I have been playing an Academy Rector/Show and Tell based Omniscience combo deck for several months. I spent many hours scouring the internet for any related decks I could find and I did find a few but nothing really worth mentioning (although if anyone has any suggesions I'm all ears!).
The idea for this deck began when a friend tried brewing an Opalescence vintage deck. He slammed some random enchantments into his deck hoping for eventually casting Replenish into an Omniscience. After some serious playtesting I convinced him that this idea wasn't competitive enough but that the idea of playing Omniscience and Acdemy Rector was worth exploring. I took to my methods of research to try and come up with some cards to help streamline this into something relevant. These were some of the cards I found:
1) Perilous Research -
Draw two cards, then sacrifice a permanent. Instant
2) Diabolic Intent -
As an additional cost to cast Diabolic Intent, sacrifice a creature. Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Sorcery
3) Read the Runes -
Draw X cards. For each card drawn this way, discard a card unless you sacrifice a permanent. Instant
4) Cabal Therapy -
Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name. Flashback—Sacrifice a creature. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) Sorcery
Now I have to interrupt my thought stream for a little background information on me. I started playing vintage in September of 2011 and was a relatively inexperienced Magic player prior to this, so although I know many of these cards have been tested in some context prior to myself trying it, I figured it would be best to post any and all ideas I had prior to my eventual decklist.
Some of the above cards really piqued my interest. I really wanted the ability to sacrifice an Academy Rector at instant speed, but the idea of Diabolic Intent was too good to pass up. Casting that spell with Rector in play is very nearly winning the game. When I initially began playing the deck I included singleton copies of Perilous Research and Diabolic Intent. The inherent problem here though is that most of these spells require you to have previously resolved an Academy Rector, which at
is no easy task. It's slow, and even slower to require spending mana and another turn to try and convert him into Omniscience, all the while hoping to dodge instant-speed graveyard interaction (Surgical Extraction, Extirpate, Rakdos Charm...)
With all of this in mind the natural movement is towards Cabal Therapy for 2 reasons. Firstly, it is a disruptive spell that is good by itself. Secondly, you can maintain priority after resolving Academy Rector and flashback Cabal Therapy and hopefully achieve the desired effect without spending more mana and another turn.
The next problem was trying to incorporate Show and Tell into the deck. While Academy Rector is a great enabler, it isn't enough by itself. Show and Tell fits nicely into the deck as an alternate way of cheating Omniscience into play, or cheating one of your other win conditions into play as a last resort. I found that it was difficult to strike that delicate balance between relevant spells and redundant do-nothing cards in your hand.
I though that drawing cards might have been the issue and I tested Mystic Remora as well as Preordain. My findings were that Mystic Remora was too slow and very easy to play around. Preordain was ok, might actually be just fine but it wasn't what I wanted. I guess the best way I can put it was I felt the best way to build the deck was to be as efficent at top-decking as possible. I'm sure that is completely wrong and probably destroys any hope of credibility I have, but I just kind of hoped that slamming as many tutors and relevant game-winning spells together as I could would prove dividends.
Without further introduction here is the decklist:
"Show Flash Photography"1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Force of Will
3 Flusterstorm
4 Academy Rector
3 Show and Tell
2 Omniscience
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Flash
1 Tinker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Echoing Truth
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Sideboard
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Energy Flux
3 Annul
4 Ravenous Trap
There are many card inclusions worth discussing. I'll start with Flash. Even though it's restricted I think Flash merits inclusion for 2 reasons: the deck plays 4 copies of Academy Rector, and you can Merchant Scroll for Flash. Giving your Merchant Scroll a high-impact, game-changing target to tutor for has been very relevant. I'll recount a game for me that occured in a game 3 of a top 4 match at Xtreme Games. On the play I kept a hand of: Force of Will, Force of Will, Merchant Scroll, Academy Rector, Black Lotus, Mana Crypt, Polluted Delta. I'm rolling the dice that Jaco doesn't have turn 0 Leyline of the Void (even though I saw it in game 2). He keeps his 7, and alas, no turn 0 plays. I lead with Delta, Crypt, crack Delta for Tundra, tap Tundra and Crypt for Merchant Scroll
floating. I scroll for Flash, cast Black Lotus, crack Lotus for
, use
for Flash on Rector. Remove Rector and put Yawgmoth's Bargain into play. Draw 7 off Bargain, use
to cast Time Walk. Go to cleanup step, discard Cabal Therapy. Untap, play Flooded Strand, crack Strand for Underground, tap Crypt, Undeground, and Tundra for Rector, flashback Cabal Therapy naming Force of Will, meanwhile puting Omniscience into play, then casting Demonic Tutor for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn...The playability of that hand was predicated on having Flash in the deck as a tutorable target for my otherwise less-useful Merchant Scroll.
The next card worth discussing is Yawgmoth's Bargain. Although this deck began with the idea of Omniscience, the deck actually seems to be centered around Bargain. Unless I have a tutor or a win condition in hand, I always Rector for Bargain. I've lost very few games with Bargain in play, lots of games with Omniscience in play.
The inclusion of Tinker/Blightsteel is worth mentioning. The deck functions just fine without it (actually opens up a few slots for hand disruption/card-drawing), but I like having it as a fall-back plan. When facing a Leyline or Rest in Peace it's really nice to just tutor up Tinker and go for it.
I wonder if the inclusion of more hand disruption is necessary (Thoughtseize?).
I'm comfortable with the amount of counterspells. I didn't want to dilute the fabric of what the deck is trying to accomplish, and I feel I do that when I try to control the game too long. Although the card disadvantage of top-deck tutors can be frustrating when you don't win battles on the stack, I've found the resiliency of the deck to be quite formidable.
The sideboard is definitely a work-in-progress!
My matchup with Prison-style Workshop decks is atrocious. I've found that after boarding the matchup is a little better with Annul and Energy Flux. I chose Annul for its splashability in the Burning Oath matchup (not sure if that's correct).
Initially I ran a Hurkyl's Recall in place of the Echoing Truth, but I needed an answer to resolved Leyline/RiP.
Griselbrand probably fits into this deck somewhere, I'm not sure where, I also then believe that the 4th Show and Tell is probably necessary.
The artifact mana for acceleration seems appropriate. Speeding out an early Show and Tell or hardcast Academy Rector is crucial. It's also not bad when you have Bargain in hand.
Gifts Ungiven is so much fun!!!! I really love that spell in this deck. It has so many uses and applications, and I love Merchant Scrolling for it. It gives you a lot of versatility when trying to shape and enable your combo while almost always resulting in winning the game with Omniscience in play.
I like the surprise factor of Ravenous Trap over Leyline of the Void, but that's a personal preference.
Racing an opposing Dark Confidant can be difficult, which has led me to bounce back and forth about running Swords to Plowshares.
It's important to note that a hardcast Academy Rector can buy you a lot of time against creature-based beatdown strategies, even Blightseel! Nobody wants to enable your combo for you.
At this point I think I've said all that I can think of about this deck. I have enjoyed playing it and would absolutely love to hear some feedback about it. I heard that a similar version of this deck with Burning Wish and Anicent Tomb was being played. I approve of both of those card choices, especially the latter. If I played this deck today I would most certainly fit 2 Ancient Tombs into it. I would imagine Enter the Infinite would be a powerful tool in the wishboard then. This is my first major post on this forum, so I hope I followed all the regulations and put the deck in the appropriate thread. I'm sorry if I didn't! Hopefully this thread will inspire some discussion that I would love to be a part of. I will check back often!
Show Posts
