Where T1T and Gifts Collide- Intuitive Gifts

[Vegeta2711]

You don't Drain spells for 2 or more mana, because players play conservatively with you?  That has to be the craziest shit I have ever heard.  I don't want this to sound like a flame, I just find that really hard to believe.

This is why I wanted to know if he meant Stax specfically or not. Like I said before, against Stax, ok that's fine, you'll hit huge Drain's a lot because they can't dodge it. But from how it sounded it wasn't clear to me if he was referring to only Stax or other decks.

Against other decks... When I'm playing against Shay (or anyone else on my team) or he's playing against me, we don't typically hit large Mana Drain's against each other. This is mainly beacuse I'm either

A. Playing aggro-control and not sucking, so he'll never get more than 1 mana off it, unless I let it happen.
B. Because it's the control match and if my opponent wants to throw out UU and a Drain that's fine, because usually that means I'm winning when I untap then.

As Randy Buhler once said in his interview: "I put Mana Drain in scare quotes because it's just not that crucial to the way the decks work, in my opinion. I think I spent a grand total of one Mana Drain mana en route to winning last weekend and I often sideboard the card out."

But hey, if your having succes hitting Drain for 4 on a consistent basis with no drawback against non-Stax decks, more power to you.

[onelovemachine]

I have been all over this intuition/ ak gifts nonsense since the last SCG Virginia when I sat down and talked to Smennen about it.  I think that the intuition engine is really strong for gifts because it just gives you raw cards in hand.  You can just use intuition/ ak/ scroll to draw a shit ton of cards and go off thereafter.  But I  definitely think that you need at least one copy of gifts ungiven maindeck because it is the best way to set up your win.  Intuition just isn't as good at it.  You can intuition for will, recoup and lotus but that isn't as good as getting academy, lotus, recoup, will.  Intuition doesn't set up the will nearly as well as gifts does.  With merchant scrolls already, I see no reason to be running three intuitions and not two and one or two gifts.  Everyone that says that gifts doesn't need draw is wrong.  Gifts needs draw because it is the best way to win against decks like slaver that have actual cards maindeck that hose you.  I don't see your need to play tundra just for sacred ground.  That can't possibly be good. 

[forests failed you]

I agree the Sacred Ground / Tundra plan doesn't seem to optimal.  For starters if you don't have the Sacred Ground in hand it causes you to have an unnecessary non basic land in your deck!  There are a lot of better cards that answer LD, that also have more practical applications in other match ups.  Rack and Ruin, Stifle, Pithing Needle, et cetera.

[P_f]

I guess I'll chip in into this subject from the playtesting I've done with the deck.

Alternate Win condition: I think it is necessary when faced with the most relevant card that vintage still sees today: Swords to plowshare. Rootwater Thief can also do you in although we see less of that card. It seems people are opting for a storm based alternate win but I think people may want to take a second look at platinum angel. In any large metagames, scrubby and good aggro are going to present themselves, along with some effective disruption to slow down your game, their creatures have a good chance at killing you just before you are able to win. I think platinum angel serves both as a strong alternate win condition as well as a very good aggro hoser. Your only task is to protect it against their limited removals.

Duress: Truly, wastelands are much much stronger against this deck than any other decks. This deck NEEDS every single drop of its mana! Having even a single mana wasted always turns into a very favorable gain for your opponent. This means duress is not worth the risk of fetching for the 1st turn sea.

Library of Alexandria: This is a win more card. It only combats control oriented decks where you already have a favorable matchup due to the sheer concentration of draw cards. This is again not worth the risk of having lands being wasted.

Tolarian Academy: Against convention, I'm going to have to argue that I do hate this. Most of my logic comes from wasteland, but chalice, which sees play in  around 50% of all decks now (shop, fish, oath), makes this card significantly weaker. There were a lot of games I played when I drew this and wished it was an island. Most other times, especially early in the game where I only have access to 1 artifact accelerant, it serves no better than a basic island. I think this vulnerability offsets the random extra mana it can produce.

Strip Mine/Wasteland: I am undecided about these cards. I really like them, but then again, I love basic lands too. I don't know if they are necessary to fight bazaars since I know active bazaars and squees will eventually outdraw me. I don't want pithing needles in this deck to remedy this situation.

Cunning Wish: Since merchant scrolls are so incredibly vital to the deck, I don't see these as necessities. Their advantage is that they are instants and you don't have to tap out to merchant on your 1st or 2nd turn. Their disadvantage is they weaken your SB game by taking up at least 2-3 SB slots as well as costing an additional mana. Merchant scroll is vital to your game plan and you don't need both tutors.

Darkblast versus Fire/Ice: I really like recursive welder kill but darkblast CAN be considered a dead card. Which should be maindecked? Should any be SB material?

Rebuild: I find this a very strong inclusion to the maindeck since stax seems to be its weakest matchup by far. It is also superb against null rods and chalices which are devastating against your deck.

White Splash: I'm undecided about splashing white. Serenity and Sacred ground are the 2 best stax hosers. There's nothing in red or blue that can compare to them. Serenity can not effectively be replaced by either energy flux nor rack and ruin for 2 reasons: hosing enchantments and reb/beb kills them. What I want to say is that there is a very strong reason to splash white and people should reconsider whether the benefit outweighs the risk.

[Moxlotus]

I don't see how you could cut Academy in a deck like this.  I find myself Gifting for that Academy frequently when I need mana and am setting up a play.  Some combination of Academy, Lotus, Vault, Crypt, and Sol Ring is an excellent set up if you have Will or a Tutor for Will.

[P_f]

I guess my logic is that

if I learned anything about playing this deck, its that it aims to play spells that contribute directly towards achieving a mana threshold and using that mana threshold to cast game winning spells. It needs every single ounce of its mana every single turn.

Therefore, the manabase is exceptionally important. adding an academy and a mana vault in your base will not always give your deck a faster win (or a faster fundamental turn, to put it roughly), but what it does do is give u extra mana sporadically and randomly. However, it also makes u a lot more vulnerability to wasteland, chalice, null rod, and mox monkies, all of which directly contributes to denying you mana.

So I've basically traded a small amount of speed for stability, which i percieve, is worth it.

[MaxxMatt]

I would like to point out some issues about "tutors' configuration".

While, in MDGIfts, Merchants are preferred to any other form of tutoring spell, I think that there are different choices that can be done without needing to compare it with T1T.

MDGifts search Gifts through M.Scrolls.
The high cc spells' curve is maximized by a largely accelerated mana base
 
T1T have a cheaper mana curve for his own spells.
While Gifts need 4 mana on table to start going off, T1T can advance step by step since 3 mana into this process. You have AKs and a couple of Merchants with cc2, C-Wishes and Intuitions with cc3 and some other spells' mix with an average cc of 3. In the end, playing with such a deck can let you think about being able to often play and optimize both M-Scroll and C-Wish in a single turn to set up a good defence or an unstoppable attack. You don't have a single hyper-costed Spells but a pletora of medium sized "threats" that usually force opponents to trade time and resources with them in order to avoid losing.

Following this logic and being able to perceive the subtle power of the coupling of M.Scrolls and C-Wishes, I cannot realize how those cards should be considered mutually exclusives.

Because one of the best decks of the moment ( MDGIfts ) is going to regret one of them, doesn't mean that C-Wish is awful.

On the other hand, I'm sure that C-Wish, while strong enough to see it playing, can be considered slow against MW.decs.

If you are going to face decks like Ubazaar or c-slavery or 5c-$stacks, I feel that you can easily use this "tools" configuration:

3 Merchants
3 C-Wish
1 Rebuild
1 H Recall
1 Mindtwist/Duress/E.Truth/CofVapours

You haveboth access to quick answers to bouncers and solutions while conserving the option to grab flexible tools with C-Wish.

I would like to point out how strong can be Chain of Vapours when playing with C.Wishes and going off with Brainfreeze. With a couple of lands and a single C-Wish you can rise the storm count ( bouncing your own Moxen ) up to Freeze almost any opponent's deck.


Props to Negator that realize how strong Aj3j3's deck is, compared to other form of modern control decks. If well played, it can outplay almost any opponents because of both the high number of Drawers and the high number of Key Spells.



@Duresses attackers.

I consider them most of all a stylish play. I never saw Aj3j3 or other good T1T players lose games because of them maindecked. They are aware of the subtle effect of playing them fast and the usually bad situation of losing a land. On the other hand, playing the deck carefully, without any hurry on disposing of your resources, you can always use Duresses to free your path to victories. In a control or control-combo or combo oriented metagame, they are always a must. You cannot always play blindly against an unknown opponent. Duresses, played when the situation require their usage, are a precious tools that give your far more than a "1for1" trade of cards.
On the other hand, if your metagame consist of more than half of creatures.dec or artifact.dec, you can lower their number or cut them all in order to make room for other useful spells.



@Mana Base
When you are going to face opponent's denial strategies but you don't have 4cc-key-spells, I found that 3 or 4 Basic Lands, 4 or 5 Fetchs and a not so high number of acceleration is enough to safely play against anyone. You require black only for Duresses and a few midgame spells and red only for aleatory red protections in your side or midgame spells. You can play "monoU" enough to stabilize quickly and then trade opponent's resources with cheap bombs. Aj3j3's mana base work really well. It isn't hosed too much from quick Rods/CotVs but sometimes it can suffers a couple of Wastelands more than C-Slavery or MD-Gifts. Balancing Pros and Cons, I would not change the duals configurations at all. They are far better than Artifact' accelerations by definitions, expecially in deck that don't need such a desperate huge amount of mana soon during the game.


MaxxMatt

Extraneous White Space Removed. -Klep

[keratinx]

Here's a configuration I'm using currently:

2 Merchant Scroll
2 Intuition
4 Cunning Wish
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis

I feel that for T1T to be able to fulfil a position of being able to switch from control to aggro without being aggro-control, 4 Cunning Wishes is essential. I'm not exactly sure how the others feel, but this config. have been working for me.

Consider the Tog vs. Control match-up. Every C.Wish in hand will equate to a REB, FOF or Scrying. Playing 4 ensures that you will either get them in hand early, or be able to draw 1. Its pitchable to FoW when the situation does not requires it's use. Depending on the situation, you can either Wish for draw sources like FOF or Scrying. When you are in a hurry to win, choices range from Fling, VT for Will, Beserk. However, my version plays Red instead of Green. So it'll just be the Fling and VT.

Merchant Scrolls are awesome in T1T. Like MD Gifts, Scroll for A Call is a very strong play which can set up a good board advantage. More often that not, an early play would be to scroll up for a call, only when you're able to protect it. Scrolling for Mana Drain or FoW is like an 'infinite' Time Walks.

My build doesn't have Recoup as it is trying to reduce the dead cards down to the DSC, hence only 2 Intuitions are required. Early in the game, Intuitions are rather dead cards, unless you have the mana to power them out early. But, T1T being a Control deck, we need don't really need to rush to set up the draw engine. With Merchant Scrolls, finding the Intu/AK engine will not be a problem.

Along with the draw configuration I'm using, here's the tutors and disruption/counters which I'm testing out:

4 FoW
4 Drains
2 Duress
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Echoing Truth - mainboard bounce is always good

The decklist for reference:

Mana Sources (23)

3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria

Permission/Disruption (10)

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Duress

Draw/Search (13)

4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall

Tutors (4)

2 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

Metagame/Control/Toolbox (6)

4 Cunning Wish
1 Fire/Ice or Chain of Vapor - can be 24th mana source (Tolarian Academy)
1 Echoing Truth

Broken (3)

1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

Creatures (2)

1 Psychatog
1 Darksteel Colossus

SIDEBOARD (15)

1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Coffin Purge
1 Darkblast
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Firestorm
1 Fling
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Misdirection
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Rushing River
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Stifle
1 Vampiric Tutor.

Right now, I'm trying to incorporate Gifts Ungiven into this build of T1T. Replies are most welcome here. Thanks.

EDIT: Added deck list for reference.

BUMP