Kamigawa block also introduced a few new large utility dragons to support the strategy, though Darksteel Colossus and Platinum Angel were perhaps the best creatures available, as they could also be Tinkered into play. Orchard provided an uncounterable, fool-proof method to power up Oath, and it was an instant hit with the Vintage community as soon as this was discovered. On the surface, Orchard would have appeared to be just another in the long line of City of Brass-style rainbow lands, but the drawback to Orchard just happened to be the missing piece that Oath decks needed to compete with creature-less combo strategies. Wizards printed a seemingly innocuous “rainbow” land, Forbidden Orchard, which would give your opponent a 1/1 spirit token as a drawback. It wasn’t until Kamigawa block that Oath rebounded from the trash pile. Oath was no match for creature-less combo decks. When the storm mechanic was introduced, that, in many ways, was the nail in the coffin for Oath. Over the years, combo decks such as Trix, Fruity Pebbles, and the like, edged Oath to a fringe strategy. Creatures these days put all of those old ones to shame! Needless to say, most of the abnormally large creatures of the day had such incredible drawbacks that they made Oath somewhat underwhelming. With creatures seemingly everywhere, there was usually a good chance to trigger Oath and power out a cheap “fatty”. Perhaps the best combo deck at the time was based around Squandered Resources and Cadaverous Bloom? The storm mechanic was years away from being developed. Because the game was still growing, nearly every strategy in the day was simply aggressively-creature-based or extremely control-oriented (with a few notable exceptions) as very few true combo decks were running around. When first released, the creatures were not nearly as powerful and provided little utility. Back then, Oath was a decent card, but had nothing quite like the power level it enjoys today. Exodus was the last set I played with before putting the game away for several years (picking back up in Time Spiral Block). Oath was printed back in the early days of Magic.

This trend will continue as long as Wizards keeps pumping out new and better fatties. Over the years, Oath has gradually gotten stronger as the creatures to cheat out have gotten better. It’s also generally accepted that Oath is one of the best strategies in “unpowered” environments. Oath of Druids has long been one of the best strategies in Classic.

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