I was running 3 caryatids until recently. I haven't missed them.
I'm pretty light on blue so I don't really need them for fixing, and their value as blockers is overrated in my experience. If I need to block with them they're often just going to die, so I probably didn't get much if any value out of ramping with them and would have just been better off with a removal spell.
Tapping out for them on turn 2 is awkward, and they're a pretty terrible topdeck too. They're slow and clunky, and in a control build I feel like I'm going to get to turns 4, 5 and 6 by slowing the game down with discard and removal rather than racing to it with ramp.
As for counter magic I'm currently experimenting with no mainboard counters, and am only running negates in the side. Feels fine for now, though I've only played a few games so far.
Mana leak always feels awkward, I find I never want to clog my deck up with more than a couple, but if I don't need them enough to run a number I can draw with any reliability or consistently, what's the point in mainboarding them at all? I'm not putting them in a gifts pile.
I've been overhauling my old gifts list in recent weeks though so I could just be wrong on all fronts, I haven't got heaps of games in yet.
So reading your arguments, in general, I think there are at least 3 conflicts before we can optimize the deck list.
1) Dorks.
I was testing Caryatid, her hexproof seems really nice and defender is not a bad ability in this deck. On the one hand we gain some velocity and mana fixing. In a format as fast as is Modern it can be a very positive contribution. I remember playing against an Affinity which if not having Caryatids, Elesh Norn would be reanimated on Turn 5, meaning Elesh Norn was late against his Overseer. I remember too playing against a deck that runs Blood Moon, and Caryatid helped a lot.
On the other hand we have these bad top decks. Something I really like in this deck is that whatever you draw, is something good.
So think that maybe 3 Caryatids can have room.
2) Counter spells (Mana Leak)
While countering something, in the few 5 torns it's helpful, drawing a Mana Leak in the Late Game its a bad thing.
Think that running some Mana Leaks (2 is the number) is more a player decision than a deck decision. But I think that the deck pretend to have the most value cards for extremely variated situations, where that top decked Mana Leak, as the Caryatid one, is something we don't want to happen. Well, is a very situational card, in my opinion, so I prefered not to run it.
3) Fatties.
The last decition I took about my deck list was to play Iona in the main deck, I play Titan too, because every fattie has its function.
- Iona against monocolored and combo decks.
- Elesh Norn against aggro decks
- Grave Titan agains midrange decks.
This can change depending on your metagame. But the conflicting point is if it's worth to have room for some fatties in the sideboard. I mean, some fattie that is not Iona, which is obviously a good card even in the side. I have room for:
- Terastodon, which I consider is the only consistent plan i have for Tron (I remember when I didn't run it and when I intented to do the Lock (Raven's Crime + Life from the Loam + Ghost Quarter + Urborg) was too late for having good results)
- Baneslayer Angel + Thragtusk: which I consider is a good side plan against those decks where reanimating is not the solution, so against control is a good side plan, more tapped out, which is good. Both can really help against aggro decks. Baneslayer can help against Affinity and Infect, too. And Thragtusk against Burn for its instant life gaining. So I consider that this fattiest has a defined sideboard strategy.
Think this 3 points are the most complicated when some of us tries to build a competitive deck list.
So what do you think, guys?
I agree that the variations among the control lists seem to fall under these points. Personally I dislike Sylvan Caryatid but have liked Birds of Paradise. I usually don't mind much when the Birds gets killed, and otherwise it's just a turn faster. It enables T2 Liliana, which nobody is expecting and can steal games. Caryatid is really only good at blocking vs. Burn and Hatebears, which I don't see a ton of. They are both terrible topdecks. This is a pretty big issue, and I'd like to try a control version without Birds now.
I don't have much experience playing with countermagic main. I've always liked Negate from the side, though Dispel makes sense too, as some have suggested. I think Spell Snare could have potential in the main, too.
Fatties are just the worst when stuck in your hand, and it feels bad to draw them in your opening hand. We never want both Norn and Iona, so running both main feels a bit too burdensome to have a totally wasted slot/draw. But maybe I'm undervaluing Iona, as I don't go for the Iona plan unless I think my opponent has absolutely no outs (i.e. Burn or some random mono-colour brew). I like Thragtusk a lot. I don't like how Baneslayer Angel is super soft to removal, but she has saved me a few times (not nearly as much as Thragtusk though).
This Friday, I will try to attend a tournament at a different LGS than the one I normally go to. This store has a very high prevalence of UR Twin. What would you guys consider to be the optimal build to beat Twin? (I should have access to all of the cards played in Gifts, except for Goyfs).
Also, what's the strategy for beating little kid Junk? Norn doesn't seem good enough in most situations.
This Friday, I will try to attend a tournament at a different LGS than the one I normally go to. This store has a very high prevalence of UR Twin. What would you guys consider to be the optimal build to beat Twin?
I don't want to jam a list down your throat because it will end up having Caryatids over Birds, and you don't like those. Instead, have some general advice:
Run (or, looking at your previous list, continue to run) Slaughter Pact Main. One of my friends knows Splinter Twin pretty well (so he claims, but whatever), and says that the absolute worst thing he's come across is game 1 Pact. Not because it almost always two-for-ones him, but because he then has to spend the rest of the match trying to play around it.
As an anecdote, I Pact-ed game 1 against him once. and in game two I tapped out on turn three for some three-drop. He cast Pestermite at the end of my turn, but just played Land-Go on his turn - no Twin. This allowed me to topdeck the Abrupt Decay I needed when he decided to go for it with Dispel backup the following turn. Granted, tapping out in the first place was in all likelihood a misplay (one I make more often than not - I'd rather make them have it on turn four with a threat on board than play draw-go though), but I still think it's a fine example of what that sort of one-of can do.
Speaking of tapping out, it's easier to tap out games two and three after they side out some or all of their Twins. That doesn't mean you shouldn't immediately tap out on turn three - Blood Moon is a card that even three-color decks run now, but you don't have to be as scared of the combo.
Pestermite is less of a combo piece, more of a threat, while Deceiver Exarch is more of a combo piece, less of a threat. In general, I'm more likely to go one-for-one to get rid of a flier than I am a ground creature, and will seldom actively try to get rid of a lone Exarch.
That being said, don't remove it immediately unless not doing so means you can't do it on their turn. Make them tap mana on their turn - control mirrors work both ways. It's tempting to be mana efficient and use that white mana they're tapping down to Path their dude, but it's almost always not worth it.
Unless Elesh Norn will get strict value (two-for-one or better), I'd much rather get Loam//Crime. This way, you can keep them off of cards while also dredging into Souls/Manlands for your clock or the Rites/Fatty pieces.
In the words of Alec Baldwin, A-P-L: Always PlusLiliana(or something like that). Almost no matter what you discard, she will hurt them more than it will hurt you. Only minus if she's threatened or you need to get rid of a problem permanent (Keranos, Blood Moon, etc). You don't lose access to her plus after seven loyalty.
Stirring Wildwood is randomly amazing against a Twin player taking the tempo route. If those players are anything like those I play against, they will forget it has reach nine times out of ten.
Also, what's the strategy for beating little kid Junk? Norn doesn't seem good enough in most situations.
The ones of times I've played against Little Kid, Elesh Norn worked fine, but I can see how a Liege could negate all of that hard work the praetor put in. So clearly you should prioritize hitting those with your discard spells removal. Other than that, I'd try to land more Lingering Souls, if only to have a much faster clock post-Praetor. From what I've seen, they only run two ways to get rid of her once she sticks.
Post-board, I'd try and play bigger creatures. I've been toying around with Grave Titan recently, which seems (and, against other decks, has seemed) pretty good, though because of my lack of experience, I can't be sure. Sorry I can't give you more than that, but I hope it helps.
A turner of phrases quite pleasin'
Had a penchant for trick'ry and teasin'.
The very last line
Might seem sans design
What I mean is without why or wherefore.
-Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
I've had plenty of luck with norn, after which souls generally get you there. If you don't norn, all their creatures (of which there are a lot) end up getting gavony'd--which means even the birds are a threat.
Your best bet is to discard along their curve, remove the first thing you see, then gifts norn into souls for a quick clock. make sure gavony doesn't get online. Sweepers, while good are expected and while they still buy a lot of time, are easy to grind out and around unless you can achieve some sort of lock.
I really don't think twin is that tough, but I run 9 removal spells and discard. Its often a standoff that I lose to being bolt snap bolted and pinged slowely, or win when I land a grave titan/rhino--the key here is less a methodical approach as in the little kid matchup, and more about feeling out the flow of the game and measuring what their capabilities are. Abrupt decay and pact are clearly your friend. Game 1 I expect to typically resolve everything I want against them (when they don't know what you're playing), game 2 is a great reason to run dispels and always be trying to tick up liliana. I'd also expect a faster non-combo clock from them game 2/3, however its always a guess whether or not they actually sided out the combo.
Tried a slightly tweaked version of my build yesterday on a MTGO PRE. Lost 2-1 against Merfolk and lost 2-1 against Grixis Delver. I punted one game against Delver really hard (resolved Gifts with Lili in play, got greedy and went for Rites, Iona and Souls, opponent obviously had the Bolt to kill Lili so Iona got stuck in my hand, it was a totally unnecessary risk) and one game against Merfolk I just flooded.
Flood was something I was trying to correct. I play 26 lands and no way to filter draws, so I added a single Sphinx's Revelation replacing Sultai Charm and 2 Anticipate replacing the Mana Leaks. I also replaced the single Wurmcoil Engine in the SB with a Hornet Queen in case I ran into random aggro decks. The Anticipates were decent and I only drew Rev once, but that game was already mine anyways. I think I need some cheaper draw spell for the mid game (Rev is only really good after turn 6 or 7). Compulsive Research or Thirst for Knowledge are considerations.
One thing that really bothers me about this deck is, even if we keep reanimation targets and Gifts engines to a minimum, there are lots of awful opening hands. See, I played 6 games yesterday and in 4 of these I had total garbage opening hands (you can see them in the attached images).
If you compare this deck to Abzan or even GFab's Sultai, we many more spells that are just bad when you have them before turn 3. I think there's no way to fix that, it's just the nature of the deck. =/
One can argue that I just got unlucky with land starved hands, but this is a recurrent theme when I play this deck - a lot of times I have 2-3 lands but the rest is something like Iona, Elesh, Gifts, Loam. I also started mulliganing 2 landers on the play as this deck is really mana hungry (unless of course I have multiple discard spells and can slow down my opponent)
Without seeing your list, I would advise tweaking the deck to play more than 2 fetches, and include some targets for said fetches.
I often complain about opening hands sucking, mulling with this deck is hard twice over. First you have to account for playing 4c worth of spells on curve, and you have numerous things you have to try and NOT draw. Norn, Iona, rites, too many gifts are all crappy in openers and appear to...always be there. So you mull to six, and you get 2 lands a rites, and a removal+discard spell...crap.
That's why I went up to 4 liliana, which helps a little. Still rough however.
I strongly recommend the second Swamp, I often find myself fetching for it for various reasons. Don't bother with a Snow-Covered one, it does nothing but tip your opponent off that you're on Gifts.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Manged to top 8 a 50 person PPTQ with this list. Here's what I remember/wrote down from the event:
R1 - Tyler with R/B Burn: Game One, he hits me pretty early with a flurry of burn spells, but runs out of gas. I resolve a Gifts for Rites/Iona and have Iona name Red, but have to dodge him drawing a sixth land, as he has 3 Bump in the Nights in the yard. I figure he's more likely to draw a red spell than a land or his last Bump. He draws, and concedes. Game Two, he runs roughshod over me while I struggle to stabilize. Game Three, he has a turn zero Leyline of Punishment, but thankfully I didn't have any lifegain cards in hand yet. My turns were land, land Caryatid, land shock myself. He has a Swiftspear that he swings into my Caryatid with, so I block. He bolts me twice to pump his Swiftspear big enough, and I Gifts in response. He concedes to my reveal of Rites/Iona, which I feel a little bad about since I didn't have the fourth land in hand to cast the Rites. 2-1, 1-0
R2 - Jack with Ensoul Affinity: Game One, I have the Abrupt Decay every time he goes for an Ensoul Artifact and resolve Rites/Elesh-Norn to seal the deal. Game Two, he keeps a one-land Glimmervoid hand, and plays a Signal Pest turn one. I lead on an Inquisition of Kozilek, and see a hand of Dispatch, Master of Etherium, Signal Pest, Ensoul Artifact and Cranial Plating. I decide to get very greedy and take the Pest. He plays an Ornithopter, but fails to lay a second land, I play a land and pass, he attacks for one and passes back, and I kill off his Pest and Thopter with Abrupt Decay and Nature's Claim, taking out his Glimmervoid in the process. He draws one more land over the course of the game, and I once again Rites/Elesh-Norn lock him, as his land is an Inkmoth Nexus. 2-0, 2-0
R3 - Chris with Podless Pod (Collected Company Combo): Game One, I have the spot removal every time he tries to go for any combos, clean up the board with Damnation, and slowly kill him. We don't have a ton of time for Game Two, but I manage a fairly quick Rites/Elesh-Norn to lock him out, and beat him to death with it. 2-0, 3-0
R4 - Bobby with Podless Pod (Collected Company Combo): Game One, Bobby mulls to 5 and still almost manages to beat me, but I have the removal every time he goes for the combo. I clean up with Rites/Norn and it's on to Game Two. This game is not nearly as good for me, as he quickly ramps out threat after threat, and I fall behind and die. Game Three was very similar to Game One, and I again lock him out with Rite/Norn. 2-1, 4-0
R5 - Bill with Ad Nauseam Combo: We ID, as we're pretty sure that we can double ID into top 8. ID, 4-0-1
R6 - ??? (Forgot his name and deck): We ID as well, knowing that we are locked for top 8. ID, 4-0-2
I get into the top 8 as the 3rd seed.
Quarterfinals - Justin with Abzan Midrange: Justin starts off with a gameloss for decklist error, so we move immediately to Game Two. I keep a relatively slow hand with Lingering Souls to hold the fort, only it gets Thoughtseized on turn one. I draw lands, while Justin plays his own Lingering Souls, flashes it back, and uses Gavony Township to beat me to death. Game Two is much closer, and I get a turn 4 Gifts into turn 5 Rites/Norn to kill his spirit tokens and shrink his Tarmogoyf. At this point I know his hand is Blood Baron of Vizkopa and nothing else. He top decks Path to Exile, we play back and forth for a bit, then I die to his more efficient creatures. 1-2, 4-1-2 and dead.
I really liked my decklist for this tournament, though I was pretty lucky to never play against Tron or a friend who was on Amulet Bloom. I'd like to put a Leyline of Sanctity in the board, though that'll have to wait for Modern Masters 2015.
thx for the report, really dig your list. i'm curious to know whether or not the ruins and bskull/explosives combo was any good for you. did it ever show up during the tournament or play testing?
thx for the report, really dig your list. i'm curious to know whether or not the ruins and bskull/explosives combo was any good for you. did it ever show up during the tournament or play testing?
It doesn't come up terribly often, but when it does it tends to be very important. Something also just feels off to me about leaving home without it, so I keep it in. The Batterskull recursion has been a godsend for me against control decks, though there are less and less of those running around.
One point to make on the ruins/b-skull lock is that that it makes us an inevitably winning deck in the same way that RG tron and UW tron and recurr emrakul until it sticks--that is super important and I have totally jammed a batterskull that's been remanded, double bolted, manaleaked, and chump blocked (all in that order), until I recurred it enough times that they ran out of answers and I won (against twin actually).
I haven't been seeing as much reason to be blowing up manlands lately unless you have a tron in your metas--maybe we just need a ghost quarter and the edge in the sideboard, and ruins can be main again?
I dunno if everyone can reach a consensus that 2 colorless lands is the max this deck can handle without going up to 26/27 (without dorks).
I decided to come back to Gifts (mainly because I love greedy decks, and what is greedier than Gifts?), and I did try out Monastery Mentor, and Anticipate. Since I was using Mentor I decided to try out Farseek over Carytid, and since I currently do not have Liliana's (only card I am missing), I also skipped Birds.
On Mentor:
-When he was good he was amazing and quickly won games.
-Similiarly, when he was bad, he was really bad. There were a lot of games where Mentor simply didn't fit into the game plan, and unlike Knight or Goyf, playing him only to follow up with another creature sucked. I paid 3 mana for a 2/2.
Overall: I don't like him in Gifts. Rhino and friends are simply better, and while Mentor can generate some ridiculous value and board states, I feel that while he is a powerful card, he does not fit in Gifts.
On Farseek:
-I have a soft spot for this card and I love how it can grab shocks, or against Blood Moon decks, every basic (minus forest). Ramping into T3 Rhino / Gifts is obviously very good.
-Farseek does not block early aggression like Carytid, nor does it alow a T3 Lili (since I really should be playing her). Farseek is ramp / fixing that does not die to any removal (except Fulminator Mage, the bane of my existence).
Overall: I like Farseek, and without Liliana's I am fine running this. If I were to still run ramp when I get Lili though I would likely switch to Birds. While Birds does have to survive 2 Turns to give you the T3 Rhino / Gifts, a T2 Lili is ridiculous.
On Anticipate:
-I liked running 3 copies, and the dig power was awesome. It was nice to have another T2 play other than Abrupt Decay / Farseek, and being able to find what you need (usually) was very helpful instead of relying on the Heart of the Cards.
Overall: I am going to keep running 3 and hope it receives an FNM Promo because I hate the original art.
My list:
I'll answer this now, but my meta is generally Affinity and BGx and that is why I decided to forgo targeted discard, other than the Crime + Loam package (along with Iona in the side). If I were to go to a PPTQ / IQ, or unknown meta, I would likely bring in some Inquisitions / Thoughtseizes and switch Titan and Iona.
Alchemist's Refuge is because I have a soft spot for being cute.
I probably want to replace the refuge with a man-land to help provide some inevitability with the Loam package.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
thats the problem i am having. i would love to run academy ruins. with 25 lands, 2 colorless (tectonic edge, ghost quarter) plus 3 caryatids, i dont see any room for ruins. also, i feel like a well chosen value gifts does essentially the same thing, which is buy time until you can somehow stabilize.
You can use Sun Titan + Kitchen Finks to beat Burn. As a purely reanimation target, Iona is better versus them, but having Finks also gives you some game in case you don't draw Gifts.
Another option is to play the "Junk" version with Goyfs, KotR and Rhino. You can use Feed the Clan from the SB to crush Burn and these creatures also give you the ability to "race" unfair decks.
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I'm pretty light on blue so I don't really need them for fixing, and their value as blockers is overrated in my experience. If I need to block with them they're often just going to die, so I probably didn't get much if any value out of ramping with them and would have just been better off with a removal spell.
Tapping out for them on turn 2 is awkward, and they're a pretty terrible topdeck too. They're slow and clunky, and in a control build I feel like I'm going to get to turns 4, 5 and 6 by slowing the game down with discard and removal rather than racing to it with ramp.
As for counter magic I'm currently experimenting with no mainboard counters, and am only running negates in the side. Feels fine for now, though I've only played a few games so far.
Mana leak always feels awkward, I find I never want to clog my deck up with more than a couple, but if I don't need them enough to run a number I can draw with any reliability or consistently, what's the point in mainboarding them at all? I'm not putting them in a gifts pile.
I've been overhauling my old gifts list in recent weeks though so I could just be wrong on all fronts, I haven't got heaps of games in yet.
I agree that the variations among the control lists seem to fall under these points. Personally I dislike Sylvan Caryatid but have liked Birds of Paradise. I usually don't mind much when the Birds gets killed, and otherwise it's just a turn faster. It enables T2 Liliana, which nobody is expecting and can steal games. Caryatid is really only good at blocking vs. Burn and Hatebears, which I don't see a ton of. They are both terrible topdecks. This is a pretty big issue, and I'd like to try a control version without Birds now.
I don't have much experience playing with countermagic main. I've always liked Negate from the side, though Dispel makes sense too, as some have suggested. I think Spell Snare could have potential in the main, too.
Fatties are just the worst when stuck in your hand, and it feels bad to draw them in your opening hand. We never want both Norn and Iona, so running both main feels a bit too burdensome to have a totally wasted slot/draw. But maybe I'm undervaluing Iona, as I don't go for the Iona plan unless I think my opponent has absolutely no outs (i.e. Burn or some random mono-colour brew). I like Thragtusk a lot. I don't like how Baneslayer Angel is super soft to removal, but she has saved me a few times (not nearly as much as Thragtusk though).
This Friday, I will try to attend a tournament at a different LGS than the one I normally go to. This store has a very high prevalence of UR Twin. What would you guys consider to be the optimal build to beat Twin? (I should have access to all of the cards played in Gifts, except for Goyfs).
Also, what's the strategy for beating little kid Junk? Norn doesn't seem good enough in most situations.
I don't want to jam a list down your throat because it will end up having Caryatids over Birds, and you don't like those. Instead, have some general advice:
The ones of times I've played against Little Kid, Elesh Norn worked fine, but I can see how a Liege could negate all of that hard work the praetor put in. So clearly you should prioritize hitting those with your
discard spellsremoval. Other than that, I'd try to land more Lingering Souls, if only to have a much faster clock post-Praetor. From what I've seen, they only run two ways to get rid of her once she sticks.Post-board, I'd try and play bigger creatures. I've been toying around with Grave Titan recently, which seems (and, against other decks, has seemed) pretty good, though because of my lack of experience, I can't be sure. Sorry I can't give you more than that, but I hope it helps.
Good luck on Friday!
-r
Had a penchant for trick'ry and teasin'.
The very last line
Might seem sans design
What I mean is without why or wherefore.
-Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
I've had plenty of luck with norn, after which souls generally get you there. If you don't norn, all their creatures (of which there are a lot) end up getting gavony'd--which means even the birds are a threat.
Your best bet is to discard along their curve, remove the first thing you see, then gifts norn into souls for a quick clock. make sure gavony doesn't get online. Sweepers, while good are expected and while they still buy a lot of time, are easy to grind out and around unless you can achieve some sort of lock.
I really don't think twin is that tough, but I run 9 removal spells and discard. Its often a standoff that I lose to being bolt snap bolted and pinged slowely, or win when I land a grave titan/rhino--the key here is less a methodical approach as in the little kid matchup, and more about feeling out the flow of the game and measuring what their capabilities are. Abrupt decay and pact are clearly your friend. Game 1 I expect to typically resolve everything I want against them (when they don't know what you're playing), game 2 is a great reason to run dispels and always be trying to tick up liliana. I'd also expect a faster non-combo clock from them game 2/3, however its always a guess whether or not they actually sided out the combo.
Flood was something I was trying to correct. I play 26 lands and no way to filter draws, so I added a single Sphinx's Revelation replacing Sultai Charm and 2 Anticipate replacing the Mana Leaks. I also replaced the single Wurmcoil Engine in the SB with a Hornet Queen in case I ran into random aggro decks. The Anticipates were decent and I only drew Rev once, but that game was already mine anyways. I think I need some cheaper draw spell for the mid game (Rev is only really good after turn 6 or 7). Compulsive Research or Thirst for Knowledge are considerations.
One thing that really bothers me about this deck is, even if we keep reanimation targets and Gifts engines to a minimum, there are lots of awful opening hands. See, I played 6 games yesterday and in 4 of these I had total garbage opening hands (you can see them in the attached images).
If you compare this deck to Abzan or even GFab's Sultai, we many more spells that are just bad when you have them before turn 3. I think there's no way to fix that, it's just the nature of the deck. =/
One can argue that I just got unlucky with land starved hands, but this is a recurrent theme when I play this deck - a lot of times I have 2-3 lands but the rest is something like Iona, Elesh, Gifts, Loam. I also started mulliganing 2 landers on the play as this deck is really mana hungry (unless of course I have multiple discard spells and can slow down my opponent)
I often complain about opening hands sucking, mulling with this deck is hard twice over. First you have to account for playing 4c worth of spells on curve, and you have numerous things you have to try and NOT draw. Norn, Iona, rites, too many gifts are all crappy in openers and appear to...always be there. So you mull to six, and you get 2 lands a rites, and a removal+discard spell...crap.
That's why I went up to 4 liliana, which helps a little. Still rough however.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
R1 - Tyler with R/B Burn: Game One, he hits me pretty early with a flurry of burn spells, but runs out of gas. I resolve a Gifts for Rites/Iona and have Iona name Red, but have to dodge him drawing a sixth land, as he has 3 Bump in the Nights in the yard. I figure he's more likely to draw a red spell than a land or his last Bump. He draws, and concedes. Game Two, he runs roughshod over me while I struggle to stabilize. Game Three, he has a turn zero Leyline of Punishment, but thankfully I didn't have any lifegain cards in hand yet. My turns were land, land Caryatid, land shock myself. He has a Swiftspear that he swings into my Caryatid with, so I block. He bolts me twice to pump his Swiftspear big enough, and I Gifts in response. He concedes to my reveal of Rites/Iona, which I feel a little bad about since I didn't have the fourth land in hand to cast the Rites. 2-1, 1-0
R2 - Jack with Ensoul Affinity: Game One, I have the Abrupt Decay every time he goes for an Ensoul Artifact and resolve Rites/Elesh-Norn to seal the deal. Game Two, he keeps a one-land Glimmervoid hand, and plays a Signal Pest turn one. I lead on an Inquisition of Kozilek, and see a hand of Dispatch, Master of Etherium, Signal Pest, Ensoul Artifact and Cranial Plating. I decide to get very greedy and take the Pest. He plays an Ornithopter, but fails to lay a second land, I play a land and pass, he attacks for one and passes back, and I kill off his Pest and Thopter with Abrupt Decay and Nature's Claim, taking out his Glimmervoid in the process. He draws one more land over the course of the game, and I once again Rites/Elesh-Norn lock him, as his land is an Inkmoth Nexus. 2-0, 2-0
R3 - Chris with Podless Pod (Collected Company Combo): Game One, I have the spot removal every time he tries to go for any combos, clean up the board with Damnation, and slowly kill him. We don't have a ton of time for Game Two, but I manage a fairly quick Rites/Elesh-Norn to lock him out, and beat him to death with it. 2-0, 3-0
R4 - Bobby with Podless Pod (Collected Company Combo): Game One, Bobby mulls to 5 and still almost manages to beat me, but I have the removal every time he goes for the combo. I clean up with Rites/Norn and it's on to Game Two. This game is not nearly as good for me, as he quickly ramps out threat after threat, and I fall behind and die. Game Three was very similar to Game One, and I again lock him out with Rite/Norn. 2-1, 4-0
R5 - Bill with Ad Nauseam Combo: We ID, as we're pretty sure that we can double ID into top 8. ID, 4-0-1
R6 - ??? (Forgot his name and deck): We ID as well, knowing that we are locked for top 8. ID, 4-0-2
I get into the top 8 as the 3rd seed.
Quarterfinals - Justin with Abzan Midrange: Justin starts off with a gameloss for decklist error, so we move immediately to Game Two. I keep a relatively slow hand with Lingering Souls to hold the fort, only it gets Thoughtseized on turn one. I draw lands, while Justin plays his own Lingering Souls, flashes it back, and uses Gavony Township to beat me to death. Game Two is much closer, and I get a turn 4 Gifts into turn 5 Rites/Norn to kill his spirit tokens and shrink his Tarmogoyf. At this point I know his hand is Blood Baron of Vizkopa and nothing else. He top decks Path to Exile, we play back and forth for a bit, then I die to his more efficient creatures. 1-2, 4-1-2 and dead.
I really liked my decklist for this tournament, though I was pretty lucky to never play against Tron or a friend who was on Amulet Bloom. I'd like to put a Leyline of Sanctity in the board, though that'll have to wait for Modern Masters 2015.
It doesn't come up terribly often, but when it does it tends to be very important. Something also just feels off to me about leaving home without it, so I keep it in. The Batterskull recursion has been a godsend for me against control decks, though there are less and less of those running around.
I haven't been seeing as much reason to be blowing up manlands lately unless you have a tron in your metas--maybe we just need a ghost quarter and the edge in the sideboard, and ruins can be main again?
I dunno if everyone can reach a consensus that 2 colorless lands is the max this deck can handle without going up to 26/27 (without dorks).
On Mentor:
-When he was good he was amazing and quickly won games.
-Similiarly, when he was bad, he was really bad. There were a lot of games where Mentor simply didn't fit into the game plan, and unlike Knight or Goyf, playing him only to follow up with another creature sucked. I paid 3 mana for a 2/2.
Overall: I don't like him in Gifts. Rhino and friends are simply better, and while Mentor can generate some ridiculous value and board states, I feel that while he is a powerful card, he does not fit in Gifts.
On Farseek:
-I have a soft spot for this card and I love how it can grab shocks, or against Blood Moon decks, every basic (minus forest). Ramping into T3 Rhino / Gifts is obviously very good.
-Farseek does not block early aggression like Carytid, nor does it alow a T3 Lili (since I really should be playing her). Farseek is ramp / fixing that does not die to any removal (except Fulminator Mage, the bane of my existence).
Overall: I like Farseek, and without Liliana's I am fine running this. If I were to still run ramp when I get Lili though I would likely switch to Birds. While Birds does have to survive 2 Turns to give you the T3 Rhino / Gifts, a T2 Lili is ridiculous.
On Anticipate:
-I liked running 3 copies, and the dig power was awesome. It was nice to have another T2 play other than Abrupt Decay / Farseek, and being able to find what you need (usually) was very helpful instead of relying on the Heart of the Cards.
Overall: I am going to keep running 3 and hope it receives an FNM Promo because I hate the original art.
My list:
I'll answer this now, but my meta is generally Affinity and BGx and that is why I decided to forgo targeted discard, other than the Crime + Loam package (along with Iona in the side). If I were to go to a PPTQ / IQ, or unknown meta, I would likely bring in some Inquisitions / Thoughtseizes and switch Titan and Iona.
Alchemist's Refuge is because I have a soft spot for being cute.
I probably want to replace the refuge with a man-land to help provide some inevitability with the Loam package.
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Siege Rhino
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Instants and Sorceries
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Sultai Charm
1 Life from the Loam
1 Murderous Cut
1 Raven's Crime
2 Path to Exile
4 Farseek
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Lingering Souls
1 Unburial Rites
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Anticipate
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Temple Garden
1 Siege Rhino
2 Celestial Purge
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Golgari Charm
1 Putrefy
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Negate
1 Curse of Death's Hold
2 Stony Silence
2 Feed the Clan
1 Dismember
You can use Sun Titan + Kitchen Finks to beat Burn. As a purely reanimation target, Iona is better versus them, but having Finks also gives you some game in case you don't draw Gifts.
Another option is to play the "Junk" version with Goyfs, KotR and Rhino. You can use Feed the Clan from the SB to crush Burn and these creatures also give you the ability to "race" unfair decks.