MTG Rampage Explained: How Rampage Works, the Math, All 14 Rampage Cards Ranked and a $76 Marhault Deck (2026)

Rampage is a Magic: The Gathering triggered ability: whenever a creature with rampage N becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first. Blocked by one creature, nothing happens. Blocked by three creatures, a rampage 2 creature gets +4/+4. It is a keyword built to punish gang blocks, the old trick of throwing two or three small creatures in front of one big one.

We pulled every rampage card from Scryfall, every deck count from EDHREC and the stats of every creature in rampage’s own sets. There are only 14 rampage cards in real Magic: 12 with the keyword and 2 that grant it. All 14 were printed between June 1994 and October 1996, and no new rampage card has come out in the 30 years since. The keyword cards sit in 16,787 Commander decks between them, and 73.3% of those slots go to just two cards, Varchild’s War-Riders and Gorilla Berserkers, each of which is played for something other than its rampage.

This guide covers the rules word for word, the rampage math, the rulings people get wrong, every rampage card ranked by Commander play, the commanders, what rampage cost a creature in stats, the cards that force multiple blocks (which is the only way rampage reliably triggers), legality in every format, and a $76.42 budget Marhault Elsdragon Commander deck that makes the whole table block one creature.

What is rampage in MTG?

Rampage debuted in Legends in June 1994 on nine cards, among them the legendary creatures Marhault Elsdragon, Hunding Gjornersen and Chromium. Alliances added three more in June 1996 and Mirage the last two in October 1996. That’s the whole history. Time Spiral reprinted Craw Giant as a “timeshifted” card in 2006, and the Un-sets have used rampage as a joke (Old Fogey has it next to banding, phasing and cumulative upkeep), but Wizards has not designed a new rampage card for three decades. The Comprehensive Rules still define it:

702.23a Rampage is a triggered ability. “Rampage N” means “Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first.” (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”)

702.23b The rampage bonus is calculated only once per combat, when the triggered ability resolves. Adding or removing blockers later in combat won’t change the bonus.

702.23c If a creature has multiple instances of rampage, each triggers separately.

In plain terms: attack with a rampage creature. If your opponent blocks it with one creature, rampage does nothing. If they block it with two or more, the ability triggers once in the declare blockers step, counts the blockers when it resolves, and pumps your creature by N for each one past the first. The bonus lasts until end of turn and arrives before combat damage, so it changes who survives the fight.

The original Legends wording was different. Teeka’s Dragon, printed in Mirage, still carries the old reminder text, “for each creature assigned to block it beyond the first”. The modern Oracle text says “blocking it”, which is the same thing in practice.

Rampage math: how big does it get?

The bonus is N times (blockers minus one). Here is the full table for every rampage value that exists on a card:

Two things stand out. First, rampage is worth nothing against a single blocker, and a single blocker is what most opponents use. Second, the numbers only get big when a lot of creatures block at once, and opponents don’t do that by choice when they can see the keyword. That’s why rampage has always been weak in real games: it pays out in the situation your opponent is trying to avoid.

The fix is to take the choice away. If every creature that can block your attacker has to block it, rampage stops being a bluff and turns into a real pump. That’s what Lure and its relatives do, and it’s how the deck at the end of this guide is built.

Rampage rulings that trip people up

The bonus is counted on resolution, once

Rampage triggers when the creature becomes blocked, then counts blockers when the trigger resolves. If your opponent kills one of three blockers in response to the trigger, you get the bonus for two blockers, not three. Once it resolves, the number is locked: Varchild’s War-Riders’ ruling and rule 702.23b both say that adding or removing blockers later in combat won’t change it.

It triggers once per combat, not once per blocker

“Becomes blocked” happens once, however many creatures block. One trigger, one bonus. A creature with two instances of rampage gets two triggers, and each counts the blockers separately. In practice that almost never comes up: Rapid Fire deliberately grants rampage 2 only to a creature that doesn’t already have rampage.

Menace guarantees a trigger

A creature with menace can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures. Give a rampage creature menace and every legal block triggers rampage at least once. Gorilla Berserkers has a stronger built-in version: it can’t be blocked except by three or more creatures, so a block always means at least +4/+4. Goblin War Drums, which gives all your creatures menace, does the same job for the whole team.

Trample plus rampage hits harder than it looks

Rampage resolves before damage. A trampler that gets +4/+4 from three chump blockers assigns lethal damage to each blocker and tramples over the rest, and the extra power goes to the player. With deathtouch as well, one damage is lethal to each blocker, so almost the whole pumped power tramples through.

In multiplayer, only the defending player blocks

In Commander, the creatures that can block your attacker belong to the player or planeswalker controller it attacks. Lure doesn’t drag other players’ creatures into the fight. Choose the opponent with the most untapped creatures if you want the biggest rampage bonus, and the one with the fewest if you want to get damage through.

Nothing happens if it isn’t blocked

Rampage only rewards blocks. An unblocked rampage creature deals its printed power, so rampage creatures are not evasive and don’t make good commander-damage threats on their own.

Every rampage card, ranked by Commander play

All 12 creatures with the keyword, sorted by the number of Commander decks on EDHREC that play them. “Also has” is the rest of the card’s current Oracle text.

The top of this list is misleading. Varchild’s War-Riders is the most-played rampage card by a wide margin, but people play it for its cumulative upkeep, which makes an opponent create a 1/1 red Survivor token each turn. In a Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor deck those Survivors can’t block, and they all come to you if Varchild leaves the battlefield. Our cumulative upkeep guide covers why a growing cost can be a win condition. Gorilla Berserkers is played mostly for its “three or more creatures” blocking restriction, which is close to unblockable in many games.

After those two, the numbers drop off a cliff. Teeka’s Dragon (1,810 decks) is a nine-mana colourless flier with trample and rampage 4, the biggest rampage number on any card. Everything else is in fewer than 600 decks. The two cards that only grant rampage are smaller still:

Rapid Fire is the most expensive rampage card at around $11. That’s because it’s a Legends rare with one printing, not because anyone plays it: 118 decks.

The rampage commanders

Four rampage cards can be your commander. Only three have the keyword; Gabriel Angelfire picks rampage 3 as one of its four options each upkeep.

Chromium is an Esper (white-blue-black) Elder Dragon and the most popular of the four, but its EDHREC page shows a control deck: Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Wrath of God. Players build it for the Legends nostalgia, not the rampage. Gabriel Angelfire is the most rampage-friendly: its top cards on EDHREC are Lure, Indrik Umbra, Nemesis Mask and Roar of Challenge, the same forced-block package this guide recommends. Marhault Elsdragon, a red-green 4/6 with rampage 1 for six mana, also lists Lure and Nemesis Mask as its top cards, and its high-synergy list is mostly the other rampage creatures. Hunding Gjornersen is a white-blue 5/4 with rampage 1 that leads 36 decks.

None of these is strong by modern standards. If you want a creature that wins through damage, our best Voltron commanders list is a better place to start. If you want to play rampage anyway, Marhault and Gabriel are the two that reward it, and the deck below uses Marhault.

What did rampage cost a creature?

Some keywords come with a stat discount: designers make the body smaller to pay for the ability. To test rampage, we compared the 12 rampage creatures with the other 350 creatures in Legends, Alliances and Mirage, grouped by mana value (comparing pooled averages would be misleading, because rampage creatures cost more on average: 5.5 mana against 3.8).

The sample is tiny, one or three cards per row, so read the direction rather than the decimals. There’s no consistent discount. At four mana Wolverine Pack is a third of a point of power smaller than average, and at five mana rampage creatures are about two thirds of a point smaller; at two and three mana they’re bigger, though the two-drop is Varchild’s War-Riders, which pays for its 3/4 body with cumulative upkeep. At six and seven-plus mana, rampage creatures are on rate for their sets. Rampage was printed as a small bonus on ordinary bodies, and those bodies were built for 1994–1996 Magic, when a 4/4 for six mana was normal. That, more than the ability, is why the cards look weak now.

Make them block: the Lure package

Rampage needs multiple blockers, and only one kind of card supplies them reliably: “All creatures able to block this creature do so.” We counted 28 Commander-legal cards with that line, plus 9 with “can’t be blocked except by three or more creatures” and 173 that give menace. Here are the most-played Lure effects:

Every card in the table is green except the two colourless ones, and the same is true of nearly all 28. They come in three shapes. Creatures like Taunting Elf and Prized Unicorn have the ability themselves. Auras and Equipment like Lure and Nemesis Mask put it on any creature, so your best rampage creature or your commander can carry it. Instants and sorceries like Roar of Challenge and Alluring Scent do it for one turn, usually as a finisher.

Lure on its own just trades your creature for one of theirs. What makes it a wipe is deathtouch. A deathtouch creature with Lure kills every creature that blocks it, because one damage is lethal to each. Basilisk Collar gives deathtouch and lifelink for two mana, and Ohran Frostfang gives every attacking creature you control deathtouch. Put a Lure effect on a trampling rampage creature with deathtouch and it pumps itself for each blocker, kills all of them, and tramples the rest of its power into the player.

Other “becomes blocked by a creature” cards punish every blocker too. Engulfing Slagwurm and Sylvan Basilisk destroy each creature that blocks them, Elven Warhounds puts each one on top of its owner’s library, and Infiltration Lens draws you two cards per blocker. With Lure, each of these turns a single attack into a one-sided board wipe.

Menace is the other route. It doesn’t force blocks; it just makes sure every block has at least two creatures. Goblin War Drums and other menace effects are covered in our menace guide.

When rampage is good, and when it isn’t

Good: when your opponent has to block with several creatures. That means Lure effects, menace, Gorilla Berserkers’ three-blocker rule, or an opponent with a board of small creatures facing a lethal attacker. It’s also good as a deterrent: opponents who know about rampage stop gang-blocking your big creature, which means it trades with one blocker or connects. Bushido, the Kamigawa samurai keyword, is the opposite design: it pays out on any block, by one creature or five.

Bad: everywhere else. A rampage creature blocked by one creature is a vanilla creature with a 1994 stat line. In most games that’s exactly what happens, which is why only two rampage cards make it into more than 2,000 Commander decks and neither of them is played for rampage. Rampage is also the opposite of evasion: it wants to be blocked, so it does nothing to get commander damage through.

Compare banding, the other Legends-era combat keyword that faded away. Banding changed who assigns combat damage; rampage only adds a stat bonus in a narrow case. Both are still on cards you can play, and both reward building around them more than slotting them in.

Is rampage legal? Format by format

All 14 rampage cards are legal in Commander, Legacy and Vintage, and none is banned or restricted anywhere. Craw Giant is the only one legal in Modern, because of its Time Spiral reprint. Three are legal in Pauper: Wolverine Pack, Balduvian War-Makers and Gorilla Berserkers. Premodern takes 10 of the 14; the four Legends-only cards (Aerathi Berserker, Frost Giant, Hunding Gjornersen and Rapid Fire) were never reprinted in a Premodern-legal set. No rampage card is legal in Standard or Pioneer, or on MTG Arena.

Every one of the 14 is cheap. Buying the cheapest printing of all 14 costs about $34.58 today.

Budget Marhault Elsdragon rampage deck ($76.42)

This is a red-green Commander deck that makes rampage work by forcing blocks. It runs all ten red, green and colourless rampage creatures (Marhault included), 17 Lure effects, deathtouch, and cards that punish each blocker. Every card was checked against Scryfall for Commander legality and colour identity, and priced at its cheapest ordinary printing: $76.42 for all 100 cards, 36 of them lands.

How the deck plays

The first turns are ramp: three mana elves, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Wild Growth and six spells that fetch lands. The deck’s curve is high (Marhault costs six, Craw Giant seven and Teeka’s Dragon nine), so the ramp is not optional.

From turn four or five, you start putting Lure effects on creatures. The aim is one attacker each turn that the defending player has to block with everything. Put Basilisk Collar on it, or have Ohran Frostfang out, and every blocker dies. Without deathtouch, rampage plus Retaliation (+1/+1 for each blocker) still makes your Lure creature much bigger than any single blocker, and Infiltration Lens or Elvish Bard pull the opponent’s whole board into a fight you’ve prepared for.

Once an opponent’s board is gone, everything else gets through. Goblin War Drums and Rhythm of the Wild keep the pressure on, Garruk’s Uprising gives your creatures trample and draws a card for each big one, and Temur Battle Rage or Revenge of the Hunted ends the game.

Varchild’s War-Riders is here on purpose. Its upkeep hands your opponents 1/1 Survivor tokens, and without Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor in the deck those tokens can block. With a Lure effect out, each Survivor is one more blocker, which is more rampage for you and one more creature for deathtouch to kill.

Key cards

• Lure and Nemesis Mask: the two permanent forced-block effects. Nemesis Mask is Equipment, so it stays when the creature dies.
• Basilisk Collar and Ohran Frostfang: deathtouch turns Lure from a trade into a board wipe.
• Gorilla Berserkers: five mana, trample, and +4/+4 minimum when blocked. The best rampage creature in the deck.
• Engulfing Slagwurm, Sylvan Basilisk, Elven Warhounds: each removes every creature that blocks it.
• Infiltration Lens: one mana, equip one, two cards per blocker. With Lure that’s a full hand.
• Revenge of the Hunted: +6/+6, trample and a one-turn Lure for one green mana if you draw it as a miracle.

Have a different budget in mind? Paste the list into our free budget swaps tool to see cheaper versions of each card, or browse red-green decks like this Xenagos, God of Revels deck in the community deck gallery.

The priciest cards

The ten most expensive cards come to $51.27 of the $76.42 total. Nemesis Mask is the only card over $10.

Want to save more? Alluring Scent ($3.84) can become Golgari Decoy, another Lure creature, and Three Visits can become Explosive Vegetation. Want to spend more? Sylvan Library and Heroic Intervention are the two upgrades we’d make first.

Rampage FAQ

What does rampage do in MTG?

Whenever a creature with rampage N becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first. Blocked by one creature, it gets nothing.

How do you calculate rampage?

Multiply N by the number of blockers minus one. Rampage 2 blocked by three creatures is +4/+4. The count is taken once, when the trigger resolves.

Does rampage work if only one creature blocks?

No. One blocker means zero creatures “beyond the first”, so the bonus is +0/+0.

Does rampage stack?

Yes. Rule 702.23c says multiple instances each trigger separately, and each counts the blockers on its own. Very few cards can give a creature a second instance, though.

What happens if a blocker is removed?

If it’s removed before the rampage trigger resolves, that blocker isn’t counted. After the trigger resolves, removing blockers doesn’t change the bonus.

Is rampage still in Magic?

It’s still in the Comprehensive Rules (702.23) and every rampage card is still legal in eternal formats, but no new rampage card has been printed since Mirage in October 1996. Wizards has not brought it back.

What is the best rampage card?

For play, Gorilla Berserkers: it can’t be blocked by fewer than three creatures, so any block gives it at least +4/+4, and it has trample. By Commander deck count, Varchild’s War-Riders is the most played, but for its tokens rather than its rampage.

What is the best rampage commander?

Gabriel Angelfire or Marhault Elsdragon. Both have EDHREC pages built around Lure effects. Chromium leads more decks but is usually built as a control deck.

Is rampage good in Commander?

Not on its own. Opponents block with one creature or none. With Lure effects, menace or deathtouch it can be strong, because forced blocks are exactly what it needs.

Is rampage legal in Modern or Standard?

Craw Giant is the only Modern-legal rampage card. No rampage card is legal in Standard or Pioneer.