ICBM Oath: the control plan

[AngryPheldagrif]

If a deck is Tier 1 and no one plays it, does it still make a splash?
                                                                             -Ben Carp


Ever since I split my first Lotus playing Chalice Oath, I've greatly preferred the heavy control package anchored by Mana Drain and Chalice, and I needed a new deck to play for SCG Chicago I immediately turned to Chalice Oath. Extensive testing and rebuilding followed, resulting in the deck known as ICBM Oath. With only 2 or 3 people playing it, we still put up multiple high finishes including a StarCity T8 and other P9 wins. While GWS Oath has been established as the benchmark Oath list, ours has remained the dark horse that gets mentioned but never really discussed.

ICBM Oath version three point one four one five nine:[/u]

        1 Gaea's Blessing
        1 Strip Mine
        2 Wasteland
        1 Crop Rotation
        2 Island
        2 Underground Sea
        2 Tropical Island
        4 Polluted Delta
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        2 Duress
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Rushing River
        1 Time Walk
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Forbidden Orchard
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Emerald
        2 Null Rod
        3 Thirst for Knowledge
        4 Brainstorm
        4 Chalice of the Void
        4 Mana Drain
        4 Force of Will
        1 Razia, Boros Archangel
        1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
        4 Oath of Druids

Some explanationing:

Waste/Strip/Crop Rotate: This has fluctuated a bit numerically, but has been settled on this particular combination as the ideal balance to ensure consistent disruption without endangering our colored mana or hampering Mana Drain. Crop Rotation plays a very versatile role as both the fourth Strip effect and the 5th Orchard, as well as occasionally countering an opposing Wasteland.

Akroma/Razia: Even though the deck is a lot more controlling and thus not as fast as the GWS versions, the Angel plan remains by far the best win condition available with Oath.

Rushing River: I never understood how people can possibly play Oath without an emergency out. The fact is, no matter how flawlessly you play you will eventually run into Chalice for 2 or Meddling Mage, and won't always have a counter. Being able to remove these with a spell that is not likely to interfere with Chalice, either yours or theirs, means that Rushing River is the obvious choice. Being able to bounce DSC and other random things doesn't hurt either.
 
Thirst for Knowledge: Many people prefer Impulse for it's ability to dig one card deeper for one less mana. In the very aggressive builds this is quite true, but for a deck that wants to be able to play an adequate control game the card advantage is important enough to justify Thirst. The deck's artifact count also is plenty high enough to utilize it.

The control package: The core setup, consisting of Forces, Drains, Duresses, Chalices, and the metagame slot (Null Rod), has been carefully tuned, tooled, and tested to perfection. Chalice and Duress give you early pressure and let you grind away combo with ease while setting up for the big kill. Force is obligatory. Mana Drain, the most controversial piece, is vital to the success of the package. As opposed to something like Mana Leak, Drain offers a solid counter with no 'if' or 'unless'. Though the mana is much less relevant in the deck, it can be used to great effect in chaining Thirsts or setting up big Chalices to shut down your opponent. Having a full set of hard counters is crucial to matching other control decks in the long game, while your mana denial lets you cripple their draw and keep the pace and tempo under your control.

The metagame slot: This slot started as Pithing Needle, moved to Engineered Explosives, moved back to Needle, and has finally settled on Null Rod. We've found that, especially considering the recent rise of combo due to metagame fragmentation, Null Rod has more than earned its slots. There are very few decks Null Rod isn't good against. Even decks that run Null Rod themselves run more cards affected by it than Oath does. Explosives was a very niche choice that I wouldn't recommend, but Needle remains a fine alternative. At minimum I recommend boarding a pair in case you need to board out the Null Rods. They are worse maindecking in metagame with very high ammounts of Stax.



Some matchups:

Control Slaver: Wham. I have the same counters they have. I have the same draw they have minus a couple cards. I have the strips they don't have and I have the Null Rods and Chalices that say they lose. I kill faster than they do and can survive being Mindslaved once or twice. Realistically, the only things Slaver can beat me with are an insanely broken opening or some serious hate, which isn't that most of it is in non-Slaver colors.

Gifts: Similar to the Control Slaver matchup, but not as good considering that their win can be as fast and explosive as ours, and their draw and tutoring is stronger than CS's. The artifact control pieces are vital for slowing them down and preventing them from using their secondary win conditions, as well as hurting Tinker. A lot of the matchup comes down to who gets the jump on who. It's not who goes first so much as who has the tempo.

Combo: Belcher is a joke. Unless they can kill going first on the play and I don't have a Force, I'm almost definitely going to win. Null Rod and Chalice on top of the full counters means they just roll over. Heck, they don't even get time to recover with our fast win. Slower combo like TPS isn't as good but generally is pretty favorable. When you don't have to worry about losing on turn 1 it's pretty straightforward to play out Chalice for 1, Null Rod, Wastelands, counters, and then win. When you can absolutely wreck their mana and support base, their strategy of patiently setting up the win is a lot harder.

5cStax: It's an ugly match. Heavily dependent on tempo and draws. A lot of the match comes down to how much hate Stax has between their maindeck and sideboard. If they're boarding in an extra StP and Duplicant it's a lot easier than if they're adding in a set of Rays of Revelation and Seal of Cleansing.

UbaStax: It should be an easier match than 5c, but it can get equally ugly if you're not able to shut down Welder and/or Bazaar. Chalice for 1 and Wasteland take care of each of those, but they can tear your mana base to shreds while you're doing that. Unlike the 5c matchup, it's your sideboard that usually determines what happens post-board.

GWS Oath: No matter what special sideboarding strategies there are, it simply comes down to two things: draws and playskill. All the testing and results we've had have overwhelmingly supported that. Board in all the Extracts you want, it's probably not going to matter.

Food Chain Goblins: Bye. Next?

Fish: Can be a real problem when facing things like StP, Meddling Mage, Stormscape Apprentice, etc. It used to be a great matchup. Now? Not so much. There's only so many counters, Duresses, and Chalices you can drop, and you still need to find the Oath and use it. You can't sideboard all that much against it either. Definitely a pain in the ass.



The important part: Why play this over GWS?[/u]
The number one reason I believe this to be as good as if not better than GWS Oath right now is because of combo. A glance at the recent results shows that the metagame is fragmenting like crazy, meaning less Fish and more combo. Combo remains GWS Oath's biggest weakness in comparison to this list. It's nice being able to look at your opening hand and not having to worry quite so much as to what your opponent is playing and worrying that a hand without Oath may not keep you alive long enough to find it. If nothing else, here's another viable version of Oath to try out.

[Dante]

Is the sideboard secret Richmond tech?  It seems hard to evaulate the whole deck without the sideboard, especially since in several cases (UbaStax), you mention that it's your board that matters.

[Evenpence]

Although I have a winning percentage against Oath in my matchup, all of these Oath breeds are GWS Oath, not the ICBM kind.  I can honestly say I would rock the ICBM version, particularly because of my play, but also my board.  I too am wondering what super secret tech you have in your board to help against Ubastax, honestly.

[AngryPheldagrif]

Is the sideboard secret Richmond tech?  It seems hard to evaulate the whole deck without the sideboard, especially since in several cases (UbaStax), you mention that it's your board that matters.

Kinda secret. Well, here's what we ran through a lot of testing:
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Artifact Mutation
1 Volcanic Island
1 Life from the Loam
1 Darkblast
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Pristine Angel

[Tha Gunslinga]

Although I have a winning percentage against Oath in my matchup, all of these Oath breeds are GWS Oath, not the ICBM kind.  I can honestly say I would rock the ICBM version, particularly because of my play, but also my board.  I too am wondering what super secret tech you have in your board to help against Ubastax, honestly.

And the 2006 TMD Modesty Award goes to...

[Akuma]

I also don't understand how UbaStax rocks Oath.

[AngryPheldagrif]

I also don't understand how UbaStax rocks Oath.

I also wouldn't mind hearing it. I have a lot more trouble in testing against 5cStax because it has or can have StP, Seal of Cleansing, Ray of Revelation, etc, which are a lot more threatening than a couple Duplicants.

[Komatteru]

I also don't understand how UbaStax rocks Oath.

I also don't really see it.  Maze of Ith and Duplicant are nice (traditional) answers, but they aren't certantities.  An Oath player worth a damn will have some sort of bounce for anything, and the lack of UbaStax's clock means that Oath can "whack off" (love that term from Phil!) until it finds Time Walk, bounce, and use that window.  It's still going to be a pretty dicey matchup.  As far as I know, Vroman couldn't come up with any better solutions, and he's tested practically every card remotely worth testing (and from what I hear, a few that didn't sound like they were worth it!), so I'm pretty confidant that he's come up with the best solution.

[Polynomial P]

I have played alot of ubastax as well and I do not take the Oath matchup lightly. It is a very difficult match and at least ICBM oath runs some bounce MD, so that Chalice @2 is not game over. I also tend to run more duplicants main than most, which again, helps...but the match is not a cakewalk. Post side Uba gets more dups and Maze of ith, which helps, but your best chance is to resolve an early smokestack. I have won more games than I have lost against oath in tournaments, but I would put the matchup very close to 50/50 against a competent opponent. With the sideboard proposed earlier, it probably is a tougher matchup than previous incarnations of Oath, with the 3 rack and ruins, 3 artifact mutations, and 2 pithing needles.

[PucktheCat]

Following up on what JD and Jacob have said, I wouldn't say that Uba has a good matchups with Oath, but its game is a bit more robust that just Duplicants and Mazes.  Wasteland + B-Ring or Smokestack can answer an Orchard, and Crucible can recur them to create a soft lock.  And, of course, Chalice for 2 is pretty good as well.

I really found the Uba-Oath matchup to be easier for Uba than I expected it to be, which was a large part of why I backed off the transformational Gifts->Oath SB plan.  I would put the matchup in Oath's favor, but not overwhelmingly so.  Of course, the sideboard listed above would really change that.

[Moxlotus]

I have never understood the 3 R&R and Volcanic in the sideboard.  Why not just play 4 Oxidizes?  It gets what needs to be done for 1 mana.  Do you often get up to 3 mana against Stax?  Why play Artifact Mutation--it gets hit by Chalice @2.

GWS Oath does indeed have problems against combo and a better match against Stax.

In the Slaver and Gifts matchups do you assume the control or the beatdown role?

Have you ever tried Top in the Rod slot?  Why did you like it?

[AngryPheldagrif]

I have never understood the 3 R&R and Volcanic in the sideboard.  Why not just play 4 Oxidizes?  It gets what needs to be done for 1 mana.  Do you often get up to 3 mana against Stax?  Why play Artifact Mutation--it gets hit by Chalice @2.

GWS Oath does indeed have problems against combo and a better match against Stax.

In the Slaver and Gifts matchups do you assume the control or the beatdown role?

Have you ever tried Top in the Rod slot?  Why did you like it?

Actually I'm pretty sure the Mutations are only for very Shop-heavy environments. Oxidize hasn't been present due to mostly to my brother's preference for cards that give you an advantage, and also because we set Chalice @1 versus Stax all the time.

I prefer to play the beatdown against Slaver and I try to determine how fast the Gifts' players hand is to decide. If they have a slower hand I'm all beatdown, but I'll be glad to play control if they want to drop a hand of Moxen. For more specifics, I'll let my brother answer since he plays the deck a whole lot more than I do.

Top? We've toyed with it, but don't really have a problem drawing cards. The utility slot for us is pretty solidly a control option.

[sa17dk]

Has you/your team ever tested with Counterspells instead? The only possible things to drain into are 3 Thirsts/2 Rods which only have two colorless even. I dont think Chalices make the best drain sinks either because most of the time they'll be set at zero or one, not two and three.

[sean1i0]

Counterspell just seems so bad though.  The way that I see it is that getting some mana back to sink into a spell, even if that something doesn't happen to be the most impressive mana sink in the format and doesn't happen all that regularly, is strictly better than never getting anything back from the counterspell.  The mana burn you take from mana drains when you have nothing to sink into them should really just be irrelevant.

[Evenpence]

I test against Oath constantly.  My meta consists of more than 50% Oath.  When you test this much, especially against GWS Oath, which is far better against Ubastax than ICBM Oath (although I haven't played much against ICBM, I can see how GWS is better), and still put up winning percentages, particularly because of my stellar sideboard, I think I can say what I have with authority.

My sideboard is always changing against my meta.  SB with relevance I've run to Oath has been:

Anti-Oath SB v.1
NOTHING  (that's right)

Anti-Oath SB v.2
2 Duplicant
4 Maze Of Ith  (the best against Oath available, without forming your entire SB around them)

Anti-Oath SB v.3
2 Duplicant

v.4
2 Duplicant
1 Maze (to show the threat of additional mazes)

v.5
4 Maze

v.6
4 Jester's Caps (this is my second-favorite way to combat Oath)

v.7
2 Jester's Caps
2 Maze of Ith (this didn't work out to well, and I didn't go back)

v.8
2 Duplicant
2 Jester's Caps (this worked out fine the one time that I did try it)

v.9
2 Jester's Caps
4 Maze of Ith (this isn't stronger than the 4-duplicant plan)

v.10
EVERYTHING
2 Duplicant
4 Maze of Ith
4 Jester's Caps
4 Fiery Temper
1 Viashino Heretic  (this didn't work out at all)


The most reliable way I've found to combat Oath without mucking up the SB too much is a few Jester's Caps, which work out usually much better than adding to the number of Duplicants, or taking the Maze count up to 3 or 4.  (Less and they're not effective).

As for the comment about my play, anyone can tell you that Oath ROCKS Ubastax, straight up.  Unless you've playtested 200+ games against Oath, you will almost always lose to them.  However, I would say I am about 60-40 with a good SB, because I know what threats will be countered and what ones will not be, and also when to fake threats, and to play actual ones, faking that I have more powerful ones.

Getting around Force is everything.  The players in my area are not bad at all, several of them winning multiple pieces of power, but usually not with Oath (although one guy CONSTANTLY T8's with the deck, like, every tournament he's ever been to just about).

The players in my meta have never even considered ICBM Oath because of the metagame (a few Stax, a TON of Oath, about five FCG lists, a slaver player, a good amount of Gifts, and a guy and his brother that play tendrils combo).  They're actually considering it, now that this thread and the one on SCG has popped up.

I can say that this build is definitely a good build, and I was surprised to see a build that could handle combo well, as all I knew was GWS Oath (and combo trounces that list).

Great work on the build, you know I respect what you do.

[Tha Gunslinga]

I dont think Chalices make the best drain sinks either because most of the time they'll be set at zero or one, not two and three.

But setting a Chalice at 3 hits exactly 4 cards in my deck, none of which are extremely bad to cut off.  Chalice at 3 stops Tinker and Will, however, not to mention Rebuild.  If you're just using Chalice for 0 or 1 you're missing out on a lot of fun.

almost always lose to them.  However, I would say I am about 60-40 with a good SB, because I know what threats will be countered and what ones will not be, and also when to fake threats, and to play actual ones, faking that I have more powerful ones.

Getting around Force is everything. 

-4 FoW
-4 Mana Drain
-2 Duress
-2 whatever

+2 Pithing Needle
+3 Rack and Ruin
+3 Artifact Mutation
+1 Volcanic Island
+1 Pristine Angel
+1 Colossus
+1 Tinker

Have fun playing around my counters.

[Kevin Folinus]

Have you tested Shattering Spree over Rack and Ruin?

[NaNaKy3k]

-4 FoW
-4 Mana Drain
-2 Duress
-2 whatever

+2 Pithing Needle
+3 Rack and Ruin
+3 Artifact Mutation
+1 Volcanic Island
+1 Pristine Angel
+1 Colossus
+1 Tinker

And now die to ray of revelation because tinker as unic game plan against stax sux

[Moxlotus]

As for the comment about my play, anyone can tell you that Oath ROCKS Ubastax, straight up.  Unless you've playtested 200+ games against Oath, you will almost always lose to them.  However, I would say I am about 60-40 with a good SB, because I know what threats will be countered and what ones will not be, and also when to fake threats, and to play actual ones, faking that I have more powerful ones.

Your opponents may not be bad, but they are not good then.  If Oath players are losing more than winning against Uba Stax they seriously need to pick up another deck.  There are like 2-3 threats Uba Stax has that matters and you should have 8 counters + 4 Oxidizes to deal with them.  I seriously question the competency of your opponents.

[Dante]

-4 FoW
-4 Mana Drain
-2 Duress
-2 whatever

+2 Pithing Needle
+3 Rack and Ruin
+3 Artifact Mutation
+1 Volcanic Island
+1 Pristine Angel
+1 Colossus
+1 Tinker

And now die to ray of revelation because tinker as unic game plan against stax sux

I think Ben was responding to Evenpence, who has been bringing up the Ubastax matchup.  Assuming he's playing the same build he's brought up in 436 other threads, it's a mono-red Ubastax (with or without Tangle wires).  So there wouldn't be any Ray of Rev to deal with.

[Hydra]

Have you tested Shattering Spree over Rack and Ruin?

Similiar reasons as to why the deck doesn't run Oxidize, Chalice for one is a common play in matchups where you want the card.  Granted this doesn't stop Shattering Spree from being Replicated, but with so few red mana sources in the deck firing off a brutal Shattering Spree is pretty tough.  Chalice means you need to pay RRR to get the same effect that Rack and Ruin provides at 2R.

Not to mention that Rack and Ruin is an instant, which makes it better in a control deck.

[prometheus829]

@ Evenpence

Why is maze better than karakas?

[Moxlotus]

Similiar reasons as to why the deck doesn't run Oxidize, Chalice for one is a common play in matchups where you want the card

Are you actually worried about Chalice @1?  Hell, I'd love if Stax played chalice @1 against Oath because you can still play Oath.

[Hydra]

No Phil, Pheld said above that it's common for HIM to play Chalice at one against Stax, not Stax playing it against him.  The concern is running into your own chalice, not an opponent's.

[XeroSlainX]

Karakas is better than Maze of Ith in almost every way and also taps for mana. But it isn't as good when you go against Darksteel Colossus.

[Kevin Folinus]

"Similiar reasons as to why the deck doesn't run Oxidize, Chalice for one is a common play in matchups where you want the card

Are you actually worried about Chalice @1?  Hell, I'd love if Stax played chalice @1 against Oath because you can still play Oath."

Hmm...I thought Shattering Spree can kill chalice at 1 anyway.

[Hydra]

It will, but why would you want to kill YOUR Chalice?

[Komatteru]

Similiar reasons as to why the deck doesn't run Oxidize, Chalice for one is a common play in matchups where you want the card

Are you actually worried about Chalice @1?  Hell, I'd love if Stax played chalice @1 against Oath because you can still play Oath.

When I play Stax, I only set Chalice @ 1 vs. Oath after I've located Maze and have Crucible out there.  At that point, I need to stop Oxidize and don't care nearly as much about the Oath itself, as Chalice 2 is one Oxidize away from blowing up.  Another Oxidize and my out is gone.

[Tin_Mox5831]

If you want to try to slow down Oath, there is a much funnier option than Maze of Ith:

Island Of Wak-Wak!   :lol:

On a serious note, I like both ICBM and GWS Oath. I really like the Drains in ICBM's build. They may not appear very relevant at first, but as soon as you sneak in a TFK or Chalice that you couldn't have otherwise afforded, it becomes clear how much of an asset Mana Drain actually is to the deck. As Dan said, this build plays the control role a bit better than GWS Oath and therefore plays slower. Mana Drain, however, can more than make up the tempo difference, taking it from playing the control to playing the beatdown in a heartbeat. I also like the way the disruption is configured. The strips are nice, but the deck isn't overloaded with them. That makes Gifts a better matchup automatically. Those extra Wastelands would be dead space against Gifts with 4-5 Islands. Also, the two metagame slots make the deck very good for other players to pick up and play in their own metas, using those slots to cover any glaring weakness your meta could take advantage of. The only real question I have is whether you've considered sneaking a Library Of Alexandria into the deck? It seems out of place, but with such a strong control element and the aforementioned ability to shift gears, drawing 4-5 extra cards over the course of a game can be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Later,
Dave

[AngryPheldagrif]

If you want to try to slow down Oath, there is a much funnier option than Maze of Ith:

Island Of Wak-Wak!   :lol:

On a serious note, I like both ICBM and GWS Oath. I really like the Drains in ICBM's build. They may not appear very relevant at first, but as soon as you sneak in a TFK or Chalice that you couldn't have otherwise afforded, it becomes clear how much of an asset Mana Drain actually is to the deck. As Dan said, this build plays the control role a bit better than GWS Oath and therefore plays slower. Mana Drain, however, can more than make up the tempo difference, taking it from playing the control to playing the beatdown in a heartbeat. I also like the way the disruption is configured. The strips are nice, but the deck isn't overloaded with them. That makes Gifts a better matchup automatically. Those extra Wastelands would be dead space against Gifts with 4-5 Islands. Also, the two metagame slots make the deck very good for other players to pick up and play in their own metas, using those slots to cover any glaring weakness your meta could take advantage of. The only real question I have is whether you've considered sneaking a Library Of Alexandria into the deck? It seems out of place, but with such a strong control element and the aforementioned ability to shift gears, drawing 4-5 extra cards over the course of a game can be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Later,
Dave

I designed the deck to embrace the control role throughout the early to midgame while still preserving the Oath win condition. Theoretically you could take it even further control-wise, but I would not advise it. You run the risk of making it into Gifts or T1T with a different win condition. As for Library, I honestly don't think the card is that useful considering how much of the control is proactive, but if you want to play it slow I'd probably swap it in over the second Waste or the Crop Rotation, but I fear this could cause far more problems than it solves.