FlashOath

[maxfitzer]

This is my first actual try at making a good type one deck. Most of the time I'd just take random extended cards and put in power proxies. Here is a deck I'm going to start taking to tournaments in my area. It's a hybrid of a bunch of decks. It's a lot like the cephalid breakfast deck from extended a while back. Lots of different ways to combo out, with living wishes to answer hate and for redundency. Most of the time you just oath/flash a rector and go from there, but it can also play out like a regular long.dec or after board a weak oath deck. The entirty of the deck is geared towards winning on turn one or two. The reason that someone would play this over any of the other combo decks is that you don't sacrifice consistancy or speed, and you get to play living wish. Living Wish answers a bunch of hate, gets a ton of your combo pieces, and can fix you if you have a bad oath. Here it is with an explanation of some of the cards:

Instants:
1x Chain of Vapor: This card has a bunch of bad side effects, like your opponent being able to bounce rectors, oaths, or maybe even bargain. But it had to be this card because chalice on 2 would be an auto win other wise.
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
4x Flash
1x Ancestral Recall
4x Brainstorm
1x Krosan Reclamation: To shuffle back in tendrils or bargain. Also, it shuffles your library after a brainstorm, or can shuffle back in Ichorid cards. Lots of different uses.
3x Dark Ritual - Dark Ritual could be any number of cards, including more lands. But, this deck is incredibly greedy. Dark Ritual lets it turn into a long.dec with the right draw. Also, when you are going off, it is pretty nescassary.
Sorcery:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Living Wish
4x Duress
Enchantments:
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
4x Oath of Druids
Artifacts:
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Ruby
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Chrome Mox
1x Mox Saphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
Creatures:
3x Academy Rector
Lands:
3x Forbidden Orchard
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine

SB:
1x Wispmare
1x Phyrexian Tower - Best way to sacrifice your academy rector without a cabal therapy.
1x Rebuild - Needed for stax matchups.
1x Akroma, Angel of Fury - Pro white/blue is needed, you don't have counter magic to protect your men. This + Spirit of the Night is still a faster clock than any fish deck can provide.
1x Eternal Witness
1x Ingot Chewer
1x Tendrils of Agony - To protect against extract/hide seek. It also gives you a better chance of actually drawing it to protect against bitter ordeal or jester's cap (i don't know if people actually play those cards).
1x Shriekmaw
1x Yixilid Jailer - I think this card is basically game against ichorid, right?
1x Spirit of the Night - See Akroma.
1x Whirlpool Warrior - Can fix your hand. Twice. Also shuffles back in Bargain.
1x Nantuko Tracer - Samething as K-Rec. This could also be loaming shaman, but times are tight. It's a recession. The lower casting cost is needed.
1x Mesmeric Fiend - The best duress creature.
1x Forbidden Orchard
1x Academy Rector

Cards not included:
Time Walk - This card is kind of overrated. Doesn't really do anything except cantrip. Yeah, you could have the nuts with some moxen and an oath. But I'd rather just play more dark rituals. They kind of do the samething.
Necropotence - This was in here for a while because it can be nuts on its own and if you draw/oath away your bargain it's a backup plan. But it just doesn't win you the game if you get it down. And the cards get RFGed which is a huge problem. Just was not synergistic with the deck.

I've actually tested this deck a bunch against a lot of good players. It's pretty insane, but I suspect no one will play it. It's fun to look at, that's why I posted it. Also, it's extremely difficult to play. Lots of descisions. I would write down the matchup analysis, but it's all the same. They have a card to stop you and your duress/therapy or they don't. Stax can be tricky if they have a good hand, but that's aight. Stax is lame, anyway.
-Max Fitzer

[Demonic Attorney]

Moved from the Vintage Open forum to the Vintage Improvement forum.

[madmanmike25]

I would put Force of Will in here, but that's just me.  There is nothing quite like being able to Flash with FoW protection, or even casting Oath for that matter.

Which win do you prefer Flash->Rector or Oath->Rector?  I'm guessing that Flash is better, meaning you may want the 4th Rector the way most Flash decks want 4 Hulks.

Why only 3 Orchards main?  I kinda view them as all or none.  Seems only natural to have 4 to complement the full Oath count.

The only problem I can see with Oathing is if you see Bargain before Rector and Krosan.  
What is the alternative to this scenario:

1)Cast/Resolve Oath(hope they have critter or token)
2)Oath->Rector *oops Bargain is in the yard
3)Pray for Living Wish/Krosan
4)Cast Living Wish
5)Cast Nantuko Tracer(unless you have 2GG at step 4)
6)Cast Therapy saccing Rector(if Therapy is in yard)
7)Win
 
Am I completely missing something?  Or does that situation simply not occur too often?  Please clarify in case I'm not seeing it.

Would Necropotence work in this deck?  You might have to add a Ritual, but it's another(not as good) enchantment to get with Rector which might help the above situation.  Any other enchantments you considered?

I always thought Living Wish was just a tad slow, but seems like your SB is tailored to make the most out of it.

Having 8 win conditions that cost 2 mana seems pretty sweet though.  Congrats on the innovation, hope it works out.

Mike

[maxfitzer]

That situation really doesn't occur that often. I tried out Necro, it was bad. Forbidden Orchard is another Living Wish target. So you can play 7x of them. Samething with Rector. You can Living Wish for it, and essentially play seven of them. There's just not enough room for Force of Will. And even if there was, there isn't really enough blue cards to make it reliable. I tried it out for a while, it kind of watered the deck down.

[Harlequin]

Rock Lee actually played this deck WAY long ago when flash first got errated.  Before the hulk win really exploded.

I don't have the actual list but I'll tell you what I remember:

You probably want to maindeck Null Profussion and possibly Form of the Dragon.

I would Cut Living Wish and run 4th Rit, Minds Desire, Research and Development and 1-2 Doomsdays.

If you plan to board into a Tyrant Oath deck style win - Doom's day Piles with Tidespout Tyrant from the board (if you run a MD and SB Research) can lead to infinite castability of every card in your deck and sideboard an infinite number of times.... its a bit exsessive but who doesn't want to win by casting Tendrils 100,000 times for Billions of storm?

Stack: Recall, Lotus, Dark Rit, Desire, R/D
Cast Recall, Lotus pop blue and cast dark rit.  UUUBBB for Desire.
Desire copy 1 flips R/D.  Cast it retreaving: Yawg, Sapphire, Tyrant.
2 copys of MD, and the card itself goes to the GY - 0 floating, with free Yawg, Sapphire, Tyrant.
Cast Tyrant, Sapphire (bouncing random), Yawg.
Cast Lotus boucning Sapphire.
Cast Sapphire Bouncing Lotus, loop for infinte blue.
Cast Lotus boucning Sapphire, crack lotus Green.
Cast R/D out of GY: returning R/D#2 from SB and 3 cards.  Let 4 copies resolve and cast R/D#2 getting R/D#1.
At some point you'll have bascially everything removed with Minds Desire.  At this point let Mind's desire resolve completly and it gets RFGed.  Now you can play Sorcery speed stuff.
Cast ten tons of spells... boucning Tyrant when permenants in play get too low.
If you feel the need to continue ... you can R/D for: Mindsdesire, Land, R/D... Then cast Ancestral/Brainstorm.
Now you can recast both MD and R/D to restart the R/D->R/D loop... with a fresh set of Yawg-removed spells.


The deck was probably the most fun combo deck ive ever seen, but sadly more optimal flash decks came about, and we didn't really work on this deck anymore.

[Nehptis]

I realize this is the Improvement Forum.  And perhaps this is just your casual deck.  If not, here's the challenge you will face in tourneys.  Consider some of the top decks and why they are effective:

Oath - It has FOW to protect itself against opponent's first turn power plays.
GAT - Same as Oath
Shop - It is vulnerable to a first turn power play. But, if it survives and gets to play cards then it comes out swinging with Prison pieces.
Ichorid - It basically ignores the opponent and when it is ready to overwhelm then it does.
Flash - It has FOW to protect itself like Oath and GAT while also having the option to ignore the opponent like Ichorid.

So, try and figure out which role your deck wants to play.  Are you fast enough to ignore the opponent like Ich or Flash?  I doubt it because you are playing Oath/Flash which is slower than Flash.  You clearly aren't like Shop.  So what are you?

Now, of course with your build you could draw into a Turn 1 win.  But, most of the time Turn 1 will be a setup step for you.  Then depending on your draws turns 2-4 is where you will win by comboing out, or Oath to Rector or Flash to Rector.  This means your opponent has a Free Turn 1 (since you have no FOW) and worse case for him a semi Free Turn 2, which at worst was disrupted by your Duress or blind Therapy.

If you give most decks 2 almost free turns they will walk all over you.  So, you either need to Speed up the deck (may be possible) or add Prison Pieces (not practical) or find room for FOW (most probable).  BTW, this scenario gets worse when you play 2nd.

Wish is the most obvious replacement target for FOW.  If you choose to keep them though 4 is way too many.  3 at most, 2 was ideal for me.  Any 4 ofs in your deck are going to be in your opening hand most of the time.  I wouldn't want to see a Wish too soon.

[Harlequin]

I think Nehp is right, the deck can be tough without force of will.  And likely a drain/gush tendrils build has more 'game' at the top tables because of it's countermagic.  This deck however is actually blindingly fast and can generally ignore most common forms of concentrated hate.  It doesn't really care about Extirpate, Cabal Therepy, Sphere, even game1 leyline is easily beaten.  Duress can be particularly nasty to this deck.  But for a fullblown turn1-2 combo deck - this deck is a 10 out of 10 on the fun meter... it has the proverbial "so many insane plays"

To the best of my recollection, here is the deck that Jer was running almost a year ago when flash first was errated.  If you look back to the July tournement at myriad games you can see him comming in placed in the mid teens with "Flash Oath" (Note I swapped duress swapped for Thoughseize)
26: Mana
4 Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Acad
5 Mox
2 Lotus, Mana Crypt
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual

9: Combo-starters
4 Flash
3 Oath of Druids
2 Doomsday

10: Combo Enablers
4 Academy Rector
1 Krosan Reclaimation
1 Research//Development

3: 6cc Bombs
1 Yawg's bargin
1 Null Profussion
1 Mind's Desire

7: Disruption
4 Cabal Therepy
3 Thoughtseize/Orim's Chant

9: Brokeness/Win
2 DT, Vamp
1 Regrowth
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawg Will
1 Timewalk
1 Rebuild
1 Ancestral Recall

Key Sideboard ------
3 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Oath of Druids

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

Beating Leyline:
Option 1 - Find R/D and get your 3 Tyrants + 1 oath and win via Oath of Druids.
Option 2 - Doomsday:  You need some mana and if Lotus is RFGed then you may need to get creatative on the mana* in your stack...

Stack Recall, Lotus/Mana*, Mana Crypt, Desire, R/D
Cast Recall, your mana, and Desire (make sure you have enough mana before you start)
Hit R/D and return: Tyrant, Mox, Tendrils, (+Duress if you have the storm to cast first if you think they have creature removal).
Cast Tyrant, Mox + the crypt you already have is infinite storm, Tendrils for the win.

----------------------------------

Bargin vrs Null Profussion

Null Profussion is sometimes BETTER than Bargin.  Spesifically with cards like Yawg Will, Rebuild, Wheel of Fortune, Mind's Desire, and Flashback cards (Therepy or Krosan Rec).  Also if you don't have much life again, Profussion can create some sick combo-chains.  Bargin + Profussion is also insane, and will typically let you basically combo your entire deck for about 8~ish life.

-----------------------------------

Tyrant post board
Boarding into a superheavy combo Tyrant Oath deck is an option aswell.  Espesically if your opponent plans on using Leyline to stop you.  Tyrant couldn't care less about Leyline.  Sometimes boucing the world and winning with a few flying 5/5's is the way to go. 

You can also do silly silly things with Tyrant.  Tyrant + infnite storm + Mindsdesire is a clear win. Null Profussion is essentially draw your whole deck.  And obviously even with a single moxen you can ramp out some serious storm to cast Tendrils.

Lastly, nothin says "So Many insane plays" like flipping Tyrant -with- minds desire.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Extirpate...even game1 leyline is easily beaten

Can you explain this?  Obviously if you go with Tyrants Game 2, you don't care about extirpate, but both of the above cards stop rector cold.

I played a list in the February TMD Open that looked like this:

4x Flash
4x Academy Rector
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Form of the Dragon
1x Tendrils of Agony

4x Merchant Scroll
4x Brainstorm
3x Gush
2x Ponder
1x Scroll Rack

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Fastbond

4x Force of Will
4x Duress
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Chain of Vapor

7x Fetch
1x Island
3x Underground Sea
1x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
4x Mox
1x Black Lotus

SB:
4x Oath
2x Tyrant
1x Orchard
XXX

It had great stuff against the metagame at the time (GAT, Shops, Oath), but I was totally unprepared mentally for the tournament.  I don't think it would fare well against a field full of grave hate, but who knows.  I do agree with some above, though, that you should really focus on either flash or oath MD.

[Harlequin]

Extirpate...even game1 leyline is easily beaten

Ok "Easily" is probably the wrong word.  But with Doomsday and/or research and development you can pull out a win without Rector.  You just need some mana and some tutors and some time/luck.