Omnath, Locus of Valakut: The Exotic MTG Community Commander Deck Build

Hello, and welcome to the Exotic MtG’s Community Commander Deck build! At the beginning of the year, Marcus (aka Exotic MtG), the King of Giveaways, decided it was about time he had himself a deck for the BEST format, and quickly turned to the community for assistance.

But why build one just for himself? Why not build two, and give one away to a member of the Exotic MtG community? With that in mind, and the MtG community's help on Facebook, Discord, Twitter,the Patreon page, as well as live streams on Twitch, my pal Omnath, Locus of Rage was chosen as the Commander. However, there was one caveat to the build: Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle needed to be featured. With that in mind, the community was off to the races! So buckle in, buy some durable sleeves, and get ready to shuffle (A LOT) because here comes Omnath, Locus of Valakut!

1 Avenger of Zendikar  
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking  
1 Courser of Kruphix  
1 Craterhoof Behemoth  
1 Eternal Witness  
1 Lotus Cobra  
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn  
1  Nissa, Vastwood Seer    Flip
1 Oracle of Mul Daya  
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge  
1 Ramunap Excavator  
1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways  
1 Sylvan Safekeeper  
1 Tireless Tracker  
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth  
1 Amulet of Vigor  
1 Ashnod's Altar  
1 Crucible of Worlds  
1 Lightning Greaves  
1 Mana Crypt  
1 Sol Ring  
1 Burgeoning  
1 Doubling Season  
1 Elemental Bond  
1 Exploration  
1 Goblin Bombardment  
1 Greater Good  
1 Parallel Lives  
1 Perilous Forays  
1 Steely Resolve  
1 Sylvan Library  
1 WarStorm surge  
1 Where Ancients Tread  
1 Beast Within  
1 Chord of Calling  
1 Crop Rotation  
1 Harrow  
1 Blasphemous Act  
1 Cultivate  
1 Explosive Vegetation  
1 Genesis Wave  
1 Hour of Promise  
1 Hull BReach  
1 Kodama's Reach  
1 Life from the Loam  
1 Natural Order  
1 Nature's Lore  
1 Nissa's Pilgrimage  
1 Rampant Growth  
1 Rishkar's Expertise  
1 Scapeshift  
1 Shamanic Revelation  
1 SkyShroud Claim  
1 Splendid Reclamation  
1 Sylvan Awakening  
1 Traverse the Outlands  
1 Wheel of Fortune  
1 Arid Mesa  
1 Blighted Woodland  
1 Bloodstained Mire  
1 Cavern of Souls  
1 Cinder Glade  
1 Command Beacon  
1 Dust Bowl  
1 Evolving Wilds  
10 Forest  
1 Ghost Town  
1 Gruul Turf  
1 Misty Rainforest  
9 Mountain  
1 Myriad Landscape  
1 Reliquary Tower  
1 Scalding Tarn  
1 Stomping Ground  
1 Strip Mine  
1 Taiga  
1 UndiscoveRed Paradise  
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle  
1 Verdant Catacombs  
1 Windswept Heath  
1 Wooded Foothills  
1 Yavimaya Hollow  

Omnath, Locus of Rage is a 5/5 legendary elemental from Battle for Zendikar, and is a commander that I hold near and dear to my heart. He does everything I love doing. Smashes face, provides just the right amount of board control, and all the land shenanigans you could ever want! Every land you drop with him in play is a free 5/5 elemental and when any elemental under your control kicks the bucket, you get to bolt a creature or player for free. 3 damage, any target. Board wiping my 5 elementals? Cool, take 15 damage for it!

Omnath’s downsides? His lack of protection and that not-so-gentle CMC can make him vunerable and tough to play.

Our secondary focus card, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is from Zendikar, and has some great synergy with Omnath. As long as you control 5 other Mountains whenever you play another, you may have Valakut deal 3 damage to any target. More free bolts? And I’m free to zap whomever I choose, like Johnny Combo or that irritating Planeswalker? Yes, please!

And with all the land shenanigans in this deck there’s no shortage of mountains coming and going to trigger this consistently! Valakut’s drawback is a pretty steep one, with coming into play tapped and needing 5 mountains in play before your mountain-bolts start, you’ll be looking at turn 7 until you see your first 3 damage being dealt. Yikes!

Fortunately we have a plethora of green ramp, capable of netting us the lands we need to fuel the burn and token frenzy about to transpire. Cards like Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Harrow, Kodama’s Reach, and Rampant Growth all help pulling basics out of our deck and getting them into play. Nature’s Lore, Nissa’s Pilgrimage, and Skyshroud Claim specifically target forests, while Hour of Promise and Crop Rotation target any land, including finding your Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. And with Traverse the Outlands often allowing you to search for 5 lands and drop them into play and Scapeshift, things can turn lethal real quick! Blighted Woodland and Myriad Landscape allow us to sac them and search for two basics to put into play tapped. Throw in a couple of sweet mana dorks like Lotus Cobra and Shaman of Forgotten Ways, and a couple of pieces of artifact ramp, like Sol Ring, Ashnod’s Altar, and Mana Crypt, and we are on our way.!

Between fetches and lands getting sacrificed to spells or abilities, it’s a great idea to run a package that will get lands back from our graveyard. Spells such as Splendid Reclamation and Life from the Loam do just that. We're also running Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator, making reusing any fetch, or even Strip Mine each turn a reality!

So here we are ramping like no tomorrow, but that pesky “play 1 land per turn” rule is looking to slow us down. No worries! Burgeoning and Exploration, as well as creatures like Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Mina and Denn, Wildborn, and Oracle of Mul Daya, mean we should be dropping at least 2 lands per turn. Sometimes more. Courser of Kruphix shows us the top of our library and permits playing those lands, not to mention having excellent synergy with our “rulebreakers”. When this deck gets going, sometimes it's dropping 2-3 lands right into play per turn!

With all these lands coming into play, Omnath’s token making can escalate very quickly, but why not put it into overdrive? Titania, Protector of Argoth and Nissa, Vastwood Seer both produce us elemental tokens just like our Commander, but at a different power and toughness. Avenger of Zendikar brings his plant tokens that grow larger as we play lands, while Tireless Tracker produces clues, giving us more ways to draw cards. Adding ways to double our token production is almost a no brainer here, as well. Parallel Lives doubles tokens coming into play, and Doubling Season will doubles tokens and counters, making it possible to go from an empty board state one turn to a critical mass of tokens the next!

Tireless Tracker's clue tokens are not the only source of draw in this deck, of course. Greater Good serves double duty as both a sac and a draw outlet. Elemental Bond draws a card whenever a creature with power 3 or more enters play, which will be often. Rishkar’s Expertise and Shamanic Revelation both draw for the amount of creatures we have in play, extra good with our elementals. Sylvan Library digs deeper into our deck and gives us the opportunity to draw more than 1 card per turn, if we are willing to pay the life. Wheel of Fortune draws a new hand when ours runs empty, with the added bonus of possibly wrecking our opponents' plans. We've also included Chord of Calling, Genesis Wave, and Natural Order as ways to search out and cheat creatures and permanents onto the battlefield. Eternal Witness gives us the opportunity to return any card in our graveyard to our hand.!

Our removal and direct damage package here is a bit small, with Beast Within allowing us to remove a key permanent from play, while Hull Breach is there for flexible removal of an artifact or enchantment (or both). Warstorm Surge and Where Ancients Tread splash some damage around when our creatures come into play, and Purphoros, God of the Forge shocks each opponent for 2 damage whenever we play a creature. Goblin Bombardment enables more pinging and serves as a sac outlet. Blasphemous Act doles out 13 damage to all creatures on the board, should we find ourselves behind on creatures.

We round out the deck with some protection for Omnath, including Lightning Greaves, Sylvan Safekeeper, and Steely Resolve to try and keep him alive, while Yavimaya Hollow gives us a way to regenerate as requiRed. Command Beacon gets around the Commander tax should we fail to protect the big guy.

We have also included 2 potential game enders in the deck, with Sylvan Awakening turning all our lands into 2/2 Indestructible elementals, and Craterhoof Behemoth pumping our whole board of creatures for the potential “swing and win” moment of the game!

Our land package has us running eight fetches, helping us to get to the magic 5 mountains for Valakut faster. Cinder Glade, Stomping Ground, and Taiga all count as both a Forest and a Mountain, allowing us to fetch them, as well. Strip Mine and Dust Bowl help handle opponents' problematic lands, and often times can be reused. Cavern of Souls, Ghost Town, Reliquary Tower, and UndiscoveRed Paradise, along with healthy portions of Forests and Mountains, round out the mana base.

So, that's where we are currently standing on the deck, but keep in mind that the deck is still evolving! Wanna take a look at the current deck and the maybe-board? You can find the current build here!

Think there's a few changes you'd like to see to the deck, such as adding Madblind Mountain, Chaos Warp, or Spire Garden? Come on over to our Discord and let us know! Any and all input is appreciated and consideRed! Another way Cardsphere users can help is by checking out Exotic MtG's want list to see if there's any cards you can contribute to the deck! The majority of the cards in the deck are all from users here on Cardsphere, so perhaps you may have a card or 3 to conTribute! And if you do hop on board to help, be sure to sign and include a basic Mountain or Forest, foil or non-foil, so that the winner can see you helped contribute to one of the most generous and fantastic giveaways in MtG history! After all, they don't call Exotic MtG "The King of Giveaways" for nothing!

That reminds me... I did mention Marcus was building 2 decks, right? One for himself, and one a lucky Exotic MtG community member? You may be asking yourself, "Hmmm... how do I enter to win such luxurious loot?" Fear not, I've got your back!
Exotic has set 4 goals for his channel in the year 2019. When he achieves 3 of the 4 goals, he will be giving away the deck to one lucky member of the community, and it could be you!

The goals are:

1. reach the 4,000 subscription milestone for Exotic MtG on Youtube(currently at 1500)!
2. reach 50 subscribers on Twitch (currently at 19)!
3. reach 75 Patrons over at Patreon (currently at 48)!
4. To have 6 videos on Exotic MtG's playlist to have over 1,000 views (currently at 3)!

One last way to keep in touch with all that's going on with the channel is to subscribe to the newsletter here! Good luck to everyone, let's help achieve some goals, and perhaps Omnath, Locus of Valakut could be yours!