Emrakul, the Aeons Torn -- Griselbrand

I've decided that Gifts Control is the only control deck I can stand to play, so I might put together a list soon. Thus, I will need to ask a few questions:

What are your Gifts packages? Of course there's Unburial Rites+Dood and Life from the Loam + Raven's Crime + 2 lands, and of course you can grab removal. Is there anything else I should know?

I've seen some lists with Knight of the Reliquary and Siege Rhino as ways to generate value. Your thoughts?

What tend to be your good/bad matchups?

Thanks for any answers you can give me!

@wwhitegoldd: Emrakul is actually terrible here; this deck uses recursion to win.

@Programmer_112: The main packages other than the ones you listed are the wrath package: Wrath of God/Damnation/Supreme Verdict, and the spot removal package: Abrupt Decay/Path to Exile/Dismember/Slaughter Pact.

I actually play Knight of the Reliquary in my Gifts list, but it's Gifts Midrange, which plays slightly different. I actually feel like Gifts Control is the better deck.

Programmer_112, wwhitegoldd sorry for not responding earlier, I was preparing for a BIG OL' UPDATE, HOO-AH! (details are in the update box.)

GlistenerAgent, OPINIONS, PLZ!

Rationale for Chalice of the Void: It's an incredible sideboard card against aggro in this deck. Guess what this Gifts list lacks? Dat's right, bby, it's got only 4 1 drops. That means that we can safely drop a chalice on T2, and SCREW U/R Delver, Affinity and RDW in the PATOOT. (or at least, slow them down.) If you can resolve a second one for 4 mana, you've basically won the game. All without negatively affecting your board-state in any way shape or form, yay! This is the advantage of going Carytid over BoP.

Second: Drown in Sorrow: Not as good as Anger of the Gods, but you take what you can get in your off-colors. Reasonably efficient, and dodges Carytid, which is nice. U/R delver could conceivably pump Monastery Swiftspear beyond it, but since it's usually sideboarded in conjunction with Chalice, it'd be quite a feat.

Wraths have been mostly removed from the mainboard. They come back in when it comes to heavy midrange decks, but they are too slow to search for in this aggro meta.

Programmer_112: Fulcrum got every single package, except for 1. :3

There is an 'artifact recursion package' in Academy Ruins + Batterskull + Life from the Loam + X value card/Engineered Explosives, if you need it.

KotR and Siege Rhino are great cards, but that sort of deck plays more of a midrange beatdown role, as Fulcrum mentioned. I prefer Gifts control, and I find it nigh impossible to do Gifts beatdown WITHOUT Goyf, which I do not have on paper. Decks that run KotR generally are not control decks, as a rule. Not sayin' that you can't shove a copy of Siege Rhino into your deck and make it work, just pointing out the difference between Gifts Midrange (gross, no offense Fulcrum :P) and Gifts Control. This deck generates value, but it's through recursion, not ETB effects. If you're looking for a deck that generates value through things like Rhino, I suggest Birthing Pod. It's literally built around that!

The beauty of Gifts is that with the right sideboarding, there's no such thing as a truly awful matchup. That being said, it suffers against heavy aggro, like most control decks do. Easy matchups are ones that have no interaction with my deck (so I can just T2 Carytid -> T3 Gifts -> T4 Unburial Rites/Win) but those are few and far between in Modern. Mono-colored decks tend to suffer against this deck's ability to resolve an Iona in a timely manner.

wwhitegoldd:

Emrakul alas does not work for this deck, as he does not stay in the graveyard long enough to reanimate him :c

Griselbrand is a good suggestion, and I see some decks run it. I personally don't however, I prefer Iona, Shield of Emeria instead.

This update looks great! Only problem is now you're not guaranteed a boardwipe against some really stick creatures such as Thrun, the Last Troll (which most control decks struggle against), but I suppose there's more game postboard. I think you could even consider a fourth Liliana of the Veil over one Inquisition of Kozilek, but that would need a good amount of playtesting. Overall, the deck looks a lot better against all the aggro in the meta. One thing you could consider is Bojuka Bog despite it entering tapped since it disrupts so many graveyard strats and delve cards that it could definitely make or break a game.

I'd cut the 2 Inquisition of Kozilek for a Thoughtseize and Liliana of the Veil. Liliana is just so potent in this deck, and I prefer Thoughtseize in control decks because you want to remove as many things as possible.

Outside of that, the only other change to the main I would make is cutting Lingering Souls for a 25th land, because you want to be activating manlands and casting big spells.

bigguy99: I'm honestly not too worried about Thrun. He doesn't provide a swift clock, and he's easy to chumpblock with tokens. Once I resolve a Batterskull or fatty, he ceases to be relevant. In short: Annoying? Yes. To the point that I'd build around his existence.... no. That being said, I do have WoG and Verdict in my sideboard, for crazy boardstate matchups that Drown in Sorrow just won't help with. So it's there- just not necessarily in G1.

GlistenerAgent: I feel like Liliana OTV has been slightly neutered by Treasure Cruise in the current meta. Still awesome of course, but do you think she should still be run of as a 4 of? I got no problems with a 3rd Thoughtseize, and what do you think of Bojuka Bog as a utility land? My only issue with it is that it enters tapped, and I have too many lands that do that already.

I agree that Liliana has been slightly neutered by TC, but the card is still just so good. You don't necessarily have to play 4, but I would rather play 4 Lili over 4 Lingering Souls.

Is Grave Titan something you play only when you draw it, or do you occasionally use Gifts to find and reanimate it?

Fulcrum: Sometimes I play it only when I draw it, other times I've used Rites to reanimate it. There are times where I've drawn into Rites and dumped Titan in the graveyard with Liliana, then reanimated to bait out a counterspell (then, of course, dump Elesh Norn and reanimate her.)

He's served me very well as a T8-9 topdeck tho.

Would you ever use Gifts Ungiven to find it? Or is that something you only use to win the game?

Not really. I don't want to disclude any weird situations, but in general he's just there as an awesome topdeck. Usually the way it'll go is: Gifts package 1- Answers, Gifts package 2- Elesh Norn/Iona.

That makes sense. He doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would go out of your way to look for. Do you ever side him out?

Yes. Against mono-colored decks/decks I know can't stop the combo, He is what I side out for Iona, Shield of Emeria

@slovakattack: We changed something in our Midrange list. We changed Knight of the Reliquary to Kitchen Finks. Thoughts?

I think that Finks will serve you better in the long run, as you don't really need it to be an alternate win-con so much as a stall tactic until your man-lands/Elesh Norn/Grave Titan/Batterskull can get to em.' To that end, I think Finks are just fine as a budget Goyf.

Let's talk about the Thragtusks. What do you think of Siege Rhino in that slot? (maybe 2 of, not 3 of.)

@slovakattack: We actually discussed that just last night. I like that Siege Rhino is a huge body with a Lightning Helix ETB, and trample to boot. However, my co-deckbuilder likes that Thragtusk requires two removal spells to get rid of. That was also his main reason for replacing Knight of the Reliquary with Finks. I personally am okay with both Thragtusk and Siege Rhino, I just feel the Rhino would be better.

Fulcrum: Think about it like this: Thragtusk is more mana efficient, but slower. Siege Rhino is less mana efficient, but a threat that can't be bolted away, and puts a ludicrous amount of pressure on your opponent.

Thragtusk you can chump block with a token. Siege Rhino requires more immediate answers. This is important in a meta that has Young Pyromancer as a star player (U/R delver) and means that Lingering Souls isn't really an answer to the rhino.

@slovakattack: You bring up some great points. I personally prefer the Rhino, and hopefully these points will persuade my friend. If not, I'll let you know his reasons and see what you think.

GlistenerAgent: Based on some recent testing (I've actually been testing it a lot lately), I find that resolving a T2 Sylvan Caryatid is extremely consistent with me winning- so to that end, I'm throwing a fourth in instead of a 25th land.

One thing that I've been having a little trouble with lately is Tron. It's not really a huge part of the meta atm so I'm not to worried about it in general, but are there any sideboard cards that you would suggest?

I think I'd try to play 25 lands and four Sylvan Caryatid. You may (not sure) be underestimating how important mana is in a control deck.

I wouldn't worry about Tron. The goal there is to remove the 7-8 relevant spells they have (usually 3 Wurmcoil Engine and 4 Karn Liberated) and assemble the Life from the Loam engine as fast as humanly possible. A third Path to Exile will help, as will access to a second Maelstrom Pulse.

As for the sideboard, Stony Silence is your best option and already seems to be there. Again, I wouldn't worry too much.

The only thing I can think of against Tron is to Ghost Quarter them every turn. Maybe Surgical Extraction to get rid of one of their tron pieces permanently?

My problem with the 25th land is that I am very rarely mana starved (once you add the fact that I can theroretically reuse all my fetches if I get a Life from the Loam, and that I lost a game recently that I could very easily have won had I not drawn 8 lands in a row.

Love where the deck is right now, although I'm really not a fan of Iona being in the board, have you just had too many bad experiences against delver? Maybe swap Titan for Iona?

PlattBonnay: I just have lukewarm feelings about Iona, honestly. She locks out games, yes, but unless you know you're good for the bumrush gifts-rites strat, she just isn't all that useful.

That being said, it may be better to have her -in- G1, then sideboard her out for Grave Titan on G2-3, when your opponent has the graveyard hate to make bumrushing Gifts-Rites a dangerous proposition.

To be honest, I haven't actually tested her yet. All of my tests have been done with Grave Titan and Elesh Norn so far- I've found that Elesh Norn does a great job stopping aggro decks like U/R delver, RDW and Affinity just with her ETB effect. (never mind the fact that those decks really have no way to reliably remove her, save for Vapor Snag.