I hated him when he came out because every game online featured at least one omnath deck. He's pretty strong, and really straightforward to build, so everyone wanted to run him. It was tiresome. I cringe whenever a strong and very linear commander comes out because it always threatens to ruin the online meta for a couple months like this guy and Gitrog.
Nowadays, I don't see him much. I built him a year or so after people got tired of him, and he's fun at first but gets repetitive quickly. Playing against him is no longer groan inducing though, because he's fine in moderation.
As strong as he is as a commander, is quite good in the 99 as well.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Omnath is solid support in my 5C Lands-Matter deck (which is primarily built around land-animation, then expanded upon covering the weakness of animating lands, then themed around Elementals because so many cards, Omnath included turned out to be of the tribe).
It was pretty predictable than animating lands alone will never get the job done (or sometimes it even fails to fire off at all), but 5/5 elemental tokens and a triggered ability that works with many other cards in the deck certainly provide great assistance. The deck is by no way foolproof (even the whole package sometimes just doesn't work out with bad draws), but I'm never unappreciative of the synergy between Omnath and the deck (the reverse applies too, helps Omnath a lot that I could cast him back with a mere 5 mana if things go south for our angry friend initially).
Wasn't aware of the spike since I never paid attention to its price ever since I acquired my foil as soon as I could after release and never looked back. A bit surprised though, although that's more because I didn't expect even the mythics of BFZ (with the exception of Ulamog, who never really dropped much to begin with) to recover this quickly considering how badly compressed the set was due to Expedition openings (and its reputation nowadays). Guess Lord Windgrace gave Omanth a second wind eh?
Omnath is solid support in my 5C Lands-Matter deck (which is primarily built around land-animation, then expanded upon covering the weakness of animating lands, then themed around Elementals because so many cards, Omnath included turned out to be of the tribe).
Do you have a list up anywhere, by chance? I've run Jund lands with Lord Windgrace and 4C lands with Tiro and Kynaios of Meletis, and I've been looking for ideas to go 5C with the deck.
As far as Omnath goes, I've run him in my aforementioned land decks to great effect, but the best stories I have of him involve targeting an opponent's Omnath with a kicked Rite of Replication . So many triggers.
He's okay as a Commander, but really shines in the 99. He fits in so many decklists: Animar, elemental tribal, Marath tokens, landfall...
By the way, he's one of those corner cases I keep talking about where a worse card (in this case Silverglade Elemental) is suddenly playable. (And yes, evoking a creature triggers a Bolt.)
Another cute thing you can do is use Hostility and Goblin Bombardment. Now any Bolt to the face is three Bolts, plus that ping. (Or six, twelve, or twenty-four.) In fact, you might want to add additional elemental token makers. And additional damage dealers.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I don't think I've ever seen this card hit a table, so hopefully this random hit will get me to remember her name in the future.
I've seen it hit a few times, but it really hasn't had the impact the owner had hoped for. I like the concept of the card, I just think it takes a bit more working about than I'm prepared for personally.
I've played against an Oviya deck before. She's basically always got blockers on the ground, and occasionally has huge, non-evasive beaters, but beyond that the commander herself doesn't accomplish much.
She just feels like a bad version of Rhys the Redeemed to me. Sure, she can make some larger tokens, but this isn't the kind of format where a vanilla 5/5 or similar does much and Rhys' second ability is much stronger, not to mention him getting access to white. If you have significant artifact synergies, she could have some upsides over the elf, but you're in mono green, so....
Do you have a list up anywhere, by chance? I've run Jund lands with Lord Windgrace and 4C lands with Tiro and Kynaios of Meletis, and I've been looking for ideas to go 5C with the deck.
As far as Omnath goes, I've run him in my aforementioned land decks to great effect, but the best stories I have of him involve targeting an opponent's Omnath with a kicked Rite of Replication . So many triggers.
Sorry, I don't have a published list anywhere, but there's a popular thread about 5C lands with Child of Alara I see often rise in the multiplayer decklists subsection, you might want to take a look at that thread.
Honestly I run both Oviya and Rhys the Redeemed in Karador because they're the cheapest-costed Legendary Creatures that have some utility (generating tokens for sacrifice, hence the likes of Isamaru don't qualify). I'm still waiting for a Rhys reprint because I refuse to buy a foil one at its current prices but I won't be surprised if he just gets outclassed eventually because I never actually use the second ability of either Legendary (too costly and it's hard to maintain a wide board most of the time for them to be relevant). In fact Oviya was supposed to oust Rhys as a cheaper foil for essentially the same functionality as far as the deck is concerned, but turns out 2 1-drops (actually 3, but Deathrite Shaman isn't Legendary, just too useful to ignore though) helped the curve better, so Rhys is still in. In theory Rhys is still more explosive (but in practice I have never needed the second ability), so if the reprint comes Oviya will be the one closest to the chopping board, but until then, it's Rhys because of my foil vanity.
Plus side is she is way cheaper. I pulled her and was sad because I want her to be so much more. Artifact-green can be a thing! Better probably better done by Multani 1.
I've run her in a couple of draw-go style decks, as she checks off a couple of important things. Her mana cost is very low so she can be cast at sorcery speed while still leaving up room for instant answers, she gives you two decent mana sink abilities (the first of which is non-threatening, which can matter), she can blank non-evasive attackers, and her second ability represents a win condition if the game becomes a grind.
If you aren't interested in playing at instant-speed, however, I would give a full pass.
Another one in the "better in the 99" series, with (Rhys, Marath, Ghave, Ezuri), just...any token commander other than Rith.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I think she is typically a worse Rhys as has been mentioned.
She has a worse cost, does not have any interesting interactions (like with Mimic vat) and is harder to combo with (since her big ability makes only one token - making creatures into mana and untapping creatures for mana typically makes a combo with Rhys).
On the plus side, she counts all your creatures and not just your tokens for her big ability.
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"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin
I'd have accepted a higher casting cost in exchange for a lower ability cost. Something like Rakka Mar is much better. Then again, Ovira might be a cool unexpected monogreen voltron commander.
Popular comparison with her is Rhys, for good reason.
1) Elves have way more synergy than servo/construct.
2) Rhys has access to two colors.
3) Green as a color don’t provide as much synergy with artifact as W or U.
4) While both relies on big board state, creating one vanilla big creature is less impacting than doubling numbers of vanilla tokens (that are elves).
It's not exactly reasonable to configure a deck to belcher like a belcher deck wants. That being said, Trench Gorger and Mana Severance exist, and even without those I feel like Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice could have some fun.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I've considered running Belcher "fairly" in green decks that could reasonably expect to ramp out a majority of their lands before. Still a random element to it and it's very much a lategaem plan, but you're still likely to get a decent return on your mana if you only have a handful of lands out of 50-60 cards.
In the end, common sense has always won out and I've realized that it's a terrible plan.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I put this in my wife's RDW deck, and it's generally gotten her a fair number of value, but that's expected. If Prime Time was still legal, this could be a bonkers card right alongside it and Valakut in any Gruul deck, but as it stands...yeah, it's not so great.
I used to use it in Grenzo, Dungeon Warden as a way to stack the bottom of my library. It's hard to get crazy value out of, but it's not without its peculiar charm.
I've considered running Belcher "fairly" in green decks that could reasonably expect to ramp out a majority of their lands before. Still a random element to it and it's very much a lategaem plan, but you're still likely to get a decent return on your mana if you only have a handful of lands out of 50-60 cards.
In the end, common sense has always won out and I've realized that it's a terrible plan.
Hey, I've played RG lands decks with Koth. Koth did okay, not stellar. Did a lot better when we had Primeval Titan.
Yeah, this card is good in Legacy and I'd even say in Modern, but in Commander? We have twice the life total, so fairness isn't an option. You can still combo out, but this is a multiplayer format.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I run Belcher in my Karn deck, where it's basically fair, but I can potentially activate it many times in a turn. Once I accidentally stumbled upon a combo where I tutored every land in my deck with Expedition Map and I also had Belcher, so that was fun. (IIRC, the combo was your standard Ashnod's Altar/Nim Deathmantle for infinite mana, Akroma's Memorial for haste, and animating the Map with Karn so that sacrificing it would trigger Deathmantle.)
I also run Belcher in my Silas/Tana Oops All Spells deck, where it's a wincon. (When the 98-card library starts with 0 lands, Belcher does a lot of damage.)
This is a weird card, so I'll take the low hanging fruit; you could target it with Sun Titan every turn to have a flying team each attack.
in your white-blue giant tribal deck? Or are you sticking it on someone else and letting the giant fend for himself? Why not just use skyshaper? but also don't because what a waste.
Crown cycle is all pretty weird, I don't think any of them make the cut, though. crown of fury could maybe work for goblins but blue kinda lacks a powerful aggro tribe in commander to make this viable over something more permanent and broad like wonder or even levitation. Plus blue already has lots of flying naturally.
To run this, you need to want to give a creature flying (commander probably) and then the potential to go wide for a turn, and ALSO be tribal, and for some reason cards like levitation, skyshaper, wonder, aqueous form, etc not be better for you. Can't imagine that ever happening.
Nowadays, I don't see him much. I built him a year or so after people got tired of him, and he's fun at first but gets repetitive quickly. Playing against him is no longer groan inducing though, because he's fine in moderation.
As strong as he is as a commander, is quite good in the 99 as well.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
It was pretty predictable than animating lands alone will never get the job done (or sometimes it even fails to fire off at all), but 5/5 elemental tokens and a triggered ability that works with many other cards in the deck certainly provide great assistance. The deck is by no way foolproof (even the whole package sometimes just doesn't work out with bad draws), but I'm never unappreciative of the synergy between Omnath and the deck (the reverse applies too, helps Omnath a lot that I could cast him back with a mere 5 mana if things go south for our angry friend initially).
Wasn't aware of the spike since I never paid attention to its price ever since I acquired my foil as soon as I could after release and never looked back. A bit surprised though, although that's more because I didn't expect even the mythics of BFZ (with the exception of Ulamog, who never really dropped much to begin with) to recover this quickly considering how badly compressed the set was due to Expedition openings (and its reputation nowadays). Guess Lord Windgrace gave Omanth a second wind eh?
Do you have a list up anywhere, by chance? I've run Jund lands with Lord Windgrace and 4C lands with Tiro and Kynaios of Meletis, and I've been looking for ideas to go 5C with the deck.
As far as Omnath goes, I've run him in my aforementioned land decks to great effect, but the best stories I have of him involve targeting an opponent's Omnath with a kicked Rite of Replication . So many triggers.
By the way, he's one of those corner cases I keep talking about where a worse card (in this case Silverglade Elemental) is suddenly playable. (And yes, evoking a creature triggers a Bolt.)
Another cute thing you can do is use Hostility and Goblin Bombardment. Now any Bolt to the face is three Bolts, plus that ping. (Or six, twelve, or twenty-four.) In fact, you might want to add additional elemental token makers. And additional damage dealers.
On phasing:
I don't think I've ever seen this card hit a table, so hopefully this random hit will get me to remember her name in the future.
I've seen it hit a few times, but it really hasn't had the impact the owner had hoped for. I like the concept of the card, I just think it takes a bit more working about than I'm prepared for personally.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Sorry, I don't have a published list anywhere, but there's a popular thread about 5C lands with Child of Alara I see often rise in the multiplayer decklists subsection, you might want to take a look at that thread.
Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
Honestly I run both Oviya and Rhys the Redeemed in Karador because they're the cheapest-costed Legendary Creatures that have some utility (generating tokens for sacrifice, hence the likes of Isamaru don't qualify). I'm still waiting for a Rhys reprint because I refuse to buy a foil one at its current prices but I won't be surprised if he just gets outclassed eventually because I never actually use the second ability of either Legendary (too costly and it's hard to maintain a wide board most of the time for them to be relevant). In fact Oviya was supposed to oust Rhys as a cheaper foil for essentially the same functionality as far as the deck is concerned, but turns out 2 1-drops (actually 3, but Deathrite Shaman isn't Legendary, just too useful to ignore though) helped the curve better, so Rhys is still in. In theory Rhys is still more explosive (but in practice I have never needed the second ability), so if the reprint comes Oviya will be the one closest to the chopping board, but until then, it's Rhys because of my foil vanity.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
If you aren't interested in playing at instant-speed, however, I would give a full pass.
On phasing:
She has a worse cost, does not have any interesting interactions (like with Mimic vat) and is harder to combo with (since her big ability makes only one token - making creatures into mana and untapping creatures for mana typically makes a combo with Rhys).
On the plus side, she counts all your creatures and not just your tokens for her big ability.
1) Elves have way more synergy than servo/construct.
2) Rhys has access to two colors.
3) Green as a color don’t provide as much synergy with artifact as W or U.
4) While both relies on big board state, creating one vanilla big creature is less impacting than doubling numbers of vanilla tokens (that are elves).
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
It's not exactly reasonable to configure a deck to belcher like a belcher deck wants. That being said, Trench Gorger and Mana Severance exist, and even without those I feel like Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice could have some fun.
In the end, common sense has always won out and I've realized that it's a terrible plan.
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
Hey, I've played RG lands decks with Koth. Koth did okay, not stellar. Did a lot better when we had Primeval Titan.
Yeah, this card is good in Legacy and I'd even say in Modern, but in Commander? We have twice the life total, so fairness isn't an option. You can still combo out, but this is a multiplayer format.
If you do run it, at a bare minimum, you should run a lot of ramp. And Oracle of Mul Daya, Explorer's Scope, Druidic Satchel, that whole thing to make sure you don't whiff. (Sylvan Library can also help, but it's not as useful as the cards I just mentioned.) You could also use Ancestral Knowledge to just exile the lands. And of course Rings of Brighthearth could be useful with it.
On phasing:
I also run Belcher in my Silas/Tana Oops All Spells deck, where it's a wincon. (When the 98-card library starts with 0 lands, Belcher does a lot of damage.)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
This is a weird card, so I'll take the low hanging fruit; you could target it with Sun Titan every turn to have a flying team each attack.
Crown cycle is all pretty weird, I don't think any of them make the cut, though. crown of fury could maybe work for goblins but blue kinda lacks a powerful aggro tribe in commander to make this viable over something more permanent and broad like wonder or even levitation. Plus blue already has lots of flying naturally.
To run this, you need to want to give a creature flying (commander probably) and then the potential to go wide for a turn, and ALSO be tribal, and for some reason cards like levitation, skyshaper, wonder, aqueous form, etc not be better for you. Can't imagine that ever happening.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6