MDG in 2K7

[desolutionist]

3rd Bounce Spell (I would start with 1 Repeal)
and 1 Dark Ritual to support ETW primarily.

The bounce suite should be reconsidered entirely now that EtW is being used as a secondary win condition more than DSC.  Rebuild isn't indispensable now that the metagame is virtually Staxless so it can easily be cut for Echoing Truth; but the exchange results in an extra dead card, which nullifies the reason for cutting Colossus to begin with.  So Chain of Vapor must also be cut to reclaim that state of nearly absolute usefulness.  As much as I dislike it, I think the best possible 3-card combination in the MDG shell is 2 Repeals and 1 Echoing Truth

[Smmenen]

I've played the list some more. I think right now I will move back to 4th Gifts over Scrying. Most of the differences between the standard MDG list and my list stem from my playing of Drain mirrors, which are my most frequent matchups. Hence the Scrying and LoA, and my reluctance to switch to Vamp over 3rd MisD. Scrying makes it much easier when playing against Crypt. What I often do when my opponent plays crypt is just play control, sit back and wait for Tendrils and bounce then combo in one turn. Scrying speeds this up immensely. The fact that it's non REB'able is also a plus.

Smennen, why do you say that LoA is not playable?

Primarily because of the enormous demands on your mana base post board.   I encourage you to read my Roanoke tournament reports, but LOA was of no help in the GIfts mirror where either player comboed out very quickly.    Most Gifts players run Duress post-board now, which makes LOA even harder than it was before.   There is a really a need to get both red and black online immediately and LoA is just worse than a 3rd Sea, imo.

EDIT: Counterintuitively, I also think that LoA is one of the hardest cards to measure the costs of because they are so hidden.

FOr instance, consider this line of play:

Your opening hand:
Brainstorm
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
LoA
FoW
Gifts Ungiven
Misdirection

Now, if you play turn one LoA and you win the game, you can pretty much draw the direct line from LoA to the game win.  But if you lose, you can't exacty tell that LoA caused you to lose.  That's because of this:
Imagine your top three cards are:
Mox Ruby
Merchant Scroll
Vampiric Tutor

You would not have known because you wouldn't have seen those cards until later.

What I've discovered, through meticulous analysis, is that in most instances in which LoA appears to be good, a different line of play is actually superior.  The trick and the problem, something I call the LoA Illusion, is that this is almost impossible to see - esp. in tournament play - because it requires that you look at cards that you don't have access to examine without forgoing the obvious play of using LoA.   

Thus, in games where LoA loses, it's hard to see that it caused the loss and in games where LoA won, it's hard to see, but there is often a better play. 

@ Desolationist: I think I agree with your starting premise but disagree with your conclusion: Chain of Vapor is the best bounce spell in the game of magic, period.   It is a phenomenonal card and I think cutting Chain entirely is absurd.

[o uncola o]

I agree.  Chain is essential to the gifts build if for nothing more than its casting cost.  Mana management is becoming increasingly important.  Chain's 1cc casting cost makes it invaluable... until chalice at one is dropped.   

[LSD/Cruise]

In everybody's opinion, what does this deck really need right now? What cards does this deck need? Is there a way to make EtW a strong option for this deck without sacrificing a ton of effort to make it effective? Is DSC still a good plan? Does this deck need more speed or control? What is the optimal SB for the general metagame? Scrying or FoF, or Dark Ritual?

[desolutionist]

@ Desolutionist: I think I agree with your starting premise but disagree with your conclusion: Chain of Vapor is the best bounce spell in the game of magic, period.   It is a phenomenonal card and I think cutting Chain entirely is absurd.

Dismissing the possibility that you can use both Chain of Vapor and Echoing Truth, I think ET is more valuable ultimately.

[LSD/Cruise]

@ Desolutionist: I think I agree with your starting premise but disagree with your conclusion: Chain of Vapor is the best bounce spell in the game of magic, period.   It is a phenomenonal card and I think cutting Chain entirely is absurd.

Dismissing the possibility that you can use both Chain of Vapor and Echoing Truth, I think ET is more valuable ultimately.

How so is it more valuable? Is it the fact it can deal with enemy EtW tokens? That does seem like a good reason to run that though.

[hitman]

I think Desolutionist is valuing E. Truth so highly because in the Drain mirror, you're more likely to need to bounce ETW tokens or other bombs (Collosus, Titan, Slaver, etc.) than quickly build storm count.  The Drain mirror takes a while and you have time to build up your resources so you don't have a problem with storm.  The popularity of Gifts has made the Drain mirror more likely than the Fish or Stax matchup.  All I've done with the Gifts list I'm playing is switch 3 cards from the MDG list.  -1 Fact or Fiction, -1 Tinker, -1 Darksteel Collusus, +1 Dark Ritual, +1 Repeal, +1 ETW. 

[Smmenen]

@ Desolutionist: I think I agree with your starting premise but disagree with your conclusion: Chain of Vapor is the best bounce spell in the game of magic, period.   It is a phenomenonal card and I think cutting Chain entirely is absurd.

Dismissing the possibility that you can use both Chain of Vapor and Echoing Truth, I think ET is more valuable ultimately.

How so is it more valuable? Is it the fact it can deal with enemy EtW tokens? That does seem like a good reason to run that though.

Not to me.    That grossly underestimates, in my view, how good Chain is. 

The only reason to run Echoing Truth, in my view, is Null Rod.  But since virtually everyone runs only 3 Rods if they run Rod, I don't think that's an issue.   The efficiency of Chain of Vapor is impossible to overlook.   Half a dozen Gifts puzzles are made possible by the presence of Chain of Vapor.   Playing E. Truth over Chain is inexplicable to me.  Particularly now that we are adding Empty the Warrens to the maindeck.   

Do this:  Seed Empty the Warrens and Chain of Vapor into 10 different opening hands.   Goldfish those hands through turn two.   Now imagine that Chain was Echoing Truth.   You'll see why Echoing Truth is not a replacement for Chain of Vapor.   

[Disburden]

I think if you're going to run Echoing Truth at all in this deck it should be a board card. Even then that's pretty much only if you feel you're going to be facing Warrens to a impacting degree during a certain tournament. To have it as a default bounce seems like a waste to me. Chain of vapor is really good. Right now I am using one chain and two Repeal and this has been working pretty well for me. Chain gives you so many more options when wanting to combo off with a good storm count. Truth sucks when you need to bounce your moxes and all you can do is bounce a Jet, then you don't even draw a card like a Repeal would do. Chain of vapor resets your whole board after you tap for tons of mana. Chain shines defensively also as your opponent isn't going to want to copy and bounce anything of yours doing your mainphase since it gives you a higher storm count (and now you don't even have to worrying about getting DSC bounced). Truth seems to be only good when you face Goblin Tokens, that's really narrow if you ask me when you could be bouncing your table of Ruby, Jet, Sol Ring, etc. 

The reason why I love MDG is because you can just be brutal with the deck, push out agressive plays and then just win. Using Truth over Chain severly effects the proactive strategy of the deck.

[Smmenen]

I have tested the deck out.   Here is my latest list of Meandeck Gifts:

Meandeck Gifts 2K7, Feb 7, 2007, By Stephen Menendian

25 Mana (10 Artifact Accelerants) (15 lands - do NOT run LoA)
I'd run 3 Strand (to fight extirpate, should it arise), 2 Delta, 3 Sea, 4 island, 1 Academy, and 2 Volc.

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection

4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Gifts Ungiven

1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Recoup

1 Dark Ritual
1 Repeal

Sideboard:
4 Duress
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Lava Dart
1 Fire/Ice
2 Tormod’s Crypt

[hitman]

Has anyone tried 2 Duress in the Misdirection slot?  Could you explain why or why not?  I ran into a problem today for the first time.  I baited all their counterspells, countered their relevant spells, attempted to go off and in response to Yawg Will, they C. Wished (the last card in hand) for Trickbind.  I had no mainboard solutions to this.  Was this just lucky on their part or bad play on my part.  With mainboard Duress, I would have had no problem winning at all. 

[someone_unimportan]

Well playing around that trickbind will depend on just how broken your yawg will is. If its just stupid broken, you can always tinker and walk and stock your hand with counterspells. If you play Empty the Warrens instead you can force them to trickbind Tendrils, then Empty the Warrens afterwards. If it's only moderately broken, you can stock your hand full of counters, then kill them with 2 gobbos from Empty.

[LSD/Cruise]

@Stephen: How did you like Empty the Warrens so far in testing? If you were to go to a tournament, which one would you run' Tinker/Colossus or Empty the Warrens?

I'm loving the SB right now. 4 Duress can be the best way to fight Extirpate as well as Empty the Warrens.

[Smmenen]

@Stephen: How did you like Empty the Warrens so far in testing? If you were to go to a tournament, which one would you run' Tinker/Colossus or Empty the Warrens?

I'm loving the SB right now. 4 Duress can be the best way to fight Extirpate as well as Empty the Warrens.

Def. I'd run ETW.  It's amazing.   I can see it being weak, say against Slaver, but Darksteel Colossus wasn't that amazing there either.   

I'm not saying my list is defintely, absolutely, and obviously the best list - I'm just saying that it is what I, so far, have found to be most effective.   The slot I'm least satisfied with is Repeal - I could definitely see turning that into Hurkyl's Recall, which would free up a sideboard slot.   

[LSD/Cruise]

I think it should be Hurkyl's Recall defintely. Hurkyl's Recall can make Tendrils and EtW more likely to help you combo out.  Another option is another Empty the Warrens, which would be something I'd run, but they tend to be dead some times. 

I can see that 2nd Hurkyl's Recall in the SB become another REB. REB has always been my favorite card to board in constantly against Fish and Drain. Ritual Gifts is becoming more popular, perhaps REB can be an additional answer.

[Zarathustra]

Has anyone tried 2 Duress in the Misdirection slot?  Could you explain why or why not?  I ran into a problem today for the first time.  I baited all their counterspells, countered their relevant spells, attempted to go off and in response to Yawg Will, they C. Wished (the last card in hand) for Trickbind.  I had no mainboard solutions to this.  Was this just lucky on their part or bad play on my part.  With mainboard Duress, I would have had no problem winning at all. 

In this build, I think Duress over Mis-D is very bad.  It slows you down a lot.  Since this deck can play control when it needs to, having the Mis-D's helps in that regard.  It also helps when a combo player is going off(more blue for FoW), helps to protect your spells, and is great against Ancestral.

Duress is best left to the sideboard.  Or, in a more aggressive version of the deck, such as Ritual Gifts where Rituals allow for much easier casting.

-DShell 

[meadbert]

If that is the last card in their hand then you should still win.
Just play back Ancestral and all of your brainstorms to refill your hand.  Then play Warrens.  Then beat face with 2 1/1 tokens.
It will take a while but if you are ahead 5-0 or something in terms of card advantage then you should still win.

On a related note I am a strong proponent of Burning Wish in the maindeck.  The biggest reason is that Burning Wish enables you to play Yawgmoth's Will multiple times and that actually matters quite often.  Very frequently when I am playing Control I have a situation where on turn 2 or 3 I do not have a land to drop but I do have Yawg Will in hand, with Ancestral and Brainstorm in the yard along with a fetchland.  If I can go Yawg, Bainstorm, Fetch, Ancestral then that right there can gain a huge advantage.  I would be hesistant to do this if I did not know that I have Burning Wish to replay Yawgmoth's Will later.

In this case Burning Wish would present two options to you.  First you could Burning Wish for Duress and Duress the Trickbind out of his hand.  This assumes you have the mana.  Second, you could play a large enough Will to win and then when Warrens is Trickbinded you can wait till next turn and replay Yawg Will again and this time he presumably won't have another Trickbind.

[Zarathustra]

On a related note I am a strong proponent of Burning Wish in the maindeck.  The biggest reason is that Burning Wish enables you to play Yawgmoth's Will multiple times and that actually matters quite often.  Very frequently when I am playing Control I have a situation where on turn 2 or 3 I do not have a land to drop but I do have Yawg Will in hand, with Ancestral and Brainstorm in the yard along with a fetchland.  If I can go Yawg, Bainstorm, Fetch, Ancestral then that right there can gain a huge advantage.  I would be hesistant to do this if I did not know that I have Burning Wish to replay Yawgmoth's Will later.

I think Burning Wish is bad; it slows the deck down way too much.  I don't honestly recall a time when I wanted to Yawgmoth's Will more than once in a game.  If you have Will in your hand early and have no plays, then I wonder what kind of hand was kept.

In this case Burning Wish would present two options to you.  First you could Burning Wish for Duress and Duress the Trickbind out of his hand.  This assumes you have the mana.  Second, you could play a large enough Will to win and then when Warrens is Trickbinded you can wait till next turn and replay Yawg Will again and this time he presumably won't have another Trickbind.

The problem with this idea is, Burning Wish makes all your sideboard cards cost 1R more.  With a deck that's already so mana hungry, this seems bad.  Besides, I'd rather save my red for when I want to combo off in case I need Recoup. 

If Trickbind scares you this much, I wonder why you wouldn't be playing a more aggressive version with Duress and Dark Rituals main.

-DShell 

[Grand Inquisitor]

1 Dark Ritual
1 Repeal

@ Smennen, I'm curious why these two cards are grouped together (I'm guessing why it was a conscious decision).  Typically I'd think that the repeal would be grouped with the other bounce and ritual would go with the mana sources - is it that you see these primarily as storm counters?  Also, ritual makes 26 mana sources, is this a higher count than previously (I remember most lists having 25).  In a similar vein, I don't remember when FoF was cut from the list.  What was the rationale, and does this change the focus even more to the early game?

@Meadbert, burning wish was dropped from these types of builds for a few reasons.  First, merchant scroll>bounce became the preferred way of dealing with most threats, since you could simply win the turn after something was removed at instant speed aeot.  Second, the red mana requirement became doubly cumbersome.  On the one hand, the answer you were getting with the wish most likely required either red or black, and often you'd use it to get answers against decks that threatened your manabase (fish, oath, stax).  As far as using it for rfg tricks with power-sorceries, Empty the Warrens allows a better alternative win condition if you have to use YWill early, or if something crucial gets removed.

If I can go Yawg, Bainstorm, Fetch, Ancestral then that right there can gain a huge advantage

-On a sidenote, when playing Your Mother back in the day, when 4x Burning Wish was available, I used to refer rather tongue-in-cheek to this type of play as "utility Wills".

[meadbert]

I agree about Burning Wish being sub optimal and certainly worse than bounce for dealing with threats.

I mostly like being able to replay Will.

[forests failed you]

And Time Walk.

In my experience with Burning Wish the card you almost always want to get, if it is an option, is Time Walk. 

[seer]

With burning wish in the deck the deck really becomes about abusing time walk. The card is incredibly broken, especially if you don't cantrip it (like how most players do). Generally, unless you are up against wasteland.dec or something and you want to get more land drops out there, you should save time walk until you can do something broken with it later in the game. Time Walk is only insanely broken when you tap out, then cast time walk, then untap. That's just so much free mana.

[meadbert]

Time Walk is the card that I get most often because I tend to go for the Tinker double Time Walk win.  At the same time, when I do get Time Walk I rarely need it because I typically have a huge hand after playing Yawg Will so even if I give my opponent a turn I should win anyway.

Cases where double Time Walk are important are when you are staring down a Maze of Ith or when you suspect your opponent has Wipe Away but is tapped out.  Welder is less of an issue because you can use Will to make sure there are no artifact in your yard.

Also there are silly wins with Orchard Tokens versus Oath where you can finish off your opponent by taking 5 turns in a row.

Is it a consensus that Burning Wish is sub optimal?  I know I have not seen it much in the past few months but a deck with Burning Wish did win Gencon right?

EDIT:  I play Time Walk as soon as I can.  It is one of the few cards that gets you Drain mana up on turn 1.
Academy (with two moxes)
Sapphire
Petal
Black Lotus
Time Walk (with a mox)

Any of those in your oppening hand are strong.

[o uncola o]

Time Walk is the card that I get most often because I tend to go for the Tinker double Time Walk win.  At the same time, when I do get Time Walk I rarely need it because I typically have a huge hand after playing Yawg Will so even if I give my opponent a turn I should win anyway.

Cases where double Time Walk are important are when you are staring down a Maze of Ith or when you suspect your opponent has Wipe Away but is tapped out.  Welder is less of an issue because you can use Will to make sure there are no artifact in your yard.

Also there are silly wins with Orchard Tokens versus Oath where you can finish off your opponent by taking 5 turns in a row.

Is it a consensus that Burning Wish is sub optimal?  I know I have not seen it much in the past few months but a deck with Burning Wish did win Gencon right?

EDIT:  I play Time Walk as soon as I can.  It is one of the few cards that gets you Drain mana up on turn 1.
Academy (with two moxes)
Sapphire
Petal
Black Lotus
Time Walk (with a mox)

Any of those in your oppening hand are strong.

I believe Smennen's original meandeck gifts list played with a burning wish.  I still think that wish maindeck is not necessarily a weak move.  I like the current build as posted and have tested it a little, but I really like the flexibility that the wish gives you.  It allows you to recycle the will, grab the walk after it has been recouped, grab a necessary bounce or hate spell out of your sideboard, etc.  Plus, it can add to storm count if you grab EtW or Tendrils from the sideboard.  The downside seems to be the elevated colored mana requirements and thus the shifting away from an otherwise resilient and competent manabase. 

[Smmenen]

If you want Burning Wish, there has never been a better time to play it in the maindeck now that ETW has been printed.   I would suggest cutting the Repeal in the posted list for B. Wish.

That said, I think it is weak in the opening hand and thus I won't be playing it. 

[seer]

Time Walk is the card that I get most often because I tend to go for the Tinker double Time Walk win.  At the same time, when I do get Time Walk I rarely need it because I typically have a huge hand after playing Yawg Will so even if I give my opponent a turn I should win anyway.

Cases where double Time Walk are important are when you are staring down a Maze of Ith or when you suspect your opponent has Wipe Away but is tapped out.  Welder is less of an issue because you can use Will to make sure there are no artifact in your yard.

Also there are silly wins with Orchard Tokens versus Oath where you can finish off your opponent by taking 5 turns in a row.

Is it a consensus that Burning Wish is sub optimal?  I know I have not seen it much in the past few months but a deck with Burning Wish did win Gencon right?

EDIT:  I play Time Walk as soon as I can.  It is one of the few cards that gets you Drain mana up on turn 1.
Academy (with two moxes)
Sapphire
Petal
Black Lotus
Time Walk (with a mox)

Any of those in your oppening hand are strong.

If timewalk gets me drain mana on turn1 vs stax or something, I'll play it. But if I'm playing the drain mirror, or I'm on the draw and I'm not in danger of getting blown out I'll just hold it.

[desolutionist]

Time Walk is the card that I get most often because I tend to go for the Tinker double Time Walk win.  At the same time, when I do get Time Walk I rarely need it because I typically have a huge hand after playing Yawg Will so even if I give my opponent a turn I should win anyway.

Cases where double Time Walk are important are when you are staring down a Maze of Ith or when you suspect your opponent has Wipe Away but is tapped out.  Welder is less of an issue because you can use Will to make sure there are no artifact in your yard.

Also there are silly wins with Orchard Tokens versus Oath where you can finish off your opponent by taking 5 turns in a row.

Is it a consensus that Burning Wish is sub optimal?  I know I have not seen it much in the past few months but a deck with Burning Wish did win Gencon right?

EDIT:  I play Time Walk as soon as I can.  It is one of the few cards that gets you Drain mana up on turn 1.
Academy (with two moxes)
Sapphire
Petal
Black Lotus
Time Walk (with a mox)

Any of those in your oppening hand are strong.

If timewalk gets me drain mana on turn1 vs stax or something, I'll play it. But if I'm playing the drain mirror, or I'm on the draw and I'm not in danger of getting blown out I'll just hold it.

Draining an opponent's Merchant Scroll into a turn 2 Gifts Ungiven/Merchant Scroll (Recall) isn't a bad play.

[meadbert]

When to play Time Walk is an interesting question.  In my opinion you almost always play Time Walk as soon as possible.  There are exceptions of course.

Those who believe that Time Walk is better when played late believe that Time Walk is like Yawgmoth's Will in that the longer you hold it the more powerful it becomes.  I do not believe this is true.

If you play a late Walk on turn 4 and then you get to untap 4 lands and play a fifth then you see what Walk did for you and think about how powerful it is.  This is because Time Walk gave you back 5 mana while only costing you 2.   
It turns out that you get the same advantage from a turn 2 Walk.  If you play Time Walk on turn 2a then on turn 2b you have 3 mana (one extra).  Then on turn 3 you have 4 mana and on turn 4 you have 5 mana.  Instead of getting a huge windfall of 3 extra mana all at once you basically have one extra mana each turn (assuming you hit your land drop).  In Vintage I would say the interest rate on mana is quite high so I would much rather gain my advantage now rather than waiting two or three turns.  Would you rather have $100 each month for 12 months or $1200 in a year?  You would take the money each month.  In a world where the interest rate is over 30% this is even more true.

There are certainly other considerations.  If you tap yourself out of drain mana on your main phase then an opponent can respond with Thirst, Gifts, Ancestral or any other instant speed bomb.  Of course they are also presumably tapping themselves out which will allow you to resolve bombs on your Time Walk turn.  Any time that you play Time Walk this is a consideration.  If you play Walk and then leave Drain Mana up in case of an instant you basically just payed 4 for Time Walk.  If you do not leave Drain mana up then you are more vulnerable.

For the reasons above, the best uses of Time Walk are when you don't have Drain Mana up to begin with (Turn 1 Island, Mox, Walk) or when you have a huge bomb to play on your Walk turn (you are about to Yawg Will.)

Generally if you start with Walk in your hand you can almost always sneak it in in your first turn or two.
About the only time I would hold Time Walk are some obscure cases where you top deck around turn 2 or 3.  This is the most common example:

Imagine that you are on the draw.  Neither you nor your opponent open with acceleration.  Your opponent Scrolls for Ancestral on turn 2 hoping you do not have a bomb to play.  You do nothing on turn 2 but you are holding Drain and Misdirection.  On turn 3 your opponent plays land go.  On your turn 3 you top deck Time Walk. Time Walk would have been great to play last turn but this turn it is a bad move.  Sure you have Misdirection for Ancestral, but there is a good chance that your opponent has Force of Will or even worse Mana Drain.

Is it worth countering an early Time Walk from your opponent?

For instance if you are on the draw and you and your opponent play draw, land, go till your opponent's second turn when he plays Walk.  Is this Time Walk counterable?  Generally I would not Force Time Walk because of the card disadvantage.  Would it be worth Draining Time Walk?  If you could Drain Walk and then play Fact or Fiction or Gifts or even Thirst with Drain backup on your turn then is it worth while?  Are you better off letting Walk resolve and hoping to Drain something bigger on the walk turn?  My instinct would be to drain walk if I had something to follow up with.
 
 

[Smmenen]

\

Is it worth countering an early Time Walk from your opponent?

With Mana Drain?  Absolutely.   The tempo matters more than anything else.  You can then translate that tempo into card advantage.

For instance if you are on the draw and you and your opponent play draw, land, go till your opponent's second turn when he plays Walk.  Is this Time Walk counterable?  Generally I would not Force Time Walk because of the card disadvantage.  Would it be worth Draining Time Walk?  If you could Drain Walk and then play Fact or Fiction or Gifts or even Thirst with Drain backup on your turn then is it worth while?  Are you better off letting Walk resolve and hoping to Drain something bigger on the walk turn?  My instinct would be to drain walk if I had something to follow up with.
 
 

You counter the walk because they will not walk into your drain until it is at a time when it is advantageous to do so.

They may have played the Walk on the assumption that you won't drain it.   They will be upset when you do. 

[Odd mutation]

Hi,

Steve: that's almost the exact list I'm playing safe for some noticable changes.

• I still don't believe Dark Ritual is necessary and I play Fact or Fiction instead.
• I also put the LoA back in for the 3rd Underground Sea after losing many mirrors because my opponent had it and not me. There is a lot of Stax in my meta as well 'though, so it might become a basic Island again soon. Could you elaborate on running a 3rd Undergroudn Sea and on stating not to run LoA? Thanks! I've been running 4 REB (2 REB and 2 Pyroblasts) in the side so I didn't think I'd need the 3rd Underground Sea. Of course, if you're running 4 Duress in the sideboard...
• The 1 Repeal is 1 Echoing Truth in my list since a friend in my group copied my list and has Goblins from the Warrens all over the place
• We also tried Timetwister. The friend with the Gifts list is still running it, I'm not. Although it can be devastatingly powerful, winning games on the spot I still haven't found the courage to put it in...

Sideboard is much the same except for the 4 Duress being 2 REB and 2 Pyroblast.

What do you guys think about these differences? My meta consists of Gifts, Ubastax and all other forms of stax (Whitewolf is in my playing group...), Control Slaver, Fish and some combo (with mediocre players trying the combo decks).

Time Walk is a very interesting Drain target early on in the game. Many hands are kept because players have the 'best cantrip in the world' in their opening hand. The tempo you get from the two extra mana can be enough to seal the game! People don't expect you to Drain their Walk either and it can throw them off enough.

Greetings,

Robrecht.