White’s catch-up ramp can be a great way to get a lot of mana going in Commander. But how can you best make it work, and limit the times it’ll brick?
Although green is firmly the color of ramp in Commander, I would go as far as to say that white comes in a close second. In fact, I feel like the majority of games I play W/X decks, I am ahead on lands by the end of the game.
Still, there are also countless times where I’m sitting with a piece of white’s catch-up ramp in my hand, wondering when I’ll get to cast it. How can you increase your consistency when ramping in white?
WHITE CATCH-UP RAMP
A good proportion of white’s ramp is “catch-up” – that is, it only functions if someone is ahead of you on land drops. So, to effectively ramp with it, you need to be behind a player when you use it. And, what’s more, if you include multiple pieces of it in your deck, you somehow need to catch-up but still stay behind in order to make it work – either that or be happy to just drop a creature.
As such, you really don’t enjoy going first in a pod when you’re playing cards like Land Tax, as they will struggle to fire unless a green player ahead of you not only ramps, but hits all of their land drops. That said, if you do go first, you get the tempo advantage. As long as you play enough lands in your deck to hit all of your land drops – and you hit some alternate ramp like mana rocks or equipment – you can still get ahead.
catch-up RAMP VS ACTUAL RAMP
The first decision point when building in white is balancing how much catch-up ramp you run vs how much actual ramp you run. You can of course run cards that generate treasure, like Smothering Tithe, but that’s not what we’re focusing on here today.
The poster child for this mechanic of catch-up is Knight of the White Orchid. Though it has had many analogous cards printed, it remains arguably the best, because it’s two mana, and it can bring an untapped land. That means on turn three, you can play it alongside another two drop.
What’s so key about playing these cards is remembering to use them before you make your land drop, and to do so as soon as possible. The longer the game goes, the less chance they have of working. In 2024 Commander, people tend to trend greedy on manabases, relying on rocks and treasure, meaning that you might just out-land them by making your land drops naturally. Also, it means wrathing artifacts is good too 😉
If you’re playing Knight of the White Orchid in your deck, I encourage you also to think about sequencing your lands on turn one and two. Make sure to try and build toward double white for turn two, because there’s nothing worse than sequencing “backwards” and losing your shot at grabbing a land because you need to play your second white source as your third land.
“Surefire” land ramp is available in white, and I think it’s an area you shouldn’t pass up. Though it does invoke tension between catch-up cards and ramping, you’d almost always rather ramp ahead on land drops and then have a vanilla creature, than be behind on land drops. It does tend to be more expensive and harder to achieve than in green, though, so you will be paying more for it.
Speaking of paying more for it, how much should your catch-up-ramp cost? Well, in my experience, unless you’re going hard on enabling your catch-up ramp (which I’ll cover later in the article), it starts to drop off in value as soon as you go above two mana. Yes, you heard me. I’ve been testing Claim Jumper since it came out, and the only time it got me two lands was in the extreme late game against a green deck, which ended up not being worth it because I needed to draw literally anything else.
Otherwise, it’s only ever gotten me one land, and at that, maybe only 30% of the time, tops. Turn 3-4 seems to be about the point that the first players start missing land drops, and especially if you ramped already with another catch-up-card – or a ramp piece – then you’re not going to be able to trigger it. Still, I think Claim Jumper is still worth running, where Keeper of the Accord probably isn’t so much unless you’re in Soldiers.
In a lot of decks, you’re going to be better off taking Archaeomancer’s Map first, and in some decks, like Orzhov, I’d even run Gift of Estates for the mana fixing. Orzhov is greedy on pips.
Before I move on, I want to discuss this anomalous little entry: Deep Gnome Terramancer. This card is great, but it can also do diddly squat. It requires you to be playing cards like Path to Exile, but it also requires opponents to play lots of fetchlands and/or Cultivate effects. It’s a real YMMV card, and some decks don’t have use for a 2/2 and would rather curve out.
THE SECRET TO ENABLING CATCH-UP RAMP
The secret to enabling catch-up ramp is to have a playgroup that doesn’t miss land drops. Jokes aside, it does have a big impact.
In lieu of something entirely out of your control, look to your manabase. Running lands that sacrifice themselves is a great way to reduce your land count. Lotus Vale and Lotus Field are ideal for this.
There are also multiple bouncelands in white that help to keep your land count lower. You even have a new desert themed one now from OTJ. These also make MDFC lands that much better, so if you play both, you can squeeze out a lot of utility.
Remember that in white, your card draw is a lot better than it used to be, but that isn’t a reason why you can’t run a Cryptic Caves or other sacrifice land that draws a card. It helps your long-term plans.
You should also be playing all of the removal that gives an opponent a land. These cards are less good the higher power you go, but at most Casual tables where you’re ramping in white, they do a great job of keeping your land count down to enable your ramp.
Winds of Abandon is just a great boardwipe, it has to be said. It’s a way to remove blockers in a similar way to Cyclonic Rift, and for that, you should be thankful.
Likewise, an instant speed wrath is excellent at four mana, and Settle is even better because it can enable catch-up ramp.
The other thing it enables is you to ramp. If you have a tokens deck, this is a ramp card. You just shove a bunch of tokens in to attack, and then exile them during End of Combat. Boom, you just ramped yourself three to six lands. That’s insane.
LEAN INTO WHITE’S STRENGTH
Playing Settle like that leans into white’s strengths. There are other cards that do that, too.
Sword of the Animist and Sword of Hearth and Home are incredible, and the majority of white decks would love to play them. If you’re wanting to ramp in white and come on top with land count late game, these are the tools to do so. Hearth and Home also lets you flicker your creatures, which can actually enable buybacks of catch-up ramp cards if you’ve been playing enough cards to make land counts disparate.
These are well worth the “price” of turning off your other pieces.
Legion’s Landing is one I don’t see very often, but is actually really easy to turn on in a lot of white decks. Attacking with three creatures is actually quite easy.
RECURSION
A big part of ramping in white is using recursion. Don’t be afraid to use Sevinne’s Reclamation to ramp with, if it’s the right tempo play.
If you really want to ramp in white, this is where the fun begins. Redemption Choir and Sun Titan are eminently flickerable, and if you make sure to run enough fetchlands in your deck (or lands like Roadside Reliquary) then you’re off to the races.
Having a cheeky Ephemerate and/or Parting Gust in your deck is the way to go, as while they can be used to dodge removal, they can also just be slammed as value plays. If a player just ramped two lands into play, you can end step flicker your Knight of the White Orchid with Ephemerate, and then enjoy getting a second land on your upkeep.
BALANCING YOUR RAMP
To make sure catch-up effects do enough for you, you basically need to play the best ones, and balance out the rest of your mana effects based on what your deck wants to do.
Cost reduction is always good, and given 1/1 tokens are so abusable with Skullclamp, then Oketra’s Monument is oftentimes gonna be better than a card like Boreas Charger.
White also tends to put a lot of pips into play, making Nyx Lotus an underrated pick.
END STEP
White decks can ramp with the best of them – they just need to have a gameplan and make sure to balance catch-up effects with actual solid ramp. Lean into white’s strengths, through tokens, flicker and recursion, and your ramp engine will be online.
For more on this kind of strategy, read my article on the BAE (The Boros Advantage Engine).
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.