Brainstorming: White in Oath

[JamesPr]

I was looking at the DOA version of Oath , and I was thinking what other colors are worthy of a splash in U/G Oath?  If black can add that much to Oath, what could another color add that could potentially strengthen the deck in some problematic matchups?  Fish has started to run white for the metagame, and I think Oath could as well.  I feel this subject hasn't been explored to that large of a degree, and I think it would be interesting if it would be.

White's possible inclusion in Oath.

Oath is a strong deck, nobody is disputing that.  However against workshop varients it simply rolls over and dies.  Anything that can remove Oath's two creatures makes it roll over and die.  Furthermore, adding white could benefit the mirror match.  

Reasons to add white
-Swords to plowshares effectively says no to Welders, opposing Oath decks, and anything that runs creatures as a win condition.  Aka a lot of decks.
-Seal of Cleansing/Disenchant - These can help shore up the lacking workshop match somewhat, and can help remove random annoyances.  
- Oath has trouble dealing with permanents already in play, white can deal with permanents in play effectively.

Reasons not to add white
- Makes mana base more unstable.  One of the strengths of Oath is that it can play Wastelands and Strip Mine, adding white might negatively effect the whole "mana denial" aspect of Oath.
- Oath is a tight deck, how much benefit could white truly add to it?

[AnFgangsta]

Im just going to comment on some of the things you said, I myself have not thought about what CAN be added to oath, but there are some small problems with some of your statements.

You mentioned that white helps provide Disenchant and Seal of Cleaning which would help against Workshop decks. First off, Green does have Naturalize, but even that is not needed, the key card in my mind is Oxidize, just works wonders, even playing Annul is very effective.  Workshop does not seem like a reason to splash white, green actually has become far superior when it comes to fast artifact hate.

Swords, it does help you against many decks, even in the mirror match where your legends conflict, etc. I mean its a great card, very strong but the black that most people splash already helps you out here with Smother.  Sure you could argue that Smother does not take out Darksteel Collossus, but that is why Oath A. sideboards collossus in some cases and B. Plays Platinum Angel, which also gets around the mirror match.

The fact of the matter is that Smother takes out Dryads which can develop into a problem rather quickly, Meddling Mages, Welders, and other little pests that would cause trouble BEFORE you activate Oath.

In final conclusing, UGB provides protection against every form of card, and in 99% of the cases it does a better job than white.  Swords, however great of a card it may be, does not warrant the including of another color, or the removal of black to simply fit white.

One more thing about UBG, is that yuo can actually sideboard Tog's AND/OR Dryads and basically make Gro-A-Tog (of a smaller version of it) by replacing the whole Oath concept with Tog..that certainly would be unexpected, and the unexpected can get you the W if say Oath was not.

[xrizzo]

Oath is a strong deck, nobody is disputing that.  However against workshop varients it simply rolls over and dies.  Anything that can remove Oath's two creatures makes it roll over and die.  Furthermore, adding white could benefit the mirror match.  

If you take a mis-metagamed oath anywhere, it will have a tough time with workshop decks.  If you know they are going to be there, you can EASILY deal with them with the colors in your deck.  Remember, Jaco's build runs rack and ruin side, has access to artifact/enchantment kill in green, and generally doesn't have a problem with artifacts since it is well prepared.

Reasons not to add white
- Makes mana base more unstable.  One of the strengths of Oath is that it can play Wastelands and Strip Mine, adding white might negatively effect the whole "mana denial" aspect of Oath.
- Oath is a tight deck, how much benefit could white truly add to it?

Another major reason not to run white is that these cards make you more succeptable to mindslaver activations (stp your creature, disenchant/seal your oath, etc).  The best white card (balance) is good, but probably not worth splashing white for...

My oath build (~6-8 cards different from Jaco's) has no major problems with workshop decks, and doesn't care about mindslaver activations unless they are of the infinite variety.  This is because it is properly metagamed for the decks I expect.  (which includes workshop)

[Malhavoc]

I prefer adding black for duress, black tutors, and maybe even pernicious. I think it's the color which shines better; however I could also think about red, which gives access to a lot of artifact destruction and fire/ice. Fire/ice is really good against welders, and also has another great sinergy with the deck: akroma&spirit do 18 damages in 2 rounds; if the opponent is smart enough to avoid taking 2 damages, he can play one turn more. But using fire/ice we are able to win one turn sooner. If white is able to remove any creature, fire/ice is able to remove the little nasty creatures and tap the big ones; after all since we need just a couple of attacks, tapping them once should be enough, and akroma is able to attack&block, so removals for big creatures are not that necessary. StP is also a dead card against many deck, and a dangerous card when slaved, while fire/ice can be cycled easily. As for the disenchat subject, we can run naturalize already just running a more green mana base.

In the end, I prefer black for tutors and duress, which are really solid against combo for instance, but I could try a red splash instead. Definitely not white, however, it's just not worth enough IMHO.

[Ape]

I agree with Malhavoc on the point of StP and Fire/Ice. However, at the previous (local) tournament over here I was playing Oath and got screwed big time by Hull Breach. Hull Breach, Rack and Ruin, Fire/Ice and other artifact/enchantment removal may make red an intresting color to splash.

Ape.