The problems of Oath

[Anonymous]

Hey, I just wanted to get a good opinion on what I should do. I have just made a basic unpowered U/G counter oath deck.  My metagame is basically aggro decks, reanimators, unpowered crap academy. My problem is there is a possibility of two creaturless  burn decks. What is a U/G solution to a creatureless deck? I don't have access to dual lands so I can't try to get a questing pheldagrif or varchild's warriders, so my next bet is maybe a nantuko shrine? Are there any better solutions that give creatures or tokens to my opponent. (Other than donatiing my morphling   ) Thnx in advance.

[j_orlove]

Well, you can always play morphling and kill them with it.  

Man-lands (like treetop village and Mishra's Factory) can be good too, since they can't trigger oath.

Remember, oath is just a good answer to creature-based decks--not a card that always wins you the game. However, if you really feel that you need to give them creatures, Verdant Touch is decent.

[Anonymous]

verdant touch is good, but it's mana heavy. Plus If they are creaturless i want them to have more than 1 critter so I can resolve oath more.

Nantuko Shrine is looking really good, or maybe natural affinity?

[Puschkin]

The thing is, you shouldn´t pack things like Verdant touch or Nantuko Shrine in your deck "just in case". It would be a sideboard option. But then again, why side in cards to make another card (Oath) useful instead of siding out the Othes and replace them with neat anti-burn solutions like Chill or Douse?

[Anonymous]

Actually, j_orlove, the factory does trigger Oath of Druids, only if you make it a Worker, though.  If you were just using it as a land source, then your right.  If you think turning it into a Worker doesn't trigger Oath, your wrong   .

Anyways, I'm making an Oath deck too and it's gonna kick some ass.  Oath looks like fun, and it can be played without power pretty decently.

[Sylvester]

erh...

CounterStrike:read the cards....

Oath checks oince and only ocne per turn, and that is during the upkeep. Factory can be activated at any time, just like man lands. Given that after-the-upkeep is an element of anytime, you can activate man lands without activating oath.

[Anonymous]

Yea, that's actually true.

But doesn't it still stay a creature during your opponents upkeep if you attack with it on the previous turn?  Sorry, but I'm kinda dumb    but I'm getting smarter.  I learn more here tha  in school   .

[Sylvester]

no. "until end of turn".

[MQN2003]

I generally try to avoid playing Oath, because I have found that 2 big weaknesses of the deck are: 1)It has a tougher time dealing with creature decks, and 2)It REALLY needs to get the Oath out early vs creature decks- the ones that it is designed to beat.

If you get Oath out early, then you're set and will probably win, but if you don't, a good critter deck can beat you in the first 5 turns. I just don't feel like that's an acceptable risk.

Most Oath decks don't even run 4 Oaths(which I don't really understand why) and instead rely on their card drawing to get it.

[Matt The Great]

Well, a lot of people are of the idea that unpowered Oath decks are best made with 4-5 colors, the better to access strong cards to make up for the lack of Power. Mind Twist would be a good example of such cards - it's a GREAT spell against red decks that try to sideboard in tons of Red Elemental Blasts and Pyroblasts.

MQN, your avatar looks like Megatron of Arabia. What is it?

[Anonymous]

Matt the Great, I don't really think Oath can really have 4-5 colors and be somewhat succesfull in a semi-serious tournement.  Maybe some of those splash colors you mentioned would defenitly go in a sideboard, but not mainboard.  The classic g/u maindecking is best in my personal opinion.

Check out my Oath deck I've posted!  I don't have a sideboard though.

[BigChuck]

Quote Matt the Great, I don't really think Oath can really have 4-5 colors and be somewhat succesfull in a semi-serious tournement.  

I guess when I top 4'd with 5-color oath in a 40 person tourny for power, I wasn't succesful.

[j_orlove]

Okay, a bunch of things to answer:

Quote Actually, j_orlove, the factory does trigger Oath of Druids, only if you make it a Worker, though.  If you were just using it as a land source, then your right.  If you think turning it into a Worker doesn't trigger Oath, your wrong

Factory reverts to being a land at the end of any turn. During the untap step, you (obviosuly) can't make it a creature. Then, at the beginning of upkeep (before anyone has priority), oath checks to see what creatures are on the board. At this point, the factory will not be a creature (barring permanent effects like natures revolt). Once oath fails to trigger, you can make factory a creature, but by then it wil be too late. Thus, factory can *never* cause oath to active by itself.

Quote MQN, your avatar looks like Megatron of Arabia. What is it?

It's Shishio from the Anime series Rurouni Kenshin.

Quote Matt the Great, I don't really think Oath can really have 4-5 colors and be somewhat succesfull in a semi-serious tournement.  Maybe some of those splash colors you mentioned would defenitly go in a sideboard, but not mainboard.

If you don't have power, you need the other colors for stuff like tutors and spot removal. Otherwise, your oath will often be too little, too late.

[Anonymous]

in my oath deck, i side out my oath of druids and my oath-able creatures and side in 4x quirion dryad and 4x robe of mirrors against creatureless decks. this works for me because im in a low-powered environment(myself include, for another month or two), and because my deck is packed with opt/brainstorm/impulse/countermagic/etc., so my dryad gets big fast. just a thought for the post's creator.

[Anonymous]

This is my decklist:

3 treetop village
11 island
6 forest
3 yavimaya coast
----------------

23 lands


4 oaths
3 gaeas blessings
----------------
oath engine

1 spike feeder
1 spike weaver
1 morphling
--------------
the obvious cirtters

4 brainstorm
1 fact or fiction
2 impule
----------------
drawing

4 counterspell
4 FOW
4 arcane denial
1 misdirection
-------------
counters

2 naturalize
2 boomerang
1regrowth
1 crop roation
1 nantuko shrine
--------------
utility

I only mainboarded the shrine for testing purposes, but this is my current build. Criticism would be appreciated. Also, what are good suggestions on a sideboard for a creaturless deck?

[Anonymous]

For a creatureless deck, I would suggest a mainboarded Living Wish so you could get a Morphling Straight into your hand, quick as possible.  Then just try to survive until you can hardcast it.  Oh, and yes, you should side another Morphling in.  

As for your deck, the only thing I see wrong is the drawing.  I personally think you should have a little more drawing in there.  I also have never seen my Arcane Denial's in an Oath deck.  Could be cool.

[Anonymous]

Ooops, I forgot to put this in too.

I don't know if you already said this, but you need Tropical Islands obviously, and especially if you are playing an unpowered Oath deck.  Try to get them.  It's very important.

If you don't have them, I would suggest go up to 8 forests possibly and a couple of Mishra's Factories, and sidboard Back to Basics if your metagame has alot of unbasic lands.  I don't know if 3 Blessings good, too.  Maybe 2 would be enough.  

Just experiment   .

[Anonymous]

I am experimenting, I've found that I'm ok on mana. I don't see tropical islands sitting around alot so you know, but they are a want of mine. I like the quiryon dryad idea persented to me earlier, siding out oaths and critters for 4 dryads and 4 robes of mirriors.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth would you use Robe of Mirrors in that situation?  That's just card disadvantage waiting to happen.(Swords your Dryad in response?  Thanks for the 2-for-1)

What do you need 3 Gaea's Blessings for?  2 should be enough.

Arcane Denial is a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible spell.  Use Mana Leak instead.  You NEVER want your opponent drawing cards.

As far as sideboard, it totally depends on the type of creatureless deck.  If it's burn, try blue blasts or douses.  Figure your sideboard out depending on the kinds of decks you fear.

You absolutely want Mishra's Factory in this deck, no questions asked.

[Anonymous]

I know this is off on a tangent, but it illustrates my contempt for arcane denial.

Occasionally I've borrowed decks that have arcane denial in them (years ago).  The only time I cast the Arcane Denial is when an opponent counters my spell, so I cournter my  spell with Arcane Denial in response. This usually confuses opponents. Then I draw three on the next upkeep. AD wasn't meant for opponents' spells, just your own.    

On a more useful note, pull the two boomerangs.  I'd replace with a Cunning Wish and Impulse.  Wish for an answer to whatever you would boomerang.

Not to gang-up on you, but, Tristal is right: 2 Gaea's Blessings are all you'll ever need.  Impulse #4 or man-land.

[Anonymous]

This looks weird at first but if you are going into a burn and Aggro metagame try this

Mono Green Oath (cheap!)

4 Oath
2 Blessing
4 Spike Feeder
4 Reclaim
1 Regrow
1 Crop Rotation
2 Zorb
4 Naturalize
4 Powder Keg
4 Exploration
4 Horn of Greed
4 Treetop Village
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip
1 DustBowl
12Forrest

SB

4 Choke (keeper/monblue)
4 Crumble (TNT)
4 Blastoderm (beef against control?)
3 Crypt

works like a combo of oath/turboland/grow

multiple oaths let you do the growing feeder tricks
oath move counters to the big feeder and sack the smaller feeder, then oath again.  10/10 feeder is not uncommon

reclaims are greens answer to agrivian find, reuse strip/waste keg, naturalize

anyway, try it out, really a blast to play, destroys aggro and burn

[doublej20]

@Samurai Sloth: In regards to your decklist, try out the following if you can round the cards up (which shouldn't be hard to find as most of them are common):

3 treetop village
11 island
3 forest
4 yavimaya coast
1 strip mine
1 dust bowl

4 oaths
2 gaeas blessing

1 spike feeder (or Ravenous Baloth is even better if you see lots of aggro)
1 spike weaver
1 morphling

2 brainstorm
1 fact or fiction
4 impulse
1 stroke of genius

4 counterspell
4 FOW
4 mana leak
1 misdirection

2 naturalize
2 capsize
1 regrowth
2 powder keg

In regards to the changes: Mana Leak or Miscalculation is much better than Arcane Denial (yes you get to draw, but they get to draw 2, which sucks), and Capsize is superior to Boomerang (because of the buyback ability). Crop Rotation only really shines when you can search for a Library of Alexandria, so cut it. The Impulses dig deeper into the deck, and you really only need a couple of Brainstorms to help you put creatures back on top of your library to Oath for, and can also help you avoid losing your best cards to a Duress or Hymn. Also, Powder Keg is great against lots of different decks, so if you can get a couple of those (they shouldn't be more than $2-4 each) I would definitely do that and add them to the deck, as well as a Stroke of Genius (for additional card drawing). Also, you may notice there are not as many mana sources, but you should be able to get to them quite easily with more Impulses. Try it, you'll like it!

[Anonymous]

4 quirion dryads and 4 robe of mirrors is good because he said that he may have problems with creatureless red burn decks, so they can't swords. Also, if they bolt it in response he could always FoW or MisD it.
If it is an aggro/burn environment then you should really play Zuran Orb, just for the extra turns.