Iona Oath

[Schonkreuz]

In a quest to find a deck that doesn't make me hate magic I came across the idea of Iona Oath. Since the idea of it is still kind of new and there are still many ways you can take the deck I wanted to write out my own list and see how I like it. I am by no means an Oath expert and thus I post this in the improvement section in hopes of getting helpful comments.

the deck

1 Iona

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
1 Lat-Nam's Legacy
3 Spell Peirce
1 Regrowth
4 Oath of Druids
1 A. Call
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 TFK
1 Demonic
1 Vampric
1 Mystical
1 Time Walk
1 Time Twister
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Top
1 Hurky's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Yawg Will
1 Gaea's Blessing

4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
5 Moxxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta


I added the grindstone in because I had a slot open and the painter servant is in there anyways, I don't think it could hurt much, the only problem I'm seeing right now is that it appears to depend on a lot of artifact cards, perhaps I should cut a few things for maybe 2 repeals in case of a nasty early null rod? Thought Comments?

EDIT: was a card short and forgot to add gaea's blessing, fixed
EDIT 2: Changed around mana base and added one more land, also took our painter serveant/grindstone for mana drains and thgouhtseizes

[Killane]

painter's servant sucks in Oath. The hard lock isn't worth it. Iona plus a dragon is the bee's knee's. I'll post a more detailed commentary tomorrow, when i'm not posting from my cellphone.

[conboy31]

Not to piss on the deck and offer nothing constructive, but Painter + grindstone in oath seems virtually strictly worse than vault + key oath.  Is budget a concern for going that route (probably not as the deck has full p9)?

The vault + key is cheaper for total mana and guarantees Iona is the first creature down each time. 

[honestabe]

In a quest to find a deck that doesn't make me hate magic I came across the idea of Iona Oath. Since the idea of it is still kind of new and there are still many ways you can take the deck I wanted to write out my own list and see how I like it. I am by no means an Oath expert and thus I post this in the improvement section in hopes of getting helpful comments.

the deck

1 Iona
1 Painter Servant

4 Force of Will
3 REB
1 Lat-Nam's Legacy
3 Spell Peirce
1 Regrowth
4 Oath of Druids
1 A. Call
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 TFK
1 Demonic
1 Vampric
1 Mystical
1 Time Walk
1 Time Twister
4 Duress
1 Scroll Rack
1 Top
1 Hurky's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Yawg Will
1 Grindstone
1 Gaea's Blessing

4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
5 Moxxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta


I added the grindstone in because I had a slot open and the painter servant is in there anyways, I don't think it could hurt much, the only problem I'm seeing right now is that it appears to depend on a lot of artifact cards, perhaps I should cut a few things for maybe 2 repeals in case of a nasty early null rod? Thought Comments?

EDIT: was a card short and forgot to add gaea's blessing, fixed

Demonic Attourney payed an almost identicle list in hadley.  Perhaps you'd like to consult him for some ideas...

[Schonkreuz]

I've already decided after proxying the deck up and playtesting last night that the painter servant grindstone part was something I just wished that worked well with the deck but didn't, instead of adding something else that polluted the deck I think I'm going to make Iona the only creature and add more control based elements in an attempt to be able to hold out to the last game if necessary or make sure that my oath resolves and stays that way when I do play it. Oath up the servant was just bad, real real bad...and drawing the grindestone instead of X other card sucked a lot too. I don't really like the spell peirces, then again I mostly prefer hard counters over ones that wont work all the time. I will write up an updated list and post it later.

[Troy_Costisick]

If you still wanted to include the Painter-Iona lock in your deck, you could add in Living Wishes to your maindeck and pull the Servant from your sideboard.

Peace,

-Troy

[Schonkreuz]

That is true but I feel like it would have to be something I tested before actually including it on this list, thanks for the idea.

Also is there a possible alternative for the spell pierces? I'm not really coming up with any ideas but maybe you guys can.

[AmbivalentDuck]

At this point, it seems like Vroman's build is the standard by which to evaluate Iona Oath.  He wins consistently on the second Oath while guaranteeing Iona on the first.

Not liking his build is fine, but it terms of efficacy, the only arguments easily entertained are changes to his disruption package:
-Pernicious Deed
-Fire/Ice
-Thoughtseize
-Spell Pierce

Ie. He *could* be running Drains, Duress, Oxidize, etc instead.

painter's servant sucks in Oath. The hard lock isn't worth it. Iona plus a dragon is the bee's knee's. I'll post a more detailed commentary tomorrow, when i'm not posting from my cellphone.

I'll be interested to hear this.  Mostly, the dragon plan probably helps against Stax and costs you games against Tez, Combo, and Ichorid (which can't flashback to feed Bridge, produce relevant permanent threats with Iona on black).  The "mixed" plan means slower kills when you get Dragon first, AND less disruption.  The double (or triple) dragon plan kills on the second Oath (but doesn't disrupt), and the single Iona plan guarantees disruption against non-brown decks followed by a second-Oath vault-key kill.  I personally prefer to board into triple dragon vs stax and Sadistic Sacrement.dec while keeping Iona for the decks she hoses.

[Killane]

painter's servant sucks in Oath. The hard lock isn't worth it. Iona plus a dragon is the bee's knee's. I'll post a more detailed commentary tomorrow, when i'm not posting from my cellphone.

I'll be interested to hear this.  Mostly, the dragon plan probably helps against Stax and costs you games against Tez, Combo, and Ichorid (which can't flashback to feed Bridge, produce relevant permanent threats with Iona on black).  The "mixed" plan means slower kills when you get Dragon first, AND less disruption.  The double (or triple) dragon plan kills on the second Oath (but doesn't disrupt), and the single Iona plan guarantees disruption against non-brown decks followed by a second-Oath vault-key kill.  I personally prefer to board into triple dragon vs stax and Sadistic Sacrement.dec while keeping Iona for the decks she hoses.

You know, you've sort of hit the nail; on the head, but we need to go one step further.

My comment was with regards to Painter's Servant being Jank in Oath. It is. The servant literally dies to every playable removal spell in Vintage (even darkblast if you cast it and then manage to dredge twice) and does nothing on its own, whereas the Dragon at least wins in two - three turns by itself if left unchecked. Servant coming up 50% of the time before Iona is TERRIBLE and steers you towards playing mroe cards (Grindstone) that are simply Bad on thier own.

Not to mention the fact that while Iona + Servant is a hard lock, it is not an auto-win. What is they already have hexmage + depths on the table? Or a Hellkite? Or an Inkwell and you're at lower life? Or  A Goyf that's 8/9 thanks to everythign you just dropped into the yard? You give them turns to swing, which you can't block or you loose the lock, while you try to find boucne spells.

Iona followed by vault wins. Period- if it resolves and Null Rod is not on the table, there is no possible game state which could cause you to loose, as you have infinite turns in which to fin your answers, bounce all their crap, and kill them, unimpeeded by countermagic. Hex-Mage depths still wins vs iona + servant unless you have a bounce spell within two turns, as poor Iona will have to block the giant token of doom and die.

At the end of the day Servant is an inferior creature supporting an inferior combo.

Iona by herself is awesome vs some decks (Tezz, TPS). the reason she's awesome is she comes up first. If you add one Dragon, you still have the net effect of only having to Oath twice to win, and have a 50% chance to hit Iona on the first activation, plus having Vampiric Tutor, Lim-Dul's Vault, etc... to manipulate the library and get Iona the second time.

My current build, which I cannot post ATM, has Iona + I Hellkite Overlord maindeck, and also has K-Rec and Twister. You can board into 3 dragons or into Vroman Oath, which I think is the best way to go. It makes it hard for your opponents to guess at your board plan, and if they bring in a metric ton of GY hate game 3 to deal with Vroman Oath and then find themselves beign beaten with Dragons, they will have some issues.

Iona + 1 Dragon main offers the best chance vs the whole field. You have a great shot at hitting Iona first in the match-ups that you want her, and you don't have as many issues with decks like Stax as Vroman Oath can have.

[AmbivalentDuck]

At the end of the day Servant is an inferior creature supporting an inferior combo.

Debating the relative efficacies of game 1 fatties is probably a meta issue and best left aside.  That said, Living Wish isn't impossible to conceive of including.  I'm not advocating for it, but you get to snag a few relevant cards:
-Strip Mine
-Tabernacle
-Gilded Drake
-Faerie Macabre (who got *way* better when Vroman's build gained in popularity...*uncounterable* kill even with Iona in play)
-Painter's Servant
-Kataki

Stretch:
-Aphetto Alchemist
-Bone Shredder
-Karrthus
-Bob
-Trygon Predator
-Qasali Pridemage

It's almost certain to me that if you're going to run servant, it's a 1-of sideboard card fetched with Wish.  Whether Wish is playable...I think it is IF Oath becomes such a meta contender that Faerie Macabre becomes relevant.

[voltron00x]

I'm not sure how much need there is for secrecy... just take my list and:

TFK -> Timetwister
2nd Hellkite -> Krosan Reclamation

Switch up SB to have another Hellkite (if desired)... there you go, the ability to shift back and forth between Vroman's combo build and my  build.

[Scyther]

hm, thtas what i still dont like.. 2 dragon and 1 iona is fine. 3 creatures and no blessing in general is also totally fine.
what i dont like is that one often cant manipulate the deck so that u get what u really want. first activation dragon, second iona is really not nice, since it gives your opp one more turn to do >something<. insetad of just race the game in your favor. or if u really need the first activation iona, its only 33%..

on the other hand playing only 1 dragon + iona feels really odd.

thtas really hard times for me.. ^^

[Killane]

I'm not sure how much need there is for secrecy... just take my list and:

TFK -> Timetwister
2nd Hellkite -> Krosan Reclamation

Switch up SB to have another Hellkite (if desired)... there you go, the ability to shift back and forth between Vroman's combo build and my  build.

This is what I was doing and it was GREAT- the ability to run the list both ways offers tons of flexibility and makes sideboardign much more difficult for your opponent.

[Savo]

Hi everyone
I'm an Italian player
in the last month I've been playing a quite strange list of Iona Oath, which give me very good results in two of the three tournaments in which I  played it. It's much less aggressive than the normal oath builds, for some aspects more similar to a Tez deck.
Probably this list won't get too much support I guess, however it worked... 

4 oath of druids
4 force of will
4 negate
2 impulse
1 fact or fiction
1 red elemental blast
1 gifts ungiven
1 lat nam’s legacy
1 krosan reclamation
1 balance
1 misdirection
1 thirst for knowledge 
1 brainstorm
1 ancient grudge
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 merchant scroll
1 tinker
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 regrowth
1 rebuild
1 yawgmoth’s will
1 Iona, shield of Emeria
1 darksteel colossus

4 forbidden orchard
1 mox emerald                                                                 SIDE
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire                                                                  4 ravenous trap
1 mox pearl                                                                        1 island
1 mox ruby                                                                         1 hurkyl’s recall
1 black lotus                                                                       2 pithing needle 
1 tropical island                                                                  2 tormod’s crypt
1 underground sea                                                              2 piroclasm
1 volcanic island                                                                 1 Iona, shield of Emeria
2 polluted delta                                                                   1 progenitus
2 flooded strand                                                                  1 trinisphere
1 library of Alexandria
1 lotus petal
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
1 tolarian academy
2 island

[miguelmatix]

I will try something like this:

1 Iona;
1 Hellkite;
1 Dragon's breath - (haste on iona, since we can activate the enchantment only if Iona's out)

Is this too unreal?

[Scyther]

well, half of the time the breath will not be in the graveyard if u oath for iona... and next turn its useless ansyway. plus it does absolutely nothing for u if it is stuck in your hand, unline blessing, that can cycle or disrupt a little...

[miguelmatix]

Prob. ur right... But i still don't like the one creature style. Specially with Faerie Macabre around to remove business from g. yard. Maybe 1/2 hellkite and iona together is the right call.

If ill ever try just one creature it would be something like 1 cognivore with 2 dragon's breath.  with a solid core of instants - no less 25 - (Fow, Pierce, Misdirection, Intuition, Mana drain..), and something like 4 reclaim for time walk if needed.