Hey there,
Some time ago I started a topic about Oath (as in late 2007), so some "might" remember the name.
Anyways, years ago I made a nice T1 list which was mostly based on what the restricted list had to offer.
The deck was able to go infinite mana/draw search etc etc. With the "recent" implementation of Mind's Desire and Tendrils of Agony you are also able to go infinite storm.
My list already implements the new restricted list.
Non land mana (11)Mox Pearl
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Emerald
Mox jet
Black Lotus
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Grim Monolith
Sol Ring
Tools (7)2 Candelabra of Tawnos (hate this card name, too hard to write!)
1 Voltaic Key
1 Memory Jar
1 Time Walk
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Tutors (6)1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
Draw (7)1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Windfall
1 Frantic Search
Reset button (3)1 Time Spiral
1 Regrowth
1 Timetwister
Kill (1)1 Tendrils of Agony
Alternative Kill/draw (2)1 Stroke of Genius
1 Braingeyser
Counter (8)4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
Land (15)
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
The deck works like any other TES deck, build up storm and kill. The difference is that the deck skips out on dark rituals and the like, and instead runs a lot more old school cards.
The main goal is to get your academy out asap + your artifacts, then start drawing stuff, find a frantic search, untap your academy and start to do nasty stuff.
Card choice:
Non land manaDoesnt need much explanation, just the best mana artifacts out there.
ToolsTime Walk doesn't need any explanation, the card is just amazing. I mainly run it for turn 1/2, since the deck needs some "time" to setup, the extra turn is godly, if you get it of course.
And, if for some reason you find yourself stuck in the midst of your infinity (which means you made a mistake somewhere) just cast a stroke/geyser on your opponent and start all over again.
Yawgmoth's Will is a card that I might replace for
Fastbond, I mainly run the card because it has done a lot of good stuff for me in the past. But I've casted the card once/maybe twice in total. I mainly use it as a discard target for my Frantic Search, not a good thing.
Fastbond on the other hand is rather useful if your hand fills up with lands. Even if you run only 15 lands, you dont want to get stuck with them.
Mind's Desire is a lovely card, it has saved quite a few of my games because I made a mistake somewhere. Down side is that if I want to go infinite I have to stop using it sooner or later, since a deck with 25ish cards left in it, shouldnt be targeted by storm 28ish.
Memory Jar has two roles, the first one is to refill your hand early in the game. The second one is to filter out all the stuff you dont need, by just removing it from the game. Maybe with Fastbond the latter isn't needed anymore.
Candelabra of Tawnos great fun with Tolarian Academy, also, when you go infinite you can tinker one for the other one, shuffle redo etc. But more on that later.
The lone
Voltaic Key is to act as an "expensive" Candelabra of Tawnos or to go crazy with Grim/Vault.
TutorsAll tutors are quite obvious,
Crop Rotation is an extra Academy. As stated earlier
Tinker is good fun with Candelabra of Tawnos, other then that, it can act as an extra memory jar if needed.
DrawYawgmoth's Bargain works really well with some of the tutors, also, if you draw "dead" cards you are able to refill your hand with better cards. I dont know how this one will work with
Fastbond though.
Wheel of Fortune is the only reason why dis deck runs red mana, great card, especially if you're stuck with dead cards(like lands) in your hand.
Windfall just like Wheel of Fortune, a great card, the plays huge amounts of spells all the time, and with some luck, your opponent has 5-6~ cards in his hand. More cards for me!
Ponder is a nice card, a mini brainstorm if you like(as in mini mini).
Brainstorm/Ancestral Recall are both pretty obv. right? Two of the best card drawers ever printed.
Frantic Search is part of the infinite "engine", untaps your academy+other lands = more free mana in the process.
Reset buttonsTime Spiral, just like Frantic Search, untaps your academy + any other lands. Downside of this card is that you can only use it once, but that's usually more then enough.
Timetwister/Regrowth, both are seen in many different decks, Regrowth always targets your Timetwister.
Kill & alternative killFinally we will look at the lone kill card and the two alternatives.
Tendrils of Agony is a straightforward kill, just cast it as soon as you hit 9-10 storm.
Braingeyser/Stroke of Genius are both to fill my hand if needed, but also if storm fails for some reason, to go "infinite" and just deck your opponent.
I might decide cut one of the two, but I dont know for what to replace it with, Hurk Recall maybe?
How the deck worksThe main goal for the deck is to create a storm with a count of 10 to kill your opponent.
Where most TES decks are able to go off in turn one/two, this deck focuses on turn three. This might be "bad", but the deck feels a lot more consistent this way.
Also, this deck is also able to get an infinite amount of mana, if you are able to cope with your opponent's counters of course. But this shouldnt be too much of a problem, if your opponent cant stop your early on, you will have more then enough mana to counter with your mana drain & force of will.
This is how it works:
Put Academy in play + 4artifacts + 1 land.
Tap all for mana, 6mana in your pool, play frantic search all lands untapped, 3 mana left.
Play timetwister, shuffle frantic back in your deck, draw 7 cards, get more artifacts + tutors + drawers.
Play Frantic Search again, this time for more mana left.
Rinse and repeat. Basically any deck can do it, true, but this deck runs more then enough artifacts to fuel the combination.
Well that was a long story, hope you liked it
. So I got a few things to think about, and I'd like your imput on this as well (or anything else ofc.):
Yawgmoth's Will or Fastbond
Geyser/Stroke or another kill?
Will it matter that the deck goes off in turn 3/4? Especially with the new restrictions, I think a lot of combo decks will be slower anyways.
Laters!
rBt
