana from a single land is always fantastic, and the ceiling on these is so, so high.
Mana Crypt
On every MTG banlist except for Commander (it’s also only Restricted in Vintage) Mana Crypt is an absurdly strong MTG mana ramp card. In most Commander decks it’s basically a second Sol Ring that sometimes shoots you in the face, but what’s three life when you start with 40? It’s also free, which doesn’t hurt.
Noble/Ignoble Hierarch
The best mana dorks in Modern, Noble Hierarch and her ignoble cousin are tiny creatures that provide plenty of value for their one mana cost. They not only ramp you in up to three colours, they also have the exalted keyword, making your creatures an itty bit more effective when they attack alone.