[Report] Gifts gets the other half of the Pearl

Once in a blue moon I get the itch to actually play some Magic. Over winter break I had tested a new Gifts build with an eye to beating Uba Stax while maintaining good matchups overall. I think I succeeded, but this report doesn't do much to support my claim because the only games I lost in this tournament were to Uba Stax (although, as will be seen, I punted both games badly).

Because I hadn't played a game of tournament Magic since last summer (at OgreCon) my ability to not suck horribly at Magic had declined a bit. I lost only two games in the tournament but my deck lost none - both losses were due to my own horrible misplays. I tried hard to punt a third game later in the tournament, but my opponent punted it back. Those of you who know me or remember my tournament report from 2004 have played against me will know this is a habit of mine. I make some good plays from time to time, but when I make mistakes they tend to be big and stupid.

On to the report.

My deck was very good to me. Here is the list.

Midwest Gifts

Blue (25):
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Rebuild
1 Echoing Truth

Black (4):
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying

Red (3):
1 Burning Wish
1 Recoup
1 Gorilla Shaman

Artifact (3):
2 Pithing Needle
1 Darksteel Colossus

Mana (25):
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Snow-covered Island
1 Swamp
2 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal

Sideboard:
Sorceries (4):
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind Twist
2 Pyroclasm
Other (11):
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Pithing Needle
1 Darkblast
1 Old Man of the Sea
1 Rushing River
1 Blood Moon

This build has a number of choices that are calculated to improve the deck's Stax matchup. Instead of Thirst for Knowledge it plays 2 Merch. Scrolls, 1 Skeletal Scrying, and all 4 Gifts. This helps the deck topdeck under Uba Mask, increases the number of tutors that can get Rebuild, and improves the chances the deck can just win in a single turn after a Rebuild. Skeletal Scrying was the last card added to the deck, but it fits the strategy in its own way. Because of Rebuild, expensive bomb-type spells are surprisingly good against UbaStax. The Swamp in the mana base is essential if you want to run Darkblast, but it also lets the deck play Vampiric Tutor and Scrying, which would be unplayable in a Stax meta without a basic to support them.

The sideboard was good in testing but I didn't use too much of it in the tournament because my deck was too intent on tossing up bombs to bother with sideboard utility. Blood Moon was an experiment targeted at Oath, Dragon, and perhaps 5cStax.

Here's the report.

Round 1,James u/w/g "Fish"
Game 1: I won the die roll, so I had Mana Drain up when he tries a second turn Meddling Mage. He tries to get it through with Daze but I have Force. Next turn I fetch Swamp, Scry for two and pass the turn with Drain up again. This game is never really in doubt from that point on. I Merch. Scroll up Ancestral and draw into Yawg. Will and Gifts. He tries Orim's Chant in response to Will, but I have the Drain again. He may also have tried to Swords my Colossus, but by that time I have drawn plenty of cards to find a Force.

-1 Skeletal Scrying
-1 Gifts Ungiven
-1 Mox Pearl
+2 Pyroclasm
+1 Old Man of the Sea

I thought his build was too slow and reactive to side out Drain.

Game 2: I don't remember too much about this game. James didn't draw any Force of Wills, creatures, or Swords to Plowshares, which makes me wonder what he did draw. Nothing good apparently.

Round 2, Jacob (Polynomial P) UbaStax
Jacob loaned me around 10 cards so I could finish my build and is generally the guy I know best at Ogre's, so this is a pretty shitty pairing. On top of that Jacob is 0-1, having lost to Goblins first round, so I eliminate him if I win.

Game 1: Jacob goes first, playing first turn Uba Mask and I don't have the Force. I flip Merchant Scroll and get a Fact or Fiction. I have two Moxes to play it next turn, but Jacob rips the Null Rod like a good player and starts the Ubazaar engine. All is not lost, however, because I have two Drains in hand. I Drain a Sphere of Resistance into Fact, which gives me a handful of basics and we sit back playing RFG-go for several turns. Jacob is revealing three a turn to my one, but there aren't that many relevant cards left in his deck (Chalice, Smokestack, and the Strip Mine, basically. Sphere isn't that important because I have a lot of basics out). He gets a Sphere that I don't Drain because I have the mana to play with it out and nothing to Drain into. He goes for Chalice at 1 which I let resolve because Brainstorm is already hosed by Uba Mask and he loses Welder. I remove Burning Wish and have to find Pyroclasm just to get a card in hand (I should have found Tendrils instead because of Chalice for 1). He goes for Smokestack and I Drain. Next turn I topdeck - Ancestral Recall. At this point playing Ancestral is correct because I want it in my 'yard for a potential Will, but having it resolve is probably not a good plan. I reveal three cards, including a Brainstorm, which I play, putting Pyroclasm back on my library. I play a Gifts with the Drain mana and pass the turn before either Jacob or I realizes that Chalice for 1 hosed that whole turn. It is to late to back up, so I get a game loss and on to game two. Talking afterwards, Jacob and I agree that this game was still up in the air if played correctly. It would have come down to how far my next bomb was from the top vs. his digging for Smokestacks and Chalices.

-1 Mox Pearl
-1 Mox Emerald
-1 Merchant Scroll
-1 Echoing Truth
-1 Skeletal Scrying
+1 Rack and Ruin
+1 Hurkyl's Recall
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Darkblast

My standard and much tested Uba board. They have something like 10 artifact mana hate cards, so I cut two. Mind Twist comes in because it can randomly win games early (they don't have Force), it clears out Pyroblasts, and it combos with Rebuild/Hurkyl's for a game win.

This isn't a huge Stax sideboard (I know some Gifts builds have tried running a lot more mass bounce and other hate) but it is enough if you understand the matchup.

Game 2: I have Lotus, Jet, Fetch with Rack and Ruin in hand, so I feel pretty good. Jacob starts playing Spheres and things. At the end of his second turn his board is Workshop, Crypt, Sphere, Sphere, Smokestack (just played), Crucible, Wasteland. I Rack and Ruin the two spheres EOT, untap, Yawg. Will and Rack and Ruin the Crucible and the Smokestack. Jacob gets a Chalice for 3 next turn which is annoying, but it doesn't hurt me much. I think I eventually Drained into hardcast Colossus to end this.

Game 3: My only game three of the day. I don't remember the exact sequence of the early game, but it came down to this situation: Jacob has Bazaar, Uba Mask (just resolved), Chalice at two, Null Rod and some mana. I have 4 basics, Pithing Needle, Yawg. Will, and Gifts in hand. EOT I Gifts for Rack and Ruin, a second Needle, Rebuild and another Gifts. He gives me Needle and Gifts. I Needle Bazaar and pass. Jacob reveals Welder and plays Welder and Tormod's Crypt. Now those of you keeping score at home will no doubt realize that the Crypt isn't a threat to me with Null Rod in play, but I fail to make the connection. When I play Needle next turn I wait to see if Jacob will Crypt in response and when he doesn't I think it through and calculate (wrongly, as it turns out) that I can win if I shut down the Crypt before the Welder can break the game open. A key part of this reasoning is that I have no artifacts in the grave, although of course to win I will need to Gifts into artifacts and Tolarian Academy to generate the mana to Will and Rebuild off the Will. All in all, naming Welder would have been the better play (understatement of the week) and would have gotten me a match win. I still have a chance with my current play, however, because Welder will take two turns to Weld out both Needle and Rod to make the Crypt active. I have to win next turn, but that is very doable. I Gifts for Academy and 0cc artifact EOT, untap, and reveal Mana Vault to Uba Mask. Now Jacob makes a play I didn't forsee. He Welds the Mask for Sphere of Resistance. Now comes the crucial difference between Jacob and me. Jacob, as a science PhD student, knows math. I, a law student, do not. So rather than actually figuring out whether it will work I just Will blindly. As Jacob was well aware, this leaves me one mana short of the Rebuild. Looking back, I thought I had to go off that turn because of the Crypt but I didn't because Jacob Welding out the Uba Mask instead of the Pithing Needle bought me a turn. I could have played out my artifacts under sphere this turn and Willed next turn for the win (assuming Jacob didn't topdeck Chalice or Gorilla Shaman).

At any rate, these were the only two games I lost all day, and I gave both of them away (although Jacob might still have won the first game). If I had to lose, this was the match to do it, I guess.

Round 3, Aaron 5cStax
After that frustrating series of play errors I am happy about this matchup. Aaron always plays somewhat non-standard builds and I know that in this metagame he is likely to have erred on the side of beating UbaStax and other permanent based decks rather than Control, so his build is likely to include card choices that don't hurt me too much. I know he is playing Tangle Wire, for example, which doesn't do much against me (it shuts down Drain and a couple of Sorceries). In the end I don't know I was right that his build was a favorable pairing, but that was what I thought going in.

Game 1: He gets first turn Smokestack and I don't have the Force. I do have Lotus, Jet, and a land though, so I play them. On my upkeep I tap and sac the Jet to Vamp. Tutor for Ancestral and play it. I pass the turn and Aaron ramps the Stack to 2. EOT I Rebuild a bunch of his stuff. He replays it next turn but I have enough time to Tutor up Yawg. Will. I Yawg. Will back the Jet, Lotus, and Ancestral and maybe a land. That gives me enough permanents to survive for a while even when he plays Tangle Wire. Next turn I Gifts on my upkeep into mana, Recoup and Tinker. The turn after that I am able to keep enough mana up under the Wire to Recoup the Tinker and that's all she wrote.

-1 Skeletal Scrying
-1 Merchant Scroll
-1 Something else
+1 Rushing River
+1 Hurkyl's Recall
+1 Rack and Ruin

Game 2: I get a marginal hand that relies on artifact mana. I didn't see any artifact hate first game at all, so I give it a try. It proves to be a good decision because Aaron has first turn Choke. The Choke doesn't matter, I am able to Tinker away Mana Vault and use the extra mana to Needle his Welder. He has Balance but because of the Welder he has to wait a turn to cast it, which lets me untap my Sapphire to Drain.

Round 4, Eric TPS/Tendrils Combo
Eric beat Jacob in the Top 4 in Indiana(?) last weekend, and so I knew he was a good player and had a general idea what he was playing. He is 3-0, and he tells me he would concede to me, but he has a friend trying to make the cut. So we play it out.

Game 1: He goes first, playing a land and passing. I play a land and Lotus. In response to the Lotus he tries for Ancestral. I Brainstorm into a Force to stop it, but I have to put back two bad cards with no shuffle available. If he had Ancestraled on my upkeep he would have gotten it through and would probably have won this game. I draw through my crap cards while keeping Drain up to deal with whatever he gets. My hand ends up with Drain, Yawg. Will, and DSC. He tries for Ritual, Necropotence. I Drain. As I put my Drain in the yard my hand hits the top card of my library, revealing Gifts. Since I have already played the Drain it doesn't affect my play, but it is pretty freakin' lucky to Drain into Gifts. The judge says to leave it where it is. It works out for Eric though. He casts Perplex (?!?) on my Drain. I can't let Necro resolve, so I am forced to toss my Yawg. Will and Colossus. Since the Colossus shuffles my library, the Gifts is gone. I have to point out, however, that if Perplex had been anything else (Memory Lapse?, Flash Counter?, Mana Drain???) Eric would have had his Necro and would have gotten to see upwards of 15 cards to find Force for my Gifts. I would still probably have gotten Yawg. Will (double Force would be hard to find even with Necro and would have left him with only three cards and very few life), but my 'yard wasn't very good, so that wouldn't have been great.

At any rate, I topdeck a Mana Crypt and burn for three. Eric and I draw go for a couple more turns until I get Burning Wish and clear out his hand with Mind Twist. A couple of turns later I topdeck Gifts and win.

-1 Echoing Truth
-1 Swamp
-1 Fact or Fiction
-2 Pithing Needle
+2 Pyroblast
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Tormod's Crypt
+1 Mind Twist

Game 2: I get first turn Lotus again, again with Mana Drain. I Merchant Scroll for Ancestral and play it with Drain backup on my second turn, first main phase. he Forces and I Drain. On my second main phase I Yawg. Will with the Drain mana, getting Ancestral and Lotus back and also playing a Fact or Fiction I draw to use up the rest of the mana. As broken as this was, I am told that Eric would still have had the win this game if he had drawn black mana (I think that was this game, it may have been the first game in the top 4).

Top 4, Eric again:
The turnout at this event wasn't as good as expected so they cut to top 4. One person who was 3-1 didn't make the cut, which seems harsh. I was paired with Eric in the top 4.

Game 1: I don't remember this game very well. I didn't get first turn Black Lotus. This may have been the game where Eric was short a black mana for the win.

Same sideboard.

Game 2: This game goes pretty well for me at first. Eric whiffs with a Cabal Therapy for Force. I have fast mana (including Mana Crypt) and multiple Gifts. Eric gets a Dark Confidant but before he can use it I have Gifted twice into a handful of Forces and gone broken with Yawg. Will. I cast Tinker, Brainstorm, Time Walk and pass the turn ... only to realize that I never actually got the Colossus out when I cast Tinker. I am a very bad player sometimes. On my Time Walk turn I have to use a Tutor chain (Merch. Scroll for Mystical) to get Burning Wish and recover my Tinker instead of just Walking again for the win. I have a stocked hand though, with double Force, Pyroblast, REB, double Drain. When I finally pass the turn Eric flashes back Cabal Therapy. I should have Forced it but I forgot that he knew about my double Force so I let it resolve, thinking he would take a card that he knew was there from the previous Therapy (Pyroblast). That leaves me with only red blasts up as countermagic for the moment, and Eric announces that he has the win. He casts Demonic Tutor, Lotus, Yawg. Will (perhaps some other stuff for storm as well) ... and realizes that he only has four mana left, two short of what is needed to Tutor up Tendrils and cast it. So after I give away the game by failing to find with Tinker, Eric does his best to give it back. He replays the Confidant and the Tutor and ends his turn.

Now the game comes down to a damage race, albiet a particularly Type 1 type of damage race. Mana Crypt (and a small Scrying) have been tough on my life total and I lose the flip again when Eric passes the turn, leaving me at only 4 life. Confidant + the Tendrils I know he has in hand leave me with no margin for error. I draw ... Gorilla Shaman. Wow, he is really good right here. The two things I need most of all are a way to stop Confidant beatdown and mana sinks so I don't burn myself to death with Drain. I Tinker away my Crypt and play the Shaman. He draws with Confidant and again for the turn then passes. I draw (a land I think), swing with DSC and pass. Eric needs to win this turn or force me to Drain something and hope I can't use the mana. He swings with Confidant. I do the math and realize that I can't let it hit or he kills me for sure with Tendrils, so I trade the Shaman. That leaves me with no mana sinks on the board or in hand. Eric plays two spells and goes for Tendrils. He knows I have the Drains, but he also knows I have no sinks. I Drain two copies of Tendrils and take two from the third. I have eight mana to sink next turn and only Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast in hand. I flip the top card of my library ---- Mind Twist.

By my calculations I had the following cards in my library that could save me: 2 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Mind Twist, 1 Recoup, 1 Demonic Tutor, 1 Rebuild, 1 Mind Twist. I have no idea how many cards were in my library total at that point - probably around 30. 7/30 is around 23%. Not as bad as I originally thought, but still darn low.

So I made it to the finals. And who should be my opponent? Jacob, of course, the very man who supplied me with the Mana Drains and Darksteel colossus I had just beaten Eric with. It was pretty easy for us to work out a split. I took credit (for the box of product that was 2nd place) and a couple of cards Jacob had loaned me and he bought me out of the rest.

My deck treated me well all day. I got 4 first turn Lotuses in 11 games, which is pretty insane, but I also never drew Ancestral (although I tutored for it several times) and only got first turn Crypt (the next most broken opening after Ancestral and Lotus) once.

I can literally remember every card in the deck except Echoing Truth playing some part in winning me a game, so I feel like the maindeck is pretty good. The sideboard is kinda random, but I feel like it is set except for a few cards. If Fish isn't going to show up in good builds I will probably rework it a bit.

Props:
Jacob, for loaning me the card I needed.

My opponents, for being nice even when I was drawing absurdly broken stuff, misplaying it, then still winning because Gifts is just ridiculous.

Ogre's Cards, for making the effort to keep a Type 1 scene going in St. Louis.

Slops:
The people who usually play at these things that didn't show this time. If I am going to show up at a tournament for once the least you could do is show up too!