[Deck] Imperial Painter

Here's a short write up of my local. Had some very interesting games. I'll get into card choices later but here's the list:

4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Grindstone
4 Painter's Servant
4 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
2 Goblin Welder
1 Peacekeeper
4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Lotus Petal
1 Faithless Looting
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Koth of the Hammer
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Plateau
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
1 Great Furnace

Sideboard:

4 Rest in Peace
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Firebolt
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Viashino Heretic
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Phyrexian Revoker

Round 1 **Bye**
I scout out the room. Stoneblade decks of all flavors, several combo decks, several midrage decks, a good room to go up against.

Round 2 DnT
I start the tournament with a bye, lose the die roll, and take a mulligan. An Enlightened Tutor, Recruiter, City of Traitors, Engineered Explosives, Grindstone, and Mountain stare back at me. He starts with the classic Plains, go and I draw a second Grindstone and play my first one off the Mountain. He jams a Stoneforge next turn for SoFI and passes. I play my City and Recruiter for a Painter's Servant. He plays a Karakas and passes. There's nothing to protect my Painter, but I play it anyways. Of course he has the Swords to Plowshares and I get beat down with the sword.

Sideboard: I shave Moons, blasts, a top and something else for 4 Firebolts, a Rip and the helm, the Heretic and extra bridges.

Game two I start with two Stones, a fetch, a city, a painter, a Top, and a Helm. Damn fine keep. I was tempted to jam the Painter and try to hail-mary a turn two combo, but that line of play is for suckers. My deck has inevitability, so instead I fetch a mountain and play Top. He leads with a Mother of Runes. I draw into a blast, so now I play the City into Recruiter for Viashino Heretic. He takes a turn to get on line and since I wasn't under pressure there's no need to play into his removal or keep him off his already decided game plan. He has to read the card. His brow furls. Got a fish on the line. Turn two he Revokers my top and passes. I draw another blast and play out my Painter. He lays a revoker on my Heretic which isn't even out. Sweet, just need to draw a mana source and it's game. He has yet another revoker for my Helm and I've almost landed the game. I draw a Plateau with him tapped out. Tap City for mana, sac it when I play the Plateau, play one of the Grindstones and activate it.

http://i.imgur.com/b33WfNY.jpg?1

Got one.

I don't side and start game three with four lands, a petal, an SSG and a Bridge. I keep this because Bridge is a house and I can be under its protection before he starts beating hard. This game was epic. I drew into the stone cold nuts while he assymbles an turn one Mother, turn two Stoneforge for SoFI yet again, and turn three Mother and Thalia. While he was playing white weenie, I was drawing Painter Servant, blasts, a Helm, a Recruiter, not one or three but two Welders and a Heretic naturally. With two Painters out on Blue he finally stops playing critters and trying to attack into a bridge after being reminded twice, and goes to equip the SoFI on his Stoneforge. "Sure....but it falls off" I inform him. The interaction is explained and he promptly moves the card to the side of his board never to look at it again, that is, until I start destroying his shit with my Heretic. I get the Helm down, both Welders on line and have a blast in hand. Now it's just time to draw a Tutor, Stone or RiP and be done with this. After about ten turns of drawing land and firebolts and blasts and countering things like Oblivion Ring on my Bridge, I have been slowly but surely been milling him with the helm. Swords and Flickerwisps hit the yard and not his hand and guys, I swear to you, I had that tingly feeling. I was doing it. The natural mill. He takes count of his library and it's on twelve cards as time is called. He gets the fifth turn which turns out to be clutch. I have the game all but locked, a RiP or Stone from the top will seal it, otherwise I need to play tight to get the mill. Turn 2 of OT I hit four cards. Seven to go. Six after his draw step. I EoT Welder out my tapped Helm for a Lotus Petal, then Welder the Petal for the now untapped Helm and Helm for two cards with my open mana that I held for blasts. Turn four of OT, my last turn I get there with a mill of six and to the riotous laughter of everyone pass the turn. He takes it like a champ and extends his hand. Fucking natural mill with Helm of Obedience.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...th-patrick.gif

Round 3 Esperblade

This is essentially a Win and In round, as I would be able to double draw into the top 8.

Game 1 I keep a fetch, top, Peacekeeper, 2 Painters, Petal and Magus. I knew he was on Esperblade, and I keep on the premise that turn one Top will find me gold and he'll be forced to use his discard on things that effect him like Magus and not my top. He obv leads with an Inquisiton of Kozilek off of a Sea and takes Magus pretty quickly. I draw Ancient Tomb and play it and the Top and spin it and pass the turn. Nothing of consequence on top except for a land so I'll shuffle/fetch next turn after getting my land drop secured. Turn two he Ponders and leaves a Tundra open. I play a Painter turn two around Daze and pass. I EoT top after he Thoughtseizes my something or other and see a Grindstone and SSG. Stone stays on top and SSG under it. Untap and draw the Grindstone. Now here's either a combo turn or I can wait and Top into a blast for protection. It's now main phase so wtih his three untapped lands I no longer fear Clique. I tap my Sol land and play Grindstone. I can pay for Spell Pierce and Daze but won't be able to combo. He'll need exactly Force of Will, Counterspell or StP. Decent odds, so I play out my second Servant which resolves and say go. He cantrips again, doesn't look happy and passes. I don't top because I have the win but in not doing so pretty much broadcast it. Now that clique is definitely out of the question he'll need exactly counterspell or Force, which were good odds for me even though he's cantripped a few times. I draw the SSG, play and resolve stone and activate it and that's that.

I shave my REBs, Top, Welder, and looting for Rip/Helm, Koth, Heretic and Revoker. I fear Surgical Extraction so I board in the back up combo.

Game two starts off with two blasts, two lands, helm, a Magus and Moon. Not bad.

He leads with a Thoughtseize on my Moon, probably has a Plow for my Magus. I start with land go. He stoneforges for Batterskull. I topdeck my Heretic and play it, nice deck. good deck. He stoneforges for Jitte and I topdeck my Peacekeeper, effectively neutering his equipment. I play Painter to get my blasts on line and he sits with equipment in hand as now he has to deal wtih the painter before the heretic. Over the next couple of turns he cantrips and plows my Painter, Inquisitions the Magus. I stick the Peacekeeper and keep it up with a Plateau and Mountain. I draw into another Painter which he EoT Disenchants then targets with Surgical Extraction. Lucky I boarded in Helm/RiP. With blasts in hand and freshly drawn tutors, I fetch up a Helm and resolve it. On the end of his next turn I decide to go for it. I don't pay Peacekeeper's upkeep and Tutor for RiP off of a Lotus Petal. Resolves. Draw the RiP. Play it with a Mountain open for blasting a Counterspell, resolves. Activate Helm with the mana open and that was that.

http://i.pikstra.net/gmc/sXr4Mce.gif

Round 4 Patriot

We ID but play games out. An early Moon is devastating, otherwise, they have 8+ counters, 8 spot removal spells, and cheap/efficient beaters whom they stick and ride to victor. Bridge will be good as they have no way of removing it preboard. They also board in things like Meddling Mage vs combo so again, the RipHelm from the side is great as well as Firebolts. For those interested, Engineered Explosives on one doesn't destroy a flipped Delver. The Insect Abortion's CMC is 0, so keep that in mind. Plus, they generally resolve one threat and ride it to victory so sweepers aren't good.

Round 5 Goblin Stompy

I get paired against my chauffeur playing a pet stompy deck. Lots of Moons, Chalice+Trinisphere, and Moggcatcher+Kiki-jiki+SGC for the win. He's been on a hot streak with the deck, it's janky but good. Blood Moon is a helluva card... We ID and while Chalice isn't the most fun card to play against, it's not the end of the world. He's got a lot of dead cards against us so in the end it'd come down to draws and tight play. In the mean time we go get some food and I'm first seed into the top 8.

Top 8 Esperblade

Two short games, Blood Moon cuts him off while I do my thing game one, and game two I get him with a fast Rip/Helm after he counters/discards my first two plays (top and a moon).

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PBP_tIye7R...ay-hat-gif.gif

We split the top 4.

Props: Natural Helm mill
Playing tight after a long break
BLT sammich for breakfast
Awesome sauce decklist

Slops: three rounds of magic all day...:confused:

Still reading, love it.

Have some questions will add as they come up:
How do you mill someone with helm and no rip? Doesn't it hit a creature and sacrifice? Sure you can weld it back but then you will run out of artifacts. I know I am missing something, please explain.

Last one, before I laugh at the gif of the guy getting shot, is the guy actually getting shot?

1) Welder shenanigans. Honestly I didn't RTFC so I cheated, but given that I had two welders active that's how you Helm mill someone. My achievement is locked again.

2) It's a laser pointer. Laugh away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jandax

1) Welder shenanigans. Honestly I didn't RTFC so I cheated, but given that I had two welders active that's how you Helm mill someone. My achievement is locked again.

2) It's a laser pointer. Laugh away.

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Right, well that explains that then... I'm still going to put in a Helm for a single firebolt after playing against a BUG Delver deck today and losing two games to a miser Surgical Extraction.

Hey All,

Went to a local win a dual proxy event this weekend and went 3/4 out of 25 players.

I was playing the standard RW list from the kapt'n but with 3 petal and 3 monkeys vs 2/4 and Koth main instead of the third top

Round 1: Robots 1-0
He wasn’t an experienced legacy player and while i had welder on the board ended up with a mox in the graveyard and one on the board, so tap kill was my plan till he scooped
game 2 turn 2 grind stone combo GG

Round 2: Miracles 2-0
Game 1: 2 Turn combo
Game 2: Turn 3 combo

Round 3: Sneak and show 2-1
Game 1: I thought he was on high tide playing all the basics. So i was playing the try to combo fast game, but then turn 3 came, I combo and he milled to emerkul...oh no! I slowly laid the beats to a win
Game 2 and 3: Game 2 turn 2 show and tell, game 3 turn 1 show and tell. I had a sol land out and flipped over jaya,,,but did not draw a painter so he crushed me

Round 4: Doomsday 3 - 1
Game 1: Turn three doomsday, I had grind stone in play and he picked all blue cards...i laughed till i fell out of my chair
Game 2: He doomsday, cast lab maniac and i REBed it, GG

Round 5: Canadian Threshold (Guest starring delver)
Game 1: Turn 2 grind stone thanks to a blue collar FOW (AKA a monkey and a blast)
Game 2: He had enough counter magic to put me in my place
Game 3: The longest match in history where we went to monkey beats town for the win

Top 8 I'm in third place seed

Round 6: Re-Animator
Not much to be said about this, i grinded him first game and RIP him the second game

Round 7: Fish
Game 1: A turn 3-4 grind stone and it was all over. i had 3 REB effects in my opener. it was easy
game 2/3: I draw all the wrong cards and he counters every attempt to get ahead till he grinds me out.

All in all though it was a lot of fun and I continue my search for cheap recruiters to finish the deck!

On the Firebolt vs. Lightning Bolt debate....Lightning Bolt is much better in the mirror (as I learned on Sunday).

There were a ton of Painter players in the room at SCG Milwaukee. At one point I was sitting next to Painter players on either side of me (both playing against Dredge). This deck is (sadly) a "budget" deck by Legacy standards, so I'd expect to see it popping up more and more...the mirror is something to think about in advance of any large tourney now.

Yeah lightning bolt can kill a painter but who really sideboards for painter?

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jandax

Yeah lightning bolt can kill a painter but who really sideboards for painter?

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

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I agree. I would rather make sure i have controll of the board with mutiple welders in play and use firebolt to keep them off of revoker and there own welders. Who ever has controll of the artifacts in play is likely going to win.

The prices for the Judge Recruiter has been on the rise. I think by that alone you can tell how popular the deck is.

I have to say that I have been thinking, ever since the deck won back to back SCG events last year that something like this would happen. The deck was thrust into the spotlight, along with the rise of blue (to previously unseen levels) makes this deck popular.

I feel like it's a touch bittersweet, we have more people then ever here, brewing, testing, discussing, but the pay off is we have lost our unknown status that means we now face more people whom know how to play around us.

That's true in theory, but in practice hardly anyone knows our decklist inside and out. Hell, even most new Painter players don't know the ropes. Nothing like surprise factor, but if you want that, play Food Chain, Chephalid Breakfast, etc. I think that barring a new card in the next set, we're one of the few decks on TheSource that's properly tuned. For both the American and European meta

Well knowing the deck inside out is one thing, the maindeck Bridges have been a curve ball more than once. The issue I have is people now more than ever know the combo. I have had to play around directed hate at Painter more than once after playing a Pryo game one. It's a dead give away.

Granted, I am yet to go "Mountain, top, go" and have someone not be confused until play something more known turn two.

Having people know the deck Vs know how to play against it are two completely different things. Understanding all the intricate interactions, timing, and tutor targets aren't something many players will know very well.

And besides. Having better prepared players is a good thing... It'll make you play tighter and learn to play the deck better.

Derping wins against unknowing players loses it's appeal pretty quickly.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dice_Box

Well knowing the deck inside out is one thing, the maindeck Bridges have been a curve ball more than once. The issue I have is people now more than ever know the combo. I have had to play around directed hate at Painter more than once after playing a Pryo game one. It's a dead give away.

Granted, I am yet to go "Mountain, top, go" and have someone not be confused until play something more known turn two.

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The "mountain-SDT-go" maneuver has fucked several OP's up :D It's like: "Dudeeee, WTF are you playing??!" And then proceed to combo 2 turns later :D

I kind of feel like this is my weekly confessional. I played my league match today against BUG Delver, I knew before hand and put in some time with the primer especially to get boarding right.

I have to state it right here, I lost 0-2 making my league 2-1. :(

Game one I had a speculative hand, some land and other cards but no clear line of play. I mull into a no lander and then keep a three lands pyro and recruiter. He plays delver then thoughtseize followed up with a hymn. Evenso, I get a bridge out and slow the game down but a DRS shocks me to death.

As per primer, I board in firebolts, bridge, bomb and rip. I draw only three lands mountain and 2x ATs, for the whole game but get a bridge out and then die to my tombs and his stereo DRS. On my final turn, life total 5, I attempt to get the painter down with a tomb and hope to somehow combo off with another tomb taking me to one, he is having none of it and forces my painter then double shocks me and I die.

Speaking of derping, I have a deck enjoyment model where you start off high, learn all the moves and slowly pick up neat tricks, as this slows enjoyment and improvement slow to the point where you are in what I call the pit of despair. Lessons are hard to come by, they are not obvious and losses hurt. I am here. The only way through is to play much more, study and start to learn the decision response hierarchy. Once through the other side win become easier and enjoyment levels increase.

So, how many Hail Marys am I up for?

Losing any decent matchup puts the butthurt in just about anyone. You lost fair and square and your deck pooped out on you. You had all the tools, you just drew very poorly. That's Magic.

I'd suggest making your gameplan Moon>all else against BUG. Either they can deal with it or they can't. That way, when your combo comes in hand/online they've exhausted quite some resources on it. Furthermore, game one you can name blue for Painter, but I'd refrain from doing so the following games. You turn their forces on big time, and your blasts are already live against a good bit of the deck. I'd shave one going into sideboarding because of this.

Don't despair though, just figure out why you lost and chalk it up to yourself, above all. Never get into the habit of blaming outside forces or other things. Sure, you didn't draw well and mulliganed a bit, but variance is a part of the game. Accept that it's going to happen and keep your head up.

Thanks Jandax. Appreciated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jungian Thing

Still reading, love it.

Have some questions will add as they come up:
How do you mill someone with helm and no rip? Doesn't it hit a creature and sacrifice? Sure you can weld it back but then you will run out of artifacts. I know I am missing something, please explain.

Last one, before I laugh at the gif of the guy getting shot, is the guy actually getting shot?

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I was wondering how jandax managed to not hit any creatures until he pointed out that he didn't read the card carefully.

The best way to ensure you don't run out of artifacts is to activate Helm for a large amount and then respond to the activation with Welder to maintain artifact parity. Unfortunately, you still have to stop milling as soon as Helm hits a library, and you don't even get to keep the creature in this case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lordofthepit

Unfortunately, you still have to stop milling as soon as Helm hits a library, and you don't even get to keep the creature in this case.

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that's not true, you DO get the creature:
I quote from http://magiccards.info/query?q=helm+...v=card&s=cname

Gatherer Card Rulings, Legality
10/1/2008: You put the creature card onto the battlefield even if you can't sacrifice Helm of Obedience (because it's left the battlefield by the time its ability resolves, for example).
10/1/2008: If an effect like that of Leyline of the Void prevents cards from being put into your opponent's graveyard, the process described in the first sentence of Helm of Obedience's effect will never stop. Your opponent's entire library will be exiled, even if X is 1.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zangoasyl

that's not true, you DO get the creature:
I quote from http://magiccards.info/query?q=helm+...v=card&s=cname

Gatherer Card Rulings, Legality
10/1/2008: You put the creature card onto the battlefield even if you can't sacrifice Helm of Obedience (because it's left the battlefield by the time its ability resolves, for example).
10/1/2008: If an effect like that of Leyline of the Void prevents cards from being put into your opponent's graveyard, the process described in the first sentence of Helm of Obedience's effect will never stop. Your opponent's entire library will be exiled, even if X is 1.

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Thanks for the clarification. I thought getting the creature depended on the sacrifice if the condition was met.

In that case, the right play is clearly to activate Helm for a large X and then weld it in response.

I had a board situation that allowed for a legit kill, but instead I just used it as an X=mill, but did keep the condition in check. Lots of times he just flipped one creature as the first card and I made him stop. I did all of this without knowing the middle sentence on teh card there, the important one that says you sac helm and get that creature. At the time I had two active welders out, three other artifacts besides the Helm on the table, and a Lotus petal in my yard. The legit thing to do would be to Helm for half my mana, and in response Weld my Helm for my Petal, resolve the ability, then weld the petal for the helm and do it for the other half all at the end of his turn.

Good to know about the Oracle ruling. And FWIW with Goblin Welder, if any of the targetted artifacts are removed before the ability resolves, then it fizzles. For example, if you go to for the kill with Grindstone out and activated then with priority welder the Stone for the Painter in your yard, they have a window to kill the gringstone (Abrupt Decay, EE@1, Disenchant, Wear/Tear, etc) and the Welder ability will fizzle. The Stone ability will resolve but without the painter so it'll probably just flip two cards.