High Time for Oathbreaker

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

For my first foray into Oathbreaker, I decided to put some Oathy goodness into an old favorite. My very first Legacy deck was mono-Red Burn. But my second one was High Tide. I was going to build a High Tide Oathbreaker deck, but, ALAS! High Tide is banned! Imagine my dismay! So here’s my adaptation of that deck into this new format.

Is it expensive? Hells yes!

Is it functional? Damned if I know!

So let’s muck through the Swamp together, shall we?

I went with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver as the Oathbreaker. The only strictly Blue and Black walkers are Ashiok and Tezzeret, and obviously Tezzeret really doesn’t make sense in a deck like this. I went with Nightmare Weaver over Dream Render, because he seemed more functional overall, however, both of them are mostly there to set the colors for the deck. Any additional Milling they do is incidental. Although, if you can ultimate Ashiok, you might be able to clear your opponent’s hand of possible counterspells or other disruption.

High Tide Bubbling Muck is the Signature Spell, and the one around which the deck is crafted. Muck makes all Swamps tap for an additional {B} - of note, the dual lands (Underground Sea, Watery Grave, and Fetid Pools) can be tapped for {U}, but will still produce the additional {B}. It didn’t occur to me at first how relevant it is that you’ll have this in your Command Zone each time after you cast it. The more frequently you can fire this off, the more explosive your deck will be. We’re going to use all that Swampy goodness to fuel the “X” cost in our spells.

So how does this deck win? Well, basically you either make your opponents draw out their entire deck, or you Mill them out (Milling, for the uninitiated means putting cards from your Library into your Graveyard, named after the original card which did this, Millstone).

One of the most useful cards in this deck is Blue Sun’s Zenith, because as part of the resolution, it shuffles back into your deck. That means that you can draw out cards to fuel your combo, but still have it in your deck to use as a win con. Also, you can use it to take out multiple opponents. There’s several other “target player draws X cards” to go along with Blue Sun.

The way you generate the mana you need for your X spells, is by first casting Bubbling Muck, and then untapping your lands. Cards like Mind over Matter, Time Spiral, and Finale of Revelation take care of this for you.

There’s only a handful of creatures in the deck. Snapcaster Mage for value. Cloud of Faeries, untaps lands. If you’re generating enough mana, Palinchron can be cast and bounced repeatedly, untapping seven lands each time, and actually netting more mana with each cycle. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, combined with cards like Pour over the Pages, Mind over Matter, and Frantic Search, it will shuffle your entire Graveyard back into your Library, to let the fun continue.

I’ve also included a few lost-CMC milling enchantments to help you on your way to victory, and a Cyclonic Rift, just in case your opponents’ board states get out of hand.

With High Tide banned, we have to rely on Bubbling Muck, and our Blue Mana production is not as good as in a mono-colored build. To help this out, I’ve included a copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, which adds the Swamp land type to all of our Islands. I’ve also included a copy of Expedition Map, and a copy of Tolaria West to help fetch it up.

Well, thanks for going on this romp with me :) This list probably isn't optimized, but it was fun to put together. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/high-tea/

I’m Tweeting now @23rdPlayable. I’m also occasionally streaming on Twitch as 23rdPlayable. And, as always, you can find me on Facebook in the MTG Arena Players group, where I’m a mod.

Have fun, Play on, and Be kind to one another.