Great card. I think the key sentence here is card advandage + tutoring wrapped up into one. Plus if you play combo decks, you can get all the pieces with one card. Example: Grindstone + Painter's Servant + Academy Ruins + Life From the Loam, or Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths + Volrath's Stronghold + Life From the Loam. With your back against the wall you can fetch 4 removal cards and get to keep two of them etc. etc.
Posted By:
blackjackz
(3/3/2010 5:27:32 PM)
I'd give a choice of Painter's Servant, Grindstone, Argivian Restoration and Tinker, if you've got at least one other artifact (probably one that gives mana) on the battlefield.
@Tommy9898: Crucible of Worlds and Academy Ruins to the graveyard, Mindslaver and Gifts Ungiven to the hand. These selections delay your opponent the most, by probably two or three turns.
@Gilder_Bairn: Put Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor into the graveyard. If your opponent has enough mana in his next turn to pull off his combo after casting Grim Tutor ('cause he probably won't cast Cruel Tutor first, it's too slow), then you're dead. Otherwise, you've bought yourself a turn or three 'cause he'll cast Cruel Tutor first, then Grim Tutor next turn, then maybe combo or one more t... (see all)
Posted By:
nammertime
(7/5/2010 12:49:14 PM)
Crucible of worlds, Academy ruins, Mindslaver, and another Gifts ungiven; what do you choose?
Posted By:
Tommy9898
(6/19/2010 1:47:40 PM)
I only play Magic online, and now that ME4 is out, I've been having a lot of fun with this card.
Search for: Time Vault, Voltaic Key, Academy Ruins, Reconstruction
The opponent either gives me what I really wanted to search for, or they give me enablers to get those cards back.
If my hand already has a combo piece, I might search for Tinker.
A wonderful card which can help solve almost any puzzle for a deck.
4.5/5
Posted By:
apollogod
(1/20/2011 11:42:24 AM)
One thing I really like about this card is that it encourages a diversity of win conditions. I ended up with three of these in my artifact deck and just put in every artifact with a strong non-tap activated-ability-based win condition I could find, and it works wonders.
Me: "End of your tun I play Gifts Ungiven. OK, sort them out."
Them: Looks at my board which consists of two Grand Architects, three Vedalken Certarchs, two Trinket Mages, two Master of Etherium, and three Etherium Sculptors. Then looks at the four cards: Molten-Tail Masticore, Masticore, Memnarch, and Academy Ruins.
Me: "Take your time."
Them: *whimper*
Obviously it's not the fastest game-winning fetch like the Painter's Servant/Grindstone/Academy Ruins/au... (see all)
Posted By:
Lyoncet
(3/18/2011 6:29:52 PM)
I tutor Iona, Shield of Emeria, Inkwell Leviathan,
Woodfall Primus, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind with Reanimate or Exhume and Careful Study in hand and crack an evil smile as my opponent realizes it just doesn't matter XD
Posted By:
OverfiendSurprise
(5/8/2011 5:49:24 PM)
the mimeoplasm
Posted By:
Arachibutyrophobia
(7/20/2011 1:47:07 PM)
Gifts Rock is a Legacy deck built around this card's weird advantages.
And it got a huge boost recently. Noxious Revival FTW, you instant-speed topdeck a card Entombed with Gifts during their end step. They never see the Revival coming, once you've tapped out for Gifts.
Posted By:
Salient
(2/7/2012 10:13:11 PM)
@Akym
The reason you can pick less than 4 cards is because the word Search always always always means you can fail to find if you wish. So I can search for 4 but only find 2. It's different than Target 4 x, because there has to be 4 targets, and if one fails, then the spell does.
On another subject, Hey burn decks, cut this
Unburial Rites, Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Posted By:
swords_to_exile
(5/19/2012 2:33:29 PM)
At the very least, this card is a 4 mana {U} double Entomb.
At the very most, this is 2 Entombs and 2 Demonic Tutors all rolled into 1.
WTF.
Posted By:
TheKazu
(12/28/2012 8:51:46 AM)