White has always been the worst at ramping and card draw in Magic: The Gathering. The color is traditionally terrible at both. But at some point the constant complaints must’ve reached Wizards’ ears, as the color’s had a reversal in fortunes in recent years. Here we’ll look at the best example of white mana ramp cards. These are the white cards you should bring to the table if you have a mono-white deck, but want to be able to play some costly, mana-intensive spells.
Most of these white mana ramp cards are for the Commander format, as that’s where this MTG color really needs to be ramping the most. The best MTG Arena decks in white are usually aiming to finish the game fast and don’t need a big top-end – but Commander decks always need some MTG Mana Ramp to come out on top.
Land Tax
A lot of white mana ramp cards are all about fairness. It certainly doesn’t feel fair when the green player at your table drops several lands in a row, and that’s when a card like Land Tax comes into its own. Provided you’re not the player with the most lands at the table, Land Tax will pop an amazing three basic MTG lands into your hand every single turn. You’ll never miss a land drop again, and this also really helps to filter your deck, ensuring you’re less likely to whiff on a later draw.
Smothering Tithe
Smothering Tithe, along with Rhystic Study and Esper Sentinel, is part of a small group of cards designed to take advantage of other people’s greed. Magic players love drawing cards. They hate paying two mana to draw those cards. The upshot of that is: they’re going to let you have the treasure, and more often than not.
In a four player Commander game, Smothering Tithe can easily bag you five or six treasures per turn, and if the other players let the card sit on the table unchallenged, it can easily catapult you to victory. It’s widely recognised as the best white mana ramp spell in the game.
Verge Rangers
Verge Rangers is not technically a white mana ramp spell – it doesn’t accelerate your mana. But what the card does do is make your deck operate more consistently, allowing you to play lands from the top of your deck, and dodge the dissatisfaction of a late land draw. The constant scry is also pretty handy, giving you slightly advance warning of what’s coming up in your deck. It’s not exactly ramp or card draw, yet it fulfills the purpose of both.
Deep Gnome Terramancer
Deep Gnome Terramancer is another example of a card that punishes your opponents’ ramp spells, getting you plains whenever they bring a land out that wasn’t played. The gnome has flash, so you can plop it down in response just as your foe cracks an Evolving Wilds (it triggers off Fetchlands too). As gotcha’s go, this one’s always struck us as a little odd. We don’t anticipate many players holding back on ramping just because you’ll get to ramp too (as we mentioned, Magic players are greedy.) Ah well, whatever the reason, it has the ability, so perhaps it can pick off a 1/1 token for you.
Boreas Charger
Boreas Charger can make a really big difference to a game, as it’s able to bring out multiple lands directly onto the field. Whether you’re using it to catch up with a breakaway green player on a ramping rampage, or to save yourself after some disastrous missed land drops, getting the effect of this pegasus is always going to feel good. The bad part is you need someone to kill it for you, so it’s best played with sacrifice or flicker effects.
Archeomancer’s Map
Archeomancer’s Map is another card following the ‘fairness’ motif that’s probably becoming quite familiar by now. It’ll get you lands to your hand however the game is going. Then, unless you’re somehow in first place on land count, it’ll let you cheat those lands into play too. As we’re sure you can guess, it feels pretty great playing lands on your opponents’ turns.
Smuggler’s Share
What’s better than a white mana ramp card? How about a white mana ramp card that’s also a white card draw spell? That’s what you get with Smuggler’s Share which lets you draw cards or create treasures whenever your opponents do something that’s not in white’s slice of the color pie. It’s particular fab, because this card triggers on every end step, meaning you’re almost guaranteed to get some value out of it.
Master of Ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies is a similar multi-purpose white card, though it’s symmetrical, both you and your opponents will get the effect. The key of course, is that you’ll get three lots of its reward, whereas your opponents will only get one. Sometimes this will just make you some 1/1 tokens, and it’s a shame the opponents get to pick its effect. However, usually, greed will triumph once again, and you’ll get something good.
Check out this guide on how to build an MTG Commander deck for our foolproof tips to assembling the 99. And if you can’t pick a leader for your EDH deck, these are our picks for the best MTG commanders.