Pauper EDH
Base Assumptions
Mana Bases Pt. 2:
Ramp and Land-Securing
When we last left our heroes, we had only partially solved our Pauper EDH mana struggles. Our land base is established, but we've yet to crack how we can ramp and collect lands to play. Hm, there's something about that word. "Crack." What do we have that we can crack?
Dragon Egg art by Jack Wang
Answer: we have eggs. "Eggs" is a term used to describe Artifacts that are sacrificed for their effect, and it's largely eggs that can get us the mana we need. If you find that your color-intensive deck is struggling to collect its colors, there are four Artifacts I can recommend without question: Armillary Sphere, Traveler's Amulet, Wanderer's Twig, and Wayfarer's Bauble. The first three all bring lands to your hand, while Wayfarer's Bauble, uniquely, places the Basic Land straight onto the battlefield.
Expedition Map is furthermore unique among these eggs, because it can place any land in our hand, not just a Basic. This is less powerful in Pauper EDH than vanilla EDH, but it still affords some flexibility, perhaps fetching a Transguild Promenade or Rupture Spire.
Lastly, there are two non-egg Artifacts that may be worth consideration: both Pilgrim's Eye and Mycosynth Wellspring get Basic Lands to your hand upon entering the battlefield. The former is stapled to a Creature, while the latter becomes more useful if you have a method of sacrificing it.
Cultivate art by Anthony Palumbo
If your deck is fortunate enough to have access to Green, you will have no problem acquiring whatever Lands you need. Common Green ramp cards are too numerous to properly list, so instead I'll toss out some of my favorites: Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Harrow, Rampant Growth, Journey of Discovery, Khalni Heart Expedition, Farseek, and Farhaven Elf. These all place Lands directly onto the battlefield with one-off effects.
Another Common Green all-star is Sakura Tribe Scout, who taps to place a Land from your hand onto the battlefield. At this point, I would be remiss not to mention my favorite colorless ramp card– say it with me everyone– Walking Atlas1(!!!) , who can fit in any Pauper EDH deck thanks to his Artifact-y-ness.
Beyond Walking Atlas, only the aforementioned Wayfarer's Bauble can use entirely colorless mana to place a Basic Land on your battlefield. Then again, we do have other methods of fixing our colors without playing Lands...
Selesnya Signet art by Raoul Vitale
I spoke extensively on the topic of mana rocks2 in my EDH staples article, and it happens that a good number of those mana rocks are Commons. As is their way, the Guilds of Ravnica come to save the day, providing the Signets (which take in one colorless and spit out two of the Guild's colors), and the Cluestones (which cost one more mana over the Signets, but can generate mana by themselves.) The Cluestones have the bonus of being sacrifice-able to draw a card; helpful late-game, when you might have plenty of mana but nothing to cast with it.
Alara's Obelisks are similar to the Cluestones, except that they tap for three colors of mana and have no additional effects. Finally, we have Manalith and Darksteel Ingot: they both provide mana of any color, though Darksteel Ingot is strictly better than Manalith, since the former is Indestructible.
Darksteel Ingot art by Martina Pilcerova
It may have taken two articles and a handful of weeks, but I think we're armed with the knowledge we need to solid provide mana bases for our Pauper EDH decks.
Until next time, happy planeswalking, everyone.
"Mana rocks" being noncreature Artifacts capable of tapping for mana ↩︎
