Stop Playing Rampant Growth in Commander

Rampant Growth by Steven Belledin
Taking the Off-Ramp
Hi, I'm Michael Celani. You might know me as the man who wrote that enchantress deck that has no enchantments, or as a co-host on Am I the Bolcast?, the podcast where my editors have told me to stop including the trailing question mark that's a part of the official title because it makes sentences very difficult to parse grammatically. As someone who has built literally hundreds of Commander decks over the past five or so years, I can confidently say the following: stop playing Rampant Growth
Hear Me Out
Rampant Growth
I'm not saying Rampant Growth
It's Two-Mana Ramp
The argument: Rampant Growth
There's Better Two-Mana Ramp
I'll concede that two-mana ramp is the gold standard; it'd be foolish to argue otherwise. If you play a commander that costs four or more mana to cast, taking your second turn off to cast a ramp spell will give your gameplan a substantial boost. It's true that Rampant Growth
There's a category of two-mana artifact spells that ramp you the same amount as Rampant Growth
Let's say you need the extra lands specifically, though. Don't worry, the two-mana slot has you covered there, too. Three Visits
Let's not forget the creature-based ramp, either. Two mana gets you a creature that can tap for any color of mana. It's worth noting that creatures are often better than basics from a utility standpoint. If you're running an aristocrats strategy, they'll die just the same as any of the tokens you're spitting out; if you've got an Equipment deck, it sure is nice to be able to suit up your evasive Ornithopter of Paradise
One-Mana Ramp Exists
If speed is truly a priority, though, then we can zoom right past two-mana ramp and enter the wonderful world of one-mana ramp. Sol Ring
Let's start with the Auras that enchant lands, a criminally underused facet of green's ramp repertoire. Seriously, I'm stunned I don't see Wild Growth
One-mana Elves have always been a huge staple of early game ramp, too. They have all the benefits that being a creature confers, with a useful type to match, but don't think that just because your deck doesn't care about Elves specifically that it can't include these powerful staples.
Maybe You Don't Even Need Two-Mana Ramp
The last thing to consider here is that a lot of decks don't even really need two-mana ramp. Does your commander cost two mana? You should probably be playing your commander on turn two if that's the case. Does your commander cost three mana? Spend your turn two doing something a bit more impactful, like playing a two-mana value permanent:
Remember, if you're taking time off to ramp, you're not spending that time putting things on the battlefield that will draw you cards, protect your permanents, or advance your gameplan. Those early turns are critical, and if your can get away with casting your commander on turn three or four anyway, it might not even really be worth it to focus too hard on ramping. In fact, if your commander is cheap enough, you'll really want to draw cards to ensure you hit your land drops instead, because missing a land drop is like giving everyone else at the table a Rampant Growth
It Fixes My Mana
The argument: I play a deck that's a lot of colors! Rampant Growth
Counterpoint: No It Doesn't
You do all realize that Rampant Growth
It doesn't really fix your color problems as much as reduces them to one specific color. If you draw a Rampant Growth
None of these spells require you to have access to a particular type of mana at all, and they all can reach every color of the pentachromtic rainbow.
Even lands do a better job of fixing your mana than Rampant Growth
It Lets You Play an Extra Land
The argument: I'm in a Landfall deck! I need to have as many lands come into play as possible to make my deck work. Rampant Growth
So Does Any Fetch Land
This is counterintuitive, but ramp is not necessarily the goal of a Landfall deck. Yes, it happens, and the fact that it happens is why they can be so powerful and so resilient to things like commander removal, but the actual, explicit goal of a Landfall deck is to get Landfall triggers. Remember: you are literally passing up free value if you miss your land drop. You should trend towards more land cards, not more sorcery spells that happen to find you a single basic.
With that in mind, it's worth noting that literally any fetch land lets you double your land drops, for free. You get the first trigger from playing the land itself, and the second from using its ability to find another land in your deck. Believe me, I get that some of them are pricey, but you don't even have to play the expensive ones: Evolving Wilds
If you dig a little deeper, you can put in some more specific cards like the Shards of Alara panoramas
It's Nowhere Near As Impactful As Other Options
At two mana, if you actually want to beef up your Landfall deck, a single-shot sorcery is not the way to go. Landfall decks want to do the following things:
- Find ways to guarantee your land drops, like ensuring you draw lands
- Increase the number of land dropsyou get each turn
- Recur landsas often as possible, or, failing that, play them from the graveyard
A proper Landfall deck is capable of working even when all the basic lands in the deck are exhausted. If you run out of basics, Rampant Growth
Even Still, It's Only One Land
Okay, but maybe you actually do want some one-shot ramp in your Landfall deck. That's understandable, and a fair reason why you'd want to include Rampant Growth
So, if your commander would be substantially rushed out by two-mana ramp, and you've already included the better land-based ramp from up above, and you've dedicated enough slots to your recursion and fetch package that you can comfortably win the long game, and you have enough card draw in the deck that you can avoid the feels-bad from top-decking Rampant Growth
If that's not you, instead consider cards that put multiple lands onto the battlefield with one spell so that you get multiple Landfall triggers. Alongside cards like Explosive Vegetation
There are more specific spells which can find multiple lands if your deck meets a certain condition. For example, if your commander is beefy, consider Entish Restoration
Finally, consider running X spells that can search out more lands if you sink more mana into them. Sure, they'll often require you to spend three mana to get a single land instead of Rampant Growth
These spells all have much higher ceilings than Rampant Growth
People Don't Blow Up Lands
The argument: Well, I want to ramp, and I could include two-mana artifacts like Simic Signet
Counterpoint: People Don't Blow Up Rocks, Either
When's the last time you've seen anybody blow up a mana rock with single target removal? Even Sol Ring
"But you still could blow up a mana rock! People really should bolt the bird--"
You know how I know that people don't care about blowing up mana rocks? Because if they did, Sinkhole
There is one caveat to this, and that's the board wipes. If a board wipe is going to destroy all artifacts or enchantments or creatures, then yes, your mana rocks and dorks will be caught up in it. However, this can be sidestepped by running a proper amount of protection or recursion, which you should be doing anyway to ensure your gameplan doesn't get shut down by anyone looking at you funny.
The Art is Great
The argument: I really like the art on Rampant Growth
What Are You Actually Talking About, Though
Maybe I'm looking at the wrong printing, but this is ugly as sin.
Growth Spiral
I hope I've convinced you to consider your ramp slots a little bit more closely than not at all. Don't shove a Rampant Growth
With that, I've thoroughly evaporated my credibility. Tune in next week, when I discuss whether or not you should be playing Phyrexian Arena