I'm presently searching out a list for the Gifts version of Storm. However I wanted to get this thread up so we could get the discussion on a Gifts version going in this thread. Also this will help to stop the fighting in the UR thread.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
tl;dr Huntmaster will see play in sideboard, rarely mainboard, and if you disagree, sig this and feel free to rub it in my face when the time comes. 'Cause I want him to be maindeckable.
Yeah that was the one I wanted for the first post.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
Note he uses the Exarch Twin transformational sideboard, and note that he didn't Top 8 the tournament (they say nothing about a Top 16; shame).
It's funny that the Noxious Revival-Past in Flames-Exarch-Twin pile guarantees the Exarch Twin combo.
Yeah I have been blowing people out with a transformational side that runs 4x Kiki and no Splinter Twin. People load up with Dispel, only to have me drop Kiki and win on the spot.
The cutting of Sleight of hand opened the deck up for Gifts.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
Check out 26th place in this mtgo ptq on 2/25
Looks like the above but with Faithless Looting and a gifts unburial option in the SB in addition to twin/exarch.
If you want to consistently win on turn 3, Gifts Ungiven isn't for you. You're basically shooting for turn 4-5 wins with a heavy disruption package and a more control-oriented game plan. The major upsides to this are:
-You will have a giant advantage over most any opposing combo deck, since you're playing a control deck with countermagic and a bunch of various answers. (It's hard to play around singletons, which is why Gifts is so good against combo decks). Then, when you go off, your deck is built to play through a couple counterspells--and it doesn't generally fizzle if you play it properly (more on this below). It's not the only way to play the combo mirror, but it's probably the best execution of the 'safe' method, where you have bountiful disruption and anti-disruption at your disposal. You have the minefield of tricks for your opponent to play around, you have an easier time making land drops, and you have instant-speed card advantage.
-Gifts Ungiven gives the deck a full-blown tutor system, which means, so long as you stack your piles properly, you basically will never fizzle. It's not like you're leaning on a lot of cantrips and there is a mathematic possibility that you'll see 30/40 cards in your deck and not find one of your Grapeshots. With Gifts, you're going to find whatever you need. That certainty closes the margins of fizzling from a small, but still non-zero percentage to zero percent in any combo turn where Gifts is involved.
Granted, there are still games where the deck will go off on turn 3 and win on the spot, but they're not really reliable as it's not the point of the Gifts builds. If you want to win really fast, just play RB and roll Infernal Tutors. That kind of build wins on turn 3 a vast majority of the time, and can win on turn 2 at least 20% of the time (from my experience with roughly 200 goldfishes).
how aRe you suposed to flashback Noxious Revival when you dont have green? or can you pay with phryexian mana? also is there a version of the SB without Kiki?
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Standard: pft, i love to see my cards depreciate in value once they rotate :S
Mordern: Melira, UR Storm, RDW, Infect, W life/control, UW Tron
Legacy: RDW, Pox
Vintage: Dark Depths, R Grey Orge
I'm looking to pick up this deck and have run into a slight hitch.
Firstly, this thread is meant to discuss the all-in version of Gifts Storm - I know there is a slower control version which uses Gifts to neutralize the enemy board before going for the win. However, I want to Gifts on my opponent's T4, then win on my T5.
So here's the question: How do you do that? I've come up with a line of play that will give me at least +8 storm, 11 mana (10 red and one of any color), and a casted Gifts. How do I use this Gifts to find my game-winner?
In case you're wondering what the play is:
You need 4 lands on T4 and the following in hand:
A ritual (1R: Add RRR to your mana pool.)
Another ritual, Increasing Vengeance, or Manamorphose
Gifts
One more land (or another ritual)
On enemy T4, cast Gifts, searching for:
Past in Flames
Seething Song
A ritual, Increasing Vengeance, or Manamorphose (get the two that you don't have in hand).
On your T5, untap, play a land, then do the following:
Cast all rituals, Seething Song and Manamorphose in your hand (using Increasing Vengeance to copy any rituals)
Cast or flashback Past in Flames
Flashback rituals until you have 5 red mana in your mana pool Flashback Seething Song and Increasing Vengeance, netting 15 red mana
Flashback Manamorphose, turning RR into U+some other color
Flashback Gifts
You need at least 7 mana after you're done ritualing to flashback Past in Flames and continue generating mana. If you have Increasing Vengeance in hand, you need to bin it in order to make the massive, 15-mana generating play (above, bolded), hence the need for one other ritual in hand. If you have no rituals at all in hand, your opponent can leave you stranded by putting Increasing Vengeance and Past in Flames in your hand.
You're left with 11 mana after this, so how do you close the game?
If it helps, Gifting for Gifts, Past in Flames, Seething Song and Increasing Vengeance after that will allow you to get either 3 more Gifts and 2 mana or 2 more Gifts and 5 mana, depending on how your opponent splits your piles.
TLDR: Win with one of the following scenarios:
11 mana, 1 Gifts on the stack
5 mana, 2 Gifts on the stack
2 mana, 3 Gifts on the stack
Also, how do you deal with hate? Bounce is pretty bad if you're trying to go off on T4, because if you bounce something on T3, they'll just put it back down on T4 and stop the EOT Gifts. You must be able to fire off a bounce spell and Gifts on the same turn, which requires a minimum of 6 mana. Should this deck splash green for Nature's Claim and maybe Noxious Revival?
Grapeshot, Remand, Past in Flames, Counterspell. Flashback Past in Flames, flashback Grapeshot, Remand, Recast, etc. You have 15 mana, you can play just about anything. I use controlling version, which packs a lot more countermagic, as well as bounce and removal spread across maindeck and sideboard. It's pretty easy to handle hate that way. In an all-in version, I don't quite know, but a possible green splash for things like Ancient Grudge, or cards like Geistflame or Lightning Bolt. Also, if you go to the control gifts thread and look at tournament reports (I'll edit this post with the same info later, too), you'll find accounts of turn 4 wins that are easier to get, in more detail. Ultimately, though, you have to think hard in each case, and go in ready to improvise a win.
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I did think of Remanding Grapeshot but if your opponent bins Grapeshot, you have to bring it back to your hand before you cast/flashback Past in Flames, for 2 reasons:
1) If you flashback Grapeshot it's gone for good, Remanding it won't bring it to hand.
2) If you cast Past when Grapeshot is in your graveyard, then Call to Mind it back to hand for example, it changes zones, so it loses flashback.
Counterspell isn't legal in Modern and I don't see any use for it; you'd either get stopped while trying to cast rituals or have Pact of Negation to force the combo through.
I should probably add 2 conditions:
1) No matter how your opponent splits piles, you can win. Always assume perfect play.
2) 20 damage to your opponent is reached, not just a difficult-to-recover position. I could use Unburial Rites + Iona, but I still have a small chance of losing afterwards.
No, a counterspell: it doesn't matter which. I'd suggest Pact of Negation, but Dispel or Mana Leak will do fine.
Generally, you can get to 20 storm once you've double-forked Increasing Vengeance. If not, you can make some tight plays with Snapcaster Mage and Noxious Revival, and get it into your hand. I play a controlling version with less mana and filter, and I never have trouble going off when I need to. It's possible that's because I also run Merchant Scrolls, so I often have a lot more business to flashback. Can you upload your exact list? It would help a lot, since I don't know what your options are.
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You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
I think getting Pact before starting the combo is more vital, as I'm most vulnerable after casting/flashbacking Past in Flames. I'll be down to 2 mana, and if the ritual is countered, I can't do anything.
The control version of this deck can dawdle after wiping your opponent's board to drop lands. I want to play a version that can win on T5, so I'm restricted to 5 lands when I want to go off.
I haven't got a decklist ready yet as I want to solve the problem of how, exactly, I'm going to kill my opponent.
I think I've solved the 5 mana 2 Gifts case:
8 storm, 10 red, 1 blue: Gifts for Gifts, Past, Seething Song, Increasing Vengeance
Opponent puts Gifts and IV in hand
Cast Gifts and copy with IV: 10 storm, 5 red
Gifts for: 1) Ritual, Ritual, Seething Song, Manamorphose and 2) Ritual, Ritual, Seething Song, Grapeshot
Each pile has 3 mana-makers and your opponent can only bin 2, so at least 1 from each pile will make it to your hand. Cast them for 12 storm, 7 red. Cast the remainder of the non-Grapeshot spells.
Flashback Past (from the previous Gifts) to 13 storm, 2 red.
Flashback all rituals, SS, Manamorphose (min. 6) to 19 storm. Cast or flashback Grapeshot for lethal.
EDIT: Solved the 3 Gifts 2 mana case, although it involves playing 2 Simian Spirit Guide to double up on ritual effects (Gifts must find cards with different names). I need to double-check that storm count is high enough to win, though.
Gifts for:
1) Ritual, Ritual, SSG, Past
2) Ritual, Ritual, SSG, Song
3) Ritual, Ritual, Song, Grapeshot
No matter how your opponent splits pile 1, you need only 3 more mana to win. If Past is in your graveyard you'll have 2 mana floating, plus 2 rituals in hand. Flashing Past + Grapeshot requires 7 mana. If Past is in your hand you'll have 2 mana floating, plus 1 ritual in hand. Casting Past + Grapeshot requires 6 mana.
Pile 2 ensures that you have 2 more mana from rituals.
Pile 3 ensures that you have 1 more mana from rituals, and finds the wincon, Grapeshot.
Cast all rituals & Songs in your hand, exile SSGs, then cast/flashback Past. Flashback all rituals and Songs to build storm count, then cast/flashback Grapeshot for lethal.
SSG is a necessary evil; even though it can't be flashed with Past, it's necessary to win if you're in the 3 Gifts 2 mana case. Izzet Signet can let you win a full turn earlier. Remember that you need it on 2 turns: on your opponent's end step (when you Gifts), and again on your turn. It's better than Pentad Prism in this way. Other choices would be Coldsteel Heart and Sphere of the Suns. Or maybe even Fellwar Stone and Star Compass (shudder).
My version of Gifts doesn't do much until you manage to fire Gifts off - you only have the 8 digging cards and 3 Signets to cast. I usually let Steam Vents ETB tapped for this reason.
Ok, you've been saying that for a few times, so I feel I should make this clear: Control gifts is a turn 5 Goldfish more than half the time. Add on turn 4 goldfishes, and you get a deck about as fast as all-in Gifts Storm, with a lot more resilience to hate. That the deck is significantly slower is a myth, caused by people misplaying the deck, assuming it's slow because it's control, and the fact that it's often the correct play to be slow with the deck, even though you CAN go all in very quickly with the best of them. You're not the first person to make that mistake: There are a lot of other people who think the same way on the forums, and I win tournaments locally because my opponents make that assumption too.
Your solutions all work. You seem to be going fine. I'd consider Merchant Scrolls as an addition, depending on how dedicated you are to casting Gifts (They're much more reliable, actually, and give you something to do with your mana fairly early on, and are less blue-intensive on combo turns)
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Go to my blog, Musings of the False God, for in-depth guides playing the game, from the building blocks of deck design to deceiving your opponent through clever game play!
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
Ritual Gifts has its own sticky in the Developing Competitive area, the thread is here ^^ That'd be a good read for you if you are seeking advice, testing results, and ideas.
Grapeshot, Remand, Past in Flames, Counterspell. Flashback Past in Flames, flashback Grapeshot, Remand, Recast, etc.
Pretty sure rules text on Flashback states that when the spell would leave the stack it gets exiled instead, so Remand on a FB Grapeshot is down-right terrible.
Pretty sure rules text on Flashback states that when the spell would leave the stack it gets exiled instead, so Remand on a FB Grapeshot is down-right terrible.
Edit: Rule 702.32 specifically section a.
LK just forgot to write Noxious Revival in that list of sequences. You Noxious the Grapeshot, cycle into it with whatever cantrip you want (usually Manamorphose) and then you can Shot--Remand--Shot--Remand--Shot and so on and so forth. With one grapeshot and 4 Remands in the deck, I have done over 300 points of damage a handful of times in games. In theory, if you don't play any of your Remands or your Noxious pre-combo and you draw/Muddle into Grapeshot, you could play a total of 12 Grapeshots: Itself, 4 Remands, 4 flashbacked Remands, Noxioused Grapeshot, flashback on Noxious, and then Flashback on Grapeshot itself. On top of this, you could theoretically use flashbacked Increasing Vengeances to copy Remand twice to Remand Shot and Remand itself; this wouldn't normally happen though because IV is usually used to double fork a Seething Song after PiF and act like a 2 mana-->10 mana ritual so you can afford to cast all these spells. But in a Vacuum, if you hit every land drop in your deck and comboed on turn 30 with perfect draws, you could probably do at least 700 points of damage with just one Grapeshot being recycled a bunch of times.
Did you actually want to talk about storm combo, or were you just necroing a thread to nitpick?
No: I-N-S plays with teachings because his lists tend to be less aggressive and more controlling. In my lists, I tend to be more aggressive, with greater ritual counts, Rites-combo, and Scrolls. Basically, the longer you plan on having the average game go, the better teachings becomes.
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Go to my blog, Musings of the False God, for in-depth guides playing the game, from the building blocks of deck design to deceiving your opponent through clever game play!
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
No: I-N-S plays with teachings because his lists tend to be less aggressive and more controlling. In my lists, I tend to be more aggressive, with greater ritual counts, Rites-combo, and Scrolls. Basically, the longer you plan on having the average game go, the better teachings becomes.
I would add something to this if it wasn't perfectly written.
As a preface, I want to point out that a couple specific cards in the RTR spoiler are incredibly strong storm cards. Between the goblin and the XUR Desire, we're all going to have to rethink builds from the ground up. However, if we just disregard RTR and focus on everything before it, we can have some semblance of a discussion regarding storm variants which we already know.
So in your opinion it simply depends on playstyle...
Sure, but there must be one version better than another in a certain metagame.
The way I see it, Merchant Scroll is an incorrect card choice because it's a a sorcery. If a deck is built around counterspells and tricks, it is designed to function at instant speed and therefore playing a 2 mana sorcery as a 3-4 of is backwards logic. Mystical Teachings gets everything that Scroll can get, but in addition it also gets off-color cards (Seething Song!), it's card advantage, and you can also throw one into a Gifts pile and by itself it threatens to continue the gifts chain. You should be holding mana open for Remand or other countermagic and threatening to play draw spells or charge your storage lands EoT, not having to make decisions about whether to Scroll or not. I feel that if you take most any sorcery and make it an instant, it's probably worth about one more mana. If we could play a 2U instant tutor that grabs blue instants, we would probably play it over Scroll, right? So think about it this way: Teachings is that card, but for one additional mana, you get a flashback spell that can grab off-color cards and even flash creatures (post-board).
For example, is Gift Storms more reliable ? more resilient ? but not as fast ?
You cannot possibly fizzle when you combo off with Gifts Ungiven, so long as you play correctly. Everything is directly tutored. In a straightforward URx storm build with a bunch of cantrips and PiF/Pyromancer Ascension, you have all kinds of potential clumps of land or lack of draw spells that can wreck your day while you're going off. So Gifts is definitely more reliable. It's also harder to hate out Gifts storm because the deck has storage lands, actual 2-for-1 draw spells that are instants, and a decent package of countermagic and anti-disruption cards (and that's pre-board). Yes, it's a little slower, though...but the speed at which you combo off is always completely relative to the tempo of the game.
I would guess that Gifts Storms is worse against Aggro and Combo, but better against everything else (Tempo, Control, Ramp). But I have not tested enough yet to be sure about that.
You're going to eat other combo decks for breakfast if you play Gifts, especially my build. You're a control deck with 6 bomb draw spells, loads of countermagic, storage lands, a Teferi, multiple answers to Warrens, an Extirpate, and the ability to end the game immediately if your opponent leaves himself exposed.
I'm not sure what aggro decks you're afraid of, but basically you can put whatever answers you want into the deck and if you devote the space, you'll beat any match-up. Problems with 1-drop aggro? More Explosives. Problems with Delvers and Vendilion Cliques? More Combust. Issues with Thoughtseize decks? More Ignorant Bliss. It's all about metagaming.
Basically, I am looking for a version of UR Combo that does not automatically lose to hand disruption or countermagic.
You've found it. So many times, I'll fake going off by playing a ritual, watching them countering it, and then remanding it (giving me a 2-for-1 and baiting out a counter). You can even play through Relics by playing your Past in Flames, then responding to their Relic activation by forking your PiF and flashing back everything in your yard in response. That's how good Remand and Increasing Vengeance are at fighting countermagic.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
Karn, Silver Golem EDH Deck Link to my deck.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
2 Halimar Depths
3 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
Spells
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Grapeshot
4 Manamorphose
1 Noxious Revival
2 Past in Flames
3 Pyretic Ritual
4 Remand
4 Seething Song
4 Serum Visions
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Mana Leak
3 Pestermite
4 Splinter Twin
Note he uses the Exarch Twin transformational sideboard, and note that he didn't Top 8 the tournament (they say nothing about a Top 16; shame).
It's funny that the Noxious Revival-Past in Flames-Exarch-Twin pile guarantees the Exarch Twin combo.
Yeah I have been blowing people out with a transformational side that runs 4x Kiki and no Splinter Twin. People load up with Dispel, only to have me drop Kiki and win on the spot.
The cutting of Sleight of hand opened the deck up for Gifts.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
Looks like the above but with Faithless Looting and a gifts unburial option in the SB in addition to twin/exarch.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3457026
-You will have a giant advantage over most any opposing combo deck, since you're playing a control deck with countermagic and a bunch of various answers. (It's hard to play around singletons, which is why Gifts is so good against combo decks). Then, when you go off, your deck is built to play through a couple counterspells--and it doesn't generally fizzle if you play it properly (more on this below). It's not the only way to play the combo mirror, but it's probably the best execution of the 'safe' method, where you have bountiful disruption and anti-disruption at your disposal. You have the minefield of tricks for your opponent to play around, you have an easier time making land drops, and you have instant-speed card advantage.
-Gifts Ungiven gives the deck a full-blown tutor system, which means, so long as you stack your piles properly, you basically will never fizzle. It's not like you're leaning on a lot of cantrips and there is a mathematic possibility that you'll see 30/40 cards in your deck and not find one of your Grapeshots. With Gifts, you're going to find whatever you need. That certainty closes the margins of fizzling from a small, but still non-zero percentage to zero percent in any combo turn where Gifts is involved.
Granted, there are still games where the deck will go off on turn 3 and win on the spot, but they're not really reliable as it's not the point of the Gifts builds. If you want to win really fast, just play RB and roll Infernal Tutors. That kind of build wins on turn 3 a vast majority of the time, and can win on turn 2 at least 20% of the time (from my experience with roughly 200 goldfishes).
Mordern: Melira, UR Storm, RDW, Infect, W life/control, UW Tron
Legacy: RDW, Pox
Vintage: Dark Depths, R Grey Orge
Firstly, this thread is meant to discuss the all-in version of Gifts Storm - I know there is a slower control version which uses Gifts to neutralize the enemy board before going for the win. However, I want to Gifts on my opponent's T4, then win on my T5.
So here's the question: How do you do that? I've come up with a line of play that will give me at least +8 storm, 11 mana (10 red and one of any color), and a casted Gifts. How do I use this Gifts to find my game-winner?
In case you're wondering what the play is:
A ritual (1R: Add RRR to your mana pool.)
Another ritual, Increasing Vengeance, or Manamorphose
Gifts
One more land (or another ritual)
On enemy T4, cast Gifts, searching for:
Past in Flames
Seething Song
A ritual, Increasing Vengeance, or Manamorphose (get the two that you don't have in hand).
On your T5, untap, play a land, then do the following:
Cast all rituals, Seething Song and Manamorphose in your hand (using Increasing Vengeance to copy any rituals)
Cast or flashback Past in Flames
Flashback rituals until you have 5 red mana in your mana pool
Flashback Seething Song and Increasing Vengeance, netting 15 red mana
Flashback Manamorphose, turning RR into U+some other color
Flashback Gifts
You need at least 7 mana after you're done ritualing to flashback Past in Flames and continue generating mana. If you have Increasing Vengeance in hand, you need to bin it in order to make the massive, 15-mana generating play (above, bolded), hence the need for one other ritual in hand. If you have no rituals at all in hand, your opponent can leave you stranded by putting Increasing Vengeance and Past in Flames in your hand.
You're left with 11 mana after this, so how do you close the game?
If it helps, Gifting for Gifts, Past in Flames, Seething Song and Increasing Vengeance after that will allow you to get either 3 more Gifts and 2 mana or 2 more Gifts and 5 mana, depending on how your opponent splits your piles.
TLDR: Win with one of the following scenarios:
11 mana, 1 Gifts on the stack
5 mana, 2 Gifts on the stack
2 mana, 3 Gifts on the stack
Also, how do you deal with hate? Bounce is pretty bad if you're trying to go off on T4, because if you bounce something on T3, they'll just put it back down on T4 and stop the EOT Gifts. You must be able to fire off a bounce spell and Gifts on the same turn, which requires a minimum of 6 mana. Should this deck splash green for Nature's Claim and maybe Noxious Revival?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
1) If you flashback Grapeshot it's gone for good, Remanding it won't bring it to hand.
2) If you cast Past when Grapeshot is in your graveyard, then Call to Mind it back to hand for example, it changes zones, so it loses flashback.
Counterspell isn't legal in Modern and I don't see any use for it; you'd either get stopped while trying to cast rituals or have Pact of Negation to force the combo through.
I should probably add 2 conditions:
1) No matter how your opponent splits piles, you can win. Always assume perfect play.
2) 20 damage to your opponent is reached, not just a difficult-to-recover position. I could use Unburial Rites + Iona, but I still have a small chance of losing afterwards.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Generally, you can get to 20 storm once you've double-forked Increasing Vengeance. If not, you can make some tight plays with Snapcaster Mage and Noxious Revival, and get it into your hand. I play a controlling version with less mana and filter, and I never have trouble going off when I need to. It's possible that's because I also run Merchant Scrolls, so I often have a lot more business to flashback. Can you upload your exact list? It would help a lot, since I don't know what your options are.
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
The control version of this deck can dawdle after wiping your opponent's board to drop lands. I want to play a version that can win on T5, so I'm restricted to 5 lands when I want to go off.
I haven't got a decklist ready yet as I want to solve the problem of how, exactly, I'm going to kill my opponent.
I think I've solved the 5 mana 2 Gifts case:
8 storm, 10 red, 1 blue: Gifts for Gifts, Past, Seething Song, Increasing Vengeance
Opponent puts Gifts and IV in hand
Cast Gifts and copy with IV: 10 storm, 5 red
Gifts for: 1) Ritual, Ritual, Seething Song, Manamorphose and 2) Ritual, Ritual, Seething Song, Grapeshot
Each pile has 3 mana-makers and your opponent can only bin 2, so at least 1 from each pile will make it to your hand. Cast them for 12 storm, 7 red. Cast the remainder of the non-Grapeshot spells.
Flashback Past (from the previous Gifts) to 13 storm, 2 red.
Flashback all rituals, SS, Manamorphose (min. 6) to 19 storm. Cast or flashback Grapeshot for lethal.
EDIT: Solved the 3 Gifts 2 mana case, although it involves playing 2 Simian Spirit Guide to double up on ritual effects (Gifts must find cards with different names). I need to double-check that storm count is high enough to win, though.
Gifts for:
1) Ritual, Ritual, SSG, Past
2) Ritual, Ritual, SSG, Song
3) Ritual, Ritual, Song, Grapeshot
No matter how your opponent splits pile 1, you need only 3 more mana to win. If Past is in your graveyard you'll have 2 mana floating, plus 2 rituals in hand. Flashing Past + Grapeshot requires 7 mana. If Past is in your hand you'll have 2 mana floating, plus 1 ritual in hand. Casting Past + Grapeshot requires 6 mana.
Pile 2 ensures that you have 2 more mana from rituals.
Pile 3 ensures that you have 1 more mana from rituals, and finds the wincon, Grapeshot.
Cast all rituals & Songs in your hand, exile SSGs, then cast/flashback Past. Flashback all rituals and Songs to build storm count, then cast/flashback Grapeshot for lethal.
My deck now looks like this:
6 Island
1 Mountain
3 Sulfur Falls
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
Draw/Dig 8
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song
Mana Fixing 7
4 Manamorphose
3 Izzet Signet
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Past in Flames
2 Increasing Vengeance
1 Grapeshot
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pact of Negation
1 Echoing Truth
SSG is a necessary evil; even though it can't be flashed with Past, it's necessary to win if you're in the 3 Gifts 2 mana case.
Izzet Signet can let you win a full turn earlier. Remember that you need it on 2 turns: on your opponent's end step (when you Gifts), and again on your turn. It's better than Pentad Prism in this way. Other choices would be Coldsteel Heart and Sphere of the Suns. Or maybe even Fellwar Stone and Star Compass (shudder).
My version of Gifts doesn't do much until you manage to fire Gifts off - you only have the 8 digging cards and 3 Signets to cast. I usually let Steam Vents ETB tapped for this reason.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Your solutions all work. You seem to be going fine. I'd consider Merchant Scrolls as an addition, depending on how dedicated you are to casting Gifts (They're much more reliable, actually, and give you something to do with your mana fairly early on, and are less blue-intensive on combo turns)
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
Pretty sure rules text on Flashback states that when the spell would leave the stack it gets exiled instead, so Remand on a FB Grapeshot is down-right terrible.
Edit: Rule 702.32 specifically section a.
LK just forgot to write Noxious Revival in that list of sequences. You Noxious the Grapeshot, cycle into it with whatever cantrip you want (usually Manamorphose) and then you can Shot--Remand--Shot--Remand--Shot and so on and so forth. With one grapeshot and 4 Remands in the deck, I have done over 300 points of damage a handful of times in games. In theory, if you don't play any of your Remands or your Noxious pre-combo and you draw/Muddle into Grapeshot, you could play a total of 12 Grapeshots: Itself, 4 Remands, 4 flashbacked Remands, Noxioused Grapeshot, flashback on Noxious, and then Flashback on Grapeshot itself. On top of this, you could theoretically use flashbacked Increasing Vengeances to copy Remand twice to Remand Shot and Remand itself; this wouldn't normally happen though because IV is usually used to double fork a Seething Song after PiF and act like a 2 mana-->10 mana ritual so you can afford to cast all these spells. But in a Vacuum, if you hit every land drop in your deck and comboed on turn 30 with perfect draws, you could probably do at least 700 points of damage with just one Grapeshot being recycled a bunch of times.
Did you actually want to talk about storm combo, or were you just necroing a thread to nitpick?
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
I would add something to this if it wasn't perfectly written.
The way I see it, Merchant Scroll is an incorrect card choice because it's a a sorcery. If a deck is built around counterspells and tricks, it is designed to function at instant speed and therefore playing a 2 mana sorcery as a 3-4 of is backwards logic. Mystical Teachings gets everything that Scroll can get, but in addition it also gets off-color cards (Seething Song!), it's card advantage, and you can also throw one into a Gifts pile and by itself it threatens to continue the gifts chain. You should be holding mana open for Remand or other countermagic and threatening to play draw spells or charge your storage lands EoT, not having to make decisions about whether to Scroll or not. I feel that if you take most any sorcery and make it an instant, it's probably worth about one more mana. If we could play a 2U instant tutor that grabs blue instants, we would probably play it over Scroll, right? So think about it this way: Teachings is that card, but for one additional mana, you get a flashback spell that can grab off-color cards and even flash creatures (post-board).
You cannot possibly fizzle when you combo off with Gifts Ungiven, so long as you play correctly. Everything is directly tutored. In a straightforward URx storm build with a bunch of cantrips and PiF/Pyromancer Ascension, you have all kinds of potential clumps of land or lack of draw spells that can wreck your day while you're going off. So Gifts is definitely more reliable. It's also harder to hate out Gifts storm because the deck has storage lands, actual 2-for-1 draw spells that are instants, and a decent package of countermagic and anti-disruption cards (and that's pre-board). Yes, it's a little slower, though...but the speed at which you combo off is always completely relative to the tempo of the game.
You're going to eat other combo decks for breakfast if you play Gifts, especially my build. You're a control deck with 6 bomb draw spells, loads of countermagic, storage lands, a Teferi, multiple answers to Warrens, an Extirpate, and the ability to end the game immediately if your opponent leaves himself exposed.
I'm not sure what aggro decks you're afraid of, but basically you can put whatever answers you want into the deck and if you devote the space, you'll beat any match-up. Problems with 1-drop aggro? More Explosives. Problems with Delvers and Vendilion Cliques? More Combust. Issues with Thoughtseize decks? More Ignorant Bliss. It's all about metagaming.
You've found it. So many times, I'll fake going off by playing a ritual, watching them countering it, and then remanding it (giving me a 2-for-1 and baiting out a counter). You can even play through Relics by playing your Past in Flames, then responding to their Relic activation by forking your PiF and flashing back everything in your yard in response. That's how good Remand and Increasing Vengeance are at fighting countermagic.
If you resolve a Gifts Ungiven EoT, you don't need Unburial Rites to win games. And those 2 cards are a complete waste of space in your deck.
Plus, casting Gifts Ungiven just to get Unburial Rites is like slapping Gifts Ungiven in the face.