Originally Posted by
MechTactical
Hehe, that was my "jumping from idea to idea like a hyperactive six-year-old man-child" list. Frankly, I threw together that list after seeing the new Mr. Bolas and you asking about Nissa. The walkers are mostly based on the "Texas Walker" list someone posted some pages ago (I think it was before the top ban and can't find it anymore. Can't remeber how they named the idea, but it was walker something...). If I remember correctly, he even wrote a short article about it.
While I agree with Skriger (Ugin, Karn, original idea of the deck, ...) argument, I don't think Oath is inconsistent. Surprisingly it's been very consistent for me. With Brainstorm, guile, and Library you can avoid drawing the wrong walker/card most of the time.
I've played all sorts of builds since the top ban, mostly trying to replace the top with either, ponder, guile, library. To be frank, the most consistent success I've had was with Rock Lee's Cg list (slightly personalized). The only problem with that list is the three extra candles I don't own.
Here's the hyperactive six-year-old man-child list you were inquiring about:
Land (26)
1x Bojuka Bog
4x Cloudpost
1x Eye of Ugin
3x Forest
1x Glacial Chasm
4x Glimmerpost
1x Island
1x Karakas
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Tropical Island
2x Vesuva
Artifact (1)
1x Candelabra of Tawnos
Planeswalker (10)
1x Chandra Ablaze
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Karn Liberated
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
2x Nissa, Steward of Elements
1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
2x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Creature (6)
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4x Primeval Titan
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Enchantment (8)
2x Mirri's Guile
4x Oath of Nissa
2x Sylvan Library
Instant (8)
4x Brainstorm
4x Crop Rotation
Sorcery (2)
2x Show and Tell
Sideboard (15)
4x Flusterstorm
3x Krosan Grip
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Trickbind
2x Vexing Shusher
This list needs work, and I'm not sure about many of the card choices. Probably some walkers could get removed, and some added. Later on, I added needles, to protect my lands. On the other hand, I was able to cast my walkers consistently, and oath missed only once, this proved to me that the "Texas Walker" idea is theoretically feasible, which was the point of this little experiment. Even if Oath gets destroyed, you will most likely draw into another one. Maybe running Cataracts would be an option here (I will try it).
A mix of guile/library has been working for me quite well in this build, or the GSZ builds. With fetchlands, Gsz and other shuffle effects you can see a new top deck on each upkeep/draw step for free and get the best card. It can't replace top but dropping guile on T1 and then setting your draws for the rest of the game feels very strong. Once you're behind/low on the cards guile becomes less useful, since you need to wait for a whole turn to see another top deck and draw the potential answer naturally. It doesn't work well with SnT, because you often need that extra card draw (which top enabled) to assemble the combo.
I'm not sure I like Nissa after the top ban. I noticed I'm rarely using her +0 (which is the strongest ability in my opinion). Before the top was banned I was able to play a few games, and it was much, much easier to use her +0 to good effect. Scy 2 isn't really what we want I think. While we can easily achieve her ultimate, it's often too little too late to change the game state.