combo oath -still usable?

[suffocation2157]

ok since coming back to magic about 8 months ago all i have been playing is workshops. i want to start getting cards for my next deck and i was unsure of what to play. then i remembered a deck that i used to play and it did VERY well. i lent it to a friend at 2 tournies and he won a mox and a lotus in these tournies. i once saw a combo oath deck that made top 8 in europe and i instantly fell in love. so i tweaked it over and over until i had a deck that i felt was complete. now some 4 years later i'm woundering if this deck could work again. my comments on the deck before i start

1. with the restriction of brainstorm, and not having access to ponder and the likes this deck looses a lot of consistancy.
2. with so many decks relying on graveyards this deck will get hit with random SB hate
3. once you start to combo it becomes easy to win
4. with null rod being so dominant will my mana base be hurt to much? add extra basic lands?

1 lotus
4 mox
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt
1 sol ring
4 forbidden orchard
2 trops
3 seas
2 delta
1 strand
1 tolarian academy
1 island

4 oath
2 eternal witness
1 trendils
1 yawg win
1 krosan reclamation
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
3 dark ritual
2 cabal ritual
2 cabal therapy
3 duress
4 fow
3 pact of negation
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
1 chain of vapor
1 merchant scroll
1 brainstorm
1 ponder
1 rebuild
1 mystical tutor

2 open slots  ???
-tinker
-memory jar
-slight of hand
-impusle
-mis-D
-regrowth
-imperial seal
-nights whisper
-windfall
-intuition
-negate
-ancient grudge
-deep analysis
-sensei's top
-hurkyl's recall
-gush

basically once you oath and get a witness you can grab any tutor for will, a time walk to attempt #2 or just grab will. flashing back cabal therapy allows you to try again next turn after stripping their hand and is a free spell. I added in the pact of negations because you really need to protect your will. i just don't know if this has enough power to push through a heavy combo/control & control meta. with tezz being at the top is 3 duress, 2 therapy, 4 fow and 3 pact enough to protect this combo? and do i need a back up plan...beatting down with a witness doesnt seem as good nowdays when there are more creatures in the format.

maybe adding in red would help with this like TPS for
1 wheel of fortune
1 ETW

over all do you guys think this deck can be tuned to do well in the enviroment? or at this time does this deck just get hated out to much?

[EnialisLiadon]

I'm a huge fan of Witness-Oath, but restricted Brainstorm really really hurts.

I was a huge fan of running 1 Witness and 1 Tidespout Tyrant.  Tyrant allows for another kill without using the graveyard (lots of storm with moxen).  He also lets you take a bunch of turns with Witness and Time Walk.  And if all else fails, he makes for a decent disruptive beatstick that attaches a Boomerang to any spell you play.

Rituals are not needed since you can just cast all your artifacts from the graveyard, cast Rebuild, recast the artifacts and then Brain Freeze for the win.  This frees up a lot of deck space for additional draw and control elements.

What drew me to this deck is that little of the deck is dedicated to the kill:  4 Oaths, 1-2 creatures, 0-1 krosan rec, 1-2 kill spells.  Tezzeret obv pulls this off even better, but the idea is obv to kill more quickly.

[suffocation2157]

i was thinking muddle the mixture should deffinitally be in here to help the combo get going.

i always found that the rituals helped me reach storm without a problem and fuled my tutors, i found if i was trying to combo off early game i didnt always have the BBB to tutor and cast trendils. maybe after having taken necropotence and bargain out these become less needed? if you were to remove rituals what would you put in the open slots? and what did your list look like?

maybe open slots
+2 muddle the mixture

-3  dark rituals
+1 chain of vapor  -vs null rod/meddling mage/cannonist
+2 serums visoin  ??? help set up your hand

i would still like to keep the 2 cabal rituals just in case i need the extra black to go off. but thats only 2 slots

i am interested in the inclusion of tidespout tyrant. he would give me an additional creature to attack with if needed, the boomberang effect would help vs. aggro. if i were to add him i think i would want 2 witness and 1 tidespout, going 1 and 1 would limit my ability to potentially combo off with witness. did you run brain freeze instead of tendrils? with this you would need less black, free up the last 2 ritual spaces and wouldnt need to worry about running your resources to thin going tendrils with witness and brain freeze with tidespout. for the record i do preffer tendrils over brain freeze...but if brain freeze were to prove more effective i might change the deck around for the inclusion.

i'm slightly worried about the fish matchup. it seems that they have a lot against you with meddling mage, null rod, cannonist, stifle, wasteland/strip mine. you might be able to win game 1 simply because they don't know whats going on. at that point do you think it would be wise to have a angel/dragon oath SB to attempt game 2/3?

[honestabe]

Regular Oath is too unstable without 4x brainstorm, never mind adding another combo on top of that

[andrewpate]

The real question is why it would be preferable to TPS, Ad Nauseam, or even one of the Dark Confidant builds.  You are basically standard Storm combo with 6 dead cards in exchange for a sort of all-in plan on Will and the ability to sideboard into an awkward version of a normal Oath deck.  I have loved this deck since Aaron Forsythe first unveiled it, and it's a blast to play.  But the bottom line is that "doesn't lose to Tormod's Crypt" is a good ability to have right now, and I don't know why a Tendrils deck would give it up when it already has so much trouble in the current, Drain-packed meta as it is.