Off-Topic General Discussion - Page 4672

From my experience playing 4C Gifts, the first thing that stands out to me is your mana base. I assume it's only a WIP sort of thing since you're running pain lands and Arcane Sanctum but I'll write as though budget is not an issue, so you have an idea what you want to aim for. Also, some specifics of your mana base are going to depend on the exact spread of colours in your deck so I'll try and make the advice generic.

First improvement is upping the Fetch land count to 8-10 on-colour Fetches (e.g. Flooded Strand, Windswept Heath, Verdant Catacomb.) Ideally you'd want to emphasise on the G/B Fetches (i.e. Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, etc.) because you're learning on those two colours in the early game to just survive. You lose hard to Blood Moon like most 4C decks. So ideally you want to being able to use your Fetches to get Basic Forests and Swamps if you're worried about Blood Moon before quickly picking up the Blue source as and when you need it. Cost is obviously an issue though, and with the Zendikar Fetches most likely being reprinted in October you can do fine with the Onslaught/Tarkir Fetches. Just be conscious you may be forced to fetch for Shock lands and eat some damage as a result.

Not a big fan of Treetop Village here. It's not producing two colours while also coming into play tapped. It's also much better in 4C decks which are much heavier on creatures. When you have a solitary 3/3 there's a lot of things that just chump it for days. You already have a Celestial Collonade so Creeping Tar Pit is the replacement here. Not only does it produce dual colours, but being unblockable is very important for getting through a wall of creatures to hit opposing Planeswalkers such as Liliana if you need it to so it can play double duty as a kill-spell land so to speak or sneak in for those extra points of damage if necessary. Think of it like how Vendilion Clique is used as a way to kill Jace the Mind Sculptor in Legacy by flying over Tarmogoyfs or whatever.

Drop the Woodland Cemetary. Generally if you have one of these in your opening hand it's not great because there's a decent change you can't play it untapped. And the first few turns are the most crucial to just not die so you can start grinding people out. Fast lands like Darkslick Shores fit in better than Check lands. And add a Water Grave just so you complete the cycle of Shock lands you can fetch.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is also worth slotting in as a 1-of for value Gifts packages. Also gives extra value since it means you're not pressured to crack your fetches if you just need non-colour specific mana and lets you lean more heavily on non-B producing duals when fetching.

If you're still having mana problems then maybe try the Filter lands from Shadowmoor and Eventide?

I assume you want to play the 4C Gifts deck that suddenly blows people out with a Gifts Ungiven for Iona, Shield of Emeria or Elesh Norn rather than a creature based deck where Gifts is just a cherry on top given your comments. So my advice is focused on this axis. I'm also assuming you're not going full on "my only creatures are Unburial Rites targets" route.

You need Snapcaster Mage. Pricey, but it's pretty important to be able to abuse stuff in your graveyard and you can always throw it as a chump when necessary.

Get rid of the Sakura Tribe Elder. It's low impact and if you're only playing 5 Basics and fetching them early to play around Blood Moon they just don't do anything. They're a terrible top deck, and you're not going to put them in a Gifts pile.

That being said, you might be interested in Sylvan Caryatid here. Still a mana dork, but can also chump Goblin Guide for days and can't be randomly Lighting Bolted so you can play around losing it. I'd also drop the Birds of Paradise. It's kind of sad there as a one-of and if you need to ramp into Gifts then Sylvan Caryatid does the job while also playing defence against the aggro decks. Birds is best when you play it Turn 1 and ramp into a 3-drop. As a 1-of it's just a card that makes a really bad top-deck and why would you ever Gifts for this lol.

Kitchen Finks is a main-deck concession to Burn and Aggro I assume. Ok, not a huge fan but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Tarmogoyfs would be ok but best in a larger creature shell and again cost consideration.

Ok. So. Sun Titan. I really adore this card and how it recurs Tectonic Edge and stuff. But for your meta it's too slow. It comes in, is a big creature, great. But you don't get full value unless you grind for ages recurring stuff. If you're worried about getting run over by Burn or whatever, this is a dead card. Sideboard material at best here. Also, if you're looking to play a hay-maker and overpower, say, UWR Control or GBx Rock then Grave Titan is worth considering since it immediately demands an answer and grinds hard too.

And Eternal Witness... I think you're trying to be too cute here. Your primary goal here is to stabilise, and then combo out a large fattie and just kill them. Being cute by playing recursion games seems underwhelming and it's a huge mana sink to do so. It's a decent top deck maybe. Hm. I suppose you could use them as "budget" Snapcaster Mage but be aware they're slow and not something you want in your final deck.

I disagree with Cixah on the Grafdigger's Cage point cause no one really plays them in Modern. And Graveyard hate is really low since lots of decks want to be using it as a resource for Tasigur, Living End, Snapcaster Mage, etc. You do want Enchantment/Artifact answers sideboard though. Stuff like Nature's Claim, Esper Charm and the like. Killing Enchantments is more important that Artifacts here imo because Leyline of Sanctity turns off your Gifts Ungiven and in a Burn heavy meta people will be running them.

No Thoughtseize main is fine since you're going to be doing a lot of damage to yourself with shock lands anyway. But drop the Duress for more Inquisition of Kozilek. In your meta being able to hit creatures like Snapcaster Mage, Blighted Agent, Goblin Guide, etc. is very important. And against Combo there are very few cards IoK doesn't hit that Duress does. In fact I don't think there are any at all. So you're not exactly losing out on anything. I guess maybe against, say, Infect you can't hit a few edge cards like Become Immense which generally isn't you first target to discard anyway I'm going to say? But not worth the trade-off of not hitting creatures.

Wrath of God is fine but the colour cost is the biggest issue here. Hitting WU for Supreme Verdict is easier than WW for Wrath. Unless your meta is infested with regenerating creatures but I assume not given what you've said.

Darkblast is fine when you have a lot of X/1s you need to deal with such as Lingering Souls tokens. But I'd probably sideboard them since they're not good against Burn, UWR, Zoo and a lot of other Aggro decks also doesn't have X/1s you want to hit.

1-of Farseek I disagree with. If it's for a value Gifts package why aren't you just getting the land anyway and it can't fetch utility lands or man-lands. And as a top-deck it's underwhelming. You're also not trying to ramp. It just creates bad top decks and you have enough worrying about drawing into one of your reanimation targets already.

Not playing 4 Gifts Ungiven is wrong. I can't think of any reason not to play 4.

Abrupt Decay is such a good card you shouldn't be playing only 1. 4 is too much, but 2-3 is much better. Sure it cuts down on tutor targets but that's not a reason not to play a very good card. Also, the point of the deck isn't to maximise tutor targets and cuteness with Gifts packages. It's to have enough Gifts targets so that you can make plays with, but still be streamlined and efficient that you're not just making your deck worse. So ideally you want the minimum number of 1-ofs as you can get away with and then everything else supports the primary Gifts -> Fattie plan.

No counterspells in the 75 seems suspect. You're generally not tapping out and even if you're not leaning on them heavily, a few just to keep the other player honest is important. Or to fight a counter war over resolving a Gifts Ungiven or Unburial Rites.

2x Liliana of the Veil is also a bit low. Both the creature heavy and almost-no-creature versions of 4C Gifts run 3 because you want to see this more often. Cost might be an issue, but again all of this advice is about what you ideally want to get to.

I don't know what the Oblivion Ring is for that Abrupt Decay or whatever won't answer. Planeswalkers? Only UWR control will play that out of the decks you named. And for those if they tap out for a Planeswalker you end of turn Gifts Ungiven for the kill. Or play counters, exhaust their resources, and then go for the kill. Oblivion Ring is too slow and doesn't answer things permanently. Drop it. Detention Sphere is just as bad an idea as well. Don't play it.

Maelstrom Pulse is a meta call. It's good to wipe tokens fast or as a pseudo catch-all Vindicate. Against Burn/Infect/UWR I can't see why you'd need it main. Again, Abrupt Decay basically answers everything you need to for cheaper.

The Academy Ruins and Engineered Explosives plan is nice. Not sure how slow it is, but Engineered Explosives is a good card against stuff like Infect and Boggles in general so if you're playing it main then using a single land for the Academy is fine.

I assume PoE = Path to Exile cause nothing else makes sense?

If your meta is infested with Aggro I don't know why you're not playing Timely Reinforcements. Read the card. Love it. Jam them in your sideboard and even your main deck if you're desperate enough. Don't worry about trying to be cute about 1-ofs for Gifts either. Remember it's about surviving long enough to lock people out with Iona or whatever and not trying to maximise Gifts piles that still lose you the game. Just remember to play around Skullcrack!