|
[Home]
Oath of Druids is a control deck that uses the combo of oath_of_druids and gaea's_blessing to Oath creatures into play but get your library back. Keep in mind you want to play exactly 2 Gaea's Blessing in case you draw one or 1 gets stifled. Obviously, the deck is only playable in metagames where every deck has a creature that's importent to it.
Typically, the creatures used are spike_feeder and spike_weaver. The reason why their the best is that you can gain life by removing or prevent combat damage by removing their counters, when thy die, the get shuffled back in with Gaea's Blessing and the Oathed back out. Also, they are immune to Swords_to_Plowshares, if you're opponent casts it, simply remove all the counters in a way that suits you and Oath them back out in a 2 turns (1 turn to shuffle them in, 1 turn to Oath them out). You could use Ravenous_Baloth instead of the Weaver, but you lose the ability to boost the power of your other creatures, so stick with the Feeder. The preferred kill card is morphling, it has the ability to kill itself in a pinch and has a several usefull and versitile abilities. I have seen versions that use Multani,_Maro_Sorcerer because its untargetable making it resistent to Swords to Plowshares and creature enchantments, and since Multani usually comes out early, its gnerally big and it has great synergy with all the card Drawing in Oath.
The card drawing of Oath always has 4 Brainstorm. They can help find an Oath and put a creature, Blessing, or excess land in you're hand on top of your library to be Oathed away. Next, Sylvan Library and Scroll Rack are all very good for the same reasons excepy that Sylvan Libary is REALLY good with Spike Feeder. My next card drawing choice is Impulse. It digs deep and hard and finds Oath. Other viable card drawing is Fact or Fiction and Deep Analysis. DA is usually okay because Spike Feeder will usualy let your gain your life back.
The above things are all pretty much a must and the rest depends on you're metagame. So I'll give a list and explain it.
WRUG Oath
Combo (9):
4 Oath of Druids
2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Morphling
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
Draw (11):
4 Brainstorm
3 Sylvan Library
2 Impulse
1 Scroll Rack
1 Fact or Fiction
Control (15):
4 Force of Will
4 Counter Spell
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Powder Keg
2 Cunning Wish
1 Balance
Mana (24):
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
Sideboard (15):
2 Deep Analysis
1 Hydroblast
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Call of the Herd
1 Fire/Ice
1 Naturalize
1 Gush
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Stifle
1 Aura Blast
In my version, I used Cunning_Wish, remember that between Scroll Rack, Gaea's Blessing and Sylvan Library, you'll likely redraw what you wished for. I also have 8 counterspells, Force_of_Will is really important to the deck, play a second turn Oath can be risky and if they counter or Naturalize the Oath, it can be long time untill you get another. If you don't have Force of Will, then I'd try Daze or another free spell to protect your Oath. Swords to PLowshares is there just in case something bad comes out, like Chimeric_Idol, Meddling_Mage, Viashino_Sandstalker or anything else that poses a threat or away to protect yourself when you haven't drawn an Oath. Powder_Keg helps stop Moxes and early game weenies without harming Oath like Perncious_Deed does.Balance is great creature destruction as you won’t have many out and balances things if your behind and haven't gotten an Oath into play or are having mana troubles. One of things about Oath isdoesn’t need a lot of control because the only cards that can really hurt Oath or cards that counter or kill Oath.
The sideboard (as always) depends on what your up against. Note that you should always have a creature back up if you're up against a creatureless. My favorite is Call of the Herd, but if you're splashing black, then I would use Phyrexian Negator.
Now, why isn't accumulated knowledge in this deck? It may sound like an obvious choice but I wouldn't use. Pre-Oath in play, in order to use AK, you will need to devte 4 slots to it and 1 or 2 to Intuition and then you will need a Merchant Scroll as well for fetching out the last AK. This means devoting 5 or 6 slots to it. In my decklist above, I would have to cut Impulse, Sylvan Library and Scroll Rack. This is all for just a 3 card diging for Oath, where scroll rack digs 3+ a turn, Sylvan Libary digs 1-3 a turn and gives massive card advantage, and Impulse digs for 4 once and costs 2 instead of 5. Let's consider post-Oath benefits, what do you gain. Well, its quite possible you will gain multiple draws of 3 or more with AK, but also consider how much better sylvan library is. You can dig for 2 and Oath away a usless card, stack creatures and Blessings you draw on your library, and only costs 2 once. There's also no garantee abou how good Accumulated Knowledge will be, you have to hope to draw one when there are multiple Ak in your graveyard.
The Oath of Druids mana base pretty basic, Fetch Lands to fetch Dual Land and Mishra’s_Factory so you can have a creature in play that doesn’t prevent you from Oathing. Non-basic lands aren’t abundant in my metagame so I don’t use wasteland. If there are a lot in your Metagame, then I would cut Mishra’s Factory and replace them with Treetop Jungle, cut 1 or 2 Tropical Island, 1 or 2 Islands and 1 or 2 of you dual lands. If can’t afford duals Painlands aren’t to bad because your opponents won’t get much damage through between the Spikes.
The sideboard is outfitted to work with cunning_wish and contains stuff for most situations. Deep_Analysis is for less aggressive decks, and Call of the Herd is for decks that can sideboard out there creatures (like Burn) or creatureless decks.
If you want to play without Cunning Wish then I would try something like this:
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Powder Keg
2 Fire/Ice
2 Deep Analysis
3 Call of the Herd
Make sure to Maindeck your 4th Swords to Plowshares and use other slot for something that suits your metagame like Powder Keg or some extra card drawage.
How to Play the deck:
Your first concern is getting out Oath of Druids, you’re next is Counter Back Up, once you establish these 2 things, you’ll get you’re opponent into a lock fairly quickly. It is important to try and avoid you’re opponent from Oathing, sacrifice one of your creatures if you need to. They might oath up potential game winners, like Visera, Ball Lightning, or Elvish Lyrist, just your opponent Oathing up a solid creature like Morphling can be bad. The next thing is that you shoud be Oathing every turn if your opponent has a creature out, at end of turn gain life with you Spike Feeder or move counters onto your Morphling. If your Morphling isn’t doing anything (like attacking), sacrifice it so you can take advantage of the counters on a Spike. When control of the game becomes yours, begin to move counters onto your Morphling and attack. Remember to watch out for Elvish_Lyrist, Seal_of_Cleansing, and Naturalize as the main foil to Oath of Druids. Elvish Lyrist tends to be the largest threat because your opponent can play it on the first turn and you have to have the Force of Will. If they play it, then try to throw out a Sylvan Library as bait and hope for the best. This can work pretty well because if they destroy it, you play the Oath in your hand and if they don’t, you can dig for a second Oath. Here's all the things that you will see that present the greatest threat to Oath:
Commen foils to Oath:
-Creatureless Decks
-Chimeric Idol
-Viashino Sandstalker
-Elvish Lyrist and Emerald Charm
-Coffin Purge and Stifle
-Man Lands
Now, if you want to play powered Oath then here's a decklist:
Mana: 25
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Island
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
Combo: 9
4 Oath of Druids
2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weever
1 Morpling
The Rest: 26
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Sylvan Library
1 Timetwister
1 Regrowth
1 Merchan Scroll
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Cuning Wish
1 Balance
Also, here's the Budgeteerers special from when I first started to play Oath:
Mana: 24
2 Ardakar Wastes
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Brushland
4 Treetop Village
7 Flooded Strand
6 Island
1 Plains
Combo: 9
4 Oath of Druids
2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Morphling (I used an Akroma very first)
Draw: 9
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Impulse
4 Brainstorm
Control: 18
2 Capsize
3 Daze
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
3 Force Spike
2 Mana Leak
The other way you can play Oath is*(see bottem) a Combo deck that uses Oath of Druids to dump things into you're graveyard and play you're combo peice into ways. Once you have Oath, there are 2 ways you can get Yawgmoth's Will into you're hand, Anarchist and Krosan Reclemation. Anarchist is faster but less reliable because you're library isn't completely milled. Krosan eclemation is slower because it cost 2. So, once you've anarchied or reclamed, cast Yawmoth's Will, then play a few Lion's Eye Diamonds, and then you can win 1 (or both if you really want to) of 2 ways (Usually).
The first is to cast Power Artifact and Grim Monolith for a large Stroke of Genius, or cast Replenish to bring out Saproling Burst and Pandemonium for 21+ damage. So here's some decklists:
Bocci's Unpowered
Mana: 28
3 Helm of Awkening
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
4 Undergound Sea
4 City of Brass
4 Gemsrone Mne
1 Tundra
Combo: 13
4 Oath of Druids
2 Krosan Reclemation
1 Yawmoth's Will
2 Pandemonium
2 Saproling Burst
2 Replenish
-or-
1 Power Artifact
1 Grim Monolith
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Braingeyeser
2 Orim's Chant
Anti-Counter: 4
4 Abeyance
Broken/Card Draw/ Tutor: 12
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightned Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Regrowth
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
Eight Land Combo ( 2nd Generation ) - 60 Cards by Solarian X (from themanadrain.com)
Artifact Mana
1 Black Lotus
2 Bloodstone Cameo
2 Drake-Skull Cameo
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Seashell Cameo
1 Sol Ring
2 Tigereye Cameo
2 Troll-horn Cameo
Acceleration
4 Helm of Awakening
Recursion
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Library Trasher
4 Oath of Druids
Disruption / Protection
2 Abeyance
4 Force Spike
4 Mana Leak
2 Orim's Chant
Utility
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor
Combo
2 Saproling Burst
1 Pandemonium
Lands
4 City of Brass
4 Undiscovered Paradise
Sideboard
2 Sleeper Agent
1 Power Artifact
1 Grim Monolith
1 Stroke of Genius
2 Naturalize
2 Disenchant
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 meta choices
So, have fun and don’t play oath unless there’s a maindeck creature in 90% or so of the decks your against. Don’t drop your cookies either.
*Okay, so you can actually play Suicide Oath. CogniOath from extended falls under this category. The idea is to forget about you're library and just put in something big and obscene, like Akroma or wahtever makes you happy. The problem with this strategy is that its just not as good as th Gaea's blessing strategy (usually). If you'e playing against a heavy aggro field, Spike Feeder and Spike Weever=win unless you're opponent can do something to stop the recusrion engine. its a lot harder to hit Gaea's Blessing then Cognivore (Swords to Plowshares is in T1). A time when you might actaully want Sui Oath would be against like a 50% aggro field, because you have a lot of disruption for control and combo, so in you're sideboard, make sure you have like Phyrexian Negator or any other fast win condition (phyrexian Negator is probably the best). So, here's a budget decklist:
Combo: 6
4 Oath of Druids
1 Petradon
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Control: 18
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
2 Fire/Ice
2 Cunning Wish
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Duress
Draw: 12
4 Brainstorm
3 Sylvan Library
2 Impulse
2 Scroll Rack
1 Fact or Ficiton
Mana: 24
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Island
4 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
Sideboard: 15
2 Fire/Ice
4 Phyrexian Negator
1 Misdirection
1 Stifle
1 Gush
3 Pyroblast
1 Hydro Blast
2 Naturalize
All Right, now that it is Post Mirrodin, Post Restriction, we need to decide what changes to make to Oath. First, Chalice of the Void and Isochrone Scepter apear to be the most vialble for inclusion. Considering Chalice: Chalice is almos exactly the same as Oath agianst aggro, both annihilate it (usually), except Oath already has a win condition built. So, CotV is an excellent sideboard replacement agianst control and combo, assuming you have moxes. A chalice for 1 on turn 2 against control is unlikley to resolve agianst control, but if combo hasn't won yet and it isn't dragon, you might just be able to pull through. Now, how does chalice effect Oath. Assuming Chalice of the Voind is set for less then 2, not too badly, you're Impulses, Oaths, Cunning Wishes, Sylvan Libraries, and counterspelss are still unheart. For a chalice at 2, hope you're Man Lands and Cunning Wish pull you through. |
