in the spirit of these drain finesse threads:

[Liam-K]

I'd like to present a question to the community in hopes of sparking some interesting discussion.  This another "pick your play" question, but it might be a little more complicated.  As such, I'll try to be as comprehensive as possible.

You are playing Gifts against a drain deck. 

Your hand is:
force of will
brainstorm
gifts ungiven
1 card you don't mind brainstorming away

Your board is:
island
island
fetchland

Your opponent is at a similar stage in developement.  He announces a draw spell which you would like to force.  He does not have UU open.

This is an interesting subtlety I've run into a few times.  You are going nowhere without a land drop, so you really want your Brainstorm.  However, brainstorming into a land drop and no gas is a very real possibility, and if you force with Gifts you are stalled.  So, you have a few choices:

Force with gifts.  Trust your brainstorm to draw you into gas.
Force with brainstorm.  Trust your deck to feed you a mana source.
Cast brainstorm.  Hope for drain, or blue card + mana source.
--->miss completely
----------->force with gifts and be completely stalled.
----------->allow the spell to resolve.
--->catch a less useful blue card you can cast on your next turn, but no mana source
----------->force with gifts
----------->force with blue card
----------->allow the spell to resolve
--->catch a mana source, but no blue card or gas
----------->force with gifts, leaving you stalled
----------->allow the spell to resolve
--->catch drain, no mana, no gas.  He forces.
----------->force with gifts, leaving you stalled
----------->allow the spell to resolve
--->catch drain, mana source, no gas.  He forces.
----------->force with gifts, stalling out
----------->allow the spell to resolve

What do you do?  Does the answer change depending on who's EOT it is?
(edit: obviously I'm leaving out the no brainer parts of the descision tree)

[Eddie]

I would certainly brainstorm. Your Gifts is worth nothing without a fourth mana source, so I will gladly throw it to my force and use my brainstorm. But I'd brainstorm first and see what other options I have. I have a fetch available after the brainstorm either way if things turn bad.

[PucktheCat]

I would always cast the Brainstorm.  You do risk getting screwed, but the odds are low.  Nearly half of a Gifts deck is blue and a bunch of the non-blue cards are good enough that you would happily Force away Gifts to get them (tutors and Yawg. Will, basically).  And if you get a Drain that is likely to be GG.  Forcing with the Gifts without Brainstorming first seems clearly wrong - you have a lot better chance of getting a random blue card or a draw spell on the Brainstorm than you do of getting a just a draw spell.  Forcing with Brainstorm seems pretty bad too - you will be left with a Gifts you can't cast unless you topdeck a land.

The worst case scenario with Brainstorming first is that you draw 3x mana and shuffle away one of the mana and the bad card in your hand.  If that happens you can judge whether the draw spell is worth Forcing if it leaves you no gas.  If it is, go for it, shuffle with the fetch and hope to topdeck.  If that is the situation at least you know where you stand and can make an informed decision.

Incidentally, if you had Brainstormed on your own turn you would be in better shape.  In addition to the possibility of finding a second draw spell or a blue spell you would have the chance to find two moxes and could cast Gifts in response for two blue cards.

[dicemanx]

Brainstorm all the way. If you draw into a Drain you're in much better shape than FoWing away your Gifts. Even if you're not drawing into Drain, your FoW is still online and you also get a reshuffle.

Gifts isn't that strong without support cards, so if you considered FoWing away the Brainstorm and hoping to topdeck a mana source to reach 4 mana, that first Gifts would be relatively weak.

[MaxxMatt]

There are no differences between:

Brainstorming first, finding nothing, FoWilling pitching Gifts and being stalled for a while

or

FoWilling pitching Gifts, drawing a card, Brainstorming into nothing and being stalled for a while.

The unlucky cards' configuration stacked on the deck, ruled the game for you, leaving almost nothing do think.

An intriguing ask could have been: Would you have countered that drawer?
While Brainstorming and then cracking the fetch to shuffle the shit, would be a non issue, I think that being sure of Countering that spell would have not been a simple choice.

The mana available on table for you is low, exactly as for your opponent.

If he is tapping out during your EoT, he could have a Bomb#2 hidden in his hand. Countering that spell would have saved him from probably losing resources or spells during his own Mainphase

If he is tapping out during his Mainphase, I cannot see any other good options in his hand, if not AT LEAST another land's drop and some other artifacts' mana accelerations, that would leave him with the opportunity of dealing with your own spells.

If he is tapping out during your Upkeep, he should have weighted that both you aren't going to be lethal that turn and you should have less counterspells without another card in hand.

If he is tapping out during your Mainphase, between the switch from 1st to 2nd mainphase, I can see a better plan. You seemed to have missed the land's drop, he realized that you are going to burn or not optimize the eventual ManaDrained mana, so he could evaluate to "risk" a Mana Drain when you are not well equipped to maximize his effect.

In a lot of situations, like the ones that I described, I would have not played my Drawer, fearing a nasty Mana Drain.
In a lot of situations, like the ones that I described, I would not have countered that Drawer.

Three mana on table and 3 or 4 cards in hand, with both hands, nearly untouched by Duresses or Counterwars, aren't so critical to manage from both the side of the table.

Both players should not consider themselves for a while, trying to better scuplting their own hands.
Bluffing an hand full of counters, when you are almost relying on a single Brainstorm, is really risky, especiallyif he is low on counters, such as you but with an hand with a couple of Bombs.

The drawer's typology itself,could be elaborated a bit more:

Brainstorms and Ancestral, both played at sorcery speed, would have been deadly and could only signify a Drain + FoW backup. It is clearly the worst situation available for you.

Clearly, TFKs or AKs or other overcosted drawers, are played at sorcery speed only if the opponent is dumb or protected by a couple of Pitch counters ( both FoWs and Mis-Ds ). They can be played quickly, without thinking too much about what the opponent can have, only after a deadly counter war or in the really first steps of the matches, but NOT when the opponent can have a Drain online.

I would have probably countered the TFKs only if it would have been played at sorcery speed or during my own 1st mainphase and only with a Mana Drain ( maybe drawn from Brainstorming into it, in order to optimize with the drained mana, the Gifts into my hand).

If none missed a single lands' drop and from the game situation described, the opponent went first because it have been the first one that tried to abuse of his slow hand, especially if the ask involve some EoT actions.
Going first, another time, revealed to be one of the "powerful stategies" available for T1.


Maxx