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Thread: Powder Oath

  1. #1
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    Powder Oath


    The dream of an oath player is to play an oath on turn one off of a mox a forbidden orchard and have pitch counter protection. This is the deck that does that.






    History


    Back when 4 copies of flash were legal there was a thread on the mana drain discussing whether serum powder should be used in Flash. Flash, much like oath, was a two card combo (Flash, and Protean hulk) the deck also ran pseudo protean hulks and pseudo flashes in its tutors. In the end no real verdict was reached and the thread died. However this put Serum Powder on my radar.
    When Espresso Staxx (workshops with serum powder) hit the scene I decided I would try something similar in oath. At the time I didn't take it seriously because it just seemed way to good to be true. I consistently landed an oath on turn one or two and usually with some form of protection or disruption.
    You can see the thread here http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38963.0
    Eventually I adapted Serum Powder to Vintage Ad Nauseam and then Legacy Belcher ( I had a lot of tournament success with Serum Powder Belcher). A few weeks ago I decided to try Serum powder Oath again and It's working better than ever.

    Here's a list,

    4 Forbidden Orchard
    4 Oath of Druids
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    4 Duress
    4 Misdirection
    4 Force of Will
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Land Grant
    4 Mental Misstep
    4 Serum Powder
    2 Griselbrand
    1 Blightsteel Colossus
    1 Tinker
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Ponder
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Lotus Petal
    1 Mana Vault
    2 Bayou
    1 Hurkyl's Recall
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    1 Demonic Consultation
    1 Gaea's Blessing


    The original idea was to make a Belcher version of oath with the only lands being orchards. I realized soon that i needed more green mana sources and that the odds of getting only non orchard lands if I had only 1-2 of them was in the 0-1% range so I added 2 Bayou.
    Like wise when I started to add lands and the deck stopped being belcher I first put in rainbow lands but took them out and put land grant back in since it works so will with chrome mox. In testing I've had people concede when I cast Land Grant for it's alternate casting cost, because my hand was so terifying.
    One thing to note, at the moment Chrome mox is working better than off colour power (when I play with power) due mainly to the fact that it's always on colour.

    The creature suite looks weird but it actually a necessity for the shop match up. Basically if they get a duplicant on the table (imprinting your grislebrand) , you have a 50% chance of of knocking it out the next turn. If you don't oath into your second griselbrand. Then you get Blightsteel Colossus , that will block the smaller threats they already have, they'll draw some cards gain 7 life and lay 1-3 threats. on your turn you will defiantly get a griselbrand (killing they're duplicant) and they will have the threats they played last turn off of griselbrand and you'll have a blightsteel. you should win shortly.

    They could draw a duplicant from the griselbrand before you oath, but it's just as likely you would draw a force of will from the griselbrand before they dupe it. in the end luck is involved.

    Play style

    This deck rewards little other than good mulliganing, your going to need a hand that can play an oath, an orchard and protect it. most of the time that won't be in your seven six or five cards. you'll need to have a feel for the cantrips in your hand and what your natural draws are going to be like (depending on how much, and what of your deck you've exiled the deck is going to preform differently).
    Just goldfish a lot to get a feel. I recommend cockatrice.

    Some points

    When you have the right cards it's fairly straight forward resolve an oath, protect the oath. activate the oath, smash face, -win.

    Griselbrand is not a combo card in this deck. He's a means of life gain and card advantage and Blightsteel Colossus is a tinker target.

    Don't oath a second time if you have a Griselbrand on the table.

    This deck has no real draw engine and really just loses tempo, if you haven't played an oath by turn three it's not going to happen.

    Don't be afraid to use Serum Powder if a hand doesn't have both halves of the combo. The only time I would advise against serum powder is if there was a turn two Oath with no protection but a blue card. if you have less than that, powder away.

    Don't be afraid of exiling your Oath targets I have never in the 80+ hours of play testing exiled all of my oath targets. I only exiled my tinker target a handful of times when it was relevant.

    Demonic Consultation usually goes for any four of but if it's a matter of winning or losing feel free to go for anything.

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    Re: Powder Oath

    There was a version of GG Oath, unpowered, ported from MTGO Classic. If you want to capitalize on a quick and sure way to Oath up a creature wouldn't you prefer to have an Emrakul/Blightsteel-Dragon Breath alpha strike to end the game instantly?

  3. #3

    Re: Powder Oath

    If you don't need the storm, fetchlands are just better than Land Grant because they can't be countered or Duressed.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Powder Oath

    Quote Originally Posted by Anusien View Post
    If you don't need the storm, fetchlands are just better than Land Grant because they can't be countered or Duressed.
    I haven't tried fetch lands but I've played gemstone mine in the land grant slot. What I found is that I was lacking cards to imprint on chrome mox. In a powered version I think land grant could come out, for now I like it

    Quote Originally Posted by bilb_o View Post
    There was a version of GG Oath, unpowered, ported from MTGO Classic. If you want to capitalize on a quick and sure way to Oath up a creature wouldn't you prefer to have an Emrakul/Blightsteel-Dragon Breath alpha strike to end the game instantly?
    This is interesting and something I haven't considered. I'll proxy it up and give it a try.
    Last edited by John Cox; 08-25-2012 at 08:17 PM.

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    Re: Powder Oath

    The list I was referring to is the following. It's not Vintage legal as it is a MTGO Classic deck (4 Lotus petals etc.) but could be food for thought:

    Artifacts
    4 Lotus Petal
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Time Vault
    1 Voltaic Key

    Enchantments
    1 Dragon Breath
    4 Oath of Druids

    Instants
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    4 Mental Misstep
    3 Spell Pierce
    1 Vampiric Tutor

    Creatures
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 Blightsteel Colossus

    Planeswalkers
    1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    Sorceries
    1 Demonic Tutor
    2 Duress
    1 Tinker

    Lands
    2 Ancient Tomb
    1 Flooded Strand
    4 Forbidden Orchard
    3 Library of Alexandria
    1 Misty Rainforest
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Scalding Tarn
    1 Strip Mine
    1 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea
    2 Volcanic Island
    3 Wasteland

    So the trick is, an Oath activation will also put Dragon Breath in the graveyard (if you set it up or by luck) so it will trigger with the creature you put in play to get attached to it, giving haste, and ending the game right there.

  6. #6
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    Re: Powder Oath

    Quote Originally Posted by bilb_o View Post
    The list I was referring to is the following. It's not Vintage legal as it is a MTGO Classic deck (4 Lotus petals etc.) but could be food for thought:

    So the trick is, an Oath activation will also put Dragon Breath in the graveyard (if you set it up or by luck) so it will trigger with the creature you put in play to get attached to it, giving haste, and ending the game right there.
    I think the Show and Tell Oath lists from Classic are a lot better for Vintage than non SnT versions of Oath.

    The main reason being is that without Brainstorm it strands Oath targets in hand making discard(If gy clause) and Jace as the only way to return them to deck. SnT alleviates this to some degree. Another bonus for SnT now is Griselbrand drawing into Time Vault.
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  7. #7
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    Re: Powder Oath

    Quote Originally Posted by bilb_o View Post
    The list I was referring to is the following. It's not Vintage legal as it is a MTGO Classic deck (4 Lotus petals etc.) but could be food for thought:

    Artifacts
    4 Lotus Petal
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Time Vault
    1 Voltaic Key

    Enchantments
    1 Dragon Breath
    4 Oath of Druids

    Instants
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    4 Mental Misstep
    3 Spell Pierce
    1 Vampiric Tutor

    Creatures
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 Blightsteel Colossus

    Planeswalkers
    1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    Sorceries
    1 Demonic Tutor
    2 Duress
    1 Tinker

    Lands
    2 Ancient Tomb
    1 Flooded Strand
    4 Forbidden Orchard
    3 Library of Alexandria
    1 Misty Rainforest
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Scalding Tarn
    1 Strip Mine
    1 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea
    2 Volcanic Island
    3 Wasteland

    So the trick is, an Oath activation will also put Dragon Breath in the graveyard (if you set it up or by luck) so it will trigger with the creature you put in play to get attached to it, giving haste, and ending the game right there.
    There's a vintage deck that uses the same concept called Golden Gun (GG) oath. I'm finding this plan isn't working the way I want it to with serum powder.
    With GG oath you can set up your oath activation by using a vampiric tutor to put a dragon breath on top of the deck. With serum powder I don't want to spend the time required to do that. Randomly oathing into a dragon breath happens less to because I've powdered a lot of my deck away.

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