Obnoxious Griselbrand Oath

It’s been a very very long time since I've posted a deck list, so this might be a little awkward all over the place. But I’ve got some time and haven’t seen discussion on an Oath list like this since Rainbow Demon. In fact, there hasn't been much discussion in about blue control in a while. With a little luck, maybe I can stir some up.

My testing partner and I developed this list in preparation for Gencon, and have been updating it ever since. Although we didn't top eight Gencon, or the prelim- sometimes you just don’t have FOW for turn one 3ball- we think this list is still very good in the meta. In fact, Danny went on to win or split all/both (I forgot if there were 2 or 3 of them) Vintage for Vaults at Gencon with it. The list is a more traditional Oath list. It plays a control game until you land an Oath of Druids. However, similarly to Tyrant Oath, once you activate Oath, you can radically shift gears and “combo out” by reoccurring time walk, or assembling Vault/Key. And yes, I couldn't avoid making the bad Throbbing Gristle joke.

Throbbing Griselbrand
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Griselbrand
4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Preordain
1 Show and Tell
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
2 Flusterstorm
1 Gaea's Blessing
3 Spell Pierce
2 Noxious Revival
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
SB: 2 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 4 Steel Sabotage
SB: 1 Nature's Claim
SB: 1 Show and Tell
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 2 Perish
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 3 Ravenous Trap

This list has a leg up from other ritual Griselbrand Oath decks because you don’t draw combo elements when they are situationaly useless, which in my personal testing was the vast majority of the time. The combo elements in Throbbing Griselbrand, Revival and Walk, are also helpful it letting you resolve your Oath, not just leveraging Griselbrand, which doesn't need much help anyways.

The parts of the 75 I assume stick out, or seem questionable.

Gaea’s Blessing: Yes, Blessing and Noxious Revival is not a combo. However, running time walk, or any other key card, back into your deck where you can draw with Griselbrand or tutor it up, which is pretty achievable, is fine. Additionally, once you do, that Revival you had just been salty about is looking pretty good. But the Blessing is also there in case your dudes get removed; believe it or not, people find ways to do it. Getting your dudes removed is pretty common against Shop. Between Duplicants, the 3+ Metamorphs, and Steel Hellkites seeing play they've got answers if you can’t quite go off through the spheres. Yes, it happens enough to play Blessing over memory’s journey. The cost and counterability of memory’s journey is also relevant. Blessing is also a cantrip. So if you draw it, it’s not the worst. I've definitely dawn it in “I better draw an out” situation and was really pissed, then looking at it thought, “well I might has well shuffle in 2 more outs and a tutor for those outs and draw again, which I guess is technically better, mana aside.” I even remember hitting on that specific scenario in recent testing, not that it was a particularly great set of events, but I definitely didn't lose because I drew Blessing.
* Personally, I feel like this matchup says a lot about Shops currently. It used to be a match-up where you made an Oath and they had to have some sort of shenanigans, or had to rip duplicant with you not having FOW or lose- unless they kept in welder and had it on board. It was so bad people even ran eon hub and ensnaring bridge. Now-a-days they can keep you from activating Oath with cage, and if you fight through that they have tons of main deck Griselbrand killers as well. Those ain't your granddaddy’s Shop lists anymore. So acknowledge the match-up is not write-off, or lose.

Emrakul: He’s big, he flies, he wins the game next turn, and he’s hard to remove. This is a recent inclusion over Tinker BSC, mostly because of decks like RUG. Assuming RUG will never try and race you is a pretty ignorant assumption. I’ve had the pleasure of testing this against Soly piloting RUG for months. That deck can make a lot of fast damage. I've even see them attack into Griselbrand and Dismembering it for the kill, as in lethally damaging me and not Griselbrand. Having two dudes in play is key when they've gotten you to low life, and you can’t draw extra cards. All Griselbrand players have heard, “in response to Griselbrand draws, lightning bolt you.” Don’t play into this and don’t play draw go with Griselbrand on the table if you can’t make a path to time walk before they kill you. Emrakul gives you outs here. Depending on the game states, sometimes you can guarantee he’ll be getting Oathed out; sometimes you have to chance it on 50/50 odds. This sounds bad on the surface, but its way better than the zero outs you’d have without him. It doesn't come up in too many games, but it comes up.

Noxious Revival: why not a regrowth over one of the two? Simply because Revival is free. Some people haven’t tried Revival. I get that; reclaim isn't that insane outside of Vroman Oath. But those who have tried Revival can tell you that being able to do it for free can be completely insane. Turn one Oath meeting FOW into EOT Revival for next turn Oath with piece back up is pure nuggetry. This play can also be done with things like Ancestral and Show and Tell, obviously.

What, no Tinker?: BSC was too easily removed, going all in on it is pretty bad with all the steel sabotage and Path around. In additional, the 1/1 tokens you are occasionally forced to give you opponent is just a time walk that comes back to haunt you in certain matchups. As far as retrieving time vault with Tinker, more often I find myself reoccurring time walk for the win. Vault/Key is mostly just secondary to Time Walk.

The dredge SB: Yep, I’m on the “Oath into or cast Jailer” plan. You just try and slam one down between the Oaths, vamp, demon, and jailer’s themselves. Obviously you board out the Eldrazi here. You can be situationaly weak to claim with an Oath plan. However, Ravenous Trap helps you “slow roll” by buying you a turn or two to make an Oath with Pierce or Flusterstorm up. Obviously Misstep and FOW is better and something you play more of to avoid this. Without really thinking about it a few players have asked me, “what happens if you Oath out Griselbrand?” Simply, you draw 7-14 cards until you find a jailer, Rav Trap, or time walk.

Perish: It kills Goyf, Pridemage, and Trygon. Sometimes you've just got to do those things. It also helps in RUG scenarios.

What make this deck worth playing is that it’s got decent game against Shop, but also has a raw power level high enough to beat meta game decks. Furthermore, the counter package seems to have the ability to handle the more broken Burning Long decks in initial testing.