A Little Lesson In Recursion Theory

Modern* slovakattack

SCORE: 99 | 383 COMMENTS | 13880 VIEWS | IN 44 FOLDERS


Clearing Comments —Dec. 10, 2014

slovakattack says... #1

Programmer_112, wwhitegoldd sorry for not responding earlier, I was preparing for a BIG OL' UPDATE, HOO-AH! (details are in the update box.)

GlistenerAgent, OPINIONS, PLZ!

Rationale for Chalice of the Void: It's an incredible sideboard card against aggro in this deck. Guess what this Gifts list lacks? Dat's right, bby, it's got only 4 1 drops. That means that we can safely drop a chalice on T2, and SCREW U/R Delver, Affinity and RDW in the PATOOT. (or at least, slow them down.) If you can resolve a second one for 4 mana, you've basically won the game. All without negatively affecting your board-state in any way shape or form, yay! This is the advantage of going Carytid over BoP.

Second: Drown in Sorrow: Not as good as Anger of the Gods, but you take what you can get in your off-colors. Reasonably efficient, and dodges Carytid, which is nice. U/R delver could conceivably pump Monastery Swiftspear beyond it, but since it's usually sideboarded in conjunction with Chalice, it'd be quite a feat.

Wraths have been mostly removed from the mainboard. They come back in when it comes to heavy midrange decks, but they are too slow to search for in this aggro meta.

Programmer_112: Fulcrum got every single package, except for 1. :3

There is an 'artifact recursion package' in Academy Ruins + Batterskull + Life from the Loam + X value card/Engineered Explosives, if you need it.

KotR and Siege Rhino are great cards, but that sort of deck plays more of a midrange beatdown role, as Fulcrum mentioned. I prefer Gifts control, and I find it nigh impossible to do Gifts beatdown WITHOUT Goyf, which I do not have on paper. Decks that run KotR generally are not control decks, as a rule. Not sayin' that you can't shove a copy of Siege Rhino into your deck and make it work, just pointing out the difference between Gifts Midrange (gross, no offense Fulcrum :P) and Gifts Control. This deck generates value, but it's through recursion, not ETB effects. If you're looking for a deck that generates value through things like Rhino, I suggest Birthing Pod. It's literally built around that!

The beauty of Gifts is that with the right sideboarding, there's no such thing as a truly awful matchup. That being said, it suffers against heavy aggro, like most control decks do. Easy matchups are ones that have no interaction with my deck (so I can just T2 Carytid -> T3 Gifts -> T4 Unburial Rites/Win) but those are few and far between in Modern. Mono-colored decks tend to suffer against this deck's ability to resolve an Iona in a timely manner.

wwhitegoldd:

Emrakul alas does not work for this deck, as he does not stay in the graveyard long enough to reanimate him :c

Griselbrand is a good suggestion, and I see some decks run it. I personally don't however, I prefer Iona, Shield of Emeria instead.

December 7, 2014 10:32 a.m.

bigguy99 says... #2

This update looks great! Only problem is now you're not guaranteed a boardwipe against some really stick creatures such as Thrun, the Last Troll (which most control decks struggle against), but I suppose there's more game postboard. I think you could even consider a fourth Liliana of the Veil over one Inquisition of Kozilek, but that would need a good amount of playtesting. Overall, the deck looks a lot better against all the aggro in the meta. One thing you could consider is Bojuka Bog despite it entering tapped since it disrupts so many graveyard strats and delve cards that it could definitely make or break a game.

December 7, 2014 1:10 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #3

I'd cut the 2 Inquisition of Kozilek for a Thoughtseize and Liliana of the Veil. Liliana is just so potent in this deck, and I prefer Thoughtseize in control decks because you want to remove as many things as possible.

Outside of that, the only other change to the main I would make is cutting Lingering Souls for a 25th land, because you want to be activating manlands and casting big spells.

December 7, 2014 1:21 p.m.

slovakattack says... #4

bigguy99: I'm honestly not too worried about Thrun. He doesn't provide a swift clock, and he's easy to chumpblock with tokens. Once I resolve a Batterskull or fatty, he ceases to be relevant. In short: Annoying? Yes. To the point that I'd build around his existence.... no. That being said, I do have WoG and Verdict in my sideboard, for crazy boardstate matchups that Drown in Sorrow just won't help with. So it's there- just not necessarily in G1.

GlistenerAgent: I feel like Liliana OTV has been slightly neutered by Treasure Cruise in the current meta. Still awesome of course, but do you think she should still be run of as a 4 of? I got no problems with a 3rd Thoughtseize, and what do you think of Bojuka Bog as a utility land? My only issue with it is that it enters tapped, and I have too many lands that do that already.

December 7, 2014 3:29 p.m.

-Fulcrum says... #5

I agree that Liliana has been slightly neutered by TC, but the card is still just so good. You don't necessarily have to play 4, but I would rather play 4 Lili over 4 Lingering Souls.

December 7, 2014 4 p.m.

-Fulcrum says... #6

Is Grave Titan something you play only when you draw it, or do you occasionally use Gifts to find and reanimate it?

December 8, 2014 12:23 a.m.

slovakattack says... #7

Fulcrum: Sometimes I play it only when I draw it, other times I've used Rites to reanimate it. There are times where I've drawn into Rites and dumped Titan in the graveyard with Liliana, then reanimated to bait out a counterspell (then, of course, dump Elesh Norn and reanimate her.)

He's served me very well as a T8-9 topdeck tho.

December 8, 2014 9:22 a.m.

-Fulcrum says... #8

Would you ever use Gifts Ungiven to find it? Or is that something you only use to win the game?

December 8, 2014 5:03 p.m.

slovakattack says... #9

Not really. I don't want to disclude any weird situations, but in general he's just there as an awesome topdeck. Usually the way it'll go is: Gifts package 1- Answers, Gifts package 2- Elesh Norn/Iona.

December 8, 2014 5:20 p.m.

-Fulcrum says... #10

That makes sense. He doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would go out of your way to look for. Do you ever side him out?

December 8, 2014 5:28 p.m.

slovakattack says... #11

Yes. Against mono-colored decks/decks I know can't stop the combo, He is what I side out for Iona, Shield of Emeria

December 8, 2014 5:45 p.m.