How Gather Courage Shifts White Ramp in MTG

In TCG ·

Gather Courage card art from Magic: The Gathering

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Gather Courage: A Green-White Spark in Rampier Strategy

Few spells come with a built-in pep talk and a hardware upgrade for your board state all in one mana. Gather Courage, a green instant with convoke from the Ravnica Remastered era, does just that in decks that want to accelerate tempo while piling on pressure. While ramp enthusiasts often chase mana rocks, land drops, or card-draw engines, this little {G} instant delivers bite-sized power boosts that can tilt the tempo in a single swing or a single blocking decision. And when you’re playing a Selesnya shell—white and green united under a shared cause—the convoke mechanic becomes a bridge between dorky acceleration and battlefield superiority 🧙‍♂️🔥💎.

Let’s unpack what makes Gather Courage a thoughtful inclusion for ramp-focused strategies that lean into white’s resilience and green’s punch. The spell costs just one green mana and targets a creature to receive +2/+2 until end of turn. That’s a meaningful temporary boost, especially when you’re trying to push damage through an early roadblock or salvage a stumble in the midgame. Crucially, the convoke ability lets your other creatures help pay for the spell. When you tap a creature for convoke, you’re not merely paying mana—you’re weaving your board into the act of casting. In a white-green ramp deck, that means your early green creatures and your white weenie-culture bodies can share the workload, turning a modest mana investment into a bigger, sooner impact 🧙‍♂️🎲.

Convoke as a Speed Booster for White Ramp

White ramp often centers on stalwart creatures, anthem-like buffs, and resilient paths to victory through wide boards or life gain. Gather Courage slots neatly into that ecosystem by providing a timely pump on a chosen threat, which can translate into several practical outcomes. If you’re attacking with a resilient early drop or a token swarm, giving a key creature +2/+2 can make the difference between clearing a blocker and slipping damage through. And because convoke lets you leverage your army as mana, you can deploy this spell even when your mana base is taxed—your board isn’t just a line of bodies; it’s a collaborative engine that pays for its own spellcasting with every tapped creature 🧙‍♂️⚔️.

Consider the tempo angle: casting Gather Courage with convoke can turn a 2/2 into a 4/4 for a single turn, enabling a decisive swing that compounds with your other white and green tools. If your strategy hinges on pushing through a crucial attack before your opponent stabilizes, that temporary power boost can translate into victory before they draw the perfect answer. And if you’re under pressure on defense, you can target a blocker that’s already been buffed by a previous effect or by another combat trick, turning defense into offense in a single moment. The net effect is a nimble, economical way to accelerate damage while staying true to a white-green ramp identity 🎨🔥.

Design, Flavor, and Practical Play

Gather Courage sits in the modern era’s green-leaning convoke design space, with the Selesnya watermark framing its white-green identity. The card’s mana cost and rarity (common) make it a budget-friendly pick that still supports a thoughtful ramp plan. The art by Brian Despain—tinted with the calm confidence you’d expect from a card that asks your board to rally together—reminds players that ramp isn’t just about raw speed; it’s about coordinated effort and the joy of seeing your team work as one. In terms of play patterns, you’ll find Gather Courage particularly effective in decks that lean into creature-based acceleration—think token production, early blockers, and a few anthem-wide buffs layered on top. The card’s versatility is its strength: it is not a blowout, but a reliable accelerant that rewards smart timing and confident tapping decisions 🧙‍♂️💎.

For deck builders, the key takeaway is to view Gather Courage as a catalyst rather than a finisher. It creates a lightweight, flexible line of play: you tap for convoke, you cast for G, you target your premier threat, and you watch the board swing. In white ramp, tempo matters; adding a spell that can be convoked alongside early mana-dorks or color-m-factored creatures helps you keep up with slower, heavier metas while preserving resilience in the late game. And because it’s a common, it slots into dozens of decks with ease, making it a go-to option for players looking to punch above their weight class without investing heavily in high-cost spells 🧙‍♂️🔥.

From a design perspective, Gather Courage embodies the delicate balance of green’s power and white’s discipline. It’s not flashy, yet it’s reliably useful. The card’s presence in a deck should spark moments of “what if” where you chain a few convoked spells to tempo out a game plan. It’s exactly the kind of support card that helps a ramp strategy transition from “get ahead on mana” to “get ahead on board state” in a way that feels cinematic rather than brute-force. For fans of the multiverse, it’s a microcosm of how the Ravnica Remastered era paid homage to creature-centric ramp while keeping color identity intact 🧙‍♂️🎲.

As you experiment, you’ll notice Gather Courage shines brightest when you pair it with a stalwart board presence—think a sturdy green creature who can survive the opponent’s alpha strike, or a white creature with strong evasion that wants a little extra lunge. You don’t rely on it as your primary win condition, but as a supplementary tool, it helps you close games that might otherwise stall out in the midgame. And yes, it’s the kind of spell you’ll reach for in a pinch: a momentary buff with convoke that keeps your line intact while your lands keep ticking up the pace 🎨⚔️.

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