All the Theory Changes in Omni: A List
We’ve covered a lot of ground over the last few months. Here’s a summary of all the changes Omni makes to more traditional theory.
| Term | Previous | Omni |
|---|---|---|
| Stock Issues | Big deal, often used in speeches and even judge orientation | Replaced by new broad categories: Presumption, Benefit, Detriment. The judge never needs to hear those words. |
| Stock Issue Paradigm | "4 legs of a chair" thinking with arbitrary hoops to jump through | Simple resolutionism + impact calculus. |
| Presumption | Variety of meanings. | Greatly fleshed out and expanded. |
| Topicality | An "a priori" issue living in a separate theory ecosystem. | One of several Presumption argument classes. |
| Tricotomy | Usually run in a way that impacted as a kritik. | One of several Presumption argument classes. |
| Specification | Usually run in a way that impacted as a kritik. | One of several Presumption argument classes. Run as Secret Spec. |
| Objection | Completely distinct case type. | One of several Presumption argument classes. |
| Significance | Stock Issue spawning a cornucopia of interchangeable argument classes like Justifications and Reasons for Change. | Affirmative offense is either a Harm or Advantage. Significance is a sub-point in both. |
| Harm | Claims that there is a problem in the status quo that calls for a Plan. | Goes further by claiming that the Plan will fix the problem. Now contains significance and solvency as sub-points. |
| Advantage | Claims that the Plan will create something good. | Now contains significance and solvency as sub-points. |
| Solvency | Stock Issue. Sometimes used interchangeably with Advantages or as an "off-case" argument. | Benefit sub-point only, never introduced as negative offense. |
| Inherency | Hot mess. Once-in-a-lifetime argument when used correctly. | Removed completely. |
| Funding | A Plan Plank explaining how much money a Plan will cost and where the money will come from. | Replaced by Provision. |
| Provision | New Plan Plank explaining everything that the Plan will require - not just money. | |
| Disadvantage | All bad effects of the affirmative plan. | Now only the unintended side effects. The remaining uses are distributed to Backfires and Costs. |
| Link | Disadvantage sub-point. | Usage expanded slightly to use as Cost sub-point. |
| Uniqueness | A Disadvantage subpoint. | Removed because it is, ironically, non-unique. |
| Backfire | New negative offensive argument claiming that the Plan makes worse what it tries to improve. | |
| Barrier | Often appeared as off-case Solvency. | New sub-point explaining what in the status quo keeps the Plan from working. |
| Failure | Often appeared as on-case Solvency. | New sub-point explaining why the Plan doesn't surmount the Barrier. |
| Cost | Difficult to attack because there was no suitable argument class. | New negative offense lamenting the missed opportunities of the Plan. |
| Direction | New sub-point explaining how the status quo would use the lost resource/opportunity. "Status quo as counterplan." | |
| Comparison | New sub-point explaining why the status quo uses the resource/opportunity better. | |
| Flow Division | On-case/Off-Case. | Aff Case/Neg Case. Nothing is off-case. |
We’re not done with Omni. Now comes the really fun part. It’s time to talk about the unprecedented strategic maneuvers made possible by Omni.
But first: a little love for value debaters.