Normally I would agree with you, but I usually hit storm 10-15 even before I have to use the card. With the ... of tawnos I get loads of mana, and the cheap tutors/drawers make it very easy to hit storm w/o will

Hey there,

Some time ago I started a topic about Oath (as in late 2007), so some "might" remember the name.

Anyways, years ago I made a nice T1 list which was mostly based on what the restricted list had to offer.
The deck was able to go infinite mana/draw search etc etc. With the "recent" implementation of Mind's Desire and Tendrils of Agony you are also able to go infinite storm.
My list already implements the new restricted list.

Non land mana (11)
Mox Pearl
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Emerald
Mox jet
Black Lotus
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Grim Monolith
Sol Ring

Tools (7)
2 Candelabra of Tawnos (hate this card name, too hard to write!)
1 Voltaic Key
1 Memory Jar
1 Time Walk
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Tutors (6)
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker

Draw (7)
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Windfall
1 Frantic Search

Reset button (3)
1 Time Spiral
1 Regrowth
1 Timetwister

Kill (1)
1 Tendrils of Agony

Alternative Kill/draw (2)
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Braingeyser

Counter (8)
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

Land (15)
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy

The deck works like any other TES deck, build up storm and kill. The difference is that the deck skips out on dark rituals and the like, and instead runs a lot more old school cards.
 The main goal is to get your academy out asap + your artifacts, then start drawing stuff, find a frantic search, untap your academy and start to do nasty stuff.

Card choice:
Non land mana
Doesnt need much explanation, just the best mana artifacts out there.

Tools
Time Walk doesn't need any explanation, the card is just amazing. I mainly run it for turn 1/2, since the deck needs some "time" to setup, the extra turn is godly, if you get it of course.
And, if for some reason you find yourself stuck in the midst of your infinity (which means you made a mistake somewhere) just cast a stroke/geyser on your opponent and start all over again.

Yawgmoth's Will is a card that I might replace for Fastbond, I mainly run the card because it has done a lot of good stuff for me in the past. But I've casted the card once/maybe twice in total. I mainly use it as a discard target for my Frantic Search, not a good thing.
Fastbond on the other hand is rather useful if your hand fills up with lands. Even if you run only 15 lands, you dont want to get stuck with them.

Mind's Desire is a lovely card, it has saved quite a few of my games because I made a mistake somewhere. Down side is that if I want to go infinite I have to stop using it sooner or later, since a deck with 25ish cards left in it, shouldnt be targeted by storm 28ish.

Memory Jar has two roles, the first one is to refill your hand early in the game. The second one is to filter out all the stuff you dont need, by just removing it from the game. Maybe with Fastbond the latter isn't needed anymore.

Candelabra of Tawnos great fun with Tolarian Academy, also, when you go infinite you can tinker one for the other one, shuffle redo etc. But more on that later.

The lone Voltaic Key is to act as an "expensive" Candelabra of Tawnos or to go crazy with Grim/Vault.

Tutors
All tutors are quite obvious, Crop Rotation is an extra Academy. As stated earlier Tinker is good fun with Candelabra of Tawnos, other then that, it can act as an extra memory jar if needed.

Draw
Yawgmoth's Bargain works really well with some of the tutors, also, if you draw "dead" cards you are able to refill your hand with better cards. I dont know how this one will work with Fastbond though.

Wheel of Fortune is the only reason why dis deck runs red mana, great card, especially if you're stuck with dead cards(like lands) in your hand.

Windfall just like Wheel of Fortune, a great card, the plays huge amounts of spells all the time, and with some luck, your opponent has 5-6~ cards in his hand. More cards for me!

Ponder is a nice card, a mini brainstorm if you like(as in mini mini).

Brainstorm/Ancestral Recall are both pretty obv. right? Two of the best card drawers ever printed.

Frantic Search is part of the infinite "engine", untaps your academy+other lands = more free mana in the process.

Reset buttons

Time Spiral, just like Frantic Search, untaps your academy + any other lands. Downside of this card is that you can only use it once, but that's usually more then enough.

Timetwister/Regrowth, both are seen in many different decks, Regrowth always targets your Timetwister.

Kill & alternative kill

Finally we will look at the lone kill card and the two alternatives.

Tendrils of Agony is a straightforward kill, just cast it as soon as you hit 9-10 storm.

Braingeyser/Stroke of Genius are both to fill my hand if needed, but also if storm fails for some reason, to go "infinite" and just deck your opponent.
I might decide cut one of the two, but I dont know for what to replace it with, Hurk Recall maybe?


How the deck works
The main goal for the deck is to create a storm with a count of 10 to kill your opponent.
Where most TES decks are able to go off in turn one/two, this deck focuses on turn three. This might be "bad", but the deck feels a lot more consistent this way.
Also, this deck is also able to get an infinite amount of mana, if you are able to cope with your opponent's counters of course. But this shouldnt be too much of a problem, if your opponent cant stop your early on, you will have more then enough mana to counter with your mana drain & force of will.
This is how it works:
Put Academy in play + 4artifacts + 1 land.
Tap all for mana, 6mana in your pool, play frantic search all lands untapped, 3 mana left.
Play timetwister, shuffle frantic back in your deck, draw 7 cards, get more artifacts + tutors + drawers.
Play Frantic Search again, this time for more mana left.
Rinse and repeat. Basically any deck can do it, true, but this deck runs more then enough artifacts to fuel the combination.


Well that was a long story, hope you liked it . So I got a few things to think about, and I'd like your imput on this as well (or anything else ofc.):
Yawgmoth's Will or Fastbond
Geyser/Stroke or another kill?
Will it matter that the deck goes off in turn 3/4? Especially with the new restrictions, I think a lot of combo decks will be slower anyways.

Laters!
rBt

Hiya,

Some of my thoughts:

Misdirection:
Cool card, can be a live saver.

Blue Elemental Blast:
To be honest, you will be paying 4 mana to counter a most probably cheap spell.

Mana Leak:
Since most of your lands produce U mana, I'd say be brave and run a Counterspell. T1 decks usually spit out loads of mana, so 3 shouldnt be too much of a problem.

Echoing Truth:
Personally I find Rushing River a better choice, due to the fact it will evade most Chalices. And it has a sexy kicker.

Mystical Tutor:
Find a replacement for this, a Krosan Grip maybe.

Swords to Plowshares:
Cool

Abeyance:
I find Orim's Chant better then Abeyance for reasons:
- Abeyance only stops instants/sorceries/activated Abilities, Orim's Chant stops all spells, including Oath/somestack anything else. Abeyance stops activated abilities of course, but Orim's Chant stops the rest.
- Orim's Chant costs only 1 mana, where you dont get a new card, but 4mana is easier to get, then 5. Especially in a 5 color deck.

Argivian Find:
-

Hide/Seek:
-

Fire/Ice:
-

Shattering Pulse:
Expensive... Oxidize is cheap and fast, how high is the chance you will use the buyback?

Krosan Reclamation:
A multi-purpose card, like you said yourself.

Skeletal Scrying:
I'm wondering why you want to remove your GY when you also run a run a Yawgmoth's Will. Skeletal Scrying does remove cards you can target with your Cunning Wish of course. But(!) I find a stroke of Genius a better card, because you keep your 'yard cards where you want m and you still fill up your hand. AND! you dont lose life in the process.

Good luck with your SB,

Hooi
rBt

First of all: Sorry for the double post.

So here's the 2nd decklist:

Kill:
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Razia, Boros Archangel

Engine:
4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Timetwister
1 Regrowth

Tutor Department:
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Crop Rotation

Card Draw:
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Impulse
1 Fact or Fiction

Counters:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection

Disruption:
1 Time Walk
1 Stripmine
1 Rushing River
1 Tormod's Crypt

Mana:
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Trickbind
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Blazing Archon
2 Simic Sky Swallower
3 Krosan Grip
2 Chalice of the Void

Ok since I don't have much else to do today, I will take a look at every card in the deck.

Akroma/Razia: They're just good, Akroma is the better of the 2 ofcourse, but Razia can protect itself too.

Oath of Druids: In combination with Forbidden Orchard, you are pretty much guaranteed to have a creature out the turn after.

Gaea's Blessing/Timetwister/Regrowth: This card is usually only used for it's trigger, so you get your gy back in your library. If you happen to draw it, no worries, just keep on milling until you turn either regrowth or timetwister. If any of the two get into your gy due to Oath, you shuffle m back with Blessing.
So in a way your Timetwister is an extra Blessing. Regrowth is also a nice card after you've used your Oath of Druids, because it will act as a Demonic Tutor(Like Netherspirit said before).

Tutors: You use the tutors to get both Oath and Orchard in play. After that they can be used to get any of your disruption cards.

Ancestral Recall: The best draw card out there, down side is of course that your oppo can Misdirect it to him/herself.

Brainstorm: Just insane, this card has three major uses:
- Getting the right cards in your hand
- Protecting your Oath/other cards from a Duress
- Putting an Angel on the top of your library, when it's stuck in your hand.

Impulse: Impulse is just another card to make sure you get all your cards needed. But If there happens to be an angel with those 4 cards, you're sure you will never draw it and your Gy will be shuffled back into your library. Pretty good deal.

Fact or Fiction: I personally find this card a bit too slow, but I'm going to give it a try. The entire deck is based around 1/2 mana spells, with a couple of exceptions of course.

Counters: Force of Will and Mana Drain are just insane, Misdirection is to protect your creatures/oath, or to take advantage of an opponent's spell at the right situation.

Time Walk: Having a Black Lotus, Forbidding Orchard, Time Walk, Oath of Druids, FoW and a random Blue card is probably the best hand you can get.
Since you will have a 6/6 or 6/3 flier out there before your opponent could do anything.
A couple of turns later you're sure to attack twice, which is good especially vs all the combodecks out there.

Stripmine: I decided to give this one another try, you can search for it with a Crop Rotation.

Rushing River: After Capsize I decided to give this one a try, Wipe Away is a good one too, since most of the lands produce blue mana. As long as the bounce spell is 3 mana, it's good. Since most Chalice of the Voids are cast for 2.

Tormod's Crypt: I decided to test this one now, good VS any deck that uses it's yard. Insane in a mirror


Moxen and Lotuses: The 5 Moxen, Lotus Petal, Black Lotus are all in the deck to make sure you can drop an Oath in turn 1, or Turn 2.

Forbidden Orchard: Since there are only a few decks in Vintage that uses a lot of creatures, Forbidden Orchard is your guarantee to have a creature out next turn.

The rest of the lands: I've added an extra fetchland (windswept) to get to the Forest, and an extra chance to get a tropical Island.


Sideboard

Trickbind: Stifle is good, Trickbind is better, because it has Split Second.

Tormod's Crypt: More 'yard hate!

Blazing Archon: In case your opponent has a creature heavy deck, this is a good way the opponent's deck down.

Simic Sky Swallower: Can't be targeted, good VS any targeted Removal (Swords to Plowshares, brrrr)

Krosan Grip: Artifact/Enchantment hate with split second is good.

Chalice of the Void: Extra hate vs sligh/stompy type of decks, or just cast it for 0 and slow the game down.

Hmm I've been blablaing about cranial extractions but they aren't even in the deck...

Anyways, what you're saying Moxlotus, is that an Extirpate won't be that helpful either.

I'll post my latest Oath deck tomorrow in my thread, you might want to take a look at it, the basics of any oath deck are all the same.

Ok the reason why:
It's not about giving your opponent a new hand, but it's making sure you dont run out of cards, because if you are out to fetch only one creature, you probably end up with at least half your deck in your gy.

Moreover, there is a very large chance one of the two creatures get killed/bounced. In that case the creature is stuck in the gy or your hand. Of course you have cards for that, but it's an extra possibility to get your creature(s) back where you want m.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of creature combo decks with Oath. I prefer to keep it simple, 6/6 6/3 fliers with haste are insane. But that's personal preference of course!

EDIT:
By the way, you are running a lot of "card extraction", don't you think that is a bit of an overkill?
I mean, in T1 what card do you want to Extirpate? Tendrils of Agony is probably the most likely candidate, but trickbind works just as fine. Extract is fun, but together with Cranial Extraction it's just too much. Where are you FoWs? You really need those to get your Oath in play, or to protect it.

Also about Echoing Truth, usually a Chalice of the Void is cast for 2, run Rushing River.

I would recommend more draw possibilities, like impulse, also an imperial seal might be an idea (good way to make sure you wont turn your entire library to find kiki jiki).

Btw, VS Slight type of decks, run angels in the board, or at least something with a lot of body, since your combo wont work there (2Toughness, VS 3dmg spells don't work).

I miss Regrowth and Timetwister, my deck is different of course, but Regrowth+Timetwister are better then 2 Krosan Reclamation imo.

Rather than just saying they're better, you need to tell us why they're better.
-Godder

The mana base is nice as it is atm, but I agree with you on the fact that I'm lacking basics, the inclusion of a forest, island and a swamp is good of course.

About disrupting the opponents mana base, this deck is designed to kill fast, life from the loam can be cool in combination with an Oath of course.

Library is a bit of a "dead drop" in the game yes, I might remove this one for a basic land. Tolarian Academy isn't a really good card in Oath, at least not in this version.

Capsize was the only card I've tested so far, I usually end up casting it without the buyback. I think I'll go for Rushing River for now, due to it's mana cost.
But again: the current mana base only has lands that give U mana. So UU1 or U2 doesnt matter in that case.

Tormod's Crypt is being tested at this moment. I do like the 3 copies in my SB tho, great in the mirror.
note: in the mirror it should never get to the point your oppo can utilize his/your oath ofc.

Fact or Fiction might be a good replacement for Gifts yes, or maybe Imperial Seal.

I used to run 3 Swords to Plowshares in this deck too. Imperial Seal is nice, but it's a sorcery, white is very easy to get with 4Forbidden Orchard, 1Mox P, 4Polluted Delta and a Crop Rotation. But then again, it never hurts to test it.

Regrowth is insane in this deck. It's your 2nd Timetwister. Because in the worst case scenario you can turn all your possibilities to shuffle your gy back into your library, in your gy. Other then that, it's always nice to get a free pick from your turned cards. Hmm this is a bit vague, let me give you an example:
I use my Oath:
1st Card: Timetwister
2nd Card: Demonic Tutor
3rd Card: Vampiric Tutor
4th Card: Imperial Seal
5th-9th Card: Random stuff
10th Card is an Akroma

Cards in my Hand:
Gaea's Blessing, Regrowth

I grab the Timetwister out of the GY and shuffle all the cards, including Gaea's Blessing back into my library.
Also: it has happend more then once that some wiseguy stiffled/trickbinded my Gaea's Blessing trigger, where my Timetwister was already in my GY, including 40other cards of my deck. That's why this deck is running only one Gaea's Blessing.
Note: If you happen to draw Gaea's Blessing, you save it for reshuffling Regrowth+Timetwister back in your deck.

I'll post a new decklist tomorrow morning, since it's 10:30pm here in the Netherlands, and I got some other stuff to do.

Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the Reply Netherspirit,

About Capsize:
100% of my (mana) lands give me blue mana, so Rushing River and Capsize are as easy to cast in this deck.
The only difference is the kicker ofcourse, hmm something to think about.

About Leyline:
I agree with you on the free part, I will test the crypt the upcoming days.

About Stripmine:
Strip Mine can be fetched for with Crop Rotation/tutor, to kill off a big land threat.

Hooi!

Hi all,

First let me introduce myself, my name is Robbert, aka rBt and I'm from the Netherlands.

I'm currently playing with an Oath deck, I haven't encountered any real problems yet, but tips are always welcome.

This is the deck:

Kill:
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Razia, Boros Archangel

Engine:
4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Timetwister
1 Regrowth

Tutors:
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gifts Ungiven

Draw Engine:
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
1 Library of Alexandria

Counters:
4 Force of Will
4 Manadrain
2 Misdirection

Rest:
1 Capsize
1 Time Walk
1 Leyline of the Void

Mana:
5 Moxes
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Blazing Archon
2 Simic Skyswallower
3 Krosan Grip
4 Stifle
2 Chalice of the Void

Well you probably all know the drill, so I wont bother with tactics. But I do want to explain to you is some card choices I made, since there are some odd cards in it.

I splash white for Enlightened Tutor, this for two reasons:
- It's an extra chance to get your Oath (7 in total)
- An extra chance to get a Leyline of the Void, which is awesomo in the mirror.
- There used to be a 3th reason, Engineered Plague, but that was because I played against a weird Elf deck from time to time.

I run only one Gifts Ungiven, I used to run 3 of these, but I just don't like the card(in this deck).

Crop Rotation, a true monster(^^):
- Get your Forbidden Orchard
- Get your Stripmine to blow up the Tolarian Academy
- Get your Library of Alexandria

Capsize:
Just a nice card to run, a good way to use up your Mana Drain mana.

Impulse:
Basically a bit of nostalgia. And I find it one of the best cards to make sure your Angels are on the bottom of your library(sometimes in combo with Brainstorm)

Leyline of the Void:
I maindeck one, I had a spare slot.

Sideboard:
3 Leyline of the Void, for the mirror/other decks that intensively use their graveyard.

1 Blazing Archon, VS aggro Decks (usually Razia Goes out).

3 Krosan Grip, mainly boarded in against artifact decks/enchantment decks/decks that use Chalice of the Void. So you need a card which costs 1more or 1 less then your Oath.

2 Simic Sky Swallower, VS targeted creature removal(Swords etc)

4 Stifle, Trickbind might be better here.

2 Chalice of the Void, still in doubt whether or not to mainboard them.


I basically tried to have an answer for most of the situations I could get into, that's why I run cards like a single Leyline of the Void and a Capsize.

My my, that was a long story!

Hooi rBt

EDIT:
Ok quick explanation how it works:
Turn 1/2 drop Oath of Druids with a forbidden orchard(opponent gets a token)
Turn 2/3 get your first big angel
Turn 3/4 get your 2nd big angel
Turn 4/5 kill

You use the moxes/lotuses to get your Oath out asap.

Gaea's Blessing makes you shuffle your graveyard back into your library again, in case you draw the card, no worries, you have timetwister/regrowth.