justindz
02-24-2011, 01:35 PM
Here's an idea I had at 4:30 this morning. Yes, that probably means it's terrible, but thought it would be worth sharing. I wasn't sure where to put this, but it didn't seem to fit in any of the existing Painter or CounterTop threads well, so I thought I'd play it safe.
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterbalance
3 Cunning Wish
3 Spell Pierce
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Painter's Servant
3 Trinket Mage
4 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Grindstone
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Mox Opal
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Seat of the Synod
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Underground Sea
1 Academy Ruins
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Swamp
---
There are basically three game plans here:
Painter's/Stone
Tezzeret + Inkmoth clock
Tezzeret + artifacts clock
Otherwise, the deck plays the Counterbalance/Control game with Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold both allowing you to rig Counterbalance triggers using cards in the GY. Most notably, Painter's and Trinkets, which tend to die naturally as the game progresses. Running Tezzeret, Trinkets and Cunning Wish provides decent 3/4 cmc coverage for Counterbalance.
Tezzeret also replaces Ponder in this deck as something to dig for the Painter's Servant versus the mono-blue versions of this I've seen before. He also provides an alternate win condition against decks that stop the main plan and/or have Eldrazi in their library and you can't draw into a Wish for Ravenous Trap or some such. The Mox Opal might be loose/greedy. It enables the turn 1 Synod, Opal, Top, spin play from magical Christmas land. I really like Spell Pierce against Vials, combo decks, Counterbalance mirrors, MUD (hurts their mana development), etc. It was originally Daze, but I wanted to many non-Island lands in the deck to be comfortable with that.
---
SB (obviously, meta-dependent):
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress (Merfolk, Bant, possibly MUD w/ Painter's Servant on blue)
2 Perish (Zoo, Bant, Elves, Goyf + Taxes, but also a "Wrath" effect for three if you have a Painter's Servant out on green)
Wish board:
1 Tsabo's Decree (Goblins, Merfok)
1 Submerge (Goyfs, mostly)
1 Ravenous Trap (Dredge, Emrakul decks)
1 Mindbreak Trap (Control, Storm)
1 Wipe Away (bullet, Counterbalance)
1 Echoing Truth (bullet, token shennanigans)
1 Diabolic Edict (bullet, Show and Tell, NOPro Bant)
1 Extirpate (bullet, Dredge, Emrakul decks)
1 Stifle (bullet)
Trinket board:
1 Relic of Progenitus (Dredge, Reanimator, yada yada)
1 Pithing Needle (Randoms where 2x is good)
The plan:
Generally, other than playing a wishboard, you would flex the extra trinket targets and the "sweeper" cards that interact with Painter's Servant with various cards from the main deck like this:
Counterbalance - not that hot against fast, removal-light decks where you might want to go for the throat (figuratively), so you might board some out for Perish or Llawan. Especially if they have Vials and your goal is more to Force or Pierce the early Vial.
Sensei's Divining Top - if you are taking out some Balances, you might take out 1-2 of these as well, just to make room for more board cards. You can still Trinket in to one of these.
Tezzeret - again, may be just too slow and janky for some matches, in which case a Relic, Needle or even boarding in a few relevant wish targets may be a better option. Perhaps Tezzeret is, for example, a total donkey against MUD?
Open questions:
* Any cards that look particularly bad/good?
* Is the Counterbalance approach any good, or do we cut to 1 top and spend those 7 slots doing something else? Like, maybe 4 Counterspell, and some Thopter/Sword mix or some Duress (which would require over-hauling the mana base) or something else.
* What do you think overall? Maybe this is just inferior to the Welder/LED plan espoused by Caleb Durward now, or at least just a bad CounterTop Thopter replacement due to the lack of Enlightened Tutor?
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterbalance
3 Cunning Wish
3 Spell Pierce
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Painter's Servant
3 Trinket Mage
4 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Grindstone
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Mox Opal
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Seat of the Synod
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Underground Sea
1 Academy Ruins
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Swamp
---
There are basically three game plans here:
Painter's/Stone
Tezzeret + Inkmoth clock
Tezzeret + artifacts clock
Otherwise, the deck plays the Counterbalance/Control game with Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold both allowing you to rig Counterbalance triggers using cards in the GY. Most notably, Painter's and Trinkets, which tend to die naturally as the game progresses. Running Tezzeret, Trinkets and Cunning Wish provides decent 3/4 cmc coverage for Counterbalance.
Tezzeret also replaces Ponder in this deck as something to dig for the Painter's Servant versus the mono-blue versions of this I've seen before. He also provides an alternate win condition against decks that stop the main plan and/or have Eldrazi in their library and you can't draw into a Wish for Ravenous Trap or some such. The Mox Opal might be loose/greedy. It enables the turn 1 Synod, Opal, Top, spin play from magical Christmas land. I really like Spell Pierce against Vials, combo decks, Counterbalance mirrors, MUD (hurts their mana development), etc. It was originally Daze, but I wanted to many non-Island lands in the deck to be comfortable with that.
---
SB (obviously, meta-dependent):
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress (Merfolk, Bant, possibly MUD w/ Painter's Servant on blue)
2 Perish (Zoo, Bant, Elves, Goyf + Taxes, but also a "Wrath" effect for three if you have a Painter's Servant out on green)
Wish board:
1 Tsabo's Decree (Goblins, Merfok)
1 Submerge (Goyfs, mostly)
1 Ravenous Trap (Dredge, Emrakul decks)
1 Mindbreak Trap (Control, Storm)
1 Wipe Away (bullet, Counterbalance)
1 Echoing Truth (bullet, token shennanigans)
1 Diabolic Edict (bullet, Show and Tell, NOPro Bant)
1 Extirpate (bullet, Dredge, Emrakul decks)
1 Stifle (bullet)
Trinket board:
1 Relic of Progenitus (Dredge, Reanimator, yada yada)
1 Pithing Needle (Randoms where 2x is good)
The plan:
Generally, other than playing a wishboard, you would flex the extra trinket targets and the "sweeper" cards that interact with Painter's Servant with various cards from the main deck like this:
Counterbalance - not that hot against fast, removal-light decks where you might want to go for the throat (figuratively), so you might board some out for Perish or Llawan. Especially if they have Vials and your goal is more to Force or Pierce the early Vial.
Sensei's Divining Top - if you are taking out some Balances, you might take out 1-2 of these as well, just to make room for more board cards. You can still Trinket in to one of these.
Tezzeret - again, may be just too slow and janky for some matches, in which case a Relic, Needle or even boarding in a few relevant wish targets may be a better option. Perhaps Tezzeret is, for example, a total donkey against MUD?
Open questions:
* Any cards that look particularly bad/good?
* Is the Counterbalance approach any good, or do we cut to 1 top and spend those 7 slots doing something else? Like, maybe 4 Counterspell, and some Thopter/Sword mix or some Duress (which would require over-hauling the mana base) or something else.
* What do you think overall? Maybe this is just inferior to the Welder/LED plan espoused by Caleb Durward now, or at least just a bad CounterTop Thopter replacement due to the lack of Enlightened Tutor?