The 30 Best Red Ramp Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 19, 2025

Runaway Steam-Kin | Illustration by Jason Felix

In my blue ramp piece, I asked if ramp was good. A better way to ask the question might be: “Is ramp good outside of green?”

That’s a harder question to answer with blue, which has more niche ramp choices than ramp leader green. But red has some more broadly usable ramp cards, so maybe we'll get closer to the answer. I know you play at least one of the cards below!

What Is Red Ramp in MTG?

Alena, Kessig Trapper | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

Red ramp in MTG is the creation of additional mana with mono-red cards. This typically involves creatures or artifacts that tap for mana (mana dorks and mana rocks, as we call them) or spells and abilities that allow players to play more than one land per turn, often by searching up another land. Green does this the best, followed by white.

Burst mana (Dark Ritual) isn’t generally considered mana ramp because it’s not reusable. A lot of the mana acceleration in black and red comes in ritual form, so some of the best cards that go into red ramp decks, like Pyretic Ritual or Irencrag Feat, don’t make this list. For the same reasons I don’t consider Treasure creators. Sorry, Dockside Extortionist.

That said, red still has a lot of resources for ramp, including a good number of planeswalkers. Let’s get crackin’!

#30. Alena, Kessig Trapper

Once you get going in a deck like Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei or something else that reliably drops creatures, this can really add the mana. But you don’t really need a 5-cost mana dork.

Alena, Kessig Trapper works best with well-known partner Halana, Kessig Ranger in the command zone, where Alena pays for Halana’s trigger, which is a cool combo, but barely counts as ramp.

#29. Lavabrink Floodgates

Lavabrink Floodgates is fun to play. You can watch the hamster wheels turn in people’s brains at your EDH table when you play this. The trouble is that you basically let your enemies decide whether it's ramp or a board wipe, and you can bet it won’t work out the way you want.

If you have counter-moving shenanigans going, three other EDH-legal cards use doom counters, which gives you more control over this and Imminent Doom, Armageddon Clock, and Eye of Doom. Maybe you can figure out how that can be good in some kind of Nesting Grounds deck. If so, ping me your decklist!

#28. Chandra, Novice Pyromancer

In Chandra, Novice Pyromancer we see a planeswalker early in her career, before she could know that a 4-drop mana source isn’t much help (at least until she grows up into #5 and adds a stack of OP abilities into the mix!). Hey, there's something here if you're playing elementals.

#27. Smokebraider

A 2-mana dork that yields 2 mana in any color combination is big news for your Horde of Notions elementals deck!

#26. Jaya Ballard

There’s a pattern in some of these red ramp cards. Spend X and then get all but two of that mana back. That makes it possible to chain ramp spells for the next turn’s monster.

I think there’s a build of that that can use Jaya Ballard. But again, by the time you can cast 5-drop ramp spells, you should be done ramping.

#25. Brazen Collector

I never thought Bloomburrow‘s raccoons would be particularly ramp-y, but Brazen Collector is a nice little combination of abilities. You need to be able to attack with it to get it to work, but having first strike helps a lot with that.

This rogue‘s not going to be able to get in easily in the late game, but it doesn’t need to hit so in a pinch you can just send it into the grinder for that extra bit of mana. Mean, but sometimes it’s worth it!

#24. Summon: Esper Valigarmanda

OK, so I said permanent red mana production cards would qualify, I make a bit of an exception for Summon: Esper Valigarmanda which has a whole three turns of increasingly better mana. Yes it is limited to instants or sorceries, but there are also plenty of ways to reset sagas. I really like how this summon also sneaks in a bit of graveyard hate.

#23. Howlsquad Heavy

Goblins hang around Magic all the time, so why not think of Howlsquad Heavy as the Gaea's Cradle of goblin decks? That pesky speed slows it down. Now if any deck can get to max speed it is a goblin deck, so if that's enough for you to vote this card high in the ranks, please comment with your vote.

#22. Koth of the Hammer

Koth of the Hammer’s first ability technically counts as ramp, and the second works too if you aren’t after the ultimate. There’s better planeswalker ramp that doesn’t ask you to run so many basics, though.

#21. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind

Just about every dragon commander has red, so Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind is a perfect fit for those decks. 3-mana rocks are a bit slow these days, but giving all your dragons haste is big game.

#20. Rodeo Pyromancers

Outlaws of Thunder Junction‘s Rodeo Pyromancers is another one that needs a little work to get the mana out, but not too much, especially if you’re a storm or spellslinger deck. It’ll only trigger once per turn, but it triggers every turn, so it’s pretty reliable. The body isn’t horrendous, either, although this wasn’t a standout common in its own Limited set. Still, a nice budget option, especially for rareless formats.

#19. Sarkhan, Fireblood

A Smokebraider for dragons that can also rummage with an uptick towards ultimate? I think you want Sarkhan, Fireblood in your red-heavy dragon deck.

#18. Glittering Stockpile

A 3-mana rock that turns into a riff on Red Mana Battery? I have my doubts about Glittering Stockpile, but the risk from things like Vandalblast is lower than for other rocks since you can sac it at instant speed for any color.

#17. Zookeeper Mechan

Zookeeper Mechan is a bit worse as a creature because if it were an artifact it could ramp the same turn. It certainly helps all but the most aggressive red decks. I much more likely will use the Zookeeper in combat, or as sacrifice fodder rather than an infinite mana payoff.

#16. Sunset Strikemaster

Sunset Strikemaster is a nice red dork that has relevant power, and a relevant flying hate ability.

#15. Orb of Dragonkind

Orb of Dragonkind is a 2-mana rock for your dragon deck that filters mana and then digs for cards later. This is good! You can just drop it, sac it, and you’ve paid three to do a bad impression of Dig Through Time.

#14. Ore-Rich Stalactite

Ore-Rich Stalactite isn’t entirely a ramp card, but it does start off as a passable 2-drop mana rock. The limitation to instants and sorceries is clearly a small hindrance, but you don’t want to play this red artifact unless you care about those cards. When it transforms, it loses the ramp ability, but hopefully by that part of the game you’re not in need of that anymore and can go off with this weird spell engine!

#13. Cursed Mirror

Cursed Mirror is outstanding in the usual suspects artifact decks like Mishra, Eminent One, and is a fun addition to my latest EDH deck obsession, Jaxis, the Troublemaker.

But for a regular red or Gruul () ramp deck, just remember the haste on the token this makes. Cursed Mirror feels more like a 2-mana rock if you drop it on turn 3 and copy a mana dork.

#12. Chandra, Flameshaper

The plus ability is such a reward for landing a 7-mana planeswalker. Three red mana is great in terms of ramp, the impulsive card advantage is chief among the other benefits Chandra, Flameshaper provides.

#11. Chandra, Dressed to Kill

So Chandra, Dressed to Kill is a 3-mana accelerant that can also impulse draw. It pings down opposing planeswalkers that ticked down thinking they were safe from creature damage along the way.

In the past I might have said this is worse than a 3-mana rock because it’s more fragile. But as artifact hate creeps up, this may be the more reliable form of ramp.

#10. Chandra, Hope’s Beacon

Generally, you want your ramp cards to be cheap, but Chandra, Hope's Beacon is 6 mana, which is decidedly not cheap! However, it not only provides 2 mana on each of your turns, but it can do a lot more on top! This Chandra is a pretty nice red planeswalker and is most at home in spellslinger or storm, especially with that spell-copy static ability. Powerful card that has some nice ramp attached!

#9. Urabrask / The Great Work

Urabrask does a lot of ramping if you’re building around it. Pinging your opponent as it does it is a great bonus, too. If you choose to transform it into The Great Work, it’ll eventually do a bit of Treasure-ramp, too, then give you a bit of a storm ultimate on the third chapter. I think if you want to make the most of the ramp ability, you’ll keep this front face up. Still, it’s a nice option to have for free!

#8. Crime Novelist

Crime Novelist was all the rage during the Murders at Karlov Manor‘s previews. Even though that hype has cooled, it’s still pretty hot. This goblin bard can trigger multiple times in a turn, which can lead to some pretty nutty turns in the right deck. Clearly you want this in an artifact-themed deck, especially if you’re sacrificing them, but treasure themes also help it along, as does any kind of “resource token” deck like Blood tokens or Junk tokens.

#7. Tesak, Judith’s Hellhound

A lot of the cards on this list only add 1-2 mana. Tesak, Judith's Hellhound can add a bunch of mana. The main issue here is that you do need to spend the mana in combat, unless you have a way to keep it for later. It’s hard to ignore a repeatable mana source that can pretty easily make this much mana, though, so get on it!

#6. Chandra, Torch of Defiance

The mana is fine here, but this card offers so, so much more. Folks play Chandra, Torch of Defiance for card draw and removal.

Add a win condition into the mix and you’ve got one of the best cards on this list.

#5. Chandra, Legacy of Fire

Chandra, Legacy of Fire only ramps in a superfriends shell, but what a ramp card! Adding mana equal to the number of anything gets out of control quickly, especially when “anything” is a card type that's notoriously hard to remove in multiples. As if that weren't enough, the static ability scales with the number of planeswalkers we control for a win condition and the 0 ability lets us draw a ton of cards. It might be narrow, but this card puts in lots of work.

#4. Territory Forge

What’s that? Territory Forge isn’t a ramp card, never mind one that should be this high on the list? Well, that couldn’t be more wrong. If you use this to exile a land you can use the abilities of that land. Even if it’s something huge like a Gaea's Cradle. Sure, you won’t always hit that high, but using this red artifact to not just become, but effectively steal an opponent’s value is a solid effect that red doesn’t really get anywhere else.

#3. Electro, Assaulting Battery

Electro, Assaulting Battery is [insert Energizer joke], but seriously, getting mana for casting spells and the ability to store up mana, and the mana sink on the way out? Electro's got just too much good stuff to cram an ampm reference.

#2. Braid of Fire

Braid of Fire, the second best ever cumulative upkeep card, has gotten better over the years. The mana clears after your upkeep, so you need other cumulative upkeep cards like Mystic Remora to make use of it, or big instants you’d want to cast before combat, which is the total worst time for casting instants!

But cards have been creeping up the word count in those text boxes, and quite a lot of activated abilities would make good use of this enchantment-based ramp. No one plays Braid of Fire in Kenrith, the Returned King decks, but maybe they should.

#1. Runaway Steam-Kin

Anyone who played against red decks from the start of Arena will be familiar with this beastie and the acceleration it can provide. It’s not traditional ramp, but it acts like it.

I’ve seen Runaway Steam-Kin generate nine mana in one turn, only to start it all over again the next. It can’t quite keep up in 60-card formats now that it’s out of Standard, but this works just fine in Commander, especially in storm decks.

Best Red Ramp Payoffs

Big Red!

This is periodically a thing in 60-card formats when green ramp is a bit poor, like right now in Standard. It doesn’t seem to work as well in Commander where green ramp and card draw is just so much more efficient and multicolor mana rocks can get you a more flexible deck than mono-red. That said, I’ve seen it before.

I’d say the most useful deck for a lot of red mana is Ashling the Pilgrim stuffed with expensive, powerful things like Gratuitous Violence and Dictate of the Twin Gods.

Spells!!

Storm and spellslinger don’t usually want to clog the deck with ramp cards like these, but red midrange decks tend to have damage spells, planeswalkers, weird enchantments, and even dice rolling or coin flips.

These probably aren't great decks, but if you have a build you want to try then you’ll need some ramp to keep up. I’m looking at you, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell players!

X Spells

Since the early days of Magic with Fireball, red has had good places to put as much mana as you can make. We’ve come a long way since then, although it’s still pretty great. We now have access to some sweet cards like Crackle with Power, Storm King's Thunder, Comet Storm, and Shatterskull Smashing, . X-spells are just getting easier to cast these days, aren't they?

Dragons!!!

Dragons are expensive to cast, so there's a lot of dragon-specific mana ramp in this list. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why dragons are the most popular creature type in EDH?

Hellkite Tyrant wants to grab all the mana rocks possible and turns that ramp into a win condition.

Wrap Up

Smokebraider | Illustration by Anthony S. Waters

Ramp is still a tough call. How long can you go doing nothing, even if you're making it easier to do something next turn?

Every deck builder has to decide how much ramp they want to include and what colors to invest in. And although I don’t have a good answer for your deck, hopefully this list illuminated some possibilities as you brew toward your next Commander game.

What do you think? To ramp or not to ramp? Let me know in the comments or over on the Draftsim Discord.

That's all from me for now. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands!