Top 15 Mana Ramps in cEDH

This article is the first of a series where I will bring you the best cards of each type, in the cEDH Metagame, to start I will elaborate on the best accelerations of the format, and where they play the most.

Ramps are the foundation of most cEDH decks.

The accelerations included in this list were selected due to the relationship between their cost and the amount of mana they can provide, number of activations, their limitations and drawbacks, in addition to their frequency and usability in the main decks of the format.

15. Culling Ritual

This spell has been heavily played since its release, as it manages to clear many problematic permanents from the battlefield and even replenishes mana. Many times it generates more mana than you have spent. The fact is that in addition to cleaning the STAX pieces, it also gives us mana advantage, but since it is a mana black and green spell, it ends up seeing little play since green currently doesn't have the same priority it once had.

14. Lion's Eye Diamond

This artifact works like a Black Lotus to generate mana, but to add three mana with it, you must discard your hand as a cost. However, it is still possible to use your mana to cast spells, as long as they are not in your hand. It can be used on cards with Escape, Flashback, or cards that can be cast from exile, and it can be broken after casting a tutor to hand or wheel to use this mana after the spell resolves.

13. Gemstone Caverns

This land is often used in cEDH decks, given its quality of functioning as a Chrome Mox, as long as you are not the first player and as long as it is in your starting hand, i.e. it is rare to occur but still is a turn 0 ramp, allowing you to have one mana before any other player has any mana available.

12. Ancient Tomb

Another land, but unlike the previous one, this one can enter at any time in the game, and it will still be a ramp of two colorless mana. It allows you to be one turn ahead of your opponents, for the small cost of losing two life per activation.

11. Lotus Petal

This cost rock that can be sacrificed to generate a mana of any color, speeding you up a little on colored mana, if combined with other colorless ramps, it's possible to make numerous relevant plays. Most format spells cost a colored mana or two, so Lotus Petal can be a good boost.

10. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

This little monkey, released last year, has become almost indispensable on red decks. When properly used, Ragavan can be a repeatable mana source for its controller, generating one per turn and still allowing us to use the opponents' cards.

9. Mox Opal

One of my favorite mana rocks, this Mox like its sisters is a zero-mana artifact that can generate one mana of any color, but it has Metalcraft, which makes it depend on the existence of two more artifacts controlled by you to generate mana, making it impossible for you to use is as long as it is your only artifact on the battlefield or when you only have one more besides it.

8. Jeweled Lotus

Another card that attempts to simulate Black Lotus, but with the restriction that the mana provided by this card can only be used to cast the commander. Which makes it a very efficient ramp for decks that commanders cost at least 3 mana with a flexible cost. As an example, we can mention: Tasigur, the Golden Fang, where this card works as 4 mana to cast it, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom in which the mana of this lotus is enough to cast her. However, there are still decks that have commanders that won't see much use for the card like: Thrasios, Triton Hero, Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.

7. Mana Vault

This mana rock works like a ritual, costing and generating by tapping it, but you don't need to tap it imediatelly to use it, unlike a ritual that you have to spend on the turn you cast, Mana Vault can be untapped, and reused, which makes it one of the main positive mana rocks in the format, and can be used in any deck.

6. Dark Ritual

One of the best rituals in the game, for one mana, without any additional cost, generates you three black mana, at instant speed, making it possible to accelerate Ad Nauseam, or commanders like Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper. Due to its efficiency, Dark Ritual is a very difficult card not to be present and lists with this color.

5. Sol Ring

The Commander's best-known Staple could not be left out of this article as the absolute and widely played ramp inside and outside cEDH, for being a very accessible positive mana rock and guaranteeing extra mana every turn, without any drawback,

4. Mana Crypt

An improved version of Sol Ring, costing no mana and generating the same amount of mana as it does, but with a drawback of having a chance to deal 3 damage to yourself on every upkeep, which is a small price to play when compared to the acceleration provided by it.

3. Chrome Mox

As expected one more Mox on this list, Chrome Mox, unlike Mox Opal, can generate mana alone, but it has imprint and can only generate mana the color of the exiled card. It's a zero-cost mana rock that will grant you an extra mana from the moment it hits the board and at the cost of the worst card in your hand.

2. Mox Diamond

Just like the previous one, Mox Diamond can add mana the moment it comes into play, it costs , but unlike Chrome Mox, it doesn't depend on the exiled card color, you have to discard a land or sacrifice it, and it works like a rainbow land, generating mana of any color regardless of the discarded land, which makes it better than Chrome Mox.

1. Dockside Extortionist

One of the cards responsible for giving relevance to red, Dockside Extortionist is incredibly powerful, mainly because the Metagame is filled with artifact-based ramps, in addition to card advantage enchantments and others relevant cards that are either artifacts, or enchantments, and that only make this card even stronger and more relevant, to the point of dedicating slots to cards that can bounce it due to the extra mana that Extortionist can guarantee. Playing it can be the difference between winning and losing in a game.

Unlike almost every artifact on this list, Dockside Extortionist and other red ramps are a point to consider when building decks, making countless decks worse simply because they don't have access to red.

There are other ramps that were considered for this article, but they ended up in positions below those mentioned, if you disagree with any of them, put it in the comments and also which ramp you would add to the list instead.

Thanks for reading!