4 Color Gifts Ungiven (Hence force known as 4C Gifts)
*Thanks to DNC at HOTP Studios for our banner*
**Special Thanks to izzetmage for his guide to Gifts Ungiven**
Table of Contents
1) What is 4C Gifts?
2) Introducing...Gifts Ungiven
3) Card Choices
4) Synergies
5) Decklists/Variations
1) What is 4C Gifts?
4C Gifts is a control deck based on the namesake card, Gifts Ungiven. That card is an extremely powerful tutor, being able to search out four cards at once. Your opponent does get to choose which cards make it to your hand, but as you will see, this is but a minor obstacle.
2) Introducing...Gifts Ungiven
It’s time to learn all the tricks behind Gifts Ungiven. Pay attention to this entire section, many of these tricks are usable in Gifts decks in other archetypes or formats.
Playing Gifts well is a challenge for both players. The caster needs to know which cards to present, and his opponent needs to know the best combination of cards to bin. You may not even play Gifts, but you won’t want to make a fool of yourself when your opponent casts Gifts and puts you in the hot seat.
Look out for *TIP*s, which cover useful information not vital to 4C Gifts, but good to know for use of Gifts in other decks. Of course, 4C Gifts might start to use these tricks if new cards are printed which warrant their inclusion & mastery!
What it Does
First, Gifts Ungiven is an instant. Your opponent is never safe if you have four mana untapped. You can counter his spells, destroy his creatures, or gain card advantage with Gifts Ungiven.
Second, it costs 3U. That means that it’s easily splashed. It gives you the leeway to play more colorless-producing lands than normal.
Third, let’s look at the text. We’ll go through this sentence by sentence:
“Search your library for up to four cards with different names and reveal them.”
Remember, the cards must have different names. What happens if you can’t, or won’t, choose four cards? Ah, an exploit is in the making. Skip ahead to “Double Entomb” for more details.
“Target opponent chooses two of those cards.”
Gifts Ungiven targets. If your opponent controls Leyline of Sanctity, you can’t cast it.
“Put the chosen cards into your graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle your library.”
The two cards that your opponent chooses go into your graveyard. Not the other way around. If you’re kind, you may wish to point that out to opponents so that they won’t mistakenly choose the cards that they wanted you to put in your hand instead.
Doing the Math
Your opponent has a total of 6 possible choices for a Gifts pile. For the rest of this primer, I will use the following notation:
A B/C D
where A and B are the cards that your opponent chose to put into your graveyard, and C and D are the cards that you put into your hand. Verify that there are only 6 possible ways to split 4 cards:
A B/C D
C D/A B
A C/B D
B D/A C
A D/B C
B C/A D
A B/C D is no different from B A/C D.
How it Affects Deck Construction
Because Gifts Ungiven forces you to search for cards with different names, it is common to play a lot of 1-ofs so that you can tutor them without whiffing.
4C Gifts sacrifices a tiny bit of raw power for huge amounts of versatility and consistency. You have to play with some slightly less-than-optimal cards just to fulfil Gifts’ “different name” requirement. However, this is made up for by the fact that Gifts will always be able to get what you want.
Let’s say Doom Blade is the best removal spell most of the time. In any other deck, you would simply play 4 Doom Blades. However, in 4C Gifts, it is wiser to play one each of Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Terror, and Smother, so that you will be able to find four removal spells (and put two of them into your hand) with Gifts.
With Gifts, two cards will hit the graveyard every time you cast it. However, that’s not always a bad thing. There are ways to recover those cards to your hand. Some cards even work better in the graveyard than in hand! Lingering Souls and Unburial Rites are two examples. They also break the symmetry of Liliana of the Veil’s discard effect in your favour.
*TIP* Snow-covered basic lands are considered differently-named from regular basic lands. One optimization (of arguably infinitesimal effect) is to play snow basics in conjunction with regular basics, so in the unlikely case that you need a Gifts pile consisting of two identical basic lands, you can make it.
Optimal Usage
Four Equivalent Cards
This trick was mentioned in the above section. You can make a pile of 4 cards with the same effect, and no matter how your opponent chooses, you can put two of them into your hand.
Three Equivalent Cards and Recursion
Let’s say you have only three equivalent cards in your library (because you casted the fourth already, for example). You can make a pile of 3 equivalent cards, plus 1 card which puts a card from your graveyard back into your hand. Again, you will be able to put two of them into your hand.
In 4C Gifts, Snapcaster Mage is the most common recursive card. The deck plays a lot of instant and sorcery answers to enemy threats, giving it tons of options.
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion)
A A’/A A: You have two As.
A A/A A’: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
The downside is that you need enough mana to cast the recursion spell.
*TIP* The same holds for 2 equivalent cards and 2 recursion:
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion)
A’ A’/A A: You have two As.
A A’/A A’: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
A A/A’ A’: Cast both A’s to bring back both As from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
*TIP* Tutors can stand in for recursion effects. This is self-explanatory; instead of getting a card from the graveyard, you get it from your library instead. And yes, you can cast Gifts Ungiven, searching for Gifts Ungiven - but whether you have the means to cast it if your opponent chooses to put it into your graveyard is another matter!
One Copy Needed, Three Equivalents
If you only need one copy of a specific effect, Gifts can find it for you if there are 3 equivalent cards in your library, or 2 equivalents and 1 recursion. You only need to reveal three cards, but it’s good to reveal a fourth just for value. Lingering Souls or Snapcaster Mage (flashing back Gifts!) is a good choice.
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion, X is the fourth card. You only need 1 A in hand.)
Three equivalent cards:
A X/A A: You have A.
A A/A X: You have A.
Example: You need just one mass removal spell. Search for Crime/Punishment, Damnation, Engineered Explosives, and one other card of your choice.
Two equivalent cards and one recursion:
A’ X/A A: You have A.
A X/A A’: You have A.
A A’/A X: You have A.
A A/A’ X: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have A.
Example: You need just one mass removal spell, but only have two in your entire library. Search for Crime/Punishment, Damnation, Snapcaster Mage, and one other card of your choice.
Self Recursion
Some cards can either be casted from the graveyard, or are able to bring themselves from the graveyard to your hand. Look out for the following keyword abilities:
Flashback (Snapcaster Mage grants flashback.)
Dredge
Retrace
The Double Entomb Trick
An unintuitive trick with Gifts is to search for two (and only two) cards with different names, and present them to your opponent. He is then forced to put both into your graveyard. This is possibly the most important way to abuse Gifts Ungiven with the current modern card pool.
Here is the relevant rule:
701.15b If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain type or color, that player isn’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present in that zone.
*TIP* Note the words “stated quality”. In Gifts’s case, it means cards with different names. If you can search for any card at all, you must – the very next rule, 701.15c says so.
This trick doesn’t work with Intuition, because it doesn’t refer to a “stated quality”. Signal the Clans is carefully worded – you can reveal one card, but then it does nothing! You need to reveal three before you even get a chance to spin the wheel.
Now you might be asking, “Why on earth would I want to do that? 0 cards in hand are worse than 2 cards in hand, no matter how bad the 2 cards are.” Well, it’s not the cards in hand that count, it’s the cards in your graveyard.
This trick is most often used to put Unburial Rites and Iona, Shield of Emeria (or some other fatty) in your graveyard. You can then flashback Unburial Rites to reanimate Iona.
(0 refers to a nothing. A nonexistent card.)
Rites Iona/0 0: You have the combo.
In this case, searching for extra cards is not only unnecessary, it is detrimental. You opponent will simply put Rites or Iona in your hand, leaving you with nothing to reanimate (or a 5 mana reanimation).
(0 refers to nothing. X refers to the nonessential card.)
Rites Iona/0 X: You have the combo.
Rites X/0 Iona: You don’t have the combo.
Iona X/Rites 0: You have to cast Rites for 4B instead of 3W.
While it is possible to choose another fatty as X, this gives your opponent control over which creature you get to reanimate.
3) Card Choices
Note that some cards are listed more than once.
Raven’s Crime Duress: Sideboard, only good against creature-light combo/control decks. Inquisition of Kozilek: The playlet of choice. Thoughtseize: Sideboard, life loss hurts. Liliana of the Veil - Playing with Gifts Ungiven means you are utilizing your graveyard throughout the match. This helps or even nullifies Lily's only drawback, making her a core piece of the deck. Half the time you can actually discard for value, creating card advantage over your opponent. Lists light on black have seen success with little to no copies of LOTV.
Spot Removal
Darkblast: *TIP* If you only have one copy of Darkblast in your hand at the start of your turn, you can cast it twice that turn. Cast it once during your upkeep, Dredge in replacement of your draw for the turn, then cast it again. Disfigure - mostly sideboard against fae, burn, elves, maybe infect. Dismember - only if you can supplement the potential life loss. Go for the Throat - vulnerable to Spell Snare and affinity. Path to Exile - *TIP* Remember that you can use these on your own creatures (snappy) if necessary. Abrupt Decay - most versatile removal available, always main deck a few of these. Temrinate - if you're in red, play at least a copy or 2 of these. Maelstrom Pulse - a singleton inclusion in any green list. Murderous Cut - Probably more useful in decks that don't rely on their graveyard as much as we do, but 1 copy in the main doesn't hurt much, and allows nice options for removal Gifts packages.
Mass Removal
Damnation Languish - budget option to Damnation, but also useful for making one-sided Wraths. Punishment (Crime/Punishment) - useful if using Jace, Vryn's Prodigy since he has 0 CMC when flipped. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This will be your mass removal of choice most of the time. It is important to have other options, but reanimating an Elesh Norn on turn 4-6 usually forces a scoop. Engineered Explosives: *TIP* You can use colorless mana, or additional mana of one color, to cast EE at a different converted mana cost. For example, if you want two charge counters on EE but your opponent has Spell Snare, you can cast EE for 1UB or UBB, and he won’t be able to counter it. EE also pairs well with Academy Ruins and fits nicely into the recursive theme. Supreme Verdict: Sideboard, mana requirement is awkward. Wrath of God/Day of Judgment - There are probably better options but 1-ofs fit the Gifts package theme. Golgari Charm: Sideboard, only for certain decks. Useful against Bogles, Terminate, Infect
Counterspells
Mana Leak: Counter magic is in and out a varying gifts lists. Some swear against it, others wouldn't sleeve up without at least two. Gifting for counters is probably not optimal, but they can help to establish control of the game. Spell Snare: Guaranteed to grant value (since they're paying more for the spell you're countering than you are to counter it. Gets my vote every time. Remand: Not really a tempo style deck but powerful cards are powerful nonetheless. Voidslime: Versatility is nice. Haven't seen this used though. Dispel: Sideboard. Negate: Sideboard. Spell Pierce - usually replaced by the following... Stubborn Denial - especially useful if you're playing Tasigur/Tarmogoyf/Rhino
Filters and Draw Spells
Thought Scour - No showings yet, but could have theoretical synergy. Serum Visions - Becoming a format staple for blue decks. Cheap and sets up your next few draws. Anticipate or Telling Time - Nice for dodging fatties you'd draw otherwise. Compulsive Research - The rare ability to create raw card advantage could be useful, but we rarely want to discard lands in this deck. Thirst for Knowledge is another option. Painful Truths - something being discussed but no success stories yet. Bring to Light - an instant all-star in a 4+ color deck since you can search up just about anything in your list, particularly Gifts Ungiven.
Permanents
Snapcaster Mage: Nearly as important as Gifts itself. He is your second copy of any spell tutored or previously cast. Birds of Paradise: Extra color fixing is always nice in a four color list, plus its another blocker if need be, or another body to be buffed by Elesh Norn. Sylvan Caryatid: The new big BOP. Some lists as many as 3 to facilitate greedy color requirements. Lists have done with and without, so its mostly a personal call. Tarmogoyf - needs no explanation. Knight of the Reliquary - useful if taking advantage of a Loam/Crime package. Vendillion Clique: One of the best blue creatures ever. If you're heavy on blue mana sources, you could theoretically support this card. It can be great at dumping a Gifts piece you draw prematurely (Elesh Norn, Life form the Loam). Grave Titan: Standard fatty that can win games on his own. Leaves a board impact if removed immediately (basically a necessity for any fatty you consider). Iona, Shield of Emeria, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Terastodon: Reanimation targets. Terastodon is sideboarded, rarely maindeck. Tasigur, the Golden Fang: A shining star of Rock, BUG, and Grix decks as of late. But insight from Ben Vrbo suggests that delving and activating him are both awkward in this particular deck. Liliana of the Veil: Cards that have self-recursion synergize well with it. Eternal Witness: Pseudo Snapcaster Mage - only for green heavy lists. Can get back Unburial Rites so you can cast it twice. Sun Titan - Brings back your Lily, Eternal Witness, or even a land if need be. Recursion is the name of our game and Sun Titan fits the bill. Create a soft-lock against control/combo with Fulminator Mage.
Lifegain Options
These cards are mostly for side boarded, but some are used main deck.
Specific Hate Cards
All of these cards are mostly sideboarded.
Fracturing Gust: Affinity, Bogles. Though getting to 5 mana is scary against these decks. Most would opt for Engineered Explosives + Academy Ruins. Linvala, Keeper of Silence: The perfect anti-Ooze tech. She is easily hard castable, and definitely maindeck material in the right metagame. Empyrial Archangel: Sometimes used in place of Iona, Shield of Emeria as a reanimation target. A little more versatile and certainly more durable. Impossible for burn to deal with. Blood Baron of Vizkopa: This card hoses Abzan, and many other major archetypes. Very powerful but dead in some match-ups so sideboard is probably his home. Golgari Charm: Twin, Blood Moon, graveyard-based decks. Also useful against Affinity Stony Silence: Affinity, Tron Ghostly Prison: Twin, Tokens, Affinity Aven Mindcensor or Shadow of Doubt: Podless, Scapeshift, Bloom, Tron Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard-based decks Surgical Extraction or Extirpate: Graveyard-based decks Spellskite: Infect, Auras, Twin, aggro decks (as a blocker) Torpor Orb: Twin, Podless Pithing Needle: Twin, planeswalkers, grave hate. This card is very important now that Scavenging Ooze is modern legal.
Lands
Fetchlands: You need more Swamp-searching fetches, because the deck has many cards that cost B. 3 Verdant Catacomb/3 Marsh Flats/2 Misty Rainforest is the standard. Minimum of 8 fetchlands is necessary to facilitate the graveyard interactions.
Shocklands: One of each. The deck has 4 colors, making 6 2-color combinations. Thus you need 6 shocks. Some black-heavier versions run as many as 8 shocks. Don't get too greedy!
Basic lands: One of each should suffice, perhaps you’d want two Swamps. That’s 4 basic lands, one for each color (plus an extra Swamp if you decide to play it). Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Fixes mana for black-heavy cards (Damantion, Liliana of the Veil). 1 is enough, it’s legendary, and may end up helping your opponent more than you (its effect applies to your opponent’s lands as well). This is a key component when going for your Life from the Loam // Ravens Crime package. Allowing all your lands to produce black makes for an easy sweep of their hand. Creeping Tar Pit, Celestial Colonnade: Wincon. 3 (combined) is the standard; you don’t want multiples because it ETBs tapped. Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge: Land destruction. 1 of each is enough, you usually get them with Gifts. Keeping extra in the board for Tron isn't a bad idea. Vault of the Archangel: Turns Spirit tokens from Lingering Souls, and Snapcaster Mage, into deathtouch blockers. Like most lands, only 1 is needed. Gavony Township: More necessary in builds running the extra bodies to support it (Birds of Paradise for example).
4) Synergies
4C Gifts is a deck full of cards which work well together. Here are some combos in it:
Blueless/Junk Gifts For a midrange approach to essentially the same gameplan (i.e. attrition, with GU for card advantage), we find more recent showings of 4C Gifts. Could this be the evolution of the deck?
No noteworthy showings of this style since banning of DRS
What's Different? In midrange Gifts, you are sacrificing late-game inevitability and lessening your tutorable options for raw early-game speed and more [cost-effective] win conditions.
Knight of the Reliquary: This would be your main reason to play Junk (GBW splash U) over Control Gifts (WUB splash G). The Knight tutors, ramps, and is its own win condition all in one card. We're already dumping lands into the graveyard left and right, so she easily comes down big enough to dodge Lightning Bolt (only need 2 lands in the yard). KOTR is already known to play well with the Crime/Loam combo, so it only makes sense to include her here.
*TIP* The Knight provides temporary, single-turn ramp. To do this, you can float 1 mana with a forest or plains (doesn't have to be W or G, see: Shocklands), then activate KOTR to sacrifice that land and search for any land, which then enters untapped. You now have the same number of untapped lands but with one mana floating. Long-term you have not permanently ramped yourself, but you got one extra that turn and your KOTR is slightly beefier.
Tarmogoyf: We spend most of our game dumping cards into both graveyards making Goyf a quick clock and often sneaks wins without ever drawing Gifts Ungiven (nice advantage over the control version which relies on Gifts abuse).
Birds of Paradise: This card has seen play as DRS #5 for those Control Gifts players who really want that potential ramp. In Midrange/Junk Gifts, that ramp is much more necessary. We also utilize Gavony Township (which can be searched for via your playset of Knights OR your playset of Gifts) so more bodies are always relevant. Running 12 mana ramping creatures allows to run less lands (usually 24 instead of 25-26) and also makes the potential of casting Elesh Norn much more realistic, should you draw her prematurely.
Eternal Witness: Playing a heavier green deck means you can take advantage of this amazing recursion creature.
*TIP* A great value Gift package is: Sun Titan, Unburial Rites, Liliana of the Veil, Eternal Witness
This package ensures that you will be able to use all four of the cards found (barring any opposing graveyard hate of course), and likely cast Gifts again via the Witness.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: This is a card that hasn't seen much love in past iterations of 4C Gifts but with Twin, Pod, and BG Rock on the rise as some of the most competitive decks in the format, we take a closer look that this Angel. A midrange deck such as Junk Gifts can really utilize her in the board or even the maindeck. She is easily hard-castable and survives Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay. Scavenging Ooze is the last card you want starring you down, and she shuts down Ooze seamlessly.
Recent Showings
This play style is pretty much obsolete with the banning of Deathrite Shaman. For historical sake, here are the lists.
Oh man here is a spicy one from the pro tour by Andre Mueller! The list was missing a card md and board like several others, would be nice to know but easy to fill in.
Yea pretty exited about this list, gona build it. The absence of counter magic is interesting, but many pros have said discard is better in this format, it is faster and more efficient. This also seems like the absolute best place for deathrite shaman. He fills so many rolls, fixes the life gain problem I had with the BUG color scheme, and ramps you to t2 Liliana or t3 gifts. Not so sure how good Crime // Punishment is, I will try Explosives and academy ruins instead. Then you can gifts for Loam +Ruins +Explosives +Ravens Crime to clear the board and their hand.
So I played around with Muellers deck, its pretty interesting. Fast Elesh Norn Vs agro and Ravens Loam vs combo or control is pretty sic. The problem I had was to many awkward draws. Its really hard and rare to mise someone with Iona but maybe I didn't play vs enough jund? The mana is just to all over the place, I want to go solid Esper with just 2-3 green duals for loam and Shaman. BUG is also an option but the white sideboard cards are just too good. Three snapcaster was to many as well as he doesn't have enough early plays to abuse. I have made 6 slots available by cutting -1 Liliana, Souls, Iona, Snapy, Pulse, Decay. Any suggestions? 4 Leak and some removal? Is this deck interesting to anyone? Was a shame they didn't even talk about it at the PT, was far and away one of the more original decks played.
Honestly i was more interested (personally) in batterskull or lack thereof in your list as i was testing 4c gifts as a hunt for control deck kind of research activity. I do like the list in the opening post quite a bit though. How have shackles been with the manabase you have sculpted though? Also, Do you think an elspeth knight errant is a bad choice for inclusion in your opinion?
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Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
Batterskull and Elspeth could be squeezed into the Izzet artifact list easily. Bad B had talked me out of Skull it is a bit slow and you are already set up well Vs agro. In my testing Elspeth just wasnt good enough against the format, I would play Ajani V over her. I have tried him a few times, he was decent but basically this stupid format is to fast for 4cc planeswalkers. Shackles is fine without a million Islands. I was so sick of suiciding myself with mono Shock fetch mana. It does come up sometimes but a vast potion of the creatures in modern are 1-3 power.
Here is the Death Rites list I am trying out now, and sadly shackles is the card I miss most in it. Shaman has been quite amazing speeding up the deck and having all kinds of utility. Loam + Ravens Crime is quite powerful as you can just strip there hand and make way for a Wurmcoil engine esp vs deck with Path. I may want Batterskul instead but I wanted to make Unburial a bit more live as well and Wurm is better vs Jund. Abrupt decay I dont miss to much, mostly you want cheap creature kill and you dont want to stumble on mana to cast it, pesky non creatures can be handled via discard or Explosives. I feel like I want one more counter in here, almost want to cut ghost Quarter main, idk.
Cool nice to finally Have some one to talk to about this deck. Idk I have had Elesh Norn win me more games affinity and inject are dead cold to it. Iona is so hard to maneuver into a winning position and is a stone blank in hand. I can give he another go potentially but the ravens crime plan is quite stong against the same decks she is.
Yes that is why I hedged twords wurm coil for synergy with both ruins and unburial. Explosives lock is verry strong especially when you have all 5 collors. Lol I didn't even think to crime Iona from my own hand that is what I love about this deck, it has so many levels of play. I still have concerns about beating grave yard hate post board with this deck and Leyline of sanctity is something that causes a lot of problems too, so much it should probably be in the board as well.
First off 4 snapcaster is just wrong in this deck with only about 11 things you want to flashback. Even teachings that is mono instants dont often play 4 Snapy. The swords dont do anything you want in this deck as you already have good discard engines and not many instants to capitalize on the untap. I was cutting Iona because I dont want it in my opener, the same is certainly true of this sword. Can you just not afford Lilianas she is the key card of the deck?? A deck teck update from Mueller confirms this! Sounds like he hasnt done so well with it sadly, but the deck is still just so cool and techy.
Woohooo! Top 8 at GP Chicago, I knew this deck had potential. Looks like there is a mistake in the list again though with that snow swamp in the spells and I dont think the deck wants 26 land.
This deck is SICK. REDICULOUSLY sick. I took the Snow Covered Swamp from the showing in the GP and replaced with the Thoughtsieze in the Sideboard. I then changed the sideboard spot with an Inquisiton of Kozilek.
I've only play tested a little bit, but the things I've already tried just leave my opponants confused every time. I can't wait to play this more.
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Now Playing:
===============Casual============= WGMy Little Ponies
--------------------Modern----------------
Built: nothing
Working On: testing
It's supposed to be a Snow-Covered Swamp. Corner-case scenario of casting gifts and searching for Swamp and Snow-Covered Swamp. Three of your lands are colorless, so 26 lands is where you want to be.
against some decks 1 terastodon is auto win. destroy 3 land from a infect deck or any aggro with a low land count. kill 3 anything from your opp or just 3 of your lands and get a 18 of power by your side.
i prefer terastodon in MD because of my metagame (a poor metagame), he have a devastating impact when hit the table. just shut down all decks I play against in one turn (play against much aggros with no more than 21~22 lands)
I see it good vs Tron,
even if they land a Karn - U can just destroy 2 of the tron lands + Karn, its insane.
The problem starts when they have Relic or U dont have any way to to stop this 3 tockens (destroying ur terastodon after entering the batterfield)
No idea how it goes vs aggro, coz they will have 3x 3/3 Tokens, so U will lose 9 life if terastodon is Ur only creature to block - life is pretty important vs aggro.
I want to practice with this, UW Restration doesnt look for me like a control deck... this much more.
against tron is a nice card too, but actually i prefer use 3 SB fullminator mage and 3~4 Extirpate/Surgical SB too. Fullminator stop tron, and can destroy some decks like 5CC and Valakut and screw the mana base of some decks. Extirpate in one of tron lands is basic win the game. Is a 2 cards sideboard plan, but the cards alone is nice in SB too.
Yea, it’s a nice little combo - but i don’t think we have the place to put Fuminator mages there... maybe one SB, so it works with gifts + urbuntial rites. No idea how it really works, maybe the strategy vs Tron is a bit different -I’m sitting in work and I don’t have any possibility to try it online – but I will in some hours
What i want to say - i don’t have any experience in playing with this deck,
so my suggestions are made only by looking into the card pool, even than in excited I bought all those cards allready...
My actually list is more rock style but i start to get some cards to complete the list more control.
Another card to see is Makeshift Mannequim. A gifts pile with mannequim+witness+fullminator+extirpate/surgical is really strong against tron, and mannequim+shierkmaw can kill emrakul's. mannequim bring back elesh or iona to a instant win, and more plays as possible.
I'm Shane- Terastodon is only in there for Tron. Relic is difficult to play through, but that's what Stony Silence/Abrupt Decays are for. You can still perform that fulminator plan through a gifts package for ghost quarter/tectonic edge/life from the loam/raven's crime, with Surgical Extraction locking them out. I'm writing a tournament report today, then seeing if/where I can get it published.
Alright then, adding the snow swamp helped the mana issue i was having ^^" but onto my thoughts.
1. Is it just me, or is abrupt decay a complete House here. It was mentioned in his daily mtg deck tech that he wished he MD the 3rd decay, and flipped the verdict to a damnation, (personally i think wrath of god would be better over 2 damnation but he's the pro.)
2. Eternal witness does the deck want this card? Gifts piles become more consistant tutors, but the list is pretty tight.
3. When to dredge.
Darkblast and life from the loam are crazy, nobody is arguing that, but i had a hard time figuring out if i wanted to dredge or not. It's pretty situational, i mean if hey have a shaman or a confidant it's pretty obvious to dredge the blast, and if you have a veil on board with fetches or tech edge in the grave, the +1 for lily can turn into a worse situation for the opponant thanks to life from the loam,
But if you are just setting up, is it worth it to dredge in hopes of hitting loam/crime/edge or rites? I guess i wanna see the deck played by pros more. With some collective thinking i think this deck could really nail solid results
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Now Playing:
===============Casual============= WGMy Little Ponies
--------------------Modern----------------
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Working On: testing
Eternal Witness has been tried out, but it's really difficult on the mana. Liliana and Damnation are the only double-colored spells (aside from the occasional Snapcaster-Mana Leak), which is a big part of why the mana usually works out. My colors are all over the place, but I can cast most of my deck with a Temple Garden + Creeping Tar Pit. That's also my issue with Wrath of God, since against decks like Affinity you can fetch your basics to play around Blood Moon and still be able to cast Damnation, but don't really have that luxury with Supreme Verdict or ***. Adjusting the manabase can fix this, of course. Dredging really comes down to each individual situation. I'll try to address most of those in my report.
- Torpf
4 Color Gifts Ungiven
(Hence force known as 4C Gifts)
*Thanks to DNC at HOTP Studios for our banner*
**Special Thanks to izzetmage for his guide to Gifts Ungiven**
Table of Contents
1) What is 4C Gifts?
2) Introducing...Gifts Ungiven
3) Card Choices
4) Synergies
5) Decklists/Variations
1) What is 4C Gifts?
2) Introducing...Gifts Ungiven
Playing Gifts well is a challenge for both players. The caster needs to know which cards to present, and his opponent needs to know the best combination of cards to bin. You may not even play Gifts, but you won’t want to make a fool of yourself when your opponent casts Gifts and puts you in the hot seat.
Look out for *TIP*s, which cover useful information not vital to 4C Gifts, but good to know for use of Gifts in other decks. Of course, 4C Gifts might start to use these tricks if new cards are printed which warrant their inclusion & mastery!
What it Does
Second, it costs 3U. That means that it’s easily splashed. It gives you the leeway to play more colorless-producing lands than normal.
Third, let’s look at the text. We’ll go through this sentence by sentence:
“Search your library for up to four cards with different names and reveal them.”
Remember, the cards must have different names. What happens if you can’t, or won’t, choose four cards? Ah, an exploit is in the making. Skip ahead to “Double Entomb” for more details.
“Target opponent chooses two of those cards.”
Gifts Ungiven targets. If your opponent controls Leyline of Sanctity, you can’t cast it.
“Put the chosen cards into your graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle your library.”
The two cards that your opponent chooses go into your graveyard. Not the other way around. If you’re kind, you may wish to point that out to opponents so that they won’t mistakenly choose the cards that they wanted you to put in your hand instead.
Doing the Math
A B/C D
where A and B are the cards that your opponent chose to put into your graveyard, and C and D are the cards that you put into your hand. Verify that there are only 6 possible ways to split 4 cards:
A B/C D
C D/A B
A C/B D
B D/A C
A D/B C
B C/A D
A B/C D is no different from B A/C D.
How it Affects Deck Construction
4C Gifts sacrifices a tiny bit of raw power for huge amounts of versatility and consistency. You have to play with some slightly less-than-optimal cards just to fulfil Gifts’ “different name” requirement. However, this is made up for by the fact that Gifts will always be able to get what you want.
Let’s say Doom Blade is the best removal spell most of the time. In any other deck, you would simply play 4 Doom Blades. However, in 4C Gifts, it is wiser to play one each of Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Terror, and Smother, so that you will be able to find four removal spells (and put two of them into your hand) with Gifts.
With Gifts, two cards will hit the graveyard every time you cast it. However, that’s not always a bad thing. There are ways to recover those cards to your hand. Some cards even work better in the graveyard than in hand! Lingering Souls and Unburial Rites are two examples. They also break the symmetry of Liliana of the Veil’s discard effect in your favour.
*TIP* Snow-covered basic lands are considered differently-named from regular basic lands. One optimization (of arguably infinitesimal effect) is to play snow basics in conjunction with regular basics, so in the unlikely case that you need a Gifts pile consisting of two identical basic lands, you can make it.
Optimal Usage
This trick was mentioned in the above section. You can make a pile of 4 cards with the same effect, and no matter how your opponent chooses, you can put two of them into your hand.
(A is a useful card)
A A/A A: You have two As.
Example: You need two spot removal spells. Search for Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, Dismember, Path to Exile.
Three Equivalent Cards and Recursion
Let’s say you have only three equivalent cards in your library (because you casted the fourth already, for example). You can make a pile of 3 equivalent cards, plus 1 card which puts a card from your graveyard back into your hand. Again, you will be able to put two of them into your hand.
In 4C Gifts, Snapcaster Mage is the most common recursive card. The deck plays a lot of instant and sorcery answers to enemy threats, giving it tons of options.
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion)
A A’/A A: You have two As.
A A/A A’: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
The downside is that you need enough mana to cast the recursion spell.
Example: You need two spot removal spells, but have already casted the single copy of Dismember in your deck. Search for Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage.
*TIP* The same holds for 2 equivalent cards and 2 recursion:
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion)
A’ A’/A A: You have two As.
A A’/A A’: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
A A/A’ A’: Cast both A’s to bring back both As from the graveyard. Then you’ll have two As.
*TIP* Tutors can stand in for recursion effects. This is self-explanatory; instead of getting a card from the graveyard, you get it from your library instead. And yes, you can cast Gifts Ungiven, searching for Gifts Ungiven - but whether you have the means to cast it if your opponent chooses to put it into your graveyard is another matter!
One Copy Needed, Three Equivalents
If you only need one copy of a specific effect, Gifts can find it for you if there are 3 equivalent cards in your library, or 2 equivalents and 1 recursion. You only need to reveal three cards, but it’s good to reveal a fourth just for value. Lingering Souls or Snapcaster Mage (flashing back Gifts!) is a good choice.
(A is a useful card, A’ is recursion, X is the fourth card. You only need 1 A in hand.)
Three equivalent cards:
A X/A A: You have A.
A A/A X: You have A.
Example: You need just one mass removal spell. Search for Crime/Punishment, Damnation, Engineered Explosives, and one other card of your choice.
Two equivalent cards and one recursion:
A’ X/A A: You have A.
A X/A A’: You have A.
A A’/A X: You have A.
A A/A’ X: Cast A’ to bring back an A from the graveyard. Then you’ll have A.
Example: You need just one mass removal spell, but only have two in your entire library. Search for Crime/Punishment, Damnation, Snapcaster Mage, and one other card of your choice.
Self Recursion
Some cards can either be casted from the graveyard, or are able to bring themselves from the graveyard to your hand. Look out for the following keyword abilities:
Flashback (Snapcaster Mage grants flashback.)
Dredge
Retrace
The Double Entomb Trick
Here is the relevant rule:
701.15b If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain type or color, that player isn’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present in that zone.
*TIP* Note the words “stated quality”. In Gifts’s case, it means cards with different names. If you can search for any card at all, you must – the very next rule, 701.15c says so.
This trick doesn’t work with Intuition, because it doesn’t refer to a “stated quality”.
Signal the Clans is carefully worded – you can reveal one card, but then it does nothing! You need to reveal three before you even get a chance to spin the wheel.
Now you might be asking, “Why on earth would I want to do that? 0 cards in hand are worse than 2 cards in hand, no matter how bad the 2 cards are.” Well, it’s not the cards in hand that count, it’s the cards in your graveyard.
This trick is most often used to put Unburial Rites and Iona, Shield of Emeria (or some other fatty) in your graveyard. You can then flashback Unburial Rites to reanimate Iona.
(0 refers to a nothing. A nonexistent card.)
Rites Iona/0 0: You have the combo.
In this case, searching for extra cards is not only unnecessary, it is detrimental. You opponent will simply put Rites or Iona in your hand, leaving you with nothing to reanimate (or a 5 mana reanimation).
(0 refers to nothing. X refers to the nonessential card.)
Rites Iona/0 X: You have the combo.
Rites X/0 Iona: You don’t have the combo.
Iona X/Rites 0: You have to cast Rites for 4B instead of 3W.
While it is possible to choose another fatty as X, this gives your opponent control over which creature you get to reanimate.
3) Card Choices
Note that some cards are listed more than once.
Recursion
Gifts Ungiven: 4 of these, obviously.
Snapcaster Mage: Remember that Snapcaster Mage gives flashback to any instant or sorcery in your graveyard, not just those found by Gifts. If you have a well-stocked graveyard, feel free to grab it and three other cards for value.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Darkblast
Eternal Witness
Raven’s Crime
Life from the Loam
Lingering Souls
Unburial Rites
Academy Ruins: Alongside Engineered Explosives and Batterskull.
Sun Titan: A good way to recur the things that Snapcaster Mage can’t, such as Kitchen Finks and Liliana of the Veil, even a Snapcaster/Eternal Witness to create double value.
Discard/Hand Control
Duress: Sideboard, only good against creature-light combo/control decks.
Inquisition of Kozilek: The playlet of choice.
Thoughtseize: Sideboard, life loss hurts.
Liliana of the Veil - Playing with Gifts Ungiven means you are utilizing your graveyard throughout the match. This helps or even nullifies Lily's only drawback, making her a core piece of the deck. Half the time you can actually discard for value, creating card advantage over your opponent. Lists light on black have seen success with little to no copies of LOTV.
Spot Removal
Disfigure - mostly sideboard against fae, burn, elves, maybe infect.
Dismember - only if you can supplement the potential life loss.
Go for the Throat - vulnerable to Spell Snare and affinity.
Path to Exile - *TIP* Remember that you can use these on your own creatures (snappy) if necessary.
Abrupt Decay - most versatile removal available, always main deck a few of these.
Temrinate - if you're in red, play at least a copy or 2 of these.
Maelstrom Pulse - a singleton inclusion in any green list.
Murderous Cut - Probably more useful in decks that don't rely on their graveyard as much as we do, but 1 copy in the main doesn't hurt much, and allows nice options for removal Gifts packages.
Mass Removal
Damnation
Languish - budget option to Damnation, but also useful for making one-sided Wraths.
Punishment (Crime/Punishment) - useful if using Jace, Vryn's Prodigy since he has 0 CMC when flipped.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This will be your mass removal of choice most of the time. It is important to have other options, but reanimating an Elesh Norn on turn 4-6 usually forces a scoop.
Engineered Explosives: *TIP* You can use colorless mana, or additional mana of one color, to cast EE at a different converted mana cost. For example, if you want two charge counters on EE but your opponent has Spell Snare, you can cast EE for 1UB or UBB, and he won’t be able to counter it. EE also pairs well with Academy Ruins and fits nicely into the recursive theme.
Supreme Verdict: Sideboard, mana requirement is awkward.
Wrath of God/Day of Judgment - There are probably better options but 1-ofs fit the Gifts package theme.
Golgari Charm: Sideboard, only for certain decks. Useful against Bogles, Terminate, Infect
Counterspells
Spell Snare: Guaranteed to grant value (since they're paying more for the spell you're countering than you are to counter it. Gets my vote every time.
Remand: Not really a tempo style deck but powerful cards are powerful nonetheless.
Voidslime: Versatility is nice. Haven't seen this used though.
Dispel: Sideboard.
Negate: Sideboard.
Spell Pierce - usually replaced by the following...
Stubborn Denial - especially useful if you're playing Tasigur/Tarmogoyf/Rhino
Filters and Draw Spells
Thought Scour - No showings yet, but could have theoretical synergy.
Serum Visions - Becoming a format staple for blue decks. Cheap and sets up your next few draws.
Anticipate or Telling Time - Nice for dodging fatties you'd draw otherwise.
Compulsive Research - The rare ability to create raw card advantage could be useful, but we rarely want to discard lands in this deck. Thirst for Knowledge is another option.
Painful Truths - something being discussed but no success stories yet.
Bring to Light - an instant all-star in a 4+ color deck since you can search up just about anything in your list, particularly Gifts Ungiven.
Permanents
Snapcaster Mage: Nearly as important as Gifts itself. He is your second copy of any spell tutored or previously cast.
Birds of Paradise: Extra color fixing is always nice in a four color list, plus its another blocker if need be, or another body to be buffed by Elesh Norn.
Sylvan Caryatid: The new big BOP. Some lists as many as 3 to facilitate greedy color requirements. Lists have done with and without, so its mostly a personal call.
Tarmogoyf - needs no explanation.
Knight of the Reliquary - useful if taking advantage of a Loam/Crime package.
Vendillion Clique: One of the best blue creatures ever. If you're heavy on blue mana sources, you could theoretically support this card. It can be great at dumping a Gifts piece you draw prematurely (Elesh Norn, Life form the Loam).
Grave Titan: Standard fatty that can win games on his own. Leaves a board impact if removed immediately (basically a necessity for any fatty you consider).
Iona, Shield of Emeria, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Terastodon: Reanimation targets. Terastodon is sideboarded, rarely maindeck.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: A shining star of Rock, BUG, and Grix decks as of late. But insight from Ben Vrbo suggests that delving and activating him are both awkward in this particular deck.
Liliana of the Veil: Cards that have self-recursion synergize well with it.
Eternal Witness: Pseudo Snapcaster Mage - only for green heavy lists. Can get back Unburial Rites so you can cast it twice.
Sun Titan - Brings back your Lily, Eternal Witness, or even a land if need be. Recursion is the name of our game and Sun Titan fits the bill. Create a soft-lock against control/combo with Fulminator Mage.
Lifegain Options
These cards are mostly for side boarded, but some are used main deck.
Baneslayer Angel - Potentially maindeck material.
Batterskull - Potentially maindeck material.
Timely Reinforcements - sideboard card with narrow uses
Thragtusk - General consensus now is to main deck at least one of these.
Wurmcoil Engine - hasn't seen much play
Specific Hate Cards
All of these cards are mostly sideboarded.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: The perfect anti-Ooze tech. She is easily hard castable, and definitely maindeck material in the right metagame.
Empyrial Archangel: Sometimes used in place of Iona, Shield of Emeria as a reanimation target. A little more versatile and certainly more durable. Impossible for burn to deal with.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: This card hoses Abzan, and many other major archetypes. Very powerful but dead in some match-ups so sideboard is probably his home.
Golgari Charm: Twin, Blood Moon, graveyard-based decks. Also useful against Affinity
Stony Silence: Affinity, Tron
Ghostly Prison: Twin, Tokens, Affinity
Aven Mindcensor or Shadow of Doubt: Podless, Scapeshift, Bloom, Tron
Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard-based decks
Surgical Extraction or Extirpate: Graveyard-based decks
Spellskite: Infect, Auras, Twin, aggro decks (as a blocker)
Torpor Orb: Twin, Podless
Pithing Needle: Twin, planeswalkers, grave hate. This card is very important now that Scavenging Ooze is modern legal.
Lands
Shocklands: One of each. The deck has 4 colors, making 6 2-color combinations. Thus you need 6 shocks. Some black-heavier versions run as many as 8 shocks. Don't get too greedy!
Basic lands: One of each should suffice, perhaps you’d want two Swamps. That’s 4 basic lands, one for each color (plus an extra Swamp if you decide to play it).
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Fixes mana for black-heavy cards (Damantion, Liliana of the Veil). 1 is enough, it’s legendary, and may end up helping your opponent more than you (its effect applies to your opponent’s lands as well). This is a key component when going for your Life from the Loam // Ravens Crime package. Allowing all your lands to produce black makes for an easy sweep of their hand.
Creeping Tar Pit, Celestial Colonnade: Wincon. 3 (combined) is the standard; you don’t want multiples because it ETBs tapped.
Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge: Land destruction. 1 of each is enough, you usually get them with Gifts. Keeping extra in the board for Tron isn't a bad idea.
Vault of the Archangel: Turns Spirit tokens from Lingering Souls, and Snapcaster Mage, into deathtouch blockers. Like most lands, only 1 is needed.
Gavony Township: More necessary in builds running the extra bodies to support it (Birds of Paradise for example).
4) Synergies
4C Gifts is a deck full of cards which work well together. Here are some combos in it:
Gifts Combos
Raven’s Crime, Life from the Loam: Causes your opponent to discard repeatedly.
Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, Life from the Loam: Destroys your opponent’s lands repeatedly.
Academy Ruins, Engineered Explosives, Life from the Loam: Destroys your opponent’s permanents repeatedly.
Other Combos, Notable Interactions
Goryo's Vengeance targeting Obzedat, Ghost Council or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy - creates amazing value since both cards are exiled for their own effects before you lose it forever due to Goryo's drawback.
Liliana of the Veil, Lingering Souls: Lessens the impact of Liliana’s discard. Any card with recursion (flashback, dredge, retrace) is good discard fodder.
Unburial Rites, Creature, Discard: Sometimes a creature that you’re itching to reanimate is stuck in hand. You can target yourself with a discard spell (Raven’s Crime) to get that creature into the graveyard.
Vault of the Archangel, Lingering Souls: Gives you a steady stream of deathtouch blockers.
Gifts Ungiven, Snapcaster Mage or Eternal Witness: Allows you to cast Gifts twice.
5) Decklists/Variations
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
Sorceries (12)
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
3 Lingering Souls
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Damnation
1 Unburial Rite
1 Wrath of God
Instants (16)
4 Thought Scour
1 Murderous Cut
3 Path to Exile
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Go for the Throat
3 Goryo’s Vengeance
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Monastery Siege
Lands (22)
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flooded Strand
2 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Watery Grave
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Stony Silence
1 Celestial Purge
1 Countersquall
1 Darkblast
2 Disenchant
1 Dispel
1 Flashfreeze
1 Negate
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Fatestitcher
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Spells (26):
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Serum Visions
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Life from the Loam
2 Izzet Charm
1 Flame Jab
1 Faithless Looting
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Unburial Rites
1 Breeding Pool
2 Copperline Gorge
2 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Lumbering Falls
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Windswept Heath
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Negate
2 Nature's Claim
1 Dispel
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Celestial Purge
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Terastodon
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Siege Rhino
4 Tarmogoyf
Spells (17):
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Bring to Light
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Life from the Loam
3 Lingering Souls
2 Path to Exile
1 Unburial Rites
3 Liliana of the Veil
Lands (24):
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Gavony Township
2 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
3 Windswept Heath
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Dispel
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3 Stony Silence
1 Unravel the Æther
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Thragtusk
Spells (26):
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Damnation
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
2 Sultai Charm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Batterskull
2 Celestial Purge
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Duress
1 Golgari Charm
2 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Negate
2 Stony Silence
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Spells (30):
1 Damnation
2 Duress
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Go for the Throat
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
2 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
Lands (24):
1 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
3 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Damnation
1 Dispel
1 Erase
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Nature's Claim
1 Negate
1 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Terastodon
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Thragtusk
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Compulsive Research
1 Damnation
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Go for the Throat
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Mana Leak
1 Raven's Crime
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Snare
1 Unburial Rites
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
1 Academy Ruins
1 Batterskull
2 Disfigure
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Charm
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
4 Timely Reinforcements
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Grave Titan
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Sylvan Caryatid
SPELLS
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
3 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Damnation
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Unburial Rites
PLANESWALKERS
3 Liliana of the Veil
ARTIFACTS
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Academy Ruins
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Negate
2 Duress
1 Spellskite
1 Wrath of God
2 Stony Silence
1 Damping Matrix
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Rule of Law
1 Torpor Orb
1 Thragtusk
1x Academy Ruins
1x Breeding Pool
1x Celestial Colonnade
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
1x Marsh Flats
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Temple Garden
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Verdant Catacombs
1x Watery Grave
Sorcery (11)
1x Damnation
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Life from the Loam
2x Lingering Souls
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Raven's Crime
2x Thoughtseize
1x Unburial Rites
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Grave Titan
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Sylvan Caryatid
1x Thragtusk
Artifact (2)
1x Batterskull
1x Engineered Explosives
Planeswalker (3)
3x Liliana of the Veil
Instant (11)
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Gifts Ungiven
1x Murderous Cut
2x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Duress
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Golgari Charm
1x Nature's Claim
2x Negate
2x Stony Silence
1x Terastodon
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Wrath of God
Yohan Dudognon
GP Lyon, Top 16
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Twilight Mire
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
2 Remand
1 Raven's Crime
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Crime/Punishment
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Negate
1 Duress
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Darkblast
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Damnation
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Noxious Revival
1 Stony Silence
1 Damping Matrix
1 Aven Mindcensor
GP Chicago, 5th-8th
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
3 Mana Leak
1 Raven's Crime
2 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Darkblast
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Damnation
1 Crime/Punishment
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Dispel
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Golgari Charm
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Stony Silence
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Terastodon
1 Surgical Extraction
GP Bilbao, 5th-8th
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Academy Ruins
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Mana Leak
1 Raven's Crime
2 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Darkblast
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Damnation
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Batterskull
1 Golgari Charm
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Torpor Orb
1 Spellskite
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Terastodon
GP Portland, Top 16
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
1 Raven's Crime
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Thoughtseize
1 Darkblast
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thragtusk
1 Batterskull
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
Blueless/Junk Gifts
For a midrange approach to essentially the same gameplan (i.e. attrition, with GU for card advantage), we find more recent showings of 4C Gifts.
Could this be the evolution of the deck?No noteworthy showings of this style since banning of DRS
What's Different?
In midrange Gifts, you are sacrificing late-game inevitability and lessening your tutorable options for raw early-game speed and more [cost-effective] win conditions.
*TIP* The Knight provides temporary, single-turn ramp. To do this, you can float 1 mana with a forest or plains (doesn't have to be W or G, see: Shocklands), then activate KOTR to sacrifice that land and search for any land, which then enters untapped. You now have the same number of untapped lands but with one mana floating. Long-term you have not permanently ramped yourself, but you got one extra that turn and your KOTR is slightly beefier.
Tarmogoyf: We spend most of our game dumping cards into both graveyards making Goyf a quick clock and often sneaks wins without ever drawing Gifts Ungiven (nice advantage over the control version which relies on Gifts abuse).
Birds of Paradise: This card has seen play as DRS #5 for those Control Gifts players who really want that potential ramp. In Midrange/Junk Gifts, that ramp is much more necessary. We also utilize Gavony Township (which can be searched for via your playset of Knights OR your playset of Gifts) so more bodies are always relevant. Running 12 mana ramping creatures allows to run less lands (usually 24 instead of 25-26) and also makes the potential of casting Elesh Norn much more realistic, should you draw her prematurely.
Eternal Witness: Playing a heavier green deck means you can take advantage of this amazing recursion creature.
*TIP* A great value Gift package is:
Sun Titan, Unburial Rites, Liliana of the Veil, Eternal Witness
This package ensures that you will be able to use all four of the cards found (barring any opposing graveyard hate of course), and likely cast Gifts again via the Witness.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: This is a card that hasn't seen much love in past iterations of 4C Gifts but with Twin, Pod, and BG Rock on the rise as some of the most competitive decks in the format, we take a closer look that this Angel. A midrange deck such as Junk Gifts can really utilize her in the board or even the maindeck. She is easily hard-castable and survives Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay. Scavenging Ooze is the last card you want starring you down, and she shuts down Ooze seamlessly.
Recent Showings
This play style is pretty much obsolete with the banning of Deathrite Shaman. For historical sake, here are the lists.
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Blood Crypt
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Gavony Township
1 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Spells:
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Unburial Rites
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Celestial Purge
2 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Slaughter Games
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Thragtusk
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Gavony Township
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Spells:
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Lingering Souls
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Terastodon
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Darkblast
1 Deathmark
2 Stony Silence
2 Nature's Claim
2 Timely Reinforcements
3 Negate
Draft My Cube!
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
25 lands
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Darkblast
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Path to Exile
1 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Celestial Purge
1 Damnation
1 Darkblast
1 Griselbrand
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Thoughtseize
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Zealous Persecution
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Here is the Death Rites list I am trying out now, and sadly shackles is the card I miss most in it. Shaman has been quite amazing speeding up the deck and having all kinds of utility. Loam + Ravens Crime is quite powerful as you can just strip there hand and make way for a Wurmcoil engine esp vs deck with Path. I may want Batterskul instead but I wanted to make Unburial a bit more live as well and Wurm is better vs Jund. Abrupt decay I dont miss to much, mostly you want cheap creature kill and you dont want to stumble on mana to cast it, pesky non creatures can be handled via discard or Explosives. I feel like I want one more counter in here, almost want to cut ghost Quarter main, idk.
1 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
25 lands
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Disfigure
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Darkblast
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Mana Leak
3 Path to Exile
1 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Celestial Purge
1 Damnation
1 Disenchant
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Duress
3 Stoney Silence
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Mortar Pod
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gplyo12/welcome#15
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Darkblast
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
4 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Path to Exile
1 Raven's Crime
2 Thoughtseize
1 Unburial Rites
1 Breeding Pool
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Celestial Purge
1 Geth's Verdict
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Slaughter Games
2 Stony Silence
3 Timely Reinforcements
I've only play tested a little bit, but the things I've already tried just leave my opponants confused every time. I can't wait to play this more.
WG My Little Ponies
--------------------Modern----------------
Built: nothing
Working On: testing
UWBG Gifts in Modern
UWBG Control in Standard
UBG Control in Legacy
Sealed:
M13 Pre-Release: 4-0-1
RTR Pre- Release: 5-1
Standard:
Bant Control: 25-4-6
i prefer terastodon in MD because of my metagame (a poor metagame), he have a devastating impact when hit the table. just shut down all decks I play against in one turn (play against much aggros with no more than 21~22 lands)
against tron is a nice card too, but actually i prefer use 3 SB fullminator mage and 3~4 Extirpate/Surgical SB too. Fullminator stop tron, and can destroy some decks like 5CC and Valakut and screw the mana base of some decks. Extirpate in one of tron lands is basic win the game. Is a 2 cards sideboard plan, but the cards alone is nice in SB too.
My actually list is more rock style but i start to get some cards to complete the list more control.
Another card to see is Makeshift Mannequim. A gifts pile with mannequim+witness+fullminator+extirpate/surgical is really strong against tron, and mannequim+shierkmaw can kill emrakul's. mannequim bring back elesh or iona to a instant win, and more plays as possible.
Sorry for my terrible english
UWBG Gifts in Modern
UWBG Control in Standard
UBG Control in Legacy
1. Is it just me, or is abrupt decay a complete House here. It was mentioned in his daily mtg deck tech that he wished he MD the 3rd decay, and flipped the verdict to a damnation, (personally i think wrath of god would be better over 2 damnation but he's the pro.)
2. Eternal witness does the deck want this card? Gifts piles become more consistant tutors, but the list is pretty tight.
3. When to dredge.
Darkblast and life from the loam are crazy, nobody is arguing that, but i had a hard time figuring out if i wanted to dredge or not. It's pretty situational, i mean if hey have a shaman or a confidant it's pretty obvious to dredge the blast, and if you have a veil on board with fetches or tech edge in the grave, the +1 for lily can turn into a worse situation for the opponant thanks to life from the loam,
But if you are just setting up, is it worth it to dredge in hopes of hitting loam/crime/edge or rites? I guess i wanna see the deck played by pros more. With some collective thinking i think this deck could really nail solid results
WG My Little Ponies
--------------------Modern----------------
Built: nothing
Working On: testing
UWBG Gifts in Modern
UWBG Control in Standard
UBG Control in Legacy