[Deck] MonoU OmniTell

[Anusien]

Firemind's Foresight doesn't have anything to do with Laboratory Maniac. SB Foresight, maindeck Intuition and a 2 drop is a package you can slot into the deck. (Laboratory Maniac is another such package, and so is Emrakul, or Release the Ants). You can run FF with Release the Ants, and you can run Lab Maniac without FF. FF is intended to solve two problems:
1) Minimize the number of cards needed to go off with Dream Halls.
2) Solve the problem of you casting Show and Tell, they put in something like Ashen Rider, and you only have one business spell (so you can get either Trickbind + another Cunning Wish for your kill, or another draw spell to dig and Cunning Wish for Trickbind).

Basically, I look at it like this. Here's the core of the deck:

19 Land
4 Show and Tell
4 Omniscience
3 Dream Halls
4 Enter the Infinite
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Force of Will
3 Pact of Negation

Sideboard:
1 Intuition
1 Trickbind
3-4 Leyline of Sanctity (depending on maindeck)
3 Defense Grid
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Wipe Away
1 Pact of Negation
1 Noxious Revival

And these are the packages you can play:
Firemind's Foresight:
1 Intuition
1 Trickbind or Impulse
Sideboard: 1 Firemind's Foresight
(Optional Sideboard: -1 Intuition)

Emrakul:
1 Emrakul, Aeons Torn
Sideboard: 1 Eladamri's Call

and one of these two:
Sideboard: 1 Release the Ants

Sideboard: 1 Research // Development
1 Laboratory Maniac

And then you have a few maindeck options like
Gitaxian Probe
Leyline of Sanctity
4th Cunning Wish
20th land
Extra counters

and extra sideboard slots like
Extra counters
Sapphire Charm
Extra bounce
Extra GY hate

Obviously people have made other lists and finished with them that didn't look like this. But the point is that more than almost any other deck, the pieces are really unconnected. You could run an Emrakul with Lab Maniac. You could run Firemind's Foresight with Release the Ants. You could run both or neither. Once you have the core of the deck in place you can do whatever you like. It's mostly about what metagame you expect (the Emrakul package is good against Death and Taxes for example) and what scenarios you think are going to come up and how often.

[Esper3k]

I've also been toying around with the idea of a Hideous Laughter in the board to wish for when you're forced to drop Omni with Thalia out and you need to Cunning Wish for a sweeper for multiple hate bears / Mom protection.

[Anusien]

I've also been toying around with the idea of a Hideous Laughter in the board to wish for when you're forced to drop Omni with Thalia out and you need to Cunning Wish for a sweeper for multiple hate bears / Mom protection.

I thought this was the exact point of running an Emrakul and an Eladamri's Call. Sudden Spoiling is better than Hideous Laughter because you can cast it under Gaddock Teeg. And if you want a card you can cast with Dream Halls, you want Evacuation.

[Esper3k]

I thought this was the exact point of running an Emrakul and an Eladamri's Call. Sudden Spoiling is better than Hideous Laughter because you can cast it under Gaddock Teeg. And if you want a card you can cast with Dream Halls, you want Evacuation.

Good call on Sudden Spoiling!

I may give that one a try sometime if I throw this back together again.

[RainbowPenguin]

Hey duders.

Picked up this deck recently, ran a sub-optimal build (unfinished sideboard) to a 4-1 finish at my local game shop this past wednesday. Deck's definitely powerful.

1) Has anyone tried running Æther Spellbomb in this deck? If so, how has it been? I'm considering 1-2 in the sideboard, probably in place of slaughter pact and sapphire charm. It might cover some angles pretty well: colorless artifact, so neither Iona nor Ethersworn Canonist will stop it, and Mother of Runes will not protect anything from it. Also, it cycles if not needed. Seems good.

2) Regarding the sideboard, what would you consider the minimum Wish package? I'm thinking something like:
1 hard counter
1 intuition
1 bounce spell
1 trickbind/stifle

It seems that after that point, things become increasingly situational. Makes me wonder if it is really worth playing all of those cards over having a 'real' sideboard, or if they are mostly products of 'Wish Target Creep'. I'm strongly considering playing 1 Emrakul as my sole win condition, and even then, I'm not sure I want an Eladamri's Call in the deck. If playing against Thalia, Wish -> Intuition -> Enter the Inf -> Emrakul is only one mana more than Wish -> Call -> Emrakul, and against Teeg, it will cost a wish, an intuition or a sideboarded bounce spell/whatever. In some situations, it could also have been Forced. Not exactly insurmountable problems, right?

Just for reference, I'm considering running this:

19 lands
8 island
7 fetch
3 city of traitors
1 karakas (on the fence, could also be another fetch)

16 brokenz
4 show and tell
3 dream halls
4 omnitell
4 enter the infinite
1 emrakul

7 counters
4 force of will
3 pact of negation

18 cantrips/tutors
2 gitaxian probe
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
4 preordain
3 cunning wish
1 intuition

sideboard

3 spell pierce/flusterstorm <- against most other combo decks
2 grafdigger's cage <- against dredge/reanimator/storm/elves
2 defence grid
2 æther spellbomb
1 intuition
1 pact of negation
1 trickbind
1 wipe away?
1 rushing river?
1 noxious revival? <- kinda fringe, but really wanted the 3rd graveyard hate card, plus without leylines, I guess I need to care about discard sometimes

[Barsoom]

What about the list that's proposed on this article at SCG?; Laboratory Maniac kill, Firemind's Foresight toolbox, Flusterstorm instead of Leyline of Sanctity, Karakas against Thalia, Guardian of Thraben/Gaddock Teeg, i'm testing it on cockatrice and i'm loving it, the 4x of Flusterstorm in particular.

Here just the list if you want to see it.

[Reagens]

Recently started to play this deck as well (Lejay version for now) and I had a question.
Could someone enlighten me a little more on the sneaky show match-up? I find it very hard to play (I always seem to run into their griselbrand) and have difficulty setting up a good combo turn.

[RainbowPenguin]

Recently started to play this deck as well (Lejay version for now) and I had a question.
Could someone enlighten me a little more on the sneaky show match-up? I find it very hard to play (I always seem to run into their griselbrand) and have difficulty setting up a good combo turn.

How much have you played that matchup? And what are your approximate win-loss ratio? Could just be variance.

Otherwise: Apologies if I'm stating the obvious here, but presumably you want to get access to a Trickbind asap. If it is your opponent's turn, sorry, you're in trouble. If it is your turn, you would get priority first, so if s/he activates Griselbrand, you trickbind that, and go about your business.
As for 'setting up a good combo turn', well, There are matchups were you can wait a turn, and this is probably not one of them. They only have four copies of Griselbrand, so if you have it, go for it. That said, this is a matchup that could benefit a lot from a gitaxian probe, since they can have a lot of different kinds of counters, and playing around one may not play around another.

Feel free to be more specific and/or wait for someone who actually knows stuff.

[hanker307]

Recently started to play this deck as well (Lejay version for now) and I had a question.
Could someone enlighten me a little more on the sneaky show match-up? I find it very hard to play (I always seem to run into their griselbrand) and have difficulty setting up a good combo turn.

I have also had issues with this in the past; I have gone to 2 maindeck probes as a 'safety net' for casting SnT against them (see if they have Grizzy or not). I also find that I tend to take the Dream Halls line more often than not, as casting SnT can end very poorly. This does not always work out as they are slightly faster than you, but depending on how well they know the match-up it can be okay.

I typically side out a few SnTs in this matchup, which may or may not be correct.

[Reagens]

I haven't played the matchup a lot for now.
It was mainly based on a tournament experience last weekend where I found myself at loss how to play the match-up. I.e. I felt compelled to play the control role although that would pretty much assure that they had a griselbrand to show&tell.
For example I lost the last game because I cast defense grid in my turn (I knew he had 2 Emmies and an unknown card (no cantrips played)) and hoped he would not draw into one of 3 remaining sneak attacks. He drew one anyway and got the game. Although I guess it was the correct play I doubt if it was correct boarding.
I also find casting dream halls quite a challenge vs decks that play taxing counters. And I also fear that the inherent card disadvantage is too much against sneaky show (i.e. making you have very limited counter capability).
The things I really want to know for now are:

What is the expected win/loss ratio assuming both player know what they are doing
What is the standard boarding plan vs them
What role do you most generally assume (control or balls to the wall) assuming you don't have the nuts (I.e. turn 2 show and tell with triple counter backup)

[Poron]

the last list doesn't play Force of Will... I don't know =S

they can just counter in the last turn that way.. doesn't look like a good idea.

[Barsoom]

I need help with the side against the new Patriot (Turtenwald's), i play the Paul Mastriano and Jon Johnson list i linked above, i post it here for reference:

9 Island
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
3 City of Traitors

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Cunning Wish
4 Show and Tell
4 Enter the Infinite
4 Pact of Negation
4 Omniscience
4 Dream Halls
3 Flusterstorm
1 Intuition
1 Impulse
-----------------
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Research // Development
3 Force of Will
1 Flusterstorm
1 Firemind's Foresight
1 Intuition
1 Trickbind
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Wipe Away
1 Echoing Truth
3 Karakas

I'm 7-1 so far on Cockatrice against traditional RUG and 3-7 against this new Patriot; usually i can win or stand on g1 cause the counterspells he play are like RUG but g2 and g3 it totally rape me with multiple Meddling Mage+Pyroblast+the normal counters from his side, i side in this match like follow:
-1 Dream Halls
-1 Intuition
-1 Impulse
-1 Cunning Wish
+3 Force of Will
+1 Wipe Away/Echoing Truth (not sure about this one)

The mass counters he play PLUS Meddling Mage i think is what's so hard to beat, as i said i have not so many problems against RUG, even without Defense Grid, but maybe in this matchup the Grids are a necessity cause i cannot handle both the counters and the mages. If someone can help me or share his testing i'll appreciate.

[Esper3k]

I assume that's supposed to be 1 FoW in the maindeck, not 4?

[Barsoom]

What? the list on the SCG article plays 3 Force of Will in the sideboard, but maybe i didn't understood your question. EDIT: was an error on my side

By the way another question that maybe was asked already but maybe not, the Maniac combo consists of 2 cards, Laboratory Maniac and Research // Development, but the Ants combo consists of 2 cards too (on the 75), Release the Ants and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, cause if you clash against another Emrakul you still need your Emrakul to win the game; so without taking into consideration the other roles of Emrakul in the deck, the 2 ways to combo are exactly the same with slots occupied on the deck, or i'm missing something?

[Esper3k]

So with the RtA kill, you actually don't need Emrakul. Normally you should clash with something like EtI. Emrakul is there for the alternate Eladamri's Call route. Emrakul is indeed nice to have though for when you clash vs an Emrakul deck.

The Lab Maniac kill takes two sideboard slots vs the 1 that RtA takes, which is the primary reason to play RtA over Lab Maniac (although again the Lab Maniac kill is harder to disrupt).

[emidln]

So with the RtA kill, you actually don't need Emrakul. Normally you should clash with something like EtI. Emrakul is there for the alternate Eladamri's Call route. Emrakul is indeed nice to have though for when you clash vs an Emrakul deck.

The Lab Maniac kill takes two sideboard slots vs the 1 that RtA takes, which is the primary reason to play RtA over Lab Maniac (although again the Lab Maniac kill is harder to disrupt).

You want to side in Rushing River and Lab Man vs Meddling Mage decks. You probably also want to fix your manabase so that you can actually play Massacre in the sb to bring in if MM is a big concern.

[Barsoom]

Oh that's why they played on the SCG list one Undergroud Sea (even without a Massacre in the sideboard); i'll try it.

And about Emrakul, i don't want to bother cause it's a trivial thing but Emrakul is not just "nice to have though for when you clash vs an Emrakul deck", it's a NECESSITY in these cases, cause without it you cannot win at all these matches just with Release the Ants (you can win just if you are really lucky and they have no Emrakul in the first 20 cards).
You don't need it for the clash, you need it against an opponent Emrakul, cause without it you cannot win at all. So my point still remains, 2 cards in the 75 for the Maniac/Research, 2 cards in the 75 for the Ants/Emrakul.

[Esper3k]

Oh that's why they played on the SCG list one Undergroud Sea (even without a Massacre in the sideboard); i'll try it.

And about Emrakul, i don't want to bother cause it's a trivial thing but Emrakul is not just "nice to have though for when you clash vs an Emrakul deck", it's a NECESSITY in these cases, cause without it you cannot win at all these matches just with Release the Ants (you can win just if you are really lucky and they have no Emrakul in the first 20 cards).
You don't need it for the clash, you need it against an opponent Emrakul, cause without it you cannot win at all. So my point still remains, 2 cards in the 75 for the Maniac/Research, 2 cards in the 75 for the Ants/Emrakul.

Certainly with the RtA kill, you need Emrakul more against other Emrakul decks (there are other ways around it such as Noxious Revival to return your RtA) and I would agree it's more necessary these days with the rise of Sneaky Show + D&T, but the Emrakul is primarily there for the alternate Eladamri's Call win condition.

Again, this is why the Lab Maniac kill takes up more slots, but you get the less guaranteed kill than the RtA kill.

Anusian's post on how to view the different packages you can play is the correct one, IMO.

[downtoonelife]

I won our local Year End Legacy Tournament (47 Players) yesterday with the list below:

4 Show and Tell
4 Omniscience
3 Dream Halls
4 Enter the Infinite
1 Emarakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
1 Flusterstorm
3 Spell Pierce
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Ancient Tomb
2 Underground Sea
7 Island

Sideboard:
1 Release the Ants
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Darkblast
1 Wipe Away
1 Trickbind
1 Noxious Revival
1 Intuition
2 Swan Song
2 Defense Grid
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage

Forgive me as I don't recall much about the details of my every match so I'll just list the deck I fought against and the results.

R1 vs MUD: 2-0
R2 vs UWR Delver (probably like OwenT): 2-0
R3 vs Belcher: 2-0
R4 vs UW Stoneblade Nemesis: 1-2
R5 vs Sneak Show: 1-2
R6 vs Punishing Jund: 2-0

I landed 8th place after 6 rounds of Swiss the lone 4-2 record who made it. Top 8 decks are: 2 Sneak Show (1 of them is the person who beat me at R5), 12 Post, Dredge, Night Shift OmniTell (Me), Shardless BUG, UW Stoneblade Nemesis (the one who beat me R4) and Elves

Quarterfinals vs 12 Post: 2-0
Semi-Finals vs Sneak Show (not the one who beat me at R5): 2-0
Finals vs Shardless BUG: 2-1

This was the first time I piloted the deck. I used to play the Grixis BWish-Thoughtseize Omniscience deck before which I made it to Top 8 and a Semi-Finals appearance. I shifted to this build simply because of the Cunning Wish to Trickbind interaction.

[blindspotxxx]

I won our local Year End Legacy Tournament (47 Players) yesterday with the list below:

4 Show and Tell
4 Omniscience
3 Dream Halls
4 Enter the Infinite
1 Emarakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
1 Flusterstorm
3 Spell Pierce
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Ancient Tomb
2 Underground Sea
7 Island

Sideboard:
1 Release the Ants
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Darkblast
1 Wipe Away
1 Trickbind
1 Noxious Revival
1 Intuition
2 Swan Song
2 Defense Grid
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage

Forgive me as I don't recall much about the details of my every match so I'll just list the deck I fought against and the results.

R1 vs MUD: 2-0
R2 vs UWR Delver (probably like OwenT): 2-0
R3 vs Belcher: 2-0
R4 vs UW Stoneblade Nemesis: 1-2
R5 vs Sneak Show: 1-2
R6 vs Punishing Jund: 2-0

I landed 8th place after 6 rounds of Swiss the lone 4-2 record who made it. Top 8 decks are: 2 Sneak Show (1 of them is the person who beat me at R5), 12 Post, Dredge, Night Shift OmniTell (Me), Shardless BUG, UW Stoneblade Nemesis (the one who beat me R4) and Elves

Quarterfinals vs 12 Post: 2-0
Semi-Finals vs Sneak Show (not the one who beat me at R5): 2-0
Finals vs Shardless BUG: 2-1

This was the first time I piloted the deck. I used to play the Grixis BWish-Thoughtseize Omniscience deck before which I made it to Top 8 and a Semi-Finals appearance. I shifted to this build simply because of the Cunning Wish to Trickbind interaction.

Congrats again on the finish! Funky deck tech of Dark Blast and a more conservative combo-style rather than the "All In" build with Pacts of Negation.