Just when you thought, “There’s no way that guy has more rocks,” it’s me, back with more rocks! If you missed our first article on the series where we go over a bit about our criteria and what exactly mana rocks are, check that out here. Today we’ll be continuing our review of the various ramping utensils and covering more of the 3 converted mana cost rocks.
We’ll be using a rating scale to discuss these cards and how they rank up against others in this category:
S: The only reason you wouldn’t include this is personal choice, other synergy, or budget.
A:Â Always a solid choice, or is overwhelmingly good in a specific archetype.
B:Â Generally a good pick, can work well in most decks or very well in others with synergy.
C: Good in niche situations or specific decks, but might be outclassed by other picks if you don’t have specific synergy with it.
D: Generally outclassed by other picks. Only playable in very particular niches or if you just like the card and it fits your deck’s theme.
As another quick preface, I’m going to leave out some mana rocks from this list like Letter of Acceptance that are effectively just power-shifted versions of things like Commander’s Sphere for limited and other constructed formats. While some are handy for redundancy, if a card does basically the same effect as something else or does it slightly worse, it’s not always worth covering.
I’m looking at you here, old buddy.
With no more time to waste, let us, as they say, “get cracking.”
Laser Screwdriver
Utility on ramp tools is a common theme we’ve been seeing in this category, but this is a whole new level. It does what seems like an odd combination of things, but it ends up being a pretty neat set of abilities to have in a pinch particularly the ability to tap down any problematic artefacts that need to tap to be used. The surveil is handy in a pinch although for the combined opportunity cost of not ramping + 2 additional mana, it’s not always something you want to use regularly. The Goad effect can be really clutch to keep a scary creature from whacking you though. All in all, it’s pretty decent. It’s not something most decks are trying to abuse or anything, it’s mostly something you take if you can leverage the control tools in this to assist your game plan.
Rating: C, not terrible but I’d only really put this in really control focused decks that don’t have these effects from other sources, particularly Goad.
Luck Bobblehead
This is the Bobblehead dream right here. Ideally if you’re committed to this, you can go for a bunch of ways to copy/make tokens of this so you can try to go for the casino victory a few times in a single turn cycle. Aside from the win condition, it’s not the worst if you have a lot of bobbleheads, especially if you have enough other artifact synergies in the deck. The issue with this one is that it’s really rough if it’s your only Bobblehead in play, since it sometimes just does nothing. Once you hit a point where this will reliably get at least one treasure, it becomes a pretty useful mana sink to bank off some mana and stack up more artifact tokens. The win condition is neat and has the benefit of not really being something you have to pay more for if you’re already running all of these for the synergy regardless.
Rating: D if you aren’t playing Bobbleheads, but A if you want to run all of them. Not necessarily for the win condition, but 1 mana to make a few treasures every turn can get out of hand fast, and sometimes just winning off some crazy luck will be a hilarious moment.
Mana Geode
Super overwhelmingly mediocre, but at least provides pseudo card advantage right off the rip without having to sacrifice it. Compared to something like Commander’s Sphere which it competes with, it also can provide mana outside of your color identity which can have some niche uses. It’s not great but its alright in budget decks that get a bit intense with color pips.
Rating: D
Midnight Clock
This one’s extremely contentious as it is either loved or hated depending on who you ask. It technically is temporary ramp, even more so at a standard table of 4 players as it effectively lasts you about 3 turns. If you’re able to use this well, getting what is effectively a full return on investment (3 mana initially, then 3 turns you can tap it) plus wheeling out your hand back to full can be absolutely bonkers. The real pitch with this is you have to be playing a deck where you can often dump a lot of the cards out of your hand in a short time frame: if you’re only playing 1 card a turn, this wont provide you nearly as much value when it goes off. It requires some setup, but the potential on this is pretty insane for a mere mana rock.
Rating: B, it’s got a high ceiling but requires a bit of finesse to make sure it works well in your deck. It’s not for everyone, but it will work wonders for the decks that can use this to be effectively a delayed 0-mana-draw-7-card spell.
Misleading Signpost
While I love this card in flavor, I often don’t find myself wanting to save mana rocks to use an an opportune time like this, and often just letting this rip on turn 3 for the sake of getting to keep your mana up an instant speed isn’t really that worth it. It’s a cool effect, but I think getting to save your mana for a bit in an early turn isn’t worth playing a rock that really just taps for blue. Yes, it does have the utility to effectively be a combat trick late game, but I don’t think I’d want to sit on this compared to the rocks that cycle or just draw cards to find something better instead.
Rating: D, its a big flavor win and I love the art, I just have no clue where I’d actually want to put this.
Network Terminal
Not too much to say here, it’s pretty solid if you’ve got a bunch of artifacts (especially tokens likes treasures, clues, food etc.) laying around, if you don’t it’s not really going to help you. Bonus points for equipment decks where you can tap down those that are sitting around as well.
Rating: C, although honestly it’s not too shabby and I’m shocked I haven’t seen it much in constructed.
Patchwork Banner
It’s got exactly one use case for typal decks or things like The Locust God that just spit out a lot of the same type of token, but anthems in those decks just stack up to make your creatures become unethical. One more of those tied to something you already want to be playing is awesome, and I think this is an auto-include for all but the fastest typal decks that want to go wide. If you compare this to running a 2-cost rock instead, you’re effectively paying 1 mana for stats equal to however many creatures of that type you have on board. That can get bonkers pretty fast.
Rating: A, it’s really solid for any kindred/typal strategies but it’s pretty much only for those and decks that spam the same tokens.
Patriar’s Seal
Some of the most popular commanders in the entire format have tap effects. Krenko, Mob Boss; Chatterfang, Squirrel General; Magus Lucea Kane. The list could keep going. This allows you to pay a pretty small amount to double up on their ability every turn. I can’t explicitly say this card is underrated because it does have pretty high representation in these types of decks on EDHRec. That being said, I don’t think this card is talked about enough for how powerful it is for these commanders. It really provides a crazy high potential for you to do some shenanigans for very little opportunity cost.
Rating: A, it’s disgustingly good if you commander has a tapping ability.
Perception Bobblehead
This one’s interesting because it doesn’t get directly more powerful when you focus on building around the Bobbleheads, but it does become drastically more consistent and reduces the chances of whiffing. It’s neat and I definitely don’t think it’s bad in Bobblehead decks since ideally it lets you start to chain them together and just dig for more, but if you aren’t you better have a really low CMC deck if you want to gamble 3 mana on doing stone nothing sometimes.
Rating: D, absolutely play this if you’re going Bobbleheads but I think it’s only decent over there and it’s pretty unplayable beyond that.
Phial of Galadriel
The gaining life part is neat, but won’t really come up too often for many decks in commander. The drawing a card line is a bit more relevant, but even then how often are you going full-on Hellbent in your regular games? Maybe in things like Flubs, the Fool you can get some leverage out of this, but unless you’re still playing Malfegor in 2025 (which rules if you are by the way), this one might be more of a collection piece than anything.
Rating: D, the flavor is sweet for the whole “it works in a time of desperation” part, but in a format like Commander, those times of desperation often find you either quickly winning or quickly out of the game.
Phyrexian Atlas
Not to go on a hate-spree here, but I think this card’s pretty bad. Incremental single points of damage are not worth it, especially when you often try to kill one player at a time with poison if you aren’t going for the Proliferate long-con. Even if you are, ideally the poison kill is you win condition and one damage doesn’t help push towards that.
Rating: D
Progenitor’s Icon
Having Flash in your back pocket can be really handy to try and hide threats in big scary typal/kindred decks like Dragons, Hydras, and Dinos (oh my!). Denying your opponents a chance to remove a creature until the last possible second can help keep something safe, especially if it can just win you the game outright. That being said, I don’t think every deck realistically wants to hold your mana for a full turn cycle, since playing something later on means you likely didn’t play things on your own turn; many decks benefit from doing that too to take advantage of combat buffs and such. Your mileage will heavily vary based on the timing of when you want to play creatures in your deck, but if you’re not in a rush to push your creatures out on your turn this can come in clutch.
Rating: B
Relic of Legends
If your commander doesn’t want to be tapping or attacking, it’s a nice way to get a touch more value out of having a passive/supporting legendary creature leading your deck. In decks that go deep on legendaries, it does basically the same thing but with a little higher of a ceiling. Overall, it’s alright. In many decks that run a whole bunch of legendary creatures, many of them are either toolbox cards or combat pieces that don’t want to just be tapping out to ramp, although having the option to in a pinch can be handy. I wouldn’t usually pick it over other things, but you could definitely do worse.
Rating: C
We’re approaching the end of this series fast, so stay tuned for the last few articles on the horizon. Thanks for reading!
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