The Oxbow by Thomas Cole (1836). Ramos, Dragon Engine by Joseph Meehan.

Today's column takes me back to a commander that in many ways was my springboard for getting into writing about Magic: the Gathering. I blogged for a year before getting picked up as a writer by the good folk at GatheringMagic.com (now CoolStuffInc.com) and in that year one of my turning points was when Ramos was spoiled.

I decided to try to "break" Ramos and devoted three consecutive articles to exploring different ways to build around this big metal Dragon. I explored a "charm tribal" approach and eventually settled upon a deck that was something of a Rube Goldberg device. If that old deck could resolve Conflux there was a very good chance I'd be able to take the table down a path that would wind up winning with a very large Ramos, enchanted with Phyresis to give it Infect, and hit with a Chandra's Ignition to win the game.

Today's build was inspired by the new "Painbow" precon commander deck. That precon, led by the planeswalker Jared Carthalion, gave us a bunch of new five color cards. Either Jared Carthalion or Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile could both be the leaders of today's deck, but I can't imagine building this list around anyone but Ramos.

The difference between the three cards shown above is obvious. Ramos will get counters when you cast spells and those counters can be turned into mana. Jared and Jenson didn't make the cut, but if you're working at rebuilding the precon you could run either or both in today's list and feel good about them.

If you're just looking to upgrade the "Painbow" precon, you should check out Paige Smith's column from last Wednesday. In the aptly named "Upgrading Painbow" she gives you a glimpse at the history of 5-color cards in Magic and shares her thoughts about what to upgrade in that list and why.

If you're still with me, let's see what Ramos can do with some of these pretty new 5-color cards!

Playing Fair

I've built Ramos around storm and around what is probably best described as a combo path that begins with Conflux and ends with the table being dead. I've built Ramos' Lucky Charms. I've learned that when your plans fall through you can still murder them with your giant metal dragon, and I've also learned that there are days when Ramos eats more than his fair share of removal spells.

Today's build is a much fairer deck than I usually like to build. It has no "win button" and no single card that I can combo off with. It's generally going to be trying to win by going to combat, and the goal is to fill up Ramos with counters, pull counters off of him to make mana, and then push that mana into spells to either fill my hand back up or put threats onto the battlefield.

The deck has a few tricks up its sleeve, but I've built it with no tutors (not even Conflux), no fast mana (not even Sol Ring) and a budget mana base that should play well at casual EDH tables.

Five Colors Matter

Ramos gains +1/+1 counters when you cast spells with colors in it equal to the number of colors. To make all that mana mana you need to remove 5 +1/+1 counters, so the usual trick with Ramos is to play permanents that will increase the rate at which Ramos will gain those counters. This list has a few of them, like Winding Constrictor and Pir, Imaginative Rascal, but the real focus is on 5/c spells.

I took a bunch of cards out of the precon. Chromanticore, Maelstrom Archangel, O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami, Two-Headed Hellkite, Primeval Spawn, Iridian Maelstrom, Unite the Coalition and Maelstrom Nexus are all in the list. Each of them bring something unique to the deck, but they also each let me immediately make 10 mana with Ramos.

Jodah cares about legendary creatures, which isn't this deck's main focus but I'm running enough of them that I think he'll be able to pull his weight. Tiamat is a legendary 7/7 Dragon God who will let me tutor for up to five other Dragons when it enters the battlefield. This list is not a dragon deck and only runs two other Dragons, but being able to put 5 +1/+1 counters on Ramos, make 10 mana, and then cast either of the cards I tutored up that turn is powerful stuff. I've built a lot of dragon decks so I can see an argument for swapping in a few more. Dragonlord Dromoka, Atarka, World Render and Bladewing the Risen all come to mind as good targets.

Rounding out this section is the other Dragon in this list, The Ur-Dragon. If I didn't have a dragon in the command zone, I probably would have left this 10/10 behemoth out of the list, but it can give me card draw, drop my cost for casting dragons, and can even let me drop permanents onto the battlefield. I chose to leave out a lot of other 5/c legendary creatures that were focused on other tribes (Elementals, Slivers) but this one made the cut. I have a feeling if I played this list enough times I do think I'd wind up moving it towards running more Dragons.

Instead of parading out yet another Dragon list, I wanted to really focus on 5/c cards. While it might not seem like these next three qualify, take a closer look.

Fallaji Wayfarer happens to have the same party trick as Transguild Courier and Sphinx of the Guildpact. These three are "all colors". Each one has a color identity that matches the color pips on the card, but they will also give Ramos five +1/+1 counters when they are cast because they are white, blue, black, red and green. Ramos sees them in all their rainbow glory and gets the counters even though their color identity does not match their true colors.

Colorful Artifacts

With a commander who cares about colors so much, it's worth asking whether there are any mana rocks that made the cut today. Ramp is important in any deck, and I'm leaning on a few green ramp spells, but my choice for artifacts is unique to Ramos. I leaned away from colorless mana rocks as they do not put any counters on Ramos and it makes me feel like such a hipster. You can swap in Sol Ring if you have to, but I like having a deck or two without it.

I'm running Chromatic Lantern to let my lands tap for any color. The ability to make any color is important enough that I'm also running Birds of Paradise, Utopia Tree and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. Joiner Adept didn't make the cut, as it doesn't actually make mana - she just lets your lands tap for any color. I also didn't throw in Chromatic Orrery, though there's a strong argument that it should be in the list.

When you see my mana rock selection, you might laugh. This list is running all five of the Borderposts cycle. These old mana rocks each have 2 color pips but can be cast for 1 mana by bouncing a land to your hand. It's never great to bounce a land, but if that reduced casting cost puts enough counters on Ramos to make 10 mana and have a big turn, it'll be worth it.

The Borderpost cycle, along with the 10 tri-lands and 10 new Dominaria United dual lands all enter tapped. That's a major headache for any deck trying to win quickly, but in a casual meta that shouldn't be too big a problem. I still don't like that kind of hindrance so I decided to run Amulet of Vigor and Archelos, Lagoon Mystic. Both of those cards will untap any permanent I play that would normally enter tapped.

Living The Dream

Most decks have a dream scenario that they want to see happen.

That dream might be as simple as protecting a big board of creatures from your own boardwipe so you can swing freely once the dust has settled. It might be as lame as wanting to land your Thassa's Oracle at a table where the other decks are just way too casual for that kind of cEDH finisher. It could be an incredibly complex wincon involving a half dozen cards and some really complex interactions.

Usually these dream scenarios will win the game, but in this deck the dream scenario is just a flood of value.

The first part of the puzzle is to let me cast spells on my opponents' turns. Ramos only lets you pull counters off of him to make mana once a turn. In a combo deck I'd be flickering Ramos to "reset" him, but in this list my goal is just to use my opponents' turns.

These first two permanents will let me cast spells at instant speed, as if they had flash. My goal is to be able to pull counters off Ramos on each turn and then cast enough spells that he'll again have 5 counters on him for the next turn. Seedborn Muse will untap my permanents on each opponent's untap step, setting me up to be able to feed more mana into the spells I cast each turn. I'll still want to use Ramos, but untapping my lands is huge.

It's going to be an interesting juggling game to get through this dream turn cycle, but this list is loaded up with X spells that can draw me cards. Sphinx's Revelation will gain me life and draw me cards. Stroke of Genius, Ingenious Mastery, Mind Spring and Gadwick, the Wizened can all turn my mana mana into some serious card draw, though I might have to provide an extra Blue depending on which one I'm casting.

My end game isn't simple. There's no "I win" button, but if I can hit a few cascade creatures like Enigma Sphinx, Enlisted Wurm, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer or Maelstrom Wanderer I should be able to get an extra casting (or two). Hopefully I won't hit those X spells, and if that happens too often I might have to swap these cascade guys out for Dragons.

If I'm able to hit In Garruk's Wake I'll have a clean board to swing into with whatever creatures I've managed to assemble. The best X spell in the deck might be Torment of Hailfire, which can knock my tablemates back to the stone age or just kill them outright if they don't have permanents to sacrifice or cards to discard.

The dream is to get into the late game and launch into a crazy turn cycle where I'm making big mana, drawing lots of cards and casting big spells on everyone else's turns. It's still no guarantee that this deck will pull itself across the finish line first, but it'll be fun to make that push and have crazy, explosive turns, even if the action only happens on my turn.

Taste the Rainbow

This list isn't going to be as explosive as a storm deck but making 10 mana out of nowhere and having big, exciting spells to cast is my idea of fun. I may well take this list for a spin online, but I am skeptical that it's fast enough to keep up with the guys I'm playing with. One of the best things about Ramos is how incredibly versatile it is. You can build in so many directions and your only real issue is how easy your commander can be removed because he's both an artifact and a creature. Don't let that hold you back though - whether you try this list as-is, move it towards dragons, build it with Slivers or do any of a dozen other things, Ramos is a great commander to build around.

Rainbow Ramos | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ramos, Dragon Engine

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Archelos, Lagoon Mystic
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Child of Alara
• 1 Chromanticore
• 1 Deathrite Shaman
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Enigma Sphinx
• 1 Enlisted Wurm
• 1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
• 1 Fallaji Wayfarer
• 1 Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1 Garth One-Eye
• 1 Jodah, the Unifier
• 1 Maelstrom Archangel
• 1 Maelstrom Wanderer
• 1 O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami
• 1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1 Primeval Spawn
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Sphinx of the Guildpact
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 The Ur-Dragon
• 1 Tiamat
• 1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1 Transguild Courier
• 1 Two-Headed Hellkite
• 1 Utopia Tree
• 1 Winding Constrictor

• Instants (11)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Crackling Doom
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Fate Transfer
• 1 Manamorphose
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Unite the Coalition

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Ingenious Mastery
• 1 Iridian Maelstrom
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Last Stand
• 1 Mind Spring
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Safewright Quest
• 1 Torment of Hailfire

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Leyline of Anticipation
• 1 Maelstrom Nexus
• 1 The Kami War

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Fieldmist Borderpost
• 1 Firewild Borderpost
• 1 Mistvein Borderpost
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Vedalken Orrery
• 1 Veinfire Borderpost
• 1 Wildfield Borderpost

• Lands (37)
• 3 Forest
• 3 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Contaminated Aquifer
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Geothermal Bog
• 1 Haunted Mire
• 1 Idyllic Beachfront
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Molten Tributary
• 1 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Opulent Palace
• 1 Radiant Grove
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sacred Peaks
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Savage Lands
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Sunlit Marsh
• 1 Tangled Islet
• 1 Wooded Ridgeline

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If you wanted to tune this list up, the place to start would be the mana base. This list was intentionally toned down for a more casual and budget-friendly audience but there's no reason you couldn't play a more competitive mana base and have a better deck as a result. You would likely also want to run more interaction with a focus on removal spells that have two or more colors along with more colorful stack interaction like Dovin's Veto. You could tune this list down a bit by removing Cyclonic Rift and Torment of Hailfire but my gut feeling is that you don't want to pull too many teeth out of this build if you want it to be fun and have a decent shot at winning games.

Final Thoughts

It felt a little odd having my second column in the age of Dominaria United to be about an old legend from Commander 2017, but if I were to pick up the Painbow precon deck this is pretty much the list I would build out of it. I've got my Ramos Conflux Combo list sleeved up and I do have a spare copy of Ramos, Dragon Engine, but I'm definitely going to play this online before I pull the trigger on building it in paper. It is Ramos, though, so I've got to admit that I'm tempted.

With such an incredible number of legendary creatures being printed in Dominaria United, our editors have decided we aren't going to attempt to cover every single one of them with their own column. I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to tackle next, but I did buy a box of set boosters so I've got a stack of cards to look through. I always like to build in paper when I can, so it's nice to have my next topic in hand when planning an article.

If there's a card that hasn't been tackled yet by me or my fellow writers and you'd like me to take a crack at it, please leave a comment below. I'm always happy to take requests.

I'll be heading out to Rochester, NY in a couple of weeks for the 2022 Commander Sealed fundraiser for the Trevor Project. That event is on September 17th and I plan to write a column about the experience. I might even have a decklist to share. The list will be the product of cracking 17 different packs so there's every reason to think it will be a challenge to make anything even vaguely competitive.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next Monday!