Welcome to the Omen Pool
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is a W/U Legendary Creature from Ravnica Allegiance, which prevents opponents from casting free spells and noncreature spells with CMC greater than the number of lands that player controls.
This deck has a somewhat nebulous identity, acting as both a traditional Control deck while also functioning very similarly to other Stax decks. The deck’s namesake locks of Omen Machine and Knowledge Pool give the control aspects of the deck a bit of inevitability, which works significantly in its favor.
Why Lavinia?
Lavinia is a pretty awesome commander that is very successful at slowing down and punishing many of the meta’s most aggressive combo decks (Hulk, Divergent, and Consultation). Due to our commander’s cheap casting cost, we are able to aggressively push out hate/control pieces and restrict our opponents early, while still maintaining the late game locks that other W/U strategies contain. Lavinia’s early game effectiveness makes her possibly one of the strongest and most dangerous Control/Stax commanders available.
Why Not GAAIV?
Many people who begin the path down the W/U Control/Stax path, generally gravitate towards Grand Arbiter Augustin IV because of its taxing abilities. While Lavinia and GAAIV do share many similar decklist qualities, the ultimate philosophies are different. GAAIV attempts to tax opponents, while Lavinia tries to prevent moves all together.
GAAIV’s effectiveness is entirely meta dependent, and flourishes in slow grindy metas where it can gradually gain more value than its opponents over time. Lavinia, however, is much more effective overall due to her strong abilities and low casting cost.
Deck Strategy
The gameplan for this deck is fairly simple; resolve a Lavinia as early as possible, and then begin to control the game from there, eventually building to either a hard lock or a win condition.
Opening hands usually want to see any combination of relevant hate pieces, ramp, and interaction.
Going for the Omen Pool lock is generally going to be a timing piece. Waiting for the right time to either tutor or cast the lock is imperative. Try to wait until opponents are either tapped out or low on cards (remember free counterspells like Force of Will, Pact of Negation, and Mental Misstep cannot be cast while Lavinia is on the battlefield).
The other route to victory is to pursue the Helm of Obedience and Rest in Peace combo.
Opening hands and early game draw spells will be good indications of what avenue you should pursue for the win.
Locks: Knowledge Pool + Lavinia
**Hard Lock**
When Knowledge pool is on the battlefield, whenever a player casts a spell, that player exiles it into the Knowledge Pool. Once they do this, they may cast another nonland card exiled into the Knowledge Pool without paying that card’s mana cost. When Lavinia is on the battlefield, the spells your opponents cast from the Pool will get countered by her ability. It is also important to note the CMC of the card being cast from the Pool because your opponents cannot cast cards with CMC greater than the number of lands they control. This can be relevant as an opponent may attempt to remove a win condition or spell target from the Pool. Again it is also important to note that spells cast from the Knowledge Pool are all cast at instant speed and ignore the timing restrictions of the card (this is how I was able to cast an Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger at instant speed for 1 mana…. Magic is silly). This also allows Teferi, Time Raveler to be a secondary lock piece if Lavinia is somehow removed with the KP on the board.
Locks: Omen Machine + Lavinia
**Soft Lock**
This lock functions very similarly to the KP lock, however it is still allows for other players to cast spells and is open for interaction. This lock is generally much safer with a Teferi on board as it makes all of the potential interaction opponents might have sorcery speed, giving you more freedom to answer.
I generally would recommend trying to steer more towards the KP lock if you can.
Win Conditions: Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace
This is an oldy but a goody. This classic combo will exile your opponents’ libraries. It is generally safest to perform this combo if there is KP lock, Teferi, or Lavinia.
Full Primer can be found
here.
