[Deck] Imperial Painter

[sroncor1]

I would not worry about enchantress. You can't be better than ever deck and you are faster than they are. Bring in the full complement of blast effects and go into combo mode. Sterling grove and solitary confinement are the only cards that should really concern you. It may be a deck in your meta, but I really wouldn't have cards just for it. There are plenty of splash cards though. I did love anarchy some time ago, but it really is too slow and conditional most of the time. getting better in the zoo match up might be a stronger move for you and the deck in general. Hoever you could always run more EE in the board as the card is so strong if you splash a color. That with Jaya allow you to get around just about everything other than a double sterling grove, solitary confinement soft lock. I hope this helps.

[Mr.C]

Nice to see the deck won an SCG Open:

Maindeck:

Artifacts
3 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Grindstone
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top

Artifact Creatures
4 Painter's Servant

Creatures
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Goblin Welder
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Trinket Mage

Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
3 Thirst For Knowledge

Artifact Lands
1 Ancient Den
1 Great Furnace

Basic Lands
2 Island
1 Mountain

Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Flooded Strand
1 Plateau
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Sun Titan
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Firespout

Thoughts on the list? I like the inclusion of Salvagers and Welder. I think this may be a new direction for the deck (i.e. using Recruiter as a toolbox enabler).

[ramanujan]

The version that just won the Starcitygames tournament had surprise factor. Force of Will in the main. LEDs to fuel the finish or provide the alternate finish. This deck is a pile of tutors, especially when bouncing the Trinket Mage or Recruiter with the spellbomb. I hope that this list, or one close to it, is here to stay because it has the flexibility and searching that a two card combo oriented deck needs. I cannot wait to try the list out. Forces as the only protection seems risky, but perhaps all the tutoring and recurring will make me sing a different tune.

This deck, by that I mean this version of the deck, is now the most expensive deck in Legacy. Lands decks which run two Tabernacle will be more, but the more common one Tabernacle variant Lands deck will be less expensive.

[Renato]

Thx for the replys on enchantress.

As for Ken Adams list (SCG champion) I am with ramanujan - at first glance it seems a pile of tutors and I dont understand his sideboard (Sun Titan?). I want to test it.

[sroncor1]

Yeah I want to try it out, if only b/c I love sun titan. I almost thought about playing standard just for him. Not sure though how is better then another welder though. I had been meaning to post a mini primer for the deck, since the front page hadn't been updated in a while. Then med school got he better of me. I have some work to go on it and I would be willing to finish it up one of these nights I'm on call. I have spent extensive time testing mono red and different splashes. Not saying I'm the best or anything, but I feel I'm competent, and I've spent far to long with the deck. If a few people would be interested in reading it ill be happy to post it. If nothing else I may be able to say some people from some of my failed experiments.

Seth

[thorin_the_king]

i like a lot the tutoring power and the 2 combos in one of the winning list of SCG Minneapolis (with the rising of Emrakul decks it's a good idea to play bomberman with painter) though i dislike that he dropped moos effects and blasts from his list.

maybe we can put a WR list with welder and auriok and moon effects and using enightened tutor to fecth all the pieces that trinket fetched?? I will try to do some testing and share with you the results.

@sroncor1: I will be a lot interested in reading yoour primer, knowing that you have made a lot of results with the deck and also that you have been tryng to splash blue white and black, it would be great to have all that compilled in the opening post or anywhere.

Many people have sold his recruiters before GP: Columbus with all the Alluren hype and i was tempted too, but i love this deck much more than any other in legacy and i would like to continue going competitive with it. Let's try to resharp this swiss army knife again!

Thorin

P.S I also love sun titan!!! wish he could be 2/6 to be fetchable with recruiter :)

[Malchar]

Sorry for being ignorant, but when would you want to side-in sun titan, Meloku, and Jace?

Also, from experience, I know that moon is really good, but I think that using Force of Will is simply a stronger choice. Dragon Stompy came and went, and now we're left with a variety of FoW-supported combo decks. This combo deck ought to include FoW to help level the playing field. Perhaps the most disappointing loss is the red blasts, which often acted as counterspell backup, but once we've decided to run blue we gain access to our choice of daze, spell pierce, and the like.

[sroncor1]

Well Jace is basically always awesome. I would think he is strongest vs the non aggro match ups though. In Bant survival he is even good against zoo. he would be strong vs. rock decks along with mid range piles also.

I'm still lost on when you side in the Sun Titan, and i guess it would be against rock decks. They have slow clocks so you can hit 6 mana and at that point you start getting combo pieces back and they should not have enough removal. That is all theory.

A quick aside about the splashes, all three colors have something to offer and each one, along with mono red have advantages in certain metas. I actually have all the cards sleeved up to change the splash or go mono when I show up at every event and look around to see what I see. The white splash is by far the fastest, with blue giving you the most reach and really sticking it to tempo and control decks with blue. The black list I like the most right now mainly for the board. I may not actually play any black cards in the main, but Perish has been incredibly strong against zoo and the like. That is the biggest reason to run it. In all my testing I think running Cruel Tutor has cost me two games that Enlightened would have won me the game. And It has won me the game once when Enlightened Tutor would not have been able to do it. However the sideboard is stronger for the current landscape I think if you run black. Since I upped the lands to 19, I have found the mana base to be extremely consistent. Ill elaborate more when i get that post up. I have a little to work on and i hope to get it up within the week.

Seth

[martyr]

The deck was thrown together in the 20 minutes before the tournament started, and while Ken had the maindeck down pretty cold, I got the feeling the sideboard was a pretty random pile. I could be wrong, you'd have to ask him, but Sun Titan isn't tutor-able, and Jace as a one-of seems odd. Meloku is the best non-combo, 2 power-or-less win condition the deck has access to, being able to fly over moat and scale up his offensive power as the turns go by, as well as being immune to opposing Firespouts. Llawan and Faerie Macabre all tutor-able hosers, as are Tormod's Crypt, Pithing Needle, and Engineered Explosives.

I suppose Sun Titan might be a sort of end-game F@#$ you plan for board control randomness? Like, if his creatures all get blown up for the first 20 turns or whatever, Sun Titan just repeatedly buys them back? Or it was just a slot he needed to fill.

[Malchar]

Some other sideboard toolbox options that I have preferred in the past include Fledgling Dragon and Silent Arbiter. Hopefully we will get some interesting 1cc artifacts for our tutor package in the next set. Personally, I still like the idea of using some equipment as a backup plan, but I must admit that this list looks quite good as-is. I couldn't justify including any equipment unless I could tutor for it with Trinket Mage. Also, I would like to say that Goblin Welder is extremely fun. I have been using him in my mono red list. It's probably at its best in that list because you have Chrome Moxes to weld, but it's very fun just to mess up your opponent's artifacts on the outside chance that they use more than one.

[Rath]

I would probably have swapped out the Sun Titan for a Silent Arbiter in the sideboard, as it is tutor-able, colorless (easy to cast) and still has a solid impact on the game. I tended to have one in my mono-red sideboard. However, I also did not win an event with the deck *grin*

With the blue splash, I could see Meloku having a lot of power. Big Jace is just awesome, and a 3-in-1 threat (card selection, bounce, fatesealing)... however, more than 1 or 2 would seem a waste for me. I read someone saying he should be maindecked, but that just seems to detract from this deck's game 1. I could see having two in the sideboard, as it allows you to react to their deck and change plans with minimal card swaps. If you wanted to add one in the main deck, you could do so in place of a grindstone or LED.

[thorin_the_king]

finally moon decks have a good planeswalker to toy with!!!

what do you think of Koth for this deck?

for reference

[ryO!]

it seems sick . . . i mean the PW as for the inclusion of it i think it definitely worth a try.

[thorin_the_king]

i'm really liking it the more i think of him. He starts putting pressure like a figure of destiny the turn it comes into play, allows you to reach the 6 mana to combo in the same turn, and if reaching the ultimate it turns our lands in pingers for the rest of the game...

it's really nice :). I have to start testing him in order to confirm if he's that good

[cwt1220]

I am definitely going to give him a shot, he seems pretty nasty. Another card for opponents to focus their burn/counter/removal on. Really helps with aggro plan that I am a huge fan of.

-Chris-

[Malchar]

The PW seems great for the mono-red build that also uses moons. I also like using equipment with that build to bolster the aggro strategy. I'm looking forward to some equipment in the new mirrodin expansion. It's too bad that you can't use the PW to make 4/4 blockers though. Otherwise, I would be happy to use it with a white or blue splash in more of a combo/control build.

[thorin_the_king]

maybe it's time to play more pump creatures like figure of destiny or kargan dragonlord to make something with the mana he nets you with its -2 abbility. I don't know exactly what he would replace in a standard mono red build of IP to start testing the hell out of it. Anyone of the good IP players would like to share a starting point list for us?

[sroncor1]

I'll hopefully have my mini primer up in a few days, I've just been getting slammed during my intern year of residency.

I think the new planeswalker could be really powerful. Not sure how he would strengthen some matchups though. I'll have to test against Zoo but he def. makes Figure stronger. He plays great with Moon effects, and serves as another kill against mid range and control decks. He def. will help with the rock matchup as he blanks their creature removal and they only have 4 cards that are super versatile(Vindicate or Malstrom Pulse). Deed doesn't hit which is huge. Currently I would think the Top/tutor slot for two of them might be the best try initially. Otherwise there isn't much we can remove from the list I think as it is pretty tight and everything has a reason in the deck. You could try and remove the Figures as they sort of serve the same roll, just a little slower. I'll try a few things, but the hard part will be getting two or three of these guys. Fucking starcity is selling them for 50 bucks. It ain't jace.

Seth

[thorin_the_king]

he will drop i think to 20-24 after initial hype. It's only good when you play him alongside a lot of mountains, which means essentially mono red decks. here's hoping it so i can buy a couple of them :)

[Malchar]

Figure of Destiny is probably the weakest card in the mono-red list. Unfortunately, it just happens to work quite well with this new planeswalker. Also, it's a nice rule in general to try and keep as many creatures as possible when adding planeswalkers to a deck. A likely alternative would be to cut down the number of spirit guides or moxes in order to increase the consistency of the deck. Besides, this guy helps to boost your mana anyway. Also, it's not like you'd necessarily want to run 4x of this guy.

I don't think that you'll ever end up having too much mana in the mono-red list. You're already a little cramped for mana, and I don't think prioritizing the -2 ability is very good unless you actually have cause to use the mana. In general, if you're not going to play two things, pump the figure, or activate a grindstone, then you can feel good about doing the +1 ability and attacking for 4 or just passing. Like I said the real shame is that the 4/4 can't block for you, but I'll take whatever I can get. If you end up getting to use the ultimate, then it's a great alternate win condition which meshes well with the aggro strategy that already exists in the mono-red list.

With the inclusion of this planeswalker in the mono-red list, it probably precludes any possibility of using equipment in the list. Personally, I love Sword of Light and Shadow and think it's quite underused in general. Unfortunately, it doesn't really seem like the sword fits into the deck anymore because with planeswalkers I would favor using more bodies with less support.