Haakon's Gifts

Modern Gifts Ungiven Jank Knights WUB (Esper)

Gerff

Land (23)

• 2x Dakmor Salvage
• 4x Flagstones of Trokair
• 2x Flooded Strand
• 2x Godless Shrine
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 2x Marsh Flats
• 2x Plains
• 2x Polluted Delta
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (18)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 3x Gifts Ungiven
• 2x Nameless Inversion
• 1x Negate
• 1x Path to Exile
• 4x Rune Snag
• 4x Thought Scour

Creature (11)

• 1x Dimir Doppelganger
• 1x Gurmag Angler
• 4x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 2x Knight Exemplar
• 1x Phage the Untouchable
• 1x Phyrexian Crusader
• 1x Snapcaster Mage

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Lingering Souls
• 1x Raven's Crime
• 4x Smallpox
• 1x Unburial Rites

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Sideboard

Artifact (7)

• 3x Damping Sphere
• 4x Nihil Spellbomb

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Damnation

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Stony Silence

Instant (3)

• 3x Anguished Unmaking

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So let me preface by saying this deck is not very good in the current modern meta. Most of the decks are simply too fast, and this deck is a bit too slow and grindy to be able to deal with them. Some cards help a bit, like negate for storm and other spell-based decks, but they are not guaranteed to help. That said, it is a ridiculously fun deck if you like to grind, use the graveyard, and tutor up spells in response to your opponent. I have been working on something like this for a long time, and this is the current build I am really enjoying. I have actually won a few games at some FNM's with this version, so it is not unplayable. Feel free to make any suggestions for improvements, I am always looking to make the deck better.

Instant/Sorcery Spells

• Anguished Unmaking : This card is a bit of a catch-all. It feels really good to simply exile a pesky planeswalker that comes out early cough Karn Liberated cough or other threats that are usually difficult to interact with. It is not as effective as the new Assassin's Trophy , but it is in white and black, which is important to this deck. The exile may be relevant occasionally.

• Crib Swap : With Haakon, Stromgald Scourge out this can be cast from the graveyard since it technically has the knight subtype. While it is expensive, it is very effective removal, and can clear away just about any threat. Again, the exile can be fairly relevant.

• Damnation : This is a good sweeper, I figured it would be best since this deck is already so heavy in black. I would much prefer something like Supreme Verdict for the un-counterable ability, but it is much more color intensive in an already highly color intense deck.

• Gifts Ungiven : An instant speed tutor that can find any four cards. The downside is that two of those cards go into the graveyard, but in this deck it can be another benefit. For this reason, this card is one of the most complex cards on the list, and really rewards experience with the deck. I will list some of the potential piles later.

• Nameless Inversion : This is a sub optimal removal spell, but it has the knight subtype and so can be recast over and over with Haakon. This is usually a slight downgrade to Doom Blade , but it is a cheaper and reusable spell than Crib Swap , and it can be used later to buff huge creatures.

• Negate : I included negate because it is a very cheap and effective counterspell. Usually this deck does not have much of a problem with creature decks as it has a ton of removal and recursive threats that can block indefinitely, but spell-based decks and combo decks are harder to deal with. Mainboard Negate helps to hedge these match-ups a bit.

• Path to Exile : Early game removal. This is probably the best removal spell in modern, and the only reason I do not play more is for the sake of diversity for Gifts Ungiven . That said, this deck could be improved by adding a few more, I just do not know what to take out.

• Raven's Crime : This card is pretty good. It can be used on an opponent to try to force things into their graveyard, or it can be used on yourself to try to discard a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge . Its a generally useful card and can be used from the graveyard.

• Rune Snag : This is my favorite counterspell. Two mana? Check. Hits any spell? Check. Gets more powerful the more you use? Check. Rewards self-mill? Check. It is really solid and I have found that often it is just like a straight up Counterspell in this deck.

• Smallpox : This card is huge in this deck. The inclusion of Flagstones of Trokair means that we will rarely be down a land, and this card can act as a pseudo-ritual. The discard is also negligible as often we look to throw things into our graveyard anyway, and the sacrificing of a creature is frequently more damaging to the opponent than to this deck, as we can always just cast it from the graveyard again.

• Thought Scour : This is a very good cantrip in this deck, as it fuels graveyard synergies and draws a card. Sometimes feels like an Ancestral Recall . (A huge exaggeration, I know, but its good).

• Unburial Rites : This is a really good card for reanimation as it does not care if it has been dumped into the graveyard. It works well with gifts.

• Drown in the Loch : I want to try this card out, given its flexibility. For now I am thinking it will be a one-of, but if it really performs perhaps I will try to bump the number up.

Creatures

• Dimir Doppelganger : This card is great and enables a turn 4 kill if the opponent lacks interaction and/or blockers. It can also make use of the opponent's graveyard if necessary, and the exile may be useful in some cases.

• Gurmag Angler : A very big and cheap creature. Can be useful in a pinch or if you need to race a fast deck. Just generally good.

• Haakon, Stromgald Scourge : This card is a beast. It is really hard to get rid of, and enables fun graveyard synergies that can really make this deck a powerhouse. The life loss can become relevant, but really the recursion it enables and possesses makes it really good.

• Knight Exemplar : This card is very powerful as well. It can turn Haakon into an indestructible 4/4, and with multiples out it can become very difficult to deal with your board. These are wonderful and it feels great to swing in at opponents with indestructible knights.

• Phage the Untouchable : This is a funny card, and it can theoretically be cast in this deck, but it is the second part of the turn 4 kill combo with Dimir Doppelganger .

• Phyrexian Crusader : This is just a one-of, but it can really just screw over certain decks. Martyr proc and burn literally cannot interact with this guy, and he does not care about the life total of your opponents and can even take down creatures larger than he is, especially with Knight Exemplar out. First strike + Infect = insane.

• Snapcaster Mage : Though this is a bit of a non-bo with Gurmag Angler , I think the ability to use it in gifts piles and to be able to recur spells is very useful. I was thinking about adding in a Mission Briefing in order to make gifts even more insane, but double blue might be difficult in this deck, as I really struggle with mana colors already since both white and black need double to function.

Lands

• Dakmor Salvage : This is a great land as it can be milled, discarded to pox, sacrificed to pox, but it can return to your hand all for the "cost" of filling your graveyard with useful cards.

• Flagstones of Trokair : This land is really good with Smallpox as it nets a better land like Godless Shrine or Hallowed Fountain . There is no loss, which helps break the symmetry of Smallpox even more.

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth : This is mostly just to help with some extra black mana. I had in the past used Funeral Charm to maximize every mode on the card, but I did not have room in this version.

• Then we have a pretty standard modern manabase with fetches, shocks, some basics in case of Blood Moon , Path to Exile , or Ghost Quarter / Field of Ruin effects.

Fun Combos/Interactions

Gifts Piles

• This deck has a great deal of recursion and redundancy. A generic creature pile might look like: Creature, Unburial Rites , and then maybe two other random cards that could be useful in either the graveyard or your hand.

• A knight package might look like: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge , and one of the knight cards. This functionally nets two cards. Another option is to take in addition Raven's Crime with a land in hand and one other card, or just raven's crime and a land for additional value. This lets us get one or two additional cards while still allowing us to discard Haakon.

Kill Combo

In this deck the kill combo comes from the interaction between Dimir Doppelganger and Phage the Untouchable . Since the doppelganger does not enter the battlefield when copying phage, it means that the etb trigger on phage does not trigger, and so it is like getting a 3 mana phage (6 mana across 2 turns). This is good for decks that cannot interact or do not play many defenders (we can get through 1-2 with removal and whatnot). It is a lot of fun to hold up phage and discard her on your turn, or gifts at instant speed to really surprise the opponent. Turn 4 kill is still fairly slow for modern, but it can sometimes catch opponents off guard.

I am very open to suggestions on how to improve the deck!

Top Ranked	Achieved #49 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #6 position in Modern 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern WUB (Esper) 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 3 Mythic Rares 29 - 5 Rares 10 - 3 Uncommons 13 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.70
Tokens	Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Modern Decks, Decks I like, some day