Omnimaniac

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.