I would strongly recommend thinking less about 'deals' and more about 'what type of bike should I buy' and try really hard to get that right the first time. I'm pretty sure you don't plan on making lift serviced mountain biking your primary use (?), but even a little bit would make an XC race bike (like a Giant Anthem) the WRONG bike. Saving a bunch of money on the wrong thing is actually wasting a bunch of money, in my eyes anyway. Do you have friends you plan to ride with? What do they ride? What type of mountain biking are they doing? This will probably determine the type of bike you should be looking for. Start there and maybe rent bikes a few times to go with them and see what you think, what you like and what you don't enjoy.
Excellent point about price vs suitability for the job. The right bike might even be less than the wrong one. Win-win!