OmniTell in Vintage

[Chubby Rain]

Hello, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Matt Murray and I am relatively new to the Vintage scene. I was introduced to the format by Justin Kohler about 6 months ago and most of my experience has been with Grixis Control and U/W Bomberman. This is my first attempt at building something "new". The design of the deck is heavily influenced by the mono-blue OmniTell decks that have seen play in Legacy. Brian DeMars wrote an excellent article about Legacy OmniTell on SCG, which you can view here: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27366_Life-Legacy-Are-Not-Fair.html. There have also been other OmniTell lists that have appeared sporadically in Vintage: some have splashed white for Academy Rector, others have used Mystic Remora, Tendrils of Agony, and a lower land count, functioning as more combo-oriented deck. These lists can be found at www.thecouncil.es. The purpose of this post is to generate a discussion about a concept that I feel is underexplored in Vintage and to solicit feedback from the rest of the TMD community. The deck is also a lot of fun to play, for what it’s worth. I posted a tournament report in appropriate section for those who might be interested.

This is the most recent list I played at Bloomsburg this past weekend to a 4th place finish:

4 Show and Tell
3 Omniscience
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Emrakul, the Aeon’s Turn
1 Griselbrand
1 Tinker
2 Thoughtseize
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Preordain
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Misty Rainforest

SB:
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Energy Flux
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Echoing Truth
1 Flusterstorm
1 Extirpate
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Yixlid Jailer

The Combo:
4 Show and Tell
3 Omniscience
1 Emrakul
1 Griselbrand
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Tinker (as a 5th Show and Tell)

Initially, I tried the Omniscience -> Enter the Infinite -> Cunning Wish -> Release the Ants win that is featured in the Legacy version of the deck. However, I quickly became dissatisfied with Enter the Infinite. There were too many occasions when I had Show and Tell and Enter the Infinite in hand without Omniscience. Brian DeMars in his article discusses the advantages OmniTell has over Sneak & Show in the Legacy metagame, but the Vintage metagame is quite different. Workshops and Dredge impose significant constraints on Vintage sideboards and there simply aren't that many hate cards for Emrakul and Griselbrand. Omniscience is still incredibly valuable as it allows for the deck to win instantly, ignores commonly played cards such as Jace and Duplicant, and multiples can be pitched to Force, but Enter the Infinite seemed unnecessary.

In the next version of the deck, I switched out Enter the Infinite and Cunning Wish for the current creature package and have been very happy with it. The tutors the deck plays allows for some control over which busted fatty gets put into play. Griselbrand and Emrakul are absurd with Omniscience and can be put into play via Show and Tell in a pinch. The Tinker-Blightsteel package is not as powerful, was often sided out, and could easily be replaced, but it gives the deck some redundancy against aggressive decks and often a 11/11 trampling, infect critter is good enough.

Tutors and Card Draw:
Ancestral Recall, Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Merchant Scroll, Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm, and Ponder are all pretty obvious inclusions. Gifts Ungiven is insane in this deck, both in setting up the combo and killing the opponent with an Omniscience in play. I have been very impressed with the consistency offered by 4 Preordains. The one controversial inclusion might be the 3 Fact or Fictions - when I went up to Justin and told him I had a deck that runs Fact or Fiction over Jace, his response was "Well, that seems horrible." And, indeed, Jace is definitely one of the most broken cards ever printed, but this deck doesn't have random creatures to protect Jace and the deck isn't designed to prolong the game. Fact or Fiction is instant speed (useful for baiting out counters), digs five cards deep with Omniscience in play, and the opponent very rarely will optimally separate the piles (they don’t know if you need protection or a combo-piece).

Protection and Counters:
Force of Will, Flusterstorm, and Thoughseize are all pretty intuitive. Force of Will is ubiquitous, Flusterstorm is one of the best counters available for forcing through a Show and Tell, and Thoughtseize allows you to strip threats/hate from your opponent's hand. Hurkyl's Recall was a card that I lacked in the main deck at Elmira and definitely regretted that (I lost 2 game 1's to Chalice of the Void on 3). One card that has been in and out of the deck is Mana Drain. The double blue cost made it more difficult to protect Show and Tell and I would often have to choose between casting a Preordain and holding up for Drain. On the other hand, Drain mana can fuel Fact or Fiction, I have hard-casted Omniscience off it, it's more effective used defensively on Oath of Druids and Vault/Key, and draining your own Emrakul with Omniscience in play and Yawgmoth's Will in hand is one of the most unnecessary ways to kill your opponent. I’m also not sure if I should find room for Mental Misstep I don’t care about many 1cc spells my opponent’s may play and I’m generally not too disappointed if a Preordain gets Mistepped.

The Mana and Sideboard:
Notable exclusions from the manabase are Mana Vault and Tolarian Academy. This was a hedge against Null Rod and Wasteland aggro decks like Joel’s Merfolk list. Ancient Tombs have also been great against these types of decks and the Tomb/Energy Flux sideboard plan has been really effective against the Shops match up. OmniTell can generally overcome one or two sphere effects or prison pieces and Energy Flux prevents the lock from getting out of hand. The remainder of the sideboard is pretty typical. I tried to diversify my Dredge hate, but after playing against Oath at Bloomsburg, there should probably be more Grafdigger’s Cages. I put in Echoing Truth when Justin decided that he wanted to run Peacekeeper in his sideboard as tech against Merfolk.

Impressions:
The deck is a blast to play and seems to be competitive. As it is constructed now, it seems to match up favorably against the blue-based control decks and struggles against Doomsday in particular. Shops is about 50-50 between the maindeck and the sideboard. I have not played enough against other decks to really comment on those matchups.

[JACO]

Hey there, good job with the deck. I've spent a good bit of time developing and playing the Rector Omniscience deck and enjoy it.

How were the Preordains performing for you in the tournament? I have been searching for something to create more consistency with the deck, and was thinking of turning to Preordain or Sensei's Divining Top (reusable).

I am also in the camp that would favor Jace over Fact or Fiction in this deck. Jace is very very good in the Rector Omniscience deck, as it obviously can draw cards, but also provides outs against opposing creatures that might get Show and Telled or Oathed in against you, or quick Tinker into Blightsteels, or other weird stuff that happens in Vintage.

[AmbivalentDuck]

What's Omniscience doing that Channel or Oath of Druids wouldn't do better? From what I can see, this is a very convoluted way to cheat a big critter into play.

[vaughnbros]

Its certainly a very interesting list.  The route you've gone to fight shops specifically.  Have you tried a red splash with a more traditional ingot chewer board?  That option may open your sideboard up from needing 8 cards to combat shops and also allows you to play REB which doubles as protection and hate against merfolk.

What's Omniscience doing that Channel or Oath of Druids wouldn't do better? From what I can see, this is a very convoluted way to cheat a big critter into play.

I don't follow.  Channel costs GG and 15 life to play emrakul or 12 life to play bsc and can't play the others.  In comparison with show and tell, channel is actually quite awful.  Oath also costs green mana and pretty much requires you to play orchard.  You are gaining much greater mana stability by not playing it.

[Chubby Rain]

Insert Quote
Hey there, good job with the deck. I've spent a good bit of time developing and playing the Rector Omniscience deck and enjoy it.

How were the Preordains performing for you in the tournament? I have been searching for something to create more consistency with the deck, and was thinking of turning to Preordain or Sensei's Divining Top (reusable).

I am also in the camp that would favor Jace over Fact or Fiction in this deck. Jace is very very good in the Rector Omniscience deck, as it obviously can draw cards, but also provides outs against opposing creatures that might get Show and Telled or Oathed in against you, or quick Tinker into Blightsteels, or other weird stuff that happens in Vintage.

Thanks, JACO. The Rector-Omni deck looks like a lot of fun but I don't have much experience with it. Preordains performed really well for me in the tournament. I started at two and went up to the full set. They smooth out your draws, allow you to keep a wider variety of hands, and help dig when comboing off with Omni. Sensei's Divining Top is definitely an option but requiring mana to look at the top 3 cards can be an issue when comboing off. I also thought their might be more Merfolk decks and wanted to avoid cards that get shut off by Null Rod.

As far as Jace goes, it really is hard to make an argument against him: he is one of the best cards ever printed. I thought creature decks may be on the rise after Eternal Weekend and I was afraid that Jace might end up as an expensive Brainstorm against an opponent with Merfolk or Young Pyromancers. I do have the Hurkyl's in the main and the Echoing Truth in the side to help protect against shenanigans but it is sometimes nice to have a card that can do that many things. I can say from my experience this past weekend that I was never really unhappy to have Fact or Fiction in hand.

What's Omniscience doing that Channel or Oath of Druids wouldn't do better? From what I can see, this is a very convoluted way to cheat a big critter into play.

I'm not sure Channel is a very good comparison. It's restricted which hurts consistency, it's double green which makes it harder to play in three color decks, and you're taking 15 to the dome to cast an Emrakul which is not what you want to be doing against RUG delver, for instance, that runs lightning bolt. It can be a plan B for some decks and I know some versions of Oath use Channel in the same role as Show and Tell to get around Grafdigger's Cage, but Show and Tell is much more common and plays better with Griselbrand.

Oath of Druids is definitely the card to which Show and Tell must be compared. And, honestly, I'm not sure that this concept/deck is any better than the Oath lists running around. You dodge some cards like Abrupt Decay and Grafdigger's Cage that are quite common in the metagame, you typically win on the turn you cast Show and Tell into Omniscience as opposed to having to pass the turn, and Show and Tell is blue and can pitch to force. People also don't necessarily know what you are doing as I've had a few opponents put me on Oath and side in Cages and Nature's Claims (which aren't horrible but you can generally play around it -- as the active player you will get to cast a spell first before they have an opportunity to cast Nature's Claim and you can cast another Omni or Fatty and still be way ahead).

[Chubby Rain]

Its certainly a very interesting list.  The route you've gone to fight shops specifically.  Have you tried a red splash with a more traditional ingot chewer board?  That option may open your sideboard up from needing 8 cards to combat shops and also allows you to play REB which doubles as protection and hate against merfolk.

I thought about adding red but I was curious as to whether I could keep the deck two-colored and still be competitive against shops. I'm glad I tried this out as Energy Flux and Ancient Tombs both overperformed. Merfolk hasn't picked up yet like I thought it might (apparently Joel isn't winning enough with deck...), and I haven't had an opportunity to play that match up.

[Samoht]

Preface: 0 testing with this particular build, just pure theory here. My attempts at SnT based decks had a different methodology for setting up and don't really apply to the following.

How often is it that you find yourself with both Omniscience and one of the targets when resolving Show and Tell? Do you think that seeing as you are essentially skipping the EtI combo side of the Legacy version that you could just move further along the path to a Show and Tell deck that forgoes Omni entirely and just focuses on cheating in broken creatures and or Bargain/Sneak Attack? That could even be something featuring a reanimate package (to capitalize on FoF and GU). It might be more streamlined. Sure you lose the Emrakul Time Walk but you also cut out a step that could be critical. I guess the crux of it comes down to how many times have you had SnT and Omni but fizzled?

I think you are underplaying Cage in the SB. Seeing as you are much further in on the SnT plan, forcing Oath to go that route makes your game a ton more powerful.

[Aaron Patten]

Loving the name.  Kit Ramsey is boss.  

Have you considered playing both fact and jace?  The reason I ask is that if jace is able to stall for one turn then he lets you see only one less card then fact but is not as good once you're in the digging phase of going off.  You could split that slot and that way you would be capitalizing on jace's versatility and still having the digging power of fact.  He's also a permanent and therefore a reason for your opponent to counter show and tell if you've got nothing else.  Needing to play jace for 1 less mana is a corner case but corner cases win games and it's not like it's really costing you much.

Also, drain is really key against workshop since it lets you play a spell through spheres and keep a threat off the table all at the same time, never mind all the colourless mana in the casting costs of cards in your deck.  I'd try to make room for that one.  Giving up one turn worth of tempo in your Pre-ordains has got to be worth it. 

[mmcgeach]

A good deck based on show and tell w/o omniscience is here:  http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44327.0

That's a storm combo deck, of course, but one that can go off with just show and tell into bargain or griselbrand.  I ran it for a while and it was very good, until everyone I played with started over-preparing for storm.  I'm interested to try this version of show-and-tell combo, however, because it does seem like there's some gains to be made by going into a straight blue combo deck.

Although, it does seem like this is trading a two-card combo for a three-card combo.  Which would seem bad, except that it comes with increased resiliancy.

edit: also I agree that fact is better than jace here.

[tribet]

you would be capitalizing on jace's versatility.  He's also a permanent and therefore a reason for your opponent to counter show and tell if you've got nothing else.  Needing to play jace for 1 less mana is a corner case but corner cases win games and it's not like it's really costing you much.

If you mean Show & Telling Jace into play, that is not possible: Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, or Land card only. The card is from 98.

[Chubby Rain]

Preface: 0 testing with this particular build, just pure theory here. My attempts at SnT based decks had a different methodology for setting up and don't really apply to the following.

How often is it that you find yourself with both Omniscience and one of the targets when resolving Show and Tell? Do you think that seeing as you are essentially skipping the EtI combo side of the Legacy version that you could just move further along the path to a Show and Tell deck that forgoes Omni entirely and just focuses on cheating in broken creatures and or Bargain/Sneak Attack? That could even be something featuring a reanimate package (to capitalize on FoF and GU). It might be more streamlined. Sure you lose the Emrakul Time Walk but you also cut out a step that could be critical. I guess the crux of it comes down to how many times have you had SnT and Omni but fizzled?

I think you are underplaying Cage in the SB. Seeing as you are much further in on the SnT plan, forcing Oath to go that route makes your game a ton more powerful.

Those are good thoughts and I would be interested to see your Show and Tell decks. However, in my experience I wouldn't cut Omniscience - you need it to dodge, Jace, Duplicant, Revoker and Needle on Grislebrand, Oath of Druids, etc. These are corner cases but they happen more frequently than fizzling with Omni. In the two tournaments I played, I dodged Duplicant 3 times, Jace twice, and never fizzled once. Fact or Fiction and Preordain are both excellent at digging when an Omniscience hits play, Gift's Ungiven wins the game, Merchant Scroll wins the game, Demonic Tutor wins the game, Mystical/Vampiric Tutor + cantrip win's the game, Yawgmoth's Will probably win's the game depending on what's in your graveyard. Even if you fizzle you can cast counters for free to disrupt your opponent for a few turns to draw into the win.

Regarding Cage, I think you are right but the Oath player can still Oath into Griselbrand and then put him into there hand. It makes going off a little bit more awkward but there are ways to play around it and definitely improves the matchup.

[Aaron Patten]

you would be capitalizing on jace's versatility.  He's also a permanent and therefore a reason for your opponent to counter show and tell if you've got nothing else.  Needing to play jace for 1 less mana is a corner case but corner cases win games and it's not like it's really costing you much.

If you mean Show & Telling Jace into play, that is not possible: Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, or Land card only. The card is from 98.

Ah...  right.

[Chubby Rain]

Although, it does seem like this is trading a two-card combo for a three-card combo.  Which would seem bad, except that it comes with increased resiliancy.

Thanks for posting the link. It should be noted that you can still Show and Tell in Emrakul or Griselbrand and probably win the game 80-90% of the time depending on the opponents draws. If you can Show and Tell in an Omni with some action, your win % goes up near 100%. They never get another turn to Jace your guy, Duplicant doesn't work, Revoker/Needle doesn't stop you from going crazy with Fact or Fiction and a bunch of tutors.

I think this version of the deck has a better matchup against the shops and blue control decks that you mentioned. The sideboard package has been great against shops and drop and Omniscience invalidates a lot of their sphere effects. The full package of Preordains is helpful against blue by allowing you to sculpt your hand, eot Fact or Fiction's bait out counters or load your hand with redundant copies, and it's pretty easy to go off with double counter backup. I also think Show and Tell needs to be a 4 of in the deck, as you said extra copies can normally be thrown out for the opponent to counter.

[dangerlinto]

This is the kind of list I think Lim-Dul's Vault was made for.  You can afford a little slow rolling with the kind of wins the deck can hit, and the tangled web of win cons means lining up the 5 cards should be worth the extra black mana.  Might be worth testing

And then you can shout "Gotcha, Suckers!" when you win...

[vaughnbros]

After watching you play the deck a few games and having the chance to talk to you about it I've brainstormed some ideas to improve the deck...

Impulse over some of the fact or fictions/merchant scroll.  Compared to fact, for only 2 mana, making it playable turn 1, you still have the digging potential very close to the same digging potential, except that now you can use it to set up more turn 2 show and tells.  Impulse also does not reveal versus fact.  Its not as powerful late game since you don't have the ability to get multiple cards, but it could potentially speed your deck up a few turns.

Multiple copies of Griselbrand/Yawgmoth's Bargain instead of multiple copies of Omniscience.  Griselbrand and Bargain should set you up with omniscience on the same turn or the next turn, whereas the reverse is not necessarily true.

Mana vault.  This allows you to power your show and tell through strip effects, sphere effects, chalice at 0, and flusterstorms.