Blue is a colour that is incredibly powerful as a support color. Its instant speed interaction and its ability to draw cards pushes it to the top. However, if we look at the performance of mono blue, it feels like a whole different color, with the exception of artifact strategies. Its greatest shortcoming is its ability to ramp which causes you to fall behind compared to other colours.

Today I want to look at all the ramp options in blue and see which options we do have and if we can solve this problem. When researching this topic, I realized blue actually has a lot more mana dorks than I realised. Looking in scryfall often results in fun and new discoveries!

Two more things before we start: I will go over ramp options that are blue which means colorless options will not be discussed, sorry Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo lovers. Also, keep in mind that everything I say here is my opinion so feel free to correct me :).

General

The first cards that we will look at are those that ramp you and do not depend on your strategy. Although it is nice to make your deck thematic more mana is crucial in almost any deck so it is good to have some options that will always work.

Apprentice Wizard effectively generates you two mana each turn, but be careful that you do not play it in decks that have too many cards which need many colour pips. As Foretold is a card that I recently discovered for my deck that generates multiple upkeeps, but even without this support it can shine in decks that have a high density of low mana cost spells. Especially since I realised enchantments usually stay longer on the board than you would think. Does this still count as general ramp? I do not know but I put it here anyway.

Another fun discovery is Copy Land which gets even funnier when you copy lands that generate more than one mana. Be careful of bounce lands though, since they will force you to bounce a land to your hand. If you want to steal the land as well you can use an old card called Annex, it is probably too much mana but imagine the situation where you steal a Gaias Cradle. Prepare to lose your friends if that is the case.

Midnight Clock and Misleading signpost are both three mana artifacts that function as mana rocks with an additional ability. I dislike Midnight Clock because its card draw ability always seems to fire when I do not want it, but in theory it is a very powerful card. The ability on Misleading Signpost seems powerful to me but useful in a different point in the game than when you want to ramp. But please tell me if I am missing something.

Imprisoned in the moon can be used as ramp if you have a creature to throw away. However, it also functions as a decent removal spell.  Dreamscape artist is one of the few cards that allows blue to land ramp but you need to pump a lot of mana in it. I would suggest playing this only if your commander costs a lot. If we really zoom into mono blue the card Defiler of Dreams is a powerful card, since it functions as a card draw engine and it allows you too trade life for mana. In the same mono blue shell the power of High Tide can not be ignored. It will generate enormous amount of mana but it is not a card you will use at the start of the game.

The last card is a stand in for the untap strategy in blue. North Pole Patrol can untap another permanent which allows you to reuse your mana sources. This gets more powerful when your mana source generates more than one mana.

Artifacts

We all know how powerful artifacts can be, with all untapped strategies in blue it is easy to construct a board state where you generate enormous amounts of mana. But even when we only look at the blue options we see that there are a lot of choices for ramp. Their main downside is often that the mana can only be used to cast artifacts. Cards that fall in this category are: Cargo Ship, Oakec Siren, Sage of the Unknownable, Hydraulic Helper and Vedalken Engineer.

If you are focusing on clues Five Hundred Years Diary seems like an instant inclusion. Tapping them for mana instead of just having them laying around easily gives you the ability to cast powerful large mana spells.

Then there are two inclusions which you absolutely want to have in an artifact deck if you have the budget. We all know how powerful Tolarian Academy is and Uthros has the same effect if you can station it. The same goes for Urza which generates mana so fast people will start to refuse to play against it.

There are two more cards to discuss in the artifact category. If you have a high chance of drawing multiple cards each turn Lady Octopus is a great inclusion. In this case it will fill up with counters fast. As a one mana spell she will quickly generate value by giving your free artifacts. Keep in mind that if she gets too many counters your opponents want to remove her. The last card is Osgood, which is technically a Sol Ring for artifacts for four mana and the fact that it is still useful tells you the power of Sol Ring.

Spellslinger

When I think of blue, instants and sorceries are one of the first things that come into my mind. Not surprisingly, blue has a few options for ramp when you are creating a spellslinger deck. Hydro-Channeler, Karfell Harbinger, Vodalian Anarchist and Volshe Tideturner are all mana dorks that generate mana that can only be used to cast instant and sorcery spells. A card that was just recently released is the blue Planeswalker  Chandra. She has the same ability as the previous cards but has the upside of potentially functioning as a card draw engine.

Mill

In blue, graveyard strategies are a common occurrence. Deranged Assistant is a card that both mills and ramps you, so it fits perfectly in this category. The Overflowing Well is slightly more mana than you would expect a draw two spell to be, but it mills you two cards and flips to a land when there are 8 permanents in your graveyard, which is easy to do when you are in a mill deck. In a similar way Search for Azcanta can flip into a land, this time with 7 or more cards. It doesn’t draw you cards but it is still a very useful card.

Others

Then there are the ramp cards which didn’t fit in the previous categories but are still worth talking about. If your commander is 5 or more mana and you desperately do not want it to be countered Thryx is a great inclusion. It even has flash to cast it at the right moment. Next we have two tybal cards. I do not know if mono blue dragons is a working strategy but if you decide to play it, include Lapis Orb of Dragonkind. For pirates Malcolm is an excellent ramp choice, since it will hopefully generate you three treasures each turn. For blink strategies I suggest including Peregrine Drake. It is brutal when someone counters it but in blink decks it will generate so much mana the risk is worth it. The last strategy is a card draw strategy where you can use Emrakul’s Messenger, it will  generate you both ramp and useful blockers.

Then there are the more niche cards I found: Reset, a great inclusion when you play a large amount of instant and/or flash cards in your deck. When you cast a lot of spells from other places than your hand include Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher. Arbiter of the Ideal is a fun card when you can manipulate the top of your library. Especially when you combine it with a tap and untap strategy. I wish this was legendary :).

I hope you have learned which ramp options you can include in blue! Tell me which are your favorites or what I missed and I will see you in the next colour focus.