Starting Gifts Hand

[Liam-K]

FoF is a powerful DRAW spell.  You are not casting it as a draw spell, you are casting it as a tutor for land.  Unfortunately for you, your opponent has almost all the information about your position that you do, and will almost certainly read you as digging for land.

I think you are all too focused on the fact that you will be resolving a restricted spell to step back and analyse what that spell actually does in this situation.  The problem with this hand is that FoF will almost certainly net you 2 lands, or in the next most likely situation, one mana and one moderate card.  Coupled with the fact you must spend petal to cast it in the first place, I highly doubt you seeing any card advantage through FoF at all (until you cast Will, but that's so beside the point, will=win), and due to the nature of the card, your card selection opportunities will be basically nill.

I look at this hand and see land, land, mox, mox, mox, drain, force.  Do you keep that?  If you do, well, ok.  But I don't, because it doesn't do anything.

I also see a less likely scenario of land, mox, mox, mox, force, scroll/counterspell/bounce, dead card.  Holy tempo loss batman.  I'd rather lose a card than play that hand, because I will probably get a turn or two in trade.

[zeus-online]

You continually refer to the lotus as a "petal", i'm pretty sure the lotus is alot darker then that

I'd consider going mox, lotus, FoF to hide information.

Also, would you prefer having ancestral recall instead? or merchant scroll?

Personally i find the effect of FoF to be more powerful then that of A. Recall (Eventhough A. Recall is obviosly a better card because of its mana cost)

When i look at the hand i see plenty of mana, disruption and a powerful business spell to get going with!

/Zeus

[Shock Wave]

I look at this hand and see land, land, mox, mox, mox, drain, force.  Do you keep that?  If you do, well, ok.  But I don't, because it doesn't do anything.

You haven't answered my question. Since you're assuming that your opponent has 1st turn Rod + FoW backup, or something equally nasty that has convinced you to send back the hand provided, what 6 card hand are you hoping for that will give you a better chance of winning? What, pray tell, are you hoping to pull out of your ass with 6 cards to save yourself from such a hideous predicament? If you can't provide an example of such a 6 card hand, I'm afraid you're going to have to concede that it is a wise decision to stick with what you've initially been dealt.

[FlamingCloud]

I look at this hand and see land, land, mox, mox, mox, drain, force.  Do you keep that?  If you do, well, ok.  But I don't, because it doesn't do anything.

Um... land land mox mox mox drain force is good hand against fish on the play, and it isn't really that because you also have the option of draining and casting FoF, and you have enough gas in the yard to be half way to a lethal will.  I cannot see how the average 6 is gonna be better against fish.

If you cast FoF on your turn you have hardcast FoW, Draiin, unknown card on turn two, otherwise you have FoF+Drain in response to their first spell.

[Liam-K]

Alright, I definitely thought through this whole discussion lotus was lotus petal.  I have no idea why.  Reading is tech.

Shockwave: I am not assuming they have such a hand.  I made that statement in reference to the mana issues this hand could potentially create: a very real possibility, but not your biggest problem.

FlamingCloud: I think that, if you keep this hand, not casting FoF in your main phase is incorrect.  You don't really want to miss a land drop that you don't have to.

I'm not sure where I stand on this hand anymore after having the black/petal thing cleared up.  It definitely makes a difference, not least of which being the vast improvement of the reasonably likely land/scroll pile, or the possibility of casting FoF holding two of the moxes improving your choice of piles, or the possibility of casting it with UU floating.  I'll drop the case on the grounds of I had one of the cards wrong and everything I said is fractionally relevant at best.

[trancefusion]

First let me apologize if I pull off a minor threadjack here and secondly please forgive me for being a complete n00b, but I haven't played magic since like 2002 so I am a little rusty. What 4 cards is a player suppose to pull put of his deck with Gifts? Does it depend on the situation or is there a standard 'set' of 4 cards that you usually pull? I noticed someone said earlier that they would Gifts for a Colossus but how does that work? I mean don't you usually want to Tinker for the Colossus and take and then take 2 turns to win? Again sorry if this is a stupid question but I can't seem to get my head around what you would be picking with Gifts.

[brainiac7]

You should search up some of the earlier threads on gifts decks. There is a lot to learn.

Basically there is no catch all pile to get. It's almost always dependent on what you need to do at the time and what cards you have
in hand and in the GY, and in play.... and your opponents board position... and the  possible cards they have in hand.

[FlamingCloud]

It depends on the situation.  Generally there are 4 types of gifts piles.

Combo pile -> I win now
Recoup/Yawg/Lotus/Tinker/Timewalk (I mention 5 because by the time you are ready to do the win pile, you generally have one of the 5 in hand or yard already)

Mana pile -> Get to I win stage
Artifact mana or land based on the situation(stormcount, chalice/rod, wastelands, need black/red source etc) generally you have another gifts in hand or a yawg when you do thi.s

Draw/Tutor pile -> Improve hand / board position
Brainstorm/Recall/Mystical/Scroll/FoF/Demonic/2nd Gifts whatever you think would help the situation the best

Counter pile -> Self explanitory
Scroll/Misdirection/FoW/Drain etc

Ofcourse there are always expceptions to that stuff, especially if mana of the cards are gone already, and whether you are going for dsc win or tendrils kill (ie active welders or something equally annoying)  What kind of pile you take is often dictated by whether you are the control or the beatdown in the matchup.  Sometimes you just make a pile filled with broken stuff like recall/tinker/drain/timewalk so you can get a drain to fuel that yawg in your hand. 

Unless you can outright win, there is never really a 'wrong' choice with gifts, as any cast gains you a ton in board position.(but I suppose if your resolving 4c spells your in good shape already)