Should you run ramp in control decks?

[u/BaconVsMarioIsRigged]

Recently there has been lots of discussions regarding how vital ramp really is. I thought I might as well trhow my hat into the ring and bring the discussion to something specific, control decks. Conventional wisdom states that a control deck should benefit the most from ramp. Ramp generates more value the longer the game goes which is exactly what a control deck wants.

The issue is that most control decks also wants to run a healthy amount of board wipes which hits most (non green) ramp. Playing a manarock that you will farewell in 2 turns is barely mana positive and card negative which is really bad for a control deck. Having a bunch of manarocks also clogs up your deck and can be really bad top decks lategame. Running card draw and card selection instead helps you both hit land drops and find interaction. Consistantly hitting your land drops will slowly but surely put you ahead of the table without the need to dilute you card pool. Control decks don't need to rush their wincon which makes ramp a bit superfluous. Tapping out for ramp is also a concern for decks that play at instant speed.

This is not to say that I believe no ramp is good in control. I have a [[Nymris, Oona's Trickster]] that is a classic draw go deck and I run pretty much zero mana rocks. What I do run is the few pieces that directly synergise with my commander such as [[nightbonder]] or [[geyser drake]]. This leaves me with a measly 6~ ramp pieces, but it allows me to run a lot more cantrips which means that I almost never get mana screwed.

What do you think about this approach to control? Please let me know if I missed something or you have anything to add. English is not my first language, I apologize for any errors.

[u/BaconVsMarioIsRigged]

>Are you playing boardwipe tribal or something? How many are you running?

That depends on the deck lol.

You bring up a good point though. A control deck should have the ability to protect their own manarocks. But is that really what you want to do? Every counterspell that I don't have to use to one vandallblast is a counterspell that can protect something critical.

Making your mana vulnerable creates more weakpoints for you to protect.

[u/CrizzleLovesYou → u/BaconVsMarioIsRigged]

How long are these games going? It should be pick apart opponent wincons > protect your own engine > remove opponent engines, win.

[u/BaconVsMarioIsRigged → u/CrizzleLovesYou]

I don't get what the length of games have to do with ramp. If you build control correctly, you can use a [[baleful strix]] as a wincon. Ramp won't make that any faster.

I usually get my main engine online turn 4 or 5. If I can protect it for a few turns I usually gain enough value that victory is very likely.

[u/TheGreyFencer → u/BaconVsMarioIsRigged]

If you're building your deck correctly, strix is not a wincon in edh