paying your taxes

[bebe]

Okay. Oath is pretty much a dead arch type in type 1 as it stands. So we looked at ways to make it work in different ways ...

Paying your Taxes

4 Land Tax
4 Tithe
4 Scroll Rack

4 Oath of Druids
2 Darksteel collossus  
2 Gaea's Blessing
 
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
2 Firestorm
2 Land's Edge

3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
3 Zuran Orb

4 Plateau
2 Savannah
4 Wastelands
1 Strip
4 Fetch
2 Plains
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome mox

sb:
4 Oxidize  
3 Orim's Chant
4 Pyrostatic Pillar  
4 Red Elemental Blast

The deck really isn't an Oath deck. Your MVPs are Land's Edge and Firestorms. The Gaea Engine is just there to throwyour opponent off. While he worries about the Collossus you drop a Land Tax and use your Tax/Scroll engine to do the damage quickly. We played this deck years ago with a different a slightly diffeent mix for 1.5 and then put it away for quite some time. We picked it up on the weekend and started playing around with it again and it actually seemed to work. I'm sure the framework can be improved upon though, so i'm throwing it up for comments.

[doomhed]

well, i hate to break it to you, but land tax only fetches basic lands. that makes this deck one GIANT bombo.

[Komatteru]

Indeed.  4 Land Tax for 3 basic lands seems like overkill.  Tithe can fetch those dual lands for you though, so that's a plus.

Things that are a waste of time:
Chain Lightning: This is stupid.  This is a casual deck, so I could almost consider forgiving this, but with so much blue in T1 and Volcs flying around everywhere, its gonna get bounced back.

Land's Edge: Seismic Assault is infintely better, if you really want to do this.

Zuran Orb: Terrible now, esp. 3 of them.

Oath: For what?  Where does this deck go?  If you want to stray from your theme and include 1 and the Colosses, that's bad enough.  But 4 is terrible.

Disenchant: Obsolete.

Firestorm: You need to have all targets on the board to use this for more than 2.  Mostly, it'll be "Discard 2 cards from your hand.  Both players take 2 damage.  Target opponent snickers under his breath."

Scroll Rack and Land Tax is a pretty nice combo for casual play.

I have no idea what to say about this deck.  Other than not working, I don't really get what it's trying to do. Is it Oath?  Or is it Tax/Land's Assault?  Neither one works in T1, but you could have a lot of fun with Seismic Assault/Land Tax in casual play (try 1.5 construction though).  If you want to do that, add green, ditch the fake moxes, can the direct damage...just start over.

Include all basic land so you can tax and use a bunch of fetch lands (kinds that can fetch red, green, and white).  Tithe is ok, Land Grant works well, etc.  Use Seismic Assault instead of Land's Edge and if you really want to be ridiculous, add Groundskeeper or Lodestone Bauble.  That would be a hilarious casual deck...in fact, I might try to build that.

[Setnakt]

It's cool how you insult him for using Oaths but don't mention to, you know, take out the 11cc creature when removing Oaths. Just thought I'd mention that. Also 1 Oath for the 1 Colossus isn't like a good idea so I think we can come to the conclusion that you're missing the point here.

Chain Lightning is debatable. The idea of something like Hulk sitting around to wait for you to draw your Lightning and then triumphantly bouncing it to your face isn't exactly scary.

You're underestimating Firestorm too, especially in a deck based on drawing an extra three cards a turn (which is where it was first popularized if I'm not mistaken, at least the first time I saw it was in Lauerpotence). Though we're going to have to fix that Land Tax thing.

Saying "This sucks, but you can play it in 1.5" doesn't make you seem very esteemed to me.

[Komatteru]

It's not a competitive deck type, in either T1 or T1.5.  Dragon and Landstill are strong in T1.5 and both of those can crush this.  However, that doesn't make this a bad idea for casual play.  In fact, this type of deck is hella fun to play casually.  It's just not going to beat competitive decks, which is why I suggest using 1.5 construction.  Since no one builds a casual T1 deck (other than young and new players who toss in a Sol Ring or a Demonic Tutor and call it T1), building 1.5 is more reasonable.  I suppose the inclusion of Mox Diamonds and Chrome Moxes won't upset too many people if you just want to have fun.  In that case, you probably don't need to limit yourself to 1 of each, but speed isn't really important in casual play, and there's a bunch of stuff you could put in that would be a lot more fun.

You're underestimating Firestorm too, especially in a deck based on drawing an extra three cards a turn (which is where it was first popularized if I'm not mistaken, at least the first time I saw it was in Lauerpotence).

The problem with firestorm is that it needs a bunch of targets to be effective, and even then it costs you a bunch of cards from your hand.To do 3 damage requires your opponent to have 2 creatures unless you want to hit yourself or your own critter. Seismic Assault is a better choice.  Firestorm can be better replaced with something to get those basic lands back from your 'yard, like Groundskeeper.

Saying "This sucks, but you can play it in 1.5" doesn't make you seem very esteemed to me.

That's not what I said.  I said this deck lacks direction, and even casual decks need to have one direction if you're playing against decent opponents with decent deck-building skills.  I tried to imply that casual decks should lean more toward 1.5, since that format allows all the funky old cards but disallows anything that's broken (none of the restricted cards should appear in casual decks, save maybe stuff like the new moxes, voltaic key, maybe earthcraft...stuff that you can have fun with but doesn't ruin the game).