Grab your fetches and let’s ramp

He has gathered for the coming storm, and now, he’s ready to hurt the table. Omnath is an absolutely classic landfall commander and a blast to pilot.

To whoever is reading, thank you for checking out my list and primer! Please, let me know any suggestions for improvements.

For a hefty seven mana, Omnath, Locus of Rage can create 5/5s with his landfall trigger and bolt any target when those elementals die. Omnath’s board state can be difficult to remove, as his big elemental cronies and bolt trigger can force opponents to play more conservatively. Omnath really benefits from haste enablers, ramp and sacrifice outlets to ensure that he makes land drops, removes troublesome blockers and smacks his opponents hard and fast. ETB triggers can offer Omnath extra damage and card draw to keep him lean and angry.

Ramping is Omnath’s plan A and plan B, so stick to your guns early game and get your lands out. Fast.

Cards like Skyshroud Claim, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Cultivate, Nature's Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Farseek all serve the very important purpose of quickly dumping lands all over your board, which is always appreciated. Harrow and Dire-Strain Rampage do the same, but also give you two landfall triggers while stocking your graveyard with basics.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Oracle of Mul Daya, Gaea's Touch and Exploration all provide additional land drops, working together with recursion such as Ramunap Excavator and Ancient Greenwarden to ramp you hard early and mid game.

The main purpose of Ashnod's Altar is to provide a sac outlet for your elementals (allowing omnath to interact on the stack) but can provide extra colorless mana, which is very nice.

People often say Lotus Cobra functions a bit like a mana dork early game, usually giving you an extra green/red mana the turn after you play it. However, in Omnath, the Cobra almost functions like a budget Amulet of Vigor, getting value out of ramp spells the turn you cast them. Late game, you can net insane amounts of mana with spells like Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation, giving Omnath plenty of mana to close out games.

Wild Growth, Exploration and Sol Ring can give Omnath an explosive start, letting the bean himself come out as quickly as possible. Exploration is just as amazing mid and late game as well, keeping the lands and tokens coming.

One of the most unique things about Omnath is his ability to bolt any target when his children die, so let’s use it.

Ashnod's Altar, Goblin Bombardment, Altar of Dementia and Greater Good can all give Omnath the ability to interact with the stack, which is valuable even without the amazing effects these outlets provide. Omnath is not ever going to be left unattended, so getting immediate value out of your creatures is really important. Getting outlets out early is imperative, as they provide you with ways to immediately threaten your opponents the turn your elementals enter.

Where Ancients Tread, Terror of the Peaks and Purphoros, God of the Forge make every land drop into a massive bolt for either doming opponents or targeted removal. Five damage (or even two) from every land entering is nothing to scoff at, and can keep your opponent’s board’s clean of creatures. While not as fast as sac outlets, these effects can really run away with the game if left alone.

Let’s get this bread.

Rampaging Baloths is a landfall staple, creating 4/4 beast tokens when lands enter. At first glance, these tokens seem a bit whitebread (and a bit slow) but can seriously add up over time. You’ll come to find that, in the landfall strategy, having something to passively soak up value while lands are entering and exiting is vital. Rampaging Baloths fits this role well, and has fantastic synergy with cards like Terror of the Peaks and Elemental Bond.

Tireless Tracker is fantastic card draw, and can get really big fast. The Tracker can function as a pretty great blocker, but mainly we just want the card advantage.

Scute Swarm is absolutely incredible, and can run away with games all on its own. With Terror of the Peaks or Warstorm Surge, these little guys can just eradicate an opponent over the course of one turn. Fires of Yavimaya or Anger can make the swarm crazy fast, and when paired with Altar of Dementia, Scute Swarm can absolutely sweep. When I draw into the bug, my game stops being Magic, the Gathering and becomes “Make as many bugs as humanly possible.” No joke, I’ve made upwards of 512 scute bugs multiple times in my time with Omnath. The bug is seriously goated.

Titania, Protector of Argoth is a really great card and a decent backup to Omnath, but in my experience hasn’t really been an all-star. I understand it’s blasphemy, but there are situations where Titania doesn’t shine. She’s still absolutely great in Omnath though; ramping you when she enters, creating Elementals when lands leave. But objectively, Titania is very reliant on specific pieces in our deck to reach her full potential, and sometimes those pieces aren’t out. I’m not sure if this is because I don’t run every fetch possible or if I’ve just been playing her wrong, but she tends to be pretty high maintenance in my experience. Without both a fetch and a way to repeatedly recur lands from the graveyard, Titania doesn’t always have a lot to work with. Where she really comes through is in her synergies with cards like Harrow and Scapeshift, getting value where other landfall staples can’t. She’s also great for bringing back fetches, potentially making 3 elementals the turn she enters when paired with Omnath. Titania has a much different style of tempo when compared to the rest of the deck, and plays really need to be sequenced right in order for her to make a big impact.

Parallel Lives needs no explanation. The card is ridiculous. Two Elementals for making your land drops. Triple Scute Swarms with every ramp spell. Double clues with Tireless Tracker. The list goes on.

Ancient Greenwarden is a dream come true for Omnath. Parallel Lives and Crucible of Worlds rolled into one 5/7 Elemental with reach. CMC is a bit high, but in landfall, who cares.

Omnath is far from a traditional combo deck, but there are some really nice synergies in here that can give you an edge.

Altar of Dementia is one of the best outlets in the deck and is great for milling opponents, but also pairs really well with Splendid Reclamation. If you feel safe to, you can sacrifice a couple elementals to mill yourself for ten or fifteen before casting Splendid Rec, potentially building a massive army with whatever token generators you have on board. It’s worth noting that many tuned, competitive Omnath decks will lean completely into self-mill for synergies like this, with cards like World Shaper, Life from the Loam and Cavalier of Flame. I personally don’t use the graveyard as heavily as other Omnath decks, but if you’re looking to improve consistency, I recommend looking into it.

As mentioned before, Scute Swarm pairs really well with Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge, making every land range from devastating to completely game ending.

Extra land drop cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking go great with cards like Ancient Greenwarden that let you play lands from the graveyard. One fetch can mean that you make every land drop. Nice.

Ramping is cute and all, but it won’t close out games.

Moraug, Fury of Akoum was absolutely made for Omnath. Moraug can give you an insane number of combat steps, letting your tokens swing in for big damage. Just remember to play your lands/ramp on your second main phase, as your creatures won’t untap during your original combat step. Go through with your original combat, THEN ramp and make drops.

While situational, Altar of Dementia can be used to completely mill opponents out. In theory, the Altar takes around 15-17 5/5’s to completely mill out an opponent, which is possible but difficult, and takes far too long. That being said, we don’t play magic in a vacuum, and decks relying heavily on the graveyard or on card advantage tend to be milled out much earlier. Even if you fail to mill someone out, your opponents are less likely to draw into potential answers or key pieces if you’ve tossed a third of their deck in the bin.

Terror of the Peaks, Purphoros, God of the Forge and Where Ancients Tread can all shave down an opponent’s life total quickly, especially after they’ve taken a decent amount combat damage.

The game should be over if Fiery Emancipation resolves. Every bolt from Omnath does 9. Every Elemental hits for 15. Every Warstorm or Terror trigger does 15. It really shouldn’t take long.

Scute Swarm is absolutely the best wincon in this deck. I’d make this bug a commander if I could. Omnath shits the six lands needed to duplicate this little guy, you’ll be going from 8 to 32 to 128 in a turn or two. With haste or an outlet, the game is over. I’ve won games with only Scute Swarm and Altar of Dementia before. The power of the bug cannot be overstated.

Cavalier of Flame is card draw, a haste enabler AND can deal massive damage to boot (if set up properly). The wheel and haste are already great, but it’s the Cavalier’s death trigger that makes him truly worth running. Omnath’s graveyard is usually stocked with lands, and the Cavalier can use them to shift the tide of a game quickly.

We live in a cruel, flawed world where people go hungry, the innocent get hurt and the color blue exists. Omnath is well-known and a gigantic target, so we need to plan for the worst. Bringing back lands and key pieces is critical to closing out grindy games.

Ramunap Excavator, Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds and Ancient Greenwarden all pull lands from the graveyard, which is incredible with fetches and extra land drops. There’s so much value in re-playing lands from your graveyard, and most players won’t usually point graveyard hate towards Omnath until it’s too late. These cards don’t really provide traditional recursion as much as a legitimate engine, but I’ve included them all the same.

Titania, Protector of Argoth’s ETB can bring back a critical fetch or utility land. Sometimes, one little push like this can be game changing.

Bala Ged Recovery   and Regrowth can bring back your key pieces after they’ve been countered or destroyed. Having your game-ending 30 dollar card countered doesn’t feel great, but bringing it back to your hand can keep your game plan intact.

Splendid Reclamation can be game ending under the right circumstances, but I’ve also used it early game to ramp hard before (which is not ideal, but it’s an option). Returning all fetches and utility lands to the battlefield can be devastating with Omnath out, and has the potential for insane value and token generation.

Heroic Intervention is a green staple in commander, and is an auto-include in Omnath. People usually save their removal for the bean, and spells like Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation will usually prompt a Terminate or Beast Within. Keeping Omnath and Co. around to see lands enter can mean the difference between insane value and wasting a turn.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots should be pretty self-explanatory as well. I’m not exactly sure how Omnath, a giant living pool of festered anger and mana fits into a pair of Jordans, but I honestly don’t think about it when my opponents are trying to target him.

Cavern of Souls will always have a place in any Omnath deck.

Vexing Shusher is such a relief to bring out early against control decks. Ramping is safe, Omnath can always hit the board and your wincons can be cast without fear. My only gripe is that he/she/they is a dead draw against non-blue decks, so sometimes you might want to switch the Shusher out depending on your pod. For me, I almost never play in pods without blue, so this greasy little fungus goblin has a permanent place in my deck.

Omnath is obviously going to struggle against control decks, but Omnath also tends to struggle against low-to-the-ground aggro decks. As fast as Omnath tends to be, he’s still 7 mana, so the earliest we can usually play him is turn 4 (maybe 3) assuming we have a great start. Omnath usually takes off mid-game, so a lot of commanders will be able to set up shop faster. Keep this in mind when drawing your hand.

Make no mistake, you’re playing a 3v1 the moment you take your deck box out. Omnath is a well-known landfall commander, so most players will gun for him once (if) he’s able to hit the field. I’ve found personally that a slow Omnath is a dead one, so ramping early and quickly is essential. Omnath can recover fairly well despite his high CMC, however that doesn’t mean he can’t be kept down. It’s important to have a sac outlet, haste enabler or pinger on the field when Omnath hits, as it’s very likely he won’t be left alone for very long.

Omnath’s bolt trigger is really what sets him apart from other landfall commanders and honestly gives him a surprising amount of versatility. The bean is aggressive at first glance, but keeping back and being defensive is absolutely an option for him. Paired with a sac outlet, Omnath himself can become targeted creature removal, making him strangely political. One game, you might be swinging aggressively every turn trying to beat your opponents down. In another, you might find yourself politicking with the control player, thinking of ways to remove combo pieces. Omnath is one of my favorite commanders of all time, and I highly recommend him for anyone looking for a landfall commander.

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54% Casual

46% Competitive

Date added 2 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

12 - 0 Mythic Rares

41 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.16
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Clue, Copy Clone, Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, Elemental 5/3 G, Elemental 5/5 RG, Insect 1/1 G, Plant 0/1 G, Zombie 2/2 B
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