Even though he is stated to be one of the top character cards there are very few decks surrounding him. Lets take a look at his character Card.

F: Discard any number of cards: Add 1 card of diddcultiy x or less from your discard pile to your hand. X equals the total difficulty of the discarded cards. Only playable once per turn.

E Commit 1 foundation: This attack gets x=1 damage. X equals the number of times this enhance has been played this turn.

Omar's F lets him fish for cards in his discard pile that he needs. While his E is stackable and allows him to damage pump. Lets look at his pro's and then his cons.

Omar's biggest pro is built in fishing. There are few cards that let you fish cards. There aren't any cards in the meta that let you fish any card you want from the discard pile. This is a unique and powerful skill. This can allow him on turn one to turn a bad hand into a decent hand after a few checks. Omar's E being able to stack on itself is crazy when you think about him stacking cheap attacks that do low damage. He can make a string of attacks into a decent damaging attack.

Now lets look at his cons. Most people are not going to run character cards with him. This means that better attacks are going to cost you 2 cards to fish. Add on the fact that some decent 4 difficulity foundations may cost you two cards to retrieve. His E is going to make you go through your deck fast just off his own ability. Its funny that he has the possability to mill himself if he gets established. But his abilities don't move toward quick kills. Without speed and damage pumps Omar is straggling behind the top tier cards. The next con with Omar is his symbols. Some might scratch their heads when I say this. Omar needs speed pumps. He can get some from All but the best speed pumps are in Life right now. Not only that Chaos gives him more damage pumps which he already does. Earth's main strength right now is throws and Ras and King do the job better then Omar. Even Seig to some extent can out damage tempo off of earth then Omar. Feel free to look up the Seig throw deck for reference.

Earth can give Omar throws but other Earth Characters do better with throws then he does. Lets look closer at that. When it comes to throws King can fish throws and play them for free if they are 5 check or less. King's throw support does a lot to pump the damage of throws. Now with that you are better off commiting 1 foundation and playing its ability then commiting it to do x+1 damage. Omar's E has to be used 3 times before his e starts outpacing King's support. While it could be said he was built for master of magic/Yimrfang combo, he lacks the consistant damage to push it through. It is easy to over extend with him to make your opponent cry a bit more. Good news is you have access to anti commit tech.

When we look at Chaos closely we got to cry a bit for the fact he can't use Alshain Najm combo since it is algol only. There only 2 throws he can use. The first is Alphard Maliki, the second is double face kick. Both attacks are must for running Omar off of chaos. Lack of throws puts Omar at a disadvantage right now. The good news is that you can play Zi Mei's attacks. The bad news is that your playing the same attacks everyone else in the meta is playing. Unlike fire, chaos lacks the added push to make Zi Mei's attacks beastly. Add on the fact that Willful and Invoking the Ancients are your only speed pump is saddening fact.

All might be where the party is at. The throws are just as limited as before. Pummel Smash, Hammer of the Gods, Lunging Brush Fire abuse, Odin's Wrath, and some other nice goodies welcome you with cake and pie. Genius Alchemist, Finicial troubles, Relentless, The Ultimate team and new commers are in your welcoming package. The thing is there is a lot of draw. Thing is draw is nice but again your going through your deck fast. Your damage pumps from all are Bloodline Rebellion, Its Got to be the hair, Rivarly with a bear, and the ultimate team. Purified body, graceful style can give you a speed boost. Its not much but it beats chaos zero speed boosts.

I would say if Omar was life he would be broke. He would have the speed to push any attack he wanted through and get the damage up so he could kill fast. Who knows someone may do a needs no ally deck with that idea in place.

One thing Omar is not lacking is access to draw and damage pumps. But he has no strong control elements and doesn't have any strong speed pump access. As the symbols flesh out a bit more he will give some of the top cards a run for their money. It would first require Fire not to get pumped much more, All getting some more speed/stun support independent of fire. Chaos getting a control element that is not based on a gimmick.

Currently I am testing a Omar chaos deck using Kazuya's support and Cervantes check support. Its been a back and forth between him and my King deck. My king deck kill Omar by turn 4 or 5. If Omar keeps the pressure on he can make King hurt but it requires him to plan more and getting Devil gene early. The biggest weakness of the deck is that it can fish any card it needs because I pack character cards, but if I don't draw or discard key cards I can be stuck. I've also almost milled myself twice. Against other non-throw decks Omar hits hard because he can block at least 1 or 2 attacks with a character card then trigger mishima family bloodline to draw more cards to block hopefully. I wish I had more kazuymas. Being able to discard a character card for either, a damage pump for merciless fighter, or for Omar's ability has been great. No card is off limit when I discard a character card. Momentum is not an issue at all. Being able to pull cards from my momentum using Body of Souls has been killer to get big attacks back. Hilde test deck just beats up Omar so bad. Its more a speed issue then anything else.

darklogos said:

I think this is the way to go.... the foundation lineup looks a lot like it would for a Hiehachi deck.

The attacks however in my idea build are all the Rites. He can fish them up and line them up so easily with the number of character hell be running. Hell need speed pump less when he is throwing 5 attacks with all the rites and their combos with little extension.

Thanks Nintendo Man for the post. I'm looking at Devil within and how Omar is just fishing that every turn making those stun decks hurt. It is a combo breaker card. My only concern is Omar a poorman's Heichei?

darklogos said:

I definately do not think that is the case.

Omar has arguably one of the best character abilities in the format. his abilitiy is also alot less of a double edge sword then Heiachi. IF Heiachi extends too much and doesnt kill, he is all but dead, I think Omar has more flexibility expecially since he can dig for whatever he needs (Chaos has huge problems drawing cards). Lastly I think Omar is FAR less reliant on momentum, a huge drawback to Heiachi in my eyes... I dont know how many times turn two and three where Im ready to kill but dont have a momentum generator for some reason (and I run Zephry, Bloodling, Offering and Laughter).

I dont really think you can compare Omar to Heiachi off chaos other then the fact that they want to abuse characters. I think Omar has alot more versatility and because of that may have a better standing once more sets come out. Heiachi is sort of a one trick pony (granted its a good trick)

The thing I've just finished looking at was playing All attacks and chaos support. Here is why I say that. The following attacks would be killer with some of the chaos support.

Turn Thruster
Hammer of the Gods
Neutron Bomb
Knee Thruster/Lunging Brushfire
Pommel Smash
Fierce Twin Slash

Thing is with all this stun you can get more damage through in a turn. Knee thruster can be awesome into a Neutron Bomb.

When I looked at earth I found myself back in a throw situation but picking up throws for control instead of damage. Most of the throw support is earth but the damage pumps from Chaos about match it. I'm seeing that pressure that can be added from throws makes the deck run into King's territory to much. But at the same time Omar can get past ancient barrial site.

I will admit that I like running 20 attacks because I get second chances at a lot of different cards. i'm seeing that I don't have to run 20 attacks in an Omar deck. Even though I want to run that many attacks. Having a 60 card deck and packing 2-3 of certain attacks work since I can fish key elements any time and use the cervantes and multiples to fish out cards from momentum. The real question is how to bring it altoghter? Also is Omar a character you want to pack more then 60 cards or is he a 60 cards max character?

darklogos said:

recuring throws is way tempting. But like you said that is predominately an Earth build route.

I think running around 20 attacks is fine with Omar for a couple of reasons. FOr the most part you can attacks in hand to pick up more situationaly useful attacks. And two if you really need foundation he can always pitch an attack for pretty much any foundation.

As for the 60 card deal, as for any character I honestly dont think it matters as long as you stay 60-68. If Im running a Rite build Id stay closer to 60. If Im running a throw/defensive build Id lean more towards 68.

lol o man the more I expand on these ideas the more I realize I actually need to pick up an Omar

That is part of the issue. I think there is a lot of thought that is just assumed without saying why he is good. I didn't know about the Heichi limitation when it comes to momentum until you said something about it. That element slipped my mind when I saw the pure damage he was able to do. The symbol limitation is something that hasn't been really addressed with him because earth is almost assumed to be the symbol that will be played. But as we talked it chaos can do the job and earth tends to lend to better cards then Omar. In the other forum I listed which cards that can p2p/acro combo. Most of those characters have earth. One other thing to be noted is that Potm doesn't suit Omar well right now because most attacks he will run will only share 1 symbol with his character unless he is running Needs No ally. Thus he is put in a situation where he can add in other cards in place of Potm. While PotM is a strong card it proves it is not that strong in this character yet. I was on a roll last night with my King deck as I was testing Omar. I saw that Chaos doesn't really jack with the other player during their turn that much. It made me realize that there is a potential for high control with Omar. At the same time he has the potential to be a character that could seriously just tank and tank if built right. While the tanking is mainly an earth build he could earth/all combo and hardly ever take damage. The question is can he heal? If he can heal then we can build a super brick. Even healing 2 or 3 a turn with huge damage negation would make him a monster. We just need some more cards and some more time to think about the issue. Only problem is that we are then going back to the gray wars. Even though Omar is an agressive design it is not brute agression like Hata or Hilde. Omar seems to be more of a setup agressive. If he had attacks that combo out that keep building speed as the combo builds then those are the attacks that are needed to be played. Thing is acrobatics is going be an issue for him unless he has attacks that make his speed monsterous. Hmm there is more that needs to be thought about.

I ran an omar deck at this weekends local tournament and it worked out pretty well, went undefeated in a single game.

I built him off Chaos with an attack lineup of 4x 1st rite, 4x 2nd rite, 3x 3rd rite and 4x Gut drill. Oh, and 4x Spinning Demon.

For the money works out really well in him because even if they decide to blow it up, you just grab it right back. Pair that up with a few intolerant of failures and you are golden.

Reversal gut drill also worked amazing. Especially after you commit Need to Destroy for Omar's E, then sack need to destroy to Maniacal Laughter, giving your Gut Drill an extra stun and giving you a ready blank foundation.

Morale of the story, recursion is good.

I ran i think 8 characters so that i could easily grab any attack i wanted, plus they are good blocks so that i can get gut drills off.

I can post a decklist if you like.

Only SB cards i used were 4x(cant remember the name...the kazuya attack you can discard to negate an E from staging area) when i faced against hilde. Ends up i didnt end up needing them, but gave me a nice warm cozy feeling knowing they were in the deck

Astrid gave me some trouble (commiting Omar off of reversal Pommel Smashes). Jin had some draw problems, and he was also running the rites and a fully blocked 1st rite followed up with a Gut Drill with Stun1 + Stun2 slowed him down enough to let me roll over him.

I talked to Omar on the phone Thursday, and he was telling me that in his opinion his character is the best in the format, MAC be damned. So for what it's worth he thinks it's pretty strong. I will compare deck notes with him and post more here (his internets is still down and he hasn't seen Hata yet, lol).

Thanks for the feedback. Here is the deck that I ran this weekend.

Omar Chavez * x1

Kazuya x1

ZD X1

White Crane x4

Assets

Devil Gene x3

Scroll of the abyss x1

Actions

Willful x4

Soul Stealing x3

Destruction in his wake x1 (only because I have 1)

Attacks

zi mei's wheel kick x 3

Spinining Demon x4

Alphard Maliki x4

Lion Slayer x4

Shadow Flare 3

Wild Storm x3

Foundations

Mizhima Zaibatsu Leader x4

Communing with the ancients x4

Dread Pirate x3

Beyond Humanity x 2

Seeking Treasure x 3

Body of Souls x 4

The Hunt is on x 4

Mishima Family Bloodline x3

Merciless Fighter x 4

Always in motion x2

Controller of Souls x1

Here is how it works. Omar uses character cards for a few reason. The first reason is to ditch to fish. The second is for merciless fighter. The last is Family bloodline trigger after block. I've got a lot of check security since I am running a lot of 2 check attacks. Willful works really well with Alphard Maliki.Soul stealing is for dealing with bull crap that is Hilde (if i could get it off) and also to cover the fact that it is possible for Omar to tap himself pretty bad during his turn. Wild Storm combo with Communing with the Ancients is pure sick! The mvp card is Spinning Demon because more character cards in your hand is always good. Lion Slayer can trigger off of cards in the card pool. This helps when you have to block a pummels smash with a character card. Just wheel Kick then Lion slayer. I never needed to use body of souls and always in motion consistently. I may move out always in motion for vengence.

The deck runs a bit fat. The main reason is that you can mill yourself really fast. I do mean fast. You are discarding at worse 2 cards for Omar's ability. Merciless Fighter is boarderline broke in this deck. I would have more Kazuya if i had them or Jin's. Here is the thing that is funny. You can an attack to pull Jin or Kazuya and feed merciless fighter. That is just a bit much. I think that Merciless fighter needs to commit after it gives the +4. I did this combo. Spining demon, Multiple, Alphard Maliki, merc fighter +4+4+2+2+2. That is crazy good. Because Omar fishes cards its even easier for him to abuse this card. If I saw Merciless fighter go into the discard i got it out asap.

I need to tweak some more to make it faster. The biggest weakness is that it requires setup. The setup for me is turn 4. I can't kill before turn 5. I think that is due to my lineup right now.

I dont see why you ran kazuya instead of padma, algol, or any other 6dif chaos character

You want to discard high difficulty, and a +0 block is a +0 block.

Kazuya doesn't let you grab back some attacks, padma or algol can grab any rite, spinning demon, whatever you need.

Jin and Kazuya are what I call low risk fish. I have them in the deck because if I need a character card I can get them without having to discard 2 cards to get a 6 difficulity card. That is the key. You only need a few. Half of the time I'm not fishing for attacks but foundations. I'm also looking to pick up Spinning demon more so then any other attack. So Kazuya does better in that regard then jin. But you get my jist. Running more 6 check characters doesn't give me more options. Now if I was going chaos/all then Algol would be a guranteed add.

I have never fished for a character card. I use character cards to fish whatever i want.

1 character = get any card out of discard pile.

You can only fish on your turn obviously, you fish for a char to hold a mid block? Or do you do it and play into card pool to draw with Mishima?

I fish for Kazuya for Mishima, midblock and mainly merciless fighter. Big thing about Mishima is that it rewards me for blocking with any character card. I use the other character cards to fish for what I need if i need something expensive. Many times I've taken a useless foundation in my hand and got another foundation for the same cost. The only time I discard character cards for Omar is if I don't have any spinning demons in hand.

do you ever play kazuya into your cardpool not as a block?

Also i am not running merciless fighter...great card...but couldnt fit it.

Id have to double check but i think i am running 0 4checks

whats your email lets exchange decklists...i have to type it up but i could do it quick without modifiers, etc

Um you got the hunt is on in the deck.. why would you even consider using omar to get chars back? imo I think it most of the time is a waste..

with hunt is on you can use high diff chars and still be able to fish them at low cost. And you can use omar to get whatever you want at any time

I posted my decklist in this forum, please give it a look at comment ppl

Posted response in thread.

So I have been thinking... how easy/hard is it to dual symbol this guy. Granted his symbols at the moment arent currently shared on alot of cards, but his ability gets around that.

Chaos/Earth gives him access to all of Kazuya, Teps, Cerys and Kings cards. Not to mention Hunt is On + Faithful Bodyguard. If anyone is gonna pull that combo off its Omar

NintendoMan said:

and destroying a foundation as a cost is not a big problem for O

nope not really.... o and not to mention for dual symbol build, if worse comes to worse he can search The man behind the mask for FREE!

I thought they ruled that you can't Man behind the mask for free because discarding zero is not really a discard. Just like how an attack for zero damage does not count as being a successful attack. Or did Antigoth rule on this.

Because of Omar's fishing abilities I didn't put G Corp leader in my deck. Its not worth it since you can get back your cards anyway.

what is it with people and building decks with world champion character cards

Scarred_Angel said:

they are characters just like characters that come from packs and others that are promos so its only natural that people use all avaliable resources to make decks and have fun with the game.....

Plus there arent that many characters in the game now as it is not using them would only make it worse