GlistenerAgent: Hey man, I made a few changes to the deck recently, I'd love your take on them.

they are:

-1 Creeping Tar Pit -1 Wurmcoil Engine (side)

for

+1 Batterskull +1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Creeping Tar pit wasn't really doing much for me, and having 3 lands enter tapped was a bit too much. I really wanted to find a way to mainboard Batterskull so that seemed like a good way to get him into the fold. With him there, there isn't much need for Wurmcoil Engine , as they fill a similar role. I replaced him with Linvala, Keeper of Silence as she's very castable, and brings a ton of hate to your opponent.

25.5 lands seems like too little. You are trying to cast Gifts Ungiven and probably Grave Titan .

Linvala is not a worthy one-of, because she's really weak to removal and doesn't actually do that much against Twin except for their combo.

The Tar Pit is very, very good IMO. Unblockable is underrated. Three lands tapped is completely fine, other control and midrange decks are playing 4+

GlistenerAgent:My issue with it is that it dies to lightning bolt and whatnot. Do you have any ideas for getting Batterskull into the mainboard, other than nixing that land?

Also, Linvala, Keeper of Silence dies to removal, but she screws with Pod decks, tron decks, and a lot of others as well.

Linvala does nothing against Tron, unless I'm forgetting something. She's pretty underwhelming if you're trying to use her as a gamebreaker.

If you want to main Batterskull , cut Grave Titan .

I never liked having more than just a singleton Creeping Tar Pit and singleton Celestial Colonnade in Gifts Ungiven myself. The deck (particularly your version) already has so many win conditions.

You only need them for when your opponent has something obnoxious, like sorcery-speed boardwipes, and can't keep a creature on the table. In which case, you Gifts Ungiven for Celestial Colonnade , Creeping Tar Pit , and Life from the Loam .

Derp, I messed up there. She doesn't do anything vs. tron. She wouldn't necessarily be a game-breaker, but a good way of gumming up the opponent's side of the field.

My issue with Batterskull is that I can't cast Unburial rites on him. If possible, I'd like to have both him and Grave Titan onboard... but I do see your point.

If given the choice between 2x Colonnade and 1x Tar pit, or 1 of each, which would you guys prefer?

One of each. You're playing four Demonic Tutor , after all.

Derp. Right xD

Goodness, I'm foolish sometimes.

The reason that Linvala's in the side board really, is because I feel no need to have both Wurmcoil Engine and Batterskull in the deck, and if one has the capacity to be mainboarded, I'll cut the other.

That, however, leaves a slot open in my sideboard. If you have any ideas on how to fill it, I'd love to hear them.

GlistenerAgent: After thinking about it, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment of Linvala. I think I'm going to go for Timely Reinforcements instead, as it is a good sideboard card against aggro/burn, and doesn't step on Batterskull's toes.

Plus, I love the card. It's badass.

What's the Raven's Crime for? It seems pretty out of place, but there's probably an awesome synergy I'm missing.

Have you thought of making this a five color deck? It would change things up entirely but you'd be able to add bolts and some other interesting control stuff like Ral Zarek . The idea's a bit out there, but I think it could be interesting.

JexInfinite: That would be the Life from the Loam + Raven's Crime combo. (A common gifts pile is Life from the loam + Raven's Crime + Ghost Quarter + Man land.)

bigguy99: The thought crossed my mind, but frankly I do not possess the skill level to make a 5-color deck. xD

Five color would make it worse, honestly. Red doesn't present any cards that are nearly as synergistic as anything you already have.

Hey, the deck looks really good man! I run a similar list that me and a friend have been working on. In my list, I have Courser of Kruphix instead of Sylvan Caryatid though. Do you think caryatids are better that coursers? It's a great deck though so +1 from me and feel free to check out my list.

MattTheNinja: If your meta has a lot of control, then the answer is undoubtably yes. However, It is difficult to compare the two, as they fulfill different functions. A much more intense argument could be made for the pros and cons of Sylvan Caryatid and Birds of Paradise , as they are much more similar.

I personally find Courser's mana cost prohibitive for a ramp card in a vacuum, and it is unlikely she will survive in a control-filled meta. She also does not allow for T2 Carytid -> T3 Gifts -> T4 Iona/Elesh Norn that can be rushed against aggro decks like RDW/Affinity. If you are using her for her ramping capabilities, I would suggest going with either Birds or Carytid (although if you go birds, I would suggest going with 4.)

If you are using her for her stall and lifegain, I would put in another 2 Finks instead.

Glittering Wish maybe?

bcornett24: The current construction of my sideboard doesn't really allow for it, but that's pretty easily remedied. What benefit do you think Glittering Wish would add to my deck? What would you take out mainboard? Since this isn't a combo deck, I would basically be searching for things like Abrupt Decay in the sideboard, or other multicolored forms of removal.

slovakattack It was more just meant as an idea to consider but yeah colored removal and any other sideboard solutions you might need to help you win, but only if they are multicolored obviously.

Iona and griselbrand need to be in the main board. They are the way gifts locks an opponent out of a game. I don't like only 2 inquisition in the deck would rather see hard removal or counter magic over it. You may want to consider a transformative side board into a more traditional control deck for game two if you suspect graveyard hate coming in. I'm not an expert in modern and I know there is no true correct way to build gifts. Toolbox your deck to your local meta and see what happens

I actually kind of like the Glittering Wish option. It can be removal spell number 4 in another Gifts package (if of course, you've got multicolored options in your SB). But is otherwise unnecessary.

Secondly, why no Thoughtseize mainboard? Discard packages are cool.

Anywho, if you take a look at my profile, you'll see that Gifts decks are my favorite, and overall you did a very good job of constructing yours. Care to check out mine? :) +1

A Glittering Wish package isn't needed. It chews into the sideboard and takes away valuable maindeck space that would normally be Gifts Ungiven targets. The main targets would be:

Dreadbore
Firespout
Fracturing Gust
Fulminator Mage
Hide/Seek
Loxodon Hierarch
Maelstrom Pulse
Pure/Simple
Rakdos Charm
Slaughter Games
Wheel of Sun and Moon

...none of which do anything not already available to Gifts Ungiven. For example, Maelstrom Pulse is already good in the sideboard without Glittering Wish. Fulminator Mage is easily replaced by Ghost Quarter/Tectonic Edge and locking the opponent out with Life from the Loam, which is already in the deck.

Plus, most of the good targets for Glittering Wish are red, which means playing another color.

I recommend playing Glittering Wish. You can include a Jeskai Ascendancy in the sideboard, and some mana dorks in the maindeck. Play a bunch of cantrips and you've got a functional combo deck. It's only about 60 cards different in the main and sideboard, so it's not as big a change as you might think.

With all these suggestions comes adding a fifth color to the deck, and that's a huge change considering what's here. If that was to happen, I would take out the Grave Titan and one Liliana of the Veil to make room for some Glittering Wish and remove one Abrupt Decay for a Terminate. To make some room for other red stuff or more Glittering Wish, probably take out both Inquisition of Kozilek and add in one Thoughtseize.

For the record, I was kidding.