[Deck] Strawberry Shortcake

Though my tournament was unremarkable (3-4 drop), for your reading pleasure and my future reference here is my report from Eternal Weekend North America 2024. The list:

4 Painter
3 Welder, Engineer
2 Recruiter
1 Cratermaker, PDE

8 Blasts
3 Grindstone
2 Karn
2 ET
1 Bridge, Lantern, Vexing Bauble, Blood Moon

4 Tomb, Saga, Mountain, fetches
2 City, Plateau
1 Furnace
2 Petal, SSG
1 LED, Mox Opal

Sideboard:
4 Bolt
2 Surgical
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grindstone
1 Portable Hole
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Abrade
1 Magus of the Moon

So fairly standard Shortcake compared to lists from the past year, except:

1. Maindeck Canonist replaced by maindeck Bauble. With Storm-type decks way down, artifact combo way up, hard control way down, and Reanimator decks playing Wasteland the value of this silver bullet is just not there. Bauble is better at stopping Forces of Whatever and allows Saga to find a sort of protection, a first for this deck.
2. 8 maindeck blasts & 0 maindeck Bolts. Between Frog pushing red Delver out of the meta, small-creature decks being pushed down by Frog & Bowmasters, and Bolt being unhelpful against prevalent creatures (Frog, TKS, Nadu, Goyfs), I chose to make the maindeck strong against Frogs and combo.
3. Maindeck Blood Moon. I used to have Breya's Apprentice in this slot but the role that card fills is not so important anymore. I added Moon as a crutch since I didn't get much testing this year and was uncertain about some matchups, and then never saw a compelling reason to play a different card so I kept it.

On to the games:

R1: 2-0 vs Forgeraker
G1: On the play I keep Petal, 2x Mountain, ET, Grindstone, Painter - a T2 combo if needed. After the opponent dumps a bunch of Keys and Monoliths I decide it is needed, so ET -> LED and win.
G2: On the draw I keep a 2-Tomb hand with Karn and Painter. Kozilek's Command exiles the Painter which Karn retrieves, but then he has a Karn for Needle to shut down both our Karns. I deploy a Grindstone and the game shifts to Saga beatdown, where I am trying to knock out his Karn through Dismembers and Kommands without dealing too much damage to myself with my own Tombs. I am a bit short on blasts, but ET -> Needle to turn off his Saga plus Painter turning off Fleshraker to deprive him of chump blockers mean I eventually remove his Karn and win.

R2: 2-1 vs UB Tempo
G1: On the play I keep Bauble, SSG, City, Moon, Saga, Blast and decide to turbo out the Moon since I have it. The opponent naturally draws both his basics while I struggle to draw any lands at all. I blast three Frogs but don't have the mana to both advance the combo and deal with Nethergoyf so I loose.
G2: Goblins chew through removal spells, and Painter turning off Consign lets me resolve a Bridge which buys plenty of time to assemble the combo.
G3: I Surgical his Consigns which shows me two Brazen Borrowers, but due to being short on mana I can't activate Grindstone with blast backup so I use the combo to draw out one Borrower and replay Painter the following turn. I wait to draw a fourth mana source but on turn 5 of extra turns I have no real choice but to go for it. Turns out he Brainstormed away the second Borrower in favor of a Frog which I had blasted, so he had nothing and I got there.

R3: 0-2 vs Sneak & Show
G1: OTD I keep a hand that can either T1 Moon or T2 combo and has a blast, but he has T1 Emrakul off Show and Tell. I put in a Painter (a mistake, looking back) which gets annihilated the following turn. I do not draw Bridge to go with the Petal and Tomb so I lose.
G2: I mulligan some hands with terrible mana and keep Mountain, Petal, Engineer, Blast. I play out the mana, then we draw-go for a couple turns during which I do nothing, but after I draw Cratermaker plus a second Mountain I tap out (leaving Petal) for the Emrakul killer so that I don't have to guess what to put in for Show and Tell, which he now casts. Turns out it's Omniscience this time, so with the Engineer trigger on the stack (getting PDE) I give up the Petal to blast the Omniscience. This buys me some time, but I don't draw an artifact to swap for PDE and refill my hand so I'm completely cold to Sneak into double Archon.

R4: 2-1 vs Bant Nadu
G1: I have a T1 Welder with a blast and some useful stuff in hand, but he has a T2 Soul Cauldron and later a Keen-Eyed Curator so the goblins I keep drawing (four, in total) are basically blank. I ET -> Bridge but Bridge eats FoW so I lose.
G2: T1 Blood Moon isn't a complete lock as he has an Island and a Plains, but turning off all the fetches was enough of an obstacle to clear a path for the combo.
G3: Having boarded out some goblins I am not pleased to open a hand with two, but it seems better than mulliganing to 5 so I keep. This time there is no graveyard hate so the goblins do what they're supposed to do - turn PDE into Ancestral Recall, assemble the combo, blank removal, and win the game.

R5: 1-2 vs R Stompy
G1: I keep a Saga-Tomb-Karn hand and get run over.
G2: I play out a Grindstone, Bolt some stuff, then use Recruiter and its found Painter to bait out a Fury so that I can then play out Bridge + Welder with one card in hand. He has no answer so I untap and execute the combo.
G3: After losing a Welder to Bombardiers but having a Grindstone, I end up having to play Painter and blast the Bombardiers so he can't throw a flipped Fable at the Painter to kill it. He has no cards in hand so it's down to his topdeck as to whether I win or not - and it's another Bombardiers. Painter goes down, and goblins are worthless since he can just throw treasures at them so I need Bridge and/or more mana plus another Painter and I find neither.

R6: 0-2 vs Cradle Control
G1: I can't find the Painter to go with my Grindstone before getting blown out by Craterhoof.
G2: I keep what was possibly too reactive of a hand, with multiple Bolts and a Saga + Grindstone, but Force of Vigor on those two cards leaves me topdecking while also having to Bolt his random creatures. He topdecks some dumb creature that beats me.
I haven't quite figured out this matchup yet.

R7: 1-2 vs R Stompy
G1: I am on the draw, but the opponent kept a hand that clearly relied on Vexing Bauble to shut me out, so I casually draw into Painter plus Karn for Grindstone and go off with blast backup while he's stuck on one land.
G2: I slip a Painter through, then after he taps out for a Ring I combo on his following upkeep before I get buried in card advantage. He has an Untimely Malfunction to redirect the Grindstone to me and I have no blast.
G3: Same as G2.

Thoughts:

1. 8 blasts was great. I might prefer more SSGs though since blasts are often only relevant with Painter in play and the format has become faster.
2. Maindeck Blood Moon should almost certainly be something else. It turned out to be unnecessary or bad in the ways that I usually find maindeck Moon effects to be bad (see R2G1). A maindeck Needle might have been better.
3. Karn was strong all day, in contrast to its mediocre performance in testing. I don't think it's necessary to go back to three copies though.
4. With Endurance and Orcish Bowmasters at probably record lows, it may be time to revisit Smuggler's Copter. It seems a bit too difficult to realistically threaten combat wins, and with 8 blasts I'm more interested in looting. I also find that Goblins are less likely to survive a turn cycle and Copter lets them still be useful in that situation. But then, if Null Rod becomes more prevalent due to the Forge deck Copter would not be a good idea.
5. ET was strong whenever it came up. Especially after watching all the event coverage, I am glad to be playing Shortcake instead of Fable.
6. Twinshot Sniper has been strong against Red Stompy in the past and may be worth another look now.

I went 5-2 for 2nd at a recent local tournament with:

4 Tomb, Saga, Mountain, fetches
2 City, Plateau
1 Furnace
3 SSG
2 Petal
1 Opal, LED

7 Blast
4 Painter, 3 Grindstone
3 Welder, Engineer
2 ET, Karn, Recruiter
1 Canonist, Magus, PDE, Cratermaker, Bridge, Lantern

3 Bolt
2 Surgical
1 Faerie Macabre, Rest in Peace, Moon, Bridge, Canonist, Hole, Needle, Grindstone, Crypt, Bridge

This is basically the same list I've been playing since 2023 but with more SSGs and a couple small changes for my local meta:

1. Maindeck Magus, sideboard Moon. Usually, if both cards are played, the enchantment is maindecked because it is easier to tutor early via ET whereas Recruiter -> Magus is slower. In my meta, however, the decks against which Moon effects are strong are also good enough without them except Lands, where Magus is much stronger since Boseiju does not kill it. This choice is to steal game 1 against Lands, at which it has performed well.
2. Sideboard Rest in Peace. This card was not necessary to fight pre-MH3 Oops because their ability to use the graveyard was more limited. Jack-o'-Lantern, Poxwalkers, and (at my LGS at least) Progenitus + Shenanigans make Memory's Journey more of a threat and combat damage a real possibility (still better to side out Bridge though). I wanted a card that shuts all of that down, and RiP has some utility against Emrakul if needed. This replaces the usual 4th Bolt because small-creature decks have been rare and non-threatening. I'm not yet sure about this slot; its future may depend on how Hexing Squelcher settles into the format.

Matches:

2-0 vs UR Delver
2-0 vs UB Tempo
0-2 vs TES
2-1 vs Oops
2-1 vs UG Omni-tell
-- Top 4 --
2-0 vs Eldrazi
1-2 vs TES (rematch)

I wasn't expecting this to be a report-worthy event so I took no notes and am going from memory on details.

R1: UR Delver
G1: My opening hand has Canonist, City, Plateau, SSG, REB, Painter. So the plan is to blast any Tamiyo, then stick Canonist and hopefully keep the Plateau around to control the stack while waiting for Grindstone or other action. This almost works except the Plateau gets Wastelanded after deploying the Canonist. I proceed to draw more lands, blasts, and SSGs and get in some damage against unflipped Delvers and non-delirious DRCs. Eventually though, I have to burn SSGs and blasts on a Murktide and two Delvers. I use the City to deploy a second Painter before using a topdecked Saga to get Grindstone for the win.

-2 ET, -2 Karn, -1 Canonist, -1 Magus
+3 Bolt, +1 Abrade, +1 Surgical, +1 Bridge

G2: On 5 cards, my opponent has Ponder into Hexing Squelcher against my two blasts. This becomes a problem when two Delvers land. After a Delver following a Brainstorm, I blast it to bait the suspected FoW which is there. Delver flip shows Consign, which I shuffle away with Surgical on Brainstorm to protect an upcoming Painter, then re-blast theh Delver. The opponent is now topdecking, so even though I'm at 9 having paid 8 life into Squelcher, goblin tricks + PDE stabilize against it while drawing me into Painter, Painter, Grindstone. Eventually I attack for lethal with combo backup.

R2: UB Tempo
G1: After getting Thoughtseized, I trade off some blasts for Tamiyo and a Murktide but a second Murktide plus a timely removal spell on Painter mean I have to topdeck Bridge or a blast. Fortunately, an earlier Canonist stops him from deploying multiple interaction pieces at once. So Engineer can exchange a construct for the dead Painter before Saga gets the Grindstone, and if he casts anything other than another removal spell I can combo in response on the one turn before Murktide kills me. He casts Hymn to Tourach and I win in response.

-2 ET, -1 Canonist, -1 Magus, -1 Lantern, -2 Karn
+3 Bolt, +1 Abrade, +1 Surgical, +1 Moon, +1 Bridge

G2: I keep Painter, Grindstone, blast, Bolt, Tomb, Mountain, Saga of which the Painter gets Thoughtseized. I play out the Grindstone which resolves, then draw some Welders which I hold until I'm sure he has no Bowmasters and I have an artifact to weld. The first Saga got Wastelanded, but a second one lets me make a construct to weld for Painter. He has Wasteland for the Ancient Tomb which leaves me short on mana for a while. I eventually find the mana and combo him, but he has boarded in one Emrakul and my Lantern and both Karns are in the sideboard. Fortunately at this point he was on one card in hand so two Painters get some relevan chip damage in. In response to his Thoughtseize I double-bolt him to 2 earning the concession.

R3: TES
G1: I know what this person is playing so on the play, mulligan to a 5 that Engineers for Canonist and can put in play on T2. He Gambles for a 50% T1 win which, naturally, he got.

-1 Magus, -1 Cratermaker, -1 Bridge, -1 Recruiter
+1 Canonist, +2 Surgical, +1 Needle
Needle is for Boseiju but also Runehorn Hellkite, which I was later told gets cut in this matchup.

G2: I keep a hand with blast but no SSG, and a T2 Engineer for Canonist gets wrecked by Echo into Silence followed by a storm kill. He cast a Hexing Squelcher at some point.

We played another postboard game for fun afterward and my opponent thought I might be mulliganing too hard for prison pieces when Painter+blast hands might be enough. According to him the T1 kills are almost always via Echo rather than Beseech. I'm not sure about that yet.

R4: Yorion Oops
G1: I know he usually plays Oops but when he reveals Yorion I decide I am not willing to mulligan to T1 Lantern or T1 Canonist if he might be playing D&T or some non-Oops thing. Naturally I get T1-ed.

-1 Magus, -1 Cratermaker, -1 Bridge, -2 Karn, -1 Welder, -1 Engineer
+2 Surgical, +1 Macabre, +1 Rest in Peace, +1 Crypt, +1 Needle, +1 Canonist

G2: I keep a 7 with Surgical as the only hate but with a good base of lands, Painter, blasts, and some other stuff. He turbos out a Dauthi Voidwalker, then discards both my blasts and the Surgical into the Voidwalker. I have Canonist though and Painter, so he can't both combo and stop my interaction on the same turn. Eventually he casts Spy, which gives him Narcomoebas but nothing else due to the Canonist. Since I have Painter + Grindstone, though only 2 lands for mana, on my upkeep he cashes in the Voidwalker to destroy the Grindstone. I respond by ET for Lantern to wipe the graveyard and win.

G3: I keep another dodgy 7 with Lantern as the only hate piece but with good action (land, Painter, multiple blasts) otherwise. He has a T1 tapland so I cast the Lantern and let him combo, then Journey for just Oracle. He has one card in hand and 2 blue sources, so after drawing a second red land I decide to play Painter and blast one of his blue sources in case his last card is Pact of Negation or Therapy. It is neither, so I win.

R5: UG Omni-tell
G1: I have some idea what he is playing, so when Karn resolves I immediately fetch Canonist. He then casts an Aluren which lets me freely drop PDE and Engineer fetching Painter. Having basically no action after my draw step though, I cast the Canonist to which he responds with Acererak. In order to not die I swap Opal for Painter and blast the Aluren, which resolves as does the Canonist. From there it's beatdown then Karn fetching Grindstone which earns a concession (he had drawn the Emrakul).

-1 LED, -1 Grindstone, -1 Magus
+1 Canonist, +2 Surgical

G2: I keep a hand on the strength of Blast + Surgical with Recruiter to stop Aluren by fetching Canonist. We both set up for a while, then after a Hedge Maze bins an Aluren and he casts Stock Up, I Surgical his Alurens and see a hand with S&T, Atraxa, Omniscience, 2 Brainstorm, and another Stock Up. I have the mana to Recruit Canonist and cast it with SSG + Blast backup, which should be enough if the Brainstorms don't find another S&T. I stop the first one, but then did not draw another Blast or Surgical to stop the second (or the third).

+1 Magus, +1 Moon
-1 Recruiter, -1 Grindstone
We're close to the time limit and I don't want to get a fast S&T dropped on me, and he has shown no inclination to preemptively fetch basics, so I bring in the Moon effects. A fast combo from me isn't worth much because of the Emrakul, and having seen his deck now I know that Aluren is just for Acererak so I'm not that concerned about it anymore.

G3: I keep 2x Saga, Tomb, SSG, Blast, Engineer. Engineer might not get cast, but Sagas can find both Grindstone and Lantern given enough time and Engineer can find Painter, so we have something to work toward. I lead on Saga, then draw Blood Moon which I cast using Tomb. Amazingly it resolves, so my Saga is now a permanent construct factory. I burn the one blast on a desperation Brainstorm and he has FoW now for it, but the Brainstorm finds nothing so I win.

Semifinals: Eldrazi
G1: I am on the draw and keep a hand witih Tomb + Painter, Engineer, lands, and some other stuff. Amazingly he does not have T1 Chalice, only a Cavern. I run out the Painter, he has an Eye which does nothing, so I untap and Engineer for Grindstone. Eye + Cavern + Wasteland he tries to Wastescape away the Painter which I explain does not work because it's not colorless. So he Wastelands the Tomb leaving me with Mountain + Petal + SSG only for mana. I draw Welder though, which I eventually use to swap Painter for the Grindstone then back for Painter after activating Grindstone for the win.

-1 Canonist, -1 Karn, -1 ET, -1 Lantern, -1 REB
+1 Bridge, +1 Abrade, +2 Bolt, +1 Moon
All the lock pieces are strong, and I don't want to expose myself to Chalice on 1 too much. One ET gets cut because of that and the Moons, but it might be better to keep it.

G2: I keep a hand with T1 Engineer and T2 Bridge, with PDE as a blocker if needed. This time he has a T1 2-drop but it is It that Heralds the End. I use Saga + SSG to drop Engineer for the other Bridge, holding onto Great Furnace to ensure I can get the Bridge next turn. He Thought-Knots away the Bridge in hand, so I swap Furnace for Bridge on his turn to prevent the 5/5 TKS from attacking. Eventually PDE stops his 2/2 and I topdeck Painter to go with a second Saga that is now about to find Grindstone which earns the concession.

Finals: TES (rematch from R3)
G1: I get T1ed with Veil of Summer backup.

-1 Magus, -1 Cratermaker, -1 Bridge
+1 Canonist, +1 Surgical, +1 Rest in Peace
Not bringing in Needle this time. Rest in Peace shuts down LED -> Echo better than Surgical, so I figured I'd try it on the play.

G2: I drop T1 Canonist off Saga + Petal and have the Ancient Tomb to immediately start making constructs as well as SSG + Blast for the bounce spell on Canonist. He eventually Burning Wishes for a second bounce spell, but I have Grindstone which makes the constructs + Canonist lethal.

-1 Rest in Peace
+1 Surgical
Surgical being castable T1 on the draw is more important.

G3: I mulligan to 5 with Blast but no SSG and get run over by Echo + Silence.

Observations:

1. Canonist was very strong all day. To have games like those are one of the reasons to play Shortcake over mono-red. However, I'm not sure 2 is enough to reliably beat current TES. I lost the games where I didn't drop it T1 and won the one where I did. Maybe I just don't fully understand the matchup yet.
2. In matchups where Karn is strong, 2 is too few.
3. SSG is quite excellent. I think the 3/2 split with Petals balances the surprise factor of SSG with enabling the artifact synergies.
4. Hexing Squelcher is better against us than it is for us (probably). I registered a low opinion of this card when it was spoiled but might test it anyway.

Thanks for reading. I'm happy to answer any questions.