I've encountered Omniscience decks with Show and Tell and Academy Rector in the past, but the other day I played against a truly dedicated version. It was 5-colors with Child of Alara. It didn't matter what deck I threw up against it, I was beat. Tried my control Nin, the Pain Artist deck. Nope, just too much going on to stop everything. Zur the Enchanter reanimator control. Nope just not quick enough.
I quickly took to heart the saying "If you can't beat them, join them", and so here is the result and I'm pretty excited to show you what I've come up with.
The whole purpose of the deck is to cheat in Omniscience, not a new idea, but I've got some spicy angles to the concept which I believe make it even more competitive and fun than anything I've seen before. I've named it OmniTutor in the likeness of the legacy OmniTell deck.
Lets get to the heart of the deck. This deck is about searching for cards in your library, all day, every day. 23 of them to be exact. Sounds like a lot? It is a lot. This deck is built to manipulate your hand, library and graveyard to cheat in Omniscience, to hopefully protect it, and most importantly win on the spot.
I've decided that white, blue, black and green are the key colors for this deck archetype. Red has little to offer this strategy in my opinion. Only really Gamble, and actually it really is a gamble, as you are looking to get two particular cards into your hand, so losing one do to randomness is a bit too much.
So lets look at the usual suspects when it comes to normal EDH decks getting Omniscience into play.
This deck however has a myriad of ways of getting it into play.
How do you win?
Once Omniscience is in play we need a business card in hand to make it all worth while. The beauty of this deck is that it has 14 cards that allow you to get Enter the Infinite into your hand immediately. Another 7 allow you to get a win condition on top of your library, so with some card draw this is now 21 cards in the deck that win you the game once Omniscience is down.
Once you draw your deck, it has Beacon of Tomorrows for infinite turns. Cyclonic Rift to clear the opponents board if needed, and just simply attack with your commanders or probably more likely a Rune-Scarred Demon to kill everybody with infinite turns.
I've made sure the win-con is as streamlined as possible for this deck. When I first made the deck, the win-con was Doubling Season, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Architect of Thought. Get a Tamiyo emblem then proceed to play out everybody else decks with Jace ultimate infinitely. Certainly fun and style points, but I decided that all three of these cards are not particular useful by themselves.
So in the end I went with just Beacon of Tomorrows. Its a one card win-condition and so allows for streamlining the rest of the deck, making Doomsday piles as efficient as possible as well. Oath of Druids
I've got a lot of experience with a brew that I would consider a 75% power-level, which is an Oath of Druids planeswalkers deck, that only has 2 creatures, Rune-Scarred Demon and Sidisi, Undead Vizier, so that the Oath trigger is always a tutor. The idea is to get a graveyard that you can recur to do broken stuff.
It seemed like a natural fit into this deck as I have no need of other creatures, and is another tutoring effect. Oath of Druids basically not only becomes a tutoring card, but also a means of using the graveyard to setup a win. This is the version I'd make if I was going for 100% power-level.
There are 3 creatures in the deck. You have Academy Rector, Rune-Scarred Demon and Sidisi, Undead Vizier. So you have a 2/3 chance of hitting a tutor effect. Getting the Academy Rector into play off the Oath isn't the worst, but without a sacrifice outlet, is pretty hard to get it to the graveyard in a timely fashion.
It might be that you have to wait for another Oath trigger to get the tutor effect. Phyrexian Tower can be used to bin him.
Wait Omniscience went to the graveyard during one the Oath of Druids triggers! No problem, off the Rune-Scarred Demon or Sidsi tutor we can get either Replenish, or if that has also gone to the graveyard, we can tutor for Noxious Revival or Reclaim to put Replenish back on top during upkeep, so you can draw it for your turn.
You can get the additional benefit that you get a Greater Auramancy or Sterling Grove from the Replenish as well, so spot removal can be negated.
There is even a Forbidden Orchard in the deck in case you need to give your opponents a creature, but realistically in multiplayer there is always going to be a creature in play. Doomsday
This deck has some Doomsday piles that will win you the game if you get to untap with as little as 3 mana. Obviously Doomsday piles can matter and be selected according to what you have in hand, but these are some that assumes you don't have anything in hand to help.
Brainstorm, Academy Rector, Flash, Beacon of Tomorrows, Omniscience.
Play Brainstorm, picking up Academy Rector, Flash, Beacon of Tomorrows. Put two cards back on top of library. Flash the Academy Rector to get Omniscience into play, then cast Beacon of Tomorrows. There will be a 1/3 chance of picking up Beacon of Tomorrows in your extra turn. You want to already have Thrasios, Triton Hero in play, so all you need is 4 mana to activate his ability in the extra turn to make sure you get the Beacon of Tomorrows as you can Scry 1. Even Tymna the Weaver ability could possible get you the draw. Otherwise Sylvan Library or Sensei's Divining Top in play will do it as well.
Other possible piles are: Brainstorm, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Beacon of Tomorrows, (any card that you might need for the situation). This one requires 4 mana and is a little bit more risky with the Show and Tell, but allows you to include a card in case you need for example disruption or removal. This last card could be a counterspell, hand disruption, or Cyclonic Rift if there is something preventing you from being able to win with infinite turns.
I looked at Shelldock Isle as a possible alternative selection for a Doomsday pile, but the fact that it comes into play tapped means that you would have to wait another turn, which just isn't going to cut it. Birthing Pod
Counterspells
The deck has 7 cheap counterspells to help you get your own combo off, rather than disrupting what the opponents are doing. The requirements for counters in this deck is that the only require 1 blue plus any other color. Its a 4-color deck, so realistically having 2 blue spare for say a Mana Drain, just isn't optimal. A Show and Tell or a Flash is going to require at least 1 blue, so having 3 blue would be a pain to get consistently.
Commander/Generals
The commanders Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver are themselves not that important to the deck, but I've decided that these two are the best for the given strategy. The reason for these two is that having some potential extra draw in the early game is helpful. Thrasios ability can help you to draw for the on top of library tutors. The other great aspect of having cheap mana costing commanders is that the cards Cabal Therapy and Diabolic Intent become excellent. Tymna the Weaver converted mana cost of 3, is essential for the Birthing Pod combo as well.
There are a few interactions with Tymna the Weaver lifelink that can play a role when you have your win conditions resolve. Mana Crypt with infinite turns is a problem. So you can gain 2 life a turn and do the on average 1.5 damage a turn, so statistically you should be nudging ahead with life over the course of many turns, but the Gods are cruel sometimes. Also if you have Necropotence in play, you need to be able to spend a life for each of your infinite turns to draw the Beacon of Tomorrows. Her life gain will allow you to do this.
Why is this deck so good?
With just so many cards to manipulate your hand, library and graveyard, its really a very hard strategy to stop. It has a lot of cheap counterspells and has hand disruption for the untapped opponent to make sure you can get around their disruption, when attempting to combo off.
Another huge strength is that its basically a creature-less deck. It just about doesn't care about creature removal. When you look at some top tier decks, even Zur the Enchanter and Narset, Enlightened Master are creatures that can be removed.
I have a Hermit Druid deck, which plans to win on the spot if you get to tap the Hermit Druid. However this type of deck is just so much weaker because it has to withstand creature removal and graveyard removal.
Although there is a reasonable amount of graveyard recursion in this deck, but its not that soft to graveyard hate. You don't need to take that line, if you are playing against a lot of graveyard removal. If an opponent plays out a Relic of Progenitus, Deathrite Shaman, etc, then you won't be taking the Oath of Druids or Replenish line.
The very nature of "cheating into play", means that this deck can operate on a relatively low amount of mana. There are a few mana accelerators, but this deck doesn't rely on them to do its thing. This means its not weak to artifact removal or Stax.
It just so damn fast as well. If gone unchecked by opponents you can constantly win on turn 3. Turn 2 wins are possible, and in fact there are a number of ways to get it. And yes you can do a first turn win with the perfect cards. So you force your opponents to have something. Even if you are disrupted and you fail to get the combo, there are so many tutor cards in the deck that just one can get you back into setting yourself up again. This is the strength of the cards such as Replenish, Yawgmoth's Will and Seasons Past.
There is a surprising amount of difficult decisions (skill) in making sure every tutor you do, is the correct choice.
Your hand is obviously the starting point of which line you might want to try for. Specific tutors for particular card types can decide which route you might go.
I think the safest route is the Academy Rector and then especially using Flash, as its the cheapest method to combo, meaning you can have up potential disruption as well. Playing out Academy Rector without a sacrifice outlet is quite risky. A Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile can stop his ability. But sometimes maybe in desperation, you just cast it, to hold off attacks. So its better to think of Academy Rector as a two card combo needing Flash, Phyrexian Tower or Birthing Pod.
Show and Tell and Omniscience is a quick line that has a lot of extra tutors for sorcery and enchantments. So this can be dictated by what you can search for to do this line. The risk when a Show and Tell resolves, is that an opponent chooses a card that can remove Omniscience, like a Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, Aura of Silence or even Terastodon! A Sterling Grove or Greater Auramancy in play can help to negate that type of effect.
Entomb and Replenish is a line that can be done. Either one of these that you naturally draw can lead to an easy tutor for the other piece.
Oath of Druids is another line that is excellent, because in theory just the one card can get you to your combo. But this needs to be sculpted over a couple of turns. So if your table puts a creatures into play early, then you can turn your Enlightened Tutor into a turn two Oath of Druids. Playing Oath of Druids into a board with no creatures, can mean that people will potential hold off on playing creatures, but you could potentially use this to your advantage.
The Doomsday line is the riskiest in my opinion, as it will require a round of other player turns, before you'll be able to combo off. Unless its much later in the game and you have more mana available and draw in hand to win on the spot. So this is a big judgement call. You should have either enough information about opponents hands or just make the call to risk it. Of course you will get games, where you have a dark ritual and a doomsday in hand. If you have a draw card or tutor that puts a card into your hand, then you can get the win on turn 2, otherwise you'd have to wait until the 3rd turn to win. A first turn Doomsday pile could be: Brainstorm, Mana Crypt, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Beacon of Tomorrows, if you have the draw or tutor as I mentioned, because you will not have the Beacon of Tomorrows in hand.
Birthing Pod is another single card that can get you the win. You will need another turn round, so there is an opportunity for opponents to remove the Birthing Pod or exile the Academy Rector during that round.
The hand disruption can give you the important information from an opponent as well as remove potential disruption, which can help you make the decision to go for the combo. In a four player game for example, you'll often get 2 players who have tapped out, with maybe 1 player who is holding up spells at the time you want to try and win. On this note Telepathy is a really useful card for getting perfect information on all your opponents.
Often you'll have a natural win condition in your staring hand and/or draw. For example you might have a Birthing Pod or Oath of Druids in hand. You can then use your tutors to get protection instead. Whether its a Sterling Grove or counterspell or two, depends on what you might think opponents have.
Necropotence is another line that I often take. The reason that this deck is so good is that it only requires 2 mana in theory to combo off!
"How many cards should I draw with Necropotence?" - the answer for this deck, is what is the minimum amount of life you think you can have to survive the round. You should be winning the following turn, so its just a case of how much damage do you think can come your way during that round. You are sculpting your hand for, obviously getting Omniscience into play and as much disruption that you can cast to stop your opponents..well from stopping you. I have happily drawn 25 cards off Necro, going from 35 life to 10, as I've accessed the amount of damage that could be applied during the turn. The thing you have to watch out for is that often you'll draw your win-conditions, so Enter the Infinite and Beacon of Tomorrows. This will take up slots in your 7 in hand, that you'd prefer were disruption. Another thing to keep in mind is your mana requirements, if the Necro is a very early one. Remember to make sure you keep a mana source or two in the scenario where you'll need it to combo off.
Intuition is one of the trickier tutors in the deck, and I made sure to design some aspects of the deck to make this card better. Having at least 3 of cards that function similar is import when it comes to card choices. It might be that you just want to turn the card into an all purpose tutor, so you might select Demonic Tutor, Vamperic Tutor and Grim Tutor for example. Sometimes you might want to get a counterspell, so Swan Song, Dispel, Arcane Denial. Hand disruption is another one; Duress, Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy. You could also make your opponents pick their poison with Doomsday, Oath of Druids or Birthing Pod. I've used it to get three lands as well, when I've needed to fix my colors. Intuition is also an important card in the deck because it allows you to turn Merchant Scroll and Mystical Teachings into a catch all card. Maybe one of these is your business card during a resolved Omniscience, so it means that you can get Intuition off these cards turning them into a tutor for any card.
It must be noted that although Diabolic Revelation is a powerful tutor as it can get you multiple cards, you can't use it with Omniscience. So you need to be careful that you do not sequence it so that its your business card once the Omniscience is in play. But I've kept it in the deck, because its a single card that can potentially win or get you back into a game.
What cards can't you beat? Aven Mindsensor, Mindlock Orb, Stranglehold. Unless you counterspell or remove them from hand before you combo off, its game over man! Gaddock Teeg is a pain for sure. He will make you play a long game, where you have to time a Cyclonic Rift. Praetor's Grasp, Sadistic Sacrament. If a player knows what to go for..hint removing Omniscience or Beacon of Tomorrows will probably do it. #feelsbadman
Whats not in the deck?
Shouldn't a creature-less deck run a creature board wipe or two? It's tempting to have a Toxic Deluge and Damnation, but his deck wins on the spot, so removing creatures to "buy time" is not really what this deck cares about.
It literally has the one answer for the permanents with Cyclonic Rift. I had Beast Within as a catch-all answer for cards as well, but in the end I found it better that because the deck is a toolbox, just the one card is needed, and that you time it correctly, so that you're winning on the spot after the removal.
This deck is a race, and this is the Usain Bolt of the commander format. You only care about getting stopped yourself.
No Laboratory Manic? With Oath of Druids, Laboratory Manic is not a creature you want to hit off it, and otherwise its such a dead draw in the setup parts of games.
No poor-man Bomberman? The not quite so good version of the Vintage Auriok Salvagers and Black Lotus, has Lion's Eye Diamond instead, could be an alternative victory condition, especially with Oath of Druids in the deck. But this deck is designed not to be weak to creature removal and would be clunky with the Oath of Druids, with wanting a tutor effect consistently. The less random the deck is the better.
How about Ancient Tomb, Strip Mine and Reliquary Tower? Colorless land is too much of a setback for this deck to consistently have the colored mana to combo quickly. It already has Phyrexian Tower and Cavern of Souls that are colorless, so can't have any more. I did have Ancient Tomb in the deck for speed, but I cut it in the end.
Cards on my Radar: Sleight of Hand - with so many tutors that go to top of library, having cheap draw is very beneficial Eldritch Evolution - can turn Tymna the Weaver into a Sidisi, Undead Vizier, which is basically another tutor for 3 mana. Or get Academy Rector into play.
Or if Academy Rector is already in play can turn into the Sidis and Omniscience win on the spot.
First off, it's nice to see the amount of effort you put into writing this, but I have to say that the deck would be better off with a few less tutors. I've played OmniRector in EDH for quite a while and I found it better to balance the amount of tutors.
In my signature you can find the list for my deck. I hope it helps you to improve yours.
Dark Triumph is interesting, never seen that card before. Zero mana sacrifice outlet is certainly worth considering.
In my opinion you can never have enough tutors. Even the expensive ones are good in my deck, because once Omniscience is in play you can turn them into a win.
I took out the Boseiju, Who Shelters All in favor putting in City of Solitude as you want to get multiple spells resolved in a turn, so just getting the one spell is useful, but doesn't help with potential further spells.
I've added Birthing Pod to the deck as its another standalone win condition over 2 turns. You can sacrifice Tymna the Weaver to get Academy Rector. Then next turn you can sacrifice Academy Rector to get Sidisi, Undead Vizier, getting Omniscience and Enter the Infinite for the win.
so if I'm reading your deck right you want to get out omni->eti->beacon of tomorrows cycling and then attack for the win with your generals?
That seems a bit excessive and fragile. What happens should omniscience/enter the infinite/beacon of tomorrows be exiled?
I like the 5c version cause it enables so much more compact wins and can get rid off most of the expensive cards, thus enabling it to play Ad Nauseum and Conflux, but the choice is yours. I hope the deck will work as well as it can. You can always post it on reddit in the r/cEDH sub where people that are into these kinds of decks gather. You may even get some suggestions.
If you at any point decide that you want to improve the deck with somebody elses help, then feel free to shoot me a pm.
Yes just the 1 win condition. The thing is that putting in additional win conditions isn't worth it as Omniscience can just be removed anyway, so there is no point in trying to be tricky with protecting against exiling from library cards.
I think 5 color mentality is just left over from only having 5 color generals in the past. 4 color is for the new breed of player, and you'll find mana bases are more consistent and realistic for a lot of combo based decks. Give partners and 4 color generals a try for older decks and you won't be disappointed. Conflux is a neat card, but not worth it for the overhead of running another color.
so if I'm reading your deck right you want to get out omni->eti->beacon of tomorrows cycling and then attack for the win with your generals?
That seems a bit excessive and fragile. What happens should omniscience/enter the infinite/beacon of tomorrows be exiled?
I like the 5c version cause it enables so much more compact wins and can get rid off most of the expensive cards, thus enabling it to play Ad Nauseum and Conflux, but the choice is yours. I hope the deck will work as well as it can. You can always post it on reddit in the r/cEDH sub where people that are into these kinds of decks gather. You may even get some suggestions.
If you at any point decide that you want to improve the deck with somebody elses help, then feel free to shoot me a pm.
Yes just the 1 win condition. The thing is that putting in additional win conditions isn't worth it as Omniscience can just be removed anyway, so there is no point in trying to be tricky with protecting against exiling from library cards.
I think 5 color mentality is just left over from only having 5 color generals in the past. 4 color is for the new breed of player, and you'll find mana bases are more consistent and realistic for a lot of combo based decks. Give partners and 4 color generals a try for older decks and you won't be disappointed. Conflux is a neat card, but not worth it for the overhead of running another color.
Thank you for your explanation. But if you actually checked my list you'd see that I can still win even if Omniscience is exiled (Ad Nauseum + Angel's grace -> Sickening dreams) That is the only reason why I brought that up.
About 4c vs 5c commenders, trust me I've played my fair share of games vs and with 4c commanders either as 1 commander or as partners, but in your case they don't bring anything to the game plan. Why would you want to play them? For Tymna you don't have enough creatures to consistently draw from her and for Thrasios your deck is not really built to use him, so why not simply play Atraxa instead?
All in all, I can see I won't convince you and you that you do gain a lot with just adding 1 more color and 2 more OG duals and your version simply doesn't convince me that it's good enough to be run.
I play Thrasios, Triton Hero as a cheap sacrifice outlet for Diabolic Intent and Cabal Therapy and a weird situation with Doomsday where the Scry 1 matters in some situations for infinite turns (getting through the Doomsday pile). I use Tymna the Weaver for her CMC for Birthing Pod to get Academy Rector.
I'm now running 32 lands, just spent way too many games mulling due to not enough lands in starter.
I quickly took to heart the saying "If you can't beat them, join them", and so here is the result and I'm pretty excited to show you what I've come up with.
The whole purpose of the deck is to cheat in Omniscience, not a new idea, but I've got some spicy angles to the concept which I believe make it even more competitive and fun than anything I've seen before. I've named it OmniTutor in the likeness of the legacy OmniTell deck.
Lets get to the heart of the deck. This deck is about searching for cards in your library, all day, every day. 23 of them to be exact. Sounds like a lot? It is a lot. This deck is built to manipulate your hand, library and graveyard to cheat in Omniscience, to hopefully protect it, and most importantly win on the spot.
I've decided that white, blue, black and green are the key colors for this deck archetype. Red has little to offer this strategy in my opinion. Only really Gamble, and actually it really is a gamble, as you are looking to get two particular cards into your hand, so losing one do to randomness is a bit too much.
So lets look at the usual suspects when it comes to normal EDH decks getting Omniscience into play.
Show and Tell + Omniscience
Academy Rector + Flash
Academy Rector + {sacrifice outlet for getting to graveyard from play}
This deck however has a myriad of ways of getting it into play.
How do you win?
Once Omniscience is in play we need a business card in hand to make it all worth while. The beauty of this deck is that it has 14 cards that allow you to get Enter the Infinite into your hand immediately. Another 7 allow you to get a win condition on top of your library, so with some card draw this is now 21 cards in the deck that win you the game once Omniscience is down.
Once you draw your deck, it has Beacon of Tomorrows for infinite turns. Cyclonic Rift to clear the opponents board if needed, and just simply attack with your commanders or probably more likely a Rune-Scarred Demon to kill everybody with infinite turns.
I've made sure the win-con is as streamlined as possible for this deck. When I first made the deck, the win-con was Doubling Season, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Architect of Thought. Get a Tamiyo emblem then proceed to play out everybody else decks with Jace ultimate infinitely. Certainly fun and style points, but I decided that all three of these cards are not particular useful by themselves.
So in the end I went with just Beacon of Tomorrows. Its a one card win-condition and so allows for streamlining the rest of the deck, making Doomsday piles as efficient as possible as well.
Oath of Druids
It seemed like a natural fit into this deck as I have no need of other creatures, and is another tutoring effect. Oath of Druids basically not only becomes a tutoring card, but also a means of using the graveyard to setup a win. This is the version I'd make if I was going for 100% power-level.
There are 3 creatures in the deck. You have Academy Rector, Rune-Scarred Demon and Sidisi, Undead Vizier. So you have a 2/3 chance of hitting a tutor effect. Getting the Academy Rector into play off the Oath isn't the worst, but without a sacrifice outlet, is pretty hard to get it to the graveyard in a timely fashion.
It might be that you have to wait for another Oath trigger to get the tutor effect. Phyrexian Tower can be used to bin him.
Wait Omniscience went to the graveyard during one the Oath of Druids triggers! No problem, off the Rune-Scarred Demon or Sidsi tutor we can get either Replenish, or if that has also gone to the graveyard, we can tutor for Noxious Revival or Reclaim to put Replenish back on top during upkeep, so you can draw it for your turn.
You can get the additional benefit that you get a Greater Auramancy or Sterling Grove from the Replenish as well, so spot removal can be negated.
There is even a Forbidden Orchard in the deck in case you need to give your opponents a creature, but realistically in multiplayer there is always going to be a creature in play.
Doomsday
Brainstorm, Academy Rector, Flash, Beacon of Tomorrows, Omniscience.
Play Brainstorm, picking up Academy Rector, Flash, Beacon of Tomorrows. Put two cards back on top of library. Flash the Academy Rector to get Omniscience into play, then cast Beacon of Tomorrows. There will be a 1/3 chance of picking up Beacon of Tomorrows in your extra turn. You want to already have Thrasios, Triton Hero in play, so all you need is 4 mana to activate his ability in the extra turn to make sure you get the Beacon of Tomorrows as you can Scry 1. Even Tymna the Weaver ability could possible get you the draw. Otherwise Sylvan Library or Sensei's Divining Top in play will do it as well.
Other possible piles are:
Brainstorm, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Beacon of Tomorrows, (any card that you might need for the situation). This one requires 4 mana and is a little bit more risky with the Show and Tell, but allows you to include a card in case you need for example disruption or removal. This last card could be a counterspell, hand disruption, or Cyclonic Rift if there is something preventing you from being able to win with infinite turns.
I looked at Shelldock Isle as a possible alternative selection for a Doomsday pile, but the fact that it comes into play tapped means that you would have to wait another turn, which just isn't going to cut it.
Birthing Pod
Counterspells
The deck has 7 cheap counterspells to help you get your own combo off, rather than disrupting what the opponents are doing. The requirements for counters in this deck is that the only require 1 blue plus any other color. Its a 4-color deck, so realistically having 2 blue spare for say a Mana Drain, just isn't optimal. A Show and Tell or a Flash is going to require at least 1 blue, so having 3 blue would be a pain to get consistently.
Commander/Generals
The commanders Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver are themselves not that important to the deck, but I've decided that these two are the best for the given strategy. The reason for these two is that having some potential extra draw in the early game is helpful. Thrasios ability can help you to draw for the on top of library tutors. The other great aspect of having cheap mana costing commanders is that the cards Cabal Therapy and Diabolic Intent become excellent. Tymna the Weaver converted mana cost of 3, is essential for the Birthing Pod combo as well.
There are a few interactions with Tymna the Weaver lifelink that can play a role when you have your win conditions resolve. Mana Crypt with infinite turns is a problem. So you can gain 2 life a turn and do the on average 1.5 damage a turn, so statistically you should be nudging ahead with life over the course of many turns, but the Gods are cruel sometimes. Also if you have Necropotence in play, you need to be able to spend a life for each of your infinite turns to draw the Beacon of Tomorrows. Her life gain will allow you to do this.
Why is this deck so good?
With just so many cards to manipulate your hand, library and graveyard, its really a very hard strategy to stop. It has a lot of cheap counterspells and has hand disruption for the untapped opponent to make sure you can get around their disruption, when attempting to combo off.
Another huge strength is that its basically a creature-less deck. It just about doesn't care about creature removal. When you look at some top tier decks, even Zur the Enchanter and Narset, Enlightened Master are creatures that can be removed.
I have a Hermit Druid deck, which plans to win on the spot if you get to tap the Hermit Druid. However this type of deck is just so much weaker because it has to withstand creature removal and graveyard removal.
Although there is a reasonable amount of graveyard recursion in this deck, but its not that soft to graveyard hate. You don't need to take that line, if you are playing against a lot of graveyard removal. If an opponent plays out a Relic of Progenitus, Deathrite Shaman, etc, then you won't be taking the Oath of Druids or Replenish line.
The very nature of "cheating into play", means that this deck can operate on a relatively low amount of mana. There are a few mana accelerators, but this deck doesn't rely on them to do its thing. This means its not weak to artifact removal or Stax.
It just so damn fast as well. If gone unchecked by opponents you can constantly win on turn 3. Turn 2 wins are possible, and in fact there are a number of ways to get it. And yes you can do a first turn win with the perfect cards. So you force your opponents to have something. Even if you are disrupted and you fail to get the combo, there are so many tutor cards in the deck that just one can get you back into setting yourself up again. This is the strength of the cards such as Replenish, Yawgmoth's Will and Seasons Past.
This deck is all about sculpting your hand for a particular set of cards. Realistically either getting Academy Rector to trigger or Show and Tell and Omniscience in hand or Entomb and Replenish or playing Oath of Druids, Doomsday, Birthing Pod or Necropotence.
There is a surprising amount of difficult decisions (skill) in making sure every tutor you do, is the correct choice.
Your hand is obviously the starting point of which line you might want to try for. Specific tutors for particular card types can decide which route you might go.
I think the safest route is the Academy Rector and then especially using Flash, as its the cheapest method to combo, meaning you can have up potential disruption as well. Playing out Academy Rector without a sacrifice outlet is quite risky. A Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile can stop his ability. But sometimes maybe in desperation, you just cast it, to hold off attacks. So its better to think of Academy Rector as a two card combo needing Flash, Phyrexian Tower or Birthing Pod.
Show and Tell and Omniscience is a quick line that has a lot of extra tutors for sorcery and enchantments. So this can be dictated by what you can search for to do this line. The risk when a Show and Tell resolves, is that an opponent chooses a card that can remove Omniscience, like a Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, Aura of Silence or even Terastodon! A Sterling Grove or Greater Auramancy in play can help to negate that type of effect.
Entomb and Replenish is a line that can be done. Either one of these that you naturally draw can lead to an easy tutor for the other piece.
Oath of Druids is another line that is excellent, because in theory just the one card can get you to your combo. But this needs to be sculpted over a couple of turns. So if your table puts a creatures into play early, then you can turn your Enlightened Tutor into a turn two Oath of Druids. Playing Oath of Druids into a board with no creatures, can mean that people will potential hold off on playing creatures, but you could potentially use this to your advantage.
The Doomsday line is the riskiest in my opinion, as it will require a round of other player turns, before you'll be able to combo off. Unless its much later in the game and you have more mana available and draw in hand to win on the spot. So this is a big judgement call. You should have either enough information about opponents hands or just make the call to risk it. Of course you will get games, where you have a dark ritual and a doomsday in hand. If you have a draw card or tutor that puts a card into your hand, then you can get the win on turn 2, otherwise you'd have to wait until the 3rd turn to win. A first turn Doomsday pile could be: Brainstorm, Mana Crypt, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Beacon of Tomorrows, if you have the draw or tutor as I mentioned, because you will not have the Beacon of Tomorrows in hand.
Birthing Pod is another single card that can get you the win. You will need another turn round, so there is an opportunity for opponents to remove the Birthing Pod or exile the Academy Rector during that round.
The hand disruption can give you the important information from an opponent as well as remove potential disruption, which can help you make the decision to go for the combo. In a four player game for example, you'll often get 2 players who have tapped out, with maybe 1 player who is holding up spells at the time you want to try and win. On this note Telepathy is a really useful card for getting perfect information on all your opponents.
Often you'll have a natural win condition in your staring hand and/or draw. For example you might have a Birthing Pod or Oath of Druids in hand. You can then use your tutors to get protection instead. Whether its a Sterling Grove or counterspell or two, depends on what you might think opponents have.
"How many cards should I draw with Necropotence?" - the answer for this deck, is what is the minimum amount of life you think you can have to survive the round. You should be winning the following turn, so its just a case of how much damage do you think can come your way during that round. You are sculpting your hand for, obviously getting Omniscience into play and as much disruption that you can cast to stop your opponents..well from stopping you. I have happily drawn 25 cards off Necro, going from 35 life to 10, as I've accessed the amount of damage that could be applied during the turn. The thing you have to watch out for is that often you'll draw your win-conditions, so Enter the Infinite and Beacon of Tomorrows. This will take up slots in your 7 in hand, that you'd prefer were disruption. Another thing to keep in mind is your mana requirements, if the Necro is a very early one. Remember to make sure you keep a mana source or two in the scenario where you'll need it to combo off.
There are a lot of tutors that put cards on top of your library:
Imperial Seal, Vampiric Tutor, Personal Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Long Term Plans, Insidious Dreams, Lim-Dûl's Vault, Enlightened Tutor, Sterling Grove, Worldly Tutor.
Having cards that enable you to draw is quite useful. Sensei Diving Top, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain and Gitaxian Probe are cards that can get you deeper into the top of your library if you intend to accelerate the combo process. Also Thrasios, Triton Hero can get you the card if you have 4 mana available or possibly Tymna the Weaver ability as well.
Intuition is one of the trickier tutors in the deck, and I made sure to design some aspects of the deck to make this card better. Having at least 3 of cards that function similar is import when it comes to card choices. It might be that you just want to turn the card into an all purpose tutor, so you might select Demonic Tutor, Vamperic Tutor and Grim Tutor for example. Sometimes you might want to get a counterspell, so Swan Song, Dispel, Arcane Denial. Hand disruption is another one; Duress, Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy. You could also make your opponents pick their poison with Doomsday, Oath of Druids or Birthing Pod. I've used it to get three lands as well, when I've needed to fix my colors.
Intuition is also an important card in the deck because it allows you to turn Merchant Scroll and Mystical Teachings into a catch all card. Maybe one of these is your business card during a resolved Omniscience, so it means that you can get Intuition off these cards turning them into a tutor for any card.
It must be noted that although Diabolic Revelation is a powerful tutor as it can get you multiple cards, you can't use it with Omniscience. So you need to be careful that you do not sequence it so that its your business card once the Omniscience is in play. But I've kept it in the deck, because its a single card that can potentially win or get you back into a game.
What cards can't you beat?
Aven Mindsensor, Mindlock Orb, Stranglehold. Unless you counterspell or remove them from hand before you combo off, its game over man!
Gaddock Teeg is a pain for sure. He will make you play a long game, where you have to time a Cyclonic Rift.
Praetor's Grasp, Sadistic Sacrament. If a player knows what to go for..hint removing Omniscience or Beacon of Tomorrows will probably do it. #feelsbadman
Whats not in the deck?
Shouldn't a creature-less deck run a creature board wipe or two? It's tempting to have a Toxic Deluge and Damnation, but his deck wins on the spot, so removing creatures to "buy time" is not really what this deck cares about.
It literally has the one answer for the permanents with Cyclonic Rift. I had Beast Within as a catch-all answer for cards as well, but in the end I found it better that because the deck is a toolbox, just the one card is needed, and that you time it correctly, so that you're winning on the spot after the removal.
This deck is a race, and this is the Usain Bolt of the commander format. You only care about getting stopped yourself.
No Laboratory Manic? With Oath of Druids, Laboratory Manic is not a creature you want to hit off it, and otherwise its such a dead draw in the setup parts of games.
No poor-man Bomberman? The not quite so good version of the Vintage Auriok Salvagers and Black Lotus, has Lion's Eye Diamond instead, could be an alternative victory condition, especially with Oath of Druids in the deck. But this deck is designed not to be weak to creature removal and would be clunky with the Oath of Druids, with wanting a tutor effect consistently. The less random the deck is the better.
How about Ancient Tomb, Strip Mine and Reliquary Tower? Colorless land is too much of a setback for this deck to consistently have the colored mana to combo quickly. It already has Phyrexian Tower and Cavern of Souls that are colorless, so can't have any more. I did have Ancient Tomb in the deck for speed, but I cut it in the end.
1 Thrasios, Triton Hero
1 Tymna the Weaver
// Combo pieces
1 Omniscience
1 Show and Tell
1 Academy Rector
1 Flash
1 Oath of Druids
1 Doomsday
1 Replenish
1 Entomb
1 Birthing Pod
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Auriok Salvagers
// Tutors (23)
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Grim Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mastermind's Acquisition
1 Razaketh's Rite
1 Dark Petition
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Behold the Beyond
1 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Sterling Grove
1 Dispel
1 Delay
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Denial
1 Negate
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Telepathy
1 City of Solitude
// Graveyard Recursion
1 Noxious Revival
1 Reclaim
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Seasons Past
// Draw
1 Necropotence
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Brainstorm
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library
// Mana
1 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
// Land (31)
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Flooded Grove
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Underground Sea
1 Underground River
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Fetid Pools
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Drowned Catacombs
Sleight of Hand - with so many tutors that go to top of library, having cheap draw is very beneficial
Eldritch Evolution - can turn Tymna the Weaver into a Sidisi, Undead Vizier, which is basically another tutor for 3 mana. Or get Academy Rector into play.
Or if Academy Rector is already in play can turn into the Sidis and Omniscience win on the spot.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
In my opinion you can never have enough tutors. Even the expensive ones are good in my deck, because once Omniscience is in play you can turn them into a win.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I took out the Boseiju, Who Shelters All in favor putting in City of Solitude as you want to get multiple spells resolved in a turn, so just getting the one spell is useful, but doesn't help with potential further spells.
I've added Birthing Pod to the deck as its another standalone win condition over 2 turns. You can sacrifice Tymna the Weaver to get Academy Rector. Then next turn you can sacrifice Academy Rector to get Sidisi, Undead Vizier, getting Omniscience and Enter the Infinite for the win.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I think 5 color mentality is just left over from only having 5 color generals in the past. 4 color is for the new breed of player, and you'll find mana bases are more consistent and realistic for a lot of combo based decks. Give partners and 4 color generals a try for older decks and you won't be disappointed. Conflux is a neat card, but not worth it for the overhead of running another color.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I'm now running 32 lands, just spent way too many games mulling due to not enough lands in starter.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added:
Razaketh's Rite
Diabolic Tutor
Fetid Pools
Sunken Hollow
Drowned Catacombs
Removed:
Duress
Thoughtseize
Cabal Therapy
Long Term Plans
Silence
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith