Sloves, Can you explain to me why you use Darkblast and how the interaction with Raven's Crime and Life from the Loam works?

I know they work hand-in-hand but I just don't know the how part.

Also, Is Griselbrand viable in Gifts?

Caligula

Sure thing!

The gifts package goes like dis: Raven's Crime + Life from the Loam + 2 lands. (usually a utility land that you would not be able to search for otherwise, such as a man-land, or Urborg.)

Long story short, you get a Raven proc no matter what. Think of the 2 lands as essentially 2 extra Raven's Crime. If your opponent chooses to dump both Raven's Crime and Life from the Loam, you can conceivably get 2 procs of Raven's Crime anyway, just from dumping the lands they gave you. If they choose the lands, you can just recur them with Life from the Loam.

Life from the loam -> Lands -> Fuel for Raven's Crime.

I like Darkblast because it can be recurred from the graveyard. Note that if you cast it during your upkeep, you can 'double tap' for a turn by then dredging your draw phase.

While Griselbrand is certainly viable, I am not a huge fan of him. He certainly swings games, and provides you with the fuel to win, but for the cost I'd usually rather just Elesh Norn, (wipes the field) or Iona (minimum protects herself, maximum auto-wins.)

He's a great source of lifegain, but I recently put in Resolute Archangel for that, and she gets maximum use on entry.

Try him out if you have him, see what works for you.

lol, What do you mean by proc. I'm illiterate when it comes to that sort of stuff lmao, You mean you can trigger off retrace no matter what?

I see what you mean about Darkblast at the upkeep, Like a pseudo Drown in Sorrow.

And I planned on running Griselbrand, Elesh Norn, Batterskull and Sun Titan.

With snappys x3, and Yatids.

Also would things like Remand and Spell Snare be any good?

Proc=trigger, sorry.

Permission (counters/tempo) spells tend not to be very good in Gifts, as your main goal is stabilizing. You may want to run some Negate in the sideboard to counter things like Scapeshift, but other than that, removal tends to work better.

Those 4 fatties sound just fine in terms of wincons (although it may be 1 fatty too many. Mess around with it; see what you find. If you do need to cut one, cut the Titan. It's so excellent with 4x Liliana of the Veil- if you aren't running 4 of her, don't bother running him-, but the other 3 are just better.)

Word. Sun titan is gone then.

Moar removal for me.

If sun titan works, it works. Don't take my word for the minute things, test-test-test! If it works for you, go for it.

You think AEtherling could be a viable threat?

@Caligula You may be onto something there. I think that in terms of castable fatties, it rivals Grave Titan, but you also have to cast it with 7-8 lands in play to be able to protect it, while the Titan leaves behind guys.

Also, the real reason Darkblast is good is that it's nuts against Delver. The dredge is nice too. :)

Is the 14 card sideboard on purple?

It seems a sideboard card moved to the maindeck. I know you're not silly enough to play 61 cards.

Sloves, I don't have any time or cash to get Lili so what would you run instead of her?

I was thinking of running a Wurmcoil Engine, Sphinx's Revelation another Unburial Rites (for 2 in the MB) and something else?

@Caligula

I'd suggest two more discard spells and two more removal spells, which Liliana effectively is. Smother and Slaughter Pact are pretty strong for removal, while for discard spells you could max out Thoughtseize or play Inquisition of Kozilek.

Well I planned on running 4x Path to Exile and 3x Abrupt Decay so there's lots of removal there, I was thinking maybe in terms of utility and power. But I would up the count of Thoughtseize to a 3 count.

scratch that 3x Path to Exile

Ey, sorry about my absence. I was gone for a while, due to religious reasons. GlistenerAgent, I have no idea how that happened. I think T/O is going a little wiggy, honestly. I've seen 1 or 2 strange instances of cards moving by themselves. :/

Thoughts on Resolute Archangel?

Caligula: You need to replace Lili with stuff that she effectively does. Discard+Removal, basically. If you have a lot of removal, then go for more discard.

The Archangel is certainly better than Grave Titan IMO. I think she breaks the limit of castability though, so maybe Iona would be better so that you take full advantage of having to reanimate your fatties.

I think she could be better than Iona in a few cases. I've been playing around with this deck a bit, and stabilizing is just so freakin' important. The Archangel is nuts at doing that- I'm going to need to test her more though.

Yo! Now that Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Birthing Pod are banned in modern, how do you plan on changing your deck (if at all)? I want to try out Gifts for the new meta and am always looking for new ideas.

Llamadowns: Darkblast and Resolute Archangel will probably come out, but most of the changes will center around sideboard stuff. Not having to have 4 slots devoted to Chalice of the Void leaves a lot more room for varied hate in the SB.

You dont think that Chalice will just get better now? Seeing as no one has access to 8 cost draw spells?

The only reason chalice was so good was due to how ridiculously aggressive the meta became, with Delver at the forefront. With Pod gone, the meta is going to shift back to Junk, Kikki/Twin and UWR control once more (perhaps with a little Vengevine and some zoo in the mix). Against those decks, Chalice just doesn't offer enough stopping power to be worth anything. Heck, the most you can reasonably cast it for in a game is 4 (thereby stopping 2CMC spells), but that doesn't even stop Abrupt Decay (which you will be seeing a lot more of.) I may keep 2 in the SB to screw over Burn/Affinity (chalice for 0, anyone?) but I believe the meta is shifting away from it being a major player.

Some cards to replace those ugly Chalice of the Void:

Shadow of Doubt, Aven Mindcensor, Nihil Spellbomb

Any thought towards something like Leyline of Sanctity since discard will be back with a vengeance?

awphutt: I think it'll get a spot in the SB again for a lot of decks. It's almost 100% guaranteed a slot in MM2, in my opinion, so expect to see it a lot more.