Originally Posted by
drude1
Took my grixis painter list to a local “big cash” tourney over the weekend. It was 5 rounds of swiss cutting to top 8. I ended up in top 4 before losing to a standard “Honda Civic” grixis delver list.
The deck felt very powerful and resilient. I won through games of people trying to beat me by surgical extracting a part of the combo or needling grindstone. I would just beat them with 5/5’s from Tezzeret or other creature beatdown typically. My losses came at the expense of my mana base, which I will have to address. Anyway, thought I would write a little report. First, here is the list I played:
// Lands
1 [MR] Great Furnace
3 [TE] Ancient Tomb
1 [UNH] Island
2 [B] Volcanic Island
2 [KTK] Bloodstained Mire
1 [UNH] Swamp
1 [B] Underground Sea
2 [MR] Seat of the Synod
1 [B] Badlands
3 [KTK] Polluted Delta
3 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [UNH] Mountain
// Creatures
4 [SHM] Painter's Servant
4 [UL] Goblin Welder
2 [C16] Baleful Strix
// Spells
4 [TE] Grindstone
3 [IA] Pyroblast
2 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge
2 [SOM] Mox Opal
1 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
4 [C15] Brainstorm
2 [MBS] Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 [CN2] Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
2 [TE] Intuition
1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
4 [AL] Force of Will
1 [DTK] Kolaghan's Command
1 [MR] Pyrite Spellbomb
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [CH] Blood Moon
SB: 1 [EMA] Toxic Deluge
SB: 1 [DGM] Notion Thief
SB: 1 [C13] Sudden Demise
SB: 2 [CMD] Flusterstorm
SB: 1 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 [AL] Helm of Obedience
As for the actual tournament, it went something like this…
Rnd 1 vs U/W/r stoneblade (2-1)
Game 1 I combo’d off very quickly before he really had a chance to do anything. He countered one or two things but I had redundancy
Game 2 he had a million counterspells and removal spells and we were eventually just racing between me trying to naturally grind him out and him ticking up a Jace. The Jace won.
Game 3 was also a battle. We went to time and I had grindstone down but he kept killing my painters and countering my planeswalkers. In our last turns he tapped down to just one mana open on his turn so I went for a painter without backup and he had nothing. Game win.
Rnd 2 vs Bomberman/Mentor combo (0-2)
Played against a guy named Joe. I know he is a good player but I have no idea what he is on. Turn one he drops an ancient tomb and plays a walking ballista on 1. I assume he is on some sort of big eldrazi list (although that’s not his style). Turn 2 he does it again but I have welder in hand and played a pyrite spellbomb on turn 1 so I force his second ballista and take out his first one so my welder can survive. Over the next few turn he plays a million bobbles, Bob, and finds auriok salvagers, buys all his ballistas back and eventually goes off. For future reference, counter the salvagers.
Game 2 I mulligan to an okay hand but not enough mana. I put pithing needle on ballista so my welder can stick around but he drops mentor and makes a bunch of dudes before I can find enough mana to do anything. Lose.
*I’ve actually played this MU before elsewhere and haven’t had problems with it but I knew what was coming and had the mana to participate.
Rnd 3 vs Lands (2-0)
This match-up is still basically an auto-win. Game 1 was actually close. He made a 20/20 Merit Lage quickly but I had a welder and strix out early and then found a Daretti so was able to keep swapping out a daretti token for the strix, draw a card and block with the strix until I found the painter and combo’d out.
Game 2 I had an early Blood Moon which he did get rid of eventually but I just combo’d out again by that time.
Rnd 4 vs G/B/r NicFit brew (2-1)
By now I’ve been able to scout enough so I knew what he was on (generally). Game one I was able to combo out quickly before he really did anything.
Game 2 I actually brought in Blood Moon because I just didn’t think he was expecting them. I mulled and had that, blast and a bunch of land in my hand. He ended up fetching for a couple non-basics but hit my blood moon with thoughtseize before I could play it. He then dropped an early pernicious deed and I was stuck. He ended up playing green sun zenith into a couple of DINOSAURS and beat me down.
Game 3 He got a painter into my graveyard early and surgicaled it away then hit my grindstones (??) with slaughter games. I played a blood moon to strangle his mana a little and then dropped Tezzeret and made 5/5s and he was dead. He did try to get out of it with a burning wish but I had a FoW for the win.
Rnd 5 was able to I.D. into top 8.
Top 8 against Reanimator/Storm (2-1)
My opponent was Dana who again I know is a good player and likes to mix it up. I know he is on some sort of Black splash blue Reanimator/storm combo, kind of like a TinFins variant.
I got rolled game 1. I think I actually got out a bridge but he quickly reanimated at griselbrand, drew a million cards and stormed me out.
Game 2: I obviously bring in the leylines but I don’t see one in opening hand. I mull to 6 and still don’t see one but have FoW, welder, flusterstorm, painter and land and decide to keep. I drop turn 1 welder and he actually passes on turn 1. I drop turn 2 painter on blue to turn on FoW and any card plus flusterstorm for permission. He draws a few turns and does nothing. I eventually eot notion thief with FoW and flusterstorm still in hand and just beat him down 5 points a turn until he is dead.
Game 3 I again don’t see leyline but have combo and FoW in hand so I keep. I end up countering a couple things early and start to assemble combo quickly. He really isn’t doing anything. I try to combo out once and he bounces my painter in response. I try again the second time, this time with blast back up and he has nothing. Win!
Top 4 against Grixis Delver (0-2)
This match was horrible. I basically had a bunch of 3 and 4 drops in my hand and get wasted out of the game before doing anything game 1. Game 2 I had dual lands and blood moon in hand and some permission. My plan was to lock him out. So, turn 1 I play a land and pass. He fetches a dual and attempts to play a deathrite but considering my plan I force it. Turn to a play another land and pass. His turn 2 he plays ANOTHER deathrite and wastes one my lands. From here he wastes cantrips and wastes me some more and plays some threats. I never get to 3 mana and just die. I think if I would have had fetches into basics vs my duals I would have gotten there, but what do you do.
So again, my losses basically were to lack of mana. I didn’t have trouble with color screw but I just didn’t get to enough lands. I think I would try to add a couple more cheap cantrips to even that out. I think the first thing to go would be the K.command. It’s a powerful card but probably not necessary at the expense of finding the combo or the resources to play the combo. I am actually considering trying a Search of Azcanta main as it interacts well with welder and eventually just starts drawing me cards in the mid and late game. . It might just be a little slow and would obviously have to come out when I’m on the blood moon plan. It’s also interesting to me that opponents try to attack my graveyard as much as they do. People are going as far as bringing in Leylines against me which I guess turns off welder but doesn’t do much beyond that. Otherwise I would probably just try to fit 2 copies of ponder in there to even out my draws.
The sideboard seemed pretty good and leyline/Helm is the only thing that I can think of against the big eldrazi decks. I don’t know about Sudden Demise and Toxic Deluge. I might replace one of them with the k.command but I also like having mass removal. I would also like to have some sort of canonist effect as well that is an artifact but not white. I’ll have to look at my options. Again, any ideas or input would certainly be welcome.
Hmmm…. This got kinda long. Sorry.