The best black ramp cards for EDH in MTG

When building a Magic: The Gathering Commander deck, one of the first things a player must ask themselves is how to ensure that they have stable and consistent mana production despite having a 99-card single deck. The answer to this is often to include ramp spells that aid and even speed up the generation of mana in a Commander deck.

While green may have the strongest and most varied collection of ramp spells under its color umbrella, black has a decent handful of ramp cards in its repertoire. Generally, this takes the form of ritual spells as well as cards that generate mana whenever a creature dies.

Updated on October 18, 2024 by Ryan Hay: Ramping into Magic has never been easier thanks to all sorts of unique cards that add mana or give you options in different ways. Black has been surprisingly good at adding extra mana to your mana pool, although sometimes the means are a bit more painful than other means. This time we take a look at some under appreciated ways to add mana with some great picks for your Commander deck.

13 Bubbling Muck

Get that mana now

A bit of a limiting card but one with tons of potential, Bubbling Muck is a one-mana sorcery from Urza's Destiny that can turn a few mana into tons.

After you resolve this spell, any player, yours and your opponents, can pump out an extra mana anytime any player taps a Swamp for mana. This card is actually a reverse version of High Tide, which also sees a lot of play depending on the format.

12 Phyrexian Tower

Creatures for Mana

Phyrexian Tower is a legendary land that can tap into a colorless mana. However, you can tap it and sacrifice a creature to create two black mana. This is especially useful in 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 trade in a creature for a quick mana boost. It's also a reusable ability, which gives it an advantage over a card like Culling the Weak.

11 Songs Of The Damned

Turn your graveyard into Mana

Song of the Damned is pretty much tailored for graveyard builds. It's a one-mana instant spell that gives you one black mana for each creature card in your graveyard. This is a one time use considering it's an instant spell, but if used correctly it can potentially put you in a position to win the game.

Graveyard decks that rely on dredging abilities to fill their graveyards can benefit greatly from Songs of the Damned. A mono-black deck won't have access to something like Golgari Grave-Troll, but it can still use Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Thug to give some power to Songs of the Damned.

10 Marshland Bloodcaster

Turn your life into Mana

Sometimes the best way to increase in Magic is by spending another resource, like your life total. Marshland Bloodcaster allows you to do just that, trading mana for total life when you go to cast your next spell.

You have to tap Marshland Bloodcaster and spend two mana to get the ability to work, so you have to wait a turn and make sure you have enough life to pay when you cast the next spell. As long as you do that, you can bypass the mana cost of an easier resource.

9 Dark ritual

Turn one mana into three

Dark Ritual is a card that goes all the way back to Alpha (and has been reprinted countless times), and it's still one of the best ritual spells in the game. It's a one-mana black instant that pays out three black mana. It does more for black than Pyretic Ritual and Desperate Ritual do for red, and there really isn't another card like Dark Ritual in the game.

Dark Ritual is a must in a mono black deck, as it can just sit in your hand until you're ready to use it. If you draw it from the top, odds are you'll have some use for it to cast a large demon or a bunch of cheaper spells.

8 Connections to the black market

A three-for-one deal

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

• Create a Treasure Token and lose a life.
• Draw a card and lose two life.
• Or making a 3/2 colorless Shapeshifter creature token in exchange for three life.

You can keep pumping out resources turn after turn, but be aware that if you start to run low on life, there's not much you can do to stop it with Black Market Connections as it's guaranteed to trigger at the top of every turn.

7 Revel In Riches

A Bounty Board enchantment

Revel in Riches is a five mana black enchantment. It creates a treasure token when a creature an opponent controls dies. If you control ten or more treasures at the start of your upkeep while you have Revel in Riches out, you win the game.

It's not often that a card doubles as a win condition and a mana generator, but Revel in Riches fits the bill nicely. It can also be combined with other treasure token generators to more consistently give you the win. But Revel in Riches is still good in a mono-black deck with lots of removal spells.

6 K'rrik, son of Yawgmoth

Blood Mana

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is not a ramp spell in the traditional sense. It doesn't generate mana, create mana-producing tokens, or scan your deck for any lands. Instead, it makes all black mana symbols in a spell mana cost double that of Phyrexian mana symbols. This means that spells that cost black mana can be paid with two life for each black mana symbol in their cost.

K'rrik himself costs seven mana, but three of that cost is Phyrexian black mana. K'rrik is a 2/2 legendary Phyrexian horror minion with lifelink, and he gets a +1/+1 counter when you cast a black spell. All of this adds up to the fact that while K'rrik may not be a traditional ramp card, he still makes your spells cheaper by replacing mana costs with Phyrexian mana.

5 Merciless raider

Tomb robbing has never been so rewarding

Pitiless Plunderer is a four mana black human pirate with 1/4 power and toughness. When another of your creatures dies, Pitiless Plunderer creates a treasure token. This is primarily useful in black decks that focus on sacrificing their creatures, but it can still get some mileage from black decks that use other tactics.

Pitiless Plunderer can also easily create an infinite loop with cards like Gravecrawler, as any free sacrifice effect can kill Gravecrawler and allow Pitiless Plunderer to generate a treasure token. With Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist or Syr Konrad, the Grim, this is a win condition. With Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar, this can generate infinite mana.

4 Nirkana Revenant

A double thread

Much like our next entry, some of the best cards in black-black beds have some strong ways to get around. Tapping a swamp for mana gives you twice as many mana counters on it.

To be sure, Nirkana Revenant will all but ensure that it will keep itself safe by doubling all of your mana needs and giving you an outlet for all that extra mana. On the appropriately chosen option, you can get twice as much mana from items like Nickana Replacements.

3 Crypt Ghast

Mana From Beyond The Grave

Crypt Ghast is a fascinating little bit of pseudo-ramp in a mono-black deck. Every time you tap a swamp for mana, you get an extra black mana as well. This explosive power allows you to jump from at least four mana all the way up to eight on your next turn, ten mana if you play another Swamp that turn.

Even better, Crypt Ghast comes with the blackmail ability, which lets you pay a white/black hybrid mana to drain all opponents of one life and you get all that life back. Since your Swamps all point to double mana now, you'll almost always have mana to pump into your squeeze spells.

2 Magus Of The Coffers

Double your swamps

Magus of the Coffers is a 4/4 human wizard that costs five mana. For two mana and pressing Magus of the Coffers, you gain one black mana for each Swamp you control. This is obviously quite useful, as it can effectively double your mana.

There is a better card that does this that will be discussed shortly, but Magus of the Coffers is still a good card to use in a mono-black deck. Redundancy is hard to come by in the singleton Commander format, so Magus of the Coffers is well worth using.

1 Cabal Coffers

Country that works overtime

Cabal Coffers is arguably the best single black mana producer out there. For two mana and tap Cabal Coffers, you gain one black mana for each Swamp you control. This is the same effect as Magus of the Coffers but is more valuable because it is tied to a land that costs no mana to play.

Cabal Stronghold is another land that does the same thing as Cabal Coffers and Magus of the Coffers, but it requires three mana to activate. It makes up for it (somewhat) by being able to tap for a colorless mana. Without the additional two mana, Cabal Coffers cannot be used for any mana – but that problem is easily circumvented by using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.