Yeah, that is the only card besides the dig card which peaked my interest. It might be an interesting choice as Increasing Vengeance number 2, since it is still "decent" on it's own (yes, it is garbage).
If it would have been 3 damage and/or one mana cheaper I would play it as one off, but in it's current iteration I doubt, that it will be playable (as so many cards in SOI, so much potential but than they are garbage due to one problem ).
@List, I will have more time in the next couple of months, hence, I will be able to play/test more. ATM I want to test a second Increasing Vengeance since it looks so good on paper (especially with Paths and co). However, might have to run a U/R Filterland though :/
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Yeah, that is the only card besides the dig card which peaked my interest. It might be an interesting choice as Increasing Vengeance number 2, since it is still "decent" on it's own (yes, it is garbage).
If it would have been 3 damage and/or one mana cheaper I would play it as one off, but in it's current iteration I doubt, that it will be playable (as so many cards in SOI, so much potential but than they are garbage due to one problem ).
@List, I will have more time in the next couple of months, hence, I will be able to play/test more. ATM I want to test a second Increasing Vengeance since it looks so good on paper (especially with Paths and co). However, might have to run a U/R Filterland though :/
Greetings,
Kathal
Yeah, I feel the same about SOI, a ton of the cards could have been quite decent, but I guess wizards is afraid of a power creep considering the events with dig-cruise / eldrazi.
If you start the turn with this on the table and 15 life, you need Storm 8 to kill the opponent.
If this is part of your storm, you'll need a bit more. Say, if you make 6 mana with 3 spells and play this as your fourth, you will need (with 15 life) storm 9 to kill the opponent.
I see potential all over this card, specially in Ritual Gifts, since I believe is the only reliable way of getting this card to play in a storm shell.
The only thing is, Storm does not work with this thing, since you never cast the storm copies (otherwise they would trigger storm on their own and would generate an infinite loop).
Hence, not usable at all :/
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
The only thing is, Storm does not work with this thing, since you never cast the storm copies (otherwise they would trigger storm on their own and would generate an infinite loop).
Hence, not usable at all :/
Greetings,
Kathal
This is to replace Grapeshot as the win condition, as it requires less spells to kill. "Storm" was just loosely used as "Spells on the same turn".
If you start the turn with this on the table and 15 life, you need Storm 8 to kill the opponent.
If this is part of your storm, you'll need a bit more. Say, if you make 6 mana with 3 spells and play this as your fourth, you will need (with 15 life) storm 9 to kill the opponent.
I see potential all over this card, specially in Ritual Gifts, since I believe is the only reliable way of getting this card to play in a storm shell.
I like the idea, however i'm not sure it's what ritual gifts needs. The issue that the deck has it that it is quite slow and clunky due to not having seething song. Not having access to seething song forces us to use rituals like channel the suns to generate mana when in conjunction with Increasing Vengeance. This makes us slow and forces us to have 3 colors when we go off. In terms of dealing damage, I never found it to be an issue with grapeshot. Being able to remand your grapeshot often allows you to only have to have a storm count of 9 or so, and then remand the original copy. I've dealt upwards of 40 damage this way, which is plenty.
I'm thinking of coming back to Ritual Gifts, and just saying screw my w/l and just have fun.
There's no deck in modern right now that's really exciting me, and this deck has always been one of the most fun, crazy decks you can play.
Right now, i'm looking at those UWR brews Raptor was working on, and that seems like a decent place to start.
Aeterflux Reservoir looks cool, but I agree i'm not sure it's what we want. What Raptor already explained in spot on, but I also like I can cast Grapeshot early and wipe the board, or kill a creature.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
I don't really see what Reservoir brings to the table. Yeah, it lets you kill with a lower storm count, but storm count was never the problem. Surviving long enough to cast gifts then having enough mana to flashback IV on SS/CtS was the problem. You also can't easily get Reservoir out of the GY which makes it really awkward to Gifts for.
Yeah, I was just running the math on the top of my head and thinking about number of spells. Truth is that is not really the deck's problem.
heh, for sure. Ritual gifts is a sweet deck. ^^ I still wish wotc would unban seething song and ban pyretic ritual. In all honestly it seems like a fair trade off to me. It helps storm but also doesn't push it over the top. I wish it would happen, but that's an argument for another time.
Honestly, Infect, Suicide Zoo, all kill faster than Storm anyway. Affinity, Regular Zoo variants kill as fast as storm. Dredge is less interactive than Storm.. Seething Song could be unbanned no problem IMO. Not to mention opening up Song not only helps us, and helps UR Storm, It helps Breach decks, Enduring Ideal decks, Hive Mind decks, Possibility Storm decks...
---------------
So I have a list put together but i'm not 100% on it.
Raptor, how was that control heavy list, with reduced combo pieces working out for you?
OK guys, I have a new brew. It's a bit different, but in initial testing, actually seems effective. Only played 2 matches so far, but won both of them. Here's the list-
Sure, it is an interesting direction. But than again, if we chose to go this route, why not play classic Storm to begin with, which is faster and more consistent? And even IF you want to play the interaction package, Unstorm or Thing Ascension (or w/e it is called) are better at doing this job.
Yes, Gifts is an incredible tutor, but does this justify running a slower Storm deck?
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: I really wish, that Seething Song gets unbanned ;(
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
I guess the argument for playing this list over regular UR Storm is that UR Storm has trouble dealing with aggressive strategies like Infect, Zoo, Burn, etc, and having the interaction package dramatically increases your ability to win those matches, by being able to stall out their game plan before comboing off for the win.
The argument for playing this over other Pyromancer combo/ control decks, is that here we can still win t3. We have the explosiveness of Storm, with the ability to interact with the opponent like the Pyromancer decks do.
Then I found Curious Homunculus, and it seemed like a reasonable card to try out. So far in my limited testing the card is actually awesome. You only need to protect it for 1 turn and then it's out of bolt range, and actually becomes a legitimate threat. I won a game early today with a pumped up Voracious Reader, and a Goblin Electromancer beatdown.
I also wish Seething Song would get unbanned, because I would play nothing but Epic Storm, and Ritual Gifts, and I would be the happiest magic player ever. But right now I'm actually having some real fun playing this deck right now. The Gifts loops feel like something out of ANT with this deck, and the control package gives you an interesting, and unexpected angle to have.
When these hands come up it is a guaranteed win thanks to the loop Gifts gives you. Now these are assuming you cast Goblin Electromancer on turn 3, and combo off in the same turn.
On field > In hand
-----------------
3 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Ritual, Morphose, Gifts
3 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Revival, Morphose, Gifts
Now lets look at what the chart looks like when you are able to resolve a 'mancer turn 2, and keep it alive till turn 3.
Now all of these are guaranteed wins with no chance of fizzling, and all of these are very easy to set up.
Also on the topic of fizzling with Gifts. With an Electromancer out if you resolve a Gifts with 3 mana left in your pool the pile (Ritual, Ritual, Manamorphose, Past in Flames) is a guaranteed win.
Here's an example of how the combo turn of the first option play's out.
Play Mancer(1), Ritual(2), Ritual(3), Morphose(4), Gifts(5) for [Ritual, Ritual, Morphose, PIF] that leaves 3 mana floating and no matter what they give you your set. Their best option is to give you Morphose and PIF. Morphose(6), PIF(7), Ritualx4(8)(9)(10)(11), Morphose(12), Gifts(11) for [Grapeshot, Remand, Revival, PIF] that leaves 7 mana floating. I think their best option is give you PIF and Remand, but no matter what your gravy. PIF(12), Revival(13) grapeshot to the top of your library, Morphose(14), Grapeshot(15), Remand(16), Grapeshot.
Just remember to keep 1 draw spell in the grave before your last Gifts pile so you can draw into Grapeshot
The key with Electromancer/Voracious Reader is if you can cast Gifts and have 3 mana open, the pile (Ritualx2, Morphose, PIF) is a guaranteed win.
The more I think about the Mancer version, the more I like it. But I have a couple of problems with it:
- 17 lands are to few if you wanna resolve a Turn 4 Gifts (without a cost reduction effect). I'm especially missing that one Desolated Lighthouse which just look so good in this list. Also, I'm asking myself, if you/we want to run the UR Fastland in that Manabase, since we do not need the fetch+shock base that much (it is nice for SB Moons though).
- Interaction suit. I never liked the Vapor Snag, I would rather run an Echoing Truth MD, since it allows to deal with some annoying permanents pre board to buy you enough time.
- Sideboard (yeah I know, it is still in the raw version). I was never a fan of Empty in Modern. Yes, I can understand the idea behind it, but I still dislike it :/
Btw, as another mana reducing spell, I found that goody: Jace's Sanctum. Costs 2 more than the alternatives (bad), but with Scry it makes the pre combo phase better. Dunno if it is both necessary and fast enough (you will likely need to blow a ritual for it). However, it is defacto Removal proof in Modern (Pulse and Nahiri are the only MD outs vs it and even post board not many decks run actual removal for it).
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
The problem with playing creatures is that they turn on your opponent's removal, and they die to a lot. Running 7 might be enough to overload their removal (or at least make boarding awkward), and Voracious Reader beatdown could totally be a real thing.
IMO the major problems the decks has are: it's hard to just gifts for the win, you need something like 5 or 6 cards (giftsing for 4 of them) plus 4 or 5 lands to actually kill, which is non-trivial to setup, and it's hard to survive long enough. The second problem is that while Merchant Scroll is good for getting Gifts, it doesn't do anything else: getting a negate or bounce spell is ok, but very slow. The deck really wants scroll to be able to find something actually powerful (like finding Ancestral Recall in Vintage as a secondary draw engine). Teachings helped in that respect as it got more stuff (and seething song RIP), but it's very slow.
The cost reducers improve the first point, since they are additional redundancy to make winning easier, but they don't really help us survive the early game (chump blocking with them seems bad): they're kind of super rituals with legs.
Raptor, how was that control heavy list, with reduced combo pieces working out for you?
Terribly sorry for not answering your question. I didn't see it earlier, and only just stumbled upon it now. It wasn't too bad. The issue that I had were trying to find a balance between control and combo. That was the hardest part about the deck. I've been messing around with it for a bit, and tried some AV versions, but nothing worth noting. I'm not sure what the deck should be like in the current meta-game, as it consists of a lot of linear decks at the moment. If I get a version that I feel is worth mentioning, I'll post it here.
Actually, I wonder if Epiphany at the Drownyard might be worth looking at. We can find it with Scroll, can be fairly easily played with X=4 (you could even dump rituals into it), and we're totally fine putting stuff into the GY. I've tried Thirst and Forbidden Alchemy for digging, but neither actually provides card advantage, which Epiphany can.
So i've been jamming that list on cockatrice pretty frequently lately. I'm doing well, but admittedly not as good as I wanna be doing. I'd say i'm winning somewhere around 55-60% of my games. One issue i'm running into is grave hate everywhere. I think because Dredge is so popular now, everyone has sideboards ready for it. I'm seeing cards like Rest in Peace, and Leyline of the Void way more than I ever have before.
So I'm trying to think of a good way to counter this. Do we go with some sort of transformational sideboard, or at least board in some threats of some sort, or do we just go heavier on cards like Echoing Truth to beat the hate? if we go with threats, i'm having a hard time finding something within the color scheme that seems great. Any ideas?
I gotta say, when you do pull out the win. Running through the combo feels so awesome. The Rituals, into Gifts, into Rituals, into Past in Flames, into Rituals, into Gifts, into Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot is such a sweet line. It's an incredibly fun, and satisfying deck to play for sure. I think there is potential here, it just needs some tweaking.
Epiphany at the Drownyard is an interesting card. Definitely could be worth some testing. might be a bit slow but the effect seems powerful.
This was my favorite deck in modern, possibly in magic. I would side into twin (but then they banned that...). I am not sure how prevalent hate is now, but the core of the deck still exists. I like to side into some other combo since gifts is essentially a double demonic tutor when played correctly.
Reasons to play this over other storm variants are that they are fast with little reason to be; few decks are killing you on turn 4 (they typically have great board presence) even more so with most of the turn 4 decks banned. Having remand puts them even farther behind.
Nevertheless I cannot see a huge reason not to just run a 4 color gifts control list if I want to win with gifts. Its true that you can win turn 3 with the craziest hands, but 4cgifts can put Iona in play on turn 4 AND run abrupt decay, remand, etc. With all the ritual banned you are forced to play electromancer- which means 99% of decks are going to be able to interact with you.
I am going to try to give this another chance though. The eldrazi- mancer card looks really run. Not sure what to do about a board. I like that scroll gives you the power to get sideboard cards though, and I think running a few stormbreath dragons as a back up isn't terrible (in the board).
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legacy: Tes, Affinity, Dredge
modern: 4 color Gifts, ritual gifts, goryo's vengeance, affinity
So i've been jamming that list on cockatrice pretty frequently lately. I'm doing well, but admittedly not as good as I wanna be doing. I'd say i'm winning somewhere around 55-60% of my games. One issue i'm running into is grave hate everywhere. I think because Dredge is so popular now, everyone has sideboards ready for it. I'm seeing cards like Rest in Peace, and Leyline of the Void way more than I ever have before.
This is due to the dredge menace, which might be even stronger with the release of kaladesh. In terms of other win cons, I have tried things like Keranos, Elspeth, as well as Nahiri, but none of them felt that great. I'm still trying other things out, but we'll see.
I would test it, if I could be able to (I simply lack the possibility currently)
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: Madcap Experiment and Emperion is a good SB tech, not only vs Burn but also vs several other decks. Did you try Jace Sanctum already as a one of (so that you can gifts for a mana reducing pile)?
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
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It seems too slow, but it's an interesting card at the very least.
If it would have been 3 damage and/or one mana cheaper I would play it as one off, but in it's current iteration I doubt, that it will be playable (as so many cards in SOI, so much potential but than they are garbage due to one problem ).
@List, I will have more time in the next couple of months, hence, I will be able to play/test more. ATM I want to test a second Increasing Vengeance since it looks so good on paper (especially with Paths and co). However, might have to run a U/R Filterland though :/
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Yeah, I feel the same about SOI, a ton of the cards could have been quite decent, but I guess wizards is afraid of a power creep considering the events with dig-cruise / eldrazi.
If you start the turn with this on the table and 15 life, you need Storm 8 to kill the opponent.
If this is part of your storm, you'll need a bit more. Say, if you make 6 mana with 3 spells and play this as your fourth, you will need (with 15 life) storm 9 to kill the opponent.
I see potential all over this card, specially in Ritual Gifts, since I believe is the only reliable way of getting this card to play in a storm shell.
Hence, not usable at all :/
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
This is to replace Grapeshot as the win condition, as it requires less spells to kill. "Storm" was just loosely used as "Spells on the same turn".
I like the idea, however i'm not sure it's what ritual gifts needs. The issue that the deck has it that it is quite slow and clunky due to not having seething song. Not having access to seething song forces us to use rituals like channel the suns to generate mana when in conjunction with Increasing Vengeance. This makes us slow and forces us to have 3 colors when we go off. In terms of dealing damage, I never found it to be an issue with grapeshot. Being able to remand your grapeshot often allows you to only have to have a storm count of 9 or so, and then remand the original copy. I've dealt upwards of 40 damage this way, which is plenty.
There's no deck in modern right now that's really exciting me, and this deck has always been one of the most fun, crazy decks you can play.
Right now, i'm looking at those UWR brews Raptor was working on, and that seems like a decent place to start.
Aeterflux Reservoir looks cool, but I agree i'm not sure it's what we want. What Raptor already explained in spot on, but I also like I can cast Grapeshot early and wipe the board, or kill a creature.
Yeah, I was just running the math on the top of my head and thinking about number of spells. Truth is that is not really the deck's problem.
heh, for sure. Ritual gifts is a sweet deck. ^^ I still wish wotc would unban seething song and ban pyretic ritual. In all honestly it seems like a fair trade off to me. It helps storm but also doesn't push it over the top. I wish it would happen, but that's an argument for another time.
---------------
So I have a list put together but i'm not 100% on it.
Raptor, how was that control heavy list, with reduced combo pieces working out for you?
3 Curious Homunculus
3 Voracious Reader
4 Serum Visions
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Anticipate
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vapor Snag
1 Dispel
1 Negate
3 Desperate Ritual
3 Manamorphose
2 Past in Flames
1 Noxious Revival
1 Grapeshot
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Sulfur Falls
2 Steam Vents
3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Blood Moon
3 Empty the Warrens
2 Shattering Spree
1 Shatterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Gigadrowse
1 Echoing Truth
What do you guys think of something like this? I think this direction is seriously worth exploring.
Yes, Gifts is an incredible tutor, but does this justify running a slower Storm deck?
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: I really wish, that Seething Song gets unbanned ;(
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
The argument for playing this over other Pyromancer combo/ control decks, is that here we can still win t3. We have the explosiveness of Storm, with the ability to interact with the opponent like the Pyromancer decks do.
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I had stumbled upon this article a while back and have been thinking of a way to work with his idea but nothing felt quite right-
http://manadeprived.com/ungiven-storm/
Then I found Curious Homunculus, and it seemed like a reasonable card to try out. So far in my limited testing the card is actually awesome. You only need to protect it for 1 turn and then it's out of bolt range, and actually becomes a legitimate threat. I won a game early today with a pumped up Voracious Reader, and a Goblin Electromancer beatdown.
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I also wish Seething Song would get unbanned, because I would play nothing but Epic Storm, and Ritual Gifts, and I would be the happiest magic player ever. But right now I'm actually having some real fun playing this deck right now. The Gifts loops feel like something out of ANT with this deck, and the control package gives you an interesting, and unexpected angle to have.
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On turn 3 wins;
When these hands come up it is a guaranteed win thanks to the loop Gifts gives you. Now these are assuming you cast Goblin Electromancer on turn 3, and combo off in the same turn.
On field > In hand
-----------------
3 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Ritual, Morphose, Gifts
3 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Revival, Morphose, Gifts
Now lets look at what the chart looks like when you are able to resolve a 'mancer turn 2, and keep it alive till turn 3.
On field > In hand
-----------------
2 lands, Goblin > Ritual, Ritual, Gifts
2 lands, Goblin > Ritual, Morphose, Morphose, Gifts
2 lands, Goblin > Ritual, Morphose, Revival, Gifts
3 lands, Goblin > Ritual, Ritual, Gifts
3 lands, Goblin > Ritual, Morphose, Gifts
Now all of these are guaranteed wins with no chance of fizzling, and all of these are very easy to set up.
Also on the topic of fizzling with Gifts. With an Electromancer out if you resolve a Gifts with 3 mana left in your pool the pile (Ritual, Ritual, Manamorphose, Past in Flames) is a guaranteed win.
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Here is exactly what you would need in hand to have a guaranteed win with Electromancer, assuming you cast him that turn.
On field > In hand
-----------------
3 lands > Goblin, Ritualx2, Morphose, Gifts
3 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Revival, Morphose, Gifts
4 lands > Goblin, Ritualx2, Gifts
4 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Morphosex2, Gifts
4 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Revival, Morphose, Gifts
5 lands > Goblin, Ritualx2, Gifts
5 lands > Goblin, Ritual, Morphose, Gifts
5 lands > Goblin, Morphosex2, Revival, Gifts
Here's an example of how the combo turn of the first option play's out.
Play Mancer(1), Ritual(2), Ritual(3), Morphose(4), Gifts(5) for [Ritual, Ritual, Morphose, PIF] that leaves 3 mana floating and no matter what they give you your set. Their best option is to give you Morphose and PIF. Morphose(6), PIF(7), Ritualx4(8)(9)(10)(11), Morphose(12), Gifts(11) for [Grapeshot, Remand, Revival, PIF] that leaves 7 mana floating. I think their best option is give you PIF and Remand, but no matter what your gravy. PIF(12), Revival(13) grapeshot to the top of your library, Morphose(14), Grapeshot(15), Remand(16), Grapeshot.
Just remember to keep 1 draw spell in the grave before your last Gifts pile so you can draw into Grapeshot
The key with Electromancer/Voracious Reader is if you can cast Gifts and have 3 mana open, the pile (Ritualx2, Morphose, PIF) is a guaranteed win.
- 17 lands are to few if you wanna resolve a Turn 4 Gifts (without a cost reduction effect). I'm especially missing that one Desolated Lighthouse which just look so good in this list. Also, I'm asking myself, if you/we want to run the UR Fastland in that Manabase, since we do not need the fetch+shock base that much (it is nice for SB Moons though).
- Interaction suit. I never liked the Vapor Snag, I would rather run an Echoing Truth MD, since it allows to deal with some annoying permanents pre board to buy you enough time.
- Sideboard (yeah I know, it is still in the raw version). I was never a fan of Empty in Modern. Yes, I can understand the idea behind it, but I still dislike it :/
Btw, as another mana reducing spell, I found that goody: Jace's Sanctum. Costs 2 more than the alternatives (bad), but with Scry it makes the pre combo phase better. Dunno if it is both necessary and fast enough (you will likely need to blow a ritual for it). However, it is defacto Removal proof in Modern (Pulse and Nahiri are the only MD outs vs it and even post board not many decks run actual removal for it).
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
IMO the major problems the decks has are: it's hard to just gifts for the win, you need something like 5 or 6 cards (giftsing for 4 of them) plus 4 or 5 lands to actually kill, which is non-trivial to setup, and it's hard to survive long enough. The second problem is that while Merchant Scroll is good for getting Gifts, it doesn't do anything else: getting a negate or bounce spell is ok, but very slow. The deck really wants scroll to be able to find something actually powerful (like finding Ancestral Recall in Vintage as a secondary draw engine). Teachings helped in that respect as it got more stuff (and seething song RIP), but it's very slow.
The cost reducers improve the first point, since they are additional redundancy to make winning easier, but they don't really help us survive the early game (chump blocking with them seems bad): they're kind of super rituals with legs.
Terribly sorry for not answering your question. I didn't see it earlier, and only just stumbled upon it now. It wasn't too bad. The issue that I had were trying to find a balance between control and combo. That was the hardest part about the deck. I've been messing around with it for a bit, and tried some AV versions, but nothing worth noting. I'm not sure what the deck should be like in the current meta-game, as it consists of a lot of linear decks at the moment. If I get a version that I feel is worth mentioning, I'll post it here.
So I'm trying to think of a good way to counter this. Do we go with some sort of transformational sideboard, or at least board in some threats of some sort, or do we just go heavier on cards like Echoing Truth to beat the hate? if we go with threats, i'm having a hard time finding something within the color scheme that seems great. Any ideas?
I gotta say, when you do pull out the win. Running through the combo feels so awesome. The Rituals, into Gifts, into Rituals, into Past in Flames, into Rituals, into Gifts, into Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot is such a sweet line. It's an incredibly fun, and satisfying deck to play for sure. I think there is potential here, it just needs some tweaking.
Epiphany at the Drownyard is an interesting card. Definitely could be worth some testing. might be a bit slow but the effect seems powerful.
Reasons to play this over other storm variants are that they are fast with little reason to be; few decks are killing you on turn 4 (they typically have great board presence) even more so with most of the turn 4 decks banned. Having remand puts them even farther behind.
Nevertheless I cannot see a huge reason not to just run a 4 color gifts control list if I want to win with gifts. Its true that you can win turn 3 with the craziest hands, but 4cgifts can put Iona in play on turn 4 AND run abrupt decay, remand, etc. With all the ritual banned you are forced to play electromancer- which means 99% of decks are going to be able to interact with you.
I am going to try to give this another chance though. The eldrazi- mancer card looks really run. Not sure what to do about a board. I like that scroll gives you the power to get sideboard cards though, and I think running a few stormbreath dragons as a back up isn't terrible (in the board).
modern: 4 color Gifts, ritual gifts, goryo's vengeance, affinity
vintage: burning oath
my affinity primer
http://legitmtg.com/competitive/metalcrafting-for-the-win-an-affinity-primer/
This is due to the dredge menace, which might be even stronger with the release of kaladesh. In terms of other win cons, I have tried things like Keranos, Elspeth, as well as Nahiri, but none of them felt that great. I'm still trying other things out, but we'll see.
EDIT: wording
Here's my latest list-
3 Curious Homunculus
3 Voracious Reader
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Vapor Snag
1 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Pyretic Ritual
2 Manamorphose
2 Past in Flames
1 Noxious Revival
1 Grapeshot
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Sulfur Falls
3 Steam Vents
3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Blood Moon
2 Echoing Truth
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Shattering Spree
1 Shatterstorm
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Empty the Warrens
More 1 mana cantrips for better filtering and to fuel Curious Homunculus, an extra land, and a retooled sideboard.
Thoughts on Madcap Experiment -> Platinum Emperion in the sideboard?
Beats Burn flat out. Pairs well with Blood Moon, as Emperion it shuts off your fetches. Beats grave hate. Seems like a decent idea.
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: Madcap Experiment and Emperion is a good SB tech, not only vs Burn but also vs several other decks. Did you try Jace Sanctum already as a one of (so that you can gifts for a mana reducing pile)?
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)