(Omnath, Locus of AllOmnath, Locus of All | Art by Helge C. Balzer)

A Wonderful Journey

Have you ever played an RTS where your opponent wins by building a Wonder?

It doesn’t matter how strong your army is, how good your tactics are, or how many resources you’ve amassed. If you can’t destroy their Wonder, they win.

Magic has its own version of alternative win conditions, which I’ve spoken about before, but there’s so much more you can do than just winning because a card said you could.

You can design a deck around the flavor of the game’s lore, ignoring mechanics to ensure narrative cohesion. The game supports nonoptimal deckbuilding in lower brackets where the goal isn’t to win, but to have fun. To make a statement!

Or to put it plainly, you can waste a bunch of time and resources trying to accomplish an impossible goal to flex on your friends.

And the perfect way to do that is to model the Journey of Omnath.

Art by Chase Stone

The Rules

The Journey of Omnath is simple in concept. With Omnath, Locus of AllOmnath, Locus of All as your commander, you build a five-color deck. The only stipulations are you need all of the different Omnaths (as shown later in the article) and at least one basic land of each color.

At the beginning of the game, the only basic lands you are only allowed to play are ForestForests. You aren’t allowed to play any of the Omnath cards aside from Omnath, Locus of ManaOmnath, Locus of Mana, even if you acquire mana that would allow you to cast them.

Adapting To New Mana

1. Once you play Omnath, Locus of ManaOmnath, Locus of Mana, you are allowed to play MountainMountains.
2. As soon as you have a basic Mountain on the field at the same time as the Locus of Mana , you can now play Omnath, Locus of RageOmnath, Locus of Rage.
3. Once you play the Locus of Rage , you are allowed to play IslandIslands.
4. Having a basic Island alongside your Locus of Rage allows you to play Omnath, Locus of the RoilOmnath, Locus of the Roil.
5. Playing this Omnath allows you to play PlainsPlains
6. Basic Plains allow you to play Omnath, Locus of CreationOmnath, Locus of Creation who in turn allows you to play basic SwampSwamps.

All steps follow the same principle of the “newest” Omnath adapting to the mana of the “newest” basic land.

It simply has to follow the order of green , red , blue , white , black .

Just like Omnath did across Zendikar.

Art by Bastien Grivet & Jessica Rossier

It should be noted that once you “unlock” the next iteration of Omnath, it’s “unlocked” for the rest of the game, so removal is a threat if you’re not quick enough, but you don’t need to keep Omnath, Locus of ManaOmnath, Locus of Mana alive all game.

Finishing the Journey

After a grueling journey of adaptation and struggle through Zendikar, you can finally play Omnath, Locus of AllOmnath, Locus of All.

Ideally, you would then win the game, but the real prize was taking the scenic route to get to where you are now. Right?

Not The Destination

As you would imagine, this severely limits your flexibility in the early game. Even with nonbasic lands, your mana pool is limited to primarily green until you find one specific creaturecreature and pair it with a MountainMountain.

But then your options immediately expand.

Red grants Impulse DrawImpulse Draw, in rapid-but-risky card draw. Temporary bursts of red manared mana allow you to take explosive turns.

This then cools down into blue’s more measured card draw. With its ability to scryscry and surveilsurveil, each draw will be that much more efficient.

White unfortunately doesn’t have much to directly add to continuing Omnath’s journey. However, its removalremoval and life gainlife gain will help keep you alive to see it through.

And by the time you reach black, its tutorstutors won’t help much. But if you have otherother means of acquiring black mana, they can always be used early.

But to help you actually get there, let’s talk about what each Omnath actually does.

Omnath, Locus of Mana

The first and weakest of the Omnaths, this Locus of Mana can actually grow quite powerful quite quickly. The precursor to its corrupted future self’scorrupted future self’s mana-storing ability, it grows stronger the more green mana you hold. It just so happens that green mana is the easiest color to rapidly acquire.

From Llanowar ElvesLlanowar Elves pumping up your production to Azusa, Lost but SeekingAzusa, Lost but Seeking tripling your land production, you won’t have a weak Omnath for long.

Allow yourself to produce excessive amounts of mana without spending it, but don’t push your luck. With no protections, you can lose that mana if you lose Omnath.

Omnath, Locus of Rage

An absolute monster in Landfall decks, the Locus of Rage will ensure you survive the midgame. Even without Evolving WildsEvolving Wilds to double your production of Elementals, a 5/5 Elemental each turn is nothing to balk at.

Just remember that your goal isn’t to overwhelm your opponents at this stage; build up a sizable force, perhaps force some trades that your opponents don’t want to make.

When your Elementals die, you can pick off utility creatures or deal some chip damage. But don’t worry about going on the offensive, you’re only part of the way through your journey.

Omnath, Locus of the Roil

Locus of the Roil has an enter-the-battlefield effect to deal great damage to a target. Ideally on the tails of a fruitful Locus of Rage, this has the potential to take out commanders or massive threats.

Despite being only four mana, because of the curve of how the Journey of Omnath works you will likely have eight lands by the time you play the Locus of the Roil. As a result, the synergy with Landfall continues to run strong and provides additional card draw.

Not only are you bolstering the armies of Zendikar, you’re getting closer to completing your journey at the same time!

Omnath, Locus of Creation

Perhaps the strongest of the Omnaths, the Locus of Creation immediately provides card draw upon entering the battlefield. If you draw a SwampSwamp, that’s immediate completion.

Incorporating Landfall into this deck really is where the Locus of Creation gets impressive. At its face, you’re healing four life per turn. At the point in the game you’ll be playing it, this likely won’t be significant. However, if you have any ability to play multiple lands per turn, you get free mana.

If you press further, you deal a spread of four damage to each opponent and planeswalker. Four isn’t a dangerous amount of damage, but it’s certainly effective at limiting the growth of planeswalkers.

And again, the goal isn’t to defeat your opponents yet. You want to wait until you can field your commander. This helps you set yourself up for a decisive victory without forcing an early end to your journey.

Omnath, Locus of All

The Locus of All is not a directly threatening commander, and therefore might be a bit disappointing as the capstone to your journey. It has no keywords. No in-built protections. At time of writing, you can even purchase the card for under half a dollar!

And yet, Omnath is in the top fifty list of Commander decks on EDHREC. TwiceTwice, even!

Why is that?

How the Locus of All Works

While the ability to preserve black mana over time is useful, it is perhaps the least useful of the colors to have a reserve of. Any blue player would love a stock of mana to threaten counterspellscounterspells. Not to mention more expensive optionsexpensive options. Red players have so many instantsinstants and damaging effectsdamaging effects the ability to preserve mana across phases massively increases their robustness. White has some incredible X-cost effectsX-cost effects that having a flood of mana would benefit greatly. Doubly so if involving other colorsother colors. Green has high-costed cards, whether staticstatic or scalingscaling.

Of course, the Locus of Mana already helps here.

Black, meanwhile, has some quite potent instantsinstants but has enough cards that proc from self-damage, sacrificing, or self-discard that it doesn’t compare quite as well.

Sui-black as an archetype only dies when it says it will.

That being said, Omnath’s second ability is quite nice. If the top card of your deck has at least three colored mana symbols, you can reveal it to get three mana of any color and put it in your hand. Otherwise, put the card in your hand without revealing it.

A commander that allows you to draw two cards per turn, potentially generates mana, and covers all five colors? Not to mention its mana cost includes Phyrexian mana, allowing you to pay less! That certainly explains how it made its way to the top fifty ranking of commanders played. After playing it, then it’s a simple matter

Actually Winning With Omnath

Once you bring about the Locus of All, winning the game is about as you would expect with a green Landfall deck, but you get the additional flexibility of splashing into every other color, likely with a priority for red and blue given you’ll have access to those lands earlier.

Use fetch lands to proc Landfall triggers twice. Use cards like Azusa's Many JourneysAzusa's Many Journeys to maximize your lands played-per-turn. If you’re inclined, focus on fielding Elementals to benefit from Omnath, Locus of RageOmnath, Locus of Rage and Omnath, Locus of the RoilOmnath, Locus of the Roil.

Most would be green and red, but not all of them!

Anyone can rush through their first few turns, pay their Phyrexian mana with life, and start amassing wells of mana. It takes a true artisan of the craft to make it an event for Omnath to arrive. To build a proverbial wonder.

It’s time to embark upon Omnath’s Journey. And maybe Breach the MultiverseBreach the Multiverse while you’re at it, if you’re really trying to stick to the lore.

Please Note: Card prices and commander rankings listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but both can vary over time and between locations.