Ungiven Storms

I've been playing and testing TEPS lately, based on the LSV build that is infinitely popular at the moment; I guess that's the effect of having one of the best players win with it and write it up on StarCityGames.com.

However, LSV himself noted on SCG.com that he was unhappy with the two Electrolyze in the deck. Having played the deck a few times I can see what he means; they do so little to help in Turn 3 against any deck that matters, while taking up valuable cardboard space. I also noted that he sideboarded the Electrolyze in EVERY MATCH he played; so between 50% and 70% of the time LSV wasn't playing with them anyway.

Before playing TEPS I'd been mucking around with TRON; being an Aussie TRON is somewhat in the blood. The great thing about TRON is it's ability to pull together the combo using Gifts Ungiven, while giving your opponent no good cards to discard.

As TEPS is also a Combo deck with access to large amounts of mana, I thought it might work well to use Gifts Ungiven in the Electrolyze slot. In order to provide your opponent with no good discard options, I also wanted to include Sins of the Past in the deck. That way whatever they discarded would still be available to play.

Here's the deck as a result with a European style 61 cards.

Maindeck - 61 Cards

Instants - 22

4 x Manamorphose
4 x Desperate Ritual
2 x Gifts Ungiven
4 x Remand
4 x Peer Through Depths
4 x Seething Song

Sorceries- 17

1 x Sins of the Past
2 x Sleight of Hand
4 x Mind's Desire
4 x Ponder
4 x Rite of Flame
2 x Tendrils of Agony

Artifacts - 4

4 x Lotus Bloom

Lands - 18

3 x Cascade Bluffs
4 x Dreadship Reef
3 x Flooded Strand
2 x Island
3 x Polluted Delta
3 x Steam Vents

Sideboard - 15 Cards

1 x Brain Freeze
1 x (Anti-Mill Card of Choice)
2 x Pact of Negation
2 x Echoing Truth
3 x Gigadrowse
3 x Volcanic Fallout
3 x Shattering Spree

I played a few games of the deck last night and was very happy with the results. If your deck was going to go off on Turn 3, Gifts isn't slowing it down any more than an Electrolyze in hand already was. If your deck is slow at Turn 4, Gifts is doing a lot more of the heavy lifting than Electrolyze was. Using Gifts at the end of your opponent's Turn 4 really sets up going off consistently on Turn 5.

The aim is to gift for Mind's Desire, Tendrils of Agony, Remand and Sins of the Past. If you have any of those four cards you can replace one with the utility card you may need; I found manamorphose was the other I headed for most often.

Like TRON, Gifts provides your opponent with no good cards to discard. Several times my opponent discarded the Tendrils and Mind's Desire, leaving me with Sins of the Past and Remand. This would allow me to go off next turn with Sins into Mind's Desire, Remanding Mind's Desire into hand, and then going off again. Not only does this recover the graveyard, the Sins also adds a "free" addition to the Storm count.

The other great thing is that having Mind's Desire resolve into a free Gifts almost always brought about the instant concession as I went and fetched whatever I needed to combo onwards.

One great play last night was Mind's Desire with no mana floating into Lotus Bloom, 2 x Desperate Ritual, a Rite of Flame and a Gifts Ungiven. Gifts allowed me to fetch Tendrils, Remand, Sins and Desire, and all the mana off the Mind's Desire became useful again. If that Gifts had been Electrolyze it would of been a dead storm.

I think Gifts is fantastic on the play. On the Draw, especially depending on the speed of the opponent's deck, I would consider Gifts and Sins to be the go-to cards for sideboarding - consider them a three-of set that come and go together.

Here's how I'd see sideboarding:

Against ELVES!

On the Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, -2 Sleight of Hand, +3 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Brain Freeze, +1 Anti-Mill Card of Choice

The goal is to take out their army just as they go off using Volcanic Fallout, with Brain Freeze the fall-back position. Remember that Desperate Ritual is an instant as well, so you can pull off a two-land Volcanic Fallout with both in hand.

Back on the Play:

Depends on what they have shown to sideboard. If they've just had Fallout sprung upon them they may head towards a more mid-range aggro build, in which case Echoing Truth may be a better option than fallout.

Against Affinity:

On the Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, +3 Shattering Spree

Yeah. Pretty obvious.

Back on the Play:

-2 Sleight of Hand, -1 Desperate Ritual, +2 Gifts Ungiven, +1 Sins

You can probably race well enough to Turn 4 against affinity unless they have the nut draw, in which case you're dead anyway.

Against Tezzeret Control

On the Draw:

-4 Lotus Bloom, -2 Desperate Ritual, +2 Pact of Negation, +2 Gigadrowse, +2 Shattering Spree

Your opponent will be bringing in extra Chalice of the Void and other various control artifacts. Your job is to delay and/or destroy them all. Sins + Gifts are great here because they don't get hit by Spell Snare.

On the Play:

Depends on what he's played. You may consider putting back in the Lotus Bloom if you feel you've got Chalices under control and can Remand the Trinket Mage for long enough.

Against Fae:

On the Play & Draw:

-2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Sins, -2 Sleight of Hand, +3 Gigadrowse, +2 Pact of Negation

Gigadrowse to tap them out, Pact to protect your storm. That is all.


Well, I hope that helps. I'll be testing the deck for a hopeful run at the Perth PTQ. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Labels: Gifts Ungiven, magic, storm, TEPS