[DISCUSSION] Oath- U/G or B/U/G

[zulander]

Hey, I have been testing out some oath and was wondering what was a more stable and consistant version of oath. U/G or B/U/G.

Pros for UBG
duress -- sooo good. kind of like a one mana counterspell.
vampiric tutor/ demonic tutor---- better tutors than blue
lim dul's vault?

Cons for UBG
Clunky mana base
Less consistant draws.

Pros for UG
More consistant manabase
Better draws
More room to run wishes, intuition/ak and mana leak

Cons for UG
Not as many great and cheap casting cost tutors.
No duress 

If anyone would like to comment please do. Please post only constructive criticism And if you play oath, what version are you running and why? Which is better to use when walking into an unknown meta, and which one can adapt easier to a known metagame.

[Shade]

I typically play U/G, but have been thinking of selling my playset of Drains and going straight budget.  With that in mind, I'm thinking of adding black to compensate for the lack of a draw engine (Intuition/AK is just not that great w/o Drain acceleration).

1 Gaea's Blessing
4 Oath of Druids

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Ancient Hydra
1 Spirit of the Night

4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Intuition
3 Skeletal Scrying

3 Cabal Therapy
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak

3 Pithing Needle

4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Island
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
4 Polluted Delta
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland

SIDEBOARD:
3 Arcane Laboratory
3 Energy Flux
3 Ground Seal
1 Iridescent Angel
3 Misdirection
1 Platinum Angel
1 Pristine Angel

The deck, obviously, is a hate machine, with 3 Therapys, 3 Needles, and 4 Duresses.  No card requires double-colored mana, making the alteration of the mana base more tolerable.

[Machinus]

Wasteland is why you would run U/G. Wasteland can be huge in the right environment.

[the boogie man]

Wasteland is includable in B\U\G, and I find the opposite in the pros section of U\G, because scrying takes up 4 less slots, which i run 1 mystical tutor (already run vamp), 1 fof, another c-wish(already had 1) and a mana leak, on top of 4 each of duress, force, and drain.

and another point: I think that oath needs some serious fish answers in the side, and I am thinking something like this:

1 pristine angel: against anything with mad removal
(2-3 ground seal):dragon, cs, ca, and stuff with welders.
(2-3 pithing needle): hoses the same decks, but more, albeit with a little less pizazz. but this can come in against fish, too, to stop ninjas, aether vial, mongrel, rootwallas, wayfarer,
(1 ancient hydra): id definately run this if i wasn't running tinker collossus.
3 arcane lab: against combo (der) but could this be cut down to 2?
(2 energy flux):super duper against artifact heavy decks.
(2 pernicious deed):may take energy flux's spot, because it causes a huge splash damge against fish. if they decide to run pithing needle, though, they may use that against this, but it is unlikely. and deed does tons of damage to workshop decks.
(1 platz): combo. I'd really only run this if i was already running tinker-collossus and only if combo was really relevant.
(1 darksteel collossus):
(1tinker):this, in conjunction with collossus, might take over the hydra spot, because tinker\collossus acts like a fifth oath which does not die to mage(unless they're dumb)
(1 coffin purge):excellent against dragon, but also stifles welder activations. and stuff.
1 rushing river: avoids chalice@2, and is a huge tempo boost.
1 skeletal scrying: drawing cards, unblastable, and stuff.



I'll get right back to this post, I gotta poop and then go to work. I'll handle it right after I get home.

[Khahan]

Wasteland is includable in B\U\G, and I find the opposite in the pros section of U\G, because scrying takes up 4 less slots, which i run 1 mystical tutor (already run vamp), 1 fof, another c-wish(already had 1) and a mana leak, on top of 4 each of duress, force, and drain.

and another point: I think that oath needs some serious fish answers in the side, and I am thinking something like this:

1 pristine angel: against anything with mad removal
(2-3 ground seal):dragon, cs, ca, and stuff with welders.
(2-3 pithing needle): hoses the same decks, but more, albeit with a little less pizazz. but this can come in against fish, too, to stop ninjas, aether vial, mongrel, rootwallas, wayfarer,
(1 ancient hydra): id definately run this if i wasn't running tinker collossus.
3 arcane lab: against combo (der) but could this be cut down to 2?
(2 energy flux):super duper against artifact heavy decks.
(2 pernicious deed):may take energy flux's spot, because it causes a huge splash damge against fish. if they decide to run pithing neelde, though, they may use that against this, but it is unlikely. and deed does tons of damage to workshop decks.
(1 platz): combo. I'd really only run this if i was already running tinker-collossus and only if combo was really relevant.
(1 darksteel collossus):
(1tinker):this, in conjunction with collossus, might take over the hydra spot, because tinker\collossus acts like a fifth oath which does not die to mage(unless they're dumb)

I'll get right back to this post, I gotta poop and then go to work. I'll handle it right after I get home.

I'm not sure Pristine Angel is the best answer against fish. Assuming the U/W build (as I don't have problems with the other builds), I've found that the first 2-3 turns against u/w fish determines the winner in this match up. 
If I am able to resolve Oath, I win. If they can shut down my mana and/or get their ninja in they win. 
I've been playing around with cards like rain of blades and sandstorm. Against u/w fish they are great. One in your opening hand means they won't get to ninjitsu very easily and I can usually shut them down long enough to Oath.

On the other hand, its a crap card against every other deck and its a crap card to draw after round 3 vs fish.  In other words, it just doesn't cut the mustard.

Taking a page from u/w fish, another option is Stifle. Against fish, its a tempo card. It can shut down their fetch, one of their wastes or it can be a timewalk, stifling ninjitsu on turn 2 or 3.

Of course now, we have Pithing Needle to work with. That may be the answer Oathers have been looking for.