The Perfect Storm (with Gifts Ungiven)

[Hrishi]

So, in an effort to bring some discussion to the Ritual sub-forum, I thought I would post the decklist that I ran at the Black Magic Invitational and got to Top 16 with. Before reading through, I don't claim my choices are absolutely correct. I wish I had more time to test before taking it to the event yesterday. However, I will talk about my thought processes behind building the deck and some of the choices that I made. I'm sure a tournament report will be up soon enough, but I wanted to get a discussion started. On to the list!


Decklist

// Lands
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria

// Artifact Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion's Eye Diamond

// Rituals
4 Dark Ritual

// Disruption
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Mental Misstep
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall

// Cantrips
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Preordain

// Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Grim Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
3 Gifts Ungiven

// Black Enchantments
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

// Others
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Recoup

// Finishers
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens

SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Island
SB: 3 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Volcanic Island
SB: 3 Pyroblast
SB: 4 Yixlid Jailer


Background

Most people who know me knows that I have been playing nothing but Ritual storm for a while now. I have constantly tried to get a working list that I can take to an event and not be terrified of facing shops. I'm not trying to say that I've gotten there, indeed there are probably issues that I could resolve with my current list. I didn't get as much time to test as I'd have liked, but I am most familiar with Rituals so I went with it. It ended up working nicely.

Before the unrestriction of Gifts Ungiven, I had been playing a TPS variant that ran 3 Grim Tutors. Resolving a Grim Tutor at the end of a ritual chain gives us a deterministic path to victory, which is to find Yawgmoth's Will, resolve it, and count to 10 spells before you aim a Tendrils at your opponent for lethal damage. In theory, this is very good. I had eschewed the draw7s for more deterministic paths to winning, but by doing so, I lost a lot of explosiveness that the deck used to enjoy. When you cut the various paths away in order to strengthen one, it becomes easier for your opponent to fight it. Another problem was running Forces. I felt Forces were necessary to fight shops. However, without Draw7s, you don't have a good way to reload your hand, and going down a card to force something was less than ideal. Enter Gifts.

I had already been running 1 Gifts earlier, as a bomb. With being able to play up to 4, it became possible to build the deck around it. Now, it wasn't just the resolution of a Tutor at the end of a ritual chain that ended the game. We could construct the deck such that resolving Gifts also meant the game was over. The old pile of Will/Recoup/Lotus/LED was intriguing, but plenty of people were concerned that it wasn't good enough. Turns out, the pile is still insane. Assuming you put that together, you can generate a minimum of 5 storm and 6 mana with nothing else.

However, when looking at the older Gifts decks, they ran 4 Merchant Scrolls. I was concerned that the tutor package today was not dense enough without them. Therefore I opted to leave 2 Grim Tutors in. This also allowed Gifts to act as a bait spell, so that I could untap and win with Grim Tutor into Yawgmoth's Will.

Hopefully that made sense of some kind. I will attempt to explain some specific card choices.

Quick note on the name, this deck has elements from TPS, Long and Ritual Gifts. Because this list evolved from my TPS list, I chose to call it TPS. I'm not sure what it should actually be called.

Card Choices

The Manabase
The manabase is built for stability in the face of mana denial. The higher than normal land count of 14 (when it comes to storm decks) also helped with this. I also played 4 basics maindeck. I chose to run a single Volcanic Island, even though I was almost always going to cast Recoup with the help of LED or Lotus. Also, Library is insane against so many decks when you have it in your opener. I have become a huge fan of running this in storm decks. The artifact mana was as much as necessary with LED being for gifts piles. I found 28 mana sources to be good enough and cut Mana Vault for an extra land. Also 4 Dark Rituals should be obvious.

Disruption
4 Force of Will and Duress is a very powerful disruption package. Duress got a bit worse with the addition of Misstep. For this reason, I chose to run 2 Missteps of my own. They really helped protect Dark Rituals too. The disadvantage was that I ran more dead cards against shops, but Missteps also helped my blue count for Force. The Chain of Vapor and Hurkyl's Recall was to bounce annoying permanents and for shops respectively.

Spells
Here I will try to talk about some individual card choices. Some don't need explanations.

Recoup was added specifically to make unbeatable death piles with Gifts Ungiven. This card exceeded all expectations I had for it.

Grim Tutors as I mentioned earlier were insane. I didn't even need Gifts Ungiven to win a number of my games thanks to Grim Tutor. It also gave me a easier way to find Tendrils after resolving a successful Gifts for Yawgmoth's Will.

The 4 cantrips were to smooth out draws and reduce inconsistency of the deck. I really liked them.

Empty the Warrens was the other oddity that I'd like to explain. On the way to the event in the car the people I was with mentioned that my deck was very weak to a Cage. The deck originally had Tinker/Bot as an alternate kill. Cage shut that down too. I considered Time Vault/Voltaic Key, but Empty takes one less slot. With a Cage out, it might be hard to get to 10 storm without draw7s and Will. However, getting to 4-5 storm is enough to win with Empty the Warrens a lot of the time. The card got me a few wins through the day.

Sideboard
I'm not going to lie, my sideboard might be a little bit of a mess. 3 Pyroblasts were too many, I'd have been fine with 2. I would probably switch the last Pyroblast to something else. Yixlid Jailer will also raise some eyebrows, but I've found the card to be extremely effective at shutting Dredge down. My deck is not fast enough to race it, and slowing it down while they rip your hand apart is sometimes not enough. It does make Recoup worse, but I usually never needed Recoup to win after I got a Jailer to stick. The rest of the board is for shops. I added an extra Volcanic Island in the board to support Ingot Chewers and Pyroblasts.

Quick Tournament Report

I don't remember intimate details about all games, as I am very bad at taking notes. However, I will try to recount it to the best of my ability. If I have remembered something wrong, do tell me and I'll fix it.

Round 1: Greg Fenton on Oath (1-0)
Game 1: He manages to resolve a Recall but draws into nothing. I am able to resolve Yawgmoth's Bargain and Tendrils him for 1 short thanks to me screwing up. Thankfully that extra life lets me draw a bunch of cards and I am able to cast Empty the Warrens to win.
Game 2: I Demonic Tutor for Ancestral Recall and manage to resolve it in response to him casting Oath. His Oath resolves but I am able to storm to 10 in my turn before the Oath triggers.

Round 2: BUG Fish with Edric(?) (1-1)
Game 1: I was never in this game, he manages to resolve both Null Rod and Edric and draws a bunch of cards.
Game 2: This game went on for a long time. I made a few critical misplays that could have had the result go differently. Null Rod was an all star in this game as well.

Round 3: Evan on Shops (2-1)
Game 1: I am able to find my singleton Hurkyl's Recall but am forced to blow it during his attack phase to buy a turn due to him having lethal damage. He ends up getting me.
Game 2: I don't remember how this game played out, but he had a hand which was light on threats. I was eventually able to clear the board of spheres and Gifts for the win.
Game 3: Once again, I was able to use a combination of Ingot Chewer, Force of Will and Gifts to win.

Round 4: Brendon on Oath (3-1)
Game 1: He mulls to 6, and I Duress his only relevant card away. I am then able to resolve Necropotence and cast Gifts to win.
Game 2: There was a pre-game Leyline. I had to DT for Chain of Vapor to bounce it, then resolve Necropotence. I then cast Time Walk, reload with Necropotence and storm to win.

Round 5: Matt Murray on UW Mentor (4-1)
Game 1: I don't remember the early game too well, but he goes on the offensive and tutors for Magus of the Future, effectively putting lethal and passing the turn. I am able to EoT Gifts and storm to 10.
Game 2: He draws absolutely nothing but has an early Tormod's Crypt out shutting down Will. I am able to cast a small Empty the Warrens (I think for 3). The tokens go the distance.

Round 6: John Grudzina on UR Delver (5-1) - Halfway through the match we found out that we could draw, so we did but chose to play it out for the hell of it.
Game 1: I am able to resolve an EoT Gifts and protect it with Force. I untap and storm to 10.
Game 2: I can't remember if there was a Cage/Rav Trap or not, but I cast a huge Empty the Warrens and the tokens go the distance.

Top 16: John Grudzina on UR Delver
Game 1: He has a fast start of T1 Delver and T2 Pyromancer. I manage to resolve Necropotence at 10 life and go down to 7, facing down 6 damage next turn. He has 2 Bolts.
Game 2: I made a big misplay here. I had the win through Grim Tutor but failed to sac LED in response to the tutor. For this reason, I did not have the mana to go directly to Tendrils and needed to get Will. He has Rav Trap and blows me out.

Closing Notes

The deck is a blast to play. I had a lot of fun yesterday. I am sure the deck can be improved which is why I posted this to invite discussion. I would like to thank a number of people with whom I exchanged ideas while building the deck. I know I won't remember every name so I won't try, you know who you are! If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

[desolutionist]

What about maxing out on Burning Wish for Treasure Cruise, Yawgmoth's Will, Duress?  It could replace the role of Grim Tutors and then you could put two more cards into the Gifts pile since you don't need to Recoup + Yawgmoth's Will.

Also, I've been playing 2 Misdirections (rather than 2 Missteps); the card is bomber in a turbo- Gifts shell.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Hrishi, it was a pleasure talking and exchanging some thoughts. I cant wait to play the deck again but I may may some number of burning wishes next time. Once I get something together we'll be in touch

[A.-1.]

I enjoyed the write-up, Hrishi, and congrats on making top 16.

[vaughnbros]

Nice write up and congrats on the finish.  The mana base looks like it could use a little bit of work, but otherwise looks good.

[The Atog Lord]

This is a fantastic write-up. Thank you very much for contributing this. I am inspired to try out Ritual Gifts soon.

Did you miss having Tinker? It really can make Gifts piles much stronger. One theoretical solution to the problem of Cage is increasing your Mental Misstep count.

[nedleeds]

Given that you are 'leaning' out the deck by eschewing Tinker and running your own Missteps (+Duress) what about Imperial Seal (don't know if this was sanctioned, which is often a reason Seal gets cut). Thanks for the write up. 

[Hrishi]

Thank you everybody for the responses so far! I did a little more testing with the deck and I am a little concerned about it's Delver matchup. It seems to be powerful enough against most other types of blue decks, but sometimes just crumbles when Delver has a fast start. Against other blue decks, the threat density is so high that I am able to resolve a game winning threat and end the game in short order. I am considering going up to 4 Gifts, even though it is prone to clogging up my hand. After playing the deck for a while, I just feel like I want to draw Gifts as often as possible, because the way this deck is set up, Gifts is just a 1 card win combo.

What about maxing out on Burning Wish for Treasure Cruise, Yawgmoth's Will, Duress?  It could replace the role of Grim Tutors and then you could put two more cards into the Gifts pile since you don't need to Recoup + Yawgmoth's Will.

Also, I've been playing 2 Misdirections (rather than 2 Missteps); the card is bomber in a turbo- Gifts shell.

I originally did not want to include a Burning Wish package at all, because I felt that Yawgmoth's Will had to be in the deck. When Will is in the deck, I thought Grim Tutor was superior in what Burning Wish could provide. However, it is definitely something I could try. The problem is always making it more mana intensive to create winning Gifts piles if we are going the Burning Wish -> Yawgmoth's Will route.

Good point on the Misdirections! I was deciding between running Missteps of my own or Misdirections as extra pitch counter magic and ended up going towards Missteps.

Hrishi, it was a pleasure talking and exchanging some thoughts. I cant wait to play the deck again but I may may some number of burning wishes next time. Once I get something together we'll be in touch

It was great seeing you and exchanging ideas! I thought it was pretty cool that we worked on this independently and yet came to some very similar conclusions as to how the deck should look. I'm looking forward to hearing what you put together.

I enjoyed the write-up, Hrishi, and congrats on making top 16.

It was great seeing you, Rob. It's been too long!

Nice write up and congrats on the finish.  The mana base looks like it could use a little bit of work, but otherwise looks good.

Was great seeing you! Do you have any suggestions on what I could do with this? I admit I was not perfectly happy with my manabase either, but thankfully it didn't cause too many problems on the day.

This is a fantastic write-up. Thank you very much for contributing this. I am inspired to try out Ritual Gifts soon.

Did you miss having Tinker? It really can make Gifts piles much stronger. One theoretical solution to the problem of Cage is increasing your Mental Misstep count.

Thank you, Rich! To answer your question, I am probably one of the last people to ever cut Tinker. It is one of my favorite cards. However, I just felt that in many of the games where Tinker was just a win, it stopped being so. I would have liked Tinker to answer my shaky shop matchup, but metamorph makes this impossible. However, after our testing on MODO, maybe I need to figure out a way to include Tinker again, because it would be a great way to beat Delver. Because I am very much playing a pseudo-control role till I can deploy my 1 card combo, it might be totally possible to increase my Misstep count and deal with Cage that way. I am also considering going to 4 Gifts after how impressed I was with the card.

On the day, I missed Tinker against BUG Fish and Delver. However, there were games which I would not have won without access to Empty the Warrens. I think the question comes down to choosing my win condition based on which matchup it helps. Tinker gets so much better with Gifts, too.

Given that you are 'leaning' out the deck by eschewing Tinker and running your own Missteps (+Duress) what about Imperial Seal (don't know if this was sanctioned, which is often a reason Seal gets cut). Thanks for the write up.  

The event was unsanctioned, but I do try to pretend they are so that I can build it for a sanctioned event if it came to that. I was concerned that I did not have enough Missteps to safely run Imperial Seal of my own, with every blue deck running something like 3-4. I also did not like how slow the card was, but maybe it's worth finding a spot for it. There's got to be some situations where it gets included in a Gifts pile somewhere.