[Premium Article] Meandeck Gifts

[Gabethebabe]

1 BEB (should have been hydroblast...)

Hmm, this puzzles me a bit. I can´t find a reason.

[shade88]

Sorry, but this theory is incorrect. Duress costs B, which means you have to fetch out Underground Seas early, while Misdirection is free, trading board dominance for tempo. Both can be thought of as "counterspells", but one is free and one isn't. It's also not a matter of going -3 Duress, +3 Misdirection. Meandeck Gifts is an entirely different deck than other Gifts.decs.

First off, ill add in the fact that i forgetfully didn't post that the assumption is made that the deck meandeck gifts is playing against is also running the merchant scroll-->ancestral recall draw engine. If that clears up everything, then whoops my bad (ill edit that when im done typing) and ignore the following. if it doesn't, keep reading.

Just a general conclusion, 90%+ of the time it is appropriate to run misdirection. The argument is that if the opponent runs more disruption (the 10% or less times), (for arguments sake lets say 4 drain 4 force of will 4 mana leak and 3 duress), then more often then not, misdirection will be a 1 for 2 card disadvantage, whereas duress will be a 1 for 1 that tells you what your opponents game plan will be.

 How do either misdirection or duress lead to board dominance?

[Aaron]

How do either misdirection or duress lead to board dominance?

I should have said card advantage, not so much board dominance. Duress is one for one (usually, unless no target) whereas Misdirection is two for one (always, unless hardcasted), but is awesome for tempo. I'm not trying to accuse you of anything, just outlining the difference between the two for any readers out there.

1 BEB (should have been hydroblast...)

Hmm, this puzzles me a bit. I can´t find a reason.

Blue Elemental Blast says "destroy target red permanent or counter target red spell" while Hydroblast says "destroy target permanent if it is red or counter target spell if it's red", meaning it can target a nonred permanent or spell if you need to, just to dump it out of your hand. I think this was mostly useful when people played Black Vise, but I guess it's still something to keep in mind.

[Daniel_112]

Blue Elemental Blast says "destroy target red permanent or counter target red spell" while Hydroblast says "destroy target permanent if it is red or counter target spell if it's red", meaning it can target a nonred permanent or spell if you need to, just to dump it out of your hand. I think this was mostly useful when people played Black Vise, but I guess it's still something to keep in mind.

You can use a hydroblast to raise the storm count, and you can't use a BeB for that.

I played this deck at the same event as Koen, and I played the frantic search, it won me a few games, my sideboard was really bad, and the luck wasnt at my side. Game 3 against 4cc, I needed to mull to 5. Then I flipped myself to death with mana crypt, after flipping 3 times wrong, with the kill in hand... then I lost to hugo, because he just had a great hand game 1, and I needed to mull to 5 game 2.

Koen didn't need to mulligan as much as I did, I mulled in a 5 round tournament 7 or 8 times, while he just mulled in his first 5 round just once.

This decks is really good, and very fun to play, I didn't had much time to test, so I tested it just the night before, and then it worked just fine. No problems with mulligans at all.

One other point I want to make is that mana drain just sucks, I don't think it needs to be a 4-of. I really think an extra misdirrection is just better, 4 seems much, but a misdirrected ancestral won me 2 games. And it protected my gifts a lot.

I really liked the rebuild, I killed with tendrils like 4 times in the tournament, and a lot more times in practise. While koen and arthur just would use the tinker for the kill.

Daniel

[Thug]

Koen, you should have just played my maindeck.  The only decision that I think is really flexible is the - Truth + Vamp.  But the 4 Scrolls and 3 misd are a must. 

I played a Rushing River over the truth because I wanted to ba able to bounce only my opponents Colossus when we both have one in play. I could have played hoodwink, but it doesnt do anything against Meddling Mage.

Vampiric was great to me,  and because it fits perfectly into the aggresive role of the deck, I had to play it.

3 MisD would have been the right call and I probably should have played 3, since I had no testing results to back up my choice of going down to 2. However I really wanted a Gorilla Shaman maindeck, after playing it in a gifts deck before and Winning games because of it.

Sonetimes I played Mystical or Demonic for Ancestral, so the 4th Scroll would have been better at that time. But the situation that also came up quite a lot was that I was slightly low on mana and had more than 1 scroll in my hand.

Oh and before I forget to say it, great work on the deck Steve, I enjoyed playing it and might play it again (although I rarely play the same deck twice unless I have a soft spot for it)

Koen

[PucktheCat]

Duress is one for one (usually, unless no target) whereas Misdirection is two for one (always, unless hardcasted), but is awesome for tempo

Misdirection countering Force of Will is two for two.  This is not an insignificant point because that is probably going to be the card that both Duress and Misdirection are most often used to get around.  Misdirection targeting card draw is often 2-2 (Deep Analysis, with no cost to them listed for the card because of the flashback) or 2-4 (Ancestral).  Misdirection countering anything cast off Black Lotus or Lotus Petal or Mana Crypt is two for two most of the time.  Misdirection targeting removal that you can bounce back to an opponent's permanent instead is 2-2.  Mind Twist is 2-many.

In fact, the only frequent Misdirection target that isn't at least card advantage neutral is Mana Drain.  Mana Drain costs UU, however, which is a lot of colored mana, often a turns worth.

In all of the above cases Duress would have been 1-1 with a tempo loss.

After playing this deck for a while I am rapidly coming to see Misdirection as simply correct for this deck, at least in any metagame where other Drain decks play a significant role.  Misdirection is simply better than Duress at dealing with the most common road block in the format: Force of Will.  Misdirection also steals wins by retargeting Ancestrals, etc, far more often than Duress will steal you a win by revealing that your opponent is helpless.

In fact, I wonder if Hulk decks from about a year ago (when the format was Hulk and Fish) shouldn't have used Misdirection.

Leo

[carlossb]

I can't even go into detail becuase I don't remember the situations, but my Gifts were highly, highly determined by the situation - even moreso than Doomsdays. 

This is the true power of the deck: It has so many posibilities with the Gifts setups, that it rewards the good player and its knowledge of the deck.

It is a good thing to Magic if the most powerful deck is also the most difficult to play correctly.

EDIT: The difficulty of the setups, which can be only discovered through a loong testing, makes this deck (like MeanDoomsday) being able to be shared at this forums. And also with the superiority of the Sideboard, as Steve pointed out.
It´s the best thing for the designers and also the best for the community.

[Whatever Works]

It seems like the last 60 posts have argued over the strenth of Duress Vs. Misdirection. This is nice and all but I have had several questions from the beggining that havent been answered.

1.) This deck can be hurt by graveyard hate. This is a fact and isnt debatable. I know you can play around it by gifting up tutors etc., but a tormod's Crypt still has a significant impact on the game and it would be very reasonable to say slowing the deck down at least a turn or 2. Or at least make the gifts player have to focus resources that would preferably be placed elsewhere into playing around the crypt.

How have people dealt with this, or is there any sideboard card that has been tested for helping this situation???

I have been trying Pithing Needle with some success but has anyone come up with anything better?

2.) Goblin Welder. I am very very upset to see my opponent play this turn 1 when I dont have Force of Will. It basically says that you have to win with tendrils, or bounce the welder then tinker. Again, I have heard the billion scenario's about huge yawg's will then have bounce availible + option of replaying FoW from graveyard etc. I recognize this I have read the posts. However, what deck doesnt win when they yawg will realistically, and resolving yawg's will is easier said then done postboard vs. Tog/CS/Sensei Sensei etc.

3.) Duress - I had this question, and it was covered. Thank you. Though I still dont agree completely with the arguement, and I still think this card is a house IN and VS. This deck. I doubted Misdirection and I must say it is a strong card, and I was wrong to initially doubt its inclussion.

4.) Faster Combo Decks - I am still not exactly sure how this deck performs. I know that any deck that runs FoW, Drain automatically has a punchers chance, but misdirection is usually a dead card, and this deck cant win a race unless it gets an extremely strong hand. Postboard its slightly better but I must say that If you take this to a major event You should be praying not to see TPS, or worse (faster combo decks) even if they lack consistency.

5.) Is it just me or does this deck topdeck horribly late game (if there is 1), because it thins itself out to the point where my only scroll targets are brainstorms (though there are times where that isnt a bad choice)??? I kinda wish the deck ran 1 Scrying for the late game (it wouldnt look horrible in a late game gifts), and the deck can always brainstorm it away etc.

Thank You in advance for adressing my concerns, or making me aware of my Ignorence??? I am playing the deck properly so that shouldnt be brought into question. Also, Congrats Steve on the win at Origins, and somehow getting Cron to play something besides Stax (if that really happened).

[diamond66]

It seems like the last 60 posts have argued over the strenth of Duress Vs. Misdirection. This is nice and all but I have had several questions from the beggining that havent been answered.

1.) This deck can be hurt by graveyard hate. This is a fact and isnt debatable. I know you can play around it by gifting up tutors etc., but a tormod's Crypt still has a significant impact on the game and it would be very reasonable to say slowing the deck down at least a turn or 2. Or at least make the gifts player have to focus resources that would preferably be placed elsewhere into playing around the crypt.

I ran into this problem at Origins, at least very early in my testing.  While it isn't an amazing answer, I found that SBing 3 Damping Matrix was actually a very good answer to this.  While it is a bit slow, it does answer a good deal of problem cards that can make the deck work less optimaly.  Primarily it will deal with crypt, but it also shuts off welder, all of Stax creatures, mindslaver, and a good deal of other random hate.  I was also pleased that while being so effective, it did absolutely nothing to my deck other than shore up my board position and occasionaly allow me to use Academy for a slightly larger amount of mana.  Overall I'm not sure if this is the correct answer to crypt, but it did work well for me all weekend

2.) Goblin Welder. I am very very upset to see my opponent play this turn 1 when I dont have Force of Will. It basically says that you have to win with tendrils, or bounce the welder then tinker. Again, I have heard the billion scenario's about huge yawg's will then have bounce availible + option of replaying FoW from graveyard etc. I recognize this I have read the posts. However, what deck doesnt win when they yawg will realistically, and resolving yawg's will is easier said then done postboard vs. Tog/CS/Sensei Sensei etc.

Welder is generally the least of your concerns.  While it does pose a problem in the early game, shutting of a potential early tinker -> colossus, it doesn't impact your board position as much as it forces you to then deal with the artifacts that your opponent will be welding.  While this sounds fairly obvious, it is true.  The ability to tendrils out the game "fairly" simply is extremely strong, and a good number of my wins came off a Tendrils at 10 - 12 storm in the early to mid game.  Post boarding in game 2, I would very often simply side out tinker and Colossus for tendrils, thus making a good deal of the bounce and their welders less effective to my game, and allowing me to focus solely on adding to my storm count.

3.) Duress - I had this question, and it was covered. Thank you. Though I still dont agree completely with the arguement, and I still think this card is a house IN and VS. This deck. I doubted Misdirection and I must say it is a strong card, and I was wrong to initially doubt its inclussion.

Not even going to continue this, as I firmly agree with everything Steve has said.

4.) Faster Combo Decks - I am still not exactly sure how this deck performs. I know that any deck that runs FoW, Drain automatically has a punchers chance, but misdirection is usually a dead card, and this deck cant win a race unless it gets an extremely strong hand. Postboard its slightly better but I must say that If you take this to a major event You should be praying not to see TPS, or worse (faster combo decks) even if they lack consistency.

I went 3 - 0 against combo playing Gifts on the weekend, beating 2 clamp decks (which the deck rolls as long as you have any type of early countermagic) and Jdizzle playing Deathlong.  While game is is entirely about who gets the nuts faster, as I truly believe that you can race them if you get a good/great hand, the post SB games were swung heavily in my favor due to Mystic Remora.  The threat of the Remora forced JD to slow his game plan a great deal, allowing me several turns of draw and search, and when he finally felt he had a strong enough hand to attempt to go off, I outdrew him and out powered him card for card off the Remora, forcing him to pass the turn and allowing me to Storm him out game 2 and 3.  The biggest realization I had against combo was that the deck really shouldn't be trying to win with a Colossus, it should be racing against them to get a lethal tendrils.  Once I came to that realization, the match-up became much "simpler" because it was clear on each and every one of my tutors and brainstorms exactly what I should be searching out, allowing me to focus solely on winning the storm count. 

5.) Is it just me or does this deck topdeck horribly late game (if there is 1), because it thins itself out to the point where my only scroll targets are brainstorms (though there are times where that isnt a bad choice)??? I kinda wish the deck ran 1 Scrying for the late game (it wouldnt look horrible in a late game gifts), and the deck can always brainstorm it away etc.

I never really had a problem in the late game.  Granted, I was never really in a situation late where I was stripped of resources in my hand and looking to actively find answers, but I never really had a concern with what was coming off the top.  Generally I had worked myself into a position where my draws were maximizing my Will, which is what I wanted.  I can definitely see a scenario where you are stalled out or stopped early or mid game and forced to go into top deck mode, but on the occasions I did see Steve, Kevin and the other gifts players have to do this, the sheer weight of merchant scrolls and brainstorms in the deck still allowed them to rather quickly find the pieces they needed to finish the game off.  While merchant for brainstorm is not the play you dream about making late game, it is still exceptionally strong, especially if you are in a situation that will conceivably lead to either Will or Rebuild, as either one will allow you a much easier path to a Tendrils victory.

Kevin really did play Gifts, and it was bittersweet seeing him cast Drains and forces, even though his play was excellent.  Somehow I just kept expecting everything to end up with Karn being in play.

[Whatever Works]

I went 3 - 0 against combo playing Gifts on the weekend, beating 2 clamp decks (which the deck rolls as long as you have any type of early countermagic) and Jdizzle playing Deathlong. 

Thanks for the responce, but this doesnt answer the matchup with combo. Clamp decks are a joke and I find it a lot easier to just call them bad before I call them combo, and Deathlong just isnt what it used to be (if it was anything to begin with at any point in time). I guess this just shows that poor state that combo is in at the moment, and makes you wonder what happened to combo (though honestly most combo lovers dont want to answer)?

[Smmenen]

I'm not going to get into it right now, but Tendrils is my preferred win condition. 

[Godot]

I'm not going to get into it right now, but Tendrils is my preferred win condition. 

I could not agree with this statement more.  The more games I play with the deck the less appealing Colossus becomes.  The deck generates such retarded amounts of mana that setting up a Tendrils kill is hardly anymore difficult than a Colossus kill, while being reasonably more resilient.

[KrA0nS]

Do we have any decklists from Origins yet?  I'm really wanting to see what's been played besides MeanDeck Gifts which from the sounds of it tore up at Origins this year.  Why Tendrils over the DC kill Sm?

[Gabethebabe]

1.) This deck can be hurt by graveyard hate. This is a fact and isnt debatable. I know you can play around it by gifting up tutors etc., but a tormod's Crypt still has a significant impact on the game and it would be very reasonable to say slowing the deck down at least a turn or 2. Or at least make the gifts player have to focus resources that would preferably be placed elsewhere into playing around the crypt.

How have people dealt with this, or is there any sideboard card that has been tested for helping this situation???

I have been trying Pithing Needle with some success but has anyone come up with anything better?

If people board graveyard hate against you, that´s good. You don´t need the graveyard to win, so they´re boarding in situational cards in stead of good cards. if they drop a Tormod´s Crypt means you´ve gone up one in card advantage. After Scroll==> AR this has gone up to three which is surely enough to just go for Colossus and kill them in two turns (maybe do a Gifts for FoW MisD Walk and Drain before Tinkering).

I can´t help but saying that I´m not a big fan of Pithing Needle.

[MaxxMatt]

@Smemmen.

First, congrats for the results of the deck in your last tourneys. I think that you could have won with any decks you decided to play


OTOH,  I would like to add a couple more questions for you:

1) Which have been your opponents? Even if you won't extensively write about the details of the matches with a report, can you breifly summarize the opponent's decks?

2) You would probabily have played with one or two bouncers maindeck. Have been they better than any other possible choices?



...
Addendum.

In my city, I organized a 24h-Magic-The-Gathering competition during the last week. I talk a lot with one of my teammates and he decided to play your deck. He did well during all the tourneys played, but without doing too well. He always placed not so distant from the Top8s, but he always missed them.
He realized that he did badly especially against the decks that recognize the structure and the skeleton of your deck. I'm saying these words not to dismiss your work, but only to give more details and more data to you, in order to go deeply in the mechanics of your new product.
OTOH, he confessed me that he had never played a so exciting deck from a while. He told me that he had more potential than he had ever thought and it is fun as hell.
Props to you.

[Dozer]

Why Tendrils over the DC kill Sm?

Because the Colossus kill needs you to totally commit your resources to it. When you go for DSC, you need a lot of mana, making yourself more vulnerable even with all the pitch counters. Your Gifts are actually weaker when you go for DSC, because you need to get some support cards that do not affect your position (Recoup, Time Walk). When you go for an eventual Tendrils, you can get support cards for your control strategy that will always help you with the eventual kill. Gifting for Brainstorm, Scroll, Tutor, Mox (for example), every single one of those cards ultimately helps you set up lethal storm and also does mad things for you when you get it in your hand.
Eventually, you will have to go for Recoup/Will. But by that time you should be extremely well set up to just win. It's easier and less vulnerable to disruption than the Colossus kill. I wouldn't give it up, but I kill at least 50/50 with each.

I -sadly- didn't get all the testing done I wanted to, but I had one particular problem: I can't regularly beat WTF with 4 Rootwater Thieves and 3 Meddling Mages pre-sideboard. Rootwater Thief is a problem. Did anyone else have trouble with it? The sideboard will have to adress that problem with Pyroclasm/REB (and it sure does). I'll take the deck to my next local tournament in two weeks, and have more to say. In the meantime, I remain one of the proponents of Misdirection + Disrupting Shoal over Duress, for reasons others have already stated.

Dozer

[Smmenen]

Here is the maindeck I settled upon after testing it through Origins tournaments:

Meandeck Gifts

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Misdirections

4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Gifts Ungiven

1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Recoup
1 Burning Wish
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor/Echoing Truth
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

3 Islands
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal

Kevin and I used LOA and 5th Fetch on Friday and we both agreed that LOA was wretched.  It lost Kevin his game one against Rich Shay and almost cost him his match against Josh Alvarez.  I almost lost games becuase of it too.  It is a tempting play but basically wrong. 

The deck can basically play a mono blue mana base until you are ready to go off.

The configuration right here is perfect. 

[cosineme]

For the life of me, I can't seem to beat any Chalice fish consistently. Pre board, blind tinker is a great betif you can keep a chalice off the board, and resolve either 2x merchants or a. recall to grab force and tinker. However, after boarding, Chalice, tormod's crypt, and aether vial, all are 0-1 CC cards that you have to answer. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but a resolved crypt means that your draw engine is now just a deck thinner rather than anything gutsy. Throw in the fact that chalice for 0 is still extremely annoying and slows down your tinker, and you have a pretty competitive match...

has anybody had any luck against 2x+ crypts, 4x chalice Fish?

 

[PipOC]

For the life of me, I can't seem to beat any Chalice fish consistently. Pre board, blind tinker is a great betif you can keep a chalice off the board, and resolve either 2x merchants or a. recall to grab force and tinker. However, after boarding, Chalice, tormod's crypt, and aether vial, all are 0-1 CC cards that you have to answer. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but a resolved crypt means that your draw engine is now just a deck thinner rather than anything gutsy. Throw in the fact that chalice for 0 is still extremely annoying and slows down your tinker, and you have a pretty competitive match...

has anybody had any luck against 2x+ crypts, 4x chalice Fish?

 

You just have to adjust your play to get around crypt.  Don't let all of your crucial cards fall into your graveyard under a crypt, and when you're ready to win, tutor up rebuild, play it on your turn and go in for the kill since they can't replay crypt on your turn.  Admittedly it's not a surefire way to beat fish, but for the most part you'll have enough counters to beat them in the counter war if necessary.

[cosineme]

For the life of me, I can't seem to beat any Chalice fish consistently. Pre board, blind tinker is a great betif you can keep a chalice off the board, and resolve either 2x merchants or a. recall to grab force and tinker. However, after boarding, Chalice, tormod's crypt, and aether vial, all are 0-1 CC cards that you have to answer. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but a resolved crypt means that your draw engine is now just a deck thinner rather than anything gutsy. Throw in the fact that chalice for 0 is still extremely annoying and slows down your tinker, and you have a pretty competitive match...

has anybody had any luck against 2x+ crypts, 4x chalice Fish?

 

You just have to adjust your play to get around crypt.  Don't let all of your crucial cards fall into your graveyard under a crypt, and when you're ready to win, tutor up rebuild, play it on your turn and go in for the kill since they can't replay crypt on your turn.  Admittedly it's not a surefire way to beat fish, but for the most part you'll have enough counters to beat them in the counter war if necessary.

No, you don't understand, I know how to win with rebuild/tendrils. The point is how do you get to that kind of situation reliably if your draw engine is shut down, and your acceleration is gone. Without acceleration, you're running so little lands that drawing into the necessary mana is almost inconceivable. And

[PucktheCat]

has anybody had any luck against 2x+ crypts, 4x chalice Fish?

One strategy I am inclined to try if my hand supports it is preserving my counterspells for protecting an aggressive Colossus.  That means I don't Force Vial, and I don't counter Chalice if I have an artifact already in play or a good chance to get one.  I basically ignore the Fish deck and play 'find the Tinker.'  This strategy lets you ignore Crypt for the most part, because you will most likely be going Scroll > Mystical > Tinker.  Because you are playing almost twice the pitch counters he is you are unlikely to have trouble forcing your spells through if you focus this way.

Rebuild and go for the win is another good way to beat these decks - your hand should dictate which approach you choose.  A single Gorilla Shaman in the board can also go a long way.

Leo

[Gabethebabe]

A single Gorilla Shaman in the board can also go a long way.

I know that some of my fellow countrymen have tried Gorilla even main (but I didn´t see any rating of how they liked him), but with the suggestion of steve to go down to 2 duals of each and up to 6 fetches means that an early Gorilla is not something that the deck supports really well. You want to fetch out your basic Islands at the start of the game.

[Smmenen]

For the life of me, I can't seem to beat any Chalice fish consistently. Pre board, blind tinker is a great betif you can keep a chalice off the board, and resolve either 2x merchants or a. recall to grab force and tinker. However, after boarding, Chalice, tormod's crypt, and aether vial, all are 0-1 CC cards that you have to answer. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but a resolved crypt means that your draw engine is now just a deck thinner rather than anything gutsy. Throw in the fact that chalice for 0 is still extremely annoying and slows down your tinker, and you have a pretty competitive match...

has anybody had any luck against 2x+ crypts, 4x chalice Fish?

 

You should have no trouble beating the fish player who goes:
Chalice, land go

If they have Chalice, Vial go, then it will be al ittle tighter.

Your game plan is to play the control role.  Just make land drops for a few turns - putting Islands into play.  Don't put Wasteable lands into play.  PLay the control role until you get 4 lands into play if you can.  Drain if you can.  Then play some instants if you can - like Gifts Fact, etc.  If you see moxen, try to Brainstorm them back - although you wont' be able to put them all back.  Ify ou just Branistorm, fetch, etc, you actually have a fanstastic chance of seeing Sol Ring or Mana Vault by turn 4 or 5.  Eventually, Truth the Mages, and REbuild the Chalices and you'll win on the spot - or just Tinker and kill them.  Countering the Vial is far more important than countering the Chalice (if they are playing UW Vial Fish).

If they are playing WTF, they have no clock so you shouldnt' give a damn about Vial. 

That's why I have so many Islands in this deck.  Perhaps it should even be 5 Islands and 5 Fetch instead of 4 Islands and 6 Fetch.

[Godot]

Perhaps it should even be 5 Islands and 5 Fetch instead of 4 Islands and 6 Fetch.

When we changed the manabase a few games into our second testing session that is the configuration we decided upon.  We've been quite happy with the way its performed.  Admittedly its a very minor change but not needing to use fetchlands as frequently in the early game has been great.

[The Atog Lord]

I have been silent thusfar because this is a premium article, and I don't read those. However, now that I've played against the deck several times in a tournament setting, I feel that I may be able to add to the discussion.

First, Steve, I think this deck is really neat. You've taken the SSB framework and pushed it to its logical conclusion. The deck has some strong points. It can win from nowhere. It can just Tinker up a DSC if all else fails. And it does a fine job of using all of its mana every turn, which shows great efficiency.

That said, this deck isn't without some weaknesses as well. This deck was all over Origins. I faced it four times, and beat it every time, even when played by HiVal and Kevin. Control Slaver does not have a very strong Game One against this deck, as it does not against any variant of SSB. However, Control Slaver is much more difficult to hate than Gifts is. Despite what has been said here, my own experience has shown that graveyard hate is very, very powerful against thsi deck. Why? Not simply because Recoup and Yawgwill get show off by it -- those are only a pair of cards out of sixty. Rather, the deck's ability to use Gifts Ungiven is diminished by a Tormod's Crypt. The usual Recoup/Will plan doesn't work in that situation, so "alternate" often less powerful Gifts piles must be made. Moreover, especially with Crypt on the table, the Gifts deck can't afford to let the Burning Wish hit the graveyard.

Now, before the comments start, I full-well know that Gifts.dec is quite  capable of winning with a Crypt on the table. It can bounce it and then "go off" and it can win "fairly" through Tinker or Tendrils. That the deck can do this, I won't dispute. But winning in this manner is often more slow and vulnerable to disruption than its usual Gifts-->Will play. And the one or two turns that Tormod's Crypt can buy against this deck can make all the difference in a match.

So, in short, I really like this deck. It fulfills the promise that SSB made. My maindeck Tormod's Crypt served me well at Origins. If you are looking for a way to shut down this deck fully, I'm not sure what would do that. But Crypt has been great for getting a free turn or two.

[Smmenen]

Yes, but remember:

In one of the matches (the one by Aaron Jarvis), he only lost the first game (and thereby the match - despite winning game two and drawing game three) because he failed to Misdirect your Mana Drain despite having E. Truth, Gifts, and another blue spell in hand.  Had he played that Misd, you would have lost that match.

Your board:

Land, Land, Slaver, Welder.
Mox Pearl on the stack with Lotus in GY

His board:
Mox, Mox Mox MOx Crypt, Academy, Land Land and his gy was fully juiced. 

The stack was:
Mox Pearl,
Mana Drain
Your mana drain
and he failed to put his misdirection on it and thereby he lost the game when you slaved him.

Second, Kevin also made some grevious play errors against you.  For instance, Forcing to pitch the Mystical in response to your Boseijued Tinker.  He did taht so you couldn't use his FOW, but the proper play would h

He had two pithing needles in play - one naming welder and the other naming Tormod's Crypt.  You had Boseiju.  You just just cast tinker  his hand was:
Crypt, Mox, Force of Will, Mystical Tutor.  What did he do?  He targeted the Tinker with FOW instead of doing the smart play: see what you think up - if it is slaver, as I would suspect it would be, then you Mystical for a counterspell so that you are forced to do nothing on his turn.  Instead, you drew brainstorm off the top which thereby saw Yawg will and that equaled gg for kevin.  If he had played it smart, the game would have been anyone's game still with you both in topdeck mode and either player ready to go off at any time.  I also saw Kevin make some mistakes in game one.

That said, I didn't watch the other matches - but given that I saw numerous match deciding play errors in the game I saw says volumes.  BTW, you didn't win against Jarvis - you drew. 

[The Atog Lord]

You're right Steve, I drew against Aaron.

And I agree with you that my match against Aaron should have gone to Aaron. And that perhaps Kevin played differently than how I might have in his position.

I'm not saying that Gifts is an easy match for CS. Not at all.

[Smmenen]

Oh I know Rich - I just didn't want to leave the mana drain readers with the wrong impression

[JuJu]

A single Gorilla Shaman in the board can also go a long way.

I placed two Shamans in the board, I have yet to use them however as I haven't played against Vial/Chalice Fish. Due to the increase of Workshops - At origins, I believe - has anyone tried running some other Tinker targets in the board?

Another question that popped up in my plays was how important playing Lotus was in this deck. The importance of your lotus, especially when winning with Tendrils, is one of the most important cards to be played properly. Due to this importance, has anyone come up short with mana. Although not often, I've had my tinker countered or some other effect(For example, dual Colossi in play) and then not been able to work the Tendrils win due to lack of mana, this deck runs so much colorless, and blue mana sources that Red and Black mana often come up short.

Has any of this come up for others?

[PucktheCat]

I can confirm that going for the Tendrils kill virtually requires you to save your Lotus for black mana.  Since you will nearly always Yawgmoth's Will on the Tendrils turn you will need BBB that turn - that is simply hard for the deck to produce without Lotus.  (Rebuilding a Mox Jet could work, I suppose)

I think your broader point - that this deck requires very careful play with colored mana sources - is also correct.  Having played this deck more now I think the mana base configuration is extremely sensitive.  The 6/4/2/2 configuration (fetches/islands/volcs/seas) gives you the option of playing mono-blue for most of the game, which is very strong, however it also greatly increases the risks if you are forced to fetch a colored land early.  Having one of your two Seas wasted first turn can make for a tough late game, but it is hard to turn down a first turn Demonic Tutor.  I also agree that Gorilla Shaman, either main or in multiples in the board, requires a third Volcanic.  I am currently tempted to try some alternative configurations.  To just get an extra Volc I would feel comfortable with 6/3/3/2.  Three islands is usually enough.  However, if I may also experiment with 5/3/3/3.

Leo