1) I put Damnation back into the maindeck. There has been an influx of Geist decks at my local meta, and I’m going to need a way to deal with that. As I recently discussed, Drown in Sorrow is a card – it certainly has its arguments, and I’m not saying it isn’t viable, but I’m going to stick to my guns here, especially with the amount of guardian angelsSt. Traft seems to have.
2) Still on the metagame train, there have also been a strange influx of Loam decks in my local meta, from Red-Green with Hellspark Elementals to three-color reanimator, to a durdle-y Black-Blue-Green deck featuring Trade Routes of all cards, to the four-color “It only does everything.dec”. I'm going to iterate that Bojuka Bog is indeed a card, and should be placed in the sixty until Wizards decides to reprint Living Wish.
3) Question for the forum: How much graveyard hate have you run into, and what kind? It used to be that I would run into things like Rest in Peace, whether that be from Affinity or UWR control(‽). Nowadays though, I see yard hate either in the form of Grafdigger’s Cage or Relic of Progenitus. The worst thing I’ve had to deal with is Surgical Extraction on actually relevant cards like Path to Exile against Phyrexian Obliterator.dec. Admittedly, there’s only one person playing Scavenging Ooze, and some of the aforementioned Loam decks run Bojuka Bog, so I suppose there are a variety of powerful effects, but it never seems like people are playing enough hate. Have other people experienced this?
4) There’s an image floating around of Abzan Junk Charm, and it looks pretty nifty. At instant speed it:
a) Exiles a creature with power three or greater
b) Night's Whisper
c) Distributes two +1/+1 counters.
Now, I may be the only one who runs Kitchen Finks (More persist! Gimme!) in the main, but, like the BUG charm, all three modes seem, at the very least, semi-playable, from getting rid of things like opposing Finks and Angels to good old fashioned card advantage. The worst is obviously the +1/+1 counters, but there is value in resetting persist or making Batterskull do two more points of damage or whatnot.
5) I’ve come to despise questions that begin with “Have you guys tried…” I would much rather the phrase “I’ve been playing around with <card> and I want some other opinions,” or “I’ve noticed that…” I accept that, on a public forum, the quality of can be lower than I was expecting, but it’s more likely that I will respond if it’s phrased that way. It implies initiative, which is something I’m sure most people here respect.
That being said, seeing a question about an Unburial Rites-less deck made me remember this article from way back in 2012, when the sunrises were many and the death rituals were nonexistant. I reread it every once in a while to reinforce my deck philosophy and remind myself why decks like this are so awesome. It’s the article that convinced me to run Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter, and dissuaded me from Iona and other nine-mana creatures.
If you’re looking for unorthodox card choices, if you’re looking for well-reasoned arguments behind those card choices, or even if you’re just looking for more Gifts articles to devour, it wouldn’t hurt to give this one a read. Besides, asking your opponent to split Godo, Bandit Warlord, Wurmcoil Engine, Cruel Ultimatum, and Gifts Ungiven is incredibly salivating. Admit it.
6) I don’t care what any of you are or will be saying, I will be testing Murderous Cut.
7) Seven mana is reserved for Elesh Norn and nothing else. If you really don’t want to lose to burn, play Sun Droplet or something.
As i see it the core of the deck is black for a couple of reasons, Liliana, easy access Abrupt Decay and early-game discards. Without those three i think the deck would loose a lot of its power. You'd have to trade it in for countermagic in a bant deck. And liliana can do real work in this deck discarding for full value, i've considered upping my 3 to 4 just because shes so powerful with Lingering, Loam, Unburial and Snapcaster.
I don't disagree with you there.
A hard to cast Plumeveil feels strictly worse in all scenarios than say a boardwipe, resto angel or a Sultai Charm (or even a 2nd Batterskull). If you argue for trading with germs and 4toughness critters it will be a hard-to-cast removal for 3. If its for chumping lots of small creatures you want a real 2:1 like Damnation or Drown. I really dont like the idea of playing walls tbh, a big reason is that i can't threaten planeswalkers with a wall!
I have never, in my admittedly limited testing, been stuck staring at a Plumeveil in my hand, wishing I had the third W/U to cast it. I've not cast it because I wanted to use my mana more efficiently in some cases - not playing it because I wanted to Gifts or tapping low to swing with Creeping Tar Pit or whatnot - but it's never been because of mana troubles.
My evaluation of the card is that it's almost like Wall of Omens. Both of them deter low-power attackers, both of them are creatures people don't want to waste removal on even though they probably should, they both screw with Liliana math (though I'm not sure I would side in Plumeveil against most decks that run Liliana. More testing is required there), and they both gain you a card, though Plumeveil's is an opponent's dead creature rather than a card in hand.
Plumeveil does have its flaws, such as not deal with planeswalkers, as you pointed out, while something like Restoration Angel could. Its three mana cost and non-hexproof-ness makes it susceptible to the non-red removal spells of the format, and it may as well not exist against token strategies that just fly through it, but I still think it's at least worth a slot or two in the board.
That's what the testing process is for, though. You cobble things into the deck, play matches, then report back. You defend yourself on the internet, then return to step one. Maybe I will compare Angel and Veil next. I don't have the angels yet, but I know a guy who knows a guy...
Radio, you play Golgari Charm in the main? How do you feel it compares to Darkblast (in main or in side)?
I play both because, as has constantly been established, I'm greedy. Either card could possibly be worth being a two-of even, though I think I would rather run two charms over two Darkblasts, for what that's worth, though I did mention possibly trying two Darkblasts main. Haven't done that yet.
Plumeveil is really interesting and certainly a surprise for opponents. Unfortunately I can't see why you would think it would be easy for the manabase, as both white and blue are splash colours for most versions of this deck.
Honestly, I've never played Plumeveil until after turn 4; I generally use removal as deterrents before then, and use Plumeveil to make sure anything not dead won't kill me.
EDIT: I think I'd rather try 1-2 Restoration Angel main. It blocks almost as well as Plumeveil, and can attack too. There's also a very small chance to generate insane value with Thragtusk, and works nicely with Snapcaster Mage. With Plumeveil's difficult mana cost, both creatures probably come down turn 4 anyway.
I assume Restoration Angel would be the same. Four power is a little different than three in a bunch of cases though. It triggers Ferocity, It kills germs, Obstinate Baloths, 3/4 Gofys, Restoration Angels, etcetera. The fact that it costs three makes it more mana-efficient at the very least, allowing "<Removal spell> into Plumeveil, block your other dude" a turn earlier than Restoration Angel. It doesn't help that I don't run enough enters-the-battlefield effects to fully take advantage of the Angel.
The angel also provides incentive to turn into a Bant deck, splashing Black, while my current mana base is configured towards Junk splashing Blue. This doesn't imply that Bant-splash-black is bad, but there's enough decent removal in Black that it also skews the mana, even less so than Plumeveil does.
Looking back on this eight hundred word monster of a post, I realize that most of this post is speculation and opinion. Those that are looking for posts containing hard (or at least harder) facts can either send me a private message (I promise I don't bite) or go testing themselves.
On The Kiki-Control Matchup:
I’m not quite sure I know how to respond here, and given my lack of experience compares poorly to two people saying otherwise. I will grudgingly concede that we have a poor matchup against the Restoration Angel version of Kiwi-Control*. I’ll come back to this when I’ve had more testing, but a good step forward (in my opinion) is going to be listed below.
On Charms:
Esper Charm is always amazing. All three modes are relevant at any time, from turn four when you’re digging for your fourth land, to turn seven where it’s an instant speed Wit's End and everywhere in between. I’ve actually found myself using the discard more than I was expecting. As an example, in a game against Storm combo, if I had used the charm as a discard spell as opposed to a Ray of Revelation, I would have won the game next turn.
The BUG Charm† is good. It’s one of those cards that is (presumably) better than already fringe playable cards, like Thirst for Knowledge or Mulldrifter. There’s not much more to say about it, really. It’s practically average, but fills the niches we’ve been needing to fill for a while.
Golgari Charm is amazing. Sure, one of the three modes will almost never be used, but it’s really surprising how many creatures in Modern have only one point of toughness. Everything else can be either removed or is part of one of the worse matchups on our spectrum. Enchantment removal is also relevant, or relevant enough.
Engineered Explosives is my main-deck mass removal of choice. I don’t run the Academy Ruins lock because the land half of the combo just feels inconsistent and slow against the decks that recurring Explosives would be good against. Even against varied costs, it’s generally a two-for-one, and can be a complete blowout if they rely on two-cost cards. At worst, it will cut your damage in half.
Drown In Sorrow: I used to play this card. It has its merits, such as not killing your Sylvan Caryatids and the aforementioned scry. Perhaps it is good enough, but if we’re resigning ourselves to Restoration Angel decks being our worst matchups, I don’t think having something that doesn’t even remotely interact with the value half of that deck is very good. It also interacts poorly with Jund, which is not a card you want poor draws against.
TheFourManaWraths are currently sitting in my sideboard, or at least Damnation is. With a perfect mana base, the mass removal of choice would probably be Supreme Verdict, because regeneration only really matters with Thrun, the Last Troll, but Urborg only taps for black, and cards like Prismatic Omen and Chromatic Lantern cost mana and are also halfway dead. I feel like they’re better when one’s mana dork of choice is Sakura-Tribe Elder because they sacrifice themselves when they ramp, and thus aren’t in the way.
Five (or more) ManaWraths aren’t good enough, in my opinion. I don’t deny that they are not good – their unique effects and/or instant-esque speed lend to that – I just think that, if I’m spending five mana, I want it to be on something like Batterskull or Baneslayer Angel or even Mulldrifter**. It’s why people who aren’t me don’t play Worm Harvest anymore, and I’m seriously considering cutting the card.
Now, after all that, let’s derail the conversation…
This card is so amazing I’m disappointed I only have enough sideboard space run two.
This card blocks ninety-five percent of all playable creatures in modern and lives. In the instance of four percent of those, they trade. The ones that survive are either named Tarmogoyf or exist in combo decks (e.g. Griselbrand, Primeval Titan, etcetera). It’s easy on the manabase, more so than most cards we play, at least, surprises literally everyone when cast, and has flash, which is relevant against decks with counters, as it forces counter wars on their turn, if they want to fight at all.
People currently don’t know how to play against it. They don’t want to use a removal spell on it because it’s not technically a threat, but then it nulls a good portion of their strategy. They don’t want to counter it (as far as I’ve seen), for the same reason, and get punished for it, for the exact same reason.
I’m going to keep testing with it, because that’s how testing works. I just wanted to provoke some discussion so I’m not alone in this.
-r
PS. Those that can’t seem to get their proper colors of mana should at least consider adding Murmuring Bosk to their land suite.
*I’ve decided it’s not too “cutesy” to call it that.
†I almost called by its actual name. After mopping away the vomit, I changed my mind.
Thanks radio414 for your reply, though I have to say that's not how the matchup felt at all. I should probably mention that the list I was playing against was a Kiki version of UWR with wall of omens, resto, and Kiki-jiki. You were saying that we have so many threats, but in my experience I had about 1, 2, maybe 3 threats all game that got answered and the rest of my hand was paths and abrupt decays. Meanwhile I just got drowned out in card advantage.
DISCLAIMER:
I've never played against the Restoration Angel version of Patriot/whatever control. It is a part of my meta, but every time the pilot shows up, I'm either never paired with him or he's playing Melira Pod. As such, this is theory-crafting galore. The reference lists I'll be looking at are Paul Cheon's exact list and Shaun Mclaren's GP Minneapolis Decklist.
The first question here is "Who is the beatdown?" With the usual Jeskai Kiwi* control matchup, the control deck almost has to be the beatdown, because we have a superior lategame. Even a Sphinx's Revelation for seven or more doesn't match well against Life from the Loam and Raven's Crime. In standard, you see this with Rakdos's Return, which, when resolved, can strip a control player of every resource they may have gained from a large Revelation. Granted, one of the cards drawn is probably a counterspell, and Revelation is instant speed, but a resolved Return is one of the outs the midrange player has.
Against Kiki-Jiki, though, is interesting. The first problem both players have is the assumption game. With certain land drops, the Kiki player may well assume we're an Abzan Junk deck, or maybe we're a Big Zoo player who is terrible at making fetchland decisions. The Gifts player almost has to assume their opponent is straight-up control. For both cases, well, you know what happens when you assume. Unfortunately, while their poor assumption leads to them playing the exact same way, maybe only sideboarding differently if they happen to beat the Gifts player before they show their hand. In our case, it can lead to a turn five kill out of nowhere.
How and when both decks reveal themselves is critical. We can see right through them with an early Inquisition or a Thoughtseize, while they can either be really knowledgeable of the Modern metagame, or by seeing a Gifts Ungiven. This is in the Gifts player's advantage; knowing their deck before they know ours lets us properly appropriate roles first.
Against GBx decks, Kiki Control is just that: the Control deck. The small advantages, an extra card here, a Snapcaster there, allow the Kiki player to recover from the early-game disruption and pull ahead. Except unlike Aussie control, they can always just go "EOTRAUUDLKJKY"** with the right topdecks. Four Colo(u)r Gifts is like those decks, except it has the extra threat of its titular card, which, fetching either standard pile, or even the "Look at all this removal, no seriously" can easily put away the game. This turns them into the aggro deck, admittedly a role they are better at then straight up Chilean control.
Then the Gifts player starts playing removal. Kiki Control runs about eighteen creatures, including Celestial Colonnade. A full seven of those can be dealt with through proper use of land-destruction, either by destroying the offending land itself, or keeping the opponent off triple (or double, if you're paranoid enough) red, leaving eleven. Wall of Omens has the Wall creature type, and as the reminder text says "Walls can't attack," leaving seven creatures and some burn to survive. And we have discard.
[SIDE NOTE:]
Again, I haven't played this match-up, but unless my hand is removal light and they have a lot of threats, I would probably take Wall of Omens with my discard spells every single time.
[/SIDE NOTE:]
In a way, Gifts and Kiki Control are similar. Both of them play as the control deck in most of the common matchups, and a four-mana instant-speed cards that potentially end the game, though more certainly in our case. The nature of the deck ("I'm Liberian Control! No I'm not!") inherently makes it a more difficult match-up than the normal Slovak Control, especially because Turn Three Vendilion Clique into Turn Four Restoration Angel all while holding up Remand is a huge beating, but the match-up isn't horrendous. You just have to know what plan of attack your opponent is on. A difficult task, to be sure, but manageable.
Are these cheon-esque lists significantly different from some standard gifts list that's good vs UWR?
I don't think so. Cheon's exact list uses three fatties (Grave Titan, Elesh Norn, and Batterskull, which, while objectionable, is playable. He also played (plays?) Mana Leaks over the standard Birds/Plants/Snakes, which is interesting enough to note.
The counterspells do invite analysis, but frankly I don't care enough to go into more detail. I will say that I have been playing a mix of Mana Leak and Negate in my sideboard, and they are almost always a welcome addition, so maybe space in the sixty is warranted if I can find it.
Besides that, it looks pretty standard.
-r
PS: I'd like to see something more in-depth than "He had all the answers and pulled ahead." Especially because "A hand full of Decays and Paths" should be able to disrupt the advantages they can gain.
PPS: This reads (to me) much worse than I thought it would, especially for a theorycraft article. Feel free to ask follow ask questions, even if one of them is "What the heck is all this drek?"
*Is that too coy? Its similarity to "Kiki" may make it too coy. I like it, though.
**"End Of Turn, Restoration Angel. Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Land, Kiki-Jiki, Kill You"
Short answer: The match-up is in our favor, but...
Long answer:
Modern control is weird. While it most certainly is "a control deck" (i.e., it wins on turn thirty, usually with a swinging Celestial Colonnade), the speed of the format makes it an odd duck. In other formats, control exists for varying reasons. In Standard, the format is almost too slow to deal with an unanswered Supreme Verdict backed by counterspells. Most of the current metagame revolves around the statement "what happens if they have a turn four Verdict?" with answers ranging from "They won't" (Thoughtseize) to "They'd better also have a counterspell" (Ajani's Presence)
In Legacy, control can exist because Force of Will and Brainstorm allow it to both deal with early-game threats (Belcher et. al) and close out the game with copious amounts of card advantage. The current control deck, 22280 Miracles also uses Terminus in conjunction with Sensei's Divining Top as a way to stabilize.
In Vintage, the mana advantage of Mana Drain combined with the raw card advantage of Standstill is what allows control to operate, in addition to the options (sans Brainstorm) that Legacy provides. Recently, the stabilizer of choice is Engineered Explosives, as it is versatile and cheap enough to deal with most threats the opponent puts down.
Modern control, though, doesn't have much of that. Instead, it has to rely on cheap spot removal spells to gain mana advantage and cards like Cryptic Command, Electrolyze, and Snapcaster Mage to gain card advantage. Because of this, it has a couple of weaknesses that vocal opponents of the deck dig into, from having a steep learning curve (instead of learning what your deck does, you have to learn what ALL of them do), to not having enough card advantage recover from poor draws. The one I want to focus on, though, is this:
Any of the opponent's card advantage must be immediately answered, whether through card advantage or by countering/destroying the offending spell/permanent.
And so on. Most of the decks that beat Modern control decks can generate immense amounts of card advantage, eventually grinding them out of one-for-ones and winning with a Treetop Village or Raging Ravine
Four Colo(u)r Gifts is the same way. Not only do we have a bunch of ways to neutralize their answers (most versions don't play creatures, after all), we also have what amounts to a game-winning engine in the form of Raven's Crime. Alchemist's Refuge or no Alchemist's Refuge, the Loam/Crime lock forces Control to become the beatdown deck, which, barring the ubiquitous "Bolt-Snap-Bolt" cases, is nigh-impossible for control to pull out of.
Besides the lock, the Gifts deck has its titular card, which can be used so many ways in this match-up. Whether it be finding value cards (the "My spells are better than yours" route), finding the lock, plus utility lands like Tectonic Edge and Bojuka Bog ("You can't cast profitable spells, ever"), going for Elesh Norn if it's game one and you want to beef a manland into a two-turn clock, or, and this may be my personal favorite, using its instant speed as bait. If they counter it, you cast a relevant spell like Liliana or Batterskull* or even another Gifts, and they generally just lose.
In terms of strategy, the game generally becomes a staring contest, except in this analogy, the Gifts player is allowed to blink. Both decks have large amounts of late-game potential, but the control deck relies on playing extremely tight, only dealing with the things that matter until they can seal up the game. Every game I've played against this deck** revolves around how many threats they can answer, and the answer is generally "not enough." The games that they do win are always on the back of an unanswered Ajani Vengeant or Geist of Saint Traft.
Overall, I (and, from reading the thread, most people) believe the UWR control matchup to be an extremely favorable one. Our primary engine for the match-up is almost literally a game one win, and there we have enough "must deal with" cards post-board that, even if they do bring in their graveyard hate post-board, we have enough other threats to make the match an easy victory.
-r
PS: That Alchemist's Refuge technology looks amazing. I'm seriously considering cutting Urborg (It's been underperforming) for it. It easily falls under the category of "Dangerously Cool Things," of course, but also looks just good enough to require more testing.
*This is still one of my favorite lines of play, ever.
Well, it seems that there has been a lot of discussion, none of which has been very focused. Let's see what's being talked about. Just (*oof*) let me pull (*grunt*) out this here soapbox.
On Jace X.0...
There are two Jaces I could see running in this deck. The first is Jace Beleren, who I used to run way back when I ran Sun Titan. He seques nicely into turn three or four Gifts Ungiven, and can gain theoretical life* against some aggressive strategies when they attack him, and the card advantage needed to stabilize when they do not. Unfortunately, he is rather hard to cast on-curve in this deck, which is when you want him. He's not bad other times, of course, but the point still stands.
The other Jace that could see fringe-ish play is Jace, Architect of Thought. While his plus effect will only really ever hit Lingering Souls tokens and the occasional Deceiver Exarch (okay, Affinity maybe, but they can stick one of about 18 cards to circumvent that and probably already have), he still can go a long way to affecting the clock, and his minus ability is the second best in terms of Jaces, in my opinion.
The problem with both of these Jaces, as well as the new one that's had brief discussion, is that they are sorcery speed. I feel like, in the control oriented versions of this deck, we can only commit so much space to sorcery speed cards because certain decks can easily go "Oh, you tapped low? Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Kill You. The cards that we do play need to either have a high enough impact or be cost-efficient enough to be worth it.
I agree with the sentiment a second Maelstrom Pulse is probably better. Most versions of 4 Colo(u)r Gifts are not tempo decks, meaning that Echoing Truth is only better when you are tight on mana. Still, it does have the benefit of being instant speed, which isn't irrelevant (see above).
I think if you really want a second Pulse effect that can be Gifted for alongside the first, then Detention Sphere is probably a better option. It is in both of our splash colors, which is a bit of a bother, and it does die to Abrupt Decay rather easily, but the decks you want Detention Sphere against are probably not the same decks that run Abrupt Decay.
On Flash Creatures...
Teferi is way too cute. He's too color-intensive to beat decks like Living End and their four to eight "Destroy Target Land" cards, and otherwise he just assists in beating our best matchup even more. Also, the phrase "We can just reanimate him" should never be used in any context ever**.
Venser, Shaper Savant is better, though not by much. He is nice against the ever-popular "Can't be countered" cards, though it's not as huge a tempo swing without other creatures to back him up. He also has the problem of costing four, which, again, is almost too late. Against the cascade decks, you're almost better off playing Nix if your local metagame is that saturated†.
I feel like, by playing Utopia Sprawl, you open yourself to problems no matter what you do. If it's on a (the?) basic forest, it almost defeats the point of the colorfixing, and if it's on any other targetable land, you open yourself up to every single nonbasic hate card in the format, including Blood Moon, the card our fixing should combat, because it makes the land an illegal target (Aren't enchantment rules fun?).
Personally, I run Sylvan Caryatids, but there are arguments for both Birds of Paradise and Sakura-Tribe Elder. It really all comes down to personal preference. Just know that, whatever you choose, it will probably affect most of your other flex slots.
I already talked about this at length. It can be found here.
On Card Draw vs Discard...
I get that most people would rather run Liliana of the Veil, and that's perfectly fine. We are a J(u)nk deck, after all, and if any deck has dead cards to get rid of, it's this one. And I get that Liliana can also a functional Chainer's Edict for three mana, but against a lot of decks, especially aggresive strategies, I would rather speed through my deck to find the cards I need.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we cut Liliana altogether. Far from it. She is still one of our best weapons against decks like Scapeshift. I only bring her up because people talk about her (and now Pack Rat too) as ways to pitch dead cards. It's almost like we've started focusing on card quality over quantity, which is fine, but quantity finds you Gifts Ungiven/whatever spell you need, and the mana to cast it.
Cards like Thirst for Knowledge, Esper Charm, and Mulldrifter‡ have all proven themselves worthy of at least consideration. I have never been sad to draw any of these, so long as I have the mana.
If I've said it once, I've said it up to four times with different names, Gifts Ungiven decks are inherently modular and have a ton of flex slots. Maybe it's just my local metagame (and it very well may be), but these flexible card drawing spells deserve more testing then they seem to be getting.
-r
*[/bogus terminology]
**e.g., "Bummer about your dad, man." "It's okay, we can just reanimate him."
†Kidding! Just jam graveyard hate and discard. Just like almost every other combo deck that tends to stay a combo deck post-board.
‡Mulldrifter is obviously not instant speed, but I've found it useful anyways.
For theese reasons, I've decided to stop trying with this deck right now; I feel it's missing too many pieces to really get there. This could change in the future, but for now, I'm putting 4c gifts on the shelf, more or less. I'm now trying to build uw gifts instead, and looking at some small possible splashes, and just playing the deck in a far more controlling way instead.
The reasons you list (or appear to list) are:
1) Your version of the deck (I'll get to this wording in a second) lost three pre-board games to the Living End combo deck, either by way of going off first or dealing with Iona and then going off.
2) Your version of the deck won(!) three pre-board games against W/B tokens, but you feel that the match-up may be incredibly weak.
What do I mean by "Your version of the deck?" I have mentioned previously that Gifts Ungiven decks, by the nature of the titular card, are inherently modular. Most of the card choices are metagame-dependent, with only a few fixed slots. This is why I keep using the phrase "different strokes for different folks." Hell, I analyzed the difference in running Birds of Paradise over Sylvan Caryatid just a few posts back.
And that's what I mean. Each card guides the deck's construction in some manner, not just Gifts Ungiven. It's what separates this deck from the Esper Gifts decks*, which are really control decks with more singletons and a reanimation package.
Now, I am not trying to imply that your deck is misbuilt or poorly tuned to the metagame. In fact, you do admit that these are not the most common decks in the modern format, and generally state circumstances where the latter of the two might become a more common match-up. But I question whether you have considered the games holistically (i.e. considering each turn and each deck's card choices and how they affect the game as a whole) or reductively (i.e. analyzing both players' play and looking for mistakes). Both methods have their merits, but I would rather try to find an actual reason besides the vague "This deck needs... something."
You are, of course, free to do what you want with whatever deck you please.
With that said though, I agree with your conclusion lol, even if the process is not quite right. I tested 4c gifts for a while and my biggest problem with the deck is that it is weak early game, and not that great end game. It needs the right pieces at the right time against each deck to even stay alive. And Modern has too many proactive decks doing powerful things and attacking from different angles, you can never answer'em all.
I was going to address this along with the above, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you are making an entirely separate argument. Frankly, I agree that Four-Colo(u)r Gifts does not have an amazing early game. Most control-oriented decks do not. Part of Magic design is the increasing resources allowed by land-drops. The longer the game, the more resources (should be) available to both players. The more resources available, the more things a control deck can do to control the game.
But I digress. I disagree with your statement about "the end game." In fact, I would argue quite the opposite. We have one of the best endgames outside of Tron, who can reliably cast Emrakul. Whether the win condition of choice be Worm Harvest, a bigfatcreature, or a multitude of manlands, all backed up by a Raven's Crime lock, we can quickly end a stabilized game. That's one of the reasons we run the cards that we do.
You argue that we "don't always have the answers." I respond that this is true of every reactive strategy in Magic. Even with the best possible play, there are going to be times where we don't have the answer we need. We try to minimize that through card choices, hoping that those choices combined with quasi-optimal** play, we can eke out a win. Besides, they won't always have it either.
In all likelyhood, this soapbox of mine won't change your decisions to drop the deck. It isn't the best argument anyways. I just felt like making a devil's advocate argument would help others from reacting too quickly to others decrying the deck as dead.
***
anyone have any experience with shadow of doubt? seems like a sweet card against a lot of good decks. also, pithing needle is a beast, im surprised more people dont run it.
I'm all for a fun-of Shadow of Doubt in control decks, but the question is, is stifling a fetchland/Birthing Pod activation the best and/or most disruptive thing we can do pre-Gifts? What would you take out for it?
-r
*I'm not trying to disparage the deck. It just appears to be that from an outsider's perspective.
**This is a really pretentious way of saying "Perfect play requires perfect information."
radio414:
You have a super spicy list! I'll assume that many of your choices are due to your developing meta and budget reasons, so I won't comment on all of them. I think Shriekmaw is quite interesting as an emergency Unburial Rites target, and also a serviceable removal spell (though worse than all of our other ones).
Shriekmaw gets the nod because it is "good enough." It isn't the best, but it slides into one of those flex slots that inevitably appear in modular decks.
I can't agree with Worm Harvest, however, even in a KOTR build. Defensively, I think ground tokens are much weaker in modern than flying tokens, as you want to be blocking Affinity's fliers, Cliques, Delvers, Resto Angels, etc. Offensively it's a fine card, but I would rather have more copies of the more consistent and faster Lingering Souls. To avoid lands being dead draws, I would rather play Oona's Grace than Worm Harvest, and I don't even think Oona's Grace is that strong.
On the serious side of things, if I'm Worm Harvesting, it's because either the opponent is tapped low enough to allow two or three worms to sneak in, or because I'm wrapping up a game I've (probably) already won via Raven's Crime. It takes the place of the second Rites target everyone seems to be into. Admittedly, I haven't given too much thought to Thragtusk, and it would be delicious to gifts for Unburial Rites/Mulldrifter/Shriekmaw/Thragtusk.
Do you think Murmuring Bosk is better than a shockland? I might test one out.
I can neither confirm nor deny the bosk being better. It is almost always better off of an end-of-turn fetchland, but isn't as good as a drawn card, so it comes down to player preference. I mentioned before how I don't mind my lands coming into play tapped, so the one-of Murmuring Bosk works for me.
You've brought up a lot of interesting draw options. I think Esper Charm is the best. It's flexible, instant speed, and doesn't cost the 2 life from Night's Whisper, which is quite relevant. I will be testing out 1 Esper Charm and 1 Bant Charm in my deck soon. The Bant Charm seems more powerful than Putrefy, though it has a much more difficult casting cost.
Of the five draw/selection spells, the weakest is probably Forbidden Alchemy because of its lack of true card-advantage (you don't really want to flashback the card), followed by the Thirst For Knowledges, which are a relic of prior, more artifact-heavy, incarnations of the build. I don't know if I would ever cut the Mulldrifter or the Esper Charm; in the games they are relevant in, they are incredibly relevant in.
It's part of the "squeeze as much value out of Unburial Rites as possible" plan. As an anecdote, one of the semi-regulars at our LGS plays a Mono-black devotion deck (Obliterator Rock is the closest comparison). Resource management is a huge priority against him, as a stabilized board generally consists of both players with no non-land permanents and no hand. The only way to win at that point is to gain the card advantage lead, making Rites targeting Mulldrifter one of the best plays if the situation arises.
I normally don't resort to anecdotes to defend my card choices (though I suppose "Local Meta" is a similar argument that I just used to defend some card choices last post). However, with 8-rack poised to at least jump in popularity, if not playability, I think that at least some of that lesson can be carried over to match-up.
If you look at the numbers in his list, he runs minimal white, so in particular in his list I don't like the colonnade. I also don't like to path things except against burn turn 1/2.
Different strokes for different folks. I can't say that Colonnade is better or worse than anything else (I know I run more white than most people), so perhaps I'm just biased.
EE I often use once, enough that I tricked myself into also running crime//punishment for a while (something I still might go back to in the future). The lock is slow, but late game you often incidentally have it.
I feel like the decks you want the Explosives lock against, there isn't a late game to go to unless you've already stabilized the board. I don't have too much testing to back this up, though, so you could be right.
Between it and batterskull, in the late game you can often determine whether or not you need one or the other and say to yourself 'yes this would be a better average draw than [fill in the card] card, especially because I have the mana open and I really don't want another land during clutch time', I beat UR delver the other day by getting to recast batterskull until it stuck (remanded, leaked, negated, 'STUCK HAHA!') the game got grindy and I didn't have to worry because I was going to draw a card that was better than 75% of anything else I could have 4 turns in a row.
I think the difference here is that I run Worm Harvest instead of a second Rites target, which generally means I am perfectly happy to draw lands in the late game. Combine that with a the Raven's Crime soft lock, and I generally win most long games.
FYI, go for the throat is great removal through a spellskite, yet kills bob--which is why it gets the nod. Its what you want against pod and twin that will otherwise force you to have two removal spells while already under pressure and can just be swapped out against affinity/tron.
My problem is that there's only one. It's already impossible to get with a Gifts Ungiven (the opponent just bins the Snapcaster Mage and Go For The Throat, which means that, while you still end up with two removal spells; its presence in that pile was irrelevant), and the fact that there's only one card draw spell in the 75 (discounting Spreading Seas) means it's more of a fun-of than a one of. Again, I play Shriekmaw, which deals with most of the same problems and can be fetched in an emergency with Unburial Rites (It doesn't kill Dark Confidant, but this deck runs enough removal to get rid of a Confidant anyways. If you don't have it, you (probably) wouldn't have had Go For The Throat anyways.
***
Alright, I've made enough mentions of weird cards I play to actually post a decklist and completely derail the discussion at hand. Here's my draft:
This list is heavily skewed towards my local meta, which is in its early stages in development save a few people who run decks like UWR Control, Melira Pod, and Affinity. The most commonly played deck is Burn with three pilots, followed by Melira Pod and UWR Control with two, and various decks (inevitably creature decks) spread out among the rest of the crowd. Notable are the one Affinity pilot, if only because they are the only Blood Moon player in the entire room; the Storm pilot, who represents the entirety of our "combo" wedge; and the Aggro Loam player, who, along with myself, represent the "graveyard decks."
I don't have all the cards I want/need for a fully build list (e.g. Liliana), but I do have some notes about cards I'm not sure I would cut:
1) Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw are surprisingly good two-for-ones, especially when the game runs long and creature becomes a threat.
2) Reflecting Pool is still a really good card. I don't know if they will still belong if when I acquire more fetchlands, though. I'd have to do some testing. In other land news, I've been toying around with the Horizon Canopy to see how I like it. So far, it hasn't been too bad. City of Brass will definitely be cut for a fetch, though.
3) Murmuring Bosk is my go-to fetchland target unless I really need blue mana.
5) The removal suite is fine. Not the best, but good enough. The wrath package though...
6) Maybe it's because of the Reflecting Pools, but I've found myself able to cast a Wrath effect turn 4 a good amount of the time. Sure, the 1-1-1 split probably falls under a "Dangerously Cool thing," but it's worked so far (famous last words, I know).
7) Plumeveil is amazingly average; it's one of those cards that's just underneath everyone's radars to be amazing when it gets flashed out.
***
I'll stick around to answer questions, but I'm sure most of you have begun disregarding the past two or three days of my spewings, because it's obvious I have no idea what I'm doing.
What does everyone think about Michael Jacob's list? He modified the list Darkshar posted several pages ago, with 2 Birds and 4 Goyfs. Picture of the decklist here
I don't really like his initial reasoning for the Beast Within, which was that he could have removal in 3 different colours to Gifts for when the opponent lands an Iona, since Iona is quite rare to see. I do think that Beast Within could be a good option, however, especially with Goyfs to block the token if necessary.
I'm not sold on Drown in Sorrow, as it misses Restoration Angels and Blade Splicer's token against GW Hatebears, and is not helpful against Living End. I think Black Sun's Zenith could be good though, since it at least shrinks creatures and stops persist.
The Michael Jacob List has a lot of things that I like, and a few things that either confuse me or are choices that I just hate. Because people always say they want the good news first*, I suppose I'll start with that:
I only really noted Celestial Colonnade because it seems to be a point of contention among those that play the deck whether or not to run it. My personal reasons for liking it can be read in my last post. It is a little understated given the number of cards in the deck that have W as part of their cost (Lingering Souls, Path to Exile, Unburial Rites flashback, sideboard tech), but is still a valid choice that I, a random voice on the internet, approve of.
Actually, there is a disproportionate amount of white in this deck. I'm going to presume that Michael just wants either a turn one Birds, a turn one Path, or a turn one discard spell, and therefore needs all the possible combinations of shock lands to combine with his fetches, leading to a lot of white mana without much to spend it on.
The other card I definitely liked was Putrefy, if only because I can still remember testing with it. I remember concluding that it was a perfectly worthy card, especially when available on turn two (see next paragraph), but eventually cutting it in favor of cheaper, if slightly less versatile, removal. It appears to be part of the "Gifts Ungiven for removal" plan, which is something I can respect.
The choice of Birds of Paradise is an interesting one. Instead of the Sylvan Caryatid plan of two-four, Michael instead opts for one-three, allowing him to cast spells like Lingering Souls and, more importantly, Liliana of the Veil on turn two. Of course, the philosophy of "Bolt the Bird" still exists, so this can't be a total dependency, but the possibility is there. Birds, in my analysis, leads to a more aggressive play style, I believe. One of the plays I'm sure he made over the course of the daily was Fetchland, Birds of Paradise into discard spell and Tarmogoyf, which would in all likelihood be a 4/5. I don't personally prefer this line of play (I'd rather leave up removal), but it is quite the blocker against aggressive decks and quite the clock against control and combo.
Night's Whisper is also interesting. Given the more aggressive style established by the Birds of Paradise over Sylvan Caryatids, Michael is incredibly likely to be running low on cards, especially if that key Gifts Ungiven gets countered by anything not named Remand. The whisper allows him to draw out of that, into the kind of cards he wants to draw. Strikes against it include not being as versatile as Read the Bones (though it is a mana faster, we've established Michael's preference for a one-three curve, and even when that does not happen, I'm sure he'd rather have a different turn two play) and its general "throw it in" nature (not that that's inherently a bad thing; I do believe Night's Whisper is a solid card).
Now for the things I dislike. I am currently of the opinion that the Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins package is too slow to be of any reliable use, especially given the varied mana costs of every deck it should be good against, and Michael is missing the land part of the synergy, leaving the explosives to stick out like a sore thumb. Now, I understand that a Wrath effect main is a good idea (especially if it can deal with other pesky nonland permanents), and if any deck can use Engineered Explosives to its full effectiveness, it's this one, but the card has always felt slow to me.
What the Explosives is good against, is Affinity. In fact, Michael seems to vehemently hate affinity (is this an online metagame thing?), going so far as to dedicate three slots specifically to the match-up, as well as five other cards for other aggressive strategies. Which means that when I look and see Go For The Throat as one of Michael's removal spells, I get confused**. What is the card for? Cards like Phyrexian Obliterator that can't be Smothered or Doom Bladed? Why not Dismember, which is better with his singleton Snapcaster Mage anyways. Even if he doesn't want to lose that key extra bit of life, he does only run two Path to Exiles, with enough white-making lands to run more. He also runs a diverse enough set that a Gifts pile can easily include four removal spells (or three and Snapcaster, if it comes to that), and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason why he would care about giving his opponent more land (e.g. no Remands or Mana Leaks).
The last two things I frowned at were two of the sideboard cards: Drown in Sorrow, for reasons you mentioned, and Dispel, which a poor choice of a counter. Throughout my analysis, I've mentioned the more aggressive nature of The Michael Jacobs List. One mana counters shine in more aggressive builds of anything due to their "wait a turn" or "leftover mana" nature. The problem is that Dispel does nothing that an extra Duress wouldn't do, while the Duress would also allow for almost-perfect information, is useful while not trying to force through a Gifts Ungiven, and is, in my opinion, more disruptive against combo decks.
I would like to close by congratulating to Michael Jacob on his performance. While I do disagree with some of the card choices, it's clear both by the deck design and his record that he knew exactly what he was doing with the deck. It's always nice to see Gifts Ungiven decks do well.
-r
*Has anyone every said they wanted the bad news first (Don't answer that)?
**Full disclosure, I have been running Shriekmaw, which is similarly dead against Affinity, but is at the very least a blocker against their few non-flyers.
I do. Maybe it's because I play conservatively with my lands (read: 95% of the time, if they can come in tapped, they will), but Colonnade to me ends up being a Coastal Tower that also happens to be an extra threat. Admittedly, I haven't found a situation where its presence was specifically welcomed, but it has done work over the games I've played, even if that work is just being a better Coastal Tower.
Can anyone explain to me why Goyf would be good? I really don't see it. We are a graveyardbased deck, hatecards will come in game two. If my backup plan then was to trust in goyf getting the job done, I've only made myself even MORE vulnerable to graveyard hate. I do think we need a plan for game two, but using goyfs just feels wrong. I'm toying around with a Cavern of Souls in the sb, together with Sigarda. Setting Cavern on Angel will let you resolve either Sigarda or Iona, and either should win you the game under normal circumstances. I don't know if it's good enough, but I feel a lot better about that than playing goyfs.
Short answer: It's something that needs answering in a deck already full of things that need answering.
Shorter answer: Different strokes
Long answer:
In my local meta (read: this is a terrible argument, but I'm going to make it anyway), but the most common graveyard hate is Grafdigger's Cage with Relic of Progenitus being a close second. The first of these two can be completely ignored by Tarmogoyf, and the latter, while definitely a hindrance, is temporary.
Actually, let me expound on that. This is all theorycrafting, because I don't have Tarmogoyfs (this is all just a chance for me to preach my personal play style (sorry)), but Gifts Ungiven decks always seem to my like an amalgamation of cards with Gifts Ungiven as the glue. This deckbuilding style forces a player into a similar mindset, where ones hand is constantly filling up with cards that lead one of multiple routes, with the titular card allowing for the same style of play that somehow fascinated everyone when Twin started doing it*.
Because of this, I've always treated Four-Colo(u)r Gifts as a more controlling Jund deck, because they both have approximately the same plan: Neutralize your opponent's early plays, and let the amazing card advantage of a four mana spell close out the game**. To that end, my game one wins (especially against control decks) inevitably end with a resolved Gifts Ungiven into whatever package is better in the match-up. The sideboard games are where it gets interesting, for precisely the reason you bring up: graveyard hate.
Literally every card, from the Faerie Macabres of Living End to the Rest In Peaces of every deck that can cast it, hurts the ideal packages, which in turn requires alternate strategies to victory. The possible strategies range from "Remove the offending permanent" to my personal favo(u)rite: "Just play Gifts Rock."
In my soapbox on the previous page, I mentioned that the vintage rogue deck Minus Eight would frequently run a transformational sideboard to dodge all the graveyard hate. Gifts can do the same even without the sideboard. By casting Gifts Ungiven for value and gaining card advantage that way, we gain extra theoretical card advantage by making their card dead.†
All this leads back to Tarmogoyf. When Rest In Peace is in play, it is a mostly dead card, and should be treated as such (e.g. "Free" discards to an outlet), but with all other pieces of graveyard hate commonly seen in Modern, it either makes them regret their choice of hate (Grafdigger's Cage, Surgical Extraction, etc.), makes them "have it" in hand because there is a non-zero chance that they do not, or forces them to use it prematurely, leaving the game open to resolve a Gifts Ungiven. It also has the additional bonus of being a real clock against combo decks, the one archetype whose strategy might not include sideboarding in graveyard hate.
Again, I don't have the Tarmogoyfs to test this; this is all opinion-based theorycrafting, but it seems to be why people would want to play it. Personally, I use Kitchen Finks to deal with most of the same issues (okay, it just dies to Grafdigger's Cage, unlike Tarmogoyf, but the point still stands) and give me more of a game against Burn and other aggressive decks.
-r
PS. As much as I hate to bring up the article again, Sigarda + Cavern of Souls seems like a dangerously cool thing, especially when you appear to have Batterskull main.
*Seriously, I get that throwing Tarmogoyf into the Twin deck required reworking the deck, stripping the original to a skeleton, I get that it has different match-ups, and I get that it is more skill-intensive to play, both with and against, but is it really that exciting? (Don't answer that, at least not in this thread. PM me if you must)
**When I first started playing Gifts Ungiven like this, Bloodbraid Elf was still one of the the best things you could do on turn three or four. It isn't anymore, obviously, but the point still stands with cards like Chandra, Pyromaster or whatever.
†Their are two ways this can be flourished. The most obvious is using Gifts Ungiven as a bait spell for something like Batterskull (I've done this multiple times. It's the best feeling ever), while the second, and I've only ever done this once, is flipping the top four cards to an Aven Mindcensor.
This may or may not be the correct place to post this question so I apologize if I'm mistaken. I'm currently toying around with a U/W/G modern deck just for fun in between testing sessions and have gotten the idea to make a post-board transformation into a 4c gifts deck. So I was wondering what some of you thought were the most essential 15 cards in the gifts deck if you were to try that out. For the main deck just picture a typical UWR control deck with assorted other white removal spells in place of the burn with kitchen finks, resto, tec edge, and the usual blue based control suspects. Here's the transformation board I'm playing around with right now. Again I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to ask.
The ray of revelation is there because 3 color decks without mana dorks are very soft to blood moon effects so I really wanted something in that spot, plus there's some boggles value added on top of that. The main thing I'd like is more against tron than just the loam package because it's very slow as well as something for twin. Darkblast is useful against twin, but doesn't stop the combo reliably. I also realize that having no black sources in a deck outside of the 1 urborg makes drawing rites very awkward, but I'm ok with that possibility.
In my opinion (one that you may feel free to disregard), I find that transformation sideboards often fall under the "Danger of Cool Things" problem. Sure, it's incredibly cool and awesome and amazing and <superlative adjective> to have a transformational sideboard, but there are multiple caveats to how to go about making one.
First, both decks (the original and the one you board into) should ideally be modular enough in nature to allow for all the flex slots to be boarded in and out. Otherwise, you run the risk of drawing multiple dead cards, which defeats the point of sideboarding (altering the match-up in your favor) entirely. I don't know the exact nature of your list, but I know that, after transformation, you have three cards that have B in their cost, plus two cards you won't be able to cast until turns six and seven if drawn (Wurmcoil Engine and Elesh Norn respectively), all without a discard outlet like Liliana of the Veil or Thirst for Knowledge or whatever. In fact, the branching path nature of most Gifts decks means that weird, often dead, draws happen incredibly often, which is why people in this discussion are theorizing on Pack Rat as an option to supplement their Lilianas in turning "dead" into "at least it's a card."
Second, and I touched on this a little above, is that the point of sideboarding is to make some of your poorer match-ups better. Transformation sideboards therefore have to sideboard into a completely different deck to be of any use. Vintage Minus Six (Worldgorger Dragon Combo for those of you who don't like names) is miserable against almost every single piece of graveyard hate, which every sane Vintage player (contradiction?) has at least seven slots in their sideboard dedicated to. To combat this, they board out every single combo piece and turn into a mediocre Tezzeret build, in the hopes that those seven slots the opponent boards in become worthless.
In conclusion, these are the initial questions you have to answer to have a good transformational sideboard:
What does 4C Gifts beat that Bant Control cannot?
What cards will be dead in your hand, how can you still use them/get rid of them?
What hate are you dodging?
This may be just outside the realm of allowed discussion here, so you should probably PM me if you have a counterargument, or further questions in general.
-r
PS. The Danger of Cool Things should be a required read for all Gifts players.
“If it gets to the point where everyone has 15 sideboard cards to combat your deck, you find a different deck.”
So sayeth a player at my LGS, who, until recently, ran Melira-Pod to what was basically a dominant success. I don’t blame those who did run full Pod-hate sideboards – he was one of the few players here with a fully constructed Modern deck – but all 15? That just seems like overkill.
But if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t one to read me wax lyrical to the theme of an evolving metagame; you probably started reading this inevitably long post to read a tournament report, which is something I am willing to provide. Here is the list:
I’ll talk about the deck more after the games, but I must confess that I haven’t been following the evolution of this deck on these forums; I’ve been more tuning it to my LGS metagame, which isn’t as developed as the ones many of you guys might be finding, so take the list with a grain of salt.
Round One of Four: Goblins
Pre-Match:
My LGS runs a BTT Draft synchronous to its Friday constructed events, so we had to wait for all of the drafters to finish deckbuilding. I spent the time chatting with one of my friends who was breaking out a Zoo deck. We tested it out and I got stomped by being too greedy with my mass removal. I made a note to not make that mistake again in the tournament at large.
I spotted this kid trash-talking his friends, using the word “scrub” as a pronoun instead of an adjective. I figured he was on some sort of aggressive deck. Turns out, I was right.
Sideboarding:
He didn’t have a sideboard, which always made me feel awkward when I reached for mine. I got over it and boarded out the Life from the Loam combos, Sun Titan, and some other stuff I don’t quite remember for the Finks, Celestial Purges and Batterskull
Game Two:
He gets turn 1 Arsonist, turn 2 Grenade, and follows it up with Krenko’s Command as I get mana screwed. It happens.
Game Three:
He doesn’t have his Goblin Grenade synergy this time, and I control the entire game until turn 7 Elesh Norn seals the deal.
1-0 (2-1 in games)
Post-Match:
According to the LGS owner, someone “snuck in” to the tournament, turning a Sixteen-person, end-at-midnight tournament into a Seventeen Person, Five-round slog.
Also saw people playing Mental Magic with their draft decks. I learned that the only two 1B permanents anyone can think of are Dark Confidant and Bitterblossom. I also learned how insane Remand is in Mental Magic, as if it weren’t already insane enough.
Overheard: “Chandra’s Phoenix is exiled, actually.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t care too much, but it does matter in the phoenix’s case.
“Yeah, I guess it does.”
-Game Three
“I guess I could have cast Scapeshift instead of conceding there, but you probably had something anyways… You didn’t? Goddammit.
-Match next to me: Scapeshift vs Ninja Bears. End of Game Two.
Round Two of Five: White/Black Tokens
Pre-Match:
I remembered this person from a few months ago. She was on White/Black tokens then, and I assumed that’s what she was on now. I was right.
Sideboarding:
The mass removal suite gets their sideboard buffers, and the Kitchen Finks come in. The loam package and some other cards not needed in the matchup come in.
Game Two:
Second verse, same as the first, but this time the entomb variant of choice is Gifts Ungiven, its first casting of the night. She manages to Tragic SlipElesh, but at that point has spent so many resources that my Creeping Tar Pits get there.
2-0 (4-1 in games)
Post-Match:
I made small talk with some other players, the topic of which I don’t remember. Time is called for the round, and it is revealed that no one knows where the last match slip is. Everyone gets a talking-to, and eventually it’s all sorted out. No harm done, more or less.
Overheard: (Cleaning up after game two)
“You could Tragic Slip, it would put you at one.”
[checks top of library] “Nah.”
-Post-Game Two
Round Three of Five: Naya Superfriends
Pre-Match:
“Save your paths for Elesh Norn,” says the Scapeshift player to my left.
“Thanks, man,” I think.
My opponent has been sitting at the other table the whole tournament, so I have no idea what to expect here. Well, besides that he has Path to Exiles, obviously.
I win the roll.
Game One:
He goes turn one Hierarch, I Disfigure it. He turns out to be mana screwed, and by the time he gets a third land, it’s too late.
Sideboarding:
I have no idea what he’s on at this point, so I just shuffle up my main sixty.
Game Two:
This time, he has enough mana, but I draw all the answers I can. Eventually I cast Shriekmaw and Sun Titan in two turns, and, while he does put up a good fight with Elspeth, Knight-Errant, her Mirrodin version, and Sarkhan Vol, I just power through them and win.
3-0 (6-1 in games)
Post-Match:
He had a trade binder with him, so I snagged some Zendikar lands and a Homeward Path for Inkwell Leviathan and some dollar rares. The Zendikar, because I needed to finish my EDH/Commander deck, and the Homeward Path because I really want to make Perplexing Chimera a thing.
Don’t judge me.
Overheard: “Just so you know, there’s a token in this deck. It represents this card here, which is really valuable, and I don’t want it to get damaged.”
-Match on my right, before game one. The card turned out to be a foil Snapcaster Mage
Round Four of Five: Scapeshift
Pre-Match:
I haven’t been looking forward to this match. The only cards that even remotely interact with combo in my 75 are the lifegain-creatures and the counterspells in the board.
Post-Match:
He wants to see my deck, so I let him. We banter about card choices like why I’m not playing Lingering Souls and why I didn’t have more Kitchen Finks in my main deck. It got awkward, so we turn our attention to the patriot control mirror next to us.
Overheard: “[Questions about the contents of one of the control player’s deck.]”
“You do realize I’m in the middle of a match, right?”
-The Scapeshift player and one of the control players.
Round Five of Five: UWR Control
Pre-Match:
Have I mentioned that it’s near midnight? Because it’s after midnight at that point. And I have to play a control mirror.
There are no words.
Everyone talks about who might get one prize. The Scapeshift player seems locked for first place, so we all talk about who gets second. It turns out that if I win this round, I will probably get second, which is good because the prizes cut to foils after that.
The game goes on, but now I have land drops. He forgets to use Ajani during his next turn, so I send Celestial Colonnade into him. He had his graveyard exiled by Nihil Spellbomb, which got rid of three bolt effects. We keep playing draw-go for a while, except my draws were dredges, which he keeps countering. Eventually, he tries to swing with a Colonnade, but I send it on a Path to Exile, which gives me the opening I need to start recurring Worm Harvest.
Sideboarding:
Same plan as the Scapeshift deck, mostly. I keep Path to Exiles in to deal with the oddball manland, and because I don’t have space otherwise.
Game Two:
Again, I don’t find green mana until late in the game, but he doesn’t do anything either. His “mandatory graveyard hate” turns out to be Grafdigger’s Cage, and he also brought in Porphyry Nodes, which gets rid of a Kitchen Finks and a Phantasmal Image copying said Finks.
Around turn ten, after one of Mulldrifter somehow resolves, I decide to go for it with the three Gifts Ungiven in my hand.
Post-Match:
There are a bunch of reasons I wrote down more of this match than the others. What it mostly comes down to is that there was more of a decision making process than “one-for-one his threats, then Elesh Norn,” or “curl up in a ball and hope he gets mana screwed.”
The win is enough to get me second, which, for this free tournament, gets me a pack of Return to Ravnica and the promo Encroaching Wastes. The pack doesn’t have what I want in it, but hey, I still feel good about it.
Overheard: “Hey [LGS Owner’s Name Redacted], I need to get home. Can I come back tomorrow and pick up my pack if I win any?”
“Why don’t you just wait the thirty seconds for me to print out this sheet?”
-Me, as I try to leave before 1:00 AM.
“Go, [My name redacted] Go.”
“Shut up.” -A conversation had between me and an observer during Game Two
Conclusion:
My draft of 4C Gifts is just that: a draft. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone expecting combo, and I’ve since revised it a little to include a small amount of discard. It probably won’t help against dedicated combo decks, but those seem to be in short supply where I play, so there’s that. Still, I feel that the “one-for-one and grind to the lategame” plan has incredible merit in this deck, and the extra two-for-ones that come up in the midgame just strengthen this deck.
I don’t know where my deck goes from here, but I have a feeling it starts with -Etched Oracle, which did nothing all day and was generally relegated to the sideboard; -Phantasmal Image, which is a relic of the legend rules changes; and finding Abrupt Decays.
Props: Nihil Spellbomb, for being generally amazing every time I played it.
Manlands, for causing the bulk of my wins. Murmuring Bosk, for being the most “Can I read that?” card I played. “Swing For It,” by Tha Gatherin’, for hyping me up pre-tournament.
Slops:
Green mana not showing up at times.
Not even thinking about the possibility that a non-creature-based combo deck might show up.
1) I put Damnation back into the maindeck. There has been an influx of Geist decks at my local meta, and I’m going to need a way to deal with that. As I recently discussed, Drown in Sorrow is a card – it certainly has its arguments, and I’m not saying it isn’t viable, but I’m going to stick to my guns here, especially with the amount of guardian angels St. Traft seems to have.
2) Still on the metagame train, there have also been a strange influx of Loam decks in my local meta, from Red-Green with Hellspark Elementals to three-color reanimator, to a durdle-y Black-Blue-Green deck featuring Trade Routes of all cards, to the four-color “It only does everything.dec”. I'm going to iterate that Bojuka Bog is indeed a card, and should be placed in the sixty until Wizards decides to reprint Living Wish.
3) Question for the forum: How much graveyard hate have you run into, and what kind? It used to be that I would run into things like Rest in Peace, whether that be from Affinity or UWR control(‽). Nowadays though, I see yard hate either in the form of Grafdigger’s Cage or Relic of Progenitus. The worst thing I’ve had to deal with is Surgical Extraction on actually relevant cards like Path to Exile against Phyrexian Obliterator.dec. Admittedly, there’s only one person playing Scavenging Ooze, and some of the aforementioned Loam decks run Bojuka Bog, so I suppose there are a variety of powerful effects, but it never seems like people are playing enough hate. Have other people experienced this?
4) There’s an image floating around of
AbzanJunk Charm, and it looks pretty nifty. At instant speed it:a) Exiles a creature with power three or greater
b) Night's Whisper
c) Distributes two +1/+1 counters.
Now, I may be the only one who runs Kitchen Finks (More persist! Gimme!) in the main, but, like the BUG charm, all three modes seem, at the very least, semi-playable, from getting rid of things like opposing Finks and Angels to good old fashioned card advantage. The worst is obviously the +1/+1 counters, but there is value in resetting persist or making Batterskull do two more points of damage or whatnot.
5) I’ve come to despise questions that begin with “Have you guys tried…” I would much rather the phrase “I’ve been playing around with <card> and I want some other opinions,” or “I’ve noticed that…” I accept that, on a public forum, the quality of can be lower than I was expecting, but it’s more likely that I will respond if it’s phrased that way. It implies initiative, which is something I’m sure most people here respect.
That being said, seeing a question about an Unburial Rites-less deck made me remember this article from way back in 2012, when the sunrises were many and the death rituals were nonexistant. I reread it every once in a while to reinforce my deck philosophy and remind myself why decks like this are so awesome. It’s the article that convinced me to run Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter, and dissuaded me from Iona and other nine-mana creatures.
If you’re looking for unorthodox card choices, if you’re looking for well-reasoned arguments behind those card choices, or even if you’re just looking for more Gifts articles to devour, it wouldn’t hurt to give this one a read. Besides, asking your opponent to split Godo, Bandit Warlord, Wurmcoil Engine, Cruel Ultimatum, and Gifts Ungiven is incredibly salivating. Admit it.
6) I don’t care what any of you are or will be saying, I will be testing Murderous Cut.
7) Seven mana is reserved for Elesh Norn and nothing else. If you really don’t want to lose to burn, play Sun Droplet or something.
-r
I don't disagree with you there.
I have never, in my admittedly limited testing, been stuck staring at a Plumeveil in my hand, wishing I had the third W/U to cast it. I've not cast it because I wanted to use my mana more efficiently in some cases - not playing it because I wanted to Gifts or tapping low to swing with Creeping Tar Pit or whatnot - but it's never been because of mana troubles.
My evaluation of the card is that it's almost like Wall of Omens. Both of them deter low-power attackers, both of them are creatures people don't want to waste removal on even though they probably should, they both screw with Liliana math (though I'm not sure I would side in Plumeveil against most decks that run Liliana. More testing is required there), and they both gain you a card, though Plumeveil's is an opponent's dead creature rather than a card in hand.
Plumeveil does have its flaws, such as not deal with planeswalkers, as you pointed out, while something like Restoration Angel could. Its three mana cost and non-hexproof-ness makes it susceptible to the non-red removal spells of the format, and it may as well not exist against token strategies that just fly through it, but I still think it's at least worth a slot or two in the board.
That's what the testing process is for, though. You cobble things into the deck, play matches, then report back. You defend yourself on the internet, then return to step one. Maybe I will compare Angel and Veil next. I don't have the angels yet, but I know a guy who knows a guy...
-r
I play both because, as has constantly been established, I'm greedy. Either card could possibly be worth being a two-of even, though I think I would rather run two charms over two Darkblasts, for what that's worth, though I did mention possibly trying two Darkblasts main. Haven't done that yet.
Honestly, I've never played Plumeveil until after turn 4; I generally use removal as deterrents before then, and use Plumeveil to make sure anything not dead won't kill me.
I assume Restoration Angel would be the same. Four power is a little different than three in a bunch of cases though.
It triggers Ferocity,It kills germs, Obstinate Baloths, 3/4 Gofys, Restoration Angels, etcetera. The fact that it costs three makes it more mana-efficient at the very least, allowing "<Removal spell> into Plumeveil, block your other dude" a turn earlier than Restoration Angel. It doesn't help that I don't run enough enters-the-battlefield effects to fully take advantage of the Angel.The angel also provides incentive to turn into a Bant deck, splashing Black, while my current mana base is configured towards Junk splashing Blue. This doesn't imply that Bant-splash-black is bad, but there's enough decent removal in Black that it also skews the mana, even less so than Plumeveil does.
On The Kiki-Control Matchup:
I’m not quite sure I know how to respond here, and given my lack of experience compares poorly to two people saying otherwise. I will grudgingly concede that we have a poor matchup against the Restoration Angel version of Kiwi-Control*. I’ll come back to this when I’ve had more testing, but a good step forward (in my opinion) is going to be listed below.
On Charms:
Esper Charm is always amazing. All three modes are relevant at any time, from turn four when you’re digging for your fourth land, to turn seven where it’s an instant speed Wit's End and everywhere in between. I’ve actually found myself using the discard more than I was expecting. As an example, in a game against Storm combo, if I had used the charm as a discard spell as opposed to a Ray of Revelation, I would have won the game next turn.
The BUG Charm† is good. It’s one of those cards that is (presumably) better than already fringe playable cards, like Thirst for Knowledge or Mulldrifter. There’s not much more to say about it, really. It’s practically average, but fills the niches we’ve been needing to fill for a while.
Golgari Charm, well…
On Wrath Effects
Golgari Charm is amazing. Sure, one of the three modes will almost never be used, but it’s really surprising how many creatures in Modern have only one point of toughness. Everything else can be either removed or is part of one of the worse matchups on our spectrum. Enchantment removal is also relevant, or relevant enough.
Engineered Explosives is my main-deck mass removal of choice. I don’t run the Academy Ruins lock because the land half of the combo just feels inconsistent and slow against the decks that recurring Explosives would be good against. Even against varied costs, it’s generally a two-for-one, and can be a complete blowout if they rely on two-cost cards. At worst, it will cut your damage in half.
Drown In Sorrow: I used to play this card. It has its merits, such as not killing your Sylvan Caryatids and the aforementioned scry. Perhaps it is good enough, but if we’re resigning ourselves to Restoration Angel decks being our worst matchups, I don’t think having something that doesn’t even remotely interact with the value half of that deck is very good. It also interacts poorly with Jund, which is not a card you want poor draws against.
The Four Mana Wraths are currently sitting in my sideboard, or at least Damnation is. With a perfect mana base, the mass removal of choice would probably be Supreme Verdict, because regeneration only really matters with Thrun, the Last Troll, but Urborg only taps for black, and cards like Prismatic Omen and Chromatic Lantern cost mana and are also halfway dead. I feel like they’re better when one’s mana dork of choice is Sakura-Tribe Elder because they sacrifice themselves when they ramp, and thus aren’t in the way.
Five (or more) Mana Wraths aren’t good enough, in my opinion. I don’t deny that they are not good – their unique effects and/or instant-esque speed lend to that – I just think that, if I’m spending five mana, I want it to be on something like Batterskull or Baneslayer Angel or even Mulldrifter**. It’s why people who aren’t me don’t play Worm Harvest anymore, and I’m seriously considering cutting the card.
Now, after all that, let’s derail the conversation…
On Plumeveil:
This card is so amazing I’m disappointed I only have enough sideboard space run two.
This card blocks ninety-five percent of all playable creatures in modern and lives. In the instance of four percent of those, they trade. The ones that survive are either named Tarmogoyf or exist in combo decks (e.g. Griselbrand, Primeval Titan, etcetera). It’s easy on the manabase, more so than most cards we play, at least, surprises literally everyone when cast, and has flash, which is relevant against decks with counters, as it forces counter wars on their turn, if they want to fight at all.
People currently don’t know how to play against it. They don’t want to use a removal spell on it because it’s not technically a threat, but then it nulls a good portion of their strategy. They don’t want to counter it (as far as I’ve seen), for the same reason, and get punished for it, for the exact same reason.
I’m going to keep testing with it, because that’s how testing works. I just wanted to provoke some discussion so I’m not alone in this.
-r
PS. Those that can’t seem to get their proper colors of mana should at least consider adding Murmuring Bosk to their land suite.
*I’ve decided it’s not too “cutesy” to call it that.
†I almost called by its actual name. After mopping away the vomit, I changed my mind.
**Yes, I still play Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw.
DISCLAIMER:
I've never played against the Restoration Angel version of Patriot/whatever control. It is a part of my meta, but every time the pilot shows up, I'm either never paired with him or he's playing Melira Pod. As such, this is theory-crafting galore. The reference lists I'll be looking at are Paul Cheon's exact list and Shaun Mclaren's GP Minneapolis Decklist.
The first question here is "Who is the beatdown?" With the usual
JeskaiKiwi* control matchup, the control deck almost has to be the beatdown, because we have a superior lategame. Even a Sphinx's Revelation for seven or more doesn't match well against Life from the Loam and Raven's Crime. In standard, you see this with Rakdos's Return, which, when resolved, can strip a control player of every resource they may have gained from a large Revelation. Granted, one of the cards drawn is probably a counterspell, and Revelation is instant speed, but a resolved Return is one of the outs the midrange player has.Against Kiki-Jiki, though, is interesting. The first problem both players have is the assumption game. With certain land drops, the Kiki player may well assume we're an
AbzanJunk deck, or maybe we're a Big Zoo player who is terrible at making fetchland decisions. The Gifts player almost has to assume their opponent is straight-up control. For both cases, well, you know what happens when you assume. Unfortunately, while their poor assumption leads to them playing the exact same way, maybe only sideboarding differently if they happen to beat the Gifts player before they show their hand. In our case, it can lead to a turn five kill out of nowhere.How and when both decks reveal themselves is critical. We can see right through them with an early Inquisition or a Thoughtseize, while they can either be really knowledgeable of the Modern metagame, or by seeing a Gifts Ungiven. This is in the Gifts player's advantage; knowing their deck before they know ours lets us properly appropriate roles first.
Against GBx decks, Kiki Control is just that: the Control deck. The small advantages, an extra card here, a Snapcaster there, allow the Kiki player to recover from the early-game disruption and pull ahead. Except unlike Aussie control, they can always just go "EOTRAUUDLKJKY"** with the right topdecks. Four Colo(u)r Gifts is like those decks, except it has the extra threat of its titular card, which, fetching either standard pile, or even the "Look at all this removal, no seriously" can easily put away the game. This turns them into the aggro deck, admittedly a role they are better at then straight up Chilean control.
Then the Gifts player starts playing removal. Kiki Control runs about eighteen creatures, including Celestial Colonnade. A full seven of those can be dealt with through proper use of land-destruction, either by destroying the offending land itself, or keeping the opponent off triple (or double, if you're paranoid enough) red, leaving eleven. Wall of Omens has the Wall creature type, and as the reminder text says "Walls can't attack," leaving seven creatures and some burn to survive. And we have discard.
[SIDE NOTE:]
Again, I haven't played this match-up, but unless my hand is removal light and they have a lot of threats, I would probably take Wall of Omens with my discard spells every single time.
[/SIDE NOTE:]
In a way, Gifts and Kiki Control are similar. Both of them play as the control deck in most of the common matchups, and a four-mana instant-speed cards that potentially end the game, though more certainly in our case. The nature of the deck ("I'm Liberian Control! No I'm not!") inherently makes it a more difficult match-up than the normal Slovak Control, especially because Turn Three Vendilion Clique into Turn Four Restoration Angel all while holding up Remand is a huge beating, but the match-up isn't horrendous. You just have to know what plan of attack your opponent is on. A difficult task, to be sure, but manageable.
I don't think so. Cheon's exact list uses three fatties (Grave Titan, Elesh Norn, and Batterskull, which, while objectionable, is playable. He also played (plays?) Mana Leaks over the standard Birds/Plants/Snakes, which is interesting enough to note.
The counterspells do invite analysis, but frankly I don't care enough to go into more detail. I will say that I have been playing a mix of Mana Leak and Negate in my sideboard, and they are almost always a welcome addition, so maybe space in the sixty is warranted if I can find it.
Besides that, it looks pretty standard.
-r
PS: I'd like to see something more in-depth than "He had all the answers and pulled ahead." Especially because "A hand full of Decays and Paths" should be able to disrupt the advantages they can gain.
PPS: This reads (to me) much worse than I thought it would, especially for a theorycraft article. Feel free to ask follow ask questions, even if one of them is "What the heck is all this drek?"
*Is that too coy? Its similarity to "Kiki" may make it too coy. I like it, though.
**"End Of Turn, Restoration Angel. Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Land, Kiki-Jiki, Kill You"
Short answer: The match-up is in our favor, but...
Long answer:
Modern control is weird. While it most certainly is "a control deck" (i.e., it wins on turn thirty, usually with a swinging Celestial Colonnade), the speed of the format makes it an odd duck. In other formats, control exists for varying reasons. In Standard, the format is almost too slow to deal with an unanswered Supreme Verdict backed by counterspells. Most of the current metagame revolves around the statement "what happens if they have a turn four Verdict?" with answers ranging from "They won't" (Thoughtseize) to "They'd better also have a counterspell" (Ajani's Presence)
In Legacy, control can exist because Force of Will and Brainstorm allow it to both deal with early-game threats (Belcher et. al) and close out the game with copious amounts of card advantage. The current control deck,
22280Miracles also uses Terminus in conjunction with Sensei's Divining Top as a way to stabilize.In Vintage, the mana advantage of Mana Drain combined with the raw card advantage of Standstill is what allows control to operate, in addition to the options (sans Brainstorm) that Legacy provides. Recently, the stabilizer of choice is Engineered Explosives, as it is versatile and cheap enough to deal with most threats the opponent puts down.
Modern control, though, doesn't have much of that. Instead, it has to rely on cheap spot removal spells to gain mana advantage and cards like Cryptic Command, Electrolyze, and Snapcaster Mage to gain card advantage. Because of this, it has a couple of weaknesses that vocal opponents of the deck dig into, from having a steep learning curve (instead of learning what your deck does, you have to learn what ALL of them do), to not having enough card advantage recover from poor draws. The one I want to focus on, though, is this:
Any of the opponent's card advantage must be immediately answered, whether through card advantage or by countering/destroying the offending spell/permanent.
Against BG/x decks, for example, any of the resolved cards pose a problem:
Dark Confidant
Lingering Souls
Liliana of the Veil (Midrange cards are worse than the control deck's, generally)
Prophetic Flamespeaker
Chandra, Pyromaster
Life from the Loam
And so on. Most of the decks that beat Modern control decks can generate immense amounts of card advantage, eventually grinding them out of one-for-ones and winning with a Treetop Village or Raging Ravine
Four Colo(u)r Gifts is the same way. Not only do we have a bunch of ways to neutralize their answers (most versions don't play creatures, after all), we also have what amounts to a game-winning engine in the form of Raven's Crime. Alchemist's Refuge or no Alchemist's Refuge, the Loam/Crime lock forces Control to become the beatdown deck, which, barring the ubiquitous "Bolt-Snap-Bolt" cases, is nigh-impossible for control to pull out of.
Besides the lock, the Gifts deck has its titular card, which can be used so many ways in this match-up. Whether it be finding value cards (the "My spells are better than yours" route), finding the lock, plus utility lands like Tectonic Edge and Bojuka Bog ("You can't cast profitable spells, ever"), going for Elesh Norn if it's game one and you want to beef a manland into a two-turn clock, or, and this may be my personal favorite, using its instant speed as bait. If they counter it, you cast a relevant spell like Liliana or Batterskull* or even another Gifts, and they generally just lose.
In terms of strategy, the game generally becomes a staring contest, except in this analogy, the Gifts player is allowed to blink. Both decks have large amounts of late-game potential, but the control deck relies on playing extremely tight, only dealing with the things that matter until they can seal up the game. Every game I've played against this deck** revolves around how many threats they can answer, and the answer is generally "not enough." The games that they do win are always on the back of an unanswered Ajani Vengeant or Geist of Saint Traft.
Overall, I (and, from reading the thread, most people) believe the UWR control matchup to be an extremely favorable one. Our primary engine for the match-up is almost literally a game one win, and there we have enough "must deal with" cards post-board that, even if they do bring in their graveyard hate post-board, we have enough other threats to make the match an easy victory.
-r
PS: That Alchemist's Refuge technology looks amazing. I'm seriously considering cutting Urborg (It's been underperforming) for it. It easily falls under the category of "Dangerously Cool Things," of course, but also looks just good enough to require more testing.
*This is still one of my favorite lines of play, ever.
**Yes yes, anecdotes. Sue me.
On Jace X.0...
There are two Jaces I could see running in this deck. The first is Jace Beleren, who I used to run way back when I ran Sun Titan. He seques nicely into turn three or four Gifts Ungiven, and can gain theoretical life* against some aggressive strategies when they attack him, and the card advantage needed to stabilize when they do not. Unfortunately, he is rather hard to cast on-curve in this deck, which is when you want him. He's not bad other times, of course, but the point still stands.
The other Jace that could see fringe-ish play is Jace, Architect of Thought. While his plus effect will only really ever hit Lingering Souls tokens and the occasional Deceiver Exarch (okay, Affinity maybe, but they can stick one of about 18 cards to circumvent that and probably already have), he still can go a long way to affecting the clock, and his minus ability is the second best in terms of Jaces, in my opinion.
The problem with both of these Jaces, as well as the new one that's had brief discussion, is that they are sorcery speed. I feel like, in the control oriented versions of this deck, we can only commit so much space to sorcery speed cards because certain decks can easily go "Oh, you tapped low? Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Kill You. The cards that we do play need to either have a high enough impact or be cost-efficient enough to be worth it.
On Echoing Truth...
I agree with the sentiment a second Maelstrom Pulse is probably better. Most versions of 4 Colo(u)r Gifts are not tempo decks, meaning that Echoing Truth is only better when you are tight on mana. Still, it does have the benefit of being instant speed, which isn't irrelevant (see above).
I think if you really want a second Pulse effect that can be Gifted for alongside the first, then Detention Sphere is probably a better option. It is in both of our splash colors, which is a bit of a bother, and it does die to Abrupt Decay rather easily, but the decks you want Detention Sphere against are probably not the same decks that run Abrupt Decay.
On Flash Creatures...
Teferi is way too cute. He's too color-intensive to beat decks like Living End and their four to eight "Destroy Target Land" cards, and otherwise he just assists in beating our best matchup even more. Also, the phrase "We can just reanimate him" should never be used in any context ever**.
Venser, Shaper Savant is better, though not by much. He is nice against the ever-popular "Can't be countered" cards, though it's not as huge a tempo swing without other creatures to back him up. He also has the problem of costing four, which, again, is almost too late. Against the cascade decks, you're almost better off playing Nix if your local metagame is that saturated†.
On Utopia Sprawl (and ramp effects in general)...
I feel like, by playing Utopia Sprawl, you open yourself to problems no matter what you do. If it's on a (the?) basic forest, it almost defeats the point of the colorfixing, and if it's on any other targetable land, you open yourself up to every single nonbasic hate card in the format, including Blood Moon, the card our fixing should combat, because it makes the land an illegal target (Aren't enchantment rules fun?).
Personally, I run Sylvan Caryatids, but there are arguments for both Birds of Paradise and Sakura-Tribe Elder. It really all comes down to personal preference. Just know that, whatever you choose, it will probably affect most of your other flex slots.
On Tarmogoyf...
I already talked about this at length. It can be found here.
On Card Draw vs Discard...
I get that most people would rather run Liliana of the Veil, and that's perfectly fine. We are a J(u)nk deck, after all, and if any deck has dead cards to get rid of, it's this one. And I get that Liliana can also a functional Chainer's Edict for three mana, but against a lot of decks, especially aggresive strategies, I would rather speed through my deck to find the cards I need.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we cut Liliana altogether. Far from it. She is still one of our best weapons against decks like Scapeshift. I only bring her up because people talk about her (and now Pack Rat too) as ways to pitch dead cards. It's almost like we've started focusing on card quality over quantity, which is fine, but quantity finds you Gifts Ungiven/whatever spell you need, and the mana to cast it.
Cards like Thirst for Knowledge, Esper Charm, and Mulldrifter‡ have all proven themselves worthy of at least consideration. I have never been sad to draw any of these, so long as I have the mana.
If I've said it once, I've said it up to four times with different names, Gifts Ungiven decks are inherently modular and have a ton of flex slots. Maybe it's just my local metagame (and it very well may be), but these flexible card drawing spells deserve more testing then they seem to be getting.
-r
*[/bogus terminology]
**e.g., "Bummer about your dad, man." "It's okay, we can just reanimate him."
†Kidding! Just jam graveyard hate and discard. Just like almost every other combo deck that tends to stay a combo deck post-board.
‡Mulldrifter is obviously not instant speed, but I've found it useful anyways.
The reasons you list (or appear to list) are:
1) Your version of the deck (I'll get to this wording in a second) lost three pre-board games to the Living End combo deck, either by way of going off first or dealing with Iona and then going off.
2) Your version of the deck won(!) three pre-board games against W/B tokens, but you feel that the match-up may be incredibly weak.
What do I mean by "Your version of the deck?" I have mentioned previously that Gifts Ungiven decks, by the nature of the titular card, are inherently modular. Most of the card choices are metagame-dependent, with only a few fixed slots. This is why I keep using the phrase "different strokes for different folks." Hell, I analyzed the difference in running Birds of Paradise over Sylvan Caryatid just a few posts back.
And that's what I mean. Each card guides the deck's construction in some manner, not just Gifts Ungiven. It's what separates this deck from the Esper Gifts decks*, which are really control decks with more singletons and a reanimation package.
Now, I am not trying to imply that your deck is misbuilt or poorly tuned to the metagame. In fact, you do admit that these are not the most common decks in the modern format, and generally state circumstances where the latter of the two might become a more common match-up. But I question whether you have considered the games holistically (i.e. considering each turn and each deck's card choices and how they affect the game as a whole) or reductively (i.e. analyzing both players' play and looking for mistakes). Both methods have their merits, but I would rather try to find an actual reason besides the vague "This deck needs... something."
You are, of course, free to do what you want with whatever deck you please.
I was going to address this along with the above, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you are making an entirely separate argument. Frankly, I agree that Four-Colo(u)r Gifts does not have an amazing early game. Most control-oriented decks do not. Part of Magic design is the increasing resources allowed by land-drops. The longer the game, the more resources (should be) available to both players. The more resources available, the more things a control deck can do to control the game.
But I digress. I disagree with your statement about "the end game." In fact, I would argue quite the opposite. We have one of the best endgames outside of Tron, who can reliably cast Emrakul. Whether the win condition of choice be Worm Harvest, a big fat creature, or a multitude of manlands, all backed up by a Raven's Crime lock, we can quickly end a stabilized game. That's one of the reasons we run the cards that we do.
You argue that we "don't always have the answers." I respond that this is true of every reactive strategy in Magic. Even with the best possible play, there are going to be times where we don't have the answer we need. We try to minimize that through card choices, hoping that those choices combined with quasi-optimal** play, we can eke out a win. Besides, they won't always have it either.
In all likelyhood, this soapbox of mine won't change your decisions to drop the deck. It isn't the best argument anyways. I just felt like making a devil's advocate argument would help others from reacting too quickly to others decrying the deck as dead.
***
I'm all for a fun-of Shadow of Doubt in control decks, but the question is, is stifling a fetchland/Birthing Pod activation the best and/or most disruptive thing we can do pre-Gifts? What would you take out for it?
-r
*I'm not trying to disparage the deck. It just appears to be that from an outsider's perspective.
**This is a really pretentious way of saying "Perfect play requires perfect information."
Shriekmaw gets the nod because it is "good enough." It isn't the best, but it slides into one of those flex slots that inevitably appear in modular decks.
*mumbles something about Call the Skybreaker*
On the serious side of things, if I'm Worm Harvesting, it's because either the opponent is tapped low enough to allow two or three worms to sneak in, or because I'm wrapping up a game I've (probably) already won via Raven's Crime. It takes the place of the second Rites target everyone seems to be into. Admittedly, I haven't given too much thought to Thragtusk, and it would be delicious to gifts for Unburial Rites/Mulldrifter/Shriekmaw/Thragtusk.
I can neither confirm nor deny the bosk being better. It is almost always better off of an end-of-turn fetchland, but isn't as good as a drawn card, so it comes down to player preference. I mentioned before how I don't mind my lands coming into play tapped, so the one-of Murmuring Bosk works for me.
Of the five draw/selection spells, the weakest is probably Forbidden Alchemy because of its lack of true card-advantage (you don't really want to flashback the card), followed by the Thirst For Knowledges, which are a relic of prior, more artifact-heavy, incarnations of the build. I don't know if I would ever cut the Mulldrifter or the Esper Charm; in the games they are relevant in, they are incredibly relevant in.
It's part of the "squeeze as much value out of Unburial Rites as possible" plan. As an anecdote, one of the semi-regulars at our LGS plays a Mono-black devotion deck (Obliterator Rock is the closest comparison). Resource management is a huge priority against him, as a stabilized board generally consists of both players with no non-land permanents and no hand. The only way to win at that point is to gain the card advantage lead, making Rites targeting Mulldrifter one of the best plays if the situation arises.
I normally don't resort to anecdotes to defend my card choices (though I suppose "Local Meta" is a similar argument that I just used to defend some card choices last post). However, with 8-rack poised to at least jump in popularity, if not playability, I think that at least some of that lesson can be carried over to match-up.
-r
Different strokes for different folks. I can't say that Colonnade is better or worse than anything else (I know I run more white than most people), so perhaps I'm just biased.
I feel like the decks you want the Explosives lock against, there isn't a late game to go to unless you've already stabilized the board. I don't have too much testing to back this up, though, so you could be right.
I think the difference here is that I run Worm Harvest instead of a second Rites target, which generally means I am perfectly happy to draw lands in the late game. Combine that with a the Raven's Crime soft lock, and I generally win most long games.
My problem is that there's only one. It's already impossible to get with a Gifts Ungiven (the opponent just bins the Snapcaster Mage and Go For The Throat, which means that, while you still end up with two removal spells; its presence in that pile was irrelevant), and the fact that there's only one card draw spell in the 75 (discounting Spreading Seas) means it's more of a fun-of than a one of. Again, I play Shriekmaw, which deals with most of the same problems and can be fetched in an emergency with Unburial Rites (It doesn't kill Dark Confidant, but this deck runs enough removal to get rid of a Confidant anyways. If you don't have it, you (probably) wouldn't have had Go For The Throat anyways.
***
Alright, I've made enough mentions of weird cards I play to actually post a decklist and completely derail the discussion at hand. Here's my draft:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 City of Brass
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Reflecting Pool
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Eternal Witness
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Mulldrifter
1 Shriekmaw
2 Sylvan Caryatid
Instants (17):
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Darkblast
1 Esper Charm
1 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Path to Exile
2 Thirst for Knowledge
Sorceries (10):
1 Damnation
1 Life from the Loam
2 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Raven's Crime
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Unburial Rites
1 Worm Harvest
1 Wrath of God
1 Batterskull
2 Celestial Purge
2 Duress
1 Extirpate
1 Kitchen Finks
3 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Pack Rat
2 Plumeveil
1 Thoughtseize
This list is heavily skewed towards my local meta, which is in its early stages in development save a few people who run decks like UWR Control, Melira Pod, and Affinity. The most commonly played deck is Burn with three pilots, followed by Melira Pod and UWR Control with two, and various decks (inevitably creature decks) spread out among the rest of the crowd. Notable are the one Affinity pilot, if only because they are the only Blood Moon player in the entire room; the Storm pilot, who represents the entirety of our "combo" wedge; and the Aggro Loam player, who, along with myself, represent the "graveyard decks."
I don't have all the cards I want/need for a fully build list (e.g. Liliana), but I do have some notes about cards I'm not sure I would cut:
1) Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw are surprisingly good two-for-ones, especially when the game runs long and creature becomes a threat.
2) Reflecting Pool is still a really good card. I don't know if they will still belong
ifwhen I acquire more fetchlands, though. I'd have to do some testing. In other land news, I've been toying around with the Horizon Canopy to see how I like it. So far, it hasn't been too bad. City of Brass will definitely be cut for a fetch, though.3) Murmuring Bosk is my go-to fetchland target unless I really need blue mana.
4) Thirst for Knowledge, Forbidden Alchemy, and Esper Charm are always good cards to draw. Of course, Liliana of the Veil would be too, but I haven't gotten around to trading for them. I know procrastinating will only make it worse, but until then...
5) The removal suite is fine. Not the best, but good enough. The wrath package though...
6) Maybe it's because of the Reflecting Pools, but I've found myself able to cast a Wrath effect turn 4 a good amount of the time. Sure, the 1-1-1 split probably falls under a "Dangerously Cool thing," but it's worked so far (famous last words, I know).
7) Plumeveil is amazingly average; it's one of those cards that's just underneath everyone's radars to be amazing when it gets flashed out.
***
I'll stick around to answer questions, but I'm sure most of you have begun disregarding the past two or three days of my spewings, because it's obvious I have no idea what I'm doing.
-r
The Michael Jacob List has a lot of things that I like, and a few things that either confuse me or are choices that I just hate. Because people always say they want the good news first*, I suppose I'll start with that:
In summary:
Likes:
Celestial Colonnade
Putrefy
"Oh, that's interesting":
Birds of Paradise
Night's Whisper
Dislikes:
Engineered Explosives
Go For The Throat
Dispel
Drown In Sorrow
And now, of course, for the rant:
I only really noted Celestial Colonnade because it seems to be a point of contention among those that play the deck whether or not to run it. My personal reasons for liking it can be read in my last post. It is a little understated given the number of cards in the deck that have W as part of their cost (Lingering Souls, Path to Exile, Unburial Rites flashback, sideboard tech), but is still a valid choice that I, a random voice on the internet, approve of.
Actually, there is a disproportionate amount of white in this deck. I'm going to presume that Michael just wants either a turn one Birds, a turn one Path, or a turn one discard spell, and therefore needs all the possible combinations of shock lands to combine with his fetches, leading to a lot of white mana without much to spend it on.
The other card I definitely liked was Putrefy, if only because I can still remember testing with it. I remember concluding that it was a perfectly worthy card, especially when available on turn two (see next paragraph), but eventually cutting it in favor of cheaper, if slightly less versatile, removal. It appears to be part of the "Gifts Ungiven for removal" plan, which is something I can respect.
The choice of Birds of Paradise is an interesting one. Instead of the Sylvan Caryatid plan of two-four, Michael instead opts for one-three, allowing him to cast spells like Lingering Souls and, more importantly, Liliana of the Veil on turn two. Of course, the philosophy of "Bolt the Bird" still exists, so this can't be a total dependency, but the possibility is there. Birds, in my analysis, leads to a more aggressive play style, I believe. One of the plays I'm sure he made over the course of the daily was Fetchland, Birds of Paradise into discard spell and Tarmogoyf, which would in all likelihood be a 4/5. I don't personally prefer this line of play (I'd rather leave up removal), but it is quite the blocker against aggressive decks and quite the clock against control and combo.
Night's Whisper is also interesting. Given the more aggressive style established by the Birds of Paradise over Sylvan Caryatids, Michael is incredibly likely to be running low on cards, especially if that key Gifts Ungiven gets countered by anything not named Remand. The whisper allows him to draw out of that, into the kind of cards he wants to draw. Strikes against it include not being as versatile as Read the Bones (though it is a mana faster, we've established Michael's preference for a one-three curve, and even when that does not happen, I'm sure he'd rather have a different turn two play) and its general "throw it in" nature (not that that's inherently a bad thing; I do believe Night's Whisper is a solid card).
Now for the things I dislike. I am currently of the opinion that the Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins package is too slow to be of any reliable use, especially given the varied mana costs of every deck it should be good against, and Michael is missing the land part of the synergy, leaving the explosives to stick out like a sore thumb. Now, I understand that a Wrath effect main is a good idea (especially if it can deal with other pesky nonland permanents), and if any deck can use Engineered Explosives to its full effectiveness, it's this one, but the card has always felt slow to me.
What the Explosives is good against, is Affinity. In fact, Michael seems to vehemently hate affinity (is this an online metagame thing?), going so far as to dedicate three slots specifically to the match-up, as well as five other cards for other aggressive strategies. Which means that when I look and see Go For The Throat as one of Michael's removal spells, I get confused**. What is the card for? Cards like Phyrexian Obliterator that can't be Smothered or Doom Bladed? Why not Dismember, which is better with his singleton Snapcaster Mage anyways. Even if he doesn't want to lose that key extra bit of life, he does only run two Path to Exiles, with enough white-making lands to run more. He also runs a diverse enough set that a Gifts pile can easily include four removal spells (or three and Snapcaster, if it comes to that), and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason why he would care about giving his opponent more land (e.g. no Remands or Mana Leaks).
The last two things I frowned at were two of the sideboard cards: Drown in Sorrow, for reasons you mentioned, and Dispel, which a poor choice of a counter. Throughout my analysis, I've mentioned the more aggressive nature of The Michael Jacobs List. One mana counters shine in more aggressive builds of anything due to their "wait a turn" or "leftover mana" nature. The problem is that Dispel does nothing that an extra Duress wouldn't do, while the Duress would also allow for almost-perfect information, is useful while not trying to force through a Gifts Ungiven, and is, in my opinion, more disruptive against combo decks.
I would like to close by congratulating to Michael Jacob on his performance. While I do disagree with some of the card choices, it's clear both by the deck design and his record that he knew exactly what he was doing with the deck. It's always nice to see Gifts Ungiven decks do well.
-r
*Has anyone every said they wanted the bad news first (Don't answer that)?
**Full disclosure, I have been running Shriekmaw, which is similarly dead against Affinity, but is at the very least a blocker against their few non-flyers.
I do. Maybe it's because I play conservatively with my lands (read: 95% of the time, if they can come in tapped, they will), but Colonnade to me ends up being a Coastal Tower that also happens to be an extra threat. Admittedly, I haven't found a situation where its presence was specifically welcomed, but it has done work over the games I've played, even if that work is just being a better Coastal Tower.
Short answer: It's something that needs answering in a deck already full of things that need answering.
Shorter answer: Different strokes
Long answer:
In my local meta (read: this is a terrible argument, but I'm going to make it anyway), but the most common graveyard hate is Grafdigger's Cage with Relic of Progenitus being a close second. The first of these two can be completely ignored by Tarmogoyf, and the latter, while definitely a hindrance, is temporary.
Actually, let me expound on that. This is all theorycrafting, because I don't have Tarmogoyfs (this is all just a chance for me to preach my personal play style (sorry)), but Gifts Ungiven decks always seem to my like an amalgamation of cards with Gifts Ungiven as the glue. This deckbuilding style forces a player into a similar mindset, where ones hand is constantly filling up with cards that lead one of multiple routes, with the titular card allowing for the same style of play that somehow fascinated everyone when Twin started doing it*.
Because of this, I've always treated Four-Colo(u)r Gifts as a more controlling Jund deck, because they both have approximately the same plan: Neutralize your opponent's early plays, and let the amazing card advantage of a four mana spell close out the game**. To that end, my game one wins (especially against control decks) inevitably end with a resolved Gifts Ungiven into whatever package is better in the match-up. The sideboard games are where it gets interesting, for precisely the reason you bring up: graveyard hate.
Literally every card, from the Faerie Macabres of Living End to the Rest In Peaces of every deck that can cast it, hurts the ideal packages, which in turn requires alternate strategies to victory. The possible strategies range from "Remove the offending permanent" to my personal favo(u)rite: "Just play Gifts Rock."
In my soapbox on the previous page, I mentioned that the vintage rogue deck Minus Eight would frequently run a transformational sideboard to dodge all the graveyard hate. Gifts can do the same even without the sideboard. By casting Gifts Ungiven for value and gaining card advantage that way, we gain extra theoretical card advantage by making their card dead.†
All this leads back to Tarmogoyf. When Rest In Peace is in play, it is a mostly dead card, and should be treated as such (e.g. "Free" discards to an outlet), but with all other pieces of graveyard hate commonly seen in Modern, it either makes them regret their choice of hate (Grafdigger's Cage, Surgical Extraction, etc.), makes them "have it" in hand because there is a non-zero chance that they do not, or forces them to use it prematurely, leaving the game open to resolve a Gifts Ungiven. It also has the additional bonus of being a real clock against combo decks, the one archetype whose strategy might not include sideboarding in graveyard hate.
Again, I don't have the Tarmogoyfs to test this; this is all opinion-based theorycrafting, but it seems to be why people would want to play it. Personally, I use Kitchen Finks to deal with most of the same issues (okay, it just dies to Grafdigger's Cage, unlike Tarmogoyf, but the point still stands) and give me more of a game against Burn and other aggressive decks.
-r
PS. As much as I hate to bring up the article again, Sigarda + Cavern of Souls seems like a dangerously cool thing, especially when you appear to have Batterskull main.
*Seriously, I get that throwing Tarmogoyf into the Twin deck required reworking the deck, stripping the original to a skeleton, I get that it has different match-ups, and I get that it is more skill-intensive to play, both with and against, but is it really that exciting? (Don't answer that, at least not in this thread. PM me if you must)
**When I first started playing Gifts Ungiven like this, Bloodbraid Elf was still one of the the best things you could do on turn three or four. It isn't anymore, obviously, but the point still stands with cards like Chandra, Pyromaster or whatever.
†Their are two ways this can be flourished. The most obvious is using Gifts Ungiven as a bait spell for something like Batterskull (I've done this multiple times. It's the best feeling ever), while the second, and I've only ever done this once, is flipping the top four cards to an Aven Mindcensor.
In my opinion (one that you may feel free to disregard), I find that transformation sideboards often fall under the "Danger of Cool Things" problem. Sure, it's incredibly cool and awesome and amazing and <superlative adjective> to have a transformational sideboard, but there are multiple caveats to how to go about making one.
First, both decks (the original and the one you board into) should ideally be modular enough in nature to allow for all the flex slots to be boarded in and out. Otherwise, you run the risk of drawing multiple dead cards, which defeats the point of sideboarding (altering the match-up in your favor) entirely. I don't know the exact nature of your list, but I know that, after transformation, you have three cards that have B in their cost, plus two cards you won't be able to cast until turns six and seven if drawn (Wurmcoil Engine and Elesh Norn respectively), all without a discard outlet like Liliana of the Veil or Thirst for Knowledge or whatever. In fact, the branching path nature of most Gifts decks means that weird, often dead, draws happen incredibly often, which is why people in this discussion are theorizing on Pack Rat as an option to supplement their Lilianas in turning "dead" into "at least it's a card."
Second, and I touched on this a little above, is that the point of sideboarding is to make some of your poorer match-ups better. Transformation sideboards therefore have to sideboard into a completely different deck to be of any use. Vintage Minus Six (Worldgorger Dragon Combo for those of you who don't like names) is miserable against almost every single piece of graveyard hate, which every sane Vintage player (contradiction?) has at least seven slots in their sideboard dedicated to. To combat this, they board out every single combo piece and turn into a mediocre Tezzeret build, in the hopes that those seven slots the opponent boards in become worthless.
In conclusion, these are the initial questions you have to answer to have a good transformational sideboard:
What does 4C Gifts beat that Bant Control cannot?
What cards will be dead in your hand, how can you still use them/get rid of them?
What hate are you dodging?
This may be just outside the realm of allowed discussion here, so you should probably PM me if you have a counterargument, or further questions in general.
-r
PS. The Danger of Cool Things should be a required read for all Gifts players.
So sayeth a player at my LGS, who, until recently, ran Melira-Pod to what was basically a dominant success. I don’t blame those who did run full Pod-hate sideboards – he was one of the few players here with a fully constructed Modern deck – but all 15? That just seems like overkill.
But if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t one to read me wax lyrical to the theme of an evolving metagame; you probably started reading this inevitably long post to read a tournament report, which is something I am willing to provide. Here is the list:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 City of Brass
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
Artifacts:
1 Nihil Spellbomb
Creatures:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Etched Oracle
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Mulldrifter
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Shriekmaw
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sun Titan
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Detention Sphere
Instants:
1 Darkblast
2 Disfigure
1 Esper Charm
1 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Path to Exile
2 Thirst for Knowledge
Sorceries:
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Worm Harvest
1 Wrath of God
1 Life from the Loam
1 Unburial Rites
1 Day of Judgement
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Batterskull
2 Celestial Purge
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Infest
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Mana Leak
1 Negate
2 Plumveil
I’ll talk about the deck more after the games, but I must confess that I haven’t been following the evolution of this deck on these forums; I’ve been more tuning it to my LGS metagame, which isn’t as developed as the ones many of you guys might be finding, so take the list with a grain of salt.
Round One of Four: Goblins
Pre-Match:
My LGS runs a BTT Draft synchronous to its Friday constructed events, so we had to wait for all of the drafters to finish deckbuilding. I spent the time chatting with one of my friends who was breaking out a Zoo deck. We tested it out and I got stomped by being too greedy with my mass removal. I made a note to not make that mistake again in the tournament at large.
I spotted this kid trash-talking his friends, using the word “scrub” as a pronoun instead of an adjective. I figured he was on some sort of aggressive deck. Turns out, I was right.
I lose the roll.
Game One:
“Mountain, Lightning Bolt you, go.”
“Draw, Creeping Tar Pit, go.”
“Mountain, Goblin Arsonists, Goblin Grenade, take 6, go.”
He ran out of steam after that, and I stabilized with Kitchen Finks, pathed his Chandra’s Phoenix, and eventually Elesh Norn finished him off.
Sideboarding:
He didn’t have a sideboard, which always made me feel awkward when I reached for mine. I got over it and boarded out the Life from the Loam combos, Sun Titan, and some other stuff I don’t quite remember for the Finks, Celestial Purges and Batterskull
Game Two:
He gets turn 1 Arsonist, turn 2 Grenade, and follows it up with Krenko’s Command as I get mana screwed. It happens.
Game Three:
He doesn’t have his Goblin Grenade synergy this time, and I control the entire game until turn 7 Elesh Norn seals the deal.
1-0 (2-1 in games)
Post-Match:
According to the LGS owner, someone “snuck in” to the tournament, turning a Sixteen-person, end-at-midnight tournament into a Seventeen Person, Five-round slog.
Also saw people playing Mental Magic with their draft decks. I learned that the only two 1B permanents anyone can think of are Dark Confidant and Bitterblossom. I also learned how insane Remand is in Mental Magic, as if it weren’t already insane enough.
Overheard:
“Chandra’s Phoenix is exiled, actually.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t care too much, but it does matter in the phoenix’s case.
“Yeah, I guess it does.”
-Game Three
“I guess I could have cast Scapeshift instead of conceding there, but you probably had something anyways… You didn’t? Goddammit.
-Match next to me: Scapeshift vs Ninja Bears. End of Game Two.
Round Two of Five: White/Black Tokens
Pre-Match:
I remembered this person from a few months ago. She was on White/Black tokens then, and I assumed that’s what she was on now. I was right.
I lose the roll.
Game One:
She goes Doomed Traveler into Precinct Captain. I take a few attack steps, then at the end of her turn three I Thirst the Unburial Rites and Elesh in my hand away, and turn four I get her out. She fights over it a bit more, mostly with Oblivion Rings, but I have Esper Charm and Pulse to deal with those.
Sideboarding:
The mass removal suite gets their sideboard buffers, and the Kitchen Finks come in. The loam package and some other cards not needed in the matchup come in.
Game Two:
Second verse, same as the first, but this time the entomb variant of choice is Gifts Ungiven, its first casting of the night. She manages to Tragic Slip Elesh, but at that point has spent so many resources that my Creeping Tar Pits get there.
2-0 (4-1 in games)
Post-Match:
I made small talk with some other players, the topic of which I don’t remember. Time is called for the round, and it is revealed that no one knows where the last match slip is. Everyone gets a talking-to, and eventually it’s all sorted out. No harm done, more or less.
Overheard:
(Cleaning up after game two)
“You could Tragic Slip, it would put you at one.”
[checks top of library] “Nah.”
-Post-Game Two
Round Three of Five: Naya Superfriends
Pre-Match:
“Save your paths for Elesh Norn,” says the Scapeshift player to my left.
“Thanks, man,” I think.
My opponent has been sitting at the other table the whole tournament, so I have no idea what to expect here. Well, besides that he has Path to Exiles, obviously.
I win the roll.
Game One:
He goes turn one Hierarch, I Disfigure it. He turns out to be mana screwed, and by the time he gets a third land, it’s too late.
Sideboarding:
I have no idea what he’s on at this point, so I just shuffle up my main sixty.
Game Two:
This time, he has enough mana, but I draw all the answers I can. Eventually I cast Shriekmaw and Sun Titan in two turns, and, while he does put up a good fight with Elspeth, Knight-Errant, her Mirrodin version, and Sarkhan Vol, I just power through them and win.
3-0 (6-1 in games)
Post-Match:
He had a trade binder with him, so I snagged some Zendikar lands and a Homeward Path for Inkwell Leviathan and some dollar rares. The Zendikar, because I needed to finish my EDH/Commander deck, and the Homeward Path because I really want to make Perplexing Chimera a thing.
Don’t judge me.
Overheard:
“Just so you know, there’s a token in this deck. It represents this card here, which is really valuable, and I don’t want it to get damaged.”
-Match on my right, before game one. The card turned out to be a foil Snapcaster Mage
Round Four of Five: Scapeshift
Pre-Match:
I haven’t been looking forward to this match. The only cards that even remotely interact with combo in my 75 are the lifegain-creatures and the counterspells in the board.
I win the roll.
Game One:
He scapeshifts turn five.
Sideboarding:
All the removal comes out, Fulminator Mage, Kitchen Finks, and the counters come in.
Game Two:
He scapeshifts turn four.
3-1 (6-3 in games)
Post-Match:
He wants to see my deck, so I let him. We banter about card choices like why I’m not playing Lingering Souls and why I didn’t have more Kitchen Finks in my main deck. It got awkward, so we turn our attention to the patriot control mirror next to us.
Overheard:
“[Questions about the contents of one of the control player’s deck.]”
“You do realize I’m in the middle of a match, right?”
-The Scapeshift player and one of the control players.
Round Five of Five: UWR Control
Pre-Match:
Have I mentioned that it’s near midnight? Because it’s after midnight at that point. And I have to play a control mirror.
There are no words.
Everyone talks about who might get one prize. The Scapeshift player seems locked for first place, so we all talk about who gets second. It turns out that if I win this round, I will probably get second, which is good because the prizes cut to foils after that.
I lose the roll.
Game One:
I get five lands out, but none of them are green and I have to discard, so Worm Harvest hit the bin. Fortunately, he starts missing land drops too, bolting and Helixing me to stay below eight cards. Eventually he taps low for Ajani Vengeant, which gives me an opportunity to Gifts for: Loam, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs, and Ghost Quarter.
Loam and Ghost Quarter hit the bin.
The game goes on, but now I have land drops. He forgets to use Ajani during his next turn, so I send Celestial Colonnade into him. He had his graveyard exiled by Nihil Spellbomb, which got rid of three bolt effects. We keep playing draw-go for a while, except my draws were dredges, which he keeps countering. Eventually, he tries to swing with a Colonnade, but I send it on a Path to Exile, which gives me the opening I need to start recurring Worm Harvest.
He tries another Colonnade, but that runs into my open Ghost Quarter. Anger of the Gods sweeps my worms away, so I Unburial Rites Sun Titan into Phantasmal Image into Kitchen Finks.
He scoops on my attack step.
Sideboarding:
Same plan as the Scapeshift deck, mostly. I keep Path to Exiles in to deal with the oddball manland, and because I don’t have space otherwise.
Game Two:
Again, I don’t find green mana until late in the game, but he doesn’t do anything either. His “mandatory graveyard hate” turns out to be Grafdigger’s Cage, and he also brought in Porphyry Nodes, which gets rid of a Kitchen Finks and a Phantasmal Image copying said Finks.
Around turn ten, after one of Mulldrifter somehow resolves, I decide to go for it with the three Gifts Ungiven in my hand.
“Gifts Ungiven?”
“Cryptic Command. Counter and Draw.”
“Gifts Ungiven?”
“...Okay.”
I find Loam, a fetch, Worm Harvest, and Ghost Quarter.
Thanks to a Maelstrom Pulse on his Cage, I start the Worm Harvest spin again. I eventually dredge Raven’s Crime, and he dies in turns.
4-1 (8-3 in games)
Post-Match:
There are a bunch of reasons I wrote down more of this match than the others. What it mostly comes down to is that there was more of a decision making process than “one-for-one his threats, then Elesh Norn,” or “curl up in a ball and hope he gets mana screwed.”
The win is enough to get me second, which, for this free tournament, gets me a pack of Return to Ravnica and the promo Encroaching Wastes. The pack doesn’t have what I want in it, but hey, I still feel good about it.
Overheard:
“Hey [LGS Owner’s Name Redacted], I need to get home. Can I come back tomorrow and pick up my pack if I win any?”
“Why don’t you just wait the thirty seconds for me to print out this sheet?”
-Me, as I try to leave before 1:00 AM.
“Go, [My name redacted] Go.”
“Shut up.”
-A conversation had between me and an observer during Game Two
Conclusion:
My draft of 4C Gifts is just that: a draft. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone expecting combo, and I’ve since revised it a little to include a small amount of discard. It probably won’t help against dedicated combo decks, but those seem to be in short supply where I play, so there’s that. Still, I feel that the “one-for-one and grind to the lategame” plan has incredible merit in this deck, and the extra two-for-ones that come up in the midgame just strengthen this deck.
I don’t know where my deck goes from here, but I have a feeling it starts with -Etched Oracle, which did nothing all day and was generally relegated to the sideboard; -Phantasmal Image, which is a relic of the legend rules changes; and finding Abrupt Decays.
Props:
Nihil Spellbomb, for being generally amazing every time I played it.
Manlands, for causing the bulk of my wins.
Murmuring Bosk, for being the most “Can I read that?” card I played.
“Swing For It,” by Tha Gatherin’, for hyping me up pre-tournament.
Slops:
Green mana not showing up at times.
Not even thinking about the possibility that a non-creature-based combo deck might show up.
EDIT: Room's up.
EDIT 2: I lost 0-2