Yeah. Gifts + Rites is definitely a strong combination.
Depending on your cube's power level, Gifts doesn't have to be a combo piece though. It can also just be a value play. With minimal/no synergy, it's still a semi-conditional instant tutor for 4 mana that gets the 4(ish) best cards in your deck and gives you the worst 2 of those 4 (and putting the other two just out of reach). There are plenty of decks where this is easily worth 4 mana. Fact of Fiction is almost certainly better in those decks specifically, but Gifts does a decent impression and having some redundancy of this effect generally helps Ux decks. Maybe your list needs that and maybe it doesn't but consider all angles.
I don't like giving my opponent this much choice over draw effects like this. Gifts at least gets you two for one (even if they are the worst 2 of the 4 you fetch - combo aside). But I much prefer Fact or Fiction because even though your opponent meddles, the final choice of what to grab is up to you.
At three mana, I prefer other options (Compulsive Research / Thirst for Knowledge / Frantic Search). And with Treasure Cruise and Dig through Time sometimes costing 3, I can't see needing more draw effects. Intuition/Gifts are better combo enablers though (less draw and more about finding specific cards), so if that is a big part of your cube I can see wanting either or both over some of what I just listed. But between those two, I feel gifts is the better card simply because it still functions as an expensive 2 for 1 worst case scenario.
Depending on your cube's power level, Gifts doesn't have to be a combo piece though. It can also just be a value play. With minimal/no synergy, it's still a semi-conditional instant tutor for 4 mana that gets the 4(ish) best cards in your deck and gives you the worst 2 of those 4 (and putting the other two just out of reach). There are plenty of decks where this is easily worth 4 mana. Fact of Fiction is almost certainly better in those decks specifically, but Gifts does a decent impression and having some redundancy of this effect generally helps Ux decks. Maybe your list needs that and maybe it doesn't but consider all angles.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
At three mana, I prefer other options (Compulsive Research / Thirst for Knowledge / Frantic Search). And with Treasure Cruise and Dig through Time sometimes costing 3, I can't see needing more draw effects. Intuition/Gifts are better combo enablers though (less draw and more about finding specific cards), so if that is a big part of your cube I can see wanting either or both over some of what I just listed. But between those two, I feel gifts is the better card simply because it still functions as an expensive 2 for 1 worst case scenario.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/