[Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

[phazonmutant]

http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0B5bNZX7zwr61Um44cUVPOE1Ob2c

I. Overview
II. Core Deck List
III. Card Choices
IV. How to Play the Deck
V. How to Evaluate Opening Hands
VI. Sideboarding
VII. Why Play This?
IIX. Tournament Reports

I. Overview

Miracle of Science is a combo-control deck that is a hybrid of two existing decks, Miracles and Omnitell. It takes the soft-lock and consistency of Miracles but ditches the reliance on creatures. It takes the uninteractive combo of Omnitell, but ditches the bad cards. The result is a flexible, powerful deck that has tool for every matchup.

And come on, don’t you want to confuse the hell out of your opponents (and sometimes yourself)? Since this deck is a hybrid of two decks, let’s look at where the pieces of this deck came from.

Looking at Miracles first, the Counterbalance + Sensei’s Divining Top has always been a potent, proactive plan for Miracles against circa half of the field, and Terminus is a rout against the other half. However, developments in Miracles technology has driven it further towards a low-curve, combo-esque deck by decreasing reliance on slow threats, like Entreat and Jace, in favor of burst card advantage with Predict and a cheap game-ender with Monastery Mentor. This philosophy and shell can be swapped into another kill condition.

Now, Omniscience had its day in the sun when Dig Through Time (but not Treasure Cruise) was legal, largely because it got to cut combo-only cards like Enter the Infinite in favor of good cards, thus turning the deck into a “two-and-your-deck” card combo. Dig is banned now, and Omniscience has been relegated to a mediocre three-card combo. But if something could fill Dig’s size 8 shoes, Omniscience, Cunning Wish, and Emrakul combine to build a combo that’s immune from almost all splash hate.

A novel deck is spun from these disparate strands by Sensei’s Divining Top. It fronts another angle of attack with Counterbalance. It plays defense with Terminus. And, it helps find the pieces of the trimmed-down Omnitell combo. This deck forces your opponent to have all the answers to problems that don’t share a common solution.

II. Core Decklist

This is what I perceive to be the core list with the few flex slots.

2 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

4 Brainstorm
4 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
2-3 Predict
0-2 Preordain
1 Split Decision

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
2-4 Terminus

3 Counterbalance
4 Omniscience

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1-2 Nahiri, the Harbinger

4 Sensei's Divining Top

// Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Eladamri's Call
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Firemind's Foresight
2 Flusterstorm
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Release the Ants
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Swords to Plowshares


The sideboard is largely influenced by the maindeck and your local meta, so what’s presented here is what works for me as of 2016-11-06. My current maindeck numbers are 0 Preordain, 2 Predict, 4 Terminus, 1 Nahiri.

I believe that what makes this deck unique is its use of white control cards, especially Terminus, to buy time. Counterbalance is a powerful, low-cost addition to that.

III. Card Choices

a) Cantrips and Draw

The biggest reason this deck works is a plurality of cheap and effective cantrips. The following are non-optional:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Sensei’s Divining Top

If that’s not obvious, you should look for a different deck. Secondary options:
Predict - This card serves two needed functions. One, it fills out the Counterbalance curve a little. The two CMC is very light even with a couple of Predicts. Two, it provides card advantage to power through discard or control matchups. It serves as a (very inferior) substitute for Dig in this role.
Preordain - A good card, and very defensible inclusion if you can find the room.

Bad cards:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Contentious, I know. This fights for slots with Nahiri, and I can’t imagine ever playing a Jace over a Nahiri. It gets Red Blasted, doesn’t defend as well, and kills incredibly slowly. Jace can’t fit in another slot because of the CMC.
Personal Tutor - This is not a pure combo deck, so a card that gives moderate selection at the cost of a card is not even close to playable. The fact that Entreat Miracles doesn’t play this card is enough evidence.

b) Threats / Combo Pieces

Show and Tell - Should be obvious. Play 4.
Omniscience - Would you guess that playing 4 is correct?
Cunning Wish - Being in white and red gives Cunning Wish a huge amount of flexibility in addition to being part of the kill. I would think twice before registering less than 4.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - Best creature in the game when you’re not paying the mana cost. Griselbrand is in the running, but uncounterability and time walk matter more. I believe only playing 1 is correct because it’s not a great draw outside of combo scenarios.
Counterbalance - A good card, but often boarded out. It is great in combo, control, and Delver matchups, but the bad curve makes it more difficult to get value out of a blind Counterbalance.
Nahiri, the Harbinger - This card really does it all. It kills in 3 turns while helping your hand. She also helps stabilize a board or kill a pesky Counterbalance. Post-board, she is probably the best threat because she’s immune to Red Blast, Flusterstorm, Abrupt Decay, or mediocre beats. She also slices, dices, and does the laundry. Now if only she weren’t so dang angry…

And now for a list of creatures that are not in the (main)deck!

Monastery Mentor - The card is insane and gives you an incredibly low opportunity cost threat with 4 Tops. However, its home is the sideboard because the decks you want this card against have maindeck removal that you would like them to board out. It comes in for different cards in every matchup.
Vendilion Clique - A savvy player can know what to play around or through without hand information. I would play more Mentors before the first Clique unless there is a crazy amount of combo in your meta.
Snapcaster Mage - This is another big reason why Miracles is so good, and it helps the 2 CMC slot for Counterbalance. However, there really aren’t enough types of cards to flash back without playing Swords to Plowshares and Counterspell main, and even then the body tends to be irrelevant. Worse, you can’t cast the flashback spell with Omniscience. I’ve tried it and wasn’t impressed.

c) Disruption / Removal

Terminus - This card is a big reason Miracles is so good. You can buy time to find the kill by casting it off of Omniscience. It gets around Chalice on 1. I have played as few as 2 copies, but that makes the Infect and Merfolk matchups very difficult.
Swords to Plowshares - I think its home is sideboard because this deck isn’t equipped to play the 1-for-1 game with Swords very well, making Terminus the better choice main. Sometimes you need targeted removal, though, and having it to Cunning Wish for is great.
Force of Will - Turns out this card is great. Rarely cut.

d) Sideboard Options

Necessary Combo Cards:
Eladamri’s Call
Release the Ants
Firemind’s Foresight

See the combo explanation section for what these are used for.

Good options, play them:
Flusterstorm - Important tool for beating combo and decent in Miracles too. Good card to Wish for before jamming the combo.
Surgical Extraction - Excellent card, should include. Not costing extra on top of Cunning Wish makes it a silver bullet against Lands and Storm too. Play more in reanimator-heavy metas. Consider switching decks in reanimator-heavy metas.
Disenchant - Important answer to permanents. Waaaay better than Echoing Truth.
Pyroblast - This card is essential to beating Miracles! Without it, you don’t have a good way to beat Counterbalance on the stack. Also helpful as an out to Jace or opposing Show and Tells maindeck. Play REB if you have a Korean 4th copy.
Engineered Explosives - This is a card that’s good against both Chalice and creature decks, and acceptable against Miracles. I like playing two.
Monastery Mentor - discussed above with creatures.

Probably bad options:
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Not a good card for this deck. Making Show and Tell uncounterable isn’t enough because there is only one Emrakul. Cunning Wish is just as vulnerable.
Wear // Tear - The card is good in the abstract, and great for Counterbalance, but with only two Volcanics it seems dubious. Most of the time Cunning Wish gets a Disenchant, it’s against a Wasteland matchup to kill an Artifact, so Wear // Tear does not shine. It could be better than a second Disenchant.

Junkers, never ever play them:
Blood Moon - Hurts Top significantly by shutting off fetches. Bad matchups don’t want this card, good matchups don’t need the help.
Pact of Negation - I get that you want a free counterspell to Wish for, but it is generally awful on defense. There aren’t enough sideboard slots.
Trickbind - If you could Wish for Trickbind, you should instead Wish for Firemind’s Foresight and kill them at instant speed. Trust me, those edge cases where it’s good or you can’t win aren’t worth it.
Intuition - Opens you up to Surgical Extraction, and what are you finding with it anyway? I would play another Predict first.

e) Other considerations

Color
Why red over 1. no third splash, 2. green, 3. black? One word: Pyroblast. Black gives the deck discard, which doesn't help against Miracles, and is not significantly better than the combination of Pyroblast and Flusterstorm in other matchups. Green gives Krosan Grip, which is great against Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void, but I believe Red is more flexible. Also red allows playing Nahiri, which is one of the best cards in the deck in certain matchups.


IV. How to Play the Deck

a) Execution
The basic Omniscience + Cunning Wish combo:
1. With Omniscience in play, wish for Firemind's Foresight.
2. Cast it for Brainstorm, Split Decision, Cunning Wish.
3. Cast Wish, hold priority, cast Split Decision targeting Wish.
4. When Split Decision resolves, vote for copy (their vote is irrelevant). Get Eladamri's Call and Release the Ants.
5. Call for Emrakul
6. Brainstorm it to the top of library
7. Release many Ants.

If Split Decision is discarded or exiled, get Predict with Firemind’s Foresight instead, and try to put a Terminus or Omniscience on top with Brainstorm. Typically opposing decks will not have 6+ CMC cards. If they do, they’re probably playing a bad deck.

b) Strategy
Figure out what role you want to play in the matchup - jam the combo, or grind them out? Then use that to guide keeps and cantrips.

If you’re playing against opposing Omniscience decks, don’t play Show and Tell unless you have several redundant combo pieces or Forces.

When playing against Miracles, treat it more like the Miracles mirror than you would expect. Your deck is set up to jam threats, but there is no reason to do so unless you are at risk of missing land drops or they can feasibly resolve Counterbalance with Top and mana up.

More details later.

V. How to Evaluate Opening Hands
Does it have fewer than two Termini? Does it have a blue source? Does it have a cantrip?

Keep.

The top of your deck will reward faith, or punish in a just distribution.

VI. Sideboarding

Under construction. See Tournament Reports for some examples.

VII. Tournament Reports

”The Miracle of Science” 4th at CardKingdom 1K (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?30964-quot-The-Miracle-of-Science-quot-4th-at-CardKingdom-1K)
Miracle of Science Legacy Champs Top 64 (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?31131-Miracle-of-Science-Legacy-Champs-Top-64)

[phazonmutant]

Reserved for more primer

If you guys have any comments or feedback on the primer, please feel free to post!

[Poron]

very good deck. I like the Nahiri way out of any situations.

What's the SB plan against DNT and Eldrazi?
Matchups where Counterbalance can't really shine.

[Baum]

Last weekend, I managed to get in a couple of Matches against Miracles, Grixis Delver and Death & Taxes.

D&T is comically easy. Back when DTT was legal, the D&T matchup was already pretty good, adding Terminus to the deck makes it ridiculous.

Grixis Delver felt fine as long as I got to play the Miracles game, grinding him out with Terminus and/or Counterbalance. The all-in combo openings are way too vulnerable to Therapy and their other disruption. That's basically what I expected because I hated the matchup with traditional Omnitell back in the day. What I'm still not sure about is how many Forces I want to have post board. Miracles boards out all of them but that feels excessive with this deck. Right now I board out two and bring in the Flusterstorms instead.

Miracles also felt ok. I really enjoy playing the Miracles mirror and as phazonmutant pointed out, the matchup is pretty similar. Nahiri was a house and Mentor was great as always once they boarded out Terminus. It's probably difficult if they draw perfect, because they have Snapcaster and more Blasts. I think we have to set up for a win in the midgame, before they draw all these cards.

I also played a couple of matches against Shardless on XMage, but not enough to really form an opinion. How do you sideboard there? I'm thinking -3 Counterbalance -1 Force, +2 Mentor +2 Flusterstorm. Flusterstorm does nothing except countering Hymn, but since Hymn is backbreaking, I like it in theory. I also thought about bringing Blasts to fight Ancestral Vision if the game goes long, but I don't really want to dilute the deck any further.

In the old thread I asked about the Counterbalance curve. Turned out that it's just fine in practice.

@ Poron:

Against D&T, I'd board out the Counterbalances for 2 Explosives and 1 Swords to Plowshares. I don't think Mentor is needed against them because they are so weak to our combo.

Eldrazi: -3 Counterbalance -1 Predict, +2 Explosives +2 Mentor.

Gesendet von meinem FP2 mit Tapatalk

[phazonmutant]

We got a shoutout from The Brainstorm Show: http://www.thebrainstormshow.com/podcasts/episode-025-all-the-parts-of-the-buffalo-scg-baltimore-br-reanimator-and-more/

Thanks, Wilson (and his co-hosts too, I suppose)!

[Philipp2293]

Any ideas what to cut if I wanted to squeeze in a third Mentor in the SB? I won a very small tournament today with the deck and Mentor did serious work in all postboard games.

[phazonmutant]

Any ideas what to cut if I wanted to squeeze in a third Mentor in the SB? I won a very small tournament today with the deck and Mentor did serious work in all postboard games.

It really does! I think the second EE could go. It's great if you expect lots of Chalices, but it's only so-so against Miracles and D&T. Mentor should be a fine replacement.

[Weapon X]

Well I played this today with a few changes, most notably 3 impulse and a counter spell, to a 5th place finish. I'm not sure how I feel about it still. I feel like the split plans sacrifice something. There is a big high risk, high reward feel especially when draws can get awkward. It does have me wondering if miracles with just nahiri and emrakul would be better.

May have to give it another go regardless. Impulse felt like an MVP. And I did play 3 wish, 3 terminus, 1 nahiri, no predict.

[Weapon X]

This is what I ended up playing:

4 omniscience
4 show and tell
3 cunning wish
1 emrakul
1 nahiri, the harbinger

1 split decision
3 counterbalance
4 force of will
3 terminus
3 impulse
1 counterspell

4 sensei's divining top
4 ponder
4 brainstorm

2 ancient tomb
1 plains
5 island
1 mystic gate
2 volcanic island
1 tundra
4 flooded strand
4 scalding tarn

Sideboard
1 fireminds foresight
1 eladmri's call
1 release the ants
1 red elemental blast
1 pyroblast
1 surgical extraction
1 disenchant
1 engineered explosives
2 flusterstorm
2 swords to plowshares
3 monastery mentor


The show and tell half feels clunky. If you have counter/top lock you can basically win with anything at that point. The only draw I felt was those oops nut draws you can get sometimes. Miracles with rip/helm feels much stronger.

[phazonmutant]

Well I played this today with a few changes, most notably 3 impulse and a counter spell, to a 5th place finish. I'm not sure how I feel about it still. I feel like the split plans sacrifice something. There is a big high risk, high reward feel especially when draws can get awkward. It does have me wondering if miracles with just nahiri and emrakul would be better.

May have to give it another go regardless. Impulse felt like an MVP. And I did play 3 wish, 3 terminus, 1 nahiri, no predict.

Nice, glad you gave it a spin. Draws definitely can be awkward, so keeping hands with cantrips is probably the biggest predictor of wins.

What's the thought behind Impulse?

[Weapon X]

Impulse feels like a closer dig through time. It helps to focus on a given plan as you can just look for the missing piece. It basically helps focus an awkward draw.

[phazonmutant]

Impulse feels like a closer dig through time. It helps to focus on a given plan as you can just look for the missing piece. It basically helps focus an awkward draw.

Ok, that makes sense. I'm not sure that's better than the card advantage of Predict, but worth testing. I tried your changes except -1 Impulse for +1 Cunning Wish. Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.

I've run into a lot of situations where I would want to Wish for Wear / Tear to get around Counterbalance, and I've noticed that I don't bring in the second EE any more against Miracles because it's just too tough to resolve through Counterbalance. EE is better against Chalice decks and D&T, but I'm comfortable making that swap to try it out.

[ESG]

Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.

You played Aluren for a couple of weeks. Is it safe to say that you feel this deck is stronger, or just better-positioned based on what you're playing against? Also, have your matchups been somewhat predictable (Tier I decks at the top tables), or are you still playing against a wide range of decks later in the tournament?

(For outsiders, the most commonly played decks in these ~35-person weekly tournaments have been Miracles, Death & Taxes, and Aluren, with sometimes an uptick in combo decks.)

[nedleeds]

http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-talk-podcast-episode-13-the-miracle-of-failure/

Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.

[Weapon X]

Forgot to ask, but what does miracles look like around you? In addition to fow and counter top they also have spell pierce, spell snare, counterspell, etc over here. That's what makes getting through a counter/top lock hard. They get to play more control while we sacrifice that same space for a show and tell package that forces us to play dead cards outside of the combo.

[KobeBryan]

http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-talk-podcast-episode-13-the-miracle-of-failure/

Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.

I used impulse as a direct replacement for DTT

But the OP has a habit of shit talking when its not a conventional idea

[phazonmutant]

You played Aluren for a couple of weeks. Is it safe to say that you feel this deck is stronger, or just better-positioned based on what you're playing against? Also, have your matchups been somewhat predictable (Tier I decks at the top tables), or are you still playing against a wide range of decks later in the tournament?

(For outsiders, the most commonly played decks in these ~35-person weekly tournaments have been Miracles, Death & Taxes, and Aluren, with sometimes an uptick in combo decks.)

I think both are decently positioned in the Seattle meta, but the Aluren deck just feel clunkier than this one. Miracle of Science has a quicker nut draw, disruption that gets online faster, and a better plan C. Aluren has a stronger non-combo plan though. 4-round weekly events don't really give a good sense of what will go to the top in a larger tournament, but I have played a lot against a small set of decks, mostly with good matchups (roughly in order of times played):
D&T - very good
Miracles - even (skill-dependent)
Aggro Loam - good
Burn - bad


http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-talk-podcast-episode-13-the-miracle-of-failure/

Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.

You didn't read what I said - I don't have enough data to know if it's good. I haven't even drawn it! Get off my internet, old man.


Forgot to ask, but what does miracles look like around you? In addition to fow and counter top they also have spell pierce, spell snare, counterspell, etc over here. That's what makes getting through a counter/top lock hard. They get to play more control while we sacrifice that same space for a show and tell package that forces us to play dead cards outside of the combo.

Snare and Counterspell in some mix are common 2-ofs. The most common build is Predict with Mentor, but there are some on ETA and like one on Legends. There are a couple truly exceptional Miracles players, a few decent ones, and a couple crappy ones. I'm not scared of Pierce, that card doesn't seem good in their deck. I would be surprised if the builds are wildly divergent.

There is more dedicated to the combo preboard, but they have many more dead cards because of removal. Our removal is not totally dead because they sometimes just jam Mentor hoping to clock us. But I do aggressively put back combo pieces if I'm playing for the long game. Postboard they have more answers but we have more threats. They usually have to leave in removal or they will just die to Mentor, so it's pretty close on conditionally good cards.

You should practice the matchup a few times. Predict is very big here, for what it's worth. It's not an easy matchup to play by any means, so against a good player it could be frustrating. My win rate is good, somewhere around 10-5, so if you play it right or they are bad, you can win very easily.

[emidln]

Ok, that makes sense. I'm not sure that's better than the card advantage of Predict, but worth testing. I tried your changes except -1 Impulse for +1 Cunning Wish. Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.

I've run into a lot of situations where I would want to Wish for Wear / Tear to get around Counterbalance, and I've noticed that I don't bring in the second EE any more against Miracles because it's just too tough to resolve through Counterbalance. EE is better against Chalice decks and D&T, but I'm comfortable making that swap to try it out.

Why exactly is EE hard to resolve through Counterbalance? I get that you have to actually pick a CMC, but paying 2UW or UUUW should be pretty easy for CMC=4 but 2 sunburst counters. Against some builds (those without mentors), CMC=3 (UUW, 1UR, 1UW) might even be reasonable. In my experiments in Ub and Uwb Omni, I find that CMC=5 isn't very difficult to attain, and I just end up paying a bunch of blue mana.

[phazonmutant]

Why exactly is EE hard to resolve through Counterbalance? I get that you have to actually pick a CMC, but paying 2UW or UUUW should be pretty easy for CMC=4 but 2 sunburst counters. Against some builds (those without mentors), CMC=3 (UUW, 1UR, 1UW) might even be reasonable. In my experiments in Ub and Uwb Omni, I find that CMC=5 isn't very difficult to attain, and I just end up paying a bunch of blue mana.

Typically the Counterbalance you lose to is early, turn 2-3. Later on, you have more chance to find and hold up protection. A follow-up EE on 3 can work. However, once they get to untap with Counterbalance a couple of turns, they typically will have Force, Wear / Tear, or Counterspell, and have the ability to turn off your protection for the EE. So by the time you can cast EE through Counterbalance, they can deal with it. This is the same argument the Miracles thread has for not bringing in EE or W/T - several good pilots (e.g. AnziD) exclusively rely on never letting Counterbalance resolve.

The upshot is that it just doesn't do what you want it to do consistently - as an answer for Counterbalance it's merely decent. Doubling as bad removal for Mentor is decent too. But I don't think it's better than the next card I would cut from the main for the second copy. For reference, my board plan against Miracles is:
-1 S&T, -1 Omni, -1 CW, -4 Terminus, +2 REB, +2 Fluster, +2 Mentor, +1 EE

It's not that EE is a bad card, I'm just making a super marginal tweak based on the sideboard map.

[phazonmutant]

I went a somewhat disappointing 4-2 in yesterday's Card Kingdom 1k Tournament yesterday. I feel decent overall about my play, and the matchups still lead me to believe the list is well positioned in the meta. My list was a little different, incorporating some of Weapon X's suggestions to test:

2 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
1 Impulse
1 Predict
1 Split Decision

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
3 Terminus

4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Omniscience

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

// Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Firemind's Foresight
2 Flusterstorm
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Release the Ants
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wear // Tear

R1 - Chris on RUG Lands
His deck is slow and doesn't really interact. I had draws were were medium-fast and had basics, so ran him over.
1-0, 2-0

R2 - Bill on D&T
I Forced a turn 1 Aether Vial, but he slowed me down with Thalia. When I found the mana to Show and Tell, I was facing a 2-turn clock with a known Sanctum Prelate in hand. The plan was to Show Omniscience, then untap, Terminus, and hopefully buy time to find the combo, but I think I punted by fetching a Plains. He put Prelate on 6, nice read. Game 2 he mulliganned to 5, but we still had a close game. He strangely put Prelate on 1, which slowed down the Mentor I cast off of a Showed in Omniscience tremendously. However, his Palace Jailer shipped me the Monarch pretty quickly, and with a second Mentor I was just barely able to eke out lethal before his SoFI-equipped Jailer ran me out of tokens. Game 3 we had some tricksy play with Vial on 3, Prelate in hand, and a Terminus on top my library where I Disenchanted his Vial, he activated, I flipped Top to wrath a couple of his dudes. However, his Prelate on 1 again shut me down and couldn't find the win. So I guess this is how D&T wins the matchup - always draw Thalia, put Prelate on non-3s.
1-1, 3-2

R3 - Jake on D&T
This was a super tight match too, but this time I came out ahead. Game 1 he beat down with Thalia, and I was unable to draw fetches to play through his Port + double Waste. Games 2-3 are on camera: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/108137161?t=00h31m45s
Game 2 he mulled to 5 and I kept a land-heavy hand with a Ponder. I stacked wrong, drawing the Omni instead of the Cunning Wish, so I didn't have the card I wanted to pitch when he cast Thalia. That set me back, but eventually I found a deterministic win through Vryn Wingmare on board and Thalia put in of Show and Tell. The longggg tank over EE on 2 was figuring out 1) why he would tap out of Karakas with EE on 2, and then 2) deciding that it probably meant he had a backup Thalia, and 3) that I couldn't win through both Thalia and Wingmare on board. Game 3 was weird, but shows the power of Mentor in the deck. The attack with Plow on Top and 3 tokens was horrendous - I should have waited until the next turn to attack, but it worked out ok.
2-1, 5-3

R4 - Shawn (lordofthepit) on Predict Miracles
Game 1 I Forced a Counterbalance, and he didn't Force back. So when he tapped out next turn to cast Mentor, I decided to yolo shove instead of letting him untap, casting Terminus as bait, and then playing Show. The odds are close on the two options, so I went with my read. Game 2 he drew all 4 Snapcaster Mages and some interaction, which meant I had to start fighting over them. They beat me down. Game 3 we were both holding up mana representing REB and Fluster. I have a sweet setup where I could use Counterbalance as bait, Force his counterspell, Fluster his next, and if none of that worked, flip Top for a second Counterbalance, and if that didn't work, I had Show and Tell + Emrakul as the final trump next turn. He countered both Counterbalance, then followed up with a Counterbalance + Top, but I baited his Top flip with a Ponder so Show resolved, and he wasn't able to find the Terminus.
3-1, 7-4

R5 - James on Esperblade
His turn 1 Thoughtseize on my hand of Top + random garbage looked pretty good, but I was able to set up a turn 5 Show and Tell with Counterspell backup, correctly reading that he had Force in hand after he passed a turn with 2 cards and 4 mana untapped. Game 2 was a quick affair, and I basically ran him over with the combo.
4-1, 9-4

R6 - Tyler on Grixis Tezzeret
I wasn't expecting this deck so deep in the tournament, but he was running crazy hot. This match was also streamed: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/108137161?t=02h56m00s
Game 1 I got down my Top, but he had a Chalice on 1. I set up to Cunning Wish for a Wear / Tear, while he played Tezzeret. He obviously had the Force + blue card (in his deck with like 18 blue cards), then killed me. Game 2 was more of the same, he had a turn 1 Chalice with Force backup for my Force, then also had Tezzeret left to kill me. I think he made a big mistake by attacking, which allowed me to kill his Chalice on 1 by blocking with a Mentor, a fresh Monk, and two of the three dead Brainstorms in hand, but he ripped two castable artifacts in 3 draws between Dack and Baleful Strix to lethal me with Tezz.
4-2, 9-6

Well, that was it for my tournament. Tyler ended up losing in the finals to Burn, which really does seem well positioned right now with a bunch of Aluren and other BUG decks, and few Delver or fast combo.

Mulling over the results and deckbuilding:
The two D&T matches were much closer than my previous experience against them has been, but I think that overall my opponents' draws were above average (Thalia, Karakas, and Prelate every game) while mine were about average to bad. Still, cutting the fourth Terminus might be a little greedy. The Wear instead of the EE was great, pretty happy with that change. Counterspell was solid, put it to good use against Miracles and Esperblade. I'm still not sure about Impulse over the second Predict. The difference is just too marginal to say. One game I was able to Impulse two extra Omnisciences to the bottom and find a land, where Predict would have drawn me one plus a random card. Not enough data yet. Overall happy with the deck, and I think it has every chance of being a Tier 1 deck if more players picked it up.

[Weapon X]

If it helps to sway you, predict requires another card to be good while impulse will always be good. I still find the build clunky though. Needing 8 slots or so for a combo win that aren't great outside of said combo feels bad.

[phazonmutant]

That's very true, but being able to net cards is pretty valuable against discard decks. The fact that Miracles plays Predict also makes me lean towards it, because overall that deck plays the best cards in blue and white, so might as well crib from them. But, you have a point, which is why I'm testing it out.

That's always been the complaint from Miracles players. I find it runs as smoothly as Miracles does with its reactive cards and cards you don't want in hand, but can go over the top without being vulnerable to commonly played hate. Really only results will prove it.

Edit: Thought more about why you might find it so clunky. Hybrid combo decks are often very tricky to play, because they have several game plans available, and playing to the right one affects so many game actions. Miracles has a little bit of that with its tempo draws of Counterbalance and Mentor, a) those hands are usually obvious, and b) you can get pretty good results just playing it as a control deck. This deck has light control elements, combo pieces that can be interchanged for control (CWish), a partial-combo (Showing Omni) that turns on some previously dead draws, and Mentor post board. Often I find that I shuffle away combo pieces in certain matchups. Maybe part of the reason you feel the deck is clunky is because you're misevaluating your cantrips because you don't have the experience with the deck to know which plan to be on?

[Weapon X]

For netting cards I was looking at fact or fiction. I do feel my old standby of accumulated knowledge in tandem with predict could be a strong engine in the right deck. Otherwise needing 2 cards to try to net a card is bad and not actually netting cards at that point.

Edit: I feel it clunky because of what it's a hybrid of. My pedigree of building multiple attack angle decks is where I'm coming from. In enchantress as an example you have an engine present and you can add single cards to get multiple ways to win. That takes minimal space for maximum effect without watering the deck down. You have a deck here that removes the consistency and protection of something like miracles for some oops I win draws, but also gives itself a large choke point. When I had built my NOTopBantBlade the packages were so small that if one plan is stopped you can move seemlessly into a different plan and still threaten an existing plan. That's the makings of a powerful deck and something that could be possible here, I just don't think show and tell is the right plan.

[lordofthepit]

I went a somewhat disappointing 4-2 in yesterday's Card Kingdom 1k Tournament yesterday. I feel decent overall about my play, and the matchups still lead me to believe the list is well positioned in the meta. My list was a little different, incorporating some of Weapon X's suggestions to test:

2 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
1 Impulse
1 Predict
1 Split Decision

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
3 Terminus

4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Omniscience

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

// Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Firemind's Foresight
2 Flusterstorm
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Release the Ants
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wear // Tear

R1 - Chris on RUG Lands
His deck is slow and doesn't really interact. I had draws were were medium-fast and had basics, so ran him over.
1-0, 2-0

R2 - Bill on D&T
I Forced a turn 1 Aether Vial, but he slowed me down with Thalia. When I found the mana to Show and Tell, I was facing a 2-turn clock with a known Sanctum Prelate in hand. The plan was to Show Omniscience, then untap, Terminus, and hopefully buy time to find the combo, but I think I punted by fetching a Plains. He put Prelate on 6, nice read. Game 2 he mulliganned to 5, but we still had a close game. He strangely put Prelate on 1, which slowed down the Mentor I cast off of a Showed in Omniscience tremendously. However, his Palace Jailer shipped me the Monarch pretty quickly, and with a second Mentor I was just barely able to eke out lethal before his SoFI-equipped Jailer ran me out of tokens. Game 3 we had some tricksy play with Vial on 3, Prelate in hand, and a Terminus on top my library where I Disenchanted his Vial, he activated, I flipped Top to wrath a couple of his dudes. However, his Prelate on 1 again shut me down and couldn't find the win. So I guess this is how D&T wins the matchup - always draw Thalia, put Prelate on non-3s.
1-1, 3-2

R3 - Jake on D&T
This was a super tight match too, but this time I came out ahead. Game 1 he beat down with Thalia, and I was unable to draw fetches to play through his Port + double Waste. Games 2-3 are on camera: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/108137161?t=00h31m45s
Game 2 he mulled to 5 and I kept a land-heavy hand with a Ponder. I stacked wrong, drawing the Omni instead of the Cunning Wish, so I didn't have the card I wanted to pitch when he cast Thalia. That set me back, but eventually I found a deterministic win through Vryn Wingmare on board and Thalia put in of Show and Tell. The longggg tank over EE on 2 was figuring out 1) why he would tap out of Karakas with EE on 2, and then 2) deciding that it probably meant he had a backup Thalia, and 3) that I couldn't win through both Thalia and Wingmare on board. Game 3 was weird, but shows the power of Mentor in the deck. The attack with Plow on Top and 3 tokens was horrendous - I should have waited until the next turn to attack, but it worked out ok.
2-1, 5-3

R4 - Shawn (lordofthepit) on Predict Miracles
Game 1 I Forced a Counterbalance, and he didn't Force back. So when he tapped out next turn to cast Mentor, I decided to yolo shove instead of letting him untap, casting Terminus as bait, and then playing Show. The odds are close on the two options, so I went with my read. Game 2 he drew all 4 Snapcaster Mages and some interaction, which meant I had to start fighting over them. They beat me down. Game 3 we were both holding up mana representing REB and Fluster. I have a sweet setup where I could use Counterbalance as bait, Force his counterspell, Fluster his next, and if none of that worked, flip Top for a second Counterbalance, and if that didn't work, I had Show and Tell + Emrakul as the final trump next turn. He countered both Counterbalance, then followed up with a Counterbalance + Top, but I baited his Top flip with a Ponder so Show resolved, and he wasn't able to find the Terminus.
3-1, 7-4

R5 - James on Esperblade
His turn 1 Thoughtseize on my hand of Top + random garbage looked pretty good, but I was able to set up a turn 5 Show and Tell with Counterspell backup, correctly reading that he had Force in hand after he passed a turn with 2 cards and 4 mana untapped. Game 2 was a quick affair, and I basically ran him over with the combo.
4-1, 9-4

R6 - Tyler on Grixis Tezzeret
I wasn't expecting this deck so deep in the tournament, but he was running crazy hot. This match was also streamed: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/108137161?t=02h56m00s
Game 1 I got down my Top, but he had a Chalice on 1. I set up to Cunning Wish for a Wear / Tear, while he played Tezzeret. He obviously had the Force + blue card (in his deck with like 18 blue cards), then killed me. Game 2 was more of the same, he had a turn 1 Chalice with Force backup for my Force, then also had Tezzeret left to kill me. I think he made a big mistake by attacking, which allowed me to kill his Chalice on 1 by blocking with a Mentor, a fresh Monk, and two of the three dead Brainstorms in hand, but he ripped two castable artifacts in 3 draws between Dack and Baleful Strix to lethal me with Tezz.
4-2, 9-6

Well, that was it for my tournament. Tyler ended up losing in the finals to Burn, which really does seem well positioned right now with a bunch of Aluren and other BUG decks, and few Delver or fast combo.

Mulling over the results and deckbuilding:
The two D&T matches were much closer than my previous experience against them has been, but I think that overall my opponents' draws were above average (Thalia, Karakas, and Prelate every game) while mine were about average to bad. Still, cutting the fourth Terminus might be a little greedy. The Wear instead of the EE was great, pretty happy with that change. Counterspell was solid, put it to good use against Miracles and Esperblade. I'm still not sure about Impulse over the second Predict. The difference is just too marginal to say. One game I was able to Impulse two extra Omnisciences to the bottom and find a land, where Predict would have drawn me one plus a random card. Not enough data yet. Overall happy with the deck, and I think it has every chance of being a Tier 1 deck if more players picked it up.

http://i.imgur.com/XxFkf2k.gif

[thefringthing]

I picked up the cards for this at GP Louisville and have been reading over what little material you've written up about it so far. A couple of quick questions:

1) Is there a reason to play a 4/1 split of non-Strand fetchlands over 3/2?

2) How have you been sideboarding against Death & Taxes? Like Miracles would? I know you bring in the Mentors.

3) I know you think this is bad in a Reanimator-heavy metagame, but is there anything you would try other than playing a different deck? Would you go up to a third Surgical Extraction or play a 1/1 Surgical/Faerie Macabre split or something like that?

[phazonmutant]

I picked up the cards for this at GP Louisville and have been reading over what little material you've written up about it so far. A couple of quick questions:

1) Is there a reason to play a 4/1 split of non-Strand fetchlands over 3/2?

2) How have you been sideboarding against Death & Taxes? Like Miracles would? I know you bring in the Mentors.

3) I know you think this is bad in a Reanimator-heavy metagame, but is there anything you would try other than playing a different deck? Would you go up to a third Surgical Extraction or play a 1/1 Surgical/Faerie Macabre split or something like that?

1) Nope
2) Something like: +2 StP, +1 Disenchant, +2 Mentor, +1/2 EE, -3 Counterbalance, -2 Predict, -2 Force

The intuition is you can't pay the mana to Wish for an answer in the games where you actually need the answers like Plow and Disenchant.

3) More graveyard hate definitely helps. The question is cuts. Your meta will determine that.

[thefringthing]

I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

I'm testing out one Merchant Scroll over the fourth Wish as a way of making the Counterbalance curve a little better.

[ESG]

I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

This isn't so rare, actually. I've played against at least two people who blind-Predicted a 4-of. When you play more 4-ofs in your deck, your odds are much better to hit. I still choose to believe Greg is a master and could blind-Predict a 2-of just as easily.

[phazonmutant]

This isn't so rare, actually. I've played against at least two people who blind-Predicted a 4-of. When you play more 4-ofs in your deck, your odds are much better to hit. I still choose to believe Greg is a master and could blind-Predict a 2-of just as easily.

Not a master, just prescient. The spice must flow, etc.


I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

I'm testing out one Merchant Scroll over the fourth Wish as a way of making the Counterbalance curve a little better.

Good point. Oh that's an interesting idea. I actually have had several long games against Miracles and other grindy decks where I've run through all 4 Cunning Wishes, but otherwise that seems solid.

[thefringthing]

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

[.dk]

Not a master, just prescient. The spice must flow, etc.



Good point. Oh that's an interesting idea. I actually have had several long games against Miracles and other grindy decks where I've run through all 4 Cunning Wishes, but otherwise that seems solid.

I was actually testing out a Merchant Scroll in one of the Predict slots - obviously not as good for the CB curve. Usually was finding me Force of Will to backup S&T, but obviously multi-faceted. I suppose you could also run it in the 4th Terminus slot as well to help the counterbalance curve out too.

[thefringthing]

TFW opponent sees Merchant Scroll for Impulse and puts you on High Tide, then walks into a huge Terminus:
http://dailygrail.com/sites/dailygrail.com/files/imagecache/BlogImage-Large/storyimages/dune-blue-eyes.jpg

For reference, my maindeck is currently:
20 Land
4 Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will, Omniscience, Show and Tell, Sensei's Divining Top
3 Cunning Wish, Terminus, Counterbalance
1 Counterspell, Impulse, Predict, Merchant Scroll, Split Decision, Emrakul, Nahiri

[phazonmutant]

Haha this sounds so janky but I like it.

List looks reasonable.

[thefringthing]

Is Containment Priest in the board going too deep against Reanimator and Death & Taxes?

[cris_rj]

Almost completing the paper liso of the deck. I bought a personal tutor and a secound Nahiri test it !

[phazonmutant]

Is Containment Priest in the board going too deep against Reanimator and Death & Taxes?

Probably. I don't think it's good enough for D&T, and Surgical is better if you want to beat Reanimator.


Almost completing the paper liso of the deck. I bought a personal tutor and a secound Nahiri test it !

Cool! Pretty sure Personal Tutor isn't good though.

[thefringthing]

I tried my list from a previous post -1 Merchant Scroll -1 Show and Tell +1 Personal Tutor +1 Cunning Wish and thought it was fine. If it's worse than just playing 4/4/4 split of combo pieces and not worrying about the Counterbalance curve so much, it's not much worse.

[Jon]

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t35.0-12/16805496_10155026142381649_756715871_o.jpg?oh=ba2c18308134215d3ebbfa9397bc91b6&oe=58AB3D3B

Played in a monthly local event, not a large turnout due to rain and shit. Lost to the winner twice. First round and the finals.

Tried my hardest to channel my inner Hot Carl but didnt have a Vneck Tee or a sweet scaft. Shoulda been better and gone to Georgia Tech.

Lost to Team America spoiled by Dr. P
Beat Jund, 12 Post, B/W Pox, and UWR Blade.

Deck was pretty solid, not too happy about the mana base but thats fixable.

[nedleeds]

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t35.0-12/16805496_10155026142381649_756715871_o.jpg?oh=ba2c18308134215d3ebbfa9397bc91b6&oe=58AB3D3B

Played in a monthly local event, not a large turnout due to rain and shit. Lost to the winner twice. First round and the finals.

Tried my hardest to channel my inner Hot Carl but didnt have a Vneck Tee or a sweet scaft. Shoulda been better and gone to Georgia Tech.

Lost to Team America spoiled by Dr. P
Beat Jund, 12 Post, B/W Pox, and UWR Blade.

Deck was pretty solid, not too happy about the mana base but thats fixable.

1 x Pimpulse.

[thefringthing]

Maybe this has been hashed out somewhere in the Mono-Blue Omni thread, but is there any argument for replacing Eladamri's Call with Congregation at Dawn to let you find a Flusterstorm with Firemind's Foresight instead of a Brainstorm?

EDIT: I guess maybe you would still get Brainstorm anyway, since the most likely scenario where it matters is defending against Surgical Extraction? But in this case you get to save the Brainstorm to switch plans rather than use it up setting up plan A.

[kombatkiwi]

Maybe this has been hashed out somewhere in the Mono-Blue Omni thread, but is there any argument for replacing Eladamri's Call with Congregation at Dawn to let you find a Flusterstorm with Firemind's Foresight instead of a Brainstorm?

EDIT: I guess maybe you would still get Brainstorm anyway, since the most likely scenario where it matters is defending against Surgical Extraction? But in this case you get to save the Brainstorm to switch plans rather than use it up setting up plan A.

One reason might be so that you can go Wish->Call->Emrakul->Cast Emrakul which lets you cleanly beat Gaddock Teeg without having any additional cantrips available. (You put Emrakul directly into your hand without casting Firemind's Foresight. If you had e.g. Ponder in your hand you could just Wish->Congregation->Ponder->Emrakul but this might not always be an option. There are other hatebears e.g. Spirit of the Labyrinth or Leovold that stop you drawing extra cards or you might just not have an additional cantrip in your hand).

Similarly this sequence only costs you 2 mana with a Thalia in play (1 extra for Wish and 1 extra for E-Call), compared to Wish->Congregation->Cantrip-> Emrakul which costs 3 extra mana (or setting up the full Ants kill which gets taxed even more).

I'm just guessing because I haven't played an Omniscience deck before, there might be more pertinent reasons.

[thefringthing]

kombatkiwi: Hatebears are a good reason! I guess another thing is that if you cast Firemind's Foresight and they counter it, then it's a little better to have Call instead of Congregation because your next Wish will be better.

Weapon X: What's your reasoning on the Mystic Gate? Without Swords to Plowshares in the maindeck I'm having trouble coming up with enough scenarios where it's better than a fetchland.

All: Any thoughts on how to react to the rise of BUG strategies? My initial thought was to try to squeeze in a third Predict, but I'm coming around on the idea of just playing two or three Impulses over Predict, since it doesn't get shut down by Leovold and improves the "just jam" plan. Is there an argument for finding space for Blood Moons in the sideboard?

[thefringthing]

Finally upgraded to some proper Show and Tells. Just Strands left to fix.
http://i.imgur.com/vrA3tI1.jpg?1

[Weapon X]

Our meta just tends to be heavy blue. I did it as a hedge against a random choke.

[KaiSchafroth]

Less than superb 2-2 last night at FNM but felt like I lost to variance as opposed to the deck losing.

R1: Josh on Burn
G1 - Established the early CB but he was able to stick an Eidolon that turn while I was tapped and apparently no amount of top, fetch, top was finding us a damn thing (terminus, CW for Disenchant or the combo).
G2 - He kind of does his burn thing until we're down to single digits but showing in a plate of spaghetti and putting him to 3 with no board is enough.
G3 - The game went a whole 3 turns before we show him some science. He extends the hand before we can finishing covering him in ants.

R2: Shafer on SneakFit
G1 - Top-go and he starts with Therapy on Force (missing) and seeing a typical looking Miracles hand. We drop CB and then we get the first real 'wtf' of the night. GSZ for 2 meets a cold flip CW...laughter ensues from the table over since our buddy knows what we're playing. A few turns later we Predict a top away to draw the Omni and Emrakul to go with the SnT in hand.
G2 - We're a bit slow out of the gate and he's basically able to establish a bit of a grinding engine while we top endlessly for shuffle effects and pieces. He's able to stick an EWit, Sneak and PrimeTime loop with Volrath's Stronghold and we're unable to find a firm answer in time. I scoop up with a little under 10min left.
G3 - Uneventful finale for him. We T3 SnT an Omni (he puts in Sneak with two :r: available but he tells us later no threats in hand) but with access to double CW in hand we're covered.

R3: Calvin on UR Delver
G1 - His opening Goblin Guide gives us some lands (free filtering with an active top) but we end up a turn too slow despite trying to hold off with CB.
G2 - We're 3-4 turns in and a Guide shows us an EE (against his board of two Guides and two lands) while we have SnT + Emmy in hand (plus FoW, Nahiri) at 11 life. I decide to go for the gusto and put in the Emrakul instead of EE'ing. Turns out neither play mattered since he had trip bolt effects with Daze backup. Wasn't winning anyway...sigh.

R4: Andrew on Sneak & Show
G1 - Resolve an early CB and we're able to float a SnT on top for a bit. At some point he goes all-in on a Sneak (had two in hand after casting I believe with no mana up & land played) which I intentionally throw a force at instead of saving for my own turn to see where his hand is at. He forces back so we safely untap and SnT in Omni against his Emrakul. We cast our own tentacle monster and get use out of the text on the card.
G2 - We spend the first couple of turns digging, blast one of his SnT attempts but succumb to a sneaky Emrakul.
G3 - We take some poop soup mulls to 5 (both no landers) and he just has the nuts of a T2 SnT for sneak with petals, monsters and protection.

Other decks for the night: 3 DnT, 2 BR Reanimator, Stoneblade, BUG Delver, Imperial Painter, Storm, and Czech Pile.

Definitely found the deck fun and interesting to play. Besides the fun of flipping SnT to counter 3s and randomly Wishing for answers; it forced opponents/allowed me to pivot the game out of nowhere.

[mistervader]

So. Where do we go from here? I was really looking forward to running this deck. :(

[itrytostorm]

So. Where do we go from here? I was really looking forward to running this deck. :(

Another thread.

[Weapon X]

The deck was neat on paper. Gameplay I found I'd rather play miracles as it was just better at doing what this deck tries to do with fewer dead cards.

[movingtonewao]

I haven't really posted here but I really enjoyed this deck a lot. More than straight up miracles actually. Its just a shame this died just as I managed to get counterbalances and other parts in german. Phanzomutant please come up with something else :) I'll be waiting!

[icedagger]

I had just bought Omniscience and SnTs so I could run this deck.

Oh well, looks like I might end up running Omnitell instead. :(

[M1n1stry]

Personnaly i'm still brewing on this, dunno if other people are in the same case?
Replaced the countertop package with some spell pierce/swords/nahiri (as i wasnt playing her before).
And now trying also a one of Unexpectedly Absent (two may be a bit hard for the manabase but who knows) to go with the predicts (that im still testing without top and it's viable imo).
The point is to keep focusing on playing the well-known combo but with more control than classical S&T lists.

[8bit9mm]

Maybe I'm bumping a dead thread, but I've been tinkering with this list as of late.
After playing around with UB Omni for a bit (which I do still enjoy), I've decided I wanted something a little more controlling, which eventually led me here.

Instant (18)
4x Brainstorm
3x Cunning Wish
1x Flusterstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Predict
1x Spell Pierce
1x Split Decision
2x Swords to Plowshares

Enchantment (6)
2x Counterbalance
4x Omniscience

Land (19)
4x Flooded Strand
7x Island
2x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
2x Tundra

Sorcery (12)
4x Ponder
2x Preordain
4x Show and Tell
2x Terminus

Creature (5)
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Snapcaster Mage

Sideboard (15)
1x Back to Basics
2x Disenchant
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Firemind's Foresight
1x Flusterstorm
1x Intuition
3x Monastery Mentor
1x Noxious Revival
1x Release the Ants
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Trickbind

This is where I ended up after help from John Lawrence over in the Omnitell discord.
The deck feels good. It still has some clunk in it, but you've got so much card draw that you can filter away the combo (without needing top) quite effectively until you are ready to pull the trigger.
I'll keep messing around with the list to see what improvements can be made.

Maybe this falls on deaf ears, but just maybe, I'll even get some feedback here, where it all started.