Preordain vs. Impulse in Oath

[kingsey]

Hello guys,

I've been bouncing back and forth between demon oath and GG oath. I've love to hear what others are running for cantrips.

I've been using 4 preordains up til now. I've noticed some lists running impulse over preordain. What are your guys thoughts on this?

Would it make a difference what to use in the two different oath builds? What do you guys prefer and why?

Pros and Cons to each?

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[mmcgeach]

I use impulse cause its way better vs. blue.  You want to hold up mana to represent a counterspell, then impulse on their end-step.  Digging 4 cards is good, but really the greatest benefit is instant speed vs. sorcery speed.  Of course, oath is like a combo deck, where you have to assemble a 2-card combo to go off; so digging deeper for combo pieces is a key tactic.  And looking 4 cards is generally, i've found, enough to pick up a threat or a counterspell.  Thus impulse functions kind of like a draw engine, providing a threat or counter when needed, and giving you the gas required to last into the midgame against control decks.

Preordain is better for consistently hitting land drops.  Like if your opening hand has only 1 land, but also has a preordain, you can keep that intending to preordain and find more mana.  Impulse doesn't fulfill this role.  On the other hand, opening with orchard into preordain is just epically bad. 

In my experience, you don't have that much extra blue mana in oath, and spending it on preordain main phase to do something that doesn't pressure your opponent and prevents you from countering their play, is just not a good idea.

[median]

The only reason I use preordain in oath is so I can fix my draws and not draw an oath target, it's kind of in the same slot as show and tell. I general want to have a hand that can do something with oath so relying on a spell that can dig (like impulse) isn't that great. I wouldn't use impulse.