Oath Help

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

About 2-3 months ago I built Oath after playing MUD and a small amount of Bob Control.  When I playtest the deck, or play casually, the deck works perfectly and I just get nutty stuff and easy wins.  However, the last couple tournaments the deck just hasn't been drawing me anything to help me win games that I could/should have won.  I was wondering if anyone could help me out with this list. Thanks!

4x Misty Rainforest
2x Underground Sea
1x Bayou
1x Island
1x Forest
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Verdant Catacombs

4x Oath of Druids
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
4x Reanimate
3x Entomb
1x Exhume
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Yawgmoth's Will
4x Force of Will
2x Flusterstorm
4x Mental Misstep
2x Spell Pierce
2x Red Elemental Blast
1x Brainstorm
2x Beast Within
1x Elesh Norn
1x Griselbrand
1x Stormtide Leviathan
1x Hellkite Overlord
1x Jin Gitaxias

Any recommendations would be great, thanks

Edited title and post for proper capitalization.  Please use proper capitalization when you start a thread, or post a response - Prospero

[BC]

Well, you have pretty much no draw engine other than Ancestral and Brainstorm.  You probably have more counters than you need.  You definitely have more creatures than you need.  I'm not necessarily opposed to an Oath/Reanimator hybrid deck, but I can see scenarios when it may be a little too diluted to work consistently.

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

-2reb +2 preordain?

[Samoht]

About 2-3 months ago i built oath after playing mud and a small amount of bob control. When I playtest the deck or play casually, the deck works perfectly and I just get nutty stuff and easy wins. However, the last couple tournaments the deck just hasn't been drawing me anything to help me win games that i could/should have. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with this list. Thanks!

4x misty rainforest
2x underground sea
1x bayou
1x island
1x forest
4x forbidden orchard
1x verdant catacombs

4x oath of druids
1x mox sapphire
1x mox ruby
1x mox emerald
1x mox jet
1x black lotus
1x sol ring
4x reanimate
3x entomb
1x exhume
1x demonic tutor
1x vampiric tutor
1x mystical tutor
1x ancestral recall
1x time walk
1x yawgmoth's will
4x force of will
2x flusterstorm
4x mental misstep
2x spell pierce
2x red elemental blast
1x brainstorm
2x beast within
1x eleshnorn
1x grislebrand
1x stormtide leviathan
1x hellkite overlord
1x jin gitaxias

any recommendations would be great, thanks

Cody,

This is an interesting take on Oath. I'm curious, why are you convinced that a reanimating sub-theme is a strong plan for Oath? What makes it superior to say Vault+Key or Ritual+Tendrils?

Why are we playing Exhume over Animate Dead in such a creature laden environment?

I don't mind having a versatile selection of creatures, but is 5 distinct targets too many? Can we trim some fat down to 3 or even 2? Elesh Norn and Stormtide Leviathan are equivocally the same creature, in that they both are stopping creature based decks. Hellkite Overlord, while being the fastest clock, is the weakest of the suite. He has no other function or purpose other than to attack. Blightsteel Colossus would be a faster kill, not that I'm suggesting it. Lastly, Jin-Gitaxias is really just a neutered Griselbrand. By trimming some of the fat, we open up slots for cards that could have a greater impact on the game.

How often do you have the creature that you Oath up die, so that your reanimating suite is turned on? Externally of Entomb, you have no way to get the bigger creatures into the graveyard. What happens when you draw some of the bigger creatures? Shouldn't you have a discard outlet, akin to say Careful Study or Thirst for Knowledge? Or you could cheat it into play via Show and Tell. Either way, drawing some of these guys is about the worst thing in the world for you in your current build. Getting value from that is a good idea.

REB is a greedy card to play. There is no need for you to add the fourth color here, and you can only cast it through Forbidden Orchard, which can not be fetched for. You cannot pitch it to Force of Will. You either need to add Volcanic Island or play a different counterspell. I'd look into Mindbreak Trap or Negate. I also do not like Spell Pierce personally, but others do. For me it is just too polarizing of a card, and I don't want to be involved with it.

I'm not a huge fan of Beast Within, despite it's synergy with Oath. It's very expensive, and most of the targets you want to hit can be resolved via Nature's Claim. Jace is the only one that comes to mind that is not resolved via Claim, and you're playing enough permission that you should be able to fight it. You should also look into running your own, as they will smooth out a lot of the inconsistencies.

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

Thanks a lot for the help man. You think I could consistently win off tendrils in an oath? Also, for either storm or vault key why cards should I add?
Thanks again

[Prospero]

Cody,

It seems like you have two decks together in the same 60.  Would you consider moving out the Reanimator package, and making this an Oath deck, or moving out the Oath package, and making this a Reanimator deck?  You might want a transformational sideboard, though I think you'd want to address which matches were bad, which were good, and whether the transformational board helped any of the bad matches.

I think that going the Reanimator route could be very powerful, and it hasn't really transitioned over from Legacy yet.  If you were going to do that, I would imagine that you'd want to cut out the Oaths/Orchards, add in Careful Studies, max out on Missteps, potentially add another Flusterstorm, and max out on Entombs. 

If you decide to keep it as an Oath deck then I think you may want to consider cutting down from four targets to two or three.  Four targets means that you're more likely to draw one in your opener, and it also means that your Oath activations will be more random, as you don't know what's coming into play.

Either way, good luck with the deck.

[The Atog Lord]

One way to "split the difference" between Reanimator and Oath is to play Oath with 4 or maybe 5 creatures, and then play Show and Tell. Show+Tell dodges most Oath hate, and gives you a very solid Plan B, without requiring nearly as many cards as Reanimator.

[Prospero]

Also, I suppose it should be addressed that you're running into Grafdigger's Cage with either deck, all at a time when Cage is seeing more play than ever.  You may want to consider some artifact destruction in the main (Nature's Claims?) in order to address this.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Without doing an extremely detailed look at the list I can tell you a few things off the bat
1. If you want a dedicated oath deck, run full moxen. Turn one oath with back up is really living the dream.
2. Run more mana. I'm not saying you run the traditional control 24, but I’d really try at stay around 22 so shop doesn't just sphere out of oath.
3. Everyone is right you need some way to generate CA
4. If I were to create an alternate path to victory for oath, I wouldn't choose one that is also turned off by cage, like reanimater, the most common type of hate people will bring in against you. I really recommend vault key over ritual oath. With the amount of misstep and fluster storm, rituals don't play well.
5. Too many dudes. The max I’ve seen work well consistently without show and tell is 3. But, you'd still want to be running Jace. If I wanted variety of dudes, I'd go with GB and Iona.
6. Have a plan against cage.

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

Im really thinking the vault key option with oath sounds solid. Should I run blightsteel aswell in this as another tinker target or is that just overkill? Claim sounds like it could work main. I'll have to do some testing in the next couple days and figure this all out.
Thanks again to everyone

[Samoht]

Im really thinking the vault key option with oath sounds solid. Should I run blightsteel aswell in this as another tinker target or is that just overkill? Claim sounds like it could work main. I'll have to do some testing in the next couple days and figure this all out.
Thanks again to everyone

If you choose Vault and Key, I suggest that you run Griselbrand alone, 1 or 2. I would support the rest with cards like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, as well as the lowly Lotus Petal. I would continue on with control cards, namely Mana Drain, Flusterstorm, and Mental Misstep. I would also play Mindbreak Trap. You should be looking to be able to just utterly control the game once you have your Oath activate.

Nature's Claim is a fine card in the main deck, but don't play too many. Leave a few in your sideboard.

[Cody.TopDeckInsurrection]

Hey guys,
I think i got a solid build. Thanks again for all the help!!

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee410/Colby_Stiglic/-5.jpg
(Zoom in on the pic..definitely worth it)

[Ten-Ten]

I LOL'ed
soly hasn't changed, huh