This was the first time I've ever won a piece of power, so this is a very special tournament report
. I'm a big proponent of Oath right now and think its still the strongest deck in the metagame. After the Gush and Frantic Search unrestriction though, things may change. Anyway, this tournament had around 18-20 players and it was 5 rounds with cut to top 8. Hope you guys enjoy my report and find it helpful! If you were my opponent and see anything that needs correction plays tell me!
Round 1 Nice guy with Mono Black Dark Times (Sorry I do not remember much of this round nore the opponent’s name)
Game 1
He starts off with turn 0 Leyline of the Void. I open up with early Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard I think. He plays some hand disruption but I get the Oath activated with Forbidden Orchard. I Oath up Sphinx of the Steel Wind and eventually Terastodan.
Sideboard: Nothing
Game 2
He starts off with another turn 0 Leyline of the Void. He plays another land and plays a Dark Confidant. I Force of will it. I draw into a Spell Pierce I think. He plays a Vampiric Hexmage along with a Dark Depths. I don’t have the counter and he gets the 20/20 out and wins.
Game 3
I play Land, Mox, Time Walk. Time Walk turn I play another land and Show and Tell Iona and he reveals a Vampiric Hexmage. Iona names black and he does not draw into the Dark Depths the whole game while I beat him down.
Round 2 Matteo Tarpet with Expresso Stax
Game 1
Matteo beat me last week in the semifinals in Los Angeles and I came in looking to even the score
. We shook hands and said good luck before rolling the die. I won the roll and mulliganed to 6 while he Serum Powdered to another 7. I played land and some Moxen. He opens up and also plays some mana. I am not really sure what happened next but I remember that with 4 permenants in play I Tinker into Sphinx of the Steel Wind and he plays around 2 Lodestone Golems. I continue hitting him with Sphinx and countered his Duplicant and Smokestack.
Sideboard: -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Merchant’s Scroll, -1 Spell Pierce, -1 Thoughtseize +3 Nature’s Claim, +1 Hurkyl’s Recall
Game 2
He opens up with Serum Powder to another 7 and plays chalice at 1 and then multiple spheres after that. I forgot the exact order but I was stuck at 3 land and he had 3 Sphere of Resistance effects and 2 Lodestone Golems in play. I had a Show and Tell in hand but he had a Duplicant anyway so there was no way I was winning this one.
Game 3
He opens up with turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity while I Ancestral Recall myself on my turn. I play 3 mana and I Ancestral into Voltaic Key and Demonic Tutor. I say go and he plays out his Mana and then plays a Serum Powder I think. I say okay and play Voltaic Key and leave Mana Drain open. He attempts to play a Sphere of Resistance and I Spell Pierce it. I then Demonic Tutor for Time Vault on my turn and take the win.
Round 3 Sherwin Pu with Lotus Cobra Jace (Brian Demar’s Waterbury deck)
Game 1
I won the die roll and had Library of Alexandria first turn. He plays a Dark Confidant. I draw into an Oath. And I had Oath with counterspell back up. I thought why not and went for the gamble. I threw away the Library plan (Never do this in the Control Mirror!) and went for Oath of Druids. He says okay and on his turn he reveals a Force of Will to his Dark Confidant. He then Nature’s Claim my Oath of Druids and Force of Will my Force of Will. I eventually lose to overwhelming card advantage. I saw him play Lotus Cobra somewhere along the way and knew what list he was probably playing.
Sideboard: -1 Island, -1 Terastodan +2 Thoughtseize
Game 2
We start off with him resolving an Ancestral Recall. I Mystical Tutor for my Ancestral Recall and he does not have a counter (I guess Brian Demars putting in Nature’s Claims means that he has less counterspells). We both get around 3 mana sources and I play my Voltaic Key. He Nature’s Claims it end of turn and I gain 4. Afterwards he attempts to play a Jace which gets Mana Drained. On my turn, I play an Oath of Druids with the Mana Drain mana and he says okay. I then play a Show and Tell into Terastodan and he has no counterspells but puts down Inkwell Leviathan. I blow up 2 of his lands and 1 of mine. He attacks me with his Inkwell Leviathan and 2 Tokens. I block 2 Tokens and I Oath into Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I attack with my Terastodan to put him at 11. He now only has roughly 2 mana sources but plays a Sol Ring and again swings with his Inkwell Leviathan. I give him a token at the end of turn and Oath into Iona naming blue. I attack with Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He plays Demonic Tutor for Time Walk that would allow him to win the damage race. But when he tries to play it, I point to my Iona and he laughs and scoops.
Game 3
This one was really close. He starts off with Land and some other mana. I start off with the same except that I resolved an Oath of Druids without Orchard. He destroys it with Nature’s Claim and tries to play a Duress which gets Mana Drained. I don’t do much with the mana but I Ancestral Recalled into a Show and Tell and Vampiric Tutor. He plays Necropotence and draws 3. I play Vampiric Tutor at the end of his turn for Iona. I Show and Tell Iona in and name Blue. He has a Time Vault in play but plays a land with Show and Tell. He takes 14 damage from Iona and draws roughly 5 more cards before trying to Nature’s Claim his own Necropotence. I Mana Drain it and he Nature’s Claims again. I let it resolve and he draws into a land and concedes.
Round 4 Alexander Lim with Dredge
Game 1
I win the roll and he mulligans to 5 while I mulligan to 6. I have first turn Oath of Druids with Orchard. He drops a Bazaar of Baghdad and activates it discarding a Leyline of Sanctity (he told me after the match that he had just forgot to put it down turn 0 unfortunately
). I Oath into Sphinx of the Steel Wind and he dredges a lot of cards. I Oath into Terastodan and destroy his Bazaar of Baghdad only. I attack with Sphinx. He dredges a lot again and attempts to Dread Return. I Spell Pierce it. I Oath into my 2nd Terastodan and blow up my own Oath and 2 of my mana to make 3 more Elephants for me. I attack with Sphinx and say go. He dredges another 5 has 2 other attempts at Dread Return but I counter all of them. I attack him with Sphinx and he blocks with a Narcomoeba. By this time I was at 35 life from Sphinx and he finally gets an Alpha Strike in with 24 damage but it was too little.
Sideboard: +4 Ravenous Trap +2 Planar Void +2 Nature's Claim -1 Merchant's Scroll -2 Island -2 Terastodon -2 Spell Pierce, -1 Gifts Ungiven.
Game 2
He opens up with first turn Leyline of Sanctity and says go without playing a land. I open up with first turn Planar Void and we end up just drawing, playing land/discarding and saying go. I eventually assemble KeyVault after getting 4+ mana on the board and topdecking Mystical Tutor for Demonic Tutor for Time Vault.
Round 5 Brad Shefflette with 5 Color Stax
We ID to get into Top 8
Round 6 Chris Tolar (mutedequilibrium) with MUD
Game 1
We wish each other good luck and roll the die. I won and open up with a Land, Mox go. He Wastelands my land and says go. I play another land and Thoughtseize him, taking his Lodestone Golem. He attempts to play a Sphere of Resistance which gets Spell Pierced. I simply just draw, play Sol Ring, and say go. He plays a Tangle Wire and I Spell Pierce it again. I draw a Tinker and play it for Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He tries to play more things like Smokestack I think but I have another Spell Pierce. I play an Oath with an Orchard. He digs and I think once tried to play a Trinisphere and I had a 4th Spell Pierce for it. He cannot handle the Sphinx and it goes all the way, while I also Oath in an Iona.
Sideboard: -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Merchant’s Scroll, -1 Spell Pierce, -1 Thoughtseize +3 Nature’s Claim, +1 Hurkyl’s Recall
Game 2
He goes first turn Chalice for 0 and I Force of Will pitching Brainstorm because my hand needed to resolve Mox Emerald. He plays another Chalice for 0 and a Sphere. I get totally blown out after he Strip Mines my only land and plays a Lodestone Golem. He asks if I would like to concede but I wanted to play on to see more of his deck. He plays an Ancient Tomb and kills me with Lodestone Golem.
Game 3
I open up with Mox Emerald, Mox Sapphire, Tropical Island and Oath of Druids. That held him back and we both just drew and played land. He played a Sphere I think but I had enough Mana that it did not matter. He eventually decided to play creatures into my Oath and played 1 Lodestone Golem and 1 Karn. I let both resolve and I Oathed up Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I played another Oath of Druids and he tried to play 2 Duplicants but both got Force of Willed. I Oath into Terastodan and I think I blew up 3 permanents of his and then I Oathed again into Iona naming Red. I attack with Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He draws into nothing I believe and concedes before I would attack him for lethal.
Round 7 Hiro Fukushima with Noble Selkie
Game 1
I do not remember much of this game. He played a Null Rod off a Mox Emerald and a Tropical Island while I played more land and Brainstormed I think. He played a Noble Hierarch and tapped out. I took advantage of the opportunity to play Oath of Druids and he had no counter. I Oath out Iona on White and then Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Sorry for this foggy report ><.
Sideboard: +2 Massacre, +3 Thoughtseize, -3 Mana Drain, -1 Merchant’s Scroll, -1 Gifts Ungiven
Game 2
After mulliganing to 6 I kept a 1 land hand with 3 Thoughtseizes. That is the first mistake. I tried playing a Mox Sapphire but he Spell Pierced it. He countered all my Thoughtseizes and played a Trygon Predator. I could not recover and just died to the Predator, a Meddling Mage on Oath, and 1 Spirit Token I believe.
Game 3
This one was I think the closest game of the night. He opens up with Leyline of Sanctity, and I am screwed because I had no answers to that besides Show and Tell. But I had turn 2 Library of Alexandria. I had early Oath also but could not play it. I played Voltaic Key and he plays 2 Noble Hierarchs. I drew cards off the Library and played Demonic Tutor for Time Vault. He drew a Wasteland and chose to destroy my Tolarian Academy instead of my Library of Alexandria. I then played my Time Vault which got Spell Pierced. He then Nature’s Claimed my Voltaic Key end of turn. I had drawn Yawgmoth’s Will but he played a Meddling Mage naming it. I drew blanks from my Library of Alexandria but kept on playing land. He plays another Meddling Mage naming Massacre and attacks me down to roughly 8 before I topdeck Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I Brainstorm into the Mox Jet that allowed me to play Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He attempts to play a Jace but I Force of Will it. I had 3 more counterspells in my hand and protected my Sphinx all the way until the end.
Round 8 John Harduvel (Cardboard Jesus) with Trygon Jace
Game 1
He plays first and opens with Black Lotus into Dark Confidant. I open with Mox Emerald, Orchard and Oath of Druids. He Force of Wills. I say okay and Dark Confidant draws him land, I Vampiric Tutor end of his turn for Oath of Druids. And play it again, he has another Force of Will but I Mana Drain back. He plays Time Walk and on his Time Walk turn he plays another Dark Confidant and more land while attacking me down and playing a Time Vault I think. I Oath into Sphinx of the Steel Wind. And use my 5 Mana Drain mana to cast Gifts Ungiven and got Ancestral Recall, Oath of Druids, Time Walk, and Demonic Tutor. He gave me Ancestral Recall and Oath. I cast Oath of Druids after Ancestral Recall gets me another Oath and some land. His 2 Dark Confidants get him 1 Jace and 1 Trygon Predator. He plays Jace and bounces my Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He attacks and I am at 4. I Oath into Terastodan and destroys 2 of his lands and 1 Jace. I then Oath again into another Terastodan and destroy both of my Oaths and 1 of my lands. I draw and say go. He takes 2 damage from his Dark Confidants and reveals Mana Drain and another land. He does not play much and I Oath. Iona comes in naming blue and I hardcast my Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He tries to dig with Dark Confidant but finds nothing. I finish him with Sphinx of the Steel Wind.
Sideboard: -1 Island, -1 Terastodan +2 Thoughtseize
Game 2:
I open up with this hand. Force of Will, Mana Drain, Mox Sapphire, Mox Emerald, Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids, and Ancestral Recall. He goes Fetch, Underground Sea, and Thoughtseize. I Force of Will it pitching Mana Drain. I play Mox Sapphire and Mox Emerald. I attempt to bait with the Ancestral Recall but he lets it resolve. I draw into Time Walk and 2 other cards. I play Oath of Druids and he says okay. He plays a Trygon Predator after topdecking a Mox. I say okay and I Oath into Iona naming Blue. I then play Time Walk and Oath into Terastodan and destroy all of his lands. He does nothing and I Oath into Sphinx of the Steel Wind. He cannot recover and takes 3 turns of damage from my Sphinx of the Steel Wind before conceding.
Prize: Signed Unlimited Ancestral Recall!!!
Thanks:
God
Family
Friends
Aftermath thoughts: Leyline of Sanctity definetly changes a lot in terms of sideboarding. Today versus Dredge with Leyline of Sanctity, I was lucky to draw one of my 2 Planar Voids or he would have won. So I think right now, the best hate is Planar Void and we can still use Ravenous Trap to clean up but it goes down to 2 now. Nature's Claims also need to find a way into the deck.
Also, I missed my Deathmark versus the Selkie matchup. Game 3 I was very lucky to have topdecked and resolved Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Trygon Predator and Meddling Mage on Massacre means that 2 Massacre are not enough. The fact that Noble Fish can run Leyline of Sanctity also diminishes the effectiveness of Thoughtseizes. And so I think that I need to cut 1 Thoughtseize in the sideboard for 1 more Deathmark in order to have spot removal against threats that Massacre cannot handle (Gaddock Teeg too!)
The Control Mirror does not need more than 2 Thoughtseizes while the combo matchup can still be winnable with just 2 Thoughtseizes also I think. The Combo matchup however needs more testing...
Decklist: Elephant Oath
Win:
Iona
2 Elephant
Sphinx
Tinker
4 Oath
1 Key
1 Vault
Awesomeness:
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Yawgmoth’s Will
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Protection:
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Pierce
1 Thoughtseize
Plan B Packet:
1 Show and Tell
So So but still necessary:
Merchant’s Scroll
Mystical Tutor
Brainstorm
Ponder
The Universal Vintage Blue Deck Bomb:
Gifts Ungiven
Mana:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
4 Forbidden Orchard
5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
Sideboard:
Dredge (Soon to be 4 Planar Voids and 2 Ravenous Traps)
4 Rav Trap
2 Planar Void
Workshop
3 Nature’s Claim
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
Control Mirror/Combo:(Soon to be 2 Thoughtseizes and 1 Deathmark)
3 Thoughtseize (Usually just 2 though)
Selkie (I missed the Deathmark)
2 Massacre (Also the 2 Thoughtseizes, if they do not have Leyline of Sanctity, if they do then I plan side in 2 Nature's Claims)
