U/W Painter Stone

[baghdadbob]

So I spent a long time getting the funds ($) for this deck and its still in the works. I see the red painter everywhere along with the black blue painter with the confidant. I on the other hand wanted to take a different approach to this. I took the combo (2 card combos are awesome) and put it inside of a control shell. I would appreciate all comments. I'm new to the site this is my first post, and I'm not even sure if this is the right place to put this! lol! So without further ado here is the list...
The Deck
3x Painters Servant
3x Grindstone
3x Sensei's Divining Top
2x Isochron Scepters
3x Counterbalance
4x Orim's Chant
4x Force of Will
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Swords to Plowshare
4x Counterspell
4x Brainstorm
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
2x Academy Ruins
Tenative about the amount of Plains to Islands Ratio...
The Side Board
4x Disenchant
4x Echoing Truth
1x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Tormods Crypt
2x Wrath of God
1x Engineered Explosives
So there's a few things going on here. Since this deck runs heavy amounts of artifacts academy ruins can save my butt. Counter balance-top is another nice 2 card combo fully searchable with my enlightened tutors. The 2 Isochron scepters with either counterspell... orim's chant... or swords to plowshare...or even enlightened tutor works great. Alot of people have told me to take it out but I think the 2 of is working wonders. I would more likely take out the Counter-top combo before that. Usually I play one of the other 2 combos first that way the opponent wastes there Krosan Grips, Disenchants or counters in the first 2-3 turns. I can respond but I prefer to hold my counters for backup when then unexpected second or third combo comes out. These hard lock down combos are great and fully regenerative with my academy ruins. With 7 mana I can almost win and this deck has what it takes to get there. Generally turn 7 will be...
Tap 1
Orim's Chant
No responses? Good. Force of will/daze/whatever else... I have the counter for via Counter-top, Counter or another Orim's chant on a stick or any counter in hand.
Tap 3
Painters Servant/Grindstone
Tap 3 Win the game.
Tell me what you think for improvement... in either mainboard or side. I am unwilling however to splash any other color this is strictly a blue white build.
THANKS EVERYONE!!!

[baghdadbob]

Tap 1
Orim's Chant
No responses? Good. Force of will/daze/whatever else... I have the counter for via Counter-top, Counter or another Orim's chant on a stick or any counter in hand.

Part of this is wrong the stick doesn't help in this situation with only 7 mana... I must rely on force of will in hand... or the the counter-top.

[Forbiddian]

Rtfm. You have two posts, one starting a thread and the other one bumped your own thread with copy/paste from your OP. That's gotta be a record.


Anyway, with 4 Brainstorms, you probably want more fetchlands than just 4. Whatever you choose for Islands vs. Plains, I'd cut Islands for Deltas and/or Plains for Heaths.

With four Enlightened Tutors, you should probably stomach playing some 1-of bombs. With two Academy Ruins, I can't see how you're not trying to abuse EE in the maindeck at least with one copy. Also no Moat? It seems that you'd like to dive for that card a few times off of ET.

Your deck runs enough combo elements that you probably want to run Ponder as well.



But bottom line is that "turn 7" is no longer a good turn to try to do stuff in Legacy and hasn't been for a few years. I don't want to write your deck off too soon, but Swords and Force of Will are really not good answers to the creature strategies by themselves.

To me, it seems like Painter's Grind was the start of the deck's foundation, but that in order to protect it, you've had to bend over backward into this control shell. If you can stabilize the board well enough AND resolve a 2-card combo, then you could have won with any win con. Tarmogoyf and Sower or Decree of Justice and Eternal Dragon just seem like better win cons at that point. In short: What does Painter's Grind offer you after you take out the acceleration so you can no longer get a surprise win?

Sad to say, but Tarmogoyf invalidated Painter's Grind as well.

[baghdadbob]

I'm not sure what RTFM means like I said still brand new to the sight... I'm sure it wasn't very nice though. I do appreciate the feedback. As far as "Turn 7 not being a good turn to do things in legacy" this deck always makes it to the 7th turn and I always seem to have the upper hand with the ability to force my painter/stone combo via another combo or the pretty good size amount of control. I will play test Moat and I'm not sure what I would drop for ponders. Comment back on the sideboard if you want. Also for the record I was not "bumping" my own thread I was just trying to correct my mistake. HAHA! Just saw that whole edit button there... I can see why you thought I was "Bumping". I was just not wearing my glasses sorry!

[baghdadbob]

Ok so I reworked this deck a few times because as it turns out it just did not have enough creature control to take it all the way. I went out and purchased a single moat (80$ jeez!) and a few other cards. It now preforms very much like a control deck but with the power of white removal. In my previous list I removed Orim's chant and put it in the side board, because as it turns out its not that good unless there's an isochron scepter for it to be imprinted on, or against storm. This is my new list and I will explain my choices after...
* 3 x Back to Basics
* 4 x Brainstorm
* 4 x Counterspell
* 4 x Force of Will
* 4 x Negate
* 2 x Sower of Temptation
* 4 x Enlightened Tutor
* 1 x Moat
* 4 x Swords to Plowshares
* 2 x Wrath of God
* 2 x Academy Ruins
* 4 x Flooded Strand
* 10 x Island
* 6 x Plains
* 3 x Grindstone
* 3 x Painter's Servant
Painter servant and Grindstone are a 3 of scrictly because drawing more then 1 of each is bad. 1-2 of is not enough due to artifact hate. There are very few things that "protect" the combo but a 2 of academy ruin works really well in my opinion. Back to basics I borrowed this idea from a mono blue deck it shuts down mishras factories and all those beta dual lands people dropped a mint on. It is great against anything but monoblue and red. Problem here is that it still only gives my academy ruins a 1 of regenerate kinda deal with it in play. I'm still thinking of a better option for this predicament, any ideas? Brainstorm is good in here because I have little card advantage and being able to pop it after I tutor is good as well in a pinch. Force of Will is obvious. Sower of temptation is great because A) Gives me an alternative win. B) Flies over my moat. C) Steals creatures D) Cheaper then veldalken shackles. Swords to plowshare is an obvious as well considering I'm not really worried about my opponents health. Wrath of God as a 2 of is good because it can a) kill anything getting over moat b) kill anything that avoids spot removal c) clears away zoo. d) if they kill sower of temptation, i will have backups. Seeing as I have a bunch of creature control counterspell and negate 4 of takes care of anything else, with force of will to back it up. Enlightened tutor works really was to because it finds moat, grindstone, painter's servant, and back to basics. Was thinking of dropping 1 for a mystical tutor to find wrath of god in a pinch. Let me know what you think, it certainly seems to flow quite well on paper.

[Forbiddian]

I like the 3x Back to Basics.

That wasn't in the first list, but it wrecks a lot of unprepared decks.


Since you're running it, I'd switch Negates with Mana Leaks or Spell Snare. I haven't seen this suggested in a long time, but Mana Leak is always a strong counter early game, and late game you'll at least have a crack at resolving Back to Basics to make Mana Leak matter again.

You can hop on Magic Workstation (free DL) and playtest your deck a bit before you buy it.