Hello there! I’m Linkguy. I’m a big commander player who has recently gotten into Oathbreaker. My goal is to build fun and inexpensive Oathbreaker decks, give a quick breakdown on how to build the deck, how it plays, and some reasonable upgrades for the deck. The first deck we’re going to look at is Estrid, The Masked [] and Open the Armory [] .
Oathbreaker and Signature Spell
Estrid is a 4 mana Bant Planeswalker with 3 abilities. The Bant color identity gives access to the each of the big enchantment colors.
- The first ability will be the most commonly used as this deck is running a lot of auras (19 and some bestow creatures). Being able to untap permanents will help ramp and benefit our creatures.
- The second ability of Estrid will create a Mask token, which will give totem armor to one of our permanents. Totem armor will prevent our permanents from being destroyed. This isn’t going to be activated as often as the first ability, but it does have uses. It let’s us add an aura to our permanents when we don’t have any in hand..
- The ultimate ability will mill us for 7 and then return all enchantments in our graveyard to the battlefield. This includes our bestow creatures. This deck contains 27 enchantments, so it this ability will almost never whiff. Returning all of our enchantments to the battlefield will probably be game winning.
Our Signature Spell — and the only spell in the deck — is Open the Armory. This spell will allow us to search for any aura in our deck and add it to our hand. We are running removal auras, ramp auras, and buffing auras. The ability to search through your deck for the perfect card at anytime is invaluable.
Deck List
Deck Construction
The major pillars of a good deck: ramp, card draw, disruption, recursion, and offense.
- Ramp is when you have access to more mana than you would normally have on a specific turn. This is one of the most important parts about getting big spells out.
- Card draw is gaining access to more cards than your 1 draw per turn. This is important as it will give you more options of cards to play each turn.
- Disruption is a broad category which applies to removal effects, counter abilities, and tax like effects which cause issues for an opponent’s strategies.
- Recursion is the act of playing cards from your graveyard. In a singleton format, it allows you to cast powerful spells more than once.
- Offense is how we win the game. This is usually done through direct damage but could be achieved through other methods, such as mill.
Let’s breakdown how the cards in the deck slide into the pillars explained above.
Ramp: This deck uses a lot of aura based ramp to allow lands to tap for more than 1 mana or to fix our mana like Abundant Growth [], Dawns reflection [], or Fertile Ground [] . These auras being on lands is great. With our Oathbreaker’s ability to untap enchanted permanents, we will be able to use these effects twice per turn. There are also several cards which reduce the casting cost of the aura cards, enabling unexpectedly explosive turns.
Card Draw: The Signature Spell will allow us to fetch any aura spell in the deck, which is targeted card draw. Several of the enchantments have card draw abilities tacked on, which will provide extra value to these enchantments. Tuvasa, the sunlit [], Mesa Enchantress [], and Eidolon of Blossoms [] will give us the ability to draw a card when we play an enchantment. (And remember, almost half our deck is enchantments!)
Disruption: This deck is very focused on stopping creatures from dealing damage with cards like Sky Tether [], Bound by Moonsilver [], and Weight of Conscience [] which all prevent our opponent’s creatures from attacking. We have Vow of Wildness [] and vow of flight [] which buff creatures and prevent them from attacking us. This can be used on our creatures for a boost in power or on our opponents’ creatures. Sunken Field [] is a way to tax our opponent for 1 mana, possibly counter a spell or just get an extra untap of a land.
Recursion: This deck doesn’t have much in the way of recursion. While it would be nice to be able to replay enchantments, this deck is more offensively focused. Both of the cards which recur our enchantments, Estrid and Bruna, Light of Alabaster [], are big finishers. Bruna has the potential to finish off opponents as a 5/5 flyer equipped with any number of our auras.
Offense: The big offense of this deck lies in the auras, which buff the deck and enhance our creatures. There are also several cards like Tuvasa, the Sunlit [], Aura Gnarlid [], Eidolon of Countless Battles [], Ethereal Armor [], and Sage's Reverie [], which prove pump effects based on the number of enchantments we control. Ajanis Chosen [] will enable this deck to go not just tall but wide as well.
Playing the Deck
The ideal play pattern for this deck is to spend the first 2 turns playing lands and auras which attach to our lands. Once we play our Oathbreaker, we can untap all of our lands to gain a second turn. Once we have enough mana, we play some of our big finisher cards to swing through our opponents.
Upgrades
Here are some reasonable upgrades to consider based on price. I am going to be describing these cards in 3 categories: drip (cards under $2), drop (cards under $10), and splash (no budget). I will only be including 5 cards from each category. In the manabase section, I talk about lesser known land cards to add to the deck.
Drip
- Ancestral Mask []: This card is quite the finisher giving +2/+2 for each enchantment we control.
- Winds of Rath []: With this deck, it is most likely a one-sided board wipe.
- Sigil of the Empty Throne []: basically Ajani’s Chosen, but makes better tokens.
- Auramancer []/ Monk Idealist []: recurs our enchantments easily
- Spark Double []: Clone effects are always nice, especially for our Oathbreaker
Drop
- Umbra Mystic []: All of our aura’s now have totem armor? Yes please!
- Utopia Sprawl []: Fixing and ramp for 1 green mana. This is literally the best turn 1 play we can have.
- Mystic Remora []: This will either tax opponents or give us cards.
- Sphere of Safety []: A nice prison effect which makes our opponents unable to attack us
- Heliod god of the sun []: mana sink for our massive sums of mana and a big indestructible beater
Splash
- Grasp of Fate []: What’s better than removing something from one opponent? Answer: removing something from all opponents.
- Serra's Sanctum []: This card produces a lot of mana on it’s own. Add the ability to untap it each turn, and you’ll be playing everything in your hand.
- Thassa, God of the Sea []: Smooths out draws with scrying, and happens to be a massive indestructible beater. Don’t underestimate the ability to make creatures unblockable
- Miraris Wake []: Doubles our mana when we tap lands, which we should be doing twice a turn.
- Greater Auramancy []/ Sterling Grove []: This makes our cards almost untouchable to our opponents.
Manabase
- Riftstone Portal []: Gives all your creatures the ability to tap for green and white.
- Nimbus Maze []: Can be a dual land that comes into play untapped.
- Trevas Ruins []: It is basically a second tri-land.
- Meteor Crater []: This card is great when combined with how difficult enchantments are to remove.
- Scattered Groves []/ Irrigated Farmland []: Cycle lands with land types. They will help get more gas when we start to run out.
Thanks for reading this deck tech. Stay tune for the next article, where I’ll talk about Lord Windgrace [] . Until then, try out Estrid and let me know this works out for you in the comments.
Linkguy is a brewer who is always looking for cheap and effective ways to spice up his deck. He is a big fan of commander and other casual formats where sometimes winning is less about reducing your opponent’s life total to 0 and more about playing force of will on a turn 1 sol ring.