Uroborian
08-12-2015, 09:22 PM
[Deck] Emerald City (N.O. Stone)
History of Me and This:
I started playing magic recently compared to most others I play against in Legacy, about 3 years competitively. For the longest time I was a modern player and drafted on the occasional FNM's. Never did I think i would be in ownership of a legacy deck and have match wins to my name! My local LGS had proxy legacy nights and the deck I choose was iPainter. That deck got me hooked on combo and without losing to FoW (I'm looking at you Charbelcher). I spent many weekends watching SCG Live and Sundays were spent watching a day full of Legacy and I was hooked, even streamed it on my TV to the annoyance of my roommates. It was one of them however that commented how green always gets the broken cards, as another Elves player Natural order's a Craterhoof for another win that day. Soon after discussion of that card did a rare Cube combo come to fruition of Painter's Servant and Natural Order. Being able to summon any creature in your deck has powerful synergies, specifically the EDH banned combo of Painter's Servant and Iona, Shield of Emeria. And so the brewing began during the summer months of 2014.
Origin of Name:
Due to the decks mechanics and play-style it has more in common in play-style to Maverick than my previous experience with iPainter. Being a maverick(horse) deck that changes color(painter) of of the roommates made the Pun about the Horse of a Different Color. With many laughs had we shortened it to the horses home, Emerald City, since you will always name green with painter and what better city is only made of green?
Deck iteration as of 8/1/15:
//Combo
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Progenitus
4 Painter's Servant
3 Grindstone
3 Natural Order
//Ramp
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Simian Spirit Guide
//Tutors
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Sensei's Divining Top
//Hate package
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Blood Moon
1 Ensnaring Bridge
//Lands
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Savannah
//Sideboard
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trinisphere
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Uba Mask
1 Sylvan Library
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Choke
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Sphere of Law
2 Rest in Peace
1 Containment Priest
Gameplan:
As with many decks that run Blood moon T1 blood moon wins games. And this is no exception if you have it go for it. Otherwise basics are your friend of which the deck has 4. Paying either mana dork is a great start to ramp into bigger spells more quickly, but holding up an EOT enlightened tutor may save you and get you a win. Painter's Servant is the center of you combo so he is a priority. Painter and stone or Painter and NO win most games. Luckily when he is hiding in your deck NO for Progenitus is good enough. Hopefully one of those will present itself or have a SDT to find them. If all else fails Ensnaring bridge is a fall back and stalls most games. Weenie beat-down is the worst option here but a win is a win when your opponent is at Zero. Post-board artifacts and enchantments are a huge silver bullet package and with E tutor they become semi 5 of's. Against fair decks and discard the tutors do come out as they are a huge card disadvantage in grindy matches.
Records:
4-5 GP NJ-------------- First event playing the deck (outdated iteration still had red blast and wasnt focused enough on my gameplan, also jitters were had at such a large GP reminding me of GP Richmond)
2-2 LGS Legacy night--- Played on their stream had fun.
4-5 SCG open Indy ----- Even knowing a matchup well doesn't mean variance wont kill you or that you wont punt...a lot.
3-0-LGS legacy night--- Cashed my first event with the deck very rewarding. This was an awesome stream as [] got its 5 min of fame (more like 3 hours as it created a debacle over rules and having to question many things).
3-1-1 Gencon 2015------ It was awesome to get some testing in, after adding some Pimped cards along with the Library in the side. Lost to miracles. (draws were for Prize ticket payout)
2-1-1 Gencon 2015------ Second event deck held strong. Losing to Sneak and show, might need a differnt plan or perhap more games to figure out this matchup. (draws were for Prize ticket payout)
2-1-1 SCG IQ (Aug)------- Top 8 (5th place!); lost to junk, timely hand disruption sealed his win.
X-X SCG 5kIQ Columbus-- TBD
Interactions :::
Painter's Servant
For starters, you choose a color when servant resolves, before it is on the battlefield. Choosing a color cannot be stifled. The color you choose makes every card that color, including the ones in each hand, graveyard, and library (and I guess sideboard too). Opponents who have never played against Painter sometimes get confused about that. Regarding humility, color effects are in a higher layer so they still apply. The end result is a 1/1 painter's servant with no text that makes everything the color you choose, so grindstone milling still works. Red blasting a non-blue spell or permanent will only counter/kill it if painter on blue is still in play upon blast resolution. Let's assume painter comes into play and you choose blue. Sword of Fire and Ice is now blue. It CAN be equipped to a creature, but it will then grant pro-blue and fall off that creature. Same holds true for each other sword. There are other corner cases. For example, goblin piledriver gains protection from everything with a painter on blue. A mirran crusader can't hold a jitte when you put painter on green or black. A painter on green allows your opponent to green sun for any creature in their deck. A painter in play nullifies eye of ugin searching for a colorless eldrazi. Celestial purge out of miracles sideboards can hit a painter on black or red if you are not careful and so on. Naming blue allows force of will to pitch any card to it. Natural Order sacrificing only one "green" painter in play removes the global effect when you search so you can not sacrifice it to go get Iona.
Grindstone
The biggest thing that comes up in rulings is the resolving of grindstone. The ability does not care whether the cards hit the graveyard or not to continue. Because of this, you can combo through a rest in peace or leyline of the void (both solve the 2x progenitus issue). Progenitus is a replacement effect and never goes to the yard. If there is 1 in a library, it becomes the top card with nothing else. 2x means an instant draw unless rip or leyline is in play. With eldrazi shuffle triggers, grindstone fully resolves first, putting every card in the graveyard. Then the shuffle triggers are resolved so you have time to tormod's crypt in response. The 'combo' does not need grindstone on the field upon resolution, only a painter.
Natural Order
If you have a Painter in play and your opponent lets Natural Order resolve, searching for and putting Iona into play (naming Green obviously) stops your opponent from casting spells. They can not respond to Iona entering play due to "as" timing. You can not sacrifice Gaddock Teeg to Natural order as he stops you from casting Natural order before even getting to the sacrificing part of the card.
Green Sun's Zenith
With painter in play it just becomes a "Opal Sun's Zenith" as it no longer cares of color and a GSZ for 2 can now search up Containment priest or Ethersworn canonist. or a GSZ for 7 or 9 can tutor up Elesh and Iona respectively.
Dryad Arbor
With Blood moon in play Dryad arbor becomes a 1/1 Mountain Dryad that is Green. Relevant for when you need a green creature to NO perhaps when progenitus is enough and no painter in play.
Blood Moon
Turns each nonbasic land into a mountain. They are still non-basic for price of progress. Legendary lands are still legendary. ETB tapped lands still enter tapped. Dryad arbor becomes a 1/1 mountain dryad that taps for red mana (I believe it is still green though). Blood Moon/Magus override Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth. City of traitors does not need to be sacrificed upon playing another land. Ancient tomb and City of brass do not deal damage to the player. Lands that enter with counters on them keep their counters.
Magus of the Moon
Similar to Painter, the magus ability is applied above humility. Magus will be a 1/1 creature with no text that turns each nonbasic into a mountain.
Simian Spirit Guide
Exiling ssg does not use the stack and cannot be stifled.
Uba Mask
DTT gets around this as those cards are put into one's hand. FoW can still be alternately cast from exile if the player has a blue card in hand. With a Sylvan library in play all three cards get exiled, zero cards have to go back and you will lose no life. This is due to the wording on Library more than of Mask.
Progenitus
....Can be hardcast but just barely don't push it.
[U]The End
This Deck is slowly forming as I don't have a MTGO account with all the cards yet or I would be grinding this deck out in Dailies at least once a week.
Link to MTGOgoldfish for pricing: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/288311/edit#paper [Currently 390 online / 1120 in Paper ]
Thanks to:
Kap’n Cook and the rest of the iPainter 2.0 thread for helping me in the beginning. and with the interactions part of the post
History of Me and This:
I started playing magic recently compared to most others I play against in Legacy, about 3 years competitively. For the longest time I was a modern player and drafted on the occasional FNM's. Never did I think i would be in ownership of a legacy deck and have match wins to my name! My local LGS had proxy legacy nights and the deck I choose was iPainter. That deck got me hooked on combo and without losing to FoW (I'm looking at you Charbelcher). I spent many weekends watching SCG Live and Sundays were spent watching a day full of Legacy and I was hooked, even streamed it on my TV to the annoyance of my roommates. It was one of them however that commented how green always gets the broken cards, as another Elves player Natural order's a Craterhoof for another win that day. Soon after discussion of that card did a rare Cube combo come to fruition of Painter's Servant and Natural Order. Being able to summon any creature in your deck has powerful synergies, specifically the EDH banned combo of Painter's Servant and Iona, Shield of Emeria. And so the brewing began during the summer months of 2014.
Origin of Name:
Due to the decks mechanics and play-style it has more in common in play-style to Maverick than my previous experience with iPainter. Being a maverick(horse) deck that changes color(painter) of of the roommates made the Pun about the Horse of a Different Color. With many laughs had we shortened it to the horses home, Emerald City, since you will always name green with painter and what better city is only made of green?
Deck iteration as of 8/1/15:
//Combo
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Progenitus
4 Painter's Servant
3 Grindstone
3 Natural Order
//Ramp
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Simian Spirit Guide
//Tutors
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Sensei's Divining Top
//Hate package
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Blood Moon
1 Ensnaring Bridge
//Lands
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Savannah
//Sideboard
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trinisphere
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Uba Mask
1 Sylvan Library
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Choke
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Sphere of Law
2 Rest in Peace
1 Containment Priest
Gameplan:
As with many decks that run Blood moon T1 blood moon wins games. And this is no exception if you have it go for it. Otherwise basics are your friend of which the deck has 4. Paying either mana dork is a great start to ramp into bigger spells more quickly, but holding up an EOT enlightened tutor may save you and get you a win. Painter's Servant is the center of you combo so he is a priority. Painter and stone or Painter and NO win most games. Luckily when he is hiding in your deck NO for Progenitus is good enough. Hopefully one of those will present itself or have a SDT to find them. If all else fails Ensnaring bridge is a fall back and stalls most games. Weenie beat-down is the worst option here but a win is a win when your opponent is at Zero. Post-board artifacts and enchantments are a huge silver bullet package and with E tutor they become semi 5 of's. Against fair decks and discard the tutors do come out as they are a huge card disadvantage in grindy matches.
Records:
4-5 GP NJ-------------- First event playing the deck (outdated iteration still had red blast and wasnt focused enough on my gameplan, also jitters were had at such a large GP reminding me of GP Richmond)
2-2 LGS Legacy night--- Played on their stream had fun.
4-5 SCG open Indy ----- Even knowing a matchup well doesn't mean variance wont kill you or that you wont punt...a lot.
3-0-LGS legacy night--- Cashed my first event with the deck very rewarding. This was an awesome stream as [] got its 5 min of fame (more like 3 hours as it created a debacle over rules and having to question many things).
3-1-1 Gencon 2015------ It was awesome to get some testing in, after adding some Pimped cards along with the Library in the side. Lost to miracles. (draws were for Prize ticket payout)
2-1-1 Gencon 2015------ Second event deck held strong. Losing to Sneak and show, might need a differnt plan or perhap more games to figure out this matchup. (draws were for Prize ticket payout)
2-1-1 SCG IQ (Aug)------- Top 8 (5th place!); lost to junk, timely hand disruption sealed his win.
X-X SCG 5kIQ Columbus-- TBD
Interactions :::
Painter's Servant
For starters, you choose a color when servant resolves, before it is on the battlefield. Choosing a color cannot be stifled. The color you choose makes every card that color, including the ones in each hand, graveyard, and library (and I guess sideboard too). Opponents who have never played against Painter sometimes get confused about that. Regarding humility, color effects are in a higher layer so they still apply. The end result is a 1/1 painter's servant with no text that makes everything the color you choose, so grindstone milling still works. Red blasting a non-blue spell or permanent will only counter/kill it if painter on blue is still in play upon blast resolution. Let's assume painter comes into play and you choose blue. Sword of Fire and Ice is now blue. It CAN be equipped to a creature, but it will then grant pro-blue and fall off that creature. Same holds true for each other sword. There are other corner cases. For example, goblin piledriver gains protection from everything with a painter on blue. A mirran crusader can't hold a jitte when you put painter on green or black. A painter on green allows your opponent to green sun for any creature in their deck. A painter in play nullifies eye of ugin searching for a colorless eldrazi. Celestial purge out of miracles sideboards can hit a painter on black or red if you are not careful and so on. Naming blue allows force of will to pitch any card to it. Natural Order sacrificing only one "green" painter in play removes the global effect when you search so you can not sacrifice it to go get Iona.
Grindstone
The biggest thing that comes up in rulings is the resolving of grindstone. The ability does not care whether the cards hit the graveyard or not to continue. Because of this, you can combo through a rest in peace or leyline of the void (both solve the 2x progenitus issue). Progenitus is a replacement effect and never goes to the yard. If there is 1 in a library, it becomes the top card with nothing else. 2x means an instant draw unless rip or leyline is in play. With eldrazi shuffle triggers, grindstone fully resolves first, putting every card in the graveyard. Then the shuffle triggers are resolved so you have time to tormod's crypt in response. The 'combo' does not need grindstone on the field upon resolution, only a painter.
Natural Order
If you have a Painter in play and your opponent lets Natural Order resolve, searching for and putting Iona into play (naming Green obviously) stops your opponent from casting spells. They can not respond to Iona entering play due to "as" timing. You can not sacrifice Gaddock Teeg to Natural order as he stops you from casting Natural order before even getting to the sacrificing part of the card.
Green Sun's Zenith
With painter in play it just becomes a "Opal Sun's Zenith" as it no longer cares of color and a GSZ for 2 can now search up Containment priest or Ethersworn canonist. or a GSZ for 7 or 9 can tutor up Elesh and Iona respectively.
Dryad Arbor
With Blood moon in play Dryad arbor becomes a 1/1 Mountain Dryad that is Green. Relevant for when you need a green creature to NO perhaps when progenitus is enough and no painter in play.
Blood Moon
Turns each nonbasic land into a mountain. They are still non-basic for price of progress. Legendary lands are still legendary. ETB tapped lands still enter tapped. Dryad arbor becomes a 1/1 mountain dryad that taps for red mana (I believe it is still green though). Blood Moon/Magus override Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth. City of traitors does not need to be sacrificed upon playing another land. Ancient tomb and City of brass do not deal damage to the player. Lands that enter with counters on them keep their counters.
Magus of the Moon
Similar to Painter, the magus ability is applied above humility. Magus will be a 1/1 creature with no text that turns each nonbasic into a mountain.
Simian Spirit Guide
Exiling ssg does not use the stack and cannot be stifled.
Uba Mask
DTT gets around this as those cards are put into one's hand. FoW can still be alternately cast from exile if the player has a blue card in hand. With a Sylvan library in play all three cards get exiled, zero cards have to go back and you will lose no life. This is due to the wording on Library more than of Mask.
Progenitus
....Can be hardcast but just barely don't push it.
[U]The End
This Deck is slowly forming as I don't have a MTGO account with all the cards yet or I would be grinding this deck out in Dailies at least once a week.
Link to MTGOgoldfish for pricing: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/288311/edit#paper [Currently 390 online / 1120 in Paper ]
Thanks to:
Kap’n Cook and the rest of the iPainter 2.0 thread for helping me in the beginning. and with the interactions part of the post