[Deck] Plymouth Rock - BGu Gifts/Explorer Rock

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Originally Posted by Der_imaginäre_Freund

I actually really like this deck... but I question some of your choices.
First of all, Smallpox seems like a no go as you have to sack a land to it which makes it worse than any other removal in the earlygame.
Also, you don't have a realible way to get Genesis into your Graveyard so I'd rather play Volrath's Stronghold only for recursion (if you're reccuring something, it is the best possible play in that situation so loosing a draw is no problem).
Also, if your meta doesn't have incredible amounts of burn in it, I don't see a reason to play Ravenous Baloth as you could just recur a Shriekmaw in its place or just drop Tarmogoyfs which basically fullfills the same role but better.

Now Life from the Loam is very awesome in this deck as it does amazing things with Gifts basically turning it into a quadriple Demonic Tutor as soon as your next turn. It also lets you play juicy one offs like Maze of Ith (uncounterable removal), Wasteland (lock people) and Cephalid Coliseum (awesome draw engine) while giving you easier access to your other two recursion engines (Stronghold and Ruins).
For discard, I've only kept Cabal Therapy in because its enough to force your Gifts Ungiven through and counters and has notable synergy with Veteran Explorer. I just want to minimize the amount of bad draws that don't change the board in control decks and so really don't like Hymn and Thoughtseize. You could try a singletone Augur of Skulls for insane recursion though.
Also, Garruk Wildspeaker is nuts in here. He produces mana which is always nice because all your tricks are quite mana intensive and he functions as an alternative wincondition. In the very worst case he pumps your Tarmogoyfs.
I'm not sure about the best removal configuration yet but I really like Shriekmaw as only a singleton because he is quite a bad removal when not recurred (can't hit Dark Confidant and the like). I really like Innocent Blood though because it's an additional sacrifise outlet for Veteran Explorer.

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Well this is some of the best feedback I've gotten on the deck so far. Basically the way I'm beginning to see it this deck's true awesomeness comes from it's amazing ability to metagame well, meaning the maindeck is very workable. Basically the meta I currently test in is very random. The MD I worked out works well for this meta but I mean...
Lot's of Control, or Combo, or both, take out removal, add discard.
Lot's of Aggro, add removal as needed.
Of course just a basic map, I mean there are so many metagame calls MD, it would be easy to set this deck up to play well in many metas. It's especially tunable depending on the amount of Threshhold you might see (add discard, removal in forms of 'Maw and Explosives, and GY tricks) while still remaining relevant vs. the rest of the field in the form of whatever Loam/Removal/Wonder/Whatever tricks need be.
The current list I'm testing is the same as the current list...

-1 Stronghold
-1 Scrubland
-1 Shriekmaw
-2 Thoughtsieze
-1 Smallpox

+1 Chainer's Edict
+4 Ancestral Visions
+1 Polluted Delta

Not much of a change I agree but it works well against the decks I play. Like I said before though this deck has lots of potential for metagaming. Ancestral Visions has been awesome in testing so far but it still needs more testing. Basically it gives me twice as many explosive first turns.

Recently I have been testing this deck and I really feel it has potential. Minus combo every matchup seems at least winnable to an extent. Also all the basics Non-basic hate that seems to be running rampant isn't actually all that much of a problem even with 3 colors especially if you see an explorer early.


My list as of Now: (not optimal and based off Der Imagine's list)

Spells: 24
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Thoughtseize
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Damnation
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Chainer’s Edict
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Life from the Loam
1 Regrowth

Creatures: 13 (Things would be much easier if I owned Goyfs)
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Genesis
2 Eternal Witness
3 Ohran Viper (Kills goyfs and draws cards as I dont have my own :frown: )
2 Shriekmaw
1 Gigapede

Lands: 23
1 Wasteland
4 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
4 Bayou
1 Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Forest

I feel like the main problem with this deck is if you don’t see an Explorer early to ramp your mana and find all of your basics to avoid hate such as bloodmoon and back to basics things become a lot more difficult. Also the second problem I see is the deck becomes a bit ruff if you don't see a gifts. I have tried to counteract that with the Vipers so you at least see more cards and with genesis/stronghold it becomes recurable card advantage/removal (not many people will attack into or block it :laugh:. I’m hoping this can generate a little more discussion as it really seems like it has potential.

As far as removal goes, my current configuration has been going alright. 1 Maw, 1 Damnation, 1 Smallpox(maybe Edict or Innocent Blood?), 3 Deeds and 2 Explosives.

I'm not sure how I feel about Hymn, but Auger+recursion=sexy. I don't know if it's worth the setup or not though.

Unearth looks okay when I first looked at my friends Rock update, but it should be more business spells IMHO. It's nice having CreatureX#5-8, but with Genesis and Stronghold, I think this is rather excessive.

I've been tinkering with this a little as of late, this is my current version:

Code:

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/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Mana (23+1 Lands + 4 Acceleration)
    1 Academy Ruins
    1 Volrath's Stronghold
    1 Wasteland
    1 Cephalid Coliseum
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Windswept Heath
    1 Wooded Foothills
    2 Bayou
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Forest
    2 Forest
    2 Swamp
    1 Snow-Covered Swamp
    1 Island

    4 Veteran Explorer

// Beaters (5)
    4 Tarmogoyf
    1 Gigapede

// Removal (13+1)
    1 Maze of Ith
    3 Innocent Blood
    1 Ghastly Demise
    1 Chainer's Edict
    1 Shriekmaw
    4 Pernicious Deed
    1 Damnation
    2 Engineered Explosives

// Card Advantage (14)
    3 Cabal Therapy
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Life from the Loam
    1 Regrowth
    1 Eternal Witness
    4 Gifts Ungiven

/// Sideboard (15 cards)
    1 Maze of Ith
    3 Cabal Therapy
    1 Darkheart Sliver
    2 Yixlid Jailer
    2 Trygon Predator
    1 Crucible of Worlds
    4 Engineered Plague
    3 Extirpate

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It works pretty nicely especially since it has a high amount of basics (you aren't that colour intensive so that you can afford not playing a lot of duals) which is tech with all those decks preying on bad manabases nowadays.
I've cut down the Shriekmaws and the Ghastly Demises to the absolute minimum (one for recursion via Stronghold, the other for Gifts piles) because they've been less than stellar lately not hitting anything scary (Dark Confidant, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Tombstalker...).
I also like this list because it is rather streamlined: you don't have any useless one offs that aren't good when you don't have your engine going which makes the deck work quite smoothly even without Gifts. You aren't even reliant on Veteran Explorer as without him, you're still basically a dilluted The Rock which can hold it's weight until you find your buisness. Things like Genesis just aren't that good, especially if you can replace them with something that isn't dead outside of its thought use. Also, you actually don't need so many different sub-engines for Gifts to shine (e.g.: Augur of Skulls). Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives and Life from the Loam + utility Lands (Maze of Ith, Cephalid Coliseum) is enough to win any war of attrition - especially if you still have other useful things to recur like Eternal Witness and Shriekmaw.

The most radical change is the introduction of Brainstorm. Although he strains your manabase quite a lot, he's definitely worth it as he literally fulfils every roles you want a card to: he digs for lands early and is broken Card Advantage in the lategame.

I'm still not playing any additional discard to Cabal Therapy (which is a sac outlet for Veteran Explorers which makes it quite good) because I don't think that it belongs in here: it is a dead draw in the lategame most of the time and early and early it fulfils the same role as a random removal in nine cases out of ten. Also, you don't have to be too afraid of any non-creature permanents because you play Pernicious Deed and Engineered Explosives to take them down.
Against control, to resolve your Gifts Ungiven, Cabal Therapy is enough discard too as it has to be countered twice which basically increases your virtual discard count to 6.

The deck is not bad, but I'm ditching it as it is pretty much worse than a controlling Survival build most of the time: your engine is just too expensive and doesn't win on the spot as well as forcing you into a third colour that doesn't add too much to your overall game plan (control stuff). Also, the engine doesn't do anything to change your pretty slow clock.

Sorry for the necro everyone, this is just a really fun deck i recently picked up. I have made a few personal adjustments to be less reliant on veteran explorer, but the idea remains the same.

This is my list:

Lands:
4 Polluted delta
3 Windswept Heath
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Wasteland
1 Volrath's stronghold
1 Academy ruins
4 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Island

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Veteran explorer
3 Sakura-Tribe elder
1 Gigapede
1 Eternal witness
1 Shriekmaw

Removal:
4 Pernicious deed
2 Engineered explosives
2 Innocent Blood
(1 Shriekmaw)

Card Advantage:
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
2 Intuition
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Life from the Loam
3 Cabal Therapy

I'm not sure I have the ratios correct, but Ancestral Vision and Brainstorm have been nothing but great to me. Intuition is very useful, but only if I need a specific engine. Fact or Fiction is basically draw 5 with all the recursion this deck provides. So far I have been beating the shit out of control, aggro/control, and any decks with a very limited strategy. On the other hand, combo has been raping me pretty hard, but aggro isn't bad at all surprisingly.

It feels like playing Truffle Shuffle, except trading swords to plowshares for a shitload of card advantage spells. It's been a great trade-off so far. Please, if you have any comments on this deck, it would be great to develop it further (I mean the Gifts/Explorer Rock deck, not necessarily this specific decklist).

Considering the rise of Giftstill, which won the Dutch Legacy Champs, I think this deck should deserve new consideration, since it is very similar.

Also the Raven's Crime / Life from the Loam engine has not yet been discussed for this deck, although it seems made for it.

EDIT: Sorry, Giftstill didn't win, but made Top8.

Fleshbag Marauder is also recurring Edict + good with Explorer.

too bad TES won the dutch legacy champs, gift still got T8 but didn't reach the finals. It's also a different deck then this. It just also runs gifts.

Hi all ,

After stumbling upon veteran explorer I decided to Build a deck with it . This version does not run Gifts ungiven but Intuition and Liliana make up for that . Time warp might seem like a strange choice but in testing it has proven its worth to me. Combined with (preferably recuring) E.witness it adds a certain combo flavor . There are several cards in this deck that i am unsure about ( quantity and quality wise ) , so i could really use any tips / sugestions .


4 Veteran explorer
2 Eternal witness
2 Tombstalker
1 Trinket mage (searches EE & top + Sb goodies )
2 kitchken finks
1 Garruk wildspeaker
1 Liliana vess
1 Vedalken shackles (Despite the low island count , this card remains a beating)
1 Engineered explosives
2 Pernicious deed ( should probably be a 3 off )
2 Innocent blood
4 Cabal therapy
1 thoughtseize
2 Sensei's top
1 Lftl
2 Intuition
2 recurring nightmare
4 Brainstorm
1 Time warp

+23 lands
1 Phyrexian tower
1 Academy ruins
1 Stronghold
1 barren moor
1 Lonely sandbar
4 Poluted delta
3 Trop isle
1 Ug sea
2 Bayou
2 Swamp
2 Forest
4 island

My sideboard looks like this :
2 krosan grip
2 Trygon predator
1 raven's crime
1 engineered explosives
1 zuran orb
2 Tormod's crypt
3 hydroblast
Duno about the last 3 yet.


Ps. English isnt my native language (as u might have noticed ) so I'm sry if I wrote something wrong .