I am a fan of the list though. It actually gave me an idea for the singleton version I was working on. Maybe I take it 5c to get as many "redundant" copies as possible, playing it a bit more like Jund splashing UW.
It's just a splash, so I found 'wet' to be inappropriate. Also, alliterations.
You might want to include one or two Pentad Prism in your list and have a look at Bring to Light, I tried this a year or so ago with moderate success, it is pretty janky. Sakura Tribe Elder did quite some work, I also included a Kiki-Jiki with a Restoration Angel and Thragtusk as an additional combo, just for the value. I still have a list saved somewhere, I can PM it to you if you want.
Sure, I'll include a section on his interaction with board wipes, although that's a well-known thing I guess. Regarding the deck construction breakdown, there are also multiple ways to build an Esper list, basically more heavily on U with counters as 'traditional' control or mostly B more similar to a streamlined version of the black-heavy 4C build, both with up and downsides in given environments. I also briefly tried a Bant Midrange approach with Voice of Resurgence and the Knightfall combo, splashing B for Rites and sideboard stuff but it did poorly at the local FNM (against Tron, Bogles, Jeskai Ascendancy, KCI).
I like the 'Moist' Mardu list FuneralofGod is presenting, Looting and Pyro are a quite natural fit I think. The land count is a little low (although Looting somewhat mitigates this), how did this work for you so far? The role of Decay/Trophy/Pulse is more or less taken care of by Terminate/Dreadbore and to some extent also Bolts, have you noticed the lack of inevitability against non-creature and/or non-planeswalker permanents? Liliana as a 1-of sounds odd, I would not go below 4 if the mana can support it, but again, I have no idea how this list plays out. Regarding the banning of Looting, I think it's not too likely, it also kills Mardu Pyromancers and weakens Dredge and Phoenix while doing too little against Hogaak.
Sure, this might draw some fresh attention to the archetype, although the current prevalence of graveyard hate is an issue. Let me mention that your section on mass removal mentions Crime // Punishment as a way of getting rid of Jace VP, which is certainly incorrect, not only because a flipped Jace VP has CMC 2. In the Loam/Crime package the usual choice includes Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for the maximum amount of black mana while Tectonic Edge is generally preferred against UWx archetypes as it keeps them off Cryptic Command and cleanly deals with active Colonnades (or Tar Pits, as both require at least 4 lands). I haven't tried it yet but instead of one of the utility lands (i.e. Academy Ruins), Blast Zone might be worth an inclusion. A notable mention could also be Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, I have quite liked him as a 1-of in the mainboard so far, especially against decks without much interaction and a bunch of graveyard synergies. The lifelink and the bolt-proof toughness help a lot as well.
Regarding the content of the primer, I think one could give some sort of rough guideline towards building certain variations of 4C (or Esper, if you want) Gifts. This kind of thing exists for e.g. GBx archetypes, specifying the number of discard spells, the number of removal, flex slots and so forth. I have most experience with the version heavily relying on B, so I can for sure come up with a rough blueprint for people trying to explore the archetype. Just let me know, I can send you the write-up as a PN and you can update the primer accordingly.
Hello everyone. After a long break from the Deck i am back to brewing with 4 Color Gifts. I enjoy the Rock Style Version of the Deck that splashes blue for Gifts and Snaps. Here is my list:
My thoughts:
- First: I am not sure about the Manabase and the Side Board
- I think Sylvan Caryatid is the best Ramp Creature. Not only because of Phoenix but also because of Wrenn and Six.
- I don't think that Iona is a maindeckable card anymore, so i put it into the Side Board.
- The third Fatal Push could also be the second Path, but i like to have a Turn one black spell (either Push ord Discard)
- Lingering Souls and Liliana of the Veil are Center Pieces of the Deck so i want at least 3 of both. Lingering Souls is also a nice completion to nearly every Gifts Pile
- I like Thragtusk and Baneslayer Angel as hardcastable threads that can stop agressive strategies and in the case of Thragtusk also generate value
- 2 Abrupt Decays are an idea to fight Teferi, Time Raveler and Wrenn and Six and some Side Board Hate
- 4 Nihil Spellbombs instead of Leyline because we don't clock our opponent and need to draw stuff
- I am still a fan of the Loam / Crime Package against UW Control.
First things first, the list looks pretty solid at first glance, more or less the traditional build from 2015 or so. I went up another Liliana back then, as I always wanted to land one on turn 3 (or turn 2 with Birds back then), but that's up to you. Regarding the mana base I think you are fine, according to Frank Karsten's article (essentially) based on the hypergeometric distribution function. Disregarding Ghost Quarter tricks with your own lands, you run 17 B sources, 15 G sources, 12 U sources and 13 W sources in your deck, with an additional +2 to all of them due to your mana dorks. This is sufficient for BB on turn 3, you could even think of adding another utility land (e.g. Academy Ruins and an artifact package with Engineered Explosives). Apart from this I'd advise you to consider Creeping Tar Pit as the manland of choice, unblockable is a big keyword to have while deathtouch rarely matters too much I've found, you usually don't want to trade your lands.
Other than that I mostly agree, I would severely miss Loam/Crime in the main currently. The creature package is a matter of taste, you could consider Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, he does a great job in stabilising the board and is insane in combination with removal (keep the 3rd Push in this case obviously).
As far as the sideboard goes, I strongly prefer Surgical Extraction and Extirpate over Spellbomb. It can be easily combined in a Gifts pile and flashed back with Snapcaster Mage if need be, a split of 3/1 or 2/1 is usually feasible (maybe even 2/1/1 with Spellbomb), depending on your meta. Thrun is best combined with Worship postboard as kind of a 'gotcha' against decks without answers to enchantments. Instead of Collector Ouphe I'd consider Stony Silence, it is harder to remove and further blanks the opponent's removal spells. Is Terastodon worth the slot for the Tron matchup? I try to not dedicate too much space towards it.
There are a few things that come to my mind when browsing through your list from a few posts ago.
Your discard suite is all over the place, you want T1 discard almost all the time, hence maximize on Inquisition and Thoughtseize, the usual split is 3/2 with Raven's Crime and 4/2 without Raven's Crime. Brutality doubles as a discard spell but is in a different mana slot, that's the 7th piece alltogether. Note that it doesn't hit enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers or creatures. Thought Erasure and Castigate sound nice on paper, but are too slow and hence low-impact for Modern.
For removal more or less the same applies, personally I like a couple of Fatal Push in the main as it is one of the most efficient answers we have. The go-to number for me always was 2, but feel free to toy around a little. Removal turn 1 can also free up turn 2 ramp in certain matchups. Similar to discard, I tend to play 8 spot removal pieces without counting LotV for either as she serves multiple roles. On top of this, Damnation and Engineered Explosives also act as removal.
Your utility only contains one Liliana? I have always considered her as one of the central pieces of the deck, I would not go below 3 if you are on the disruptive game plan with a heavy lean on discard. She makes assembling profitable Gifts piles much easier as well, you can just discard unwanted cards for later use and get the full 4 cards value in your pile. Do you need the 2 Spellbombs for your local meta?
While 3 utility lands are fine, I'd go up to 2 manlands, Creeping Tar Pit being the best option, otherwise Celestial Colonnade or Shambling Vent. You want black, green/blue mana in the early stages of the game and mainly in this sequence. White is a tertiary concern and mostly needed for the reanimation package or Path, which you don't want to cast too early anyway.
The ramp package is unfocused: While 6 pieces are in principle fine (if a little much for my personal taste), I would go with a playset of Caryatids as they almost always survive a turn. I used to play Birds in 2016/17, but they tend to die on sight even more often in the age of Izzet/Mono R Phoenix. An alternative could be Steve or most recently Paradise Druid, which guarantees at least ramp for the next turn. Lotus Cobra doesn't give you anything when it comes into play (unless in e.g. Saheeli Evolution decks off of a T1 Bird) and is easily removed, making it a tempo loss and hence terrible T2 play.
The mana base is a little off, you play 8 basics and only 6 fetchlands, the usual ratio is 4-5 basics and 9-10 fetchlands to ensure the hungry mana requirements are met properly, especially black on T1 is important. I would roughly follow this guideline, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can further supply you with black mana, especially relevant with the double-B costs of Liliana and the Loam/Crime package, allowing you to retrace Crime the maximal amount of times.
@trixster87: Regarding the use of Hall of Heliod's Generosity I tried to employ the Solemnity/Unlife lock with the help of a Loam package, but it tends to be too slow and/or too fragile. The shell was modified to be mostly WGub enchantress with a reanimation package. Idyllic Tutor just does a better job in this kind of build, it gets everything directly and a turn earlier. Against aggro it was fine, mostly due to Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety, the lack of proper disruption is the biggest issue though, Death's Shadow in all varieties eats the deck alive.
I tried to toy around with Hall of Heliod's Generosity and an enchantment package similar to the artifact package in the more traditional lists, it did not seem too good to be honest and was a somewhat diluted enchantress build with some Gifts synergies. As for the rest, mostly agreed, yes, the Gifts/Rites package is underwhelming against quite a portion of the current metagame. However, against Dredge (and slower draws of the former HogVine builds) Elesh Norn is not bad, a proper split of Extirpate and Extractions together with Snapcasters can give enough time to reach turn 4 a reasonable amount of time, the same can be said for Phoenix and Iona, at least in my (in fact limited) experience. What works quite nicely is the matchup against UW Control, the important point here is enough early discard (6-7 slots, say), LotV and the Loam/Crime package. The only thing is trying to not get the Gifts countered, getting Loam countered repeatedly afterwards eventually grinds through their ability to keep up.
Do you have experience in the Sultai Reclamation matchup? If so, of what kind?
I would disagree that the list plays out as midrange, compared to other GBx archetypes we lack a clock alltogether. The early builds had often more than 10 creatures in their deck, among them things like Goyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Tireless Tracker, Grim Flayer, Scavenging Ooze und such. Contrary to that, I currently play 5 creatures, reanimation targets included. I think the best description for this strategy is attrition-based control, contrary to permission-based archetypes like UWx. That said, there is an adaption of the 4C Gifts strategy to the latter approach, see for example https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1644845#paper. Growth Spiral was kind of the missing piece in this kind of list.
If you don't enjoy midrange matches, this could regardless be a deck for you. Gifts gives you access to a plethora of answers, some of which are:
Life from the Loam, Raven's Crime, Urborg and Tectonic Edge in grindy matches and/or control mirrors.
Life from the Loam, Academy Ruins, Engineered Explosives + X for permanent-based control and/or prison strategies, recurring removal.
Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, Snapcaster Mage, Maelstrom Pulse lets you deal with any (nonland) permanent.
Life from the Loam, Academy Ruins, Ensnaring Bridge + X for dealing with slower creature-based strategies.
This did not include the obvious Gifts/Rites against things like Humans, Merfolk or Storm to name a few examples. Depending on the board state you can extend the Gifts piles or search for the Gifts/Rites package + extra value stuff like Loam, Crime or Souls, just pitch the creature to an active Liliana. There is virtually no board state you can't get out of, given you fetched correctly in the early turns.
I have played a similar list at some point in the past and I absolutely did not like it. It is way too durdly and frankly, quite janky. Of course the results speak for themselves, but there is a whole pile of problems I see with this particular configuration. First of all, the Bring to Light router is even slower than the traditional approach, which in itself is borderline at the current speed of Modern. Sure, once in a while you search for Thragtusk or Sigarda, but you haven't saved yourself any mana but needed to spend WUBRG instead of 4G or 2GWW, respectively. The colours worked out fine, to be fair.
Secondly, there is way too much air in this list and far too little interaction. Personally, I wouldn't mind Gaddock Teeg at all since it does not apply a significant amount of pressure and dies to Push, Path, Decay, Trophy, Brutality, Liliana and Pulse. That's 13 outs still not counting turn 1 discard effects (5 of those, additionally) should it be necessary, so please be my guest and play Teeg on turn 2. What does Bring to Light help if there are no proper outs to search for or if you would have to spend 5 mana instead of a simple removal spell + something that puts you ahead? Cut the Search for Tomorrow, cut the Bring to Light, cut Sigarda and Ashen Rider, cut Pentad Prism, switch to proper mana dorks if you insist on playing them, skip Faithless Looting and drop the 5th colour. Instead, play things that interact with your opponent (and Liliana of the Veil, she's great), that's the only route to victory as this deck is impossibly faster than any remotely competitive deck in Modern. Improving your topdecks is key in many matchups.
If you want to have a go at janky creature combo, try 4C Saheeli Evolution, that's a blast to play and potentially pretty fast.
First of all, congratulations of becoming father and all the best for the future!
Secondly, Caryatid can't block that many guys in the current metagame if you want her to survive. Since you are not supposed to chump when you want to wratch the board on turn 3, you don't save any damage is the opponent has creatures with power 3 or more (that is, Hollow One, Amalgam, Tarmogoyf, Tracker to name a few). Regarding that Spiral is a much better topdeck and the manabase is fine even without them (go up a land when going from dorks to cantrips, though), I think it's correct to run Spirals if the colour focus of the deck can support it. I'm also not sure if you need to stabilize with some big dude on the board, planeswalkers usually do a good job in keeping the opponent at bay at some point, especially LotV, JtMS and big Teferi, depending on your colour pie again.
So, I in fact strongly dislike Caryatids currently and the reasons are twofold: First of all, it feels just so bad when you need to immediately get a Wrath package to have your dorks die just after you have played them. Secondly and somewhat related, keeping up T2 interaction allows for Growth Spiral at the end of the opponent's turn, leaving you with the exact same amount of mana sources on T3. Given that lists with Spiral play a smidge more lands than those with dorks, having a third (or fourth) land is very likely in these lists.
Kind of similar experience with a more creature-heavy list, the bigger dudes such as Lyra or Baneslayer Angel just immediately eat removal and do nothing apart from being a massive tempo swing in favour of the opponent. I think it's better to let the opponent's removal be dead and make our own creatures have an immediate impact on the board (Snapcaster and Elesh Norn, basically) or even be removal proof in certain situations such as Iona. Apart from that, running Kalitas is kind of a meta choice with Phoenix and Dredge around, the above argument equally applies unless we can kill and hence exile creatures in response. Apart from that, I have found the lack of discard to be a little concerning, we have no hand disruption beyond Brutality, which does only take instants and sorceries. Taking Azcanta, Teferi, Jace or Reclamation is often crucial, to name a few.
In the end it might be a meta choice, I'll move back to a more control-ish list.
Congratulations to your finish, I am always glad to see 4C Gifts putting up results. Interesting how your impression is that the control matchups are the more difficult ones, apart from Sultai Teachings (which is rather bad due to all their instant speed shenanigans). A resolved Gifts is half a win due to Loam/Crime/Souls and there is almost always a window to resolve Gifts against UWx archetypes, also Inquisition, Thoughtseize, Brutality and Liliana are really good against those decks. That's one point I absolutely like about this deck, shifting the main colours leaves so much space for customisation. As it currently stands, I might just try your list and report my findings.
I totally agree with cutting Sun Titan for Gideon, walkers that protect themselves are great here. Regarding the colour focus, I guess Wildwood is fine as well, but I would thoroughly miss my Tar Pits against opposing planeswalkers. Why Baneslayer over Lyra? Occasional synergy with Iona and a split between Lyra/Baneslayer in MB and SB works fine. I am still not entirely sold on Caryatids, if you're already heavier on GW you might try Growth Spiral in that slot, which gives you access to Wraths a turn earlier and hence might as well save you some life while not dying to your own sweepers. And it cantrips later in the game, which makes it superior to dorks as well. Do you like the 4th Wrath better than the 4th Gifts? I almost always want to see Gifts in my games. As far as the sideboard is concerned, try Raven's Crime instead of Worm Harvest in the board against control, it's great. Have you considered Surgical Extraction as well? Synergises pretty well with Snapcaster Mage and can provide a nice Gifts pile with Unmoored Ego, Extirpate and such.
How did you like Field of Ruin so far? I have the fear of running out of basics, especially when recurring it with Loam. I am tinkering with a more WUGb midrange-ish list currently, as I always end up jamming Knight of the Reliquary into Gifts decks. I might draw some inspiration from your list, I like the bigger Liliana, Gideon and Thrun (+ Worship). Last time I tried this approach I went 0-4-1 in my local FNM, so maybe this time...
Quite spicy at first glance, still there are a few things that come to mind: You have not very much (early) disruption going on, neither discard nor early interaction you are eager to cast (Path isn't really a pleasure in the first 3 turns), Fatal Push is a pretty natural inclusion in a deck relying on B and we can consistently trigger revolt with the fetchlands. Brutality is of course fine, but occasionally whiffs on important cards, be it creatures, enchantments (looking at Blood Moon) or planeswalkers, Inquisition and Thoughtseize (maybe Duress, depending on your meta) are often better.
At a second glance, the mana base looks a little awkward, I have counted only 6 fetchlands (Field of Ruin not counted). Contrary to that, I play 10 of those with the same number of basics as you do, together with 2 colourless sources and 25 lands in total due to the lack of dorks, which sounds about right going through the numbers. I have however come to the point where I don't like mana dorks, Birds are just too fragile right now, on turn 2 I rather have disruption and/or removal available, turn 3 usually is occupied with LotV. Turn 3 Gifts is of course nice, but drawing a dork later in the game feels terrible in grindy matchups, hence I skipped them altogether.
The 3BB Liliana seems fine, more or less the same effective cost as an Unburial Rites in your hand with additional upside. Baneslayer is also a nice reanimation target in certain matchups, be it Burn or more recently Izzet Phoenix, although the default options also do the trick most of the time here. I am not a fan of Sun Titan, there is not much to get back apart from Champion, Snapcaster, Azcanta and lands. Maybe add a second Snapcaster in that slot? I have always enjoyed having multiples and 2 seems to be the sweet spot. Doom Whisperer is definitely spicy, I don't see it do much though to be honest, it is even underwhelming in Standard most of the time.
I have tried Azcanta as well, but in the grindy lists it has always conflicted with the disruption plan, as it fits more in a traditional, permission-based control shell. Maybe it does the job in your build, definitely nothing wrong with including that one. How have the wraths been doing for you? I feel that merely destroying creatures isn't enough, which is why I have gone over to using Terminus in one of my current UWgb Gifts builds, together with Growth Spiral as the primary ramp option to hold up interaction on turn 2 (as opposed to disruption in attrition-based lists). This of course requires at least 3 JtMS and a more heavy lean on U, hence skipping LotV completely, which works out fine so far. Alternatively, Ensnaring Bridge seems like an option for build with heavy discard, removal and most importantly LotV. Has a nice synergy with Lingering Souls, too and can be disposed of rather easily if needed, although drawing up to 3 cards to swing with pumped tokens or leaving back Iona is both fine, the game at this point is fairly locked up then.
The sideboard does seem a little messy, still. Worm Harvest without Life from the Loam? I also think you need more GY interaction, Surgical Extraction and Extirpate synergize pretty well with Snapcaster Mage and can be searched for in a deterministic pile. This could replace the Spellbombs (since you have no artifact synergy, i.e. Academy Ruins) and the Unmoored Ego, which is often too slow I suppose. Eternal Witness is nice with Titan of course, but I found GG to be always a little rough on the mana side, but maybe your dorks pull the weight for you. Runed Halo is spicy, but this and the rest seems legit, in the end I have of course no idea how your (local) meta looks like, so take everything in this paragraph with a grain of salt.
I need to rely mostly on Nahiri to carry that matchup. The matchup isn't good. The DragonLord Silumgar gives you a somewhat feasible path to victory -> As long as your topdeck is stronger than your opponent and they are using their resources to slow down your land drop but not applying relevant pressure, you're not in a bad position.
90% of the time I clique myself. Clique is relevant as a card draw and to apply pressure on their walkers.
The Worm Harvest is a tutor target where you go Gifts into 3 Fetches + Worm Harvest. Then you use Worm Harvest every turn to retrace 5-10 worms every turn. This is my package against control decks. Its also a second gifts "bullet" in case for some reason your first bullet was removed by some odd way.
The problem was against Control decks like UW, Abzan etc. You cannot name them off a color and they got too many sweepers and removal to make reanimating something like Grave Titan a reasonable plan.
You can also go something like Liliana/ Jace Discard - Hold Priority -> Gifts for Worm, Unburial, Iona. Then discard what they give you.
The deck replaces the Inquisitions with 4 Brutalities.
Well, if they drop a Blood Moon and get either your Swamp or Island, there is no way of casting the Dragon. And there is no way you can discard their Blood Moon apart from Clique (since Brutality does not hit Enchantments), which forces you to fetch for a nonbasic. Same story with the Plains as far as Unburial Rites is concerned, at this point it pretty much does not matter anymore if they apply pressure because essentially your whole deck is uncastable, all but (at best) a few topdecks become dead draws.
True that, the planeswalker issue is solved by Abrupt Decay and Assassin's Trophy in the lists with G, one of the reasons to consider this instead of R.
True, against UWx and other control archetypes we need something to close out the game with, the fatties don't do it reliably enough. Sometimes Elesh + Lingering Souls is a fast enough clock, but the tokens (and somewhat Norn herself) are rather fragile when it comes to removal. I rely on manlands + Loam if they should get disrupted in any way, recently going for 2 Tar Pits instead of a 1/1 split with Colonnades because they can be activated much earlier and provide a B source (I have 17 currently). Still, triple-B seems like a stretch for the manabase, for casting it on curve (that is, after a T4 Gifts) you need 18 black sources (just as for LotV) without a single one being disrupted along the way. Since you don't run G you can't use the hybrid mana either and Remand or any counter is a huge tempo loss with this kind of play, but this gets us in many cases I guess...
As said, Brutalities don't get creatures, enchantments or planeswalkers and are a full turn slower. Imo, Brutalities can supplement the discard suite (hence I run it as a 1-of, maybe exchanging it with Bridge going to the sideboard) but not replace it. Of course, I do not run Clique, but that's two turns slower, where games are sometimes effectively (or actually) over.
Check your inbox, the list is somewhat off-topic to this thread for the people wondering, more Bring to Light jank than proper Gifts.
It's just a splash, so I found 'wet' to be inappropriate. Also, alliterations.
You might want to include one or two Pentad Prism in your list and have a look at Bring to Light, I tried this a year or so ago with moderate success, it is pretty janky. Sakura Tribe Elder did quite some work, I also included a Kiki-Jiki with a Restoration Angel and Thragtusk as an additional combo, just for the value. I still have a list saved somewhere, I can PM it to you if you want.
I like the 'Moist' Mardu list FuneralofGod is presenting, Looting and Pyro are a quite natural fit I think. The land count is a little low (although Looting somewhat mitigates this), how did this work for you so far? The role of Decay/Trophy/Pulse is more or less taken care of by Terminate/Dreadbore and to some extent also Bolts, have you noticed the lack of inevitability against non-creature and/or non-planeswalker permanents? Liliana as a 1-of sounds odd, I would not go below 4 if the mana can support it, but again, I have no idea how this list plays out. Regarding the banning of Looting, I think it's not too likely, it also kills Mardu Pyromancers and weakens Dredge and Phoenix while doing too little against Hogaak.
Regarding the content of the primer, I think one could give some sort of rough guideline towards building certain variations of 4C (or Esper, if you want) Gifts. This kind of thing exists for e.g. GBx archetypes, specifying the number of discard spells, the number of removal, flex slots and so forth. I have most experience with the version heavily relying on B, so I can for sure come up with a rough blueprint for people trying to explore the archetype. Just let me know, I can send you the write-up as a PN and you can update the primer accordingly.
First things first, the list looks pretty solid at first glance, more or less the traditional build from 2015 or so. I went up another Liliana back then, as I always wanted to land one on turn 3 (or turn 2 with Birds back then), but that's up to you. Regarding the mana base I think you are fine, according to Frank Karsten's article (essentially) based on the hypergeometric distribution function. Disregarding Ghost Quarter tricks with your own lands, you run 17 B sources, 15 G sources, 12 U sources and 13 W sources in your deck, with an additional +2 to all of them due to your mana dorks. This is sufficient for BB on turn 3, you could even think of adding another utility land (e.g. Academy Ruins and an artifact package with Engineered Explosives). Apart from this I'd advise you to consider Creeping Tar Pit as the manland of choice, unblockable is a big keyword to have while deathtouch rarely matters too much I've found, you usually don't want to trade your lands.
Other than that I mostly agree, I would severely miss Loam/Crime in the main currently. The creature package is a matter of taste, you could consider Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, he does a great job in stabilising the board and is insane in combination with removal (keep the 3rd Push in this case obviously).
As far as the sideboard goes, I strongly prefer Surgical Extraction and Extirpate over Spellbomb. It can be easily combined in a Gifts pile and flashed back with Snapcaster Mage if need be, a split of 3/1 or 2/1 is usually feasible (maybe even 2/1/1 with Spellbomb), depending on your meta. Thrun is best combined with Worship postboard as kind of a 'gotcha' against decks without answers to enchantments. Instead of Collector Ouphe I'd consider Stony Silence, it is harder to remove and further blanks the opponent's removal spells. Is Terastodon worth the slot for the Tron matchup? I try to not dedicate too much space towards it.
@trixster87: Regarding the use of Hall of Heliod's Generosity I tried to employ the Solemnity/Unlife lock with the help of a Loam package, but it tends to be too slow and/or too fragile. The shell was modified to be mostly WGub enchantress with a reanimation package. Idyllic Tutor just does a better job in this kind of build, it gets everything directly and a turn earlier. Against aggro it was fine, mostly due to Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety, the lack of proper disruption is the biggest issue though, Death's Shadow in all varieties eats the deck alive.
Do you have experience in the Sultai Reclamation matchup? If so, of what kind?
If you don't enjoy midrange matches, this could regardless be a deck for you. Gifts gives you access to a plethora of answers, some of which are:
This did not include the obvious Gifts/Rites against things like Humans, Merfolk or Storm to name a few examples. Depending on the board state you can extend the Gifts piles or search for the Gifts/Rites package + extra value stuff like Loam, Crime or Souls, just pitch the creature to an active Liliana. There is virtually no board state you can't get out of, given you fetched correctly in the early turns.
Edit: Somewhat off-topic, but maybe you want to have a look at 4C Saheeli: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1860239#paper
Secondly, there is way too much air in this list and far too little interaction. Personally, I wouldn't mind Gaddock Teeg at all since it does not apply a significant amount of pressure and dies to Push, Path, Decay, Trophy, Brutality, Liliana and Pulse. That's 13 outs still not counting turn 1 discard effects (5 of those, additionally) should it be necessary, so please be my guest and play Teeg on turn 2. What does Bring to Light help if there are no proper outs to search for or if you would have to spend 5 mana instead of a simple removal spell + something that puts you ahead? Cut the Search for Tomorrow, cut the Bring to Light, cut Sigarda and Ashen Rider, cut Pentad Prism, switch to proper mana dorks if you insist on playing them, skip Faithless Looting and drop the 5th colour. Instead, play things that interact with your opponent (and Liliana of the Veil, she's great), that's the only route to victory as this deck is impossibly faster than any remotely competitive deck in Modern. Improving your topdecks is key in many matchups.
If you want to have a go at janky creature combo, try 4C Saheeli Evolution, that's a blast to play and potentially pretty fast.
Secondly, Caryatid can't block that many guys in the current metagame if you want her to survive. Since you are not supposed to chump when you want to wratch the board on turn 3, you don't save any damage is the opponent has creatures with power 3 or more (that is, Hollow One, Amalgam, Tarmogoyf, Tracker to name a few). Regarding that Spiral is a much better topdeck and the manabase is fine even without them (go up a land when going from dorks to cantrips, though), I think it's correct to run Spirals if the colour focus of the deck can support it. I'm also not sure if you need to stabilize with some big dude on the board, planeswalkers usually do a good job in keeping the opponent at bay at some point, especially LotV, JtMS and big Teferi, depending on your colour pie again.
Kind of similar experience with a more creature-heavy list, the bigger dudes such as Lyra or Baneslayer Angel just immediately eat removal and do nothing apart from being a massive tempo swing in favour of the opponent. I think it's better to let the opponent's removal be dead and make our own creatures have an immediate impact on the board (Snapcaster and Elesh Norn, basically) or even be removal proof in certain situations such as Iona. Apart from that, running Kalitas is kind of a meta choice with Phoenix and Dredge around, the above argument equally applies unless we can kill and hence exile creatures in response. Apart from that, I have found the lack of discard to be a little concerning, we have no hand disruption beyond Brutality, which does only take instants and sorceries. Taking Azcanta, Teferi, Jace or Reclamation is often crucial, to name a few.
In the end it might be a meta choice, I'll move back to a more control-ish list.
I totally agree with cutting Sun Titan for Gideon, walkers that protect themselves are great here. Regarding the colour focus, I guess Wildwood is fine as well, but I would thoroughly miss my Tar Pits against opposing planeswalkers. Why Baneslayer over Lyra? Occasional synergy with Iona and a split between Lyra/Baneslayer in MB and SB works fine. I am still not entirely sold on Caryatids, if you're already heavier on GW you might try Growth Spiral in that slot, which gives you access to Wraths a turn earlier and hence might as well save you some life while not dying to your own sweepers. And it cantrips later in the game, which makes it superior to dorks as well. Do you like the 4th Wrath better than the 4th Gifts? I almost always want to see Gifts in my games. As far as the sideboard is concerned, try Raven's Crime instead of Worm Harvest in the board against control, it's great. Have you considered Surgical Extraction as well? Synergises pretty well with Snapcaster Mage and can provide a nice Gifts pile with Unmoored Ego, Extirpate and such.
How did you like Field of Ruin so far? I have the fear of running out of basics, especially when recurring it with Loam. I am tinkering with a more WUGb midrange-ish list currently, as I always end up jamming Knight of the Reliquary into Gifts decks. I might draw some inspiration from your list, I like the bigger Liliana, Gideon and Thrun (+ Worship). Last time I tried this approach I went 0-4-1 in my local FNM, so maybe this time...
At a second glance, the mana base looks a little awkward, I have counted only 6 fetchlands (Field of Ruin not counted). Contrary to that, I play 10 of those with the same number of basics as you do, together with 2 colourless sources and 25 lands in total due to the lack of dorks, which sounds about right going through the numbers. I have however come to the point where I don't like mana dorks, Birds are just too fragile right now, on turn 2 I rather have disruption and/or removal available, turn 3 usually is occupied with LotV. Turn 3 Gifts is of course nice, but drawing a dork later in the game feels terrible in grindy matchups, hence I skipped them altogether.
The 3BB Liliana seems fine, more or less the same effective cost as an Unburial Rites in your hand with additional upside. Baneslayer is also a nice reanimation target in certain matchups, be it Burn or more recently Izzet Phoenix, although the default options also do the trick most of the time here. I am not a fan of Sun Titan, there is not much to get back apart from Champion, Snapcaster, Azcanta and lands. Maybe add a second Snapcaster in that slot? I have always enjoyed having multiples and 2 seems to be the sweet spot. Doom Whisperer is definitely spicy, I don't see it do much though to be honest, it is even underwhelming in Standard most of the time.
I have tried Azcanta as well, but in the grindy lists it has always conflicted with the disruption plan, as it fits more in a traditional, permission-based control shell. Maybe it does the job in your build, definitely nothing wrong with including that one. How have the wraths been doing for you? I feel that merely destroying creatures isn't enough, which is why I have gone over to using Terminus in one of my current UWgb Gifts builds, together with Growth Spiral as the primary ramp option to hold up interaction on turn 2 (as opposed to disruption in attrition-based lists). This of course requires at least 3 JtMS and a more heavy lean on U, hence skipping LotV completely, which works out fine so far. Alternatively, Ensnaring Bridge seems like an option for build with heavy discard, removal and most importantly LotV. Has a nice synergy with Lingering Souls, too and can be disposed of rather easily if needed, although drawing up to 3 cards to swing with pumped tokens or leaving back Iona is both fine, the game at this point is fairly locked up then.
The sideboard does seem a little messy, still. Worm Harvest without Life from the Loam? I also think you need more GY interaction, Surgical Extraction and Extirpate synergize pretty well with Snapcaster Mage and can be searched for in a deterministic pile. This could replace the Spellbombs (since you have no artifact synergy, i.e. Academy Ruins) and the Unmoored Ego, which is often too slow I suppose. Eternal Witness is nice with Titan of course, but I found GG to be always a little rough on the mana side, but maybe your dorks pull the weight for you. Runed Halo is spicy, but this and the rest seems legit, in the end I have of course no idea how your (local) meta looks like, so take everything in this paragraph with a grain of salt.
Well, if they drop a Blood Moon and get either your Swamp or Island, there is no way of casting the Dragon. And there is no way you can discard their Blood Moon apart from Clique (since Brutality does not hit Enchantments), which forces you to fetch for a nonbasic. Same story with the Plains as far as Unburial Rites is concerned, at this point it pretty much does not matter anymore if they apply pressure because essentially your whole deck is uncastable, all but (at best) a few topdecks become dead draws.
True that, the planeswalker issue is solved by Abrupt Decay and Assassin's Trophy in the lists with G, one of the reasons to consider this instead of R.
True, against UWx and other control archetypes we need something to close out the game with, the fatties don't do it reliably enough. Sometimes Elesh + Lingering Souls is a fast enough clock, but the tokens (and somewhat Norn herself) are rather fragile when it comes to removal. I rely on manlands + Loam if they should get disrupted in any way, recently going for 2 Tar Pits instead of a 1/1 split with Colonnades because they can be activated much earlier and provide a B source (I have 17 currently). Still, triple-B seems like a stretch for the manabase, for casting it on curve (that is, after a T4 Gifts) you need 18 black sources (just as for LotV) without a single one being disrupted along the way. Since you don't run G you can't use the hybrid mana either and Remand or any counter is a huge tempo loss with this kind of play, but this gets us in many cases I guess...
As said, Brutalities don't get creatures, enchantments or planeswalkers and are a full turn slower. Imo, Brutalities can supplement the discard suite (hence I run it as a 1-of, maybe exchanging it with Bridge going to the sideboard) but not replace it. Of course, I do not run Clique, but that's two turns slower, where games are sometimes effectively (or actually) over.