"Omnath, Locus of the Void: Congratulations, Nobody Gets to Play Magic Anymore."

"Omnath, Locus of the Void: Congratulations, Nobody Gets to Play Magic Anymore."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

There are plenty of ways to lose a game of Commander. Someone assembles an infinite combo, another player resolves an absurdly powerful enchantment, or your friend spends twenty minutes explaining why his seven-card hand is actually a perfectly reasonable keep.

And then there is Omnath, Locus of the Void.

This seven-mana Elemental is a walking disaster for anyone who enjoys the concept of having a turn.

First, Omnath gets bigger for every unspent mana you have. So that player who carefully manages their resources and ends their turn with mana floating around? Congratulations! Their land management skills have just become a bodybuilding program for an eldritch horror.

Second, if you would lose unspent mana, it becomes colorless instead. Apparently, even mana refuses to leave this battlefield.

But the real problem is Landfall. Whenever a land enters under your control, you add two colorless mana.

Read that again.

Play a land. Get two mana. Play another land through some ridiculous ramp spell. Get two more mana. Then use that mana to cast more spells, find more lands, and turn your innocent little turn into an accounting nightmare.

And remember, Omnath grows with your unspent mana.

At some point, your opponents will stop asking how your deck works and start asking whether they can go home.

Omnath doesn't just threaten to end the game. He threatens to end everyone's participation in it.

By the time you finally pass the turn, your friends will have learned an important lesson: sometimes, the most dangerous thing in Commander isn't an infinite combo.

It's a land drop.