Gifts/Bring to Light (Planeswalker Reanimator)

[CaptainTwiddle]

This is a Gifts Ungiven list suggested by LSV in the wake of Battle for Zendikar:

5-Color Gifts
CREATURES
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Thragtusk
SPELLS
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Bring to Light
1 Damnation
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Murderous Cut
1 Path to Exile
1 Raven's Crime
1 Sultai Charm
1 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
LAND
2 Breeding Pool
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave

Sideboard
1 Agent of Erebos
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Celestial Purge
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Dispel
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Lingering Souls
1 Negate
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Spellskite
2 Timely Reinforcements

The deck is pretty solid, but I'm wondering if we can power it up a little bit by focusing a bit more on Bring to Light. BTL allows us to play the most powerful instants, sorceries, and creatures that cost 5 or less. Thinking about the reanimation package of Unburial Rites + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobit/Iona, Shield of Emeria brought me to Obzedat's Aid + Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker/Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. I'm just not quite sure how to fit this package into the existing shell. It's also possible that a new shell may need to be developed.

Pentad Prism jumped to mind as a possible replacement for Sylvan Caryatid. It comes down on the same turn but provides a greater mana boost along with double colors, allowing for the production of WUBRG on turn 3. From there, one can cast a fully powered Bring to Light. However, to abuse the planeswalker reanimation package, we may need to include something along the lines of Faithless Looting. I'm not a huge fan of that idea, as red is currently the least represented color. Trying to make it a turn one play seems too greedy on mana.

I'm also admittedly unskilled at creating Gifts piles. I'm trying to think of the most effective way to create a pile that essentially guarantees I'll be able to get Bolas/Ugin. The best pile I could really think of was Bolas/Ugin, Obzedat's Aid, Unburial Rites, Baneslayer/Thragtusk. That essentially guarantees a fatty, as you'll likely get the planeswalker put into your hand and the 3 other options are basically 5cmc fatties.

Maybe I just need to start from scratch and treat this as more of a reanimator deck than a gifts deck. That said, I do like the power and versatility of Gifts. Some of the elements of the deck already support the reanimation theme. Sultai Charm is an excellent inclusion, providing relevant modes for many different lines.

If cheating Ugin into play is a primary line, avoiding reliance on colored permanents is optimal. This is another reason I like Pentad Prism; things like Signets or Coalition Relic may be worth consideration as well. If we end up relying on mana rocks rather than mana dorks, including additional sweepers may be a solid idea that would also play into creating additional Gifts piles (not sure how deep we'd want to go on sweepers, but we could theoretically include enough to grab 4 different sweepers with a Gifts, e.g. Damnation, Day of Judgment, Supreme Verdict, & Wrath of God.

With that, let's brew! I'm open to any ideas on how to make planeswalker reanimation work or simply discussing the merits of that approach compared to the established control + reanimation package that Gifts has traditionally provided.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I've been playing 4 color gifts control for a while and also have been toying with a tiny splash for red and Bring to Light. I played a bunch of games with my testing buddy with this deck:


3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Bring to Light
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Damnation
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Unburial Rites
3 Lingering Souls
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Siege Rhino
3 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy


4 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Blighted Fen
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Godless Shrine
1 Blood Crypt


There's a 4c Gifts thread somewhere around here, but it's not like anyone really uses this forum for Modern enough that thread overcrowding matters. It does have some lists in it from before that I've been developing this one for a while. Actually, the addition of Jace helps a ton since Lily was getting rather underwhelming with the current metagame and having a discard outlet is amazing. Originally I was using 3-4 Liliana of the Veil and getting some heavy work out of her to discard chaff, but like I said a lot of decks don't care as much about lily anymore and Jace is incredibly strong.

Aside from that this is almost the same list I've been using with some creature targets switched around for BtL. A single Blood Crypt is what I look for if I need the 5th color and don't have a Sylvan Caryatid, but usually hitting Sunburst = 4 on that is enough to push me ahead.

No sideboard right now as I shape the maindeck.

[CaptainTwiddle]

There's a 4c Gifts thread somewhere around here, but it's not like anyone really uses this forum for Modern enough that thread overcrowding matters.

I was aware that there is a preexisting Gifts thread. I guess I wanted to focus more on the reanimator side of things and wasn't necessarily 100% set on having Gifts be included. Maybe this thread should just be removed for the time being. IDK.

Anyway, with the reanimation theme more central to the equation, I've done a little more thinking about how Gifts, Unburial Rites, and Obzedat's Aid all function together. If I step away from trying to force the planeswalker line so much, I come to Through the Breach. That may be the additional piece needed to make things function. I'm still not really able to abuse Gifts to the fullest in this way, but again, maybe I don't need to. I could see the deck taking more of Ramp+Reanimator direction. Mana rocks to enable quick Gifts/Bring to Light/Unburial Rites/Obzedat's Aid/Through the Breach or just build to hardcasting your fatties.

It's a lot to think about and I think it takes us away from the traditional Gifts shell.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I think if you want to go that route you'd have to focus on fatties that are worth Through the Breaching. If that's the case it pretty much narrows it down to Griselbrand since he's the only one who's also a traditional reanimate target. Something like Iona would be severely underwhelming.

I think Bring to Light would just fit right into the Pentad Prism versions of the Grisselbanned deck on these forums, but I haven't played with that type of deck to know if it's at all worth it.

[CaptainTwiddle]

I think if you want to go that route you'd have to focus on fatties that are worth Through the Breaching. If that's the case it pretty much narrows it down to Griselbrand since he's the only one who's also a traditional reanimate target. Something like Iona would be severely underwhelming.

I think Bring to Light would just fit right into the Pentad Prism versions of the Grisselbanned deck on these forums, but I haven't played with that type of deck to know if it's at all worth it.

Through the Breach does affect the creatures you'd want to play. My short list was Griselbrand, Worldspine Wurm, and possibly Sundering Titan (though that's really going to depend on what the mana base looks like, but I'm assuming with going 5-color for Bring to Light, Titan is off the table due to concerns with collateral damage).

As I'm running through how the games might play in my head, I see Gift providing really crazy value, where you set up the next turn to either reanimate or send something Through the Breach. The problem I foresee is that you need to run at least x2 copies of Breach/Unburial Rites/Bring to Light/Obzedat's Aid to ensure that you can always have the effect (in the sense that if your opponent give you Bring to Light and no reanimation spell, you can use BTL to get a copy of whatever they put into your yard). The ideal scenario at that point is that you have a fatty in your hand already, as well as your yard, that way, no matter what they give you, they're going to be in trouble.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I played this list yesterday with -1 Dragonlord Ojutai +1 Keranos, God of Storms and -1 Blighted Fen +1 Creeping Tarpit maindeck.



3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Bring to Light
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Damnation
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Unburial Rites
3 Lingering Souls
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Siege Rhino
3 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy


4 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Blighted Fen
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Godless Shrine
1 Blood Crypt


my sideboard was:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Wrath of God
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Stony Silence
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Thragtusk
1 Duress
1 something else

Overall the deck is a blast to play. I went 3-1, losing to Infect but beating UWR aggro, zombie.dec, and mono W hatebears. The infect loss was a game 3 mull to 5 where I went all in on the Gifts plan since I couldn't really control anything with so few cards, but he had a Dispel. I should have mulliganed into a better hand game 2 but just wasn't thinking about the matchup.

After that I'm going to do:
-1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Sylvan Caryatid
-1 Dragonlord Ojutai
+1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

Sigarda just seems better at what I want to do. Hexproof until I attack is awkward in a deck that doesn't have counters to back up Ojutai anyway.

Sylvan was my best card all night, fixing my manabase for a 5 sunburst BtL and giving me a turn 3 Gifts. It does make casting Damnation pretty awkward though, alongside Jace and lingering souls tokens, but usually that's just an "oh shit" button anyway so I'm kind of okay with that. For the most part I just use the other kill spells and save Damnation in hand (or graveyard with the Jace Flashback) if I really need it.

Also, I'm going to change up the sideboard some, I don't think the Leylines are necessary and since I have the ability to fetch out silver bullets I might put a couple more in there.