[Deck] MonoU OmniTell

I've yet to 4-0 a Daily with the deck but Im still quite happy about it. Atleast 3 matches were lost to my own mistakes but about as many was won because of poor opponents. I've 3-1:ed 3 times and 2-2 twice for a total of 13-6. It's far from enough but Im sure more knowledge of the deck and better sideboarding will improve that.

How do you sideboard vs esper/uwr? Defense grid is nice for their counters but is it worthwile if they also bring discard or hatebears? Their clock is pretty slow so I was thinking that maybe we should just grind them out with superior carddraw? We run a lot of cantrips to find our Dig through times... I saw a few lists running Jace in the sideboard and I think it's quite brilliant for every grindy (non-red) matchup out there. It's also an "answer" to Reanimator (Iona on blue) and random hate-bears. Pact of Negation is poor with Jace so maybe it's enough arguments to replace them with Flusterstorm. I will give it a go.

-2 Dream Halls -3 Pact of negation +4 flusterstorm +1 intuition maindeck
-2 Flusterstorm +2 Jace, tms sideboard (and maybe Dream halls).

This is a first step for me to try and understand the differences... I then want to continue shaving stuff to find room for the 4th Dig and 2 more probes.

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Originally Posted by Mackan

How do you sideboard vs esper/uwr? Defense grid is nice for their counters but is it worthwile if they also bring discard or hatebears?

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Defense Grid usually limits UWR Delver/Stoneblade to Force of Will as meaningful interaction (assuming you're playing around Daze already). So, Combo + 1 counter is enough with the grid in play. I usually shave a Preordain, Dream Halls, and an Island to fit in 3 grids. In my list, I also cut Snare (you don't *really* care about YP) in order to bring in 2 Flusterstorm. The main thing is that you want to have the cheapest interaction possible as they're forced to spend mana on their turn to pump Swiftspear and make tokens.

As for Esper, its tougher. I think you want Snares for Meddling Mage or Stoneforge (if you have the read that you can tag it—buys you a lot of time). There's an argument to boarding in Wipe Away if they wisely name Cunning Wish before Show and Tell. I also think you want pierce/flusterstorm to combat their discard or extraction effects. Since you care about discard AND stack interaction I think you leave defense grid in the board for this one*.

WRT Pact v Flusterstorm, I think you need the ability to wish for a hard counter. Its been Misdirection for me so far, but I could also get behind bringing the Pact to the board and putting 1 Flusterstorm or Swan Song in the main.

*caveat: I do not and will not play Leyline of Sanctity.

I just played against a loam deck.

he played chalice, choke, teeg, ethersworn, and slaughter games. (those are the ones i saw, there's probably more).

How do you guys deal with so much hate.

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

I just played against a loam deck.

he played chalice, choke, teeg, ethersworn, and slaughter games. (those are the ones i saw, there's probably more).

How do you guys deal with so much hate.

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Win the dice roll, counter stuff that prevents you from winning and combo asap. Chalice @ 1 is not an issue if you can combo. Holding a cunning wish for creature bounce or polymorphist jest is a good idea. Or trickbind for some cases. S&T into Emrakul t2 can be a winner to but beware of crop rotation for karakas. Maze of ith and glacial chasm dont matter as long as the number of permanents are < 7. Going of before Slaughter Games is casted is really important here. Know when to mulligan. Fast hands with some counterspells should do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

I just played against a loam deck.

he played chalice, choke, teeg, ethersworn, and slaughter games. (those are the ones i saw, there's probably more).

How do you guys deal with so much hate.

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Play this list:

Maindeck
Sorceries (17)
3 Show and Tell
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Burning Wish
Instants (12)
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Intuition
Enchantments (4)
4 Omniscience
Creatures (4)
4 Emrakul, the aeons torn
Artifacts (4)
4 Lotus Petal
Lands (19)
4 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
4 Island
1 Mountain
2 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard
2 Boseiju who shelters all
2 Defense Grid
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Show and Tell
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Release the Ants
1 Echoing Truth
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Through the breach
1 Trickbind
1 Intuition

If you aren't playing ETI then Dig Through Time is an auto-include. It's INSANE against trigger-based hate that your opponent drops off show and tell, you can just dig/intuition in response to the trigger forever until you find what you need.

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Originally Posted by pinkfrosting

If you aren't playing ETI then Dig Through Time is an auto-include. It's INSANE against trigger-based hate that your opponent drops off show and tell, you can just dig/intuition in response to the trigger forever until you find what you need.

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I believe you, I'm waiting for the ban of DTT in modern to get my foil ones :P But even without them the deck behaves really good, if you try it you'll know. ETI it's not worth it in the current metagame.

I went 11-4 and cashed at Grand Prix New Jersey with a different version of Omnitell.

I decided to register on this site and post here since I got so much out of reading this thread and all you guys' Omnitell incites in the days leading up to GPNJ. It was a real cram session; the GP was my second-ever Legacy tournament, and I basically learned the format overnight. In hindsight, with more experience and less misplays on my part, I feel very confident I'd have gone 14-1 and top 8'd. The only player who beat me convincingly was Tom Martell. Every other match or game loss was due to mistakes on my part.

Below is my list from the GP, designed by my former teammate, Eli (who finished in 14th place with his Grixis deck). I'm posting it here and also a newly conceptualized Omni list to see if any of you want to test the ideas and report on your findings. I plan on winning the Legacy Open in Philly in January. Any input from you fellow Omni-enthusiasts would help!

OmniTell at GPNJ

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Show and Tell
4 Omniscience
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
3 Dig Through Time
2 Lotus Petal
2 City of Traitors
3 Ancient Tomb
5 Island
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

SB
3 Defense Grid
2 Flusterstorm
1 Dig Through Time
1 Intuition
1 Dismember
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Gut Shot
1 Trickbind
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ravenous Trap

This deck is simply far more consistent than the Enter the Infinite-Release the Ants decks. You get a lot less clunky, must-mulligan draws. You also get a lot more selection with the full 16 cantrips. Our thinking was, why bother with this cutesy combo of drawing our whole deck when we can simply cast Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack, annihilate all their permanents, and then dig to another Emrakul and repeat. Aside from the significant mistakes I made (being new to the deck as well as the format), I walked through the GP.

But now we're looking to make a new, perhaps even better version. This thing is completely untested, just a concept at this point. Here's a first draft:

4 show and tell
4 omniscience
2 treasure cruise
1 enter the infinite
4 personal tutor
4 gitaxian probe
4 force of will
3 Emrakul
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
3 lotus petal
4 intuition
4 scalding tarn
4 polluted delta
5 island
2 ancient tomb
2 city of traitors*
2 boseiju, who shelters all

SB

1 boseiju, who shelters all
1 gut shot
1 dismember
2 flusterstorm*
1 devastation tide
2 stifle
1 echoing truth
1 ravenous trap
2 vendilion clique
1 void snare
1 underground sea
1 massacre

Thoughts appreciated.

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OmniTell at GPNJ

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Show and Tell
4 Omniscience
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
3 Dig Through Time
2 Lotus Petal
2 City of Traitors
3 Ancient Tomb
5 Island
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

SB
3 Defense Grid
2 Flusterstorm
1 Dig Through Time
1 Intuition
1 Dismember
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Gut Shot
1 Trickbind
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ravenous Trap

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I made a post a few pages back, which you may have even read in your research, about a very similar list that I've been 4-0'ing locals with for a bit now. I based it on this list from a 60+ player tourney in Japan.

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=8495&d=248777&f=LE

I completely agree with your evaluation of the deck now, I think with the release of dig through time this list is much more explosive than previous builds. I like your addition of petals. They may be too aggressive, but they do play a great defensive role as well against pierce and daze.

On your second list, I wouldn't trade dig for treasure cruise. Dig is just so amazing at finding what you need at instant speed, which interacts great with show and tell - omniscience. Even if your opponent has some sort of trigger or a Quasali + 1 open mana, you have an instant speed free spell to look for an answer.

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Originally Posted by pinkfrosting

On your second list, I wouldn't trade dig for treasure cruise. Dig is just so amazing at finding what you need at instant speed, which interacts great with show and tell - omniscience. Even if your opponent has some sort of trigger or a Quasali + 1 open mana, you have an instant speed free spell to look for an answer.

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Yea I agree 110%...Dig was the absolute all-starin the deck day 2 of the GP. There are situations where you sort "throw" your whole hand trying to go off because you're dead next turn, and you S&T Omni into play with nothing but a Dig in hand, and that one Dig will win you the game. And as you said, the instant speed aspect of it is HUGE. There were times I'd Dig with my opponent's Thoughtseize on the stack, hit a Brainstorm and combo piece, cast Brainstorm & hide the good stuff on top...lots of scenarios where instant speed was crucial.

However, that said, the presence of treasure cruise here is because a) we're a Personal Tutor deck now, and b) in our non-ETI, less "combo-y" version, where we have a lot of redundancy in our cantrips and Personal Tutors, getting 3 cards is potentially stronger than the selective 2 of Dig. Potentially. Needs testing. I may go down to 1 Cruise as a Tutor target and go back up to like 2 Digs.

It's a fine line with Dig; the card is horrendous in the opening hand or in multiples early, yet is often crucial mid-game or when attempting to go off.

I know you guys like the DTT build.

However, you have 1 ETI, and 1 Emmy. How is that enough to get the win?

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

I know you guys like the DTT build.

However, you have 1 ETI, and 1 Emmy. How is that enough to get the win?

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3 Emrakul, not 1, so it can be Intuitioned for. The 1 of ETI is an alternate way to go off after S&Ting Omni into play. At that point you cast Emrakul, take extra turn, attack/annihilate, then cast another Emrakul. Due to legend rule, this causes the first Emmy to hit the graveyard, triggering his shuffle effect so you won't deck yourself. Then you just attack again.

The whole concept of the new list I posted (the one with Personal Tutors) is:

A) I like the versions that run Dream Halls, but alas it is too slow. By going the P Tutor route, we're improving consistency. Yes, PT puts the sorcery on top of your deck but with all these cantrips shouldn't be a problem.

B) The deck is a bit more sorcery-centric now for PT, and we got rid of the Cunning Wish/Wishboard concept. Again, this proved tempting for its versatility but too slow and mana-intensive. At GP, Wishing for answers proved 1 turn too late 90% of the time. When I did Wish, it was generally for Dig or Intuition to go off. So why not pay 1 mana from Tutor instead of 3 from Wish? In an 18-land deck every mana is precious.

C) Meddling Mage was the only real problem card for me (plus obviously Thalia and Spirit of the Labrynth). So now instead of wishing for something like Dismember, we're siding in and tutoring for Massacre, and fetching our 1-of Underground Sea.

All that said, it's possible the Pers Tutor idea is subpar. Don't know yet.

This is what I'm currently playing.

CREATURES (2)
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Omniscience
SORCERIES (16)
4 Show and Tell
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Personal Tutor
INSTANTS (18)
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Dig Through Time
3 Cunning Wish
1 Intuition
2 Flusterstorm
ARTIFACTS (2)
2 Lotus Petal
LANDS (18)
6 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
2 City of Traitors
2 Ancient Tomb
SIDEBOARD (15)
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Eladamri’s Call
3 Defense Grid
1 Intuition
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Snap
1 Rushing River
1 Trickbind
2 Flusterstorm
2 Jace, the Mind Sculpto

I also like Intuition and Personal Tutor but I think they are pretty bad in multiples. We don't really need to have a Belcher approach. Cunning Wish is a necessary evil I think... it's not great but it add some options to the deck that I like (Cunning wish replacing Emrakul is only worse if we are casting show and tell and do not have Omniscience). I've been quite unhappy with show and tell+emrakul but it's maybe more potent than I give it credit for. Basicly I replace those extra tutors/intuition with flusterstorm G1 and when it comes to game2 I have more space for additional sideboard cards. i've been extremly happy about Jace and Cage (as well as the other more standard stuff) and I actually won more than I lost to reanimator by taking the control route and side out all the show and tells... Sounds weird but it's been quite allright. Im still soft to Storm but I don't think we can turn that matchup around by anything else than Leyline of Sanctity and I don't think it's as good in this deck as in the version with halls and Enter the infinite (which is slower and need more cards to combo off (more manasources for dream halls).
Boseiju main is itnresting... Im not sure what I think of that. I have a lot of more testing, I'll report when I have some conclusions! Also, I kind of like Snap but I'll test dismember. thanks!

Cool man. Yea I had never heard of Snap...that's really good.

After further testing here's my updated list of the Personal Tutor version:


4 show and tell
4 omniscience
1 treasure cruise
2 dig through time
1 cunning wish
1 enter the infinite
4 personal tutor
4 gitaxian probe
4 force of will
3 Emrakul
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
3 lotus petal
3 intuition
2 scalding tarn
2 Misty rainforest
1 flooded strand
2 polluted delta
4 island
1 underground sea
2 ancient tomb
2 city of traitors*
2 boseiju, who shelters all

SB

1 boseiju, who shelters all
1 gut shot
1 dismember
1 flusterstorm*
1 devastation tide
1 stifle
1 echoing truth
1 ravenous trap
1 vendilion clique
1 void snare
1 massacre
1 Cunning Wish
1 Lotus Petal
1 dig through time
1 intuition

So, I can't believe I never realized this before, but Enter the Infinite = infinite turns and thus infinite damage from Emrakul attacks. And now with personal tutor it's even easier to do. I definitely should've played a single copy at the GP. 4 Personal tutor plus a bunch of singleton sorceries leads to much more consistent draws than the 4 of everything version where you're getting opening hands you have to mulligan all the time (like 2 Omni and 2 EtI and 3 lands opening Hand, for example. Or worse)

At this point the SB is basically a combo of a) cards we'll board in for Pers Tutor targets (massacre, etc) b) situational SB options (like extra lotus petal on the play vs. certain decks) and c) Cunning Wish targets.

Legacy is a powerful format. As I said, GPNJ was my first real tournament in this format, and the strength, synergy, and low mana cost of spells here is constantly amazing me. For example, having 1 of a card in Legacy is like having 3 of that card in Standard. There's just so much selection & cheap card draw, that even though I'm down to 1 Cunning Wish, I find it when I need it. When going off, and getting in a counter war, Wishing for Flusterstorm is just game over.

The Intuitions and Personal Tutors have been amazing in increasing deck consistency. Of the two different decks I posted originally, I was pretty attached to the first one because it performed so well at the GP and the tough competition I faced on Day 2. But having tested Personal Tutor a lot the last few days, I am sold. Now it's just a matter of ironing out the ideal number of certain cards (how many lotus petals, how many DTT, etc), and also to get the optimal 15 in the board that gives the most versatility as both a Wishboard and for Sorcery-sideboarding games 2 & 3.

I'm considering trying to fit in a Release the Ants in the SB, just in case I can't win by attacking with Emrakul (for whatever reason, I can't imagine). Also, if Emrakul gets extracted & exiled from the deck through some sort of Jester's Cap-type card, then EtI putting Omni back on top wins with Release the Ants. Also this would allow a Pact of Negation in the SB to Wish for while trying to go off. Although that might be unnecessary/excessive. At this point every slot in the SB is precious.

Hi everybody, I suggest taking Burning Wish topics to the U/R Omniscience thread in order not to derail the flow of discussion in this thread. Builds involving Cunning Wish should remain here, whether EtI or non-EtI.

U/R Omniscience: http://www.mtgthesource.com/Deck-U-R-OmniTell

If I were to play an Omniscience deck again, I would pick up the Cunning Wish with tool box version. No Release the Ants, I fucking hate that card. C-Wish + DTT also pairs well with Omniscience like pancakes + syrup and butter.

i've been trying to test this deck out with 2 petals, 3 probes, and 4 DTT (1 in the board)

I found it to be difficult to cast the first DTT without first having the omniscience in play. its usually just sitting in my hand for turns.

how are you guys dealing with this issue

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

i've been trying to test this deck out with 2 petals, 3 probes, and 4 DTT (1 in the board)

I found it to be difficult to cast the first DTT without first having the omniscience in play. its usually just sitting in my hand for turns.

how are you guys dealing with this issue

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I had the same problem. That is why I'm playing with only two of them and they're really sweet now. When I draw one I can almost always play it and it's never dead. I switched the remaining two for impulses. It works really fine

Edit: with the proper amount of cantrips and fetches you should be able to play one dig without any problems. I'm playing with black splash for discard so it's easier for me I suppose

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Originally Posted by Ragdoll

I had the same problem. That is why I'm playing with only two of them and they're really sweet now. When I draw one I can almost always play it and it's never dead. I switched the remaining two for impulses. It works really fine

Edit: with the proper amount of cantrips and fetches you should be able to play one dig without any problems. I'm playing with black splash for discard so it's easier for me I suppose

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care to share your list with the SB

In the 4-dig no ETI build it's replacing ETI. Drawing multiple ETI and having them sit in your hand was always a problem with this deck, but at least with dig it's castable pre-omnisicence if you need it to look for pieces. ETI will always be a dead card without a cheat spell.

I think if you're going to run some number of ETI then you definitely shouldn't also run 4 dig. If you aren't running any ETI and emrakul is your wincon, definitely run all 4 dig. It functions like ETI did after you get omniscience into play. Try goldfishing a couple games and just go for it with show and tell > omniscience > dig. You will almost always find either an emrakul, an intuition, or another set of cantrips/digs to find them.

I know how it works, but I just have a hard time playing it without a Omni in play.

Chances are with 12 cantrips, 3 more probs, you will find another DTT in there while the first sits in your hand.

FYI, i'm doing the 3 emmy and 1 eti build