Secrets of Strixhaven has more Legendary Creatures than any non-UB (Universes Beyond) set in a while, with 35 new cards we can build Commander decks around. That still pales in comparison with the options we get from Universes Beyond releases, but it's an improvement.

Most of the new legends are one or two colors in SOS, which fits nicely into that world of Strixhaven University, with its five dual-colored colleges, each of which was founded by one of the five Elder Dragons in the set. While I usually pick a Commander from the set we are currently working through, I've decided to theme a deck around a set of Creatures that popped up out of nowhere to surprise us all.

Today, I'm building around cards with Archaic in the card name. These eight-armed freaks... er... Avatars... are usually colorless but tend to care about the number of colors you spend to cast them. That means I want a five-color Commander. They also tend to be expensive, so that means I want a Commander that can help to generate mana. I put two and two together and came up with an old favorite that I'm very familiar with.

Ramos, Dragon Engine is a 4/4 Legendary Dragon with Flying and a very powerful ability. Whenever I cast a spell, I'll put a +1/+1 counter on Ramos for each of that spell's colors. That is notably different from the mana spent to cast the spell, so if I were to spend on a Mulldrifter, it would just be a Blue spell on the stack, and I would just get one +1/+1 counter on my Commander.

If Ramos has five or more +1/+1 counters I can remove five of them to generate mana. That ability is limited to once a turn, so unless I flicker or bounce to recast Ramos, I'll only be doing that once. A new instance of Ramos would also only be able to do it once. It would have lost its counters when it left the battlefield, so I'd be starting from scratch.

An Archaic Theme

Before Secrets of Strixhaven most of us were familiar with Wandering Archaic, a 4/4 Modal double-faced card (MDFC) Avatar with a backside nobody ever talked about.

MDFCs can be played as either side but cannot be transformed to the opposite side. In some cases, the opposite side isn't even a permanent, as is the case here. Wandering Archaic has a powerful ability.

Whenever an opponent casts an Instant or Sorcery spell, they may pay . If they don't, you may copy that spell and you may choose new targets for the copy. It single-handedly makes an overloaded Cyclonic Rift into a fair and symmetrical boardwipe, and it can provide an incredible amount of value over the course of a game. Its flip side is a three-mana Sorcery that would be best played in a hug deck, as it draws everyone a card or two and has every player gain three life.

Abstruse Archaic is the slightly less known Avatar with Archaic in its name. This four-mana 3/4 has Vigilance and a one-cost tap ability that lets you copy target activated or triggered ability you control from a colorless source. You may choose new targets for the copy. That's very niche, but it fits well with Ramos, Dragon Engine. Removing five +1/+1 counters, paying and tapping Abstruse Archaic to generate not two but four mana in each color will feel fantastic. It's also not lost on me that Door to Nothingness will now kill two opponents, not one.

Archaics are often colorless, so they won't help putting counters on Ramos, Dragon Engine, but that doesn't mean they don't care about colors. The colorless Rancorous Archaic, the Red Magmablood Archaic, and the Green Wildgrowth Archaic each enter play with a +1/+1 counter for each color of mana spent to cast it. They each have Trample and Reach, and the latter two have abilities that also care about colors.

Magmablood Archaic will give your Creatures +1/+1 until end of turn for each color of mana in the Instants and Sorcery spells you cast. Wildgrowth Archaic will have your Creature spells enter with X additional +1/+1 counters where X is the number of colors spent to cast them.

The Creature I wish could have led this deck is The Dawning Archaic, a ten-mana 7/7 that costs one mana less for each Instant and Sorcery spell in my graveyard. When it attacks, I may cast target Instant or Sorcery card from my graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into my graveyard, I'll exile it instead.

The Archaic I most want to get in foil is Transcendent Archaic, a 6/6 Avatar with Vigilance that has a pretty nice party trick. When it enters, I may draw X cards where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell. If I draw one or more cards this way, I'll discard two cards.

The Archaic I most confuse for being a Red card is Sundering Archaic. This six drop 3/3 also has a Converge ability. When it enters, I'll exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast on it. In addition, for I can activate it to put target card from a graveyard on the bottom of its owner's library.

That's great for Tunnel Vision shenanigans, but I'll have to pay attention if I want to catch a player targeting something in their graveyard.

There are a couple of noncreature spells with Archaic in the name. As a builder of lower-powered EDH decks, I'm almost always going to lean into a theme, so I had to include them in this list.

Archaic's Agony is a five mana Red Sorcery that will deal X damage to target Creature where X is the number of colors spent to cast it. Then I'll exile cards from the top of my library equal to the excess damage dealt and I may play those cards until the end of my next turn.

Teachings of the Archaics is a Sorcery that will have me draw two cards if an opponent has more cards in hand than me. If it's at least four more, I'll get three cards instead.

This theme isn't a perfect fit for Ramos, Dragon Engine. I want to make all five colors, but I also find myself running a bunch of colorless spells that won't be putting +1/+1 counters on him.

Lucky Charms

Ramos, Dragon Engine is an important card in my personal Magic: The Gathering journey. Writing about different Ramos builds builds helped kick off my nearly decade-long run writing about Commander. My favorite build was a bit of a Rube Goldberg device that would win after casting Conflux, but one of the most popular ways to build Ramos is to load the deck up with two- and three-color Charms.

Charms are (generally) modal Instants that give you a range of options and cost under four mana. Since I'm building this list for games in Brackets 2 and 3, I decided it made sense to lean into what Secrets of Strixhaven has given us and run all five of that set's Charms.

Of the five SOS Charm spells, the Silverquill Charm is the one I'll be most excited to draw into with Ramos, Dragon Engine under my control. For I can put two +1/+1 counters on my Commander and Ramos will see the spell's two colors and get another two +1/+1 counters. While two plus two does not equal five, it's likely I'll have a way to get a fifth counter so that I can make ten mana and do something big and splashy.

Charms are a fun way to build Ramos and they give you a ton of flexibility, but I decided to only run one three-color Charm, so I'd have room for Ramos support cards and all those Archaic spells. Abzan Charm also has three modes, and one of them can put two +1/+1 counters on Ramos. As a three-color spell, I'll also put three +1/+1 counters, so I'll be able to "do the thing" right away.

Unite the Coalition is a seven-mana spell in that again gives me a ton of flexibility. If it resolves, I'll choose any combination of the five abilities on the card. While I could exile the same player's graveyard five times, I'll probably want to draw five cards. The biggest thing about this spell is that on an opponent's turn I could remove five +1/+1 counters from Ramos in response to a removal spell or boardwipe, then cast Unite the Coalition.

That'll put five +1/+1 counters on Ramos, phase him out, pick four other modes, and still have three mana available. If I drew cards, I might even draw into another Instant to cast with my leftover mana.

It's worth noting that all of these Instants with multiple colors in their casting costs play nicely with Magmablood Archaic. Getting +1/+0 for your Creatures for each color of mana spent to cast an Instant or Sorcery might not seem like much, but if you are able to cast a Unite the Coalition into a bunch of draw and then pull +1/+1 counters off of Ramos to make a bunch of mana and cast a bunch of additional spells could result in a pretty nice amount of pump.

Ramos Support

When I'm looking for support cards for a Commander like Ramos, Dragon Engine, I'm looking for cards that help me increase the rate at which I'm able to put +1/+1 counters on him.

Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend are a super fun partner pair for building a Simic () Commander deck, but they are in today's list primarily for Pir's ability to give me additional +1/+1 counters.

I'm also running Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, Winding Constrictor, Kalonian Hydra, and Vorel of the Hull Clade, all of which can help with those pesky +1/+1 counters. Toothy is a potential source of card draw, though this deck isn't set up to properly abuse Pir and Toothy's abilities. Flicker effects can really draw you an incredible number of cards with these two in play.

Bone Sabers wasn't even on my radar the last time I built around Ramos, but this Warhammer 40K Equipment seems like a great fit. Whenever equipped Creature attacks, I'll put four +1/+1 counters on it.

That means just one attack and one extra colored spell, and I'll be in a position to pop Ramos and get ten mana. If I'm feeling cheeky and I've got an opponent with a Creature loaded up with counters, I can also just cast Fate Transfer and move all counters from target Creature onto another target Creature.

Ramos, Dragon Engine can definitely threaten a Commander damage kill, and with Blackblade Reforged in the list I might even pull that off without a ton of +1/+1 counters, but this list is really more focused on making big mana, casting big spells, and maybe even doing something silly with an Archaic or two.

Archaic Ramos

Ramos, Dragon Engine is a fun Commander but there are two things you should be wary of if you're going to build him. He is very explosive in terms of mana production, and he is very vulnerable since he can be hit with both Artifact and Creature removal. I used to joke that he eats Krosan Grips for breakfast, and with a six-mana casting cost if he gets hit with enough of them, you may not be able to cast him again.

The thing I might love the most about Ramos is that he is very flexible. I was able to wrap an Archaic themed deck around my favorite metal Dragon, and aside from building with too many colorless spells, the sky really is the limit. You could run Eldrazi just as easily, so long as you have enough colors and support in the rest of your deck to eventually get counters and make your double mana. You could even build a monocolored or two-colored deck, though it would make it harder to put counters on your Ramos that way.

Ramos Dragon Engine | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ramos, Dragon Engine

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Abstruse Archaic
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Corpsejack Menace
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Magmablood Archaic
• 1 Master Biomancer
• 1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1 Primeval Spawn
• 1 Rancorous Archaic
• 1 Sundering Archaic
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 The Dawning Archaic
• 1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1 Transcendent Archaic
• 1 Two-Headed Hellkite
• 1 Utopia Tree
• 1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
• 1 Wandering Archaic
• 1 Wildgrowth Archaic
• 1 Winding Constrictor

• Instants (21)
• 1 Abzan Charm
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Batwing Brume
• 1 Crackling Doom
• 1 Dawn's Truce
• 1 Deflecting Palm
• 1 Fate Transfer
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Lorehold Charm
• 1 Prismari Charm
• 1 Quandrix Charm
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Silverquill Charm
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Unite the Coalition
• 1 Witherbloom Charm

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Archaic's Agony
• 1 Farseek
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Mind into Matter
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Ruinous Ultimatum
• 1 Shared Roots
• 1 Teachings of the Archaics

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Hardened Scales

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Bone Sabres
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Chromatic Orrery
• 1 Door to Nothingness
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots

• Lands (39)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cascading Cataracts
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crystal Quarry
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to tune this list down either in terms of budget or power, I'd probably suggest dropping out Chromatic Orrery and the Battlebond dual Lands and running a cheaper and possibly slower mana base. Most of this list's money is in the Lands, so you could easily drop a few hundred dollars through some careful edits.

Today's list is pretty firmly in Bracket 2 territory, with no Game Changers or tutors and no singularly effective wincon you're aiming at.

To power this list up, I think you would look at crafting a more reliable way to win. My list runs Door to Nothingness and can also rely upon general combat damage and Commander damage, but my hope was to see some of the Archaic spells put in work. That might not be your optimal build, and you might also not want to run all the Secrets of Strixhaven charms.

Since you're in all five colors, you can really run whatever wincon you like, and you can generate a lot of mana, so while Ramos probably won't get you very far in Bracket 4 and 5, there's a lot you could do in Bracket 3.

Early Results

I was able to get this list into a game, though it was only a three-player pod. Our Thursday night Tabletop Simulator group has had a rough stretch of late, so I was just happy to be able to play at all.

One of my buddies was running Dionus, Elvish Archdruid, a Commander that would let his elves untap and get a +1/+1 counter any time they tapped during his turn. He ran a mix of mana dorks, which had us vaguely terrified at first, and vehicles, which had us feeling a bit relieved.

The third player was playing the same Colossal Dreadmaw themed list he had played in a recent game, but with a different Commander to see if the playtest card The Colossal Dreadmaw was really the reason that deck had popped off so hard.

I started with five Lands and two pretty high mana spells in hand, deciding to keep a Lands-heavy opener since I'd have to get to six just to cast Ramos. In the early game I didn't do much but drew into Pir, Imaginative Rascal, and tutored up Toothy, Imaginary Friend. On my fourth turn I pulled into Master Biomancer and chose to cast him and cast Toothy on turn five.

Ramos came down on turn six. I had a boardstate, but it felt woefully insufficient compared to what was going on across the table.

The Dionus player and the Dreadmaw player were playing out Creatures at a much higher rate, having turn one and two plays and by the time I had my Commander in play they were able to produce twice the mana that I could make. I hadn't hit a single ramp spell or mana rock.

Fortunately, they were more concerned with each other and mostly left me alone.

Ramos hit the field with three extra counters thanks to Master Biomancer and Pir, Imaginative Rascal. On my next turn I had a hand full of spells too big to cast with one notable exception. Teachings of the Archaics was in my hand. The only problem was that I hadn't been casting spells at a decent rate, so both of my opponents had fewer cards in hand.

If I cast it, it would literally do nothing and just go to the graveyard. That sounded terrible to me, but it sounded pretty good to Ramos. I cast it, put two counters on Ramos, putting him to six +1/+1 counters, and proceeded to remove five and make my ten mana.

I'm pretty sure this is where I thought things went horribly wrong. I cast Ruinous Ultimatum for seven, fully expecting one of my tablemates would be able to protect their board. I don't love handing the game to someone unless it's me, but I figured it was worth trying to reset them both. The Dreadmaw player had Heroic Intervention, and while he was able to keep his board intact, the Dionus, Elvish Archdruid player lost everything.

I had drawn into Door to Nothingness, and while I didn't have Abstruse Archaic available, it seemed like the best play even though it would enter tapped, and I'd have to survive to my next turn to use it. Ramos would also have to survive, and the chances two mono Green players wouldn't have Artifact removal seemed slim.

The Dreadmaw player saw the writing on the wall and to the surprise of nobody, he swung out at me with everything. To my surprise, the Dionus player used a Beast Within on the Dreadmaw player's Great Henge. I ended up blocking a 12/12 trampler with a ten toughness Toothy, drawing nine cards, taking a boatload of damage, but surviving the attack and getting another turn.

I don't love Door to Nothingness. It's a way to eliminate a player, but it does one job and it does it well. It's also a perfect fit for Ramos, as he generates exactly the mana needed to activate it. My friend, who had clobbered us before with The Colossal Dreadmaw, took his now-inevitable demise in good humor.

I had cast a Bone Sabers earlier so I equipped Ramos and swung at the Dionus player. That put four +1/+1 counters on Ramos, along with an extra from Pir, and let me remove counters, make ten mana, and slam the Door on my buddy.

I had some extra mana at this point so in the second main phase I cast Hardened Scales and Utopia Tree. Dionus was still rebuilding and I had at least a dozen points of Commander damage on him. I had drawn into a bunch of stuff from Toothy dying, including the big mana Instant spell Unite the Coalition. On his end step I removed five more +1/+1 counters from Ramos and cast it.

I put five +1/+1 counters back on Ramos, but before I had even figured out what modes I'd be choosing, he conceded. I could just phase out his blockers and swing for the win.

The irony of my test game is that I didn't really see my Archaic theme do much at all. That said, there's an argument that Teachings of the Archaics was the most pivotal spell I cast in the game and it didn't even draw me a single card. Magic is weird, and Commander at times can be even weirder. I had been on a losing streak in my Thursday night group, so it felt very good to get the W, and the guys were great tablemates as always.

Final Thoughts

Archaics have a handful of colored spells, but I'm hopeful that in the coming years we'll see both a cycle of mono-colored Archaic Creatures and a cycle of Archaic adjacent spells. I would have loved to have had a bigger commitment to the theme for this deck.

I'm sure you could build an Archaic themed deck in Blue, Red and Green but I wanted to be able to make five colors of mana for the Archaics that care about that. It's possible another five-color legend might be an equally good fit for this theme, but I liked the idea that these big spells might be more easily cast with big Ramos mana.

I'm not sure what I'll be hitting next as even this column was very much a surprise to me. We've covered the Elder Dragons from Secrets of Strixhaven, but I have yet to really dig into the other legends in that set.

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