[Deck] Imperial Painter

[Mapson]

The issue I've run into with Ensnaring Bridge that I've run into is sometimes I already have Blood Moon out and I draw enlightened tutor which I can't cast unless I find lotus petal and then die to some 1/1s. Punishing Fire, while obviously not as good with Blood Moon still out would be able to answer that. Perhaps this is just an argument to include a basic plains though and to make sure I have 4 arid mesa. Also I have run into issues where Noble Hierarch or a SFM with Jitte has been able to get around blood moon. Also, it feels like you're saying we don't need removal and if that was the case why would we run firebolt? Sorry if I am misunderstanding you. I do agree that Blood Moon is generally more important than Grove but I'm not convinced turning off Grove is the biggest of deals because Punishing Fire still functions (though as a worse bolt).

I'm not saying that this would be better than the r/w version. I just feel as though I've been seeing a lot of fair decks lately and that this engine is very strong against them. There's a very real chance that tutoring for E Bridge is just better and that I've been just getting screwed by what decks I've had the opportunity to test against. For the record, I'm trying to take the experience of those who have been playing the deck longer that's why I was asking for people's opinions rather than just jamming it in but the initial responses weren't very helpful. Also, since it wasn't actually my idea I'm honestly not 100% in love/convinced with the idea but I still thought it could just be worth discussing. There's always a chance any deck that has been established for some time will adapt to changes in the meta-game and at the very least discussions should serve as a learning experience.

[drude1]

Honestly, if it weren't for blood moon I would seriously consider the punishing fires/grove combo. You would obviously have to splash green over white but then could also build around living wish getting a grove or painter or whatever. Problem is blood moon shuts it down so then punishing fires becomes an expensive shock, which obviously I would rather be playing one of the bolts. I will also say that I'm a huge tinkerer and can appreciate trying out new things. But the more I play the deck the more I just realize you want to jam the combo so don't get too absorbed with the ancillary stuff. I've played with alternate combos (stoneforge, thopter/sword, rip/helm) and they all seem like good ideas but make your deck a little schizophrenic. I've probably played 50 games with rip/helm in my deck and have actually fired that combo off maybe twice. Just make sure you can combo out consistently and have a couple silver bullets in for bad mu's.
Btw, I do play a single plains in my version along with a split of 3 petals and 2 monkeys, just to better play my tutors with a moon out.

Having said that, since the insane popularity right now of blue/red delver and Miracles, does it make sense to shave a blood moon from the main? It's just not great against the two most popular decks in Legacy right now. What about adding a third tutor? That way you could still search up moon for turn 2 or get one of your combo pieces or another silver bullet as needed. Obviously moon is still really good in some matchups but not most of the ones I've been playing lately. I find I am siding out at least 1-4 almost every time. Wouldn't this be a proper adjustment to what the meta is right now?
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[Nuke is Good]

Punishing Fire engine is better suited for slower decks that go to the midrange like Jund/Maverick, worst part about it is how many cards it needs to support itself. Painter is better suited to combo out fast, if you wanted some more burn effects. You could possibly ultimate Koth or go the firebolt route as previously suggested.

[Mapson]

Fair enough. This might seem ironic but I don't like the idea of cutting a blood moon as there still are so many matchups you win by having it turn one.

[Kap'n Cook]

For any painters that are going to eternal weekend Saturday and want to meet up and don't already have my number, shoot me a message on here.

[drude1]

For any painters that are going to eternal weekend Saturday and want to meet up and don't already have my number, shoot me a message on here.

Being from Minneapolis, I will be playing in the SCG Open this weekend. Anyone else visiting the frozen tundra this weekend?

Good luck Jack.

[Nuke is Good]

For any painters that are going to eternal weekend Saturday and want to meet up and don't already have my number, shoot me a message on here.

I'm on the fence about driving to Camden county for eternal weekend. I hear it starts at 8AM which is pretty rough.

[Boba Ferret]

I'll be heading up to SCG Minneapolis as well. It's just a short hop from Winona, so I won't be missing this.

[cab0747]

For any painters that are going to eternal weekend Saturday and want to meet up and don't already have my number, shoot me a message on here.

It's only across the state for me, but I have to take the little puppy to obedience class. The girlfriend would not like it if I skipped out on those to go be a magician for a weekend

Some adorable pictures so I don't catch any shit for not going or my lady controlling my life. How could I ever leave this little princess?!



Edit: See you guys at GPNJ!

[Boba Ferret]

Fair enough dude. Life gets in the way at times. What are your thoughts on Sudden Shock over Lightning Bolt regarding the U/R Delver match up? Treasure Cruise is busted in that list, but I feel the main issue from it is getting knocked around by Swiftspear for the first couple of turns before Cruise gets online to crush you. I'm going to play test it tonight with a buddy of mine running the deck this weekend. I'll let you guys know my thoughts later after results are found.

[jandax]

In the red matchups, Burn and UR Cruise specifically, I've tested out Energy Storm to interesting results. Between this card and Ensnaring Bridge, you can potentially shut down their game and apply your combo to the board, then when you're ready, stack the upkeep trigger and go off protected. Sometimes the deck will poop out and draw poorly but that's not the card's fault. Give it a whirl if you want a hoser card against red decks.

[Howishotgun]

I will also be heading to SCG Minneapolis. I am currently on the debate between playing painter or reanimator, but I am leaning more towards painter having played this deck longer. Help give me that extra advice to help settle this debate in my mind.

[Kap'n Cook]

I will also be heading to SCG Minneapolis. I am currently on the debate between playing painter or reanimator, but I am leaning more towards painter having played this deck longer. Help give me that extra advice to help settle this debate in my mind.

[Howishotgun]

LOL, alright I will definitely be playing painter now.

[Nayashi]

Hi, i would like to share my list http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15005&iddeck=111217 that i played in a 63 player's tournament last weekend in Barcelona. I ended 6th loosing in quarter finals (5-1 at the end of swiss).

main:
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Goblin Welder
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Painter's Servant

2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Pyroblast
4 Sudden Shock

4 Blood Moon

1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Lotus Petal
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Grindstone

1 Great Furnace
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Plateau
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
5 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Manic Vandal
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Koth of the Hammer
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lightning Greaves
2 Rest in Peace
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Volcanic Fallout

Basically it's a R/w painters list with four sudden shock in main. I've to say that they are awesome in a delver/stoneforge metagame. It kills delver, shaman, monastery, pyromancer, stoneforge...giving you an extra time. Blood moon and sudden shock were the best cards against blue dual metagame.

While in the side, wurmcoil engine/welder combo is a painful to UR burn. It gave me the top 8 in the last round.

Only loosing 2-0 against Ugr delver in swiss cause i only played two lands each game.

Sorry for my crappy english.

[mcbain]

Great list Nayashi!

Sudden shock is a spicy alternative to kill all those cheap creatures which are all to often to well protected.

Overall I think you have meta'd your deck and sideboard well. Double RIP and wurmcoil engine seem awesome. My one beef might be the one Sulphur elemental, perhaps that could be another bridge, revoker, or myartr of ashes.

[Nuke is Good]

Took it to the LGS and had another 2-2 day (sigh)

Round 1 U/B Reanimator
G1 As soon as I see the Underground Sea and Lotus Petal I knew what I was dealing with. Maindeck ensnaring bridge after three turns in play gets him. He should have never pitched the Jin to counter my first painter.
G2 He keeps a strange no land hand to dump griselbrand on 2nd turn. He double petals and islands into show and tell into another Griselbrand and I reveal another ensnaring bridge. He scoops automatically.

Round 2 U/G Infect
G1 Turn 1 Blood Moon gets FoW. His blighted agent gets a double invigorate and vines for lethal.
G2 City of Traitors into painter. Next turn Mountain, grindstone, and a simian spirit guide clinch it.
G3 Turn 1 Blood Moon gets FoW'd again. I manage to get painter but on of my EoT he would Krosan grip it. I stick another painter and that eats a krosan grip too. I get beaten to death by Inkmoth Nexus or whatever it's called.

This matchup brought up a question for both of us. I sided out my bridges because I imagined that ensnaring bridge would only check Power when attackers are declared so after that he would be free to pump them. But my opponent's assumption was that if he did pump them after declaring they would could not attack. Regardless I lost there.

Round 3 Burn
G1 Yeah don't keep a hand with two ancient tombs and fetches.
G2 I stick a Leyline of Sanctity. He ends up having Goblin Guide, Pyrostatic Pillar on a stick, and flame rifts. I didn't really have any of my combo pieces out in play. After taking lethal from searing blaze the next card I would have drawn was COP:White which made me sad.

Round 4 Esper Affinity
G1 BLOOD MOOON. Locks the poor dude out of blue. I proceed to hand dump with ensnaring bridge in play. It ended up because I casted the blood moon his 3 Tezzeret's were useless. Everytime he brought out a threat I'd nuke it with Jaya or use goblin welder to give him another mountain.
G2 Goblin welder stalls the game for me until I combo out.


My thoughts:
I didn't think I would have beaten U/B Reanimator since it's the faster deck but ensnaring bridges really what won the game for me.

I think Blood moon would have done the U/G Infect match wonders since they run like...a single basic I think. However I was concerned if I mulled into a Blood Moon I would have offensive measures. Having only one burn piece in the 75 is rather painful. Is siding out the revokers for more blue hate worth it?

Burn is bad regardless. CoP white might have done more work than Leyline but I only have 3 source of white in my deck.

The affinity match I was actually afraid of due to the deck's reputation to hand dump and have an etched champion with a cranial plating on by turn 2. Goblin Welder just made it a complete joke, almost like Pernicious Deeds level of demolishing.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Just attended a Power 9 tournament for a Lotus and finished a brutal 9th place (out of 46 I think). I played this list:

1 Goblin Welder
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Painter's Servant
1 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

1 Lotus Petal
4 Grindstone
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Ensnaring Bridge

4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Blood Moon

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
9 Mountain

Sideboard

3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sudden Shock
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Manic Vandal
2 Koth of the Hammer

Round 1 (Elves)

Game one was basically much unshaved ape, hoof derp. He vomited out a bunch of dudes with Glimpse on turn 2 and then Hoofed me on turn 3. Game 2 Ensnaring Bridge with Welder locked him out. Grim Lavamancer killed a LOT of Elves this game as well. Game 3 never happened due to a mid-round deck check. Turns out my opponent had registered "Fyndhorn Sage" on his decklist. 2-1.

Round 2 (Deathblade)

Game one I had turn 2 Blood Moon that got Forced, then he Thoughtseized my Recruiter and left me with basically no business. I died to something or other. Game 2 I had turn one Moon on the play, nothing to see here against NoBasics.dec. Game 3 I open a hand with City, Monkey, Blood Moon, and a Magus among other things. He plays Underground Sea, pass. Suspecting Spell Pierce I slam Magus on turn one. He did have the Pierce, and scoops to Magus. 2-1.

Round 3 (Turbo Eldrazi)

This match was harder that I expected. Game one I drew a billion blasts but basically no lands (eventually started blasting his lands with Painter and Moon in play). He never found a dude for the Show and Tell in his hand despite much topping, and we went to game 2 after derpy beats. Game two I flooded out, dying to hard-cast Emrakul with like 10 lands in play after he bounced my Moon. Game 3 was a nail-biter - I won with derpy beats under Moon when he was one mana short of slamming an Eldrazi. 2-1.

Round 4 (U/R Delver)

My first encounter with TreasureSwiftspear.dec. This one was short and painful. I couldn't empty my hand fast enough to get Bridge online game one and die to fast beats (I had the combo online but bricked on drawing my third land - by the time I found it he had found burn for my Painter). Game two I resolve Bridge but don't draw much of anything else, and watch as my opponent drew 24 (!) extra cards (we counted) until he finally found Smash to Smithereens and swung for a million. 4 copies of Treasure Cruise were cast in this game. (0-2).

Round 5 (BUG Delver)

My hopes of double-drawing into top 8 are dashed, but this is a good matchup. I manage to resolve Moons eventually in both games after blasting early Delvers, although I got blown out game one by a maindeck Disfigure on my Magus. (2-0).

Round 6 (U/R Delver)

My opponent's breakers weren't as good as mine, so he couldn't draw. I win game one off of Ensnaring Bridge. Game two I keep a slow hand and my opponent plays 3 consecutive Delvers which naturally flip, this one was over quickly. Game 3 I can't reduce my hand size quickly enough to get Bridge online and have difficulty with lands. I die to a horde of one-drops and multiple bolts. (1-2)

I have the best breakers of the X-2s and end up in a disappointing 9th place. The deck performed well except for a couple of hiccups with lands (one game in each U/R Delver match of course) and a significant number of mulligans, but that's to be expected when playing any deck with sol lands. I very nearly ran 4 Dragon's Claw in the board in place of a Relic, the 2 Koth, and one other card. It would have been good as there was much less Miracles, much less graveyard decks, and much more U/R and Burn than I expected. Not sure it's enough in the U/R matchup though, if you don't resolve bridge and go hellbent immediately you are in for a bad time.

[drude1]

Took it to the LGS and had another 2-2 day (sigh)

Round 1 U/B Reanimator
G1 As soon as I see the Underground Sea and Lotus Petal I knew what I was dealing with. Maindeck ensnaring bridge after three turns in play gets him. He should have never pitched the Jin to counter my first painter.
G2 He keeps a strange no land hand to dump griselbrand on 2nd turn. He double petals and islands into show and tell into another Griselbrand and I reveal another ensnaring bridge. He scoops automatically.

Round 2 U/G Infect
G1 Turn 1 Blood Moon gets FoW. His blighted agent gets a double invigorate and vines for lethal.
G2 City of Traitors into painter. Next turn Mountain, grindstone, and a simian spirit guide clinch it.
G3 Turn 1 Blood Moon gets FoW'd again. I manage to get painter but on of my EoT he would Krosan grip it. I stick another painter and that eats a krosan grip too. I get beaten to death by Inkmoth Nexus or whatever it's called.

This matchup brought up a question for both of us. I sided out my bridges because I imagined that ensnaring bridge would only check Power when attackers are declared so after that he would be free to pump them. But my opponent's assumption was that if he did pump them after declaring they would could not attack. Regardless I lost there.

Round 3 Burn
G1 Yeah don't keep a hand with two ancient tombs and fetches.
G2 I stick a Leyline of Sanctity. He ends up having Goblin Guide, Pyrostatic Pillar on a stick, and flame rifts. I didn't really have any of my combo pieces out in play. After taking lethal from searing blaze the next card I would have drawn was COP:White which made me sad.

Round 4 Esper Affinity
G1 BLOOD MOOON. Locks the poor dude out of blue. I proceed to hand dump with ensnaring bridge in play. It ended up because I casted the blood moon his 3 Tezzeret's were useless. Everytime he brought out a threat I'd nuke it with Jaya or use goblin welder to give him another mountain.
G2 Goblin welder stalls the game for me until I combo out.


My thoughts:
I didn't think I would have beaten U/B Reanimator since it's the faster deck but ensnaring bridges really what won the game for me.

I think Blood moon would have done the U/G Infect match wonders since they run like...a single basic I think. However I was concerned if I mulled into a Blood Moon I would have offensive measures. Having only one burn piece in the 75 is rather painful. Is siding out the revokers for more blue hate worth it?

Burn is bad regardless. CoP white might have done more work than Leyline but I only have 3 source of white in my deck.

The affinity match I was actually afraid of due to the deck's reputation to hand dump and have an etched champion with a cranial plating on by turn 2. Goblin Welder just made it a complete joke, almost like Pernicious Deeds level of demolishing.

I assume you mean CoP: red?


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[Nuke is Good]

I assume you mean CoP: red?


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Yeah I guess I wrote CoP: White since the card is white, massive brainfart.