Oathbreaker is the latest format inMagic: The Gathering. Essentially, it’s a 60-card take on Commander that allows players to choose a planeswalker and a Signature Spell, either an instant or sorcery, to have available in the command zone at all times during each game.
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As with all the best Magic formats, Oathbreaker makes you evaluate every card differently, viewing every planeswalker, instant, and sorcery through a brand-new lens. And while white is better known for keeping oaths than breaking them, the colour still has plenty of powerful Signature Spell options for players to choose from.
10Enlightened Tutor
Much like Commander before it, Oathbreaker is a singleton format, with no more than one copy of any given card allowed in a deck, basic lands aside. This makesthe ability to ‘Tutor’, to search your library for specific cards, very valuable indeed. And what better way to do so than with Enlightened Tutor, one of the game’s earliest Tutor effects?
It’s a simple card, that lets you grab any artifact of enchantment from your deck for just a single white mana. What makes it great in Oathbreaker is the combination of its low cost and instant speed. Together, these attributes let you weave Enlightened Tutor in during your opponents' turns, grabbing the silver bullet cards necessary to combat their specific strategies.
9Flawless Maneuver
Part of Commander 2020’s cycle of ‘free if you control a commander’ spells, Flawless Maneuver proved powerful in its intended format, but it’s even better in Oathbreaker. Since you may substitute ‘commander’ for ‘Oathbreaker’ during games, Flawless Maneuver can be cast for free from the command zone as long as you control your Oathbreaker: a condition for casting your Signature Spell in the first place.
‘Commander Tax’ does still apply here, so you may’t just grant your creatures indestructible for free every turn, but you can do so cheaply several times, letting you protect your Oathbreaker via blocks and make daring attacks during combat, safe in the knowledge that you have a parachute you can deploy at any time.
8Dawn Charm
Modal cards in Magic tend to sacrifice raw power for flexibility, coming in handy in specific situations, but rarely changing the course of a game on their own. In Oathbreaker, however, you can have a modal spell available at all times, which makes their toolkit nature much more tempting.
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Dawn Charm is a brilliant example of this, coming with three useful modes that you can use to react to your opponent’s plays. From a tactical fog effect to protect your oathbreaker, to a regenerate effect to stave off removal, to a white counterspell for the likes of burn and discard spells, the power of this humble charm will undoubtedly dawn on your opponents by the end of the game.
7Return To The Ranks
A powerful option in Midrange, Aggro, and Combo decks, Return to the Ranks is truly the people’s reanimation spell. Capable of resurrecting any number of low-mana creatures from your graveyard, for as little as zero mana thanks to convoke, the range of plays this sorcery enables truly boggles the mind.
Naturally, low-to-the-ground aggressive decks like White Weenie will get a lot out of this as their Signature Spell, but it can also be used as a finisher in Combo brews, wherein you build up a suite of key creatures in your graveyard and then bring them back one fell swoop with this card. The doubly flexible mana cost, thanks to being an X spell and having convoke, means you may fit this spell in at any stage of the game.
6Farewell
White has no shortage ofboard wipe spellsavailable in its instant and sorcery arsenal, but none are quite as powerful and flexible as Farewell. Not only can it hit artifacts, creatures, and enchantments, but it does so by exiling them, preventing any dies triggers or graveyard shenanigans. Just to put another nail in the (now exiled) coffin, Farewell can also exile existing graveyards too.
All of this together would make Farewell an effective reset button for the game, one that conveniently leaves your oathbreaker alive, but the best part is that it doesn’t have to be. You have full control over which card types you exile, and whether you exile graveyards. It’s all up to you, meaning the scales of this seemingly symmetrical effect can easily tip in your direction during play.
5Teferi’s Protection
It’s no secret that Teferi’s Protection is an incredibly powerful card, effectively buying you an entire turn cycle where there’s nothing your opponent can do to you, or your permanents, for just three mana. Normally this power is balanced by the self-exile clause at the end of the card, but in Oathbreaker this may as well not exist, since your Signature Spell returns to the command zone if it’s ever exiled.
Because of this, you’ll be able to tap into this unparalleled protection spell multiple times per game, buying valuable time to build up mana and draw into your key plays. Since Oathbreaker is a multiplayer format, this will also push aggro onto your opponents for a few turns, letting them fight amongst themselves while you sit back and relax under Teferi’s umbrella.
4Sphinx’s Decree
Silence effects, or those that prevent your opponents from playing specific cards, are a regular occurrence in white, but Sphinx’s Decree is easily the best in this class for Oathbreaker. Not only does it prevent the casting of instants and sorceries, thus disabling all of your opponents’ Signature Spells, but it does so for each of your opponents, for a full turn cycle.
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This massively reduces your opponents’ options, making it less likely that they’ll be able to remove your oathbreaker or clear your board. For this reason, Sphinx’s Decree is at its best inan aggressive deck, where a couple of free turns it can buy you will be enough to close out the game.
3Comeuppance
Much like in Commander, the oathbreakers and Signature Spells each player chooses for their deck can have an impact on the game even before they enter play, as other players will be able to see them and mentally work around them from the start. Comeuppance is a great example of a card like this, serving as a huge deterrent as soon as you have the mana to cast it.
Not only does it protect you and your oathbreaker from damage, but it also turns that damage back on its source, potentially resulting in a huge blowout of your opponent’s life and resources. This makes all-out assaults on you an impossibility, forcing the kinds of cautious play patterns thata Control deckcan easily exploit.
2Council’s Judgment
A great way to add a layer of spirited debate to your Oathbreaker session, Council’s Judgment is an efficient spell for dealing with multiple problem permanents - as long as they don’t belong to you, of course. With up to five players in a game, this card can potentially exile five different things, if your opponents play along and vote wisely.
Naturally, this can be used to get opposing oathbreakers off the table, but it can also remove any other permanent as well, with the sole exception of lands. A low initial cost of three means you’ll be able to play this card multiple times, ensuring you’re ready to respond to any dramatic plays with a stern judgment of your own.
1Semester’s End
Mass-blink effects are nothing new in Magic, but Semester’s End beats out the competition in Oathbreaker thanks to its ability to blink planeswalkers as well, making it an incredibly effective means of protecting your oathbreaker: Thanks to its instant speed, you can cast this spell in response to any attempt on your oathbreaker’s life.
In addition, you may also take any number of your creatures along for the ride too, capitalising on the usual blink advantages such as doubling down on enters-and-leaves-the-battlefield effects. This makes Semester’s End the ideal Signature Spell to choose when you really want to teach your opponents a lesson.
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