This past weekend was the wombo-combo of both CommandFest and the March of the Machine prerelease. With CommandFest Orlando being right in my backyard and a mere 45 minute drive away, I couldn't resist the allure of a weekend filled with paper Magic. A couple friends came in from out of town to stay with me and every day we headed down to the Caribe Royale hotel to jam tons of games - and jam we did!

I had multiple opportunities to play Magic in a variety of ways and interact with a ton of people. I met up with friends, Twitter mutuals, and even a handful of fans in the process. Over the course of the weekend I played multiple Commander pods, one March of the Machine prerelease event, and played a handful of drafts. Barring a couple small exceptions such as one Commander game featuring a player drawing roughly 15 lands in the top 20ish cards of his deck, it was an incredibly fun time all around. Even after the games were through, there was good food and even a trip to a local arcade with some friends.

One of the things that impressed me the most, though, was the Limited format surrounding March of the Machine. I'll be the first to admit that after a lot of really strong Limited sets dropped in fairly quick succession with the likes of Dominaria, Ravnica Allegiance, and Throne of Eldraine (plus Theros Beyond Death and Ikoria, both of which I loved despite being somewhat contentious), the last few years of Limited have felt a little bit lacking. Sets like Kaldheim, Strixhaven, the two Innistrad sets, Streets of New Capenna, and The Brothers' War each left me feeling somewhat disappointed. There's been some shining beacons of light along the way in the form of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Dominaria United, but on the whole I haven't found many reasons to get excited for Limited in the last few years.

After my experience at CommandFest Orlando, I feel confident in saying that I'm going to be drafting the hell out of this set for months to come. Some people find it slow, while others find it fast but not to the degree of Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Others still find it extremely complex, but not in an off-putting way. After all, the Multiversal Legends bonus sheet adds a ton of mechanics and concepts that newer players may not be as familiar with. But me? I can't help but love it. I played three drafts and each one felt so different from the last in a great way. But this isn't really an article about Limited so much as something I picked up in one of my drafts.

In the very first draft I did of the set, I found myself opening a copy of Chrome Host Seedshark. This card absolutely rules, essentially being a sort of Shark Typhoon that takes a little more time to use effectively. Right after that I was handed a pack including a copy of Volcanic Spite - a perfect piece of removal for the spell-based deck the Seedshark demands - and a fancy foil showcase art copy of Omnath, Locus of All. While I was certainly there to win, and I knew Omnath wasn't worth too much after release, I couldn't help but channel my inner Pascal Maynard and snap up this cool foil rare to do something with in the future.

Now that CommandFest Orlando is over and I'm back home, I'm looking for something to do with this sweet card. So, I figure let's go ahead and put on that brewing cap and put together a new list for this powerful incarnation of Zendikar. Let's check out a list and see how it turned out!

Omnath, Locus of All | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Omnath, Locus of All

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Anafenza, the Foremost
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Creakwood Liege
• 1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
• 1 Drana and Linvala
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Faeburrow Elder
• 1 Goro-Goro and Satoru
• 1 Hidetsugu and Kairi
• 1 Ignoble Hierarch
• 1 Illuna, Apex of Wishes
• 1 Ilysian Caryatid
• 1 Intet, the Dreamer
• 1 Joiner Adept
• 1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
• 1 Kogla and Yidaro
• 1 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Maja, Bretagard Protector
• 1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Nethroi, Apex of Death
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Creation
• 1 Queen Marchesa
• 1 Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer
• 1 Surrak Dragonclaw
• 1 Teneb, the Harvester
• 1 Tireless Provisioner

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Ajani, Sleeper Agent
• 1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1 Lord Windgrace

• Instants (12)
• 1 Absorb
• 1 Bant Charm
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Crosis's Charm
• 1 Deathsprout
• 1 Esper Charm
• 1 Jund Charm
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Void Rend

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Duneblast
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Villainous Wealth

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Temur Ascendancy
• 1 Tribute to the World Tree

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Energy Refractor
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Relic of Legends
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cascading Cataracts
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Indatha Triome
• 1 Jetmir's Garden
• 1 Ketria Triome
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Pillar of the Paruns
• 1 Raffine's Tower
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Savai Triome
• 1 Spara's Headquarters
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 The World Tree
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Xander's Lounge
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1 Zagoth Triome
• 1 Ziatora's Proving Ground

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The main appeal of Omnath, Locus of All is just how much you can do with cards that are heavy on mana symbols. If you reveal a card off the top of your deck with three or more, you basically get a better Black Lotus to spend however you want. This mana could go to spells, abilities, or simply end up stockpiled as Black mana courtesy of Omnath's first ability. The fun, however, is just how many options you have at your disposal. According to the helpful search criteria Scryfall provides alongside the card, there are (as of this writing) 1287 cards with three or more colored mana symbols. That's a ton of different ways for you to build a deck!

To make this a little easier to parse, let's break down a small handful of the major cycles with three or more colored mana symbols in their costs:

• Charms (Planeshift, Shards of Alara, Khans of Tarkir, Streets of New Capenna)
• Dragon legends (Legends, Invasion, Planar Chaos, Core Set 2019)
• Nephilim (Guildpact)
• Ultimatums (Conflux, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths)
• Ascendancies (Khans of Tarkir and Streets of New Capenna)
• Deities and Lieges (Shadowmoor and Eventide)
• Team Ups (March of the Machine)
• A large chunk of Alara block, as well as Khans of Tarkir and Streets of New Capenna
• So many legendary cycles

What this ultimately boils down to is the fact that there is simply no shortage of ways to actually build your lists. Even if you stuck to simply these small groups alone, there are nearly infinite ways to put them together. There are twenty charms, so do you want Abzan Charm and Bant Charm, or perhaps Crosis's Charm and Brokers Charm? What about a Nephilim and a pair of Ascendancies or an Ultimatum with some Team Ups?

With so many combinations, there's tons of ways for you to build the deck the way you want to. When putting the above list together, I looked for ones that felt the most generically good and provided some of the best overall value on a budget. It took a lot to not include some personal three-color favorites like Xira Arien and Rubinia Soulsinger into something like this. That's the beauty of the deck, however: you can make it all your own with ease. That alone is going to make Omnath, Locus of All a hot commander for many years to come.

So, let's talk about some of the cards I ended up going with and why. To start, let's talk Charms. I went with Bant Charm, Crosis's Charm, Esper Charm, and Jund Charm because each is simply good removal with the option for a different kind of value to benefit a variety of situations. Both Absorb and Mystic Snake provide counter options, Bedevil and Void Rend are incredible pointed removal effects, and Supreme Verdict and Duneblast are strong sweepers. Creatures can at times feel a touch sparse, so the addition of both Creakwood Liege and Maja, Bretagard Protector help you fill out the board.

From there, we get to some creatures that are a little more nuanced in their play. Anafenza, the Foremost is potent graveyard hate and gives your creatures buffs as well. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Nethroi, Apex of Death, and Muldrotha, the Gravetide each help with recursion. Queen Marchesa provides an excellent draw engine in her own right and both Nightveil Specter and Intet, the Dreamer can steal away cards from your opponents' decks. Surrak Dragonclaw ensures your creatures always stick their landing, and planeswalkers like Lord Windgrace and Ajani, Sleeper Agent provide consistent value.

Speaking of ensuring you have some consistent value, there's one thing that's especially important in a deck like this: library manipulation. I definitely didn't go nearly as deep with this as I maybe could've, but I also didn't want it to be the focus of the deck. However, this is where cards like Aminatou, the Fateshifter and the Constructed classic Jace, the Mind Sculptor come into play. Both have ways to put cards from your hand on top of your deck to set it up how you want to get the most mana off Omnath and set up your plays to the fullest. Jace is even a lot more reasonable now thanks to several reprints that I can recommend him here. Cards like Brainstorm, Ponder, and even Hidetsugu and Kairi can help you in this regard.

When it comes to the mana base for this deck, I looked to feature some of the simpler options available. A set of tri-cycle lands, a set of shocks, and a handful of five color lands like Reflecting Pool, Exotic Orchard, and Path of Ancestry get the job done easily. Stuff a couple basics in for ramp spells and you're golden. However, it's important to note that most of the monetary value behind this deck is heavily tied up in this mana base. This is simply what I think an optimal build might look like. Thankfully, there's a decent number of cheap multicolored options in the tapped tri-lands, the vivid lands, and the thriving lands - each of which gives you a lot of agency in your mana for an affordable rate. There's also been no shortage of outstanding printings of duals including the Innistrad slow-lands, the classic check lands, and even the pain lands to get you going.

The mana does skew ever so slightly toward Green to help get down all of the mana dorks needed to help smooth out the mana earlier in the game. You're not going to survive long without the likes of Birds of Paradise, Joiner Adept, and Kodama's Reach helping you along the way, after all. However, there are a handful of solid mana rocks as well to help you out. Staples like Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, and Commander's Sphere make sure you're able to get mana of many kinds early. Chromatic Lantern gives you all mana, Relic of Legends works well with the number of legendaries in the list, and even Energy Refractor is a great way to filter the mana Omnath turns Black. I debated whether I should include Sol Ring with how few generic mana costs are here, but decided to keep it thanks to Omnath's Upwelling-style effect.

In fact, there's almost a question of what to even do with all that mana. After all, this is a five-color deck. What on earth are you going to do when so much of it gets turned Black? There aren't nearly enough cards that will utilize all of that, after all. The answer is a handful of strong spells with X in their mana costs. Need to find the perfect creature to bail you out? Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer's got you covered. Want to draw a bunch of cards? Play a massive Sphinx's Revelation. Maybe you want your opponents' cards instead? Use Villainous Wealth to go nuts. Or you can just win the game outright with a monstrous Exsanguinate if you really want.

At the end of the day, there's simply a metric ton of different ways you can take Omnath, Locus of All, and build it the way you want to. This is simply what I would consider my ideal build of it. However, I definitely don't own all these cards myself and will almost certainly end up putting together a deck that looks quite different out of the cards I do have. Yet with so many options at your disposal, it's really hard to go wrong. I can sift through my boxes and flip through my binders and easily find tons of great choices - many of which didn't even make the cut in this list. Yet they'll still no doubt make for excellent options and tons of fun Commander nights. And that's the most important thing - building a deck that's uniquely you and makes for a great time. I know I had an awesome weekend at CommandFest Orlando and bringing home Omnath, Locus of All is sure to provide even more fun in the weeks to come.

With so many ways to build it all your own, how will you build your Omnath list?

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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