Much Abrew: UG Ramp (Standard)

Tweet by SaffronOlive // May 08, 2017

video Much Abrew About Nothing standard amonkhet

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. This week, we are changing things up a bit. Normally, our Much Abrew deck is whatever Instant Deck Tech from the previous week was the most popular. However, since Amonkhet just released (and our Much Abrew wouldn't have featured an Amonkhet deck due to the natural lag between the deck techs and videos), we've got a special episode today featuring my pick for the spiciest list from week one of Amonkhet Standard: Ali Aintrazi's UG Ramp!

The deck itself is sort of a hybrid ramp / Fog deck that looks to stay alive long enough to close things out with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Crush of Tentacles, or Part the Waterveil with the help of Haze of Pollen, Censor, and life gain from Nissa's Renewal, while drawing a ton of cards with Commit // Memory and Pull from Tomorrow! Anyway, let's get to the videos!

Oh, two quick things. First, while I'll have some brief thoughts on the deck after the videos, make sure to check out Ali's article about the deck on Gathering Magic. Second, next weekend is Pro Tour Amonkhet, which means we don't have an episode of Much Abrew because we'll have a ton of Pro Tour coverage, so make sure to check out the site throughout the weekend for decks, round-by-round breakdowns, and more!

Just a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Much Abrew About Nothing series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube Channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest.

UG Ramp: Deck Tech

UG Ramp vs. RB Aggro (Match 1)

UG Ramp vs. RW Humans (Match 2)

UG Ramp vs. GR Monsters (Match 3)

UG Ramp vs. Mono-White Servos (Match 4)

UG Ramp vs. GB Delirium (Match 5)

UG Ramp Wrap-Up

Discussion

First off, we cruised our way to a 5-0 finish with the deck, which is as good as it gets. Even more impressive, while we had some close games, in a lot of our matches, we absolutely crushed our opponent and it didn't really feel like they had much of a chance of winning.

Probably the weirdest thing about the deck is that, at least in our experience, it was great against aggro (which is suppose to be the deck's weak point). In fact, nearly all of the decks we played against fell somewhere between very aggressive and midrange, and we beat them all.

As far as the deck itself, the main challenge is figuring out when it's correct to Fog, when it's a good idea to draw seven with Commit // Memory, and when you can give it another turn. Since the deck has so much card draw, it gives us a ton of options. It's just a matter of figuring out when to use the options to make them as effective as possible.

One thing I learned while playing the deck is that you often want to discard Commit // Memory to Pull from Tomorrow so you have the option of refilling your hand (and finding more Fogs) for just six mana instead of 10. After finishing our video matches, I took UG Ramp for a run through a league, and while I finished with a 3-2 record, one of the losses would likely have been a win if I had discarded Commit // Memory instead of a random land.

Another thing to consider when playing the deck is the diversity of finishers. If you run into black decks, it's possible (or even likely) that your Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger will be exiled by Lost Legacy, Transgress the Mind, and friends. As such, it's probably right to bring in some additional ways to finish the game (like Kefnet the Mindful or Metallurgic Summonings) to make sure you don't end up with tons of mana and card draw but no way to actually kill the opponent.

Most importantly, the deck is super fun to play and works on a completely different axis than most of the other decks in Standard. If you like drawing cards, stalling out, and finishing the game with huge creatures, you'll love playing UG Ramp.

Anyway, I'm going to keep the thoughts short this week, because I feel a bit silly going too in-depth when you can just read an article by the deck's creator, complete with a sideboarding guide and updates to the list (if you haven't already, check it out here). In my experience, the aggro matchup wasn't that bad (actually, for us, it was great), and while Aetherworks Marvel is probably a problem, it seems fixable with some more counters in the sideboard.

So, should you play UG Ramp? Yes! Not only is the unique and fun, but it also felt very competitive. Just as important, it's almost a budget deck, which means UG Ramp is a great option if you are looking for something different to take to Game Day in a couple of weeks!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Remember, no Much Abrew next week thanks to Pro Tour Amonkhet (but don't forget to check out the Pro Tour coverage here on the site!) As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.