Ahh, finally someone notices the power of Null Rod in Oath  Nice article, Steve!

The combodeck to beat here is TPS and I played Chalice Oath for quite a while and it constantly loses to a well played TPS. In Paris I had Chalice for zero, Chalice for one AND Arcane Laboratory and still lost to TPS. ^^ The Null Rod version instead wins preboard about 60% of the matches and postboard at least 70% which is quite good in a field with lots of TPS like Iserlohn and Germany in general. I know that you face much more fast combodecks like Belcher and Grimlong in the US but I am and was always the opinion that these decks are inferior to TPS.

Against Gifts it is like 60:40 preboard and a lot better postboard. Slaver isn't that widely spread anymore as it seems that a lot of Slaverplayers are plaing Gifts now (which is the better deck imho).

Staxx is not impressed by Null Rod at all, there you are definetely right, but it gets boarded out in that matchup anyways. The boarding plan against 5c Staxx is -2 Duress, -2 Muddle, -1 Razia, -1 Thirst, -1 Null Rod, +3 Sacred Ground, +2 Rack and Ruin, +1 Darkblast, +1 Woodripper and against Uba Staxx the same with an additional -2 Thirst, +2 Pithing Needle. Staxx gives me hard times preboard, but postboard it looks much better for me.

Why should I replace a card in my deck that just wins matchups on its own? Perhaps we are just considering totally different metagames, but I really can say that Muddle Oath owns in metas full of TPS and Gifts and is definetely the better choice in that environment.

Hi!

Null Rod is THE gamewinner against TPS and Gifts as these decks are mana hungry while packing only 14-16 land. I played this Oath variant in Iserlohn to a second place finish last weekend expecting many TPS and Gifts:

SHIBBY Muddle Oath
// Lands
1 Strip Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Wasteland
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island

// Creatures
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Razia, Boros Archangel

// Spells
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Null Rod
1 Time Walk
2 Duress
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Muddle the Mixture
2 Mana Leak
1 Rebuild
1 Echoing Truth

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Null Rod
SB: 2 Duress
SB: 1 Woodripper
SB: 2 Claws of Gix
SB: 2 Darkblast
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 3 Pithing Needle

Postboard it has 11 counters, 4 Duress and 3 Null Rods which are all great against a field of combo and control. I lost only one match, that was against Gifts where I drew nothing and he drew everything. The worst matchup this deck has is Staxx, but we put some work in it after the tournament and the new list looks like this:
MD:
-1 Tropical
+1 Tundra

SB:
-3 Flux
-1 Darkblast
-1 Pithing Needle
-2 Claws of Gix
+3 Sacred Ground
+2 Rack and Ruin
+2 Spawning Pits

This works fine against both 5c-Staxx and Uba-Staxx...

To sum it up, as testing and tournament results say, this deck beats TPS, Gifts, Slaver, Fish constantly and it does not lose against Staxx 70% of the games anymore. If Staxx has the god draw then you lose, but otherwise you got good chances of gaining control.

Muddle the Mixture is a great addition for this deck, while gaining control against combo and control it functions as a counterspell whereas in the late game you can fetch what you need, be it Walk, bounce, Oath, Rod, Hardcounter.

I don't know if this deck works in every Meta, as we have only sanctioned tournaments over here, so no proxies, but I liked it a lot and I had only 2 not fully powered opponents in 7 rounds.

Greets
Vander

Let's call it a metagame deck for Wittlich ^^ I am the organisator and I just looked up the matchups he had: 3 Random-Aggrodecks (Win obviously), 1 fullpowered Dragon (win), fullpowered Gifted Oath (Draw), FCG (Win) and fullpowered TPS (draw). So he got some lucky matchups as he rolls over aggro like nothing, he beat Dragon due to the many hate he has packed (Chants, Swords, Disenchant-effects, etc.), and he drawed against the decks he would have lost against. In the Top8 he was slaughtered by Oath.

In a proxy-tournament this decks stands no chance unless it gets Dragon all day ^^

I had the plessure to play against Thug in Round 6 of that tournament and I have to say, I really liked that deck. Especially as he killed me in the second game with Desire for 11 AND 25 after Will resolved, which was the coolest kill I had against me all day.

As Thug said before Oaths are never dead cards, as most people, especially those not knowing the deck, will throw all their hate against the Oath and he gets to win with combopieces easily.

Sorry for not getting your opp. score up, I really made some bitter mistakes in the last 2 Rounds only winning one of them

People tend to go away from the 4-of-that-Dual anyways, because of the danger of getting srewed by Wastelands. So why making our decks even more vulnerable...

This was a No-Proxy tournament, therefore many people playing unpowered. And as one can see still doing good *g*

And wouldn't it be better in that situation to set it up with Duress to clear the way from Counters, StPs and Edicts? Especially concerning StPs that Duress is stronger than MisD because there aren't always other legal targets.

In my testing I had to come up with the following conclusion: It is very tight and perhaps proves that Gifts is restriction-worthy, but it is very vulnerable to yardhate. I could imagine that if this deck gets overly popular people start to play their Withered Wretches, Planar Voids, Coffin Purges, Tormod's Crypts again. And these are easily included together with CotV and other stuff mentioned in this thread already.

@Smmenen: What would be your answers to decks packed with yardhate?

Why not using the power of Intuition without the easy to hate Knowledges? I cannot see anything bad in adding 2-3 Intuitions to the deck. It would make Will and Tendrils-based kills a lot better. What about a list like this:

// Lands
    1 Library of Alexandria
    3 Volcanic Island
    3 Underground Sea
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Island
    2 Flooded Strand
    1 Tolarian Academy
    1 City of Brass
    1 Tundra

// Creatures
    1 Darksteel Colossus

// Spells
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    1 Fact or Fiction
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Burning Wish
    1 Recoup
    3 Duress
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Time Walk
    4 Mana Drain
    4 Force of Will
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Tinker
    3 Gifts Ungiven
    3 Thirst for Knowledge
    1 Lotus Petal
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Balance
    2 Intuition
    1 Black Lotus

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 1 Chainer's Edict
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Cranial Extraction
SB: 1 Primitive Justice
SB: 3 Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 Phyrexian Furnace
SB: 1 Mind Twist
SB: 1 Turbulent Dreams
SB: 1 Tendrils of Agony

And are you playing TfK or Skeletal Scrying as draw?

We tested yesterday some considered bad matchups for Gifts, here is the list I ran:

// Lands
    1 Library of Alexandria
    1 Snow-Covered Island
    3 Volcanic Island
    3 Underground Sea
    2 Polluted Delta
    1 Island
    2 Flooded Strand
    1 Tolarian Academy
    1 City of Brass

// Creatures
    1 Darksteel Colossus

// Spells
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    1 Fact or Fiction
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Burning Wish
    1 Recoup
    2 Duress
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Time Walk
    4 Mana Drain
    4 Force of Will
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Tinker
    1 Goblin Charbelcher
    1 Mana Severance
    2 Gifts Ungiven
    1 Mind Twist
    3 Thirst for Knowledge
    3 Phyrexian Furnace
    1 Lotus Petal

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 1 Chainer's Edict
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin
SB: 1 Lava Dart
SB: 1 Cranial Extraction
SB: 1 Fire/Ice
SB: 1 Primitive Justice
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
SB: 1 Kaervek's Torch

Some things about this list:
- yes, there is no Black Lotus, reason: I do not own it and no proxies allowed here
- the board looks random and it is, consider it under construction

1. "Worst matchup ever" UW-Fish
Not the American list, we tested against Meddling, Null Rod, Hatchling, as it is played here. I rolled over them, without an early Null Rod, Fish was not able to compete with the brokeness I could produce. Colossus and hand-destruction was golden here.

2. "Considered to be beatable" Staxx
Phew, did I really think I have a chance? This matchup is really hard... More than hard, it destroys me... One thing can rescue my day: 1st or 2nd turn Tinker on Colossus as the Staxx-player cannot get any fast beatdown on me. This was the plan in every match: Cast Tinker and counter Wire and Welder. What can I do against this? Especially considering that postboard Jester's Cap is played?


Generally said, we have not found any worse matchup than Staxx and this archetype should not be ignored, even here in Europe it is played. I cannot say much about the meta in France as I was only there once and that was Paris a month ago, but here in Germany a lot of players come to tournaments with Staxx and one has to have a way to beat it, when hoping for good positions. Which leads to the question: What can I, as a Gifts-player, do against it? Kill welders does not do the whole thing, imo stealing time by destroying Wires and Smokestacks could do the job, but how can that constantly be achieved? Any suggestions?

I am running a list with furnaces and TfK and I have some real problems against U/W-Fish. It has some mainboard-cards that are able to disrupt me very good and they are not the Swords against the Colossus:

- Null Rod: affects all my speed-mana, so i get vulnerable to...
- Mana Disruption: Stifle, Hatchlings, Strips
- Meddling Mage: before casting Gifts, it normally says Gifts or Tinker, which makes my play way less flexible, after Gifts (say it can counter some stuff or can disrupt my mana-base well enough to steal one more turn, which happens too often for my taste) it says Recoup which ends in my gifted cards all the time

@discussion about furnaces: They are great against so many archetypes and are not bad in every match, so why not playing them? Compared to the cards I had to cut for them (4th TfK, 3rd Duress and something I cannot remember), I think they are stronger than these in a lot of matchups, though many of you will cry out loud now for cutting Duress nr3. Duress is great Turn1 and then again in the Will-turn. And I play Mind Twist main, too, which allows some really broken turns. One thing I have to admit about furnaces is that it is a meta-call. In metas where no Bazaar.decs or Welder.decs are played, they are crap! But where are you playing when these decks are no Tier1-contenders?