[Deck] Imperial Painter

[cab0747]

Nice report guys.
A few things...

first, looking at your matches, it seems like an early moon in most of your games would have been really really good. I think you guys are under-valuing Blood Moon in some MUs. Blood Moon was an all-star for me at the last open against U/R Delver. Most lists only run 1-2 islands and if you shut off their fetches they can't shuffle or fill their grave as well for their cruises. It's obviously your best card against 3 color delver or stoneforge packages. Yes, the Moon isn't fantastic against reanimator or other heavy artifact mana strategies, but it never was and these match-ups are dealt with via our SB.

You may be right. However, we wanted the firewalkers for UR and cutting off Plateaus wasn't an option because of the WW requirement . Blood Moon got the axe against UR for me. I just didn't see it as much as I would like in the matches where it would really shine.

Second, could you guys expand a little on your choice of kor firewalkers? I guess you guys were all in on cutting Moons in the red match-ups and bringing in the walkers. They don't seem bad, but it seems like you need them in multiples. The fact that they are taking up four slots in your SB suggests you guys were really worried about seeing a lot of burn or UR Delver. I know UR delver is really popular, but in general it doesn't seem like a bad MU for us anyway. I guess if you really don't like tutors then loading up on hate bears isn't a bad strategy. I personally think the tutors are still good though for combo pieces or silver bullets, especially with tops. glad to hear that containment priest was good. I added one to my SB but again with tutors I still want to be able to fetch RiP, etc so will probably still stick with just one. What was your guys' plan against decks with Eldrazi,etc in them? Seems harder to win without a consistent way to answer the Eldrazi triggers and it's harder to win with beat-down/alternative strategies without Jaya.

Neither of us had byes and we firgure we would have to slog through a lot of Burn and UR. We were both concerned about the matchup and had considered using 4 dragons claw. However, Firewalker is amazing against both UR and Burn and in testing it turned out to be far better than claw. Even 1 can extend the game long enough to lock them and allow you to win. Multiples is pretty much game over. For decks with Eldrazi, the plan was to hide behind the bridges and drop a Koth with some blast backup and ride that. I had the additional crypt in the board to keep the dream of comboing alive. Zack (Ringo) didn't seem to thrilled with that plan.

Finally, I know that sudden shock is a house against stoneforge/delver strategies, but considering two of Ringo's losses were against tribal decks, wouldn't a couple sweeper effects be better out of the board? I tested sudden shock against elves and it was awful. I'm also just more worried about the tribal MUs than delver ones. Elves and Goblins are both difficult MUs.

Sweepers like pyroclasm could have been fine. However, we were very concerned about the swiftspears. I would be open to trying out sweepers instead though. Goblins wasn't really on our radar and I will admit, I hadn't tested against it at all. With Bridge, Containment Priest, and having Moons shut off early Cradles, I think we may have looked past the Elves match-up a bit. I will admit. this could be a weakness. More testing with Priest would be needed to see if she can have the effect we were shooting for.

Sorry to sound like I'm total digging on you guys, I don't mean to. I will say I do like the idea of a 20th land but I still need the 5 accel pieces as Blood Moon is still a high priority for me. I also like the hedge-mage and can totally get behind that.

This was my thought. With all the white in the SB I went with 3 Petals and 2 SSG. Zack (Ringo) cut the SSG because of the 20th land. It seemed to be fine for him. Like you, I was not ready to drop the 5th piece of acceleration which is why I dropped the 3rd Welder. However, I am still not confident I made the correct decision. Keep in mind we are not saying our list was 100% right. We are just letting you see what we tried out and how it worked out for us. This wasn't something we had tested for months in advance of the GP.

As for cutting a revoker, I am TOTALLY on board with this, and honestly am considering cutting this card entirely. It's okay against Miracles but basically always gets killed. It has some value in other MUs as well (elves, sneak and show, vial decks) but I think I would almost rather have a main deck containment priest against all of these MUs. The priest would also have great affect against dredge and reanimator. It's obviously a nombo with the welder/painter interaction, so I probably wouldn't actually play it main, but I just have not been loving revoker AT ALL.

Revoker seemed weak. I didn't want to see it in many of my matches. Going forward, I wouldn't take up a second slot with it until the meta shifts back. I think the Miracles MU is fine without the second.

Has anyone ever gotten Assemble the Legion into play in a major tourney? I still think it has potential but if I wasn't playing tutors I don't think I would bother.

Nope! I felt I was 1 card short in the SB when going against miracles in the Grinder. Assemble was a last-minute addition. Didn't see miracles Saturday or Sunday though so I was unable to test.

Finally, did anyone actually play with Daretti in New Jersey? How did that go?

He was a last minute cut. He wasn't stellar in play-testing. +ing him for 0 felt awful and I would have rather had Koth every time. I would test him more going forward though. Not writing him off completely after just a week of tests.