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YourMagic: The Gatheringdecks need mana. It doesn’t matter what style of deck it is, what colours, or how fast it is, if you don’t have the mana to play the spells, it’s as good as dead in the water. While some colours, like green, are brilliant at ramping out lands, every colour can benefit from mana rocks and mana dorks.
Related:Magic The Gathering: What Is Ramp?
Mana rituals may be a little bit more limited, but the effect is still the same: with just a few choice spells, you’re able to have access to more mana than you thought possible, and hopefully outpace your opponents. Here is everything you need to know about mana rocks, mana dorks, and mana rituals in MTG.
Updated July 31, 2025:Mana is essential for any MTG deck, and one of the quickest, most efficient ways to gain it is by playing mana rocks, mana dorks, and mana rituals. This guide has been updated with more information about the three.
Mana Dorks
Mana dorks are usuallyone or two dropsthat have the ability toproduce mana.
Some classic examples are;Elvish Mystic,Birds of Paradise, andLlanowar Elves. These all have the ability totap and add one green mana to your mana pool.
These mana dorks all have very low power and toughness, and will act more as an extra land over something to use in combat - unless you are incredibly desperate.
Of course, green is not the only colour to have mana dorks, but it is the most common. Other colours that have mana dorks will often have some drawbacks to them. For example, the blue creatureApprentice Wizardwill give you three colourless mana if you tap it, but you will also need to pay one blue mana first.
One of the main things to be aware of is that, when you tap your mana dork for mana, it will only stay in your mana pool for that phase of your turn. For example, if you tap your Birds of Paradise in your Main Phase and then move to combat, the single green mana will then disappear, and you will not be able to use it.
One of the maindrawbacks of having a mana dorkis that you will not be able to get the mana the same turn you cast the card, as, of course, creatures havesummoning sicknessand so you will not be able to tap them immediately.
This is wheremana rockscan prove useful.
Mana Rocks
Mana rocks create mana just like a mana dork, except instead of being a creature, these areartifacts.
One of the most famous mana rocks that will be played in just about every Commander deck isSol Ring. Simply paying one generic to get an artifact that can tap for two colourless back is incredibly valuable, and can be used in any coloured deck.
The other advantage of playing a mana rock is that, as they are artifacts, you cantap them immediately.
Mana Rituals
Mana rituals are spells that grant a temporary amount of mana. The term comes from the cardDark Ritual, which simply costs one black mana, and gives three in return at instant speed.
These can come in handy for specificdecks that have a comboor situations where you are going to need a lot of mana at one specific point.
The problem with mana rituals is that you can usually only use them once, asthey are instant and sorcery spells, which means you will have to wait for the opportune moment to use them to give yourself the biggest advantage in a game.
This could be on the first turn, allowing you to play a three-cost creature on the first turn, or perhaps later on in the game, on the fourth turn, allowing you to cast a six-cost card.
A card likeInner Firewhich gives you mana based on how many cards you have in your hand, will, of course, need to be played carefully and can affect the entire flow of how you play the deck.
Powerful Ramp Cards
The most powerful card in all of Magic: The Gathering is theBlack Lotus,and it is a mana rock. Costing nothing to cast, you can sacrifice it whenever you want, and you will get three mana of any one colour you want added to your mana pool.
The card is so strong that it isbanned in everything but Vintage, where it is restricted to only one copy.
Other than misprints, it is the single most expensive card in the entire game, and it goes to show how strong mana rocks are, even when compared with massive Legendary Creatures and spells that give you an extra turn.
Some other notable cards that haven’t been mentioned yet areArcane Signetfor Commander decks,Mana Crypt, andNoble Hierarchfor a very powerful mana dork in Modern.
