Some months ago I posted one of the first Oath lists here on TMD running Tidspout Tyrant; you can find it it here for reference and to read a few things which are still valid in this other build I'm posting:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=29749.0Beware, I don't intend the above as "I was the first bla bla bla" (since many others were testing similar builds after all - so no flame, it's just to link my old article, which is still very useful to understand the deck.
Now, to the core: it's still early to say if and how much Extirpate will be played, and if it will really reveal itself to be so powerful; however, the printing of this cards has made me try to build a version of Tyrant Oath which uses the chalice. Something however that I thought about in the past already.
- Chalice@1 blocks Extirpate
- Chalice@1 blocks Duress, which is probably going to be played more by those who want to play Extirpate
- Chalice@1 blocks Duress, which is probably going to be played also by those who want to PROTECT themselves from Extirpate
On top of this, chalice@1 blocks a good amount of spells played by most decks; sure, there are matches where it is more useful, others where it's not, but overall it can really shine in Tyrant Oath, because (outside of the Exirpate discussion) it protects against:
- Duress
- Sword
- REB
With the classic build I sometime find myself a bit unsure about activating Oath or not: at the beginning of the game against an aggrocontrol deck we can be vulnerable to sword, and in the build with only 1 Tyrant, that can be a problem, due to the fact that the YWin plan B requires a bit of protection and mana available, and both things are not assured in the first 2 turns against such a deck. Chalice@1 solves these problems.
Most recent versions of Tyrat Oath here in Italy use to play Duress, in order to protect their game and avoid an uncounterable trickbind when you're comboing out. In a deck which aims to play chalice@1, there is no place for duress. Doesn't this open a weakness to trickbind? Not at all! Let's suppose we have a chalice in play and we have oathed out Tyrant:
- Infinite mana/storm through 2 mox (or chalice + ring)
- I can, if I like, bounce back a chalice and play it at 2 or 5 (in order to protect from drain/force if I don't have it in hand too)
- Cunnning for freeze
- Take back chalice, and play at 2
- cast freeze: the first is countered by Chalice, but the copies resolve, and trickbind doesn't help the opponent
Similar tricks are possible even in the case we don't have the cunning in hand yet: we can play chalices at whatever value we like, even 2 or 3 if necessary, since we can bounce them back anytime when we need to cast a spell at that cc, and play them back short after. With a Tyrant + Chalice@0 is also quite easy to do a good mana denial, and a second oathed tyrant makes you bounce the whole opponent's field, putting him at ONLY one mana each turn.
These considerations have always made be thought about Chalice as a good weapon in Tyrant, but with 2 main issues:
-It's dead in certain matchups
-If we want to play it at 1, we prevent ourselves to play brainstorm; we could either play without them, or play with them, knowing we are going to have some dead draw. The real problem is that if Oath DRAWS Tyrant, it usually needs a way to brainstorm it back (it can cast it too, but that's not the easiest way, even if highly possible after a good drain or in late game)
Let's put these problems aside for a moment.
Let's go back to Extirpate.
Most succesfull builds here runs Intuition-AK as draw engine, and AK is DESTROYED by Extirpate; but intuition too is really dangerous: intuitioning for 3 oaths or three orchard can a be terribly risky move if we get beaten by and extirpate. The alternative Gifts draw engine doesn't get that much better.
Of course the best draw engine to switch to in a deck like this running Chalice should be Thirst of Knowledge:
- It optimizes chalice in the matches where they aren't needed
- Let us discard deep analysis (cards that a Tyrant Oath deck should run anyway in 1-2 copies)
- Let us discard Tyrant
Have I said discard Tyrant? Indeed! Well, we aren't going to face extirpate in every matchup after all; one thing is running a deck which does not die to extirpate, another is running a deck which can follow a path vulnerable to extirpate, but which is not the only path available. After all, even if the opponent plays it, we can have already played a chalice@1, or just going to try and win milling the deck and flashbacking krosan into ywin. But, as I was sayin, what's good in discarding tyrant?
- We can shuffle it back with Krosan
- We can REANIMATE him!
..with a very little black splash (just a mono-sea), we can keep in side a Shallow Grave to put Tyrant in play from the grave and combo out. Let's notice that if we cast cunning+shallow during opponent's EOT, we are going to keep Tyrant in play for our whole next turn, being able to untap and combo out, or even just bounce back most of the opponent's field (maybe even playing a locking chalice for the bounced permanents) and get a decisive advantage. If we are not going to win, we can even bounce our own Tyrant to avoid it from being removed if we fell like.
But let's look at the other advantages of the reanimation plan:
- It let us re-put it into play quickly after an edict, a reb, a cycled gempalm incinerator, and so on
- It evades meddling naming oath (and first game, a meddling naming oath is usually VERY bad for an oath deck)
- It even evades chalice at two if we switch shallow with Corpse Dance (however, I'm not sure the one more mana it's worth it).
Another plan for the "tyrant-in-hand" problem exists: Show and Tell. This spell is indeed dangerous if played without care, but in the end we can bounce back any opponent's permanent with Tyrant, so we shall be worried only by an opponent's:
- Necro
- Bargaign
- Mind Slaver (with 4 open)
- Duplicant (but we can bounce back in response both this and tyrant to save the deal)
- 7/10 (just to a certain degree)
Apart from Titan, that just means that it's dangerous to run S&T only against Storm and Slavr. On the other hand, this cards is really strong against aggrocontrol, letting us drop Tyrant or Oath even under meddling or chalice at 2. In can also become a good way to protect an Oath (S&T with Oath in hand and 5 mana open: opponent must have 2 counters or I drop Oath anyway). Due to the risk involved in this card, however, I think the better place for it is singleton copy sideboarded, with a good amount of maindeck tutors to get it if needed postside.
So, putting all together, with such a build we can drop Tyrant in play:
A- from the deck with Oath
B- from hand (castign it or using S&T)
C- from grave
And most of all, plan B and C just require a single slot (shallow isn't a dead draw since we keep it in side).
..and of course, the (a bit risky) plan "mill everything and win through YWin" is always good, maybe with a chalice at 1 to protect against extirpate.
I'm still working on the list, but here it is what I've now:
// Mana: 24
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
// Creatures: 2
2 Tidespout Tyrant
// Draw: 7
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis
// Tutors: 6
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Cunning Wish
// The Core: 5
4 Oath of Druids
1 Krosan Reclamation
// Protections: 12
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
// Tools: 4
1 Repeal
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Show and Tell
SB: 1 Misdirection
SB: 1 Shallow Grave
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Brain Freeze
SB: 1 Trickbind
SB: 1 Vampiric Tutor
SB: 1 Extirpate
SB: 1 Rushing River
Other interesting cards we could run in side:
Fact or Fiction
Massacre
Simic Sky Swallower
Research/Development
Corpse Dance
Echoing Truth
Tormod's Crypt
Pithing Needle
Duress/Leak
Some comments on certain deck choices:
- Double Tyrant: without brainstorm, even with alternatives win conditions, being sure to still have a Tyrant in the deck is a good thing. And if the opponent doesn't run extirpate (or we have chalice@1 in play), keeping one in the deck and one in the grave is the best option, since it let use win anytime with two very different paths.
- Merchant: it lets us quickly tutor for ancestral at the beginning, but also raises the "virtual" number of counters (land mox merchant into force, land oath) and makes fetching wish easir in order to close the game (and that's particularly useful if we have reanimated Tyrant, and have only one turn to brainfreeze)
- Bounce spells: repal is easily tutorable with merchant, it's an answer to the hated meddling and chalice@2 too (even if under it we can't use merchant). I'd like to run a single rebuild too, very useful among the other things to bounce all jewelry and play a chalice@0.
- Brainstorm: losing brainstorm sure hits down the ability to manipulate the deck, however I'm trying to make Chalice@1 the most one-sided possible. At worst, we could switch merchants and 1-2 other cards for 3-4 brainstorm if we feel them really needed.
Overall, the deck has less tutoring power for Oath and Orchard without Intuition (but I feel it very dangerous for the Extirpate problem), however it keeps a good drawing engine and most of all it has a good amount of easy-tutorable answers and a handful of alternative win conditions, which need to be answered in different ways, making this deck REALLY difficult to hate.
A last note about sideboard: there are certain matchups where I feel like siding in more control element is needed: most of all Oath mirrors and Stax.
Against Oath, we surely side out the 4 Oaths, trying to win either casting/S&Ting Tyrant or reanimating it. That's particularly good against non-Tyrant Oaths, since Tyrants owns angels and we aren't trying to win the orchard war (which is unlikely without wastelands). Between Duress and Leak (or even Rune Snag? Good together with TfK too or in other matchups where we keep Oath in) I think Leak is superior cause it let us play Chalice@1 against opponents duress and brainstorm (and being unable to put back akroma isn't good for a classic Oath!), and does not expose our only sea to wasteland
Against Stax, chalice is almost useless (unless we are on the play), but even on the play it is a suboptimal spell. Leak/Snag is much better than Duress here too, giving us an open counterspell turn 1 easily.
Also against Gift Leak/duress can be useful (here duress wins of course), but since both Chalice and Oath are good in this match, I'm unsure on which is the better way to approach this match.
Any comment or idea to improve the deck is of course appreciated!
