Elemental Fireworks (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Elemental Fireworks

Commander / EDH Budget Burn Multiplayer Ramp Tokens Tribal

GS10

Land (40)

Elemental (9)

CardDraw (5)

Ramp (16)

TargetedRemoval (8)

SacOutlet (4)

MassRemoval (2)

Commander (1)

Landfall (11)

WinCon (6)

Utility (2)

DISCLAIMER: This is not a perfected list, it's just my fun deck, made with budget restraints in mind and not meant to be hardcore-competitive. It's meant to be fun and balanced to play with friends and not tournament level play. Keep that in mind, but still, feel free to suggest any potential improvements! No EDH Deck is ever finished, so in the future, some of your suggestions might find a way into the deck!

Omnath, Locus of Rage is definitely one of my favorite generals since it always provides a really fun experience on the play, being simultaneous really really powerful inside a casual fun environment. And also, it's almost hypnotic how cool this card looks in foil! But there is much more to Omnath than you might think:

It's incredibly cheap to build a first functional list. So you can put an Omnath, Locus of Rage deck together and play with your friends in no time and in incredibly short budget. Including foil general, I first built my deck for about 30$. Of course I had some of the cards I needed but none of those was really expensive. After that, it's really easy to improve on, and while you can include some very expensive cards to improve it further, it doesn't absolutely need them, since it's a deck capable of making the most of LOTS of janky cards, and generate power from simple land drops.
It's really easy to play for everyone! I've been lending this deck to my friends who are newer to Magic or old players coming back into the game, and it's really easy to navigate the deck and get familiar with the game. There are no weird mechanics to get a grasp and it's very appealing to newer players, because of both the ability to play huge powerful spells and to generate huge board positions. I have a friend who played this deck in a fairly competitive environment, while I played Narset, Enlightened Master. Omnath did a lot better than my Narset, and only lost to a very competitive and much more experienced player who dug his way out of a hole at something like 6 life.
As I previously hinted, Omnath allows a lot of janky cards to function in a whole and actually win you games. Where is a card like Chandra's Ignition good other than limited? Well... Omnath kinda loves it! Omnath gives you a whole lot of room to experiment, and generates LOTS of mana to cast you the craziest spells.
And finally, yes, as in any deck, having your general killed will slow you down. But Omnath is supercharged ramp, so you'll be able to cast him over and over again! The only suggestion I have here is to run at least 40 lands, and lots of basics! If you do, you're off to the races! (Beware of people stealing your general though, that's often GG right there in my build, since I don't usually run mainboard Homeward Path.)

Usually, right here I'd talk about the game plan of the deck, but there is not much of a plan. You just ramp and things will happen. Most times you don't even need to attack to win games, and you can just lay back behind a barrier of 5/5 elementals that Lightning Bolt something when they die, and you'll be an uncomfortable target to go to combat with and even board wipes won't matter to you, since you can rebuild quickly and deal a whole lot of damage in the process. So, since this deck plays itself, I'm talking about some key cards and interactions that put you on the driving seat.

Chandra's Ignition on Omnath, Locus of Rage with a board full of elementals. Usually that's game. Picture this after a Boundless Realms and you'll have worst case scenario 7 to 10 elementals. Omnath will live, wipe the board and deal about 30 damage distributed in groups of 3. Creatures bigger than 5 toughness can also be target of that damage to ensure they die, and if all the elementals are able to attack, you should attack with them before the ignition, making the whole damage for the turn ammount up to about 80. By the time you cast these, it's usually more than enough.
Ramping into all you can: Cultivate, Harrow, Nissa's Renewal, Sword of the Animist, Kodama's Reach, Boundless Realms, and so on are ways to play your big spells sooner, but unlike other decks their priority rises once the general is out. A ramp spell with Omnath sets you up for an even more explosive next turn, giving you generally at least 10 additional power for the turn, that's why there are some (more expensive) ramp spells that I consider as a part of the Landfall plan and not ramp itself, because they are meant to be played with Omnath on the battlefield, unless you have no option. Generating lots of elemental tokens is vital to the deck, and pretty much every card on the deck does it or contributes to it in some way.
Playing lands after lands: Budoka Gardener, Skyshroud Ranger, Mina and Denn, Wildborn all contribute for you putting more lands onto the battlefield. Remember, each land gives you 5 power on the battlefield. Mina and Denn, Wildborn are hugely important when you start losing gas, since they'll easilly return 2 lands to your hand making two big creatures trample for the turn, and giving you at least 2 new elementals, more if you have Zendikar's Roil or Rampaging Baloths in play. Yeah, the Baloths don't produce elementals, but they still give you 4 power.
Avenger of Zendikar without Craterhoof Behemoth. As you see, we're getting into the budget options the deck allows. Avenger is not the cheapest, all right, but it's about 10 times cheaper than Craterhoof, and in here, usually it wins the game by itself in one turn, two tops, so we don't need Craterhoof to trample everyone.
Elementals: Not just the tokens. Most of your creatures are or care about elementals. Rakka Mar is the perfect example. She's no elemental, but the way she builds you up an army of elementals out of nowhere, and they're all pretty much unblockable with Omnath out. If you block them, they die, I Lightning Bolt whatever I want, if you don't, you take 3.
What else do we need along with the elementals? Sac outlets: Perilous Forays fits like a glove, you can ramp and trade 1 mana and say a tapped elemental for a new elemental an 3 damage wherever you want. Brilliant. Other common scenario is attacking with every elemental and after combat Descent of the Dragons killing all of them, triggering Omnath a whole lot, and getting fresh 4/4 dragons out of the deal. More than that, Descent allows me to kill some annoying creature my opponents might control - Sheoldred, the Whispering One, Blightsteel Colossus, even any general with a very relevant ability for instance. I'd face a dragon instead of those anytime. Similar in terms of giving me an advantage from destroying my creatures, and having an ability to get rid of those not-overcoming cards from the opposition, the new card Indomitable Creativity is also a solid inclusion. To a smaller extent but not functioning as removal Emrakul's Evangel is also sweet. These effects kind of replace the Chandra's Ignition kill sometimes.
Big creatures coming in: Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread are some times win cons with a big ramp spell, Elemental Bond draws you LOTS of cards, so does Shamanic Revelation gaining you some insane ammounts of life.
Card Draw: I have a lot of blue decks that often don't need a Reliquary Tower as much as Omnath would! Most card draw here is based on power, and this deck is huge on that. Life's Legacy is also a way to get more triggers from Omnath, drawing 5 most of the time, and Shamanic Revelation was already mentioned. Resolve those two and probably you'll have enough answers in hand and lands on the battlefield to take a walk to victory! The Aether Revolt newcomer Rishkar's Expertise is also a poster card for the powerful draws this deck is able to pull off.

You'll notice that some cards on the maybeboard aren't something you'll go "maybe I'll include it", they're mostly auto includes. The reason why I'm not running them is either availability or price. As I went on before, this deck functions great on a budget, so didn't go all out spending all on the big money cards. Some other cards are not expensive at all, but they're not that much of an auto include (say, Fertilid for instance), so they're here for my future reference and continuous experimentation.

I'm permanently upgrading my decks, so even the expensive cards might come in at some time, but they're not cards I'm willing to invest a whole lot all at once, since the improvement to the deck would not be nowhere near the investment needed.

Maybeboard

Too keep the decklist easily readable, I've moved the old maybeboard here. These are the cards I've been considering and you suggested to me. Some of them are in here only because they're too pricy and I didn't feel like spending the money to get them yet. As I've went on about before here and in other decks, my decks are mostly budget oriented, meant to play among friends for a fun time, non competitively.

Cards in bold are in line for the next test-games and upgrade.

Change Log October 24th 2016

I went through my cards and discontinued my old standard Delirium deck which was running my playset of Tireless Tracker. Since I had them available now, I figured I should update Omnath's list right away. Two changes that might seem minor, but should improve the deck's versatibility a lot!

Out > Elvish Visionary and Overwhelming Stampede

In > Tireless Tracker and World Breaker

The Elf was rarely relevant, the fact that it's a one time use card in Omnath makes it a "meh" on the playability scale. Tireless Tracker costs one more mana, but grants a stream of card draw on a stick. As for World Breaker, it was pointed out that it's a great blocker for flyers, and it comes back from the graveyard even, that in itself would be enough to include it, but the fact that it removes stuff on entry makes it really perfect for the deck! As I dislike going all in attacking, I took off Overwhelming Stampede - the deck already was more oriented to develop a huge board and win mostly with non-combat damage, so I felt like that was the less impactful card of the bunch.

I also recently traded for some lands and got myself a small upgrade to the mana base in here. Not much to be said about it:

Out > Timber Gorge
In > Game Trail

Aether Revolt Update & General Tinkering

With Aether Revolt came two super spicy additions to this deck, those had to be added in, and while at it, I've finnaly took the chance to tinker with some underperforming or suboptimal cards I was running. Still on a budget, but much more optimized in general. Notably, I also picked up a copy of Homeward Path with the recent price drop due to Commander 2016 reprints which I tend to include when playing in less known playgroups - In my regular playgroup there is not much theft, but when dealing with a less known group, theft is a threat that should be regarded.

In > Indomitable Creativity and Rishkar's Expertise

Out > Rubblehulk and Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer

I've been on and on about how much I like the ability of this deck being permanently a threat without the need to attack. Mostly I play the deck very defensively, keeping my board filled with big threats, but not touching anyone to avoid making enemies while I grow my position with a generally more expensive deck than most. I need time to cast my ramp spells and most times that isn't too safe while swinging recklessly. Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer and Rubblehulk fit very well in a very offensive strategy and demand answers, but they aren't necessarily optimal for the way I tend to play the deck.

As for the cards brought in: Rishkar's Expertise fits Omnath like a glove. It reads "Draw 5+ cards, play a free 5 drop". I love the sheer power of Shamanic Revelation or Life's Legacy, I actually run Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower in a Gruul deck because of the IMMENSE card draw this deck can pull off, and this green Expertise is a perfect fit in that category. Not only it gets me explosive card draw, it gives me board presence virtually for free. I absolutely love this card! Indomitable Creativity is another one of those clanky cards that are weird but somehow turn out powerful. When I first read it I thought "Okay, this is like an X Chaos Warp that never misses... That doesn't look very playble." But the more I looked at it, the more I realized this is not to be taken as a removal spell, this is to be taken as a form of card advantage! It may even be better than Descent of the Dragons in this deck, and that's saying a lot! Just cast it on a bunch of Elementals, get the Omnath triggers and then find replacements from the deck! Sign me in!

Other tinkering took place as I said, so let's also get into it:

In > Blasphemous Act, Chandra, Flamecaller and Wastes
Out > Mountain, Savage Twister and Malignus

I have been incredibly lucky since between panoramas and such, I've been able to activate World Breaker's ability whenever I need. But there is no need to risk it at all. With all the ramping it's easy to find the one basic Wastes, so I cut out a Mountain for it, since ramping will fix my colours and so green is the colour I give priority to.

As for the rest, there is not a situation where I will spend 15+ mana on a Savage Twister, so Blasphemous Act is simply and strictly better. Malignus gets the axe for the same reason Molimo and Rubblehulk did. Chandra, Flamecaller should have been in here since release, but I didn't want to spend that much on a copy, so I just now got one at her lowest price, very versatile card that grants 6 damage a turn, doesn't get a lot better.

Small tweak and Ixalan block considerations (Jan 10th, 2018)

There's not much to tinker with in Omnath after the whole Amonkhet and Ixalan blocks are out, but there's been a recent price drop that made me move into a small but exciting change:

In > Nissa, Vital Force
Out > Phytotitan

So Phytotitan is gone. It might return later (pun intended) but for now it seemed like the most underwhelming card in the deck and Rivals of Ixalan brings one new card that might actually improve Phytotitan (Rekindling Phoenix, which for now, is way more expensive than I'll give it credit for). With Nissa, Vital Force worth litterally only a couple of bucks, I moved in the planeswalker train, and got a copy for this deck.

My Omnath deck has always been a goofy, easy to play, budget deck made for fun, so I'm not looking at cards like Growing Rites of Itlimoc or even Rekindling Phoenix while their on their big splashy standard prices, and might move on them if the prices drop to reasonable values, just like Nissa here.

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Updates Add

Introducing Change Logs — Oct. 24, 2016

Edit

With last weekend matches, I've made some small changes in pretty much all my decks.

I'm now using a change log deep down in the description to keep track of what changes I make in the decks and what are the reasons behind those choices.

From October 24th forward, every change in the deck will be listed separately down in the description.

Every suggestion is still accounted for and actually the 2 main changes made this time were fruit of your help! So thank you very much and keep them coming!

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Top Ranked	Achieved #19 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.05
Tokens	Ashaya, the Awoken World, Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Clue, Dragon 4/4 R, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Elemental 2/2 G, Elemental 3/1 R, Elemental 5/5 RG, Elemental X/X G, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Plant 0/1 G
Folders	Actual EDH Decks, edh things to remember, Cool EDH Options, Decks I Like, Omnath Locus of Rage ideas, Elemental, Potential Decks
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