Extended Oath deck
History of Oath of Druids in Extended 1999-2003
The Oath of Druids archetype grew in response to the metagame in early 1999. Memory Jar and High Tide were the decks that were dominating the Extended PTQs during winter of 1998-1999, known as Combo-Winter. From the playgroups of the University of Illinois, Mike Stuller suggested using Oath of Druids for creature control along with the Enlightened Tutor Silver Bullet concept. Utilizing the Silver Bullet Concept, the deck uses Enlightened Tutor<c>s to quickly find the enchantment or artifact to crush the particular opposing deck.
'"`UNIQ--d-00000004-QINU`"' Bob Maher later wins GP Seattle with the following decklist.
Around this time, a new Oath of Druids deck named Turbo-Land emerged created by Zvi Mowshowitz. This deck utilizes <c>Oath of Druids to set up creature control. Exploration and Horn of Greed ensures card drawing. Eventually a situation is set up where Zvi can take infinite turns through recursion of Time Warp. Zvi played the following at the Master's in 2000. It was to become a major Oath of Druids archetype over the next several years.
For the next several years, Oath of Druids continued to be a major archetype in Extended. Eventually there was a major extended rotation, taking out everything prior to Tempest including the Dual Lands. Weatherlight left the format taking Gaea's Blessing. Krosan Reclamation became the standard recursion. Justin Gary won Pro Tour Houston with the following deck. Cognivore became the creature of choice.
The Turbo-Land Variant gave Zvi Mowshowitz a Grand Prix win in New Orleans. The single Battlefield Scrounger could quickly set up Time Warp recursion. With infinite turns and lots of mana on the board, Capsize would remove potential blockers and the Scrounger and Treetop Village would finish off the opponent.
The next major Extended event was at Pro-Tour New Orleans, Oct 31-Nov 2, 2003. Oath of Druids had a significant day 2 presence, but was edged out of the top 8 by Mana Severance/Belcher and Tinker. After New Orleans, the DCI took significant steps to reduce combos and any cards that limited player interaction. Oath of Druids became a casualty of the bannings in December of 2003.