Ritual Oath

[Samoht]

Dragon breath isn't bad, it gets around spheres and other workshop shenanigans. The deck is also very mana and life hungry, casting a time walk or paying two life for a noxious revival isn't the best plan. Keep in mind that if you put temporal mastery on top it has to be the first card you draw for the turn. With dragon breath you can oath, draw for the turn, and then draw 14 cards from girselbrand and then cast dragon breath, attack, and draw 7 more cards.

It only gets around Spheres if you Oath over it. It also is susceptible to some GY hate cards being played.

Casting a Time Walk is always the best plan. In fact, the more Time Walks you cast the better. I'll concede that DB is a pseudo-TW, but I think in any non-Griselbrand situation it is so inferior to the other two cards. It's a push if Griselbrand is down, but it is worse when he isn't. That sums up my case against the cards inclusion before the other two. Revival on Oath after it is countered/removed is very strong. Revival on Time Walk itself is amazing, and the best case of Revival on Mastery after Oath'ing in Griselbrand is superior. Mastery pitches to FoW and can easily be Brainstorm/Jacestorm'd to the top of the library if it is drawn too early. You can also Drain into it if necessary.

[The Atog Lord]

I think that the unrestriction of Burning Wish opens up a very promising potential direction for this deck. I have been very, very impressed by Show and Tell in this deck. So, being able to maindeck two or three copies and have the fourth as a Wish target in the board is a very interesting approach. It might be reasonable to run 3 or 4 Demons in the main, and set up a Burning Wish package. Plenty of games could be won by finding Burning Wish and then resolving Pyroclasm or a similar silver bullet.

[Cruel Ultimatum]

I think that the unrestriction of Burning Wish opens up a very promising potential direction for this deck. I have been very, very impressed by Show and Tell in this deck. So, being able to maindeck two or three copies and have the fourth as a Wish target in the board is a very interesting approach. It might be reasonable to run 3 or 4 Demons in the main, and set up a Burning Wish package. Plenty of games could be won by finding Burning Wish and then resolving Pyroclasm or a similar silver bullet.

my problem with that plan is that it doesnt,help the weakness of the deck, which is the incredibly awkward hand the deck is capable of getting. Infact it makes them more awkward.

[median]

I've been toying around with burning wish too, although I'm using tinker. The idea was what I expressed about dragon breath and griselbrand and then a blightsteel main. I have a pulverize (-testing, also testing shattering spree) in the sideboard as well as pyroclasms, show and tell, and tinker.
That said, I don't like burning wish in ritual oath, -I really like it in gush oath. Gushing once or twice and playing a cantrip is enough to win the game if you burning wish into a yawgmoth's will. I can't get something similar working in this deck.

[bluemage55]

I think that the unrestriction of Burning Wish opens up a very promising potential direction for this deck. I have been very, very impressed by Show and Tell in this deck. So, being able to maindeck two or three copies and have the fourth as a Wish target in the board is a very interesting approach. It might be reasonable to run 3 or 4 Demons in the main, and set up a Burning Wish package. Plenty of games could be won by finding Burning Wish and then resolving Pyroclasm or a similar silver bullet.

my problem with that plan is that it doesnt,help the weakness of the deck, which is the incredibly awkward hand the deck is capable of getting. Infact it makes them more awkward.

Yeah, what the deck really needs is Brainstorms #2-#4 (or a comparable effect such as TfK or Jace, assuming it could fit) to filter out dead cards.

[Negator]

Yeah, what the deck really needs is Brainstorms #2-#4 (or a comparable effect such as TfK or Jace, assuming it could fit) to filter out dead cards.

I agree. I was nicely surprised how good See Beyond can be. I tested 4 of them instead of the Jaces and Ponder and it worked out quite good. A starting hand with a Griselbrand, a Tendrils, one mox and one land but 2 See Beyond becomes fair. What do you think guys?

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

Yeah, what the deck really needs is Brainstorms #2-#4 (or a comparable effect such as TfK or Jace, assuming it could fit) to filter out dead cards.

I agree. I was nicely surprised how good See Beyond can be. I tested 4 of them instead of the Jaces and Ponder and it worked out quite good. A starting hand with a Griselbrand, a Tendrils, one mox and one land but 2 See Beyond becomes fair. What do you think guys?

I recently switched  from ritual oath to gush oath but I have to say jace is super powerful and I think should be played if you have a spot. I haven't tested with see beyond but I think jace will always give you constancy and leads to a win very often. IMO

[Negator]

Regarding my personal playtests, I realised that Jace is often too expensive. The idea that Jace's role is to filter out dead cards is wrong in my opinion. First, 4 mana are too expensive for that role; second, playing combo means that you should be faster than having the time to abuse of Jace's ability; third, the tokens you make with Orchard are often annoying for your Jace.

I saw too often unplayable hands with too many dead cards. Tendrils of Agony, Show and Tell, Mox Ruby, Land, a counter, Jace, Dark Ritual. That's an example which translate what I feel sometimes when opening a hand. My point is that this hand would be way better with a See Beyond instead of the Jace. Manipulators like See Beyond help in a very interesting way the regularity of the deck.

And what is awesome about it is that first you draw, then you choose! Sometimes you thought you would put Griselbrand back in the library, but you draw a Show and Tell! The opposite is true as well.

[tribet]

September 22nd 2012, I finished 2nd out of 32 running Ritual Oath at the Australian Masters (see a few posts above).  

October 1st 2012, Burning Wish was officially unrestricted in Vintage.

Since then, many have been tinkering around the Ritual Oath original shell introduced by the Atog Lord in June 2012. Popping around as "Burning Long", "Burning Oath", "Griselbrand Oath" and many other names along the way, this is my latest thoughts about the Ritual Oath deck which took me in Top4 out of 26 last week-end at Sydney GP Vintage side event (no Proxies http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44949.0).

Here is my Top4 list:

Mana (27)
3 Dark Ritual
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mox Opal
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring

Disruption (9)
4 Duress
4 Flusterstorm
1 Rebuild

Draw/Filter/Cheats (22)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Mystical Tutor (should be Timetwister)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
4 Oath of Druids
1 Show & Tell
1 Dragon Breath
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Burning Wish

Kills (2)
2 Griselbrand

Side and Wish-Board (15)
1 Timetwister (should be Main deck)
1 Show and Tell
1 Time Walk
1 Pyroclasm
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Sadistic Sacrement
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tendrills of Agony
1 Hull Breach
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Shattering Spree
2 Ancient Tomb

Thanks to Burning Wish un-restriction, we now had a clear answer regarding our previous arguments about running Preordain over JaceTMS or vice versa. Burning Wish was clearly making the cut as it was adding so much depth to the deck. That was a no brainer: 4 of.

Then, I must say that Stephen Menendian’s fresh approach on the deck gave me new wings. Stephen’s experience and in-depth feedbacks regarding cards such as Timetwister, Windfall, Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar immediately convinced me that they were an inherent part of the Ritual Oath engine, enabling broken sequences of play.
 
Also, although it now seems 100% natural to run a full rainbow mana base to support 4 colours, we should give Stephen all credits for such cuteness.

Then, I'm clearly not comfortable with running full mana acceleration as Stephen is presenting. At Melbourne GP last year, White Trash finished first in the Vintage side event and I’m always expected Fish and Null Rod decks to populate any non proxy events.

One other key difference, is that I decided to hold onto more permission as I was expected a lot of blue decks such as the Grixis decks (which were all over the scene last September at our Australian Masters), Standstill decks, Gush, Fastbond decks and Mirror match-ups due to the recent flood of “Burning Long” articles and reports. All in all, Flusterstorm was the best suited card, enabling me to push my bombs through and to protect myself against opponent's bombs & storms using minimal investment.

Then, thanks to my previous experience with the original Ritual Oath deck and next to none play-testing with this new brew, I decided to hold onto things I was comfortable with: Dragon Breath would stay in the 60’s and TimeWalk straight in the side as a main Wish target. Now you know it all: My Griselbrands always wants to dig into Dragon's Breath or Time Walk.

To conclude, a little comparison between Stephen’s list and my list (both from last week-end events http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44937.0 ):
 - Main deck: 10 different cards (17%)
 - Side and Wish board: 6 different cards (40%)
So this is a super gross way to say that the Ritual Oath deck is far from being sorted. Exciting perspective, isn’t it?


Here is my Top4 report:

I finished first in the Swiss after 5 rounds with 13 points. I won my first 4 games and drew the 5th. Second after me was at 11 points.

1st Round: Josh (aka “shrewarmies”)
I strongly suspected this match-up to be a mirror match-up as Josh’s been tinkering and running successfully his Ritual Oath brew just recently down in Melbourne (see Josh’s recents posts and reports on TMD).

I really felt confident playing the mirror match-up protected by my 4 Flusterstorms in the main. Also, I was in a disagreement with some of Josh’s slots: Tinker versus Show&Tell and, more important, TimeWalk in main versus TimeWalk in the board. Though, I suspected Josh’s list to be much more degenerated than mine as he is packing bombs such as Mind’s Desire and the full artifact ramp using multiple Chrome Moxes and Opal friends.

Josh started quickly and eventually ended up casting a massive Mind’s Desire. Then I won the next two games. I think both my opening hands presented a Forbidden Orchard and I decided to fight and win the Oath battle.
 
My worst play was when I declared attack with a single spirit token while still having zillion mana floating in the pool. This was desperately laughable: the dude playing combo worried about forgetting to attacking with his 1/1 token... No comment


2nd Round: Lachlan Saunders (Top2)
Lachlan is a skilled and deceptively cool opponent from Canberra. I think that I never won against him before and I remember well losing against him at Nat a couple of years ago playing my very first Top8 ever. What the hell is a "Static Ability"?! Remember?
Anyway, I suspected Lachlan to run his cool 5CC Control home-brew deck which won him a few relevant tournaments over the past year or so.

I won 2/1. My notes only show a lot of storm and mana counts.


3rd Round: Rangor
Rangor is a long time player, collector and respected trader. He looked in incredible shape and I suspect there is a lady somewhere in the story. I do not recall playing against Rangor before, but I think the dude has been travelling overseas for Magic so it is fair to say that he knows his shit.

Rangor was running some variant of Grixis Control deck, starring Vendilion Clique, Unearth and other goodies. We had 3 great games and I believe I won game 1 thanks to a Griselbrand and lost Game 2 to a fast Vault-Key assembly.

Game 3 was epic. I think he started with Cavern of Souls naming “Birds”, so after eliminating Birds of Paradise from my list, I figured out that he was running the sweet Baleful Strix. I wasn't worried as my hand presented both Hurkyl's Recall and Shattering Spree. Eventually, Griselbrand ended up facing an army of Myr Battlesphere dudes, and a Vendilion Clique chump-blocking Griselbrand for a couple of turns thanks to Unearth...  It was a fierce battle, I finished at 1 life on Game3. It couldn’t have been a closer game. I really enjoyed this match-up.


4th Round: Yunus (Top4)
I met Yunus before at last year GP in Melbourne. He was seating not far from me earlier so I knew that we was running a Shop deck.
Once again, I won 2/1 though, I don’t think I deserved it this time. Yunus misplayed at a bad time deciding not to activate his Forgemaster and search for Duplicant or Phyrexian Metamorph.
Against Stax, I think I left 1 Shattering Spree and 1 Hull Breach in the board as Wish Targets. Taking out all Flusterstorms and Duresses from the main. Side note regarding Hull Breach: I love the card as it clears Leyline(S), Stony Silence, Rest in Peace out the way. In one other game, I targeted my Necropotence and my opponents Mox! He countered Hull Breach...


5th Round
I’m the only one on 12 points and agree with my opponent to draw. I need fresh air and food


Quarter Finals: Nick from Brisbane
As usual Nick arrived late at the table and with half his deck un-sleeved, etc... He didn’t expect to make Top 8. That’s why we like him. Also, the judge advises us that the new play/draw rules doesn’t apply. I’m spewing as I finished first in the Swiss. So be it, let’s roll a dice.

Nick is playing Grixis Control and opens with Dark Confidant. I open with Oath. Next turn Nick draws his extra card and bolts his bob. That’s what I call card advantage!

Once again, I won 2/1. One of my wins came after a first turn Necro. It was a slow and painful win.

The other 2 things that I remember are Nick complaining that I always draws into Hurkyl’s Recall and Nick cracking his Legend Booster prize into a Minty Italian Moat!


Semi Finals: James from Melbourne
James was running a RUG-Delver deck and I don’t think I respected the man enough as a player. I mean he’s a young and charming rasta kid and I overheard that he just got into Vintage 2 months ago. Too easy!@

I won game 1 probably on an easy Oath trigger followed by convoluted shenanigans.

Then game 2 and 3, James simply sat back, refusing to cast anything but Nature’s Claim, Grafdigger’s Cage and Gush. Holding a full palm of Goyf and friends, James just sat back.

Game 2, James won thanks to Force of Willing his own creature in order to give +1 to Goyf. I certainly didn’t count on that extra 1 life loss. Well played man!

Game 3, frustrated with 2 Oath on the field and no Orchard at the horizon, I decided to bait James with a Show&Tell. Once again, James just sat back, not even pretending to be curious. Show&Tell shamefully landed itself in the yard. Next turn I top-decked Griselbrand. FML!

A few turns later, I top-decked Demonic Consultation searching for one of my 4 Orchards. A good 30 cards got exiled. I played my Orchard. End of his turn, I tried to give him a Spirit Token. James Stifled. Draw step, I drew into my second bloody Griselbrand... I’m really doomed!

Then, we both passed many turns. Me digging for mana to hardcast Griselbrand(s) and him, still seating back hopping to kill me with my Mana Crypt!  Eventually, I managed to hard-cast Griselbrand. On his turn, James drops a big Goyf and a couple of Delvers. My Turn, I enchanted Griselbrand with Dragon Breath figuring that some extra lifelink could be useful. Also, some rough maths indicated that if I didn’t win that turn then I could be in more trouble should the pair of Delvers were to fly or should James top-deck a card such as Fire/Ice or Chain of Vapour...  

Basically, I was really counting on the draw7 to find me a Burning Wish in order to access TimeWalk. I drew into 6 mana and VT. I shook James hand. It is completely arguable whether I should have attacked with Griselbrand or just wait. I got frustrated and tired and James played 3 extremely great Pocker like games.


I really enjoyed the tourney. The deck made yoghurt with my head but that’s how I like my Magic. Unfortunately, the next big Autralian event is held next week in Canberra and I won't be able to attend. It is Australia Day long week-end so it will be camping and fishing.

Happy Australia Day and Long-Live-Ritual-Burning-Oath-Grisel-decks!

[mmcgeach]

Great report.  I'm a fan of the oath & storm archetypes.  And the oath-storm archetype.

Question: would you cut demonic consultation?  Do the good plays where you use it to grab an extra ritual and storm out, out-weigh the bad plays where you use it to find oath or orchard, but then exile too much of your library to safely oath?

I like the one-of dragon's breath.  Seems awesome with Griselbrand - and unexpected.  And not dead in your hand, like it is in an Emrakul list.

[shrewarmies]

I saw triibet use dragons breath for its firebreathing at least twice to gain some more life. That was funky. However I never saw it work wonders.

I dont think he put enough emphasis on how long is semi final against james on delver was. The match took over and hour and a half to finish.

[tribet]

Question: would you cut demonic consultation?  Do the good plays where you use it to grab an extra ritual and storm out, out-weigh the bad plays where you use it to find oath or orchard, but then exile too much of your library to safely oath?

If I know that I have a clear path in front, I have generally no problem searching for one of my 4-off (read: Oath, Orchard, Burning Wish, Fluster, Duress...). Don't get me wrong, I would always do a quick double-check prior through my graveyard, hand, play... to get rough stats...

If I decide to consult for one of my 1-off, then it is generally because it is a win/loose situation and there is no other choice. I accept failing and loosing because of such plays.

Note that I wasn't running Laboratory Maniac (mainly because I wasn't expecting many Stax) but he works beautifully along with Demonic Consultation.

At the moment, I think that Demonic Consultation is a very valid 1off slot in the deck. I do not intend to replace it.

I like the one-of dragon's breath.  Seems awesome with Griselbrand - and unexpected.  And not dead in your hand, like it is in an Emrakul list.

I really like Dragon's Breath with Griselbrand. I'm 90% sure that I used it against Rangor's Vendilion Clique and I finished at 1 life on game 3.

In the Semi-Finale, I enchanted Griselbrand 1 turn too late because I had to full-tap to hardcast Griselbrand the turn prior. When I attacked, I think I was on 4 life. I could have pumped up Griselbrand 4 times using my Gemstones, Orchards... meaning I would have accessed 7 cards. The problem was that I needed to hold onto 1 of my Red mana (+1*U +2) in order to cast Burning Wish then TimeWalk in the same turn.

When you are anywhere below 7 life, that extra little lifelink can mean that you gonna draw an extra 7 and win. Note that Cities of Brass cancels Dragon's Breath so you're really only relying on Gemstone Mines, Moxes, LED, Lotuses, and Orchards (as long as you can afford getting attacked by extra 1/1 tokens the turn after).

I usually side-out Dragon's Breath if I expect a lot of grave-hate. Though Grafdigger's Cage doesn't directly stops Dragon's Breath, I would generally side-in Hurkyl's Recall instead.

I pondered a while between Dragon's Breath or Mind's Desire in the main deck. As I'm only running 3 Dark Ritual and a little less moxen than others, I felt that Mind's Desire in my deck was maybe a win-more card. I decided to put more emphasis on the Oath approach and Dragon's Breath stayed in.

All in all, Dragon's Breath is super interesting with Griselbrand, drawing 7 asap often means that you will win. Also, hard-casting and boosting lifelink is even better with the rainbow mana. Yes, the life calcs are often tight but it is a really fun and re-warding card to play (so are Necro and Mana Crypt...)

[median]

I thought this would be the best place to ask this. I always considered after the printing of Griselbrand that Oath would be a better card than Tezzeret if thirst was unrestricted (don't want to discuss that), I just thought with rituals in oath, would infernal contract/cruel bargain be worth looking at to make a turbo oath style list.

[Cyberpunker]

Why are wishes so essential to the deck? They only fetch the win conditions and Yawgmoth's Will. It seems rare that they will be used to fetch the answers. I think they should be cut for more color consistency. Replace them with MD Tendrils and Will, plus some more Cabal Rituals to speed up the deck.

Right now, the deck can win if it draws into brokenness, that's great but so can other Vintage decks. What we need to do with this deck is to give it a structure so that even in crappy draws it is strong. That is why Burning Wish should not be in this deck for color consistency reasons with Dark Ritual, as well as making Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor less useful, and adding 1R to all your finishing spells. Those spells should instead just be in the deck and add more Cabal Rituals for mana.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Why are wishes so essential to the deck? They only fetch the win conditions and Yawgmoth's Will. It seems rare that they will be used to fetch the answers. I think they should be cut for more color consistency. Replace them with MD Tendrils and Will, plus some more Cabal Rituals to speed up the deck.

Right now, the deck can win if it draws into brokenness, that's great but so can other Vintage decks. What we need to do with this deck is to give it a structure so that even in crappy draws it is strong. That is why Burning Wish should not be in this deck for color consistency reasons with Dark Ritual, as well as making Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor less useful, and adding 1R to all your finishing spells. Those spells should instead just be in the deck and add more Cabal Rituals for mana.

the bolded part is where you're doing it wrong.
the underlined part is where you forgot about the versatility b-wish provides you, where as ripping a TOA under a lot of circumstances is poor.

[Cyberpunker]

Why are wishes so essential to the deck? They only fetch the win conditions and Yawgmoth's Will. It seems rare that they will be used to fetch the answers. I think they should be cut for more color consistency. Replace them with MD Tendrils and Will, plus some more Cabal Rituals to speed up the deck.

Right now, the deck can win if it draws into brokenness, that's great but so can other Vintage decks. What we need to do with this deck is to give it a structure so that even in crappy draws it is strong. That is why Burning Wish should not be in this deck for color consistency reasons with Dark Ritual, as well as making Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor less useful, and adding 1R to all your finishing spells. Those spells should instead just be in the deck and add more Cabal Rituals for mana.

the bolded part is where you're doing it wrong.
the underlined part is where you forgot about the versatility b-wish provides you, where as ripping a TOA under a lot of circumstances is poor.

Ok, as long as you feel that what you sacrifice with running Burning Wish is not greater than what you gain by running it.

[tribet]

This deck is running Oath and it often means that your bombs will end up in the bin. This is why previous versions of the deck relied on important cards such Memorie's Journey with the main targets being Y. Will & Time Walk because you always want to play them after an Oath. Having more tutors and especially Wishes in this particular scenario means that you are very likely to find these cards after Oathing.

I don't think the colour issue you mention is really relevant with the rainbow Lands, Opals... I haven't really experienced any problem so far. If you compare the above lists from September and January, Wasteland effects probably would have very nasty similar effects on both the Rainbow & Duals mana bases.

From what I know, Burning Wish gives great flexibility whether it's fetching your Win Con or an Answer. I quite often fetch for an early Shattering Spree to clean out simple Moxen, Vault/Key, a Baleful Strix or BattleSphere. Burning Wish in the main gives you great guarantees that you'll find TimeWalk after Oathing and this is the card I want to cast whenever Griselbrand hits the board.

It seems that you are instead proposing to increase the amount of Win Con in the deck (read Tendrils...) which probably works as well but seems more chunky and may introduce more variance. Drawing cards like Tendrils early in the game is often an horrible thing but the deck could be tweacked running multiple Hurkyl's Recall, Tendrils, Chrome Mox... This is also where you may start tuning whether it should be 3 or 4 Burning Wish in the main. Having access to Show & Tell when you want gives your more flexility then a hand full of Cabal Rituals.

I haven't really explored the above option due to clear lack of playing. But more important, because it is probably not my style. You'll note that I'm running full playset of Flusterstorms, no Chrome Mox... and this is where I think it is a other direction for the deck. I like grinding out and stalling my games, having many options, complicated states of plays, etc... I like having access to both answers & threats and Burning Wish in that regards suits better my game style.