Today we’re doing an interview with two very active members of the Oops! All Spells! community. These two players are probably the most known grinders of this deck and they don’t play it because it’s cheap, they play it because it’s good. Meet Nathan Lipetz and Faulted Form. Besides the results they keep putting up for this deck, they also spend a lot of time helping others in the Oops! All Spells Discord. Let’s meet our guests and ask them some questions!
1. Could you tell me a bit more about yourself and your relationship with Oops all spells (and accomplishments/achievements)?
Nathan:
Hi, I’m Nathan Lipetz. I’m a 22 year old competitive MTG player from Canada. I began playing in 2015, and started Legacy in 2018.
My biggest accomplishments with Legacy Oops include:
- 17th at EW (7-2) (Nov. 22, 2021) – MTGO
- Legacy Challenge Top 8 (5-2) (May 7, 2022) – MTGO
- Top 16 @ The Jordan Aisaka Memorial Tournament (5-2) (July 16, 2023) – Paper
- Top 16 @ MXP Portland Legacy 5k (5-2) (Oct. 14, 2023) – Paper
Faultedform:
I am a MTGO Legacy league grinder who loves aggressive strategies. I consider myself a deck specialist focusing on Golgari Turbo Depths and Oops! All Spells, having achieved four Legacy Challenge top 8 finishes (two with each deck.) I have put a lot of work into fine tuning the current Oops! All Spells deck list as well as creating an extensive guide on how to use Memory’s Journey in the deck. I am also a moderator in the Oops! All Spells discord channel.
2. When did you start playing Oops! All Spells?
Nathan:
I started playing Oops sometime between late 2020 and early 2021 (It’s been so long that I don’t honestly remember the exact date). At the time, I was the most known Omni-Tell player, but was realizing that deck was past it’s time and was looking for other combo decks to try. I experimented with a lot of other combo decks, ultimately enjoying Doomsday most. Unfortunately at that time, Delver was EVERYWHERE. And Delver was Doomsday’s worst matchup by a lot (under 33% win rate vs it), so I started looking for combo decks that stood a better chance vs Delver while still having a positive win rate elsewhere. When looking at Oops lists, I noticed they looked rather incorrectly built – all playing 4 Chrome Mox, and many not running 2 Therapy or Bridge From Below, along with almost all lists running Chancellor of the Annex over Thoughtseize. This all felt really wrong to me when testing and myself along with a few others started to develop what current Oops looks like. I was right about Oops being better than Doomsday vs Delver (or at least the delver at that time which for years before Bowmasters was just UR). Xantid Swarm was key vs Delver, and rose our win rate vs them to nearly 50%. As Oops was favored vs most else, this made Oops a very appealing choice for competitive play.
Faultedform:
I started playing Oops in 2020 a few months after Ragavan was printed. At the time I was only playing Turbo Depths and the Delver matchup became almost impossible to win. Most of the depths deck contains one drops that are good against itself so Ragavan would flip a card to use against you and the one mana needed to cast it. I started trying out Oops because it was an inexpensive combo deck that some of the depths cards ported over to.
3. What’s changed about the deck and the legacy metagame (relevant changes for oops) since then?
Nathan:
Legacy Oops hasn’t changed much since my first few results in April 2021. The 2 biggest additions since are: Memory’s Journey (Faultedform – June 2021) & Reanimate (Faultedform – August 2022), with both only becoming stock much after those dates. Another big add was Foundation Breaker as a SB Summoner’s Pact target, this was first suggested by Jax in MH2 spoiler season. The only other changes you’ll see amongst stock lists are people testing things and SB flex slots (which are usually 2 Veil of Summer, Dismember or Surgical Extraction/ Faerie Macabre/Leyline of the Void). These flex slots are always meta calls and just depend what the given pilot wants extra help vs in the given meta.
Faultedform:
Since that time the deck has probably solidified three major changes. The addition of Memory’s Journey, Foundation Breaker and Reanimate. The meta game feels like it has gotten faster and the early turns are more decisive with highly impactful cards.
4. If you couldn’t play this deck for some reason, what would you play in legacy?
Nathan:
This is a tough question for me as I don’t play Oops as a budget option. I play Oops because I enjoy it and I do well with it. I’ve collected data for Oops since I started playing it, and it’s consistently 52-58% win rate depending on the meta. I consider Oops a serious competitive deck that rewards experience and knowledge of the deck and format of Legacy. I have results on countless other decks, but Oops is still generally my go-to deck for major events.
Faultedform:
If I could not play Oops I would play Golgari Turbo Depths, Oracle Shift or possibly Doomsday.
5. How hard would you say it is to play Oops correctly?
Nathan:
I think this is very subjective. Personally, I see Reanimator and Moon Stompy as the easiest to play Legacy decks, with TES, Rx Painter and Lands being the 3 hardest. Oops is somewhere in the middle. At a base level, ya, it’s quite easy, but I think people assume it’s also easy to master or be as good as the top players with – this I heavily disagree with. I always find it amusing when I see YouTube videos or streams with well known players saying how easy Oops is and then proceeding to punt 10-20 times in 1 MTGO League (5 matches). It’s super ironic and often they even lose games and don’t realize they’ve thrown that game. Oops really takes a lot of play experience. You get better the more you play, and experience different scenarios. While Oops games do not tend to go long (typically 1-4 turns), you have many of crucial decisions during that time and 1 mistake will often lose you a game. Legacy has a diversity of answers, and playing matches is just the best way to get better at Oops.
Faultedform:
Playing Oops is a bit deceptive. While it is true that you can get easy wins you really need to learn what hands you can keep because you mulligan so aggressively. I would also compare Oops to a control deck in the sense that you really need to know the meta decks and hate cards in them. I often lose to non meta decks/brews because I’m unsure what to play around.
6. What is your favourite MTG card and why?
Nathan:
My favorite pet cards are Klothys and Bloodbraid Elf. I have an unhealthy obsession with Modern Ponza, even though it’s been really bad for awhile. The card I play and enjoy most is Urza’s Saga. It’s by far the best non-restricted card in Vintage and should have been restricted over a year ago.
Faultedform:
My favorite card is Lotus Petal. I think that it is broken but in a fair kind of way. It allows for mana acceleration but if what you’re casting fails then you wasted a resource that you can’t get back.
7. What is your top 3 for best legacy decks under $1K?
Nathan:
- Oops All Spells
- Death & Taxes
- Ruby Storm (Traditional builds without LED)
Faultedform:
- Oops! All Spells
- Golgari Turbo Depths
- Death & Taxes
8. What’s the deal with Reanimate in Oops (bonus question for Faulted, the inventor of this tech)?
Faultedform:
Reanimate is for Force of Will and discard matchups. It took the place of a 5th blue hate card that I was testing in the sideboard but I moved it to the main deck and it over performed. If you use all your mana to cast a Rogue and it gets countered then Reanimate is a cheap way to get that Rogue back with low resources. It also can make Memory’s Journey piles a lot faster in certain situations where all you have to do is put Reanimate into your library and use it on Thassa’s Oracle.
Learn more about Oops All Spells on our deck page here!