Guy standing behind my opponent at an SCG open after he scooped
to me drawing my deck (after game 1): “How do you win?”
Me: “I’m sure I’d have found a way.”
(Opponent realizes he has no idea how he lost)
Opponent (after game 2): “Well that was
adorable.”
Omnimaniac (Or Omniclash, depending on
your build) refers to the Cunning Wish builds of mono-blue Omniscience + Dream
Halls decks. This article will cover the build currently played and refined by
Brandon Adams and myself, as well as the build designed by Jean-Mary Accart.
This deck was originally designed and created upon the structure of some older
builds of Dream Halls by Jean-Mary Accart. He mentioned that he started working
on the list as soon as Enter the Infinite was spoiled. His list was completed
and sat dormant and unplayed from last December until his undefeated
performance at GP Strasbourg. In early February, the word had spread to Brandon
and myself. We loved the idea of the Firemind’s Foresight in the sideboard,
allowing the deck to play through a lot more hate, and to go off a bit easier.
Soon after this, I played the deck at SCG Cincinnati, getting crushed early by
reanimator (a pretty bad matchup) and two turn three kills from goblins (found
out this was possible, cavern -> lackey is fair).
So what exactly is this deck?
Enablers:
4 Show and Tell
4 Dream Halls
Make spells free:
4 Dream Halls
4 Omniscience
Wins on the spot if spells are free:
4 Enter the Infinite
4 Cunning Wish
Protection and utility:
3 Pact of Negation
4 Flusterstorm
1 Trickbind
4 Cunning Wish
Extra copies of all of the above:
1 Intuition
Cantrips:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
(some cards are in multiple categories,
and are thus duplicates)
Gameplan:
Obviously, our game plan is to draw our
deck with an Omni/Halls out. At that point we use cunning wish to actually win
the game. Before that though we need to resolve that Enter the Infinite. Here
is a quick rundown on the ways how:
- 3UU - Dream Halls + Cunning Wish + 3
blue cards (if you don’t run foresight)
- 3UU - Dream Halls + Cunning Wish + 2
blue cards
- 3UU - Dream Halls + Enter the Infinite +
1 blue card
- 3UU - Dream Halls + Intuition + 2 blue
cards
- 2U - Show and Tell and any of the above
- 2U - Show and Tell + Omniscience +
Cunning Wish
- 2U - Show and Tell + Omniscience + Enter
the Infinite
- 2U - Show and Tell + Omniscience +
Intuition
- 2U - Show and Tell + Omniscience +
cantrips (not 100%, but very high)
Assembling these combinations of mana and
cards is pretty easy when considering you run 12 cantrips.
The Mana:
Brandon/Myself:
3 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
6 Island
1 Underground Sea
Jean-Mary:
3 City of Traitors
3 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
10 Island
Jean-Mary does not include discard in his
sideboard, so the Underground Sea in not needed, however we have other
differences as well. He plays an additional land, and has switched one sol land
to another island, giving him 2 more blue sources. I haven’t ruled this change
out, and will be testing it soon.
The Spells:
4 Show and Tell - A ritual AND a discard
spell. Must run 4 to get Omniscience into play.
4 Omniscience - The best way to cast cards
for free.
4 Dream Halls - Less effective than Omni,
but is castable. Running the 4th means you should be running the Foresight in
the sideboard.
4 Enter the Infinite - Best way to draw
your deck that doesn’t cost 4BBBB.
4 Cunning Wish - Running the full set to
get foresight -> trickbind/intuition as a nod to Oblivion Ring, Qasali
Pridemages, and Angel of Despairs.
0 Force of Will – Running one in board.
Useful to wish for against combo.
3 Pact of Negation - 4th is in board. Useful
to wish for a turn before going off against control.
4 Flusterstorm - The best protection
spell.
1 Trickbind - Beats Oblivion Ring, Qasali
Pridemage, Angel of Despair, Counterbalance, Griselbrand.
1 Intuition - Extra copy of everything.
Allows the Foresight pile.
4 Brainstorm - Moving on.
4 Ponder - The next best cantrip.
4 Preordain - And the next best cantrip.
Never cut these 12. Ever.
0 Impulse - This was the swap some players
made over our trickbind. Clunky card.
0 Gitaxian Probe - The deck doesn’t want
another cantrip, and this seems worse than a Sensei’s Divining Top if you did.
0 Leyline of Sanctity - Drawing this card
after turn 1 (and even sometimes then) would make me want to quit magic.
Jean-Mary plays one main in DDFT too, and he will likely continue this trend.
0 Grim Monolith - This was played in old
Dream Halls and Hive Mind decks, but that redundancy wasn’t needed here.
0 Twincast - This was Gerry Thompson’s
idea. Wish -> Foresight (Brainstorm, Twincast, Wish) -> Wish (twincasted)
-> Beacon of Immortality + False Cure. This kill is all instant speed
eliminating the need for trickbind, but does not cheapen the Dream Halls +
Cunning Wish pile by a blue card, as you don’t run a maindeck intuition.
The Sideboard:
Included:
1 Intuition - Mainly used to find Enter
the Infinite, but can be used to find Omni (slowly)
1 Firemind's Foresight - This card is
awesome. The primary reason for this card’s inclusion is to make the Halls +
Wish win cost one less blue card. Without Foresight, you are required to Wish
(1), Intuition (2), Enter (3). With Foresight you Wish (1) Foresight (2),
Intuition (2, use trickbind), Enter (2, use brainstorm).
1 Research / Development - Shuffles in
Maniac.
1 Laboratory Maniac - Unless people start
playing Sudden Shock or Wipe Away, this is the best wincon available. Emrakul
can be answered, and Release the Ants can fail if they clash an Emrakul.
1 Force of Will - In sideboard to be
wished for against combo.
1 Pact of Negation - To be wished for a
turn before going off against combo. They Generally just counter the wish
though, so win/win.
1 Trickbind - Wishable answer to Oblivion
Ring, Qasali Pridemage, Angel of Despair, Counterbalance, Griselbrand.
1 Wipe Away - General answer to things.
Between this and trickbind, you can beat a counterbalance set to 2 or 3 as
well.
1 Slaughter Pact - Most efficient answer
to hatebears. Always left in SB, while bounce comes in on occasion.
Metagame specific cards: (pick 6)
0-4 Thoughtseize - Combo hate. Requires
Underground Sea.
0-1 Obliterate – Board this in to beat
hatebears/enchantments. You Show and Tell Omniscience. Pass. On your next turn,
Enter the Infinite. Pass, on your next turn, Obliterate. Slow, but deals with
everything.
0-1 Surgical Extraction - Wishable grave
hate, randomly allows you to see their hand if needed.
0-4 Leyline of Sanctity - Anti-discard and
burn.
0-1 Noxious Revival - Jean-Mary’s grave
hate spell that doubles as anti-discard.
0-1 Vision Charm - Cantrips or deals with
hate bears.
0-3 Defense Grid - Very effective against
tempo, can’;t be flustered or red blasted.
0-1 Eladamri's Call - To get Emrakul
0-1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn – to beat Teeg
easier.
Not Included:
0 Silence - We had one at one point, but
was just wasting a slot. Requires Tundra
0 Swords to Plowshares - We cut this for
Slaughter Pact. Requires Tundra.
0 Release the Ants - Quit being cute.
My Current List:
Lands
3 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
6 Island
1 Underground Sea
Spells
4 Cunning Wish
4 Enter the Infinite
4 Dream Halls
4 Omniscience
4 Show and Tell
3 Pact of Negation
4 Flusterstorm
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Intuition
1 Trickbind
Sideboard
1 Intuition
1 Firemind's Foresight
1 Research / Development
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Trickbind
1 Wipe Away
1 Obliterate
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Thoughtseize
1 Surgical Extraction
Tips on playing the deck:
Cantrips:
I see a LOT of incorrect plays involving
cantrips when watching matches of legacy. For you control players out there,
combo cantrips are to be used much more aggressively. Here is my set of
unofficial combo cantripping rules:
-Preordain on turn 1 over all other
cantrips. You allow yourself to draw exactly the number of cards from the top
two that you would like.
-Pondering on turn one is risky, but will
sometimes be correct. Remember that you will have to draw two of the cards from
the top three if you don’t shuffle.
-Pondering in later turns is most
effective if you have a shuffle available from a fetch land or Intuition.
-Brainstorming on turn 1 is strictly
forbidden aside from one case: If your opponent casts a discard spell targeting
you. In this situation, you may brainstorm to hide cards you need to keep in
hand on top of your deck. This is generally still worse than just letting the
discard happen and using the brainstorm when a fetch is available.
-Brainstorm is ancestral recall. you will
likely have redundant copies of certain effects. Go ahead and draw three and
return two useless cards to fetch away.
-In addition to fetching, you have ponder
to shuffle and preordain to tuck two cards after a ponder or brainstorm. This
might be a reason to not cast preordain on turn one, and instead follow up a
brainstorm on turn two.
Beating Counterbalance:
-If Counterbalance is at two: Draw deck, Wish
for Research, Research, Maniac, Win.
-If Counterbalance is at three: Halls into
Enter, Draw deck, Wish (Trickbind trigger), Research for Maniac+Wipe+Trickbind+Echoing
Truth, Echoing Truth the CB, Maniac, Win.
Proactive Trickbind against Sneak/Show:
In the Sneak and Show matchup, ALWAYS wish
for trickbind if possible, that way you can safely Show in an Omniscience and
safely resolve an Enter through their Griselbrand. (also, everyone will try to
draw 7 at a time, and will thus draw zero cards. If they snap draw 14 they will
likely get to draw 7 of them. Most people will not play this smart.)
Play or Draw:
Although I have not tested this out
anywhere close to as much as Jean-Mary has, he has mentioned that they began to
notice a trend towards winning more games on the draw against both TES and
Death and Taxes. Post-board, he noticed that he was able to win slightly more
often against discard decks if he had the leylines in the deck. He has now
concluded that you only really want to go first against the hyper fast decks
like elves, reanimator, dredge, and sneak/show. Based on your metagame, it
might be correct to be on the draw in all blind game ones. Also, choosing to
draw first makes people get all worried about dredge and try to aggressively
mulligan to a hand that has Deathrite shaman, Rest in Peace, or Zenith. Always
good for a laugh.
Credits:
Jean-Mary Accart - The original creator of
the deck. In addition, his primer was very helpful at filling in the gaps
as needed. Awesome combo player.
Brandon Adams - My current list is a
collaborative build with Brandon. Awesome combo player, and great guy.
