Ramses Overdark is a card from all of the way back to Legends in 1994. His ability is unique amongst commanders and he has a spot on the reserved list. Ramses also happens to be the name of the best boy there ever was.
This commander is special to me as he shares a name with my "once in a lifetime" dog and is in my favorite color combination and involves my favorite permanent type! So much going on for him despite his prohibitive casting cost.
In this deck, we are going to use aura enchantments that provide us with benefits when the creatures they enchant are destroyed. Many of these enchantments will then return to our hand to be deployed again when an appropriate creature presents itself. If we run out of these enchantment effects, we will use some trickery to move enchantments from one creature to another at instant speed to ensure we are always able to destroy the biggest threat at the table, or steal it. We will also pack cards that help us to steal an opponents creatures and use dragons from Mirage as our beaters. Sounds fun, right?
One last thing, this deck can be a little frustrating to play against because it involves stealing your opponents toys and is not particularly powerful to back it up. Play with caution!
Ramp
Ramses costs a lot to play and the mana pips are not easily achieved either. We need to pack a little more ramp than we usually do to achieve this. I am even going to run chromatic lantern in this deck to ensure we can hit our mana pips as quickly as possible to get moving as well as Burnished Hart to help find two specific lands to meet the requirements for casting Ramses. I rarely utilize either of these cards but this deck is the exception. We will spend the beginning of the turns focused on ramping so that we can do what we need in the late game.
These Dan Frazier mana rocks are amazing, I will show them every chance I get!
Fill That Hand
Dimir's card draw is elite, especially when you are only considering the usage of retro cards. I would say that it is #1 & 2 out of the 5 colors. The cool thing about this deck is we even get some neat synergistic card draw pieces we can use. Gotta love that.
Theft
One thing I love to do, especially when I am playing with cards that are typically underpowered in comparison to today's standards, is to steal my opponents toys. These cards are great at doing this! Empress Galina is one of my personal favorites because there will always be at least three other legendary creatures at the table and it will always be inconvenient for your opponent to not have them. Aura Thief is great, especially if you're able to flash it out as a blocker and Treachery is amazing. The only problem with Treachery is that it is on the reserved list, so it commands a hefty price.
Fun Auras
All of these auras are great and provide you with benefit. You can add Launch or Dragon Wings to an opponents creatures to help them get in crucial damage against your opponents and blow them up when they're aimed your direction. The others are all great for taxing your opponent or giving you a benefit and sometimes that benefit is even the creature it was enchanting.
Weird Enchantment Synergies
Enchantment Alteration and Aura Graft are two of my favorites in the deck as they can really trick your opponent into thinking their new and prized creature is safe and that they tricked you into enchanting something less valuable. The other three are pretty high costed but there are not cheaper alternatives at this time that do the same type of things. I still think they're worth playing because they can help you out a lot in the late game when you already have the mana to use them.
"Beaters"
While these cards are hardly considered to be beaters in the traditional sense, it's what I've chosen for this deck. I love the dragons from the Mirage block and I wanted to put them into a deck. The hope is you can steal some of your opponents goodies.
For the people who love dogs, you will have that "once in a lifetime" dog. For me, that was Ramses. Ramses lived in three states with me and helped to get me through some of the hardest times I've experienced in my life. For those who can't tell, Ramses was a greyhound. A breed that has a history of being mistreated but also one who gives unconditional love. They are capable of running up to 45 miles per hour and getting there in only three steps but prefer the comfort of your couch or bed. One common misconception of greyhounds is that they have really high energy levels and need lots of exercise. This is not true, while they do appreciate a brief run in the yard from time to time or to get zoomies inside, they can spend up to 20-hours sleeping. If you are looking for the perfect breed of dog, this is the one! The rescues can be a little protective of their pups but once you are in the community you're golden. Because of Ramses, I will try and always have a rescued retired racing greyhound in my life. Ramses came into my life at the end of 2011 and left it on February 26, 2023 and was a little over a month away from his 14th birthday before we had to say goodbye to him. His birthday was April 7th, so I figured writing about a Ramses Overdark deck would be fitting. Thanks for reading about my boy and may you all have a loving doggo that provides you with the same experience I had.
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