Of course I have a biased opinion but I find it very unfortunate this article was never published. Even if its not as well written as other articles, which i don't actually feel is true, the importance of the content (The two biggest decks in the format put up against eachother) for a Type 1 player is far beyond that of most premium articles.

To me it feels wrong to pass with Memory Jar in play against a deck that can easily find its 1 mana bounce spell and put it back in your hand. The Imp for DT is an amazing play if you have mana floating and a weak yard so I'm glad it made its way into the article.

Is anyone finding other plays they think might be mistakes? Jeff and Mike aren't even that good so theres gotta be more.

Day 1 ..First and Second (not sure who got which place) was Jeff Folinus and Mike Hetherington..they're roomates.

I am not sure if this was already posted but why is the land in play? I am a big fan of playing fetch lands after brainstorm (especially before stifle became popular in fish due to the heavy combo meta.)

I posted that and then started thinking that the island plays around Stifle/Daze and the fetch isn't important because there are very few situations you won't be shuffling with the other cards in your hand. My bad on the dumb question. Happy I could modify this though before I got spammed with You Retard posts.

In note of what someone said about playing around nullrod because there was no turn 1 creature drop this increases the likelyhood of a null rod on turn 2.

PS. Is Time Walk the card that should be in the pile? It's a guess without even looking at what people have already come up with lol..

Aggro Oath is better than control because it presents the player with a straight foward game plan and has a better percent of match ups then the control build (Do CS metagames even exist?). It is a two card combo deck that needs to win in the first few turns. This means that impulse is a better card for the deck because it digs one card deeper and the favorable mana cost enables it being cast in addition to the spell it digs for. It also does not require that you play addition bad artifacts for fuel. The greatest misplay with the deck is not mulliganing agressively, the mulligan is a resource that this deck must use until it finds hands with atleast one of the combo pieces and the means to find the next. Impulse supplies this means. Many many games you will start with five cards and still be in a fine position to win.

I am also interested in your opinion of Bomberman. Im beginning to wonder if the deck is alot better after watching people win making tons of mistakes. Also, is it a bad match for IT because I have lost/almost lost to much worse opponents in tournys. (Never tested the match myself.)

******How should I sideboard http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=17579 (IT) against Bomberman and Sullivan Solution. Would c. extraction be a reasonable card to use on Trinket Mage against Bomberman.*****

If you have a hand that can win on turn one if it faces 0 disruption have you found any way to test your opponent to see if he has Force. Type one players are usually easy to read so I figure it might be practical.

A. Did you have a secret Time Vault combo deck developed. B. Did you purchase a ton of them? Or both.

While playing combo sometimes if my first Ritual is countered I will fizzle but upon resolution have guaranteed win. Rarely does it ever get countered. When playing control against combo how should you evaluate what cards to counter.

What have you been toying around with from Coldsnap?

Thanks again.

P.S. I asked alot of questions so if you answer any could it be the one with the **'s. It is the most improtant to me.

In Rochester I piloted IT and the deck seems solid. The only deck I didn't want to play was Gifts, a rare deck it seems (especially with a good player on the other end). It wasn't the decks fault that it never made a Top 8. On both Day 1 & 2 I had a chance to make it but made a mistake along the way keeping me out. Day 1 (x-2) I lost to a Grim Long player because I went for turn 1 game 3 (on the play) double duress instead of c. extraction on Tendrils because I thought he might have FoW's in the deck. The extraction would have guaranteed atleast a draw but most likely a win for me. Then day 2 my 1 loss from Kobolds was due to bad SB'ing. It isn't a deck I prepared against and should have sided the way I do against Grim Long. Instead I thought my deck was faster then it and sided incorectly. These were all huge mistakes and the good IT players probably would have Top 8'ed if they played.

Here is where I will give some advice. I know I'm not good but it's stuff people did wrong all weekend.

Chain of Vapor: The greatest card EVER. Sac'ing lands for threshold (Cabal Ritual) is a pretty great play. The better play is DMG on the stack bouncing your confidant to kill a meddling mage or so you can massacre.

Necropotence: Life Total - 1 (or you die) + 3 (grim tutor) + 1 (FoW) + 1 (if you will NEED to fetch) + # of dmg he can deal (remember Ninjitsu..it might matter) = How much you Necro for. Someone will follow this guide and miss a tapped mana vault or crypt in play but it's a good start to understanding how much to necro for.

Intution: You can trick your opponents all day with this card.

Trample: Dmg can all be assigned to one creature even if your guy has trample and you can assign more then enough dmg to kill. Otherwise a 4/4 could block a 10/10 trample all day as long as there was a pumper in play (dmg on the stack..pump to save).

Wasn't allowing TInker to resolve a mistake? Isn't there a good chance his opponent will go for Memory Jar...

"Walk is the most common tutor target."

Huh?...

Oath/Orchard/Recall.. I am not saying that you never go for Walk but I feel that the situation it is the right play comes up far less often then the previously mentioned cards.

EDIT* Jeff, do you feel Mystical is better then Imp seal or were you trying to save 1 proxy?

Usually you wait to cast Doomsday until you know there hand is empty of threats. I'm not saying it is a good deck though, I played it at my first T1 tourny and learned to hate it. I now know how poorly I probably played. I was wondering if anyone had put Conifdant in the deck to see what it can do.

Adding extra win conditions to protect against Jester's Cap is probably a better idea then playing Null Rods. The goal of Oath is to win in the first few turns. Having games go late is the worst thing possible for Oath. I haven't tested it because Stax is usually a bye. (This post is assuming your playing the aggro build because it is the better one.)

I apologize for turning your post into a debate over a specific hand. All I was trying to point out is with a 2 card combo those pieces are very important in hand decisions. Gekoratel's post is a good one to learn from. If you modify your deck you will atleast be playing with the same level deck and it then becomes your skill with it. I will give you some basic tips that are good to use.

Try and play your Oath of Druids with protection (Duress/Force of Will/Mana leak) against counters. With a hand like Forbidden Orchard, Mox, Oath of Druids, Impulse, Brainstorm, and Fetchland x2  have the option of just throwing the Oath down and hoping. This will win about half the time. (I don't know the real % if you add in no FoW increasing the odds of a mulligan from your opponent.) You however have Brainstorm/Fetch and the Impulse. These cards can try and search for protection and it is probably a better option.

With cards like Brainstorm and Sensei's Top you look at the top X cards and then choose which one you wan't in your hand. It is important to Brainstorm and then Add the 3 cards and put them worst 2 on top. You then want to shuffle the bad ones in. This is done with Fetchlands, Tutors, Oath, Crop Rotation, Etc. This way you can continue looking at new cards..New cards means more Oaths/Orchards..I love using Senseis then Crop Rotating for a fetchland to continue looking through cards even longer.

If you just want a basic answer:

Constructed - Play

Limited
      Sealead - Draw
      Draft - Play (Sometimes it is better to draw ie 5 colors)

I have no idea about the 2HG/Skittles/etc etc

I also want to add before someone says "Youre not going to be playing goblins." that I only used this as an example because it is a match we SHOULD dominate. I understand different matches call for different hand analysis. The only way this hand can relalisticaly win is if you hit Oath with the impulse and your oppenent played out a creature (Welder). With Oath, every turn the game progresses your chances of winning diminish.

“I think oath has control and aggressive builds, and if the build is aggressive mull, if it's control don't.”
The deck I posted to go along with the hand is an aggressive build. If you were to replace the City of Brass with an Orchard this would be a good hand. The problem with this hand is you can't rely on digging for both of your combo pieces. The proper turn one play with this would be to mulligan. Oath wins with 2 Cards+Protection. This hand has neither of the combo pieces and no reliable way to get them. The hand: Polluted Delta, City of Brass, Wasteland, Impulse, Mana Leak, Duress, & Sensei's Divining Top can't even beat Goblins a 90/10 Match..

We all know Oath isn't the best deck in the format. That doesn't mean you can't win with it. One benefit when playing Oath is there aren't any completely unwinnable matches (of the common decks). The build I have been playing is the following. Fix your deck first and then you can work on the small (or big) mistakes.

// Lands
    2  Island
    1  Underground Sea
    2  City of Brass
    4  Forbidden Orchard
    1  Tropical Island
    2  Polluted Delta
    2  Flooded Strand
    4  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine

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

// Spells
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Time Walk
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Mox Emerald
    2  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  Gaea's Blessing
    1  Rushing River
    4  Oath of Druids
    1  Imperial Seal
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Demonic Tutor
    4  Brainstorm
    4  Mana Leak
    4  Duress
    1  Black Lotus
    4  Impulse
    4  Force of Will

// Sideboard
SB: 2  Triskelion
SB: 1  Tinker
SB: 1  Darksteel Colossus
SB: 4  Oxidize
SB: 3  Ground Seal
SB: 3  Choke
SB: 1  Life from the Loam

I would be careful when you say your only play error was the missed attack phase. There are plenty of mistakes to be made that are hard to see. This is especially true with Oath where your hand decisions are crucial. With the build I listed you will be mulliganing to five alot more than with most decks. I only mention the hand decisions because it seems like a common mistake.

Polluted Delta, City of Brass, Wasteland, Impulse, Mana Leak, Duress, & Sensei's Diviing Top isn't a keeper even though it seems like it can do alot.

"I likely could've kept control until time in game 2 if I had dredged it into the yard." Most T8's arent timed and according to people that is a good thing for me [Inside Joke (Well not inside if you have ever played against me)].

Jeff...it is amazingly stupid you can't remember the "teachers" name..It is Jeff.

"Similiar reasons as to why the deck doesn't run Oxidize, Chalice for one is a common play in matchups where you want the card

Are you actually worried about Chalice @1?  Hell, I'd love if Stax played chalice @1 against Oath because you can still play Oath."

Hmm...I thought Shattering Spree can kill chalice at 1 anyway.

In none of your examples did you say a card in your hand the extra two mana would let you play. It would seem that an early Fact or Fiction/Gifts/Whatever expensive card would be a good thing.

Have you tested Shattering Spree over Rack and Ruin?