Having trouble finding good ramp cards for your white Commander deck? You’re not alone. There haven’t been many white ramp spells printed in the 30-year history of Magic: The Gathering.
Not to worry, we’ve got a list of the best white ramp spells to accelerate your deck toward victory.
Because ramp isn’t part of white’s color pie, MTG makes it jump through hoops to get ahead on mana. In the case of white, that usually means catch-up cards. These cards will get lands out of your deck and into play, but only if another player has more lands than you.
The classic white ramp strategy is pairing these catch-up cards like Claim Jumper with bounce lands. Bounce lands will leave you with the same amount of mana, but you’ll have fewer lands in play, thus making it easy to trigger the catch-up triggers. Examples include Guildless Commons and Karoo.
There’s also a handful of powerful colorless artifacts to consider as well. Think about cards like Wayfarer’s Bauble, Sword of the Animist, and Solemn Simulacrum. Not to mention the typical mana rocks like Arcane Signet, or the overpowered Mana Crypt.
This list focuses on white ramp cards that any Commander strategy can run. Our goal is to use ramp that is consistent and comes down early when it is most beneficial or has a huge impact. We have also excluded cards that don’t put lands into play, as those are card advantage and not ramp. Sorry, Land Tax.
With all that considered, here is our list of the Top 10 Best White Ramp Cards in MTG for Commander & EDH:
#1 Smothering Tithe
Smothering Tithe is one of the best cards in Commander and easily a top ten white card overall. It snowballs very quickly, making one to two treasures per player per turn. If there’s only one ramp card in your white deck, this is the one you want.
#2 Archaeomancer’s Map
Archaeomancer’s Map is the white Cultivate. What makes it so effective is that when combined with other cards like Land Tax and Tithe, you’ll always be matching the best player in the game on lands.
#3 Keeper of the Accord
Keeper of the Accord is one of the better catch-up cards in white. The chump blockers go a long way, and after a full turn cycle, you should be caught up to the best player.
Keeper is also very easy to cast, thanks to having only one white pip in its mana cost.
#4 Sand Scout
White has a few catch-up 2-drops, with Sand Scout being the best of them. Deserts are more powerful utility lands than plains, which is why Sand Scout is first on the list out of these 2-drops. Getting something like a Scavenger Grounds can be a pretty big deal.
#5 Loyal Warhound
Loyal Warhound is next up for the 2-drop catch-up creatures in white. It’s easy to cast and gets the job done. The downside here is that you only get basic Plains.
#6 Claim Jumper
Fresh off of Outlaws of Thunder Junction is Claim Jumper. It can potentially double-ramp you. When you’re running white, you generally want to run bounce lands to make these catch-up cards trigger. Pair Claim Jumper with cards like Arid Archway to make it a formidable ramp spell.
#7 Knight of the White Orchid
The OG catch-up creature in white is Knight of the White Orchid. Unlike Loyal Warhound, it can grab any Plains, not just basic ones. On the downside, it costs double white, which makes it a lot more difficult to cast in multicolor decks on turns 2 and 3.
If you’re a mono-white deck and not running too many colorless utility lands, this will be better than Loyal Warhound, thanks to the flexibility to grab utility Plains.
#8 Scholar of New Horizons
Scholar of New Horizons has to fight through summoning sickness before it goes off, but once it does, you’ll have a recurring card advantage and ramp card. You always get a land, even if you’re ahead on land, which is a nice upside compared to other catch-up creatures.
If your deck runs counters in a meaningful way, this can become one of the best ramp cards in your deck (other than Smothering Tithe, of course). It works well with creatures with undying, for instance. It can also remove -1 counters or stun counters from your creatures.
#9 Cartographer’s Hawk
Cartographer’s Hawk can be used multiple times. So why isn’t it better than Loyal Warhound? Well, it takes an extra turn to work because you have to hit a player with it.
The Hawk is playable, as there’s usually a couple of players who don’t have blockers for fliers early game, and most won’t waste a removal spell on something so insignificant. You can also pitch it to Solitude when it’s back in your hand or discard it to your benefit with another effect.
#10 Path to Exile
But Path to Exile is a removal spell, isn’t it? Well, yes, but it’s also a one-mana Rampant Growth. Nothing is quite as satisfying as evoking a Mulldrifter and casting Path to Exile on it before it hits the bin.
Path to Exile makes an excellent ramp card if you’re running a good number of creatures and is well worth using on a token or no longer useful creature.
Those are our top ten picks for the best white ramp cards in Commander and EDH in MTG!
If you’re building a white deck, you might also be interested in reading our article on the best white card draw in Commander.
READ MORE: MTG 12 Best Equipment Cards in Commander
