My last “New Perspectives” article (linked here) was all about Angry Cow Dad, aka Angrath, the Flame-Chained. The Oathbreaker I’ll be focusing on today is a bit more infamous, seeing as he’s now been banned in *checks notes* . . . FIVE FORMATS?! Oko, Thief of Crowns has certainly earned himself quite the reputation in 1v1 formats, but I think Oathbreaker may be the fairest home I’ve seen for him thus far. As always, I’ll be going over three different builds of this Oathbreaker with three different Signature Spells.
The Oathbreaker
Let’s begin by taking a look at the individual abilities on Oko, Thief of Crowns.
For those that may not be aware, food tokens are artifact tokens. You can pay two mana, tap and sacrifice a food token in order to gain three life. I think the most notable part of this ability is, oddly enough, simply the fact that it’s a +2 ability. Being able to immediately tick up to six loyalty will make it a bit more difficult for your opponents to remove Oko through combat alone, especially since he only costs three mana to begin with. Incidental lifegain is also fairly strong in Oathbreaker anyways, and there are a number of other ways to capitalize on a board full of artifact tokens. This ability probably won’t be winning you any games on its own, but it is deceivingly strong in its own right.
This second ability is probably what Oko is most notorious for. In 1v1 formats, this +1 ability can turn almost any threat into a plain old 3/3 elk, whether it be a Death’s Shadow, Tarmogoyf, or Glorybringer. There’s also some pretty clear synergy between this ability and the food tokens that Oko can create, so he can defend himself easily enough. This ability generally won’t take over multiplayer games nearly as easily as a 1v1 game, but it is powerful nonetheless. Also, if you really want to frustrate your playgroup, pair this ability with Liquimetal Coating and target their Oathbreakers.
This ultimate ability is certainly not game-ending by any stretch of the imagination; however, it is also far more reachable than most ultimate abilities out there. In fact, one could theoretically fire this ability off the turn after playing Oko and using his +2 ability. I usually avoid using this particular ability unless necessary, since opponents tend to not respond well to having their toys taken away from them. Even still, this ability has its uses, and you may be surprised at how often one can pay this loyalty cost in a single game.
Despite his many strengths, Oko, Thief of Crowns is currently only the fifth most popular Simic Oathbreaker (out of the seven options currently available) with only 80 decks on EDHrec. I suspect this lack of Oathbreaker popularity is primarily due to 1) his reputation as an overpowered planeswalker, and 2) the fact that none of his abilities scale particularly well into a multiplayer setting. A high price tag upon initial release may have also once been a contributor, but his price has fallen considerably since his many bans in other formats; however, I don’t think Oko is in any danger of being banned in Oathbreaker, and there are definitely some fun ways to brew around this elk-y boy.
Build #1: Simic Food
Decklist: The Oko Diet
Despite the fact that food tokens have only appeared in one set thus far, “food” decks have a decent amount of support available to them, and Oko is the perfect planeswalker to pair with this particular archetype. Being able to create a food token every turn will ensure that our deck has plenty of fuel to run on, and we can even use Oko’s -5 ability to trade food in for one of our opponent’s creatures, if necessary; however, the biggest payoff for this strategy is definitely our Signature Spell, Giant Opportunity. It’s very easy for this deck to have two food tokens to sacrifice to Giant Opportunity thanks to Oko, and this deck can get a 7/7 giant into play as early as turn 3. These giant tokens don’t come with any built-in evasion, unfortunately, but simic colors have plenty of different ways help our creatures get past opposing blockers.
- Redundant Enablers: Oko is definitely our go-to food supplier, but it’s important to have a little variety in one’s diet. This deck is heavy on its greens, so we won’t have much trouble enabling Gingerbread Cabin‘s enter-the-battlefield trigger. Fierce Witchstalker also creates a food token when it hits the field, and we can use Gilded Goose to create food over the course of the game as we see fit. Golden Egg counts as a food on its own, as does the ever-hasty, and ever-tasty, Gingerbrute. We can also use the adventure half of Curious Pair to net us an extra food serving, and we can always pitch them or our other creatures to Witch’s Oven to cook up some extra tokens. Spark Double is handy since it can be used to copy either Oko or one of our giants, and we can even double up on all of our token production with Parallel Lives.
- Evasion: Since our giants will all be vanilla 7/7s, they’re going to need a little help getting past chump blockers. Rancor and Shadowspear will let our giants trample on over, as will the +1 abilities on Garruk, Unleashed and Vivien, Arkbow Ranger. If that’s not good enough, we can use Thassa, God of the Sea to bypass blockers entirely, and Whirler Rogue can put any spare food tokens to similar use. The activated ability on Rogue’s Passage is a bit pricer than either of those previous options, but it will be just as effective if we need to close out a game. To top it all off, we have Sword of Sinew and Steel to give our giants a little added protection, and it doubles as removal for any opposing Oathbreakers.
- Redundant Payoffs: Giant Opportunity is our main payoff for creating food tokens, but it certainly isn’t our only one. Insatiable Appetite gets a bit of a boost from our food, and Wicked Wolf can sacrifice food to boost and protect itself. Idol of Oblivion will net us plenty of extra cards as we create food tokens, and our food will net us more even value on the way out thanks to Trail of Crumbs. Although he isn’t quite as big as a 7/7 giant, Feasting Troll King comes with the additional upsides of trample and vigilance, as well as his recursion ability. We can double up on our largest threats with cards like Mirror Image and Quasiduplicate, and Garruk, Primal Hunter can easily refill our hand with one use of his -3 ability.
Build #2: Simic Artifacts
Decklist: Simic Steel
Food-specific-synergies aren’t the only way to take advantage of Oko’s +2 ability. Food tokens don’t do a whole lot on their own, but adding more and more artifacts to the board opens up some interesting possibilities. Thoughtcast is one of the most infamous Signature Spells in the format, and while Oko may not be the most blatantly powerful artifacts Oathbreaker out there, he still pairs very well with this powerful sorcery. On top of reducing Thoughtcast‘s cost by one every turn, Oko’s +2 ability will gradually fill our board with artifacts that can help with any extra artifact shenanigans we may have (affinity, metalcraft, etc.). Card advantage won’t win us the game on its own, but there’s no shortage of possible win conditions when it comes to artifact-based strategies.
- Mana Acceleration: A little bit of mana ramp never hurts in a deck that’s trying to power out a ton of artifacts. Arcane Signet a staple option as far as mana rocks go, and Mox Amber fits fairly well here with our three-drop Oathbreaker. In addition to being able to produce extra artifacts, Gilded Goose will prove useful by turning any spare food tokens into extra mana. We can also more directly tap our food tokens for mana as long as we have Urza, Lord High Artificer in play. I also like to include Ugin, the Ineffable as a source of mana acceleration in my artifact decks, given the high number of colorless cards in this particular archetype. In addition to reducing the cost of our colorless costs, Ugin will provide us with even more card advantage through his +1 ability and he’ll act as spot removal thanks to his -3 ability.
- Win Conditions: Drawing cards is fun and all, but eventually we will have to win the game. There are many strong targets for Ensoul Artifact in this list, and The Antiquities War can similarly animate all of our artifacts when it hits its final chapter. Master of Etherium is a sizable threat that will boost our other artifact creatures, including our construct tokens from Karn, Scion of Urza. Gearseeker Serpent is another large threat that’ll be easy for us to run, since we’re already planning on flooding the board with artifacts. As far as more generically strong threats, we have Heart of Kiran covering the air and Wurmcoil Engine gumming up the ground.
- Other Artifact Synergies: Even in this unusual choice of color combination, there are plenty of ways to take advantage of a board full of artifacts. Etched Champion can quickly become an untouchable threat thanks to its metalcraft ability, and we can simultaneously grow all of our artifact creatures turn after turn with Steel Overseer. We can add to our board even further with the help of Sai, Master Thopterist and his many thopters, and we can use him to turn spare food tokens into extra cards. Even if some of our better artifacts are removed, we can recur them one by one by activating Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Emry also pairs very well with Arcbound Ravager, which can quickly turn any of our artifact creatures into a sizable threat. If we need any more help in the card advantage department, we can use Mystic Forge to play our colorless cards off the top of our deck (20 hits in total for this list). Tezzeret, Artifice Master can also provide us with plenty of extra fuel, whether that be in the form of extra cards or 1/1 thopter tokens.
Build #3: Elk Valuetown
Decklist: Oko Valuetown
This third list is my personal build of Oko, a version I originally built back when Oko first came out and have been tweaking ever since. The goal of this deck is pretty straightforward; play cheap “value” artifacts/creatures, use Oko to turn them into elks, and rinse and repeat until you’ve won via a massive elk stampede. After much consideration, I settled on Polymorphist’s Jest as this deck’s Signature Spell. The main reasons I made this choice are 1) it’s a big flavor win since polymorphing is Oko’s thing, and 2) it can be very handy, or even game-winning, in certain situations even though it doesn’t appear very threatening. Since I ended up including Vivien, Arkbow Ranger in the list, I also added a 10-card “wishboard” to the deck. Not every playgroup is okay with this house rule, so definitely check in with your playgroup about it before playing a game with a wishboard; that being said, the wishboard isn’t very important for this particular deck, so you could always just cut it entirely if necessary.
- Elk Fodder: Since the main goal of this list is to turn our own cards into 3/3 elks, there are a lot of targets for Oko’s +1 ability (around 17, depending on how you count). Technically every creature and artifact in this list could count as “elk fodder”, but I’m just going to focus on the most notable targets we have. Nest Invader and Servo Schematic are each functionally two elks in one, and Kozilek’s Predator is a 3/3 that nets us two pieces of elk fodder. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can create an absurd amount of elk fodder over the course of the game, and she can even buff our entire board with her second ability. Any clue tokens we make with Tireless Tracker can also be turned into elks, though we could always just sacrifice them to keep our hand full. The army token created by Aven Eternal is another nice target, as is Jadelight Ranger after it’s received one or two +1/+1 counters. Even still, our best piece of elk fodder may just be The First Iroan Games. Its first and fourth chapters each net us one piece of elk fodder, and its middle two chapters offer another three power/toughness and two extra cards.
- Boosts & Evasion: Even with our horde of 3/3s, we’ll need a little extra help to close out the game. Grafted Wargear can turn any of our creatures into a real threat, as can Umezawa’s Jitte. If we need to trample over any chump blockers, then Rancor, Overwhelming Stampede, and Vivien, Arkbow Ranger can help us out. We can also get around blockers entirely by targeting our elks with the activated abilities on Key to the City or Thassa, God of the Sea. Champion of Lambholt can passively grant similar evasion to our entire board as long as it’s big enough, and its not very difficult for this deck to grow its power.
- The Wishboard: When I first added Vivien to this deck, I initially forgot about her -5 ability entirely. I ended up adding the wishboard for fun, filling it with whatever spare cards I could find from my collection that I thought looked useful. Acidic Slime and Bane of Progress are here as a few niche forms of spot removal, and Ixidron is our pseudo-board-wipe stapled to a creature. Eternal Witness can net us a little recursion, while Scavenging Ooze can keep opposing graveyards in check. Barrin, Tolarian Archmage is nice way to temporarily get rid of an opposing Oathbreaker or bounce one of our own creatures for a little added value. Temur Sabertooth pairs very well with him, but its also very strong on its own as some insurance against board wipes. If we need a bit more help with overpowering our opponents, we can easily go tall with Bioessence Hydra since Oko tends to have a lot of loyalty. We can also go wide with the help of Meloku the Clouded Mirror or Whisperwood Elemental.
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Food & Artifacts: Fierce Guardianship and Gingerbrute
- Artifacts & Elks: Arcum’s Astrolabe, Grafted Wargear, Heart of Kiran, Key to the City, Servo Schematic, Umezawa’s Jitte, and Tribute Mage
- Food & Elks: Heroic Intervention, Rancor, Golden Egg, Arboreal Grazer, Fierce Witchstalker, Wicked Wolf, Thassa, God of the Sea and Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
- Food, Artifacts & Elks: Once Upon a Time, Liquimetal Coating, Shadowspear, and Gilded Goose
When In Doubt, Elk ’em Out
I’ve wanted to do an article on Oko, Thief of Crowns pretty much since I started this blog, and I’m surprised it took me this long. My own Oko list is one of my favorite Oathbreaker decks, and it’s consistently been pretty fun at the table, both for me and my opponents. Oko has earned himself a pretty bad reputation in other formats, but I don’t think he deserves to face the same hate in Oathbreaker.
Have you tried building around Oko, Thief of Crowns in Oathbreaker? Are there any others way you do/would want to build around him in Oathbreaker? Make sure to share your thoughts and brews with me in the comments or on Twitter!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com