Oath of druids in the current meta.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

   Ever since the unrestricting of gush and the rise of flash, I’ve noticed that oath of druids is even less of a meta game force than usual. In addition, no one seems to be discussing the deck (granted it doesn't receive much attention, but there is usually some interest).I believe that many of the current oath players and former oath players have just been approaching the Meta game problem incorrectly, focusing on speed as its priorities instead of answers for common game state situations. I’ve recently been working on a list, and the results have been pleasing across the bored, except for the slaver match up, but slaver is few and far between in the current meta game. After testing I believe this list best for the current meta game.

Oath

4x oath of druids
4x forbidden orchard
1x gaea’s blessing

1x tinker
2x platinum angel

1x vamp tutor
1x demonic tutor

4x force of will
4x mana drain
1x misdirection

4x chalice of the void
1x yawgmoth’s will
1x engineered explosives
1x wipe away

4x brain storm
4x thirsts for knowledge
1x ancestral recall

1x time walk

2x polluted delta
2x flooded strand
2x Tropical Island
2x underground sea
1x island
1x strip mine
2x wasteland
2x mishra’s factory
5x moxen
1x black lotus

SB:
4x leyline of the void
2x tidespout tyrant
1x simic skyswallower
2x pyroclasm
3x oxidize
1x smother
2x mishra’s factory


Explanations:

Platinum angel: oath targets are always major topic of discussion. When the Meta game shifted with gush and flash after the 1st torment, the analytical oath players made two observations. The first being: flash is faster than us and runs more control. Second: dryads will get much bigger than akroma, dryad is a better clock than the angel combo.
   Our problem is primarily speed. Typically in the two new problem match ups, we can get of a single oath activation before we are about to loose. There is no faster creature we can put out besides akroma/razia. The solution is a more disruptive creature. Platinum angel shuts off every win condition in the game, and possesses the 1 necessary oath target trait, flying. Platinum angel creates two major problems for the opponent; it’s a win condition that shuts down their opponents. As if it weren’t good enough already, mana drain= easy hard cast. It’s complete GG for Ichorid players

Gaea’s blessing: this card certainly does not synergize well with yawgmoth’s will. However, your odds of hitting blessing on an oath activation is 1 out of 3.That alone isn’t incredibly significant. More over, if you’re able to resolve an oath and activate you should already be in an advantaged position. The game state rarely evolves to the state where you would need a major will turn after an activation. Again, the lack of synergy is rarely significant.
   Many players who have started playing Platinum have cut blessing. Blessing creates reoccurring platinum angels. Your opponent must have double resolved removal delivered with in no less than three turns. Additionally, double oath, time walk, tinker reduces their options to double removal in a single turn. This is a pretty tall order game one.

Chalice of the void: Chalice is one of the cards that keeps this deck top eighting years. Set to one it shuts out a large percent of the opponent’s deck while shitting out 6 cards of your own. The card advantage is always in your favor. It’s a well known play and now its even more effective due to the 4x duress that’s has become even more popular. There are oath players who feel this is a bad play due to the dependence on brainstorm to fix a bad top deck. These players obviously underestimated the synergy of thirst for knowledge and gaea’s blessing, not to mention the current oath targets are incredibly easy to hard cast.
Chalice set to zero is usually much less effective, especially on the draw. Flash just gives as a reason to keep doing this, cutting of a portion of there mana base, and control.

Yawgmoth’s will: This is the highest powered card in vintage. It provides you with an instant card advantage for the turn, if not the rest of the game, and often presents you with a grave yard full of win conditions control and tutors. Between the 4x oath tinker and will, and tutor, the threat density of the deck is very high. This causes less maligning, better late game play, and added resilience against an otherwise game ruining duress.

Engineered explosives: set to one sliver flash as another problem to deal with. Set to zero it removes chalice. EE even makes TFK better for you. EE always gives me a lot of different aggressively disruptive lines of play every time a draw it. The inclusion of strips and factory also provides you with a lot of loop holes around problematic chalices.

Misdirection: this card has fallen out of favor in oath builds recently. In the current meta it equates to FOW #5. Between flash tog and swords to plowshares, its not the dead card people claim it to be 90% of the time.

Wipe away: I favor this card over echoing truth for one simple reason, chalice at two. It’s a common play for opponents to make, and now you’re left with an additional answer, as well as no fighting through control to hit tog/dryad/heart sliver.

Basic Island: magus of the moon. The single card keeps a lot of your deck on line with magus out. Any more islands and my play tests were showing problems coming up with g/b.

SB:

Leyline of the void: it’s an auto SB card. It kills an entire game zone for your opponent, cost nothing, works turn 0 and is uncounterable.

Tidespout Tyrant: slaver is out of the meta, a lot less red blast. In addition to the easily achievable casting cost of tyrant, the amount of disruption it provides is completely amazing. Oath generally does not run a lot of removal/bounce, which is one of the reasons why things like dryad and flash cause a problem for oath. There isn’t much you can do beyond block and oath twice to put the creature back into play. With competing clocks is on longer an issue, ever spell you play resets tog and dryad. Tyrant also deals with the amount of tinker platinum we’re seeing. Even against fish tyrant in hand is better than rfg. The card gives you benefits for playing into chalice, it just ups the decks power level by a large amount.

Simic: Some match ups are just to removal heavy, or something like duplicant welder happen, and you’re on game three. In circumstances like this, you’ll be glad to have simic on board.

Pyroclasm: Pyroclasm and massacre occasionally found in oath SB. the do wonders against fish warrens and goblins. Right now pyroclasm provides an additional edge, massacre requires a swamp. Often the down side of pyroclasm is that it only gets cast off the orchard mox or lotus, but in the current meta, people are running 2/2 beater that shut down nearly your whole deck early game, magus of the moon.

Oxadize: a standard green SB for shop

Smother: I’ve always loved smother. It hits ever creature played in fish except ninja. It’s been amazing for mage on oath, or the occasional preacher. Now it comes with the added benefit of hitting tog dryad and heart sliver, the major meta game forces.

Factory: great for the mirror, keeps lackey at bay and occasionally combats slivers. as well as still doing well against stax and fish.




NO CROP ROTATION:  this was one of my favorite solutions to mage, (attack with mage on oath, respond with crop rotation), but it’s just not an optimal use of space. we’re in an aggro heavy meta, and its not worth wasting a slot giving them a creature when they win condition is having one themselves. Even if needed, orchard is a four of with vamp and demonic.

[bleakill]

What seems to be the reasoning behind playing Thirsts rather than Impulses? I can see the whole synergy with redundant chalice/dodges chalice@2 thing, but wouldn't the benefit of costing 1 mana less early game and digging 1 card deeper outweigh those things? Also running 2 platz makes you terribly susceptible to splash artifact hate. Running 1 Razia/Akroma + 1 Platz seems like a better deal.
It seems like oath is experiencing a rise again. An oath deck just Top2'd at a local tourney here in Toronto.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

thirst over impulse, i get this question a lot.

the major reason to play tfk over impulse is a mana cost of three rather than 2, like echoing truth. When staring chalice at 2 in the face your still able to search through the deck for answers. I'd rather have 3 cards of vision when I'm looking for answers than 0 and 4 when I'm not. Impulse also offers no real mechanical card advantage, using a card to gain a card, as much of an advantage the extra vision into the library is, its slightly less ideal for fishing out a force of will and a blue card. Thirst also provides an out to a top decked creature. sometimes it happens, its unavoidable. Discarding aggro to thirst with an oath activation into blessing gets you back on line much faster than impulse (which does nothing to help the situation). Even if you consider the easy hard cast of the current oath targets, more options is always a better thing.
the early game digging is a good point, but with the 4x  oath, tutors, tinker, 2x factory, and will, the threat density of the deck much more likely to deliver an early game threat than your giving it credit to.

Platinum and artifact hate. Not many deck man deck a lot of artifact hate, especially in the tog/flash meta. Obviously g2 you sb in tyrants or simic. This will usualy cause a huge mis board on your opponents side if they bored in a lot of hate for it. You can always expect things like slaver to run the rack and ruin (if slaver goes on to show up in the mass it once did akroma/razia would be optimal) so its a no brainier on that match up,- 2 platinum. Fish is an auto simic sb. In other cases were you can expect hurkyl's recall, if it's actually played, it will be funny having a fist full of moxen and a tyrant in play.

As for oath experiencing a rise, I sure hope so! Oath usually has an interesting effect of the meta game, being and enchantment, and usually rounds things out as far as what decks people are playing. Unfortunately, I was noticing other recent tournament results, as well as the gencon results. Even 2 of the best oath players out there, the carp brothers did not top eight, although they performed very well. There just seems to be a trend of oath failure to not top 8 recently Toronto aside. I think we can fix that.

[Harlequin]

Gushin' Oath:

4 Fetchlands
3 Island
3 Trops
1 Underground

4 Orchards
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Lotus
5 Moxen

4 Oath of Druids
1 Tinker
2 Tidespout Tyrants
1 Sundering Titan

1 Krosian Reclaimation
1 Research//Development
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Regrowth

4 Gush
1 Fastbond
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral recall
3 DT; Vamp; Mystical
1 Timewalk

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Nix
1 Wipe Away

=== The Board===
3 Pithing Needle
1 Platinum Angel
1 Blazing Archon
1 Simic Sky Swallower
3 Extirpate
2 Extract
4 Oxidize

////////////////////////////

The Meta and The Focus --
Really this deck is designed to beat GAT.  I wouldn't suggest it if you plan to face Flash more than twice.  Flash right now its the decks only weak match.  By no stretch of the immaginiation is it un-winable.  Stax and Bomberman are about even, so the board is mostly devoted to winning though matches. 

The Creatures --
@ Angels - They just don't cut it anymore.  I think people serious about Oath are at a general concensus about this. 
@ Plats - Plats is a good choice, and post board against combo I either have Plats only, or Plats + Archon where applicable.  But again, I don't think plats has enough board presents to actaully win the game in all matches.  The final nail in the coffin for dear ol'Plats IMO was the big surge in Merchant scrolls.  Considering Merchant Scroll, Black tutors, and Cunning wish ... you have most combo-style decks running 8+ ways to find bounce dirrectly.
- Titan, and Tyrant -- I like them because they have an immediate effect on your opponent as soon as you oath.  Plats asks "can you stop me?" where Titan and Tyrant asks "Can you win w/o lands?"  Also there is the issue of the clock.  Assuming your opponent hasn't dealth themself 4 damage, Plats is a 6 turn clock where your opponent is more or less uninterupted by the oath, and the 2nd oath just trims that clock down by 2 turns bringing the total clock to 4.  In the Tyrant world, its a 5 turn clock where they have to win though perminant disruption, and the second oath is almost certainly game because they will have no lands after you oath twice (assuming you have 2 moxen).   Playing the Titan also alows for the maindeck tinker which is certainly 'value added' to some match-ups.

- The Tyrant Trickeldown Effect --
Commiting to Tyrant beings a chain of synergy that hash out the rest of the deck.  The key thing to remember is PLAYBLE SPELLS.  Playable spells are huge when you have a Tyrant on the board. 
> Gush/Fastbond.  Gush is not only almost always playable, but it also generally chains into more playable spells after it resolves (See GAT).  This is a great way to kickstart a burtal chain of bounces.  Also, its a great response to rolling a Titan (with titan's ability onthe stack).  Out of all the decks that run Gush, I think this oath deck is the only one that really utilizes the 'instant' power of gush, and uses it as a reactionary spell.  In reguards to fastbond... I play Gush, I play Green - which leads to the proverbial 'so many insane plays'.
> LoA (and no Strip/waste).  Gush is only as good as the islands you can get in play.  And with 4 Orchards, that leaves little room for Strips wastes and mishras.  With only 1 extra land slot to devote to a non-island, I think LOA is good for its synergy with Gush, and to support the general control theme.  However I have tested Strip in this slot.
> Krosian Reclaimation.  I think K.Rec is simply a better choice when going for the Tyrant win.  It gives you that 1 critical, and often overlooked by your opponent, playable spell. 
> Yawg and his tutor friends, plus Regrowth.  At the point you add K.Rec, it's almost indicative that you add Yawg, and couple that with Black tutors.  Now with No blessing, and +Yawg, Regrowth starts looking better and better (its like the Yin to Demonic Tutor's Yang).
> The subtle craziness of Research and Developement.  Originally this card was included as a nice "Oh Sh!t" button.  It's good against Cap, or when your opponent has too many STPs... etc.  It was a solid one-of.  However in testing I found that it adds a depth to deck that was more or less discovered by accident.  The basic thoery goes like this:  After you've decked yourself.  Durring your upkeep you cast Krosian Rec targeting Yawg Will and R/D. 
A) If you draw Will, then insanity ensuse and you go infinite with mana and bounce and all sorts of goodness like that (including a timewalk).  after you cast Timewalk and RFG it, you can then DT for R/D,  and put back timewalk + plats and X, then cast brainstorm and timewalk again (for 17+21 swings).  Also your opponent will have no perms in play.
B) If you instead draw R/D you can get cheaky about it.  You cast research for 1 creature, 2 other cards outa the board/RFG pile, AND Krosian Rec (that RFGed itself after you flashed it back).  Now you can safely oath again knowing that should your creature be on the bottom of they yard - your freshly shuffled Krosen Rec will be safely in the yard.

> Nix, WTF?  Nix I think is a better card than Misdirrection.  In earlier builds of this deck, I ran both MisD and Nix in the same deck.  And I realized that the two cards generally are used to fill the same slot - but Nix is better because it has a broader range of applications.  With decks running on low mana counts, and cards like Snuff Out and Reveared Silence running around - this card gets even stronger. 



@ Thirst, Impulse, Gush.   I think of the 3, Gush is the best.  As I explained above.

@ Chalice.  Anyone who know me, and/or follows my post, knows my oppinion about this card.  In summary I don't like it because its semetric, and it generally only works well against poorly constructed decks or bad players.  I honestly think its a waste of 4 slots in a deck.  I give acception to decks running Shops because a turn 1 Chalice on 2 is powerful.  But Oath will never win a loosing game with a chalice on 2.

@ Leyline.  Leyline - however powerful - Is just too much strain on the consistancy of Tyrant Oath.  Cutting castable spells for uncastable spells is just usually not an option.  In game 2, gat and flash are going to be preparing for Leyline, and Oath.  Often siding in extra bounce and in Flashes case Reveared Silence.  Alowing yourself to get 2-for-1ed is just bad planning.  Against flash (which is admittedly and deidedly a weak match for this build)  I generally side out 2 oath of druids, all my creatures, and bring in Plats and Archon.  You don't beat flash by activating an Oath, you beat flash by killing them with thier own Pacts.

@ Oxidize.  I wouldn't really ever run Oath with anything less than 4x.  It is far and away the simplest and best answer to chalice @2.  Here is why.  If your oppoent is playing shops and chalice then they will likely set the first chalice they drop @ 2.  If they don't they run the risk of you slipping an Oath onto the board.  And Chalice @1 is countered by Chalice @2.  So that means that you will rarely be faced with a shop player running out both a Chalice @1 and @2... making Oxidize great.  Anything at the 3 level is dangerous because of in the Eyes of Chaos.

[Commandant]

I run a somewhat similar Oath list and was planning on switching to something more similar to this as I also believe Platz are the right call for the current Meta.  My question concerns Life from the Loam, why do you choose not to run it? I always found it usefull in recurring my own Wastelands/Strip as well as Factories and have even used it to dredge dig for an Orchard.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

@ Harlequin
Thats a very interesting list, I had actually considered gush as a draw engine candidate. My problem was the lack of islands. Obviously, you have the option of cutting strips and man lands, but the power level seemed to be much higher in the colorless sources. Wastes can be aggressively played to keep an opponent off a gush, or locked under chalice,  and mishra's factory holds a lot of decks a bay, even GAT needs an extra turn, to hit through the dude. This didn't seem to be worth taking out for a draw spell that requires a restricted enchantment for optimal use. Otherwise, its just like your missing land drops, even though oath is only a  , sacrificing the drain back up is not worth the gush.

*defending chalice*: Maybe its a difference in play styles, but chalice can ALWAYS gives me a commanding position in the game. You just have to know how to use it. I think its comparable to REB. your very likely to play decks with blue. Your very likely to play decks where 1 is a very frequent casting cost. The difference is if there is no blue REB is useless. Chalice can be set to just about anything if you've got a drain. Even with  out a drain, I've played vs fish, had mage on oath first turn, than chaliced out 2 and factory beat the whole way. It's much more versatile than you give it credit for, it made my gift match ups all pretty good in the previous meta.

Running gush also makes your deck more vulnerable to chalice @1, which your also no longer running. Chalice of the void is an incredibly aggressive play which shuts down large portions of every deck in the format. Gush is also not the certain solution to top decked creatures that thirst is.

research and development: r/d has always been a card oath players have liked, but right now there just isn't enough cap around(simple because of the aggro heavy meta, gat and goblins) warrant the use of the card. As for swords, chalice @1 is probably one of the best opening plays in vintage. Why run a solution like r/d that solves only the rfg problem, when you can run a card that also solves the problem with , not  , but solves many other problems that could occur at the same time.

as for nix, to run the card you have to sacrifice those amazing chalice plays, and not be able to hit ancestral or drains.

I would also say that my current list runs a lot of playable cards even with chalice at 1, a countered brainstorm still triggers the tyrrant. Where as gush keeps you land count low making a hard cast difficult if needed (sometimes it happens).

Oxidize is amazing, I love running them. As for why i run 3 and not 4. Space,  meta game, and engineered explosives.

Krosan Reclimation/yawg's will/blessing: I expected to get asked this one almost as much as impulse. Honestly, if your in a position where you could blessing away your grave yard (i.e. activating oath), your probably not very Dependant on having a nuts blessing. Maybe one in 10000 you'll lose from blessing in some bazaar series of events, but one out of every 10 games you'll win because of blessing.

tyrant effect: I have yet to play a game where double tyrant wasn't more than enough to neutralize any threat. Gush combing out just seems like a case of "winning  more" which just is not efficient.

Sundering titan: This card only seems practical for disruption. It DOES NOT TRAMPLE, if you plan on activating oath again your going to give the opponent a chump blocker to deal with titan. It seems a waste of an oath. Even as a disruptive card, you need your win condition on line to use it. why not run strips which require no previous set up, and turn 1 use.

defending Leylines: it uncounterable and immediate, in your flash match ups you not going to use titan anyways. True they can bounce it, but it buys you time you and they need to fish out a bounce control and flash. thats three things. your both running control, and you've got time to resolve/activate oath, or lay down so factories (which are now replacing wastes, flash plays a lot of basics). Its going to be difficult to bounce 1 LL and 2 plats. Especially when you chalicing out there mana sources+control spells, or their chain of vapor. When they have a problem like leyline to deal with, your disruptive cards and control are much better due to the amount of things they now have to do. Honestly I wouldn't bother with it against GAT, which runs mostly dryads anyways.


thanks for looking at the deck list and i appreciate your comments greatly. Its always great to see what other players are doing with lists.

@Commandant

Life from the loam: Primarily its a spacial issue. Additionally in testing, I have won  a grand total of 1 game due to life from the loam, and I've played a lot of games. With GAT on the map, your not out aggroing dryads, nor are you going to win continually sacrificing your draw for the dredge and chump block.The games you win with shop are going to be from just having the beater on the board or the 3/3 that sticks around through the sea of 2/2's. The chump block is really good for surviving a SINGLE turn till the oath activation. As far as the wastes, your only running three so the odds on the strip lock aren't amazing. Granted usually the loam lock with chalices and more recently the trinisphere are incredibly effective. However, I cut sphere due to tyrant synergy and the wastes do very little good if they play get 2 islands in play, which is incredibly easy to archive with a fetch land. You bring up a very good point about the digging for orchard, but like I have previously mentioned, this is a very creature heavy meta.

[Harlequin]

I would mostly Agree with what you've said, esp if you take away Tyrant.  Once the Tyrant is out of the deck, Gush is bad, which makes all those islands bad, and that makes KoRec bad, it also makes titan much worse.  So If you forced me to design an oath deck around Plats x2 It would be similar to yours ... but problably run Duress and Extirpate maindeck over Chalice and Drain.

So we really are talking about 2 differant decks.  All that being said ...
A few points of contention:

@ Chalice.  Half the time, Chalice for 1 will hurt you more than it does for your opponent.  Consider the example where you're on the play and you have land, land, mox, brainstorm, chalice, X, Y.  Your opponent plays first, and they are playing a deck with Brainstorm and Duress.  There is almost no way to make that work out to where you make good on your brainstorm w/o your opponent making good on at least 1 spell.  The best you can hope for is that they go land go, you cast chalice @1 and they brainstorm in response.  At this point they are up on vertual card advantage.  If you opt not to cast the chalice at 1, then they could easily brainstorm EOT and pick up a duress or fetch/brainstorm#2. 

My final point about Chalice is that it doesn't accomplish enough against good players with well proportioned decks - to warrent FOUR slots.  The cost of those 4 slots is greater than what you gain.  I would much rather have a hand of mana and say: Mystical, Regrowth, Fastbond, Gush ... than Chalice x3, Thist.

In defense of Gush, Tyrant, Titan, and FB:
In your post you suggest that when you have Double Tyrant on the board - gush combo is "win more."  And I would 100% agree.  But so is, Thrist, and practically anything else under the sun ... Gush is not run because Its good when I have double Tyrant -- I run 2 tyrants because Its practically impossible to loose when I have double tyrant out to anything outside of Rit/Storm combo.  But keep in mind, when running 3 creatures I need to oath 2 and half times to find Doulbe Tyrant.  And that assumes nothing goes wrong with the first Tyrant.

Gush and Fastbond are in the deck to add a level of 'raw bustedness' before I oath and after I have oath once.  That first oath is much safer If I have a Gush in hand than if I don't (Tyrant gives me a playable spell, and Titan it protects lands that I may be forced to Sunder).  Nether thirst, nor impuse can accomplish this as consistantly as Gush can. 
Another point to the credit of Gush, Trops, and fastbond give the illusion of GAT in the early turns.  This is good because a deck will do everything in its power to stop and/or destroy the fastbond.  Where Fastbond is not critical to exicuting my win.  This makes baiting a turn 1 or 2 fastbond very useful.  If my opponent can counter it - they will.

Don't get me wrong though, Fastbond is a great card if it resolves.  In a tournement game I had a turn 1 where that had Fastbond, Gush, Ancestral, Regrowth, Oath, Orchard, and ended the turn with 3 untapped lands and Force/blue, drain, nix in hand.  Without the Fastbond, it would not have been nearly as "busted."  Its obviously rare, but in the deck you propose the ceiling on how nutz your openening hand can be has a more finite limit... I have a small chance of getting a crazy near-unbeatable opener, where you have a 'zero' chance.

@ Titan and Trample.  This is also more or less irrelevant when coupled with Tyrant.  By oath #2, I have a 50% chance of having Titan-Tyrant in play.  Suppose I have played a mox periviously.  My opponent has 2 tokens in play.  Lets say I play Gush bouncing the Mox, into a brainstorm, cast (bounce a token) that find a 2nd mox Now I play the first mox(bounce other token) play mox-to-mox floating 8 mana, then play down the mox boucing titan (sunder) play titan (sunder again bouncing mox), run the mox-mox-titan loop as much as I need to sunder thier board, keeping in mind that I have 2 lands in hand from the earlier gush.  Lastly, assuming I have no playable spells I drop the mox bouncing Oath of druids, drop a land, swing for 5 off Tyrant, and pass.  Now next turn lets say they play a land and a blocker.  Now on my turn I play the oath out of my hand boucning the blocker and swing for 17 totaled.

Starting the example over, where they have more tokens than I have playable spells ... I just pass the turn without playing a thing (running out some instants EOT to perhapse pick up a mox), then oath again and with double tyrant I clear thier board and pick up those oaths, then swing for 13, and with sapphire I can even bounce and replay the Tyrant post combat to get him untapped.  If I suspect they are playing GAT I bounce all my own lands, the oaths, and any non-lands they have in play, then run the mox-mox-titan loop to sunder the board (instead of bouncing them) ... then swing for 5 this turn and 17 next turn.

I think merchant scroll is what breaks down the Plats.  Essentially with x2 Plats you're just giving them 4~ish turns to out Card you, find and resolve merchant scroll/cunning wish, to find Etruth or wish->rebuild.  The Plats have done nothing to increase your board advantage over them.  All it's done is added a small step to winning.  Tyrant and more spesifically Titan attack there Engine and thier board, and also provide a slightly improved clock.  So you giving them less turns with much narrower options with tyrants and titan ... as compared to more turns with no added disruption with Plats.  That is a hard arguement to overcome.

~ disclaimer -> A Flash Meta.  If your Meta Flash heavy then I will 100% admit that GushOath is worse than Plats Oath ...... but Plats Oath is still a poor choice IMO.  If your building oath to beat flash - then I would advise looking else were, because Flash is starting at the advantage.  Tailoring Oath to beat a Flash meta seems like a task better spent on building a Fish deck to beat Flash.

[Engine_number_9]

Why Mana drain and no Duress?

Duress is extremely good against Flash and other Merchant Scroll based decks which happen to be all the place right now.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

   I definitely agree, a lot of my main deck choices the 2x platinum. We are trying to accomplish, to some degree, something different after this. It seems that your trying to deliver a large amount of tyrant related disruption. The amount of disruption Tyrant creates is amazing, obviously why we both decided to run it. My goal, aside form the obvious oath, is to provide the largest amount of well rounded disruption possible. The main plats will definitely stop a GAT win, like the Tyrants will, but has the added benefit of stopping non aggro wins, like storm based combo's you've mentioned. Another growing concern of mine is the amount of red people are beginning to run after  the Gencon results were posted, and the warrens tog lists floating around. There’s a lot of REB's, I am rather pleased they cost one, and even it the unthinkable does happen, I have blessing to fall back on.

   I can definitely see why you'd throw the gush draw engine in, I also considered it, and recently revisited it for this thread, its a good card, and it makes the deck play a lot differently, and it is a lot of fun. I didn't get to test through nearly as many with my current list, but one thing i noticed was the 2 turns it takes to get gush on line after the orchard mox oath play. In order to take full advantage of the tyrant, you need to top deck 2 islands, or island have on in play, or keep a hand with 4 mana sources. These all take 2 extra turns opposed to the 1 mana source of any type for the thirst. It just seems your more likely to keep the momentum up off a broken opener with thirst.
        It also seems like more and more decks are gunning to hate out the gush draw engine and I was wondering if you have any data from things like goblins, with a good pilot running things like zo-zu, and heavy rebs.

   I definitely agree with you about the fast bond if nothing else being a good way to run some one out of counter. I tend to use chalice in the same way.

@titan: why not just Tyrant the mana out of play? Assuming you have oath on line your already in a commanding position, either up on control, or no control on either end. It seems like you could counter the fast bond threat, or bounce fast bond in response to gush. This would save you a slot and not force you to have to do something broken a third of the time off orchad mox go

   Why mana drain and no duress? Simply, chalice. I thought long and hard about the chalice/duress switch, and frankly I still do. My general conclusion is that the deck is currently doing a balancing act between the chalices and thirsts. Pulling chalice makes your thirst not as good, and I really like the synergy with blessing and the angels, as well as the plays chalice provides on its own. It just seems the over all power level of the deck is higher than with the duress, although I could see possibly tweaking the deck to run possibly 1 or 2, but never anymore with chalice.

   I think you are over looking the massive card advantage chalice provides. Chalice @ one only takes 6 cards of the current list off line. It takes 16 cards out of the Menendian list, and 14 out of Shay's. Your Chalicing out over twice as many spells on there end, and the power level of the spells you’re chaliced out or for the most part, much higher than yours.

[Commandant]

The main problem I have with Tyrant builds is that deck builders attempt to base the deck entirely around Tyrant as opposed to focusing on protecting Oath and developing a disruption package. 

Chalice at zero and one is one of the strongest plays you can make in the current Meta; it is absolutely amazing vs. a variety of decks most importantly GAT and FLASH.  That being said chalice shuts down the appeal of Duress as it is a one cc spell and in my opinion Chalice does Duress’s job much better. 

Personally I do not think you should be that worried about FLASH.  Between Leyline of the Void, Chalice at Zero and One, and Mana Drain as a Duress replacement coupled with the rest of the disruption package that Oath runs by the time FLASH is able to find an answer to Leyline you have enough of your own disruption to stop that answer not to mention the fact that you will most likely have a Platz in play. 

As far as the Gush-Fastbond engine I would consider this as an unnecessary compliment added solely for Tyrant, which is a mistake in my opinion.  In the Platz TFK build you run a total of 5 lands that can be killed by Titan, not only that but you also run a full compliment of Moxen, once a Platz is out who cares if your lands are sundered not to mention it is far from crippling.  Is there really even a benefit to running Titan in Oath?  The thing about Tyrant that I have discovered when playing against it and with it is that you do not need a specific draw engine for Tyrant to be effective which explains why Tyrants are an excellent sideboard choice for this build of Oath as well as ICBM’s (the two are very similar with minor changes).  That being said substituting one of the best disruption packages in the current Meta for an unnecessary more win draw engine just seems silly.

I do not mean for this post to be condescending towards any specific person.  I am just voicing my opinion about Tyrant Oath builds as it boggles my mind as to the benefits of trading disruption for cheap cantrips.  If I am missing something please feel free to explain.

[Harlequin]

Chalice at zero and one is one of the strongest plays you can make in the current Meta; it is absolutely amazing vs. a variety of decks most importantly GAT and FLASH.  That being said chalice shuts down the appeal of Duress as it is a one cc spell and in my opinion Chalice does Duress’s job much better. 

If you look at then ending posts on the in The TMWA thread Dan and other are concuring that Chalice is actually not very good against either flash or Gat.  Gat doesn't even run full mox, and Flash only needs 2 mana to win, and can easily find 2nd land drops.  It stops some of there tutors and some of thier disruption but they still have plenty enough disruption and tutor power without the pacts.  That' like saying chalice at zero stops an oath deck because oath decks want to go: orchard -mox- oath every game.

@ Plats.   The big problem with Plats is it doesn't actually do anything.  It has zero distruptive elements.  All it does is clock your opponent with 5 turns.  Further more, two Plats in play doesn't do anything that the first one isn't already doing.   Given a few undisrupted turns, that GAT player will find Yawg, which will inturn find Fastbond, and which will in turn find Cunning Wish for Rebuild meanwhile you have done nothing to keep them in check.  Lastly, lets look at some matches outside of Flash and Gat.   Shop has welder, Bomberman has AEther spellbomb, Even Goblins has uncounterable Gempalm.... I just don't see how leaving any of these decks unchecked will have any problems answering the Plats.
Titan, on the other hand, disrupts the board which narrows your opponent's possible options.  Not only that, but all the removal I listed above makes titan even more dangerous because removal means they get sundered again.  Turn 2 tinker for titan is 4 turn clock.... where your opponent is likely going to be hard pressed to find lands, and if they do find lands and stop the clock they are going be hit again and strain thier mana base even more.  Turn 2 tinker Plats is 5 turn clock where you have done nothing to stop your opponent from goldfishing you. 
Tyrant has a similar effect on the board.  But has an even more omnious presence.  It easily handles any form of -recurable- disruption: Maze of Ith, Waterfront bouncer,  Welder+Trike/Dupe, Ghostly Prison, an opponent's Plats.  As well as makeing it near impossible for GAT to win because you don't even need to resolve anything to reset thier dryad or tog... just have something to cast.   Lastly, if they don't have any immediate threats, you can fire away at their lands - setting them back in tempo.  On top of all that its a faster clock to boot (and pitches to force of will).

To acknowledge your comment about the SB, I agree that Plats and Blazing Archon both have rolls in a well planed Sideboard.  But when choosing cards for a main deck - Tyrant has more utillity and board presents than Plats does in a broader range of matches.  Archon and Plats are good against Flash and Ichorid, where Plats alone is good against pure-combo.  Tyrant is stronger against GAT, Bomberman, Goblins, Stax, Fish, and Fish/stax veriants like TMWA... while retaining some degree of usefullness against the Ichoird and slim utility in the Flash match (a match that I have consistantly admited this deck is weak).

it boggles my mind as to the benefits of trading disruption for cheap cantrips.  If I am missing something please feel free to explain.

Gladly.  Firsly, I'm not even sure what cantrips you're refering to.  If you're talking about Gush, then I'm not even sure where to start.... Gush was restricted because it was too good, suggesting that it has the same power level as Peak and Opt is just irresponsible.  Not only that, but if you look card for card at the lists, really Gush <--> Thirst is the more dirrect switch.  So really, I'm trading a draw engin that costs 3 mana for one that costs 2 land drops and basically costs {-1} mana.  More correctly, I'm trading Chalice and MisD (disruption) for Nix (disruption), Fastbond, and R/D.    When we break it down to brass tacks, were talking about stoping Duress verses stoping Force of Will.  Anything else can be argued until the cows come home, and both cards (chalice vrs nix) shine in some places and are poor for others all of which is basically a wash.  But in the vast majority of cases were really discussing that: Chalice doesn't protect against Force of Will, and Nix doesn't protect against Duress.  Now to beat this dead horse one more time ... Chalice loose MUCH of its effectiveness if you loose the die roll, where Nix much less.   Consider the cards we are trying to stop, rarely will an opponent opt to NOT play duress on turn 1 on the play - but how often does your opponent play FOW on the play?  This is probably the simplest way I can express the differance in the two routes.

[Dante]

Don't forget that in addition to stopping Moxes, Chalice =0 also shuts off Pact of Negation and Summoner's Pact in Flash, which is generally 6-8 cards in the deck.

EDIT - and unlike Moxes, unless they have a turn 1 kill, Chalice for 0 on the draw still shuts off those spells.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Where to begin?! Despite what other threads say about chalice at @ 1, the data provided by my testing says otherwise. Saying that platinum does nothing is simply incorrect, Platinum stops every win condition imaginable, its basically written on the card. Platinum is the main deck way to go. If my results were showing me otherwise, believe me, I'd be playing something else.

@ the flash match up: I don't think your considering the entire disruptive package of LL, Chalice, EE, Platinum. it ends up actually being a lot of wrenches in the flash game plan.

I'm also not sure why you keep stating that the reason you should not play Platz is the tinker play, by that logic tyrant is even worse than platinum. Granted tinker is a good play, but your 4 times more likely to resolve oath, and resolve it a turn earlier, with out the need of artifacts. Not to mention your goal is to play the oath and not the tinker. Tinker is only there to provide you with more lines of play.

1st oath                  2nd oath                         turn 3                           turn 4
Plat hits play, 0.        2nd plat hits play, 4.         no sick platz, 12.             more platz, 20.             Considering you can play oath a turn earlier, it works out about the same

@shops vs platinum: your logic behind this is that shops play welder. 90% of the winning shop decks I've seen in the meta run only 2x welder and 4x leylines. Shop decks have one of the worst draw engines in the format. Things are looking pretty good for keeping that plat is play, wouldn't you say?

@bomber man vs platinum: Chalice @ 1 stops spell bomb. Chalice @ 0 stops reoccurring spell bomb. Honestly, I'd hit zero first in that match up. After the first bounce, your sitting on your second platinum In play (which you have to admit, is doing something considering game state) and have dodged EE. Don't forget that you still have simic in SB for g2.

@goblins vs platinum: the bigger problem is Vial sting scourger honestly, and both scourger and gempalm are hitting whatever you oath out, save Akroma. This is going to hit your tyrant as well. the platinum angel provides you with a needed double removal on their end, because they CAN NOT out clock you. Tyrant just gets hit by the same things plus REB and then zo-zu just destroys you with your own draw engine. Speaking of goblins, I'm still curious on how your data of the match up running the Tyrant ended up?

Granted vs the GAT match up you do board in tyrant because they handle specific GAT issues better, I did bored them for a reason. Keep in mind at a tournament its not going to be you and GAT all day, you have to get into the winning GAT bracket. The platinum main provides well roundedness across the field.



back on this chalice vs Nix thing:
Nix will hit FOW and misdirection, that is true. Chalice does hit duress, this is also true. I think you didn't take a good look at all the other things chalice hits, I took the time to give you exact numbers on the GAT list you will most likely see. Its not purely a control issue, its also a massive card advantage issue. As for the dice roll and loss of effectiveness, it really varies game to game. Just like sometimes some one doesn't drop multi moxen, sometimes people don't go fast bond crazy on turn one either. Even if your chalices misses some of the 14-16 spells it could potentially hit, your nix wasn't going to hit any of those spells on the draw either. Control aside, chalice will still generate card advantage.

Over all, Tyrant/Platinum, duress/Chalice are all good plays, and they're all cards that win games. Both decks are different interpretations on how to navigate the current meta game for those of us who are comfortable with Oath's play style. the question from here is the over all power level of the deck and the numbers it puts up. I believe the list I am currently running is not only a very good reaction to GAT and flash, but also not at risk to all the hate emerging to deal with these decks, especially hate aimed towards GAT.

[Hell of a Hat]

This thread has been quite a read.

I playtest with Commandant, and while he was building and doing quite well with an Angel/IBCM Oath build, I was toying with various Tyrant builds as a sideproject, most of my attempts were trying to add more combo elements to the deck... falling into the category of deckbuilding mistakes labeled "the danger of cool things."  When you have Oathed out a creature you should be well on your way to winning, and I was using valuable card slots on abusing Tyrant instead of focusing on getting to that point.

The current list I'm toying with is fairly similar to h3x's.
-2 Platz
+2 Tyrant
I partially agree with Harlequin on Platz, she doesn't have any positive affect on the gamestate besides being a body.  Having said that her ability becomes very relevant in certain matchups. The Oath target to maindeck is primarily dependant on what you expect to show at a tourney, if you expect lots of Flash, Ichorid and/or Tendrils in your metagame, Platz should be in the main.

-1 Tinker
Goes hand in hand with Platz to the board for...
+1 Recoup
My favorite toy from the Tyrant experiments, for which I'm still holding out a little hope for haven't done enough testing with it & blessing together to see if it can prove it's worth.

-4 Chalice of the Void
As shown by this thread this slot can go either way, and I'm currently on the fence with fitting it in.

+3 Duress
The difference between Chalice / Duress, Chalice has a good chance shutting off several relevant cards, Duress snags a relevant card right now and gives a bonus of showing you the opponents hand. 

I play Stax a decent amount, and love Chalice in there.  The go-to number for Chalice is 2 with Stax, it shuts off all of 2 your own cards and gives a HUGE part of the field problems, and I will happily play multiples on one and zero.  Oath obviously doesn't like Chalices @ 2, my usual go-to number, so I'm going with Duress for now, but I don't think I'm all that far from being brought over to the dark side if shown some good results with it.

-3 Strip effects
+1 Island
+1 Volcanic Island
+1 Mana Crypt
With Recoup in there I need the Volc, the crypt gives me another chance to go infinite with Tyrant, and the basic keeps my manabase a bit safer.  Strip effects were the best point to switch them in.

-1 Wipe Away
Becomes redundant with Tyrant main.
+2 Daze
More Islands in the deck, having them around makes people play around them or pay. Great for those early counter-wars you often see vs. GAT & Flash.

-1 Thirst for Knowlege
+1 Gush
Less Chalice, more Islands, but don't want to have to support full Gush engine (might go to -/+ 2 if I feel it will run well enough off the manabase / mana drains).

EDIT: With the red splash I was really trying to fit in an REB or two... but I couldn't find the slots.

EDIT2: Oh yea, and Sundering Titan is terrible in here, you have a decent chance to hit your own lands, just get a Tyrant and bounce everything you need to.  And Nix? Seriously?  I'm upset I bought a playset when Future Sight came out thinking they would rule in Vintage... and came oh so close to buying a set of 'goyfs... and didn't.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

@hell of a hat.
first off, I must say that is one hell of a hat! I definitely agree with you about the "danger of cool things" category, I believe that is something my list avoids very well. The whole thing ends up being really straight forward. With the tyrants in play after SB i was mindful that your likely to only need to bounce one or two permanents to get out of danger in the current meta.

This is actually a list I can get behind is a lot of cases. I do like duress in the format, nearly as much as chalice. I'm a little off set about the 3x thirsts w/out the artifact support, and the gush. I was wondering if you'd share some data with us? In your testing did thirst become a problem? without chalice, the 4x thirst was occasionally an issue. I'm going to do some testing with compulsive research, and a loam/gush thing. If it's worth while I'll get back to you guys on it.
I was also wondering how often bounce combing out with titan became an issue, how many games you would have otherwise lost had you not had the combo available (like I said, I focused primarily on the 1 or 2 needed permanent hits), and how often the combo became an option? I'd imagine the recoup helped a lot.
also, what match ups did you all test?

thanks for showing an interest in the thread,
h3x

[Hell of a Hat]

Unfortunately I don't have a reliable amount of test information as I have just switched to this build from the "cool things" build, which was swingy, inconsistent and win-more, but fun.

Compulsive Research could prove to be very interesting, though the sorcery speed is pretty lame.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

yeah, I definitely hear you about the sorcery speed. I always hated the chalice @ 2 shutting off my search for an sewers for chalice, and thirst fit well into the current build.  I'm always looking for new draw engine abilities, I believe deck manipulation is the key to winning match ups. The problem is that every other draw spell, besides impulse and tfk, makes the deck fall apart. After a few quick hand generations+ a few turns in msw, I can say you won't be hearing much else about CR. It just makes the deck play like a really terrible stax. Its not going to even get to real life play testing.

If you end up generating more data, please make a post.

[Solomox]

I can understand the use of Platinum Angel against Flash as it just beats it (That is, if you can get one on the board and start playing straight control). However, with the most recent metagame at Indy, and GenCon before that they seem suboptimal.  GAT packs a lot of artifact hate in the board.  I do agree that the Angels are now suboptimal, Dryads will run them over or Berserk over them.  It may seem slower, but I think the best Oath target that exists now is Darksteel Colossus.  It can stand up to artifact hate and he is huge, so dryads and even tog witll have to do some work to get over him.  The only decks that are problematic for this are Fish (Due to plows) and Stax (Due to welders), but those same problems exist with Platinum Angel.  I know that Darksteel Colossus has been in the board, but is it time to move hime over to the Main Deck as the big boss? 

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

   Currently there has been a large decline in the amount of flash being played, and GAT is everywhere. The problem GAT posses is the bounce spells w/ back up. The GAT draw engine is far superior to Oath's, and after a bunch of scroll gushing, they're going to answer your Oath target.
   I’ve switched back to Akroma/Razia with this change in environment, and echoing truth. The haste for 6 is helpful when compounded with the fastbond damage.
   In general, I’m never happy oath out DSC it’s slow, blockable (by dryad and zombie tokens), and just as bounceable as the angels. The only advantage I can see is the tinker play, and I’m not sure just how good that play is. I never even board it because I'm so unhappy Oathing it out.
I’m currently reworking the list, my current advice, run more disruption, EE is still amazing. You’re going to have to be very good to beat a decent GAT player, so I hope you’re playing for fun.

[Solomox]

Yeah, I can see that.  Use the haste to try and knock em down before they can fastbond out.  In the current meta I am playing GAT now.  I got back into vintage when they unrestricted Gush.  I was an avid Oath player for a looong time and it is one of my favorite decks ever.  I just don't think it can overtake the format the way it is now.  If Oath came back I would love to play it, but for now I must have fun with Gush before they take it away again.  I saw the decklist with sundering titan.  Any thoughts on that?  It just seems silly enough to do and hope your opponent doesn't gush in response to the oath activation.

I know who can be oathed up to combat GAT......  UNCLE ISTAVAN!!!! 

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

If I ever saw some one oath out uncle Istavan I would give him a big high five. As for sundering titan, that’s been covered in this thread already. Aside from them gushing the lands you target, it doesn’t have trample, and your giving them a 1/1 creature to block it if you plan on activating oath again. Disruption that requires your win condition to be on line seems a little pointless. If you’re looking for an oath target to mess up GAT, I board tyrant, every spell rests dryad.

[Jacob Orlove]

This is getting dangerously spammy. Please stay on topic, people, and cut the bad jokes.

Also, Sundering Titan does not target.

[Solomox]

We know now the dangers of certain Oath targets:  Platinum Angel is in danger due to Goblin Welder and all of the artifact hate, Razia/Akroma is fast and powerful, but sometimes just can't handle Dryads, but what about maindecking the Tyrants?  Is straight Tyrant Oath where it is at now?  He is extremely useful in GAT, which is the deck to beat.  Is he powerful enough to keep dryads off the board and keep GAT off their game?  Not to mention Stax's pesky artifacts and Ichorid's early game? 

[meadbert]

Due to GAT there are a lot of REBs/Pyroblast floating around and that makes Tyrant much worse.

[Harlequin]

We know now the dangers of certain Oath targets:  Platinum Angel is in danger due to Goblin Welder and all of the artifact hate, Razia/Akroma is fast and powerful, but sometimes just can't handle Dryads, but what about maindecking the Tyrants?  Is straight Tyrant Oath where it is at now?  He is extremely useful in GAT, which is the deck to beat.  Is he powerful enough to keep dryads off the board and keep GAT off their game?  Not to mention Stax's pesky artifacts and Ichorid's early game? 

In reply #3 I outline my "Gush-Oath" deck that is pretty much exactly what you describe.  If you have some time following the early posts in this thread it has some healthy debate over the pros and cons of cards like Tyrant/Angels/Tinker-Titan, Gush/Thirst, Nix/Chalice, KrosianRec/Blessing as well as when and why to maindeck one over another.

To answer the majority of your questions, I think 'yes' is fairly appropriate.  I am a huge fan of Gush-Tyrant Oath.  I think it makes alot of sense in the current meta.  Even if my opponent has a grip full of REBs, I have 2 Tyrants, Titan, and if all that fails... krosian Rec on yawg to reset the whole game (as outlined above).  If that final plan falls through - then you were simply outplayed and outspelled, which can happen.  But I assure that no combination of Hasty or Platinum Angels would have changed that.  The Tyrant oath that I propose is control, not combo.  So they will be using thier Reb's earlier rather than later, and in testing I haven't found them to be anything more than a speed-bump on the road to winning. 

[Solomox]

You know, I never fully read your post on the Gush Oath deck.  It seems just crazy enough to work.  I really like it.  It's control, but a killer combo against any deck.  Bouncing every permanent on your opponents side of the board (Except agains Tendrils) is pretty good I hear.  The only things I would debate, or change if I build it (which may just be personal preference) is I would change Nix to Misdirection.  That one I think is personal preference.  No real debate.

Sundering Titan can be a moster agains some decks, but I do not feel he is powerful agains GAT.  Most experienced GAT players can play around him to the point where he will end up destroying your own lands.  Even if you are able to play around it, that seems like too much trouble to get the effect.  Also, I really wouldn't like hitting him off an Oath activation.  I would rather move the Tinker to the board with a Colossus. (May be outdated, but I still believe in it).  What about finding room for Duress?  I still believe it is necessary. 

What I would change is:

-2 Island
-1 Tinker
-1 Sundering Titan
-1 Research/Development
-3 Nix
-1 Wipe Away

+4 Duress
+3 Merchant Scroll
+2 Misdirection

My changes are due to the fact that I really want duress, so the lands need to be altered.  I just prefer Misdirection over Nix and Merchant Scroll is very important for the Control Aspect as well as the combo.  Realistically its a lot like GAT.  The difference is instead of Dryads, you have Oath. 

Do you have any match analysis for your version?
 

[Harlequin]

I'm glad to hear you like the deck.

As I indicated in that post, Nix and Misdirrection really server the same slot in the deck.  I would aslo argue that Duress is in that boat as well.  And you may be overloadding in that curve by running 4 duress and 2 MDs.  Also Cutting lands for non-lands is a huge mistake.  Infact currently I am running 0 Mystical tutor with +1 undergrounds in my build. 

The mana base seems good to me, and I would caution against trying to be too GATLike.  Remember that you have those Orchard's in there - so your going to be in danger of being caught without 2 lands.   

Lastly, I like having many options, and may paths to victory.  So removing Tinker does nothing more than make your deck less broken (and force you to run it in the board).  Many times Tinker is my out - because I need a creature now!  I will admit that sometimes rolling in a titan off oath does more harm than good... but other times my only hope is to crush thier mana.  The nice thing about Titan is that he gets to sunder again when he is 'answered.' 

[MIZEnhauer]

With the abundance of bounce effects in the format currently maybe it would be a good idea to run Akroma, Angel of Fury.  She has protection from Blue and White, so bounce effects and things like swords to Plowshares are useless against her.

[Jo84]

Simic Skyswallower is not targetable by any color and non-legendary, so you can side in two Sky Swallowers.

But 1 Skyswallower + 1 Angel of Fury could be nice, as Orchard gives you red mana, so there is a slight chance to kill within 3 turns after your first oath activation.

[Solomox]

Akroma, AoF is interesting.  Simic Sky Sallower is good.  It seems like the safe creature to play now.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love Simic Sky Swallower, but I think it may be too slow now.  Maybe it's just me, but Tyrant still seems like the money play.  I know REB and Pyroblast are everywhere, but if Tyrant can survive just long enough to bounce a Dryad, you bought enough time to survive. 

Also, what if we brought back Tyrant Oath with Tendrils of Agony?  I mean a Tyrant can create infinite spells with Mox's, what about a couple Tendrils for a really interesting kill?  If you cut the Gush engine, you can play enough control to protect the Tyrant.  My idea isn't a "Solution", just a random thought to keep the discussion going.  Here is its:

Artifacts: 7
1 x Black Lotus
1 x Mox Emerald
1 x Mox Jet
1 x Mox Ruby
1 x Mox Pearl
1 x Mox Sapphire
1 x Lotus Petal

Creatures: 2
2 x Tidespout Tyrant

Enchantments: 4
4 x Oath of Druids

Instants: 19
1 x Ancestral Recall
4 x Force of Will
2 x Misdirection
4 x Brainstorm
4 x Mana Drain
1 x Vampiric Tutor
1 x Rushing River
1 x Mystical Tutor
1 x Krosan Reclamation

Sorceries: 11
4 x Duress (or) 4 x Thoughtseize
1 x Demonic Tutor
2 x Tendrils of Agony
1 x Time Walk
1 x Life From The Loam
1 x Yawgmoth's Will
1 x Recoup

Lands: 17
4 x Forbidden Orchard
2 x Tropical Island
2 x Underground Sea
1 x Island
3 x Polluted Delta
2 x Flooded Strand
2 x Wasteland
1 x Strip Mine

SB:
4 x Oxidize
1 x Tinker
1 x Darksteel Colossus
4 x Leyline of the Void
2 x Pithing Needle
2 x Simic Sky Swallower
1 x Platinum Angel