Oathbreaker Deck Of The Week: Oko, Thief Of Crowns

I’ve played a handful of Oathbreaker games so far, and I’m really enjoying it!  For those who are unfamiliar, Oathbreaker is a Commander variant, designed for multiplayer like Commander, but with the following differences:

You build a 60-card deck instead of 100 cards.

You pick a planeswalker as your oathbreaker and then you pick an instant or sorcery that’s within your oathbreaker’s color identity as a “signature spell.” Both of these start in the command zone and function exactly like your commander would in Commander in terms of when they go back to the command zone, commander tax, etc.  These two cards count towards your 60-card deck.

You start with 20 life instead of 40.

Oh, and no Sol Ring!

The games have a very similar vibe as Commander and play out quite the same in the early game. But once each deck starts to “do the thing” the games tend to end rather abruptly – each player starting at 20 life instead of 40 is a really big deal, and damage adds up quickly.  This is a feature of the format, not a bug – it was specifically designed to play faster than a normal game of Commander; I seem to remember reading the format designer wanted a Commander variant that could be played during lunch hour at work.

I’m still very new to the format but I’ve been having a good time, so I wanted to share another of my Oathbreaker decks that I recently played, featuring Oko, Thief of Crowns as the oathbreaker and Snakeform as the signature spell.

Now, Oko has a reputation for being overpowered, and with plenty of justification – it ended up banned in Standard, and whenever I’ve seen it played in Commander all of the opponents tend to band together quickly to get rid of it. Being able to “Elk” someone’s commander is really obnoxious, and I’ve never put Oko in one of my Commander decks.

When Throne of Eldraine came out, I opened up one of the alternate art versions of Oko but had never had a chance to play with it until this year when I decided to build an Oathbreaker deck around it. I figured Oko is less obnoxious in this format since you can’t “Elk” someone’s commander with it since nobody has creatures in their Command Zone. Also, Oko is really, really good at making Food tokens, and Food strategies got a huge boost from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Wilds of Eldraine sets this year. Building a Simic Food Oathbreaker deck sounded like it could be fun!

I chose Snakeform as the signature spell since it’s a fun card you don’t see played much in Commander and it fits with Oko’s flavor of liking to polymorph people against their will. It also provides a bit of card draw to the deck which I’m a bit lacking in. Just the threat of casting Snakeform can often be a big deterrent and can lead to some favorable attacks on my part, or pushing opponents to attack each other rather than me, even if all I have is an elkified 3/3 former Food token to block.

Ready to eat?  Let’s dig in!

Food Stuff

Wilds of Eldraine really brought a lot of actual Food cards that are a lot of fun, especially Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, fully powered up thanks to everyone playing planeswalkers. Tough Cookie is really nice at animating extra Food you have lying around, and since they become 4/4s you can potentially “elk” a pesky blocker and swing in with your animated Food. I really love the utility of Three Bowls of Porridge and Eriette’s Tempting Apple too.

Looking at this list, I realize I’m missing Golden Egg which could provide a bit more card draw. Also, I totally need to pick up a copy and find a spot for Vegetation Abomination, a 2/2 Plant Mutant Food with deathtouch?  You know Oko would love that!

Food Makers

Trail of Crumbs is an awesome source of card advantage in this deck, and I’m always happy to draw it. I also really like Killer Service, which can sacrifice a token to make a 4/4 Rhino, which again is a great size to fight past pesky Elks.

Most of the time, Tireless Provisioner is going to generate Treasures, let’s be honest! But having the option to make one more Food might be clutch a lot of the time in this deck.

Food Matters

Peregrin Took is quietly one of the best cards of the deck, providing an extra Food token each time you make one, and then being able to cash in Food for an extra card here and there. The power level is just low enough that he very rarely gets targeted for removal.

Conversely, Feasting Hobbit is quite loudly one of the best cards in the deck. Devour 3 is potent, sacrifice just two Food and you’ve got an 8/8 creature that can’t be blocked by smaller creatures. Who needs trample when you run past just about every creature on the battlefield?  With starting life totals of just 20, and 8/8 is going to knock people out in a hurry.

Night of the Sweets’ Revenge is obviously incredible – letting you tap Food for mana and will pretty much pay for itself immediately, and if it sticks around you can pretty easily set up a game-ending overrun effect.

Artifacts Matter

I was pretty excited to put Kappa Cannoneer into the deck, and when I recently played Oko I was able to use three Food tokens to put the ward 4 Turtle on the battlefield on Turn 3. That’s quite an aggressive power move in Oathbreaker! The Blackstaff of Waterdeep along with Rise and Shine continue the theme of animating Food for attacking and blocking.

This deck easily achieves metalcraft, so Vedalken Humiliator’s attack trigger should bring a smile to Oko’s polymorph-loving face, and let 3/3, 4/4, or 5/5 Food rumble into opponents’ lifetotals.

I don’t expect to be able to kill people with poison counters from Mirrex, it’s here mostly as a way to make an artifact creature that can be turned into an Elk by Oko and to feed other artifact synergies.

Removal

Oko has his “elk” ability, but I’ve got a few other removal options that play quite well with Oko’s love of polymorphing.

Interaction

I’ve got just one single counterspell in Arcane Denial to keep people honest. Otherwise, my interaction is in some land slots: Interplanar Beacon gains some precious life, Detection Tower unlocks opposing creatures that have hexproof, and Demolition Field can take down a problematic land like Maze of Ith or Cabal Coffers. Alchemist’s Refuge lets us operate at instant speed, and Rogue’s Passage helps crack through a wall of blockers.

Card Draw

I’ve got some card draw tied into some cards mentioned above, along with Snakeform in the command zone, but Urban Evolution can help refuel for the midgame, and the cycling lands can be cashed in later in the game.

Mana Ramp

Since I’m playing green I’ve still got access to one mana acceleration despite not having Sol Ring available, with Wild Growth, Birds of Paradise, and Elvish Mystic unlocking the potential Turn 2 Oko. Growth Spiral and Coiling Oracle provide a bit of card drawing tied to the mana ramp and Cultivate “draws” you an extra basic land. I’m currently only running three basic lands so I might need to trim a nonbasic or two to increase that count.

Creature Lands

I feel that creature lands are pretty important in Oathbreaker, where a battlefield sweeper can kill off all the creatures while leaving Planeswalkers otherwise unchecked. Simic has two quite good ones with Lumbering Falls and Restless Vinestalk. I’m tempted to add Treetop Village too.

Okay, here’s the full deck list!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

A little Oathbreaker strategy tip from my game playing Oko: be very careful not to declare yourself the Archenemy too early in an Oathbreaker game!  20 life doesn’t give you much cushion if all three opponents decide you’re a big threat. I played a Turn 3 Kappa Cannoneer, and a Turn 4 8/8 Feasting Hobbit, and ended up being the first player eliminated from the game, and understandably so! I think I should have held back the Hobbit and instead deployed more Food makers for a few turns and see how the battlefield developed.

Playing the deck did motivate me to collect every single different type of Food token available, with the goal of accumulating enough Food to have “one of each” on the battlefield – a full course meal, if you will!

So, what must-have cards might I have missed including here?  Have you tried Oathbreaker yet?

Talk to Me

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter!  I run polls and get conversations started about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!  You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.

I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can.  If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel.  You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.  

And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.