It's been awfully quiet in here. No posts or comments during which 2 sets being spoiled. Has anyone seen any new tech for the deck in the sets? Anyone working on a variation?
I'm still rocking my ramp and removal heavy list. Pretty solid coin flip on games and matches. For those wondering here is my current list: Click Here
With MTGsalvation closing in the next few months, does anyone want to move to a discord or other service to continue working on the deck? I could create one if there's interest.
I agree it doesn't feel great to wrath with a fresh caryatid but generally he saves you 2 life (blocking a small guy the turn he comes out) and wraths on t3. Caryatid is both ramp and fixing as opposed to Spiral is not a guarantee to have a land or have a land of the right color. I agree that baneslayer is dead in some matchups simply because the risk to tempo, but haven't decided on a threat that could replace her as a board stabilizer.
Sidenote: I won't be posting much for the next few months I'm having a kid soon so MTG and 4c gifts will be getting set aside for awhile.
Why Baneslayer over Lyra? I had a baneslayer sitting around in my angel collection while lyra is in an EDH deck. Honestly there isn’t a real reason to not have Lyra in her place unless you are worried about demons and dragons.
Spiral vs Caryatid: Caryatid is too good to give up. Growth spiral will give a land if you have/draw which isn't guaranteed but caryatid will always be a 5c dork and it can block 74% of the modern creature meta.
Wildwood vs Tarpit: Almost every creature caryatid can’t block has flying and it being out of bolt range lessens the odds of activating it to just have it die.
4th wrath vs Gifts: I do like the extra wrath over gifts, as most of my game 1 gift piles are for wraths anyways.
Surgical: I have considered surgical but with $$ restrictions I haven't ran it. The extirpate could theoretically be important
Field of Ruin: Field of ruin is ok, running out of basics is a possibility but if your recurring it with loam to land lock them that's not much of a concern and it allows for piles like loam, field,gq,bog to just hit their lands and graves.
Crime Vs Harvest: I did actually drop worm harvest when I retooled the sb from my control match experiences. For the same 5 mana I can get 1 counter or make them discard 3 so that + thrun made it an easy decision. In a control matchup if we’re in a topdeck war I think I have better odds, as their counters will just get crime while I remove their threats or play my own.
On control- normal versions of 4c have good strength against control thanks to the discard, but my main is low on discard so that’s what makes it a hard matchup, though I’m confident with my revised sideboard the matchup will change drastically.
Here is my Decklist with more information about the card selections: HERE
Just placed 3rd at a 19 man local tournament. The deck feels really good, I’m still really impressed with Caryatid- its ability to ramp and save some life by blocking small creatures is really solid. I feel like control decks are my version's current weak spot and there seems to be a wave of players picking up versions of control. My version has proven extremely resilient to grave hate. My opponents tend to bring in Rip/ nihil spell bomb which I ignore for the majority of the time, as I’m am well equipped to play as a fair midrange/control. I tried the Worms, loam, gq, bog against esper control, but they have enough incidental grave hate that kaya exiled worm and loam.... I think my control package is going to look at a Thrun, the Last Troll as it has synergies with worship anyways.
Notable changes from previous versions:
Changed tarpit to wildwood as the reach can be important and white/ green are the more important colors for me.
Sun Titan changed to Gideo Ally- its a lower costed threat that can be found by Search, Titan had lackluster options to bring back from the grave.
Went down to 3 Gifts and pulled the Settle from the Side to the main.
Flipped the split of Tropy and Decay
Dropped a KoA for a Unmoored Ego in the board.
Added Extirpate to the sideboard allowing for what I call the Crumble to Dust package to help with tron/valukut.
Last night I decided I wanted to track my progress on this deck, so I created an excel sheet to do so. The results were a little surprising as I was able to go back to 11/09/2018 via the DCI and pull all my modern tournaments (I’ve only been playing 4c).
• SB Wins is honestly filler where if I won twice I counted 1 sb win but if I won once I got 0 sb wins (this should even out over time).
• You’ll see a high number of games for Deck: Unknown – that’s because DCI only reports wins/ and losses. If I wasn’t able to remember what the matchup was or find it in one of my tournament reports I put it down as an unknown. Sadly that means for now the meta share’s are not accurate.
• Here’s a version of my tracker if you want to start tracking your own- https://filebin.net/jm9apnr6f4xj80zv
You input your win /loss and deck on the “Game Logs” Tab. Then follow the instructions in Readme.txt or Deck Import to import those decks on the Match Stats page. Everything else auto calculates, and has conditional formatting for highlighting Red/ Green/ Yellow
@ EoTGifts:
I’ve found that the not using the hand disruption coupled with the t2 ramp helps to save enough life where I can reliably use a t4 or t5 wrath to reset the board. Netting a solid 3+ for 1 card advantage. While yes there are threats that can be recurred after the threat it will buy you another 2-3 turns to start putting up your own board which will outclass theirs.
Caryatid has really pulled its weight, it keeps small beats and chip damage from being an issue letting me hold up hard removal for more impactful threats and it forces the opponent to commit more to the board to go around the caryatids making my wraths net more advantage. The any color ramp it provides is crucial for the mana base, allowing me to not shock lands in as often. Drawing them late game in my list generally acts as a 2 mana fog the biggest attacker since they can’t push/bolt it, not the greatest draw one could ask for but better than a land.
As far as the mana base goes- I wouldn’t mind adding a replacing 2 shocks with fetches if I can find them in trade. I think it would help power up KotR/Worm Harvest in the board, help to flip Search and increase the reliability of colors. I didn’t add a Loam for the harvest as I thought the point was to be able to turn all the normally dead land draws into action via harvest. I don’t see myself loaming and harvesting same turn (7mana up G b/g b/g). I see myself harvesting every turn and holding up a path or trophy for interaction forcing the control player to keep answering the harvest with counters or waste wraths on their turn to answer the swarm.
I agree that Doom whisperer might be a dud, but I figured I would devote a FNM or 2 to see if it might surprise me. You’re right that titan doesn’t always have great targets main, his options go up greatly in the board though. And recurring a land isn’t always bad when I have Elesh Norn in hand, champion in the grave or just want to wrath +threat in a turn. It is also required for the Troll Worship Pile I want to test- (Eternal Witness, sun Titan, Worship, Caryatid). If I had a second snap available, I’d probably run him over the doom whisperer. The Nihil spellbomb was picked for grave hate as it can work with titan and at least generate card advantage.
@Funeral of God- I mention LOTV as it’s a format staple so in some matches they’ll cause us to discard and its worth mentioning its counter role for unburial. And I would like those that run LOTV to have something to think about if they have a flex slot they aren’t sure what to do with. I have had good luck with the caryatid in place of bop. I would say in the current meta if you want to ramp instead of discard caryatid is the only dork that doesn’t just eat a bolt/push.
I’m testing a single Ewitt in the side for the Troll worship purposes but honestly Ewitt isn’t great in the current build. When I had her as a 1 of main it was my first cut 99% of the games. It’s a dead draw in the early game as it competes color wise (T3 GG T4 WW/WWb T5 BB/WW) and without ways to sculpt the grave it generally would have limited selection late game. It also turns on the fatal pushes I’ve designed this list to make them a bad draw game one.
@Everyone-
Our list hasn’t been top tier in a long time. The meta has changed drastically. I do think its time to start trying the off the wall ideas and testing less played cards. Gifts Unburial biggest strength is how compact it is (7 cards in the 75).
I’ve converted my excel sheet that I use to help build my Gifts deck to a Gdoc and made it public. Feel Free to use it. It has a mana calculator with recommendations based on the newer article for CFB and a Pile maker so you can see the 6 possibilities with any 4 cards you can think up. Lastly I’ve started a list of known piles for easier reference.
I've been tweaking it some but generally go 2-2 or better at my LGS for FNM though I did get a top 4 finish at the stores 18-man tournament a few months ago.
Some notable card choices/results
Earlier versions of my list ran 2 Steves- I’ve recently cut them. I would always want caryatid over him and late game he was a barely usable draw (fog biggest attacker +deck thin). He started to become the first cut for SB cards so dropped them for more impactful cards.
Sylvan Caryatid- This is the premier ramp for me. It's any color is great for mana fixing. The hexproof means the opponent must attack through it and the life it saves helps to get me to the late game in a better state. It also helps to enable an gifts/ wrath on t3 and unburial through LOTV that threatens to edict.
Champion of Wits- I wouldn't go above a 1 of for him. He's good to help filter the hand and doesn't hurt to pitch to LOTV/brutalities. The eternalize comes up occasionally in the late game where the Draw 4 pitch 2 can help close out the game. It being 3cmc is also nice for Sun Titan.
Liliana, Death's Majesty- Big Lili as I like to call her. She is my replacement for Elspeth- she can be a 5cmc reanimate that leaves a walker or fill my grave while making 2/2 zombies. I’ve never had reason to user her ULT though.
Baneslayer Angel- Just a beat stick that can stabilize the board and life total. Nothing unheard of or untested.
I only managed to trade for these 2 last night so they have only a little testing behind them:
Doom Whisperer- In theory this is a pseudo griselbrand that can come down t4 with my ramp. The surveil gives me a way to leverage some of the life caryatid has saved. I only got it out once last night where it was just a beat stick that got a concession next turn.
Search for Azcanta – I got a fair amount of testing with this card last night I managed to get it at least 1 game in every match. I immediately want to go up to a 2 of. It helps to filter draws early and late game once I’ve stabilized it lets me dig for gifts or removal as needed. I’ve always felt the biggest problem with gift decks is the lack of draw/selection so we draw the wrong half sometimes. If I can get a second one I'll either drop doom whisperer (depending on his performance) or the third collective brutality to slot it in the main.
The sideboard feels like a hot mess. Mostly of things I’ve had in older lists. There isn’t a conducive plan yet.
Unmoored Ego- Has been decent good for dealing combo, tron and low threat density decks like Arclight and death’s shadow. Not sure if it makes the cut long term though.
I’m planning on testing a worship in the board to take advantage of caryatid’s Hexproof to form a variant of troll worship lock. Still not 100% the match ups where that lock is better than Iona/ Elesh Norn though. Just need to pickup the card from my LGS/ or trade for it.
What's everyone's initial reaction to the idea that WOTC might move us to a London mulligan? I feel like it'll help us mulligan as seeing 7 and bottoming an iona will feel far better than only seeing the 5 or 6 and having to keep the hand while wishing iona was anything else.
Also Tarpit does great when you manage to get a stalled boardstate, it allows you to keep putting pressure on them while keeping blockers to keep yourself safe.
In general it looks like a strong list, though I do have some unsollicited feedback.
I would move fulminator to sb, snap to main, snap will have far more utility than Fulminator.
You could also drop the Urborg for a bojuka bog. While the urborg is normally part of the loam/crime with 4 caryitids we can generally crime multiple times a turn without urborg and its extra grave hate.
The 15 different cards in your sideboard doesn't seem to have any pattern. While we are using gifts and want to maximize it's power we shouldn't pick cards of different names solely for names sake.
I would also say 1 IOK and 1 thoughtseize in the board isn't worth their slots- You are not likely to have them in the first 2 turns where they would be helpful for their match types.
A single KoR in the 75 is really helpful for getting to your utility lands and can provide a clock for decks we need to pressure.
Honest question: What deck are you planning on bringing Sigarda in for? It seems its only good to fight emrakul/LOTV emblems and heavy removal decks.
I like the 4 caryatid and have rarely found them to be a bad draw as at it worst you play it to fog 3+ damage or it ramps you to your late game spells. Jace vp didn't make it to my final list but I did test him as a one of in an earlier build. With the build of this deck any creatures that can be bolted,or pushed before they generate value aren't great as they will be easy targets. By having the low creatures be immediate value you either fully strand their creature removal or reduce it's impact. LOTV could still make it in the list as a one or two of if you had the copies to test I would go down the last hope, and a brutality.
I played against- Hollow One, ArcLight, Traditional Jund, Creeping Dredge, BG Elves. I lost to dredge and hollow one but made top 8 then lost to the same dredge deck in the second round of the cut to Top 8. End result was- 4-3
Notes: Unmoored Ego is combo and tron hate; Flaying tendrils is great for low and aggressive decks and the exile is key against arclight and dredge with the plus that caryatid lives through it. I've dropped Terrastadon as I think a low to the ground aggressive plan of attack is going to work better than reanimator plan against Tron variants. With Unmoored Egoand Fulminator Mage working to keep them off tron and Sun titan to loop the mage or ghost quarter.
I have been testing the Ramp package in place of the discard package and I think my experience with it so far is that its the better package. It helps protect our greedy mana base. I have found this version to be far better against Ponze, blood moon, and fulminators, and allows us to save a few points of life with fetch/shocks which helps us to survive to the late game. A t3 gifts/ t4 unburial can just win games that discard and T4 gifts wouldn't win us.
Another FNM another Report
This week’s theme: Iona, Game?
Round 1 – Runaway Red (2-1)
Games 2 and 3 I stick Iona he concedes. Game 1 he hit double Arclight off faithless on turn 1, just way too fast of a start.
Round 2 – Mono Black Devotion (1-2)
Game 1 I lock him with Iona at 2 1 life, I use lingering souls to chump block his Geralf's Messenger. I got too greedy and swung with my last soul token and casted a champion of wits as a blocker forgetting messenger has 2 power. Game 3 I never see a 3rd land or mana dork after 6 draws.
Round 3 – Traverse Jund (2-0)
Game 1 he floods and get mana screwed but I dig out and win with Iona + souls. Game 2 I use knight and back to back to back lingering souls to beat him down.
Round 4 – Grishoalbrand (2-1)
Game 1 T3 Gifts for Iona locking out black. Game 2 he blood moons me and He through the breaches bob, and double combat + land pitch to close the game. Game 3 I turn 3 gifts for Iona and double brutality to pull his hand and drain to speed the clock up.
Here is the version I'm going to run tomorrow for a store event. The only changes from tonights version is fulimator and bojuka bog. Which I picked up after the FNM.
I'm still rocking my ramp and removal heavy list. Pretty solid coin flip on games and matches. For those wondering here is my current list: Click Here
Sidenote: I won't be posting much for the next few months I'm having a kid soon so MTG and 4c gifts will be getting set aside for awhile.
Spiral vs Caryatid: Caryatid is too good to give up. Growth spiral will give a land if you have/draw which isn't guaranteed but caryatid will always be a 5c dork and it can block 74% of the modern creature meta.
Wildwood vs Tarpit: Almost every creature caryatid can’t block has flying and it being out of bolt range lessens the odds of activating it to just have it die.
4th wrath vs Gifts: I do like the extra wrath over gifts, as most of my game 1 gift piles are for wraths anyways.
Surgical: I have considered surgical but with $$ restrictions I haven't ran it. The extirpate could theoretically be important
Field of Ruin: Field of ruin is ok, running out of basics is a possibility but if your recurring it with loam to land lock them that's not much of a concern and it allows for piles like loam, field,gq,bog to just hit their lands and graves.
Crime Vs Harvest: I did actually drop worm harvest when I retooled the sb from my control match experiences. For the same 5 mana I can get 1 counter or make them discard 3 so that + thrun made it an easy decision. In a control matchup if we’re in a topdeck war I think I have better odds, as their counters will just get crime while I remove their threats or play my own.
On control- normal versions of 4c have good strength against control thanks to the discard, but my main is low on discard so that’s what makes it a hard matchup, though I’m confident with my revised sideboard the matchup will change drastically.
Here is my Decklist with more information about the card selections: HERE
Notable changes from previous versions:
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Breeding Pool
1x Field of Ruin
1x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Watery Grave
2x Windswept Heath
Spot Removal (9)
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Assassin's Trophy
2x Detention Sphere
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Path to Exile
1x Day of Judgment
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Wrath of God
Reuse (3)
1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
1x Snapcaster Mage
Filtering (3)
1x Champion of Wits
2x Search for Azcanta
Self Discard (7)
3x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
Ramp (4)
4x Sylvan Caryatid
Unburial Package (3)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Unburial Rites
Finishers (1)
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Gifts Ungiven
2x Damping Sphere
1x Extirpate
1x Knight of Autumn
2x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Life from the Loam
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Noxious Revival
1x Runed Halo
2x Unmoored Ego
1x Worm Harvest
1x Worship
• SB Wins is honestly filler where if I won twice I counted 1 sb win but if I won once I got 0 sb wins (this should even out over time).
• You’ll see a high number of games for Deck: Unknown – that’s because DCI only reports wins/ and losses. If I wasn’t able to remember what the matchup was or find it in one of my tournament reports I put it down as an unknown. Sadly that means for now the meta share’s are not accurate.
• Here’s a version of my tracker if you want to start tracking your own- https://filebin.net/jm9apnr6f4xj80zv
You input your win /loss and deck on the “Game Logs” Tab. Then follow the instructions in Readme.txt or Deck Import to import those decks on the Match Stats page. Everything else auto calculates, and has conditional formatting for highlighting Red/ Green/ Yellow
I’ve found that the not using the hand disruption coupled with the t2 ramp helps to save enough life where I can reliably use a t4 or t5 wrath to reset the board. Netting a solid 3+ for 1 card advantage. While yes there are threats that can be recurred after the threat it will buy you another 2-3 turns to start putting up your own board which will outclass theirs.
Caryatid has really pulled its weight, it keeps small beats and chip damage from being an issue letting me hold up hard removal for more impactful threats and it forces the opponent to commit more to the board to go around the caryatids making my wraths net more advantage. The any color ramp it provides is crucial for the mana base, allowing me to not shock lands in as often. Drawing them late game in my list generally acts as a 2 mana fog the biggest attacker since they can’t push/bolt it, not the greatest draw one could ask for but better than a land.
As far as the mana base goes- I wouldn’t mind adding a replacing 2 shocks with fetches if I can find them in trade. I think it would help power up KotR/Worm Harvest in the board, help to flip Search and increase the reliability of colors. I didn’t add a Loam for the harvest as I thought the point was to be able to turn all the normally dead land draws into action via harvest. I don’t see myself loaming and harvesting same turn (7mana up G b/g b/g). I see myself harvesting every turn and holding up a path or trophy for interaction forcing the control player to keep answering the harvest with counters or waste wraths on their turn to answer the swarm.
I agree that Doom whisperer might be a dud, but I figured I would devote a FNM or 2 to see if it might surprise me. You’re right that titan doesn’t always have great targets main, his options go up greatly in the board though. And recurring a land isn’t always bad when I have Elesh Norn in hand, champion in the grave or just want to wrath +threat in a turn. It is also required for the Troll Worship Pile I want to test- (Eternal Witness, sun Titan, Worship, Caryatid). If I had a second snap available, I’d probably run him over the doom whisperer. The Nihil spellbomb was picked for grave hate as it can work with titan and at least generate card advantage.
@Funeral of God- I mention LOTV as it’s a format staple so in some matches they’ll cause us to discard and its worth mentioning its counter role for unburial. And I would like those that run LOTV to have something to think about if they have a flex slot they aren’t sure what to do with. I have had good luck with the caryatid in place of bop. I would say in the current meta if you want to ramp instead of discard caryatid is the only dork that doesn’t just eat a bolt/push.
I’m testing a single Ewitt in the side for the Troll worship purposes but honestly Ewitt isn’t great in the current build. When I had her as a 1 of main it was my first cut 99% of the games. It’s a dead draw in the early game as it competes color wise (T3 GG T4 WW/WWb T5 BB/WW) and without ways to sculpt the grave it generally would have limited selection late game. It also turns on the fatal pushes I’ve designed this list to make them a bad draw game one.
@Everyone-
Our list hasn’t been top tier in a long time. The meta has changed drastically. I do think its time to start trying the off the wall ideas and testing less played cards. Gifts Unburial biggest strength is how compact it is (7 cards in the 75).
I’ve converted my excel sheet that I use to help build my Gifts deck to a Gdoc and made it public. Feel Free to use it. It has a mana calculator with recommendations based on the newer article for CFB and a Pile maker so you can see the 6 possibilities with any 4 cards you can think up. Lastly I’ve started a list of known piles for easier reference.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gder-KHe2CSk0f-Gag_7KDutpE5ofqUbkAD0q2sCBYo/edit?usp=sharing
I've been tweaking it some but generally go 2-2 or better at my LGS for FNM though I did get a top 4 finish at the stores 18-man tournament a few months ago.
Some notable card choices/results
Earlier versions of my list ran 2 Steves- I’ve recently cut them. I would always want caryatid over him and late game he was a barely usable draw (fog biggest attacker +deck thin). He started to become the first cut for SB cards so dropped them for more impactful cards.
Sylvan Caryatid- This is the premier ramp for me. It's any color is great for mana fixing. The hexproof means the opponent must attack through it and the life it saves helps to get me to the late game in a better state. It also helps to enable an gifts/ wrath on t3 and unburial through LOTV that threatens to edict.
Champion of Wits- I wouldn't go above a 1 of for him. He's good to help filter the hand and doesn't hurt to pitch to LOTV/brutalities. The eternalize comes up occasionally in the late game where the Draw 4 pitch 2 can help close out the game. It being 3cmc is also nice for Sun Titan.
Liliana, Death's Majesty- Big Lili as I like to call her. She is my replacement for Elspeth- she can be a 5cmc reanimate that leaves a walker or fill my grave while making 2/2 zombies. I’ve never had reason to user her ULT though.
Baneslayer Angel- Just a beat stick that can stabilize the board and life total. Nothing unheard of or untested.
I only managed to trade for these 2 last night so they have only a little testing behind them:
Doom Whisperer- In theory this is a pseudo griselbrand that can come down t4 with my ramp. The surveil gives me a way to leverage some of the life caryatid has saved. I only got it out once last night where it was just a beat stick that got a concession next turn.
Search for Azcanta – I got a fair amount of testing with this card last night I managed to get it at least 1 game in every match. I immediately want to go up to a 2 of. It helps to filter draws early and late game once I’ve stabilized it lets me dig for gifts or removal as needed. I’ve always felt the biggest problem with gift decks is the lack of draw/selection so we draw the wrong half sometimes. If I can get a second one I'll either drop doom whisperer (depending on his performance) or the third collective brutality to slot it in the main.
The sideboard feels like a hot mess. Mostly of things I’ve had in older lists. There isn’t a conducive plan yet.
Unmoored Ego- Has been decent good for dealing combo, tron and low threat density decks like Arclight and death’s shadow. Not sure if it makes the cut long term though.
I’m planning on testing a worship in the board to take advantage of caryatid’s Hexproof to form a variant of troll worship lock. Still not 100% the match ups where that lock is better than Iona/ Elesh Norn though. Just need to pickup the card from my LGS/ or trade for it.
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Field of Ruin
1x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Watery Grave
2x Windswept Heath
Spot Removal (9)
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Assassin's Trophy
2x Detention Sphere
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Path to Exile
1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sun Titan
Self Discard (8)
1x Champion of Wits
3x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
Unburial Package (3)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Unburial Rites
Wrath Package (3)
1x Day of Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Wrath of God
Value Cards (3)
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Doom Whisperer
1x Search for Azcanta
Gifts (4)
4x Gifts Ungiven
Ramp (4)
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Damping Sphere
1x Eternal Witness
2x Knight of Autumn
2x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Runed Halo
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Unmoored Ego
1x Worm Harvest
1x Worship
Edit: Updated list with the sideboard I plan on testing.
I would move fulminator to sb, snap to main, snap will have far more utility than Fulminator.
You could also drop the Urborg for a bojuka bog. While the urborg is normally part of the loam/crime with 4 caryitids we can generally crime multiple times a turn without urborg and its extra grave hate.
The 15 different cards in your sideboard doesn't seem to have any pattern. While we are using gifts and want to maximize it's power we shouldn't pick cards of different names solely for names sake.
I would also say 1 IOK and 1 thoughtseize in the board isn't worth their slots- You are not likely to have them in the first 2 turns where they would be helpful for their match types.
A single KoR in the 75 is really helpful for getting to your utility lands and can provide a clock for decks we need to pressure.
Honest question: What deck are you planning on bringing Sigarda in for? It seems its only good to fight emrakul/LOTV emblems and heavy removal decks.
I played against- Hollow One, ArcLight, Traditional Jund, Creeping Dredge, BG Elves. I lost to dredge and hollow one but made top 8 then lost to the same dredge deck in the second round of the cut to Top 8. End result was- 4-3
Notes: Unmoored Ego is combo and tron hate; Flaying tendrils is great for low and aggressive decks and the exile is key against arclight and dredge with the plus that caryatid lives through it. I've dropped Terrastadon as I think a low to the ground aggressive plan of attack is going to work better than reanimator plan against Tron variants. With Unmoored Egoand Fulminator Mage working to keep them off tron and Sun titan to loop the mage or ghost quarter.
I have been testing the Ramp package in place of the discard package and I think my experience with it so far is that its the better package. It helps protect our greedy mana base. I have found this version to be far better against Ponze, blood moon, and fulminators, and allows us to save a few points of life with fetch/shocks which helps us to survive to the late game. A t3 gifts/ t4 unburial can just win games that discard and T4 gifts wouldn't win us.
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Field of Ruin
1x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Watery Grave
2x Windswept Heath
Spot Removal (9)
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Assassin's Trophy
2x Detention Sphere
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Path to Exile
1x Eternal Witness
1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Sun Titan
Self Discard (8)
1x Champion of Wits
3x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
Wrath Package (3)
1x Day of Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Wrath of God
Unburial Package (3)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Unburial Rites
Ramp (6)
2x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Sylvan Caryatid
Gifts (4)
4x Gifts Ungiven
2x Damping Sphere
2x Flaying Tendrils
2x Fulminator Mage
2x Knight of Autumn
2x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Life from the Loam
1x Raven's Crime
2x Stony Silence
1x Unmoored Ego
This week’s theme: Iona, Game?
Round 1 – Runaway Red (2-1)
Games 2 and 3 I stick Iona he concedes. Game 1 he hit double Arclight off faithless on turn 1, just way too fast of a start.
Round 2 – Mono Black Devotion (1-2)
Game 1 I lock him with Iona at 2 1 life, I use lingering souls to chump block his Geralf's Messenger. I got too greedy and swung with my last soul token and casted a champion of wits as a blocker forgetting messenger has 2 power. Game 3 I never see a 3rd land or mana dork after 6 draws.
Round 3 – Traverse Jund (2-0)
Game 1 he floods and get mana screwed but I dig out and win with Iona + souls. Game 2 I use knight and back to back to back lingering souls to beat him down.
Round 4 – Grishoalbrand (2-1)
Game 1 T3 Gifts for Iona locking out black. Game 2 he blood moons me and He through the breaches bob, and double combat + land pitch to close the game. Game 3 I turn 3 gifts for Iona and double brutality to pull his hand and drain to speed the clock up.
Here is the version I'm going to run tomorrow for a store event. The only changes from tonights version is fulimator and bojuka bog. Which I picked up after the FNM.
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Field of Ruin
1x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Watery Grave
2x Windswept Heath
Spot Removal (8)
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Assassin's Trophy
1x Detention Sphere
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Path to Exile
1x Eternal Witness
1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Sun Titan
Self Discard (9)
2x Champion of Wits
3x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
Wrath Package (3)
1x Day of Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Wrath of God
Gifts (4)
4x Gifts Ungiven
Unburial Package (3)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Unburial Rites
Ramp (6)
2x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Damping Sphere
1x Detention Sphere
2x Flaying Tendrils
1x Fulminator Mage
2x Knight of Autumn
2x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Life from the Loam
1x Raven's Crime
2x Stony Silence
1x Terastodon
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net