Table of Contents
Domain Ramp has had the title of one of the top decks in Standard for quite some time, providing its players with powerful game-ending tools that many decks cannot beat. It’s not without downsides – its main one being the Streets of New Capenna trilands. So what if there existed a similar ramp deck that played some of the best high mana spells in the current Standard, without the hassle of having most lands come into play tapped? Simic Ramp is precisely that – a smoother ramp deck that focuses on two colours, and is filled with powerful seven and eight mana spells.
Deck Tech
Simic Ramp
by Skura
Standard
best of 3
10 mythic
27 rare
7 uncommon
16 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (21)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$293.16
Sideboard
15 Cards
$59.19
Ramp
A great, cheap ramp spell that is not a bad top deck even in the later stages of the game, where it functions as a 4/4 vigilant attacker.
It attacks through basically each creature that isn’t Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Atraxa, Grand Unifier and blocks practically every non-flying threat. While its blocking and attacking capabilities come on line only after some time, in this deck you can turn it on as soon as turn four, curving out Stomper into Invasion of Zendikar.
I couldn’t imagine a ramp deck in the current Standard format that would choose not to play Topiary Stomper.
It’s a good card selection spell when cast without kicker, helping you find your payoffs later in the game. It’s basically a Standard version of now-Modern-legal Preordain.
It also does a solid Growth Spiral impersonation, allowing us to ramp further.
Joint Exploration also functions well when you do not have a land in hand as it looks at as many as three cards to help you find the missing land drop.
If that wasn’t enough, it fits our turn two curve where we can hold up both Make Disappear as interaction and, if the opponent does nothing, Joint Exploration as an end-of-turn effect.
A four-mana ramp spell that gives you two lands is a great deal in and of itself, taking you from four to seven mana (if you count the land drop on turn 5), jumpstarting you into the big threats territory.
If you have a creature in play that can attack it, it ramps you even further, giving you a well-statted Elemental that taps for mana the turn it flips thanks to its haste ability.
If you curve out Stomper into Zendikar, like described earlier, you will immediately be able to attack the Invasion, and flip it – which is one of the strongest draws you could have.
Ramp and Payoffs
Wrenn and Seven doesn’t scream ramp but it can very well act like one if you have numerous lands in hand and want to drop a big baddie the next turn you play her, thanks to her 0 ability.
Where it shines is the mid-to-late game where you can use Wrenn’s -3 ability to create a powerful blocker that grows the longer the game goes. This lets our planeswalker effectively defend itself while providing us with a must-answer threat.
The +1 fuels the 0 ability, which in turn makes -3 better. It’s a well-designed, self-contained machine that has to be answered as soon as it hits play.
The ultimate ability is far from game winning but thankfully we don’t have to go that route. It’s mostly enough to keep -3-ing it and force the opponent to contend with 10+ power creatures that are pumped out of it.
Bramble Familiar would be good enough for this deck if it were a mere manadork, but it does so much more than that thanks to its adventure. It’s a modal card and these tend to be very powerful in modern Magic: The Gathering.
Fetch Quest is an absolutely fantastic payoff spell. It digs seven cards deep and gets us the best card from among them. It never leaves us empty-handed either – even if we miss on any creatures, we get a land.
We’re never afraid to play Bramble Familiar early, either, as we can buy it back to cast Fetch Quest – something that other adventure cards don’t really allow for.
The most powerful sequence it enables it turn two Familiar into turn three Invasion of Zendikar, further expediting our plan.
Shigeki doesn’t scream ramp or payoff immediately, and that’s why we only play a couple. However, the Snake Druid is a good play at any stage of the game as it’s a good blocker, buys itself back, and even fuels the graveyard for its second ability.
It shines late in the game, though, as it’s only then that you can return some of your best spells from the graveyard.
Payoffs
The Goose Mother is one of the best cards in the entire deck. There is a lot going on so let me break it down bit by bit.
First, it scales nicely as the game progresses. Thanks to the X in the cost, you can dump as much mana into it as you wish. If you’ve been flooded the whole game, you can play a gigantic Goose and be back in the game. To that end, it can also be played for as little X as you want, even X=0. In aggressive matchups, I will happily deploy it as a two-mana 2/2 flyer to just trade in combat and buy me more time.
Speaking of flying, it’s particularly relevant on creatures of considerable size. How relevant is having a 15/15 threat if it can be chumped by a Samurai or Soldier token? In Standard, there are a ton of incidental and disposable creatures floating around. Thwarting your plan with a single Spirited Companion is not something you want. Flying fixes that, providing the creature with much-needed evasion. It also gives you an additional angle of defense, namely against opposing evasive threats.
Upon entering the battlefield you’re getting a whole bunch of Food tokens which are your insurance in case Mother dies to removal. A consolation prize in the form of 6, 9, or 12 additional life points in the bank is appreciated.
If Mother survives though, you can convert them into actual cards with every attack. While less relevant when Goose is lethal on its own, it’s much more impactful when you’re attacking in smaller chunks and get to resource up while doing it.
All in all, it does so much for the deck that I always want to draw it over the course of the game.
Titan of Industry is another threat next to The Goose Mother that does multiple things in addition to being a beefy threat.
Titan has two important keywords: Reach and Trample. Reach stabilises you against opposing evasive threats and trample is your evasion tool to break through tokens and otherwise small creatures blocking the way.
When it enters the battlefield, you’ve got four effects to choose from:
- The first effect comes in super handy when it comes to removing Leyline Binding or Wedding Announcement.
- Gaining 5 life is great when you’re low on life and you might get burned out by Mono Red or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse trigger.
- Creating a 4/4 body is good when you need to go a bit wider, either in attacking or blocking.
- Shield Counter is rarely game changing but it’s a nice additional bonus. I will use it frequently in conjunction with the 4/4 token mode to just expand on the board and its potency.
Continuing the motif of ‘big with additional utility’, here we have Cityscape Leveler.
It’s great at dealing with annoying permanents such as Leyline Binding, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Virtue of Persistence, The Wandering Emperor and many more.
Crucially, it’s an on-cast trigger so countermagic won’t prevent you from destroying that permanent.
When it comes back with Unearth, it gets haste so you’re pretty likely to get another removal out of it on top.
Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution is our mid-way payoff. It’s not uncastable without ramp contrary to Titan or Leveler.
It’s a 6/6 which matches up very well against most creatures in the format.
It also has the duo of reach + trample, similarly to Titan of Industry.
Upon entering play, it ramps you further which then ensures that you can basically cast any topend spell in the deck.
If unanswered, it flips into a game-ending Saga. All three chapters flip the game on its head, so I don’t expect the game to continue much longer after that point.
Interaction
Good old Make Disappear. It’s a catch-all answer that we can convert early or bolster our payoff turns with to ensure that we can push them through.
I could see playing Negate in that slot in metas dense with Five-Color and Esper.
Best of One
Simic Ramp Best of One
by Skura
Standard
best of 3
8 mythic
25 rare
9 uncommon
18 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (17)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$274.16
The Best of One version has more early game plays like Witness Protection and Fading Hope, expecting Mono White and Mono Red much more heavily.
Budget
While the manabase could be built more on a budget, all the payoffs are rares and mythics. Ramping into uncommons would unfortunately not be viable.
Matchups and Sideboard Guide
Five-Color Ramp
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +4 Disdainful Stroke | -2 Shigeki, Jukai Visionary |
| +2 Primal Adversary | -2 Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution |
| -2 Bramble Familiar |
This is a weird one since we both ramp but our end-goal is different. They’ve got 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier and some number of Virtue of Persistence, we’ve got a wide array of different threats to ramp into.
Dare I say, it’s a decent matchup. Between 8 pieces of countermagic, we can interact with their threats pretty well. Specifically Atraxa can be countered or Cityscape Leveler-ed. We’ve got Leveler and Titan of Industry to deal with Leyline Binding and Vritue. There are also channel lands to give us even more of these effects.
They also have plenty of almost-dead removal game one whereas we can just do our thing.
All in all, we should be favoured in this heads up battle.
Golgari Midrange
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +2 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim | -4 Make Disappear |
| +3 Tyrranax Rex | -3 Bramble Familiar |
| +2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping |
They need to be the aggressors and we’re a quasi-control deck. I cut Make Disappear, as I want to focus on adding to the board and tapping out. Bramble Familiar is cut since it dies very easily (and I follow this pattern in other matchups as well).
We want hands that include creatures so that they don’t get Duress-ed and ramp. I am very unlikely to keep a land light hand. The main plan is to keep hitting land drops and slamming our threats, capitalising on the fact that they usually cannot close games fast.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping is mainly here to prevent them from Go for the Throat-ing our payoff, forcing them to almost concede on the spot.
Mono White Aggro // Mono Red Aggro
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +2 Primal Adversary | -4 Make Disappear |
| +1 Consuming Tide | -2 Bramble Familiar |
| +3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping |
This is a difficult set of decks to fight since we are pretty slow right out of the gates. However, we, compared to Five-Color, have a lower curve and better mana. Contrary to Five-Color we are sure to play a two-drop on turn two – which is not so obvious for them with so many taplands.
I will happily run out The Goose Mother as a 2/2 to just block and Make Disappear a two-drop.
Overall, we’re heavily pressured to survive.
The best payoffs come with stabilising mechanisms like Titan of Industry and its lifegain.
Esper Midrange
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +2 Primal Adversary | -4 Make Disappear |
| +3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping | -4 Bramble Familiar |
| +2 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim | -2 |
| +3 Tyrranax Rex |
Contrary to Golgari, we have to be ready for opposing countermagic. Sometimes you can try to cheekily cast smaller The Goose Motherto circumvent Disdainful Stroke.
We can also take advantage of being able to play instant speed with Joint Exploration.
Tyrranax Rex is a good card to just slam into open mana as it cannot be countered. Then when they spend six mana to kill it with Go for the Throat, we slam another threat.
Tamiyo's Safekeepingis for situation where they decide to let something resolve (or they don’t have a counter) and we blow them out protecting our permanent.
Crucially, you can use Safekeeping as a combat trick to give your creature indestructible.
Esper Legends
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +1 Consuming Tide | -3 Make Disappear |
| +2 Primal Adversary |
Similar to Mono Red and Mono White in that we need to survive. It’s different in that they’re slower but more interactive.
I think this change of pace benefits us, as we have more time to set up and we still have some early drops.
We’re also not as blown out by Thalia, Guardian of Thraben like other conventional ramp decks.
Tips and Tricks
- Joint Exploration puts a land untapped to help you squeeze in more value in a turn.
- You can sacrifice Restless Vinestalk to Make Disappear‘s casualty 1.
- Wrenn and Seven’s Treefolk’s size changes dynamically. It’s not set the moment it enters play. The longer the game goes, the same token will become more formidable.
- Invasion of Zendikar is Battle, not Enchantment, so Fetch Quest doesn’t fetch it.
- Fetch Quest technically doesn’t cast so Cityscape Leveler won’t trigger.
- You don’t have to sacrifice food with The Goose Motherwhen attacking, which is important when facing Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
- Be careful as there is a world in which you lose the game due to decking out. You mill a lot with Bramble Familiar, Wrenn and Seven, and Vorinclex’s flip side.
- When activating Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, returning it to hand is a part of the cost, so the opponent cannot kill it in response.
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Skura
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