Source Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Stones

SCG Baltimore 5k 4th Place - 8/21/22

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Shortcake in 2022 you love to see it. It’s definitely been an interesting year for legacy. I have kind of watched from afar for most of it, with a couple tournament forays, one a local monthly, and the other the starcity Pittsburgh event, where I lost my win and in for top 8 to blue red delver in the first 5k, then lost to The Cure in the second one. Facing The Cure made it all worth it though. That was it, a few leagues here and there, but not much playing over the summer. That changed leading up to starcity Baltimore. I knew that I should build to beat delver, and there were a couple slight tweaks I wanted to test. The plan was ready, in the week leading up to the event I jammed nonstop leagues to prep and to get the rust off. 6 leagues total, with a final record of 22-8 across a bunch of matchups. Here’s what I ran:

Strawberry Shortcake

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

4 Urza’s Saga
3 Lotus Petal
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Brainstone
3 Grindstone

2 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter’s Servant
3 Goblin Welder
3 Goblin Engineer
1 Goblin Cratermaker
2 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Lightning Bolt

1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
3 Karn, the Great Creator

Sideboard:

1 Grindstone
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Soul-guide Lantern
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Portable Hole
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Fury
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Twinshot Sniper

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A lot of old standbys, but also a ton of new cards. Changes for the list reflected my desire to be more resilient in the face of Meltdown, Ouphe, and Karn. You even see the random Energy Flux, Serenity, or Kataki not to mention the usual Force of Vigors and Ancient Grudges. I felt like there was a sweet spot in January/February where artifact hate hadn’t yet crept into every person’s sideboard but then big Blastoise and other poser Saga decks have been ruining our fun. This meant dropping a couple of the artifacts that needed to remain in play to get value, like Smuggler’s Copter, Currency Converter that I was testing, Mox Opal, etc. Basically trying to be as non-artifact an artifact deck can be. The changes may look small, but they change the values of all the other bad cards we run in tandem. Not running the fourth petal means white cards get worse, Goblins might not have an artifact to weld and so on. The tradeoff of turn 0 echo interaction and massive daze playback in the form of Simian Spirit Guide felt too large to pass up. Paying for Daze on the draw can win a game by itself, flipping tempo back. Activation Grindstone with only two mana up wins games, as does activating Goblin Engineer while tapped out. A ton of small monkey interactions that were more common a decade ago when the deck was less about graveyard artifact shenanigans and more about moon stompy. I wanted to get more of that in the current list.

With Copter getting cut, Imperial Recruiter was really struggling against Delver. In the past, chumping a Tarmogoyf was exactly where you wanted to be. Now Murktide just glides over. Dropping Recruiter down to two copies was how I fit in the maindeck lightning bolts again, as well as the random 1-of copy of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Everyone else has been raving about it, and I felt like a one of value target to enlightened tutor for could really help drawn out board states. The idea was to copy Recruiters for value, and act as additional protection on the Kiki side by copying Painter and/or Goblins. I don’t know if I’d run more, maybe a second. It competes with Karn for how it operates within the deck, definitely felt strange knowing you’re getting small incremental value but the Kiki copying part was four turns away. Might want to add the third recruiter back in somewhere as well.

I will say that going down the Recruiter numbers does mess with your ability to play random singleton creatures like Goblin Cratermaker or Magus of the Moon sideboard. For example I know Callum in the challenge winning list had 4 Magus side. Fewer recruiters also lowers your ability to tutor Painter to hand. It does make a difference going straight to hand compared to builds like mono-red with 8 goblins and just dumping Painter to yard often. A couple others have been dominating with Painter builds recently, and I always enjoy looking at the different tech among all the lists. I found it interesting that a lot of the mono-red lists with all the goblins are essentially playing like the old UR painted stone lists with multiple artifact lands, intuitions, welders, etc. It very much played as a graveyard value recursion list. More fables pitching cards, the full four engineers for entombing, even running less than four grindstones. Compare this to original Imperial Painter lists that ran at most 1 Goblin Welder, the builds were just more geared toward playing to the board and not really worrying about all the crazy hate going on in the background. For my list, I know it has 6 goblins and the yard is a big part of the game plan, but being able to just ignore it every now and then helps win games. In the face of hard grave hate like Leyline or Rest in Peace I will usually trim down the goblins to 2-2 if I need space. That freedom is what I love about shortcake. You can always tweak the 75 between games to slant towards different styles. To that end, many times my first Engineer is just grabbing Canonist, Bridge, or Brainstone and saying deal with this semi useless goblin or ill start accruing tiny amounts of value.

Brainstone and Fable round out the selection package along with the one Enlightened Tutor. Brainstone is just dumb enough to be worth playing, as the random search from Saga can really help you pivot hands game 1. I ended up choosing it over Currency Converter which has the higher ceiling, mainly because Brainstone is the most cards at the cheapest cost. Randomly you’ll get value off of casting Enlightened Tutor and Brainstoning into the card, but otherwise its just glue. The way painter plays pre and post board can change a lot. Knowing you won’t see the devastating artifact kill cards like Force of Vigor, you’re free to play a lot looser. Cards like E-tutor that are dreaded ‘card disadvantage’ give a huge element of cheesing game 1s. Like we know Delver is going to outgrind us late game with Expressive Iteration. We know drawing petals against control is horrible. It just happens though, and bad cards are the best way to win games before anyone can really prepare for it. Probably doesn’t make much sense, but comparing to Fable, of course Fable is the stronger card over tutor or recruiter. But the unknown loot I bet a lot of times you really just wish it had been a way to grab Painter last turn.

As for the board, the two Fury are another change. I had liked Pyrokinesis for the instant speed against Elves and Death and Taxes, but I chose to respect opposing Karns and run Fury. Pretty good against the Planeswalker control lists too, so overall its a nice add that gives a lot of coverage. Beatdown is also a huge possibility with the bolts as well. Kiki copy doublestriking Fury is also pretty nuts too. Rounding out the board were another two blasts, with delver dominance I want as many anti blue cards as possible. That leaves the usual Karn package of artifacts. Slight swap of a Surgical for Soul-guide lantern, I wanted the little bit of potential grind value over turn 0 hate, hoping to dodge any reanimators. Twinshot sniper is a random little extra uncounterable shock if you need it, otherwise it is a way to block Murktide/Lage/Fliers etc in the absence of Smuggler’s Copter now. Plus it’s a very long game win condition if you have Welder active.
As for the tournament itself, was running slightly late in the morning but still arrived with time to spare. Not as many familiar faces as I might normally expect, but perhaps a lot of them were still playing the team event. Either way, we were off with 115 people, with me looking to build upon past Baltimore performances with another strong showing

Round 1 vs 4c Yorion

Game 1:
My opponent declares Yorion so right away I know its control or Death and Taxes. I don’t mind either matchup, and post-board it gets a lot better with Fury or additional blasts. The maindeck fast mana isn’t at its best in either matchup and usually gets boarded out, but their job is to steal game 1s against decks like this so we’ll see. I start out with a slower hand with two goblin engineers, but that should soak up early removal allowing me to pivot to whatever gameplan I draw into. I entomb a Canonist, and then a Bridge for my second. Neither one dies however, so I end up swapping a petal for Canonist. That sits around gumming up the board, and the next couple turns I just natural draw into Painter and Grindstone. I lead Grindstone and it doesn’t get countered, and then put an LED I had been slow rolling onto the stack. That resolves too, so now I just sit around waiting for my opponent to cast a spell. End step sees an Ice Fang Coatl hit the stack, I respond with the LED sacrifice and Engineer back in the Painter for the combo. With the stack locked out by Canonist I take it down.

side: -3 Petal, -1 LED, -1 E-tutor, -1 Cratermaker, -1 Bridge, +2 Fury, +2 REB, +1 Magus, +2 Surgical

Game 2:
I start off slow, but have the sideboard Magus of the Moon in hand waiting for an opportune window to drop the hammer. I don’t remember a ton about the early turns, but I end up playing Magus with only non-basics and a forest in play, waiting for white mana to be tapped down so I can play around Swords. Magus sticks but I end up bricking out for a couple turns while beating down, but luckily no answers yet for my opponent. Finally an Abundant Growth is played, giving access to colored mana, but importantly still only two mana for that turn. I get one more attack in, before a Prismatic Ending finally takes out my Magus. Given how the turns played out, it was very unlikely to have to face a Swords to Plowshares, so I go ahead and jam combo and activate into two fetchlands. I figure the only out would be brainstorm into Swords or like fetch Mystic Sanctuary brainstorm or something like that and with only two cards left in hand its pretty good odds. Combo successful.

https://www.floridamemory.com/fpc/sp...od/sp01518.jpg

1-0

Round 2 vs Red Stompy

Game 1:
This match my memory is worst on, pretty sure I start this game with a mulligan and keep a good hand full of one drops. Welder, Stone, Blast, Bolt, etc. Turn 1 chalice completely owns me. I quickly die to Rabblemaster beats as my opponent curves out off an Ancient Tomb.

side: -1 Reb, -1 Brainstone, -1 Canonist, +2 Fury, +1 Portable Hole

Game 2:
Again not the best notes here, all I have for life totals is me not taking a point finishing at 20 and my opponent ending at 14. I want to say I just made drops while the other side saw a Trinisphere and dudes enter play. I think I blast a Fury targeting Painter, and then combo out pretty safely.

Game 3:
The final game was pretty nervewracking. My opponent mulligans, but I think I mulligan twice. I dodge the first test of chalice on one, but quickly have to figure out what I’m going to do against an opposing Fable of the Mirror Breaker. Because of the mulls, I bolt the token to prevent any insane early game top end of the curve kind of plays. Also because of the mulls, they end up pitching I think a Fury to the Fable loot, choosing to keep and cast Legion Warboss. We debate that sequence for a little after the match, the desire to establish the clock vs holding a Fury. For my turn I’m able to lay out a Saga and a Painter. I could be wrong on how it all actually played out, but I think both of us were extremely low on cards, and being able to block with my 1/3 buys me enough time to combo out at 6 life, probably through Saga.

2-0

Round 3 vs Death and Taxes

Game 1:
My opponent reveals Yorion again this game, so same thought process as round 1. A bit into the game my opponent comments something like déjà vu or we played before, with me completely forgetting that I played a random local monthly back in March. We had played there as well with some very close games, one in particular I tried to yolo win turn two with an LED only to get blown out by Solitude.

side: -1 E-tutor, -1 Canonist, -1 Brainstone, +2 Fury, +1 Portable Hole

Game 2:
This game was pretty interesting, very close margins. The first couple turns see a Grindstone and Goblin Welder for my side in between getting ported down, while a Pithing Needle starts on Grindstone, respecting the combo. Then for my turn three there isn’t any port in the upkeep, leaving three mana up. At that point I ask myself what flash creatures could be here, thinking it was just the white pridemage guy and probably a swords to plowshares too. I take advantage of the freedom from no port and drop a sol land, allowing me to jam Karn. I debate ticking down, but figure with the flash guy going to six loyalty and re-evaluating is the safer play. Cathar commando does in fact get flashed in, and then a Skyclave Apparition nailing my Karn. I’m decently locked down right now, but a Goblin Engineer off the top allows me to go find Portable Hole. I have to get started somewhere, and freeing up my Grindstone to search for artifacts seems like a good plan. I lay a petal, leaving just a sneaky Painter’s Servant behind in my hand that I hadn’t played for fear of exile, but also keeping up Recruiter for Cratermaker lines to kill Needle while I didn’t have any blasts in hand. We reach the penultimate turn of the game, my opponent untaps and plays out land number five, and goes in the tank on whether Commando and Skyclave should attack into my Welder and Engineer board. Not today, and just a pass back. End step I start the festivities by activating Welder targeting my petal and Portable hole. That resolves, and I target needle, which resolves as well. I activate grindstone to target myself, and in response a Solitude gets hardcast to nab my Engineer. Can’t do anything about that, go to resolve my grindstone, and then go to untap. At this point with all the game actions my opponent said hold up, wasn’t that all just done on my turn’s end step. I’m just like naa this is what just happened for your turn going back and replaying what had happened. Of course tapping out while having Commando in play and a card able to pitch to Solitude wasn’t very ideal, but given thinking it was my end step I could see it. I just don’t really see why I’d do all the activating of my stuff on my own end step but either way. I untap and show the sand bagged Painter. Combo successful.

3-0

https://c.tenor.com/l_7Qzj1jALMAAAAC/conceited-face.gif

Round 4 vs Maverick

Game 1:
Pretty much determined by me winning the die roll. I am able to jam a turn 2 Fable while my opponent’s turn 2 was a Thalia. Not bad getting through that tax. I can’t swing in with my token man into the first strike, so I just sit around looting and slowly building my board. My opponent is semi mana screwed as well, not able to get above three lands. After getting Kiki online and waiting for non summoning sickness, I’m able to send my goblin token to his doom to get the treasure, and with all the mana I can attempt a combo turn, with Kiki as backup ready to create a Painter token if necessary. Combo successful

side: -1 E-tutor, -1 Canonist, -1 REB, -1 Brainstone, +1 Portable Hole, +2 Fury, +1 Magus?

Game 2:
This game starts out trading resources. I play a Saga only to have it get hit by March of Otherwordly light, before building back up with some Goblins. I know I led out on with an Engineer without a weldable piece, essentially inviting potential grave hate. An end step Endurance for value clears my yard, and I take a couple hits from a Noble Hierarch pumped Endurance for a couple turns. Though my life total was pretty low, I had been sitting on a Fury just in case some scarier creature came out. Either way it was go time. I have an LED in play that I’m going to have to use to activate a grindstone I had found, so when I play my Painter I name red. This lets me evoke Fury pitching Karn and I choose to kill the Endurance just in case the game goes a couple more turns. Just a Birds and a Noble left, I activate stone. A quick bluff of maybe endurance and I get the handshake.

4-0

After the match I get shown some sideboard red blasts, I forget if they were boarded in or not, but was asked what I think about them coming in against Painter. For any deck with the blasts thinking of having them postboard I pretty much lump my thoughts together. If they have a blast and I name blue, there exists the possibility of potential blowouts sure. More likely though, I will have at least one blast in hand, which a decent amount of time will trade off with each other in a stack war. That puts their value at net 0 for the opponent, with maybe slight positive ev. If I don’t name blue, those blasts are a full -1 card ev.

Round 5 vs Jund Madness

Game 1:
Not really sure how I pulled this game off. We start the round with my opponent laying down a Survival of the Fittest playmat from Eternal Weekend 2019 Pittsburgh. I vaguely remember that as the time period with Wrenn and Six and Oko both legal in Rug Delver. Good times. I asked whether they played the Vintage event where the playmat was given, mainly because I was a scrub who only got the Survival mat by trading the Mox Diamond mat from that weekend’s legacy event with a Vintage player. My opponent’s turn one gives a lot more color on the vintage event too, since the start is a Taiga and a Burning Inquiry. Who doesn’t love Vintage Hollow One. Matches up pretty well with the Bazaar of Baghdad playmat I was playing on, which my opponent then commented on too haha. Burning Inquiry time, oh boy this could be bad. I end up pitching Furnace, Saga, and Welder, pretty decent cards for a yolo matchup like this. An LED for my opponent goes all in, and turn one on the play im getting smashed for 8 by a Vengevine, pumped red rootwalla and a small green rootwalla thanks to an Anger in yard as well. I draw and have to think. My hand at this point consists of 2x Petal, Saga, Plateau, City, Engineer, and some other stuff. I have to go in the tank for a bit, and finally decide on jamming out the petals, going saga, and Engineering for Ensnaring bridge, hoping to get low enough by turn 3 and thinking I can’t entomb Painter, it’s probably too slow vs this beatdown. I pass, and all three swing again. I block the Basking Rootwalla to trade for free which afterwards they were like why did I attack with the green guy there, taking another 7 from the other two going to 5. Like a true legend my turn I rip Painter, and tank again. I can play Painter and try to win the turn after with the Saga for stone, I’d just have to keep Engineer alive. I play out Plateau and Painter going to three cards in hand, and weld out Painter for Bridge. I have a slight heart attack when a Faithless Looting drops another Rootwalla and a second land for a pump, but luckily the two combined is only four damage, with Vengevine unable to swing. I was debating not getting Bridge in play and letting Painter chump Vengevine in case I had to block with Engineer as well, probably a better line in retrospect but oh well. I go to my turn and float mana from Saga, search Grindstone, and play the City of Traitors for the four mana needed to activate and swap. Combo successful.

side: -1 REB, -1 Brainstone, -3 Karn, +1 Canonist, +2 Fury, +1 Grindstone, +1 Ensnaring Bridge

Game 2:
I keep a good hand, with turn two combo potential. Something like Tomb, Painter, Petal, Saga, Grindstone, maybe Welder also? Turn one is just a suspicious Badlands and pass to me. I think for a while, wondering what that means. I keep going to Force of Vigor in a deck like this, and don’t want to get blown out by playing slower starting on Saga and Stone. I go with Tomb Painter, and without a blast keep the Petal behind too. I name white to not turn on anything random like Endurance/FOV for green, Veil for black, random red blasts for blue, random blue blasts for red. Back in the day it used to be so simple. You either named blue, or named black to turn off Snuff Out/Slaughter Pact. You’d get hosed by Celestial Purge out of Miracles sometimes lol, but to be truly safe green and white were pretty free. Now you get Solitude as well so yeaaa. Turn two my opponent decides to go in. LED time, that sacs to cast an Anje’s Ravager, with another Anger in yard, and a chill red rootwalla coming into play too. Interesting tho one of the pitched cards to LED was Meltdown, which I guess if I led stone would’ve gotten wrecked. Attacks are declared, I can’t block due to Rootwalla pump, I just have to dodge whatever random Ancestral Recall hand is drawn. A second land and another ‘walla and I know I’ve got it sealed up. My turn land, petal, stone, activate. Combo successful

5-0

Round 6 ID

At this point I’m running pretty hot, and depending on records know I should be safe to double draw into top 8. Three other 5-0s. We sit down for round six and I’m fist bumping the others congratulating. We insta-draw. I use the free time to bird some matches, and just wander some booths. I end up talking with Romario at some point as well, he’s telling me about how he’s doing on mono-red painter. Tons of painters around now spreading the gospel. Painter gang has come a long way.

5-0-1

Round 7 ID

More fist bumping. Furthermore there were eight 5-1s, creating a clean cut and some epic high stakes win and ins

5-0-2

After the swiss I was sitting around waiting for Top 8 announcement. I was bottom of the intentionally drawing crew with 58% breakers going into the final round, so pretty much knew I’d be 8th seed looking to run games on the draw. It was a clean split to top 8 as well, with four win and ins the round prior or people to get to X-1. They announced the seeds and I wasn’t really paying attention until 7 or 8 and then didn’t hear my name. I was slightly shook until checking the standings online through the app that I saw I somehow jumped to 5th. No clue but I’ll take it.

Top 8 vs UR Delver

Game 1:
Unfortunately on the draw, but spend the first turns trying to establish a board presence. I think I try to play Karn on some turn and it gets forced, leading to the turning point of the game when I’m able to stick my Fable of the Mirror Breaker. I’m taking some beats, and then a Murktide gets added, which proceeds to beat my face down to X. My mana is not good either, with only one activation of Ancient Tomb left, tops two going to one life. For my turn I topdeck Goblin Engineer and go into the tank hard. I’m extremely dead to a ton of draws, while also needing to setup to somehow win in the next few turns. I finally decide I have to play to stall and offer up sacrifices to the topdeck gods, somehow hoping for bricks the next two to three turns from my opponent. I tap my Ancient Tomb to go to X and use my Mountain to cast Goblin Engineer, tutoring Ensnaring Bridge. Using the floating mana I activate Kiki copying Engineer to tutor Painter. Now with the hasted token Engineer, I’m able to use a treasure to swap Bridge back in. I still feel like I’m extremely dead, but only two cards in hand and a stranded Murktide for now. The DRC was also only a 1/1 after the delving and we both were pretty aware of the potential of Grindstone mills or within combat instants to mill the necessary sorcery, as a natural sorcery wouldn’t allow the pre-combat 3/3 to attack. Pass back, and I play a land, back to the same scenario. One more turn brick, and I draw and play a Grindstone. With DRC digging ability I figure I have to just try to end it. I pass and stop in upkeep, starting with Kiki copy Engineer again. That resolves finding LED, which I use Mountain to sac bridge getting LED back. Sac LED and the last treasure for four mana, activate Grindstone and with the second engineer sac stone to bring back Painter. Combo successful

side: -1 E-tutor, -1 Canonist, -1 Brainstone, -1 Recruiter, -3 Karn, +2 REB, +2 Fury, +1 Bridge, +1 Twinshot, +1 Stone

Game 2:
Another pretty insane game. I am severely tied up on mana. A Wasteland or two does a number on my Great Furnace and other land. I end up at a board state of Grindstone, Painter, and Goblin Engineer only. No lands, but I had been setting up for combo attempts playing towards topdecked sol lands. Painter had resolved through a Daze I paid for with Simian Spirit Guide, so I’m not in too bad a spot. A Lightning Bolt is aimed at my Painter, but I have the second monkey! A secret Goblin Engineer activation swaps Painter for Great Furnace. LED is still the only draw that wins from that spot, but it could be a lot worse. Sadly I don’t even get to go to my turn before finding out it in fact was worse, as my Painter’s all get Surgically Extracted. I put up a small fight countering some blue spells with blasts before a Murktide assassinates me.

Side: -1 Stone, +1 Karn

Game 3:
I don’t really want to be on Karn in delver matches, so usually if I win game 1 ill try to get by without game 2, but if I see surgical I’ll make this swap for game 3 so I’m not completely dead. I start off with another decent hand, nothing fast, but enough interaction to keep me feeling safe. Alluding to my Goblin Engineer playstyle from earlier, I tutor for Ensnaring Bridge upon resolution. It’s the perfect card of just good enough that it messes with them a ton, plus Meltdown needs them to be on four mana to kill it which is not exactly easy but will happen eventually. So either Engineer will die to a bolt, or bridge will enter play and ideally stave attacks. My opponent decides to not deal with it at all, and Extracts my bridges, seeing my hand with a sneaky Painter and two blasts. Meanwhile, I’ve been casually beating with Engineer, and blast a Murktide to keep the train rolling. At some point I add a Recruiter finding Welder to add protection and that gets sniped down. I return the favor bolting a Dragon channeler, while my opponent brainstorms and rebuilds with a delver. I punt a bit missing a Recruiter attack. Something small but a match like this with burn could be game losing. I figure it could possibly block the Delver, but with a brainstorm its basically guaranteed to flip and attack. Plus with Surgical my opponent’s life total is dwindling fast. Delver flips and swings. My turn is a huge draw, Twinshot Sniper to go along with my hand of Painter and a blast. My mana at this point is two red lands, two tombs, and a city. I choose to take the damage vs the uncounterable shock, getting greedy wanting to kill the Delver and have more beats potential. It gets forced. I have another internal debate about using this last blast, potentially getting wrecked by Murktide or who knows. I blast back. Twinshot resolves, delver dead. I beat with my two dorks putting them to 10. They tap out for expressive iteration, everyone’s favorite card. Fortunately for me though the land for turn is a Steam Vents untapped going to 8 which is another big win in my mind. That means blast or bolt, or some random end step brainstorm. Pass back to me. I draw for my turn and its Grindstone! What a sack! I figure I have to start with the beats. I turn my three guys sideways representing a two turn clock. Twinshot gets bolted down to preserve life totals. With my eight mana I jam the known Painter and name white. Then turn over the unknown Grindstone and pray no force. Combo successful. I get shown two Brazen borrowers and a Meltdown for the next turn. Wow.

https://c.tenor.com/pzS0gEkih7cAAAAC/the-wire-bodie.gif

6-0-2

Top 4 vs Uwr Delver

Game 1:
I keep a good hand with something like Mountain, Tomb, Bolt, Blast, Recruiter, Engineer, X. I definitely misplay in this game, I could have killed an Esper Sentinel and floated tomb mana in response to it dying to a Wasteland, instead the Sentinel probably gets in for 5 damage while I’m mana screwed waiting to draw lands. I don’t think I draw a second one and I’m not really in this game, not sure I would’ve been even with killing the first sentinel properly.

side: -1 E-tutor, -1 Canonist, -1 Brainstone, -2 Karn, +2 REB, +2 Fury, +1 Twinshot Sniper

Game 2:
I mulligan into a six you pretty much have to keep and see the writing on the wall. City, Petal, 2x Stone, Painter, Blast. You can deal with one piece of interaction, and the idea is maybe the extra grindstone can eat a force of will in some number of the infinite possible games. That leaves it up to drawing one of the other 5 sol lands or LED, or a mana source if you don’t have to use petal. I lead on Painter turn 1, and blast a Swords to Plowshares. Back to my turn, if I topdeck the fast mana, I might steal the game. Nothing. I get Wastelanded, and then Painter dies to Swords. My Grindstone eats a Wear/Tear and then gets surgicaled taking the second one from my hand too. I basically have no permanents and scoop it up to the beatdown.

6-1-2

4th Place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91CpbRq9Tiw

All in all I can’t be unhappy with the result. The final two chopped the finals, so for my troubles I walked away with 500 bucks. Not too shabby, Baltimore always treats me right. I’ll take whatever wins in the top 8 I can get, would just like to convert better but mana screw and mulligans still happen. The list felt tight and well suited for how I wanted to attack the meta this weekend, while giving coverage against a wide portion of the field. Many question the small white splash, but too many times I’ve been bailed out by Canonist. It warps a ton of matchups and is plan A against most combo decks. Not entirely sure how other Painter decks handle combo without it, but the results speak for themself. Painter is well represented and is an expected player. I was joking around between one of the rounds that we could have been standing in the exact same spot 10 years ago for some random starcity Baltimore and how almost no one would have seen or played against Painter at that point. Crazy to see how far the deck has come.

Next stop I hope to be at the next Legacy Pit open the first weekend of October

Catch Painter at the top tables and as always #FreeNedleeds