Ritual Oath

[The Atog Lord]

Dear friends,

As I have expressed in another post here on TMD, I will not be attending Gencon this year. The security issues present last year at the convention are sufficient to scare me off. Therefore, in this thread, I would like to share with everyone the deck that I have been working on recently, and the deck I would have been planning to bring to the Vintage Championships if I were going.

As we all know, a few months ago, an Angel and a Demon escaped the Hellvault. The angel, as far as I can tell, now has a full schedule of being a mediocre Commander and being obviated by Vapor Snags. Griselbrand, however, has larger ambitions. For those of you who haven't been following Legacy recently, no small part of the format has devolved into a race to get Griselbrand into play. And I believe that his application in Vintage can be just as powerful.


Behold Griselbrand

This being Vintage, many of us have had the pleasure of resolving a Yawgmoth's Bargain. The game quite often ends immediately when you agree to trade Yawgmoth life points for cards. And I will argue that Griselbrand has several advantages over that absurd enchantment. Granted, Bargain costs two fewer mana -- colored at that -- and you can pay life in increments of one, rather than seven.

However, unlike Yawgmoth's Bargain, Griselbrand is a win condition by himself. If the Demon arrives, you can certainly use him like a Bargain, drawing into your win and denying the opponent another turn. But you can also use the card draw and lifegain from Griselbrand defensively, preventing yourself from dying by gaining life and drawing counters as the enormous 7/7 Demon beats the opponent to death. Consider further that an especially unlucky string of draws with Bargain can lock you out of the game as you miss your draw step. Whereas, if Griselbrand's first wave of card advantage doesn't end the game, you can still enjoy your draw step next turn, and even gain another seven life to draw more cards in your next attack step. Unlike with Bargain, fizzling with Griselbrand does not necessarily mean that you've lost the game.

Whenever a card can be favorably compared to Yawgmoth's Bargain, it is a serious consideration for Vintage deck construction. But we don't need to take Rector to Therapy to get a free Griselbrand into play. We can simply use that storied enchantment Oath of Druids. And if we want more ways for the Demon to arrive, we can simply Show our opponent and Tell him all about it.

Now, you might be wondering about why I've called this deck Ritual Oath. If I'm going to be building an Oath deck around Griselbrand, shouldn't it be called Grisel Oath? Well, my current hypothesis is that such naming would become redundant. Once folks have Oathed into Griselbrand, they won't be interested in Oathing up anyone else.

So, how do we best take advantage of our newfound two-mana Bargain? My first attempt to construct a Griselbrand-based Oath deck involved Gush. I do love that card, of course. Unfortunately, the deck did not work as smoothly as I would have liked. Back in the good old days, when Vintage decks could have four Brainstorms, Gush and Oath could be friends. Unfortunately, with the restriction of Brainstorm, the two strategies do not have great synergy. Oath of Druids demands that you play four non-Island lands, while Gush becomes unhappy that you've clogged up your deck with spells that don't help you perpetuate your Gush engine. Worse yet, Griselbrand and Fastbond will compete for your attention, and your life total.

After several failed builds of Grisel-Gush-Oath, I realized that my approach was wrong. Instead, I thought about how to maximize my ability to win the game once Griselbrand arrived. And I decided that I wanted to build my deck in such a way that it would throw bombs at my opponent until I won the game. And the more I thought about it, if I were going to be playing at least one copy of Show and Tell, the more Showing my opponent a genuine Yawgmoth's Bargain seemed like a good idea.

Oh, before I move on to a decklist, one more word about how good Griselbrand is. He's the real deal. I'd much rather have him arrive on my side than Emrakaul. I'd much rather have him than Tidespout Tyrant. Rune-Scared Demon is not eve close to his power level. Not even a giant Elephant can compare with him. In testing this deck, he has won me games that no other Oath creature could have won, and I've never wished that I had any other creature in my deck at any point. The majority of the time, you win immediately once he arrives.


The Decklist

// Land
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

// Mana
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

// One-Shot Mana
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal

// Tutoring
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

// Draw Spells
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder

// Control
4 Force of Will
2 Thoughtseize
1 Mental Misstep
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Nature's Claim

// Threats
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Show and Tell
4 Oath of Druids
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind's Desire

// Other
2 Griselbrand
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Memory’s Journey

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Nature's Claim
SB: 1 Dismember
SB: 1 Forest
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Duress


Card Discussion

The first thing that you will notice about this deck is the high threat density. Oath of Druids, Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Jace, Show and Tell, and Yawgmoth's Will's usual synergy with Rituals combine with a Tutor package to enable this deck to start asking the opponent difficult questions quickly, and not fold when the first threat is handled. Having such a powerful threat at two mana enables this approach; and Oath of Druids in this deck is a much larger threat than the same card in most other Oath decks.

Missing from this deck is Preordain. The cantrip package here is much smaller than in many other Oath decks, and less than one tends to find in Gush decks. The deck contains Brainstorm, which is absurd as always; and Ponder, which is a fine card but one that I would not mind seeing cut. Mishra's Workshop being so prominent in the metagame is the worst thing to happen to Cantrips since Mystic Remora. Preordain is a fine card at one mana, but a horrible card at two. The objective here is to cast powerful spells, not spend our turns digging into our threats.

I realize that Dark Ritual has not seen some play in a while. So why is Dark Ritual suddenly viable again? Well, it is related to my above point about cantrips being especially poor in a Workshop-heavy metagame. Remember when Long was a deck, filled with four Burning Wish and four Lion's Eye Diamond? That deck had an extremely high threat density, and it could use that threat density to power through opposing counterwalls and over the top of creature-based decks. Over time, and as components of that Ritual-based Storm deck joined the members of the Restricted List, the focus of many Ritual-based decks has shifted. Rather than being filled to the brim with bombs, many Ritual-based decks were increasingly reliant on efficient cantrips to assemble the right mixture of mana, permission, and threat. It was a natural progression, as bombs were restricted and Preordain was printed. But I think that, in part, explains why we haven't seen as many Rituals. That, and the ability of Gush to function like a Blue Ritual. But I also think that Griselbrand may be powerful enough to change that equation and rekindle Dark Ritual.

Memory's Journey is not an exciting card. I could talk about how it can disrupt an opposing Snapcaster Mage, or even ruin an opposing Yawgmoth's Will. But it's really just there so that Oathing doesn't result in losing the game if all of the good cards hit the graveyard. It's Blue, which is what puts it over Gaea's Blessing in my opinion. It's too easy to run out of Blue cards to pitch to Force in this sort of deck.


Remaining Questions

I don't claim that the decklist above is 100% optimal. There are several ways the deck can be tuned, and I will need to see more results, and have a better picture of the expected metagame, before being entirely confident in a build. The first question is whether one Mental Misstep is sufficient. It's a tremendous card, and the best counter against Dredge. If Dredge is expected to be a large part of the metagame, Mental Misstep becomes much more valuable. Further adjustments to the control package could be reasonable. Is Hurkyl's Recall better than Ancient Grudge? It builds Storm better, but in the right metagame, perhaps not. Is Thoughtseize worth the two life over Duress? It is if creature decks are expected to be especially popular. And, is playing just one Show and Tell too few? I could easily envision a deck in which more Demons and more Shows are run. After all, if all you have to Show is a Bargain, you're probably still winning the game.

Regarding the sideboard, I have Red just for Pyroclasm. There are a lot of decks being played that are filled to the brim with two-toughness creatures, and many of those decks are quite good. While I wish that the BUG colors presented a reasonable solution to those cards, Perish and Virtue's Ruin are too situational, Infest is a joke, and Massacre is uncastable just a little too often for my preference. So, I'm splashing for Pyroclasm. Other sideboard options include Ancient Grudge, another Basic Land, and REB.

And that's it, Ritual Oath. The deck I would probably have been taking to Gencon if I weren't so afraid of having all of my cards stolen as I played in a championship. I think that this deck is very fundamentally powerful. It can present threats efficiently at the opponent, but it also has the tools to play a more protracted game with control spells and Jace. And, I would be failing you as my reader entirely if I did not mention how amazing fun Magic becomes once you control a Griselbrand.

[Anusien]

Is Preordain really worse than Ponder? Ponder is better if you're digging for a specific card but worse in other situations.

Jace seems worse than just extra copies of Griselbrand and Show and Tell. Am I wrong?

[Commandant]

Is Preordain really worse than Ponder? Ponder is better if you're digging for a specific card but worse in other situations.

Jace seems worse than just extra copies of Griselbrand and Show and Tell. Am I wrong?

Preordain in a build like this allows for a greater number of options. Yes you can shuffle with Ponder but take a gander at this list look at the potential for how awkward some of these hands/draws can be. I'd rather take a bottom top draw split with Preordain then Ponder and have to blind draw or keep 1 with 2 garbage cards underneath. I'm agreeing with you here.

Jace seems far superior to an increased number of high investment/uncastable cards; Show and Tell is great and all but makes you just as prone to getting blown out.

[ELD]

This deck is very good.  I've been running it at Monday Night Vintage.  So far, my favorite play was against Grafdigger's Cage. 

He goes turn 1 Cage.
I go turn 1 Oath. 
On my next turn, I Oath.  Griselbrand stays on top of Library.  Since the milling gave me threshold, I Cabal Ritual ritual him out for the win

[boggyb]

Excellent, excellent. I think something like this very well may win the tournament this year, and sorry to see you won't be the one to do it. The way Griselbrand's been cleaning up these legacy matches . . . just disturbing. Even more powerful than Bargain, somehow -- you're completely right. Amazing.

Some (totally ignorant -- forgive my naiveté) questions:
• Why 2 Tendrils and not 1? And why the 1 Mind's Desire as well? I would think just 1 storm card, maybe 2, would be better, with permission or duresses in their place.
• 1 maindeck nature's claim? Seems like the hardest battle you want to be fighting game 1 is on the stack. I would think you'd want another misstep or something in that slot.
• Have you tried it without Show and Tell and/or Bargain, again, for more permission/duresses?
• How has Beast Within fared for you? Expensive but always good to have around, and potentially game-winning in and of itself.
• How's the consistency? A lot of one-ofs and your disruption package is pretty slim.

Love the deck, though -- Oath is such a natural compatriot to Jace.

[Ufactor]

My nipples are hard 

[Daenyth]

Very nice list. I was watching some matches of it on cockatrice and the deck seems obscenely powerful

[V is for Vintage]

I've always found one flaw in the Oath of Druids plan.

It relied on Oath of Druids.


This is a combo deck that oaths into bargains, all of my usual concerns about the delicate oath shell are null here. I have nothing bad to say, this deck looks awesome.

[Meddling Mike]

[mmcgeach]

Looks awesome.  My main concern is: How are games two and three against grafdiggers cages?

I've tried a stormless grisel-oath build with 3 griselbrand and 2 show and tell main, with +1 in the side board.  I think every opponent I've played has brought in grafdiggers, making games 2 and 3 all about show and tell.  The worst matchups are vs. blue players with grafdiggers.  It's hard to resolve that show and tell against them.

Also, I feel like griselbrand is at his worst against shops, where two things are true: 1) you usually have taken damage by the time you get him on board, so you can't immediately draw cards, and 2) you have to protect your guy from duplicant and metamorph after passing the turn, which requires counterspells.  (and, I might as well mention number 3: revoker naming Griselbrand sucks).  In a stormless oath build, my plan is to attack with griselbrand or draw into vault-key.  How is the storm-kill against shops?

[JustABee]

Question about the sideboard.

Are 4 Leyline's sufficent hate vs Dredge?

I'm assuming that the deck is fast enough when your opponent isn't as set on disrupting your game plan as they are with removing your hate and winning faster than you can. As is the case game 2/3 vs ichorid.

Rich how does the deck fair on a mull to 6/5 with no leylines?
Have you seen that there enough hands of 6/5 that result in a turn 2/3 win or rituals into a draw/tutored Leyline?

I think the deck is pretty brilliant and I look forward to testing it in the upcoming weeks.
-Bernie...

[Lemnear]

I think the Ritual-topic is too cute for todays meta. I would remove the whole ritual and storm package to add more Show and tells, Griz and tinker->bot for a much more streamlined gameplan and use griz' ability for Protection instead of combo

[vaughnbros]

I think the Ritual-topic is too cute for todays meta. I would remove the whole ritual and storm package to add more Show and tells, Griz and tinker->bot for a much more streamlined gameplan and use griz' ability for Protection instead of combo

Yeh there are a lot of slots in this list devoted to the ritual part maybe you don't need to cut it altogether, but I would definitely lessen the number of combo cards.  4 force, 2 thoughtseize, 1 mental misstep, 1 hurkyl's, 1 claim seems very light on removal/counters especially without a true draw engine.

[Samoht]

The point is to win the game after you Oath. Unfortunately, most Oath decks have to pass 1-2 turns after doing this. By cutting Tinker Robot and some of the fat from a traditional Oath list, Rich has now enabled you to win the game immediately upon the resolution of your Oath trigger. Removal and Bounce are no longer a death knell to be feared, just an increase in the Storm count towards a lethal Tendrils. It also turns the "dead" draw of your Oath target into something reasonably castable. I'm a little surprised at the lack of Cabal Ritual, but I wager that the Lotus Petal is there to enable more t1 Oaths.

[vaughnbros]

The point is to win the game after you Oath. Unfortunately, most Oath decks have to pass 1-2 turns after doing this. By cutting Tinker Robot and some of the fat from a traditional Oath list, Rich has now enabled you to win the game immediately upon the resolution of your Oath trigger. Removal and Bounce are no longer a death knell to be feared, just an increase in the Storm count towards a lethal Tendrils. It also turns the "dead" draw of your Oath target into something reasonably castable. I'm a little surprised at the lack of Cabal Ritual, but I wager that the Lotus Petal is there to enable more t1 Oaths.

Yes, but hes currently devoting about 10 additional slots in order to do this, and it still probably won't win that turn against shops.  I think this goal can be achieved using a lot less cards, which should make it easier to achieve step 1 getting a bargain on the table.  Also cabal rit just seems better than dark rit in this list to overcome cage by hard casting griselbrand, and comboing after oathing.

[meadbert]

The point is to win the game after you Oath. Unfortunately, most Oath decks have to pass 1-2 turns after doing this. By cutting Tinker Robot and some of the fat from a traditional Oath list, Rich has now enabled you to win the game immediately upon the resolution of your Oath trigger. Removal and Bounce are no longer a death knell to be feared, just an increase in the Storm count towards a lethal Tendrils. It also turns the "dead" draw of your Oath target into something reasonably castable. I'm a little surprised at the lack of Cabal Ritual, but I wager that the Lotus Petal is there to enable more t1 Oaths.

Yes, but hes currently devoting about 10 additional slots in order to do this, and it still probably won't win that turn against shops.  I think this goal can be achieved using a lot less cards, which should make it easier to achieve step 1 getting a bargain on the table.  Also cabal rit just seems better than dark rit in this list to overcome cage by hard casting griselbrand, and comboing after oathing.

This runs nine control cards if you exclude the Jaces's which is about how many Pitch Long ran, yet it is slower.  The threat density is good, but I suspect that just running more control to help resolve Oath would be better, because once Griselbrand it out a control deck should already be WAY ahead.  Adding Rituals is mostly win more.

Ritual solves the wrong problem.  With Oath, the question is not:  "I have my Griselbrand in play.  How do I win?"
Once you have Griselbrand in play you should be able to win through control.

Instead Oath must ask the question "I have Griselbrand in my hand.  Now how do I win?"
From that perspective I suggest Mana Drain since it could potentially lead to hardcasting Griselbrand if it is in your hand, can help protect Oath and if you have Griselbrand in play it is one more Counterspell to draw.

[boggyb]

Played something like 50 games with this deck and some slight variants of it, and though that's not much experience I'll say the ritual package is right on the money. It's extremely easy to win immediately when Griselbrand arrives. The synergies are huge: Oath thins your deck, Memory's Journey lets you shuffle Yawg back in, and then drawing 14 cards lets you find it almost every time. That or you find time walk, and do it again. And if you don't, just turn a 7/7 lifelink sideways, for cryin out loud. 3 Hurkyl's means you win right there versus shops, or just let them untap and try to topdeck a metamorph to try and at least kill your dude (if 7-14 cards weren't enough already).

Latest tinkering of mine is just -1 Claim, -1 Mind's Desire, +1 Misstep +1 Thoughtseize from the maindeck but I am a serious amateur so what do I know . Seems a tad mana heavy, too -- could maybe drop a land or mox pearl for some more card selection?

[Lemnear]

Meadbert, That's my point. After griz hit's the field it's nearly over anyways.

I for my part prefer Show and tells + flusterstorm instead of Drain and the need to wait for the Opponent to feed it. I can imagine a Lot of situations in which you drop s&T against Mud for 4 mana instead of needing to drain something with a sphere on the table.

@boggyb

A monkey can ride a grizelbrand with 15+ Life to a victory. the question: is it really worth to run 10+Cards just to win the turn griz comes into play (unless you Play against a resistor)? Would!'t it Be better to ensure he hits/stays on the Table instead?

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the great feedback, guys.

Let me try to answer some questions.

Tendrils is a two-of so that you can find one and mini-Tendrils once Griselbrand has arrived. If you haven't played with him, it appears that Griselbrand arriving just instantly wins you the game. And indeed, just having him arrive is very powerful. But I believe, after some testing, that certain accommodations ought to be made to ensure a higher percentage of wins on the same turn that he shows up.

Nature's Claim lets you remove Chalice at two, which is surprisingly annoying. That's a main reason it gets the nod over other options such as Ancient Grudge or another Hurkyl's Recall. Further, the lifegain has actually been relevant before. When you have Griselbrand in play, Enhanced Healing Salve is a reasonable card!

I have not tried the deck without Show and Tell or Bargain. I think that using more copies of Show and Tell might actually be correct.

I have not tried Beast Within, but if I'm going to spend three mana on a card, I want more than Beast Within has to offer. I realize that it has favorable interactions with Oath of Druids, but in general, I'd rather have Nature's Claim against Workshop decks, and I'd rather have neither against blue control.

As for consistency, no, it isn't as smooth as, say, Miracle Gro. I believe that the weakened position of cantrips, which I've discussed above, means that some consistency ought to be sacrificed for power in this metagame. That said, the deck is more consistent than it looks, and I've been happy with it.

I could see getting more Dredge hate into the sideboard.

VaughnBros, if you can construct a better version of Oath that doesn't involve any Dark Rituals, that would be great. I've stated why I like them in this deck, but won't feel bad if you prove me wrong by making a better deck. However, the fundamental problem with building your deck around forcing through Oath of Druids is that you're only allowed four copies of the card. I believe that Oath decks today ought to have a very strong Plan B or risk being vulnerable to inconsistent draws.

But, Lemnear, I am pretty sure you don't want a Tinker Bot in your deck. Oathing into Blightsteel is much, much, much worse than Oathing into Griselbrand. As for a monkey being able to ride Grisel to victory: have you actually played him in an Oath deck? If you can Just Win easily every time, you're a more powerful wizard than I.

Against Cage, the key is that you are not all-in on Oath. Sure, you're running that card. And you're darn good at that game. But you can still Ritual out Necropotence or simply Show your opponent Griselbrand and Tell him that you're going to pay seven life.

Against Workshop, the matchup pre-board is about 50/50. Being on the play is very important. Post-board, I need more testing, but in general, blue decks and especially blue decks with Oath of Druids in them improve post-board against Workshop.

Lotus Petal started life as a Cabal Ritual, but getting that early Oath was more important than getting a large pile of black mana later on. I could see adding a Cabal Ritual, but not at the expense of a Dark Ritual or the Lotus Petal.

Preordain is worse than Ponder, since you're digging for bombs and that extra card matters. That said, cutting Ponder itself would be a very reasonable step given what I've discussed above.

And finally, Mike, if you are going to Gencon and want to borrow those cards, just let me know

[Samoht]

It is not difficult to defeat an opposing Griselbrand if you are playing the right cards and/or playing cards effectively. Playing Landstill, I Stifle'd the first Griselbrand activation of an opponent, and them Submerge'd it in response to the second (post-board). My opponent was left on 3 life with a 10 card grip that couldn't stop a death to Mishra's Factory + spirit. I'm aware that this is niche and involves cards not often seen, but I would contend that is due to poor card selection by blue control pilots as opposed to a lack of quality in the aforementioned cards. There are plenty of other scenarios that make winning after resolving Oath -> Griselbrand not as easy as it seems.

Again, what the ritual/tendril package allows you to do is generate substantial storm and lethal action by simply getting big daddy G into play. After that, his presence is irrelevant.

Against Shops, if you can stick him and they don't have a Metamorph you win. If they do have a metamorph, you can then remove it, swing, and win. Obviously you are going to have a hard time Tendrils'ing them out, but that's why we run the Hurk's post board to get that done if needed. Griselbrand is just as threatening, if not more so, than Blightsteel. Not playing a big scary man against shops out of fear of their Dup/Meta is silly. Accept that they can do things about it and move on. Gris also has Lifelink, which is often very relevant in racing.

[credmond]

Griselbrand might singlehandedly make stifle good again.

I knew it was only a matter of time before bad boy Grisel took top spot.

[cvarosky80]

Against Shops, if you can stick him and they don't have a Metamorph you win. If they do have a metamorph, you can then remove it, swing, and win.

Grislebrand is Legendary, so the Metamorph play can potentially be back-breaking if the initial Grislebrand activation, the turn he comes into play, bricks out. Your down 7 life to Shops, and probably won't be Storming out the following turn most times. Now, granted, I am certain that there will be plenty of times where all you would need would be that initial activation to gas up a healthy Storm engine to at least play a mid-level Tendrils to recoup that initial lifeloss and potentially cripple your opponent, but against a deck like Shops that just always seems to find a way to screw up everything you have carefully assembled in your hand and on the battlefield, it would make me think twice about activating an Oath without sufficient protection in my hand (i.e. Force of Will) in that matchup.

That aside, this deck looks TREMENDOUS. It is very well designed and very well thought-out. Certainly something I am going to put into my gauntlet and see how it performs. Thank you for posting this, Rich!

[msg67183]

Chris, you should play this July 21st! See you here.

[Samoht]

Against Shops, if you can stick him and they don't have a Metamorph you win. If they do have a metamorph, you can then remove it, swing, and win.

Grislebrand is Legendary, so the Metamorph play can potentially be back-breaking if the initial Grislebrand activation, the turn he comes into play, bricks out. Your down 7 life to Shops, and probably won't be Storming out the following turn most times. Now, granted, I am certain that there will be plenty of times where all you would need would be that initial activation to gas up a healthy Storm engine to at least play a mid-level Tendrils to recoup that initial lifeloss and potentially cripple your opponent, but against a deck like Shops that just always seems to find a way to screw up everything you have carefully assembled in your hand and on the battlefield, it would make me think twice about activating an Oath without sufficient protection in my hand (i.e. Force of Will) in that matchup.

That aside, this deck looks TREMENDOUS. It is very well designed and very well thought-out. Certainly something I am going to put into my gauntlet and see how it performs. Thank you for posting this, Rich!

My thought process was that if you Oath and they Metamorph, you will likely be able to Oath again the next turn. I misspoke, and apologize for my error. Legendary > Bounce, certainly. Also, if you start drawing a lot against shops, you will likely hit a way to get Hurkyl's, and then you EoT bounce them and storm out on your turn. Is it easy, certainly not. As Rich alluded to, it does get significantly easier post-board.

Also, if you hit the big bad G man, you will almost undoubtedly hit a FoW in the 7-14 cards you draw (depending on life total/board state). Remember if you pop him on their turn you don't discard until the end of your next turn.

[cvarosky80]

Also, if you hit the big bad G man, you will almost undoubtedly hit a FoW in the 7-14 cards you draw (depending on life total/board state). Remember if you pop him on their turn you don't discard until the end of your next turn.

Ahhh....that's correct. I had forgotten that G-Man's ability is technically an instant speed ability. In that case, disregard my previous statement, please, and thank you, Tom, for pointing out an oversight that i had made about his ability. That just flat-out makes him silly beyond comparison.

It's funny, I have never been a fan of Oath decks, and Ritual decks have never been my style of play, but, looking over this deck just makes me want to run it. So much potential to just bust other decks up mercilessly and consistently.

[brianpk80]

Rich, this is very well-written and thought-out.  I think the suggestion of including more Show and Tells is incorrect.  It seems wonderful in theory:

"If I can't Oath up the creature because of the hate, I'll just Show and Tell it into play.  I can even Show and Tell the Oath of Druids itself past a Chalice @ 2.  This is brilliant."  

But unfortunately, more often than not, Show and Tell will be in hand without the creature or vice versa.  Running 3 Show and Tells is analogous to running 3 Voltaic Keys.  Considering Show and Tell is the tertiary win path (Oath being first and Rituals being second), increasing the amount is too demanding on deck space without commensurate benefit and would lead to some dreadfully awkward opening 7's and dead draws.  

It's risky to play an Oath creature that requires a healthy life total to be used optimally when Oath is among the most suicidal blue decks.  I appreciate the cleverness in running two Tendrils and Nature's Claim to offset one of the traditional weak spots of the archetype and wonder if it can be further mitigated.  I used to run a Mishra's Factory or two to take the edge off bad match-ups and keep Spirit tokens under control.  

Best to you.  -B  

[Guli]

You picked up the puzzles an managed to bring it together. This is more and more the direction of deck design. There is so much out there right now, it is a matter of seeing the right combinations, strategies, trends and construct the right concepts, plans, goals.

I especially like how a Cage doesn't necessarily stop this Oath.

[mmcgeach]

I've played a lot of Oath lately, I guess it might be useful for discussion purposes to put up an oath list that doesn't use the storm kill.  This is the one I've done well with, although, I should say, its largely a blue-control meta:


2 undergound sea
2 tropical island
1 volcanic island
1 island
4 misty rainforest
1 polluted delta
4 forbidden orchard
1 library of alexandria

1 blacklotus
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 mox emerald
1 sol ring

1 mystical tutor
4 oath of druids
2 show and tell
2 jace the mindsculptor
3 griselbrand

4 force of will
3 mental misstep
3 mana drain
2 flusterstorm

1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
4 impulse

1 yawgmoth's will
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 brainstorm

1 time vault
1 voltaic key

1 echoing truth

there's a couple choices that are in there for my blue-meta (library, flusterstorm, impulse) and if you want you can switch those for other things (strip mine, thoughtseize, preordain).  Although, man, impulse is good vs. blue.

The mystical tutor is there as another show and tell.  I have a 3rd show and tell in the board that I board in for 1 oath of druids (generally) game 2 and 3 to combat the cages.  Also mystical tutor can be pretty good once griselbrand is in play, in response to activating his ability.

You don't need a gaea's blessing or memory's journal with 3 griselbrands.  3 demons ups the count for the show and tell plan, so this works better in my build.  Show and tell is essentially required since literally every match I play they side in grafdiggers.  Sometimes you counter or bounce the cage, but Show and Tell really helps.

I cut mana crypt to cut down on life loss.  Which I feel like I just can't afford.

I've been using 2 Jaces, but I think in the future I'll up it to 3.  The blue matchups I've been in lately have all been decided by who sticks the first Jace.

Winning with this build is about dropping the demon into play and then protecting it with counterspells.  Mana drain is great for this.  You frequently use up your forces and missteps getting him into play, so you need something else in the deck.  You probably just have to protect him for one turn so you can attack, then you'll have drawn 14 cards and people usually concede by then.  If not, you drop Jace or Vault-Key.  You can just sit there with griselbrand blocking for Jace.   That works really well.

Draining something and then playing griselbrand is essentially impossible, although playing him with a lotus happens sometimes.  But, you probably lose those games anyway since it's late-game by the time griselbrand is in play, you may be at low life, and you'll tap out to cast him, meaning you rely on drawing into your remaining forces to protect him.

There's an awful lot of crap that can hurt griselbrand once he's in play.  I've seen pithing needle, revoker, jace, sower of temptation, duplicant (off show and tell, even!), metamorph, phantasmal image, chain of vapor, swords to plowshares (although that's not half bad), and ensnaring bridge.  As I alluded to earlier, this is worst in the shops matchup, where you're gonna be at 10 or less life by the time griselbrand gets in play, and they're almost assuredly holding a duplicant or metamorph, which you need to stop or they remove your blocker and swing for the win.  Vault-Key becomes the main win condition vs. shops, either pre- or post- griselbrand.


But.  Thanks to Rich for posting this list.  I'm gonna enjoy testing/playing the storm build.

[Lemnear]

Rich I don't think that oathing/s&t a BSC should be considered "bad". Tinker is like oath a One-Card combo to get a giant creature into play and another option if oath is not available/castable/etc. so basically a s&t without the requirement to actually have the creature in hand as a plan B/C beside oath and s&t.

My harsh statement towards the skill required to win after resolve a griz is adequat. I don't consider it real skill to ride a 7/7 Flying lifelinker that instantly draws you 14 (+7 every Round) to a victory in an average magic game. So discussing how good the Deck works AFTER griz hits the board adds nothing of Value unless you raise the topic of "oathing griz with a lethal boardstate".

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Rich, this is very well-written and thought-out.  I think the suggestion of including more Show and Tells is incorrect.  It seems wonderful in theory:

"If I can't Oath up the creature because of the hate, I'll just Show and Tell it into play.  I can even Show and Tell the Oath of Druids itself past a Chalice @ 2.  This is brilliant."  

But unfortunately, more often than not, Show and Tell will be in hand without the creature or vice versa.  Running 3 Show and Tells is analogous to running 3 Voltaic Keys.  Considering Show and Tell is the tertiary win path (Oath being first and Rituals being second), increasing the amount is too demanding on deck space without commensurate benefit and would lead to some dreadfully awkward opening 7's and dead draws.  

It's risky to play an Oath creature that requires a healthy life total to be used optimally when Oath is among the most suicidal blue decks.  I appreciate the cleverness in running two Tendrils and Nature's Claim to offset one of the traditional weak spots of the archetype and wonder if it can be further mitigated.  I used to run a Mishra's Factory or two to take the edge off bad match-ups and keep Spirit tokens under control.  

Best to you.  -B  

Show and tell seems fine. You have 4 oaths, necro, bargain, and the two dudes you can potentially show and tell in. That's 8 things. Show and telling with only an oath to put on the board can be equivilant to "winging an oath out there" except you still have the oath if things meet counter magic. If things go alright, you have an oath of Druids out in an oath deck, seems fine. Anything else and you draw a ton of cards.

I've played just about every oath variant from 2006 forward to a high degree, and learned a lot along the way. One thing I've never liked is the ritual oath builds, because the deck fights against its self synergistically. This deck seems to do less of that than any other to date on paper, the mind's desire is super cute. I have yet to reach this deck in my testing gauntlet, so I don't want to speak with a high degree of authority on it, but once I test this thing, I'm sure I'll be posting back here.