Do You Prefer Artifact-Based or Land-Based Mana Acceleration?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 13, 2021, 8:16 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Recently, I became involved in a conversation about the differences between artifact-based mana acceleration and land-based mana acceleration, and which type was better for certain decks, so I wish to start a thread to discuss those strategies/archetypes.
I shall presume that everyone here is familiar with those terms, but if they are not, artifact-based mana acceleration is the use of artifacts that generate mana, such as Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Thought Vessel, Mind Stone, and so forth, whereas land-based mana acceleration is the use of cards hat put lands onto the battlefield, such as Rampant Growth, Explosive Vegetation, woods elves, Farhaven Elf, and so forth.
I, myself, prefer to use artifacts for my mana acceleration, because artifacts are usually colorless and, thus, can be put into (nearly) any deck, but I will use land-based mana acceleration for decks that are specifically designed to take advantage of such cards (such as my Chulane, Teller of Tales EDH deck, which focuses on creatures with abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield and includes both the aforementioned Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf).
What does everyone else say about this? Do you prefer artifact-based or land-based mana acceleration?
It entirely depends on the deck. Even for decks that can run land ramp (i.e. green decks), you needot look at the goals of the deck and how the ramp affects it. For example, I have a Kenrith, the Returned King deck that heavily leans into mana dorks and cheap mana rocks as it runs cards like Freed from the Real with Incubation Druid and Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal. So it this situation, running lands has much less benefit than running stuff that can be untapped.
However in another deck, I lean much more heavily into land ramp because I run Avenger of Zendikar as one of my top end creatures and I want to enable as much token production as possible.
It's also important to mention that (where avialble), splitting ramp across multiple types (alnd, dorks, rocks) is important. If you're tuning your deck for pure speed that's one thing, however if you're going for a well rounded deck then splitting ramp means your deck is more resilient to different kinds of hate. For example, leaning heavily into mana rocks if fine but one Vandalblast can reset your entire ramp situation.
I would also say that while having a generic artifact ramp package is a good start for new players, you really should be tailoring your ramp package to your deck. Otherwise you're just runnung a bunch of generic and oftern overcosted ramp that could have easily been replaced by something much more effective (and for not much effort).
December 13, 2021 8:58 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #4
Artifact acceleration is great for theme, though there are some pretty theme-ey spells. Creature acceleration can be cool as well! Few things take me back to the 90’s better than a Mana Vault though... so I guess that’s my vote.
December 13, 2021 9:42 p.m.
golgarigirl says... #5
I'm going to presume to throw a monkey wrench into the conversation and go all-in on creature-based ramp wherever possible? Circle of Dreams Druid makes my stompy, swarmy heart sing.
That said, the other three types depends on the exact deck.
Yes, I said it. Three. Everyone forgets poor enchantments like Wild Growth for ramp, and it's more efficient mana-wise than almost every other kind of ramp. Of course, this fits in decks that care about enchantments best.
I find artifacts fragile, but for non-green decks, they are a must. And some of my decks actively care about artifacts as well. The best rock being, of course, the almighty Treasure Token. I wish I had better things for these slots, though. I feel I get far more out of a creature, enchantment, or land in 90% of cases. Then again, I don't play blue much so that doesn't help my opinion of how good artifacts are.
Land ramp is at home in most of my green decks, especially when attached to a body, but I loathe to pay any more than 2 mana for any of it unless it's in my lands deck. Thus, of the two, lands gets the nod from me.
December 13, 2021 10:55 p.m. Edited.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
Depends on the deck - and not just landfall matters or not. Some decks I build, I want the fastest mana available, and artifacts are generally fastest when dealing with anything outside mono-colors. However, I've built decks that run almost entirely basic lands, and use as many land tutor spells as possible.
The benefit to artifacts is you can, generally speaking, have as many ETB in a single turn as you want and largely enter untapped, meaning you can immediately use them. However, they are prone to wipes if your group packs that.
Land based ramp is generally slower unless you set up an engine to cheat permanents into play, and are usually limited to one per turn with anything else largely entering tapped - but they are safer from wraths as MLD isn't a common strategy. And even if it were, the majority of land tutor spells are for basics only, and many LD spells hit non-basics.
So, it really just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your deck. For example, Karametra, God of Harvests prefers basic lands. I also run land tutors in my Hydra Broodmaster Rule:0 deck because I don't want to be hit with a mass bounce spell such as Cyclonic Rift and lose my entire mana base, on top of my army of X/X tokens. Similarly, as previously noted, Landfall matters such as Omnath, Locus of Rage would be at a sever disadvantage if you crammed 12+ artifact ramp spells into the deck. You'd be far better off jamming 10+ land tutor spells and slamming lands over and over again each turn.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain and Muldrotha, the Gravetide can also benefit from land tutors, as long as they are on creatures or other permanents.
December 14, 2021 2:40 a.m. Edited.
TypicalTimmy says... #7
For example, with Karador and Muldrotha, a creature such as, say, Solemn Simulacrum with an appropriate sac outlet means you can grab a land, and a card, every single turn. This technically makes it "artifact ramp", albeit the net gain is a land. The same thing can apply to any land tutor on a stick, such as Farhaven Elf and Burnished Hart - ESPECIALLY Burnished Hart.
Omniscience_is_life says... #2
I prefer land-based acceleration where I can get it, but Wayfarer's Bauble is basically the only hyperefficient effect of the sort beyond .
Mainly what I care about is efficiency--if I have to play it after turn 2, that's a big loss of dynamic-ness. If it isn't repeatable, that's even worse. If it requires continual attention to function (like a Gilded Goose), that's a big no-no.
Thus ultimately, most ramp I play will be artifact-based--since I only play so much --but the bit I care most about is efficiency.
December 13, 2021 8:47 p.m.