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Trevor Holmes Plays MTGO Ep. 5: Bringing Gifts!

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Hey guys! Welcome to Episode 5 of our Modern Nexus Video Series, where we pick a sweet list and run it through some matches on Magic Online. This week we have Luis Scott-Vargas' Bringing Gifts deck, which he talked about a little while ago on the Mothership. This deck features the traditional Four-Color Gifts Ungiven shenanigans, but with Bring to Light now in the mix for even more craziness!

Gifts_Master

Will Bring to Light be enough to finally push this deck into the spotlight? Let's find out!

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"Bringing Gifts - Luis Scott-Vargas"

Creatures

4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thragtusk
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Sorceries

3 Bring to Light
1 Unburial Rites
1 Damnation
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Raven's Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Lingering Souls

Instants

4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Murderous Cut
1 Path to Exile
1 Sultai Charm

Artifacts

1 Engineered Explosives

Lands

4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Island

Sideboard

2 Lingering Souls
1 Agent of Erebos
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Spellskite
1 Dispel
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Celestial Purge
1 Negate
2 Timely Reinforcements

Deck Tech

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF67HrSHQ_o&w=560&h=315]

Round 1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlsbC7896W4&w=560&h=315]

Round 2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTC6HIwYiRo&w=560&h=315]

*Accidentally muted my webcam a few minutes before the end of the video. Apologies for the audio loss, gameplay still there though!

Round 3

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xjiur4OCw&w=560&h=315]

The results were not too bad! My prior experiences with Four Color Gifts had me worried that our deck would be too clunky and awkward, and the added power that Bring to Light provided wouldn't do much to change things. We only played three matches, but I think it's safe to say that Bring to Light in Gifts is a game-changer. In my opinion, Bring to Light evens out our draws, making our bad draws better and our deck run smoother. The ability to effectively quadruple the number of sideboard cards we have for any matchup is incredible as well, giving Gifts an incredible post-sideboard gameplan against pretty much everyone.

I plan on playing this deck a lot more in the coming weeks, so if you have any opinions/thoughts feel free to let me know in the comments or stop by my Twitch stream at twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming! Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week!

Trevor Holmes
The_Architect on MTGO
twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming
twitter.com/7he4rchitect

5 thoughts on “Trevor Holmes Plays MTGO Ep. 5: Bringing Gifts!

  1. I dont have any sound after 12min, is that just me?

    Also, I play Gift for a while now and BtL have improve every single MU I have face since. I choose to not play this much discard MD (mb am i wrong) but I play more anti-creature (3 decay, 1 slaughter pact, a second sultai charm, 1 path) play along with the usual pulse, damnation etc.
    Highly due to a strong midrange MU, I, atm, am kinda happy with my double singleton of IoK and Thoughseize.
    And the last word goes to Liliana who, even if u cant reach her with BtL, still does her job and need her place in this deck ^^

    I like your new serie, more since we seem to play the same deck (I went to Grixis control for Gift control with a UW control as a backup) but u really made me cry with some of your choice here XD

    I wish u luck and courage for the next vid

    Bon baiser de France

  2. Something that might be helpful for anyone interested in upping their mental game is avoiding seeing a right answers/plays/etc as though it is ‘out there’. Instead, assess things, possibilities and use those to find the right answers/etc/etc. Right answers do not exist until we make them. Even one that works out despite being produced by faulty logic or whatever else really ends up being right.

    The only real difference between the two approaches is that the former encourages a condition of thought that is less conducive to effective problem-solving; keeps anxiousness about outcome from clouding judgment.

  3. The deck looks very fun and powerful, thx for bringing it to light!

    A little detail that cought my attention is that eidolon of rhetoric from the probably should be something else, because i believe it shuts down bring to light, as it casts the searched spell. Not a huge deal, there are many options but it would feel so bad to spend 5 mana on a spell that doesn’t do anything…

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