In Commander, Erode is a Ramp Spell – So Play It That Way

Cultured enjoyers of Path to Exile and Settle the Wreckage have long leveraged them as ramp spells. Secrets of Strixhaven brings a new removal spell that gives the target’s controller the opportunity to ramp in Erode. If you’re not thinking about this card in a modal way, you’re missing out.

ERODE IS A POWERFUL NEW REMOVAL SPELL

At just one mana, Erode is in hallowed company alongside Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Dispatch and Condemn – the cheapest white creature removal. Having removal at one mana is crucial to allowing yourself to win the “trade off” in tempo. Essentially, by spending one mana on a removal spell to remove a three, four or even five mana creature, you’re spending less mana.

Naturally, one mana removal spells are either hard to cast – like Dispatch, that requires metalcraft – or they all come with a trade off. 

For Condemn and Swords to Plowshares, it’s giving the opponent life. Path to Exile, Winds of Abandon and newcomer Erode? They give the opponent a tapped basic land. 

PICKING THE RIGHT REMOVAL IS CRUCIAL

You have to watch out when you give your opponent resources. Looking to blue, Pongify and Rapid Hybridization give the opponent a 3/3. While a 3/3 might be forgettable in a game of Commander – especially if you can outpace it with your own creatures – giving them a huge chunk of like when you remove their 10/10 attacker might make them harder to kill later if you’re on an aggro gameplan. 

Likewise, giving an opponent a free land can often help them out a lot – especially if they’re missing land drops. Do you have catch-up based ramp, like Knight of the White Orchid and Claim Jumper, that let you get Plains cards (including the likes of Sacred Foundry and Turbulent Moor)?

MAKE YOUR REMOVAL MODAL IN WHITE DECKS

The secret to getting the most out of Erode in Commander is to play it as a ramp spell that can also be a removal spell. That’s the use case where this card will excel. White is the second best color at ramping lands in the format, behind only green – but only if you know how to build that way.

I have an article that goes in depth on this approach to generating value particularly in red-white, but these foundational aspects of deckbuilding work great in Orzhov/Silverquill and Azorios, too, especially when you are going wide with tokens. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Silverquill, the Disputant is an excellent deck to try this out in.

When you want to fire off an Erode or Path to Exile in Silverquill, you can sacrifice a token to copy it. That allows you to perform any combination of:

• Remove two opposing creatures
• Remove one opposing creature and one of your own tokens, allowing you to ramp a land
• Remove two of your own tokens, ramping yourself twice for one mana

HOW TO BUILD A DECK THAT CAN CAPITALIZE ON WHITERAMP & REMOVAL

In order to set yourself up the best to get the most ramp out of your white deck, you need to keep a few things in mind when deckbuilding. Firstly, if your Commander isn’t integral to your strategy or a value engine, picking a Commander that either makes tokens, or enables flicker is a good starting point.

I’ve been excited to upgrade my Hofri Ghostforge deck with Erode, as it’ll allow me to re-trigger EtB creatures when Hofri is in play without having to have a sacrifice outlet – and as a bonus, ramp myself with a land. Usually I’ll grab a Basic Plains to help me get toward Emeria the Sky Ruin quicker. Other good choices are Jirina Kudro, who brings a token with her, or a straight up tokens deck Commander like Teysa Karlov. 

Next, you want to be running some catchup ramp. By using removal like Erode and Path to Exile, you naturally will end up behind on land drops. Archaeomancer’s Map, Deep Gnome Terramancer and Scholar of New Horizons are all fantastic options alongside Knight of the White Orchid. 

Keeping the lands flowing from Land Tax needs opponents to be ahead on lands. While your removal can do this –  including Emergency Eject, which for decks that are aggressive, is better than Generous Gift – you also want bouncelands and lands like Lotus Field, which set you behind on land drops, turning your catch-up ramping effects back on. 

END STEP

Playing Erode in Commander is about more than using it as a removal spell. It’s a ramp spell when used correctly, and using it in this way will pay dividends. By setting up your deck to include ways to cash in your creatures and tokens to self-ramp when you don’t need to use removal, you can get quite far ahead. 

You can also run arguably the best white ramp spell, Settle the Wreckage, if you’re going wide enough with tokens. This one is fantastic, and you should run it more often. If you’re worried about losing your best attackers? Well, that’s what Reconnaissance is for.