Best Black Ramp Cards for EDH in MTG

One of the first things players should ask themselves when building a Magic: The Gathering Commander deck is how to ensure steady and consistent mana production despite having a single 99-card deck. The answer often involves ramp spells that help and even accelerate mana generation for Commander decks.

Green has the most powerful and diverse collection of ramp spells under the color umbrella, while black has a fair amount of ramp cards in its repertoire. Typically this takes the form of ritual spells and cards that generate mana whenever a creature dies.

Updated by Ryan Hay on October 18, 2024: Powering up your magic has never been easier thanks to all kinds of unique cards that add mana or provide alternatives in various ways. Black has been incredibly good at adding extra mana to the mana pool, but sometimes that means a little more pain than others. This time we'll look at some great choices for your Commander deck, as well as a few lesser-known ways to add mana.

13 bubbling mud

Get Mana Now

A slightly limited but potentially-rich card, Bubbling Muck is a one-mana spell in Urza's Destiny that can turn a few mana into a ton.

After you resolve this spell, both you and your opposing players can pump additional mana whenever you tap Swamp for mana. In effect, this card is the inverse of High Tide, allowing for a fair amount of play depending on the format.

12 Phyrexian Tower

Creatures for Mana

Phyrexian Tower is a legendary land that can be tapped for 1 colorless mana. However, you can tap and sacrifice a creature to generate 2 black mana. This is especially useful for sacrifice decks that benefit from killing their own creatures.

However, Phyrexian Tower can be useful in almost any Black Commander deck, as it always gives you the option to swap out creatures for a quick mana boost. It's also a reusable ability, which gives it an advantage over cards like Cull the Weak.

11 Song of the Damned

Turn your graveyard into mana

Song of the Damned is almost tailor-made for graveyard builds. This is a 1-mana instant spell that gives you 1 black mana for each creature card in your graveyard. This is an out-of-the-box spell, so it's a one-time use, but if used correctly, it can potentially put you in a position to win the game.

Graveyard decks that use the Dredge ability to fill their graveyards can utilize Song of the Damned effectively. Black and white mono decks may not have access to things like Golgari Grave-Troll, but they can still use Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Thug to give Song of the Damned a punch.

10 Marsh Bloodcaster

Turn your life into mana

Sometimes the best way to improve your Magic is to spend other resources, such as your life total. Marshland Bloodcaster allows you to exchange mana for life total when you cast your next spell.

To get the ability to work, you'll need to tap Marshland Bloodcaster and spend two mana, so you'll have to wait a turn and make sure you have enough life to pay when you cast your next spell. Just by doing that you can bypass the mana cost and get easier resources.

9 dark ritual

Convert 1 Mana to 3 Mana

Dark Ritual is a card that dates back to the alpha era (and has been reprinted countless times), and is still one of the best ritual spells in the game. It's a 1 mana black instant spell that costs 3 black mana. Pyretic Ritual and Desperate Ritual do more for black than they do for red, and there's really no other card in the game like Dark Ritual.

Dark Ritual is a must-have for monoblack decks because you just need to hold it in your hand until you're ready to use it. If you take it out at the top, it will likely be of some use for casting large demons or cheaper spells.

8 black market connection

3 for 1 deal

One of the more consistent ways to generate mana in Magic, Black Market Connection gives you one of three choices at the start of the game. You can choose:

• Create a treasure token and lose one life.
• Draw a card and lose two lives.
• Alternatively, you can create a 3/2 colorless Shapeshifter creature token in exchange for 3 life.

You can continue to pump resources at the end of each turn, but be aware that if you start to run low on life, there's not much you can do to stop it, as the Black Market Link is guaranteed to trigger at the top of each turn.

7 enjoy your wealth

Bounty Bulletin Board Magic

Revel in Riches is a 5 mana black enchantment. Whenever a creature your opponent controls dies, generate a treasure token. If you control 10 or more treasures at the start of the upkeep while Revel in Riches is out, you win the game.

It's not often that a card serves as both a win condition and a mana generator, but Revel in Riches fits that bill very well. You can also combine it with other treasure token generators to help you win more consistently. However, Revel in Riches is still good in mono-black decks with lots of removal spells.

6 Krick, Son of Yagmoth

Blood Mana

K'rrik, son of Yawgmoth, is not a lamp spell in the traditional sense. It doesn't generate mana, generate mana generation tokens, or search your deck for lands. Instead, it causes any black mana symbols included in the spell's mana to cost twice as much as the Phyrexian mana symbol. This means that a spell that costs black mana can be paid for with 2 life for each black mana symbol included in its cost.

Creek's own mana is 7 mana, but 3 of them are Phyrexian black mana. Krick is a 2/2 legendary Phyrexian horror minion with lifelink, and gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a black spell. All of this supports the fact that K'rrik, while not a traditional ramp card, replaces mana costs with Phyrexian mana, making spells cheaper.

5 ruthless raider

Grave robbing has never been so rewarding.

Merciless Marauder is a 4-mana black human pirate with 1/4 strength and armor. Whenever another of your creatures dies, Merciless Marauder creates a treasure token. This is primarily useful in Black decks that focus on sacrificing creatures, but Black decks that use other tactics can still benefit to some extent.

Ruthless Marauders can also easily create endless loops using cards like Gravecrawler. This is because the free sacrifice effect kills the Gravecrawler and allows Ruthless Reaver to spawn a treasure token. For Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist or Syr Konrad, the Grim, this is the win condition. You can generate infinite mana by using the Phyrexia Altar or the Ashnode Altar.

4 Nirkanah Revenant

double thread

Like the next item, some of the best cards in Mono Black Bed have some powerful ways to move around. Tapping Swamp for mana doubles the amount of mask counters.

Certainly, Nirkana Revenant doubles all the mana you need and gives you an outlet to drain all that extra mana, ensuring it stays safe on its own. With properly chosen options, you can get double the mana from items like Nickana replacement.

3 Crypt Ghast

Mana Beyond the Grave

Crypt Ghast is a fascinating little pseudo-ramp in a solid black deck. Whenever you tap a swamp for mana, you also gain 1 additional black mana. This burst of power will allow you to jump from a minimum of 4 mana to a maximum of 8 mana next turn, and up to 10 mana if you play another Swamp that turn.

Even better, Crypt Ghast has the Extortion ability, which allows you to pay one white/black hybrid mana to drain all of your opponents for one life and return all of that life. Now that all swamps gain double mana, you'll almost always have mana to put into your robbed spells.

2 Magus of the Vault

Double your swamp

Magus of the Coffers is a 4/4 human wizard that costs 5 mana. With 2 mana and Magus of the Coffers on tap, you'll get 1 black mana for each swamp you control. This is definitely very useful as you can effectively double your mana.

Better cards that do this will be discussed shortly, but Magus of the Coffers is still a good card to use in a monochrome deck. Redundancy is difficult to achieve in Commander's singleton form, so it's worth using Magus of the Coffers.

1 Cabal Vault

land of overtime

Cabal Coffers are arguably the single best black mana producer in existence. Tapping 2 Mana and Cabal Vault grants you black mana for each Swamp you control. This is the same effect as Magus of the Coffers, but it's more valuable because it's attached to a land that costs no mana to play.

Cabal Stronghold is another land that performs the same function as Cabal Coffers and Magus of the Coffers, but requires 3 mana to activate. It complements this (somewhat) by being able to tap for 1 colorless mana. Cabal Coffers cannot be used for any mana unless you have 2 extra mana. However, this problem can be easily solved by using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.