Meandeck Gifts

[SyntheticAngel]

I have been playing type one for awhile now, and I want to play better, and more competative decks. I have played Oath for two years. I have had quite a bit of success playing the deck. I have taken 4th and 9th at tournaments at my local store they were small tournaments, but there were very good players there. I just finished my Meandeck Gifts, and I am trying to learn how to play it in addition to wanting tips on how to best play the deck i.e keepable hands, good Gifts targets, Sideboarding, and other things. Here is the current list I am using I am also up to suggestions on my build:

2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
1x Strip Mine
3x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Island
1x Snow Covered Island

1x Darksteel Colossus

1x Recoup
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Tinker
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Time Walk
1x Burning Wish
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Rebuild
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Mystical Tutor
2x Misdirection
4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
4x Gifts Ungiven
4x Merchant Scroll
4x Brainstorm

1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Black Lotus
1x Mana Vault
1x Lotus Petal

Sideboard:

1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Pithing Needle
2x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Pyroclasm
2x Tormods Crypt
2x Rack and Ruin

There is on SB slot open, and I don't know what to put in suggestions?
Thanks for your time

-Angel

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

You have way too much stax hate. A competent MDG player will crush stax. 1 Rack and ruin, 1 hurkyl's, and 2 needle is fine for the SB.

You also lose horribly to good fish decks. Think of ways to combat that matchup.

Duress is pretty amazing right now. It does quite a number on combo, which is popular, and CS.

You need only run 1 sea. However, you MUST run 2 volcs. Getting a red mana source destroyed when ypu bring in 4 REBs is ass.

Strip mine is ultimately uneeded. It does nothing to advance your strategy. The best case scenario is when you've tinkered out a DSC, in which case it acts like a time walk (can you say win more?). Most of the time, there is no tempo gain, and you need to hit the 4 mana flash point more than trying to randomly dick over your opponent.

Good luck with the deck!

-Bob

[SyntheticAngel]

You have way too much stax hate. A competent MDG player will crush stax. 1 Rack and ruin, 1 hurkyl's, and 2 needle is fine for the SB.

You also lose horribly to good fish decks. Think of ways to combat that matchup.

Duress is pretty amazing right now. It does quite a number on combo, which is popular, and CS.

You need only run 1 sea. However, you MUST run 2 volcs. Getting a red mana source destroyed when ypu bring in 4 REBs is ass.

Strip mine is ultimately uneeded. It does nothing to advance your strategy. The best case scenario is when you've tinkered out a DSC, in which case it acts like a time walk (can you say win more?). Most of the time, there is no tempo gain, and you need to hit the 4 mana flash point more than trying to randomly dick over your opponent.

Good luck with the deck!

-Bob

So what would you recommend for the SB. Should I cut the Strip Mine for  basic land? The builds I have seen run one Duress board is that too little? I can definately see how it screws combo. Any other suggestions for the board? Or the main for that matter?

[cssamerican]

Clown is definitely right about the Volcanic Island; you need two of them (Cut the Strip Mine for one). Almost every off-color card you will ever board in will be red, so you need to be able to support that color. I only run a single Underground Sea; however, I don't run Vampiric Tutor, and I board out Demonic Tutor several of match-ups. But if you run both black tutors and you don't side them out frequently, you probably need the two Underground Seas in addition to two Volcanic Islands.

It's hard to tune your sideboard without knowing what and how frequently you expect to face certain decks. For example, if I expect to see lots of Oath and Dragon I like Annul. If I expect to see lots of fish I like to have a combination of things like Pyroclasm, Blasts, and Old Man of the Sea. I am also fond of a single Damping Matrix versus some decks, just because it is basically a Pithing Needle on steroids in many games.

[Draven]

I have been playing type one for awhile now, and I want to play better, and more competative decks. I have played Oath for two years. I have had quite a bit of success playing the deck. I have taken 4th and 9th at tournaments at my local store they were small tournaments, but there were very good players there. I just finished my Meandeck Gifts, and I am trying to learn how to play it in addition to wanting tips on how to best play the deck i.e keepable hands, good Gifts targets, Sideboarding, and other things. Here is the current list I am using I am also up to suggestions on my build:

2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
1x Strip Mine
3x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Island
1x Snow Covered Island

1x Darksteel Colossus

1x Recoup
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Tinker
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Time Walk
1x Burning Wish
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Rebuild
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Mystical Tutor
2x Misdirection
4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
4x Gifts Ungiven
4x Merchant Scroll
4x Brainstorm

1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Black Lotus
1x Mana Vault
1x Lotus Petal

Sideboard:

1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Pithing Needle
2x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Pyroclasm
2x Tormods Crypt
2x Rack and Ruin

There is on SB slot open, and I don't know what to put in suggestions?
Thanks for your time

-Angel

Hi,
I not going to say too much about the actual decklist because it looks pretty standard. However, I have played many variations of Gift decks, so hopefuly I can offer some insights.

First and foremost, by definition of the deck, you will have some of the worst starting hands EVER. For every strong, uber "I PWND U" hand this deck can draw, it has at least one hand that is utter crap. What you have to do is be prepared to mull.

Now, about the Gifts piles, you can't really give standard gift piles, because Gifts really depends on the game state, but here are some suggestions.

If you need lands: Island, SC Island, Delta, Strand

If you need accel (With Academy): Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, Sol Ring (Lotus, Academy<- Setting up Will)

Countermagic: Force of Will, Mana Drain, Misdirection, Merchant Scroll

Win: Tinker, Will, Recoup, Time Walk

Now, while playing the deck and setting up the win, you almost always are going to draw one or two of the pieces of the win. If you have the Burning Wish and/or Rebuild in hand then, you can change your Gifts pile to a more Tendrils based pile to "combo" off.

Well, I hope I helped a bit. I would check out Steve's inital article on this deck, he did a great job of explaining the deck and scenerios. Here is the link: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=23618.0

Good luck...