[SCD] Gifts Ungiven

[YamiJoey]

You should play Teachings in that list. Being able to find any Instant answer, or just grab your Gifts - twice - is stupid.

[Mr. Safety]

So right now for powerful library manipulation/draw i have:

3x Gifts Ungiven
4x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Sphinx's Revelation

How on earth do I squeeze in Mystical Teachings?!?!?! I guess a list is in order:

1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Griselbrand

3x Gifts Ungiven
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Engineered Explosives
4x Lightning Helix
3x Mana Leak
1x Negate
1x Spell Snare
1x Cryptic Command
1x Counterflux
2x Path to Exile
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Wrath of God
2x Firespout
1x Sphinx's Revelation
2x Unburial Rites
2x Detention Sphere

2x Academy Ruins
4x Arid Mesa
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Scalding Tarn
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Steam Vents
2x Sacred Foundry
1x Watery Grave
1x Godless Shrine
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains

Sideboard

1x Ghost Quarter
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Pithing Needle
1x Aether Spellbomb
1x Trinket Mage
2x Shatterstorm
4x Dispel
4x Lingering Souls


The sideboard needs work, but it has answers to most problematic matchups (Tron, control mirror mostly) and it does some good work against the metagame. I like the Spellbomb/Explosives/Ruins/Thirst engine quite a bit, fixing card quality while having a machine gun. I feel that Think Twice is a soft option in Modern, but most UWR Control decks use 2 copies. I'd rather play Spellbombs for value because they can create virtual card advantage while on the field and against matchups where they aren't good they can be cycled, just like Think Twice. It's also a secondary (but slow) win condition. Another route is to get up to 6-7 fatties into the deck and a full 4x Unburial Rites to go with the Thirsts. I can't help but think that Gifts is so compact it seems like a better avenue.

Would love feedback, but realize I started the thread for consistent Gifts discussion, not to promote my own jank build.

[YamiJoey]

That's a really weird list. I'm going to get some stuff made up. I've been playing Counterburn for a million years now so I fancy a change. You look to have too much going on, so I'm sure I can find something to cut.

Also, any deck playing Spellbombs is a good deck in my opinion. #Jaded

[nodahero]

4 Pyrite Spellbomb... That seems terrible. I don't care if it works well with Thirst... It is a terrible investment. There has to be something better in that slot. Even just diversify the 1 drop artifact slot.

[Mr. Safety]

4 Pyrite Spellbomb... That seems terrible. I don't care if it works well with Thirst... It is a terrible investment. There has to be something better in that slot. Even just diversify the 1 drop artifact slot.

I mean really, an artifact that can kill early relevant creatures like Deathrite Shaman, Delver of Secrets, Dark Confidant seems really bad. Then recurring it with Academy Ruins? Jeesh, that's just plain shit. I mean, if it could cycle for a card like Think Twice does maybe then it might be worth playing. It also doesn't create virtual card advantage by suppressing early creature plays either. [/sarcasm]

Seriously, it's good. It's the equivalent of Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows only without the lifegain clause and a little bit slower. I've killed plenty of planeswalkers with Pyrite Spellbombs recurred and it's easy chaff for Thirst for Knowledge (which can then be recurred with Ruins.)

I don't typically play conventional decks. I try to brew decks that prey on the conventional ones. I still play mainstream decks as well, but I get bored when a deck becomes 'solved.' So I go to the drawing board and see what I can do. This deck may be complete crap, but so far it has been testing well online and at the local level. That doesn't mean competitive, it just means I'm still willing to develop it.

[nodahero]

As you pointed out its basically a less optimal variation of Punishing Fire with the benefit of pitching to Thirst... I don't think the added mana investment plus drawstep is worth it.

[Mr. Safety]

Through extensive testing, I agree. It was dropped...and in fact I dropped the project in favor of BGUw Gifts instead. It's just a better deck, and I still get to Gifts for Ruins/Explosives, but now it includes Raven's Crime and Life from the Loam. I liked Butakov's deck from Worlds and I'm going to pursue that deck again.

[nodahero]

Was that the list that ran the GW and UB man lands? I also liked that version.

I am just shy on the gifts plan with the way Jund tore up the Top 8 this weekend.

[Mr. Safety]

I think the only manlands Butakov was using was Treetop Village, but I play 1x Treetop and 2x Creeping Tar Pit in my version. Tar Pit is such a beating against planeswalkers and it's a valid finisher.

Gifts Rock has about even odds against Jund actually. You are playing a similar game plan but you have a 4-mana combo you can pull off (Gifts, Rites, Elesh Norn.) I prefer a much more controlling version of Gifts as well (Mana Leak, Explosives, etc.) not focusing on Knight of the Reliquary quite so much. If I played Knight it would only be one, and then just as a value-based creature to nab with Gifts/Rites. Gifts is already a fantastic tutor and building around that one card is complexity enough without going for ANOTHER graveyard-based synergy.

What is really pushing Gifts out of range is Scavenging Ooze. I mean, you can play Spell Snare and load up on Abrupt Decay/removal but there will still be games where you can kill Ooze or Deathrite but not both.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Until the metagame shifts, I'm going to stick with this card being subpar. Like you said, with all of the Scavenging Ooze + Deathrites it's just not going to be giving you much value for as expensive as it is.

The combo is incredibly fun though, hopefully something changes to make it playable.

[Mr. Safety]

I agree, with sad face in tow...

For now it's Ad Nauseam, Jund, and Death Cloud for me. I'll have to shelve Gifts for a little while. Ad Nauseam and Death Cloud are fringe enough to keep from getting bored with netdecking and I can always compete with Jund.

[Megadeus]

i thought about maybe playing ground seal to stop ooze and shaman, but unfortunately that also stops loam and rites.

[Mr. Safety]

i thought about maybe playing ground seal to stop ooze and shaman, but unfortunately that also stops loam and rites.

Loam is mostly a sideboard card to recur Tec Edges. I've found Liliana to be far and away better than Raven's Crime as a discard engine. (See what I did there?) I've come to the conclusion that most Gifts decks want Deathrite Shaman themselves, too. The deck has greedy mana costs, hoping to get to the late game or luck into a Gifts/Rites/Fatty. My experience is that Gifts is more often used as a control engine than a combo.

[nodahero]

I agree completely, Gifts is a control engine first and a combo engine second (by a large margin).

[Arsenal]

Although DRS was often used in decks running Gifts, I suspect that the absence of DRS will give dedicated Gifts decks a shot in the arm. Or is a 4 mana engine card, even at instant speed, too slow now that Zoo is possibly making a comeback?

[Phoenix Ignition]

It's good again in the hard control decks using it to reanimate stuff. I think it fools people into playing bad decks, though, if they are going to pick 4 cards with it.

[Arsenal]

I've always liked this shell: http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=10444&iddeck=76193

It basically is just a control deck running permission, removal, sweepers, Snapcaster flashback value, then can just "in response/eot, Gifts" and setup brutal Loam piles or just reanimate a fatty. This deck ran off the back of 4 DRS to give it access to turn 2 Liliana, turn 3 Gifts. Maybe run more 1cc discard or removal/counters in those 4 vacant slots?

[firebadmattgood]

I've been having some pretty good luck with this:

4 bop
4 goyf
2 kotr
1 elesh norn
3 lingering souls
3 abrupt decay
3 path to exile
1 darkblast
1 maelstrom pulse
1 life from the loam
1 engineered explosives
3 lotv
4 gifts
3 thoughtsieze
8 fetches
6 shocks
1 tar pit
1 academy ruins
1 tec edge
1 ghost quarter
1 horizon canopy
1 gavony township
4 basics

partial sideboard
2 spellskite
1 thrun
2 pithing needle
2 golgari charm
1 clique
1 batterskull
1 linvala
2 stony silence


Zoo isn't much of an issue with goyf, knight, souls and 6 removal spells. Faeries and UWR are good matchup, just gifts for loam, crime, ghost quarter and tec edge in response to their sphinx's reveletation/mistbind. Pod's winable with rites/norn.

Affinity and twin can be tough if you don't hit your hate pieces.

[Mr. Safety]

Unburial Rites is missing, but I assume its in there.

I know its old tech, but I always liked including eternal witness/profane command to make winning gift piles for grinding games.

[Timber]

I put together an Esper Gifts deck, tested against (non-Kikki) Pod and tweeked a bit. It's still under construction because I'm still working on obtaining Iona, Colonnades and Cryptic Commands. I'm also playing around with the spot removal slots. I think it needs 2 more lands.

Anyone else working on Gifts without green?

2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
2 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave

4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Mystical Teachings
2 Unburial Rites
1 Makeshift Mannequin

2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Path to Exile
2 Spell Snare
4 Mana Leak
1 Devour Flesh
1 Doom Blade
1 Smother
1 Damnation
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God

2 Serum Visions
1 Lingering Souls

2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Inkwell Leviathan

2 Liliana of the Veil

SIDEBOARD
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Disenchant
2 Stony Silence
1 Banishing Light
1 Detention Sphere
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Consume the Meek
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Zealous Conscripts