Slinging Blue Sky at Tales of Adventure

Spells that is. A 1st place report of drawing like a champ.

http://magiccards.info/scans/en/p3k/113.jpg http://magiccards.info/scans/en/6e/19.jpg

The white border tutor tag team.

Strawberry Shortcake aka White-Splash Painter

4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter’s Servant
3 Goblin Welder
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Magus of the Moon

4 Grindstone
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Lotus Petal

4 Blood Moon
4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Enlightened Tutor

4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Plateau
1 Great Furnace
4 Mountain

SB:
4 Firebolt
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Manic Vandal
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Rest in Peace

A little backstory before we jump in. I’ve been playing Painter exclusively for almost two full years now and the white splash since last October. Seth Roncoroni (sroncor1), the godfather of the white splash, continuously hounded me about switching over from mono-red claiming that it fixed so many problem matchups as well as the one inherent flaw of the mono-red build: finding that damn grindstone. I adjusted some of the numbers and sideboard to my taste (mainly heavy welders). Firebolt gets the most question marks but it is card advantage for a deck completely lacking in it. Instant speed doesn’t really matter and everything that needs to die is 2 toughness of less. As for the name, Seth said it jokingly one day and I said why not. Obviously it has gotten a ton more press following Baltimore and Lejay’s top 8 so I figure that’s what we’ll name it going forward.

As for the event itself, I wasn’t sure I was going until late Friday. I hit up Tammit67 earlier in the week asking if he had 2 spare goblin welders if I did in fact go since I'm getting mine altered and pimped. I preregistered late Friday, woke up and drove about an hour north to Coopersburg and prepared for action.
Not the greatest of notes but all the game progressions should be more or less correct.

Round 1 vs Stoneblade

G1: I start off losing the roll and my opponent opens on fetch, island, cantrip. I prepare for storm or sneak and show and I have the bridge in hand to completely blow him out if he casts show and tell. The gig is up as he plays a stoneforge turn 2 fetching up batterskull. He plays a back to basics which is kind of screwing me over with only a mountain and ancient tomb in play. I blast it once and he forces. I blast it again just so I can start casting stuff (a little taste of my own moon medicine right there). The game ends up going on a little bit, a painter probably got swords’ but the ultimate turn came down to me playing a bridge, casting jaya, and monkey blasting a snapcaster of his to empty my hand. I’m at 3 life at this point and he has batterskull, a stoneforge with a jitte with 2 counters on it and no hand. If he knows the jitte trick of -1/-1 his own stoneforge and then pump there is no real way to win. But I decide to pass to him to see if he tries to kill jaya with them or something. He topdecks a detention sphere for the bridge and it doesn’t end up mattering.

I take out the moons, a top, and a revoker since he has so many basics and I can be slightly faster on the play. In comes koth, vandal, blast and three firebolts as I was anticipating meddling mage.

G2: I keep 2x Painter, Stone, Welder, Tutor, Mountain, city, Fetch? maybe. Anyways I play out welder and stone and painter in the first few turns and he has an engineered explosives set to 1 ready to go. On his upkeep of turn 4 he has two lands and a strand. I activate stone and he blows the explosives and then swords’ painter. The good news is I effectively waste his turn. My turn I play painter on black to make him have force+blue. He casts stoneforge and fetches out a jitte and casts it. I eot tutor for stone and win on my turn.

I think it take out a petal and put the revoker back in for g3

G3: I get thoughtseized twice to start the game taking two recruiters. He is already at 14 after that and my hand doesn’t have any combo pieces. However, I get out a welder and a revoker out and start the beats. His turn 3 is spent casting an equipment. I also start weldering top for card advantage and he keeps drawing blanks. He forces a simian spirit guide and at 4 life has to force a firebolt. I cast the other in my hand and next turn flash back for the win.

1-0

Round 2 vs Solidarity

G1 I keep a turn 2 combo kill but natural island, go from my opponent has me rattled. I play a mountain for my turn and he plays another island, go. I cast stone on my next turn and just wait to activate on his end step. I do and on my turn ask to see his graveyard. I see that its solidarity, breathe a sigh of relief and keep up two blasts for his upkeep if he tries to go off. I probably should have just gone for the turn 2 kill but I had a chance to fight over show and tell if he was actually playing it.

I have so many dead cards. I take out moons, bridges. In comes thorn, canonist, 3sphere, blast, gravehate. Even revoker sucks here. I make a joke that we shouldn’t even bother recording life totals for game 2.

G2: I open up double tomb, ssg, rec, trini, blast and x. I play out recruiter on turn 2 fetching up painter. I then cast trinisphere and get out a canonist and start the beats. I cant draw a stone or a non-sol land for the longest time so life totals become 1-1 from tomb and beats. I misplayed and didn’t attack with a welder to try to deal lethal and he snaps canonist. I also make the boneheaded play of welding out the sphere for a furnace so I can cast canonist and he combos me in response. Chalk it up to being stupid and never playing against the deck lol.

G3: Just a perfect hand of stone,painter, welder, land, land, blast,x. He snaps I think painter once and forces something else. He ends up snapping painter on his turn and I blast it. I activate stone with only 3 mana available and can’t use the blast in my hand.He only has one card on his upkeep and can’t combo.

2-0

Round 3 vs TES

G1: There isn’t really anything to say about this game except that I got too lucky and should not have won. I kept such a loose and terrible hand of fetch, mountain, sol, ssgx2, petal, stone. Don’t even know what I was doing there really but I keep most hands that won’t mana screw me, plus this has potential if I draw a rec or painter. Anyways he probes me and therapies off a gold land so I just laugh and say im screwed now. However, I topdeck magus. He can’t ad nauseum now. I draw a painter and name red so he cant get blue or black mana off a chrome mox without imprinting one of those colored cardsHe empties for 14 or 16 on his turn. I rip a bridge and say sorry and empty my hand.

In blast, bomb, sphere, thorn, canonist. Out 2 bridge, 3 moon.

G2: he ponders t1. My 7 is ssg, fetch, mountain, thorn, city, stone, rec. I play mountain ssg thorn, saving my city. He would have won if I did anything else he tells me. I draw an e tutor and play stone. Next turn draw mountain and don’t play rec since I can just tutor for painter and win next turn through discard. He ends up dropping playing a ponder leaving a chrome mox and a gold land up. I tutor for painter, cast it on blue and activate since he can’t cast decay. Misplay there because I forgot TES is boarding Pyroblasts now and he tells me he couldn’t find one.

3-0

Round 4 vs Deathblade. Rudy Top 4 Baltimore Dude

G1:He stoneforges out a batterskull and forces a moon. I draw 3 recruiters this game. I take some beats down to 5 and establish a bridge. He has a jitte and no counters on it and also tries equipping his Sofai while I have a painter. I tell him it falls off and that ended up tapping him out. Next turn I recruit for magus, locking the game up as I go to zero cards.

Out top, jaya, 2 welder, 2 top, 2 lotus petal maybe? In 4 firebolt, koth, vandal, bridge. My boarding is usually just based on what kind of game play I feel like engaging in. I don’t remember what I did but it was probably something like this.

G2: All that happened this game was I played a turn 2 revoker on liliana and it met swords. His turn 3 he casts said liliana and upticks. I drop a moon and from there he ultimated liliana about 6 times over the next 40 turns, as I always chose moon. I guess he boarded out batterskull as well so he had no way to win. One six-turn stretch I found a grindstone and 3 lands and milled him to get ahead on the natural decking race.

4-0

Round 5 vs Reanimator (Patnode)

G1: This game involved a force on my attempted moon turn 2 when he had island and sea out. From there he got grisel while I had a welder, lotus petal, painter and lands. I actually drew a grindstone but he had a tidespout and countered the stone, bouncing the welder I believe. Don’t remember the exact sequence but it worked out that my mana didn’t work to be able to mill him.

Out 5 moons 1 top. In 2 crypt, 1 rip, 1 blast, 1 bridge, 1 canonist.

G2: I keep painter, stone, blast, rec, 1 fetch 2 sol I believe. Nick might remember the exact sequence better than I do but the board state was I have painter in play, stone in the yard. He had thoughtseized the stone away I think and knew about the blast. I tapped my only red and the city to cast recruiter. He forced pitching dark ritual leaving 1 or two cards in hand. I could have monkey blasted and fetched up a welder to nab the stone but I chose not to. That line was dead to a tidespout or elesh norn next turn. Plus I liked my chances holding my own force and drawing crypt, rip, welder, stone, recruiter for welder etc. Tons of outs. Anyways, he entombs and maybe I should have countered that too. I let it resolve he gets iona. His turn he casts exhume and I counter. I start beating and draw a canonist and play that. Afterwards he tells me it was the perfect draw since he was about to double ritual out a griselbrand. I keep beating. He is at 7. He draws another exhume and casts it. I bring back recruiter but forget to trigger him since im just screwed and can’t cast any more spells. Luckily if he attacks I will win the damage race. So I just dink away with my little scarecrow and he won’t block. Finally when he is at 4 he does. I played a rec and fetched up another painter. Tried to cast ssg and he points to canonist. Whoops. Well I exile him and cast another painter and beat down next turn. Well that was insane.

G3: we both mull to 6. Tomb x2, painter, stone, monkey, blast.

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5-0

Round 6 vs UR Delver (eli kassis)

This deck was RUG without green and using young pyromancer, probes, lavamancer, and true name for the most part.

G1: I keep a slow hand with jaya, moon and top and get blown out by a pyromancer and a million spells.

Out 5 moons, jaya, top. In 4 firebolt, 1 blast, 1 bridge, 1 bomb.

G2: I fan open 2 firebolt and the combo I believe. He has a very slow hand that I assume had a ton of counters and burn. He also opens up on 2 wastelands so I’m slow rolling the city in my hand waiting to be able to cast painter plus being able to win. Long story short he kills the painter, I recruit for another and he extracts them. So I start beating and firebolting his creatures. Life totals become 3-2 and he has a truename and a delver on blocking duty after I resolve a bridge. I’m able to kill off the delver and get enough dorks to attack through his true name for the win.

In 1 koth out 1 revoker for surgical

G3: I open another pretty good hand that can deal with early threats. I firebolt a lavamancer I believe and blast a delver. I end up getting under a bridge while he has an army of pyromancer and tokens. I end up playing this game too cautious as I was fearing burn spells and wasn’t tapping my ancient tomb as well as trying to ensure my ensnaring bridges didn’t get surgicaled or smashed to smithereens (knew of one from a flipped delver). I’m able to resolve a koth and start ticking him up. He gets bolted down at some point so I just start ticking up again. Im not finding a painter in my top 3 and don’t tap my tomb to mill myself. I also misplay tapping for 5 mana and then upticking koth. I wanted to firebolt with daze backup but he surgicaled firebolt in response to the koth. Free shock for him and wasted mana on my part. We end up going to time. When I finally found a painter he had enough dazes to ensure I couldn’t activate and kill him.

5-0-1

Round 6 vs Miracles

These were two very long games that played out very similar. Both involved an early moon shutting down the fetching and topping and allowing me to set up.

G1: he used all four swords to plowshares on 1 welder and 3 painters. At this point I keep beating with my recruiters and keep using grindstone+top to amass blasts and bridge for his tokens. I finally find the last painter and name blue with it while holding 2-3 blasts.

Out: 1 magus, 2 moon, 1 ssg. In blast, koth, bomb, 3rd bridge. He had both clique and snapcaster so I wanted to ensure I could find a bridge early and hide under it before angels swarmed me.

G2: Well I ended up opening one of the two moons. I played it turn 2 and used a petal and ssg to pay for a pierce. This slowed him down some and gave me some time to set up. At some point he eot entreats for 3 while I’m at 18. He attacks me down to 6 and I weld out top? For the petal and tutor for a bridge. He brainstormed when I cast it and afterwards told me one of the draws was a clique, which would have been good stopping bridge in the first place. So I’m just chilling with top and I eventually tutor for a grindstone to draw the best card every turn and start up the tag-team. I end up having a lot of blasts but casting my painters on green just in case and holding his 2 plains hostage. Some point he snapcasters for wear/tear and kills my bridge but if he ever tries to entreat I’ll activate stone and kill him. I eventually do it when he had to terminus one painter away and I had another on top for the next turn and his white was tapped out. (pretty sure that’s how it went)

6-0-1

Locked for top 8 at this point but Keller and people tell me that I can still lose and make it so I should try for top seed.

Round 8 vs Team America

Nothing really to say here I got stomped . Hymn and wasteland made short work of me.

6-1-1

So I’m 5th seed in top 8 and its announced that I’m facing Bryant, who smashed me at the last Tales of Adventure event I played in.

Top 8 vs TES vs Bryant Cook

Bryant's side of things

G1: We endure some cooking in the kitchen jokes and then start the match. By virtue of being 4th seed he starts on the play. I open up moon, 3 land, painter, stone, ssg. Yup might as well keep that since it won’t get much better. He probes and therapies away painter, which is the right call. Except my draw was a welder so I powered out both stone and welder turn 1. Now if I draw a sol, petal, or ssg I win turn 2, so about 11/52 chance. He cantrips a lot on his turn and passes back. I peek and it’s a sensei top. Cast that and pass back. He has to go off now and it can’t be warrens. He casts a ton of shit and places a burning wish on the stack. I let that resolve and wait for the engine card. D returns. In response I tap top and weld out for painter on blue and draw my card looking for the blast to seal the game. No dice so shuffle up and draw 7. None of the cards in there are a blast so he has free reign to continue with 2 mana floating? Lucky for me he has to keep cantripping and can’t get there.

Board same as above.

G2: I keep Painter, petal, blast, revoker, tomb, land. I don’t remember if I mulled or if there was a 7th card. He ponders his turn 1. I play tomb, petal, and painter on blue. Next turn a thoughtseize comes flying my way and I decide to blast it so he doesn’t know my hand and who knows what he would take. After that he casts a therapy and names stone, missing. I’m able to drop revoker on led and get another out on lotus petal. The classic Imperial Painter beatdown. I bring him to 1 life. So close. He rituals up and burning wishes for grapeshot, clearing my whole team. The next 6 or 7 turns are draw go. I get 2 moons, 2 or 3 lands, and 2 blasts. Finally I draw a recruiter, grab painter, and name blue. Now or never. He re-rituals back up to a ton of mana. 2 cards left. Burning Wish? Have the blast. Last card is infernal tutor. Do you have another? I did and I evened up our overall match series 1-1.

7-1-1

Top 4 vs Shardless Bug.

3 hours in:

http://www.twitch.tv/talesofadventure/b/505589676

Not much to say here beyond what’s on video. I knew he ran both basic swamp and forest and tried to lock him off one game 1. He naturally had the other but I just had to things to deal with what he played. I didn’t board in firebolts since they only kill deathrite and im not concerned about killing shardless agent. I would have brought them in for game 3 for revoker if there was one. I for sure thought he was going to take the magus with his thoughtseize game 2, but maybe he didn’t know I only run 1 who knows.

8-1-1

Finals vs Reanimator again

Again not much to say. His cantrips were terrible and didn’t find anything and I drew the combo pieces. Same thing with game 2 except I had a crypt to go along with it.

9-1-1

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I decided to take the money over the flight since I most likely won’t be going to BOM. Certainly nice to have the option and I still have 2 byes if I decide to find a flight. The beta power would probably end up in my hands since Strawberry Shortcake dominates any meta it plays in. Seriously though, the white splash has been amazing and the last three big events for this list have been a starcity top 8, a GP top 8 from lejay, and first place here for an overall record of 30-5-2. I know mono-red gets results too but it’s just a testament to painter being pretty good overall. So obviously I encourage anyone wanting to paint to learn the white list. I won’t be making any changes either, it just runs really smooth. Looking forward to running it back again at the next tourney Tales of Adventure has. Great location, store size, and some of the best competition you’ll find anywhere.