Card Draw

Continuing my look at card types when building a Commander deck, today I look at card draw.

In Magic, 'card draw' is just that—something that accelerates your access to cards. (I did a previous post on card advantage; the concept is similar.) In a given Commander game, you may only see 20-25 of the 100 cards in your deck, so any spell or ability that allows you to draw more cards heightens your chance of accessing what you need.

At its most basic, card draw can be creatures with abilities like Baleful Strix, shown above. When it enters, you draw a card, meaning it 'replaces itself' (you end up with the same number of cards in your hand after you play it). 

Card draw is so important that every color features it in some way. There are a ton of options—literally thousands.

In White, there are cards like Exemplar of Light or Mentor of the Meek, shown below, with conditional triggers that enable you to draw one or more cards when a condition is met (and it may require you to pay mana to do so).

Blue has a lot of card draw. Note cards like Mystic Archaeologist can be extremely helpful in long games, as its ability can be activated as many times as you can pay for it.

In keeping with its theme, Black card draw often involves losing life or sacrificing a creature.

Red card draw might involve damage or discarding a card before (or after) you draw more.

Green has some nice card draw options, especially based on playing creatures (sometimes of a certain power).

And there are tons of options in multi-colored; the below examples don't even scratch the surface.

Card draw is an important aspect of the game, especially towards the end of a contest. Drawing only one card per turn can leave you with very few options and chance of success; include cards like those shown above to increase your chances.

Ramp

Continuing my look at card types when building a Commander deck, today I look at ramp.

In Magic, 'ramp' is something that accelerates your access to mana. This could be:

- a creature that taps to generate mana

- a spell that lets you play more than one land on a given turn

- a spell or effect that results in mana generation (which includes creating treasure tokens)

MTGWiki has more information.

In Magic, green is the color that specializes in ramp, but it is not the only one. Below are some example cards, separated into four categories.

1) There are a bunch of cards that allow you to add mana, either directly (tap to add) or indirectly (enabling other creatures to tap for mana or conditional triggers).

2) Some cards allow you to search your library for a land (also called 'fetching a land') and put it into play tapped. (Note: some cards returned in this search aren't technically ramp, if the land you fetch goes into your hand and not onto the battlefield.)

3) Some cards allow you to play an additional land, either on one turn or any:

4) Some cards allow you to create one or more treasure tokens:

Ramp not only allows you to get out land faster, it can let you to find specific lands. This is especially powerful and important when you play multi-colored decks; having the right kind of mana is as important as having the right amount.

Don't overlook ramp when building a deck.