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Oathbreaker Tier List

Oathbreaker

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T0 (14)

F-tier (1)

Mid (52)

Low (44)

Commander (1)

Commander: Jared Carthalion

T2 (51)

T1 (41)

Tier 0

Where the absolute top end of the meta lives.

Ashiok is a pillar of the format. Without them, Flash Hulk would run rampant, but having cheap tutor hate in the command zone keeps it in check. Ashiok also provides excellent graveyard hate while fueling your own graveyard strategies and is the easiest-to-cast Oathbreaker that can run the Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle combo.
Aggro does excellently in this format, and a cheap anthem that is also ramp, spot removal and protection brings a LOT to the table.
Huatli paired with Tower Defense is the fastest aggro pairing in the format. Swinging with 1 mana "5/5"s that you can mega-anthem for only 2 mana ends the game VERY quickly.
One of the most powerful aspects of Oathbreaker is that you have access to a Signature Spell. Kaito makes it so that you're guaranteed to be able to cast yours if your opponents don't have instant speed removal for him since they can't rely on combat damage to remove him.
Her passive really is that powerful
Paired with Windfall, she can quickly lock opponents out of the game.
A mana doubler in the command zone allows for all kinds of immediately explosive plays.
Like Liliana Dreadhorde General, her passive wins games, but much more directly. Typically paired with Chain of Smog or Plumb the Forbidden to combo out on the spot, but if you have an infinite mana combo, basically any signature spell will suffice. Demonic Tutor is a common example of a "just want to cast it a hundred times" signature spell, since it's cheap, tutors for the infinite mana combo, doesn't target, doesn't lose you any life and doesn't technically draw you any cards, meaning it's easy to cast it a hundred times without worrying about the size of your deck, the board state or your life total getting in the way.
A running theme for most of Tier 0 is the passives that warp the game around them and Ral is no different. His typical signature spell is either Expansion / Explosion or Fury Storm for a compact combo hiding fully in the command zone.
Probably the strongest Oathbreaker in the format. There are many viable builds for her, and her most common signature spell is Thoughtcast
Messing around with spell timing is very powerful, just remember that while your opponents can't counter your spells any more, they also can't counter each other's, so the deck pretty quickly devolves into Counterspells.deck
Paired with Jeska's Will, this is the fastest deck in the format. It is incredibly fragile though
Tyvar's incredible speed and consistency make him the best elfball Oathbreaker available.
Paired with Crop Rotation, Wrenn makes for an incredibly powerful lands commander, easily capable of consistently turboing out the most powerful lands in the format while using Strip Mine and friends to keep its opponents crippled.

Tier 1

The decks that can reliably play with the best of the best, but aren't part of them.

If I haven't enforced the idea enough yet, let me be perfectly clear: cheap multicolor planeswalkers with good abilities make for excellent Oathbreakers. This Ashiok isn't quite as good as Dream Render, but it is still everything you want to see in the command zone.
If you like Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host in Commander, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame + Divergent Trasformations is your analog here. You only run two creatures, typically Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts , and the rest is ramp and stax pieces. Create two Elementals with your second 0, eat them with Divergent Transformations, flip into your combo, win.
Burn, storm, goblins? Anything mono-red Chandra is going to do excellently with.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance is going to be doing much the same things as Chandra, Dressed to Kill, but slightly slower and with a little more oomph.
The best theft deck in the format.
Cheap, three colors, gives card advantage, acts as spot removal, and gets actively better if you have to recast it? There's a lot to love for Dakkon.
Sans blue does hurt a little, but other than that, Dihada is a phenomenal combo enabler and value engine. Treasures from the -3 can often be enough to immediately cast your signature spell. Beseech the Mirror in particular can easily win the game on the spot.
A powerful stax piece that is also the easiest to cast Oathbreaker in his colors. He's not flashy, but he is incredibly effective at shifting the game flow in your favor.
One of very few competitive Oathbreakers I would actually recommend running The Chain Veil in. Three colors, explosive mana acceleration, and an easy-to-assemble infinite make for a very potent enchantress deck.
Turns out, Garruk has an amazing -3. Who knew? A bit of a balancing act if you ever want to cast your signature spell though.
She's the cheapest Grixis Oathbreaker the format has to offer, protects herself and you fairly well, and can steal your opponents' oathbreakers for a turn or permanently. Ulting or even just minusing your opponent's Oathbreaker can really disrupt their gameplan, and it stops them from casting their signature spell for the rest of the turn if it was an instant.
Getting a free Brainstorm every turn makes for incredibly streamlined decks.
As much fun as it is to go the Mana Severance 56 to 58 land route, the more competitive option is Whir of Invention or Transmute Artifact for Leveler and then just having the rest of the deck actually functional.
Much of Jared's strength comes from the fact that he can run 5 color goodstuff. Having access to more cards means having access to more good cards. It also means he can run Coalition Victory as his signature spell, which his plus provides the creature for it so it is very easy to fire if you have the mana for it.
I hear intrinsic hexproof and generating massive card advantage are great abilities for a planeswalker to have. If he had commander ninjutsu rather than normal ninjutsu he'd easily be tier 0.
He's just one Mycosynth Lattice away from no-one else having any mana to work with.
She's the easiest to cast Orzhov Oathbreaker, got a great plus and an even better minus.
Easy casting costs, mana ramp, card draw and massive loyalty make for a potent combo. An excellent example of her as a Flash Hulk deck can be found here: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/wZsL4Y9dQEKChiU-15l5HQ
Reanimate is great to cast the first time, second time, and sometimes even the third time from the command zone. Who cares if you're shredding your hand while you're at it? You're still playing your cards, unlike everyone else.
Tutors in both slots of the command zone tend to make it very easy to grab what you need from your deck.
The neat thing about Lukka's plus is that you gain access to the cards again if you have to recast him, so his plus basically reads "draw three cards, these cards can't be discarded," which is a hell of a plus. Also his pod ability allows you to massively trade up in value, turning your goblin tokens into haymakers like Blightsteel Colossus.
Hamsters are a delicacy in Magic the Gathering. Eat Boo at every opportunity possible and you'll dominate the board with ease.
It might cost you a little life, but Nahiri is the cheapest Boros Oathbreaker out there, and there are plenty of great things to "reanimate" with her ability even if her loyalty is low.
Three colors, low mana cost, card draw, ramp, removal, life gain, you know the drill by now. While not the most competitive build for her, I really enjoy playing a version that runs a bunch of spells like Spitemare and a bunch of high mana, but easy-to-reduce cards like Ethersworn Sphinx to dome my own creatures with, then turn around to dome my opponents for even more with damage enhancers out.
A ton of loyalty mixed with some great abilities and a reasonable casting cost makes for a potent Oathbreaker. I've seen the most success with her built as a turns deck.
Landfall makes it very easy for Nissa to ult basically every turn, and there are several 1 mana options that can tutor a creature to hand or graveyard that you can immediately cast off of her plus.
When you can Crop Rotation into Halls of Mist off of your plus, it's very easy to get the already easy-to-get, game-breaking ult Nissa's famous for.
Oko is weirdly fair in this format. Elking everything is still stupidly powerful, but it requires way too many resources to utilize in multiplayer. His greater strength comes from being cheap to cast and being able to create a food token to eat with Transmute Artifact and friends.
Signature spells are one of the most powerful things this format has to offer, and having two of them in the command zone leads to a massive amount of always-available options.
Unlike with partner Oathbreakers, MDFCs count as a single card when it comes to figuring out the number of and color identity of signature spells you have access to. This means that you can have See the Truth as your signature spell and still cast it if Rowan is on the field. Which is how you should do it, because Ancestral Recall in the command zone is nuts. The cards aren't technically drawn though, so Rowan's +1 isn't going to hit for 3 unless you're adding in other card draw like Brainstorm.
Our only option for Temur, but luckily a great one. He's got an awesome plus and a solid minus, but it's best to not build around the ult.
She has a great ult that's very easy to hit. Pair that with Angel's Grace as SS and you can force your opponents to play fair magic.
I hate that Shorikai is technically a legal Oathbreaker, but it is what it is, and what it is, is an excellent leader of a control shell.
Many colors makes many options, and a lot of the time her plus reads the same as her minus. Pair with Brokers Confluence to have Omniscience + Concentrate on demand.
Card draw plus counterspell mana is a hell of a plus, and his minus tucks something for long enough that it usually may as well be exiled.
Looting on everyone's turn is a quick way to ensure that your card selection is better than your opponents.
Rings of Brighthearth's best friend. There are many, many ways to go infinite.
Turns out, a -2 into a Brainstorm is a hell of a play.
Birthing Pod in the command zone makes for some incredibly potent plays.
If you're running her as Elfball, it's pretty easy to yeet your way through your deck as soon as she enters.
It's pretty easy to go mana positive on the first plus activation, making even cards like Shamanic Revelation viable as signature spells.

Tier 2

The decks that can reliably play with Tier 1, but not Tier 0

She's fairly cheap, makes a decent token with her plus, has a relevant minus and a solid ult that is easy to hit. She doesn't do anything fantastically, but she fills a lot of roles competently.
Aminatou is cheap, in three great colors, provides a lot of incidental value, and can go infinite fairly easily. She's just a tiny bit too fragile and the pieces she likes to run are just a tiny bit too expensive to bump her up a tier.
Chandra is technically free to cast if you're running a card like Desperate Ritual as your signature spell. Her abilities are good, but her base cost is pretty massive, so you need your deck to be functional without her.
Daretti is cheap, has built-in spot removal, and makes a creature as a plus. Rakdos has a hard time interacting with the stack and dealing with enchantments though.
Goblin Welder in the command zone is stronk.
With an army of small evasive creatures, Dovin can regularly ult multiple times a game, leading to massive card advantage.
Going wide with anthems is a great gameplan for most Oathbreaker games, and Elspeth can nuke the big threats while building up an army of weenies.
Gaea's Cradle is legal in this format, being able to double untap it is very good.
Can't lose the game effects tend to make it difficult to lose the game.
It takes a little fiddling, but it is very entertaining to go infinite with The Chain Veil after turning it into a creature.
Grist comes down early, can make a ton of bodies, spot removes problematic permanents, and has an easy-to-reach, game-ending ult. So Why not a higher tier? To make him consistently great, you have to run a lot of insects, which are very much not. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs tends to be the better reanimator/dredge Oathbreaker.
With Awaken the Woods or March of the Multitudes as signature spell, you can very quickly ult Huatli and then yeet your way through your deck while also getting oodles of life and loyalty along the way. It's about a turn too slow for Tier 1 though.
He's not exciting, but cheap card advantage in the command zone is going to help sway games.
Spark Doubles best friend. With ample clone effects and an Ichormoon Gauntlet, it's pretty easy to take infinite turns once you have a baker's dozen Jaces out.
Uptick untap all creatures you control is very easy to abuse, especially once you turn The Chain Veil into a creature, and in a pinch you can draw a card.
There are a lot of "free" instants and sorceries she opens up as signature spells, like Wheel of Fortune or Jeska's Will
Card draw, spot removal and token generation in the command zone before you even get to signature spells. Try Blasphemous Act and The Elderspell for a pair of cheap board wipes that each of your Oathbreakers complements. Grindy midrange value never felt better.
Kaito's passive makes it very easy to get to his ult, which is powered up quite a bit from being in a multi-player format. Having said that, the ult is kind of a win-more ability. You were either already swinging at least 6 creatures to face if you ulted him the turn you played him, or you had a couple turns of swinging in with an unblockable creature if you did have to tick him up, and by that point your opponents should already be on death's door. Still, he's only a 3 drop, meaning that chaining him into Reverse Polarity is pretty mana efficient.
There are a lot of great ETB effects that get even better when you staple "draw a card" onto them.
His -1 actually reads "since you have infinite mana, tutor for a card that will end the game"
Karnstructs are pretty massive beaters most of the time, and the cards with silver counters on them can still be snagged by new Karns if the first one dies, so you're very reliably grabbing extra cards.
Stax out the board, never miss a land drop and burn problematic permanents (or players) out of the game. The ult is fairly easy to hit, so Nahiri's Lithoforming ends up essentially being a Scapeshift + Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
A reanimation card that also gives you bodies and mills cards is a very good card.
Being 1 mana more expensive than Liliana of the Veil is enough to knock her down a tier, despite the better plus.
Having access to three colors is awesome, but competitive Oathbreaker is a bit too fast for Lord Windgrace to compete against the best of the best. There isn't quite enough breathing room for midrange strategies up there, which he excels at.
You haven't lived until you've swung a 48/11 doublestrike trample Rabbit Battery at someone turn 4. Nahiri is great at adding the last bit of oomph needed to keep a Hammertime deck chugging along in a singleton format.
Having access to three colors and more planeswalker abilities is very powerful, but you still can only activate one ability per turn. Pair with Chandra, Acolyte of Flame and Jace, Cunning Castaway for infinte Nicol Bolases or with Vronos, Masked Inquisitor to make them and two other planeswalkers immune to sorcery speed removal and combat damage for the rest of the game.
Craterhoof Behemoth in the command zone is pretty good.
She's cheap, she's got blue in her, and she cheats things onto the battlefield. That's all you need baby.
Super cheap and makes a creature as a plus. She's not fancy, but she sure is efficient.
Turns out, with all the power creep that magic's had over the years, there are a ton of cheap cards you can eat to auto-ult the token with, and he works great with Blood for the Blood God! for when you're not able to eat big bois.
Tippy tappy flippy flappy goes hard.
It's hard to outstorm the deck that probably creates an emblem that gives basically all your stuff storm the turn it gets played. Having said that, that's a lot of deck space that could otherwise be used to make a more resilient deck.
Izzet is a great color combo and Ral has some solid abilities, but he's expensive.
Unlike most of the competitive Oathbreakers, Sarkhan the Mad doesn't want to be cast asap. You're looking for your window of opportunity to just slam your ult and win on the spot.
An absolutely phenomenal plus and a great minus. He expensive though.
The lifelink passive makes great cards like Vampiric Tutor even better. His plus is more cute than anything else, but there are plenty of great targets for his minus even if you never raise his loyalty.
Turbo into her ult with cards like Experimental Augury and Ichormoon Gauntlet, then laugh in spells for days.
Fantastic board control and also helps keep your life topped up.
Being able to slip in a cheap spell after your Oathbreaker comes out is great, as is the ability to kill problematic creatures.
Goes infinite with a cheese sandwich, but it is fairly expensive and mono-color.
Lots of card filtering, an easy ult, a decent passive, pretty cheap to cast, a lot to like.
A gamewarping passive and a plus that wins games makes for a super powerful Oathbreaker, but he comes online quite late.
Teyo has a great etb and fantastic abilities. He even survives his minus! Blink the shit out of him to get an army of blockers while drawing out your deck. There are a bunch of weird comboes like Anointed Procession + Ashnod's Altar + Luxior, Giada's Gift + Eldrazi Displacer the deck can pull off, but nothing super compact.
A hell of an ult and she even survives it. If you can survive to the late game, she is an excellent option.
Flash is a little less good when everyone knows you have access to the card, but she's still a good card even when she isn't a surprise.
Turning eggs into cheerios makes for a very streamlined deck. The first Oathbreaker deck I ever built: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ugins-saturday-brunch/
Ugin costs a lot of mana, but once he hits, he hits hard. Colorless ramps pretty quickly, so expect to see him come down turn 5 or earlier.
A great minus and a surprisingly strong build-around "plus"
Great for aristocrats, solid removal and an ult worth turboing for.

High Power

These decks can reliably play with Tier 2, but not Tier 1. High Power and lower are not considered competitively viable. Depending on the deck/pilot they may take a game, but they'd never win a large tournament.

Mid Power

These decks can reliably play with High Power, but not Tier 2

Low Power

These decks can reliably play with Mid Power, but not High Power

F-tier

The literal worst of the worst competitively. Currently I'd only put Jace Reawakened in this category. His abilities are quite tame and you literally cannot access your signature spell until turn 4 unless you give him flash. Literally every other blue Oathbreaker in the game can produce infinite mana by turn 3 and then use said infinite mana to infinitely recast their signature spell.

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Updates Add

Lost Caverns of Ixilan Update — Dec. 23, 2023
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Lost Caverns of Ixilan brought a lot of fun new toys for the format, but doesn't seem to have meaningfully shooken up the meta as far as tiers are concerned. I put Quintorius Kand in high. In order for the minus to be an auto-win you need to be at 7 mana, and it's only slightly better than a coin flip at 5, so Quintorius has to be played fairly rather than cheesily in order to secure meaningful wins.

Treasure strategies got a fair number of hate pieces printed against them with cards like Charismatic Conqueror, Dauntless Dismantler, and Tarrian's Soulcleaver so that's nice (not that most of them do anything meaningful against Dockside loops) and we got some excellent new removal in the forms of Bitter Triumph, Tectonic Hazard and Zoyowa's Justice. The Enigma Jewel  Flip and Geological Appraiser are some great combo cards, while Ripples of Potential is one of the better protection spells we've had in a while and Altar of the Wretched  Flip is a phenomenal draw spell.

Wilds of Eldraine Tier List Tweaks — Sept. 5, 2023
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Date added 1 year
Last updated 1 week
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Oathbreaker legal.
Rarity (main - side)

233 - 0 Mythic Rares

24 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons
Cards 278
Avg. CMC 4.54
Tokens */* W Creature Avatar, Ajani's Pridemate, Angel 3/3 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Assassin 1/1 B w/ Planeswalker Deathtouch, Assassin 1/1 B w/ Player Killer, Beast 3/3 B, Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 RG, Boo, Cat 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Cat 2/2 W, Cat Warrior 2/2 G, Construct 0/0 C, Construct 1/1 C Token w/ Defender, Copy Clone, Day, Demon 3-3 B, Demon 5/5 B, Devil 1/1 R, Dinosaur 3/3 G, Dog Illusion */* U, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Drone 2/2 C, Dungeon: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dungeon: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dungeon: Tomb of Annihilation, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 3/1 R, Elemental 4/4 UR, Elemental Bird 4/4 U, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Elk 3/3 G, Emblem Ajani Steadfast, Emblem Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants, Emblem Ajani, Sleeper Agent, Emblem Arlinn Kord, Emblem Basri Ket, Emblem Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Emblem Chandra, Dressed to Kill, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Dack Fayden, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Domri Rade, Emblem Domri, Chaos Bringer, Emblem Dovin Baan, Emblem Ellywick Tumblestrum, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Garruk, Apex Predator, Emblem Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Emblem Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, Emblem Garruk, Unleashed, Emblem Gideon of the Trials, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Emblem Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, Emblem Jaya Ballard, Emblem Jaya Negotiator, Emblem Kaito Shizuki, Emblem Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, Emblem Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator, Emblem Karn, Living Legacy, Emblem Kaya the Inexorable, Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Emblem Kiora, the Crashing Wave, Emblem Koth of the Hammer, Emblem Koth, Fire of Resistance, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Emblem Lolth, Spider Queen, Emblem Mordenkainen, Emblem Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, Emblem Narset Transcendent, Emblem Narset of the Ancient Way, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Emblem Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Emblem Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Emblem Ral, Crackling Wit, Emblem Ral, Izzet Viceroy, Emblem Rowan Kenrith, Emblem Rowan, Scholar of Sparks, Emblem Saheeli, Filigree Master, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Emblem Serra the Benevolent, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Emblem Tamiyo, Field Researcher, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Emblem Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Emblem Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset, Emblem Tezzeret the Schemer, Emblem Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Emblem Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh, Emblem Tyvar Kell, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner, Emblem Vivien Reid, Emblem Vraska, Golgari Queen, Emblem Will Kenrith, Emblem Wrenn and Realmbreaker, Emblem Wrenn and Seven, Emblem Wrenn and Six, Emblem Zariel, Archduke of Avernus, Etherium Cell, Faerie Dragon 1/1 U, Food, Fractal 0/0 GU, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 2/2 G, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Illusion 2/2 U w/ Phantasmal, Insect 1/1 BG, Kavu 3/3 WUBRG, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Kor Soldier 1/1 W, Kor Warrior 1/1 W, Kraken 9/9 U, Mask, Monk 1/1 R, Mowu, Night, Nightmare 1/1 B, Nightmare 2/3 UB, Ninja 1/1 U, Ninja 2/1 U, Octopus 8/8 U, Otter 1/1 UR, Phyrexian Beast 3/3 G, Phyrexian Horror X/X G, Pilot 1/1 C, Pirate 2/2 B, Plant 0/1 G, Plot, Powerstone, Rhino Warrior 4/4 G, Samurai 2/2 W w/ Double strike, Samurai 2/2 W, Satyr 2/2 GR, Servo 1/1 C, Shard, Skeleton 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Spider 2/1 B, Spirit 1/1 W, Spirit 2/2 C, Spirit 2/2 U, Spirit 3/2 RW, Squirrel 1/1 G, Stoneforged Blade, Tamiyo's Notebook, The Atropal, Thopter 1/1 C, Thrull 0/1 B, Treasure, Treefolk */* G w/ Reach, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Vampire 2/2 B, Vampire 2/3 B, Vampire Knight 1/1 B, Wall 0/3 W, Wall 0/4 W, Wizard 1/1 R, Wizard 2/2 U, Wolf 1/1 B, Wolf 2/2 BG, Wolf 2/2 G, Wurm 6/6 G, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
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