This seems to be a standard inclusion, but I've also seen it mentioned as among the most overrated cube cards. I've seen somebody who really needed a wrath effect play Gifts for two wraths and two other cards, and the two wraths (naturally) got binned. Of course you can just say that the guy was playing Gifts incorrectly, but it's still pretty dramatic how useless it was in that situation. It's obviously really good in the nut UB reanimator deck, but what other deck wants it, and when?
Interested in your thoughts on when and how to play this card "correctly."
It's a graveyard based card. Aside from the usual combo of Fattie + Unburial Rites for reanimator, it needs something like Eternal Witness, Restock, Flashback, or Dredge.
It's also often used to fetch 3-4 lands, bombs, any removal to ensure you get at least one of those cards from the deck. Plus, thinning's nice.
To play Gifts correctly, you need to get inside of your opponent's head.
Gifts for functional equivalents to cards already in your hand along with the cards you actually need. Gifts for things that seem good to your opponent based on board state plus some things that are even better based on what's in your hand.
Gifts is best when the obviously correct choice is the wrong one.
I think in a typical Cube deck, you don't have enough redundancy on many effects to get what you need without some way to get it back from the graveyard. It is close to getting cut in my Cube, but it is also possible that I add Past in Flames if I go for a crazy redefinition of red, and then I would keep it.
It really isn't that hard to build a deck in a way that you can get consistent value out of Gifts. It just takes a little bit of commitment to including some sort graveyard recursion (reanimation, flashback cards, Dredge, regrowth effects, Snapcaster mage etc.).
Phantom Lotus made also made the good point that you can play mind games with Gifts. Gifts is always at its best when not played as an answer to your opponent's board, but more proactively, where your opponent will find it harder to make the correct choice.
It's rare when a Gifts package actually gives your opponent any choices at all. You're usually able to get exactly what you want out of it when it's cast in the right deck.
I think people make the mistake of thinking that Gifts is a bomby draw spell when it is an archetype specific tutor. You need to consider what your standard gift piles will be during deck construction. If you are having trouble doing that, don't run it.
It's an overrated card, but it's still very good. It's something I might potentially pick and build around, but I'm not generally one to just jam it into any deck and hope for the best. It's a card that can do a lot of work though as long as you play it correctly.
Oh, Gifts Ungiven. You have given me many a headache on this forum
Here are my very brief thought on Gifts. It's worse than card draw if you're using it to gain card advantage. I wouldn't, for instance, include this card to support your control decks. It is, however, very good with GY strategies (reanimation/recursion). It gets better as the power level in your cube increases (especially fast mana). It's a solid card, but by no means something I would expect to see in every list.
Oh, Gifts Ungiven. You have given me many a headache on this forum
Here are my very brief thought on Gifts. It's worse than card draw if you're using it to gain card advantage. I wouldn't, for instance, include this card to support your control decks. It is, however, very good with GY strategies (reanimation/recursion). It gets better as the power level in your cube increases (especially fast mana). It's a solid card, but by no means something I would expect to see in every list.
I dunno, I think it's fine in control. You just have to be redundant so that you can fetch 3x Removal spells and something good or whatever. Then again sometimes you just use it to get 4 so-so cards from your deck and draw 2 of them at instant speed. If you get flash back goodies you get even more value out of it.
I dunno, I think it's fine in control. You just have to be redundant so that you can fetch 3x Removal spells and something good or whatever. Then again sometimes you just use it to get 4 so-so cards from your deck and draw 2 of them at instant speed. If you get flash back goodies you get even more value out of it.
I meant support at a higher-level. There are obviously situations in which Gifts is a great card for Control decks because it's a relatively flexible card. Gifts has been added and removed from my list several times. It was recently added back with the printing of Unburial Rites and has been a reasonable enough card, but probably not something I would consider a top-tier blue card. I certainly wouldn't add it for its merits in control alone.
Definitely, the card should be considered a tutor and not card draw. It's true only certain types of decks want to play it that can recur things out of the graveyard of have numerous copies of one desirable effect.
I don't think it's better than Deep Analysis. It's completely different. Gifts is a tutor. A selective draw spell for combo decks. But if all you're doing is drawing cards with it, it is terrible in comparison to Deep Analysis, IMO.
I've been thinking about cutting Unburial Rites and that's made me reconsider if it's worth keeping Gifts Ungiven. I do support reanimator, but I kind of feel like the recent additions of Entomb and Mystical Tutor will do the job that GU was already doing, only better. Anyone totally in love with this card and want to explain why? Anyone strongly support cutting it?
I run Gifts Ungiven. I also run Intuition which is a much better Gifts. They're especially good in decks that use flashback spells, dredge and reanimation effects.
I'll be cutting Gifts with my next update once EMN releases. It's a fun card, but it never took off for my playgroup. At 720, Gifts and Unburial Rights don't meet up often enough (I think that combo got drafted once in two years of cubing). Not sure yet if I'm cutting Unburial Rights too.
I've been thinking about re-introducing Gifts in my cube alongside Unburial Rites to boost it. I've always loved Gifts as a card, but it always felt like an Esper only card to me for cube. Fast forward to 2017 and I see a lot more applications as tutor / Entomb variant.
Synergies to consider
Spells Matters: Can search for X amount of instants / sorceries / spells if you want to go off with Young Pyromancer / Monastery Mentor / Thing in the Ice. Can also search for Snapcaster / JVP / Torrential Gearhulk spell fodder.
Reanimator: Can set up Unburial Rites, double Entomb for other traditional reanimator / Recurring Nightmare strategies. Tutoring up Scrapheap Scrounger as fodder seems cool.
Lands: Double Entomb for Crucible / Excavator, can find Life from the Loam + 3 utility lands.
Anything else I'm missing? Anybody currently cubing with Gifts?
If you're running some of the new embalm cards (e.g. Angel of Sanctions, Glyph Keeper, or Vizier of Many Faces), they make nice options to search for. Do you put them in the opponent's hand, giving them two uses, or bin them in favor of some other card, in which case they can still bring them back?
My experience is this doesn't really have enough teeth in cube outside of the Gifts - Pif/ Unburial Rites.
This package is getting really close to getting cut.
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My experience is this doesn't really have enough teeth in cube outside of the Gifts - Pif/ Unburial Rites.
This package is getting really close to getting cut.
I was actually just about to necro this thread myself. The 40K spoilers have got me thinking about re-visiting Gifts Ungiven with the critical mass of flashback / escape / unearth / eternalize effects, and other things like Old One Eye. Some key cards that have been printed / recently spoiled over the past couple of years:
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Phoenix of Ash
- Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
- From the Catacombs
- Timeless Dragon
- Earthshaker Khenra
- Sevinne's Reclamation
- Memory Deluge
- Light Up the Night
- Kaleidoscorch
- Triarch Praetor
- Royal Warden
- Old One Eye
This seems to be a standard inclusion, but I've also seen it mentioned as among the most overrated cube cards. I've seen somebody who really needed a wrath effect play Gifts for two wraths and two other cards, and the two wraths (naturally) got binned. Of course you can just say that the guy was playing Gifts incorrectly, but it's still pretty dramatic how useless it was in that situation. It's obviously really good in the nut UB reanimator deck, but what other deck wants it, and when?
Interested in your thoughts on when and how to play this card "correctly."
It's also often used to fetch 3-4 lands, bombs, any removal to ensure you get at least one of those cards from the deck. Plus, thinning's nice.
Gifts for functional equivalents to cards already in your hand along with the cards you actually need. Gifts for things that seem good to your opponent based on board state plus some things that are even better based on what's in your hand.
Gifts is best when the obviously correct choice is the wrong one.
Oh, and draft Snapcaster Mage.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
Phantom Lotus made also made the good point that you can play mind games with Gifts. Gifts is always at its best when not played as an answer to your opponent's board, but more proactively, where your opponent will find it harder to make the correct choice.
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Here are my very brief thought on Gifts. It's worse than card draw if you're using it to gain card advantage. I wouldn't, for instance, include this card to support your control decks. It is, however, very good with GY strategies (reanimation/recursion). It gets better as the power level in your cube increases (especially fast mana). It's a solid card, but by no means something I would expect to see in every list.
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My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
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My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
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Synergies to consider
Spells Matters: Can search for X amount of instants / sorceries / spells if you want to go off with Young Pyromancer / Monastery Mentor / Thing in the Ice. Can also search for Snapcaster / JVP / Torrential Gearhulk spell fodder.
Reanimator: Can set up Unburial Rites, double Entomb for other traditional reanimator / Recurring Nightmare strategies. Tutoring up Scrapheap Scrounger as fodder seems cool.
Lands: Double Entomb for Crucible / Excavator, can find Life from the Loam + 3 utility lands.
Anything else I'm missing? Anybody currently cubing with Gifts?
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
[180 classic cube]
This package is getting really close to getting cut.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I was actually just about to necro this thread myself. The 40K spoilers have got me thinking about re-visiting Gifts Ungiven with the critical mass of flashback / escape / unearth / eternalize effects, and other things like Old One Eye. Some key cards that have been printed / recently spoiled over the past couple of years:
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Phoenix of Ash
- Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
- From the Catacombs
- Timeless Dragon
- Earthshaker Khenra
- Sevinne's Reclamation
- Memory Deluge
- Light Up the Night
- Kaleidoscorch
- Triarch Praetor
- Royal Warden
- Old One Eye
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra