[Deck] Punishing Gifts

[nodahero]

Below you will find a copy of a Gifts deck published in the free section of SCG last Tuesday. I posted a 4-1 finish at our last Legacy tourney with this deck and have been tinkering with it for a couple of days. Overall I think the deck is actually very good. It seems to have a very strong game against most decks actually due to the wide variety of spells and having a recursive removal/win-condition.

Artifacts
1 Crucible Of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword Of The Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Tormod's Crypt

Enchantments
1 Humility

Instants
1 Argivian Find
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
1 Forbid
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Path To Exile
1 Pulse Of The Fields
3 Punishing Fire
3 Spell Snare
4 Swords To Plowshares


Sorceries
1 Firespout

Basic Lands
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains

Basic Snow Lands
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Snow-covered Mountain
1 Snow-covered Plains

Lands
3 Flooded Strand
3 Grove Of The Burnwillows
2 Plateau
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Wasteland

Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins

I played that exact list with the swap of Firespout for Wrath of God.

Two things I noticed in my games on Friday was the value of Forbid and the lack of any solution to a resolved Ioona (realistically).

I understand the power of Punishing Fires with Forbid but how often did you find yourself using this (anyone that has tested this deck)? I never casted Forbid with buyback the entire night. Do you think there is a better card to run in that slot?

Also with the rise of Reanimator and Surviving Bant it seems like having a solution to Ioona might be invaluable. I realize not many have access to loyal retainers and that Reanimator is still a fringe deck but I think finding a valid option against her may have merit if for no other reason than for future use. I did actually manage to answer Ioona yesterday with her set to white. I managed to cast, return, and recast 2 Punishing Fires. Currently I am think Wipe Away in place of a StP may be a solid plan. This allows guaranteed access to a point removal spell off of gifts and gives you point removal outside of white. The only downside is it does not interact with Punishing Fires.

Another note I would like to make although this is not nearly as certain in my mind, is the value of two basic Mountains. The only red in the build is Punishing Fire (I swapped Firespout for Wrath as mentioned earlier). It seems like those two basics could be better used as a fourth Burnwillows and perhaps another Island or Plains.

The other thing I was wondering about is adding a Loam and possibly a cycle land. That enables yet another solid gifts pile.

I am of course greatful for any feedback and responses.

PS As another alternative to running Wipe away we could also run a 1 of Karakas. This could acts as a solution to Ioona and also Teeg... Not that we should need an answer for him but you never know when it will come in handy. Actually come to think of it Karakas seems solid against alot of random reanimator targets including Akroma.

[Vacrix]

I like it. Grove + multiple Punishing Fire's looks pretty legit actually. It looks like you might have issues getting that going though against zoo. How is the zoo matchup? I haven't played it so I can't say for sure, but most of their creatures are out of burn range and if they keep a steady flow of creatures, they will just run over you.

Also, you should post your board. I'm sure you address some of the obvious problem matchups like ichorid and storm.

[obituary 95]

i have also been playing this deck and it has a quite good match up aginst the elphant in the room zoo .i think forbid shoulod be cut becuse it doesnot happen as much as alot of people whould like it to ,and even after testing i found the card a little lack luster.as of late though i have been playing a vershion of the gifts deck that utalizes counterbalence top.

[ddt15]

Maybe borrow some tech from other decks?

Consider this Gifts:

- Academy Ruins
- Crucible of Worlds
- a Regrowth effect
- Glacial Chasm

Which allows you to hide under Glacial Chasm for ages until you can gifts for Thopter/Sword and you can then keep it in play continuously by just paying the life with your combo. It seems like other nifty land cards could fit in this deck as well. Maybe a Tabernackle wouldn't be bad?

[obituary 95]

you could also play tolaria west so that you can get wasteland and stuff quicker

[Jak]

I was tweaking this when I first read the article. My first change was to add Force of Will, because, you know, it's Force of Will.

4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Plateau
1 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Plains
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Academy Ruins

1 Gigapede
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Thopter Foundry

4 Force of Will
3 Spell Snare
3 Counterspell

2 Engineered Explosives
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Punishing Fire
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgement

4 Brainstorm
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Gifts Unigiven

1 Life from the Loam
1 Reclaim
1 Regrowth

SB
4 Firespout
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Counterbalance
3 Krosan Grip

It was something like that, but it was 61 cards so a couple more cuts that I can't remember. It worked well. I tried to cut some redundant things like Crucible and weaker things like Crypt and Arigivian Find (for Regrowth/Reclaim). I wanted Wraths for an answer to Prog and they are just decent overall. The deck is incredibly fun once it gets going. Punishing Fire can reliably hit anything with an ass of 4 and Swords can handle the rest.

[nodahero]

So I piloted this deck again today in a 4 round tourney to a disapointing 2-0-2 finish... I felt ripped off (I should have played faster and gave up wins because of it).

Round 1
I played against GW Loam. I think it was an update of Classic Erham-a-Geddon.
Game 1 I got Burnwillows and PFire running in perfect sync and whittled his life away with the occasional Waste popping up off of a resolved crucible to keep him off of his land that brings critters back to play.
Game 2 I got Top and Balance running perfectly on turn 2 to blind flip a balance to counter a Pridemage. This game I got a Humility in and running to keep his various utility guys in check and again burned him out with PFire and Burnwillow.
1-0

Round 2
I played against Merfolk running maindeck Kira...
Game 1 on the paly I drop an explosive at 1 (I knew he was playing folk). He drops Vault. I drop Top... He drops Island and starts beating face with Valut and dazing my swords. From there we trade cards back and forth until he gets Kira and I get PFire running with a Burnwillow to actually stop Kira from wrecking my day. Once Kira was dead I easily took control and picked off threat after threat until Sword was up and running.
Game 2 I kept a solid creature kill hand with only 15 minuets to go in the round. My opponent goes turn 1 Vault; I go turn 1 Top. He goes turn to Standstill... I go turn 2 Waste Vault. We then play draw go. until time runs out basically. I dont know why he left Standstill in. He said he felt safe because he did not expect a random Wasteland.
2-0

Round 3
I play against Truffle Shuffle.
Game 1 is a drawn out afair taking up at least a half hour. Ever time I though I had an out he had something to screw with me. Often Crime///Punishment via Witness recursion. That and Elspeth/Illiana Vess was game in the end.
Game 2 I keep a solid hand with PFire and Burnwillows. I expertly manuever my spells dodgeing his Extirpate with Burnwillow Shenanigans... That is until he blows up my untapped Burnwillow and then Durreses me. Then Extirpate hit its mark like he needed. Luckily for me I managed to rip a Gift and get Sword and Thopter running. Unfortunately for me he had the Fog with flashback on turn 1 in extra turns. Then on his second turn he takes it back via Witness. Turn 3 I swing and he fogs. Turn 4 he does misc. things and passes turn. I end step a Gifts pile and force a Needle into my hand via active academy and Argrivian Find. He gives me Needle and Relic opting to then Extirpate relic to protect his Fog I guess. Turn 5 I jsut start throwing out removal spells to appear like I quit trying to win. I then drop Needle and it resolves. I name the Fog and proceed to win the game and draw the match.
2-0-1

Round 4
I face off with Zoo.
Game 1 the deck does its thing after giving me a heart attack. He drops me to one just as I get Sword and Foundry Active. GG.
Game 2 I assemble Top and Balance on turn 2 on the draw but fail to find a viable solution to Double Reliquary knight
Game 3 Our deck does its thing again but runs short on time. I had active PFire, Burnwillows, and had jsut gotten Sword and Thopter about to go when time is called. My opponent admits he can't win but wont concede and forces the draw.
2-0-2

In hindsight I still feel Forbid is lackluster and that at the least my second draw could have been avoided if I hadn't spent as much time thinking out differnt lines of play.

For refrence I cut the Spout for Wrath, StP for a Wipeaway (testing), Tormod's Crypt for Pithing Needle, and swapped a SCMountain for a 4th Burnwillow. I definelty think the last Burnwillow helped alot. The Wipeaway saved my ass twice. I think StP could prolly have done it also at least one of those times but the utility was good as was the 3CMC when I boarded into CBalance.

My sideboard was:
4 Counterbalance
1 Spellsnare
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Runed Halo
1 Unsummon (yet another out to Ioona for testing)
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle

PS Any creature based deck is actually a fairly easy game barring time restrictions if you have ever played a Gifts deck. The problem is knowing which piles to assemble when. I am still working on that.

[obituary 95]

actually i have been playing around with this list and it has been playing well so far.

2 Flooded Strand
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
1 Academy Ruins
5 Island
2 Plains
1 wasteland
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tolaria West

// Spells
3 Spell Snare
1 Argivian Find
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Humility
4 Counterbalance
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Punishing Fire
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Wrath of God

// Sideboard
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Rule of Law
1 Arcane Laboratory
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Meddling Mage
2 Relic of Progenitus

i plan on taking this to a local tournament soon ,i have not really had a problum with any other deck that i don't have sideboard options aginst

[vigilante]

Unfortunately for me he had the Fog with flashback on turn 1 in extra turns. Then on his second turn he takes it back via Witness. Turn 3 I swing and he fogs. Turn 4 he does misc. things and passes turn. I end step a Gifts pile and force a Needle into my hand via active academy and Argrivian Find. He gives me Needle and Relic opting to then Extirpate relic to protect his Fog I guess. Turn 5 I jsut start throwing out removal spells to appear like I quit trying to win. I then drop Needle and it resolves. I name the Fog and proceed to win the game and draw the match.
Here's hoping your Pithing Needle -> Moment's Peace play was a deliberate and incredibly skillful psychological trick which your opponent walked right into....because the other 99.9% of opponents would have known Moment's Peace's flashback isn't an activated ability and can't be stopped by Needle.

[hi-val]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/18744_Legacys_Allure_Building_Gifts_for_a_MerfolkZoo_Metagame.html

Here's the link to the original article... I'm glad to hear that people are getting some nice results with it!

Also, if you want a colorless, recursive answer to Iona, then Aether Spellbomb is fine there.

[morgan_coke]

I have to ask this every time I see a Gifts decklist in Legacy. Isn't Intuition just generally better as an option for this? Ar at the least a split between the two?

If there's a specific reason Gifts is better, I'd be interested in hearing it. Thanks.

[hi-val]

Gifts can pull up both parts of the Thopter Foundry combo and can generate actual card advantage. I like Intuition, but its ability to seal things up with Foundry or get a pile of Swords and Paths and such is good.

[nodahero]

I am well aware of it in hindsight. During the game I was trying to recall the exact wording of Flashback and I knew if I asked to read the card my game plan would be blown so I had to pray that either I could actually prevent flashback or pray that he just assumed I wouldnt "waste" a Needle. I will post the exact list I am testing in a little bit.

PS deck list and sideboard added as well as an analysis of my card choice adjustments

Artifacts
1 Crucible Of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword Of The Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Pithing Needle (I prefer this card over TCrypt because this card can be used in a wider aray of matches to an amazing effect)

Enchantments
1 Humility

Instants
1 Argivian Find
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
1 Forbid (This card still feels like it is not pulling its weight and I was testing against alot of slower builds)
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Path To Exile
1 Pulse Of The Fields
3 Punishing Fire
3 Spell Snare
3 Swords To Plowshares (Cutting the fourth may have been a mistake perhaps cut forbid for the fourth)
1 Wipe Away (I am still undecided if this is better relevant)


Sorceries
1 Wrath of God (Apparently I am a donk and failed to realize that Firspout is basically better for what I want it to do)

Basic Lands
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains

Basic Snow Lands
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Snow-covered Plains

Lands
3 Flooded Strand
4 Grove Of The Burnwillows (Running the fourth here was sick the whole day. No regrets here)
1 Plateau (I trimmed this down to allow for easier access to turn 2 CBalance postboard and because I don't think we need white as much)
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island (The third one was the second Plateau)
1 Wasteland

Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins

My sideboard was:
4 Counterbalance
1 Spellsnare
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Runed Halo
1 Unsummon (This should defiently be an AEther Spellbomb. I totally forgot about that card)
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle

[obituary 95]

has any one tried out a cunning wish package in the deck, i mean it seams like it would be amazing in this deck

[nodahero]

I tested it in other slower control decks like Ultimate Walker and Supreme Blue but the card always seemed lacking to me. I really don't know if we can give up the slots in the board to effectively support a Cunning. If you have any suggestions on what to include I would love to hear.

[obituary 95]

you could have stuff such as
Mindbreak Trap
ravenous trap
disenchant(or any enchant removal i men if you havent noticed chalice on 1 is preaty good against us)
enlightened tutor
p fire
gifts (if needed or wanted)
more Pulse Of The Fields if it is needed not quite sure yet

[nodahero]

Those all seem like decent options considering I have been testing most of those on and off in the board although Ravenous hasn't proven it self to be steallar.

Any suggestions what to cut in the main?

I am guessing the Pulse but after that I am not really sure...

PS I don't think we need the Punishing Fire or the Gifts in the Board personally.

[MattH]

The deck is slow enough as it is, more expensive spells is not awesome.

[nodahero]

Adding "slow" spells may make the deck faster depending on what you include. For example although I don't endorse this we could add a Pulse of the Forge to burn the opponent away faster than Punishing Fire. (That example was merely to demonstrate that such sweeping answers need to be clarified)

[obituary 95]

yes you would cut the pulse and maybe a swords and if possible maybe the crucible ,im not quite sure if this would be correct but thats what im trying out so far

[nodahero]

Crucible is definetly a no no... That card makes the deck actually win... Never though I would say that outside of Vintage.... That card allows us to shuffle the library... Pump out more thopters each turn (which is handy)... and allows us to Punish (lol) our opponent more each turn. Plus we can randomly waste lock other players.

Depending on the meta I would prolly cut Humilit or wrath if you really wana test it... Although in hindsight what you cut is prolly dependent on what you play in the board.

[obituary 95]

actually if you go of the stock list then just cut forbid

ps cant test cuning wish mws wont allow me to

[nodahero]

Oh yea. I agree with that lol... I cut forbid... That card just never did it for me at all.

[obituary 95]

i was playing on mws know it is back online ,and i found that stax is a really bad match-up .they can do a lot of different things against us such as chalice of the void on 1 or 2 . if on 2 they shut down your wincondition. and if put on 1 they shut of most of the deck.and in fact you only have a few outs to chalice your best out is engineered explosives on 0 and if they have trinisphere, it can make it hard to put it one 0 since the deck doesn't play that many colorless sources but it is probly better to destroy trinisphere first

[hi-val]

Oh yeah, Whitestax tears this up. I did a bit of testing and found out that you can do small changes to make the maindeck stronger. For example, the deck can easily support an Aura of Silence. Their biggest weapon, though, is Armageddon and I think that makes the match just harsh. If I were building a sideboard with Whitestax in mind, I'd run a Grip, an Ancient Grudge, an Aura of Silence, an Enlightened Tutor and probably a Negate. All of them are pretty good against Whitestax, but it's just a harsh matchup all around. If you REALLY want to tear that deck up, then you can run Glissa Sunseeker : )

[obituary 95]

after a little bit of testing with the cunning wishes i decided that they are horrible ,they seem to make your agro matches worse ,and i figured out that they were so slow that by the time you cast them it was usually to late and i was just trying to survive my opponents next turn . they could be good against combo but unless your metagame revolves around combo i suggest not running the wish

[nodahero]

Dully noted. I also think it is time we find a real solution for Ioona and start testing it. I have seen Retainer//Ioona enough in the last week to kill someone.

The listed Option thus far:
Aether Spellbomb
Path to Exile
Swords to Plow Shares
Wipe Away
Unsummon
4 Punishing Fire (It has happened)
Pongify (added as of 7:40 on 2/14)
Karakas (added as of 12:30 on 2/15)

Possible options (may not be good but who knows):
Wing Snare
Wing Shards (might hit)
Is there some red destroy target flyer?
Anarchy...
Jace, Mind Sculpter
Eye of Nowhere (compliments of the TES thread)

[obituary 95]

we could pongify ioona if need be

[Uncoordinated]

Uhh, not to interrupt your thought process as you furiously look for an answer vs. Iona, but I heard Karakas is pretty hot. Tutor with Gifts/Tolaria West, and if you have an engine in play and they haven't Needle'd it's pretty hard to stick one.

[TooCloseToTheSun]

The real problem is the turn after Retainers/Iona you then have to deal with Kira, Great Glass Spinner, so you have to answer that turn or you're screwed.

[nodahero]

Thanks for that insight Cubby.

Though he does make a point that we need to consider when facing down Ioona from Survival as opposed to Reanimator.

We either need mildly consistent access to the removal spell or we need a way of offing Ioona without targeting or we need an out with some repetition built in like infinite punishing fires.

[hi-val]

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=8849&type=card

Castable with a Grove and a fetchable Tropical Island. Kills Iona and her little sister Kira.

The issue is, obviously, that Iona will be talking about white spells all the time, so you can't try out something like Retribution of the Meek.

If you can get it out before you see Iona, then Wall of Denial is brutal.

If Iona isn't accompanied by Kira, then Predator, Flagship is a sad answer (though colorless).

[obituary 95]

actually wouldn't be better if instead of looking for a way to deal with a resolved iona maybe we should be trying to just deal with the rest of the deck for example if we stop Survival of the Fittest from resolving ,it gets much harder for your opponent to ever get iona in the yard not to mention find there creatures .so in this current metta game meddling mage seems to be a amazing all purpose card becuse under it surviaval would never resolve .not to mention it can be quite good against other decks and stop life from the loam from ever resolving

besides arnt there more important cards to worry about and cards you need a answer to like progenitous for example,or better yet if we would consider a stratagy to beat decks with discard effects maybe

[nodahero]

Just as a clarification Whirlwind dosn't "answer" Kira it gets around Kira's ability. While it is all well and good to say we will merely counter Survival and win that way... that isn't always a sure thing. What happens if it slips through? Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Thats my plan.

Personally I have not had any issues with discard. Our deck, from my expeiernce, man handles discard. Punishing Fire and Thopter Foundry are both good to go from the grave. The problem is if they back it up with grave hate.

I havn't had any issues with Progenitus actually. not sure why not... The 2 times he reared his head I raced it with tokens and a little life gain.

[obituary 95]

the problem i faced was that progenitus was down by the 4th turn and literally rocked me since i was only at 11 life, not to mentioned that i don't have any peace of the combo and thus i lost ,the one time i lost to discard type decks was when he literally striped my hand by turn 3.but as of recent though i have had trouble betting really only 2 decks ,the first is Canadian threshold and the only reason i lost that game was because of nimble mongoose and the next deck we cant beet is mono white stax and we already discussed that match up and personally i think its unwinnable.

i understand your concern with the strategy of just stopping survival but you also have a out to a resolved survival all you have to do is put engineered explosives on 2 and blow it to bits, i also guess you should try to get a humility out right away.
and if you happen to have a gifts just try to get a wasteland lock to take advantage of his non ability to play basic lands.but if you are truly worried about the match up then just board in meddling mage and name survival ,as long as it resolves you should just win. because your opponent will probley boar out his swords because he did not see eney creatures

[nodahero]

I have yet to play against mono white with this beast... What makes the matchup so hard?

It dosn't seem that hard. Our deck is designed to accrue a large supply of mana so as long as they donst resolve an Armageddon/Ravages... I think we should be good to go.

Sure... Punishing Fire is weak but we can easily board those out.

Perhaps we need to run a second Foundry in the board?

[obituary 95]

they run chalice of the void and when it is put on one it stops things from being played , they also have trinisphere which slows the things down that still can be played.so when they have these two cards and u cupple them with a play set of wasteland it usually gives them enough time to find armagedon

[hi-val]

Just as a clarification Whirlwind dosn't "answer" Kira it gets around Kira's ability. While it is all well and good to say we will merely counter Survival and win that way... that isn't always a sure thing. What happens if it slips through? Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Thats my plan.


The copies of Kira I play against have Flying.

[nodahero]

Pardon my stupidity... Wow. To be fair though the last time I registered that card in a deck was back in Kamigawa standard. We never got the folk menace to adopt her out here.

As for the Stax match, I still fail to see how it is hard.
If they chalice at one the only relevant spell we lose is Top and Find.
If they chalice at two... well that isn't pretty...
As for 3Sphere... Who gives a crap. The only spells we care about against them are our occasional counter for Armageddon and geting Sword/Foundry online. If we have to go the Punishing Fire rout to win that is only temporary... eventually we will get the foundry running.

[obituary 95]

it is not that we lose valuable cards it is that we just cant really find any relavent cards quick enough since we run 16 plus one drops

[hi-val]

Like, on a long enough timeline you will have 6 basic lands out and a counter in hand for their Armageddon and Academy Ruins bringing back Engineered Explosives when you need it. However, it's a little hard to reach that state since they play a lot of cards that slow you down and make you play more land, while using Armageddon to undo that. I am not adverse to running more lands in the sideboard, especially if they're utility lands like Karakas or Mikokoro or even something funny like Halimar Depths. Mishra's Factories off the board would be decent in a pair. The common plan against Stax in Vintage, for example, is to play 3 or more lands on the board and bring those in. You can also board in an extra Crucible.

[obituary 95]

if u are still having trouble against iona try Chain of Vapor ,it might help

[Davmeister84]

Here's the list I took to a 47 person Legacy tourney with some Power for first and second.

// Lands
3 [P3] Island (2)
4 [FUT] Grove of the Burnwillows
3 [R] Tundra
2 [R] Volcanic Island
1 [R] Plateau
2 [5E] Plains (1)
1 [B] Mountain (1)
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
2 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins

// Spells
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 [TE] Humility
1 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 [5E] Brainstorm
3 [BD] Counterspell
4 [IA] Swords to Plowshares
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [ZEN] Punishing Fire
2 [RAV] Lightning Helix
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [FNM] Fire/Ice
1 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
1 [LRW] Ponder
2 [DIS] Spell Snare

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 2 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 [ARB] Meddling Mage
SB: 2 [BOK] Threads of Disloyalty

Round 1: Enchantress (1-0-0)
Game 1: This game goes extremely long, but I Forced his Words of War and he blew his two Replenishs beforehand. He O-Rings my Humility, but I rip the other like a champ and he can't get past his own Moat.
Game 2: Chained 3 Meddling Mages at the start naming Argothian Enchantress, Oblivion Ring, and Solitary Confinement. He had them all in hand. I go the distance off the Mages.

Round 2: Dream Halls Combo (1-1-0)
Game 1: Things go poorly for me when he hits Show and Tell. I try to find a Humility, but no dice.
Game 2: Explosives kills off his 2 Petals, Mage naming Dream Halls, Counterspell/Force/Red Blast stall out his Show and Tell. Mage and burn go the distance.
Game 3: Show and Tell resolves after he Forces my Force and Proggy takes it for him.

Round 3: Reanimator (2-1-0)
Game 1: I counter his various reanimation spells and eventually ride Jace to victory.
Game 2: He blows a chance to take the game by not using Reanimate on his Iona on turn 2 because he feared the Force. He instead Tutors for a second one, which is handled by Meddling Mage naming it next turn. Eventually I drop Humility to make any reanimation pointless and Jace takes it.

Round 4: Merfolk (2-1-1)
Game 1: He had to mull to 4, so it's an easy win for me.
Game 2: We go a hella long time, and in the lategame I've got Jace online and a Humility but I can't find a Fires to save my life. Eventually he kills me.
Game 3: We would have started with 1 minute before time was called, so we drew.

Round 5: ANT (3-1-1)
Game 1: He goes off, but I Helix twice to keep myself out of death range. Jace then goes the distance.
Game 2: I have him on the ropes, he hits the Ad Nauseam and lucksacks the perfect row of draws to go to 1 and combo off.
Game 3: Meddling Mages slow him down and he can't combo off.

Round 6: BGW Rock (4-1-1)
Game 1: I have to mull and get stuck on 2 land for a while. I start to make a comeback, but it's too little too late.
Game 2: Punishing Fire is the MVP here as I keep cleaning his board, Jace eventually takes it.
We're at time at this point, so he scoops me into T8.

Quarterfinals: UWB Landstill
Game 1: Mulling doesn't help me and I get stuck on poor land sources for a good while. He takes it with Factory beats.
Game 2: We take a longass time here, and I almost take him with Fires but he eventually sticks a Counterbalance and my attempts at exploding it fail.

I recognize this is not quite the same sort of list as others, but it fits the theme enough IMO to post here.

The O-Ring and the Threads in the board were kinda subpar. I'd replace them with 3 Spell Pierce or Pithing Needle and add a 3rd Propaganda.

Maindeck, Helix is a bit rough on the mana. I'm thinking about dropping both Helixs and 1 Fire/Ice in favor of 2 Thopter Foundry and 1 Sword of the Meek. Spell Snare is also kinda meh, so I'd go with 2 Intuition in their place. Elspeth was also never really as good as I'd like, so I'm tempted to go to the 4th Jace just to get him in hand more often. Also going to cut 1 Grove for 1 more basic Island, too often I was stuck with a Grove and Academy hand that went nowhere.

[oblivion4560]

So I've looked up and down this entire thread, and no has actually posted the reason how Punishing Fire works with Grove. I see how you can tap the Grove for R and use it to return PF to your hand, but is it really all that it does? All you're effectively doing is dealing him one damage a turn, or dealing with his small creatures (or bigger creatures eventually). I just can't see how this is a strong enough mechanic to be supported by an otherwise exceedingly strong CounterTop shell.
Another thing: no one has revealed the significance of Gifts Ungiven in this deck. Sure, it's a sure fire way to get Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek, and Argivian Find brings back the Foundry if they choose it. I've goldfished a couple times, and not only am I not sure what the fourth card should be, what if they put Foundry and AF in the graveyard? Is there a second recursion card that I'm completely overlooking in every build that's posted (regrowth seems most appropriate)? Either way, I haven't seen 2 posts that show a Gifts package that can be tutored up for maximum potential. Forgive me for not completely understanding how the card works, but I compare it to Doomsday, which is arguably the most difficult card to manage.
Any and all help would be appreciated. I do like where this deck is going, but I'm either reading too far into the idea and expecting something much better, or I'm unaware of what the deck actually does simply because no one has actually completely explained everything yet.