MTG Salvation

It can, with gifts it basically costs nothing to run the empty, and since it can be tutored with gifts. The ascension builds for the most part all ran two grapeshots.

thanks, was debating between the 8th goblin electromancer or a single empty the warrens. but might go with empty anyways.
i'll probably learn the sideboarding no problem, but what's up with the mana base? is running 7 fetches the best route? i was gonna do 4 fetches and some shivan reefs/spirebluff canals. but im guessing fetches have less life loss over a longer game (as opposed to pain lands).

I've been running 9 fetches since I really don't want to lock myself out when I bring in blood moon.

forgot about the moon, thanks.

I am so tierd of loosing to storm. What decks are good vs it?

If you always want to beat them, play a burn variant.

hey guys, played Johnny's classic storm list on MTGO for ages and would like to try and finally put the deck together in paper, these new gifts list's seem extremely cool and I'm excited to try. My fist question though is why cut 1 electromancer vs cutting 1 Baral? he is legendary, which seams significantly more troublesome and common an issue than the need for red to cast electromancer. Is this a point of debate or has there been a very definitive proof made for 4 Baral vs 4 electromancer?

3 toughness and the counter ability are the main reasons.

You also don't ever really need more than one cost reducer, so the legendary restriction is not a huge issue.

Quote from Wukfric »

hey guys, played Johnny's classic storm list on MTGO for ages and would like to try and finally put the deck together in paper, these new gifts list's seem extremely cool and I'm excited to try. My fist question though is why cut 1 electromancer vs cutting 1 Baral? he is legendary, which seams significantly more troublesome and common an issue than the need for red to cast electromancer. Is this a point of debate or has there been a very definitive proof made for 4 Baral vs 4 electromancer?

Yeah, as Turkishyamyam said, the 3 toughness and his counter ability are a pretty big plus. He's also easier to cast, and while this doesn't come up very often it can be important to save yourself those extra few points of life especially when playing against aggressive decks. I've honestly not run into the legendary issue all that often. Usually my first Baral is killed if my opponent has any interaction at all, and so the second one obviously doesn't have any legendary issues.

All that being said, I have seen some lists which run the full 8 'mancer effects, as well as some lists that cut the Baral instead of the Electromancer. By far most of the Gifts lists that I've seen (and the one I run myself) cut the Electromancer.

Hey everyone, I have been playing around with my final cantrip slot and was wondering what you guys think. What are the pros and cons of Thought Scour, Merchants Scroll, and Peer Through the Depths? Right now I am running eight mancer and I think peer through depths works well, but I'd like to hear what you guys think.

Quote from bluemasterrace »

Hey everyone, I have been playing around with my final cantrip slot and was wondering what you guys think. What are the pros and cons of Thought Scour, Merchants Scroll, and Peer Through the Depths? Right now I am running eight mancer and I think peer through depths works well, but I'd like to hear what you guys think.

Here's my opinions:

Thought Scour
Pros- You get early velocity and ability to move through your deck. Feeds your graveyard for PiF. Fills up the 1 drop slot, which is nice because we have a bolus of 2 drops. You can use it aggressivly to mess up opponent's scrys. Also, if you are digging hard for a card and have the ability to cast a PiF, Scour is effectively a draw 4 (2 cards from the milling, the actual draw, and then the Scour you can recast later)
Cons- Very weak to graveyard hate. No selection on the cantrip

Merchant Scroll
Pros- Its like a swiss army knife, you can grab Gifts, Remand, and other sideboard bullets. I think the biggest pro of Scroll is that it gives you extra copies of Echoing Truth out of the sideboard; because this deck cannot draw all of its cards like the Ascension variants could, you have to find a Truth in the top half of your deck or so in order to beat a Leyline or a Grafdigger's Cage. Having Scroll in the deck increases these odds tremendously. Also, gives you some pretty nifty SB options (like Hurkyl's Recall)
Cons- Pretty slow/durdley. Drawing multiple copies usually is not helpful. Especially bad in more aggressive metas. Also fills the 2 drop slot, which we're overloaded on. Can't grab a ritual or a PiF

Peer Through Depths
Pros- Really great cantrip with an electromancer out. Can grab Gifts, Rituals, PiF, etc. Also is instant speed so you have some good interactions on the oppoonent's turn
Cons- My biggest problem with Peer is that it can't grab lands or electromancers, which half the time we need to help get our draws smoothed out. Scroll can't do this either, but it can grab what it does grab more reliably than Peer. Also pretty slow without an electromancer

To conclude, I don't think that any of these options are wrong persay, it just depends on your preference. I played a 2 Scroll version for quite a while, but felt that I was really missing those additional 1 mana cantrips, so now I'm on 2 Scour 1 Scroll with 7 mancers. I think having a single scroll is excellent for the versatility, but I also really like the Scour for early velocity.

Another 4-0 tonight, beating BW tokens, esper death's shadow, lantern control and UW spirits. Quite pleased with my configuration, I think I'm going to keep these 75 for the foreseeable future.

Something I haven't seen many, if any, Gifts Storm pilots playing is a Snow-Covered Island. It's better than the second Island and beyond as it lets you create Gifts piles with both Island and Snow-Covered Island in them.

Quote from 0wnjei »

Quote from AcademyRuins »

Something I haven't seen many, if any, Gifts Storm pilots playing is a Snow-Covered Island. It's better than the second Island and beyond as it lets you create Gifts piles with both Island and Snow-Covered Island in them.

I haven't seen any Gifts Storm pilot Gifting for lands

I didn't say it comes up a lot, but it is better than playing just Islands. It's most relevant in sideboard games where you bring in Blood Moon.

Quote from AcademyRuins »

Quote from 0wnjei »

Quote from AcademyRuins »

Something I haven't seen many, if any, Gifts Storm pilots playing is a Snow-Covered Island. It's better than the second Island and beyond as it lets you create Gifts piles with both Island and Snow-Covered Island in them.

I haven't seen any Gifts Storm pilot Gifting for lands

I didn't say it comes up a lot, but it is better than playing just Islands. It's most relevant in sideboard games where you bring in Blood Moon.

If you have to gifts for lands in any match up you are probably losing that he at a pretty high %. You shouldn't be locking yourself out of colors with blood moon. If you fetch correctly you shouldn't need to gifts for lands.

Important to note as well if you can only gifts for those two as basics and you need blue you probably are not getting those from your opponent, which can lock you out of blue completely.

I'd assume if you needed blue the gifts piles may look something like
Island
Snow Island
Manamorphose
*Fourth combo card* (Gifts, PiF, Ritual, Baral, etc)

I agree, but if they bin the two islands it only helps for one turn under a blood moon. Which maybe the manamorphose is enough, but you shouldn't need to gifts for island, not would it really help most of the time since you already had blue for gifts.