Hello everyone, my name is Jonathan Anghelescu (you might know me as JPA93 on Magic Online) and I am very excited about the opportunity to write an article for Hareruya about my favorite deck in Legacy. I hope you find it enjoyable and informative!

If you have followed my results on Magic Online in the past months, you might have noticed that I switch back and forth between a Sneak & Show build with (hereafter referred to as OmniSneak) and the more traditional version quite often.

Many people ask me if I make the switch for particular reasons, and while meta trends definitely play a role, I mostly just want to try out various different configurations. In any tournament I play with the sole goal of winning, I will most likely register OmniSneak, though.

Let’s look a bit closer at the configuration and card choices of this list in the next paragraph.

Since then (August 2018), my OmniSneak 75 has stayed unchanged and is still my number one choice for any tournament.

After finishing the last two leagues in my hotel room in Minneapolis with 10-0 , ending the testing with the final list at a 77% win rate (54-16), I confidently locked it in and submitted the list. Our team finished 9-5 for 20th place at the Pro Tour and I was quite happy with my personal record of 10-4 against some of the best Legacy players in the world.

I made some small changes to the original list, such as adding the 4th and a second , with the idea to up the land-count to 21 against RUG Delver. Again, my win rate against RUG Delver didn’t improve past 50%, but my overall win rate did improve drastically.

Both the and the list didn’t get past a 66% win rate during PT testing (42-21 and 104-57, respectively) and after losing multiple matches in a row to Andrea Mengucci’s Eldrazi Stompy list, I thought I would give OmniSneak another shot – 8 days before the deck submission deadline.

I did feel the impact of losing and quickly shifted my focus to a variant of the list that had qualified me for the Team Pro Tour by reaching the finals of GP Santa Clara .

Since RUG Delver seemed to be the new deck to beat and I expected many of the Legacy experts at the Pro Tour to play it, I started off with a list including and , which are supposed to improve the Delver matchup. The deck felt good, although I couldn’t get past 50% win rate against RUG Delver. Always having at best a 50-50 matchup against most Delver variants is an inherent trait of the Sneak & Show archetype itself that one has to accept.

While I was open to try anything, curious if the new wide-open Legacy format could be broken, I was also rather certain that I would end up on a Sneak & Show variant either way. Both the Mono Blue as well as the Steel Stompy deck developed by the team looked very powerful to me, but not enough to stray away from my comfort zone. Therefore, after trying some spicy brews of my own, such as RUG or Esper Delver, I soon started to focus on finding the best Sneak & Show list for the upcoming Pro Tour.

Testing for the 25th Anniversary Team Pro Tour was quite interesting, due to and getting banned a mere month before the tournament. I joined an excellent Legacy testing team comprised of Jarvis Yu , Rob Pisano , Tommy Ashton , Pascal Maynard , Scott Lipp , Matt Linde and Chris Pikula .

Still, I prefer OmniSneak for my personal playstyle and appreciate its pre-board versatility thanks to , as well as the significantly improved Death and Taxes and -deck matchups.

Over the following years, the list went through some small changes, but the basic configuration has always stayed very close to the original. I also switched back to traditional Sneak & Show many times and still have to admit that it is probably the more consistent deck in a vacuum.

I had seen some lists that added and thereby put a heavier focus on to their Sneak & Show decks, but they weren’t refined and included some questionable card choices. After months of testing I arrived at the list that got a 3-0 record in the Legacy portion of the Magic Online Championship and helped me reach the Top 4 of that tournament.

OmniSneak was initially created for the Magic Online Championship in early 2016 , aiming to improve problematic hateful matchups like Death and Taxes as well as gaining an edge in the mirror.

OmniSneak Deck Construction

Main Deck Combo Pieces 3 3 3

3 4 1 (Note: +1 in the Wish board) These are your combo pieces. Unlike traditional Sneak & Show, they are mostly 3-ofs to make room for an extra and . fits in nicely in the 3-of-configuration and finds any combo piece, as well as counters or even when you need to find multiple pieces. 3 Without , OmniSneak would just be Sneak & Show with 3 . provides great versatility, gives you access to sideboard cards in pre-boarded games and enables an instant speed kill with (see sideboard section). It also acts as a pseudo-enabler / combo piece by finding either or . Cantrips 4 4 1 1 I have tried adding up to three for more consistency in the past, but this cantrip suite fits best into the rest of the deck. and are slower than , but will almost always find you exactly what you need. is a 2-drop target for (see sideboard section), but also a respectable cantrip on its own. Counterspells 4 2 1 The counter-suite is pretty straight-forward (don’t forget that also acts as and , albeit often at 4 mana). I started out with 3 instead of the 2-1 split with , and if new Planeswalkers , and all prove to be as impactful in Legacy as they seem to be, I think it might be correct to go back to all . is much better than in your combo turn, since it counters a even with two open mana on your opponent’s side. It is also much more effective against Storm, which is one of the closer matchups for OmniSneak. You can adjust this split depending on an expected metagame, but for an open / GP-sized tournament I would play 2 and 1 (again, this might change with the impact of the War of the Spark Planeswalkers). Mana-Base 4 3 3

2 2 2

2 3 2 I am quite convinced this is the best mana-base for OmniSneak (and most Sneak & Show variants, too). Basic is rather unnecessary in this deck, as you have a much weaker focus on red cards and rarely want to see it in your opening hand. The list started out with 3 to make room for all the inclusions, but the 4th is crucial to increasing your chance of comboing off as early as possible, as well as fighting mana-denial-heavy decks. It also makes better by increasing the chance of finding + after a Sneak Attack activation, or comboing off via for a second time after getting into play.

Sideboard Instant-Kill Package 1 1 These Wish-targets are your instant-speed kill package with + . You for , for , and . Cast , if necessary, to find a high enough converted mana cost card like , or , that card on top of your library, cast for , and deal lethal damage to your opponent with . -Effect 1 Having a -effect as a Wish-target is useful in many situations, but mostly serves as a safety valve if your instant speed kill fizzles (with an opponent’s , , , or whatever trigger on the stack). If, for example, you only find or more cantrips with BR Reanimator opponent’s trigger on the stack, you are not guaranteed to win the Clash, since your opponent has 4 of their own. In that case, you can use to find and counter the trigger, leaving you free to cast and cantrips. Useful Wish-Tools 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 A variety of useful wish-targets, depending on the game situation you find yourself in, including combo pieces / enablers, counter magic, removal, sweeper, bounce and graveyard-hate. could be or , but I have found that I often want to be able to bounce multiple hateful permanents from my Death and Taxes or Eldrazi opponents. The Best Answer for Counterspells 2 is much more effective in OmniSneak than in traditional Sneak & Show, since it synergizes with and . It is the most feared card you can play against Miracles and provides very few counter-play opportunities. Moreover, is a mirror-breaker and land 20 + 21 against Delver decks, which have to find and use a immediately most of the time. Extra Sweepers 2 Additional removal to board in against decks like Death and Taxes, Tribal strategies and Delver-decks to buy time.

Matchup and Sideboard Guide

Miracles Even with the arrival of and as powerful Planeswalkers with great abilities against strategies, Miracles is a rather pleasant matchup that I don’t mind facing. Pre-board they have many mostly dead cards like and and even if they draw the right part of their deck (, , ), you shouldn’t have a hard time winning through one or two counter spells. Try to play around if you can afford to keep making land drops. If you have the option of an unprotected turn 2 or waiting one turn to for a or , I would usually wait. Finding the right window is not too difficult with some practice, and with and becoming mainstays in Miracles, they will tap out on turn 3 more often. You will rarely have to a turn 3 , unless you can’t go off on your own turn and/or have a cantrip-heavy hand. Also, be wary of dropping a naked via pre-board, unless you are forced to and have no other options, as they have as a clean answer, in addition to , and . vs. Miracles Out In Post-board they gain access to , sometimes , or , additional counter magic such as and effects and , which can disrupt combo kills and thus should be played around, if possible. Finding should be your highest priority in the post-board games. You can still try to push through early , but makes it much more difficult, even with counter-backup of your own. If they pass turn 2 with + blue land up you should expect a , which makes + much more live, since they will often have to decide between and and will get punished if they go for . Even if you have + creature with backup, you should go for it most of the time if you expect from your opponent, since waiting another turn will turn on their and . I am, however, way less inclined to go for it on turn 2 if they pass with two blue mana open instead of and blue source. You should be wary of post-board, which can break up your , lines, even if they might seem safe via . With enough experience and ability to read your opponent’s sequencing to expect which kind of interaction they have ready, the Miracles matchup will be rather positive for you, even post-board. When in doubt, just wait until you find .

Death and Taxes Death and Taxes used to be one of the most difficult matchups for traditional Sneak & Show, with mana-denial like + and main deck hard-locks such as (naming ) + . For OmniSneak, it is significantly easier and very difficult to navigate from the Death and Taxes player’s side, to find the correct combination of hate-cards to be insured against every angle of attack is often impossible. As in many matchups, try to avoid a “mere” into play, but rather wait until you find , or . Many lists play multiple now, so they have even more outs to than they used to. provides both a way to find via as well as removal / sweepers with and . Another common use of will be to cast it with / on turn 2 to find a removal spell and then jam on turn 3, with a creature already in hand. They usually don’t play or main deck, so don’t be afraid to play out , to avoid getting constrained by their mana-denial. If you have a slow hand, is a must-counter. If you are ready to combo off before ticks up to 2, you can often afford to let it resolve and save for a turn 2 or . The games where they don’t have on turn 1 are much easier to navigate and face them with a difficult decision of casting creatures or leaving up mana for activations. vs. Death and Taxes Out In gets boarded in to have one more out to on 3. Most of Death and Taxes hate cards are in the main deck already. They might bring in more removal / answers for , such as , , and . Gaining access to and boarding out the dead improves your matchup against them quite a bit. The post-board matchup dynamic is not that different from pre-board, although you should be more careful just jamming a , since they have more removal for it. is less effective against you and can often hurt them more than you, by turning off as well as removing the option of putting in or into play with to deal with . Some players will bring in , so you should keep that in the back of your mind when going for lines, although you shouldn’t go out of your way to play around it.

UR / Grixis / UW Delver As written in the history of OmniSneak, Delver strategies are mostly 50-50 matchups for Show & Tell decks and definitely among the more unpleasant matchups. UR Delver has a faster clock than Grixis, but can only interact with you on the stack and doesn’t have access to discard and (formerly ), thus making it the easiest of the Delver matchups. Try to make your land drops every turn, avoid exposing yourself to and wait for them to tap out or until you have enough mana to pay for as many soft-counters as possible. Many of the latest lists have included up to 3 in the main deck, which means that you should ideally be able to play around 1 + 1 . You will often have more than one enabler, and in that case, it is commonly correct to only play around and jam the next enabler on the following turn if the first one gets . If they tap out for a on turn 1 and you have the ability to go for it turn 2 on the play with either backup or the ability to pay for , you should do so most of the time, especially against Grixis Delver due to the threat of getting . You do lose to + or respectively, but letting them untap and cantrip for counter magic or turning on their is often more dangerous. vs. UR Delver Out In vs. Grixis Delver Out In vs. UW Delver Out In The + Wish package is rather clunky and unnecessary against most Delver decks (you leave in against UW Delver to have more outs to ), so you bring in your impactful wish-targets instead. I have tried out boarding in to protect from to some success, but it is a dead card too often. If you have mana-heavy hands including and you can bait out their by playing out Sol-lands or fetching . Your Delver opponent will board in additional counter magic (every Delver deck has , the red ones also have ) and sometimes disruptive 1-ofs such as or, more rarely, . In the case of UW Delver, they gain access to / and effects. Since the Red Delver decks will board out some of their clock / / , you will usually have more time to build your manabase in the sideboarded games. and will slow down their clock to buy you even more time to sculpt your hand and wait for the right moment to go off.

UW Stoneblade This Stoneblade deck has gained some popularity in the past months and the pre-board matchup gets more difficult for you the more they are running (2-3 seems to be the most common). Still, even with , you are favored pre-board, where they still have dead cards to draw such as . is a respectable clock, but they will often get punished if they tap out for it on turn 2. Again, try to avoid running out unprotected , as they have 2 and 2-3 and sometimes 1 or as clean answers. Tapping out for can sometimes be correct if you value playing around or more highly than the risk of losing the enchantment to . vs. UW Stoneblade Out In Like Miracles, post-board UW Stoneblade gains access to hate-bears such as or , additional counter-magic in and effects. Waiting to find becomes more difficult against Stoneblade compared to Miracles, due to the fast clock provided by and / . They will rarely tap out for a turn 2 without backup, but if you have counter backup of your own you should definitely use that window to go off. Turn 2 into is another common early turn pattern. Don’t be afraid to use removal on – you have enough outs to .

Grixis Control Grixis Control has been a steady force ever since the bans of and , although its popularity has declined in the recent weeks and months. During Pro Tour 25 testing I went 11-0 against it with OmniSneak. While the matchup certainly isn’t that one-sided, it is still quite firmly in your favor. They might steal a pre-board game with (formerly ), of which almost every list plays 2 main, if you go for an unprotected + . Still, unlike against Miracles or UW Stoneblade, you should still go for it most of the time, if you don’t have any other options like casting cantrips or on your opponent’s turn. This stems from the fact that they have more discard effects than , including if they already cast a or in the early turns. Their discard-heavy draws can be troublesome, but they have enough dead removal pre-board that you should have an easy time more often than not. is a significant clock and early discard + turn 4 or 5 is their most effective way to beat you game 1. vs. Grixis Control Out In (Note: -1 can be if you know they are boarding out ) The matchup dynamic doesn’t change much post-board, although it gets more difficult, since they replace their dead removal with counters such as , and . Due to their discard spells, is less effective here than against non-black control decks. Still, it is an absolute beating against their discard-light and counter-heavy hands. Their discard also makes much more effective than it would be out of Miracles or Stoneblade sideboards. is one of your best ways to beat them post-board, since most Grixis Control lists play over . You might still lose to 1-ofs like or , but it is still correct to jam for a “ check” most of the time.

BG Turbo / Medium / Slow Depths BG Depths is one of the closer matchups, especially Turbo Depths. is highly effective at shutting off and , especially if they know before the match that you are playing OmniSneak (which is the case for me online). In addition, they have the ability to make Marit Lage very early on, which often turns the matchup into a race. Their discard spells are much more disruptive to you than your counter magic is to them, considering they can often go off just via + without putting spells on the stack. for is a nice albeit clunky out to Marit Lage and if you can identify them as Turbo Depths on turn 1 you will sometimes have to Sol-Land + and for , especially if they don’t have turn 1 discard. If you can afford to wait, you should try to find or for instead of , although an protected by for into will still often get the job done. Most lists of both Turbo Depths and Medium / Slow Depths don’t even play main at the moment. Don’t forget they can put in via and force your to block if they already have in play. Medium / Slow Depths is a more pleasant matchup thanks to dead cards like instead of main, even though can hit you very hard and they are still capable of accelerated Marit Lage sequences with . vs. BG Depths Out In You can try experimenting with against Medium / Slow Depths for , but I prefer just bringing in against both versions. They will rarely sacrifice their immediately after resolving it, so can get you some sneaky free wins. They will bring in some amount of , which can disrupt your combo turns and punish you for jamming , even though you should still do so most of the time to play around discard. and additional discard (Medium / Slow Depths goes up to 4 ) make the post-board games a bit more difficult, but it is rather even overall and they will often get punished for keeping hands without discard.

Sneak & Show The mirror / pseudo-mirror can get quite silly. Generally, I prefer to wait to make my move as long as possible, since the first person to go off often loses the counter-war and then dies to the opponent’s combo on the following turn without protection. I often see players countering cantrips with and in the mirror, which I almost never do, even if the opponent is constrained on mana. You want to save all of your counters for the combo turn on either side. Even with a lot of mana, and will rarely be dead, because of your opponent’s own soft counters and the ability of to shut off a into activation line, as well as pseudo-countering with 2 mana open by making them pay, being forced to pass the turn and then allowing you to win on your own turn. Although it is a high-risk play, you can often let their resolve if you have and in hand. Especially with 2 in hand, it is better to let resolve, since you turn on both with in play. Your play pattern after that usually involves for , finding , and (or sometimes in corner-cases), and ing for to counter an – cast extra-turn trigger, a activation, or something similar. If they put in and start off with a cantrip, you will often do the same play, except Wishing for to bounce in response to the cantrip. If you have the choice between or via a resolved , you should go for most of the time. It’s much more likely that you don’t find + in 7-14 cards and die on their turn, after using some of your to resolve , than it is for them to recover from “Annihilator 6” in a single turn. vs. Sneak & Show Out In vs. OmniSneak / OmniTell Out In If you see from your Sneak & Show opponent, you should board the same as against OmniSneak / OmniTell. is a great mirror-breaker and should be your top priority in the post-board games. Your opponent can’t afford and would be incorrect to board in as an answer, so they usually won’t have an out to it. ing for off will be one of your most common winning plays. The most impactful sideboard card from Sneak & Show is , although when they have the choice between using and a soft-counter to disrupt you on your combo turn, the experienced players will usually make the safer play of / instead. Thus, you generally don’t need to try and play around unless it doesn’t cost you anything to do so. is an additional enabler they will bring in and is often a must-counter, unless you can go off on your own turn.

Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT) Though slightly more pleasant to play against than its little brother TES (The Epic Storm), which is generally a turn faster than ANT, it is still one of the more difficult matchups. An early for or after protecting yourself from early discard with , soft-counters and sometimes even , is usually your best bet to win. provides another hard-counter in many situations, being able to find or to break up lines. You should always prioritize holding up or for / over just tapping out or even + most of the time (turn 1 and sometimes turn 2 on the play + is an exception, which you should almost always go for). Leaving up with or in hand allows you to end of turn Wish for to Annihilate or your ANT opponent on your turn, if you don’t have to for / on theirs. If you already have a non-creature combo-piece in hand or not enough mana to , for in your opponent’s end step is another viable and usually safe line, since you can still for in case your opponent goes off on their next turn. Even though they have 7-8 discard spells you should generally not use your on cantrips, even though it can be fine to a turn 2 if you have a slow hand. If your hand is ready to go off on the next turn, you should rather save for a discard spell or after the . No Sideboarding -1 , +1 if you know they play or expect . Post-board ANT gains access to , which is pretty huge in the matchup. Since it’s only a 2-of, you shouldn’t play around it unless they heavily telegraph it – losing your to a discard spell is much more likely. Signs that they have it are plays like casting a and passing after tapping out for cantrips, although that can be a bluff or playing around your s as well. I usually don’t play around . is very annoying and a must a lot of the times, but thankfully it’s a 1-of at most in the majority of ANT lists. If you know that your opponent is bringing in both and , boarding in 2 might be worth considering. is another annoying way for them to interact with you and has seen increased play in the past months.