Veloci-Ramp-Tor Upgrade Guide: 13 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on January 12, 2024

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored | Illustration by Sam Burley

The Commander precons accompanying new sets are fantastic products. Not only do they introduce a bunch of new cards for the format, but they also provide an easy entry point for new players to start playing Magic’s most popular format.

The Veloci-Ramp-Tor deck from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan focuses on the dinosaurs, which are part of what made the original Ixalan block stand out from its peers. Helmed by Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, it focuses on getting big dinosaurs into play and smashing faces with them!

Let’s dive in!

Deck Overview

Halana and Alena, Partners | Illustration by Jason Rainville

This deck is all about the dinosaurs; of its 30 creatures, only a handful aren’t dinos, and those cards support the type. Dinosaurs are characterized in Magic primarily as being big and expensive, though there are some cheaper ones.

Because of this, the deck’s primary focus is ramping out the biggest dinos it can. Pantlaza, Sun-Favored supports this by letting us discover X, with X scaling with the cost of our dinos. Discover is a new mechanic in the set reminiscent of cascade that allows us to cast spells for free.

The original dinosaurs from the Ixalan block had the enrage mechanic, which triggered whenever they were dealt damage; this deck leans heavily on enrage synergies for extra abilities. The secondary commander, Wayta, Trainer Prodigy, helps double up on the triggers and gets enrage going with its fight ability.

Strengths and Weaknesses

This deck is interested in doing one thing: churning out big dinosaurs and overwhelming the opponent by going tall instead of going wide. It’s pretty good at putting out those large dinosaurs with its ramp.

The main weakness of the deck isn’t structural flaws so much as having some less-than-ideal cards. Naya ramp is a solid strategy. Structuring it around dinosaurs provides powerful synergies and makes it a little interesting. The following upgrades aren’t interested in changing that so much as they are strengthening the themes and ideas already here.

The only card worth noting in this section is Marauding Raptor. It’s perfectly respectable to play it in a dinosaur ramp deck; the issue comes from the handful of cards that die to it. Several changes below suggest removing the cards that die to the Raptor to retain the powerful ramp piece, but removing the Raptor itself is a reasonable course of action as well.

Halana and Alena, Partners

Suggested Cut: Majestic Heliopterus

Halana and Alena, Partners is great in proactive decks. Giving haste and a power boost provides a ton of pressure. Majestic Heliopterus wants to apply pressure via evasion but is ultimately a Limited card that happens to have a card type we’re interested in.

Shadow in the Warp

Suggested Cut: Otepec Huntmaster

Shadow in the Warp provides a steep discount to creatures and provides a little incidental damage. It’s a more significant discount than Otepec Huntmaster’s since this deck is structured to play one big creature a turn, a few turns early, and it’s much harder to interact with.

Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea

Suggested Cut: Drover of the Mighty

I think Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea is highly underrated in Commander. It does everything Drover of the Mighty wants to do: accelerate our big creatures and become a threat later. Gwenna is better in both regards with so many big creatures running around.

Molten Echoes

Suggested Cut: From the Rubble

From the Rubble is one of the cool new cards. It’s a bit expensive and more importantly, this deck doesn’t use it well. We don’t have ways to get dinos in the yard, so we’re basically relying on our opponents to remove our threats. Molten Echoes is much cheaper and incredibly proactive, which makes it much more appealing.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Suggested Cut: Dinosaur Egg

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is fantastic in this deck. It’s got plenty of toughness to discover and makes cards like Chandra's Ignition and Sunfrill Imitator stronger. Dinosaur Egg is cool and flavorful, but relying on combat to kill it isn’t appealing.

Pillar of Origins

Suggested Cut: Progenitor's Icon

Pillar of Origins is simply superior for this deck. Progenitor's Icon is interesting, but playing our creatures at instant speed isn’t great for this deck. We don’t have any reason to keep up that much mana, unlike a type such as Spirits that does a lot at instant speed. The more efficient option works better here.

Overrun

Suggested Cut: Return of the Wildspeaker

The flexibility of Return of the Wildspeaker is nice, but an Overrun effect without trample isn’t a card, which in turn weakens said utility. The addition of trample makes this superior and will close out games convincingly.

Domri, Anarch of Bolas

Suggested Cut: Rhythm of the Wild

Access to counter protection is great for decks that want to play big spells at sorcery speed. The problem with Rhythm of the Wild is that it doesn’t do much the turn it comes into play and is a pretty bad top deck. Domri, Anarch of Bolas is a much better draw in the late game since it fights, and its counter protection comes with ramp.

Elemental Bond

Suggested Cut: Lifecrafter's Bestiary

Lifecrafter's Bestiary is a respectable card, but Elemental Bond works better with the deck. Practically all our cards trigger this. Giving up a little scry value to avoid paying G every time we cast a creature is a trade we’re happy to make.

Gishath, Sun’s Avatar

Suggested Cut: Raging Regisaur

While Raging Regisaur is useful with our enrage cards, we’re playing Commander. We can do better than a 4/4 for 4 with upside. Gishath, Sun's Avatar has a sick reprint and does everything this deck wants in terms of putting proactive dinosaurs into play.

Ghalta and Mavren

Suggested Cut: Verdant Sun's Avatar

Verdant Sun's Avatar is a fine card to help us stabilize, but Ghalta and Mavren offers so much more for the same amount of mana. More board presence, more power, and more discovery.

Etali, Primal Conqueror

Suggested Cut: Etali, Primal Storm

Etali, Primal Conqueror is superior to the original version in every way. It doesn’t miss, you don’t have to hope it survives for a turn to get a trigger, and it transforms into a card that can single-handedly win the game.

Last March of the Ents

Suggested Cut: Deathgorge Scavenger

Getting to draw a bunch of cards and drop free creatures into play is amazing. Last March of the Ents is also strong with some of the upgrades in the list, namely the 12/12’s and Molten Echoes.

Commanding Conclusion

Last March of the Ents | Illustration by John Tedrick

The Veloci-Ramp-Tor deck embraces a classic Commander strategy: Naya Ramp. Focusing on Dinosaurs as the payoff grounds it with the setting of Ixalan and shows off many cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

These upgrades focus on enhancing the strategies already present in the deck instead of reworking it entirely. Which Commander deck from the new set are you upgrading? Are you looking forward to the new set? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and stay stompy!