[Deck] Rector Oath

[netherspirit]

Hey all, I've done very minimal testing with this deck as it is a relatively new creation. Now, I'm certain that this isn't the best deck available at the moment, but I do think it could be a nice deck with the surprise factor.

Anyway, I came up with this idea quite a while ago but had no luck with it, until recently that is. With more knowledge and experience under my belt I was able to restart my idea. Here's the little concoction at the moment:

Mana Base:
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island

Critters:
3 Academy Rector

Draw/Tutors:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Frantic Search
4 Intuition
1 Crop Rotation
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Disruption:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Rushing River

Key Cards:
4 Oath of Druids
1 Form of the Dragon

Other Coolness:
1 Time Walk
1 Gaea's Blessing

Sideboard (This is where I REALLY suck at deck building):
3 Root Maze
2 Pithing Needle
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Misdirection
1 Echoing Truth
2 Extract
1 In the Eye of Chaos
1 Platinum Angel

Well that's the deck in it's current state; I've made a few observations already though.

1) It dies horridly to Fish; it's too slow.
2) Same for Combo.
3) Same for any aggro deck really.
4) Control matchups are quite easy.
5) Other Oath decks can be problematic, but after SB it becomes a lot easier.

Right, card explanations:

Academy Rector: Fetches Form of the Dragon, Yawgmoth's Bargain, and any enchantments brought in games 2 and 3.

Frantic Search: Lets me discard Cabal Therapy Also, I have often found that Oath sits with dead cards in hand, such as excess land, this converts those cards into 2 fresh ones and sometimes gives you an extra use of Forbidden Orchard.

4x Intuition: Intuition is perhaps the best tutor in the deck, giving you all your 4-ofs and putting Cabal Therapy in the graveyard. I was sad every time it didn't turn up by turn 2-4 when I was running 3, so I added the fourth.

Yawgmoth's Bargain: Once Form of the Dragon hits I need to protect it, so this allows me to draw into my permission/draw/tutor spells.

Cabal Therapy: Sacrifices my Academy Rectors. It's so easy to get into the graveyard with Oath, so flashbacking it is VERY easy. Also nice disruption early game.

Form of the Dragon: A four turn clock, not as fast as I'd like, but still nice. It's a one sided Moat which resets my life total; leading to nice interaction with Yawg's Bargain.

Sideboard

Root Maze: Useful against nearly every deck with fetchlands.

Seal of Cleansing: Helps against Oath, Stax and Fish.

Misdirection: Anti Fish/Control/Oath/Combo.

Echoing Truth: Nice to alternate with Rushing River in the main deck, has a slightly different use so it can be better in certain situations.

Extract: Oath, Combo, Stax, Dragon... They all die to it.

In the Eye of Chaos: Mainly for stopping counters; it does hurt me quite a lot though.

Platinum Angel: I think this is useful in most Oath sideboards. If you're running enough protection and disruption, Platinum can be useful for the obvious immortality effects and makes this deck's clock that bit quicker.

Well, there it is. The deck is still quite slow at the moment, but once it goes off it is immense. Anyways, any thoughts or comment? I'd really appreciate help on this guys! I'm loving the deck so far and want to make it as powerful as possible!!!

Thanks again.

 netherspirit

[wethepeople]

Entomb doesnt seem like a bad idea to ditch Therapy to the graveyard.

Game two, to help Fish, you should put Simic Sky Swallower in your board because they will be hoping to stop with your combo with various sideboard hate, and if you decide to transition into regular Oath, you will have an advantage.

They will most likely keep in Swords to Plowshares because it still prevents Rector from activating, and they will also bring in Seal of Cleansing, Disenchant, etc. The problem I see in this deck is that both the kill, and Oath, are hosed by the same cards, because both of which are Enchantments, so even if they let your Oath activate and get Form of the Dragon/Bargain onto the board, they still are able to kill it. These problems however are only versus UW Fish and its similar variants.

That is probably the reason why your Fish matchup is so poor, but with a little work, the list can be optimized to increase that specific matchup.

[netherspirit]

Thanks for the feedback. I shall try Simic Sky Swallower, I can see the advantages there definitely, I'd been considering running something like Privileged Position or Sterling Grove against Fish, but even those seem pretty pointless. Maybe the answer to Fish is to bring in SSS and MisD?