A Little Lesson In Recursion Theory

Modern* slovakattack

SCORE: 99 | 383 COMMENTS | 13885 VIEWS | IN 42 FOLDERS


GlistenerAgent says... #1

Here's an idea on how you can make this your own (not sure if it's good): Cut the combo. You're down to one Unburial Rites and one Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite in the main, so perhaps cutting the two for additional midrange value spells (perhaps another Tasigur or two, or Knight of the Reliquary) might be useful. It's kind of like going on the Twin route of winning less and less with the combo. ou could just add back the third Lingering Souls if you wanted as well.

February 10, 2015 5:20 p.m.

slovakattack says... #2

GlistenerAgent: I'd do that in a second if I had Tarmogoyf.

I think I've found kind of a unique niche with Caryatid, but... Well, a Tarmo reprint would make me quite happy :3

February 10, 2015 5:26 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #3

Thoughts on KotR?

February 10, 2015 5:29 p.m.

slovakattack says... #4

Decent, but the place she wanted to be in is now kinda just filled with Tasigur :P

She's good when she's backing up Tarmogoyf, but that's about it. Her ability is cute, but not super relevant most of the time due to how slow it is. Functionally, she's a fatty for cheap.

February 10, 2015 5:30 p.m.

sylvannos says... #5

@GlistenerAgent: I play Knight of the Reliquary in my list with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and Nameless Inversion. It's more of a midrange choice, rather than a straight-up control list. You pretty much go on the beatdown with Lingering Souls and knights while threatening to "End-of-turn-Gifts Ungiven-you-lose."

Or, she threatens lethal any time you can Gifts Ungiven because you can grab four lands. Grab four fetches, dump two, crack one for a Forest, sacrifice it to get Gavony Township, activate. Boom! A bunch of 2/2s from Lingering Souls and +5/+5 on your Knight of the Reliquary.

I think slovakattack is spot-on, though. Once I get a fourth Tarmogoyf and a Damnation, I'm thinking I'll rebuild the list. Playing Junk Midrange splashing blue for Gifts Ungiven seems like the best route for playing Knight of the Reliquary...especially now with Siege Rhino present in the format. The soonest she comes down is turn two, and she may not even be out of Lightning Bolt range. It's not something you want clogging up your hand.

February 10, 2015 6:28 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #6

Given how many value lands are in the deck, I figured she would also be strong in a more controlling shell. I think it's worth a shot, as she can be better than Tasigur on some board states and lets you sideboard more utility lands if you want.

February 10, 2015 6:33 p.m.

Caligula says... #7

@GlistenerAgent she's much better in the Junk variant of gifts when ran alongside Tarmogoyf, It makes the switch from control to midrange w/answers just alot smoother.

There's a list floating around there on the net that I saw that was very efficient with her.

February 11, 2015 3:53 p.m.

tooTimid says... #8

@slovakattack. Fun tuning into the stream last night. Drop me a message next time you're doing it.

What do you think about Hornet Queen in the sideboard? It was in the sideboard of Justin Cohens PT deck, and I was very impressed by it. Much like in standard, it is pure value against most forms of Abzan decks. It represents a 5-1 and is a solid clock. It instantly stabilizes, much like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, but is very resilient to 1-1 removal like Path to Exile.

February 11, 2015 4:13 p.m.

slovakattack says... #9

tooTimid: Will do, man- good to have you. I will usually post a fair warning before important streams, or streams of wide interest.

Hornet Queen certainly isn't a bad card, but she does not fulfill the same role in the deck that Elesh Norn does, in my opinion. Namely, she is not a win condition, but a stalling tactic.

She happens to be brutally efficient in Bloom Titan, but that is a very, very different deck than Gifts. Gifts is not a ramp deck, and does not have the capacity to drop 3-4 threats of that cost. Typically, Elesh Norn will enter play when your opponent is topdecking, and she is uniquely positioned to continually mitigate the opponent's boardstate. There -is- something to be said for x-for-1 value, which is why Grave Titan was a long-time favorite for this list, only recently getting nudged out by Tasigur.

Bear in mind that Bloom Titan contains virtually no removal, so Hornet Queen happens to be very effective for that. Gifts is chock-full of removal, and works better by relying on it to control out the game. Remember, Gifts is not a combo deck.

February 11, 2015 6:16 p.m.

YES 69TH VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 17, 2015 12:22 a.m.

slovakattack says... #11

High five?

High five!

February 17, 2015 12:27 a.m.

high fives you

February 17, 2015 12:30 a.m.

puimuri says... #13

Grats on 70 Upvotes!

added to favs also!

February 17, 2015 2:53 p.m.

slovakattack says... #14

<3

February 17, 2015 3:02 p.m.

puimuri says... #15

[slovakattack] you know... if you have any spare time you COULD check MY gifts ungiven deck A budget gifts deck out ;) it's budget as always

February 17, 2015 3:08 p.m.

klone13 says... #16

Why Negate when u can use Countersquall?

February 23, 2015 1:16 p.m.

slovakattack says... #17

Mostly because there's little gain for the cost of having double colored mana. In a 4 color deck, you want to minimize your 'mana tax' as much as possible.

February 23, 2015 2:59 p.m.

Pilz_753 says... #18

What's your opinion on Noxious Revival? If you get it together with Snappy you could gift for basically any card. It might be little bit clunky though.

February 24, 2015 1:36 a.m.

slovakattack says... #19

It's a good card, but a little slow. I could see it in a different constructed build, perhaps esper, but the deck above can neither spare the time nor life to make it work as a value card.

February 24, 2015 10:01 a.m.

marioman77 says... #20

Awesome build , check out this deck of mine needs help (Cooking up a storm !) And how would a seismic assult deck with treasure hunt do against this

March 9, 2015 10:13 p.m.

slovakattack says... #21

marioman77: I'd love to, but the link is broken. Thanks for the +1!

March 9, 2015 10:18 p.m.

O gifts ungiven is am instant :D

March 9, 2015 10:26 p.m.

slovakattack says... #23

That's where a lot of the power comes from, yes.

March 9, 2015 10:42 p.m.

slovakattack remember my 69 comment? take a look at this. and yes, this does aply to the comment. too much. WTF WOTC?!?!

March 9, 2015 11:06 p.m.

marioman77 says... #25

@slovakattack i forgot to post it so people can see it

March 10, 2015 8:08 a.m.

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