2026 Chiba Spotlight: 4C Omniscience Combo Report

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

The Event & My Results

The 2026 Chiba Spotlight was a large international event that gathered top players from everywhere, with 893 players in total. It ran over two days, with 9+1 rounds on Day 1 and 5 rounds on Day 2.

This time I played a 4C Omniscience Combo deck and finished with a record of 10 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw (10-4-1), ending the event in 50th place.

An A4 sheet of paper standing in for a certificate

However, behind this report there is a very valuable “control group”: at this event, 4 friends of mine who also often play combo entered with exactly the same 75 cards as mine and the same sideboard strategy, yet all 4 of them were eliminated on Day 1.

Besides insufficient practice, the bigger reason for such a gap in results is probably that the underlying logic of this deck was built by me. With such a highly specialized, purpose-built weapon, the pilot needs a near-instinctive grasp of mulligans and tacit knowledge to force open a path to victory in the gap between aggro and control.

Decklist

Here is the deck I finally decided to bring to the Spotlight: 4C Omniscience decklist

But only while writing this article did I find out that one SOS capstone in my sideboard, Improvisation Capstone, was registered as Consult the Star Charts…

This is the version I actually played at the Spotlight: 4C Omniscience Spotlight decklist

Deck Building Analysis: Give Up Defense, Maximize Engine Density

Here is the MIT#11 deck list (damn, 9th place):
MIT#11 Bant Omniscience decklist

Next you can see the deck Lee Shi Tian built, which went 6-4 at the PT with Simic Omniscience:
PTSOS_Simic Omniscience

He replaced the white removal with the cheaper soft removal Bounce Off, which I really like, and it also lets you reuse the creature you played early to block or to find Kona, Rescue Beastie: Formidable Speaker.

You can see that when building this 75, I chose an extreme but pure path: minimize interaction and defense, and give the main deck’s space entirely to filtering and acceleration.
The original 7 removal spells in the main deck (3 Get Lost, 2 Seam Rip, 1 Day of Judgment, 1 Pinnacle Starcage) were cut down to 5 (3 Bounce Off, 1 Prismari Charm, 1 Pyroclasm).

The core operation of this deck is to precisely sculpt your hand structure in the fewest turns.

For a pure combo deck, speed and consistency are themselves the strongest defense. Compromising by putting too many single-target removal spells or sweepers in the main deck only drags down the expected value of the combo running on time. And because there is less removal, it’s harder to go down a more controlling route like before.

Since the whole point of splashing white was removal, I decisively dropped white; and because I changed the combo’s finisher from infinitely casting Scrapshooterto finishing with North Wind Avatar, I switched to splashing red and mixed in two red removal spells for defense.

As for the filtering, since the Spotlight uses closed decklists, showing a bit of blue is less intimidating to the opponent, so I swapped Optfor Roiling Dragonstorm. As an aside, quite a few people asked why I didn’t use Consult the Star Chartsinstead of Roiling Dragonstorm, since the former looks deeper. True, in most situations it does look deeper; but in essence, every component of our combo only wants to see 1 copy, so the loot-2-discard-1 effect is often better than look-at-N-take-1, because you can use it to adjust your hand, trading extra components for more useful lands or other components.

In addition, I added the new SOS capstone Improvisation Capstoneprecisely to deal with decks that discard a lot, like SamuelChang’s version of Sultai Demon; once it resolves, the opponent has a hard time keeping up with your resources. But I forgot to write it into the melee decklist, sob

Core logic: As long as I don’t die, my life total is a resource to trade for time to filter.
Mulligan logic: Your goal is to find combo components, not to filter a ton. Please don’t keep a hand with no components and a pile of Stock Up; that’s putting the cart before the horse.
Switching routes: Always consider whether this board and matchup give you a chance to kill the opponent with the various dragon brothers, and whether you still have a next turn or need to race the opponent this turn. These correspond to the two mistakes I saw from two of my teammates.

Deck Tips

1. Because the deck covers four colors, you need to be very careful about which type you call with Multiversal Passage; you often need to plan ahead. Here are some simple rules of thumb to help you decide:
   • Usually green needs just one source, red needs just one, white needs just one, and the more blue the better.
   • In control matchups the priority is usually white > red, and in aggro matchups red > white.
   • The creature type you name with Cavern of Soulsalso needs great care. It is usually Dragon ( North Wind Avatar, Marang River Regent // Coil and Catch), Human ( Voice of Victory), or Beast ( Kona, Rescue Beastie), depending on the matchup and your hand.
2. Only the white and red Planets are useful once stationed to 12+, so station those two first.
3. With Kona, Rescue Beastie, discarding Marang River Regent // Coil and Catchresets the battlefield and puts a 6/7 flyer down. Against midrange or aggro this is a lot of pressure and is often considered as Plan B.
4. Discarding North Wind Avatarto Kona can’t fetch from the sideboard, so watch out.
5. Kona’s trigger happens at the beginning of your second main phase, so please don’t cast it in your second main phase.
6. Casting the blue Regent can bounce the opponent’s nonland permanent as well as your own Formidable Speakeror North Wind Avatarto keep refreshing resources (against prowess, bouncing their Otter enchantment is not recommended; I’ve never bounced it myself).
7. With the blue Regent and Kona on the battlefield, you can attack with the Regent and Kona (or, if you can’t get through on the ground, simply station Kona) to trigger Kona’s ability, then in response use Prismari Charmor Bounce Offto bounce the blue Regent back, and put it onto the battlefield again via Kona’s ability to reset the board while also getting a flying blocker.
8. Note that Formidable Speaker‘s second ability is not limited to a single player. The opponent’s copy will untap our Kona during combat, so Kona’s ability can’t trigger in the second main phase. This is also why I originally ran Grand Abolisherrather than Voice of Victory: to prevent Sultai Reanimator, which also has Formidable Speaker, from stopping the combo, but now this deck almost never faces that.
9. Emeritus of Ideation // Ancestral Recallis very strong against Dimir Demon and SamuelChang’s Sultai Demon, because besides being hard to remove and providing extra resources, it also lets you make the opponent draw three and lose after they finish Doomsday Excruciator.
10. Spider-Sensecan be cast by paying one blue mana and returning a tapped creature, so remember to station your creatures ahead of time to gain more resources.
11. Even with Omniscienceon the battlefield you can still spend mana to cast cards from your hand. A common situation is that you don’t want the spell to be counterspelled, so you still tap Cavern of Souls to cast it. Also, Omniscience only makes cards in your hand free to cast; Winternight Storiesin the graveyard and the flashback of Emeritus of Ideation // Ancestral Recallthat casts Ancestral Recallstill have to be paid for.

Full Match Record: 15 Rounds of Logs

Final record: 10 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw (10-4-1)

Day 1

Round 1 vs. Prowess — Yohei Nomiya OTD (On the Draw) | Win (2-1)

• G1: The opponent played Colorstorm Stallionhoping to kill me, but I finished my combo first.
• G2: Got pushed to death smoothly.
• G3: Played Voice of Victory first, then on four mana cast Kona and discarded the blue Regent to take control of the board and kill the opponent.

Round 2 vs. Prowess — HIROKI KOBAYASHI OTD | Loss (0-2)

• G1: Got pushed to death smoothly.
• G2: The life-total pressure was too high; on four mana Kona got bounced and I died.

Round 3 vs. Mardu Discard — mimimi_ OTD | Loss (0-2)**

• I think this is an extremely hard matchup in the current format. The opponent’s damage comes very fast, and they also have ways to burn you besides creatures, so it’s too easy to die. This match I was even killed on the opponent’s turn three: turn one Marauding Mako, turn two Hardened Academic, turn three discard everything + Practiced Offenseand I was dead, having only cast a single Roiling Dragonstorm.

Round 4 vs. Prowess ybai34 OTD | Win (2-1)

• G1: Won on turn four on time.
  G2: Got beaten to death directly by two Slickshot Show-Off.
  G3: The opponent had two Otters and a red bird on board, I was at 10 life and the opponent tapped out. It felt like I was about to die; I cast Kona and discarded North Wind Avatar to prepare a blocker, but the opponent seemed to misread the board and just picked up their cards and conceded. A free win.

Round 5 vs. Prowess Venom1 OTP (On the Play) | Win (2-1)

• G1: Cast Omniscienceon time on turn four, drew a ton, didn’t win, then won next turn after drawing North Wind Avatar.
• G2: Killed by Slickshot Show-Offagain.
• G3: Played Voice of Victory first, then on four mana Kona combo win.

Round 6 vs. Lesson Control Shinnosuke Hando OTP | Win (2-1)

After beating five aggro decks, I finally get a tasty control deck.

• G1: Invincible six-mana unstoppable combo win.
• G2: Couldn’t find Omniscience at all, got blown out by two capstones from the opponent.
• G3: I already had a basic Island on the battlefield, and when the opponent saw me nearing seven mana, they cast two Price of Freedomin a row to blow up my lands. Unfortunately for them, I put down 3 basic lands and won with a seven-mana combo (since my stationed lands were all blown up, I had to use Winternight Storiesfrom the graveyard to tap Kona, hence one extra mana). After the match he told me he had also faced an Omniscience deck, but that opponent only had two basic lands, so he thought it would set me back a land.

Round 7 vs. Izzet Spellmentals Yuu Fukudome OTP | Win (2-0)

• G1: The opponent was awesome. I mulliganed twice, the opponent didn’t mulligan, and on the draw he played a Riverpyre Vergeand passed to me. After I cast Roiling Dragonstorm, he shocked me for 2 at my end of turn (I thought he was prowess, so aggressive), then on his turn he didn’t draw a land and ended the turn. I cast Stock Upand passed, he still didn’t draw a land and just ended the turn, discarding Sleight of Hand. I kept casting Stock Up, he finally drew Spirebluff Canal, played the land and did nothing, passing to me. I just played Cavern of Souls naming Dragon, cast North Wind Avatar, and he conceded.
• G2: Only two turns into the game did I realize he was Spellmentals (I don’t think Spellmentals should keep a hand without blue, by the way). I dragged it out to turn six and took him out with the combo without explanation.

Round 8 vs. Jeskai Control Hirotoshi Miyabe OTP | Win (2-1)

• G1: Couldn’t find components at all, got blasted dead by a stream of spells to the face.
• G2: Invincible six-mana unstoppable combo win.
• G3: Invincible six-mana unstoppable combo win. I was afraid he had High Noon, so I brought Into the Flood Mawback in, but his sideboard seemed to have no way at all to handle my deck.

Round 9 vs. Sultai Demon Eason271 OTD | Win (2-1)

• G1: Completed the combo smoothly.
• G2: Got killed after being forced to discard too many cards.
• G3: Used North Wind Avatar to get resources and the blue Regent, got the opponent down to 2 life before they could use Doomsday Excruciator, and finally used a second North Wind Avatar to fetch Terror of the Peaksto finish.

7-2, made Day 2 successfully!!!

Round 10 vs. Mardu Discard RIKI KAMO OTD | Loss (0-2)

To say it again, super hard. In game one I died directly to Stock Up, and in game two, even with Kona discarding the blue Regent on four mana, I was still burned out by Cool but Rude.

Day 2

Round 11 vs. Sultai Control patrickkuo0429 OTP | Win (2-0)

• Basically all kill spells and removal; just keep filtering until the six-mana combo and you win.
• What I remember better is G1: I successfully landed Omniscience but my filtering turned up nothing but lands, and after all my creatures were killed I drew for several turns before finally finding North Wind Avatar. Afraid he had a counterspell, I dutifully tapped Cavern of Souls, thought for a moment and finally chose Spider-Sense. After I stationed my North Wind Avatar, the opponent responded with Consult the Star Charts, found a kill spell, tapped out to kill North Wind Avatar, and I spent 1 blue mana + web-slinging to return North Wind Avatar to hand, then combo’d out the opponent.

Round 12 vs. 4C Control Keita Tonouchi forgot who went first | Win (2-0)

• G1: Invincible six-mana unstoppable combo win.
• G2: The opponent mulliganed and cast High Noontwo turns in a row. I used Cavern of Souls naming Human to play Voice of Victory early, and on his own turn the opponent used Inevitable Defeatto kill Voice of Victory, so he had hardly any mana. On my turn I cast Kona and discarded Omniscience, holding Spider-Sense in hand, and passed. He got to his seventh land, then on my turn I attacked him with Kona and dropped the blue Regent in my hand, targeting the two High Noon. He responded by casting a capstone and bounced Omniscience back to hand to hit me for 4, but I Spider-Sensed and combo’d him out.

Feature Match (Streamed) Round 13 vs. Izzet Bounce rintaro honda OTD | Loss (1-2)

Stream link

• G1: Kept a hand with three lands, Omniscience and Roiling Dragonstorm, had Roiling Dragonstorm countered by the opponent, then drew a whole bunch of Omniscience in a row and died.
• G2: Because in game one I had only seen Eddymurk Craband Prismari Charm, I thought he was Spellmentals, so I took out Prismari Charm and Pyroclasm, only to see a pile of Otters on the other side and be stunned. On four mana the opponent tapped out and I cast Kona discarding the blue Regent to bounce his Otters; next turn I cast Voice of Victory, which was answered by killing Kona, then cast Formidable Speaker to find the second blue Regent, ready to beat him down. Because of Voice of Victory, he cast the Crab on his own turn to block, so I cast the second blue Regent and bounced his Crab. In the end the opponent returned my Voice of Victory to hand and, during my upkeep, cast the Crab to tap down my two blue Regents. After I recast Voice of Victory, the opponent flashed in a second Crab to tap my Formidable Speaker, and I used its second ability to reset the blue Regent and killed him.
• G3: Pathetically, I thought he was Spellmentals with Otter enchantments, so I put Prismari Charm back in, but he cast two birds, which was super depressing. In the end he went all in leaving me at one life, and I cast Kona discarding Omniscience, but Stock Up looked at five cards: 2 Omniscience and 3 lands, then another Winternight Stories gave 1 land, 1 Into the Flood Maw and 1 Kona, and I died on the spot.

Round 14 vs. Prowess toru kono OTP | Win (2-0)

• G1: The opponent tapped out on turn three for the Stallion to hit me, and on turn four I combo’d him out directly.
• G2: Played Voice of Victory first, then combo’d him out on turn four.

Round 15 vs. Shintaro Iwamoto | Draw (Intentional Draw, ID)

This one was awkward. The opponent wanted to draw; with a draw we would both make TOP 64, while if we played, the winner would make TOP 32 and the loser might fall out of TOP 64. In the end, since the opponent was Japanese, I asked him to recommend good food near me as a condition and agreed to the draw. (The tsukemen he recommended was indeed good and quite cheap.)

The tsukemen won by the R15 ID: 舎鈴 プレナ幕張店

Finished early, so I sneaked off to take a photo with Nissa herself

Results Summary

These 15 rounds marked out the boundaries of the deck:

• vs. Aggro: 4 wins, 2 losses. Prowess has no good removal in the main deck to answer Kona, so overall it’s rather manageable.
• vs. Control: 4 wins, 0 losses. The six-mana route is very powerful against control.
• The deck’s absolute weakness (vs. Mardu Discard): With a 0-2 record against Mardu Discard, this deck can barely defend against a turn-three lethal strike or the opponent’s direct damage that doesn’t rely on creatures.

Sideboard Strategy

Finally, here is the guide we discussed the day before, though it lacks Mardu Discard and Azorius Momo. If you have any questions, feel free to come discuss with me.

Conclusion

This was my first time attending a Spotlight; last year I happened to have something on and couldn’t make it. Playing that many rounds in an event with unrevealed decklists was a special experience, and overall it was pretty fun. Although I still didn’t get a PT qualification, 50th place is acceptable. Maybe I’ll consider not playing Team decks anymore; every time it feels like I’m doing people in, haha. It’s a pity I can’t go play in the Netherlands with SamuelChang. (I also fell in the LTQ quarterfinals, sob)