Powerless Drain,

[McBain]

Well i have been playing magic for almost 10 years now, and tourneys for 6 of those years in all formats.
Currently i have fallen in love with vintage, i find it offers the most amazing meta ive seen in a long long time.

As a university student i lack the cash to go out and buy a set of power, or cards such as workshops.
However i have recently come across 4 mana drains. Control has always been a passion of mine and i have fiddled around with decks
like oath, slaver, keeper. I have also made stax decks that use cards like city of traitors as subs for the shops. Another good friend of mine, combo has proven great as i tried out a amazing budget deathlong, belcher and other tendrils decks. Currently i have a FCG deck.
All of these builds have worked and won..but i have yet to find something that just blows my mind and really breaks the mana drains for me.
So far it seems that some form of oath works the best, i started with gifts oath, which was good, but i didnt like the fact that i couldnt go into a tendrils after oathing with the lack of jewelry in my grave.
My meta is very deverse and very underpowered, as i see only a few powered decks each night.
So aggro decks are very common as well as combo, therefore i have my current build

Control oath

Lands
2 underground sea
3 volcanic island
1 tundra
1 tropical island
3 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
4 forbidden orchard
1 strip mine
2 wasteland
2 island

Artifacts
1 sol ring
1 lotus petal
4 chalice of the void

Draw
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 brainstorm

Tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 vampirc tutor
3 intuition

Control
4 mana drain
4 force of will
1 balance
4 mana leak

Win
4 oath of druids
1 gaeas blessing
1 akroma
1 razia

Sideboard
4 blue elemental
2 annul
2 rack and ruin
3 pithing needle
1 darksteel colossus
1 tinker
2 triskelion


I know the mana base could be better (recommend?). Also im running quite a few counters and no thirsts (suggestions?).
I dont like having the tinker and dsc main, as i dont like oathing him out and having to wait, and the fact that he taps to attack.

Also is an oath deck the best choice?
Mostly im looking for input on my maindeck choices concerning my amount of control and draw spells also my mana base, or any other
facts ive over looked.

[Machinus]

I've had success using Duress and Nevinyrral's Disk in unpowered Oath. I would try out Duress and Null Rod.

[orgcandman]

there WAS this deck, a long long time ago(like 2 years maybe), called Landstill, which used Drains but only Sapphire, and lotus (possibly Ruby as well, I don't recall) for power. It would attempt to lay the beats with Mishra's Factories. You might look into that.

[McBain]

I have played landstill in 1.5 and find that oath is just so much stronger in vintage, i have found disks to be useful especially used with drains, however usually not needed, as oath usually wins on the spot.
Duress however used to be in the deck, and could be switched in instead of mana leaks, or mabye 2 and 2.
i used to run duress, however i almost prefer the leaks over them.

[Null Rob]

Null Rod in mox-less Oath is WAY better than Chalice.  See how it runs if you swap the 4x Chalices for 4x Null Rods.

[49 Cents]

You might like to try our list:

1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
3 Pithing Needle
1 Sol Ring
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
4 Mana Drain
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Oath of Druids
1 Razia, Boros Archangel
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Balance
3 Swords to Plowshares

3 Flooded Strand
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Wasteland

It's something like this. The deck highly relies on Mana Drain with it's draw engine. Thirst is way better then AK..

Basicly the deck had anwsers for everything, unlike some other lists. Strip-Crucible lock is solved by 6 Fetches and Needle. Welder is solved by Needle and StP. Colossus can be solved, Etc. And balance is a friggin monster..

You can also test the deck with Rods or with Top.

[nataz]

@ Mana Base

I would suggest a mana base more like the following

2 underground sea
2 tropical island
3 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
2 COB
4 forbidden orchard
1 strip mine
2 wasteland
3 island

Artifacts
1 sol ring
1 lotus petal
1 Mana Crypt

Intuition loves mana crypt.

@ Tinker + DSC
Tinker -> DSC is good in the SB against anything running lots of STP, or easy ways to shut off your oath (i.e., WS with chalice, Fish with Meddling Mage, and anything that brings in Goblin Bombardment/Spawning Pit/etc.) Basicly, Tinker beats dedicated hate, and can be very nice to have.

@ leak
I think if you are not able to run moxen, leak gets a lot worse. The entire point of leak in oath is to have another first turn counter off mox, land, pass. No moxen, means you need to play fair and have 2 lands out. This gives your opp time to get his lands/acceleration out. Honestly, I'd rather just play duress. I'd choose leaks regardless however if you meta is skewed very hard to aggro/prison where duress can be weak.

@ Chalice
I think chalice is greater then null rod in this deck because a) he is in a lower powered enviroment, and b) chalice can be selectivly set at one -> 3 with the help of drain.

@ general strat.

I'm going to assume that you used one of the older Chalice Oath lists as your starting point? If you are going to keep the AK intuition plan, and play the control route, I think you can not afford the red in your mana base, especialy only for Rack and Ruin. Rebuild can be just as potent, as well as a set of oxidize in the stax match-up.

Although AK -> intuition can be pretty powerful when people are not prepared for it, and you never have to worry about AK mirrors, you may want to try out a mix of TFK and Intuition for a slightly quicker draw engine. -3 Intuition, -4 AK, + 3 TFK, +4 Impulse. If you try this, you definatly need the crypt, and possibly even more artifacts like Top, P-Furnance, or Pithing Needle.

 

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Oath is an awesome deck to play without power. All you need to do is resolve an enchantment that costs 1G. I'd suggest you try a list with Null Rod in it, as it's amazing vs. every good deck in the format. Something like:

7 Oath pieces
4 Null Rod
4 Drain
4 Force
X Mana Leak
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowldge/Impulse/whatever floats your boat

You should wreck aggro no matter what, and the Rods should give you some edge vs. powered decks. Anyways, just my 2 cents.

-Bob

[UR]

Since you don't own any moxen, would Elvish Spirit Guide be an idea? My reasoning is thus;

- You can resolve Oath of Druids on turn one. With a Forbidden Orchard you have just made a play that matches whatever a powered deck can realistically throw at the opponent.

- You can play Island, go and surprise your opponent with a first turn Mana Leak. I re-read that sentence and I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside...

- It makes Balance marginally better because you have -1 card in hand. Although I'm not sure I'd run Balance in your list. It seems so random as the only white card (yeah, yeah... the big women are white).

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

It'd be good......until you oath him out

[UR]

Ouch... I never even thought of that... forget I said anything.

[49 Cents]

Isn't the gained advantage of casting oath on turn 1 a bigger issue then oathing a ESG?

[McBain]

well ive changed the deck around swithing some cards in.
this is the oath as it stands right now

Lands
2 underground sea
2 city of brass
1 tundra
1 tropical island
3 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
4 forbidden orchard
1 strip mine
2 wasteland
3 island

Artifacts
1 sol ring
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt
4 chalice of the void

Draw
4 thist for knowledge
4 brainstorm

Tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 vampirc tutor
3 intuition

Control
4 mana drain
4 force of will
1 balance
3 duress

Win
4 oath of druids
1 gaeas blessing
1 akroma
1 razia

well i like the idea of duress instead of leak, as well as the city's to smooth out my mana base. Im working on getting another tropical island. i would like to keep the balance in cuz i hate food chain gobs.
Im trying the thirst/ intution route right now, seems to work nicely.
a turn one oath is not needed if i have to add ESG.
chalice is stronger than rod in my meta, and ive never like impulse that much, but i might have to play it over the thirsts, as i lack artifacts and usually have to discard 2 cards.
what are your guys thougths on playing cards like chrome and diamond to help the thrist engine, allow turn one drains and oaths.