[Free Article] Lotus Notes

[voltron00x]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17586_The_Long_Winding_Road_Lotus_Notes.html

In my article this week, I take a look at the creation and evolution of the Painter's Servant deck I played at GP: Chicago, and provide a tournament report for the Bethlehem, PA tournament on 5/31, including deck-lists for both finalists (Hybrid Painter and Probasco Counter/Top).

[AngryTroll]

That list looks pretty awesome. Congrats on the finish!

Your article is the best kind of Legacy Article. Deck development, some interesting card choices (Ancient Tomb and Fact or Fiction, Counterbalance in the Board!) that you reason out, a tournament report, and then reflections on those card choices (in this case, that they worked out really well).

Some questions about your list (Which, again, looks awesome):
Did you want more basic Islands in there somewhere? Was that ever an issue?

How were the Red Blasts? They seem really solid against most of the format, but the decks that they aren't good against seem like tough matches (Rock, Goblins, Survival, Zoo).

Finally, did you ever use the maindeck Relic? I run one main in Dreadstill, and it's been pretty solid, but it looked like you didn't run into any matchups in which it would have been useful.

Thanks for the great article! I hope that you will write another one after the Boston event.

[voltron00x]

That list looks pretty awesome. Congrats on the finish!

Your article is the best kind of Legacy Article. Deck development, some interesting card choices (Ancient Tomb and Fact or Fiction, Counterbalance in the Board!) that you reason out, a tournament report, and then reflections on those card choices (in this case, that they worked out really well).

Some questions about your list (Which, again, looks awesome):
Did you want more basic Islands in there somewhere? Was that ever an issue?

How were the Red Blasts? They seem really solid against most of the format, but the decks that they aren't good against seem like tough matches (Rock, Goblins, Survival, Zoo).

Finally, did you ever use the maindeck Relic? I run one main in Dreadstill, and it's been pretty solid, but it looked like you didn't run into any matchups in which it would have been useful.

Thanks for the great article! I hope that you will write another one after the Boston event.

Thanks, and I'll definitely be writing about the $5K.

I've been ok thus far with the 1 Island, but it does make the deck vulnerable to Blood Moon & Magus, especially on the draw when you can't leave the fetch out and crack for an Island. It does seem like decks running the Moons make up a relatively small % of the meta at this point, so I'm ok with gambling on the side of a more powerful and flexible manabase until that changes.

The REBs are sort of a necessary evil, since they're so powerful against CB/Top, Standstill decks, and Merfolk, all of which are popular with the best players, and of course the synergy with Painter is insane (just to have a one-mana protection spell once he resolves, if nothing else). I originally had more, but they are pretty clunky until Painter sticks. One of the benefits of playing Brainstorm is that you can shuffle them away easily if they're dead weight in your hand.

The Relic was a dead card all day, but only because of the opponents I played. It might've been relevant against the Rock deck, which had Tarmogoyf and Kitchen Finks, but my hands were so good that I was on the attack all four games. I didn't play against any Threshold or Ichorid, so I never really needed them (unlike at GP: Chicago, where I really wanted one main in two of the four rounds I lost). I'm still on the fence as to whether it is worth having one main, or just making the deck more consistent by adding another FoF, Top, Daze, REB.

[lebarion]

Contrats on the finish! I like the list a lot, seems poweful and very flexible.
I wonder how often (if ever) you used the Stifle + Dreadnought combo, as you haven't metioned it in your report?

[voltron00x]

Contrats on the finish! I like the list a lot, seems poweful and very flexible.
I wonder how often (if ever) you used the Stifle + Dreadnought combo, as you haven't metioned it in your report?

I used it at GP: Chicago, both in the GPT and in the GP itself. However, I never used it at all on 5/31; a big reason for this was the decks I played against. That combo is mostly in there for Aggro decks, and I only played one all day.

Against Landstill Dreadnought is awful, and the Stifles aren't that good against Probasco CB/Top, so that whole package of six cards comes out. Against the Rock, Stifle is ok if they're running fetches, but Dreadnought isn't good post-board because they'll have their regular removal plus more as well as hand disruption, so Counterbalance is much better. The only reason you might keep one in would be in case of Extirpate on Painter.

[TheCramp]

Would this be the legacy deck that Tezzeret the Seeker fits into? Have you tried him? It's kind of expensive.

[voltron00x]

Would this be the legacy deck that Tezzeret the Seeker fits into? Have you tried him? It's kind of expensive.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it. I had him as a one-of in my original mono-blue version. With the Tombs, a turn-four Tezzeret is quite reasonable and oddly enough, might be easy to resolve due to many deck's reliance on counterbalance/top and spell snare.

Maybe that's a possible answer in place of the Relic.

[TheCramp]

Seems worth testing. I like him better in a deck like this than a stax deck. White stax is just so sick, I don't see playing another color over it. But here he has a very different roll to play.

[lordofthepit]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. The deck looks like a blast to play because it can shift roles so quickly and so flexibly. I want to build a variant. =)