Where T1T and Gifts Collide- Intuitive Gifts

[Negator13]

EDIT: Here is my current build for reference's sake:

Intuitive Gifts

5 Island
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

1 Darksteel Colossus

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Echoing Truth
4 Mana Drain
3 Intuition
1 Tinker
1 Rebuild
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Recoup
1 Burning Wish

Sideboard:

1 Sundering Titan
1 Balance
2 Sacred Ground
1-2 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
0-2 Annul
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1-2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
0-2 Rack and Ruin
2 Tormod's Crypt
0-2 Pithing Needle
0-2 Spawning Pit









I'm here to discuss a deck I've been working with that I honestly consider to be better than both current T1T and Gifts lists. This is a bold claim to make, but I think I am justified in making since this deck is simply a hybrid of the two.

Note that there really is nothing radical about the choices and theory behind what I'm going to talk about. I have simply made some logical, simple but effective tweaks to existing lists to create something I think is superior.

I guess before I post the actual list I'll provide some background to show where I'm coming from.

I won't bother posting a Gifts list because everyone knows what it looks like. Basically I'm talking about a Meandeckish list, with Scrolls, possibly TFK or MisD, and a Burning Wish/Rebuild/Tendrils kill in addition to DSC.

As for T1T, Here is one of the latest T1T lists played by Lorenzo Fedeli, the original creator of the deck I believe.

3 Flooded strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
7 Solomoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Cunning Wish
3 Merchant Scroll
3 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth Will
1 Recoup

Sideboard
1 Brain Freeze
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyll’s Recall
1 Shattering Pulse
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Misdirection
2 ReB
1 Pyroblast
1 Darkblast
1 Sundering Titan
2 Pithing Needle

This deck does extremely well in Europe. It is essentially Gifts with Intuition/ AK, Duress, and Cunning Wish, making it play like old Tog decks with a more comboish finish.

Since current T1T lists have been moving more and more towards becoming Gifts decks, I took Lorenzo's list and cut the holdovers from traditional Tog lists, Cunning Wish and Duress, to create this:

Intuitive Gifts

5 Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

1 Darksteel Colossus

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Mana Drain
3 Intuition
1 Tinker
1 Rebuild
1 Cunning Wish
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Recoup
1 Burning Wish

Sideboard:

1 Sundering Titan

2 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Darkblast
1 Skeletal Scrying
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Rack and Ruin

2 Tormod's Crypt


---------------------------


This build has alot of things going for it. It has an impenetrable manabase with 5 Basics and 5 Fetches, a very powerful draw engine, insane tutoring power, and essentially no dead cards other than DSC.

I believe this list better abuses many of the cards T1T and Gifts seek to take advantage of.
Basically this deck is a normal Gifts deck, using Intuition/AK instead of Gifts/Thirst. This is superior for many reasons.

Like T1T, this deck uses Intuition rather than Gifts Ungiven to get its combo, grabbing (typically) Will, Recoup, and Lotus to combo out. This is admittedly slightly less powerful than Gifts, as the latter also grabs Tinker or Walk, but honestly Ive never had a situation where I was unable to win by Intuitioning for the combo where Gifts would have allowed me to win. Simply put, Intuition wins the game just as effectively as Gifts does... but in other situations, it is far superior.

Earlier in the game, Intuition of course goes for AK AK AK. This is much, much better than a Gifts for 4 draw spells, especially because in this deck, AK #4 is always on the way (more on that later). Not only is the ability to get 3 of the same card important, but far more relevant is the fact that Intuition is far easier to cast early game and slip under a Drain. On the play, 2 lands and a Mox let you cast Intuition before your opponent can get Drain mana up. This is far easier than the 2 lands and 2 Moxen required for Gifts to do the same. What that means is that Intuitive Gifts does not need Misdirections to protect it, because it can avoid counterwars altogether by casting Intuition before the opponent has UU up.

Besides mana cost, the Intuition AK engine is better because it simply has far better synergy with the deck as a whole. In particular I am talking about Merchant Scroll. With 4 Scrolls, the AK plan is just amazing. You can consistently expect to play an early Intuition for 3 AK's, play it, and Scroll up a 4th. Conversely, if you hold an AK but no Intuition, you can Scroll for Intuition, play it, and draw 7 cards. These two scenarios are huge, game winning plays that happen all the time.

Compare this to Thirst for Knowledge, which more often than not nets only 1 for 1 card selection and forces you to run suboptimal maindeck cards like EE and Pithing Needle. Compare that to Gifts Ungiven, which for 4 mana gets (generally) Brainstorm, Scroll, FoF, Gifts- which is effective, but far more mana intensive and vulnerable to Drain.

As I said before, Merchant Scroll is an all star here. It gets Recall by default, the 4th AK when you've found the others, Intuition when you hold AK, Rebuild when you need protection or storm, FOW or Drain when you need protection, or Cunning Wish when you need any answer. Speaking of Cunning Wish, the lone copy is very effective. You basically run 5, and it answers just about any threat with the added bonus of being able to just go for Scrying and draw 7 cards.


----------------------


To sum up, let me just recap the losses and gains this deck gets from T1T/ Gifts.

If we take the sample T1T list, the deck loses:

-3 Duress
-2 Cunning Wish

and gains
+1 Island
+1 Burning Wish
+1 Scroll
+1 Rebuild
+1 Mystical Tutor

This is a significant improvement. Duress is simply not maindeck playable in my opinion. To use it effectively, you must expose an Underground Sea to Wasteland, and even if your opponent runs none, Duress just gets in the way of the natural curve of the deck.

A typical game goes:

T1: land, Brainstorm
T2: land, mox, drain, or Intuition
T3: AK 3, or use Drain mana to Intuition, then AK for 3.

There is no room to cast Duress.

As for Cunning Wish, yes it is good, but clunky in multiples. With 4 Scrolls, you can find an answer to most things in  your maindeck, or worst case scenario, just get the singleton C Wish and answer the threat, whatever it may be.

In exchange for those neglible losses, the deck gains a bolstered mana base, a much more reliable Storm Kill/Double Time Walk, a 4th copy of probably the most important card in the deck (scroll), a 2nd copy of Will/Tinker, and a maindeck bounce spell that is never dead.

As for Gifts, lists vary, but generally you are losing Thirsts, Gifts, and either MisD's and Duress. You are gaining the Intuition AK engine. As I said, i believe the draw power of AK to be far stronger than Thirst and Gifts, while simultaneously eliminating the need for MisD and Duress because of the lowered price tag.


---------------------------


I guess that concludes my little article here. Feel free to give suggestions and criticism. Maybe I am missing some glaring weakness or flaw that makes this inferior to current choices. But as far as I can see, this is the better option.

Also, another thing that this has going for it over Gifts is that it does far better against Chalice and Null Rod. Because it only runs 8 artifact accelerators, and because the draw engine costs less to get online, the deck functions far better without access to Moxen than Gifts can. I think this advantage is absolutely huge in todays Fish and Stax filled meta.

[Smmenen]

I presented a list that is almost identical to the Italian T1T list 8 months ago:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23580.0

But I invented that list long before I ever saw the Italians stop playing with Togs and before they included the Gifts combo pieces.  In fact, my first attempt with Gifts was really INtution AK engine - becuase I thought the synergy was too  strong to not use.  I prefered it over Thrist.

I referenced it in my article unveiling meandeck gifts:

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9963.html

take a look at the section on draw engines in that article.  It was the third draw engine set I considered. 

That article - written a really long time ago - still has accurate analysis of the various draw engines.  I suggest you check it out.

[Negator13]

True enough. I never saw that, so since you did come up with it first, I am advocating it rather than inventing it.

Although you were talking about running Gifts Ungiven in addition to Intuition/AK, whereas I am talking about switch Gifts for Intuition entirely.

The point remains that I think Intuition/AK is the way to go.

[Smmenen]

The second article i linked there has a careful analysis of the draw engines.  To be honest, I never considered Scrolls WITH Intuition Ak at the time - just as I never considered Scrolls with Thrist.  But the analysis I presented in that article - when I unveiled meandeck gifts, remains pretty much on target, I think.  Check out the section on Intuition/AK.  You'll note that I said I didn't dismiss it, but I wanted to try other variants.  I never went back to it and therefore never considered Scrolls with it.   

[Negator13]

Understood, but I'm just saying I think Intuition/AK in conjunction with Scroll is better than anything else. Thats pretty much the entire point of this thread, as well as discussing random individual card choices.

[Hi-Val]

This is a very interesting deck. Things come to mind: have you tried a single Gifts in the FOF slot or the Cunning Wish slot? I'd want to try it in the wish spot because Gifts lets you just up and win sometimes, which is better than Wishing for answers. What problems does the deck face that make you Wish, aside from the random Wish-for-REB thing?

[Negator13]

I can't say I have. Its worth testing, though it seems if I were to cut Wish for Gifts I'd just run the 4th Intuition instead.

I like the Wish just because it lets you kill Welders, clear Stax's board, counter spells, whatever. Its a nice catch all thats never dead, because if you do want to just win you can go for SS. It's probably just a crutch card, though.

[AjejeBrazorf]

Hi, I'm Lorenzo  
I'm glad to see an increasing interest in the evolution of T1T.
I do think the deck has some potential even in the USA where the metagame is very different from here, in Italy.

The deck has a great flexibility, and you can change some cards.
Changes Negator13 is suggesting are not going to change the build of the deck, even if..

-3 Duress
-2 Cunning Wish

+1 Island
+1 Burning Wish
+1 Scroll
+1 Rebuild
+1 Mystical Tutor

I do think 24 mana sources are enough, and an additional land is not needed.

I do not like Burning Wish here..I tested it a lot, and it was MB in the first build.
At least in SB you want a card drawer (Deep Anal), a Duress, a Pyroclasm and a ToA; but, with some tests, I found out you almost never optimize these cards, and BurningWish often sits in your hand for many turns.
Playing only Pyroclasm and ToA makes BW even more a dead card.
I do not like dead cards..DSC is enough
Because of it you need to change the sb swapping instants for sorceries, while during a Y Will you can play enough spells to make a BrainFreeze lethal. I would consider it only in a meta full of Oaths.
Cunning Wish is a far superior card in a deck such this, and you need at least 2-3(better) to optimize the Sb, imho.

Rebuild is a good card, I would add it in a meta full of stacks. Its only fault is that it falls to CotV @3 as Tinker and Cunning Wish.

About the 3xduress I can only say that I find them good in our metagame, but if you face not so many control matches..well you can cut them. Here we have many MeanDeckGift around, Slaver, TpS and mirror matches..
I do not think you need my explanation why duress is good against these decks.  

@Smmenen: well..the deck you posted is _{a bit} different.. :shock: We all agree you are a great deckbuilder..but well..this is a very different thing!

@Hi-Val: I tested the Gifts in the FoF slot..it was good..but FoF is simply better..because when you need to tutor the "gift-pieces" you can always use an intuition, in all the other cases FoF is better. I tested 1xGifts in SB too and it was quite good!
But I have often found it a winmore card.

[Negator13]

Given your experience with T1T, I am not going to take your advice lightly, but I do have some points:

1. I think Duress is really a waste, even in a control heavy meta. Rather than play them to pluck counters, why not just play more must counter spells, and tutors to find those must counter spells? You end up with less dead cards vs. non control decks and less dependence on Underground Sea.

2. Mystical Tutor and Scroll #4 seem absolutely critical. Mystical for Walk, Tinker, Will, or Recoup is often extremely necessary.

3. Cunning Wish's are just clunky. I dont know if they're a necessary evil or not but I just don't like 3. With 4 Scroll you can just tutor up Wish if you need an answer to something you dont have a MD solution for. Also, with less C Wishes you can run a more open board... as you can see it allows me to run 2 Pyroclasm for the Fish matchup and 2 Crypts for Gifts + Long.

You're right about Burning Wish, it is pretty much dead weight, but I use it as a combo piece to Flashback + Wish for Walk, or to fetch a Will that was used earlier. Its not needed, but its an option.

As for Rebuild, its a matter of running it or another C Wish, I like Rebuild b/c it cycles. If you run 0-1 C Wish's you have to run Rebuild so you can do the Tendrils kill.

[exit music]

A few months ago I worked on something very similar. It has a few slight differences, but overall the deck looks pretty similar. There was absolutely no discussion on the deck... most likely because I don't have tournament results to back it up, but I tested pretty throuroughly.

Here is a link: http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=25728.msg389093#msg389093

The main difference in our lists is the presence of Deep Analysis. I personally think that searching for 3 DA is better than 3 Ak, especially in the control mirror. Having 4 ways to draw 2 cards seems better than 1 way to draw 3, then one way to draw 4. But that is not much of a difference; both have their advantages. Have you tested DA?

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Ever since I watched Lorenzo play at the $500 event, I thought T1T was pretty savage. I've always had a soft spot for Tog, and this seems like the natural evolution of the deck. However, I do feel the need to point out some flaws.

1) The Intuition/AK engine takes up 7 slots in the deck. Again, why play intuition over gifts? Card advantage hardly matters anymore, as control decks have shifted towards gaining card selection. I understand that by throwing in a recoup, intuition can also achieve card selection. But 3 and 4 cards is a HUGE difference (not to mention you get to keep 2 instead of 1). I realize that Gifts costs 1 more to play, but it shouldn't matter, as the deck abuses drain like no other.

2) I'll agree that duress is bad right now. Half the field is stax and about 10% is playing fish. Even some control decks are now packing wastes (oath). Losing tempo by having a land wasted is not worth it. 

One last thing. This looks awfully close to what Josh Franklin ran at Worlds this year, only he was Ubg, not Ubr. What advantages does this deck have over, say, his deck? The difference seems to be he runs 2-3 wish, Gush, and e-truth, where you run recoup, b-wish, rebuild.

[Negator13]

I'm confused. You say card advantage is unimportant, then claim the difference between 3 and 4 cards is huge. Thats rather contradictory, I think, even if card selection is more important.

Please do not tell me CA is unimportant. If you want to find your key spells, and win the counterwars over them, you need to be drawing lots of cards. You cant win counterwars with card selection alone.

I really think your wrong about the supposed superiority of Gifts to Intuition. Early game, Intuition for 3 AK, followed by Scroll for AK 4, is far better than anything GIfts will get you.
Late game, Intuition for Recoup/Will/Lotus wins the game,who cares if Gifts gets one more card? They both win the game, Intuition is better at all other times though.

You're right that this is very close to Josh's list, in fact I got the inspiration for 4 Scrolls from his list.

What does this have over it?

Well for one I'm running Tinker/DSC, not Tog, which is far better.

And instead of running green for Berserk, I'm running red for Recoup, which again is far better.

In other news, I may have been wrong about cutting Cunning Wish. At least, Rebuild and Burning Wish are not very strong after all. (AKA I concede to Lorenzo that he's right and I was misguided  ) I'm not entirely sure Cunning Wish belongs though, either. I'm really not sure. The deck needs an alternate win than DSC... either WIsh- Freeze, maindeck Tendrils, I dunno. Something.

I am pretty damn sure Duress isn't needed though. Just run more must counter spells.


EDIT: If this thread seems like its just becoming about tweaking/improving T1T, so be it. I'm not trying to take credit for a new deck, I'm just trying to improve upon existing builds. Full cred to Lorenzo (and Smemmen i guess)

[Cross]

If card advantage is such an issue, then why run 4 scrolls? Seems like these would be more disadvantage than anything else.

Also, recoup/will/lotus can win games, but the fourth card from gifts is often the mana source necessary to play this win condition, which is by all acounts very expensive manawise.

In my experience, wishing for tendrils/brain freeze can be clunky, especially when playing against decks with strip effects. I understand the need to keep dead cards to a minimum, but decks that run flamevault or belcher severance seem more streamlined to combo off.

[xrobx]

One of the very first decks I built with a tendrils win was running intuition/AK engine, with 4 scrolls.  It was a great deck, and essentially is the same thing as running a gifts deck.  Recoup/will/lotus was usually my winning intuition search, and if that plan was somewhat negated, it was recoup/tinker/time walk.  So in this respect, I can't really say that it's fair to give credit to anyone for inventing the idea (sorry Steve), but moreover that people are beginning to realize the power of merchant scroll.

At the time, when I was testing a similar deck to this, I tried it with psychatog, and then tendrils.  I also experimented with gifts and tog.  I found at the time, the optimal card choice was gifts, simply because no one knew how broken it was.  Granted, it didn't work with tog, so I kept the tendrils kill mainboard, and played it as gifts for awhile, then soonafter switched back to intuition.  Intuition has always cost 1 less, and has been much easier to pull off than an early gifts.  At the same time, I wanted to run gifts, so I swapped out a card and ran gifts as a one-of, simply because if I needed the gifts win, I could fetch it out with  a scroll/tutor.  More often than not, I'd rather be holding the intuition though.

[BreathWeapon]

I've worked with several deck lists that used Intuition and Recoup as a replacement for Gifts, and the one I'm using ATM is three cards different from the one suggested in this thread (24 Mana Sources - Tolarian Academy, -1 Fact or Fiction +1 Intuition, -1 Vampiric Tutor +1 Fire/Ice and one open slot). Intuition #4 is better than Fact or Fiction, it increase the chances of having Intuition/AK in hand at the start of the game and increases the speed of comboing out. Besides, this deck already out draws every other deck in the format with Intuition/Ak and Scroll/Ancestral. The Cunning Wishes have proven to be an unneccessary step in the tutor chain for answers. Merchant Scroll for Rebuild or Fire/Ice have superior tempo, cycle and don't require concessions to the SB. MD Fire/Ice is a necessary evil, IMO, for removing the Welder and Shaman duo against CS, and I would even go so far as to include a MD, or atleast SB, Darkblast. I haven't found Tolarian Academy, or Library of Alexandria for that matter, to be worth the inclusion. Both of them are just random spurts of brokenness.

One of the more interesting approaches to Intuition/Recoup is to merge it with Oath. You have to make concessions to the manabase and remove the Merchant Scrolls, Rebuild, and Fire/Ice for four Oath of Druids,Reclamation and Regrowth, but 5 MD Tinker is savage. Considering that this deck doesn't really utilize its SB past a few cards for Burning Wish, it may be a great go to plan to side into.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Sigh, I guess I'll explain my thoughts a bit better...

I'm confused. You say card advantage is unimportant, then claim the difference between 3 and 4 cards is huge. Thats rather contradictory, I think, even if card selection is more important.

Please do not tell me CA is unimportant. If you want to find your key spells, and win the counterwars over them, you need to be drawing lots of cards. You cant win counterwars with card selection alone.

I'm not saying card advantage is unimportant, so much as I'm saying card selection is more important. This is why Brainstorm + Fetch is the best draw engine in the format. It's very efficient and finds you what you need. I understand that Intuition for 3 AK will help you dig for that counter you need. But, with the inclusion of Merchant scroll, it's simply not needed. Merchant scroll guarantees you get what you need, instead of trying to dig for it. This deck wants to do everything Gifts can do, but worse. Intuition->AK is a 5+ mana investment that takes up to 8 slots, compared to Gifts, a 4 mana investment, that gets you exactly what you need. As far as Gifts grabbing 4 cards being extremely important, I'll just quote Cross.

Also, recoup/will/lotus can win games, but the fourth card from gifts is often the mana source necessary to play this win condition, which is by all acounts very expensive manawise.

The reason I compare this reason to Tog is because Franklin's deck had much better synergy than this. Tog, by nature, wants to draw cards. This is where Intuition + AK + Scroll shines. Every card drawn translates to damage, and his deck won fast. In fact, I watched him race TPS.

Your deck wants to kill with either Tinker/Colossus or Tendrils, both of which don't require card draw, just a setup (either rebuild + wish, or tinker + walk). I fail to see how intuition/ak is better than Gifts.

-Bob

[Evenpence]

Intution/AK with 4 scrolls is better than Gifts because of a few reasons.

Huge reason no. 1:  Enormous synergy.  No.  Crazy enormous synergy.  You're never sad to draw gifts because it either gets you card draw/selection or game win.  INT/AK does the first better and the last slightly worse.

reason no. 2:  Intution is 1 mana less than Gifts, making it easier to go off.

reason no. 3:  It nets you more cards in the same amount of time, which are also card drawers.

reason no. 4:  This deck goes nuttier off mana drain, allowing you to draw crazy amounts of cards on your mana drain turn, allowing you to get card selection through card quantity.

This is a WONDERFUL build, and I expect you to top8 with it in no time.  I agree with you on nearly everything.

[Dozer]

What I don't understand yet -- and this goes for other Gifts builds, too -- why these decks do not max out on the tutor count. Merchant Scroll, Intuition, even Gifts Ungiven are mostly tutors in addition to the usual suite: Mystical, Vampiric, Demonic. Especially with Intuition, you are basically using that card only to get the Tinker, or sometimes Yawgmoth's Will. (Gifts has the added value of enabling Time Walk simultaneously with Tinker).

So why are Personal Tutor and Imperial Seal not in the lists yet? Already, and this list is a good example of it, the decks are becoming very close-minded. Find Tinker as fast as possible; if that fails (Tinker countered, DSC sent farming etc.), find Will and kill with Tendrils. I can see the argument that both Tutors are slow, and it is true. However, I think that if Tinker really is the main game plan, it appears stupid to me not to use all available Tutor effects, especially since both Seal and PT help finding Yawgmoth's Will just as well as they find Tinker.

Your deck wants to kill with either Tinker/Colossus or Tendrils, both of which don't require card draw, just a setup (either rebuild + wish, or tinker + walk).

I agree, and add that you don't always need the setup. Often, just an early Tinker is enough. And in a pinch, with all five Tutors in the deck, you can find anything. It's like: This silver bullet doesn't work? How about this one? Or this one? Or this golden, wooden or leaden one? The only cards from Negator13's list that he actually wants to draw into with his card draw are the counters. Everything else is just hell-bent on finding Tinker or winning the game with it.

The danger with 4 Merchant Scroll and the 5 restricted Tutors (excluding Consultation) in the deck is that nine cards are tutors. You will eventually draw a hand that is Tutors and mana. But that should be offset by the number of early Tinkers. Just ask yourself: Would you rather hold AK or Personal Tutor in your opening hand? I would want the Tutor because it does a big thing now instead of contributing to a big think later, when I'm probably dead.

Dozer

[dicemanx]

I think that if Tinker really is the main game plan, it appears stupid to me not to use all available Tutor effects, especially since both Seal and PT help finding Yawgmoth's Will just as well as they find Tinker.

I believe that in the current meta Tinker is usually not the primary game plan (unless you're Tinkering for something like Slaver). If you expend your resources finding a two turn clock, you might find yourself getting overwhelmed against an opposing control or combo deck, or have your DSC dealt with via Welder, StP, or bounce. Furthermore, you cannot just build your deck with tons of tutoring - in order to ensure that the YawgWill or Tinker strategy works, you must have a good balance of card drawing, tutoring, and disruption. The moment you start stuffing your deck with sorcery speed or card disadvantage tutors you'll find yourself on the wrong end of critical CA or disruption wars far too often.

Card drawing cards should also be viewed as a form of limited tutoring - if you see a lot of cards over the course of the game, you will likely find what you need but at the same time draw into enough disruption to push through whatever strategy is most important (or stop your opponent from pushing through his).

[PucktheCat]

I will add my name to the list of people who have tried out builds very similar to this.  A single Gifts seems to me to be a natural inclusion.  It was my tendancy to want the Gifts more than the Intuition that eventually led me to just switch to a Gifts based deck (although the fact that Gifts is immune to Uba Mask was also a factor).

Just to add to what Dicemanx said: I view Gifts decks as relying on a number of interlocking two card combos (Tinker + Time Walk, Yawg. Will + Rebuild, Yawg. Will + Lotus, Yawg. Will + Tinker, Tinker + Force, Tinker + Pithing Needle for Welder, etc.).  The typical plan is to Brainstorm, Ancestral, or otherwise use cheap draw to find one part of the combo cheaply and efficently while at the same time building your mana base and accumulating disruption.  This is a pretty reliable plan because at this stage there are a ton of cards that qualify as one part of a combo.  Once you have one part you have to find the other.  Card draw and search is pretty inefficent at this stage because you are usually looking for a particular card, not just any one of a number of cards like in the first stage.  This is where Gifts/Intuition can use Recoup to become functionally tutors.

Leo

[Lou]

I really think a lot of people are missing the point of what Bob is saying, and while I hate chugging Bob's cock, let me try to help out.  The only two card combo that Gifts should rely on is Island Island.  Mana Drain sets up a Gifts that WILL win you the game.  You don't need to draw more cards when you can just get the cards you need with Merchant Scroll.

In response to AK/Intuition being better than Gifts Ungiven:  You are telling us that 7-8 slots and a lot of mana over a few turns is better than 3-4 slots and casting 1 Gifts to normally win you the game?  I am not saying that everytime you cast Gifts you will win, as obviously that is not the case, but I am sure that you will win more often than with Intuition for AK, then AK, then Intuition again.  It just doesn't make any sense.

[Negator13]

The purpose of card draw in this deck, T1T, and Gifts, is to find the right combination of bombs (win conditions, essentially), the mana to play those bombs, and the counters to protect them.  Running Intuition/AK lets you do this easily, efficiently, and consistently, then switch to acting as a bomb.

You have to understand that going balls out and casting a turn 1-3 Tinker or trying to Will ASAP rarely works. Yes, it steals games sometimes, but many times your opponent is able to answer DSC or counter your Will and you're left bent over in front of them.

Running Gifts basically forces you to go for the Win ASAP, which is swingy but risky. Running Intuition lets you achieve insurmountable card advantage, then go for the win when it is gauranteed. The best part is, all this happens by turn 4 or 5, so you sacrifice no speed.

As for needing Gifts to get necessary mana, Intuition for Recoup/Will/Tinker gets you DSC with 5 mana available, then lets you cast Will later. Good times.

As a side note, I've updated the deck more. No Cunning Wish, a MD Echoing Truth as a catchall answer with 4 scrolls to find it (esp. to Chalice @3). Ive splashed white, which is very easy with 1 Tundra and 6 Fetches, for a SB Balance and 2 Sacred Grounds. This makes Burning Wish a bomb and gives the deck an easy win against Stax post board. The current build is at the top of the page in my first post if you want to see it. I'll be playing it on the 28th.

[Lou]

This makes Burning Wish a bomb and gives the deck an easy win against Stax post board.

I am not sure who you are playing against, but I never consider a match up against Stax to be easy, as long as it is piloted by a competant player.  I played CS quite a bit, and most people will agree that it has a fair game against Stax, but I would never say easy.  I am not saying that this is CS, by any means, and it actually doesn't have quite a few of the cards that make the CS/Stax match up decent.  So I guess I am wondering how you think one Balance and two Sacred Grounds make this match up easy?

Running Gifts basically forces you to go for the Win ASAP, which is swingy but risky.

Have you ever played MD Gifts?  Are you playing Mana Drain correctly?  I am not trying to sound like a smart ass here, I am really curious.  You sit on Mana Drain, use it, get some mana, then Gifts for a winning pile.  You don't have to, and most of the time, shouldn't do this early, as these type of decks are combo/control.  I am not saying anything that hasn't already been said, but think mono blue with a combo finish.

Also,

The purpose of card draw in this deck, T1T, and Gifts, is to find the right combination of bombs

Gifts Ungiven

And finally, you never answered why this deck is any better than Josh Franklin's Gencon Tog list?  Any response?  Bueller?

[Negator13]

You keep taking everything I'm saying out of context.

- I said resolving the card Sacred Ground makes it easy to win against Stax. I've upped them to 3 in the boad since.
I didn't say the match is easy, I said if you find Ground and the mana to play it early it makes it easy to win.

- I am thinking Mono Blue with a combo finish, which is why my combo cards (Intuition rather than Gifts) are also flexible as control cards.

- I said card draw finds the right combination of {bombs/counters/mana}. Gifts finds you the bombs, but not the mana to play them and the counters to make sure they resolve. Intuition does both.

- I did touch upon this before, but this deck is better than Franklins IMO because A. DSC > Tog, B. Cunning Wish is clunky and unnecessary, and C. Intuition for Will + Recoup is better than Cunning Wish for Berserk.

[Vegeta2711]

Have you ever played MD Gifts?  Are you playing Mana Drain correctly?  I am not trying to sound like a smart ass here, I am really curious.  You sit on Mana Drain, use it, get some mana, then Gifts for a winning pile.

I'm curious myself. Do people really just run straight into Drain where you are?  Like I thought this was the new basic skill of Vintage. If Drain resolves on anything bigger than a 0-1cc spell, it means you were either baiting and have a game-breaking follow-up or it was your best (and usually only) chance to win the game so you ran it out anyway. Sorry, not trying to be rude, it just seems like this is a really simplistic way to explain it when it's rarely the case.

As for the listed deck, I really prefer having Vamp and Seal maindeck, especially over the 4th Scroll. The other card you cut is more preference. I find it allows you to fetch AR/Tinker easier (1cc at instant or sorcery speed trumps scroll all day) and allows for AK's to always hit the gamebreaker along with the usual assortment of mana/other crap. Side-note. I'd heavily consider Trike/Razormane in the board along with the double Pyroclasm so you can trump the Fish decks with cheap solutions to DSC. Tendrils is actually my favored win against Fish now, because they've adapted so well to beating the 'run tinker out' play.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Have you ever played MD Gifts? Are you playing Mana Drain correctly? I am not trying to sound like a smart ass here, I am really curious. You sit on Mana Drain, use it, get some mana, then Gifts for a winning pile.

I'm curious myself. Do people really just run straight into Drain where you are? Like I thought this was the new basic skill of Vintage. If Drain resolves on anything bigger than a 0-1cc spell, it means you were either baiting and have a game-breaking follow-up or it was your best (and usually only) chance to win the game so you ran it out anyway. Sorry, not trying to be rude, it just seems like this is a really simplistic way to explain it when it's rarely the case.

There are a bunch of high cc spells that you can drain. FoW, SMOKESTACK, and other shit like Tinker. The problem with your reasoning is that a good gifts build doesn't give a fuck about some of stax's threats. I think you are playing the deck wrong. Any boost you get off drain thats more than 2 mana is absolutely savage.

This makes Burning Wish a bomb and gives the deck an easy win against Stax post board.

You keep taking everything I'm saying out of context.

- I said resolving the card Sacred Ground makes it easy to win against Stax. I've upped them to 3 in the boad since.
I didn't say the match is easy, I said if you find Ground and the mana to play it early it makes it easy to win.

Way to contradict yourself. Which is it?

- I did touch upon this before, but this deck is better than Franklins IMO because A. DSC > Tog, B. Cunning Wish is clunky and unnecessary, and C. Intuition for Will + Recoup is better than Cunning Wish for Berserk.

The reason I compare this reason to Tog is because Franklin's deck had much better synergy than this. Tog, by nature, wants to draw cards. This is where Intuition + AK + Scroll shines. Every card drawn translates to damage, and his deck won fast. In fact, I watched him race TPS.

Your deck wants to kill with either Tinker/Colossus or Tendrils, both of which don't require card draw, just a setup (either rebuild + wish, or tinker + walk). I fail to see how intuition/ak is better than Gifts.

-Bob

You didn't answer the question. I'm saying Tog is better because the strategy of the deck (intuition-->AK) is suited more towards Tog, not Tinker. As Dozer pointed out, Tinker/Colossus only requires a set up, where Gifts would be MUCH superior. I fail to see how Tinker/Colossus is better than Tog in a deck that wants card advatage (Intuition/AK) instead of card quality (Gifts). As far as protecting Tinker, people always seem to forget that Gifts runs upwards of 11 counters and 4 cards (Merchant Scrolls to grab them with. I fail to see how your deck is better than Gifts or Franklin's Tog list at doing what you say yourself that it should do.

-Bob

[Negator13]

Oy. I meant that by adding white, you A. make Burning Wish a bomb by allowing it fetch Balance, and B. Give yourself an easy win against Stax in the form of the card Sacred Ground. Are we good on that now?

And I argue that both tinker/DSC and the Tendrils kill DO require card draw because you need he required amount of resources to be able to sucessfully cast them and make sure they resolve.

[Vegeta2711]

There are a bunch of high cc spells that you can drain. FoW, SMOKESTACK, and other shit like Tinker. The problem with your reasoning is that a good gifts build doesn't give a fuck about some of stax's threats. I think you are playing the deck wrong. Any boost you get off drain thats more than 2 mana is absolutely savage.

I'm sorry, are you talking only about the Stax match or not here? If you are, that's fine, it's not like they have a real way to dodge Drain. If were talking about in general, maybe I just play against more conservative players than you, but it's rare when any of my partners or myself hit a large drain like that.

[Lou]

Any boost you get off drain thats more than 2 mana is absolutely savage.

I'm sorry, are you talking only about the Stax match or not here? If you are, that's fine, it's not like they have a real way to dodge Drain. If were talking about in general, maybe I just play against more conservative players than you, but it's rare when any of my partners or myself hit a large drain like that.

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.

And I argue that both tinker/DSC and the Tendrils kill DO require card draw because you need he required amount of resources to be able to sucessfully cast them and make sure they resolve.

They don't require card draw.  They require Gifts Ungiven.

Are you playing Gifts as if there is only one pile to get?  What happens is you get any 4 single cards that are in your deck, and they change according to the situation.  Maybe you need some mana because you have a lot of gas, but little steam.  Maybe you have the potatoes, but not the steak.  It all depends.

[AjejeBrazorf]

Hi again!
Talking about Gift vs Intuition..I'm not saying Inutition used like Gift is better..not at all..we are not talking about this!
The presence of recoup gives to Intuition another way to be used. The really strenght of Gift is the possibility to tutor Y. Will.
And Intuition, now, is able to do it too.
But intuition does other things, especially at the beginning of a match.
Drain is strong here as it is in Gift.dec.

I don't agree with you saying card advantage is not important. It's VERY important.
But tutoring too..This is not a contradiction..
I think a good mix is the way to go.
It's not needed to fill the deck with all the game's tutors.

Let's make a comparison with Gift for the matchup you are worried about.
This deck, against MeandeckGift, has a good matchup..why? beacause of card advantage.
T1T plays the control role, while Gift the combo role.
The more the game lasts, more the victory is near
And you can do this thanks to your draw engine (supported by the tutoring one).

Against Stax and Fish.
T1T's mana curve is lower; you have the same acceleration, except awful vault and petal.
A solid mana base. Not dead cards like misdirection (against stax).
Your answer have not to pass only trough a sorcery (merchant) but you can use an instant too (wish).
The kill conditions are the same (DSC and Y. WIll)..so I don't see why MG's matchup could be better than T1T's.

All you need is to fix the deck for your meta.
If you like rebuild MB, you can cut a cunning wish.
If you don't like the duresses, you can cut them, add 1xmystical tutor, the fourth merchant scroll and chain of vapor/fire-Ice/fourth Intuition/1xGiftsUngiven (it's hard to me to believe duress is bad in you metagame  :shock:)
Sb too can be designed adding cards against Oath and enchantments (rushing river,echoing trhuth, ...) or other matchup you are worried about.

About the Ubg Tog.
I was already playing T1T's evolution at gencon..but I have not been lucky that day 
Green is crap. It gives you only bad cards compared to the red ones.
The only green card better than the equivalent red one is berserk (>fling).
I can imagine he was playing green only for it.
Tinker is far superior to Tog. While it is in play (2U against 1UB), DSC tramples already.
If you want to kill immediately you just need walk (intuition for it + recoup + lotus?)
Against decks playing many duals you SB Titan which is devastating!
Tinker is a bomb, Psychatog is not. Not anymore.