Explorer Four-Color Omnath Deck Guide: Devour the Midrange Decks

I am again revisiting decks that proved way too powerful for Standard! This time it’s all about the October 12, 2020 bans, namely Omnath, Locus of Creation.

As it’s fully legal in Explorer, I wanted to create the best Four-Color Ramp, over-the-top deck to devour all the midrange strategies. I like to think of the deck as ‘Four-Colour Soup’ as it’s a mishmash of very strong cards of different colours with little synergy between them. However, to make it just a bit more spicy, there are some Elemental synergies sprinkled all over thanks to Risen Reef.

The deck also has a combo-esque finish, utilizing Genesis Ultimatum that goes over almost anything that’s on the battlefield.

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Deck Tech

Let’s divide the deck into three main parts – Ramp, Payoffs and Interaction.

Ramp

It’s a ramp deck in its nature so there have to be proper elements to expedite its game plan. First, there is Lotus Cobra which generates mana when you play a land. The natural curve then is to play Cobra on turn two , play a land on turn three, get the trigger, and slam a four drop. Conveniently enough, it means we can easily play Omnath, Locus of Creation. It works particularly well with Fabled Passage as it provides you with two triggers. There are plenty of other cards in the deck that put lands directly into play – always count the mana that they’re going to produce.

Prosperous Innkeeper is a one-time ramp, but provides a body we can chump block with, compared to the Cobra, and some life gain, which helps stabilise.

Growth Spiral requires you to have a ready land in hand. The usual sequence is on the opponent’s end step casting Spiral and putting a tapped Triome into play. The upside is that it permanently ramps compared to the aforementioned options.

In the three mana ramp department, we begin with Cultivate. It puts one basic into play and one into the hand, which ensures a land drop the following turn. It essentially costs two if a Lotus Cobra is already on the battlefield.

Risen Reef is a ramp-ish card as it’s not guaranteed. However, over the course of the entire game, it will have put a bunch of lands into play. It works especially well with additional copies as they trigger multiple times.

There are some more cards that still ramp. but it’s not their purpose. Nissa, Who Shakes the World is mainly a threat that produces vigilant 3/3s every turn, but can help you produce copious amounts of mana. Cavalier of Thorns is here for its big body and reach, which is surprisingly relevant, but on top of that, it will most often put a land into play for you.

Payoffs

Now the question is, what to do with all that mana?

Omnath, Locus of Creation is the first main payoff and the reason to play the deck. It drawing a card upon entering the battlefield allows you to dig deeper for more action. The first land drop is essential in stabilising the game as the deck takes a bit of time to get off the ground. The second land ramps you by four mana so you can follow it up with even more spells. The third land shoots for 4 damage to each opponent and their planeswalkers which sometimes might be that bit of reach you need to finish somebody off or kill a pesky planeswalker.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria has historically been the best finisher in all the control decks, and here it’s no different. It provides interaction for pesky permanents, it’s a source of card draw, and it has a game-winning ultimate if defended. This deck defends very well as it can throw all the Prosperous Innkeeper, Lotus Cobra, and Risen Reef under the bus to protect Teferi if necessary.

Two copies of Titan of Industry provide that strong board presence which few decks can overcome. Putting a 7/7 reach trample and a 4/4 is both tough to attack into or defend against. There is some utility in the card as well – gain 5 can be the difference between winning and losing, and a Naturalize effect will catch the unsuspecting opponent off guard.

Lastly, the crème de la crème of top-ends, Genesis Ultimatum. For a full 7 mana we can put any number of permanents from among the top 5 directly onto the battlefield. While the outcomes will vary, it can end the game on the spot quite often.

The first type of outcome is that we get a bunch of the aforementioned payoffs and create an unsurmountable board state. We could flip some Lotus Cobra and lands, generate a lot of mana and continue casting spells. Flipping a couple of Risen Reef and some elementals such as the Omnath itself or Yasharn, Implacable Earth can both ramp and make us draw a bunch. Risen Reef triggers that put lands into play alongside a Lotus Cobra will also generate mana. If we manage to flip Kenrith, the Returned King, we can give everything haste and trample and go to the red zone for a win.

If we find ourselves in a board stall, we can always play our companion, Yorion, Sky Nomad, blink Omnath, Locus of Creation, Titan of Industry, and Risen Reef, and watch Arena go crazy with the numbers of triggers on the stack.

Interaction

You will face a solid number of decks that actually want to get the game over with and hoping that a turn four payoff is enough is a dead man’s dream. That’s why I maxed out on the Prosperous Innkeeper to get accidental life gain, but it won’t be enough.

I play a total of six mass removal spells, four of which can be cast on turn three. If we play Growth Spiral or Prosperous Innkeeper on turn two into turn three mass removal, we will have five mana on turn four to go crazy with.

You could count Teferi, Hero of Dominaria minus ability or The Wandering Emperor as interaction but they won’t do as good a job. They are better later in the game to get rid of something specific. Early, we need a proper board reset.

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Matchups and Sideboard Guide

Rakdos Midrange

IN	OUT
+2 Aether Gust	-1 Kenrith, the Returned King
+4 Redcap Melee	-4 Lotus Cobra
	-1 Prosperous Innkeeper

A solidly good match-up. They have a ton of removal, but most of our creatures provide solid value when they enter the battlefield. With that, I cut the only non-value creature in Lotus Cobra as it just walks face first into removal.

I cut Kenrith, the Returned King as it’s mostly a part of the combo Genesis Ultimatum kills which won’t be needed. We need to stay alive and then keep slamming powerful stuff. Therefore, I side in six pieces of interaction and keep all the main deck ones in.

The only way for them to cheese a win is to kill us with an early creature onslaught which this sideboard plan hopefully won’t allow.

Azorius Control

IN	OUT
+2 Mystical Dispute	-2 Anger of the Gods
+3 Dovin's Veto	-2 Shatter the Sky
	-1 Sweltering Suns

Pre board, their wall of countermagic will be troublesome. However, we have two options. One, overload their countermagic by slamming a threat after threat, essentially running them out of this type of interaction.

Second, create a board consisting of average creatures like Lotus Cobra and Prosperous Innkeeper which will eventually force them to play a mass removal spell, opening the window for you to resolve something meaningful. It’s also possible that you’ll be able to either outgrind them or start multi-spelling before they do, but these are the two main game plans.

Postboard we side in five pieces of efficient countermagic which they might not even see coming. It will allow us to push through our impactful spells and can easily steal a win.

Mono Red Aggro

IN	OUT
+4 Redcap Melee	-1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
+2 Aether Gust	-1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
	– 4 Lotus Cobra

Like against Rakdos, we want to play control as much as we can. What’s great about this list is a ton of incidental life gain. We get life thanks to:

1. Prosperous Innkeeper
2. The Wandering Emperor
3. Omnath, Locus of Creation
4. Kenrith, the Returned King
5. Titan of Industry

I trim on the top end a bit and Lotus Cobra which always die and don’t block well. Worst case, it gets destroyed by Goblin Chainwhirler.

All in all, we want them to overextend, we cast a mass removal spell, and then stabilise with a big threat which gains us life. Block aggressively and don’t keep slow hands.

Greasefang

IN	OUT
+3 Rest in Peace	-2 Sweltering Suns
	-1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Very tricky match-up. Our deck is pretty bad at interacting with creatures instant speed so the best we can do is drop a Rest in Peace in postboard games. Another avenue to victory is setting up such a scenario that we can ramp into a Shatter the Sky and then slam a threat.

Still, it’s a tall order. If you see more and more of this deck, consider adding Justice Strike as the instant removal spell of choice.

Gruul Aggro

IN	OUT
+4 Redcap Melee	-1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
+2 Aether Gust	-1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
	– 4 Lotus Cobra

Very similar to Mono Red. What makes it particularly more annoying is Burning-Tree Emissary which really does speed up their draw. With that in mind, a three-mana mass removal or Redcap Melee are imperative early, as otherwise you’ll get completely run over. They also play more creatures with more points of toughness. Their Collected Company will help them rebuild more easily and they are less susceptible to life gain. Stabilise early and don’t relax too much later. You might regret it.

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Tips and Tricks

• When you play Genesis Ultimatum with Lotus Cobra on the battlefield, you will generate mana for each land put into play which can help you play even more spells after. The more Cobras you’ve got, the more robust the turn is going to be.
• In a really dire situation when you have only Omen of the Sea and you need to draw something specific, in order to get as deep as possible you should play Omen of the Sea, hold priority when it resolves and respond to it’s draw trigger with the activated ability of Scry 2. This way you can go as deep as 5 cards.
• Yasharn, Implacable Earth shuts off your Fabled Passage and Treasure tokens.
• In order to product black mana for Kenrith, the Returned King, use Treasures from Prosperous Innkeeper or Lotus Cobra.
• If you want to stabilise the game, you can play Fabled Passage with Omnath, Locus of Creation to gain 4 life, and then crack it on the opponent’s turn to again gain 4.
• Cultivate will make mana with Lotus Cobra.
• If your Omnath, Locus of Creation has triggered three times already, you can play another copy to again benefit from the triggers.
• Try not to play the basic Plains for as long as possible as it does not help cast Genesis Ultimatum.