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Introduction
"Omnath, the "flickering heart," is a divine manifestation of the wild and chaotic mana of Zendikar, an elemental being that can be found in some incarnation in many creation myths of the plane.
Despite the uncertainty of Omnath's actual existence, a real site on a high mesa of Ondu was dubbed the "Prison of Omnath". The site was safeguarded by a binding circle of strange globular swamp-growths, stone hedrons, and animal bones. The circle created an eerie sensation in those who approached it, deterring them from approaching the circle's center, where a huge pit leads deep into the ground. Those who got too close died to the destructive surges of power that lashed out from the circle.
Religious pilgrims from across Zendikar traveled to the Prison of Omnath on a twice-yearly basis to perform the "Ritual of Lights", a ceremony designed to protect the world from the release of Omnath. During the events leading up to the Rise of the Eldrazi, however, the ritual was disrupted and Omnath was set loose." – MTG Salvation Wiki
On October 2, 2015, Battle for Zendikar was released, and in the wake of the Eldrazi rampage, Omnath, formerly the Locus of Mana, was released from his prison as the Locus of Rage.
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The premise of this deck is straight forward: play lands, cast ramp spells, get Omnath onto the battlefield, play more lands, and create a bunch of Elementals. Omnath is a "lands matter" type of commander, meaning lands are just as important as your other spells. Lands serve a dual purpose in this deck: the obvious one is they allow you to cast your spells. But each land is also a creature while Omnath is out, and each fetchland is two creatures. But what can we do with these Elementals? We can use them the old-fashioned way by turning them sideways and attacking. We can also use them for utility by drawing cards or dealing damage to any target.
Despite the uncertainty of Omnath's actual existence, a real site on a high mesa of Ondu was dubbed the "Prison of Omnath". The site was safeguarded by a binding circle of strange globular swamp-growths, stone hedrons, and animal bones. The circle created an eerie sensation in those who approached it, deterring them from approaching the circle's center, where a huge pit leads deep into the ground. Those who got too close died to the destructive surges of power that lashed out from the circle.
Religious pilgrims from across Zendikar traveled to the Prison of Omnath on a twice-yearly basis to perform the "Ritual of Lights", a ceremony designed to protect the world from the release of Omnath. During the events leading up to the Rise of the Eldrazi, however, the ritual was disrupted and Omnath was set loose." – MTG Salvation Wiki
On October 2, 2015, Battle for Zendikar was released, and in the wake of the Eldrazi rampage, Omnath, formerly the Locus of Mana, was released from his prison as the Locus of Rage.
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The premise of this deck is straight forward: play lands, cast ramp spells, get Omnath onto the battlefield, play more lands, and create a bunch of Elementals. Omnath is a "lands matter" type of commander, meaning lands are just as important as your other spells. Lands serve a dual purpose in this deck: the obvious one is they allow you to cast your spells. But each land is also a creature while Omnath is out, and each fetchland is two creatures. But what can we do with these Elementals? We can use them the old-fashioned way by turning them sideways and attacking. We can also use them for utility by drawing cards or dealing damage to any target.
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Deck History
When this Omnath was first spoiled, I thought to myself "Oh cool, they made another Omnath, but RG this time. Pretty neat ability, too." Sounds real enthusiastic, huh? Well, that was before I gave him a chance. I built him on Xmage to test him out. It was originally built as a RG good stuff deck that wasn't really focused on Omnath. That's where I went wrong. Omnath is a Commander that you NEED to build around. So how do you fully take advantage of this commander? You make him a "Lands Matter" deck. You cut the good stuff spells and add a bunch more land and ramps spells. You don't need very many creatures, as Omnath himself makes them, and they're 5/5s, too! Once I made those changes, he became a much more ferocious deck. I won games I had no right to win. I came from behind and pulled victory after victory. I've even taken someone from 40 to 0 life with 6 cards left in my library. This deck is the culmination of all of the testing and hard work that I and a few others have done to get this deck into competitive shape.
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Why play Omnath?
"Why would anyone want to build a deck with a commander that has that high of a CMC?" The answer is quite simple. This is essentially a mono-green ramp deck which splashes red for its burn counterpart. Having two colors gives you access to good spells on each side, and also more fetch lands to make better use of Omnath.
You ramp into Omnath, create a bunch of 5/5's, and then overwhelm your opponent with either massive combat damage, or if you feel like sitting back, use them for blockers, sac them and kill your opponents on their turn.
Let's take a closer look at Omnath to see why we chose him as our commander:
Cost:
Omnath costs . Yes, that is an EXTREMELY costly commander. While the cost may be a big deterrent, it is usually a non-issue with the number of lands and ramp spells that are present in the deck.
Power/Toughness:
Omnath is a 5/5 for 7 mana. It isn't the best body for its cost, but it also isn't terrible. He does make a great attacker, and also a great blocker. These stats would be even better if he had Trample, but then he would most likely cost more as it would be too good.
Abilities:
His abilities are where Omnath really shines. His Landfall ability creates a 5/5 Elemental whenever a land enters the battlefield. The key to this ability is the first part: "Whenever a land enters the battlefield". This is important, as it triggers any time a land enters, not just when you play. So, it will trigger from our ramp spells as well. The second part of his ability will deal damage to ANY target when Omnath or any other Elemental dies. We can use that ability in conjunction with a sac outlet to damage creatures, planeswalkers, and players. This is another way for us to win games.
You might like Omnath if:
1) You like playing Gruul colors.
2) You like creating a mass amount of tokens.
3) You like winning with or without going to combat.
4) You like blowing up creatures on the board.
5) You like ramping into bigger things and having a lot of lands.
You might dislike Omnath if:
1) You dislike all the reasons why you should play him.
2) You hate playing decks that focus on the commanders.
3) You dislike investing in big spells that get countered.
4) You prefer combo/control decks.
5) You don't like being targeted due to the amount of lands you have compared to others.
Other Possible Commanders:
You ramp into Omnath, create a bunch of 5/5's, and then overwhelm your opponent with either massive combat damage, or if you feel like sitting back, use them for blockers, sac them and kill your opponents on their turn.
Let's take a closer look at Omnath to see why we chose him as our commander:
Cost:
Omnath costs . Yes, that is an EXTREMELY costly commander. While the cost may be a big deterrent, it is usually a non-issue with the number of lands and ramp spells that are present in the deck.
Power/Toughness:
Omnath is a 5/5 for 7 mana. It isn't the best body for its cost, but it also isn't terrible. He does make a great attacker, and also a great blocker. These stats would be even better if he had Trample, but then he would most likely cost more as it would be too good.
Abilities:
His abilities are where Omnath really shines. His Landfall ability creates a 5/5 Elemental whenever a land enters the battlefield. The key to this ability is the first part: "Whenever a land enters the battlefield". This is important, as it triggers any time a land enters, not just when you play. So, it will trigger from our ramp spells as well. The second part of his ability will deal damage to ANY target when Omnath or any other Elemental dies. We can use that ability in conjunction with a sac outlet to damage creatures, planeswalkers, and players. This is another way for us to win games.
You might like Omnath if:
1) You like playing Gruul colors.
2) You like creating a mass amount of tokens.
3) You like winning with or without going to combat.
4) You like blowing up creatures on the board.
5) You like ramping into bigger things and having a lot of lands.
You might dislike Omnath if:
1) You dislike all the reasons why you should play him.
2) You hate playing decks that focus on the commanders.
3) You dislike investing in big spells that get countered.
4) You prefer combo/control decks.
5) You don't like being targeted due to the amount of lands you have compared to others.
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Other Possible Commanders:
SPOILER
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Omnath, Locus of Mana: The other Omnath. Being mono green gives you access to an easier mana base, and allows you to play more of the green good stuff creatures and spells.
Xenagos, God of Revels: This guy can play more or less the same as our general. Ramp as much as you can. Play some big fatties. Use your general to double up a creatures power and swing away.
Atarka, World Render: Again, you want to ramp with this deck. Play a bunch of big dragons. Play your commander, and swing. You could also go Voltron with this general if you want to try and one-shot someone.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed: This deck plays a bit differently. It runs very few nonpermanent spells, and will mostly likely have Primal Surge to dump most, if not all, of your deck onto the battlefield.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn: A new Gruul ramp commander. You can switch this card out with Omnath and make a few changes to the list and it will play almost identical.
Titania, Protector of Argoth: Mono green Lands Matters commander. Drops the red color entirely and focuses entirely on ramp and green goodstuff. Titania creates Elementals when a land is sacrificed, so making use out of all sorts of sac lands and cards that allow you to sac lands is a key theme of the deck.
The Gitrog Monster: Replaces the color red with black for tutors, discard, removal, etc. When a land goes to the graveyard, you can draw a card. There are many loops you can do with the frog as your commander that will allow you to go infinite and win that way.
Xenagos, God of Revels: This guy can play more or less the same as our general. Ramp as much as you can. Play some big fatties. Use your general to double up a creatures power and swing away.
Atarka, World Render: Again, you want to ramp with this deck. Play a bunch of big dragons. Play your commander, and swing. You could also go Voltron with this general if you want to try and one-shot someone.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed: This deck plays a bit differently. It runs very few nonpermanent spells, and will mostly likely have Primal Surge to dump most, if not all, of your deck onto the battlefield.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn: A new Gruul ramp commander. You can switch this card out with Omnath and make a few changes to the list and it will play almost identical.
Titania, Protector of Argoth: Mono green Lands Matters commander. Drops the red color entirely and focuses entirely on ramp and green goodstuff. Titania creates Elementals when a land is sacrificed, so making use out of all sorts of sac lands and cards that allow you to sac lands is a key theme of the deck.
The Gitrog Monster: Replaces the color red with black for tutors, discard, removal, etc. When a land goes to the graveyard, you can draw a card. There are many loops you can do with the frog as your commander that will allow you to go infinite and win that way.
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The Deck
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Card Analysis
While there are many options for cards that could be included in a deck, there is only room for 100. In the spoiler below, I will give a card-by-card explanation as to why I specifically chose to have a certain card in in the deck.
Elvish Reclaimer: Reclaimer is essentially a Crop Rotation on a potential 3/4 body for only . Unfortunately, the land will enter tapped, unlike Rotation, but being able to produce another land drop for a Landfall trigger is enormous, and having another outlet for getting out a Gaea's Cradle is insane.
Sylvan Safekeeper: I've opted to run this over Lightning Greaves for protection. It is tutorable since it is a creature and we can surprise opponents with it via Chord of Calling. It protects multiple creatures vs just one at a time, and it has synergy with Titania, Protector of Argoth.
Lotus Cobra: Early game mana acceleration. He doesn't have a real significant body, so more than likely he will slither under the radar as far as a must-remove creature. He can generate quite a bit of mana, however, especially when used in conjunction with any fetchland. One part of a "machine gun" combo with Perilous Forays.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: This little guy is essentially a Rampant Growth on a stick. Why play him over Growth? He doubles as an attacker and blocker, which Growth cannot do. You can cast him in an earlier turn, then wait to crack him until Omnath hits the field.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking: Azusa allows us to play two additional lands each turn. We can run out of lands fairly quickly, but we can also play the extra land drops from our graveyard if we have Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator out. Life from the Loam is also another great card to use with Azusa.
Eternal Witness: A staple card for the green color. Regrowth on a 2/2 body for is nothing to scoff at. She can be tutored up via Chord of Calling or Natural Order as well.
Ramunap Excavator: Crucible of Worlds on a 2/3 body for . Allows us to play lands out of the graveyard, and reuse spent fetchlands. Can be tutored up via Chord of Calling or Natural Order, unlike Crucible, but is also susceptible to creature removal.
Springbloom Druid: Harrow on a body. The lands enter tapped, but being able to Chord it into play makes up for that downfall. Unlike Harrow, we also won't be out of a land if it gets countered.
Tireless Tracker: A lands matter creature. Will get us a Clue every time a land enters the battlefield, not just when we play one. This matters as we have a lot of ramp spells in here. We can also sacrifice the Clues to draw cards, and that will cause Tracker to grow as well.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Oracle allows us to play lands off the top of our deck, essentially letting us dig deeper into our decks to get to our better cards. She enables an extra land drop as well, which will in turn get us closer to playing Omnath.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Purphoros deals damage to all opponents whenever a creature enters the battlefield under our control. This is a pretty significant effect, as it not only affects all opponents, it doesn't target so it gets around Hexproof and Shroud. For , we can also pump our creatures +1/+0 each time we activate it to get in a little extra damage if we swing in.
Titania, Protector of Argoth: The Queen of Elementals, to go alongside our King Omnath. She will return a land from our graveyard upon entering, giving Omnath another Landfall trigger. If she brings back a fetchland and we crack it, Titania herself will create a 5/3 Elemental. While these Elementals aren't as good as Omnath's as far as stats go, they are still Elementals so when they do die, they will be able to Lightning Bolt any target.
Avenger of Zendikar: Another lands matter creature. Avenger will create 0/1 tokens equal to the number of lands we control as he enters. While the tokens don't start out that great, with each land that enters, they get a +1/+1 counter on them. With the number of ways we have to get multiple lands per turn, these little critters can get insanely huge.
Craterhoof Behemoth: The big game ender. Craterhoof gives all of our creatures +X/+X for each creature we control on the battlefield. If that wasn't enough, he also gives them trample, so the excess damage will go through. He makes a great follow up play after Avenger of Zendikar, but even better when we have an absurd number of Elemental tokens out. We can easily tutor him out with Chord of Calling or Natural Order, making him the perfect way to end a game.
Mana Crypt/Sol Ring: The mana rocks of the deck. These two are the only real necessary rocks as they will help facilitate our plays much earlier. Having actual land ramp is far more important than mana rocks, as we need to be able to abuse Omnath's Landfall ability, but these two rocks are too good to pass up.
Amulet of Vigor: A utility artifact that allows any land that comes into play tapped to be untapped and able to be used right away. Works great with Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation and even Perilous Forays
Ashnod's Altar: Free sac outlet. Generates for every creature sacked, so we can utilize that mana to play more spells for the turn. If we have a lot of Elementals out, can also power out a huge Genesis Wave.
Crucible of Worlds: Much like Ramunap Excavator, it will allow us to reuse our fetch lands, and replay any other lands that get destroyed or discarded via something like Greater Good or an opponent's effect. Redundancy is never a bad thing.
Akroma's Memorial: Gives our creatures protection from any damage or targeted removal in red or black's colors. Gives us a bunch of great keyword abilities, the most important ones being Flying and Haste.
Green Sun's Zenith: This was added in mainly to function as part of an early ramp package with Dryad Arbor. It will also tutor out 13/14 of our creatures. It is a very flexible creature tutor card that is reusable as long as it doesn't get countered.
Life from the Loam: Another source for recurring lands from the graveyard. If we don't need a new card draw, we can Dredge this card from the graveyard and use it pull up to three lands back to reuse.
Nature's Lore/Three Visits: Our 2-drop ramp spells. Both of these can get any Forest card from the deck and put them into play untapped. This means it can grab any of our dual sources, so long as it has the Forest subtype.
Cultivate/ Kodama's Reach: Our 3-drop ramp spells. These can pull any two basic lands out of the deck, put one onto the battlefield, and the other in our hand. These can get us two Landfall triggers if we have Omanth already out and haven't played a land for the turn.
Genesis Wave: One of the big bomb cards in the deck. Allows us to cheat multiple permanents into play, as long as we pour enough mana into . This will also trigger any enter the battlefield effects from those permanents or any others we already had on the battlefield.
Nissa's Pilgrimage: Another 3-drop ramp spell. This one isn't included with the other two, as it can only grab basic Forests. However, if we have Spell mastery, we can grab three basic Forests instead of two.
Wheel of Fortune: We tend to run out of gas fairly quickly, and for we can immediately fill our hand up again. This is a double-edged sword card because not only can we disrupt our opponent's hands, but it can also give them the cards they need to take over and win the game.
Explosive Vegetation: 4-drop ramp spell. Can get any two basics out of the deck, and put them directly into play. They come into play tapped, so unless we have Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out, we won't be able to utilize the mana until our next turn.
Natural Order: Creature tutor. Will usually tutor for Craterhoof Behemoth to end the game. It will also get us one of our utility creatures such as Ramunap Excavator, Eternal Witness, or even Oracle of Mul Daya.
Scapeshift: Scapeshift isn't necessarily a ramp card. We still end up with the same amount of land cards, but what it does is gives us an abundance of Landfall triggers for Omnath or even Tireless Tracker/Avenger of Zendikar. If we have Titania, Protector of Argoth, we get a bunch of Elementals from the lands being sacrificed. You can further abuse this card by having Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out, or following it up with Splendid Reclamation.
Skyshroud Claim: 4-drop ramp spell. Can grab any Forest card, including our dual sources with the Forest subtype. They also come into play untapped so we can follow it up with another spell, provided we have one.
Splendid Reclamation: Returns all lands from our graveyard to the battlefield. Can give us a ton of Landfall triggers at once. They do enter tapped, so having Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out will enable us to do a follow up play. Great card to play after Scapeshift.
Tempt with Discovery: A group hug style ramp spell. We can grab any land from our deck with this spell. If any opponent chooses to take the offer, we get another land for each opponent who accepts. A good thing to keep in mind is the first land we grab should be a fetchland. That way if an opponent decides to grab a Strip Mine, Wasteland, or anything of the like, we can be sort of protected. Once everyone else is finished grabbing their lands, you can then decide what other lands to grab, most notably would be Gaea's Cradle.
Hour of Promise: 5-drop ramp spell. We do not run Deserts in here, so we will never be able to get the Zombies from it. However, it's a ramp spell that lets us grab any land, so that is justification enough to run this card in here.
Shamanic Revelation: Massive card draw. The amount of creature tokens we can create in this deck is absurd, so the amount of cards we can draw is equally so. The majority of creatures we would have on the battlefield will also have more than 4 power, so we will also gain a ton of life.
Traverse the Outlands: 5-drop ramp spell. You fetch lands equal to the highest-powered creature you control on the battlefield, which will usually be 5 power, so will net us 5 lands. With as steep as the cost is on this card, you would not want to cast it with anything less than 5 power out.
Rishkar's Expertise: This is the card draw equivalent to Traverse the Outlands. With Omnath or one of his tokens out, we will draw five cards. At a CMC of 6, that may be as good as it gets (unless we draw in the second Main Phase after a Craterhoof), so drawing anything less than five is not ideal. We are then able to cast a spell from our hand with CMC 5 or less for free, which is definitely not bad.
Blasphemous Act: Sometimes, we just want to watch the whole world burn. The only board wipe we run, as it can cost as little as . Good chance of completely wiping the board of all creatures. Will allow us to start Bolting opponents if we have Elementals out. We can also protect our creatures from this card if we have Akroma's Memorial out.
Crop Rotation: This card should read "Sacrifice a land to bring Gaea's Cradle into play." That's mainly what this card does: tutors out Cradle. It can also be used to "save" a land from targeted removal by swapping it with another from the deck.
Chord of Calling: Searches up any of our creatures at instant speed. Can also use creatures that are currently on the battlefield to help pay for its cost. Most of the time it will search up a ramp creature such as Oracle of Mul Daya, but can also search up Purphoros, God of the Forge or even Craterhoof Behemoth to end the game.
Harrow: Instant speed ramp. We have to sac a land as an additional cost, so effectively we only get one land out of the deal, but will get two Landfall triggers. With Titania, Protector of Argoth out, we can get another Elemental out when casting this card.
Force of Vigor: Hard removal for artifacts/enchantments. We can essentially cast this for "free" by exiling a green card from hand during anyone else's turn, meaning we don't need to leave any open mana up and give our opponents a false sense of security. This could possibly be better than Chaos Warp since we will be getting rid of two things and not swapping one thing for another. We do lose the ability to get rid of permanents with indestructible so be aware of that.
Exploration: Gives us an extra land drop per turn. Unlike Burgeoning, we can utilize Ramunap Excavator and Crucible of Worlds for our extra land drops.
Goblin Bombardment: Another free sac outlet. This one will allow us to ping any target for 1, and when you sac an Elemental, you do an additional 3 damage, for a total of 4 damage per Elemental.
Steely Resolve: Mass spot removal protection for all Elementals. Don't bother naming any other creature, as we only need to protect these specific ones. Also protects from targeted abilities, not just spells.
Sylvan Library: One of the best cards in green to have. Let's us draw the top three of our library and keep any of them at the cost of 4 life per card after the first. We can either draw them all to dig deeper into the deck, or we just take what we need, put back what we don't, and shuffle them away with either a fetch land or ramp spell.
Elemental Bond: Draws us a card whenever a creature with power 3 or greater comes into play. With Omnath out, we play a land, create an Elemental, and draw a card, and do that each time a land is played. This card can draw us a lot of cards in a single turn, and even more throughout the game if left unanswered.
Greater Good: Our last free sac outlet. Sac an Elemental, deal 3 damage, draw 5 cards, discard 3, repeat. Fills up our hand fairly quickly.
Parallel Lives/Doubling Season: Our token doublers. Not only will they double our Elemental tokens, but also Plant tokens and Clue tokens from Avenger of Zendikar and Tireless Tracker, respectively. Doubling Season will also double the counters that are placed on Plant tokens from Avenger when a land enters the battlefield.
Perilous Forays: Pay , sac an Elemental, deal 3 damage, search for a basic land, create an Elemental, repeat. This process can be repeated for as many untapped lands you control, as these new lands will enter tapped. If you have Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra on the battlefield, you can repeat this process for however mana basic lands you still have in your deck. This essentially turns Omnath into a "machine gun" of sorts, and is a very powerful interaction for the deck.
Where Ancients Tread: We don't just want to create Elementals and have them die for them to do anything. We want them to do something when they enter. Much like Elemental Bond, whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters, i.e., our Elemental tokens, we can deal damage to any target. Note that even though the paper card states creature or player, it has been errata'd to any target.
Warstorm Surge: A very similar card to Where Ancients Tread, Warstorm Surge, it triggers when ANY creatures enter the battlefield under our control, and it then deals damage equal to said creatures power. Note that even though the paper card states creature or player, it has been errata'd to any target.
Nissa, Vital Force: The only planeswalker we run. The main thing we want to do with her is to use her +1 to create an extra creature to help protect her, and then immediately use her -6 to gain her emblem so we can draw an absurd amount of cards every time we have lands come into play.
Ancient Tomb: I would say Ancient Tomb is a staple in a lot of EDH decks, especially those decks that want to cast their spells a turn earlier. In a 40 life format, the 2 life per use is negligible. Just don't get carried away with it if you don't have to.
Arid Mesa, Bloodstained Mire, Evolving Wilds, Misty Rainforest, Myriad Landscape, Primsatic Vista, Scalding Tarn, Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills: The fetch lands of the deck. These will not only help fix your colors, but also provide extra Landfall triggers for Omnath, as well as extra triggers for Titania, Protector of Argoth when you sac them.
Cavern of Souls: A big problem for this deck is counters. With Omnath being so high-costed, we want him to make it onto the battlefield without fear of being countered. That's why this land is in here, and will always name Elemental.
Cinder Glade/Sheltered Thicket/Stomping Ground/Taiga: The dual lands of the deck. These will fix your colors and enable you to have the correct colors for casting spells. I have a specific order in which I fetch these lands, and they are:
Dryad Arbor: A fetchable land to use in conjunction with Green Sun's Zenith to get some early ramp. Will also double as a chump blocker.
Forest/Mountain: The basic lands of the deck. Nothing much needs to be said about these as they are the basic lands of choice for Omnath.
Gaea's Cradle: We can make an absurd amount of creatures between Omnath, Titania, Protector of Argoth and Avenger of Zendikar, which then translates into an absurd amount of mana that Gaea's Cradle can make. This land is usually #1 in priority for an opponent to remove.
Lotus Field: A new addition for the deck. This land produces 3 mana of any color and can protect itself due to it having Hexproof. Has great synergy with Titania, Protector of Argoth and will give us more lands to play from the graveyard.
Reliquary Tower: We can draw a lot of cards in this deck via Elemental Bond, Greater Good, and Shamanic Revelation, so we would rather keep them all instead of discarding down to hand size.
Strip Mine: The only land-hate land we run. We run this over Wasteland since this can hit any land. Use it to keep someone off of a color, or to get rid of a powerful land such as an opposing Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Maze of Ith, etc.
Yavimaya Hollow: A very useful utility land that enables us to regenerate a creature to save it from removal or combat. Will not protect from exile effects, but is still a good land to keep Omnath alive (or any creature for that matter). You can even use it as a political card to save someone else's creature.
SPOILER
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Creatures
Sylvan Safekeeper: I've opted to run this over Lightning Greaves for protection. It is tutorable since it is a creature and we can surprise opponents with it via Chord of Calling. It protects multiple creatures vs just one at a time, and it has synergy with Titania, Protector of Argoth.
Lotus Cobra: Early game mana acceleration. He doesn't have a real significant body, so more than likely he will slither under the radar as far as a must-remove creature. He can generate quite a bit of mana, however, especially when used in conjunction with any fetchland. One part of a "machine gun" combo with Perilous Forays.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: This little guy is essentially a Rampant Growth on a stick. Why play him over Growth? He doubles as an attacker and blocker, which Growth cannot do. You can cast him in an earlier turn, then wait to crack him until Omnath hits the field.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking: Azusa allows us to play two additional lands each turn. We can run out of lands fairly quickly, but we can also play the extra land drops from our graveyard if we have Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator out. Life from the Loam is also another great card to use with Azusa.
Eternal Witness: A staple card for the green color. Regrowth on a 2/2 body for is nothing to scoff at. She can be tutored up via Chord of Calling or Natural Order as well.
Ramunap Excavator: Crucible of Worlds on a 2/3 body for . Allows us to play lands out of the graveyard, and reuse spent fetchlands. Can be tutored up via Chord of Calling or Natural Order, unlike Crucible, but is also susceptible to creature removal.
Springbloom Druid: Harrow on a body. The lands enter tapped, but being able to Chord it into play makes up for that downfall. Unlike Harrow, we also won't be out of a land if it gets countered.
Tireless Tracker: A lands matter creature. Will get us a Clue every time a land enters the battlefield, not just when we play one. This matters as we have a lot of ramp spells in here. We can also sacrifice the Clues to draw cards, and that will cause Tracker to grow as well.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Oracle allows us to play lands off the top of our deck, essentially letting us dig deeper into our decks to get to our better cards. She enables an extra land drop as well, which will in turn get us closer to playing Omnath.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Purphoros deals damage to all opponents whenever a creature enters the battlefield under our control. This is a pretty significant effect, as it not only affects all opponents, it doesn't target so it gets around Hexproof and Shroud. For , we can also pump our creatures +1/+0 each time we activate it to get in a little extra damage if we swing in.
Titania, Protector of Argoth: The Queen of Elementals, to go alongside our King Omnath. She will return a land from our graveyard upon entering, giving Omnath another Landfall trigger. If she brings back a fetchland and we crack it, Titania herself will create a 5/3 Elemental. While these Elementals aren't as good as Omnath's as far as stats go, they are still Elementals so when they do die, they will be able to Lightning Bolt any target.
Avenger of Zendikar: Another lands matter creature. Avenger will create 0/1 tokens equal to the number of lands we control as he enters. While the tokens don't start out that great, with each land that enters, they get a +1/+1 counter on them. With the number of ways we have to get multiple lands per turn, these little critters can get insanely huge.
Craterhoof Behemoth: The big game ender. Craterhoof gives all of our creatures +X/+X for each creature we control on the battlefield. If that wasn't enough, he also gives them trample, so the excess damage will go through. He makes a great follow up play after Avenger of Zendikar, but even better when we have an absurd number of Elemental tokens out. We can easily tutor him out with Chord of Calling or Natural Order, making him the perfect way to end a game.
Artifacts
Amulet of Vigor: A utility artifact that allows any land that comes into play tapped to be untapped and able to be used right away. Works great with Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation and even Perilous Forays
Ashnod's Altar: Free sac outlet. Generates for every creature sacked, so we can utilize that mana to play more spells for the turn. If we have a lot of Elementals out, can also power out a huge Genesis Wave.
Crucible of Worlds: Much like Ramunap Excavator, it will allow us to reuse our fetch lands, and replay any other lands that get destroyed or discarded via something like Greater Good or an opponent's effect. Redundancy is never a bad thing.
Akroma's Memorial: Gives our creatures protection from any damage or targeted removal in red or black's colors. Gives us a bunch of great keyword abilities, the most important ones being Flying and Haste.
Sorceries
Life from the Loam: Another source for recurring lands from the graveyard. If we don't need a new card draw, we can Dredge this card from the graveyard and use it pull up to three lands back to reuse.
Nature's Lore/Three Visits: Our 2-drop ramp spells. Both of these can get any Forest card from the deck and put them into play untapped. This means it can grab any of our dual sources, so long as it has the Forest subtype.
Cultivate/ Kodama's Reach: Our 3-drop ramp spells. These can pull any two basic lands out of the deck, put one onto the battlefield, and the other in our hand. These can get us two Landfall triggers if we have Omanth already out and haven't played a land for the turn.
Genesis Wave: One of the big bomb cards in the deck. Allows us to cheat multiple permanents into play, as long as we pour enough mana into . This will also trigger any enter the battlefield effects from those permanents or any others we already had on the battlefield.
Nissa's Pilgrimage: Another 3-drop ramp spell. This one isn't included with the other two, as it can only grab basic Forests. However, if we have Spell mastery, we can grab three basic Forests instead of two.
Wheel of Fortune: We tend to run out of gas fairly quickly, and for we can immediately fill our hand up again. This is a double-edged sword card because not only can we disrupt our opponent's hands, but it can also give them the cards they need to take over and win the game.
Explosive Vegetation: 4-drop ramp spell. Can get any two basics out of the deck, and put them directly into play. They come into play tapped, so unless we have Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out, we won't be able to utilize the mana until our next turn.
Natural Order: Creature tutor. Will usually tutor for Craterhoof Behemoth to end the game. It will also get us one of our utility creatures such as Ramunap Excavator, Eternal Witness, or even Oracle of Mul Daya.
Scapeshift: Scapeshift isn't necessarily a ramp card. We still end up with the same amount of land cards, but what it does is gives us an abundance of Landfall triggers for Omnath or even Tireless Tracker/Avenger of Zendikar. If we have Titania, Protector of Argoth, we get a bunch of Elementals from the lands being sacrificed. You can further abuse this card by having Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out, or following it up with Splendid Reclamation.
Skyshroud Claim: 4-drop ramp spell. Can grab any Forest card, including our dual sources with the Forest subtype. They also come into play untapped so we can follow it up with another spell, provided we have one.
Splendid Reclamation: Returns all lands from our graveyard to the battlefield. Can give us a ton of Landfall triggers at once. They do enter tapped, so having Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra out will enable us to do a follow up play. Great card to play after Scapeshift.
Tempt with Discovery: A group hug style ramp spell. We can grab any land from our deck with this spell. If any opponent chooses to take the offer, we get another land for each opponent who accepts. A good thing to keep in mind is the first land we grab should be a fetchland. That way if an opponent decides to grab a Strip Mine, Wasteland, or anything of the like, we can be sort of protected. Once everyone else is finished grabbing their lands, you can then decide what other lands to grab, most notably would be Gaea's Cradle.
Hour of Promise: 5-drop ramp spell. We do not run Deserts in here, so we will never be able to get the Zombies from it. However, it's a ramp spell that lets us grab any land, so that is justification enough to run this card in here.
Shamanic Revelation: Massive card draw. The amount of creature tokens we can create in this deck is absurd, so the amount of cards we can draw is equally so. The majority of creatures we would have on the battlefield will also have more than 4 power, so we will also gain a ton of life.
Traverse the Outlands: 5-drop ramp spell. You fetch lands equal to the highest-powered creature you control on the battlefield, which will usually be 5 power, so will net us 5 lands. With as steep as the cost is on this card, you would not want to cast it with anything less than 5 power out.
Rishkar's Expertise: This is the card draw equivalent to Traverse the Outlands. With Omnath or one of his tokens out, we will draw five cards. At a CMC of 6, that may be as good as it gets (unless we draw in the second Main Phase after a Craterhoof), so drawing anything less than five is not ideal. We are then able to cast a spell from our hand with CMC 5 or less for free, which is definitely not bad.
Blasphemous Act: Sometimes, we just want to watch the whole world burn. The only board wipe we run, as it can cost as little as . Good chance of completely wiping the board of all creatures. Will allow us to start Bolting opponents if we have Elementals out. We can also protect our creatures from this card if we have Akroma's Memorial out.
Instants
Chord of Calling: Searches up any of our creatures at instant speed. Can also use creatures that are currently on the battlefield to help pay for its cost. Most of the time it will search up a ramp creature such as Oracle of Mul Daya, but can also search up Purphoros, God of the Forge or even Craterhoof Behemoth to end the game.
Harrow: Instant speed ramp. We have to sac a land as an additional cost, so effectively we only get one land out of the deal, but will get two Landfall triggers. With Titania, Protector of Argoth out, we can get another Elemental out when casting this card.
Force of Vigor: Hard removal for artifacts/enchantments. We can essentially cast this for "free" by exiling a green card from hand during anyone else's turn, meaning we don't need to leave any open mana up and give our opponents a false sense of security. This could possibly be better than Chaos Warp since we will be getting rid of two things and not swapping one thing for another. We do lose the ability to get rid of permanents with indestructible so be aware of that.
Enchantments
Goblin Bombardment: Another free sac outlet. This one will allow us to ping any target for 1, and when you sac an Elemental, you do an additional 3 damage, for a total of 4 damage per Elemental.
Steely Resolve: Mass spot removal protection for all Elementals. Don't bother naming any other creature, as we only need to protect these specific ones. Also protects from targeted abilities, not just spells.
Sylvan Library: One of the best cards in green to have. Let's us draw the top three of our library and keep any of them at the cost of 4 life per card after the first. We can either draw them all to dig deeper into the deck, or we just take what we need, put back what we don't, and shuffle them away with either a fetch land or ramp spell.
Elemental Bond: Draws us a card whenever a creature with power 3 or greater comes into play. With Omnath out, we play a land, create an Elemental, and draw a card, and do that each time a land is played. This card can draw us a lot of cards in a single turn, and even more throughout the game if left unanswered.
Greater Good: Our last free sac outlet. Sac an Elemental, deal 3 damage, draw 5 cards, discard 3, repeat. Fills up our hand fairly quickly.
Parallel Lives/Doubling Season: Our token doublers. Not only will they double our Elemental tokens, but also Plant tokens and Clue tokens from Avenger of Zendikar and Tireless Tracker, respectively. Doubling Season will also double the counters that are placed on Plant tokens from Avenger when a land enters the battlefield.
Perilous Forays: Pay , sac an Elemental, deal 3 damage, search for a basic land, create an Elemental, repeat. This process can be repeated for as many untapped lands you control, as these new lands will enter tapped. If you have Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra on the battlefield, you can repeat this process for however mana basic lands you still have in your deck. This essentially turns Omnath into a "machine gun" of sorts, and is a very powerful interaction for the deck.
Where Ancients Tread: We don't just want to create Elementals and have them die for them to do anything. We want them to do something when they enter. Much like Elemental Bond, whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters, i.e., our Elemental tokens, we can deal damage to any target. Note that even though the paper card states creature or player, it has been errata'd to any target.
Warstorm Surge: A very similar card to Where Ancients Tread, Warstorm Surge, it triggers when ANY creatures enter the battlefield under our control, and it then deals damage equal to said creatures power. Note that even though the paper card states creature or player, it has been errata'd to any target.
Planeswalkers
Lands
Arid Mesa, Bloodstained Mire, Evolving Wilds, Misty Rainforest, Myriad Landscape, Primsatic Vista, Scalding Tarn, Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills: The fetch lands of the deck. These will not only help fix your colors, but also provide extra Landfall triggers for Omnath, as well as extra triggers for Titania, Protector of Argoth when you sac them.
Cavern of Souls: A big problem for this deck is counters. With Omnath being so high-costed, we want him to make it onto the battlefield without fear of being countered. That's why this land is in here, and will always name Elemental.
Cinder Glade/Sheltered Thicket/Stomping Ground/Taiga: The dual lands of the deck. These will fix your colors and enable you to have the correct colors for casting spells. I have a specific order in which I fetch these lands, and they are:
- Sheltered Thicket: Will always enter the battlefield tapped.
- Cinder Glade: Will enter tapped in the early game. If you have two basics already out, fetch out Stomping Ground before this.
- Stomping Ground: Will usually enter tapped unless we need to use the mana right away. Then we can pay the two life to enter untapped.
- Taiga: Will always enter untapped, so fetch this one last.
Dryad Arbor: A fetchable land to use in conjunction with Green Sun's Zenith to get some early ramp. Will also double as a chump blocker.
Forest/Mountain: The basic lands of the deck. Nothing much needs to be said about these as they are the basic lands of choice for Omnath.
Gaea's Cradle: We can make an absurd amount of creatures between Omnath, Titania, Protector of Argoth and Avenger of Zendikar, which then translates into an absurd amount of mana that Gaea's Cradle can make. This land is usually #1 in priority for an opponent to remove.
Lotus Field: A new addition for the deck. This land produces 3 mana of any color and can protect itself due to it having Hexproof. Has great synergy with Titania, Protector of Argoth and will give us more lands to play from the graveyard.
Reliquary Tower: We can draw a lot of cards in this deck via Elemental Bond, Greater Good, and Shamanic Revelation, so we would rather keep them all instead of discarding down to hand size.
Strip Mine: The only land-hate land we run. We run this over Wasteland since this can hit any land. Use it to keep someone off of a color, or to get rid of a powerful land such as an opposing Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Maze of Ith, etc.
Yavimaya Hollow: A very useful utility land that enables us to regenerate a creature to save it from removal or combat. Will not protect from exile effects, but is still a good land to keep Omnath alive (or any creature for that matter). You can even use it as a political card to save someone else's creature.
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Strategy
- Lands: Lands entering the battlefield are what triggers Omnath to create tokens. We run fetchlands in order to get more than one Landfall trigger. Some lands, such as Myriad Landscape, will give you more than two Landfall triggers. Ramp spells are what really gets Omnath's juices flowing. The ability to drop a land for a Landfall trigger and then play a ramp spell for one or more triggers is really nuts in this game. Producing multiple Elementals in a single turn can turn any game around. We also run quite a bit of basics, 14 Forest and 5 Mountain to be exact. A lot of our ramp spells specifically search up basics, so we want to have enough in our deck to be able to search these out. The majority of these basics are Forest as about 87% of our spells are greed; red is just the splash color for the burn elements of the deck.
- Creating Elementals: When lands come into play, Omnath creates Elementals. But is that all he does? Creates bodies to swing? No, he does far more than that. You want to be able to take advantage of the mass amounts of Elementals coming into play. How do you do that? You play things that trigger when creatures come into play. Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread, and Purphoros, God of the Forge will all deal damage to either creatures or players. These enchantments help control creatures and planeswalkers, and can also kill an opponent if enough creatures come into play. And what's better than creating a single Elemental for every Landfall? Why, multiple Elementals thanks to Parallel Lives and Doubling Season! More Elementals being made means more damage and a faster road to victory. Playing all of these cool spells means you run out of gas, so why not draw cards with Elemental Bond when you make Elementals?
- Elementals Dying: Knowing what happens when Elementals die will sometimes make our opponent's hesitant to kill our creatures, especially with an army out. In order to get around that, we need to take advantage of sac outlets to essentially "machine gun" our opponents. Free sac outlets such as Goblin Bombardment, Greater Good, and Ashnod's Altar will allow us to start Bolting things with no mana requirement necessary on our part. Perilous Forays requires an investment of a single mana, so while it less versatile than the others, it is still a very key sac outlet. Forays will ramp and Bolt at the same time and with Lotus Cobra or Amulet of Vigor, will let us fetch our all of our lands with a basic land type. This alone could win us the game.
1) Mulligans: Your opening hand needs to consist of two things: lands and ramp. If you have neither, then a mulligan is necessary. If your opening hand has a higher ratio of lands to spells, keep the hand as you will be able to play a land every turn and should be able to draw into a ramp spell. If your hand contains a few ramp spells, with only one or two lands, if one of those ramp spells is 2 CMC, keep it; otherwise you will want to mulligan it away. This is a lands deck, and a lot of our spells have a high CMC, so without lands or a way to get lands, we're not going to have much luck playing the game.
2) Early Game: The early game is where you want to set everything up. You want to be playing lands every turn, and your early ramp spells so that you can play your bigger spells sooner. We don't play many straight card draw spells, so getting out a Tireless Tracker early on and getting lands on to the battlefield will help you get to one of your draw engines. Ideally, you want to draw into Elemental Bond early on as well, so when you start creating Elementals, you can draw a card for each one made. Next, you want to get a free sac outlet online such as Ashnod's Altar or Goblin Bombardment so you can use your Elementals to control the board. Greater Good is the best of both worlds, as it is a draw engine that will net you two cards in hand, but also a free sac outlet.
3) Mid Game: We should have been dropping lands and playing ramp spells at this point. We have a fair amount of mana available to us, and should have some sort of engine online, whether it is a draw engine, sac outlet, a damage enabler like Purphoros, God of the Forge, or a token doubler such as Parallel Lives or Doubling Season. We can now focus on getting Omnath onto the battlefield and start generating tokens. We must pay attention to our opponents and their board states. If they have mana open, we must be prepared for either counters or spot removal. We can help mitigate this by using Cavern of Souls to prevent him from being countered, but also Steely Resolve to protect him from spot removal with no further investment. That's why it is important to ramp fast and get him down as early in the game as possible, as our opponents will also be building up their board and resources and may not have something readily available early on. It is possible to play Omnath as early as turn three, and here is how:
- Turn 1: Forest/Mana Crypt/Kodama's Reach/Cultivate=4 mana available next turn
- Turn 2: Land/Explosive Vegetation/Skyshroud Claim (if Skyshroud is played, Nature's Lore/Three Visits/Sakura-Tribe Elder can be played for another land)= 7 mana available (possibly 8)
- Turn 3: Cast Omnath with an available land drop.
We also do not want to be playing Omnath without a land drop to follow. If you must take a turn off from playing him because you don't have a land, then do so. If we play him just for the sake of getting him out, there is a good chance he will be killed. We paid 7 mana for nothing, and now will have to take a couple extra turns to get him back out. You have to plan your plays very carefully, as he will get more expensive to cast each time he is killed, and we only have so many ramp spells and land drops before it won't be enough.
4) Late Game: If you have Omnath out and have been dropping lands and creating tokens, then things have been going exactly as planned. You must use your discretion as to how you wish to proceed during this point of the game. If you can swing in for a few points of damage to lower someone's life total, then do so. But try to keep some blockers back as the tokens can dish out 5 damage to an attacking creature, and another 3 if said token dies. You can swing in unhindered if you have Akroma's Memorial out as our creatures will have Vigilance. Casting Craterhoof Behemoth with a buttload of tokens out means we will be able to get damage through via Trample and should be able to take out everyone else.
If the combat step is somehow hindered and makes it difficult to swing in, we can always sac our tokens to burn everyone out of the game. Each token that is sacrificed will deal 3 damage to any target. We can pump a bunch of mana into a Genesis Wave and get a bunch of Landfall triggers, which should make things easier by creating more Elementals and hopefully burn our opponents low enough with Warstorm Surge/Where Ancients Tread that we can sac a few tokens to finish them off.
When exactly do you want to play Omnath?
When I play this deck, I always try to rush for Omnath. But is it good enough to get to 7 mana to cast him and get nothing out of him? No, not really. The best time to cast Omnath is when you can get value out of him. What kind of value, you ask? Wait until you have something out that will trigger when he enters, like Where Ancients Tread or Elemental Bond, or when you can cast him and make a land drop. Don't pay 7 mana for him to just get killed and cost 9 next time. Get something out of him before he dies.
What if Omnath keeps dying?
Omnath is going to die. A lot, in fact. What do you do when that happens? Keep ramping and casting him. Eventually, you will get to the point where he will stick around for a good amount of time. Give him some protection of sorts with Lightning Greaves or Akroma's Memorial. Command Beacon is Omnath's best friend. While the commander tax is still adding up, casting Omnath from your hand will still only cost 7 mana. Being able to reuse this land with Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds will help alleviate the excruciating commander tax this guy can get.
How do I win?
Winning can be simple. Create a bunch of Elementals and swing. Adding Akroma's Memorial to give your army evasion and protection, or a Craterhoof Behemoth with an army is usually game over for most players. However, most games I have won by using Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread, and Purphoros, God of the Forge and dropping a bunch of lands into play and burning everyone to death. Using sac outlets and "machine gunning" everyone down is another effective way of closing out the game. No attacking necessary. A Genesis Wave for an absurd amount of mana will usually enable you to get a good majority of those cards, along with lands for triggers, and win the game.
Another thing to keep in mind when playing is who you are playing against. If you're playing against a blue player, you need to be able to know when to play your spells. Don't needlessly cast something if you think they have a counterspell waiting for you. If need be, try baiting them out with a spell you don't necessarily need. Be cautious if the blue player has 7 mana available. If you play everything you can, they can and will Cyclonic Rift you and restart your entire board. It's always a good idea to have a free sac outlet available in that case so you can at least Bolt them a few times and get some use out of your Elementals.
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Weaknesses of Omnath
Just like any deck, this one has its weaknesses as well. There is hopefully enough redundancy in the deck that you should be able to fight through whatever is thrown at you. Let's look at some of the weaknesses:
1) Counters: Every deck's worst nightmare. We ramp a lot and need the ramp in order to keep playing Omnath. If your opponent is smart, they will want to keep you down on lands, so they are going to counter your ramp spells first. After that, they will probably go after countering Omnath in order to keep his tax high.
2) Land Destruction: We rely on our lands. A lot. When we encounter LD of any kind, it slows us down a lot. Yes, we ramp a lot. But if we get hit with a mass land destruction spell, we're back to square one and need to start over, this time with less ramp spells to help us out since we already have used some.
3) Gaddock Teeg: This guy right here is a big pain. A lot of our good spells have a CMC of 4 or more. He stops them dead. If we can get Omnath and a sac outlet out and keep them out, we can keep him in check. Otherwise, he will slow us down a lot.
4) Flying Creatures: We don't have any flyers and we only have one creature with reach. In order to protect ourselves from them, we need to either have a sac outlet with enough Elementals to Bolt them out of the sky, or have Akroma's Memorial so our Elementals can take flight for some aerial assault and prevention.
5) Aven Mindcensor: This deck fetches a lot. When you can only search through the top four cards of your library, most of the time you are going to whiff, even with the number of lands we run. When this guy is out, we need to play slowly until we have a way to get him off of the field.
1) Counters: Every deck's worst nightmare. We ramp a lot and need the ramp in order to keep playing Omnath. If your opponent is smart, they will want to keep you down on lands, so they are going to counter your ramp spells first. After that, they will probably go after countering Omnath in order to keep his tax high.
2) Land Destruction: We rely on our lands. A lot. When we encounter LD of any kind, it slows us down a lot. Yes, we ramp a lot. But if we get hit with a mass land destruction spell, we're back to square one and need to start over, this time with less ramp spells to help us out since we already have used some.
3) Gaddock Teeg: This guy right here is a big pain. A lot of our good spells have a CMC of 4 or more. He stops them dead. If we can get Omnath and a sac outlet out and keep them out, we can keep him in check. Otherwise, he will slow us down a lot.
4) Flying Creatures: We don't have any flyers and we only have one creature with reach. In order to protect ourselves from them, we need to either have a sac outlet with enough Elementals to Bolt them out of the sky, or have Akroma's Memorial so our Elementals can take flight for some aerial assault and prevention.
5) Aven Mindcensor: This deck fetches a lot. When you can only search through the top four cards of your library, most of the time you are going to whiff, even with the number of lands we run. When this guy is out, we need to play slowly until we have a way to get him off of the field.
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Combos
- Amulet of Vigor/Lotus Cobra + Perilous Forays: The basic idea of this combo is to have Omnath and Perilous Forays out. You pay 1, sac an Elemental token, deal 3 damage, tutor up another land that enters tapped, and create an Elemental. You do this for each untapped land you control. Normally, that's where the combo would end. However, if you add in Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra, you will gain a mana by either Amulet untapping the tutored land, or Cobra generating a mana when the land enters. This will allow you to repeat the cycle and tutor out all basic lands, effectively turning Omnath into a "machine gun."
- Scapeshift + Splendid Reclamation: This isn't so much of a combo, but a really nice synergy. You first cast Scapeshift and sacrifice whatever number of lands you want to tutor up the same number to the battlefield. You then cast Splendid Reclamation to bring back all of the lands you sacrificed, as well as any others that were in your graveyard. The downside to this is they will all enter tapped, but if you have Amulet of Vigor, they will untap so we can use them for mana. Lotus Cobra will essentially do the same as Amulet as well.
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Changelog
SPOILER
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11-24-15:
OUT:
Skullwinder
Undergrowth Champion
Whisperwood Elemental
Xenagos, the Reveler
Nissa, Worldwaker
IN:
Rampant Growth
Nature's Lore
Farseek
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Skyshroud Claim
I took out the Planeswalkers because they only usually stick around for the turn they come into play, so have little staying power. Skullwinder, Undergrowth Champion, and Whisperwood Elemental were severely underperforming to warrant keeping them in. Replaced all of them with more ramp to get to Omnath faster, and to provide extra landfall triggers once he's out.
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12-6-15:
OUT:
Mountain
IN:
Yavimaya Hollow
Added another utility land to help keep Omnath alive.
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1-14-16:
OUT:
Reclamation Sage
Spearbreaker Behemoth
Beast Within
Gruul Turf
Terramorphic Expanse
IN:
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
World Breaker
Ashnod's Altar
Wastes x2
Took out Reclamation Sage for World Breaker since Breaker's removal is exile and it's an on cast trigger, so even if he gets countered, his removal won't (unless the ability is countered). Took out Turf and Expanse to add in 2 Wastes so I have a fetchable source of colorless for World Breaker. Took out Behemoth and Beast Within in favor of Alter for a free sac outlet/ramp and Mina and Denn for extra land drops, and to be able to reuse lands in play for extra land drops.
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4-12-16:
OUT:
Spellbreaker Behemoth
IN:
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Behemoth has been fairly lackluster for me. Haven't necessarily needed the uncounterability. Nissa provides me with the ability to ensure a land drop, and when she slips, will either give me more card advantage or more ramp.
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6-8-16:
OUT:
Rampant Growth
Sword of the Animist
Eldrazi Monument
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
IN:
Tireless Tracker
Ulvenwald Hydra
Gratuitous Violence
Natural Order
I took out Rampant Growth as it was the least effective ramp spell in the deck. Sword of the Animist requires you to have a creature and attack with said creature in order to ramp, so it isn't necessarily all that good. Eldrazi Monument is only good if you have enough creatures to sac to keep it in play, and we don't really care if our creatures are indestructible. Ulamog has been my #1 Bribery target. It's removal is good, but when it gets used against us, we have very few things to remove it, so it gets the axe.
In their places, I am adding Tireless Tracker for early beats that grows and for the insane amount of clues and future card draw it provides. Ulvenwald Hydra is a big creature that can fetch out Gaea's Cradle (or any other land). Gratuitous Violence is essentially a win more card that doubles all damage from combat and also Omnath triggers. Natural Order is a sac outlet to Bolt something, and can fetch any green creature we need.
Currently online, I am testing Seasons Past/Praetor's Counsel in place of Gratuitous Violence since it isn't a real necessary card, and as stated above, is a win more card. Also testing out Mana Crypt in place of a Mountain for earlier ramp.
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6/13/16:
OUT:
Gratuitous Violence
Mountain
IN:
Seasons Past
Mana Crypt
Gratuitous Violence isn't a necessary card to have. It is essentially a win-more card, and I find I will always mulligan it away if given the chance, and am not too happy to see it when I do draw it. Seasons Past has been the card I've been testing in its place and it seems to do the trick. It allows you to get some cards back, and will get put back in your library for future use, if it resolves. I am still contemplating whether or not this is better off than Praetor's Counsel is. More testing will need to be done.
Mana Crypt allows for earlier plays. It enables turn 1 Kodama's Reach/Cultivate, turn 2 Explosive Vegetation/Skyshroud Claim, and various other early turn ramp. With me cutting Gratuitous Violence, I am allowed to cut 1 Mountain since I no longer have a spell that requires 3 red mana.
========================================
8/1/16:
OUT:
Seasons Past
IN:
Splendid Reclamation
Seasons Past has been in a flex spot that has been shared with Gratuitous Violence and Praetors' Counsel, and none of them have felt like a permanent fixture of the deck. With the printing of Splendid Reclamation, I feel like that slot can be permanently filled. It allows all of your lands to return to the battlefield and can give you a ton of Landfall triggers.
========================================
7/6/18:
OUT:
Evolutionary Leap
Farseek
Greenwarden of Murasa
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Stalking Vengeance
Thawing Glaciers
Verdant Confluence
Wastes x2
World Breaker
IN:
Ancient Tomb
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Hour of Promise
Nissa, Vital Force
Ramunap Excavator
Sheltered Thicket
Steely Resolve
Sylvan Scrying
Three Visits
Traverse the Outlands
Evolutionary Leap is honestly not the best card in here as we have fewer than normal creatures. Farseek can only grab Mountains in our deck, and they enter tapped. Greenwarden is just a big Eternal Witness that costs more. Mina and Denn I found to be lackluster, and rarely used the return land ability. Stalking Vengeance also was just lackluster. Thawing Glaciers I felt was too slow for what it did. Verdant Confluence wasn't that great either, and it costs too much. World Breaker and Wastes just wasn't worth their investments.
Ancient Tomb allows our bigger spells to be played much earlier. Growing Rites of Itlimoc has the same downside that Leap has with us not having very many creatures, but having access to a 2nd Gaea's Cradle is worth it, for now at least. Hour of Promise ramps us and allows us to get any lands from our deck. Nissa is crazy in this deck and it's really easy to get her ultimate, which will then let us draw an absurd amount of cards. Ramunap is another Crucible, so having another source to grab lands from our graveyard is invaluable. Sheltered Thicket is another fetchable dual land, and can draw us a card when we don't need the land. Steely Resolve is mass protection from targeted spells for all of our Elementals. Sylvan Scrying can grab us any land we need. Three Visits is a much better Farseek. Traverse the Outlands will usually grab us 5 lands as long as Omnath or an Elemental is on the battlefield.
========================================
7/31/18:
OUT:
Ulvenwald Hydra
IN:
Crop Rotation
I decided to cut the Hydra in favor of Rotation simply because not only can we play it much earlier, but the Hydra makes the land come into play tapped, while Rotation will let us use it right away. This is extremely important as we can immediately use the mana if we grab Gaea's Cradle, or whatever utility land or fetch land we end up grabbing.
========================================
8/11/18:
OUT:
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
IN:
Sylvan Awakening
Growing Rites of Itlimoc has been lackluster in here. While it is nice to have a second Gaea's Cradle out, we almost never hit a creature off it. It isn't necessary to hit a creature but paying for an enchantment that may not do anything isn't worth it.
Sylvan Awakening is a card that can help close out a game. We ramp hard, so we will have a lot of lands out that will become hasty indestructible Elementals. Once we swing in, we can sac them to burn everyone out of the game.
========================================
12/21/18:
OUT:
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
IN:
Rishkar's Expertise
I made this change a few weeks back, but I forgot to update here. Nissa has been a real lackluster card. She doesn't necessarily ramp us any further, just guarantees a land drop for this turn or the next. When she does flip, while her abilities do have synergy with the deck, they aren't really game changing. Adding Rishkar's Expertise gives us another card draw spell that can draw us up to 5 cards, sometimes more, and allows us to cast one of the newly drawn cards or one we had previously for free, which can allow us to cast another spell with the mana we saved.
========================================
5/23/19:
OUT:
Sylvan Awakening
IN:
Finale of Devastation
I'm still a bit on the fence with this one, but Finale is SO GOOD! Being able to tutor from deck or graveyard is amazing, especially if something like Craterhoof someone ended up in the yard. On top of that, we can give our creatures +10 or more power while giving them haste can also make Avenger a game-ender. While Awakening is nice, if the swing for lethal doesn't pan out, I'd rather not have to sac lands in order to deal damage.
I think this is a great swap, and will make the deck even crazier.
========================================
6/26/19:
I never ended up doing an official review for Modern Horizons, so I figured I'd better pick up the slack with a review of the new core set!
We only got one card from the set that I feel can make a serious impact, and that is Elvish Reclaimer.
Reclaimer is essentially a Crop Rotation on a potential 3/4 body for only . Unfortunately, the land will enter tapped, unlike Rotation, but being able to produce another land drop for a Landfall trigger is enormous, and having another outlet for getting out a Gaea's Cradle is insane.
So, where do I slot this guy in? There aren't very many flex spots in the deck, and from a few posts above, I've already made some changes to the deck post-Modern Horizons, so I think I may end up trying him out in the Circuitous Route spot, just to see how it works out.
With that, here is how the changes are going to look:
OUT:
Boundless Realms
Blighted Woodland
Chaos Warp
Finale of Devastation
IN:
Elvish Reclaimer
Force of Vigor
Prismatic Vista
Springbloom Druid
========================================
7/26/19:
OUT:
Burgeoning
Ghost Town
Lightning Greaves
Mountain
IN:
Dryad Arbor
Green Sun's Zenith
Lotus Field
Sylvan Safekeeper
Added Dryad Arbor and Green Sun's Zenith to increase our ramp package, and as another tutor for the deck. Lotus Field is a pretty good land that will protect itself, and has pretty good synergy with the deck. Sylvan Safekeeper is replacing Lightning Greaves as the deck's protection card since we can tutor it up, and can protect multiple creatures.
OUT:
Skullwinder
Undergrowth Champion
Whisperwood Elemental
Xenagos, the Reveler
Nissa, Worldwaker
IN:
Rampant Growth
Nature's Lore
Farseek
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Skyshroud Claim
I took out the Planeswalkers because they only usually stick around for the turn they come into play, so have little staying power. Skullwinder, Undergrowth Champion, and Whisperwood Elemental were severely underperforming to warrant keeping them in. Replaced all of them with more ramp to get to Omnath faster, and to provide extra landfall triggers once he's out.
========================================
12-6-15:
OUT:
Mountain
IN:
Yavimaya Hollow
Added another utility land to help keep Omnath alive.
========================================
1-14-16:
OUT:
Reclamation Sage
Spearbreaker Behemoth
Beast Within
Gruul Turf
Terramorphic Expanse
IN:
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
World Breaker
Ashnod's Altar
Wastes x2
Took out Reclamation Sage for World Breaker since Breaker's removal is exile and it's an on cast trigger, so even if he gets countered, his removal won't (unless the ability is countered). Took out Turf and Expanse to add in 2 Wastes so I have a fetchable source of colorless for World Breaker. Took out Behemoth and Beast Within in favor of Alter for a free sac outlet/ramp and Mina and Denn for extra land drops, and to be able to reuse lands in play for extra land drops.
========================================
4-12-16:
OUT:
Spellbreaker Behemoth
IN:
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Behemoth has been fairly lackluster for me. Haven't necessarily needed the uncounterability. Nissa provides me with the ability to ensure a land drop, and when she slips, will either give me more card advantage or more ramp.
========================================
6-8-16:
OUT:
Rampant Growth
Sword of the Animist
Eldrazi Monument
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
IN:
Tireless Tracker
Ulvenwald Hydra
Gratuitous Violence
Natural Order
I took out Rampant Growth as it was the least effective ramp spell in the deck. Sword of the Animist requires you to have a creature and attack with said creature in order to ramp, so it isn't necessarily all that good. Eldrazi Monument is only good if you have enough creatures to sac to keep it in play, and we don't really care if our creatures are indestructible. Ulamog has been my #1 Bribery target. It's removal is good, but when it gets used against us, we have very few things to remove it, so it gets the axe.
In their places, I am adding Tireless Tracker for early beats that grows and for the insane amount of clues and future card draw it provides. Ulvenwald Hydra is a big creature that can fetch out Gaea's Cradle (or any other land). Gratuitous Violence is essentially a win more card that doubles all damage from combat and also Omnath triggers. Natural Order is a sac outlet to Bolt something, and can fetch any green creature we need.
Currently online, I am testing Seasons Past/Praetor's Counsel in place of Gratuitous Violence since it isn't a real necessary card, and as stated above, is a win more card. Also testing out Mana Crypt in place of a Mountain for earlier ramp.
========================================
6/13/16:
OUT:
Gratuitous Violence
Mountain
IN:
Seasons Past
Mana Crypt
Gratuitous Violence isn't a necessary card to have. It is essentially a win-more card, and I find I will always mulligan it away if given the chance, and am not too happy to see it when I do draw it. Seasons Past has been the card I've been testing in its place and it seems to do the trick. It allows you to get some cards back, and will get put back in your library for future use, if it resolves. I am still contemplating whether or not this is better off than Praetor's Counsel is. More testing will need to be done.
Mana Crypt allows for earlier plays. It enables turn 1 Kodama's Reach/Cultivate, turn 2 Explosive Vegetation/Skyshroud Claim, and various other early turn ramp. With me cutting Gratuitous Violence, I am allowed to cut 1 Mountain since I no longer have a spell that requires 3 red mana.
========================================
8/1/16:
OUT:
Seasons Past
IN:
Splendid Reclamation
Seasons Past has been in a flex spot that has been shared with Gratuitous Violence and Praetors' Counsel, and none of them have felt like a permanent fixture of the deck. With the printing of Splendid Reclamation, I feel like that slot can be permanently filled. It allows all of your lands to return to the battlefield and can give you a ton of Landfall triggers.
========================================
7/6/18:
OUT:
Evolutionary Leap
Farseek
Greenwarden of Murasa
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Stalking Vengeance
Thawing Glaciers
Verdant Confluence
Wastes x2
World Breaker
IN:
Ancient Tomb
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Hour of Promise
Nissa, Vital Force
Ramunap Excavator
Sheltered Thicket
Steely Resolve
Sylvan Scrying
Three Visits
Traverse the Outlands
Evolutionary Leap is honestly not the best card in here as we have fewer than normal creatures. Farseek can only grab Mountains in our deck, and they enter tapped. Greenwarden is just a big Eternal Witness that costs more. Mina and Denn I found to be lackluster, and rarely used the return land ability. Stalking Vengeance also was just lackluster. Thawing Glaciers I felt was too slow for what it did. Verdant Confluence wasn't that great either, and it costs too much. World Breaker and Wastes just wasn't worth their investments.
Ancient Tomb allows our bigger spells to be played much earlier. Growing Rites of Itlimoc has the same downside that Leap has with us not having very many creatures, but having access to a 2nd Gaea's Cradle is worth it, for now at least. Hour of Promise ramps us and allows us to get any lands from our deck. Nissa is crazy in this deck and it's really easy to get her ultimate, which will then let us draw an absurd amount of cards. Ramunap is another Crucible, so having another source to grab lands from our graveyard is invaluable. Sheltered Thicket is another fetchable dual land, and can draw us a card when we don't need the land. Steely Resolve is mass protection from targeted spells for all of our Elementals. Sylvan Scrying can grab us any land we need. Three Visits is a much better Farseek. Traverse the Outlands will usually grab us 5 lands as long as Omnath or an Elemental is on the battlefield.
========================================
7/31/18:
OUT:
Ulvenwald Hydra
IN:
Crop Rotation
I decided to cut the Hydra in favor of Rotation simply because not only can we play it much earlier, but the Hydra makes the land come into play tapped, while Rotation will let us use it right away. This is extremely important as we can immediately use the mana if we grab Gaea's Cradle, or whatever utility land or fetch land we end up grabbing.
========================================
8/11/18:
OUT:
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
IN:
Sylvan Awakening
Growing Rites of Itlimoc has been lackluster in here. While it is nice to have a second Gaea's Cradle out, we almost never hit a creature off it. It isn't necessary to hit a creature but paying for an enchantment that may not do anything isn't worth it.
Sylvan Awakening is a card that can help close out a game. We ramp hard, so we will have a lot of lands out that will become hasty indestructible Elementals. Once we swing in, we can sac them to burn everyone out of the game.
========================================
12/21/18:
OUT:
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
IN:
Rishkar's Expertise
I made this change a few weeks back, but I forgot to update here. Nissa has been a real lackluster card. She doesn't necessarily ramp us any further, just guarantees a land drop for this turn or the next. When she does flip, while her abilities do have synergy with the deck, they aren't really game changing. Adding Rishkar's Expertise gives us another card draw spell that can draw us up to 5 cards, sometimes more, and allows us to cast one of the newly drawn cards or one we had previously for free, which can allow us to cast another spell with the mana we saved.
========================================
5/23/19:
OUT:
Sylvan Awakening
IN:
Finale of Devastation
I'm still a bit on the fence with this one, but Finale is SO GOOD! Being able to tutor from deck or graveyard is amazing, especially if something like Craterhoof someone ended up in the yard. On top of that, we can give our creatures +10 or more power while giving them haste can also make Avenger a game-ender. While Awakening is nice, if the swing for lethal doesn't pan out, I'd rather not have to sac lands in order to deal damage.
I think this is a great swap, and will make the deck even crazier.
========================================
6/26/19:
I never ended up doing an official review for Modern Horizons, so I figured I'd better pick up the slack with a review of the new core set!
We only got one card from the set that I feel can make a serious impact, and that is Elvish Reclaimer.
Reclaimer is essentially a Crop Rotation on a potential 3/4 body for only . Unfortunately, the land will enter tapped, unlike Rotation, but being able to produce another land drop for a Landfall trigger is enormous, and having another outlet for getting out a Gaea's Cradle is insane.
So, where do I slot this guy in? There aren't very many flex spots in the deck, and from a few posts above, I've already made some changes to the deck post-Modern Horizons, so I think I may end up trying him out in the Circuitous Route spot, just to see how it works out.
With that, here is how the changes are going to look:
OUT:
Boundless Realms
Blighted Woodland
Chaos Warp
Finale of Devastation
IN:
Elvish Reclaimer
Force of Vigor
Prismatic Vista
Springbloom Druid
========================================
7/26/19:
OUT:
Burgeoning
Ghost Town
Lightning Greaves
Mountain
IN:
Dryad Arbor
Green Sun's Zenith
Lotus Field
Sylvan Safekeeper
Added Dryad Arbor and Green Sun's Zenith to increase our ramp package, and as another tutor for the deck. Lotus Field is a pretty good land that will protect itself, and has pretty good synergy with the deck. Sylvan Safekeeper is replacing Lightning Greaves as the deck's protection card since we can tutor it up, and can protect multiple creatures.
