Oath of Avatar

[Exaulted_Leader]

Yeah, yeah - I'm sure everyone already knows this deck. I've just been experimenting with her recently - and MAN is she ever FUN!

My build looks like:

Critters:

4x Serra Avatar

Non-critters:

4x Oath of Druids
4x Spirit Link
4x Armadillo Cloak
4x Dragon Breath
4x Dragon Fangs
4x Sterling Grove
4x Argivian Find
4x Rofellos's Gift
4x Gaea's Blessing

Land:

10x Plains
10x Forest


The idea (for those of you living on Pluto): Use Oath of Druids for a 3rd turn Serra Avatar, hope that Dragon Breath is hit along the way to give it haste, and recklessly pummel your foe dead.

Fangs, Link and Armadillo Cloak are just some tasty icing for the cake, and the Gift and Find act as tech against the countering or destruction of the Oath. Blessings ensure that you never mill-out your library, while Sterling Grove serves the dual purpose of protecting the Oath and digging out new ones.


How many variants of this deck have people seen? What's the most effective build?

 

[train]

I think you need to be able to protect yourself from other creatures... and the avatar shouldn't be your only means of this...

swords, wrath, exile, etc...

As for the dragon enchantments, it should work as you want it to, but you mayask it in rules to be certain... Remember, the cards aren't milled, they're revealed..., then the creature is put into play, and all other revealeds are put into the graveyard...

You could also use Hunting Grounds for Avatars in your hand...

 

[Oversoul]

If your opponent doesn't drop a creature, how do you win?

 

[train]

He'd hardcast the avatar...

but there does need to be another kill condition...

 

[Exaulted_Leader]

I think you need to be able to protect yourself from other creatures... and the avatar shouldn't be your only means of this...

Fog and Holy Day are 'interchangeable' with the Argivian Find and Rofellos's Gift, in case of a deck that runs exceptionally fast.

Typically, however, I've found that a 3rd turn Serra Avatar does a very adequate job of keeping my life total guarded against attackers.

As for the dragon enchantments, it should work as you want it to, but you mayask it in rules to be certain... Remember, the cards aren't milled, they're revealed..., then the creature is put into play, and all other revealeds are put into the graveyard...

I've already checked this over with a level 1 judge after examining it myself, just to be certain.

The Oath effect triggers, revealing all cards up to the Serra Avatar, then simultaneously puts the Avatar in play and the rest into the graveyard. The Avatar then triggers the Dragon enchantments.

It's a thing of beauty, really.

You could also use Hunting Grounds for Avatars in your hand...

I think they'd be dead cards too often to be useful. The Gaea's Blessings keep my graveyard from becoming very full, and I'm never pitching a whole lot into it (unless I've Oathed a whole lot into it without hitting a Blessing, which is a Bad Thing anway).

I could run Pipers, but those guys get zapped so darn easily...

If your opponent doesn't drop a creature, how do you win?

He'd hardcast the avatar...

Yes, hardcasting the Avatar is one possibility.

The other is to switch-out Argivian Find of Rofellos's Gift for Loxodon Peacekeeper (and possibly Nourish, to aid the process).

but there does need to be another kill condition...

Well, I could do something sneaky like man-lands and Biorhythm, but I really think that an alternate win condition might skew the focus of the deck - which really need to be kept intact for it to remain solid.

 

[Oversoul]

The problem with this deck is that it rolls over and dies to certain decks. I didn't see Loxodon Peacekeeper in the decklist, so I don't know what you're talking about.

If your opponent plays Burn, you won't be able to Oath, because they'll just sacrifice their Fanatics so that you can't, and Ball Lightning won't live long enough.

If you play against Discard, they'll just empty your hand and Rack you to death, which is way too fast for you to cast an Avatar. Even if you did cast it, it would not help when you're already down to 5 life.

If you play against virtually ANY combo deck, they're basically goldfishing.

If you play against CounterPost, they will just counter your Oaths or Disenchant them.

Fish will counter the Oath and beat you down. Oath is the only spell they have to counter, so they're not too worried.

Landstill never has to worry about you Oathing up an Avatar, and will kill you with creatures just the same.

Another Oath deck will pound you with Treetop Village, and if you hardcast your Avatar or if they hardcast a Morphling so that you can use Oath, it will just Swords to Plowshares it. You'll double your life, but it won't have been 20 at the time either.

White Weenie will Disenchant your Oath and beat you down. You may or may not be able to get an Avatar out, but by the time you do, it won't be that big.

Some blue builds might end up letting you Oath up an Avatar. And then you put a Spirit Link on it and attack. It get's Capsized. And you'll be running out of time as they whittle away at your life.

And there are other bad matchups too...

 

[train]

For your decklist - think of moment's peace in place of fogs... they give you two spells for 1 card - it's a great bonus...

I figured the dragon enchantments would work - just wanted to make sure...

Here's a decklist to give you some versatility... The cities of Brass are in here so the dragon breath is not a dead card in your hand...

Critters:
4x Serra Avatar
2x Darksteel Colossus - the indestructible is hard to beat...
1x Crater Hellion or False Prophet - clears the board...

Non-critters:

4x Oath of Druids
3x Spirit Link
3x Armadillo Cloak
4x Dragon Breath
4x Dragon Fangs
2x Unquestioned Authority
4x Sterling Grove
3x Argivian Find
3x Rofellos's Gift
4x Gaea's Blessing

Land:

9x Plains
9x Forest
2x City of Brass

 

[mythosx]

Nice build.

 

[Mikeymike]

Hey E_L.

Solid looking build.

I don't quite think you need '4 ofs' so many items, I'll explain why. Plus cutting items will allow you to fit it some other necessary utility.

-2 Gaea's Blessing - You really don't need 4. 2 is usually par for the course with Oath decks, maybe 3. Try 2 to begin, as you also don't want to draw it. It is OK if your Graveyard is big, especially if you drop your critter count (which makes the Blessings more frequent).

-2 Serra Avatar. Again, you don't want to draw it and you'll rarely ever need more than 1 to win.

-2 Rofello's Gift - Sneaky, but 4 feel overkill (3 could be good though). Keep in mind that you've currently got 8 cards dedicated to retrieving an Oath from your GY, 8 creature enchantments that need an Oath and a creature in play, and 8 cards that you want in your yard before the Oath works. That is a lot of potential for dead draws.

-2 Dragon Bits - Too many.

+4 Scroll Rack - crucial in here. It allows you to dig deeper in your deck, and most importantly it gets cards you don't want in your hand (Avatar, Blessings, Dragon bits) back into your library.

+1 Enlightened Tutor - Might as well, it should help.

+2 Card Draw/Utility of some sort. You could go with the classic Scroll Rack/Land Tax combo if you wanted (which would actually be perfect for this build).

-4 Forest/Plains - for the next card...

+3/4 Windswept Heath/Krosan Verge - A necessary auto-shuffle for your Scroll Racks, plus they get re-used with Blessings to help you continuously thin out your deck.

----

Don't run the Peacekeeper. Early game, when you want it to activate, it is extremely unlikely that you will be up in life total - hence your opponent will not end up with it. You might need to beat down with it a few times before they finally gain control of it, and even then they can swing right back to lose the life lead and give it back to you.

----
Example decklist
2x Serra Avatar
1x Spike Weaver

Non-critters:

4x Oath of Druids
4x Scroll Rack
4x Armadillo Cloak
4x Sterling Grove
4x Argivian Find
3x Spirit Link
3x Land Tax
3x Dragon Breath
3x Dragon Fangs
2x Rofellos's Gift
2x Gaea's Blessing
1x Enlightened Tutor

Land:
4x Windswept Heath
8x Plains
8x Forest

 

[firehawk12164]

nice deck, dude!!

I think Oversoul burned you a lil on that one though. Your deck's lookin good, but you do need to think about countering other deck stratagies, like counterspell or somethin.

otherwise, awesome deck!!!

 

[Exaulted_Leader]

There are currently 12(!) maindecked means of retrieving an Oath from the graveyard. The LAST thing I need to worry about are counterspells.

Hmm...

I like your build, train - I KNEW my Enlightened Tutor needed to be in there, but I somehow 'missed' it when I first put things together. My bad x.x

Grr... I've tried numerous builds, and it's lots of fun, but there's something EXTREMELY aggravating inherent with the deck:

It NEEDS either the Enlightened Tutor or an Oath in the opening hand. Scroll Rack and Sterling Grove just aren't good enough.

Wall of Blossoms and Moment's Peace don't even help to equalize this problem (they help, but I still get decapitated 80% of the time that the Oath isn't in my opening hand - vs the 100% of the time winning if the Oath is in the opening hand).

If Enlightened Tutor weren't restricted, I swear... ;P

I NEED something to help me out here. ANYTHING!

Do White or Green have any kind of card-drawing cards? Or deck-stackers? Any kind of 'fetch' stuff? I won't dare risk throwing another color in the deck... but I need something to improve my odds at having the Oath in my hand by turn 2.

 

[Oversoul]

Scroll Rack seems like it could help with that problem. I like Train's build, although it still seems like it could have some really bad matchups still, but the Scroll Rack trick could definitely help make the deck more consistent.

 

[train]

Revised to assist in your "need in opening hand" dilemma...

Critters:
4x Serra Avatar
2x Darksteel Colossus
1x Crater Hellion or False Prophet
1x Academy Rector - specifically to chump, and fetch...

Non-critters:
4x Oath of Druids
3x Eladamri's Call
3x Spirit Link
3x Armadillo Cloak
3x Dragon Breath
3x Dragon Fangs
2x Unquestioned Authority
4x Sterling Grove
4x Argivian Find
4x Gaea's Blessing

Land:

9x Plains
9x Forest
2x City of Brass

Sideboard:
4 Moment's Peace
1 Jareth, Leonine Titan
1 False Prophet
1 Crater Hellion
1 Academy Rector
1 Molder Slug
3 Troll Ascetic
3 Wall of Blossoms

Since the rofello's gift is a sorcery, I got rid of it... and threw in 3 eladamri's call, and added the academy rector...

So - if you don't get an oath in the opening hand... you can get the enlightened tutor, 1 of 3 eladamri's call, 1 of 4 sterling groves, or the academy rector in the opening hand... and end up getting your oath out pretty early on still... (That's 13 possibles -including oath - to get started quickly... roughly 23% of your deck assists you here...)

I recently started the build of the sideboard, because one hasn't been listed... It should give you more utility, and control methods, as well as provide alternate wins (trolls, Jareth) if the oath does go by the way-side...

the extra prophet, hellions, walls, and moment's peace are for fast decks you may come against - gobbos, etc...

The walls draw a card for you, aiding in your efforts to find your next answer to the problem in front of you....

Molder Slug helps you deal with Artifact heavy decks...

hope some of this helps you get what you need soon enough to whup some tail!...



Oversoul: My actual build would look much different in that I wouldn't run so many creature enchantments - but I was trying to stay with EL's theme... I'd run more Oath utility - with a side of Avatar!...

 

[Oversoul]

It won't be fun if you Oath up a Rector and then your opponent attacks around it or something...

 

[train]

I'd thought about that...

That's why there's only 1... to limit the possibility... but attacking around it takes some evasion - which, except for blue/black, most early creatures don't have... (green's trample still has to kill the rector...)

 

[Oversoul]

Well, it's better now. But I still think this thing lets combo goldfish, basically...

 

[Exaulted_Leader]

...So I was watching a really rcok-and-roll kind of movie, and I thought to myself halfway through, 'Y'know, it'd be really awesome to build some sort of theme deck inspired by this wicked-awesome show.'

Then I glanced over at my Oath of Avatar deck, temporarily unsleeved and decomissioned for re-tooling.

Then it hit me.


TRANSFORMERS : MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Primary Weapon

4x Oath of Druids
4x Serra Avatar
4x Hunting Grounds

Critters in Disguise

4x Still Life
4x Testament of Faith
4x Hidden Gibbons
4x Opal Caryatid
4x Treetop Village

Energon

4x Greater Good
4x Armadillo Cloak
4x Wild Growth

SB:

3x Hidden Spider
3x Hidden Guerrillas
3x Hidden Ancient
3x Naturalize
3x Disenchant


I've dropped what some would consider an absolutely essential tool in an Oath of Druids deck: Gaea's Blessing.

The exchange appears to have been very worthwhile, however.


The deck now forces an opponent to make really tough decisions, or just outright tricks them into making mistakes. Drop Gibbons first turn, then drop Oath of Druids next turn. One counterspell, disenchant, FoW or bounce later and OOPS! Now I've got a 4/4 stick ready to see an Armadillo Cloak and take control of the board.

Still Life and Testament of Faith make for wicked deterrent (and the former doesn't make a half bad stick), while the Opal 1 drop causes most opponents to think twice about even dropping critters.


I might trim back a bit on the 4-ofs for a few cards so I can slip-in some Dragon Fangs and perhaps even Dragon Scales... but I sort of like the configuration as is.


What do you think? Better or worse looking? (It's been performing much better, IMHO).

 

[Oversoul]

Lands?

Strangely enough, I do remember a transformers themed deck from a long time ago, on the dojo or somewhere...

But the idea definitely has potential. Oath and sleepers...

They may not have to play a creature (the thing Oath always has to play around somehow). But they do have to play SOMETHING.

Treetop Village of course, has been an Oath staple for some time now. The Hidden Gibbons idea could be a real killer too.

Cutting Blessings is fine, by the way. This is a completely different version of Oath than the builds that would use it (for which I think Morphling is best). Turbo-Oath, in the old Extended, for example, had no Blessings, as they would actually have hurt the deck...

The Hunting Grounds thing could make the whole "Oath of Avatar" work. Your current decklist doesn't look smooth enough, but it's a great start. I am not sure whether the Hunting Grounds thing and the sleeper idea will fit into the same deck.

It might be possible to construct a nasty deck that is able to throw down an Oath and protect it, as well as cycle through itself and drop Hunting Grounds. With Serra Avatar AND Darksteel Colossus at four copies each, even if the opponent kills the Oath or is able to play around it, they still activate Hunting Grounds and let you drop a creature from your hand. Treetop Village can go to work on them if they attempt to stall...

I cannot ascertain whether such a deck would be able to use sleepers as well. It seems unlikely, although it is still a possibility and the sleepers could be used instead of Hunting Grounds anyway. If sleepers are used though, Hidden Gibbons is the kind of thing you'd want. Opal Caryatid is pointless, as it triggers on creatures, when you'd rather be Oathing if they drop a creature. It's only a 2/2 anyway. The other Hidden cards might be contenders for this position (Hidden Ancients perhaps?) and if blue is involved, well, blue has the best sleeper enchantments (i.e. Veiled Sentry).

This is definitely looking more interesting now. As to your last question: better, for sure...

 

[train]

If you're really looking at this deck I think you're missing something that makes a big difference when you're "oathing" enchantments to get to a serra...

REPLENISH...

In this case, you can even Nevinyrral's disk, or akroma's vengeance, clearing the board, and next turn replenish...

Of course, I'd just make this thing go two ways oath and hermit druid...

Then REPLENISH...

 

[Oversoul]

Mmm...

I am not following it so much...

Hermit Druid and Oath, then Replenish? Where does the Oath come in there? How do you get all of those components?