(Omnath, Locus of All | Art by Bryan Sola)

Ultimania

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Progenitus is the only five-color creature with two black pips in its mana cost?)

With the upcoming release of March of the Machine, we've finally seen the compleation of the cycle of all five Omnaths, gaining a color with each iteration to culminate in Omnath, Locus of All.

Omnath, Locus of All is the first of the Omnaths to not directly care about lands in some fashion, but that's not to say that it doesn't care about mana under its new transformation. With both the ability to draw three-color-or-more cards and add the majority of their mana cost to your mana pool every turn, along with transforming all of your unspent mana into black mana, you'll always have something floating with Omnath.

Which raises the question: what are the best three-color-or-more mana sinks to put all that mana into?

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Top 10 Three-Color Mana Sinks

Now, normally when we think of mana sinks, we think of huge X spells and activated abilities, but in the case of Omnath, Locus of All, we must also look at mana costs and activated abilities that are heavy in black since all of our mana will end up that way eventually.

Criteria: Three-or-more-color cards with either an "X" cost or two or more black pips in their mana cost or as the activation cost of an activated ability. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

And with that, we've got a simple (but still way too specific) one this week, so let's roll!

10. Piru, the Volatile

(Helms 1,462 Decks, Rank #453; 6,474 Inclusions, 2% of 267,879 Decks)

Any Omnath deck is going to have to go out of its way to make sure its mana is perfect, but Piru, the Volatile is going to stretch that mana base no matter what. With double the pips through all of Mardu, even if you reveal Piru off the top you're only going to be halfway to your color requirements, much less the eight mana it takes to actually get Piru down on the battlefield. For those that haven't ever seen Piru's death trigger resolve, know that this particular board wipe on a stick is absolutely worth it, with Piru's lifelink counting towards the dozens of creatures on the battlefield you're dealing damage to. In other words, take the current amount of nonlegendaries on the battlefield and multiply by seven: that's your new life total. Makes that difficult mana worth looking into, doesn't it?

9. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

(9,593 Inclusions, 3% of 276,064 Decks)

While it has significantly less troubling mana pips than Piru, the Volatile, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is still plenty expensive at an equal eight mana. The effects here are insane if you can get it down, however. With a ludicrous +3 to remove a noncreature permanent if Bolas doesn't need protecting, he'll be sitting at eight loyalty the turn he comes down, just on the verge of ultimating his -9. If he does need protecting, then his -2 does double duty there, taking the best creature your opponents have so you can also block with it, and if you do manage to get to his ult, it will absolutely stop whoever the strongest player in the game is in their tracks.

All that being said, I don't actually think Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is worth it. Eight mana to remove or take control of a permanent is way too pricey, and even if you do eventually ult him while taking out the best targets on the board, you've only removed one problem player while the other two focus all of their resources on you. Bolas only costing five if you flip him off the top with Omnath does make the deal a lot sweeter, but I think you'd rather be getting and spending that three free mana on something a bit lower to the ground that also has the ability to be a mana sink in the late game, like Minsc, Beloved Ranger.

8. Wargate

(10,927 Inclusions, 4% of 271,290 Decks)

On the other hand, whether you're casting Wargate for three mana and getting the best land in your deck, or for 11 to go grab Piru, you're going to be happy with the results. That's even more true when you flip it off the top and don't have to pay the Bant price of entry.

7. Emergent Ultimatum

(11,377 Inclusions, 4% of 272,443 Decks)

The Ultimatums have the Piru problem of mana pips on steroids, but more or less all of their effects do enough to be worth it, especially if a third of the pips are accounted for thanks to Omnath. Still, the "you're going to need absolutely perfect mana" caveat goes double for this cycle, make no mistake. As for Emergent Ultimatum, it's easy enough to peruse Commander Spellbook and find dozens of two-card combos you can use to win the game immediately, along with a Decree of Silence to ensure no one messes with said combo, but in my personal opinion, it's a lot more rewarding a card if included without specific targets in mind. Your deck has the options to win, I promise.

6. Cruel Ultimatum

(11,552 Inclusions, 4% of 276,064 Decks)

The most notorious of the ultimatums, Cruel Ultimatum won't win you the game on resolution the way that Emergent Ultimatum will, but it will take the archenemy right out of the game in the same fashion that Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker's ultimate will while also putting you ahead. All that without having to jump through all the hoops that come with trying to get to a planeswalker's ultimate, and it's cheaper, too!

5. Nethroi, Apex of Death

(Helms 4,522 Decks, Rank #116; 7,969 Inclusions, 3% of 245,432 Decks)

When I was thinking of all the three-color nonsense out there that you could abuse with Omnath, I must admit that Mutate was nowhere on my radar. With that said, there are enough three-color Mutate options out there that you could probably build a jank Omnath Mutate deck if you wanted to without too much trouble:

Top 5 Non-Nethroi Three-Color Mutate Cards (AKA, the rest of them)

1. Brokkos, Apex of Forever
2. Illuna, Apex of Wishes
3. Otrimi, the Ever-Playful
4. Vadrok, Apex of Thunder
5. Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt

Slap all that together with a Parcelbeast and a Migratory Greathorn, and you're starting to really put together a powerful, confusing mass of cards no one will ever be able to understand that might hypothetically win you the game!

4. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

(14,930 Inclusions, 5% of 276,064 Decks)

With only 16 available three-color planeswalkers, it would be a bit tougher to take Omnath, Locus of All and turn it into a superfriends deck, but it certainly wouldn't be impossible. Whether you go that route or not, it's probably still worth including Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God anyhow. At five mana, both his draw/exile ability and his removal are pretty good options, you're likely to run into a planeswalker or two along the way anyhow, and his ultimate can literally win you the game, rather than doing so figuratively as these ultimates so often do.

3. Villainous Wealth

(26,027 Inclusions, 10% of 272,443 Decks)

To be clear, Villainous Wealth is not a 'good' card. Very few X spells that start at three mana are. With that said, if you manage to cast this for a lot, two things are going to happen: one, you're going to cast a ton of spells that have nothing to do with your deck. Two, everyone is going to have a lot of fun watching you do it, even if they're groaning the whole time. In my opinion, Villainous Wealth is the anti-Storm spell. It creates turns the whole table is excited for, as opposed to when someone overloads Mizzix's Mastery and you know it's time for you to get your phone out.

What are they going to hit? Will they get enough off of the Aristocrats deck to cobble together a relevant engine, or simply grab two sac outlets and no payoffs or tokens? Can you flip enough Soldier-makers and Glorious Anthems off the top to be a threat next turn, or if it's in Boros, maybe you could get them all haste right now? The opportunities and crazy situations are endless, which is the real reason that folks are playing Villainous Wealth: not for the power, but for the memories.

2. Eerie Ultimatum

(40,225 Inclusions, 16% of 245,432 Decks)

With perfect mana, under any guise, comes a lot of fetches. With that in mind, if you do manage to find yourself in a situation where you can resolve Eerie Ultimatum, chances are that it's going to get you a ton of mana along with a ton of stuff that the table thought they had resolved, and that's just if you're playing it fairly. If you've managed to mill some of your deck along the way, then this thing is just going to win you the game. Just ignore the fact that that sentence contained an "if" that the description of Emergent Ultimatum didn't, okay?

1. Ruinous Ultimatum

(53,388 Inclusions, 19% of 278,669 Decks)

I would not have guessed the #1 card on the list of ostensible "three-color mana sinks" would have been a board wipe, but here we are. Ruinous Ultimatum, by all accounts, should probably win you the game, in the same way that an Overload on Cyclonic Rift should. My only issue is that I've seen way too many times where that didn't happen.

Which is not to say that you shouldn't play Ruinous Ultimatum. It's absolutely a powerful card, and will turn any game in your favor whether it was going well for you or poorly before it was resolved.

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Honorable Mentions

I long ago did an article talking all about why it's a good idea to play "backup commanders" in your decks, and I'd say it's aged pretty well. With that said, then, if you are going all-in on the three-color plan with Omnath, Locus of All, then I'd be remiss not to mention Meeting of the Five. This bulk mythic filling out all your least favorite packs of Streets of New Capenna hasn't found many homes until now. Rarely will you find a backup commander that does the job better than your commander, but this does precisely that. Provided you can find the mana, of course.

Speaking of going crazy with the three-color theme on Omnath:

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Finally, you'll probably want some cheaper options to go along with all these haymakers, so I'd be remiss not to bring the cycle of two-mana three-color cards I utilize in this jank-pile to your attention:

Top 10 Two-Mana Three-Color Cards

1. Thopter Foundry
2. Trace of Abundance
3. Crystallization
4. Grixis Grimblade
5. Esper Stormblade
6. Naya Hushblade
7. Jund Hackblade
8. Bant Sureblade
9. Sangrite Backlash

Now, are these cards all terrible, with the exception of Thopter Foundry, a card I couldn't play because of the lack of three-color artifacts in the world? Absolutely. Will they give you something to do on turns two and three while you wait for all your Triomes and expensive spells to come online? Absolutely.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

The thing I've kind of willfully ignored while making this deck and exploring this space is the fact that this whole idea is built on very shaky ground. Why? Because Omnath, Locus of All is precisely the kind of splashy, scary commander that's going to get you targeted before the game even starts and itself targeted the moment it enters play. Why would you willfully set yourself up for that kind of disappointment?

Well, why would you?

Finally, how would you build Omnath, Locus of All? Are you crazy about Ultimatums? Have you ever gone all-out on three-color before?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the awkwardly-shaped but too-cool-not-to-use triangular rainbow table!