[Deck] Imperial Painter

[Kap'n Cook]

6-3 at Starcity DC open this past weekend. Ill post my rounds and whatnot later on but in short I won every matchup this deck is supposed to and lost to the ones that are hard.

@seth did you end up playing painter? I did see your name on the pairings but every time i went over to your table to watch/introduce myself no one was there. Most of my matches only took 20-30 minutes but I guess yours were even faster. there was one other player I watched briefly playing Imperial Painter but he said it was his first time playing the deck.

on another note, English Recruiters are up to $350 now on starcity

[sroncor1]

Great job. Yeah I was 2-1 and got paired against a friend second round an since I had to leave at six I was cool with him winning and me dropping. I was hoping to run into you at the event. I'll be at thanks for playing this weekend I think. ( that is if I wam correct on the date this time).

In other news I talked with Hollywood and I might take over the thread and update the opening. What are peoples thoughts on the subject?


Seth

[Kap'n Cook]

Okay so here is my DC recap. This was my first ever big tournament so I didn't know entirely what I was supposed to do to sign up and after rounds, but I felt confident partly because I knew my deck inside and out, but also because I had done my research (this comes up later on).

My deck:

4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Great Furnace
10 Mountains

4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter's Servant
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Goblin Welder
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Phyrexian Metamorph

4 Grindstone
4 Bloodmoon
3 Sensei Tops
2 Chrome Mox
3 Pyroblast
3 REB
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Faithless looting

SB
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
1 Manic Vandal
3 Shattering Spree?
2 Spellskite

Sideboard pretty much composed of what I had on hand. Ill discuss my sideboard thoughts after my recap. On to the rounds

Round 1 vs Edgar Flores with U/R Delver

Game 1 he leads off with a Goblin Guide off of a Volcanic Island, so my fears of playing against Burn are slightly alleviated. I have a top in play and end up drawing 3-4 lands off of the goblin guide and later get a moon into play after he dazes my first one. At 7 life I grind him with blast backup.

Game 2 I grind him while at 10 life without protection. He flips his top card and reveals lightning bolt.

After the match I ask him how I am supposed to report the results with the slip of paper they give you because its my first time. He says 'really? that sucks' or something like that. Oh well. First win on the day.

1-0
(2-0)

Round 2 against Brandon with Death and Taxes

Game 1 Im pretty sure he leads off with Plains into Aether Vial. I hadn't played against this deck in a while so I was a little confused about why Maverick would run Vial. I then remember D and T and start planning out my strategy. He gets out Mother of Runes, Thalia, and Phyrexian Revoker on Grindstone while I am chilling with a Goblin Welder and a Grindstone on my side. At some point I get out a Painter and blast his Vial. End of his turn I weld vial for revoker and he gives protection from red. I think he goes to swords painter and I blast in response. I untap and grind out. If he had swords in response I wouldnt have had enough mana to blast.

Game 2 I am mana screwed after getting two tombs wasted so im using 2 chrome moxen and a mountain. Same situation with Welder and Revoker arises this game as well. I blasted wheel of sun and moon and won. I might be mixing up some of the details of each game but all in all it was pretty tight. Brandon was really fun to play against and all in all a nice guy. Round 9 of the tourney he matched up next to me in the D and T mirror and we asked how we had done that day. Really nice.

2-0
(4-0)

Round 3 against Andrew playing Goblins

Game 1 he plays turn one vial and turn two shiny piledriver off of cavern. My turn one was mountain, grindstone. Turn 2 play ancient tomb, chrome mox, exile ssg for the turn two win.

Game 2 he mulls and starts out turn one lackey (pretty sure) and I start with Grindstone. His turn two was chalice of the void. he attacks and connects, but doesnt have another goblin. I actually had manic vandal in my hand to start and play it turn 2 for chalice as well as blocker. turn 3 recruiter, turn 4 win.

3-0
(6-0)

At this point I'm pretty excited that it's my first event and I haven't even lost a game. I remember thinking that I had waded through the first 3 rounds of randomness and was hoping for nonstop matchups against stoneblade and BUG control.

Round 4 against Jay playing.... Burn.

3-1
(6-2)

Round 5 against David McDarby playing Sneaky

Game 1 he leads off with lotus petal cantrip but doesnt play a land. I immediately assume show and tell and go aggro. I end up beating down with 3 painters on black and a simian spirit guide with 2 lightning bolts to finish it off. He cantripped all game.

Game 2 is where my 'prior research' came into play. He cantrips and i lay turn one top.
he turn two show and tells and I let it resolve. He drops emrakul and i drop Ensnaring Bridge!! Im so excited on the inside that I am going to beat sneak and show 2-0. The next few turns consist of me dropping grindstone, painter, crypt. He calls for a judge to ask a question away from me. I go for the grind and he shows me the two progenitus he sided in :( I will admit that I played hastily and maybe should have gone for a recruiter into metamorph beatdown plan to remove his emrakul, but I had looked at a lot of show and tell decks and saw very little and mostly no progenitus between main or sideboard. Thoughts on this situation? He was really nice and complimented me on knowing my deck and all the random graveyard interactions. He said the only reason he sides 2 prog is that his good friend was Jonathan Suarez who always plays IP. Bummer for me.

Game 3 he turn 2 show and tells an emrakul with force backup
Game 4 I counter the first show and tell on turn 2. Next turn he plays sneak attack and emrakuls. He shows me the progenitus coming in next turn and I concede.

3-2
(7-4-1)

Round 6 against Vin with Loam Pox, B/G loam whatever

Game 1 I pretty calmly combo off at 17 life. The only real disruption was a discard spell turn one or something. Lots of loaming for him.

Game 2 I get discard spell and turn 2 hymn. There wasnt any real pressure though so I slowly just started going for beats. He spends the majority of his turns and mana loaming and dredging. I wasn't very familiar with the deck but last turn he dredged up a worm harvest. Magus at that point had shut off a majority of his mana. I win with beats and end with 3 blasts in hand for protection.

4-2
(9-4-1)

Round 7 against Jesse with Maverick

Game 1 I recruit for painter and combo out with ssg + blast backup

Game 2 I have a grindstone out and am laying out spirit guides and anything to block, just waiting for a recruiter or painter. Goes on for a while as he swings with knights, moms, thalia, teeg every turn and i can bolt for a little. rec and painter never show up

Game 3 he mulls to 4 looking for a basic land trying to play around turn 1 blood moon. He keeps double waste and other stuff. I lay turn 2 moon and its over.

5-2
(11-5-1)

Round 8 against Darian with Belcher

Game 1 I keep a really loose and slow hand hoping that this late in the tournament I might finally play against Stoneblade or some control deck. His belcher list has probes and street wraiths and no sideboard. he ends up charbelchering on turn 3 or something, one turn before I would have painter with blast set up.

Game 2 I mull and keep a really good hand. Tomb, Mox, Recruiter, Grindstone, Blast, Lightning Bolt. Turn one recruiter for painter and pray he doesnt turn one me. Turn 2 painter with blast backup just in case. I combo out next turn.

Game 3 I end up mulling to 4 looking for anything. 2 spellskites i sided in for charbelcher, fast painter with blast etc. Nothing. He ends up probing and the card he draws allows him to turn one me.

He was really cool to talk to and 'play' against haha. We had a pretty big crowd watching and shuffling and mulliganing easily took 3/4 of the match time. Still finished in 15 minutes.

5-3
(12-7-1)

Round 9 against Martin with RUG

Game 1 he plays delver turn one. I go to bolt and he dazes. I have found that getting them to daze and return their land is critical to your success because it prevents tarmogoyf for another turn and we have so much removal to kill off delvers and gives us more time to get a game ending moon down. he forced a blood moon at some point and i end up with a grindstone and painter in play with 4 lands and a hand of blast and ssg facing lethal goyf and mongoose next turn. I go to grind, he stifles, I blast, he spell pierces. I look at my ssg and concede. one mana short.

Game 2 I combo off on turn 3 through disruption using blast while still holding ssg and blast in hand

Game 3 I play mountain, he leads delver. I go to bolt on his end step hoping he dazes. He does and I play a turn 2 blood moon against his board of delver. He doesnt have force. I then play an ensnaring bridge and just wait for cards to win. He admits he doesnt have any outs to blood moon

6-3
(14-8-1)

So there you have it. Like I said in my post above, I beat every deck that isn't burn or packing Eldrazi or belching on turn one. I would have much rather played against ANT or TES or better yet doomsday but it wasn't meant to be. I was a little upset with my matchups because I didn't get to play Merfolk, Stoneblade, or BUG once all day and I feel that those are the best matchups for painter. It was definitely a good first event.

As far as deck choices go, I am going to begin testing out a jaya in the metamorph slot maindeck. Regarding sideboard, i think this is what I will be using for a while:

4 Tormod's crypt
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Shattering Spree
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
1 Manic Vandal
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Phyrexian Revoker

As always, input on the tourney or questions about my matchups or anything else is appreciated.

[Esper3k]

Well done! Sad you didn't get to run into any Merfolk - from the sounds of it, those guys were all over the place at DC.

[DrewliusMaximus]

Not a bad first SCG Kap'n Cook! Your list looks good.

Not sure I agree about Blasting into Daze against RUG, especially if you have a Top/Looting to search for Bridge. But it's been a while for me, and I expect my understanding of the meta is rusty. With that said, I will also say I have generally maintained either 3Sphere or (more recently) Thorns in the SB. They can come in handy against Storm, Burn and possibly Sneak and Show.

I was on an involuntary mtg break for a couple of months until last week. Unfortunately Esper3k is playing Chalice in our meta now so I have to watch my 1cc stuff. Can't wait to play more Painter though!

[Dark Zero]

Hey guys...after taking a pretty long break I'm back into some mtg action and of course Imperial Painter ist the deck to play. ;D I visited a tournament organized by magickartenmarkt.de in Magdeburg (58 participants) last saturday. My list looked like this:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Great Furnace
2 Wooded Foothills
5 Mountains
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter's Servant
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Goblin Welder
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Grindstone
4 Bloodmoon
3 Sensei ‘s Divining Top
2 Chrome Mox
3 Pyroblast
3 REB
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Faithless looting

SB
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
1 Viashino Heretic
2 Shattering Spree
1 Spellskite
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Lightning Bolt

Pretty standard except for the 2 Faithless Looting I wanted to give a chance and the Metamorph main instead of Sideboard. I just tried a version which abuses Welder a little more. The Sideboard is self-explanatory. Next time I would switch the Viashino Heretic for a Manic Vandal and the Lightning Bolt/Spellskite/Pyroblast for 3 Thorn of Amethyst. Just forgot these cards at home so I had to grab this replacements.

Round 1 vs. Sebastian with Bant 2:0, 1-0-0
Game 1 I lock him out with a second turn Moon and he loses without any resistance.
Game 2 he leads off with fetching a Forest and playing Noble Hierarch. I bolt the Hierarch and get some time to establish the combo with Blast backup with him only resolving two Knight of Reliquary and beating me twice.

Round 2 vs. Jens with NicFit 1-2, 1-1-0
Game 1 I mill him on turn two.
Game 2 I land the early Blood Moon but he has more than enough basics. Pernicious Deed clears the board, Ooze and Tarmogoyf beats me to death.
Game 3 he resolves too much Therapys aiming for my combo pieces so I have a hard time and just survive with an Ensnaring Bridge. He has the Maelstrom Pulse and the Eternal Witness into Pulse for the second Bridge and beats me down.

Round 3 vs. Ole with Esperblade 2-0, 2-1-0
Game 1 he attacks me with discard on turn one and two but my early Top could get the combo together while keeping two Jaces off the table with Blasts.
Game 2 he has another discard at turn one and takes away my Moon, but I simply rip another one from the top and lock him out of the game. Two Recruiters beat him to death from 18 life.

Round 4 vs. Chris with RUG 2-1, 3-1-0
Game 1 I managed to chain Recruiter->Metamorph (Recruiter)-> Welder into play and win due to the Metamorph/Welder shenanigans.
Game 2 he starts with a Delver which I blast but he goes on with another two and a Mongoose in the following turns. Pressure's on, he forces my Servant (pitching the 4th Delver) and reaching treshhold. He swings for 9 twice.
Game 3 I keep a really good hand consisting of Ancient Tomb, Blood Moon, Painters Servant, Goblin welder, Grindstone, Bolt and Mox. He forces the Moon but then looses to the combo with Welder backup.

Round 5 vs. Chu Sneak Show 1-1-1, 3-1-1
Game 1 easy going for him as he lands Sneak Attack->Griselbrand into Emrakul.
Game 2 I’m able to stick down the combo + Crypt in turn one but am one mana short to activate Grindstone for the next turns. He builds up playing Sneak Attack but meanwhile I found the land to activate my combo and clear his graveyard with the Crypt.
Game 3 he begins with a Leyline of Sanctity. I lay down Bridge on turn one and he couldn’t win anymore. We play draw go for quite a while and he counters my Jaya Ballard and all attempts to blast his Leyline and so we get into time.

Round 6 vs. Carlos with Dreadstill 1-1-1, 3-1-2
Round 1 I mull down to 5 but go for the Welder protected combo after blasting two Stifles and keeping Dreadnought of the table.
Round 2 I had to mull again. He grudges away my Servant and get Counterbalance online. After hitting blind twice with CB I’m not able to win any more. A Dreadnought beats me down.
Round 3 I had to mull again. He leads with Torpor Orb and follows with an early Dreadnought so I have to use my Recruiters/Servants as blockers to get it over the time. Draw.

3-1-2 as the day ends.

I'm pretty comfortable with this list and it felt good even I didn't play for a long time. I need to test looting a little more to give a statement about it. But as I remember it was never bad. It didn't felt tutorable artifact hate and the extra Blasts in the SB were needed. Ensnaring Bridge was the mvp card all day and gave me a chance to win epecially against the hard Matchups. Definately worth their slots!

Also I don't think a splash is worth it, the deck runs smoothly with those SDT and Lootings. I never was in a situation were I thought about having Tutor for Grindstone. I don't agree about blasting into Daze against RUG, I would rather save the Blasts to force Bridge/Moon through as Drew already mentioned. That's done deal in most cases.

[Kap'n Cook]

I think I need to clarify what I meant when I said 'blast into daze'. Obviously everything is very hand dependent. What I meant is this. Lets say your starting hand is REB, Grindstone, Top, Mountain, Ancient Tomb/City, Blood Moon, Goblin Welder/Recruiter and you are on the play. There isn't access to a third mana on turn one or fourth mana on turn two for blast backup. Also, this type of opening hand is actually quite common. You drop turn one mountain. If you play top, welder, grindstone or whatever and they do have a daze in hand, then you can be sure as hell that your blood moon will be dazed turn 2. For me, I have preferred that they daze in this situation not only because it makes blood moon more likely, it also slows down their clock by another turn or two even. If Tarmogoyf hits play turn two then your only shot is to try to blast it with an active painter or block it forever. If they force your blood moon well they are on like 4 cards or something with one land in play. Again, very situational, but I like it when RUG can't cast any spells besides bolts.

Obviously if your hand is Blast, Blast, Mountain, Mountain, Recruiter, Painter, Blood Moon or something like that it isn't correct to just randomly blast their delver turn one. I only meant that if you have hopes of laying down an unmolested moon on turn two without backup, you might as well try to remove their delver. Either it gets countered and thats one less counter for moon, or their delver dies. I can live with that. Hope this answers any questions

[jandax]

Like I said in my post above, I beat every deck that isn't burn or packing Eldrazi or belching on turn one

My experience in Ghent summed up right there

[Dresden]

Dark Zero, KapnCook or anybody else with some insight - how did you side with those decklists you posted against UW Miracle and RUG? Do you keep in the bolts vs rug? What to side out then? Also, keep welder in?

[GoblinZ]

I donnot have ensnaring bridge in SB, so I keep lightning bolt in after game one against rug and just board out task mage for a single spellskite.

Against uw miracle, I board out bolt for some revokers, blast and vexing shusher.

[Kap'n Cook]

My normal sideboarding against rug has been something like -phyrexian metamorph, -faithless looting, -lightning bolt, and -great furnace(wasteland insurance) for a blast and 3 bridges. Bolts only hit delver and the smallest of goyfs but I do like keeping 2 in for now. Maybe I'll test out dropping all of them.

[Julian23]

Your insurance against Wasteland is not having the land in the first place? Awkward

[Kap'n Cook]

it helps mulligan decisions. Against a lot of decks I'll side out a mini welder package (one each of welder, looting, and furnace)

I haven't found siding out a furnace awkward.

[Julian23]

If having that Great Furnace in your starting7 is really that bad that it actually pushes you close to mulliganing, siding it out can be borderline-ok. But only because of that.

Otherwise, siding out lands is pretty bad; especially against Canadian. If you're still running several nonbasics (say 5+) after siding out Great Furnace, you shouldn't side it out in the first place.

[Kap'n Cook]

@julian what does your list look like? If I fan a good 7 and it's one land furnace vs one land mountain I'll mull the furnace. What are your findings?

[Julian23]

So no matter whether you side out the Great Furnace, the hand will be a mulligan..in which case you are better off just maximizing your landcount against decks that attack your manabase.

Having [double non-basic] in your hand is still better than having [nonbasic, spell] against a deck that attacks your manabase. Also, I don't have a list, just trying to help out with general theory as I stumbled across your boarding plan. Also, I like seeing people doing well against Canadian Threshold ;-)

[Kap'n Cook]

I'll admit that I don't know much magic theory. Hell, I wouldnt even know how to really play another deck without making numerous mistakes. The only thing I know is that what I've been siding in and siding out has been working. I will try your idea out. I just don't know what to cut. Maybe jaya.

For others, I played in an event and went 2-3, beating black/white stoneforge and death and taxes while losing to burn, elves, and enchantress. Im really annoyed with losing to burn and especially belcher so what are people's thoughts on packing leyline of sanctity? Besides those two, it would also help against random decks like pox or something but mainly burn and to force the goblin plan for belcher.

My proposed new sideboard could be something like this:
4 crypts
4 leyline
3 e bridge
1 metamorph
1 vandal
1 revoker
1 blast

I have liked spellskite but many times I'll just fetch another painter or a welder for protection. Spellskite has been really nice when ive drawn it but not as a recruiter target Has anyone tried something like this before? Is thorn of amethyst preferred? With this new proposed sideboard affinity is harder but the bigger problem would be chalice of the void.

[Malchar]

Leyline of Sanctity - The best choice against storm, belcher, and burn. You can also add some number of chalice of the void and/or phyrexian revoker if you need additional slots. Leyline of sanctity has the advantage of being the hardest to bounce with repeal, it dodges rebuild, and it dodges all the red shatter effects, which are the most common things that those decks will side in. I figure that if you don't need to mulligan into your sideboard cards, then they aren't worth bringing in anyway, so leylines are perfectly fine.

Leyline of the Void - Similarly, I prefer leyline of the void over tormod's crypt. Leyline of the void has the advantage that it allows you to win through progenitus and wheel of sun and moon. I don't think that you should bring in any graveyard hate against "threshold" or snapcaster decks because those interactions aren't strong enough to race your combo. For that reason, I figure that it's best to just have a card that's very strong for the matchups where you need to mulligan into it.

Ensnaring Bridge - I don't really like this card here, but I haven't tested it very much. You shouldn't really need this against aggro because your deck is faster. If you're losing to aggro because they have creature removal, then you probably need to play differently and wait until you have a blast for protection. Against Emrakul or other fatties, there are much better options. The bridge doesn't stop them from going to town with Griselbrand or omniscience, so it's not really useful anymore in those matchups. Against dredge, you should be fine with just using graveyard hate.

As for the tutor targets:

Phyrexian Metamorph - Very versatile, but not particularly strong overall unless you have goblin welder. If you aren't running this maindeck, I don't think it's worth it in the sideboard either because there's no match where you really want to bring this in. Against show and tell, you already have to worry about bringing in graveyard hate for the Emrakul. If you can deal with that, then you should be fine because you have an equally fast combo and a bunch of red blasts. This card is just not proactive enough to warrant use in the deck.

Spellskite - In my opinion, this is the strongest of all the one-of tutor targets. It is amazing against decks that use lightning bolt, which tend to be very hard to beat otherwise. It's also a solid blocker against aggro decks, which tend to have convenient overlap with lightning bolt. If the opponent isn't using lightning bolt, then you probably don't want to side this in though, because like you said, it's not particularly efficient at stopping other removal spells like swords to plowshares.

Phyrexian Revoker - This is probably better than phyrexian metamorph against Griselbrand since they never get a chance to draw seven, and it also hits Jace TMS which has a lot of overlap with Griselbrand these days. It's also good against storm because you can hit lion's eye diamond, goblin charbelcher, and other stuff. This is a good choice for the sideboard because it works against show and tell, storm, and even some dredge decks. I don't think it's worth it if all they have is stoneforge mystic, batterskull, and/or Jace TMS though, because you already have a good matchup there, and you really just want to maximize your combo pieces and protection spells against control decks.

Jaya Ballard - In monored, grindstone isn't tutorable, but this is a tutorable target that sets up a nice combo with painter. This lets you keep hands with two imperial recruiters and no grindstone. It should probably be maindecked or not used at all. Besides being tutorable, the only utility it serves is being able to destroy blue permanents or deal three damage, and those things can be better accomplished with red blasts or lightning bolt.

Manic Vandal and/or Viashino Heretic - If you're worried about batterskull, you should try using lightning bolt or magma jet instead since they take out stoneforge mystic, delver, and most creatures in tribal or affinity decks. I don't think that the artifacts in stax are worth worrying about because your mana base already gives you a huge advantage in that match. You really only need to bring this in against someone who you think is going to use chalice of the void, since it wrecks you at X=1. You can also use Jaya Ballard for this purpose of course.

Here's how I setup my sideboard. I have the leyline of sanctity against storm/belcher and burn. Against storm/belcher, I also bring in the revokers. Against burn, I bring in the spellskites. I think it's actually fine to have more than 1 of each of the spellskites and revokers since they're so good, and in the matchups that you want it, you want it fast.

Against reanimator, dredge, or show and tell, you need leyline of the void. You can also bring in surgical extraction since it's equally good, and it gives you more chances to find something in time. Using multiple hate sources, as in the storm matchup, makes it less likely that they will be able to answer everything. You might also want to bring in phyrexian revoker here depending on the specific decklist that you're facing.

You probably also want to be able to side into the full amount of moon effects and red blast effects. If you don't have these in the maindeck, you can put the rest in the sideboard. This means you get less of the other stuff. You can also use Lightning Bolt/Magma Jet in the maindeck, sideboard, or both, and that can take up a few slots as well.

X spellskite
4 leyline of sanctity
X phyrexian revoker
4 leyline of the void
X surgical extraction
X extra moons/blasts/bolts

I have a Jaya Ballard and/or some equipment in the maindeck to serve as an alternate win condition in case the opponent has something where I can't mill them out in game 1 or an unexpected chalice of the void at X=1. The Jaya and/or equipment is versatile enough that there's no specific matchup where I would want to bring it in, but I still need it in case there's an unforeseen problem, so I have them maindeck until I know that it's safe to side them out for more specific answers.

[Dresden]

Thanks for the SB advice guys, it really helped. I played mono-R painter at Gencon but dropped playing (and losing to) goblins, goblins, burn...

[Kap'n Cook]

Who knows if any deck will want to pick this up over Progenitus since it doesn't protect itself against Swords to Plowshares. Still, I could see some Natural Order Decks playing with this dude. Just a thought.

On another note, I have been doing well with the sideboard I mentioned above. Leylines have been doing work against burn, combo, and discard oriented decks.


The new omniscience tell deck or whatever matchup is pretty rough. It is fast. Very fast. Game 1 is nearly impossible unless you get a blast heavy hand while providing a clock. That's still a challenge because of burning wish for pyroclasm even under moon lock. My board plan if anyone cares has been drastic, but its been working so far. I bring in every single card except vandal. Out goes 6 moons, 3 bolts, 1 jaya, 1 looting, 1 welder, 1 top, 1 chrome mox.