My attempt at a tier 0 oathbreaker deck in the hopeless effort to break a format that's not going to ban cards.
I got into Oathbreaker once it became an official Wizards endorsed format in Spring 2023 after a buddy of mine of mine got me briefly interested.
Unfortunately, the format really doesn't have a power ceiling and has a pathetic banlist mostly consisting of fast mana cards and the usual EDH politics nonsense like trade secrets.
It's arguably worse than the EDH committee somehow in both their hands off / casual rule 0 approach.
People have apparently been complaining about the banlist for years but the committee doesn't seem interested in changing it.
Considering degenerate stuff like [Wrenn and Six} (https://www.moxfield.com/decks/E4rhFkkdLkGaWU_LRytCdg) + Crop Rotation w/ Dark Depths/Thespain stage and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Paradigm Shift // Brain Freeze combo exist but the rules committee has only banned Saheeli, the Gifted, I have no high expectations from the committee.
This is my attempt to do my best to "break" the format that's already very easy to break by taking competitive planeswalker commanders and going full throttle.
I play a lot of cEDH and took cues from Jeska/ Black Partner cEDH deck, trimmed the deck down to 60 cards, and went full throttle on fast combo.
Your ultimate goal is to generate infinite mana and keep pinging Jeska for game. Threaten an infinite damage combo around turn 4-6 depending on table threats. Tevesh is mostly there for color identity, i.e. the best tutors in the game, and tentacle aesthetic, but his thrulls occasionally come up.
Your game plan will usually begin by ramping in the first few turns. Around Turn 3, you have the option to build combo cards or cast Jeska for removal or a deflecting swat. The next few turns will involve comboing fast, recovering with wheels and Underworld Breech.
Combos: Requires Jeska to be able to be cast an infinite number of times (i.e. kill drannith magistrate, rule of law if those appear)
-Storm-Kiln Fiend + Haze of Rage / Chain of Smog = infinite treasurers
-Cloudstone Curio + ____ Goblin (6 vowel sticker) / Dockside Extorionist (4+ treasurers) + almost any low cost creature/ Tevesh = infinite treasuers
-Underworld Breach / Yawgmoth's Will Lines: nonexistent
these are Mostly involved in regenerating the combos above. The graveyard does not stockpile as much as the cEDH counterpart.
Underworld Breech arguably powercrept Yawgmoth's Will but another card that casts from grave is welcomed.
I considered an animate dead/ worldgorger combo for the deck but found it too inconsistent. One big problem is that if worldgorger dragon is in hand, you have to concede as it you'll often lose by the time you can discard it. My issue is that Oathbreaker WGD games is just too linear and fragile to be fun too. The consistency of Worldgorger dragon is simply better in legacy/vintage due to ability to have duplicates ratios and EDH where there are 90+ cards in a deck and commanders that can discard easily.
I don't own this deck in real life and really am not interested in playing oathbreaker long term until a power ceiling exists or a large oathbreaker group arrives in person where I am. I've tried so many formats (anyone remember Vanguard or Tiny Leader?), but it seems like the only ones that really stick are always 60 card magic (legacy, modern, pioneer, pre-modern, etc), EDH, and draft (although that may change with the price hikes in 2024).
