[Deck] Null Rod Oath

[beder]

Hi all,

Sorry for my english, message from France

Oath is one of the very few bomb that doesn’t cost lot of mana: 1G is really cheap. As a consequence, the core business of the deck does not impose deck building with huge mana producers.
Recently, all the oath’s developments were about tidespout and so generally included the full moxen set (and sometimes other mana artefact producers). But comparing to other top decks of the metagame, I feel like Oath is not using the full potential of artifact mana producer (no welder, often no tinker, a combo that does not really require lot of mana, no storm needed before having already successfully casted the combo…).
So I decided to try a different road, getting inspiration from another deck that does not need lots of mana and succeed pretty well in imposing its “slow tempo” without using full acceleration: fish.

Naturally, it leaded me to different conclusions:
-   Develop mana denial disruption,
-   Use cheap spells,
-   Use creature that are good by themselves.

Here is what I came with

--------------------------------------
Null Rod Oath (60 cards)

// Mana sources (21)
    4 Forbidden Orchard
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Flooded Strand
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Island
    3 Wasteland
    1 Strip Mine
          (17 lands)
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Lotus Petal

// Core business
    4 Oath of Druids
    1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
    1 Razia, Boros Archangel

// Disruption   
    4 Null Rod
    4 Stifle   
    4 Force of Will
    2 Daze
    2 Duress   
    1 Misdirection

// Search and draw
    4 Lat-Nam's Legacy
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ponder
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor

// Utilities (forgot in the original post, added)
    1 Time Walk
    1 Krosan Reclamation
    1 Life from the Loam   
    1 Darkblast
    1 Extirpate
    1 Echoing truth

--------------------------------------

Sideboard not described, still has to be fixed. You have to find interesting cards :
-   to replace null rod when it is not useful : against fish or ichorid or pure aggro or pure control
-   to replace stifle when not useful : against shop-artifact or pure control
-   to improve the disruption when facing shop-artifact 
-   to hate the yard
-   to prevent the oath hate.

Some ideas used right now :
Engineered explosive (in place of null rod)
Annul, oxydise,
Echoing, pithing needle, (versatile)
Extirpate, …

--------------------------------------

Overall game plan

This deck is good at applying 2 game plans

-Quick combo protected in early game, disruption to slow the opponent while beating with creatures (generally, if you succeed in casting a oath, it is a 2 turns clock).
-High disruption in early game and combo in mid-game

The deck has difficulties:
-in late game,
-when it must recover from a lost counter battle,
-when it is outdrawed (generally cause it didn’t comboed quickly and was not efficent enough in early disruption).

--------------------------------------

Card choices

The creature package is made of the 2 classical fastest oath creatures that are efficient as soon as oathed (even if I have no more cards in hand, cause all used to disrupt opponent in early game).

The core of the disruption package is very similar to the fish’s one: 4 Null rod, 4 strip effects, 4 fow, 4 stifles, 2 daze and 1 misdirection (one stifle could perhaps be removed…). This provides you with a continued disruption in early and mid game. The 2 duresses are very good at protecting the combo in mid game (after mana disruption in early game).

Lat-Nam’s Legacy is the best draw/search card I found with an acceptable casting cost. The 2 drawbacks are not so painful:
-   put one card back in library : can be useful to put a creature back in library. Several other cards can be put back without being too disadvantaging: lands, 2nd rod, 2nd oath, …
-   draw at next upkeep : the deck imposes a regulated tempo, the key point is to fuel the disruption capability. Playing the card at end of turn to get your disruption just after is not so painful. Especially because it is used to refuel the disruption in mid-game, not to instantly get one (when you often have 3 mana so at least 1 mana open when playin lat-nam’s).

--------------------------------------

Matchup analysis

-Shop Aggro : positive/even matchup
Mana disruption, null rod and oath are really efficient.

-Stax : even/negative matchup
Smokestack and tangle wire are pretty dangerous. But the clock is fast so you can race them. In this matchup, rush for the oath.

-Control Slaver : positive matchup
This deck packs lot of disruption against control slaver and Null Rod is of course the mvp. It shuts down the mana artefact, 1 or 2 threat and even sensei.

-Painter : positive/even matchup
Null rod is pretty strong in this game, even if it can be removed by a blast (with painter). The overall disruption is nearly as efficient as in the control slaver matchup.
Their blast cannot kill the non blue creatures. And even with a painter on board, the angel is still protected from blast.

-Storm combo : positive/even matchup
The disruption is pretty efficient against those decks using lots of artefact mana producer and few lands. Given that this deck clock is also pretty fast, it is often sufficient

-Pure Control and Landstill : negative matchup
Too many mana, too many basic, too many counter. Only one solution : race them. If they succeed in reaching mid game, then you shouldn’t be able to come back…

-Tyrant Oath builds : negative/even matchup
During my testings, it was not a good matchup, but I think I played them badly, not using the right tactic. With waste, strip and stifle, I should be able to fight efficiently for the orchards war, and so to prevent the big blue guy from bouncing my own big white guys. Still have to test it.

-Aggro Control : positive/even matchup
Part of their game plan is generally to play a confidant or a trinket. So Oath is really easy to play, even without orchards. Then the disruption package works classically well.

-Fish : even matchup (but still has to been tested)
Sword are really the key to this matchup (that’s why the side has to include simir skywalker)

-Ichorid : well, … that’s not a good one. And I don’t even know if the side has to take care of this matchup. I have so many cards in main that are useless against ichorid that I don’t know if it is relevant to address this matchup in the side.

Of course, I still have to test and will let you know how those matchup evolve.

Remark : those matchup's result comes from games on mws, with people that were quite constructive. However, It does not mean they were good players. Some of them were, perhaps other ones weren't; and when it comes to myself, I have to admit that even if I play this game since a long time - ~14years - I am not a brilliant player. So those conclusion may not be 100% relevant.

--------------------------------------

Conclusion, strengths and weakness

This deck is really fun to play with its disruption online turn 1, maintaining oppression on opponent resources, until succeeding in building the combo. Then, it just tries to survive 2 turns, continuing its painful little disruption.

Main strengths:
-It uses 2 of the most powerful 2CC cards: null rod and oath,
-Its disruption package is pretty important,
-When activated, its combo doesn’t care about yard hate or spheres or counters.

Main weakness:
-No plan B : it is oath or nothing
-The drawing engine is ok in early-mid game but poor in mi-late game. You sometimes don’t succeed in finding the combo in the first 4-6 turns (this leads generally to a loss).
-The mana base is sometimes fragile: potential difficulties in getting black or green mana.

--------------------------------------

Do not hesitate letting me know what are your thoughts about this build. I am pretty sure some similar experiments have already been done, I would be glad to hear the conclusions.

Cheers

Nicolas

[Nehptis]

I like this build.  A tourney report or more detailed testing results would be nice to see.

I wouldn't change anything yet in your build.  However, keep COTV in mind. They should be in the SB though.  COTV at 1 is a bomb against combo.  The lack of TFK as a draw engine is noticeable.  But, let's see how you do with out it.

Landstill and Fish - I agree that these matchups are problems to some extent.  In my testing of Angel Oath with COTV I have also employed the strategy of including SSS in the SB.  This helps to some extent.  But, the best play in some matches that was overwhelming for my opponent was setting a COTV at 2. Obviously this impacts the ability to play Oath.  But, what I do is set COTV at 2 ASAP then plan to play the slow game until I can hardcast SSS.  With COTV at 2 the game goes very slow which makes the hardcasting SSS plan attainable.  Man lands are a pain. But, you should be able to hang long enough to survive the onslaught until SSS dominates the board.  Wasteland helps to control the man-lands, as well.

Control Slaver is no walk in the park.  But, Rods do make the match-up more favorable.  But, if you walk into a Drain, then look out!

Ichorid - It's not that bad of a matchup post board.  A few Needles and a Crypt or two make it a favorable matchup.  Not to mention if they mull to 5 or below to get their Bazaar and you play an early Waste effect it is very difficult for them to recover.  Also, Echoing Truth on their Tokens or an EE for Zero usually buys you 1 or more turns.

Lastly, as SB creatures SSS is a must, IMO.  Blazing Archon used to be a semi-standard inclusion, as well.  But, with so much  Welder, Fish, and Bobs around I think Bogarden Hellkite is a better call.  It clears the board of annoying creatures or can be a quick hit to your opponent's life total..or both!

[meadbert]

I wonder if Muddle the Mixture would be better in Latnam's Legacy's slot.  Since you do not run off color moxen the uu casting cost is more tolerable.  As long as you are keeping Stifle mana up it might be nice to counter a Tinker/Yawg/Ancestral and in the late game it can always Tutor up Oath.

[ErkBek]

The reason Null Rod oath isn't putting up any numbers is underpowered and inconsistent. Null Rod is very powerful hoser, however the Oath strategy isn't built synergistically around Null Rod unlike tempo control and landstill decks. It's more of a "why not" card in Oath since it's a powerful card that generally effects the opponent much more than the oath player.

The loss of Brainstorm really hurt Oath as well. Brainstorm's ability to cheaply dig for Oath and hide it from Duress effects was HUGE.

The combination of these 2 results in role confusion in current Oath lists. Oath can't consistantly capitalize on a quick Null Rod because Rod needs to be followed by a quick Oath + Oarchard. Fish decks meanwhile don't need to draw the nuts to quickly take advantage on a resolved Null Rod because capitalizing on Null Rod is what the deck does.

[madmanmike25]

I only count 54 cards....and I sure hope that Time Walk is among the missing cards.

I suggest you try 1-2 Tops and possibly Scroll Rack.

I can't really wrap my mind around an Oath deck that doesn't run the full count of Moxen.  With the absence of Brainstorm, why would you hurt Oath even more by decreasing the probability of a turn 1 Oath?  I'm not sure that Rod>playing full moxen.

[beder]

Hi all,

Thanks for you reactions, Here are my thoughts about the first answers to the original post

I only count 54 cards....and I sure hope that Time Walk is among the missing cards.

Right, I forgot the “Utilities” card category in the original list – that was only 54 cards (copy paste mistake).
Here it is :
// Utilities (forgot in the original post, original post updated)
    1 Time Walk
    1 Krosan Reclamation
    1 Life from the Loam   
    1 Darkblast
    1 Extirpate
    1 Echoing truth

I can't really wrap my mind around an Oath deck that doesn't run the full count of Moxen.  With the absence of Brainstorm, why would you hurt Oath even more by decreasing the probability of a turn 1 Oath?  I'm not sure that Rod>playing full moxen.

When you only play 1 and 2CC cards, then the moxen are perhaps not necessary... That's what I try.

I suggest you try 1-2 Tops and possibly Scroll Rack.

Sensei and scroll rack are not null rod’s best friend.

I wonder if Muddle the Mixture would be better in Latnam's Legacy's slot.

When it comes to Muddle the Mixture, I have to test it more (but not in place of latnams, see my thoughts about that card below). At least one could be useful in mid-game.I will let you know my feelings about it.

More generally, I am still not sure about 5 cards in this build :
-   4th stifle (perhaps 3 is sufficient)
-   mystical tutor
-   krosan reclamation (even if it prevents me from a bad luck oath, it is very often a dead card. Can be used to cancel a top deck tutor but perhaps is there something more interesting to add in this slot)
-   darkblast & extirpate : those 2 black cards may be very useful but have to be tutored (except darkblast accessible after a oath activation but in that case, I generally don’t need it). When I have a tutor, oath is generally the target, not those 2 cards. As in fish, the consistency is really important and those 2 slots are a little too random…

The reason Null Rod oath isn't putting up any numbers is underpowered and inconsistent. Null Rod is very powerful hoser, however the Oath strategy isn't built synergistically around Null Rod unlike tempo control and landstill decks. It's more of a "why not" card in Oath since it's a powerful card that generally effects the opponent much more than the oath player.

I agree with you Kobefan, Null Rod is perhaps not as hugely synergistic in oath as it may be in other decks - the ones you spoke about for instance. But it is not just a "why not" card here. It affects the opponent "much much" more. This build is "built" around 2 cards: oath and null rod. It is not like in some oath build, with 1 or 2 null rod as silver bullet. This build is really focused on mana denial/disruption and voluntarily does not use full moxen set.

The loss of Brainstorm really hurts Oath as well. Brainstorm's ability to cheaply dig for Oath and hide it from Duress effects was HUGE.

Right, the loss of brainstorm hurts Oath. But strangely, even if not nearly as good, in this build, lat-nam provides you with somehow similar functionalities - even if of course not as good.
Oath generally doesn't have as many shuffle effect as other top decks - cause not using 6-7 fetch land.
So let's have a look at the brainstorm use cases in oath and compare them with lat nam:
- The hand fixing in first 2 turns: as fish, this deck is pretty consistent when it comes to disruption or mana sources. You generally don't want to fix your hand in early game, you should have cards sufficiently representative of your game plan.
- The instant dig for disruption: this use case is of course not covered by lat nam. This is a loss as for any decks. But if you weight the importance of that use case in this build, as for fish, it is not a very important one. If you have to dig for disruption then you are already in a bad situation, you are loosing control over the game's tempo.
- The instant hide cards from duress: this use case is not covered by lat nam, this is a real loss as for any other decks.
- The dig at end of turn – most important use case: if you have an instant shuffle effect available - fetch, then brainstorm shows you one more card. If not, lat nam provide you with a similar functionality (and you won't have to draw again the card you put back in library).
- The “dig for a directly playable oath on your turn”, in mid-late game: lat nam is really not as good, the main disadvantage being that you have to wait a turn.
- The “put back creature in library”: similar effect, except if you have your 2 creatures in hand.

As a conclusion: lat nam is not nearly as good as brainstorm. We already all knew that . But when it comes to digging and putting back creature in library, considering the tempo of this deck, according to my testings, lat nam is a pretty viable solution. Up until now, I have not been disappointed.