Updated Oath-Combo

[martyr]

Quite a while ago JHaggs came up with a deck that used Oath of Druids to fuel Tendrils combo. The original thread and what amounts to a mini-primer can be found at:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15398

With the printing of Forbidden Orchard, and with the rapid advances T1 has seemed to make in tech, it would seem that perhaps the deck could be a contender.

You'll have to forgive me for not explaining too far in depth the workings of the deck; it was done quite exhaustively in the original thread, and you can reference there if you need to.

For quick reference, here is the original deck:

MANA 23
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Chromatic Sphere

ENGINE 6
4 Oath of Druids
1 Academy Rector
1 Gaea's Blessing

ACCELERATION 5
4 Dark Ritual
1 Fastbond

DRAW 7's 7
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall

ANTI-CONTROL 6
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress

DRAW AND SEARCH 11
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Windfall

KILL 2
1 Death/Burning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony

Side Board 15
1 Morphling
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Verdant Force
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns

A couple new cards warrant taking a new look at this decklist, the first and most obvious being Forbidden Orchard.

Not only does Forbidden Orchard give this deck a more consistent, multi-color mana source than Gemstone Mine, it allows it to consistently go off earlier against control and other combo decks.

With the inclusion of Forbidden Orchard, and with the deck wanting large amounts of mana when it attempts to win, it seems a logical next step to include Crop Rotation. Rotation not only allows you to fetch an early Orchard and activate Oath of Druids, it also tutors up Tolarian Academy.

I have two concerns with the deck, though, that I'd like help addressing, one of which is actually a carry-over from the original thread.

#1: With only one Blessing, what happens when you Oath a Rector into play and mill Bargain but not Blessing? Obviously, Necropotence is the "next best thing" but it might be simpler just to play more Blessings.

However (#2), what happens when your Blessing shuffles key cards back in but you have no Cabal Therapy to sacrifice Rector to? Is there another, viable, sacrifice outlet for Rector, in order to avoid this at least some of the time? Perhaps Phyrexian Tower (which would add further utility to Crop Rotation)?

So, the theoretical "new" list is:

MANA 23
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 City of Brass
1 Gemstone Mine(/Phyrexian Tower?)
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Chromatic Sphere

ENGINE 6
4 Oath of Druids
1 Academy Rector
2 Gaea's Blessing

ACCELERATION 5
4 Dark Ritual
1 Fastbond

DRAW 7's 7
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall

ANTI-CONTROL 6
4 Cabal Therapy

DRAW AND SEARCH 11
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Windfall
1 Crop Rotation

KILL 2
1 Death/Burning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony

Side Board 15
1 Morphling
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Verdant Force
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns

Any ideas?

[andrewpate]

Shouldn't this have been posted in the A.O.A. discussion going on right now?  The threads are like right next to each other.

[Jacob Orlove]

Shouldn't this have been posted in the A.O.A. discussion going on right now?  The threads are like right next to each other.

Except I closed the other thread because it's almost a full year out of date. This is exactly where it's supposed to be.

[kronofear]

by far I think the best way to go is the way Aaron Forsythe went and use Eternal Witness instead of Academy Rector.

By using the witness, instead of rectoring for a baragin you try to witness a Yawg's Will  

I would still use cabal Therapys to sac the witness.

[martyr]

Is that more consistent, though? With Rector, after Oathing you don't have to spend any mana to draw up to 19 cards, while with Witness you rely on Will having hit the g-yard...if it doesn't, you've just been set back a turn or two, which can be crucial. I think if the issue with a sacrifice engine can be resolved, Rector would remain the better option.

[Kasuras]

Is that more consistent, though? With Rector, after Oathing you don't have to spend any mana to draw up to 19 cards, while with Witness you rely on Will having hit the g-yard...if it doesn't, you've just been set back a turn or two, which can be crucial. I think if the issue with a sacrifice engine can be resolved, Rector would remain the better option.

The main difference is as following:

Rector:
-You only have to resolve Oath. After that: you just combo off.
-However: you don't have a guaranteed win. You can lose gas, and 19 cards isn't that much to work with considering you have to run quite some lands too, in order of surviving to 3sphere.dec.

Witness:
-You must resolve 2 cards in order to kill. These are Oath and Y. Will, of course.
-If you Oath, and they don't counter: you have a guaranteed win. All those Moxen and Rituals will give you a stormcount of 12 without a doubt.
-You're rather vulnerable to Trinisphere.

Its up to your personal liking which version you choose. I think the rector version has the benefit of the doubt in the current metagame. Although the Witness version certainly is more fun.

I've witnessed a pretty good witness build saturday and although I have the list, it's not mine so I won't give any details. I'll leave that to the deck's owner. It most definitely, however, has quite some potential.

[Lunk]

I believe mine is the build Kasuras was referring to.  I've been working on an article for SCG or somewhere, but I see no problem in posting the list at least in the mean time.

Suicide Oath
3 Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Bayou
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Mana Crypt*
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
 
4 Oath of Druids
1 Eternal Witness
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Unmask*
1 Pernicious Deed*
1 Necropotence
4 Night's Whisper
2 Tainted Pact
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Current sideboard:
1 Platinum Angel
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Defense Grid
3 Vendetta
3 Naturalize
4 Chains of Mephistopheles

The *'ed items are the most debatable slots.  Mana Crypt does have some advantages over the 5th Mox, but at least part of the reason I play it is to keep the deck to 5 proxies.  The Deed is sort of an MD catch-all answer for game 1 that replaced Mind Twist, which was randomly broken but often dead, but I'm not entirely sold on either one.  Unmasks are great for resolving first turn Oaths, but almost always seem to be the first card to get boarded out.

The deck has a miserable matchup against anything running Trinisphere, but otherwise I've had pretty positive results all around so far.

The chief advantage to the Rector build that I'm getting at first glance is it's ability to deal with Trinisphere by drawing into a bounce spell with Bargain, as well as having fit Brainstorms in.  

The Witness build, on the other hand, has 10 discard spells rather than 6, and is almost guaranteed to be able to flashback Cabal Therapy before trying to resolve a Will.  It also avoids the pitfall of having to hold onto Cabal Therapy until after you Oath.  There is also the backup plan with Krosan Reclamation if the Witness fails to reveal Yawgmoth's Will or Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor.

[Kasuras]

I believe mine is the build Kasuras was referring to.

Yeah, I was.

Some things I noticed while testing the deck:

-The lack of mainboard removal. This was quite irritating since a turn1 trinisphere was just game. The main deed is a step in the right direction although I think its not enough.
-The huge fun of the deck. At first: it doesn't seem all that difficult to play this, and if you look at it shallow: its not really that hard. But the looking at the opponent's mana, seeing if fow or mana drain is the correct choice to therapy for is a great example. Some inside stuff such as saccing the witness before you Will is also something that you don't figure out directly after you play it.
-I'm not that impressed with the Tutor power of the deck. Maybe add blue for Lim's Vault?
-Sideboard creatures. I think adding Spirit of the Night next to the Angel is a pretty good idea.

And I've been thinking about the 5th fetchland.

Edit:

The Mana Crypt is really bad. It can't cast anything except for the Will and Tendrils or 2 spells and the 3 damage a turn is really something that put me down. I replaced it with a Lotus Petal to have some more access to green.

[Gray Ninja]

What I really don't like about either version of the deck is that half the time you won't get the card you really want when you oath.  By that I mean half the time you will flip a blessing with Rector and not have a Therapy in the yard, now that can be offset if you have one in hand, but still is a significant barrier.  With Witness half the time you won't flip Y. Will and are forced to Witness back something that is far less useful, at best you get Ancestrall, at worst you get Duress.  I really don't see why this has an advantage to a traditional Oath win (creatures) because the only matchup that is bettered is against a deck running large amounts of removal, and those just don't exist.

[Kasuras]

With Witness half the time you won't flip Y. Will and are forced to Witness back something that is far less useful, at best you get Ancestrall, at worst you get Duress.

Hold on, did you even take a look at this deck? I quote once again:

Ancestrall

This deck doesn't even run blue for crying out loud!

And please. If you don't hit the Will: just hit a tutor and look up your will. Or Oath next turn again into the abyss and work with the Reclamation. It's really not that hard to get around not hitting Will.

I really don't see why this has an advantage to a traditional Oath win (creatures) because the only matchup that is bettered is against a deck running large amounts of removal, and those just don't exist.

This deck can win in 2 turns and has just little less disruption than the creature version.

Of course, I'm constantly talking about the Witness version.

[Lunk]

-The lack of mainboard removal. This was quite irritating since a turn1 trinisphere was just game. The main deed is a step in the right direction although I think its not enough.
-I'm not that impressed with the Tutor power of the deck. Maybe add blue for Lim's Vault?
-Sideboard creatures. I think adding Spirit of the Night next to the Angel is a pretty good idea.

And I've been thinking about the 5th fetchland.

The Mana Crypt is really bad. It can't cast anything except for the Will and Tendrils or 2 spells and the 3 damage a turn is really something that put me down. I replaced it with a Lotus Petal to have some more access to green.

I'm inclined to agree with you on the Mana Crypt issue to some extent - I don't think it's the best choice for the slot.  Ideally, the fifth mox would be played instead.  I suppose a Lotus Petal would make a decent substitute for someone playing on a really tight budget, but I generally don't have a problem getting the green mana that I need, and having permanent mana sources to hopefully cast the Yawgmoth's Will next turn is fairly important.

I've given serious thought to adding blue, but moreso for Brainstorm so that drawing your Witness doesn't make it that much more difficult to go off.  I'm still not convinced that it's worth making the deck more vulnerable to Wastelands though.

Initially my thinking was that there are few match-ups that I'd rather have a Spirit of the Night in than either Platinum Angel or the combo route, but the more I think about it the more it might be a viable alternative against Stax.  It may even be worth finding room for a second creature as well.  If only one can fit, does the hardcast option with Spirit of the Night outweigh Akroma's ability to double as a blocker?

The lack of mainboard removal is annoying, but I can't see any way to fix it without painfully dilluting the deck, so the best option may be to just concede that you're going to lose game 1 against Stax and move on with it.

The fifth fetch may be worth while, I don't see it drastically effecting the deck one way or another.

@Ninja:
The odds of not flipping Yawgmoth's Will, Vampiric Tutor, or Demonic Tutor, or having one of the above in your hand are fairly low.  If all else fails, you pick up a Duress (followed with a Cabal Therapy from the grave after seeing their hand) to clear the way to combo off with Krosan Reclamation the next turn.

[Stupid_Newb]

My attempt at the deck[/url]

[Ultima]

Is that more consistent, though? With Rector, after Oathing you don't have to spend any mana to draw up to 19 cards, while with Witness you rely on Will having hit the g-yard...if it doesn't, you've just been set back a turn or two, which can be crucial. I think if the issue with a sacrifice engine can be resolved, Rector would remain the better option.

How is this relying on will to hit the graveyard any different than relying on Bargain not to?

[kill doug]

since this is combo why don't you go for the win with krosan reclamation instead of blessing oath your entire deck stack the deck timewalk yawgmoths will and win. It seems to be way more consistant

[Lunk]

Because it a) costs 2 more (including a green) to do or requires you to go off over 2 turns, b) is only slightly more consistent, c) lacks the ability to protect your combo with a flashbacked Cabal Therapy, and d) you lose on the spot if your opponent is holding a counter.

[edit]:  Err, I misread your post and thought you were referring to the Witness version, but many of the same points still hold true.

[kill doug]

you lose on the spot if your opponent is holding a counter.

Thats why there would be two reclamation in the deck so if one gets forced you still have another chance(don't say what if they have two counters because any combo would just about die to that.)

besides you run in your build anyway so what are talking about?

[Mr. Channel-Fireball]

Personally if I were going to build a combo version of Oath I would use the White Bringer and Mindslaver.  Oath out the bringer with a slaver in the graveyard and it's a permanent turn 2 lock (provided you have 4 mana).  

I have a deck I'm workin on, should be a neat combo  :lol:

[martyr]

@Mr. Channel-Fireball: At very, very best the Slaver version is a turn 3 lock, as you must wait until your third upkeep to activate the bringer.

@Kasuras: Gray Ninja was referring to the updated version of the original, which does run blue.

also @Kasuras: You realize you just said that drawing 19 cards is less than amazing, right? With all the card drawing and tutors in the deck, I wouldn't worry too much about not winning after you draw those cards.

@ Ultima: Rector seems to be the better option because of two reasons.

#1: With Witness, there is no way to guarantee that Will hits the yard when you're milling your way to the Witness. This is a major problem, and can be solved, somewhat, by Brainstorm and Vampiric Tutor, but only to a certain extent.

#2: Rector can, clunkily, avoid the problem of accidentally dumping Bargain in the yard by running more Gaea's Blessings.

[bedafile]

I think if you wanted to do a reliable 2 card combo win you're better off with using Auriok Salvagers and LED and Black Lotus with Chromatic Spheres and Pyrite Spellbombs. With that deck Spheres and Spellbombs become playable cards, unlike Bringer + Slaver.

The Beauty of this deck is the fact that it's an Oath Combo with Rector Tendrills is also built in.

Having tested a version of this deck I feel that Krosan Reclaimation >> Blessing.

I think you can dump FOW in here somehow, I'll show you a list I put together and maybe some people will take to this list.


Blue:
4 FOW
2 Implulse
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor

Black:
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Unmask
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
4 Dark Ritual
1 Tendrills of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Green:
4 Oath of Druids
2 Krosan Reclaimation

White:
1 Academy Rector

Land/Mana:
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal

So far here's what I've observed about this deck I slapped together:

There's room to get the Blue count up to 17 cards, my usual rule of thumb to play FOW.

Time Walk is almost useless.

Implulse is a great way to put a Bargain on the bottom of the deck and has great synergy when setting up a fat Oath; although Intuition could almost be run in the Impulse slot.

Unmask > Duress as I have a few junk black cards in a given hand.

As already stated Reclaimation >> Blessing.

When upping the Blue count you could possibly run 1 less Oath (risky claim).

Imperial Seal > Mystical Tutor (maybe it will happen).

I've had 1st turn hands w/o back up and 2nd turn hands with.

Aside from Black Lotus, Moxen and Lotus Petal the artifact mana is really useless, usually I'm only using it to up the storm count.

a total of 4 Dark Rituals may not be neccesary, 3 may work. (again another risky claim).

Tolarian Academy is not that great.

A Fetch/Dual mana base would not help this deck IMO.

Hurkyl's Recall becomes a great sideboard card with blue added.

Any suggestions? Comments? I think we are on to something big here!
(hope my IP doesn't get banned again!?!)

[martyr]

I don't think you intended it as such, but I find your comment about Salvager quite interesting. While you can't sac it to Cabal Therapy, and it's effect is very vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares, Salvager could be a very cool win condition in a deck like this.

I don't think it's a good idea, but it's an idea.

I REALLY don't like Krosan Reclamation in this deck, though. It generally needs the two mana provided to go off, and Gaea's Blessing is just as solid. Why play Reclamation?

Also, for God's sake, why wouldn't you play Crop Rotation? That thing has been kicking ass in my build.

Force of Will is a good idea, but I only see 14 blue spells...four of which are FOWs. While they may help you while going off, they won't frequently help you resolve an Oath any sooner, so I'd either put in more blue, or ditch it completely.

Finally, Burning Wish is ridiculous in this deck, and I can understand that you might want to forgo its inclusion when you have access to Reclamation, but if you ditch those, then you really do need it in there. It helps you go off in a "normal" Tendrils fashion, anyway.

[Kasuras]

@Kasuras: Gray Ninja was referring to the updated version of the original, which does run blue.

With Witness half the time you won't flip Y. Will and are forced to Witness back something that is far less useful, at best you get Ancestrall, at worst you get Duress.

He most definitely was not.

also @Kasuras: You realize you just said that drawing 19 cards is less than amazing, right? With all the card drawing and tutors in the deck, I wouldn't worry too much about not winning after you draw those cards.

No, I did not say that. I said it was not a guaranteed win, the same however can be said about the Witness version because the chance of flipping Witness right away does exist. I probably should have said it in a different way.

By the way, I don't know if the list in the original kickoff thread is updated but it runs 2 Windfall.

Initially my thinking was that there are few match-ups that I'd rather have a Spirit of the Night in than either Platinum Angel or the combo route, but the more I think about it the more it might be a viable alternative against Stax. It may even be worth finding room for a second creature as well. If only one can fit, does the hardcast option with Spirit of the Night outweigh Akroma's ability to double as a blocker?

I didn't even consider Akroma really. I think you should either go for 1 Akroma or 2 Spirits. No idea which is the best though, the 2 Spirits however are my personal first choice because I'd like to be able to hardcast my stuff, which is very much possible with the 6 rituals and acceleration.

I have forsaken the 5th fetch; 4 is enough.

I have been thinking about removing the 4th Whisper for a 3rd Tainted Pact. I don't draw the Pacts that much and I think I should do more so because it's a) a tutor where whisper only gets you 2 cards. And b) it seems like a waste to run all those other cards once when you actually don't draw the Pact that much, I'd rather have 2 Scryings then.

[Jacob Orlove]

I didn't even consider Akroma really. I think you should either go for 1 Akroma or 2 Spirits. No idea which is the best though, the 2 Spirits however are my personal first choice because I'd like to be able to hardcast my stuff, which is very much possible with the 6 rituals and acceleration.

Oathing up two Spirits is pretty terrible, because they're legends. That's the whole point of the 1/1 split.

[Lunk]

I've been testing with some Scroll Racks today as a sort of colorless Brainstorm alternative, and I've been loving them.  I also included the 5th fetch when I added the pair of Racks for added shuffling goodness.  Even when you're not stuck with a Witness, the Rack can often get you the Duress you need to feel comfortable dropping Oath, dump back useless/excess combo pieces such as needless Rituals or Yawgmoth's Will, provide protection from opposing Duresses (especially when you've got a Necro on the board), and so on.  I've also managed to fit an Akroma and SotN into the board, but haven't had a chance to test against Stax since then.  Changes to the original list:

MD:
-1 Unmask
-1 Night's Whisper
+2 Scroll Rack

SB:
-1 Ray of Revelation
-1 Chains of Mephistopheles
+2 Akroma/SotN

The MD changes are by no means permanent, I could be convinced to cut the second Unmask instead, or possibly even some Tainted Pacts which I tend to view as a necessary evil more than anything, and possibly add one more Scroll Rack.

[andrewpate]

Even when you're not stuck with a Witness, the Rack can often get you the Duress you need to feel comfortable dropping Oath, dump back useless/excess combo pieces such as needless Rituals or Yawgmoth's Will, provide protection from opposing Duresses (especially when you've got a Necro on the board), and so on.

There really isn't any need to get Yawgmoth's Will out of your hand before you Oath.  If you are already holding it, the Witness can just return Black Lotus or something to help you combo out, and if they make you discard it, you just get it back with the Witness anyway.  I don't understand why Scroll Rack would be good with Will.  I love drawing Will early with this deck because then I'm at no risking of not flipping it with Witness.  Unless your opponent is packing Duress and Coffin Purge both, and at just the right time, it's no danger.

Maybe you were referring to the fact that Scroll Rack leaves it above Witness anyway, so you may as well get something you need right now?  That doesn't really do anything, because you have enough tutors that you will often end up shuffling it away.  It's better to just hold it often enough that Brainstorm is fine when it isn't.

I do agree with sideboarding conventional Oath targets; I've been doing that from the beginning, and even Forsythe had Darksteel Colossi in his sb.       One great plan is to win game one, then if they have graveyard hate game two, sideboard to conventional Oath game three.

[Lunk]

There really isn't any need to get Yawgmoth's Will out of your hand before you Oath.  If you are already holding it, the Witness can just return Black Lotus or something to help you combo out, and if they make you discard it, you just get it back with the Witness anyway.  I don't understand why Scroll Rack would be good with Will.  I love drawing Will early with this deck because then I'm at no risking of not flipping it with Witness.  Unless your opponent is packing Duress and Coffin Purge both, and at just the right time, it's no danger.

Maybe you were referring to the fact that Scroll Rack leaves it above Witness anyway, so you may as well get something you need right now?  That doesn't really do anything, because you have enough tutors that you will often end up shuffling it away.  It's better to just hold it often enough that Brainstorm is fine when it isn't.

I do agree with sideboarding conventional Oath targets; I've been doing that from the beginning, and even Forsythe had Darksteel Colossi in his sb.       One great plan is to win game one, then if they have graveyard hate game two, sideboard to conventional Oath game three.

You're right, mistake on my part, I was thinking Tendrils and for some reason it came out as Will.

[bedafile]

What do you do when you draw a Witness before casting Oath? Cabal Therapy yourself then reclaim? Is that reliable?

[martyr]

@Kasuras: Gray Ninja was referring to the updated version of the original, which does run blue.

With Witness half the time you won't flip Y. Will and are forced to Witness back something that is far less useful, at best you get Ancestrall, at worst you get Duress.

He most definitely was not.

Sure he was. We were debating whether Witness for Will would be better for the original decklist than Rector for Bargain; a question I think still needs debate.

[bedafile]

I've tested out the Black/Green Witness Version and and I've got a few recomendations:

Run at least 1 Sylvan Library and 1 more fetch land; I really don't like to run more than one Sylvan since multiples do nothing but is a great grab with the Swamp, Dark Rit, Duress, Demonic opener.

I played with 3 Chromatic Sphere's in hopes of speeding up the deck and they are somewhat usefull.

To answer my own question (some out there may have the same one) - to win with Eternal Witness in hand or play: Oath to an empty library and Reclaim a Yawg Will, Sac Witness to Cabal Therapy if that's an option, make sure to have 3 mana and cast Will for the win.

The decklist I played had the following mods from Lunk's list:
-2 Tainted Pact
-1 Duress
-1 Cabal Therapy
-2 Cabal Ritual

+1 Sylvan Library
+1 Polluted Delta
+3 Chromatic Shpere
+1 Crop Rotation
+1 Mind Twist

and some mana base mods that aren't really important

One thing to ask however is how is this deck better than control oath?
Its combo matchup and control matchup might be better however I think this deck falls to short against most Workshop decks, I don't have the people to playtest with right now but its a hunch.

Control Oath has 11-12 counters, draw, and 3-4 tutors. I feel safer playing control Oath as of now.

However Sylvan Library has great synergy with the deck (Witness.dec), concider trying it in your decklists.

Cheers for my IP not getting banned yet!

[Kasuras]

Sure he was. We were debating whether Witness for Will would be better for the original decklist than Rector for Bargain; a question I think still needs debate.

I cannot get that out of the post, but if you say this is what he meant: I'll just take your word for it and let it rest.

I didn't even consider Akroma really. I think you should either go for 1 Akroma or 2 Spirits. No idea which is the best though, the 2 Spirits however are my personal first choice because I'd like to be able to hardcast my stuff, which is very much possible with the 6 rituals and acceleration.  

Oathing up two Spirits is pretty terrible, because they're legends. That's the whole point of the 1/1 split.

God, I suck.

[andrewpate]

What do you do when you draw a Witness before casting Oath? Cabal Therapy yourself then reclaim? Is that reliable?

That is one method.  Another is to tutor for Yawgmoth's Will and then Oath yourself to nothing, followed by a flashbacked Krosan Reclamation to stay alive.  If they have made you discard Will, you can instead tutor for Black Lotus and hardcast the Eternal Witness.  And if you don't have a tutor to do either of those things, many times you can hardcast the Witness anyway with Forbidden Orchards and other multilands.  And then, there is is always Brainstorm.

In short, while drawing Witness is not exactly in the game plan, the crisis is no greater than drawing a fatty in conventional Oath, which is to say, something you can deal with.  The great thing about this deck is that there seems to just about always be a way, in any game, to get Will in your hand with your deck in the graveyard.  The task you face is getting in that position at a time when you can actually resolve the Will.