Source Wars: Episode IV - A New Cake

It is a period of civil war. Shortcake rebels, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Brainstorm Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DCI, a corporate shadow faction with enough power to destroy entire archetypes. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Jaya races home aboard her skyship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore Nedleeds to the galaxy.....




https://s33.postimg.cc/n739chmen/plateau.jpg

The return of Shortcake was inevitable. The blue oppression spread to the outer reaches of the format following that fateful April day, and you either were with brainstorm, or you attempted to fight it with little success. Shortcake though was too weak to mount a proper defense, instead having to retreat into the mountains to regain strength. For too long it had been reduced to nothing more than a memory of a different time. The stolen plans told of the Probe and Deathrite banning, and suddenly there was hope. Hope that the Empire’s protective blue shield may have some cracks, potential flaws in their deck design after having to fill these one mana voids. Wise sages told of how to harness the force, the ability to unify all by making everything one color. The dark side of the force, the blue side, always calls out, though. It is important to resist the temptation of joining the empire. Rather, one could understand and learn how to control it.

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From the chaos, painter emerged as a viable contender in the new metagame. I dedicated myself to the grind. After extensive testing, I settled on a complete pile of a 75, but that’s what you have to do when you can’t limp on a brainstorm crutch. I managed to track my games played to get an idea of where we were positioned in the meta as well. I expect a lot of these losses so far have been to bad variance on our side, so these are conservative estimates that should improve as the luck evens out.



Good Matchups

Threshold (83%):

15-3-1 – Blood Moon is still a house. Actually, there are a lot of things that are harsh on Threshold in here. They have a very weak land supply, especially with deathrite shaman gone, so you can keep him searching for more when he wants to be looking for business spells with ponder and brainstorm. Any versions with red have no answer for creatures with a$$ > 3. This is an extremely good matchup.

Deedstill (89%):

8-1-1 - This usually isn't even a fight. All incarnations of Landstill live and die by card advantage. Wasteland recursion and Snapcaster mage are key. Fetch plenty of basic lands early on protect yourself.

Death & Taxes (100%):

4-0 - We have similar strategies, Shortcake just does it better. Like all people who want to play control, this deck can't against you. Over time you will have the better card advantage and eventually be hitting with a copter or just comboing for the win.

Miracles (100%):

8-0 - In some games, I have been able to keep them on only white mana with an early tutored blood moon. It’s still important to remember that counterbalance should not stay in play long enough to be a threat. Without that, you run too many impact creatures and relevant blast spells to worry. A lot of the cards of theirs are just plain useless against you.

Reanimator, Dredge, Elves, TES, ANT (92%):

42-4 or thereabouts - With no way to get around superior sideboard economy, these decks cannot compete with the dedicated hate. The losses were usually to things that were more slanted towards the anti-aggro design.

Eldrazi (100%):

4-0 - By the time the pertinent threats hit the field for them, we are able to set up major artifact advantage. There just isn’t a whole lot they can do when Painter shuts off Eye and Temple.

Infect (80%):

4-1 – The sideboard gives answers for all of his little guys, and the builds I have played were still on the solo basic forest. You really need to keep the lands they can use at or near zero. Lavamancer and Ballista sends 'em packing.

Belcher (75%):

3-1 - Sometimes Belcher wins on turn 1. When that does not happen, the matchup is heavily in your favor. Turbo Canonist is breezy.

Aggro Loam/Lands/Turbo Depths (67%):

10-5 - With at least 9 cards coming in from the sideboard, we have a lot of spells they can't afford to let through. And they have a hard time countering Moon, although having depths in play makes it tough and confirms my suspicions that these decks gain vs us. These decks are still all different, though. The matchups have been improving steadily with the sideboard changes. Enlightened tutor for a bridge is a no-brainer in game 1.

Blade Decks (71%):

5-2-1 - All boring games. Just build mana and wait with blasts. They will be long.


Mediocre Matchups:

Goblins (63%):

27-16 - I am not quite satisfied with this matchup. Lackey and Aether Vial are not usually problems. Our primary strategy of stalling through painter and blast control is hosed by Warchief, Matron, and Ringleader topdecks. Goblin players familiar with the matchup will tell you it is hard for them, but you really need to be a little lucky given their speed and level of interaction. If you can stick a Lavamancer or large Ballista it should help. I have been seeing that new four mana artifact killer goblin in the sideboard so watch out.

Ravager Shops (67%):

4-2 – Welder is, naturally, deadly for this opponent, but beware of the superfast draws that they can occasionally get. It can kill you before you blow it. I have been experimenting with siding out the Canonists here since they are all artifacts, but the creature count is something to keep an eye on.

Enchantress (67%):

2-1 - You really should not lose if you draw even one Pyroblast or Canonist. Hitting a Wild Growthed land or stopping all enchantress effects is too much to handle.


Bad matchups

Burn (47%):

7-8 - The addition of Canonist and Copter has slowed the game down a few turns and takes some of the heat off of your life total. Price of Progress is the worst of them, since we rely on white more. Fetch up basics when you can. Smart ancient tomb management goes a long way to winning

Grixis (47%):

8-9 - Well, game one can go either way. Resolve a Copter, and you have some time to wear down his life total. If you draw an opening hand full of lands, you might consider keeping it if you’ve seen waste/stifle/hymn. Postboard, it’s really hard for them to fight through pyroclasm. Leave a mana open. Feels like it should be in our favor, but it is still not easy. You want as many threats as you can get against this deck. 'Nuff said.

Mud/Stax (50%):

8-8-2 - This used to be a nightmare. Now it's just long and difficult since they don’t play shuffle eldrazi. I saw Geddon Stax, Devastating Dreams/Loam Stax, and classic metalworker. You are forced to play combo and are woefully unequipped to do so through chalice and fast bombs. Viashino heretic is a bomb in the side at least. Copter isn’t really good past turn 3 when they’ll probably resolve a hellkite. But, if you can get Welder through, that should put you way ahead.

Show and Tell (40%):

2-3 - This is not shaping up to be a particularly fun matchup. I never seem to be drawing what I need. That said, the entire 9 cards form the sideboard can come in safely, depending on what the build is running. Also, I had been trying to play the combo-control role, and I have recently switched to aggro. That has helped.


And without further ado, the new Tier 0:


Strawberry Shortcake

4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
2 Plateau
1 Great Furnace
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain

4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter’s Servant
4 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Goblin Welder
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Walking Ballista
1 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Grindstone
4 Lotus Petal
4 Smuggler’s Copter
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Blood Moon

4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Enlightened Tutor



Sideboard

4 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Pyroclasm
1 Goblin Welder
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Blood Moon
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Karn, Scion of Urza



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrx24jofi0w


The biggest question mark has to be Smuggler’s Copter. If copter is banned in standard and utter garbage in modern, then that must mean it is good enough for Legacy. To be fair, while the card is hilarious to the point of almost being a joke, it does a ton of work in the deck. I was skeptical at first and basically bemoaned it for being a ghetto budget top, but after playing a bunch more games with it, I am sold. It regularly comes down on turn 1, and is almost always active turn 2. The fact that it also loots while blocking is cash, since many games all you have to do is stall before assembling the combo kill. And then sometimes you have to play Red/White Delver and outskill your opponent by swinging for three a turn through the sky.


1 Blood Moon could easily be changed once the meta shakes out, but the fact is that moon was way better with top around to make sure you didn’t draw extras and now we need more dudes for copter. It also helped that Miracles was making sure bad storm pilots weren’t in the X-0 or X-1 bracket.


4 Lotus Petal/1 Anaba Spirit Guide split. The loss of deathrite means our mana advantage against the format can be leveraged harder. Legacy didn’t need another Tier 1 combo deck but it now has one in Shortcake. It’ll be fun for a while before it becomes too unhealthy for the long term environment. At that point the DCI will ban something else from our deck in another attempt to even up the legacy meta.


Canonist fills the blood moon slot essentially. It hates on the format harder at the moment, is an auto win against iggy pop game 1, and is more conducive to the creature gameplan with copter than moon is. It was also a hedge against the degeneracy I expected to see after the banning decree. It also completely ruins blue decks. Assembling Painter+Canonist+Blast gives you complete control of the stack. Even better is that casting grindstone doesn’t use up our one spell, so all you have to do is patiently wait for the opponent to cast any spell before winning without fear of removal.


Walking Ballista is probably the last weird slot in the main. It had originally been another Lavaman, but Trike Jr. is more flexible, since we can Demonic Recruit it and Vamp Tutor it. Plus it fills the maindeck role of finisher when you have the game completely won but you haven’t won yet, like when you are against sneak and ape. They know they don’t have any outs to Ensnaring Bridge game 1, you know they don’t have any outs game 1, but they sit there wanting to say something about how garbage tier of a deck Shortcake is and refuse to scoop. I guess Ballista is also able to shoot Mom and Revoker when you don’t have Painter out so there’s that too.


For the side, I hopped on board the reanimator/graveyard overlords train and prepared accordingly. The miser’s crypt is too strong not to include when you run enlightened tutor and also have the recursion ability of welder, plus it is the three card combo enabler. I don’t think I’d ever build a board without at least a single copy in there. The surgicals are another story though. I think they are better than leylines since they have more cross application against other combo decks as well as miracle.. Shortcake gets to blast a ton of stuff and being able to hit infernal tutor, show and tell, and everything from miracles (counterbalance, swords, terminus, force) makes it a better option than a lot of the trash we have to run maindeck. I probably will end up playing Containment Priests as well for show and tell and elves help, just not sure on how the numbers would all work.


Pyroclasm is the catch all burn spell, as I was expecting a resurgence of dork decks like maverick. It also seemed like there was some goblins hype, even though the definitive top 5 list of playable goblins in legacy starts and ends at

1) Welder

Pyroclasm is sometimes weird since it hits almost all of our creatures as well, but Painter surviving is key. Whipflare was considered for canonists, but hitting revokers is too important. In a wide open meta, sign me up for two mana wrath of gods.


Heretic and Explosives are the manideck tutor removal bullet. Heretic is there if you want to game for Blade, Dnt, and Chalice, while explosives is for more elves, empty, counterbalance style, since chalice shuts of e-tutor for chalice, so you have to pray to be able to sneak in a welder, grindstone, or e-tutor in response to chalice for EE opener. Wear Tear Bear might be playable again with blade decks back in vogue. The third welder is just added redundancy against discard decks or non-white removal decks, but mainly he’s just a G.


Karn. None of his abilities seem overly powerful, but therein lies the beauty of the card. Only decks with sol lands can reasonably play him, and then only decks with a heavy concentration of artifacts, which makes Painter a perfect fit. At worst he draws you a card and gains 6 life. On average I would say he gets you 4 cards. The dream scenario of Copter turn 1 into turn 2 Karn make a dude and crew has come up sometimes as well. Karn being colorless is also pretty sick since many times in other shortcake builds it would be hard to get double red for Chandra or Koth, and then on top of that trying to get triple red to cast them with blast backup. That said, I have only been siding in Karn when there are 15 cards of the 75 that are worse than him since 4 is still somewhat expensive. This is things like grindstones 2-4 against sneak and show, some number of petals vs Miracles, when you gotta dip down and grind and leverage copter in a matchup. But that has been fine. Just an all-around solid value card that we can protect, is hard to kill, and can just take over with massive construct creatures if need be.


Onto the event!


Round 1 vs lucky_dragon on Walmart Blue Burn

Just what you like to see to start off the brand new legacy meta.

Game 1: We lose the roll and promptly keep a hand with Welder, Painter, Petal, Recruiter, Mountain and 2x Grindstone. LD drops a Portal 3 Kingdoms island into play and passes, which I promptly answer with a Portal Three Kingdoms Mountain and a Goblin Welder. Over the course of the game Welder, Painter, and Canonist all get bolted, and a swiftspear beats down before I can regroup.

side: -1 Moon, -1 Bridge, -1 Copter, -2 Canonist +4 Pyroclasm, +1 Welder

Game 2: I keep Mountain, Great Furnace, Mire, City, Grindstone, Lavamancer, Canonist. I lead the lavamancer, just trying to buy time. It eats a forked bolt. Draw Plateau, drop the grindstone with my hand looking bleak. He plays a delver and ponders, not shuffling. Painter on top, but I wait and grindstone instead, hitting a force. A swiftspear comes down, while I drop another land and play canonist. He chain lightnings the canonist, so I just copy it back and kill a delver. Painter next turn doesn’t meet any resistance for the win.

Game 3: I somehow end up talking myself into keeping a weird hand with tomb, mire, plateau, petal, recruiter, blast and copter. He leads black leyline, island, ponder. Whoa. I go tomb aggro, playing copter and recruiter, and petal blast a Force on our 1/1. The game just sort of ends, I play random dudes every turn and just turn them sideways and he has no pressure or way to deal with the shortcake beatdown.

Couldn't really ask for a better turn one for us from our opponent there.

1-0



Round 2 vs goyo315 on Infect

Game 1: I lose the roll and keep 2x Pyroblast, Moon, Canonist, Painter, Chewbacca, and a mire because why not? He leads out trop and hierarch, while I artfully draw a city of traitors. He ponders, plays an inkmoth, and adds another noble. I draw petal, and play out everything into a Blood Moon. Resolves. He starts the hierarch beatdown, while I drop Painter. He plays a 3rd one to start the aggro beatz every turn. But, I just play grindstone and activate. Eazy.

side: -3 Canonist, -1 Bridge, +4 Pyroclasm

Game 2: I mull and keep a weirdly good hand of tomb, petal, petal, pyroblast, pyroclasm, foothills, and scry a mountain down. He opens with Glistener, and I draw Painter. He swings into me and I block, blasting his attempted invigorate. He follows up with a second glistener. I draw a backup Painter, and being greedy and not wanting to clasm my 0/2 Painter, I pass, and then don’t block. I die to become immense+invigorate. I guess I was trying to block on two other more impactful turns or something. Who really knows.

Game 3: I keep Mire, Blast, Pyroclasm, EE, Painter, copter, Recruiter. He opens on trop, hiearch, and I rip an ancient tomb and drop Painter, which gets gripped. He ends up with two hierarchs and a blighted agent, and they all get wiped by a blast on fow protected Pyroclasm. It actually ends up being an interesting subgame, where his inkmoth is being held off by a Painter and Copter, a recruiter gets dazed, and I lay an EE on 1, met by a Pithing Needle. A blast on the needle unlocks EE, which offs hierarch and a glistener. I still have to kill him, though, since he’s at 19 with an inkmoth, and all I have is copter and painter. He rips a Sylvan Library. I crew and draw a tutor. He keeps 1, and taps out for the 4th hierarch and to attack for 2 poison. I go find grindstone eot, which wins it on my turn.

Blowouts like these are exactly why I just defaulted to Pyroclasm as the burn spell of choice over the far sexier Firebolt.

2-0



Round 3 vs WitchKling on PBR Delver

Now we're talking. I remember playing against one of the first incarnations of this deck back at some random starcity event in New Jersey in some bomb shelter. I think it might have been that dog show next door?

Game 1: Lose the roll, keep Mire, city, welder, tutor, 2x grindstone, painter. Seems decent. Tundra into Delver, straight outta 2013. I get a mountain to avoid any wasteland headaches, and play a stone hoping for it to get dazed. I draw and play a copter and welder, with the latter getting bolted, and my city gets wasted. I hail mary my blast at delver and it gets forced. The game is over but he adds a true-skill nemesis for good measure.

side: -3 Tutor, -2 Petal, - 1 Moon. +4 Pyroclasm, +1 Heretic, +1 Welder. I saw double basic island so said no sir on the moon.

Game 2: Mountain, Welder go, with Stone, petal, recruiter, plateau, city behind. Basically everything on both sides dies over the next five turns. He eventually leads out a stoneforge and I figure I might as well grindstone him. I hit Force, Brainstorm, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Swords to plowshares. I get some massive grindstone hits, 6 cards, 6 cards, 4 cards. I draw a painter and hold it, hoping to draw a blast or something to protect it. I’m racing a batterskull. Facing lethal I draw the runner runner 2nd painter and play one. His last two cards are force+blue. The second gets me there.

https://i.imgflip.com/2eaktn.jpg

Game 3: I keep Mountain, Foothills, City, 2x Pyro, Stone, Recruiter. Neither of us does anything the first two turns, while my draws were a third blast and a painter. Straight gas. I play a Painter and say let’s dance. Swords to Plowshares, boom. Wear/Tear, gone, with no regard for daze or pierce. I draw the solitary moon and jam it and it sticks. Probably the best draw left in his deck, he gets a jitte into play on his stoneforge, which I have to go after with the last blast. Grindstone a few turns later to lock it up.

3-0



Round 4 vs Zita on Ape and Skill

Game 1: I lose the roll and keep foothills, canonist, petal, moon, 2x pyro, stone. He opens on volcanic, go. I draw the ensnaring bridge, play the fetch and petal, and ship it back. He goes for the turn 2 show and tell. I debate countering it with the blasts for a second but then figure this is probably one of those paywall exclusive builds with the most lean and cutthroat winning percentages possible across the maindeck, so I just let it resolve and drop the bridge. He puts in griselbrand and just sits there for a few turns before scooping.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e...48.crop.hq.jpg

side: +4 Surgical, +1 Crypt, +1 Welder, +2 Karn, +1 Bridge. -3 Grindstone, -1 Moon, -2 Copter, -1 Lavaman, -1 EE, -1 something

Game 2: I mull down to 5, keeping Welder, Plateau, City, Tutor, Petal and scry another city to the bottom. His turn 1 is Petal – Brainstorm – Tomb – Petal – Show and Tell – Emrakul. I put in my plateau, and e-tutor for bridge, which gets down. We play a jolly good game of draw go, eventually getting to a crazy boardstate of me with Painters, Double Welder, Canonist, and Stone all hiding behind a bridge, vs his Emrakul and Griselbrand. Fortunately canonist prevents his Forces, so I can stop his bounce spells. I end up having to win the game by waiting for him to cast a spell so that I can grindstone him and surgical the remaining emrakuls, go to my turn, and activate a second time. I do and it gets there.

https://cdn.pucatrade.com/cards/crops/sm/6376.jpg

4-0



Round 5 vs Bryant_Cook on The Epic Storm

Fortunately I knew what kind of spice to expect out of these new storm lists as I had run into some of Bryant's Stormtrooper goon squad in some earlier leagues. The real question was what would Bryant put me on, dredge, painter, something else?

Game 1: I lose the roll and keep Tutor, Welder, Copter, Tomb, Stone, Mire, Petal knowing we have to likely grab canonist. I draw a 2nd grindstone and play mire+petal, thinking it might hide painter if I die, which I do his turn 2.

side: +4 Surgical, +2 Pyroclasm, +1 Welder. -1 Moon, -1 Bridge, -1 Lavaman, -1 Ballista, -3 Copter

Game 2: I mull to 5 keeping Plateau, Grindstone, Painter, 2x Surgical, seeing a scryed City. He goes for goblins turn 1 through Burning Wish, surgicaling his own delta for storm, and makes 12 dudes. Fortunately, City into Painter races that. I even forgot to surgical for knowledge.

Game 3: I keep a solid Plateau, Petal, Welder, EE, Canonist, Blast, Pyroclasm hand which gets revealed to a thoughtseize off a chrome mox. Canonist down. I draw Painter, and play out the EE, petal and Welder, hoping up to untap. I survive the turn, and have Canonist active with EE available for LED’s and goblins. He brainstorms on his turn and scoops.


http://www.simpleimageresizer.com/_u...eakmo_1_60.jpg

5-0




Round 6 vs Carroz on Wombat Control

Game 1: I lose the roll and Keep Mountain, Mire, 2x City, Canonist, Copter, welder. Plains, go, so the first non-brainstorm deck of the day. I drop welder, and he revokers on grindstone. I play out a copter and he swings into it, and has the swords. I play out a second, and a canonist. He flickerwisps the revoker to name copter, while I recruiter for Walking Ballista the next turn. I play it on two and snipe the revoker, but he follows up with a second revoker the next turn naming ballista so I couldn’t grow it, and a Sanctum Prelate on 1. I rip a Painter, and fire up the copter trying to loot into a Grindstone, while he blocks and trades with his flickerwisp. I draw a blast and wait, while he White Recruiters for a Stoneforge, to grab a Jitte. End step I weld the Ballista for the Copter. I draw a Grindstone on my turn, loot away the grindstone, and then weld the copter out to sneak grindstone into play through Prelate.

side: -1 Moon, -1 Bridge, -1 Petal?, -4 Canonist. +4 Pyroclasm, +2 Karn, +1 Heretic

Game 2: I keep 2x blast, Stone, Pyroclasm, Recruiter, Karn, Mountain on the draw. My next three draw steps are Mire, Petal, Mire, so I lead recruiter on turn 2 to get painter, while he spends his turns 2 and 3 playing revoker and prelate on 1. Pyroclasm is backbreaking the next turn, but he recovers with Thalia and Stoneforge. I run painter out there naked, he draws for his turn, and scoops.

6-0



ESPN even managed to capture some footage of the match



https://s33.postimg.cc/716wpsc27/Image-1.jpg


So I ended up finishing up the tournament while out golfing. Go figure. Round 5 was right around the time I was expecting to be scrubbed out, and had planned accordingly. I figured screw it, I can finish matches pretty fast as it is, let's go do both since it's pretty nice out. So I brought along my laptop, fired up that hotspot, and blitzed through the rest of the games while waiting for greens and tees to clear.


Round 7 vs ExpectNoMercy on Dredge

Truly fitting that the only thing standing between me and another 7-0 through Swiss was the very deck that had fulfilled the prophecy of the second greatest report of all time. It had fought many a good battle against brainstorm while Shortcake was down, but now it was time to pass the torch back over.

Game 1: I finally win a roll and keep Mountain, 2x Fetch, Stone, Painter, Petal, Canonist. He starts on City of Brass, Pimp, and double led, drops a dredge and loots via flasback. He went the Pimp route as opposed to the pubstomp route, presumably to try to hit a therapy. He misses, and I play both Painter and Canonist off of a second petal, keeping the mire in hand for the win next turn. He can’t swing me out on his turn so I take game 1.

side: +4 Surgical, +1 Crypt, +3 Pyroclasm, +1 Bridge, +1 Welder. -4 Canonist, -1 Moon, -4 Copter, -1 Lavaman

Game 2: I mull some okay, slower hands, more turn 2 hate type hands looking for better interaction. I keep a really bad 5 and was nowhere close to the game.

Game 3: I keep Plateau, Mire, tutor, Stone, Pyroclasm, Blast, Recruiter. He starts on Coliseum LED go. I so I tutor up Crypt and end up goldfishing the next few turns going Stone, Recruiter, Painter. I keep waiting to draw a third mana to win, and end up having to end step e-tutor for a lotus petal. I activate on my turn with crypt backup and take it down.

7-0


Damn fine run through Swiss. Lot of insane games and close calls, but that is just the new style of painter. I pray for a good matchup against whichever random 5-2 squeezes into top 8. So of course it ended up being no surprise that it ended up being against:



Top 8 vs Pokerswizard on Ape and Chimp

Game 1: I win the roll and open up the Solitary Turn 1 Bloodmoon. I power it out there with basically nothing leftover as follow-up in my hand, only to see him go Island, Ponder. He just plays cantrips, I play a copter. He goes for Show and Tell, and dazes my blast. Huh. Emrakul pillages me.

https://i.imgflip.com/2eafkc.jpg

Game 2: I keep 2x Plateau, 2x Tomb, Tutor, Canonist, Bridge. I draw a blast on my turn two, and go for canonist, which gets forced. He has the tomb, and the show and tell, and the griselbrand his turn 2. I drop bridge and cry as I sit there in the monkey cage getting shit flung at me. An abrade ends the day.


7-1, 5th Place




So yea, I guess the turn 1 Blood Moon turned out to be a space station, although we did blow it up technically through Emrakul. Sometimes you just run into Skill and Tell. Shortcake will be back, that's for sure. I already have a few changes planned to help out in the War for the Planet of the Apes next time.

I'll be switching to a 3-3 Dual-Basic split to better accommodate Canonist. Also, I still expect a graveyard deck to emerge, so having insane amounts of hate for them will be nice. I don't really think the redundant bridge is really necessary with Welder recursion, and I'm not entirely sure how many times we'll need a second moon, at least right now. I'll be running the board below for a bunch of games to see how it plays:

4 Surgical
1 Crypt
2 Containment Priest
4 Pyroclasm
1 Welder
1 Heretic/Hedge-mage
2 Karn


The prelim results are already promising. Part of the reason this report took so long is the desire to jam painter and crush leagues is real right now. The deck feels extremely well positioned with too many must answer cards in the maindeck, and a serious aggro component not seen in the deck since Figure of Destiny was around. Canonist is also the perfect solution to people wasting time cantripping. Just keep em to one spell and lock all that shit down hard.


In addition to Painter's rebirth, here is my Old School Brew.


https://s8.postimg.cc/g7gxzs66d/IMG_3794.jpg


I'll probably shift more towards something like Leprechaun Junk down the road as well to take advantage of the Pearl


That's it. This was only a minor set back for the Brainstorm Empire, and they definitely will be back with a vengeance next time. They can't be having any lucksack unskilled non-blue decks in their precious top 8s. That's always why you have to practice the innate ability to blind rip Painters off the top whenever you need one. In the meantime I think it's only right to move the Shortcake thread to the DTB section.


As always, keep painting kids.


and #FreeNedleeds

Great report!

Another thoroughly pleasant report to read. Thanks!

Firstly awesome work dude, the force is strong in you! Luv seeing U take L's.

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I'll be switching to a 3-3 Dual-Basic split to better accommodate Canonist.

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Why not run a full 4x Plateau? I won't bring up a plains because I know how triggering it is to the fam.

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Originally Posted by Fallen_Empire

Firstly awesome work dude, the force is strong in you! Luv seeing U take L's.

Why not run a full 4x Plateau? I won't bring up a plains because I know how triggering it is to the fam.

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Ha this is true, the Plains has been known to get some people burned at the stake. The fourth plateau would probably have to come at the expense of another basic, and at that point the exposure to Wasteland/Back to Basics and Ghost Quarter (if it's even around still) is probably too high to justify its inclusion.

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Originally Posted by Kap'n Cook

Ha this is true, the Plains has been known to get some people burned at the stake. The fourth plateau would probably have to come at the expense of another basic, and at that point the exposure to Wasteland/Back to Basics and Ghost Quarter (if it's even around still) is probably too high to justify its inclusion.

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The best part of the playing basic plains were the hands with sol land, basic plains and 5 red spells.

Great report. Looking forward to more. Your sideboarding for the match ups you faced will be helpful for me going forward. I faced a friend the other day who plays zombardment exclusively and he finds the tech with copter really interesting and went as far to say that the copter seems better than top in painter.

Keep paintin’ and taking down the brainstorm decks!

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Originally Posted by SDBobPlissken

Great report. Looking forward to more. Your sideboarding for the match ups you faced will be helpful for me going forward. I faced a friend the other day who plays zombardment exclusively and he finds the tech with copter really interesting and went as far to say that the copter seems better than top in painter.

Keep paintin’ and taking down the brainstorm decks!

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Funny you mention copter being better than top, as Seth started saying that to me when we were brewing initially as well. I don’t know if I’m ready to say that yet, since miracles robbed us of exploring faster 4 top shortcake list. Plus those lists can fit in an led reliably because of top, which is another card I’ve found myself wishing we could use. But Copter is pretty good too, it does just enough of everything