Underrated MTG Colorless Commander Manifests Your Entire Deck Via Infinite +1/+1 Counters

Restricting your Commander’s color identity is one of the easiest ways to build a truly unique MTG Commander deck. While you won’t have the game’s best cards available to you, Magic’s hugely vast collection of cards means there are countless hidden gems to find. Colorless Commanders, like Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate Omarthis enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever you put one or more +1/+1 counters on another colorless creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Omarthis.
When Omarthis dies, manifest a number of cards from the top of your library equal to the number of counters on it. , take this restriction to the max, allowing for a different flavor of Magic.

MTG Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate

With a scaling casting cost, Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate can re-enter as a bigger Commander and manifest more cards on death as the game progresses. Typically, however, thanks to Omarthis’s triggered ability, you’ll want to play it early and grow it with other +1/+1 counter-creating creatures.

Despite being limited to colorless, many infamous +1/+1 counter-based cards, like Walking Ballista Walking Ballista This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
{4}: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target. and Hangarback Walker Hangarback Walker This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
When this creature dies, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying for each +1/+1 counter on this creature.
{1}, {T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. are available, growing Omarthis early and cashing in on extra mana later on. With these in play, Modular payoffs like Arcbound Ravager Arcbound Ravager Sacrifice an artifact: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Modular 1 (This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.) or Arcbound Crusher Arcbound Crusher Trample
Whenever another artifact enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Modular 1 (This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.) can create a sticky, scaling board. There are even some artifacts like Energy Chamber Energy Chamber At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one —
• Put a +1/+1 counter on target artifact creature.
• Put a charge counter on target noncreature artifact. and The Ooze The Ooze Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it leaves the battlefield, create a Mutagen token for each +1/+1 counter on it. (A Mutagen token is an artifact with "{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Activate only as a sorcery.")
{T}: Exile target card from a graveyard. Create a Mutagen token. that offer a steady stream of counters themselves.

Once you have a board of artifact creatures in play, cards like Steel Overseer Steel Overseer {T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each artifact creature you control. and Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade Vigilance
{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each artifact creature and/or Vehicle you control.
{2}, Remove two +1/+1 counters from among artifacts you control: Draw a card. can buff your whole team, dumping counters onto Omarthis. Then, Proliferate cards like Contagion Clasp Contagion Clasp When this artifact enters, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
{4}, {T}: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) can run away with the game, while The Ozolith The Ozolith Whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield, if it had counters on it, put those counters on The Ozolith.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if The Ozolith has counters on it, you may move all counters from The Ozolith onto target creature. keeps your counters around after a board wipe.

Once you have a massive Commander to swing with, equipment like Commander’s Plate can make connecting trivial, giving you protection from all colors. There’s even a fair few colorless equipment that support Omarthis’s +1/+1 counter theme, like Andúril, Narsil Reforged Andúril, Narsil Reforged Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
Whenever equipped creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. If you have the city's blessing, put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control instead.
Equip {3} and Tarrian’s Soulcleaver.

While being colorless is mostly a downside, it also enables a ton of powerful payoffs, especially for ramp. Glaring Fleshraker Glaring Fleshraker Whenever you cast a colorless spell, create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
Whenever another colorless creature you control enters, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent. and Forsaken Monument Forsaken Monument Colorless creatures you control get +2/+2.
Whenever you tap a permanent for {C}, add an additional {C}.
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, you gain 2 life. are particularly potent here, pushing damage and creating explosive turns. You also get access to some great interaction in Eldritch Immunity Eldritch Immunity Target creature you control gains protection from each color until end of turn.
Overload {4}{C} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change "target" in its text to "each.") and Warping Wail Warping Wail ({C} represents colorless mana.)
Choose one —
• Exile target creature with power or toughness 1 or less.
• Counter target sorcery spell.
• Create a 1/1 colorless Eldrazi Scion creature token. It has "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}." , as well as some incredible card draw tools like Mystic Forge Mystic Forge You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast artifact spells and colorless spells from the top of your library.
{T}, Pay 1 life: Exile the top card of your library. and Mind’s Eye.

It’s easy to forget, but being colorless also lets you run tons of utility lands, since you don’t need fixing. Karn’s Bastion is particularly exciting here, proliferating your entire team, while Tyrite Sanctum Tyrite Sanctum {T}: Add {C}.
{2}, {T}: Target legendary creature becomes a God in addition to its other types. Put a +1/+1 counter on it.
{4}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Put an indestructible counter on target God. can make Omarthis Indestructible. There’s also a bunch of utility lands, like Ruins of Oran-Rief Ruins of Oran-Rief This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}. ({C} represents colorless mana.)
{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target colorless creature that entered this turn. and Drannith Ruins Drannith Ruins {T}: Add {C}.
{2}, {T}: Put two +1/+1 counters on target non-Human creature that entered this turn. that can help trigger your Commander.

Infinite Power and Endless Manifestation

If a great +1/+1 counter theme and a surprising amount of colorless support weren’t enough, Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate Omarthis enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever you put one or more +1/+1 counters on another colorless creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Omarthis.
When Omarthis dies, manifest a number of cards from the top of your library equal to the number of counters on it. even has access to a series of infinite combos. Because of this card’s wording, Omarthis essentially goes infinite with a copy of itself, since they’ll continually trigger one another to grow infinitely. If this sounds interesting to you, there are a few different colorless combos that can pull it off.

The vast majority of these involve Helm of the Host Helm of the Host At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a token that's a copy of equipped creature, except the token isn't legendary. That token gains haste.
Equip {5} , which can create a copy of Omarthis, but you’ll need an Anthem effect in play to prevent the 0/0 copy from dying. Vanquisher’s Banner, Instruments of War Instruments of War Flash
As this artifact enters, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1. , and The Immortal Sun The Immortal Sun Players can't activate planeswalkers' loyalty abilities.
At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card.
Spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Creatures you control get +1/+1. can all do the job here, setting you up nicely. Once you have two Omarthis in play, putting a +1/+1 counter on any colorless creature will cause your Commanders to grow infinitely, Manifesting your entire library if they die.

Outside of Helm of the Host, the colorless payoff Echoes of Eternity Echoes of Eternity If a triggered ability of a colorless spell you control or another colorless permanent you control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token.) also creates a combo, copying Omarthis as you cast it. You’ll need something that can ignore the Legend Rule, like Mirror Box Mirror Box The "legend rule" doesn't apply to permanents you control.
Each legendary creature you control gets +1/+1.
Each nontoken creature you control gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control with the same name as that creature. or Mirror Gallery Mirror Gallery The "legend rule" doesn't apply. , but with that in play, your Omarthis’s should start going infinite off the counters the other has when it enters. Echoes of Eternity can also be replaced by Mirage Mirror Mirage Mirror {2}: This artifact becomes a copy of target artifact, creature, enchantment, or land until end of turn. , but you’ll need to put a +1/+1 counter onto a colorless creature to start the loop.

A Unique Underrated Undertaking

Between a surprisingly powerful colorless +1/+1 counter theme and tons of colorless support, Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate can make for an extremely powerful Commander. This makes its low play rate all the more surprising, as Omarthis has only 2,605 Commander decks according to EDHREC.

Fortunately, thanks to being relatively unpopular, Omarthis is also available for cheap, starting at less than a dollar for its base variant before shipping. Having a colorless manabase helps out the budget a lot, too, since you won’t need to grab expensive Fetch and Shock Lands. This makes building a cheap base for Omarthis easy, allowing you to buy the more expensive colorless support upgrades over time.

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