[Deck] Imperial Painter

[Michael Keller]

This is the creature that was mentioned before, just released:



As a target for Imperial Recruiter, he should find his way into some builds as a one (or two) of over the much frailer Goblin Welder. I could see it as a four-of if you play around it correctly.

@Lonelybaritone: The thing I like best about SoFI is that it hits creatures after it's dealt damage to a player. If I Equip it to a Monkey or an Imperial Recruiter and it gets Swords to Plowshared, that's not really the end of the world as those creatures just bait the StP on themselves over Servant. Sword of Light and Shadow's life gain and ability to return a creature don't really stand out over the ludicrous damage and card draw SoFI provides (that the deck was sorely lacking).

I'm reworking my build after doing some team play-testing and will have it posted soon.

EDIT: I updated the original list. I decided to run one S.o.L.S as there are twenty creatures in the deck and I really feel these equipments give the deck the edge it needs against aggro-based decks that gave it so much trouble to begin with. Some people have talked about cutting a Grindstone, and I don't think that's a right call. In a deck that doesn't have a whole lot of card draw, you want to draw into it. You should play four or none. A great strategy is taking out the Grindstones games two and three and boarding into a more aggressive theme. It works for me.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Much frailer?

Is one point of toughness and Disenchantability really worth an extra six mana?

If you want a draw engine, I'd recommend Bottled Cloister. Also allows you to comfortably fit in Ensnaring Bridge, which would do little to hinder your own win conditions, but provide a comfortable life buffer.

[yawg07]

If you want a draw engine, I'd recommend Bottled Cloister. Also allows you to comfortably fit in Ensnaring Bridge, which would do little to hinder your own win conditions, but provide a comfortable life buffer.

Until they Krosan Grip it. :( I used to run the card in Stax and that was always the problem with it.
They destroy it, your hand is RFG upside-down, period.

[Happy Gilmore]

Goblin Welder would be a backup to the main strategy. And would even allow the deck to go off on less mana. Activate Grinding Stone, Weld in Painter in response. It would also create a head ache for any artifact based deck and the mirror, where you can weld your opponents artifacts in and out at will.

Btw, Try Thorn over Trinisphere. It is amazing.

[DrewliusMaximus]

That doesn't work. Painter's Servant makes Sophie blue, so when state-based effects are checked after equipping it to a creature, it will become unattached because that creature has Protection from Blue.

So if SoFI is already equipped to a creature, and then Servant is played naming blue, does SoFI still unattach?

[Michael Keller]

Much frailer?

Is one point of toughness and Disenchantability really worth an extra six mana?

If you want a draw engine, I'd recommend Bottled Cloister. Also allows you to comfortably fit in Ensnaring Bridge, which would do little to hinder your own win conditions, but provide a comfortable life buffer.

Krosan Grip and Engineered Exposives are kind of a relevant threat in the format right now. Being able to recur the most important part of the deck back directly into play with one card that you can fetch is generally a good thing. It fits the curve of the deck and at worst you draw a card. It will be a singleton in my build, no more.

If you play Ensnaring Bridge, you're going to potentially hinder your attack step, which is an important strategy of the deck. S.o.L.S also gains you life and returns creatures.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Somehow, I fail to see where "Krosan Grip is played, therefore Grippable recursion that costs a lot more mana= good" is an argument.

Somehow, I also think that your strategy of SoLS on a Recruiter is going to be a bigger worry to the opponent than the opponent's attack step will be to you, nine times out of ten. The point of Bottled Cloister is to break the symmetry of Bridge anyway.

[Nihil Credo]

So if SoFI is already equipped to a creature, and then Servant is played naming blue, does SoFI still unattach?

Yes, as soon as SBEs are checked.

[Michael Keller]

Somehow, I fail to see where "Krosan Grip is played, therefore Grippable recursion that costs a lot more mana= good" is an argument.

Somehow, I also think that your strategy of SoLS on a Recruiter is going to be a bigger worry to the opponent than the opponent's attack step will be to you, nine times out of ten. The point of Bottled Cloister is to break the symmetry of Bridge anyway.

Sword of Light and Shadow is a fine choice. I'm going to try out Scarecrone and see how it fares as a bullet. I've been trying to make the deck a little less dependent on Painter's Servant, and now with the inclusion of the Swords, you create imminent threats which your opponent must deal with at once.

And four mana shouldn't be considered "a lot" in a deck which plays fifteen to sixteen mana accelerators. Sword of Light and Shadow is there to compliment the other Swords, which are a bit more important here. Either way, equipping any of your creatures is a good thing.

Putting Bottled Cloister in the deck and Ensnaring Bridge is just atrocious. Why in God's name would you want to set aside your critical Blasts when you'd need them most? You're better off just playing Grafted Skullcap then. And in that scenario, your spells would become all sorceries, just as though you had Cloister. Either way, it's just not good.

[Skeggi]

Putting Bottled Cloister in the deck and Ensnaring Bridge is just atrocious. Why in God's name would you want to set aside your critical Blasts when you'd need them most? You're better off just playing Grafted Skullcap then. And in that scenario, your spells would become all sorceries, just as though you had Cloister. Either way, it's just not good.

Well, you could use your Scarecrone as a draw-engine, but then I'd say run 2 or 3, perhaps 4. So you can sac themselves and don't have to sac the servant.

[Willoe]

Well, you could use your Scarecrone as a draw-engine, but then I'd say run 2 or 3, perhaps 4. So you can sac themselves and don't have to sac the servant.

Rather Sword of Fire and Ice, have you checked how much mana that "engine" you mention costs? It isn't really an engine to sac your artifacts to draw cards. It just slaughters your bullets and thins your deck.

Or were you meaning to have one in play and one in graveyard? So then, you return it, sac the tapped one, draw a card, recur it, then sac the other.... Each draw will cost you 5 mana, that's way too much.

You can of course play it then sac it, wow you cantripped for 4 colorless mana!

Honestly, I can't really see Scarecrone fit in the deck. The ability to recur the Servant at the cost of 7 mana, and you would still have to wait a turn due to the tap ability... There must be better alternatives, like Welder or even Trash for Treasure. It's pretty irrelevant that it can be fetched with Recruiter, just fetch another Servant instead. Am I wrong in these statements?

[Hightower]

Goblin Welder can also be fetched by Recruiter =P

And I agree with TheInfamousBearAssassin that Scarecrone doesn't seem superior to Welder in any way, for the reasons stated earlier (1cc, no mana cost to activate, immune to artifact hate) only issue is you need an artifact in your Graveyard for it to be useful, but that's true for Scarecrone as well.. You haven't said why it's better then Welder, A Legend.. I would like to hear your arguments.

[Skeggi]

Rather Sword of Fire and Ice, have you checked how much mana that "engine" you mention costs? It isn't really an engine to sac your artifacts to draw cards. It just slaughters your bullets and thins your deck.

SoFI doesn't stick after painter.

I only mentioned that, if you are thinking of incorporating Scarecrone, you could use it as an engine. Yes, high mana, but you're also running 4 Ancient Tomb and 4 City of Traitors, 3 Moxes and 4 SSG's. Granted, it's still much...but I don't like Welder since you need to sac one thing to recur the other; it seems like it only costs , but it also costs or and an extra card on top of it, plus you don't really want to sac your servant.

Plus Scarecrone protects servant from, say, a StP.

[moOnsteak]

One thing about Welder, powerful but not belong to this build because of some reasons :
- Lack of artifacts on the board (only Chrome Mox?? can be solved with additional Great Furnace)
- Lack of way to put an artifact into graveyard (no sac ability, just Jaya's discard cost or hope some of your artifact be countered / destroyed), Greater Gargadon will be a nice answer if you try to use Welder. .

[SouthAlly]

SO if you are playing Goblin Welder, perhaps it would be a good plan to also play Gamble.

[DrewliusMaximus]

I was thinking that if you were to use Welder MD, you could add 2 or 3 Gambles to search for Grindstone. Like Moonsteak said, there's still a problem with Artifacts on the board to sac, but once you start going this route, I feel like the whole deck changes a little bit, so other cards could be replaced with artifacts (possibly even Scarecrones, since they would allow you to sac a Servant and get it back). I still play with 4 Mox, and I think you'd want to play with 4 if you use Welder.

I like the idea of Scarecrone as an addition to the existing build though. Not because it is a robust draw engine, but because it can do many things. If I'm in game 1 against a deck with ground-beaters, I've got a Servant in the graveyard, and at least 4 mana, I will want to Recruit a Scarecrone on many occasions so I can turn my Servant into a reusable chumb-blocker. If I have 5 mana in that situation, my Servant is a chump-blocker that can draw a card right after blocking, and then return EOT. This brings up the point that the draw engine Scarecrone creates, while mana-intensive, can be activated at the end of the opponent's turn. You can keep that mana available to do other things if needed in the meantime. And like Skeggi mentioned, you can protect your Servants from STP, or just sac them to draw a card when they are Gripped, or Smothered or Deeded, or whatever. Additionally, Scarecrone can reanimate destroyed/countered sideboard cards like Silent Arbiter and Stuffy Doll. I don't know that Scarecrone would be worth an addition, but should most definitely be tested right? I don't think you would need more than 2 total between the MD and SB.

Quick question for Vroman: Stingscourger and Duplicant are cool ideas. I really like Stingscourger, but would be afraid that Duplicant's cost could be prohibitive. Did these guys work out for you?

[Michael Keller]

When you're talking about adding these artifacts to the deck, you're bogging down an already oiled machine by putting in cards that are just saying "win more". The deck's route to victory is through the attack step. You're talking about playing a 1/1 Goblin that in this deck is very situational (just like Scarecrone, which probably won't make it into my final build anyways). More often than not, you know where Painter's Servant is going to be? Not the graveyard. He'll be in the RFG pile from Swords. There's no other relevant artifacts to recur in this deck. All sorts of unnecessary things have to happen in this deck to place him in, and I'm not prepared to cut an already tight list for Bottled Cloisters. Both Scarecrone and Welder really don't belong here.

Again, the main issue the deck faces is beating green in general. That's it. It's the only color I've had trouble with in the past and the addition of the equipment and Dragon have kind of given the deck a shove in the right direction, which is to say, a better match against aggro.

[SouthAlly]

I still play with 4 Mox, and I think you'd want to play with 4 if you use Welder.

When you're talking about adding these artifacts to the deck, you're bogging down an already oiled machine by putting in cards that are just saying "win more".

Great Furnace, boys.

Again, the main issue the deck faces is beating green in general. That's it. It's the only color I've had trouble with in the past...

Death and Taxes is big here, and the Imperial Painter guys are always annoyed when they get paired with it.

[vroman]

Quick question for Vroman: Stingscourger and Duplicant are cool ideas. I really like Stingscourger, but would be afraid that Duplicant's cost could be prohibitive. Did these guys work out for you?

yes. its easy to get 6 mana, esp w magmoon out so city traitors dont sac. dup laso gets to keep goyfs power toughness, w the new */* rules. stingscourger buys two turns vs goyf. first you bounce goyf, and they spend the next turn recasting him, so you pay the echo and then chump the following turn. stinger also not bad vs ichorid, bc you just let it die to remove bridges, and put a narcomeba into their hand.
I dont like the generc beater dragon plan. price of progress is way more efficient in most matches.
Im testing mog fanatic in place of lightning bolt, bc he is slightly relevent vs goyfs, wheras Ive never killed a goyf w bolt. and fanatic still kills dconf, and can frequently deal 3 damage to opponent for R, and also is recruitable.

[DrewliusMaximus]

When you're talking about adding these artifacts to the deck, you're bogging down an already oiled machine

I agree here. In theory, I like the idea of a single Scarecrone, but like you said, there are limited targets for it and it might be too conditional.

Again, the main issue the deck faces is beating green in general.

Are you talking about Green Stompy and Elves, or anything that uses Green mana acceleration, or what?

I dont like the generic beater dragon plan.

I think I agree with this too. I feel like there are Recruitable-creature-based solutions that would be harder for the opponent to deal with. This past weekend, Stuffy Doll epitomized this for me. I can see Duplicant, Stingscourger and Wildfire Emissary being other good examples. I know it has been mentioned before, but Wildfire Emissary sure seems strong as a pumpable Recruiter target...it comes protected from STP and you can always name White with Servant.