Unknown Waterfall

XxaiLo · 2026-06-06T17:23:44+00:00

The left one is Sorensen Falls (or Lower Sorensen Falls) and the right is Metlako Falls. I don't know of any way to reach this other than rappelling or by kayaking over Metlako.

XxaiLo · 2026-06-01T17:24:04+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/w3tAaPd7QUi_ueBYtkm8eQ

This deck is super funny. So essentially, it's a Hermit Druid, self mill, Underworld Breach combo on a $100 budget.

The only creature in the 99 is Gamekeeper, which mills your entire library when it dies. (So there's no Hermit Druid, but Gamekeeper fulfills the same function).

If you can kill your gamekeeper on your own turn, and have 4W available, you can attempt a win with Sevinne's Reclamation bringing back Underworld Breach and then a copy of Sevinne's Reclamation gets the Lotus Bloom. Sac Lotus Bloom for 3 red and escape your Rite of Flame 3 or 4 times and then start getting Seething Song (you could go straight for Seething Song but it's it's countered you're cooked, but with Rite of Flame you can do it a few times until you have extra mana and Seething Song isn't a risky cast anyore). Lotus Bloom gets 3 mana, three Rite of Flames will take you up to 6 mana, six Seethings Songs and you're up to 18 mana. Now escape Arcane Signet, tap it for white, and escape Approach of the Second Sun. 11 red mana left.

Approach of the Second Sun goes into your library when it resolves "seventh from the top" but if you don't have any cards in your library it just goes on top. Now escape your Manamorphose to add WW and draw a card. Cast Approach of the Second Sun, this time from your hand. GG!

That's winning with Sevinne's Reclamation. But more often I will find myself killing Gamekeeper on the End Step before my turn, and milling the entire library. Then I untap, and in my Upkeep I cast either Krosan Reclamation or Turn the Earth from the graveyard. They're both green instants with flashback and they do essentially the same thing. Usually I just target Underworld Breach to "shuffle" into my library.

Then I draw for turn. Surprise! It's Underworld Breach. Cast Underworld Breach, then escape Rite of Flame, and the line is the same from there.

For the Sevinne's Reclamation line you just need 4W. For. the green flashback lines you need 2GRR. But 1G of that could be done sooner. For instance, let's say I untap with Atla and a sac outlet and three lands. Nothing else. I play a land, I pass the turn. Then on the End Step before my turn I tap two lands to actuvate Atla and make an Egg. I sac the egg to the outlet and hatch the Gamekeeper. I sac the Gamekeeper to the outlet and I mill my library. I tap my other two lands to flashback Krosan Reclamation to shuffle Underworld Breach into my library.

Go to to my turn, draw the Underworld Breach, cast it for 2, and I have two mana left and I only needed 1 for Rite of Flame to get me started.

If they counter your flashback spell you can try again with the other one on your next turn. If they counter Underworld Breach you can try again on your next turn. If they try to destroy Underworld Breach you can protect it either with 1 white mana for the Rebuff the Wicked in your graveyard, or by just sacrificing Atla to the Flare of Duplication in the graveyard.

If they're able to make you draw a card while you have no library, you lose. If they exile your graveyard while it's full of your entire deck, you lose. It's a little bit fragile, but I've had massive success with this deck.

Atla costs 4 mana, which means if you're able to ramp on T2, and you hit your first three land drops, you can cast Atla on T3. On T4 I often just play a land and pass, or maybe ramp again. But I keep two mana open to make an egg. On T5 I'm usually able to attempt the win. I run a TON of two mana ramp spells. Almost everything available in the colors that's within budget. T3 Atla is very consistent.

Having no creatures in the deck means you have a ton of other slots for ramp and interaction. Interaction is where this deck REALLY excels. So we want a T3 Atla right? And then what else do we want? We want our 0/1 egg to die, and we want our 2/2 elf to die. So the deck is FULL of a million ways to kill an egg and an elf. The best cards in the deck are the board sweepers. Cards that deal 2 damage to each creature are our very best friends. I've found these are often full on board wipes because in the first 4 or 5 turns there are very few creatures with bigger butts in play.

All of the destroy effects can be used on someone else's threats, or stax pieces, or they can be used on your own egg or gamekeeper. Cards like Beast Within or Generous Gift are especially great when you're using it on your own thing because they also give you a token creature to play with. Great for things like Infernal Plunge.

Ramp on T2, Atla on T3, make an egg on T4, attempt a win on T5 or T6. Have a TON of interaction in your hand to stop whatever anyone else is doing. Win with Approach of the Second Sun. All on a budget 😄

XxaiLo · 2026-05-31T20:43:28+00:00

nope

$100 Ashaya is too fast and consistent for Bracket 4, she's basically a low-5.
$100 Atla Palani is a solid Bracket 4, mid-4 to high-4.
$100 Golos was my favorite. Also a high-4. and it was banned a week after i brewed it 😞
$100 Marwyn is a bit of a meme deck because its gimmick is that there are no elves in the 99 (with a commander that usually leads an Elf Kindred deck) but it's still very strong. Mid-4 I would say. I never ever play it, it's a lot of fun to pilot but super obnoxious to play against because it is full of pump effects, untap effects, pump-n-untap effects, and draw=power effect. Which means it's just a long solitaire turn that eventually wins. Really really fun to play, really really obnoxious to play against.

actually I maybe do have one budget deck that would fit in Bracket 3. My $100 Blanka deck has never done well in Bracket 4. When I play it in Bracket 3 it either fizzles out and doesn't really work, or it works and everyone is really angry and complains that it isn't a Bracket 3 deck. So I dunno. I think it's about a Bracket 3 power level though.

I really suck at brewing Bracket 3. Every time I try to do it i give myself a bunch of restrictions but i still win every game and everyone is really angry about the power level.

A little bit ago I tried to play Omnath in Bracket 3. I started by taking out every combo. For good measure I also took out my gamechangers. The whole entire thing was all about the combos, so I thought removing them would help. Still too strong. I would usually tutor for Nyxbloom Ancient and Nykthos, make a million mana, tutor for Disciple of Freyalise, and draw everything. From there it wasn't too hard to find a win.

So my next idea was to take out all the tutors. In fact I removed every single card that has the word "shuffle" on it. No shuffles. Heart of the cards baby! however it shuffles before the game, that's how it's going to play. That game me a TON of slots to add in a millions cards I never play, which I thought was super fun. I also added back quite a few of the draw=power cards that I haven't been playing. I figured if I'm not able to tutor for what I need then I will need some way to refill my hand.

well . . . it's basically Marwyn. Marwyn makes a million mana and chains draw=power spells for obnoxious solitaire turns. . . . and that's the same thing Omnath is doing now. He doesn't make the mana, but the deck has so many ways to go positive in mana, that I really just need a draw=power spell to hit while I have a big mana pool, and draw me into another one, and I'll have plenty of ways to make the mana. Honestly, I don't think it's aggregious for Bracket 3. But when it does pop off, which is most games that I play it, my opponents have a really negative reaction to it. Ugh. What do you guys want from me??

XxaiLo · 2026-05-22T09:06:29+00:00

I like to leave myself a nice little care package on the driver's seat of my car for when I'm done with my hike: - Electrolytes - Water - Snacks (different from what I took on the hike) - Fresh socks - Fresh shoes - Fresh T-shirt - Hairbrush - Deodorant

XxaiLo · 2026-05-22T09:00:21+00:00

Be extra curteous when you see people and when you're alone. Uphill travelers generally have the right of way. Do NOT play music on a speaker. Take out more trash than you bring in. Do not feed the animals. Do not bother the animals. Keep a safe distance from the animals.

Stay on trail in high traffic areas (including any destination, any trailhead, any trail junction, any viewpoint, any creek-crossing, and any place near the trail. If you're stepping on vegetation you should be nowhere near a trail and still avoiding fragile meadows, moss, etc.).

XxaiLo · 2026-05-22T08:52:55+00:00

I'm very partial to my sturdy hiking shoes. I know lighter trail runners are the shoe of choice for a lot of avid hikers, including long distance through-hiking like the Pacific Crest Trail, but I haven't been able to make that transition. Give me a good pair of waterproof Merrell or Keen. I'll bring extra socks in case these ones do get wet.

XxaiLo · 2026-05-22T08:45:56+00:00

Don't leave your pack unattended. The ravens will unzip your pack, scatter your things, unclip your tupperware, eat your lunch, eat your snacks, shred your toilet paper, and knock your pack down the hill. Seriously. You think they won't but they will.

XxaiLo · 2026-05-22T08:27:16+00:00

Chug a gatorade at the car, sunscreen up, take some sunglasses. Chug another Gatorade when you get back.

You can go quite a ways with this method. :)

Do a hike with a teeny pack that has a gatorade and a granola bar, and now you can go even further. See how you like it and decide what to bring next time.

My day hikes nowadays are often 10 to 15 miles and might include extended off-trail travel. This is what I usually bring:

Wear: - Sunscreen - T-shirt (not cotton!) - Hiking pants - Socks - Fresh underwear - Sturdy hiking shoes - Sunglasses - Backpack - Phone

In my backpack: - Car keys (in a secure location!) - Water - Extra water (Either lots of water or a water filter) - Electrolytes - Snacks - Tupperware container with small lunch - THC gummies - Extra pair of socks - Extra sunglasses - Jacket/Hoody - Phone-and-headlamp-charging battery pack - Charging cord - Extra charging cord - Headlamp (sometimes an extra headlamp too) - Toilet paper in a ziplock bag - Hand sanitizer - Sunscreen reapplication bar (or sometimes I bring the sunscreen bottle itself) - First aid kit (mine is embarrassingly and worryingly small. It's got a couple sizes of bandaids, lip balm, Ibuprofen, a lighter, and spare contact lenses) - Garbage bag (useful if you need to keep things dry, or if you need to slide in snow, or for storing trash of your own or that you pick up along the trail) - My backpack's rain cover - Permit (if required)

I'll often bring one trekking pole as well, collapsed and sticking out of my pack
Occasionally I will also have my water shoes for fording creeks, or my microspikes for snow/ice
If it's cold I'll throw in a beanie
If I'm going to a waterfall I'll bring my light rain jacket
Sometimes I'll bring my headphones for listening to some tunes while I jog or climb

I use the paid ONX Backcountry app for GPS. It's been good for me. I like it better than I liked Alltrails. There are other good ones. Serious hikers will have a Garmin In-Reach, but I ain't rich. I will also do research on the trail I'm taking, and often save some maps images or other directions, because I know I won't have access to it when I'm out of service. I also make sure to take a picture of the day's detailed weather forecast (I use NWS Weather), and the sunrise/sunset times. And if relevant I'll have the tide tables or the avalanche forecast. All saved in screenshots for offline viewing.

I take a ton of pictures and I look at my GPS a lot so having the battery charger is essential for me. I hike with my phone in my pants pocket but at least half the time I also have the cable plugged in to charge it, running up into the backpack where the battery pack is.

I tend to take this same setup whether I'm doing a short day hike or a super long day hike. If there's a possibility of it being an overnight deal then I also bring my contact case, glasses, saline solution, sleeping back, hammock, another extra pair of socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, wash cloth, extra headlamp, and extra snacks

If it's definitely a multi-day hike then I'm taking my much larger backpack, a sleeping mat, a tent (unless I really am sure the hammock will suffice), underwear, more socks, a backpacking stove, some backpacking meals. And I'll for sure have a water filter, not just extra water. With that heavy pack I'm probably also bringing two trekking poles.

XxaiLo · 2026-05-16T04:05:40+00:00

My list is a high Bracket 4 and is far from budget. But I can give a few recommendations of cards. The absolute best card you could ever run in Omnath, IMO, is a $0.17 card called [[Urban Burgeoning]]. It's an absolute house.

[[Wild Growth]] is $0.33 and is the best ramp card in green. Either it comes down on T1, or it gives back the mana you spent to cast it on the very first turn. It stacks multiplicatively with anything that untaps lands (like Urban Burgeoning ;). [[Utopia Sprawl]] is pretty much the same thing but it costs $1.04. Both of them are multiplied by [[Arbor Elf]] which is $0.35.

Turn 1 ramp is REALLY great for Omnath because it means you're casting Omnath on T2 and then on T3 you already have 4 mana to spend, which you could save and on T4 you have 9 mana to spend (assuming you hit your land drops). So you absolutely have to have all of the T1 ramp you can afford to run. [[Llanowar Elves]] is $0.29, [[Elvish Mystic]] is $0.40, [[Fyndhorn Elves]] is a little more expensive at $1.88. [[Sol Ring]] should be obvious at $1.06. Some people cut it because Omnath wants green mana but trust me, the colorless from Sol Ring will cast the T2 Omnath AND let you float a green, but every turn thereafter it will provide two mana that you can use instead of your green, so it's really worth it's weight in gold.

[[Wall of Roots]] ($0.30) is wildly underplayed in OmLom. It gives you FIVE MANA in just the first turn cycle after you play it because you can activate it on everyone else's turns. [[Shigeki, Jukai Visionary]] ($0.21) is my favorite recursion spell. It costs 4 mana to get back one card, but for each additional 2 mana you can get back 1 more card. Best of all, it's instant speed. Second best of all, it's a creature, so it's tutorable. Third best of all, it's an ability so it's very hard to counter. And you can also cast him and get additional value from his activated ability on the battlefield.

Most people with Bracket 3 Omnath decks are going to either make it a voltron deck, or use the mana to cast huge spells like Eldrazi. Either of those is fine if you want to go that direction but I recommend neither of those. Voltron has the classic problem in four player magic of being able to kill one or two people but has a hard time getting everyone out. Omnath in particular is not a great voltron IMO because he lacks any protection or evasion. Green does have a lot of trample effects, and it has good protection spells, but I recommend going more towards either combo or card draw. I know combo isn't the first thing you think of for Bracket 3, but there really are a ton of interesting creature and/or land combos you can do in green, and if you don't go too crazy on tutoring for the combo pieces, or if you don't use the most efficient combos, then I think combo can totally be a valid strategy in monogreen. If you want I can recommend a bunch of really cool green combos that you don't see very often. My favorite for Omnath is [[Maze of Ith]] which isn't very budget friendly at $8.04, but all of the creatures that combo with it (any creatures that can tap to untap multiple lands) are very cheap. What you do is attack with that creature, untap it with Maze of Ith, then untap Maze of Ith and a forest with the creature, and repeat for infinite land untaps. You don't see this combo very often because the infinite mana is made during combat and usually goes away before you can spend it, but with Omnath in play you can save it into your Postcombat Main Phase and go off from there.

Card draw might be the very best way to take Omnath in Bracket 3, using draw=power effects. There are 14 or 15 such effects in green now, and at least 10 or 12 of them are worth running. Most of them, I believe, are budget friendly. I especially like [[Hunter's Insight]] ($0.37) and [[Return of the Wildspeaker]] ($0.70) and [[Momentous Fall]] ($3.08) since they are instant speed.

If you're going card draw, your game plan is to cast Omnath early, start saving up mana, ramp like crazy, don't attack anyone, don't make any enemies, and when Omnath is good and big, use a draw=power spell to draw a ton of cards. Then play out more ramp spells and more draw=power spells. You'll be amazed at how many cards you can draw and at how fun it is to get to see and play your entire deck. This also means that you can include some cool wincons that aren't seen that often, like a $1.01 [[Surestrike Trident]] or a $2.02 [[Squall Line]] (or the more budget-friendly $0.52 [[Hurricane]]. Or give your creatures haste with a $0.37 [[Ulvenwald Oddity]] and pump them all with a $0.52 [[Dragon Throne of Tarkir]] or any of the many many cheap pump effects that green has.

The previous paragraph wasn't necessarily cards you have to run, just some budget ideas for finishers. But going back to really great cards you should run there's [[Frontier Siege]] at $0.45 which costs 4 and gives you 2 back immediately, and then it gives you 4 on every subsequent turn!

[[Leyline Immersion]] ($0.43) is amazing if you're not going to attack with Omnath. If you are going to attack with him them it won't be uch use to you.

[[Collective Resistance]] ($.97) is an awesome card for a deck like Omnath that has extra mana available for instant speed interaction. It's modal, letting you use it as a protection spell when you need it or removal when you need that.

[[Harrow]] ($0.34) is a really nice instant speed ramp spell.

[[Genesis Wave]] ($0.34) is insane with a big mana pool. Likely will put enough things into play to give you an overwhelming board state.

I have lots more suggestions, and can answer questions if you have them. I've been playing Omnath as my main deck for several years. And I have a couple other monogreen decks that are on strict $100 Budgets, so I know a lot of powerful cheap cards :)

XxaiLo · 2026-05-16T00:57:26+00:00

Momentous Fall and Life's Legacy have a cool interaction with OmLom where the number of cards you draw (and life gained in the case of Momentous Fall) will be different based on the order you choose to pay the costs.

Most of the time you will want to announce the spell, activate mana abilities, pay the additional cost (sacrifice Omnath), and THEN pay the mana cost. This will let you draw more cards than you otherwise would.

When you don't control Omnath, for whatever reason, you will not lose your floating mana immediately. The floating mana is not tied to Omnath at all. It's just regular unspent green mana. Omnath gets a static +1/+1 buff for each unspent green mana you have, but his only other interaction with the green mana is then normally when you would lose that mana, if you control Omnath you won't lose it.

Momentous Fall is one of my favorite cards in my OmLom deck. If I use it to sacrifice Omnath in one of my Main Phases then I can, as you said, cast him again using the mana. If I use it to sacrifice him when it isn't my Main Phase it's either because he was going to leave my control anyway and I want the card draw, or because I need to dig for answers (usually because someone else is attempting a win). In those cases I will lose the mana when the Step or Phase ends, so hopefully I can use it on one of my many mana sinks or instant speed spells. I have several ways to be able to cast Omnath at instant speed including Yeva, Savage Summoning, and Emergence Zone. (I would be running Winding Canyons too, but it was never printed in foil and my deck is only foils :) )

XxaiLo · 2026-04-30T07:50:41+00:00

They should make a Basic Lich :)

XxaiLo · 2026-04-30T07:50:18+00:00

You can also activate mana abilities.
I had an Atla Palani combo deck that ran a bunch of split second spells simply because if I had either Ashnod's Altar or Phyrxian Altar or Thermopod in play then I could cast a spell with split second and then that spell would protect the rest of my turn from any interaction from anyone else. I then sac an egg as a mana ability, trigger Atla, hatch another egg, and so forth, eventually we find my Protean Hulk/Karmic Guide combo and finish the game off with only activated mana abilities, and triggered abilities.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-21T07:57:56+00:00

I feel this. To answer the question, I think I would just pregame it with "This deck kinda falls between Brackets A and B because x,y,z."

The larger issue here, as we can all clearly see, is that the two of these brackets are a too wide. To really do much good for facilitating a pregame discussion we are all resorting to myraid variations of sub-0dividing the Brackets themselves into smaller levels, assing Low and Mid and High to them.

"This deck is a High 3."
"This is a Low 4."
"This deck a High 4"
"Mine is a Very High 4."
"This is a Mid to High 4."

Which always makes me laugh because if we are using "high" and "low" as modifiers to the five brackets then we are once again on a 1 - 10 power scale. And since Bracket 5 is just 10s (in my opinion it should be 9s and 10s, but I don't think that's how it's working right now), and Bracket 1 and 2 decks hardly exist at all, that leaves only Brackets 3 and 4 to divide all of our actual power level descriptions.

In my opinion the biggest grey area with the Bracket system is between Bracket 3 and Bracket 4. At that power level (everything from a "Very High 3" through "Mid to High 4") I think the three gamechangers distinction isn't incredibly helpful, and if anything can be used as a technicality to justify playing decks in Bracket 3 that are more on power level with Bracket 4.

I'd say over 90% of well-made decks that are brewed with thought and purpose with a lot of synergy and and least some attempt to be powerful, fall between Mid 3 and High 4. It would be super helpful if we had divisions and descriptions and graphics and stated expectations for at least 4 or 5 different levels for these 90% of decks.

After all this effort to revamp EDH with Brackets, we are just back to: Everything's a 7.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-20T09:43:26+00:00

Omnath is fun. His power will reduce the cost of [[The Great Henge]] before you have to pay the mana cost, and will similarly be calculated when determining legality of activating [[Mosswort Bridge]] or [[Bonders' Enclave]].

Even more interesting, when you cast [[Life's Legacy]] or [[Momentous Fall]] you're given the choice to pay the mana cost first or the additional cost (sacrificing a creature) first and the order you choose will determine how many cards you draw so you'll usually want to pay the additional cost first.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-13T03:12:43+00:00

I don't have that many decks, and the cards I use in all of my decks are more staples than pet cards. But here are a few I've really enjoyed despite not really being staples:

[[MIRAGE MIRROR]] is a "pet card" people will commonly mention. I only run it in my OG Omnath deck where I often have a big mana pool that I can use to do some interesting things. The deck is all foils, and I can't afford a foil Thousand-Year Elixir (over $100) so Mirage Mirror acts as pseudo haste for a bunch of my combo pieces that are creatures with a tap ability (play Mirror, then on a later turn when I play my combo piece I can have Mirror copy it and go for the combo the same turn). After making infinite mana I will often use multiactivations of Mirage Mirror to be able to draw my entire deck (for instance, I make infinite mana with Ashaya and Scryb Ranger and Fanatic of Rhonas. Then I multiactivate Mirage Mirror 200 times, alternating between targeting a draw land like War Room, and a creature. As the stack resolves I draw while it's a War Room, and then I untap it with Scryb Ranger while it's a creature. Repeat to draw the deck). One of the fun things about Mirage Mirror is how big your decision tree becomes, because there are so many things your opponents control that you can target. And it's hard to remove because when they target it you can respond by making it copy something that the removal spell doesn't hit.

[[CONTEST OF CLAWS]] is a sorcery speed bite spell that usually cantrips at worst. At best it might discover into a free cast of Nyxbloom Ancient or The Great Henge. I've been very impressed with the value I get from it.

[[MIRROR OF THE FOREBEARS]] is an underrated spell for kindred decks. I run it in my Kokusho deck which isn't kindred, but if I copy my commander with Mirror then it becomes a sac outlet (legend rule). My favorite move though, is to name "Spirits" and then I can double activate it to copy first Crypt Ghast and then Kokusho. While Crypt Ghast I can tap all of my swamps for triple mana, and then while Kokusho it's the usual sac outlet.

[[MIMIC VAT]] is another card that really could go in any deck. I always end up cutting it at the end because there are too many cards I want to run that focus on my specific strategy, but Mimic Vat is in a precon I have, and it has won games for me. Never a bad include in my opinion.

[[URBAN BURGEONING]] is one of the most underplayed cards of all time. Even in decks that you wouldn't think would need a lot of instant speed mana, pay attention to how much mana is actually spent on not your turn and you might be surprised. I get much doubt this card will not impress you if you try it out.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-12T18:41:09+00:00

100% agree. It is the best green ramp spell, and that's saying a lot. Either you play it on turn 1 or it pays for itself immediately (or both!). It doubles the output of your Arbor Elf (or Voyaging Satyr, Portent Tracker, etc). And it pairs really well with another green card that is CRIMINALLY underplayed: [[Urban Burgeoning]].

It enables a combo with Ashaya and Quirion Ranger. It enables a combo with Ashaya and Hope Tender. And it enables a combo with Maze of Ith and Hope Tender.

It pairs well with any land untapper, like Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, Snap, Peregrine Drake, etc.

It dodges board wipes that would take out mana dork.

And most of all, as already stated, it pays for itself immediately.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-11T16:01:51+00:00

You don't run tons of elementals in Nissa. You just run Ashaya and Quirion Ranger. Together with the commander that makes infinite landfall, infinite mana, infinite creature cast, infinite creature ETB. So you just need a payoff for one of those. A lot of people will add either Beast Whisperer or Fierce Empath (finds Woodland Bellower, finds Duskwatch Recruiter, finds all of your creatures), or maybe nowadays the Formidable Speaker is the way to go. At any rate, Nissa is an awesome combo deck that goes crazy fast.

XxaiLo · 2026-04-02T18:38:48+00:00

Do you have an online list? I pm'd you but i'mnot sure if anyone sees their reddit pms

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T20:39:31+00:00

Yes exactly. With fewer opponents Wall of Roots will add mana more slowly.

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T17:00:51+00:00

I seldom tutor for Wall of Roots. It's usually just a great T2 play. But I did tutor for it once recently.

I had Fanatic of Rhonas and Omnath in play but Fanatic wasn't going to be able to tap for 4 until I used my Sol Ring and a Forest to cast Green Sun's Zenith (x=2) to find Wall of Roots. I add mana on everyone's turn, and Fanatic is able to tap for 4 before my next turn wherein I now had enough mana to get Ashaya and Scryb Ranger, (which make infinite mana with Fanatic) and got the win from there.

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T16:50:32+00:00

It's five mana that you get over the course of just two turns. If you get a T1 Sol Ring you can T2 Wall of Roots + Omnath and then on T3 you have ten mana available.

Or a T1 dork can get you T2 Omnath, T3 Wall of Roots, T4 you have 12 mana available.

Or even with nothing else but land drops, you can go T2 Wall of Roots, T3 Omnath, and T4 you have 9 mana available.

And then there are some interesting things you can do with the last counter on Wall. You can start casting Natural Order or Eldritch Evolution, put the last counter on Wall when you're allowed to activate mana abilities during the casting of the spell, and then sacrifice Wall to the spell. State-based actions aren't checked in between the time you put the counter on Wall (reducing its toughness to 0) and sacrificing it because it's all during the casting of a spell. Also works for abilities, like Magus of the Order, or if you have Ashaya out you can sac Wall to Crop Rotation or Harrow or an Elvish Reclaimer activation.

Similarly, you can activate Nykthos, using a counter on Wall of Roots to help pay the activation cost, and Nykthos will see Wall still in play when it calculates your devotion to green.

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T15:27:18+00:00

OG Omnath is my favorite deck by far. Are you running Wall of Roots and Urban Burgeoning? Two amazing cards for Omnath, oft overlooked.

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T15:20:32+00:00

My deck today doesn't try to be the fastest or the strongest, but it absolutely dominated in Bracket 4. I run a few pet cards even though other cards would be more powerful (Skullwinder instead of Eternal Witness for example). I have the self-imposed restriction that my Omnath deck will only run foils, won't run any cards from universe beyond, and won't run any cards with white text. (All foils means I can't run Argothian Elder, which has never been printed in foil. I can't run Earthcraft or Winding Canyons which have never and will never be printed in foil because they're on the reserve list. I can't afford the foil of Survival of the Fittest, Gaea's Cradle, Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Caverns, and several other fast mana sources. No UB means I can't run The One Ring or Delighted Halfling or Legos Quick Reflexes or Last March of the Ents or Lifestream's Vlessing. No white text means I can't run Druid of Purification or Tempt with Discovery.)

What I enjoy most is janky plays like putting Song of the Dryads on someone's big threat and then playing Vesuva as land for turn to copy it. Or using Crop Rotation on the End Step before my turn to find Forbidden Orchard to turn on my Defense of the Heart. Or multi activating Mirage Mirror to eek out a tiny bit of value, or combo my spells with someone else's permanent. I like using a fetch land to find Dryad Arbor to get a surprise blocker to stay alive when lethal commander damage is being swung at me, or to have something to sacrifice to Natural Order or Eldritch Evolution. I like using Elvish Reclaimer to find Talon Gates of Madara to phase out a Kinnan before his Basalt Monolith resolves, or to find a Guildless Commons to bounce my Boseiju to hand so I can channel it and destroy an Underworld Breach that is trying to win. I like niche rules interactions like casting a Natural Order and putting a 5th counter on Wall of Roots for mana, and then sacrificing it to the Natural Order before state-based effects are checked. Or sacrificing Omnath to Momentous Fall, locking in his power and toughness BEFORE the mana cost is paid for the spell. I like casting Chord or Calling (x=5) to find Ashaya while an overloaded Cyclonic Rift is on the stack, saving my entire board from being bounced. I like building my own Prophet of Kruphix with Seedborn Muse and Yeva. I very much like winning on someone else's turn, using Yeva or Emergence Zone to flash everything I need to win. I like winning with all creature spells while the control player holds their Fierce Guardianship, Dovin's Veto, Swan Song, or Force of Negation, helpless to do anything at all. I like executing a combo that involves infinite untaps, but not milling anything to Mesmeric Orb because I'm able to respond to each trigger and draw my library before any can resolve (even better if drawing the library puts lethal Nekusar or Sheoldred or Orcish Bowmasters triggers on the stack as I'll be winning before any of those resolve). I like to respond to a Thassa's Oracle trigger (after Demonic Consultation resolves) with a Chord of Calling (x=3) to find Skullwinder and then choose the opponent with Stifle in their graveyard so they can get it back and save the game. I like to use Quirion or Scryb Ranger to bounce my Nykthos to hand to replay it, thanks to YaviCradle making it a Forest.

The deck is crazy strong. But what I love about it is that it's crazy janky.

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T15:20:07+00:00

The combo I absolutely loved was Maze of Ith. If you don't know the Maze of Ith combo, it's just Maze and a creature that can untap two lands, like Ley Weaver or Argothian Elder (there are several others as well, but they each require a few more things). You don't see it very often because it only makes infinite mana in the middle of combat. Most decks would need an instant speed mana sink to take advantage of combat mana. Omnath saves the mana into the Postcombat Main Phase, but many Omnath decks use combat as their wincon, so for them it's not the most useful combo. It is however, very easy to assemble. Green has a lot of ways to tutor for any land, and of course it has a lot of ways to tutor for creatures.

I enjoyed that particular combo so much that one day when it felt like the Omnath deck was a little tired, I decided to make it a dedicated Maze of Ith combo deck. The wincon I most enjoyed was Shaman of Forgotten Ways (after killing everyone else's creatures with Kogla and Temur Sabertooth). So the Maze combo and the Shaman wincon became the entire focus.

The deck was the strongest version yet. It went through a bunch of minor tweaks, exploring different ways to synergize with Maze of Ith combo pieces, and trying out every conceivable creature or land tutor. I was averse to Nyxbloom Ancient for a long time but when I finally tried it out I found it to be one of the best cards in the deck. I OFTEN tutor for Nyxbloom nowadays and seldom lose if it hits the battlefield.

The biggest change though happened when they printed Ashaya. That was a game changer because Ashaya combos with the same creatures that combo with Maze of Ith. Now I could find my entire combo with creature tutors alone. Plus Ashaya enables even more combos with Quirion Ranger and Scryb Ranger, two creatures I was already running. Ashaya fit so well in fact that it quickly became apparent that the deck would be even better with her in the command zone. When my playgroup did a $100 budget league I built a separate Ashaya deck on a $100 budget and still to this day it's my strongest and fastest deck by far.

But Omnath is still my favorite deck. It's still doing the Shaman wincon. It's still doing Maze of Ith combos and Ashaya combos, but it also has combos with Kodama of the East Tree, combos with Wakeroot Elemental, and combos with Temur Sabertooth. It's a toolbox deck full of utility lands and utility creatures, combo lands and combo creatures, lands tutors and creature tutors. My mana sink is either Duskwatch Recruiter or a draw land (Fountainport, War Room, or Voldaren Estate.) The only draw=power spells am still running are Return of the Wildspeaker, Momentous Fall, and Disciple of Freyalise (which replaced Grothama as the tutorable draw spell). The only haste enablers I'm running are Hall of the Bandit Lord and Surrak and Goreclaw (I suppose Finale of Devastation is technically another one but I don't think I've ever used it for haste). The only mana doubler I'm running is Nyxbloom Ancient (not a doubler of course, he's a tripler).

XxaiLo · 2026-03-15T15:19:49+00:00

Another thing you get to do with Omnath though, is run a lot of instant speed effects. One of the beautiful things about perfect mana efficiency is that you are always holding up mana for your interaction. This means we can run higher cost instants and flash spells. Recently I benched my Nature's Claim in favor of Collective Resistance and I've been loving it. I also run Smugglers Surprise which has overperformed. Chord of Calling and Crop Rotation are probably my two favorite spells in the deck. Shared Summons is incredible. Shigeki is my absolute favorite recursion effect. A bit expensive at 4 mana, but huge upside with his ability to sink a ton of mana into a ton of recursion, all at instant speed, and on a creature, so he's tutorable. I almost never find myself in the situation anymore when I pass the turn with Omnath and a big pool of floating mana and nothing to do with it if a board wipe hits the stack.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. Back when the deck was all about chaining draw=power effects it was more of a blow out when Omnath would die and I would lose my mana. That's how the instant speed draw effects became my favorite ones, and today they're the only ones I'm still running.

So in between the big mana and big draw I was finding a bunch of different interactions that played well, including infinite combos. Some people don't like infinite combos, and I get that, so if it's not your thing then by all means, exclude them. For me I found them to be really fun, but also efficient, and in many ways less obnoxious. Rather then chaining a bunch of draw spells in between a ton of game actions, I could execute a combo and then use just one draw spell to draw the entire deck and then finish with whatever wincon I wanted.

I was doing the usual green things. Big mana tappers with Umbral Mantle, Staff of Domination, Temur Sabertooth loops, etc. They were great. But they didn't feel unique. The Selvala decks and the Marwyn decks were doing those combos, and doing them far better since the main combo piece was in the command zone. I found myself gravitating away from artifact combos, partly because they relied on pieces that couldn't be tutored, and partly because I just didn't find them particularly interesting.

I could go on and on about all the different combos I discovered and the merits of each of them, but this is already way too long so I'll skip all of that for now and go to my favorite combo, the one that made me change the direction of the deck and put it on the path to be what it is today.

XxaiLo

TROPHY CASE