Why is Gifts Ungiven not used in Legacy?

[memnarch]

I haven't seen gifts used once in all my time in legacy. It's been restricted in Vintage. It's a tutor and card advantage. Granted in Vintage they can cast it off a Mana Drain. But I see FOF in Landstill decks all the time. I have seen gifts run in UW Tron control and even Rock decks in extended. So my question: Is there a deck that uses it? Or could it work in a preexisting deck? Perhaps with Relic wreaking havok on the format now is not the best time to introduce it. No doubt it would require graveyard shenanigans. Any thoughts?

[nitewolf9]

I have tried Gifts in many configurations in legacy and have always been unimpressed by it. If you are going to use it to fuel some sort of engine, Intuition just does a better job by also being able to get 2 or 3 ofs as an instant-speed demonic tutor, and it costs 1 less. As a card advantage spell FoF is just generally stronger and requires less work to fit it in to a control deck. It is kind of strange that legacy is the only format that really hasn't been impacted at all by the card, but I think there are probably many reasons for that, mostly due to the unique card pool.

In vintage they have Yawg. Will and a bunch of singles of completely busted cards that you can go get. Legacy does not have these cards. Mindslaver is bad in legacy because tron is terrible (see: Wasteland), and we don't have manadrain. I don't know what else you'd want to set up with gifts that Intuition wouldn't be able to do better.

There might be some Gifts deck that is really good and yet to be built, but I have not really found anything close. Some way to abuse goblin welder might be ok. Still seems kinda weak.

[Bardo]

I don't know what else you'd want to set up with gifts that Intuition wouldn't be able to do better.

This is it. The difference between 3 and 4 mana is huge; Intuition is more flexible (tutoring for 3 P Deeds, FoWs, etc.) and doesn't force all of these deck design concessions to accommodate (all of the 1-ofs).

Gifts Ungiven isn't necessarily a bad card; Intuition does what Gifts wants to do cheaper with less hassle.

[AngryTroll]

Gifts is really good at finding piles like Demonic Tutor, Regrowth, Will, and some other broken card in Vintage, or you can play it in Highlander for Life from the Loam, Wasteland, Urborg, and Raven's Crime; but in Legacy, what do you find?

Umm...Counterbalance, Deed, Goyf, Swords? You'll get what you don't need.

I did see it used as a singleton in Demigod, but that's it.

[morgan_coke]

I've had some decent luck with gifts in this list, but here it works alongside of intuition, rather than replacing it. I'm not sure any legacy deck that would want to run only one of them wouldn't be better served by just using intuition instead.

4x Birds of Paradise
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Ravenous Baloth
1x Loxodon Hierarch
1x Etched Oracle
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Eternal Witness

4x Glittering Wish
1x Pyroclasm
1x Akroma's Vengeance
1x Wrath of God
1x Life from the Loam
2x Gaea's Blessing

1x Pernicious Deed

3x Intuition
3x Gifts Ungiven
3x Brainstorm

3x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Tormod's Crypt

1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant

3x Flooded Strand
3x Windswept Heath
2x Tropical Island
1x Taiga
1x Savannah
1x Underground Sea
1x Plateau
1x Bayou
1x Plains
1x Forest
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Academy Ruins
1x Wasteland
1x Mutavault

Sideboard
1x Research/Development
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Teferi's Moat
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Vindicate
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Firespout
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Meddling Mage
2x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Ethersworn Canonist

But yeah, most decks, they don't use both gifts and intuition.

[Citrus-God]

Because in Vintage, when Gifts resolves, you either win or make a burst of card advantage. A Turn 2 Gifts pile will either win you the game or chain card advantage. A pile such as BS, Scroll (assuming you havent casted Recall yet), Gifts and FoF just generally stabilizes your mana base, sets up your combo and finds you protection. And if Gifts resolves and doesn't look for mana or card advantage, you basically win.

In Legacy, Gifts is clunky and doesnt win you the game.

[dahcmai]

I always just figured it was because if you wanted that much card advantage, you used Fact or Fiction which isn't restricted here as in Vintage.

The lack of being able to get a Yawgmoth's Will probably has a lot to do with the rest.

[from Cairo]

Fact or Fiction does the CA aspect better.

The only Gifts application that seems plausible in this format is with Loam and I think Intuition accomplishes mostly the same thing for 1 less mana, aka pull up: Loam, utility land (cycler, Wasteland, Volrath's Stronghold, Academy Ruins), and X. Where X = a citp effect creature or Engineered Explosives, etc.

[kicks_422]

Because almost everything that you'd want to get with Gifts is banned or unplayable in Legacy.

[mercenarybdu]

Gifts has limited uses to the format. If you plan on playing Gifts, you have to be very strategic in making it worth the 4 mana.

Most players run 2 at most, but at times 4 if the deck is solely based around it. Or if the player needs a Intuition extention cord.

[4eak]

A few Rock decks have used Gifts according to Deckcheck. I have to agree, Rock based GY recursive decks are likely the only place that one could viably play Gifts. I know I have enjoyed the Legacy Gifts decks I have played.

Gifts Ungiven merits play in two circumstances:


You are already playing Intuition and you need more of the tutor/GY-combo effect (Intuition 5-8).
You have an abnormal amount of singletons in your deck, allowing Gifts to setup multiple combos while also generating raw card advantage that could not be provided by Intuition.


Rock has a very wide variety of tools (arguably the widest), and Gifts can certainly do things in these lists that Intuition cannot. Assuming mana production is not the problem (often one of Rock's strongpoints), then the 1 mana difference between Intuition and Gifts can often be overlooked in favor of the card advantage and increased tutor capacity (not multiples of any given card, but definitely lots of smaller combos).

Barriers to Gifts play:


The mana cost.
Restriction to singletons
Recursive combos are usually 2-3 cards which can be accessed an entire turn earlier by Intuition, while the 4th card may just be taking up space.
Recursive combos themselves are usually the actual card advantage engines of the deck (negating some of the need to generate raw Card Advantage that would be seen by moving from Intuition to Gifts).
Gifts warps deckbuilding
Gifts can be a very skill intensive card to play correctly (a limitation on the number of pilots for the card/deck), often being much more complicated than Intuition.


There is certainly a fine line between a deck that has a very wide variety of answers and an inconsistent hodge-podge control deck. Gifts Ungiven walks (and teeters on) that line. I would also argue that as new sets add to the tools available to Legacy deckbuilders, Gifts becomes increasingly stronger over time. One day, it may see more play.






peace,
4eak

[BreathWeapon]

I actually think it could be more useful now than it was before, considering Natural Order is the new Tinker, you could build piles similar to the original Vintage Gifts decks that ran the Tinker->Darksteel Colossus kill. It's still probably crap, but at least now there's a relatively compact kill condition in the format for it to try running with.

[4eak]

Painter/Grindstone/Academy Ruins/Loam has been a decent wincon Gifts for me.





peace,
4eak

[Elf_Ascetic]

Our team used to run 3 Gifts in our UBG Landstill build (With Loam, Stronghold, Witness, Ruins, EE, etc) but we have recently replaced Gifts with Intuition. We run a single Gifts now, but that one is likely to be replaced by the fourth Intuition. Intuition is faster (Daze is important) and able to find 3 Deeds. The rise of Dreadstill and Merfolk has been the reason for the choice. Gifts is great, it wins you the game almost immidiatly, but is too slow nowadays.