What I Would Have Played at Lobstercon
PLUS: Pre-NA/Euro tier lists abound and a discussion with Martin Berlin
Hype for tomorrow’s North American Premodern Championship in Boston at Lobstercon and Saturday’s European Premodern Championship in Prague is now at its peak! Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to attend Lobstercon as originally planned but I’m looking forward to cheering on friends and those bringing sweet decks. If you’re like me and unable to attend any of the events this year, here is the stream information:
9/20 — The North American Premodern Championship will be streamed on os_kirdape on Twitch and hosted by The Premodcast’s Andrew Walker and The Well of Knowledge’s William Hirst. They will also be joined by Mike Harris (also of The Premodcast) and Spike Colony’s Lanny Huang in-between rounds. Stream should start around 11AM ET or so.
9/21 — The European Premodern Championship will be streamed on CzechPremodernMagic on Twitch and perhaps their YouTube as well. First round begins around 10AM local time, or 4AM ET.
9/21 — The Premodern Off-Site Event hosted by The Duress Crew at Lobstercon will be streamed as well, this time on DuressCrew on Twitch. I expect this stream to also start around 11AM ET or so.
A (Brief) Primer on Guilty Oath
Guilty Oath was the deck I was 90% locked into bringing to this year’s North American Championship. I’ve had a ton of fun building the deck and I wanted to share some thoughts about the deck, including card choices, neat interactions, and why the deck appealed to me as a pick for Lobstercon.
Introduction
At its core, Guilty Oath is a classic Pit Rack deck splashing green. The hope here is that by sacrificing a more consistent mana base that you’re able to leverage some of green’s powerful cards to address Pit Rack’s weaknesses. I first built this deck for the Spice Paradise webcam league (2-0) but enjoyed it so much that I ran it again in two Facebook monthlies (4-3, 3-2) and one Beard Brothers monthly (2-2), slightly adjusting the deck each time. You can check out the progression here:
I also want to acknowledge two people, Bryan Manolakos of All Tings Considered, who independently developed a sweet BG Pit-Oath deck that utilized the classic Oath targets of Ancestor’s Chosen and Shard Phoenix, and Gabriel Shalom, an early founder of the NYC Premodern meetups who developed an amazing Nic Fit Guiltfeeder-Traumatize deck years ago that introduced me to the lovable 0/4 horror.
Card Choices and Interactions
Main
Oath of Druids and Guiltfeeder — Oath is one of my favorite cards in the format. It simply changes the dynamic of how games play out against creature decks. Pit Rack has always had lots of targeted creature removal but I like how adding Oath of Druids felt like pseudo-creature removal in a way. It doesn’t answer the creature but it provides your own threat. As for why I chose Guiltfeeder, partially for the spice (the deck was conceived for a spice league, after all), but also because I think the creature is surprisingly decent. A five CMC black creature with four toughness is pretty resilient and can provide a very fast clock while being evasive. It wasn’t uncommon during my games for a Guiltfeeder to swing in for seven, even well into double digits too. Guiltfeeder also punishes the opponent for using Oath, making the card even less symmetrical than it usually is (similar to Terravore). Guiltfeeder is also fairly easily castable, which is a nice bonus. Another benefit is that Guiltfeeder’s trigger is life loss, meaning it gets around things like Worship and Solitary Confinement. Guiltfeeder is pretty weak to Swords to Plowshares (classic Premodern creature problem) but my strategy against white decks is simply to wait for discard or win with alternate damage dealers (The Rack, Cursed Scroll, and Treetop Village). Guiltfeeder is also one of the few creatures that can potentially outclass a Terravore or Phyrexian Dreadnought in some situations. You can’t swing through a Dreadnought but if you’re above 12 life you can potentially make it so they can’t swing without dying on the crack back. Cards like Grim Lavamancer or Flash of Insight are a big issue for Guiltfeeder though, but the former shouldn’t live very long and the latter is a one-time thing.
Ensnaring Bridge — Besides Oath of Druids, Ensnaring Bridge is another way to handle swarms of creatures overloading your targeted removal or bigger creatures. Many creature decks are unprepared for the combination of Oath of Druids and Ensnaring Bridge in G1. I also like how Guiltfeeder can swing through Ensnaring Bridge, making this one of the few decks that can feasibly run both Oath and Bridge together. Bridge isn’t lights out against many of the top decks (Goblins has Siege-Gang Commander for reach, Stiflenought can phase out your Bridge, Ponza Oath can potentially destroy enough lands that emptying your hand is difficult and overwhelm with manlands) but I like that it’s an added obstacle.
Bottomless Pit — This card definitely helps glue the deck together as it helps keep your hand empty for Ensnaring Bridge, grows the Guiltfeeder, and forces your opponent to deploy creatures into Oath of Druids. The benefits of the card are also well established for your traditional Pit Rack cards, like emptying the hand for The Rack and Cursed Scroll.
Dark Ritual — You can see in the first three iterations of the deck I didn’t run Dark Ritual. I wanted to play more lands and have fewer dead draws later in the game but the benefits of Dark Ritual are too good to pass up in this deck. Powering out Pit and Bridge early can be vital and too many lands can actually clog up your hand when you’re trying to utilize your cards fast so you don’t lose them to an active Pit or to keep your Bridge as effective as possible. The dynamic also plays out in the sideboard where an early Engineered Plague or Gloom makes a huge difference.
Gaea’s Blessing — Love this card. Although there is some slight tension with Bridge and Pit as you’re trying to empty your hand, the benefits are huge as you can get back needed cards and sometimes you get a “free” win or at least seriously hinder decks that rely on milling you out.
Funeral Charm — An MVP in the deck as all modes are relevant. I very much dislike losing to T1 Goblin Lackey so Charm is a must-have for me. Being able to easily snipe scary creatures like Weathered Wayfarer, Hermit Druid, Mother of Ruins, and more is huge. You can also use the +2/-1 mode to surprise someone with Guiltfeeder, either dealing an extra two damage or killing a creature you’re blocking. The discard feature is basically the same as cycling it, so it’s rarely a dead card. I’ve also used the discard mode on myself before to empty my hand for Ensnaring Bridge (not recommended but sometimes you gotta do it). Finally, the Swampwalk mode. Probably the least utilized in Premodern but here it’s pretty valuable since Guiltfeeder has Fear, which doesn’t apply to black creatures. Black creatures are usually played in decks with Swamps though, giving you a path to an unblockable Guiltfeeder.
Smother/Diabolic Edict/Snuff Out/Naturalize — It feels good to have a variety of removal effects. I don’t have an exact science on the proportions here, tune to your preference and meta. Vendetta could belong in here somewhere too.
Sideboard
Naturalize — Having access to Naturalize is huge for black decks. Typically you’re forced to play Dystopia or Nevinyrral’s Disk to remove pesky enchantments but it’s hard to beat the elegance of Naturalize. Dystopia can be very powerful but sometimes it takes time and life, which you may not have. The card also doesn’t really work in this deck given we play green permanents (an interaction I didn’t really think about until later, usually Dystopia is just an auto-include for black decks).
Call of the Herd — Hyped card, for good reason. I like that it’s a pro active threat against combo and control decks while also gumming up the board against aggressive decks. I’m even OK playing it into an Oath of Druids because Guiltfeeder becomes pretty powerful if the opponent has triggered Oath. I’ve tried both Call and Tempting Wurm, and like both. Wurm doesn’t really play well with Oath of Druids and is pretty awkward against some combo decks and potentially Goblins. That said, what intrigued me most about Wurm was that Guilty Oath has a lot of discard that can clear the way for a Wurm. Wurm is also very good against Burn, which historically has been a hard matchup for mono black decks. Still, Call of the Herd seems to fit better in most matchups with consistent benefits compared to Wurm’s swingier impact.
Phyrexian Furance — A downside of playing Guiltfeeder is that you lose out on some of the more powerful graveyard hate like Tormod’s Crypt and Planar Void. I tried Coffin Purge earlier on but I think Phyrexian Furnace is better here since you can deploy it out while holding onto Purge when you have Pit and Bridge can be awkward.
Ascendant Evincar — Still testing this guy out, but I opened him as a kid and have been somewhat infatuated with the card ever since. I think it’s a pretty neat option to have in an Oath deck and reminds me of Plague Spitter, a pseudo-Engineered Plague effect that can’t be Disenchanted.
Gloom — I’m going to start by saying I don’t think Gloom is a great card, but it may be the best option here. Replenish is a pretty good deck and a pretty awful matchup for Guilty Oath. G1 many of your cards do absolutely nothing and even if you shred their hand they’re one Replenish away from victory. G2/3 black decks have a lot of solid cards… that Guilty Oath cannot play. Besides the aforementioned Tormod’s Crypt and Planar Void, there is also Stromgald Cabal, but that card is awkward in an Oath of Druids deck. I could remove the Guiltfeeder angle when facing Replenish and put in the non-synergistic cards, but outside of Replenish where I do want Oath-Guiltfeeder those cards would be awkward. So we’re basically left with Gloom. I’m still trying it out, it may be that the cards get cut and you just accept that Replenish is unwinnable. The card does have some benefits against other generic white decks (Armageddon is pretty good against Guilty Oath so delaying its casting until you can discard it is pretty good).
Haunting Echoes — It doesn’t really play nicely with Guiltfeeder or Phyrexian Furance but in many games it can be a one spell win condition, especially if the opponent has activated Oath, so I’m OK running one given its potential power.
Why I Planned to Bring Guilty Oath to Lobstercon
I think the deck has some game against a lot of decks. Here are some quick thoughts based on the most popular decks by meta share in large in-person events:
Burn — It’s a race but you have some tools unavailable in traditional Pit Rack like Naturalize for their Sulfuric Vortex and Cursed Scrolls and Call of the Herd to flood the board. Adding green didn’t solve the matchup but I think it made it more competitive.
Stiflenought — You run a bunch of discard and removal, plus Oath and Bridge provide additional hurdles. The sideboard has more removal with Naturalize and Powder Keg too. Sometimes you’ll get got by Stiflenought with three protection spells, but I like my odds given that your removal is so varied to help against Meddling Mage and you run Gaea’s Blessing to help against the Brain Freeze plan.
Black-White — They also pack a ton of discard and a well-timed Vindicate can ruin your day. I think if you’re able to setup quickly with prison pieces and an Exalted Angel doesn’t slip by you’re in an OK spot. Gloom can slow them down a bit too. Could see this match going either way.
Goblins — I feel good about this matchup, though sometimes Goblins will do Goblin things. You have a lot of removal and in the side you have Call of the Herd to slow them down.
Landstill — If you’re able to slip through a Bottomless Pit then their match becomes very difficult. Cursed Scroll and The Rack will be your primary win cons here as Mishra’s Factories can block Guiltfeeder and they have Swords to Plowshares too. In sideboard games you have Call of the Herd to pressure them.
The Rock — Pernicious Deed can ruin your day but most of their creatures are green so Guiltfeeder can usually swing through (or use Funeral Charm). You can stop some of their bigger creatures with Bridge but I think this matchup really comes down to Deed.
Wx Weenie — As long as you keep Mother of Runes inactive your creature removal is pretty live. Oath here is good if you navigate around Swords to Plowshares. Armageddon is the card to watch out for.
Replenish — Discussed earlier, but pretty bad matchup!
Ponza Oath — I go back and forth on this one. You have removal for their creatures but I think the game comes down to whether you can cast your spells or not (not a given against a land destruction deck). You run a solid amount of basics so if you establish a good base and the opponent doesn’t lead off with early Ports and Spheres then I feel good. The white splash is a lot harder with Armageddon and Swords to Plowshares.
Terrageddon — I actually think this deck is the one that will breakout this weekend. I had three decks I was considering for Lobstercon: Guilty Oath, an updated version of Raging Glaciers, and an untested variant of Terrageddon. What can I say about this matchup? Armageddon will wreck ya, if you can avoid it then you could be OK.
Guilty Oath fits a lot of the criteria I look for in a deck. It’s a bit unexpected and black in general is a color that doesn’t have a ton of hate allocated to it (other than Elephant Grass, incidentally). Playing red and blue decks, while powerful, most decks have blasts ready to go. Guilty Oath has answers for most decks G1 and between black and green you get a wide variety of answers you can use to tune your deck. Certain cards I think can be haymakers that require attention, such as Oath of Druids, Ensnaring Bridge, Gaea’s Blessing, Engineered Plague, well-timed Duress/Naturalize, etc. I like loading my deck with as many of those as possible. The downside is that these cards aren’t applicable in every matchup, but sometimes you just have to win the pairing lottery. You also play a decent amount of basics. The mana base can be painful (and missing out on Wasteland is huge against decks like Replenish), but overall I don’t have a ton of complaints when you’re trying to make enemy color pairs work in this format.
Finally, black decks in Premodern haven’t quite found their footing yet. Although there are many popular black decks, none have ascended to the ranks of top decks. I don’t think Guilty Oath has cracked that code but I wanted to give it a shot. Additionally, I like trying out my own decks on Premodern’s biggest stage. Last year, I played my Raging Glaciers brew to a 4-2-1 finish and there’s definitely something special about playing a rogue deck and doing well.
Content
🪣💧 The Well of Knowledge features a conversation between William Hirst and Martin Berlin, the founder of Premodern. Thanks Martin for the nice callout at the end!
🎙️ The Premodcast brings on Tom Metelsky to discuss his tier list of decks heading into the weekend. Thanks Tom for the False Cure shoutout! Here’s the image of his tier list too.
🎙️ Spike Colony released one of my favorite episodes in recent memory in which they go through popular decks and make the case for why you should and shouldn’t play the deck
🎥 Tom Metelsky goes over the three decks he was considering for the North American Championship and cards to watch out for
🎥 Fpawlusz tries out Enchantress, potentially one of the sleeper decks of the weekend
🎥 Lanny Huang tries out Replenish by replacing Attunement with Impulse
🎥 Ahead of hosting the European Championship, the Czech crew shared a video of a match between Aluren and Madness
🎥 Old Mage MTG celebrated their 100th episode with a discussion on the classic Forbidian deck
🎥 The Flooded Strand takes Treva Quiet Orb against RG Burn and RG Ponza Oath
📜 More tier lists for you… Spike Colony’s updated tier list, Flippi’s tier list, PremodernMTGO’s tier list