Flusterstorm

Council's Judgment is a great sort of catch-all

Engineered Explosives can wipe a board when you need it

Relic of Progenitus because you need graveyard hate that doesn't affect you.

Containment Priest is great against things like Green Sun's Zenith, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Dredge, Natural Order. But you'd also need to have a way to remove it from the board before you Unburial.

Pithing Needle/Phyrexian Revoker which ever you perfer.

And artifact removal. Nature's Claim Krosan Grip Whatever suits your fancy.

TehCoopeh

I already have 2 Force of Will and a Pact of Negation, so Flusterstorm isn't necessary.

council's judgement is too slow for this deck, every card has to have a distinct purpose.

I already have Engineered Explosives.

Tormod's Crypt is in here, so I don't need Relic of Progenitus, and Academy Ruins helps to reuse it.

Containment Priest removes one of the key combos with Unburial Rites.

I have Meddling Mage, so I don't need Pithing Needle or Phyrexian Revoker.

I will use Krosan Grip, nice idea.

I would honestly go with Revoker. A 4 color deck is hard enough to get stable mana with, without throwing in it's two off-colors into the mix. (Although typically, you'd want to shoot for a T2-T3 Liliana, but since you only have one, forcing the BB by T2-3 isn't really an issue, so that -does- give you more flexibility.)

Thanks slovakattack, I will put in the revoker.

slovakattack I have been playtesting this deck and also using yours, the recursion theory, and I want to ask what your opinion is on Lingering Souls. When using them in your deck, they can be a potent card on turns 3-5, but after that point the opponent is usually able to cast bigger threats. They have flashback, but my turn 3 plays are often a Gift, a Liliana, a Pulse, or a Loam into Raven's Crime. I am curious if I should add it in as a 1 or 2 of, but then I am unsure what to take out to make room for it?

I also noticed that you just did a sideboard overhaul, and I was wondering what you thought of mine, if it needs a little tweaking or anything?

At the end of the day, Lingering Souls is one thing, and one thing only: A stalling tactic. While they can be a threat against an opponent who can't get rid of them, and are 'turned on' by Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, they are not a win condition. The main reason they are in this deck is because they provide 'fodder' for discard where Liliana OTV's +1 is concerned. At the end of the day, your Gifts deck seeks to combo off more than it grinds out. (I am basing this on the fact that you run 3 Unburial Rites. If you're goal is to go mana dork -> combo off, every single game, then you may not get as much use out of Lingering Souls as I do.

Garruk, Apex Predator strikes me as a very strange pick. He really is not a good walker for Modern, and at a 7 drop, you might as well put Iona in there instead... or even Karn Liberated if you really want a hefty walker that's tough to deal with. That, and the obvious "Y u no run 3-4 Liliana OTV" are my only major comments on your mainboard (although in fairness, this does look more like a case of 'these are the cards I have atm' than awkward deckbuilding, so benefit of the doubt for that.)

In terms of sideboarding, my new sideboard exists to screw the aggro meta, basically. Delver/Affinity and RDW have tough times fighting it. Sideboarding is heavily dependant on your local meta, so be aware of that when choosing cards. That being said, Avacyn, Angel of Hope strikes me as very out of place. She does not help you any more than Iona does, and provides no unique advantage, as your goal is not really to assemble a massive board state that needs protecting.

I would add in Cryptic Command, Vendilion Clique or Liliana of the Veil. And, by the way, what is that card that you have as your featured card deck picture? Is it some reprinting of gifts ungiven?

Zigspusus: It was a special holiday promo card they made a looong while back.

Ok, I didn't recognize it. Thanks.

slovakattack I just changed my Liliana from a 1-of to a 3-of, I took out an Unburial Rites and a Karn, how does this look?

slovakattack - I noticed you removed Eternal Witness from your deck, and I was wondering why?

Did you think that it wasn't relevant enough, or was it not fast enough. One thing I've been noticing while playing is that most of my losses come from control decks that are able to remove a crucial part of the combo. Sometimes I have to discard Gifts Ungiven, or I've run out of Unburial Rites, and Elesh Norn is dead. I feel that Eternal Witness would work well here. I was thinking about removing a Pact of Negation, as it just isn't quick enough for me.

I was wondering what your opinions are on my options here, should I remove a pact and replace it with a witness, remove one or both pacts and add faster counterspells, or leave this how it is?

Eternal Witness is great, as well as super relevant, but I didn't like how slow it was. That's one of the reasons that I like Grave Titan in the main/side. He's easily castable, and can single-handedly take over games. Another, similar card is Hero of Bladehold.

The deck shouldn't be -too- reliant on Unburial Rites. Is Celestial Colonnade and Batterskull really not working for you?

Removing a Pact of Negation may be a good idea. I've found that Negate is a great catch-all, especially if the Tron decks are running Mindslaver over Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. If you're having trouble with Tron, run 4 Thoughtseize. You really need to, the best way to beat them aside from land destruction is to remove their threats before they hit the field.

A main difference in our decklists is that yours lacks Lingering Souls. Perhaps more bodies might make the difference? They're quite good at both gumming up the board, and providing a win-con in a vaccum.

What's the picture of?

DERPLINGSUPREME: They made a special holiday promo version of Gifts a long time ago.

kool!