Hello and welcome to the Omniscience Cube.

WHAT IS OMNISCIENCE DRAFT
Omniscience Draft is a special draft variant that has four changes compared to a normal draft:

• Spells you cast from your hand cost 0 mana (Omniscience). The mana cost for cards that are played outside the hand (i.e. top of library, graveyard, from exile) must be paid.
• The Omniscience emblem allows players to add one mana of any color () to their mana pool once each turn (including your turn, and your opponents turn). You usually will use this mana to pay for activated abilities, but sometimes to pay additional costs (i.e. Kicker, Buyback or Flashback).

• Your starting hand size consists of 3 cards instead of 7, although the maximum hand size remains 7. Apply the London Mulligan rule here, too.
• Basic lands have been removed. This means only 5 of the cards you draft will be left out of your deck, compared to the 17-20 cards you leave out in a regular draft to add basic lands.

Such huge changes to gameplay means card evaluation while drafting is going to be very different from a regular draft.

WINNING OMNISCIENCE DRAFT
Since all our spells are free to cast, traditional draft and deckbuilding strategies do not apply in this
format. Having a balanced mana curve is irrelevant when Eternal Witness costs the same to cast as Expropriate.

There are two keys to winning any Omniscience Draft:

• Prioritize drafting cards that have "card draw" while filling the gaps with as many powerful bombs and game-winning combos as possible.
• Aggressively mulligan away opening hands without card draw. Card draw is the key to the signature explosive turns this format is known for, finding other card draw to keep the momentum rolling. If you keep bad hands you will quickly lose. A 1-card hand with Whispers of the Muse is worth ten times more than a 3-card hand with Eternal Witness, Unburial Rites, and Evil Twin.

All your card picks fall into one of the following categories:

• Card Draw
• Finishers
• Disruption / Removal
• Graveyard Recursion
• Other things

CARD DRAW IS KING
Card draw is the single most important thing in Omniscience. Since we have to run all but 5 of the cards we drafted in our deck and the overall card quality of our deck is going to be high, we need to draw through the deck into our best stuff. The player that wins the game is the one that draws the most cards, dropping the most stuff on the battlefield to overwhelm the opponent's stuff.

FINISHERS
In Omniscience Draft, games could end on the first turn thanks to some haste enablers like Urabrask the Hidden, Maelstrom Wanderer or Temur Ascendancy.

There are still ridiculous bombs that dominate games all by themselves: Big, powerful beaters and planeswalkers are going to get the job done like they do in normal draft, allowing for some quick kills.

Here you won't find any specific archetypes. This Cube is full of goodstuff cards, but there are tons of powerful sinergies, combos and crazy things you can build.

DISRUPTION / REMOVAL
The third thing you should prioritize after card draw and the best finishers is disruption and removal. You need ways to deal with both creatures and noncreature card draw spells.

• Counterspells are basically the Force of Will of this format, being the most effective way of preventing your opponent from going off on their first (or any other) turn, and should be highly prioritized.
• Discard is another option for disrupting our opponents. But discard is super high variance in Omniscience Draft: going first and making your opponent discard two of the three cards in their starting hand (66% of their hand!) with Skull Rend, for example, is absolutely backbreaking. But if your opponent gets a turn before you can cast your discard spell, chances are your opponent will have an empy hand and that Skull Rend is a dead card in your hand. Are discard cards worth it? Super high risk with equally high reward? My sense says that yes, they're worth the risk, but I will prioritize picking card draw / finishers / counterspells over discard. Here I tried to select some good discard spells to not be dead cards if you are on the draw.
• Removal spells usually trade one card for one card, and usually does not offer any tempo advantage in Omniscience Draft, but can target your opponent's most powerful creatures at a pinch. You don't want to go too overboard with them though, as you will find yourself being overrun if you cannot keep up.

GRAVEYARD RECURSION
Recursion starts off as dead cards in your hand when you have no cards yet in your graveyard, but as the game progresses they become your most valuable cards since they can grab your best cards back from the grave.

OTHER THINGS (FILLERS AND SIDEBOARD)
When you can't choose card draw / synergy filler / disruption / recursion, you're left with these. Big dumb beaters mostly. Sideboard cards other times. You just want big dumb stuff to win the game with after you've drawn as many cards as possible. The person with the most fillers on the board wins. Generally speaking for filler, take the biggest thing.

Since we can only exclude five of the cards that we draft out of our deck, unfortunately, we'll be forced to make hard choices. It's going to happen. Just make sure not to actively pick situational cards over other stuff. Only take these types of cards when you're forced to.

FIRST PICKS AND HIGH PRIORITY CARDS

• Narset, Parter of Veils. (If the opponent doesn't have a counterspell or PW removal in hand, you should win.)
• Peer into the Abyss
• Interpret the Signs
• Nissa's Revelation
• Overflowing Insight
• Inspired Ultimatum
• Vilis, Broker of Blood
• Whirlwind of Thought
• Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• Kenrith, the Returned King
• Arcane Savant
• Soulfire Grand Master
• Faerie Formation
• Sphinx of Magosi
• Whispers of the Muse
• Hoverguard Sweepers, enable crazy combos
• Sublime Epiphany
• Confirm Suspicions

ONE MORE THING
It's good to know that I try to stay away from something that kills in one hit. It's not that fair when you cast Biorhythm or Grunn, the Lonely King, or Blightsteel Colossus or Enter the Infinite on Turn 1.

This format is really powerful, and you will play with many of the best spells ever printed in Magic's history, but having a funny experience is also important for the game.

I do run Phage the Untouchable, but she can be answered by any pinpoint removal spell, pinpoint bounce, wrath and more.

Also, if you see critters with fire-breathing, like Hellkite Overlord, remember that this kind of ability doesn't work in this format because of the Omniscience emblem: you only have one red mana to spend, so you get +1/+0. Here is not broken to hit with infinite pump / damage.

HAVE FUN!
Omniscience Draft is a very explosive, high variance format, even higher than a normal draft environment, where the RNG that is prevalent throughout Magic is exaggerated to absurd levels. You can be on the draw and watching helplessly while your opponent goes Nissa's Revelation into Dig Through Time into Overflowing Insight into Mystic Retrieval getting back Nissa's Revelation while playing multiple big creatures... and that can be tilting!

But just remember: this is a swingy format. If you drafted correctly then you have the potential to do those nutty plays just as easily. I've had games where my opponent went insane drawing cards and it looked hopeless for me, only for one turn later I topdecked my own card draw and chained together an even crazier turn and won. I've also had games where either me and my opponent goes off and it's a completely one-sided affair. It happens!

Go in with the mindset that this is a silly format that does silly things. Embrace the variance, but also understand that for as in-your-face as the luck factor is, there's still skill involved to this format, just like any other, both in drafting and in gameplay, and things you can do to perform better. Sometimes these facts are hard to remember when your opponent draws 15+ cards and kills you before you even had a turn. Omniscience Draft isn't for everyone, but I love it, and I hope you give it a go and enjoy it!

Hope this quick guide helps you out! Thanks for reading!

SPECIAL THANKS
Credits to Tomer Abramovici (mtggoldfish.com) for writing this sweet introduction to this format. I made it minor changes with some card names.

There is also a paragraph written by Sargent Abe (coolstuffinc.com).

See my Cube featured on Community Cube Review:

• Twitch
• YouTube

SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO (WORK IN PROGRESS):

INFINITE CREATURES

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts
• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Restoration Angel
• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Hoverguard Sweepers
• Splinter Twin + Zealous Conscripts
• Supplant Form + Eternal Witness
• Supplant Form + Greenwarden of Murasa
• Supplant Form + Vampire Charmseeker
• Sublime Epiphany + Eternal Witness
• Sublime Epiphany + Greenwarden of Murasa
• Sublime Epiphany + Vampire Charmseeker
• Sublime Epiphany + Scholar of the Ages + any other instant / sorcery spell
• Rite of Replication + Dualcaster Mage (+ another creature to cast Rite)

INFINITE TURNS

• Academy Ruins + Mindslaver
• Eternal Witness / Greenwarden of Murasa + Tidesprout Tyrant / Hoverguard Sweepers + Time Stretch

DRAW YOUR DECK

• Hoverguard Sweepers + Soul of the Harvest
• Hoverguard Sweepers + Combustible Gearhulk
• Eternal Witness / Greenwarden of Murasa + Paradoxical Outcome or any bounce and draw spell
• Sublime Epiphany + Eternal Witness
• Sublime Epiphany + Greenwarden of Murasa
• Sublime Epiphany + Vampire Charmseeker
• Sublime Epiphany + Scholar of the Ages + any other instant / sorcery spell

OTHER CRAZY THINGS

• Bosh, Iron Golem + Spine of Ish Sah
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight + Embercleave or Dictate of the Twin Gods or Fiery Emancipation (or any source that doubles damage)
• Terror of the Peaks + kicked Rite of Replication
• Bogardan Hellkite + kicked Rite of Replication
• Hoverguard Sweepers + Jace's Mindseeker or Bogardan Hellkite or any ETB creature
• Hoverguard Sweepers + Sarkhan's Unsealing or Warstorm Surge or Terror of the Peaks
• Scholar of the Ages + any instant / sorcery bounce spell + any instant / sorcery burn spell
• Phage the Untouchable + Fractured Identity
• Archetype of Endurance + Avacyn, Angel of Hope (+ Sephara, Sky's Blade)
• The Great Henge / Rhythm of the Wild + any Persist creature (Glen Elendra Archmage / Woodfall Primus)
• Magister Sphinx + Searing Wind / Sorin's Vengeance

Mill your opponent with this, but is probably they draw a counterspell or removal spell to stop your combo.

• Sublime Epiphany + Eternal Witness- Sublime Epiphany + Greenwarden of Murasa
• Sublime Epiphany + Vampire Charmseeker
• Sublime Epiphany + Scholar of the Ages + any other instant / sorcery spell