#mtg Gift

[jarad-vod-vevo]

Been getting back into MTG through Arena. Been enjoying Bloomburrow a lot.

I've been enjoying the challenge of building decks around new mechanics and cards, using the limited resources of my collection (I just started Arena at the end of Outlaws of Thunder Junction).

I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen hardly any use of the Gift cards. Parting Gust might be the exception but even that I hardly see.

So I decided to make a deck based around Gifting and I had a lot of fun playing it today so I wanted to share it somewhere. So anyways, here's Kambal's Birthday Party:

The deck idea is based around two cards: Kambal, Profiteering Mayor and Jolly Gerbils.

Most of the Gift cards give a token, so Kambal feels like a great card to build around. Plus, I've had a fair amount of good experiences with this card this set thanks to all of the Offspring tokens running around.

So this is the deck: Give gifts and Tokens, make profit.

Since I'm now looking at black and white, there's a great selection of removal, specifically with the gift mechanic:

This is where Jolly Gerbils shine: (Most of) your spot removal are now cantrips. Its nuts. (As a side note, I don't know why Nocturnal Hunger isn't seeing more play in Bat decks. Like its a great way to trigger life loss if you don't have the pain lands: but maybe pain lands are the reason)

Parting Gust doubling as a protection spell provides some good versatility, but most of the time I use it for removal (and giving my opponent a fish is just funny. Like "Oh you want to hit me with your mid-range beatdown creature? Well, have a fish instead!") Most of our creatures want to stay at 2 power (is that foreshadowing?), so we don't usually really want the +1/+1.

So we are sitting as a sort of control deck. Lots of spot removal and lots (and I mean LOTS) of card draw. My selection of board wipes is kind of bad so my list doesn't include any, but I might consider changing that.

We also have some non-gifting removal:

Savor is great for dealing with early threats. There's also always a need to keep the board clear of 2/2 blockers so the our little creatures can swing in (Ooo more foreshadowing). This is good versus mono-red, killing those Heartfire Heros before they get to big and you won't take any damage to boot. The food token is a bit of icing on the cake, but it does trigger Kambal which is great!

Stroke of Midnight is an honorary gift. Sure it doesn't trigger Gerbils, but it does trigger Kambal. It hits any nonland permanent so its super valuable.

We are going to include some more lifegain on creatures in a bit, and we have a lot of food tokens running around, so Gumdrop Poisoner is a really nice piece. Often its good to just kill a 3/3 with the ETB and then trade her with another 3/3. Corner case use where you use Parting Gust to flicker her to protect her from removal, but would usually rather her eat a removal spell and use Parting Gust as removal or to protect your Gerbils.

Now I just need to fill in some more creature slots.

Delney is just amazing. Honestly, its mostly just that you get the doubling effect for only 3 mana. This is essentially a way to get more card draw out of Gerbils: having two Gerbils is really good, and their 2/3 body makes them really good for swinging into 2/2 blockers.

Kambal's drain for 1 also triggers twice, but unfortunately his copy effect is limited to once a turn so you don't get to double up there.

I have a full playset of Vadmir for some reason (I'm only running 2 at the moment in the deck), but, man, do we commit a lot of crimes. Building him up, he makes a good blocker. Once you hit 4 counters and start swinging, you're basically on the road to winning with a 6/6 Menace Lifelink.

Deep-Cavern Bat can get a lot of chip damage in in the right match-up, and even if your opponent uses removal on it, well that's one less removal spell on your value engine pieces. If Delney is on the field, you can even steal two cards, which is pretty sweet, but that's by turn 4 and doesn't happen too often where your opponent even has 2 cards left.

But that does bring up protection. We have a lot of pieces that are fairly small and fragile, so we need some ways to keep them alive, or bring them back.

I've had two copies of Dawn's Truce since the beginning of the set. It seems like a really good card: you can fizzle removal, it can be used as a combat trick, and you can save your board from (some) board wipes. You need to keep mana up, but you are often holding your mana to use removal on your opponent's turn anyways to try to 2-for-1 them, so it works really nicely here. With Gerbils out, I even find it useful to use the Gift effect just to draw more cards from the deck, even if you don't need the indestructible.

I'm trying out Dewdrop Cure. Its part of the reason why I'm running Vadmir and Deep-Cavern Bat. Once opponents figure out the gift plan, the Gerbils get a big target. Because you draw so many cards, you often end up with multiple Gerbils either in play or in the graveyard. As I mentioned with Delney, getting multiple Gerbil effects really makes you go off. I've only got one of these in my collection, but if it performs well, I'll definitely increase it.

Cruelclaw's Heist helps deal with removal better than Deep-Cavern: if you gift the card, you can use your opponents removal against them! There's also a really great play where you open with Bat, take a look at their hand and take some mediocre early / mid-game card, then follow up with a Cruelclaw's heist if the opponent has anything good (you need to decide to gift the card as you cast the spell, so you don't want to wiff and give your opponent a card). I've only got 1 in my collection, and I don't have the wildcards to invest right now (I've been trying to invest in my mana base so that my two-colour decks are smoother and three-colour decks are viable), but it might be a worthwhile investment in the future.

Also, Consumed by Greed from our removal suite has its own gift effect letting us bring any of our dead creatures back to hand. This is good since Dewdrop can't hit Kambal or Delney.

To close out the game, I'm just using some big bodies I've got on hand:

I've got 1 Beza and 1 Viper in my collection. Beza is probably only good for the life and a big body as you are often fairly low on life by the time you take control of the game. Between your removal and hand disruption, you don't often get to draw the cards or get the fish tokens off Beza so it's kind of mid. Could probably just run another big creature with lifelink and you might get better value.

Viper is interesting: because of the removal and hand disruption, your opponent often has to take the life or sacrifice artifacts and enchantments that we don't have much removal for. We also often end up with spare tokens thanks to Kambal and Savor, so it can be pretty easy to get a cost reduction.

I've got 2 copies of Season of the Burrow. It's unfortunate that the 2-print effect doesn't say gift a card, but it's still good removal for their big payoff cards. The three-print effect can be game winning on a Vadmir or a Delney. Indestructible Vadmir give you a win-con that's hard to deal with: just keep swinging and gaining life. Delney provides so much value in the deck that the indestructible just keeps them protected. Do note that Kambal triggers once per effect that creates tokens, so if you decide to make 5 rabbits, he will only trigger once. Usually I do a 2-3 split, but I could see a 1-2-2 split being viable to remove 2 big threats and give you a token.

That's pretty much the deck. I usually like to play mid-range strategies, and find control kind of boring, but the synergies going on here are a lot of fun. Jolly Gerbils is really undervalued in best-of-one, so you often get a few card draws off before your opponent figures out what your doing. By then, they've probably wasted their removal on your other creatures. The protection and resurrection effects really piece it together at that point as you have the mana to spare to hold up protection while casting removal spells.

Honorary mentions:

Coiling Rebirth felt like a great inclusion. I've got 2 in my collection, but often the only thing I can bring back is a legendary creature, so we can't reliably use the gift. It is nice when you bring back a Gerbil and get a Gerbil token. If I get more Vipers, I'll probably include these again, because double viper effect (or triple with Delney as they will double the token's effect) is absolutely nuts. Cut from the deck: too expensive to resurrect a 2-mana or 3-mana creature.

I started the deck with Builder's Talent because of the synergy with Kambal and gifting tokens, but 1) its very much just win-more, 2) it only works with Kambal and Savor, 3) there are no targets for the level 3 effect, and 4) I only ever want to put the counters on a Deep-Cavern Bat, Vadmir, or Gumdrop Poisoner. I'm committed to finding a deck for Builder's Talent (it can be like Innkeeper's Talent but can trigger more than once per turn...), but this is just to clunky for this deck.

I have one copy of Starfall. We also usually have more than 1 creature on the board so even with the gift it doesn't feel great. Good with Beza though. Sideboard worthy, I suppose.

Crumb and Get It could be more protection. Because of Delney limiting most blockers to 2 power, and Gerbils' 2/3 body, we don't often need the pump in combat. A food token is a better trade than a card gift, so an argument could be made for Crumb and Get It over Dawn's Truce. Something to experiment with for sure.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Azusa, Lost but Seeking

"I do not miss Jukai Forest. It is not my home. My home is Kamigawa, its people my family. Wherever I set my pack and rest my head, I am home."

Artist: Winona Nelson TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-art-daily]

Bloodstained Mire

Artist: Rob Alexander

[reuxben]

Here’s our MTGinktober for “Road," starring Azusa, Lost but Seeking; Sakura-Tribe Elder; and Captivating Crossroads! They've been at this for so long they forgot who's asking who for directions.

Click this post’s Source link for this piece’s Making-Of.

More MTGinktober here.

Daily art updates on Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky.

Reuxben

[stockholmgf]

i have to mute myself every day on the phone with my bf so i can “tell” him all about the surprises i’m working on for him cause i simply cannot keep my mouth shut

[googlyeyesonmagiccards]

Oh what did you get me? Oh, it's venom? Thanks, I guess...

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Generous Gift by Chris Seaman

[mtg-smash-or-pass]

[mtgatherercomments]

[sexhaver]

The weirdest thing about ygo rules to me is that they don't have fail to find out fizzling it's just an illegal game action to activate those effects

Richard Garfield is rolling in his grave and he's not even dead yet

[almostlookedhuman]

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Gift of the Viper

Ohran mages willingly endure the bites of vipers, believing the snakes bestow great power on those who survive their venom.

Artist: Madeline Boni TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[pyrot3ch-nick]

the new magic the gathering set Duskmourn is 80s and horror films inspired

and one card is coming for my former "AP/honors/gifted straight A student" ass

A very not uncommon nightmare I still get even since graduating from university years ago

[nerdytreasuresbyamy]

So much con prep!!

[art-of-mtg]

Grindstone (Judge Gift Cards 2023) - Dan Murayama Scott

More cards with art by Dan Murayama Scott on Scryfall

[memento--moray]

[MTG Fanart] Tamiyo