Odd Oath

[The Atog Lord]

Last night, I was thinking about something a few commentators were saying in the VSL. They were saying that the only viable decks in Vintage were Shop decks and Storm decks. If Vintage comes down to nothing more than picking between Storm and Shops, then we are not playing a very healthy format. Yet, despite the proclamations of some very excellent players, I do not believe that the format is nearly so narrow. I think that there is a lot more to Vintage than Dark Ritual and Mishra's Workshops.

Therefore, as a thought experiment, I wanted to create a deck that would be favored against Shops, favored against Storm, and not outright terrible against the rest of the format. The result was something I am calling Odd Oath -- an Oath of Druids deck with tools for fighting both of those decks. I took a lot of inspiration from the Kelly Oath deck, but I cut white and added (back) black.

// Artifact Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

// Land
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
2 Polluted Delta
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Mana Confluence
2 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Island

// Oath and Oath Targets
4 Oath of Druids
1 Void Winnower // Beats Storm
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth // Good against Shops
1 Griselbrand // Good against everything

// Planeswalkers
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Dack Fayden

// Disruption
2 Thoughtseize
3 Mental Misstep
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Pernicious Deed

// Draw and Search
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dig Through Time
1 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Sylvan Library
1 Yawgmoth's Will


// Sideboard
3 Duress
2 Mindbreak Trap
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nature's Claim
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Ancient Grudge

Against Shops, you'll note the robust manabase. We have two Dacks and a Grudge maindeck, as well as five artifact-removal spells to bring in after sideboarding. In addition, the card Oath of Druids is extremely good against Shop decks. Its power against Mishra has only grown stronger as Shops players have migrated to playing more aggressive, creature-based decks recently.

Against Storm, we are using a fairly standard Blue package in the main deck. The main difference is having two Thoughtseize. Attacking Storm through counter magic alone is not nearly as effective as fighting Storm through both counter magic and discard. In addition, Oath of Druids allows us to present a very fast clock to our Storm opponent. If Void Winnower arrives, most storm decks simply can't. Post-board, we get three more discard spells and a pair of Mindbreak Traps.

I made the deck last night, and played in a Daily today. I went 4-0. I streamed the entire thing, and the video should still be available to watch (twitch.tv/richshay). In the first round, I beat a Delver deck. Oath of Druids was, of course, excellent there. In the second round, I faced a Workshop deck. In round three, I won an Oath mirror. And in the final round, I faced Belcher and won. So, while I did not face Storm, I did defeat Belcher, which is not too dissimilar from the perspective of how this deck operates.

I don't know if this will be a real deck going forward. I haven't tested it enough to know that. And while going 4-0 in a daily is nice, it doesn't prove a deck to be good. At the very least, I can say that this deck is promising. It might be a great call if you believe that Vintage is being dominated by Workshops and Rituals.

Rich

[Overvoltage]

I'm disappointed this wasn't named "Void Winnoather," but other than that, it was a joy to watch

[The Atog Lord]

It would have been named Space Oddity. But it was too depressing.

[Islandswamp]

That's a cool idea. Your comment on Thoughtseize is spot on, I quickly found it was one of my best cards for storm when I'm on Oath.

I'd definitely give the list a try.

[Leoj]

Definitely going to give this list a try, though I'd be tempted to cut maybe a Duress for an Elesh Norn against Delver/Mentor decks.

[xouman]

The amount of mana that you could generate in the videos makes me think is oath is needed at all

Great deck, reminds me a bit to null rod/COTV oath. The ability of controlling the game seems better than other oath builds. Props for the 4-0 and thanks for sharing!

[evouga]

I'd also recommend an Elesh Norn in the sideboard for dealing with Mentor/Dredge/BUG.

[the_unseen]

Void Winnower was a real winner for you in both dailies, great job with the deckbuilding & your piloting!

[Leoj]

I didn't have quite as much luck in my daily excursion (going 1-3) but I'm curious what you'd replace Titania with. Perhaps we just roll with Elesh Norn MD? It doesn't help against Shops but should be good in most other caes.

[evouga]

It does help in that it kills revokers and neuters assembly workers and hangerback walker. It doesn't stop a single large ravager but that is what spot removal is for.

[evouga]

By the way I love the use of Void Winnower: it perfectly hamstrings both decks, stopping Tendrils, Empty, Metamorph, Duplicant, Tangle Wire and Smokestack.

I do have some questions though:

1. Planeswalkers

Every time I try Planeswalkers in an Oath shell I'm left unhappy, as they have anti-synergy with Orchard, and more generally with Oath's creatureless strategy: their effectiveness is countered by random Mishra's Factories, Revokers, etc. Is 4x Paneswalkers really where you want to be?

2. Resiliency vs Hate

The deck is all-in on the Oath plan (I guess the manabase does also support hard-casing the Oath targets) and so is soft to the usual Oath hate cards (Cage, Witchbane Orb, Aeon of the Gods, Leyline of Sanctity, and especially Containment Priest). I'm partial to Show and Tell as a plan B, and S&T is excellent vs Storm (the worst thing that can happen is Bargain or Necro, whose danger is minimized by the list's heavy hand disruption). Show and Tell is harder to cast and riskier vs Shops, of course (less risky these days now that fewer builds run Duplicant) but Shops is also the more naturally favorable matchup. S&T doesn't solve the Containment Priest problem but if the meta is Shops and Storm with very few decks that support white, maybe that's an acceptable risk.

3. Gitaxian Probe vs Preordain

Against Storm Probe is fine, but against Shops and Delver/Mentor life total can become a limiting resource, what with the Orchards and Mana Confluences forming a significant part of the mana base. Probe seems needlessly greedy here compared to Preordain.

[Islandswamp]

I would say that Iona would be good against Storm too, but obviously Iona is worse against a Workshop deck because her ability is not relevant to that match up.

I've tried alternative Oath targets like Bane of Progress, Dromoka, Elesh Norn, and Emrakul. I've never tried Terastadon but I've thought about trying it.

Another awesome thing about Void Winnower is that it isn't Legendary. Karakas is a real nasty sideboard option so having a Oath target that doesn't lose to Karakas is nice.

I've thought about cutting down on Show and Tells in my list before, and I've thought about cutting Key Vault before as well. It's interesting to see you be successful without those cards, it makes the thought of playing without them more palatable.  I do sideboard Vault Key out in certain match ups to make more room for counters and removal, while mitigating the damage done by Stony Silence.

[Mike Kidney]

During VSL i had the same thought, not the deck but it would be sweet to make a deck thats good against storm and shops. since my lack of skill i just waited for you to do that
The only thing i am missing is vamp tutor. I know you love Sylvan Library, in fact i was thrilled by your sylvan mentor list! But in this deck i would prefere the vamp tutor. Also you can't get the wrong picture on vamp tutor but you could on the library 

[desolutionist]

I was thinking that Chalice of the Void would be really good in this 75.  It's great against Storm, and it helps with Winnower against Swords.

[evouga]

What would you set Chalice to in a typical game? 0, 1, and 2 both seem really bad in this list before Oath comes down.

[desolutionist]

1...

The list has few one drops that it depends on.  You would cut the Missteps/Probes and play more robust cards in those slots.  Chalice for one.  

Here's a previous version of ICBM Oath that ran 4x Chalice with plenty of 1 drops just fine:

       1 Gaea's Blessing
        1 Strip Mine
        2 Wasteland
        1 Crop Rotation
        2 Island
        2 Underground Sea
        2 Tropical Island
        4 Polluted Delta
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        2 Duress
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Rushing River
        1 Time Walk
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Forbidden Orchard
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Emerald
        2 Null Rod
        3 Thirst for Knowledge
        4 Brainstorm
        4 Chalice of the Void
        4 Mana Drain
        4 Force of Will
        1 Razia, Boros Archangel
        1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
        4 Oath of Druids

Possibly, Rushing River is to bounce your own Chalice if its a problem?

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

One thing: I think Titania is a weak oath target (as you mention at the end of your stream). It can't even attack through orchard tokens. Only trades with a golem (rather, the token trades).

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Stormtide Leviathan (odd? yeah! unblockable moat creature? okay!)
Avacyn, Angel of Hope (boring)
Rune-scarred demon (e.g. with tangle wire and mana floating in upkeep... into hurkyl's or other ridiculous stuff)
Tidespout Tyrant (also makes infinite mana and draws your deck with 2 moxen + jace/dack/rune-scarred-demon etc.: surely wins the "odd" price, together with void winnower)
Dragonlord Atarka
Hellkite Tyrant (WIN MORE!)
Elesh Norn
Blazing Archon
Terastodon
... or even woodripper

all seem better against MUD, which says a lot imo.
Almost any Fattie, really.

[Khahan]

I made the deck last night, and played in a Daily today. I went 4-0. I streamed the entire thing, and the video should still be available to watch (twitch.tv/richshay). In the first round, I beat a Delver deck. Oath of Druids was, of course, excellent there. In the second round, I faced a Workshop deck. In round three, I won an Oath mirror. And in the final round, I faced Belcher and won. So, while I did not face Storm, I did defeat Belcher, which is not too dissimilar from the perspective of how this deck operates.

Did you go 4-0 because you played Oath well or did you go 4-0 because your oath targets were game winners? If you had simply run 3x Grislebrand would the results have been the same?

[The Atog Lord]

I made the deck last night, and played in a Daily today. I went 4-0. I streamed the entire thing, and the video should still be available to watch (twitch.tv/richshay). In the first round, I beat a Delver deck. Oath of Druids was, of course, excellent there. In the second round, I faced a Workshop deck. In round three, I won an Oath mirror. And in the final round, I faced Belcher and won. So, while I did not face Storm, I did defeat Belcher, which is not too dissimilar from the perspective of how this deck operates.

Did you go 4-0 because you played Oath well or did you go 4-0 because your oath targets were game winners? If you had simply run 3x Grislebrand would the results have been the same?

It is hard to be sure, honestly. But I think Void Winnower won me games that Griselbrand could not have won. Titania was lackluster.

[Islandswamp]

I used your deck in my article this week. I did some testing with my normal oath deck with subbing in a Void Winnower. The card is actually really good against a lot of things. Good for you for trying something new Rich. I admire your deck building and playing.

[Khahan]

I made the deck last night, and played in a Daily today. I went 4-0. I streamed the entire thing, and the video should still be available to watch (twitch.tv/richshay). In the first round, I beat a Delver deck. Oath of Druids was, of course, excellent there. In the second round, I faced a Workshop deck. In round three, I won an Oath mirror. And in the final round, I faced Belcher and won. So, while I did not face Storm, I did defeat Belcher, which is not too dissimilar from the perspective of how this deck operates.

Did you go 4-0 because you played Oath well or did you go 4-0 because your oath targets were game winners? If you had simply run 3x Grislebrand would the results have been the same?

It is hard to be sure, honestly. But I think Void Winnower won me games that Griselbrand could not have won. Titania was lackluster.

That's good to know. I've been curious about void winnower and how it may perform.    I'll have to try and watch the twitch later when I'm home.

Since Titania was lackluster what would you consider replacing her with?

[tito del monte]

Rich, this build seems really interesting - thanks once again for providing us with a fascinating list to try out. Perhaps more importantly, thanks for offering a bit of a riposte to some of the hasty statements uttered on VSL - even if this week, you were on the receiving end of a tough time from Storm!

As to the third anti-shop fattie: Bane of Progress as mentioned above does sound good. Otherwise maybe some of the titans are worth considering - Primeval Titan into lands or Sun Titan into land/moxen/Dack/Deed could all be decent.

Good luck with the deck - hope we see you give it a run-out in the next VSL trimester.

[Leoj]

There's another list on MTGGoldfish that shows Rich playing an Inferno Titan in that slot. Sun Titan sounds interesting because of what it can end up getting back. Both seem better than Prime Time.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like Sun Titan as an anti-shops target. At worst, it'll return you a land. At best, it returns a Dack or Deed (which you hopefully mill while oathing).

[Chubby Rain]

There's another list on MTGGoldfish that shows Rich playing an Inferno Titan in that slot. Sun Titan sounds interesting because of what it can end up getting back. Both seem better than Prime Time.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like Sun Titan as an anti-shops target. At worst, it'll return you a land. At best, it returns a Dack or Deed (which you hopefully mill while oathing).

Check the daily results later today. 

[msg67183]

For what its worth, Sun Titan can also bring back Serenity to wipe Workshops board every turn.

[lizardking1545]

Sounds like a cool deck, could someone link the videos that were referenced?

[Leoj]

Sounds like a cool deck, could someone link the videos that were referenced?

Any of these from Jan 23 and 24

http://www.twitch.tv/richshay/profile

[The Atog Lord]

Yesterday, I played Odd Oath in the Magic: the Gathering Online Power 9 tournament. I went 6-1 in the Swiss. I lost in the top eight, losing to missing four Mana Crypt flips in a row (if I am recalling correctly). The deck performed very well and I felt it was strong against a number of opposing decks.

My one loss in the Swiss was to Dredge. I beat Tezzerator, Mentor, Oath, Shops, Painter, and UW Control.

Titania was underwhelming. Sun Titan was too situational. I played Inferno Titan over them and was very, very happy. I won a game by running him out on the second turn, right through my opponent's Red blast. I won another game by hardcasting him against an opponent at low life. And I won yet another game by casting him to kill a Jace. And there was never a game that I Oathed into him and wished her were something else. I think Inferno Titan has established himself as the tertiary creature, in addition to Void Winnower and Griselbrand.

And of course, Void Winnower continues to exceed all expectation. He's a very fast clock that locks out the opponent. I can't imagine wanting to cut him.

Mana Crypt was, as mentioned above, less than ideal. It might be time to cut that card, though I have not made a thorough study of possible replacement options. We already have Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, and of course Orchards. Mana Crypt seems like it might just be too much.


And of course, here is the list that I played:



// Artifact Mana
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt // Probably needs to be cut

// Land
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
2 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Strip Mine // This has been better than Library
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Mana Confluence
2 Flooded Strand

// Oath
1 Void Winnower // This card is a huge part of why I am on this deck
1 Griselbrand
1 Inferno Titan // Very good all day, as noted above
4 Oath of Druids
1 Dig Through Time // Prevents decking when cast before an Oath activation

// Disruption
2 Thoughtseize
3 Mental Misstep
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Pernicious Deed // I kept wanting to find this card; a second copy might be right
1 Mindbreak Trap

// Draw et al.
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise // Sylvan Library is a better card, but the blue count is a concern
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// Sideboard
1 Abrupt Decay // To handle Containment Priest; would be Duress otherwise
2 Mindbreak Trap
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nature's Claim
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Steel Sabotage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

[Princess_Power]

If you cut Mana Crypt does the deck have enough artifacts for Academy? And sadly if you cut tolarian+Crypt it seems alot harder to cast things like Inferno Titan. Though I magine this issue is not that hard to fix.

[The Atog Lord]

I agree, it is not easy to get the balance right. On the one hand, you want to have enough mana to hardcast your giant monsters at some point. On the other hand, being mana flooded doesn't work well with the plan of casting a two-drop. I agree that Academy might not be viable in this configuration. I'm going to think about how to adjust this.