Ritual Gifts

[John Cox]

One of the most successful Vintage decks of all time is Meandeck Gifts, it used Mana Drain with Gifts Ungiven to win using Yawgmoth's Will. The deck was only ever seen in Vintage because key cards like Yawgmoth's Will, and Mana Drain were not available to other formats. While Gifts was eventually restricted in vintage. Before the decks demise Team Meandeck's rival, Brian Demars, created a ritual based version called Twilight Gifts. With the printing of Past in Flames we can use Legacy rituals to do Vintage gifts did.
With this version of Ritual based Gifts You will get rare turn one wins but more often you will win on turn 3-5, you will have no trouble living until turn 5 against most decks as you have a large amount of control magic and easy access to bounce. The deck is designed to use cantrips and Merchant Scroll to build into a perfect Gifts pile, and you will also have many chances to dig for protection.
Like TES' and ANT's play of Infernal tutor -> Ad Nauseam, the deck needs 7 mana to win, in this case casting rituals then Past in flames The difference is that you cast Gifts Ungiven the turn before which nets you at least one ritual. Also like TES and ANT you use cantrips to find the missing combo pieces to win with. If you have enough land on the table then Gifts Ungiven becomes a one card win condition.
One of the reasons to play this deck is that it has a consistent strategy that unfolds similarly every match. Where with some decks your flying by the seat of your pants hoping the next top deck will win you the game, with this deck you know what you're going to do next and can anticipate any problems your opponent may bring to your doorstep. The deck has a standard game plan of;

1) Cantrip into mana and protection.
2) Find gifts with Merchant Scroll .
3) Cast gifts and pass the turn.
4) Win the game with back up.

Often you will cantrip into Gifts and rituals and use merchant scroll to find your protection/disruption, using gifts to find disruption is common also and against aggressive decks and your protection will usually be used to buy you more turns. Since you will be casting cantrips as well as drawing protection after turn 2 trading one of your protection/diruption spells for one of their best threats is to your advantage since you'll draw another the next turn. The standard game plan can be modified for every situation based on play skill and other factors.
There are several major advantages of this deck over TES or ANT and they are not limited to playing Force of Will. The biggest is that the deck uses Merchant Scroll as its main engine which can act as Force of will 5-8, bounce 2-5, brainstorm 5-8, and multiply sideboard options post board (it can actually find any blue card in the deck other than itself and ponder). It also uses Gifts ungiven which can act as counter magic when used to find the varied suit of answers this deck contains. By casting gifts for FoW + Duress + Misdirection + Pyroblast, puts two control elements in your hand with one card.


How the deck works.

The plan is to cast gifts ungiven for three accelerants and Past in Flames, then cast whatever your opponent gives you. Finally flash backing gifts and the rituals to search for a second copy of Past in Flames(if you flash backed the first copy) and accelerants and win with Empty the Warrens, or Tendrils of Agony.


The standard pile in the tri color version is currently,
---------------------------
Dark Ritual
Rite of Flame
Cabal Ritual
Past in Flames
----------------------------

in the U/R version Substitute Seething Song for Dark Ritual, and Pyretic Ritual for Cabal Ritual.

The worst case scenario that your opponent can give you with gifts is usually Past in Flames and dark Ritual in the tri color and pyretic in the U/R. You will also almost always need another accelerant to cast the pile. The bare minimum to go off in this deck is one blue land two red lands and one black land and in most cases a ritual.

If you receive Rite of Flame and past in flames The typical game plan would look something like this



Lands are :1::u::b::r:

b-> ritual (from hand)
R-> Rite of Flame (from gifts)
1BBR:-> Past in Flames (floating UBR)
R-> Cast Rite of flame
B->Cast Dark Ritual
BBB-> Cast Dark Ritual
BBBBBB-> Cast Cabal ritual
11 mana (URRRBBBBBB:)
UBBR->Gifts (for ritual, rite, cabal ritual, Empty the warrens)
(7 mana)
receive at least one ritual from gifts,
(5-6 mana)
Flash back Past in Flames , the remaining rituals and empty the warrens for 30 goblins/ tendrils.

If you flashed back the first Past in flames, then also have more mana from casting an additional ritual earlier. Cast the rituals you are able to, go for Past in flames in place of the Cabal Ritual with this casting of gifts. Flash back the rituals, then cast Empty the warrens/ tendrils.



Sample Lists


Tri color version

4 Force of Will
3 Duress
1 Misdirection
2 Pyroblast
1 Echoing Truth
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island

After testing it I wondered if a U/R list would be viable. My number crunching was always for a non threshed cabal ritual which is essentially a pyretic ritual and seething song has the same bonus mana as dark ritual. After a little dabbling I came up with the following list.



U/R version



4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
1 Wipe Away
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
2 Pyretic Ritual
2 Past in Flames
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Mountain


Card Choices

Disruption:

Force of Will: This deck is slower than traditional combo deck and benefits greatly from this card in when faced with a faster opponent. Even against zoo or goblins countering the first creatures means they're not dealing you damage until the third turn. This is extremely relevant.

Spell pierce: This shores up the combo match and can be tutored up with gifts and merchant scroll.

Duress: this helps fight control (poorly) and has impact on matches spell pierce doesn't

Pyroblast: this helps protect your combo, is strong against counterbalance and merfolk and can be tutored for with gifts to win counter wars.

Misdirection: this is mainly a solution to be searched up with gifts in counter wars however it's also good against discard. (hymn to tourach / thoughtseize)

Bounce:

Echoing Truth: This works well against dredge and goblins as well as being a catch all bounce spell. It can be found with merchant scroll.

Wipe Away: This is the best solution for counterbalance, the main drawback is that if you can cast Merchant scroll to find it, then you probably could have cast echoing truth.

Chain of Vapor: The lack of permanents in this deck means that this is a one sided bounce for (U) .

Tutors:

Merchant Scroll: This finds every blue card in the deck but itself and ponder.

Gifts Ungiven : this is the main engine in the deck and can find most things, usually you can manipulate the pile to allow you to use it to get whatever you want.

Draw:

Brainstorm: The best draw spell in the deck, don't ever cast it on turn one.

Ponder: A decent draw spell on turn one, better later.

Gitaxian Probe: I see this as less a draw spell and more an information gatherer, with the added bonus of lubricating my deck.


Mana:

Rite of flame: These are fairly necessary in both versions


Tri color:

Dark ritual: Necessary in the tricolor version
Cabal ritual: necessary at this point.

U/R:
Seething Song: These are the equivalent of the tricolor's dark ritual.
Pyretic Ritual: The deck needs a certain number of rituals to function these are what's left.

Tendrils of Agony Vs Empty the Warrens

I prefer Warrens due to randomly getting 6-8 storm on turn 2-3. The Argument for tendrils is that it's a game winner on the spot and that that saves matches that go to time or where creatures can't win the game due to board position. While using both is an option, that means you have the chance of drawing either or both in your opening hand. I see no clean cut solution at the moment other than personal preference.

Burning wish:

Burning Wish allows for both tendrils and warrens to be used in the same slot main deck, the drawback is that the increased cost diminished the amount of times you'll be able to cast Empty the Warrens. It also means the sideboard will have fewer slots.


Going forward some of the following questions need to be answered,

1) What is the most effective disruption suite,
2) How many lands is Ideal,
3) What sideboard options are best.
4) Tendrils Vs Empty the Warrens
5) U/R or Tri Color
6) Sideboard



Match up Descriptions are Coming.

[bennotsi]

Thanks for the nice primer! I think however that new decks should not start in the Established forums, but anyway...

I like the really idea of using Gifts Ungiven in combination with Past in Flames. I think that in Legacy you should play black for Tendrils, unless you can make easily make enough storm to make Grapeshot the primary kill condition.

Have you considered Gamble and Entomb as tutors? I think they might not be too bad with Past in Flames, especially when you plan on casting it twice on your combo turn.

I'm also not too sure why you shouldn't try to fit in Lion's Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor. I think they're just too good not to play.

The problem of playing only Past in Flames as a storm engine is that you are really vulnerable to graveyard hate game 2 and 3. You might consider fitting in some other storm engines (Ad Nauseam, Diminishing Returns, Doomsday) or Burning Wish with some cards in the sideboard. But I understand that you don't want to redesign TES.

1) What is the most effective disruption suite,
My preference is towards a combination of Orim's Chant and Silence and Duress. This would mean splashing another color.. I don't like Force of Will in combo decks, but then again I'm used to playing Lion's Eye Diamond. I'm also not convinced that Pyroblast is a maindeck card, unless you play Painter's Servant off course.

You should try to come up with some arguments why this deck would be a better choice than TES or ANT and especially why it's better than Doomsday (DDFT). Ritual Gifts is probably slower than TES and ANT, and I'm not sure that it's faster than DDFT either. If Ritual Gifts is about as fast as DDFT, the question is which deck wins more consistently and is more resilient to hate pieces.

[John Cox]

I'm not extremely worried about graveyard hate. I had originally tested with a list that ran 2 bounce and tendrils + warrens main deck. What ended up happening post board was that I never boarded anything against grave hate. I would cast gifts for scroll+warrens+wipe away+gifts, and get either bounce or a way of putting enough pressure down that I could win with tendrils in 2-3 turns. If need be something like that can happen in the side board.

The problem with LED is that it can't be recured with Past in Flames, Infernal is good but only when I'm hellbent, If I went hellbent to get gifts, I would have to cast it the same turn I tutored it. I would end up needing 13 mana!!! that before mana for chant. If I pass the turn and keep my hand and use force of will I need
7 mana and only 3-4 from lands.

Entomb/gamble is a neat idea, It's something that would need a lot of ritual effects but could be way better than gifts. I think it's a different deck.

[Final Fortune]

This doesn't really have anything to offer over other Storm decks and dies horribly to Faerie Macabre, I mean compare this to Doomsday and being able to do really good plays like just resolving Dday and getting Emakrul or the resiliency of High Tide combo - which is actually faster than you.

[John Cox]

This doesn't really have anything to offer over other Storm decks and dies horribly to Faerie Macabre, I mean compare this to Doomsday and being able to do really good plays like just resolving Dday and getting Emakrul or the resiliency of High Tide combo - which is actually faster than you.

The main problem with doomsday is that has a very limited answer suite. When it does resolve Doomsday it has a lot of tricks it can pull off to win with, but this deck can play the control role and make sure doomsday never gets there.

High tide has a lot of advantages, but it's actually less resilient than this, and if you run Empty the warrens as I do, you have potential for much faster goldfishes.
You also have to remember that winning at magic isn't about speed but winning and if high tide is faster than this deck, that doesn't necessarily make it a better deck.

[Amon Amarth]

The deck seems a little land light at 16. Have you had any trouble with this? It seems like you would want to hit your land drops consistently and 18 would be a better number.

[Admiral_Arzar]

dies horribly to Faerie Macabre.

LOLOLOL. If you're going to trash someone's deck, at least use cards people actually play as examples.

[Mr. Safety]

Thanks for the nice primer! I think however that new decks should not start in the Established forums, but anyway...

It was already an established deck in Vintage. The strategy is sound, if newly re-created with Past in Flames.

I love the fact that you can play 4 Yawgmoth's Will (Past in Flames) in the deck. This alone seems like enough of a reason to try and put a list together.

[Lemnear]

This deck has no place in "established" or we can place ol' Standards Solar Flare or ol' Vintages Control Slaver in our DTB forum too, Mr. Safety

Topic: I guess you need to do some research WHY Meandeck Gifts was good in Vintage:

Moxen accelerate the deck and together with chain of vapor they create masses of mana and strom. Powerhouse Gifts targets like Black Lotus, Demonic Tutor, tolarian academy, Will (that let you replay moxen and shit), ancestral Recall, Time Walk ans Tinker are not legal in Legacy. Turn 1 scroll for FoW or Ancestral Recall was common play. Etc.

All you have there is "another" Recoup and a turn 4-5 Combo (depending on if you want to "waste" rituals for gifts) that will be raced by meerfolk and Zoo.

If you want to build around PiF take a look at brainfreeze as others already did

[joemauer]

How did this deck become established? It sounds new and developmental.

[John Cox]

The deck is polished and well tested, hence it is in the established forum.



@ Amon Amarth

I'm not sure what I would cut for the extra two lands. Do you have any suggestions.

[Necro]

The deck is polished and well tested, hence it is in the established forum.



@ Amon Amarth

I'm not sure what I would cut for the extra two lands. Do you have any suggestions.

That is not the definition off well polished..

[Lemnear]

The deck is polished and well tested, hence it is in the established forum.

I lol'd. With this mindset any further discussion is a waste.

[lebarion]

Nice deck!
My team's been working on a UR deck that abuses PiF, too. But in fact, i prefer your version than ours :tongue:
I believe you should add Brain Freeze to the UR version at least. Besides being another kill condition, it can be card advantage after a resolved PiF.

[John Cox]

Nice deck!
My team's been working on a UR deck that abuses PiF, too. But in fact, i prefer your version than ours :tongue:
I believe you should add Brain Freeze to the UR version at least. Besides being another kill condition, it can be card advantage after a resolved PiF.

I've been playing with brainfreeze in the sideboard to deal with storm combo and it's been working nicely as its also a win condition for my deck as well. It is something I have considered.


That is not the definition off well polished..

The mana base that Amon Amarth is one of several issues I've outlined as needing Improvements at the end of the primer. This is something I want comments on.

[GGoober]

Nice deck. I see potential in this list with Gifts/PiF. How do you fight GY hate without losing speed? Honestly I would try to see if you can play Chants/Silence, maybe forgo the fetchland manabase with rainbow lands and more Preordains/Ponders, or play the UR build with a URw splash.

I think you need at least one Pact of Negation somewhere in the MD for a gifts pile (so you can grab FoW + Pact + 2 spells) making the decision harder for your opponents and giving you more relevant cards with a Gifts pile.

[John Cox]

Fighting graveyard hate isn't too big of an issue, merchant scroll can find bounce or force of will to deal with graveyard hate so you have more access to it pre and post board.
One interesting Side Board option is a second copy of tendrils or Empty the warrens and more bounce, that would enable a gifts pile for Bounce/ Force of will+ scroll+ Empty the Warrens+ ritual/ Force of will, this means I'll get either some pressure in the form of goblins this turn, or remove/counter the Grave Hate next turn and win from there.

I Can't see Pact working better than Misdirection.

Orim's chant and Silence could replace spell pierce in the U/R making it UR/w. The problem with that is that to win you would need :r::u::w::1:which eliminates any advantage you gained from playing over the tricolor list. if you played the tricolor list with chant you would need :1::w::u::b::r: to win, and that isn't happening.

[dr.philgood]

Both your lists have only 58 cards in them. :(
cool idea, the only issue i see is that the deck is cold to an extirpate on PiF.

and the reason Pact may be better the misdirect is that you may not have a blue spell to pitch.

[joemauer]

The deck is polished and well tested, hence it is in the established forum.

With only 58 cards in the maindecks?

[John Cox]

Both your lists have only 58 cards in them. :(
cool idea, the only issue i see is that the deck is cold to an extirpate on PiF.

and the reason Pact may be better the misdirect is that you may not have a blue spell to pitch.
The decks have 60 cards,
If I cast gifts for 4 cards that aren't winning me the game immediately, pact is useless too. Misdirection is useful against many other things.

[dr.philgood]

Yeah sorry i messed up my count, not sure what i missed, Probably cabal.

[DeadCities]

Tutors:

Merchant Scroll: This finds every blue card in the deck but itself and ponder.

Gitaxian Probe likes to have a word with you.

[Piceli89]

I like the concept a lot but there are a couple of points worth discussing:

1) the deck needs a lot of blue mana to re-cast all its cantrips and/or Scrolling for a Freeze, with the obvious exception of Gitaxian Probe, after Past in Flames. I'm testing the UR version and I'm finding this to be a frequent need. It can be solved by either adding Manamorphose, which I currently dislike, or slightly slowing the way to play the deck so that you can, by turn 4, win on the back of a solid Gifts Ungiven by having fetched all your basics. Related to this point, I'd advice to trim down the number of Volcanic Islands (4 are really unnecessary) and play at least 4 Islands and just a single Mountain. This pattern, already wildly consolidated in ANT, also makes the deck almost immune to Wasteland and capable of not losing to screws or randomic stuff.
2) A single Pact of Negation is needed in the maindeck, because it's the only protection spell that can be used twice after PiF and deals with Stifle from tempo decks.
3) As already mentioned, the main kill spell should be Brain Freeze and not Empty the Warrens.
4) We have to point out objective criteria for which it's preferable to play this over Spiral Tide. While I'll concede that the Gifts+PiF engine avoids the randomicity and shitty draws Time Spiral provides from time to time, I think it's more prone to fold to discard spells on the accelerants and has a more fragile decision tree. I mean, what you have to do is to resolve a Gifts Ungiven and recycle your yard with Past in Flames; although packing protection and bounce along with a tutor effect, this strategy could easily become obsolete if the deck was to break into the scene. Keep also in mind that it can also be hated by a lot of common sideboard cards: Extirpate, Pyroblast AND Gaddock Teeg. The other Storm combo decks use to suffer only 2 among those.
5) Since an optimal goldfish is around turn 3,5-4 if undisrupted, I wonder how's the matchup against Tendrils. You have 4 Force of Will and 3 Spell Pierce as protection, but they tend not to be enough. Spiral Tide at least has the advantage of being able to fetch a Mindbreak Trap if it reaches turn 3 by Cunning Wish. I suggest taking Flusterstorm into consideration: although it doesn't nab Counterbalance, it's just that good in the current metagame shift towards tempo and combo.

(I know that the costant comparation to ANT and Tide may sound arrogant and pretentious, but Legacy is a high-level format that requires to build the top decks in order to compete at the top, and the room for optimal new combo decks is particularly narrow).

[Admiral_Arzar]

Gitaxian Probe likes to have a word with you.

Nice one-post troll account bro. Honestly, who cares?

On-topic: I like this idea a lot, as I love both storm and gifts. I'll be interested in how the development goes. OP, you may want to check out the old "Spellweaver Gifts" thread on the Storm Boards - although it was for extended, there may be some relevant content there.

[Aggro_zombies]

Is Ponder really better than Preordain? I realize that the former looks one card deeper in many cases but it also gives you less flexibility when some of those cards are bad. I guess if your goal is to just make buckets of mana with Rituals and Past in Flames then there is not a lot of difference between the two cards (since the contents of your graveyard eventually become more important the top X cards of your library), but I still feel like Preordain is better in the first couple of turns.

Also, in your UR version, I feel like Grapeshot would be a better kill than EtW. By the time you go off, EtW will be a lot less of an inevitable kill condition that Grapeshot would.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Is Ponder really better than Preordain? I realize that the former looks one card deeper in many cases but it also gives you less flexibility when some of those cards are bad.

Ponder is generally better in combo decks because you are more interested in digging for a particular card than in carefully filtering your draws (see TES or various Doomsday brews that play Ponder over Preordain).

[John Cox]

I like the concept a lot but there are a couple of points worth discussing:

1) the deck needs a lot of blue mana to re-cast all its cantrips and/or Scrolling for a Freeze, with the obvious exception of Gitaxian Probe, after Past in Flames. I'm testing the UR version and I'm finding this to be a frequent need. It can be solved by either adding Manamorphose, which I currently dislike, or slightly slowing the way to play the deck so that you can, by turn 4, win on the back of a solid Gifts Ungiven by having fetched all your basics. Related to this point, I'd advice to trim down the number of Volcanic Islands (4 are really unnecessary) and play at least 4 Islands and just a single Mountain. This pattern, already wildly consolidated in ANT, also makes the deck almost immune to Wasteland and capable of not losing to screws or randomic stuff.
2) A single Pact of Negation is needed in the maindeck, because it's the only protection spell that can be used twice after PiF and deals with Stifle from tempo decks.
3) As already mentioned, the main kill spell should be Brain Freeze and not Empty the Warrens.
4) We have to point out objective criteria for which it's preferable to play this over Spiral Tide. While I'll concede that the Gifts+PiF engine avoids the randomicity and shitty draws Time Spiral provides from time to time, I think it's more prone to fold to discard spells on the accelerants and has a more fragile decision tree. I mean, what you have to do is to resolve a Gifts Ungiven and recycle your yard with Past in Flames; although packing protection and bounce along with a tutor effect, this strategy could easily become obsolete if the deck was to break into the scene. Keep also in mind that it can also be hated by a lot of common sideboard cards: Extirpate, Pyroblast AND Gaddock Teeg. The other Storm combo decks use to suffer only 2 among those.
5) Since an optimal goldfish is around turn 3,5-4 if undisrupted, I wonder how's the matchup against Tendrils. You have 4 Force of Will and 3 Spell Pierce as protection, but they tend not to be enough. Spiral Tide at least has the advantage of being able to fetch a Mindbreak Trap if it reaches turn 3 by Cunning Wish. I suggest taking Flusterstorm into consideration: although it doesn't nab Counterbalance, it's just that good in the current metagame shift towards tempo and combo.

(I know that the costant comparation to ANT and Tide may sound arrogant and pretentious, but Legacy is a high-level format that requires to build the top decks in order to compete at the top, and the room for optimal new combo decks is particularly narrow).

1) I usually just recast rituals with past in flames and Probe if my life is high enough, I think trying to cast your entire graveyard off of Past in Flames will stall out the game longer than wanted. This is probably because I started testing Past in Flames in TES first and remaining Hell Bent for infernal tutor was very important. I don't know if it's worth the extra turns just to try to get one storm when going off.

2) I hadn't looked at pact that way. I had always thought of it as a worse misdirection, but I can't flashback misdirection. I'll replace misdirection with pact in the main list.

3) I agree that brainfreeze is better than empty the warrens in the U/R list. The original decision tree with the standard pile in that list allowed for the opportunity to generate only 18 goblins depending on what your opponent gave you. That changed before the current pile and now a lethal brainfreeze should be possible most of the time. Getting UUR1 and a ritual effect post gifts will be the main challenge with this variant.

4/5) This deck has a difficult role to fill, it wants to beat both counterbalance and combo.
Building to beat combo is fairly easy. If the deck played 8 chant effects + Force of Will it would be the worse match up for combo period. If the deck played Wipe away and Pyroblasts beating counterbalance would be easier also. I think the fact that it can play the amount of disruption against both archetypes is what makes this deck preferable to spiral tide and what makes it a threat to TES / ANT and makes finding the right balance of maindeck hate cards is important.

[Piceli89]

Thanks for the responses, especially on the last point.
I was wondering a thing before: how does this deck play against conditional counters, given you usually have to leave 2 blue mana free for Merchant + Freeze? For example, let's take a common scenario:

You: 3 lands in play, Mountain Volcanic Volcanic. Cast Rite of Flame from Mountain.
Opponent: Spell Pierce your Rite of Flame.

At this point you're forced to hard counter the Spell Pierce because paying for it would mean cutting yourself the possibility to either play cantrips and Brain Freeze. You can't even play Ritual in responses to pay for the Pierce because Rite of Flame is at sorcery speed and Desperate Ritual would still let you with a red mana in pool, the wrong color. I'm thinking that this could become a serious issue when testing against decks ala Merfolk or Tempo Thresh. I mean, getting that degree of trouble from a single Pierce should draw some serious thinking about what the deck needs to be resilient. Again, the only thing I find in UR in these scenarios is Manamorphose. Card sucks per se, though.

Or, at this point, we could forego completely the Merchant route and cut it for Burning Wish. It doesn't grab Gifts nor is synergic with the graveyard, but it does get Past in Flames, a kill spell for hatebars, and Empty the Warrens plus Grapeshot. Thus, it works in a similar way. Not pitching to Force should be a minor issue if you consider that you can build with it entirely red hands that will play better in the aforementioned scenarios, requiring a single colour.

[John Cox]

Your right it will be countered unless you have a hard counter. Gitaxian probe is in the deck to allow you to know when you have to play around counters, as well as put cards in your hand to deal with any situation.
I think a better solution than Burning wish is more land (that situation would happen if you had :1: more). I've tried Burning Wish in place of Scroll time and time over and can never get it to work, more land or perhaps lotus petals seem like a better idea.
One thing that this deck does like to do is use merchant scroll to find Force of Will, Burning wish can't do that. Force of Will is probably the card i look for the most with Scroll, it helps a lot.

[Neuad]

Needing UBR1 to go off, while fighting off fast aggro, GY hate post board, wasteland, and other combo decks seems a little greedy. . .

[John Cox]

You'd think that...
But ANT/TES needs 7 mana to win unprotected and have bigger problems with aggro/wasteland. This deck has the best ability to circumvent graveyard hate of any deck that has to deal with it in merchant scroll, while also using that to fight storm hate and storm.

[Lemnear]

You'd think that...
But ANT/TES needs 7 mana to win unprotected and have bigger problems with aggro/wasteland. This deck has the best ability to circumvent graveyard hate of any deck that has to deal with it in merchant scroll, while also using that to fight storm hate and storm.

You want to tell us that TES has bigger problems with wasteland/aggro than a turn 4 all-grave-depending combo deck that needs 3 different colored lands in it's kill-turn? Serious?

Merchant Scroll is a sorcery so the opponent can see your eot wipe away coming. This is not an all-upside solution; it eats up a whole turn. Fighting storm with merchant scroll isn't that hot: you tap out turn 2, pay 2 for tutor FoW and TES pays 1 for duress/chant (in their 2nd or 3rd turn). Who made the better deal? This is not Vintage where both (duress and scroll) are turn 1 plays.

[John Cox]

You want to tell us that TES has bigger problems with wasteland/aggro than a turn 4 all-grave-depending combo deck that needs 3 different colored lands in it's kill-turn? Serious?

Merchant Scroll is a sorcery so the opponent can see your eot wipe away coming. This is not an all-upside solution; it eats up a whole turn. Fighting storm with merchant scroll isn't that hot: you tap out turn 2, pay 2 for tutor FoW and TES pays 1 for duress/chant (in their 2nd or 3rd turn). Who made the better deal? This is not Vintage where both (duress and scroll) are turn 1 plays.

As has been mentioned by others, Merchant Scroll fulfills the role that could be played by Burning Wish in this deck. The advantage of Scroll is that you can get free counter magic with it. This makes scroll more useful than Burning Wish. Scroll is not Duress in these lists, the tricolor list actually plays duress and that is the tricolor list's advantage.
Many people often struggle with the low land count in TES/ANT. Both lists in this thread have a higher land count and run basics. If fetching three different lands is too difficult (and in wasteland heavy metas it can be) the UR list is much more basic friendly.
I don't want this to turn into a flame thread so I would like it if we could be more constructive from here on out.

[GGoober]

Worthy to note that against combo, scrolling for a Mindbreak Trap can be devastating, as long as they don't discard it :P

I think the list will have some issues with fast combo, but having Fow/Pierce/Pact/MBTrap postboard seems to make the matchup better and not an autoloss.

[Piceli89]

After some testings, I came to some conclusions:
1) Manamorphose is necessary for the combo turn, when you need to start from a single red mana to chain rituals and what you need is blue mana to cast Merchant and cantrips (from the graveyard). 3 is the minimum number, debating whether to play the fourth.
2) Gifts Ungiven is pretty slow, although it's very good. I'd search for some sideboard cards that can get interesting effects with Flashback, like a hatebear solution; but the only thing that comes to my mind now is the Shock with the fb at 4R, or Deep Analysis against control. Pretty mediocre cards.
3) Force of Will is by miles the worst card in the deck. Never happy to open a hand with one, since it requires to pitch a combo key or a cantrip. I guess it's a necessary evil, but hell, I think it's as bad as it is in Solidarity.
4) Gitaxian Probe, along with Rite of Flame, is by miles the best card in the deck, as long as you're able to flashback it after PiF.

3) The deck seems to lack some advantages of the other storm combo decks: instant rituals from ANT, gameplan flexibility from TES, total consistency from Tide. The way it works is pretty schematical and straightforward, plus it's slower than those. I'll recognize, though, that at least, unless Tide, it doesn't require to make a "ritual" resolve to combo, and unless the other twos, it's more solid and has a better disruption suite. Being UR, it's obviously more suited to endure Counterbalance. Still, I've got the feeling it still lacks some of that punch and brokenness that could push this to an interesting new contender in the Storm panaorama. Red rituals are pretty weaksauce and Gifts, as said, requires a lot of setup. It doesn't offer a robust alternate way of winning that doesn't imply the graveyard (for instance, Etw is NOT solid). So I'm still skeleptical.

[Admiral_Arzar]

After some testings, I came to some conclusions:
2) Gifts Ungiven is pretty slow, although it's very good. I'd search for some sideboard cards that can get interesting effects with Flashback, like a hatebear solution; but the only thing that comes to my mind now is the Shock with the fb at 4R, or Deep Analysis against control. Pretty mediocre cards.


Crippling Fatigue if you're playing black.

[John Cox]

After some testings, I came to some conclusions:
1) Manamorphose is necessary for the combo turn, when you need to start from a single red mana to chain rituals and what you need is blue mana to cast Merchant and cantrips (from the graveyard). 3 is the minimum number, debating whether to play the fourth.
2) Gifts Ungiven is pretty slow, although it's very good. I'd search for some sideboard cards that can get interesting effects with Flashback, like a hatebear solution; but the only thing that comes to my mind now is the Shock with the fb at 4R, or Deep Analysis against control. Pretty mediocre cards.
3) Force of Will is by miles the worst card in the deck. Never happy to open a hand with one, since it requires to pitch a combo key or a cantrip. I guess it's a necessary evil, but hell, I think it's as bad as it is in Solidarity.
4) Gitaxian Probe, along with Rite of Flame, is by miles the best card in the deck, as long as you're able to flashback it after PiF.

3) The deck seems to lack some advantages of the other storm combo decks: instant rituals from ANT, gameplan flexibility from TES, total consistency from Tide. The way it works is pretty schematical and straightforward, plus it's slower than those. I'll recognize, though, that at least, unless Tide, it doesn't require to make a "ritual" resolve to combo, and unless the other twos, it's more solid and has a better disruption suite. Being UR, it's obviously more suited to endure Counterbalance. Still, I've got the feeling it still lacks some of that punch and brokenness that could push this to an interesting new contender in the Storm panaorama. Red rituals are pretty weaksauce and Gifts, as said, requires a lot of setup. It doesn't offer a robust alternate way of winning that doesn't imply the graveyard (for instance, Etw is NOT solid). So I'm still skeleptical.

1) I would't run more than one as a gifts target. I also would use Merchant Scroll to find Brain Freeze. After the first past in flames cast Gifts From your grave For Brain Freeze+Seething Song+Past in Flames+Manamorphose. Flash back Past in flames and use the ritual to pay for everything.
2) The only thing that comes to mind is a gifts pile with volcanic spray + lava dart for the UR version. I don't think Gifts is a particularly good engine to use against hate bears since it gets hit by most of them. Scroll -> Bounce seems like a better solution to hate bears. wipe away could even go in the deck.
3) My opinion is different, I feel this deck needs Force to function. I can't see winning game one against Reanimator or Zoo without it.
4) I agree.


3) The one advantage it has is inevitability. Gifts nets you a ritual If you somehow ended up with 6 lands out you could hard cast the ritual and Past in Flames and win from there. The fact it's a one card win condition is probably the biggest advantage of this deck over any other out there.

[kicks_422]

Studied the UR version. I came to these conclusions:

1. There needs to be 2 Grapeshots in the main.
2. The initial mana required after casting the first Gifts is 13, at least two of which is blue - this doesn't include the ritual/s that you get from Gifts.
3. For every mana that you get from a ritual that is not part of the Gifts pile, you subtract one from the initial mana required (e.g. If have 2 Seething Songs, which is +4 mana, in hand, the initial mana required is down to 9; 5 you get from lands and 4 you get from the 2 Songs).

The UBR version is much less complicated though. Much, much less - it just wins after one Gifts. The UR version sometimes has to go through 2 Gifts piles and 2-3 castings of Past in Flames to get a lethal grapeshot or 2 Grapeshots off.

[ComboMan]

Hey...
any updates about the deck???

Thx in advance

[John Cox]

Hey...
any updates about the deck???

Thx in advance

The decks been shelved,
for the time being I think these are better routes to break Past in Flames
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?22550-Introducing-Grinding-Station
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?22541-Deck-TGIF-Thank-God-It-s-Flashback-Past-in-Flames-Combo