[Deck] The Elder's Oath

[Duncan]

I wanted to build a deck with Oath of Druids, but not the regular style. So I came up with the idea to base the deck more on disrupting the opponent while getting your own big creature out. Together with my friend I thought of Nicol Bolas: it lets your opponent discard his/her hand and you have got a big flying dragon    The only problem is that he has an upkeep, but that can be solved a bit with another important oath card: Forbidden Orchard.

I have made the following list:

Oath Parts:
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Oath of Druids
2 Nicol Bolas

Discard/Utility:
2 Reckless Charge
1 Memory Jar
3 Megrim
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Wheel of Fortune
2 Lightning Bolt

Draw/Search:
2 Intuition
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm

Mana:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Bayou
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Underground Sea
2 Badlands
4 Polluted Delta

The main idea is to play an early megrim and then finish the job with either Nicol Bolas or Memory Jar/Wheel of Fortune. Duress and Hymn are in for early disrupting. Reckless Charge is very useful, because it decreases the options for your opponent to find a solution to the Elder Dragon; he loses his entire hand in the first turn he sees him.

While playtesting the deck I faced the following problems:
- the idea of the deck works, but it is inconsisten, what to do about it?
- what to do against threaths which you haven't been able to discard?
- how to make your chances to pay the upkeep bigger?

[Necrologia]

While playtesting the deck I faced the following problems:
- the idea of the deck works, but it is inconsisten, what to do about it?
- what to do against threaths which you haven't been able to discard?
- how to make your chances to pay the upkeep bigger?

-Run more draw and tutoring.
-Counterspells work well.
-Well, you could always play creatures that don't have an upkeep, like say, Akroma and Spirit of the Night.

At this point, if you've been paying attention you should see that your deck now resembles Meandeck Oath.

When deck building, it's important to remember that different isn't always better. Your version of Oath adds in consistency issues, slows down your clock, and replaces good spells like Force of Will with bad spells, like Hymn and Megrim. You get to make your opponent discard his whole hand, but who cares? Meandeck Oath kills the opponent, and winning is better than flashyness.

Try going here first. Specifically, read the Danger of Cool things. Good luck.

[Hi-Val]

You could make this into a fun Oath variant by running 2 Nicol Bolas and some Dragon Breaths. Oath a Nicol up, he gets haste, you swing, and then next upkeep you put the Oath on the stack (this only works if your opponent has more creatures than you, otherwise it does not trigger), put Nicol above it, don't pay, let him die, let the Dragon Breath hit the yard, Oath up another dragon and swing with his hastiness. That he has an upkeep that you can decline to pay works in your favor.

[Necrologia]

I guess if you're really hooked on the whole dragon thing, you could try SCG's take on it

If you're into a more casual game that's fine, but please don't think it's as tournament worthy as the writer apparently thinks it is.

[Duncan]

At this point, if you've been paying attention you should see that your deck now resembles Meandeck Oath

This was not the meaning of my deck, i wanted to create a new variant..  

You could make this into a fun Oath variant by running 2 Nicol Bolas and some Dragon Breaths.

Great idea! It takes less mana for almost the same effect  

and then next upkeep you put the Oath on the stack (this only works if your opponent has more creatures than you, otherwise it does not trigger), put Nicol above it, don't pay, let him die, let the Dragon Breath hit the yard, Oath up another dragon and swing with his hastiness.

How does this exactly work? Does my first Nicol just go to the graveyard?

[Hi-Val]

Yes, your first Dragon goes to the graveyard, along with Dragon Breath. If you flip over blessing, it triggers and then when you pull out the other dragon, the Breath triggers, going on before Blessing shuffles everything back.

[Tash]

Oath on stack
put Nicols upkeep on stack

Dont pay upkeep, Nicol dies, dragon Breath goes to graveyard
Oath goes off, you mill for Nicol
Nicol comes into play and the Dragon breath comes back into play onto the Nicol

[Imsomniac101]

I believe that this deck can be tuned into a fine, tournament worthy machine. I mean killing an opponent's entire hand early on in the game is just as strong, and possibly stronger than trinisphere

Things that you should be looking at:

- get rid of the ugly megrims and hymns to tourach. Duress should suffice and maybe cabal therapy if you want.
- play with blue. Normally I wouldn't advocate playing blue because I personally hate it but in oath it really does work ( and all the other tournament worthy blue decks ). AK & FoW works too well in this deck not to play them.

[Duncan]

Oath Parts:
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Oath of Druids
2 Nicol Bolas

Discard/Utility:
2 Dragon Breath
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Wheel of Fortune
2 Lightning Bolt
4 ?

Draw/Search:
2 Intuition
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm

Mana:
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Bayou
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Underground Sea
2 Badlands
4 Polluted Delta

Isn't this more or less the Meandeck Oath? But then in a weaker variant?