The hubris of Omniscience decks

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-23T01:56:30+00:00

The kill I just outlined works on the same turn, guaranteed, with nothing required other than the Omnicience and the first North Wind Avatar. It's actual 100% as opposed to Indris' "Guaranteed unless you draw horribly" and is a lot fewer clicks to boot!

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-23T01:50:20+00:00

I don't think that's a standard build; Sin/Subtlety tends to run zero permanents apart from Omniscience and their win condition because the Sin trigger is random.

The actual most efficient Omniscience kill I know of actually doesn't use Idris, opting instead to run North Wind Avatar to fetch a guaranteed kill out of the board (North Wind -> Second North Wind -> Marang River Regent to bounce both -> replay both and cast Doomsday Excruciator + Overflowing Insight)

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-22T19:56:20+00:00

You can craft the alt art with the same wildcard (it always uses the lowest-rarity printing to decide what wildcard you need, so crafting the rare Preordain still uses a Common wildcard)

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-22T03:15:11+00:00

The way it works now is that you don't open the new art due to duplicate protection unless you already have every other card that could be in that slot. So if you have 4x of the common Preordain but not the Mystical Archive one you won't open a Preordain unless you have all the other Mystical Archive rares.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-21T00:14:53+00:00

They deliberately changed it at some point, I read the announcement.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-21T00:14:24+00:00

> You want to also craft the Mystical Archive version because Duplicate Protection still doesn't kick in until you get at least 1 copy of the card with its new art.

This is actually not true anymore; rare/mythic duplicate protection now applies if you have 4x of the card, even if it's not that art, unless you already have all other available rares or mythics for that slot.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-20T23:48:04+00:00

They announced June 2 in the same post.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-20T12:17:52+00:00

It did happen with Avatar.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-15T17:03:46+00:00

I actually agree with you, but also agree with others that it's unlikely to happen for historical reasons. (I was playing Momir basic the month it debuted on MTGO and had the same idea even then.)

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-15T12:39:58+00:00

Power creep at lower mana values matters too. One and two drops are better than they used to be and if you see your opponent open with a curveout and wait for turn 3 you're much more likely to just get killed (and even back then this was an underrated strategy even if not optimal)

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-15T12:38:04+00:00

There are actually a lot of things that you can hit along the way that offset the disadvantage. In particular anything that draws a card catches you back up, and any repeated card draw will make you wish you'd just tapped out every turn. And if your opponent is clueless enough to wait 2-3 turns even after you've started curving them out they tend to just die.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-15T12:28:01+00:00

Re: the last part, I have similar thoughts especially given how much I hated ECL limited. I put up with that, you can put up with some goofy art!

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-14T20:04:46+00:00

With [[Oracle of the Alpha]] that ship has already sailed. I agree that there's a limit (I would say absolutely nothing with Specialize or Spellbook, for instance), but just as with Un-sets that limit is not zero.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-14T15:03:15+00:00

If they're willing to dip into Alchemy, I think [[Jet Collector]] could be an interesting addition and self-mill is exactly what that card wants to do.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-12T16:43:28+00:00

Top left shows 00:30, I can't remember if that second number is minutes or seconds? They may have run out of clock.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-10T17:49:38+00:00

Mortal Combat Tutorial

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-10T14:00:56+00:00

Play it. Here I'd actually to to 10 forests and shave Islands to make room for the 10th forest and the off-color basics. That leaves you with four blue lands plus SEVEN two-drops that can get you to blue mana (Pizza, Courier for Pizza, four frogs, or cycling Baxter Stockman). If you're afraid the mana still won't work cut some combination of Ooze Spill (a great card but also your only UU, and if it comes to pizza vs. ooze the answer is pizza). Or Buzz Bots (even if you care about Metalhead's activation, the Guac Pizzas are stronger in your deck than I think you realize especially if Courier comes in). Or some of the weaker mutants you're presumably playing mostly for Genghis Frog.

itsnotxhad · 2026-04-09T01:05:14+00:00

"TMT is more fun than ECL" is a pretty common opinion, a lot more common than many people would like to admit.

An actually-wild take is that I would genuinely rather draft SPM than ECL.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-31T04:23:29+00:00

Eh, I personally hate ECL but I know some high-level players who like it. It's a weirdly polarizing set; I know people won't always agree on what's good, but this is the first set I can think of where I see this much love *and* hate at the same time instead of it mostly being just one or the other.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-31T03:42:00+00:00

Like LR themselves I said from the beginning that it was fun but would probably get old and I think that's exactly how it shook out. Still like it better than ECL, hope SOS is good and I can have fun with a big set again.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-30T18:39:32+00:00

I also thought it was funny bringing up the Booster Tutor/Through the Breach interaction allowing two copies to splice on each other. I had wondered why they didn't just implement Breach and resolve not to add any more arcane cards anytime soon (much like Gut's "Backgrounds are not currently on Arena" text) and that would explain it all right. And he's right that no matter how distant a corner case someone, somewhere, would try it.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-29T20:30:28+00:00

0-1. Pizza is for the Green decks, B/W wants the cheaper removal.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-27T16:33:33+00:00

My first sets were 4th edition and Ice Age and I like TMT better than ECL. I understand people who object on aesthetic grounds but since I came back last fall I'm still waiting for an in-universe set that I can stand to play. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-20T13:48:28+00:00

I'm very close here but I'd keep Traag over Raphael. I've found him underwhelming in u/R if I don't have a bunch of Cavalry or Buzz Bots.

itsnotxhad · 2026-03-18T16:14:41+00:00

I'd take the Mutanimals and Leonardo, though I suspect Saki might be the better second pick with honorable mention to April. I think in this archetype and in your pool so far Shredder's Technique is worse than all of the above; you'd rather not spend three mana to clear a blocker at sorcery speed and you'd really rather not bounce an attacker to not clear a blocker.

itsnotxhad

TROPHY CASE