All right, still is a bad word. Of course Gifts Storm is still good, - it's putting up numbers as always, though it's far from the most popular deck in the Modern format (is it still considered tier 1?) -, but I'm more wondering why it was good in the first place.
Before I get into it though, I must say... Gifts Storm is a great deck! I don't want to come off as hostile or discouraging to Storm players; I've been playing a variant of Caleb Scherer's lists and it's been one of the more fun decks I've played! There's no feeling like spending a number of minutes counting floating mana and realizing that you have to switch to a D20 from your D12 because your Storm count is too high! Only to realize that your opponent is practically dead by the time you look up and ask them to pick two...
Ooh, but I've put up some great results with Gifts Storm at my local LGS. Frankly, I have no idea why I'm even asking this question -- Is Gifts Storm Still Good?
It's been racking my brain for a while now. I've been trying to tell myself that it doesn't matter because the deck is fun and successful and really has everything a player like me could look for, yet somewhere, deep down, I can't just accept that. Every time I play the deck it almost feels like I'm cheating because I keep winning and I just don't know why! I know I'm going on a rant and you're probably just skimming this anyways, but if you've made it this far, I'll be really ecstatic if you soldier on!
Let's do it this way: Gifts Storm is a tier 1 deck, at least it was when the tier lists were up (what happened to those btw!?). That means it's put up great numbers in tournaments and can compete with the likes of DS decks and Affinity and so on. It's a legitimate deck that, if a deck hopes to stand a chance, must be considered when building a sideboard. The deck has been through countless iterations from way back during the Ponder and Preordain bans through Ascension-based lists and to the modern Gifts lists. The Storm mechanic is considered to be the most broken keyword in the 25 year history of magic that mechanics are rated on the Storm scale.
All this is fine, but why is it still good in Modern now? Gifts Storm is a combo deck. Every time I play the deck, I can't help but think of how vulnerable the combo is. Essentially, it is a 3-4 card combo deck, at least the way I see it, right? You've got Baral, Chief of Compliance or you've got Goblin Electromancer and then the titular Gifts Ungiven, and on top of that you generally need one or two rituals to generate the key 6 mana required before casting Gifts and going off. Think about that. That means that, as a Storm player, you are vulnerable to any form of creature removal that can hit while you're low-ish on mana. Furthermore, any counter seems to break up the combo almost instantly. Even a non-Ferocious Stubborn Denial could cost too much mana sometimes, and against a Death's Shadow deck, you really can't afford to take a turn off to play another land. Not to mention that any hard counter on the first ritual typically makes you fizzle and buy the opponent enough time to recover.
The deck is also very weak to discard, as any combo deck is. But unlike a deck like, say, Splinter Twin was, Gifts has more pieces to assemble and less interaction to stall the opponent before the combo was assembled. Of course, you could argue that Twin did get banned, so there's that, but a 3-4 card combo still feels really vulnerable. In addition, Twin wasn't (as) weak to Trinisphere, Eidolon of Rhetoric, or of the Great Revel, and the leaked and upcoming Damping Sphere also appears that it will become a staple sideboard card in Modern, furthering Storm's chance of falling behind.
Relying on so many cards also makes you weak to cards like Slaughter Games and Surgical Extraction (not that any combo deck is free from these cards, but Storm seems especially vulnerable), as Gifts puts cards into the grave where they can be Extracted.
Then there's the issue of only have one Wincon pre-board (typically, some lists run Empty mainboard). Grapeshot is shut down by Meddling Mage, Runed Halo, Leyline of Sanctity, etc., which only dampens (no pun intended) Storm's chances against a wide array of decks pre-board.
Even after that, the deck is also weak to graveyard hate. Go figure! Your two engines that pretty much make the deck work (although you can, theoretically, win without them), Gifts Ungiven and Past in Flames, both utilize the graveyard and are shut down by the many maindeckable grave hate cards (RiP, Oooz, Relic, etc.) , and that's not even mentioning the sideboard action (Leyline of the Void, Cage, etc.)
Anyway, that's my impression of the deck, which is weird because I find the deck sooo satisfying!
I'll conclude here with a few aspects of the deck that can counteract some of these criticisms.
Against removal, Gifts Storm is surprisingly good at fighting through it in the hands of a seasoned guide, and has the advantage of often baiting decks to side out the majority of their removal post-board.
Counters are tough for any deck, but a Past in Flames mid to late-game against a control deck may be enough to recover from all of the cards that countered you, and Storm carries some really good sideboard plans against control decks (Gigadrowse, Ascension, Azcanta).
Gifts Storm has a tough matchups against the decks that typically run discard first game (Jund, DS). However, advanced sideboard plans have allowed Storm to take out the weakest parts of its combo and fight through a little bit of discard. A mini Empty the Warrens also dramatically helps against these matchups (granted they don't have Maelstrom Pulse!).
Sideboard cards such as Wipe Away, Repeal, Echoing Truth, etc. have substantially helped Storm against cards that limit the amount of spells, and also works well against cards like Meddling Mage and Runed Halo, as well as some of the grave hate cards such as Void and even Relic to some extent.
Another really cool tool that Gifts Storm utilizes is the Grapeshot-Remand trick. The pseudo-combo/backup plan that often allows Gifts Storm to steal games against tougher matchups such as Grixis Death's Shadow. Let them slowly kill themselves... and then surprise them with a Grapeshot for 3 or so and then Remand Grapeshot back to your hand for another casting! Never forget this option!
I personally LOVE Gifts Storm and would hate to see it go down (although I'm sure it'll find some way to defy death again, like it has so many times in the past ;)), but I'd like to know what the general consensus is about its standing in the current metagame from some more experienced players. Lastly, does anyone think that Dominaria looks really good? I mean like, EDH gold, no!? Also, apologies if this thread looks really unorganized. I kind of just jotted down all my thoughts... Thanks everyone and I love you!
Long answer - I don't have time for it, but it has a rough matchup vs. Humans and Burn. This makes it tough to run in the current meta, along with a slight problem with discard, especially if the pilot is inexperienced (or doesn't draw Pieces of the Puzzle)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I still think Gifts storm is a very powerful deck, but the unbanning of BBE (and the rise of Jund) along side with the new card Damping Sphere just makes the metagame alot worse for the storm deck.
I personally wouldn't enjoy having to play storm against an entire metagame of random hate cards.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Wow, 2 in the top 8 and 3 in the top 10. It's probably just a deck that tries to dodge some poor matchups and can do well otherwise.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I think it's one of the strongest deck in the meta, there's just a lot of hate against it but it's possible to win even through it. The Burn and Humans matchups are atrocious, Meddling Mage and Eidolon are not our friends. Every deck with the discard package is an hard matchup too (GDS, Traverse Shadow, Jund, Abzan, 8-Rack). But even with those hard matchup, we are able to steal some of them with the consistency of the Gifts engine and our resilience to hate with our bounce spells.
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Before I get into it though, I must say... Gifts Storm is a great deck! I don't want to come off as hostile or discouraging to Storm players; I've been playing a variant of Caleb Scherer's lists and it's been one of the more fun decks I've played! There's no feeling like spending a number of minutes counting floating mana and realizing that you have to switch to a D20 from your D12 because your Storm count is too high! Only to realize that your opponent is practically dead by the time you look up and ask them to pick two...
Ooh, but I've put up some great results with Gifts Storm at my local LGS. Frankly, I have no idea why I'm even asking this question -- Is Gifts Storm Still Good?
It's been racking my brain for a while now. I've been trying to tell myself that it doesn't matter because the deck is fun and successful and really has everything a player like me could look for, yet somewhere, deep down, I can't just accept that. Every time I play the deck it almost feels like I'm cheating because I keep winning and I just don't know why! I know I'm going on a rant and you're probably just skimming this anyways, but if you've made it this far, I'll be really ecstatic if you soldier on!
Let's do it this way: Gifts Storm is a tier 1 deck, at least it was when the tier lists were up (what happened to those btw!?). That means it's put up great numbers in tournaments and can compete with the likes of DS decks and Affinity and so on. It's a legitimate deck that, if a deck hopes to stand a chance, must be considered when building a sideboard. The deck has been through countless iterations from way back during the Ponder and Preordain bans through Ascension-based lists and to the modern Gifts lists. The Storm mechanic is considered to be the most broken keyword in the 25 year history of magic that mechanics are rated on the Storm scale.
All this is fine, but why is it still good in Modern now? Gifts Storm is a combo deck. Every time I play the deck, I can't help but think of how vulnerable the combo is. Essentially, it is a 3-4 card combo deck, at least the way I see it, right? You've got Baral, Chief of Compliance or you've got Goblin Electromancer and then the titular Gifts Ungiven, and on top of that you generally need one or two rituals to generate the key 6 mana required before casting Gifts and going off. Think about that. That means that, as a Storm player, you are vulnerable to any form of creature removal that can hit while you're low-ish on mana. Furthermore, any counter seems to break up the combo almost instantly. Even a non-Ferocious Stubborn Denial could cost too much mana sometimes, and against a Death's Shadow deck, you really can't afford to take a turn off to play another land. Not to mention that any hard counter on the first ritual typically makes you fizzle and buy the opponent enough time to recover.
The deck is also very weak to discard, as any combo deck is. But unlike a deck like, say, Splinter Twin was, Gifts has more pieces to assemble and less interaction to stall the opponent before the combo was assembled. Of course, you could argue that Twin did get banned, so there's that, but a 3-4 card combo still feels really vulnerable. In addition, Twin wasn't (as) weak to Trinisphere, Eidolon of Rhetoric, or of the Great Revel, and the leaked and upcoming Damping Sphere also appears that it will become a staple sideboard card in Modern, furthering Storm's chance of falling behind.
Relying on so many cards also makes you weak to cards like Slaughter Games and Surgical Extraction (not that any combo deck is free from these cards, but Storm seems especially vulnerable), as Gifts puts cards into the grave where they can be Extracted.
Then there's the issue of only have one Wincon pre-board (typically, some lists run Empty mainboard). Grapeshot is shut down by Meddling Mage, Runed Halo, Leyline of Sanctity, etc., which only dampens (no pun intended) Storm's chances against a wide array of decks pre-board.
Even after that, the deck is also weak to graveyard hate. Go figure! Your two engines that pretty much make the deck work (although you can, theoretically, win without them), Gifts Ungiven and Past in Flames, both utilize the graveyard and are shut down by the many maindeckable grave hate cards (RiP, Oooz, Relic, etc.) , and that's not even mentioning the sideboard action (Leyline of the Void, Cage, etc.)
Anyway, that's my impression of the deck, which is weird because I find the deck sooo satisfying!
I'll conclude here with a few aspects of the deck that can counteract some of these criticisms.
Against removal, Gifts Storm is surprisingly good at fighting through it in the hands of a seasoned guide, and has the advantage of often baiting decks to side out the majority of their removal post-board.
Counters are tough for any deck, but a Past in Flames mid to late-game against a control deck may be enough to recover from all of the cards that countered you, and Storm carries some really good sideboard plans against control decks (Gigadrowse, Ascension, Azcanta).
Gifts Storm has a tough matchups against the decks that typically run discard first game (Jund, DS). However, advanced sideboard plans have allowed Storm to take out the weakest parts of its combo and fight through a little bit of discard. A mini Empty the Warrens also dramatically helps against these matchups (granted they don't have Maelstrom Pulse!).
Sideboard cards such as Wipe Away, Repeal, Echoing Truth, etc. have substantially helped Storm against cards that limit the amount of spells, and also works well against cards like Meddling Mage and Runed Halo, as well as some of the grave hate cards such as Void and even Relic to some extent.
Another really cool tool that Gifts Storm utilizes is the Grapeshot-Remand trick. The pseudo-combo/backup plan that often allows Gifts Storm to steal games against tougher matchups such as Grixis Death's Shadow. Let them slowly kill themselves... and then surprise them with a Grapeshot for 3 or so and then Remand Grapeshot back to your hand for another casting! Never forget this option!
I personally LOVE Gifts Storm and would hate to see it go down (although I'm sure it'll find some way to defy death again, like it has so many times in the past ;)), but I'd like to know what the general consensus is about its standing in the current metagame from some more experienced players. Lastly, does anyone think that Dominaria looks really good? I mean like, EDH gold, no!? Also, apologies if this thread looks really unorganized. I kind of just jotted down all my thoughts... Thanks everyone and I love you!
Long answer - I don't have time for it, but it has a rough matchup vs. Humans and Burn. This makes it tough to run in the current meta, along with a slight problem with discard, especially if the pilot is inexperienced (or doesn't draw Pieces of the Puzzle)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I personally wouldn't enjoy having to play storm against an entire metagame of random hate cards.
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
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)