Hey everyone!

I put Lurrus away for about a week to try some new Modern decks. It turns out Expressive Iteration is great even if it's not combined with my favorite cat. Four-Color Omnath Pile with Yorion will be the deck I cover this week; it's fun and engaging to play.

Even if you don't plan on playing this strategy due to the high price tag, it's good to learn how the deck operates as it's very powerful.

Here's my list:

Omnath Pile | Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Companion (1)
• 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

• Creatures (18)
• 3 Eternal Witness
• 3 Fury
• 4 Ice-Fang Coatl
• 4 Omnath, Locus of Creation
• 4 Solitude

• Planeswalkers (9)
• 1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 4 Teferi, Time Raveler
• 4 Wrenn and Six

• Instants (6)
• 2 Ephemerate
• 2 Force of Negation
• 2 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Time Warp
• 4 Expressive Iteration
• 4 Prismatic Ending

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Abundant Growth
• 4 Spreading Seas

• Lands (29)
• 1 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1 Snow-Covered Plains
• 2 Snow-Covered Forest
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Ketria Triome
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Alpine Moon
• 2 Aether Gust
• 1 Knight of Autumn
• 1 Endurance
• 1 Sanctifier en-Vec
• 2 Veil of Summer
• 2 Dovin's Veto
• 2 Wear // Tear
• 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
• 1 Lightning Helix
• 1 Subtlety

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Omnath Pile is strong because the early turns are spent developing your position while the spells replace themselves. The mid game is spent casting some of the strongest creatures in the format.

The Spells

4 Expressive Iteration - It's hard to justify not playing the best card draw in Modern if the mana can support it. Omnath Pile has less velocity compared to Lurrus decks so I prefer to cast Iteration later in the game when possible. It's hard to get two spells out of Iteration in the early game unless there are opposing creatures to remove with Prismatic Ending and pitch elementals. Take the guaranteed value early on with enchant lands and planeswalkers.

4 Spreading Seas - Tron is a rough matchup and Spreading Seas is your only defense in the maindeck. It can draw multiple cards with Yorion and Teferi, Time Raveler.

Blood Moon is a popular spell to cast against Omnath Pile. You can Spreading Seas your non-basic Mountain after Blood Moon has entered the battlefield to turn it into a non-basic Island. It's all about layers. With that being said, Blood Moon primarily hurts this deck when backed by a fast clock.

The scariest weapon in Rakdos Lurrus decks is Tourach, Dread Cantor. Spreading Seas ideally targets Blood Crypt to take them off three Black mana. It's also good at stopping Kroxa from escaping.

A savvy opponent may hold onto their fetch land to stop Spreading Seas from hitting their land. If this is the case, you can target your weakest land with Spreading Seas and move it onto another land with Yorion later in the game.

4 Abundant Growth - This innocuous spell really ties the room together. It's very close to Arcum's Astrolabe in terms of power level in this strategy. It has many of the same synergies as Spreading Seas, but is even better against Blood Moon as Growth will always win and is not about layers.

Not only does Yorion blink Abundant Growth and Spreading Seas to draw more cards, it can be reset onto different lands in the late game. This includes fetch lands to conserve life totals or if you run out of shocks, basics, and triomes.

3 Eternal Witness - I originally played four Witnesses, but felt like too many. It can be reset with Yorion and Teferi. Ephemerate can blink Witness on the rebound and return the same Ephemerate to your hand which can create a loop with Time Warp or just get a lot of value.

2 Force of Negation - This is the one spell in the deck that doesn't play well against fair Modern decks. I want two cards in the sideboard to swap for Force of Negation against different midrange and aggressive decks. Another option is to play Dovin's Veto because it can be pitched to Solitude.

The upside of Force of Negation is it can be cast against uninteractive decks while you tap out and advance your core game plan. Omnath Pile plays primarily at sorcery-speed so there's a real cost to leaving up mana at the chance of countering a spell with Dovin's Veto.

4 Solitude - Pitch elementals make this archetype work. Solitude can be blinked with Ephemerate with the evoke trigger on the stack to exile a second creature while the 3/2 lifelink sticks around.

Despite Solitude evoking for card disadvantage it's worth it to cast aggressively because the early turns are spent generating advantages. You will quickly recoup the lost card once you start hard casting bombs.

Yorion can be added to your hand as an extra White spell to pitch; the same can be said for Force of Negation. I don't often pitch Yorion because there are multiple permanents to blink when it enters the battlefield. A 4/5 Mulldrifter is no joke.

3 Fury - The second pitch elemental. Red spells are harder to come by in Omnath Pile compared to White for Solitude which makes cards like Expressive Iteration more useful against aggressive decks. The other Red cards happen to also deal damage to creatures or gain life: Omath, Lightning Bolt, and Wrenn and Six.

Once Omnath Pile gets to the mid game against decks that fear the interaction from Solitude and Fury things become easy. This is a very powerful midrange deck filled with a bunch of Shriekmaws. It can feel like you're playing a good sealed deck against a weak pool.

2 Lightning Bolt - A couple extra creature removal spells alongside Fury and Solitude. Bolt is strong against Lurrus decks primarily. The three damage can team up with Wrenn and Six to take down more threats.

I tried Unholy Heat, but it's hard to get delirium early. Land, sorcery, and creature or planeswalker are common, but there aren't enough instants.

4 Ice-Fang Coatl - I've been a big fan of Ice-Fang. The Snow-Covered lands are naturally fetched often because there are so many different spells to cast early to turn on deathtouch.

Ice-Fang is also a good target for Ephemerate because Solitude and Fury might not want to be targeted with the rebound as the battlefield will likely be clear already. There are times I rebound an Ephemerate on Solitude/Fury without creatures to remove just so it doesn't stay in exile so it can be picked up with Eternal Witness later in the game.

4 Prismatic Ending - The strongest removal spell in the format. It can be cast at instant-speed with Teferi, be an early target to regrow with Eternal Witness, and can be cast x=5 thanks to Abundant Growth making Black mana.

2 Ephemerate - I tried three and four copies, but there are times I don't have a solid target. It can be pitched to Solitude, but I often want to hold the Ephemerate when I evoke an elemental. I want three White mana in the mid game to hard-cast Solitude and hold up Ephemerate.

4 Teferi, Time Raveler - The static ability is nice to protect creatures being targeted with Ephemerate. I frequently bounce Abundant Growth if there aren't opposing threats to target. It's able to generate a value engine by bouncing Yorion which blinks Teferi back to 4 loyalty at the end of turn to repeat the process next turn.

2 Time Warp - I've been very impressed with Time Warp while most lists play 0-1 copies. Omnath Pile is very good at fighting fair decks, but can fall short against linear decks that look to end the game quickly. Time Warp is able to be looped with Eternal Witness and Wrenn and Six to create a more linear threat.

Taking an extra turn can generate extra planeswalker activations or just make a free land drop and draw a card. A turn five Omnath is especially powerful with Time Warp where you generate four extra mana to take another turn to do something powerful. I'm rarely upset to draw Time Warp.

If you want to play a more stock version then the second Time Warp can be cut for Eladamri's Call. Since Time Warp is a way to get ahead and go over the top in the mirror I would want to play an Emrakul, the Promised End as a haymaker in the sideboard as well.

1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - I cut the fourth Witness for Teferi early on and haven't looked back. It's a late game threat that pitches to Solitude. A minor advantage of having one Teferi in your deck is that Time Warp loops can go infinite because the -3 prevents you from decking. This means you can deal arbitrarily large amounts of damage through attacking if your opponent has gained millions of life.

The Mana Base

Since this is an eighty-card deck with twenty-nine lands let's convert our mana base into a traditional size:

29 x .75 = 21.75 lands in a sixty card deck

Fewer than twenty-two lands may seem on the low side, but most of the spells help you find more mana. A single Wrenn and Six and a fetch land will provide enough mana for the entire game.

Raugrin Triome and Ketria Triome - I fetch one Triome when I have time. There are situations where I leave the second Triome in my deck to cycle later for Wrenn and Six. Every fetch land can find both Triomes.

Temple Garden, Stomping Ground, Sacred Foundry, Breeding Pool, Steam Vents, and Hallowed Fountain - There are six shock lands which represent every color combination. Each fetch land can find five out of six shock lands. Temple Garden can be found with every fetch land; this is important because Green and White mana is the decision when searching for a Triome. Steam Vents is the weakest shock land because both Triomes make Blue and Red.

2 Snow-Covered Forest, 1 Snow-Covered Island, 1 Snow-Covered Plains, and 1 Snow-Covered Mountain - Snow-Covered Mountain is the worst of the basic lands because it doesn't get a boost with Blood Moon on the battlefield. Both of the Triomes make Red mana and you don't need the second Red until turn five to hard-cast Fury. Red mana can cast Wrenn and Six and Expressive Iteration, but not Ice-Fang Coatl.

Snow-Covered Forest is the best basic because it can cast Abundant Growth on the first turn and double-Green is required for Eternal Witness. Forests cast Wrenn and Six and Ice-Fang Coatl, but not Expressive Iteration in the early game.

Snow-Covered Plains is best in the mid-game to cast Solitude and Ephemerate, but doesn't cast your powerful, gold 2-drops.

4 Flooded Strand, 4 Windswept Heath, 4 Misty Rainforest, 4 Wooded Foothills - Sixteen fetch lands is a lot. There are only thirteen targets so it's not uncommon for the last fetches to be enchanted with Spreading Seas and Abundant Growth in the late game.

Since Forest is the best of the basics I want all twelve of the possible Green fetches.

Since Mountain is the worst of the basics we can get away with playing just four Wooded Foothills. It also allows us to play all twelve of the bant fetch lands before dipping into Red.

Omath Pile ends the game faster than you would initially suspect because the midrange creatures are so big and strong. The way you draw matches in paper is due to the dexterity of fetching a land every turn.

I like to establish a shortcut that I begin to search immediately for the land I find at the end of my opponent's turn, but reserve the right to use it sooner. I turn the fetch upside-down to signify it's still in play, but get the tedious searching done while the opponent is taking their turn.

Another shortcut I use is that I put my spell into play and announce the land I search, but pass the turn while I'm finding the land and shuffling my deck. It's hard for me to finish a full match without doing this, but I have zero draws in ten paper rounds so far.

The Sideboard

1 Lightning Helix - The Burn matchup is about finding Omnath as soon as possible and Helix provides another way to gain life early. It's also a seventh removal spell against Hammertime. A White and Red card can be pitched to both Fury and Solitude.

1 Knight of Autumn - Another way to gain life against Burn, but shines in different matchups than Lightning Helix. Knight of Autumn can be blinked and bounced while costing one more mana. It can interact with Amulet of Vigor and Urza's Saga.

2 Aether Gust - Another interaction spell for Amulet Titan, Burn, and many other matchups. I've faced many decks where the only sideboarding I do is swap two Force of Negation for two Aether Gust.

2 Veil of Summer - Primarily for Rakdos-based Lurrus decks. The scariest cards from Grixis Death's Shadow are Tourach and Drown in the Loch and Veil stops both. I don't want to play more than two because Force of Negation is the only truly bad card in the maindeck against Rakdos Lurrus decks.

1 Sanctifier en-Vec - A piece of graveyard hate that happens to also be a hammer against Rakdos Lurrus decks. It's very strong against Dredge, but weaker against Living End as half of their cycling creatures are Blue.

1 Endurance - Another piece of graveyard interaction that lines up better against Living End and isn't as much of a hammer against Rakdos Lurrus decks. Another option in this slot is Relic of Progenitus. Endurance can be returned to your hand with Eternal Witness against Mill as they can realistically deck you despite playing twenty extra cards.

1 Subtlety - A clock that interacts with control and big mana decks. I can tap out and not be exposed. It's a threatening line to bounce or blink Subtlety in the appropriate matchups. This is an uncommon sideboard choice, but I've been happy with it so far.

2 Dovin's Veto - The matchups where I want Dovin's Veto are the ones where I have the most cards to board out. This is because Fury and Solitude likely don't line up well.

2 Wear // Tear - Another White and Red card in matchups where Fury and Solitude likely shine. I like Wear // Tear more than Force of Vigor because there is likely an enchantment and artifact I want to kill thanks to Urza's Saga and Sigarda's Aid being prevalent.

1 Alpine Moon - An extra piece of Tron hate that also lines up against Urza's Saga. It's another Red card to pitch to Fury against Hammertime. Teferi and Yorion can reset Alpine Moon after it destroys an Urza's Saga to name a different land.

1 Yorion, Sky Nomad - This deck takes enough advantage of Yorion that I strongly prefer this version to the sixty card list with Kaheera.

That's all I have today. Give this deck a spin if you have the cards; it's very fun to play. It's currently popular on Magic Online so I would expect to face it in a competitive event so be ready.

Thanks for reading!

-Kyle