[Open Project] - Stuffy Gifts 2006

[MaxxMatt]

Hello all,

during these weeks, I tried to build some new decks and revamp old mechanics adding new cards

This is the first experiment that I'm going to show you, today.
I had a lot of success during these months with my own gifts build and I would like to toy for it with the new printed artifact from TimeSpiral:



Stuffy Doll
5, Artifact Creature - Construct 0/1
As Stuffy Doll comes into play, choose a player.
Stuffy Doll is indestructible.
Whenever damage is dealt to Stuffy Doll, it deals that much damage to the chosen player.
: Stuffy Doll deals 1 damage to itself.
Illus. Dave Allsop



Look at this PuppyDoll only in conjunction with another bad card:


Guilty Conscience
W (1), Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage, Guilty Conscience deals that much damage to that creature.
Those who most feel guilt don't need to, while those who most need to feel guilt never do. -Order proverb
Illus. Christopher Moeller


Despite their name, the illustrations and their overall useless playability, I looked at these card as combo pieces for a control-combo deck.



Did you remember Flame Fusillade+Time Vault and their extremely good impact on the game in any Control-Gifts.dec?

Which is the new goal, here?
You have to resolve the 5cc artifact in some fashioned way, then enchant it and Walk into a new turn, when you will be ready to tap the Doll and instantly kill the previously chosen opponent.


There are little and subtle differences between FlameFusillade+TimeVault ( FF/TV ) and StuffyDoll+GuiltyConscience ( SD/GC ).
This is a summary of mixed pros. and cons. that can be valued.

1) The total cost for the combo is exactly the same ( 5W against 5R )
2) The combo is a bit off color in a standard Gifts.dec ( white needed )
3) It can die under Null Rod
4) You have to use Green for Regrowth instead of Recoup.
5) Stuffy Doll is as much Tinkerable as Time Vault
6) In any single case analyzed by me, Regrowth is better than Recoup. Sadly it is Green.
7) In any single case analyzed by me, Balance is better than Pyroclasm. Sadly it is White.
8) You can gain some advantage from the addition of White and Green but you lose Red, because a 5cc control deck is usually bad.
9) There are thousands ways to fizzle your combo, exactly as there were a lot of possible spells to stop the old FF/TV.
10) The deck can use the old ControlGifts.dec structure in order to win in the same old way ( Tinker+DSC OR ToA ) plus the addition of this cool feature.




****
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Friendly users Interface:

Write (*,*) General Porpouse Ask: "Would you have played FF/TV in the past?
If ( Yes ) then Continue Reading
else Stop Reading Anymore
Stop
End

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This is the revamped Maindeck used to accomplish this porpouse:

Stuffy Gifts 2006

Cool Things would let you do Cool Things - (25)
4 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Undeground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt

Feel free to feel protected - (12/13)
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rebuild
1 Balance
0/1 Engineered Explosives

The skeleton of your victories - (11/12)
4 Brainstorm
3/4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ancestral Recall

Useless things until winning - (3)
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Guilty Conscience
1 Stuffy Doll

Useful things before winning - (8)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Regrowth
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard
Work in progress on quantities but my current insertions are:
3/4 Duress
2 H Recall
0/1 B.Freeze ( if C.Wish would be maindecked )
1/2 E.E.
1/2 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sunderign Titan


I'm toying about different sideboard's strategies, too.
I have some ideas and a lot of things to write about these possible insertions and choices.

On the other hand, before choosing sideboard slots, I have a couple of questionable things maindecked that should be discussed first:
--Imperial Seal could be C.Wish for strategical porpouses?
--one among Gifts or TFKs should be a "4of"!
--the lack of LoA!
--is the combo needed?
--is the deck stable enough against MW.dec or Fish.dec?
--are you going to find the combo pieces as fast as FF/TV?

Feel free to write here or contact me in PVT for further hints.
Thanks in advance.
Maxx


Edit> Typo error fixed

[Nastaboi]

I fail to see how this goes off under Null Rod, as the Doll needs to tap itself to deal any damage.

[zimagic]

I fail to see how this goes off under Null Rod, as the Doll needs to tap itself to deal any damage.

It goes off under Null Rod if you have any sort of burn like the afforementioned and maglined Pyroclasm. Another reason for Pyro's inclusion. It also means that unless your opponent has a -x/-x effect to waste the doll, they can't attack into a Guilty Doll unless their remaining creatures deal lethal damage. The redirection effect is active despite the Null Rod locking down his own tap to deal damage ability.

6) n any single case analyzed by me, Regrowth is better than Regrowth. Sadly it is Green.

??

[Gort32]

Two words:

Summoning Sickness

It ain't gonna work if you can't go off *now.*  If you need to depend on another spell (some way to damage the doll), then it's a 3-card combo, which is inheriently worse than the Time Vault/FF combo you are trying to emulate.

[Namingway]

On the other hand, before choosing sideboard slots, I have a couple of questionable things maindecked that should be discussed first:
--Imperial Seal could be C.Wish for strategical porpouses?
--one among Gifts or TFKs should be a "4of"!
--the lack of LoA!
--is the combo needed?
--is the deck stable enough against MW.dec or Fish.dec?
--are you going to find the combo pieces as fast as FF/TV?

A very interesting deck. I am curious about playtesting results. Which decks have you played against? And what are your results?

On Cunning Wish: What would you include in your sideboard if you played Wish? Brain Freeze and Hurkyl's Recall, of course, but what else?
Second, the 4-of should be TFK, I think. You often don't want to draw more than one Gifts each game, and multiple Gifts do a decent job at clogging up your starting hand.
Also, as Gort32 said, how do you deal with the Doll's summoning sickness?

Just my thoughts.

[Harlequin]

I don't really understand cuttnig Red, and adding Green.  With red, you could add Lava Dart which is good for stoping welder who could potentially bone you.  Also in white you've got Argovian Find  (W - Sorcery - Return target Artifact or Enchant in your graveyard to your hand). 

It seems like Darkblast would be your biggest problem.

[MaxxMatt]

@Namingway

I thought about adding C.Wish, but it doesn't solve the J.Caps' problem, if added in single copy.
More than one would be really difficult to add to this tight maindeck and I feel that the risk of being Capped can be run, in the proper metagame.

I would not risethe number of TFKs, yet.
Not because 3 is the correct number, but because adding 3, would force me to add more artifact to balance TFK's discarding effect.
At now, those artifacts are good maindeck additions even without TFKs, so I feel that more than them, would be only a waste of space. So TFKs, without further testing, would remain 3.

This deck seemed to me to be able to benefit from additional counterspells such as Remands.
The time gaining and the temporarily counterspells effect, would be really huge, epsecially during the first turns of the game, when both players have a small mana development.



@Harlequin
While Argivian Find is instant speed, so no Recouppable, I think that the addition of Green is crucial even from a non-gifts perspective angle. Because of "Summoning Sickness", will be really important to Walk-Regrowth-Walk-Y.Will-Walk.
This process, without B.Wish would be impossible to accomplish.
I think that Recoup could be used too, but with minor impact on the game.
Regrowth can replay directly Guilty Conscience ( playing a different role from Recoup ) and functionally be a Recoup for Y.Will.
During the match, it can be used in thousand of ways ( Ancestral, Walk, Demonic, Permanents sideboard cards and so on ):

If you stack: Recoup, Tinker, Demonic, Y.Will, maybe, you are going to win anyway:
Tinker on Doll, Demonic for Guilty.
On the other hand, during this process, you consume a lot of resources, a lot of mana and maybe only with the goal of resolvig the combo.

Adding Regrowth, it seems to me that add more resilience to maindeck for general porpouses and you can simply put combo pieces in the gifts' stack without fearing not to be able to replay them fast

Darkblast needs to be countered only once, after Doll is in play.
I think that Doll, differently from T.Vault, should be played only when you are going to win and not during th eearly game.

Opponent's Welders are hard to kill with my maindeck configuration but you can add a single Darkblast to power up his defences ( Balance, P.Needle, E.E., side options ).


@Gort32
You are a control deck.
If you feel that the things to protect are too many or the defences are too few, then think with me how to improve them.
On the other hand, even DSC needs to be protected the turns that it enters play.

Don't see this additional combo only as a quick kill. You can build up the game in order to win safer but 2 or 3 turns later.


@Red instead of Green.
You can play with Recoup instead of Regrowth and B.Wish instead of anything else ( maybe I.Seal ).
This changes would make safer to resolve Y.Will but harder to combo without it.
For these reasons, grave hate would hurt you more than needed.

[Slack]

I think I'm missing something here.  As it stands:

1.  Get the doll into play
2.  Enchant with Guilty Conscience
3.  Time Walk
4.  Tap doll to do 1 damage to itself.  Opponent takes 1 damage
5.  Guilty Conscience Triggers and does 1 damage to the doll.  Opponent takes 1 damage.
6.  ...

Isn't it guilty conscience doing the damage to the doll not the doll doing more damage to itself so it doesn't trigger into an infinite loop?  No doubt there is something I don't understand about the combo.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I think I'm missing something here. As it stands:

1. Get the doll into play
2. Enchant with Guilty Conscience
3. Time Walk
4. Tap doll to do 1 damage to itself. Opponent takes 1 damage
5. Guilty Conscience Triggers and does 1 damage to the doll. Opponent takes 1 damage.
6. ...

Isn't it guilty conscience doing the damage to the doll not the doll doing more damage to itself so it doesn't trigger into an infinite loop? No doubt there is something I don't understand about the combo.

Change step 5 to say "5. Guilty Conscience Triggers and does 1 damage to the doll. Stuffy Doll Deals 1 damage to opponent.  This triggers Guilty Conscience again, which deals 1 to Stuffy Doll, which triggers Stuffy Doll.  Stuffy Doll Deals 1 damage to opponent..."

[Slack]

Ah, I see.  I knew it was going to be something obvious.  Thanks.

On a more relevant note... This now seems like a really cool idea.  As noted already, it's weakness is the dependance on Time Walk because combo decks will up and kill you on that extra turn that you have to wait.

The deck does have 5 tutors and 3 gifts.  Maybe it's not a bad idea to include a single dark ritual for gifts/will so you can ramp up enough mana to get doll and conscience in play and then tutor for and play time walk.  As has been pointed out this is pretty mana intensive.

[Nehptis]

I like this idea.  Nice work.  I'll throw in a quick comment.  If 1 main issue that players are commenting on is that the deck needs to Time Walk immediatley after the combo is played to avoid losing the next turn while the Doll is experiencing summoning sickness then why not simply play more Time Walks?

The P9 Time Walk + Peace Talks
Card Type: Sorcery
Rules Text (Oracle): This turn and next turn, creatures can't attack, and players and permanents can't be the targets of spells or activated abilities.

It stops TOA from targeting.
It stops Bounce spells from targeting your combo.
It stops Welder.
It stops a lethal aggro onslaught.
It stops Darkblast.

Balance, Crypt and Needle are likely cut candidates.

[Roxas]

Another issue with this combo is that it's very easy to interrupt - you can bounce/Weld the Doll with any of the triggered abilities on the stack and the combo would be interrupted. Sure, you probably wouldn't play the combo without protection, but this could still matter if Wipe Away becomes popular.

[Harlequin]

Well the same could be said about TV/FF.  they could bounce/weld/or "destroy target artifact" the vault with FF on the stack. now, stuffy doll cannot be "destroyed" (which is somewhat irrelevant) but it can -x/-1 'ed to death (which is relevant, becasue of darkblast)

This is why i would advocate running something like Lava Dart. It means #1 you can combo out immediatly without timewalk.  And #2 it can handle welders which can obviously hurt your combo. 

[cssamerican]

Why bother with walking to avoid summoning sickness? I mean if the play presents itself, fine. But I think the better long term strategy would be to play Lava Dart main. If you play with free burn it should be easy to avoid summoning sickness all together, it builds self imunity to Null Rod, and it doubles as Welder removal.
 
The main problem I see with this deck is Guilty Conscience requires white mana. You really don't gain anything else when you splash for white, and white can't replace the utility of black or red in this deck. Overall I don't see how this could ever be stronger than the current Gifts deck. However, I am wondering if somehow a Workshop combo deck using reduncy over tutoring power could abuse this combo as it would be easy to keep it two colors. Who knows...

[TimeWizzle]

Since one of the goals of this deck is to use green instead of red, lava dart is not the way to go.  Why not include your own darkblast, since you are running black anyway.  Dblast answers everything that dart does, and is probably pretty strong in a gifts pile since you can have it either way your opponent splits.  

A one-of animate dead or corpse dance might be pretty good also, allowing you to ditch the doll with thirst, then reanimate it (and corpse dance gives it haste).  

White could also allow you to run orim's chant as protection.

[GUnit]

This is an interesting idea, but I think that meandeck gifts is better now than FF/TV gifts was anyway. In order for an accurate comparison to be made, in terms of viability in the current metagame, this deck should really be compared to the superior MDG, rather than the dated FF/TV Gifts.

As I said, I like the idea, I like the open discussion format (as opposed to the "This is my deck, criticize me so I can tell you you're wrong" format).
I just think the perspective should be shifted slightly.

[Harlequin]

Since one of the goals of this deck is to use green instead of red, lava dart is not the way to go.  Why not include your own darkblast, since you are running black anyway.  Dblast answers everything that dart does, and is probably pretty strong in a gifts pile since you can have it either way your opponent splits.  

A one-of animate dead or corpse dance might be pretty good also, allowing you to ditch the doll with thirst, then reanimate it (and corpse dance gives it haste).  

White could also allow you to run orim's chant as protection.

I don't this adding green was the "goal" of the deck. I think it was a bi-product of removing red, which is the bi-product of adding white. 

Also one "good reason" why not to include Darkblast is that you cannot start the combo using darkblast.  Red gives you removal, the ability to start the combo without haste and also the ability to start the combo under null rod.

[meadbert]

I would suggest cutting Green for White.  Argivian Find is really good in this deck.  You can get either Combo piece or Black Lotus.

White allows maindeck Balance and much more flexibility out of the sideboard.

Might this combo be better in Stax?  I mean a combo that costs 5 artifact mana and white seems to work perfectly with Stax's mana base.

[parallax]

Cut green regardless, it adds nothing to this deck. Red is better in most situations. It gives you Lava Dart (Darkblast can't start your combo and Lava Dart is pretty good in your graveyard, too.), Recoup, possibly Burning Wish, and Rack and Ruin in the sideboard.

Gifts for Tinker, Guilty Conscience, Argivian Restoration and Recoup. Restoration + Recoup wins with . Restoration + Conscience wins with , but Restoration can be used on Lotus, making it two mana cheaper.

[arcanis2000]

I like this combo a lot.  I might try it in extended in a u/w controll shell.  I will report on my findings.

[parallax]

What about using Trash for Treasure instead of Argivian  Restoration?
Trash for treasures costs 2R,  but also requires an artifact sacrifice which honestly shouldn't be hard in a fully powered deck.

Trash for Treasure can't pull Guilty Conscience out of the graveyard.

[SiegeX]

Now that the cat is out of the bag on this combo, here is the deck I have been testing for the last week or so on MWS with very good results (and a big surprise factor.)

Lava dart is most definitely a must have in this deck, it's removal, it builds storm for no additional mana via flashback, it's a combo enabler and it removes the need for Timewalks 2-5.  For these reasons, green most definitely needs to be shown the door.

I personally felt that Guilty Stuffy should be a replacement for the DSC kill rather than the tendrils kill.  Both are one-shot win conditions in that if the opponent sucessfully stops it, you move on to Plan B. 

Another mentionable note is that Guility Stuffy is much more resilient to removal, whether it be Darkblast, StP or welder.  Reason being is that if darkblast or StP is on the stack, you can lava dart in response and even if they have another StP in hand, you can still flashback the dart and the loop will resolve 1st, killing your opponent before the Darkblask/StP/Welder sees the light of day.  Of course Wipe Away is the exception, but this applies to pretty much any combo involving permanents.

Argivian Find seems to be a great addition to this deck since it makes for interesting Gifts Packages to get that last combo piece (Guility Conscience, Argivian Find, Yawgmoth's Will, Don't Care) and it works well with Thirst for Knowledge.

Here is what I came up with:

Chucky Gifts (I thought this deck deserved an original name and what better-known doll causes havok and mayhem than good 'ol Chucky?)

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

Artifact Creatures
1 Stuffy Doll

Enchantments
1 Guilty Conscience

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Chain Of Vapor
4 Force Of Will
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Mana Drain
2 Lava Dart
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Argivian Find
1 Skeletal Scrying
2 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Recoup
1 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Lands
3 Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Tolarian Academy

[Kasuras]

Could you please explain how this combo is superior to Belcher + Mana Severance? The mana cost to get it into play is the same; sure, the activation cost is more expensive mana-wise, but if you have 6 mana the first turn, then it won't be too hard to get another 3 on the second. It doesn't require any other splashes.

The only advantage as I see it is that it is more resistant (that is, resistant at all) to Null Rod, but that's often run by aggro decks where DSC is probably a better answer anyway, and searching for that Lava Dart.. you could just as easily just have searched for a bouncespell.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great combo: but I don't really see yet how it's better than Belcher+Severance.

[Dakkon]

why not run this combo in a Slaver build instead? Slaver can run the same colors AND welder can make this combo alot cheaper.

I'm not saying add this to slaver. but instead build a new deck around this combo with a Slaver type frame to maximize resiliance.

[Evenpence]

Slaver does seem like an infinitely better place for this.  The Tfk engine seems really good with Stuffy Doll.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Another mentionable note is that Guility Stuffy is much more resilient to removal, whether it be Darkblast, StP or welder.  Reason being is that if darkblast or StP is on the stack, you can lava dart in response and even if they have another StP in hand, you can still flashback the dart and the loop will resolve 1st, killing your opponent before the Darkblask/StP/Welder sees the light of day.

This doesn't work.  Your Lava Dart is on the stack and doesn't go to the graveyard until it resolves, so it's impossible to flash it back in response to a spell that responded to the original Lava Dart.

As for the deck, I'm really not sure the combo is worth it.  Even though the total mana cost of it is similar to Time Vault+ Flame Fullisade, it has the same problem Goblin Charbelcher+ Mana Severance has; the mana costs of the cards are in the wrong order to make them easily playable.  The permenent one has to get into play first costs 5 and then the piece to enchant it costs W. 

White is vastly inferior to Red as a colour, as well, as far as sideboarding options are concerned.  Add all this to the fact that the combo doesn't even win the turn it is assembled (unlike Vault+Fullisade or even Belcher+Severance), and I'm not sure that it's worth it or even viable. 

[MaxxMatt]

I'm very happy about your positive attention. Thanks.
I tried the same arguments in Italy, in our Forum, but I felt wasting my time too much.

A lot of things that you said, have been revaluated and revaluate my position toward the combo itself too.

I tested the 4C-version with mixed results.
A lot of gaming situations ( if correctly taken ), made the addition of the 4th color, a good thing.
Maybe, the evidence of it being "uneeded", let me look at the deck in a slightly different manner.
And, I have to thanks Gabethebabe because our old chats towards Gifts.decs, for the deck that I'm going to propose ( changed ) now.

Hypothesis:
Cut Colours
Add Consistency
Increase Flexibility
Doll or not, you have to resolve Gifts.
...Follow the voice of your spirit...

Thesis
No need to Green
White addition is good because of consistency reasons
White addition is good because of Balance
I can use tricky play and combo out without Regrowth or Recoup.


Needed cards:

Tutors
Protections
Drawers

and more precisely

Gifts
Guilty Conscience
TomBombadil's Doll
Balance
Tinker plus DSC


This is a good 3 color start:


Stuffy Gifts 2006 version 2.0

Mana - (25)
10 Artifacts
5 Fetchland
4 Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Tolarian Academy

Needed Useless Cards - (3)
1 Guilty Conscience
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Darksteel Colossus

Protections - (10)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Balance
1 Rebuild

Drawers - (12)
4 Brainstorm
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact of Fiction

Tutors - (8)
3 Cunning Wish
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker

Best cards ever printed - (2)
1 Yawgmoth's  Will
1 Time Walk

Sideboard - (15)
3 Duress
2 Sacred Ground
1 Sundering Titan
1 Swords to Plowshares / 1 Darkblast
1 Gifts Ungiven / 1 Gush
1 Brain Freeze
1 Rebuild
1 Misdirection
1 Shallow Grave
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Hurkyll's Recall
1 Argivian Find /

Anylize a sample Gifts pile:

Demonic, C.Wish, Guilty, Mana/Tutor/ComboPieces/Walk.

After Gifts, Guilty could be always considered in hand.
If not you could be able to win with the othre cards in hand or, later with Y.Will.
C.Wish could grab V.T., if you need to instantly find Doll/Guilty/Walk/Anything else and they put Demonic into the grave.
Demonic, on the other hand, could grab single pieces or Y.Will.
As much as C.Wish for V.T. for Y.Will or another Gifts, too.
If they put the Doll into the grave, you can animate if through C.Wish for Shallow grave and try to combo out that same turn.

The Tutor/Drawers ratio is really balanced.
You have a lot of drawers, tools for quality searches and some fixers too.

You could play it simply as a control deck that sometimes ( I found "often" ) has the tools to kill opponents soon.
It is not a game ending version of the deck, but, despite the previous one and the other one that SiegeX proposed, it try to evaluate at his maximum, the impact of White in Gifts.
...A non trivial porpouse, I suppose.

On the other hand, I read your comments and I found that the questions:
Is this better than MDGifts or Is this better than Control.Gifts or again, is this combo needed, are completely unanswered, because of the lack of actual tourney results and spread test's matches.

I tested only against other control decks and ( as you can see from the addition of Duress in side ) against Combo decks. The latter, post side, are doomed easier than pre.side, where the strenght and the speed your "tools" is completely dependent on your own mana development.

Let me see if you like it!
Enjoy!

Maxx


After Lunch Edit:
*burp*

I noticed that my last sentences seemed to be connected only to that Gifts' pile.
It should be considered only as one of the possible other ones can let you search/fetch/resolve both "the-combo" or "anything else".
The 3-c-old-fashioned-style seems to intrigue me most, at now.
IMHO, Red is strong but a lot of players seemed to addicted to staple decisions or cards' combination to look at different ones.
If you realize that the only thing to do is resolve "Gifts Ungiven", then, in a mirror match or in a well known field, the "surprise factor" could play a crucial role.
Any Gifts could be interpreted in a billion of ways but only one configuration is played now, especially because of Net-Deck.
Net_Decking and playing against Net_Decked ones, usually means that you can acquire a good advantage over opponents simply playing good but different cards against which they are not fully prepared.
Wisdom... My bijoux...
*burp*


####
Again:
I'm convinced about White.
Now, more than before.
Guilty Conscience force you to play the deck differently from staples deck configurations.
I tried Green some days ago.
You all correctly freezed me about the 4th colour.
Now Red desappeared from my deck, aside with Green and I would not miss it at all.
If you need more possible plays and more possible cards, to convince yourself about White, I think that you can try and find really a pletora of available ones ( Dust to Dust, Dismantling Blow, Exalted Angel, Meddling Mage, Jotun Grunt (...OOOOOOOOPSSS! ), Disenchant, Allay and so on... ).
####

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

I'm just curious: has anyone ever considered Auriok Salvagers as an alternate combo win?  It would necessitate 2 slots (Salvagers and an aritfact to combo with it, whether it be Pyrite Spellbomb or whatever), so that's basically the same as any other 2 card combo addition.  It may techically require three cards, but this should be realitively easy to set up with Gifts because 2 of the combo pieces can be in the graveyard, anyway.  A spellbomb or something isn't even always necessary with Cunning Wish or Merchent Scroll in hand.  It seems like with White as the 3rd colour the Auriok Salvagers combo might be better than the Stuffy Doll+Guilty Concience, especially since the combo is cheaper and wins right away, without having to wait a turn or Time Walk.

The other 2-card combo I considered with Niv-Mizzet+Curiosity, but I dismissed it because the extra mana cost and heavy colour requirements make it worse than Stuffy Doll+ Guilty Concience (and of course it suffers from the same problem with summoning sickness), even if Niv-Mizzet is more useful alone.

The Cunning Wish option seems like an interesting idea (I've always been a fan of the card), but I'm not sure about it simply because of the mana requirements and thus the tempo loss associated with the spell.  Gifts is already a mana hungry deck to begin with.

I'll also agree with MaxxMatt that the surprise factor can be very powerful and is certainly not to be underestimated, but although it may give one a slight edge to begin with it can only get one so far (eventually scouting catches up with you, and no matter how much surprise is on your side you should be playing a good deck to begin with)

I didn't mean to come off as overly negative in my previous post; exploring new ideas and options is a good thing in general, but it's also important to ask if another combo win is even necessary or an improvement to Gifts at all.  I agree with MaxxMatt that only with testing and results will one be able to tell for sure.

[AIcOPed]

I have been adding one auriok to my deck in vintage no matter what I play.

I also add the sstech of conjurer's bauble.

It works well.

the bauble at worst is a one mana cycler, but it also puts things back to be tutored for ltr. etc.

it can protect vs a welder on your dsc for a turn. many little uses.

plus it draws the deck for salveger.

it also is a great cheap early way to boost a tolarian.

I love playing tolarian mox into conjurer bauble so that I have drain mana.

It also lets you try and gifts the same bomb twice or at least forces your opponent to not let you have it twice.

I love how gifts actually lets you combo off a auriok in play as well.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Salvagers: Toad even wrote a complete article about his Salvager-Gifts deck for SCG last year after CAB had presented its Gifted list before. Just search for "Durand" in the article search...

As for the deck at hand, I continued reading even though I got sorted out by the "friendly user interface...". I usually hate TfK in Gifts-decks, but well, I love talking about Gifts-lists in general so I'll just ignore that TfK<other option :p.

First observations: I have playtested enough lists without Recoup (especially the French Merchant.dec) to be sure that not playing Recoup is just wrong. Just add at least a single Volcanic into the deck somehow. I know once you playtest long enough without, it seems to not miss to much. Just start testing with it again afterwards proves what you miss, though

Balance: I'm a big fan of Balance, I mean I splashed White into Gifted for a long time just to support it. Nonetheless, especially with real draw in the form of TfK, I think you might not be able to use it often enough to be relevant. Not meaning you should cut it, rather saying to keep an eye out especially for that. Balance also gets better with Recoup in the deck, as you can Gifts for Balance or discard it to TfK while still easily playing it afterwards.

The combo itself: One of the big reasons to play a kill different from Tinker/Dsc in the deck was, imo, to have a win that does neither trigger Oath nor can be StPed, therefore I'm suspicious. Nonetheless, I think the combo is very cool and I'd be happy to see it turn out well.

Rebuild: I usually think Rebuild is a great card, but you already have your solution at 3 mana, C-Wish, I'd prefer something cheaper. Especially because Scroll->Rebuild can be difficult to get of in time against 1st turn DSC. If I was you, I'd prefer a CoV.

Cunning Wish: For the current meta, I think C-Wish is the most underplayed card in all Drain-decks. Honestly, most decks are build in a way that supposes that the opponent can only counter or bounce things, but not destroy them. C-Wish for Darkbast or Disenchant makes them cry. Not to mention it makes  you have more Gifts. A good choice, imo.

Disruption-base: With only two Merchant Scroll und 8 Counters, this is where this deck is really missing out, imo. Considering that my most regular Scroll-target is probably FoW, and I am running 10 Disruption slots, you should probably try to find room for something here.

Well, so much from me, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Puppet!