Ramos, Dragon Engine is featured in Magic: The Gathering’s Foundations set and is one of the many legendary creatures that can be your commander. The card has been around since its release in 2017, and is one of the more popular commanders thanks to having a WUBRG (all colors) color identity.
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There are a ton of different ways to build Ramos, from Shrines to Rooms to Dragons. This particular guide will be looking at Ramos as a five color toolbox deck, featuring various cards that support casting spells of multiple colors and payoffs for doing so.
Decklist
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Commander: Ramos, Dragon Engine |
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Aragorn, the Uniter |
Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice |
Birds of Paradise |
Chromanticore |
Corpsejack Menace |
Dryad of the Ullysian Grove |
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Faeburrow Elder |
Fallaj Wayfarer |
General Ferrous Rokiric |
Illuna, Apex of Wishes |
Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile |
Jodah, Archmage Eternal |
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Maelstrom Archangel |
Maelstrom Wanderer |
Omnath, Locus of All |
Progenitus |
Shalai and Hallar |
Two-Headed Hellkite |
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Blasphemous Act |
Conflux |
Cultivate |
Farseek |
Kodama’s Reach |
Nature’s Lore |
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Rampant Growth |
Ruinous Ultimatum |
Three Visits |
Villainous Wealth |
Abzan Charm |
Beast Within |
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Brokers Charm |
Crosis’s Charm |
Endless Detour |
Growth Spiral |
Jund Charm |
Naya Charm |
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Path to Exile |
Sultai Charm |
Swords to Plowshares |
Unite the Coalition |
Void Rend |
Arcane Signet |
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Chimil, the Inner Sun |
Chromatic Lantern |
Commander’s Sphere |
Door to Nothingness |
Fellwar Stone |
Fist of Suns |
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Lightning Greaves |
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire |
Sol Ring |
Swiftfoot Boots |
The Ozolith |
Timeless Lotus |
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Annie Joins Up |
Hardened Scales |
Innkeeper’s Talent |
Leyline Immersion |
Leyline of Mutation |
Leyline of the Guildpact |
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Maelstrom Nexus |
Mayael’s Aria |
Simic Ascendancy |
Widespread Thieving |
Canopy Vista |
Cascading Cataracts |
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Cinder Glade |
Clifftop Retreat |
Command Tower |
Deserted Beach |
Dragonskull Summit |
Dreamroot Cascade |
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Drowned Catacomb |
Exotic Orchard |
x2 Forest |
Glacial Fortress |
Haunted Ridge |
Hinterland Harbor |
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Island |
Isolated Chapel |
Karn’s Bastion |
Mountain |
Path of Ancestry |
x2 Plains |
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Prairie Stream |
Rockfall Vale |
Rootbound Crag |
Smoldering Marsh |
Stormcarved Coast |
Sulfur Falls |
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Sundown Pass |
Sunken Hollow |
Sunpetal Grove |
Swamp |
The World Tree |
Woodland Cemetery |
The decklist contains 18 creatures, 11 sorceries, 13 instants, 13 artifacts, ten enchantments, and 34 lands. Almost every card in the deck is multi-colored to ensure Ramos will be triggering for multiple colors.
Key Cards
Ramos, Dragon Engine
Ramos, Dragon Engine is the main attraction of the deck. It can rapidly grow its stats with +1/+1 counters, which can then be turned into ten total mana. Since each color of a spell gives Ramos a counter, one spell that’s all colors will give Ramos enough counters to immediately use its effect. This makes it so even weaker WUBRG spells are worth playing to grow Ramos quicker.
Even though Ramos, Dragon Engine is technically colorless (it has mana symbols in its rule text), it is considered WUBRG for its color identity.
There are two separate uses for Ramos, either for damage or for ramp. Being able to generate ten mana easily is very powerful, and lets you cast any spell in the deck without ever needing to tap lands. With how quickly Ramos’ stats grow, it makes it a formidable attacker to quickly close out games with commander damage.
Aragorn, The Uniter
You are casting a ton of spells of different colors, making Aragorn, the Uniter a powerful card in the deck. If you cast a spell that includes one white and one blue mana, the effect of Aragorn to create a 1/1 token and scry two will both trigger – meaning Aragorn will trigger multiple effects for multi-colored spells.
Black is the only color that doesn’t trigger Aragorn. An easy way to remember when you need to pay attention to a trigger is if the spell you cast has colors that appear in Aragorn’s casting cost.
Thanks to Aragorn’s casting cost, this will help support your commander by giving Ramos four counters, and help to advance your board presence with every additional spell being cast. The 5/5 statline makes it a solid attacker and defender as well.
Omnath, Locus Of All
Omnath, Locus of All is both a way to ramp and a way to generate excess mana without losing it. Any unspent mana becomes black, and you retain this black mana until you either use it, or the phase after Omnath leaves the battlefield. You can dump any unused mana into your mana pool at the end step before your turn begins, and start your turn with a ton of black mana.
Omnath will give you extra mana to use with its other effect, allowing you to use an extra three mana at your precombat main phase. The three mana symbols needed to be revealed do not all need to be different. The mana you generate is limited to what colors are in the mana cost. Regardless, the card will always go into your hand to give you card advantage.
Conflux
Conflux is the best tutor you can play in a WUBRG deck. You will always be able to tutor for five separate cards and put them directly into your hand. While it is a bit costly, if you have five counters on Ramos, that can pay for the entire cost so you can cast the spells you searched for.
You can add multi-colored spells for Conflux. Each spell only counts for one of its colors. For example, you can add Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile (a green/white card) for the green card, and Faeburrow Elder (also green/white) can be used for the white card, adding two cards of the same color identity.
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How To Play The Deck
A Ramos, Dragon Engine Commander deck is all about casting spells of multiple colors to quickly grow Ramos with +1/+1 counters. Once a turn, you can remove five to add two mana of every color to cast a ton of spells. This is more powerful with Jodah, Archmage Eternal and Fist of Suns, which let you cast spells with one mana of every color instead of their usual casting cost.
Since you’re playing a deck with all five colors, cards that let you tap for lands for any color are especially important to make sure you’ll always have the right mana. Dryad of the Illysian Grove, Chromatic Lantern, and The World Tree all help to achieve this. In addition, there’s a larger-than-average ramp package to make it easier to get the right lands out from your library.
There are a few win conditions in the deck. The easiest is winning through commander damage. Since Ramos can quickly grow its stats and has flying, it becomes much easier to deal the required 21 points of combat damage to an opponent.
You can also utilize instant win cards Simic Ascendancy (have 20 counters on it) and Mayael’s Aria (have a creature with power 20 or greater). Both are made easier to accomplish with The Ozolith, which can keep the counters from Ramos around if it’s ever removed so you don’t lose all your progress.
The biggest downside of the deck is the mana. By its nature, five color decks can sometimes struggle to have the right colors to cast the spells in your hand. While ramp and artifacts can help mitigate this, you still have to draw those cards.
However, once you have access to all your colors, you can start snowballing with the game, made easier since you don’t need any colored mana to cast Ramos itself.
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