I've begun dabbling in the dark arts of classic lotus field, with emergent ultimatums. The lines. The lines. So many lines. I've lost approximately three quintillion games to fucking up the combo and I will lose 5 william more. So far I've found that the generally most optimal pile is Lier, Omniscience, and Behold the beyond, but the combo gets super funky if I don't have much in the graveyard or ended up drawing one of the pieces. If that's the case then I think just getting a pour over the pages or the mastermind's acquisition might be correct? Idk, lots of practice still needs to be done

Here's the list I ended up stealing and I've been having a blast.

First and forenost though, why are there 2 Zacamas in the sideboard? I can understand putting one in just in case you need to wish for it but the second implies that there are matchups where it's actively sided in. Huh??????????? I eventually understood why the monuments were in the sideboard after back to back dimir self-bounce games had me discarding my whole hand a card at a time. Big dino is just completely beyond me.

4 impulses is a really interesting choice in terms of card selection, but it's working super well. It digs pretty deep for pretty cheap, same with stock up. It's like a mini dig through time.

Only having 2 arboreal grazers is something I think I might end up changing? Speeding up the combo by a turn and actually being able to block early is super important. Or (once I build my wildcards back up lmao) I've been tempted to make the strict proctor version that uses those to accelerate. The single expedition map has been pretty unnoticable, so maybe that'll get cut. Since this version has enough green sources to play archdruids charm it's a lot less important to have.

In terms of actually playing it, I think the biggest thing I need to remember is that in the UR version, hidden strings is just a piece to help continue the combo, while in this version it is required 99% of the time to cast either ultimatum or omniscience. And even after I land an omniscience, it's important to be mindful of flashbacking with Lier not being free.

I have a list of discarded ideas I made while brainstorming for previous contests. And a monster concept that might be good but having trouble giving it a distinctive design that pops and differs enough from its inspiration.

...wait I think I just found the perfect coloring texture through radnom googling.

..huh when in doubt look for something that’s been on frrie.