In the Chapin entrepreneurial spirit (get your copy of Next Level Magic today!), I began offering Vintage lessons this summer. I’ve offered wondered there aren’t more players that offer formal lessons. Chess players offer Chess lessons. Trained singers offer voice lessons. You can get lessons in almost every form of martial art and sport. Why not Magic? If anything, such coaching is even easier for Magic because Magic can be played online, and with Skype and a webcam, it’s as if you are playing in person.
In any case, in coaching a small group of players in my free time, I’ve had the opportunity to closely observe the recurring difficulties that advancing Vintage Magic players encounter. Originally, I had intended on writing an article discussing many of these, particularly since they are so common among beginner and intermediate players. I also believe that even advanced players may struggle in some of these areas, and would enjoy such an article. However, some of these issues are so big that I can’t possibly cover all of them in one article. Instead, I’ve chosen one of them for this article: proper utilization of Gifts Ungiven.
This is one of the top things with which beginner or intermediate Tezzeret pilots really need help. However, it’s also something that even experienced Vintage players can improve. I even watched far more advanced players blunder using Gifts. Without a doubt, Gifts Ungiven is one of the most skill intensive cards in Vintage Magic, and most difficult to properly use. It’s a high pressure, high stakes card that requires you to make not one tutoring choice, but four in one spell, in less than sixty seconds.
In fact, I think fear over proper utilization causes many players not to even run Gifts.
I asked my teammates which of the three cards they felt was better in Vintage Tezzeret:
I was very curious how they might respond. The recent restriction of Thirst may make Thirst an even more salient spell, stronger in the memory. Yet, without fail, everyone who spoke up said Gifts was the best. All three cards are restricted, but Gifts is the strongest of the three. That’s one reason I was so surprised that in LSV’s massive tournament report on the Mana Drain, from the Eudominia, he said that he wasn’t sure about Gifts versus Fact. Fact is good, but Gifts is spectacular.
A few years ago, I wrote articles on constructing optimal Gifts piles, but often in highly context specific situations. See my article, “Gifts: The Puzzling,” for an example.
Today, rather than focus on unusual situations, I’ve focused on the three main phases of the game for crafting Gifts piles, 1) the early game, 2) the mid-game, and 3) the late game. I will look at specific scenarios in each phase of the game, but the focus of the article will be on crafting Gifts piles within each phase.
Early Games Gift Piles
The early game, as I conceptualize it, is on turn 1 or 2. These Gifts piles must be constructed with limited resources: 1-2 lands, at most, and not many other cards in hand. That means, early game Gifts, being resource builders, are very different from mid-game and late-game Gifts.
Let’s start with a concrete hypothetical. Suppose your opening hand is as follows:
Gifts Ungiven
Mana Crypt
Mox Emerald
Island
Polluted Delta
Mana Drain
Force of Will
This hand has two lands, two artifact accelerants, the two four-of counterspells, and Gifts. Suppose that you fan open this hand on turn 1, and you have no idea what your opponent is playing. What’s your plan? Do you know what you’d do? If not, don’t worry. You aren’t alone.
Major Considerations
Knowing what to Gifts for requires a number of critical skills. First, it requires a clear understanding of not just how to play your cards, but how to develop from the early game forward.
For example, a novice Tezzeret player may think that turn 1 Gifts should just get the four best cards in the deck. This kind of opening hand can be overwhelming. A great Gifts package can win the game, or lead to a game win. A weak one can create major late-game headaches.
A good early Gifts pile seeks to accomplish several ends. It hopes to help you develop your board state and your overall game position. It hopes to advance you to your strategic goals, whether that is comboing out with Time Vault or Tinkering for a different win condition. It also hopes to prevent your opponent from stopping you subsequent to the Gifts, so it may also be defensive. All three of these elements are critical to keep in mind.
Vintage games, like Chess games, require development. Just as the advancement of pawns in Chess opens up the board to the more significant pieces, the development of mana and other resources opens up the game to larger plays in Vintage. More mana and more cards in the graveyard, for instance, make Yawgmoth’s Wills more deadly.
What’s so amazing about Gifts is how it can uniquely accomplish all of these goals simultaneously. It pulls cards out of your deck and into the most relevant zones: your hand, your graveyard and, indirectly, your board.
Now, let’s consider the situation again.
Your hand is:
Gifts Ungiven
Mana Crypt
Mox Emerald
Island
Polluted Delta
Mana Drain
Force of Will
I would play Mana Crypt, Mox Emerald, Island, and pass the turn. This would give you an opportunity to see what your opponent is playing, and give you a chance to adopt your Gifts to their game plan.
Let me start with the ‘abstract’ answer, and then talk about how I would modify my original plan based upon what my opponent is playing.
Consider your resources once again. On turn 2 you will have access to 5 mana, U(U/B/R)3. Given the situation, and the three goals articulated, one of my favorite inclusions is Time Walk.
Time Walk advances the development goal. It allows you to further develop the resources in hand and on the board, by making land drops and doubling up your mana. It also serves as protection for whichever card it is paired with.
I also strongly favor both Merchant Scroll and Demonic Tutor. Merchant Scroll is a tutor for Ancestral Recall, which is a great development tool. Having Scroll in your graveyard is also useful for the late game, as you can pair it with Yawgmoth’s Will to tutor for Mystical Tutor, which can find Tinker, which Ancestral Recall can draw.
Demonic Tutor serves a similar function. Demonic Tutor can find anything, but Tinker in particular is one of the larger threats here. Neither Demonic Tutor nor Merchant Scroll are card disadvantageous, so they also serve the development goals. And like Merchant Scroll, Demonic Tutor is a great card to have in your graveyard.
Consider, also, how both cards interact with Time Walk. You can Time Walk and play either Merchant Scroll or Demonic Tutor on turn 2 and untap with the new card in hand, which you can immediately play. For example, if they give you Demonic Tutor, you can untap, draw a card, Time Walk, play the Polluted Delta, and cast Demonic Tutor for Tinker. Then you can untap, draw another card, and cast Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan. Meanwhile, your opponent has only had one turn, and you are sitting there with at least two lands in play, a Mox, Force of Will, Mana Drain, and two fresh cards in hand. You’ve massively out-tempoed your opponent.
Even if they don’t give you Demonic Tutor, Merchant Scroll isn’t bad either. You can play Ancestral Recall on turn 3, make another land drop, and you’ll have five fresh cards in your hand, three turns, a full graveyard, and your opponent will have only played one turn. You are so far ahead that it will be difficult for them to catch up.
As you can see, the tempo of Time Walk is so powerful when paired with these tutors that your opponent may even be tempted to not give you Time Walk. If that’s the case, they’ll trade off a little bit of tempo for giving you a lot of power.
But what about the fourth card? Since the predicate power of Demonic Tutor and Merchant Scroll in these piles is having Ancestral Recall and Tinker in your deck, you can’t choose those cards. Also, getting Yawgmoth’s Will is a poor decision, as that is a card you’ll want to abuse later on in the game. The card I would get, in the abstract, is Dark Confidant.
Dark Confidant is similar to both Demonic Tutor and Merchant Scroll when paired with Time Walk here. If they give you Dark Confidant and Time Walk, you untap, draw a card, play your Polluted Delta, find a land, cast Time Walk and then cast Dark Confidant. You will then untap and see two new fresh cards and can attack for two damage. In short, you will have drawn three new cards, have a Bob in play already for further card draw, and likely be able to control the rest of the game.
All of this is primarily to underscore the power of Time Walk.
So, again, with Time Walk, Dark Confidant, Merchant Scroll, and Demonic Tutor, your opponent has these options for cards to give you:
1) Time Walk + Dark Confidant
2) Time Walk + Merchant Scroll
3) Time Walk + Demonic Tutor
4) Dark Confidant + Merchant Scroll
5) Dark Confidant + Demonic Tutor
6) Merchant Scroll + Demonic Tutor
The first three options are clearly great for you. They create card advantage and further resources. They advance your strategic goals and protect you from their counter-strategies.
If they don’t give you Time Walk, they will be giving you plenty of firepower. I find it hard to believe that they would give you both Demonic Tutor and Merchant Scroll. This would allow you to play both on turn 2, and you could set up Ancestral Recall + Tinker on the next turn, which would be difficult for them to stop, as they would only have had two turns and you still have Force of Will and Mana Drain and another card in hand.
It’s more likely that they would give you (4) or (5). Oddly enough, one of the more awkward options for you would be (5), since you likely only have one Black mana source. In that position, I would likely try to play turn 2 Demonic Tutor for Tinker, and cast Tinker, to maximize your resources. Remember that they only have had one turn, and they probably don’t have Force, since they didn’t try to stop your Gifts. Alternatively, if they did have Force, you Forced it, and resolved Gifts. In this case, Tinkering away the Mana Crypt on turn 2 should work well. When you pass the turn back, it will only be their second turn. Their ability to likely answer it will requires all of their resources, and by then you can set up Dark Confidant on the following turn.
If they give you (4), I would consider playing both Bob and Scroll for Ancestral, or just Scroll for Ancestral and play Ancestral. Either play is strong.
Alternative configurations of the same set up include:
Mox, Mox, Sol Ring, Polluted Delta, Island, Gifts
And…
Mox, Mox, Mox, Delta, Island, Gifts
Except that in those three artifact accelerant configurations you don’t have Force + Blue spell to protect your Gifts. Nonetheless, I would likely Gifts for the same cards. However, another class of early game Gifts is turn 2 Gifts. For example, suppose you had this hand:
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Island
Polluted Delta
Gifts Ungiven
Force of Will
Mana Drain
The same previous analysis applies.
The basic set up outlined thus may not work if you don’t have Black mana. Suppose, for example, that instead your hand looked like this:
Tolarian Academy
Island
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Gifts Ungiven
Force of Will
Mana Drain
In this situation, you actually have the potential to generate five mana on turn 1, but no Black. I would consider, then, a Gifts pile that looks like this:
Merchant Scroll, Demonic Tutor, Sensei’s Divining Top, and Mystical Tutor.
Here are their six options:
1) Merchant Scroll + Demonic Tutor
2) Merchant Scroll + Top
3) Merchant Scroll + Mystical Tutor
4) Demonic Tutor + Top
5) Demonic Tutor + Mystical Tutor
6) Top + Mystical Tutor
Any of these piles is fantastic for you.
If they give you any pile with Mystical Tutor, you can immediately play it on turn 1 with the Academy and find either Tinker or Ancestral Recall (probably Tinker). If they give you the pile with Top, again, you can play Top immediately. The only pile they can give you that you can’t do anything with is potentially the most powerful pile, pile (1).
If you don’t feel like gambling with the bluff that you have Black mana in hand, or access to Black mana in the near future, consider substituting Thirst For Knowledge in for Demonic Tutor. Your opponent will be hard pressed to give you Thirst and Merchant Scroll, two of the most recently restricted Blue engine cards.
Remember that you are generating card advantage, not just card quality, by turning one card, Gifts, into two very good cards.
This is not the case with this set up:
Black Lotus
Island
Polluted Delta
Gifts Ungiven
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Misc Card
This is the most difficult early game Gifts pile because it 1) does not generate card advantage just by playing Gifts, 2) you do not have the resources to make the plays that were made in the first example, where you can abuse Time Walk, and 3) you are trading an excellent card, Black Lotus, for potentially weaker cards. In this situation, I would almost be tempted not to even play Gifts until you can Mana Drain into it. That said, there are reasons to play Gifts. For example, and I will talk more about this in just a moment, if you have either Voltaic Key or Time Vault in hand. Alternatively, you may wish to Gifts in response to a spell and put Force into a pile just so that you can get some additional cards that you may prefer more.
For example, if your opponent plays turn 1 Oath, you may want to Gifts for a pile like this:
Force of Will
Misdirection
Merchant Scroll
Mystical Tutor
They may give you Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor, or Misdirection and one of the tutors. You can then Force of Will their Oath, pitching Drain. Then you can untap, Mystical Tutor for Ancestral, and play it.
Even in the absence of a good play to respond to, if you feel compelled to play Gifts, there are still some decent piles you can get. For example, this isn’t bad:
Mystical Tutor
Brainstorm
Ponder
Dark Confidant
Even if your opponent gives you Brainstorm and Ponder, your hand will look like this:
Polluted Delta
Mana Drain
Force of Will
Ponder
Brainstorm
Misc. Card
Not bad.
Finally, there is one other major and important early game Gifts variation: when you have either Time Vault or Voltaic Key in hand.
Suppose your opening hand is one of the standard early games Gifts scenarios, but instead of having Force, you have Time Vault in hand:
Let’s use the same example as before, but this time on the draw to give us an additional card in hand:
Mox Emerald
Mana Crypt
Island
Polluted Delta
Gifts Ungiven
Time Vault
Force of Will
Mana Drain
With a situation like this, I believe you can be far more aggressive.
Consider these Gifts cards:
Tinker, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Voltaic Key
They can give you:
1) Voltaic Key + Tinker
2) Voltaic Key + Time Walk
3) Voltaic Key + Ancestral Recall
4) Tinker + Time Walk
5) Tinker + Ancestral Recall
6) Ancestral Recall + Time Walk
No matter what they give you, it’s bonkers. If they strongly suspect you have Time Vault in hand, they may well give you Tinker + Time Walk, which is still unbelievable.
Here’s another option that I like just about as much:
Tezzeret, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Voltaic Key
1) Voltaic Key + Tezzeret
2) Voltaic Key + Time Walk
3) Voltaic Key + Ancestral Recall
4) Tezzeret + Time Walk
5) Tezzeret + Ancestral Recall
6) Ancestral Recall + Time Walk
If they suspect that you have Time Vault in hand, they can’t give you Time Walk + Tezzeret, unlike Tinker + Time Walk. They obviously won’t give you 1-3 either, which leaves 5 or 6. Unfortunately, (5) under this scenario is worse than (4) under the previous scenario. That’s why I view either one of these options as nearly as good.
I want to present one more variant of this:
Suppose your hand was:
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
Mana Crypt
Mox Emerald
Gifts Ungiven
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Time Vault
Suppose you play turn 1 Delta instead of the other land this time, and you can take advantage of your access to Black mana when you Gifts. Now you can Gifts as follows:
Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Imperial Seal
If you don’t run Imperial Seal, you can try to run Tinker. But Imperial Seal + Time Walk, the weakest pile they can give you, will still allow you to easily assemble the combo.
Suppose you don’t have Force of Will in hand, or your hand is just:
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
Mana Crypt
Mox Emerald
Gifts Ungiven
Mana Drain
Time Vault
You can Gifts for:
Force of Will, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Tinker.
The lesson: Time Vault makes Gifts Ungiven even more ridiculous.
The early game Gifts scenario has already taken over 2,500 words, so rather than be comprehensive and show you every single possible Gifts combination, I hope I’ve given you some insight into how to build early game Gifts piles.
Mid-Game Gifts Piles
I’d like to turn and briefly discuss mid-game Gifts piles. The mid-game Gifts piles are qualitatively different from the early game Gifts choices. The goals are slightly different, and development is less important than disruption and card selection.
Suppose you have four lands on the table: Volcanic Island, Underground Sea, Island, Island, and a Mox and Sol Ring. Suppose you just won a counter war and now have three Mana Drain mana. You untap and play Gifts. What do you get?
Since you aren’t in the end-game, you can’t beeline for Yawgmoth’s Will to win, unless your graveyard is stocked, in which case you should be aggressive (see End Game section).
Here’s what I might get:
Ancestral Recall, Tezzeret, Demonic Tutor, and Tinker.
They can give you:
1) Ancestral Recall + Tezzeret
2) Ancestral Recall + Demonic Tutor
3) Ancestral Recall + Tinker
4) Tezzeret + Demonic Tutor
5) Tezzeret + Tinker
6) Demonic Tutor + Tinker
They probably won’t give you either 2, 4, or 6, because Demonic Tutor means Yawgmoth’s Will. For that reason they certainly won’t give you (6), because you can Tinker for Black Lotus and then Yawgmoth’s Will. They will give you either (1), (3), or (5). Tezzeret is great here because you can play it immediately (a bonus of being in the mid-game) and find Time Vault. Your opponent will then have one turn to topdeck something or lose. I would probably give you (3) instead of (1), because at least you have a few turns to beat Tinker, whereas Tezzeret will immediately find Time Vault and win next turn. However, it’s most likely they’ll give you (5). It’s probably a tossup whether to play Tinker or Tezzeret.
There is one wrinkle. If you have a Sensei’s Divining Top, then topdeck tutors like Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Imperial Seal are about as good as Demonic Tutor. Sensei’s Divining Top makes Gifts Ungiven much better, just as Time Vault does.
If you want to play it truly safe, as I probably would, you could go a bit more conservative and get something like this:
Mana Drain, Tinker, Ancestral Recall, and Dark Confidant.
Honestly, this is probably the four cards I’d get in this situation, without any other information. If my opponent is spent, I’d be happy to have an active Bob on the table and Drain to protect it. I feel strongly that I could win from that position.
However, if you want to be really aggressive, you could get something like this:
Yawgmoth’s Will, Time Walk, Tinker, and Tezzeret.
I probably wouldn’t be that ballsy, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with those piles.
I can’t speak with more detail since the context matters so much, and the specifics of the in-game situation make a huge difference, but I think that these examples will not only give you ideas to play with, but also help get you into the right frame of mind in terms of analyzing the construction of mid-game Gifts piles.
Late Game Gifts Piles
Late game Gifts piles, generally speaking come in two varieties that really make a difference: The first is when both players are in topdeck mode. The second is when you have a tiny window to win the game before your opponent smashes you. Precise Gifts piles make a huge difference.
The late-game scenarios happen in a tiny number of games, where both players have huge graveyards and have beaten the hell out of each other. Mana is no object, but neither player has been able to pull ahead, until now. You’ve just drawn Gifts Ungiven. How do you win?
In this situation, I tend to go for the tutor package to try and punch through Yawgmoth’s Will: Vampiric Tutor/Imperial Seal, Demonic Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Brainstorm/Ponder would be a fine set up. That way, you can immediately play Yawgmoth’s Will and win the game.
A similar Gifts package entails when you only have a tiny window to win.
I wanted to spend some time talking about special Gifts packages that arise in specific, recurring scenarios beyond early game, mid-game, and late game contexts, but I’ve written twelve pages of text in Word. I will dedicate a future article to those situations and to fleshing out the framework I’ve articulated here. If you’d like, send me or post Gifts situations you’ve encountered and I’ll use them in a future article.
But before I go, I have a puzzle for you:
Your opening hand is:
Tolarian Academy
Gifts Ungiven
Black Lotus
Demonic Tutor
Imperial Seal
Sensei’s Divining Top
Volcanic Island
Your opponent is playing Ichorid and they lead with turn 1 Bazaar of Baghdad. Suppose they will win on their third turn.
Here are my questions:
1) What is your plan? What do you do?
2) Suppose your opponent is on the draw. Does that change your plan?
3) Finally, suppose your opponent has turn zero Leyline of the Void. What do you do?
I’ll tell you my solutions after a sufficient number of responses in the forums.
Next week, I’ll be rebuilding Tezzeret from the ground up.
Until next time…
P.S. If you are interested in Vintage lessons, PM me and I’ll give you the details.