[Deck] Imperial Painter

[Mr.C]

With Basilisk Collar in Worldwake, Trinket Mage looks even more appealing.

This is my build of the deck, updated for WWK:

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
2 Arid Mesa
2 Mountain
1 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
1 Academy Ruins

4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Painter's Servant
4 Trinket Mage
3 Figure of Destiny
1 Vexing Shusher

4 Grindstone
3 Pyroblast
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Chrome Mox
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Engineered Explosives

--- Sideboard ---
3 Blood Moon
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Hydroblast
3 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast

Collar and Explosives, along with Blast+Painter, serve as the deck's removal. The sideboard's designed so you can swap out red blasts for blue blasts against Zoo, Aggro Loam, and the like - so you start naming red with your blasts.

Just won a 16 man here in Vancouver with this one, with -1 Recruiter + 1 Jaya (don't have 4 recruiter).

Beat LifeDot (About Face/Kor/Diamond Valley), Solidarity and Zoo, and drew with Zoo in round 4.

Edit before i sleep:

Some Thoughts:

-Basilisk Collar is decent. Helped keep me alive, by having Recruiters staring down goyf.
-Sometimes I wished Trinket Mage was Cruel Tutor/Grim Tutor or something. I wonder if I can a manabase that works...
-Jaya was removal bait
-Zoo is horrible pre-board, winnable post board.
-Needs something better against storm combo. Pyrostatic Pillar? Might be a shot in the foot. Was thinking of Cerbral Vortex, lol.

[ryO!]

play a 32 man tour

ended up in a sad 3-2 (ended 9th) after starting 3-0 !
with this list

10 Mountain
4 AT
4 COT
3 Mox
4 SSG
4 Magus
4 Recruiter
4 Servant
2 Jaya
3 Figure
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Hearth kami
5 Blast
2 trap
4 Grindstone
3 lightning bolt
1 Basilik collar
1 Jitte

SB
2 faerie macabre
2 tormod's Crypt
2 Shattering Spree
1 shusher
2 Blood Moon
1 Stingscourger
1 goblin welder
2 Needle
1 Blast

G1 2-0 Bant (opponent will end 3rd of the tour)
g1 combo turn 3
g2 combo turn 4 Cunning Sparkmage on Noble hierarch is awesome

G2 2-1 Painter Ur (stiflenought+painter combo)
g1 i win aggro mode
g2 eventually on turn 50 he goes combo (funny mirror game !)
g3 i combo turn 2

G3 2-0 Ant
g1 he goes off with 11 life and die
g2 i combo turn 4, blocking him with magus and pithing on SDT

G4 0-2 crappy shitty discard deck (she ll end 2nd of the tour)
g1 mulligan to 6, awful game, she discards all the thing i need then double rack
g2 here we go the exact same

G5 1-2 Cthresh (he ll end 4th of the tour)
g1 long game, i eventually win aggro mode
g2 he is kinda lucky and top deck answer to all my threat and win
g3 long game but in the end he tarmogoyfed me, then again answering most of my threat ...

to sum it up, it wasn't that bad, considering i played against the 2nd 3rd and 4th of the tour.
Cunning Sparkmage is imo way better than shapshooter, haste is not to under estimate at all.

i am currently happy with this list to be honnest, and discard is a TERRIBLE MU ... And i really have to find a place for Ee.
As it has been said above, anyone have tried black with 2 or 3 Cruel Tutor?
should be smth like this : (grim tutor is really bad due to BB)

2 Badlands
4 Mountain
4 Fetch
4 AT
4 COT
3 Mox
4 SSG
4 Magus
4 Recruiter
4 Servant
2 Jaya
3 Figure
1 Cunning Sparkmage
5 Blast
1 trap
1 Top
2 Grindstone
3 Cruel Tutor
3 lightning bolt
1 Basilik collar
1 Jitte

[mchainmail]

G3 2-0 Ant
g1 he goes off with 11 life and die
g2 i combo turn 4, blocking him with magus and pithing on LED

Pithing needle on LED does nothing...

[ryO!]

Pithing needle on LED does nothing...

on SDT not led sorry

[thorin_the_king]

hi guys, coming back from gp madris. dropped after 7th round, wih a 4-3 record due to being unable to make day 2.

win 2-0 1s round (he didint show)

win 2-1 against meathooks

lost 0-2 against TES

win 2-1 against GW berserk stompy

lost 1-2 aainst UR faeriestill featuring lavamancers and lots of bluered blasts in sb

win 2-0 against the rock

lost 1-2 to merfolks...my god a very favourable matchup but shit happens...


will post my list and a report tomorrow, im very tired now. this deck is awesome for me, i love it

cheers, imperial painters.

-Thorin-

[thorin_the_king]

well now i have a little spare time so i will tell you a little more from the GP:

first of all my list:

// Lands
3 [EX] City of Traitors
10 [ZEN] Mountain (2)
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire

// Creatures
1 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
2 [TSP] Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
4 [PLC] Simian Spirit Guide
4 [SHM] Painter's Servant
4 [P3] Imperial Recruiter
4 [FUT] Magus of the Moon
2 [EVE] Figure of Destiny
1 [ON] Goblin Sharpshooter

// Spells
1 [WWK] Basilisk Collar
4 [TE] Grindstone
3 [MR] Chrome Mox
3 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
3 [IA] Pyroblast
2 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [BD] Lightning Bolt

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [DK] Blood Moon
SB: 3 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 3 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 [GP] Shattering Spree
SB: 2 [PLC] Sulfur Elemental

Round 1 vs. Miguel (he didn't show up) 2-0

Round 2 vs. Javier playing Meathooks 2-1

Game 1: He wins the die roll and starts with mutavault. i play mountain go (blast open thinking im playing merfolk), he plays tundra sinew sliver so i try to resolve magus second turn wich gets dazed, next turn recruiter for magus while bolting a sliver, i play magus turn 4 floats white and plows my magus. when i had 7 mana and his only open mana was tundra and 2 cards in hand i go off, blasting a bstorm in response to playing painter.

Game 2: I tried to resolve a 1st turn blood moon which is a mistake, should have waited for 2nd turn to have blast protection or paying daze with ssg. his board grows too fast before i can combo.

Game 3: Go all-in SSG+Tomb=Magus. It resolves and 3 turns after i combo.

Round 3 vs. Jeroén playing T.E.S 0-2

Game 1: I win the die roll and i lead with mountain go. he plays gemstone and i think he plays dredge until he taps for ponder. i let it resolve and play a second turn magus of a chrome mox (removing sharpshooter) leaving me with open mana to blast something and a painter in hand.

on his turn he made city of brass, rite of flame x2, petal x2 , brainstorm, dark ritual, empty the warrens (at this moment i look at my sharpshooter behind my mox and blame myself :). couln't topdeck a grindstone and i lose.

Game 2: I board in trinispheres, explosives, and sulfurs (in case i can play him along painter and kill all tokens).

i play mountain ssg painter go, he plays ponder go, and i play trinisphere of a second mountain and a second ssg. on his turn he made mana, mana, ssg, burning wish for shattering spree but he didint have the 3 mana to play it next turn, nor do i to play blasts on his lands. he finds his 3rd land before me and blows out painter and trini. at this point i left him with 5 life due to painter attack, city of brass damage and spirit tokens of forbidden orchard he gave me. i had an explosives for 0 also. on his turn he made petal, ritual, rite, LED, infernal tutot for ill-gotten gains, cast it , ritual, led, tutor for tendrils, tendrils for 20 . :(

Round 4 vs. Jordi playing GW Berserk Stompy. 2-1

Game 1 i win the die roll and lead of mountain go, he plays hierarch of a forest so EOT i try to bolt him and he invigorates in response, so now i realize he's playing some kind of berserk deck. i drop a grindstone a collar and a recruiter to search for painter and stall the game agaianst his troll ascetic and slippery boggle and another hierarch. i manage to resolve painter with mana to grind him but he casted swords on him. that gave me the option to play magus, and leave him with only one green mana and one white mana, beacuse hierarch was gone with sharpshooter. i trade the equipped sharpshooter with bogle briar-shielded and recruiter with troll. on my turn i swing for 4 with figure and gain 4 life, on his turn he tries to win via invigorate berserk, but he had to give me the 3 life cause he hadn't two green mana to play invigoarte + berserk on the same turn. magus was crucial. he concedes after that cause figure was an 8/8 monster flier with deathtouch and lifelink.

Game 2: i made a misteke here stacking my top 3 cards with top so when i try to resolve a second turn moon i draw my city of taritos of the top instead of ssg. that leaves me with no option to do it until turn 3 so he can plays troll and then qasali pridemage, i don't recall exactly but i lost soon after of a big kavu i think.

game 3: 1st turn magus of a chrome mox and a tomb. second turn painter and grindstone. 3 turn win. he only had fetches in hand.

Round 5 vs. Oloff playing UR Faestill 1-2

Game 1: these games were so long and involving a lot of tricks with flashing faeries and such that i don't recall everything in a correct way. At this moment i didnt take more notes, i was starting to be tired. 1st game i was able to fight against counters and manlands and at one moment i can resolve painter stone activation in the same turn.

Game 2: plays fetch go i think, i play mountain go. he fecthes volcanic, plays mutavalt, cloud of faeries and jitte. now my magus is going to be killed if i play him turn 2. i cant recover when he landed stanstill and then when i try to resolve painter he spellstuttered him.

Game 3: i try to kill his lavamancer and sepellstutter eqquipped with jitte, but blue blasts and red blasts from his own side counters my spells and destoy my painter. im unable to win and he played very very well.

Round 6 vs. Sabrina playing The Rock (with Elspeths) 2-0

Game 1: won the die roll 1st turn magus for the win.

game 2: she mulligans and fetch bayou to duress me from a GW fetch and take grindstone. i then topdeck blood moon and play it via mox tomb and she only plays a senseis wich gaves her no basic lands.

At this moment i was 4-2-0, i needed to win my 3 remaining rounds to make day 2.

Round 7 vs. Jaime playing Merfolk.

Game 1: he starts with vial i think, i don't see a lot of blasts and he manage to get two islands to play around magus. i only find a way to blast an anormous trasher and die next turn...

game 2: play mountain go he plays island go. i play magus he plays mutavault standstill ???. i win after he breaks his own standstill due to this mistake.

Game 3: we fight back and forth a long time. at one moment he had cursecatcher and silvergill in play and try to resolve standstill. i flashed in sulfur elemental in response and let it resolve. on my turn i topped to search for a blast (nothing here) and played painter's servant from ancient tomb (had two ssg in hand). he draws 3 and plays daze, i remove one ssg. he is touching another island so im happy that im gonna pay the second daze and resolve painter naming white killing his board and swinging for the win. unfortunately it was force of will what he draws from his standstill and i die shortly after.

So, that was it, 4-3 and drop. this was my second tournament with the deck and i like it very much, i dont know if splashing blue would be an option to make explsoives worthwhile and trinket mage. ill edit this post after with some conclusions.

EDIT:
- I didn't cast jaya all day, nor searched for her. I don't know if I'm going to reduce it as a 1 of
- I wish i could had played explosives for 2 a lot of times but i was unable to mox a figure or any card with painter in play to do so. that's why i'm thinking about splashing. blue is an option as I said before giving us trinket mages for sure, and maybe blue blasts and fire/ices?. the other option is to splash white to play tutors...I dont know if the manabase will support it along with magus. I love the way magus wins games alone, but if we splash we weken our moon strategy or weaken our deck when being unable to cast the non red spells...
- Would it be a crazy idea to make this deck a WR tempo deck??
i would share a crazy list i made before going to the gp in order you can blame me for imagining those things.... :)

// Lands
4 [R] Plateau
1 [ZEN] Plains (4)
2 [ZEN] Mountain (2)
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [ZEN] Arid Mesa

// Creatures
3 [TO] Grim Lavamancer
4 [P3] Imperial Recruiter
4 [SHM] Painter's Servant
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
4 [ON] Weathered Wayfarer

// Spells
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
3 [RAV] Lightning Helix
3 [DS] AEther Vial
4 [4E] Swords to Plowshares
3 [IA] Pyroblast
3 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
3 [TE] Grindstone
1 [WWK] Basilisk Collar

well, imperial players, that's all for today.

thanks for reading.

Thorin

[cwt1220]

I know I have said this in about every single post, but I love to play the aggro builds, with a combo "killswitch." When I saw the printings of basilisk collar and stoneforge mystic, I began tweaking a R/W list. The following is a preliminary list in which I am pretty happy with.

4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Imperial Recruiter
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Jaya Ballard
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Painter's Servant
3 Figure of Destiny

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Basilisk Collar
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Grindstone
3 Chrome mox

4 Plateau
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Arid Mesa

I cut the numbers of servants, grindstones and blasts to make room for Mystics and the equipment. Questions and comments are much appreciated.

-Chris- *

[Fatestitcher]

I don't want to be the bringer of more bad news but with 10/10 Gaea's Blessing Mythics running around the meta, and now a 12/12 Mythic Feldon's Cane has just been spoiled from Eldrazi, do you guys feel threatened about this possible meta shift?

From my point of view, a previously 2-card combo deck may have just been possibly demoted to a 3-card combo deck given that players tend to incorporate these unintentional hosers into the current tier decks.

[cwt1220]

There shouldn't be much worry about "blessing" type cards, because of cards we play like Relic and Macabre. If you mill your opponent and they have Progenitus, it just goes to the top of their library, and they draw it next turn and proceed to lose the following turn. All in all, triggers go on the stack, then graveyards gets RFG'd.

-Chris-

[Fatestitcher]

Exactly my point. Against a fast aggro deck, a single Progenitus main can act as a time walk for them against mill and they can still possibly win the turn they draw Progenitus.

Against Dream Halls which run a full set of Progenitus, if they are able to Show and Tell one and 3 copies remain in the library, that's usually game over for you.

Has anyone felt the need to dedicate 4 sb slots for GY removal (LotV or Ravenous trap) and replace Crypt, Relic or Faerie yet? The Faerie is tutorable but I find it weak for this purpose.

[ryO!]

Exactly my point. Against a fast aggro deck, a single Progenitus main can act as a time walk for them against mill and they can still possibly win the turn they draw Progenitus.

Against Dream Halls which run a full set of Progenitus, if they are able to Show and Tell one and 3 copies remain in the library, that's usually game over for you.

Has anyone felt the need to dedicate 4 sb slots for GY removal (LotV or Ravenous trap) and replace Crypt, Relic or Faerie yet? The Faerie is tutorable but I find it weak for this purpose.

Everyone has always played at least 3 of those in SB FMacabre/RTrap/TCrypt/RoProgenitus/LotV, so i don't really get your point.

Moreover, i don't think progenitus is a problem at all, unless you combo on turn 40, the last turn it ll buy them prolly won't change a single thing.
I am really thinking about adding black for Cruel tutor, and about the a more aggro version, i ve always played 3 equipement MD anyway (Jitte/Collar/SolS) and it has proven to be more than useful/efficient.

[cwt1220]

My R/W list from a few posts back has done exceedingly well in recent testing. Jitte has been great, Collar was always great, and having a creature that can get them turn one is amazing. So far I have blown out Dredge, done fairly against Bant Survival, and not faired well against Aggro-Loam (never did anyway). In theory this list will play better against zoo than the traditional list did, further testing in the coming week will confirm that. Sideboard is still in the works, the only thing I am sure of now is playing Hanna's Custody, which I have always wanted to play. I will post more results and analysis in the next few days.

-Chris-

[thorin_the_king]

don't you miss blasts in the deck? i mean, one of our strenghts it's that we do well against blue based decks. i'm sure you improve the zoo matchup like this, but aren't the others weakened by cutting blasts?

cheers

thorin

EDIT: i realized that you are running path to exile instead of swords to plowshares. if we run magus of the moon, wouldn't stp be better than pte? that will give them life instead of a basic land to come back from our lock.

[cwt1220]

I don't miss the blasts as much as you would think, because I am not playing the real "combo" as much now. As far as I have tested, my other matches aren't any weaker without the blasts. As I have stated numerous times, I like playing aggro with this deck and my R/W list is the best aggro list I have piloted thus far. At first, PtE was a good idea in my head, because I didn't want my opponent gaining to much life, but StP has better synergy with Magus of the Moon. I am working on a real primer for a R/W list, and I may just start a new thread for it, I will keep everyone updated.

-Chris-

[thorin_the_king]

I don't miss the blasts as much as you would think, because I am not playing the real "combo" as much now. As far as I have tested, my other matches aren't any weaker without the blasts. As I have stated numerous times, I like playing aggro with this deck and my R/W list is the best aggro list I have piloted thus far. At first, PtE was a good idea in my head, because I didn't want my opponent gaining to much life, but StP has better synergy with Magus of the Moon. I am working on a real primer for a R/W list, and I may just start a new thread for it, I will keep everyone updated.

-Chris-

I will be waiting for it!! It's true that now the deck needs to keep up with an aggro meta, will start playing your list ant tell you how it's doing for me also. But it will be nicely to hear from the creator of this new list his thoughts/matchups/sb plans etc. Recently I started thinking about selling the recruiters to buy some other stuff for another decks, but then I remember how much i had to save for them and that makes me regret it :). Hope we will find a new list that can deal well with this new meta.

cheers.

thorin

[Michael Keller]

I really think eliminating Blasts from the deck begins to dematerialize and underutilize the power of Painter's Servant. It's important to realize that while you don't want the deck to solely revolve around a single creature, the effect of his presence on the board completely changes the concept of how you proceed in the game. I'm not saying run eight Blast effects like the original version used to, but consider the potency of what they are capable of accomplishing once Painter resolves.

I am very skeptical about removing those cards from the main build. It would (probably) work, but the deck would resemble more of a R/w Dragon Stompy after the fact. It might be a variation that is effective enough to work.

[thorin_the_king]

@Hollywood: have you been playing the deck recently? If so, would you share up with us your latest list?

[Michael Keller]

I still prefer to run the mono-red version with Figure and the general creature assortment that we've been seeing. I've tinkered around with the blue splash and time and time again I just keep wanting to go back to the mono-red version.

The funny thing is that my list hasn't changed all that much in the last year or so since I've put the deck down. I've recently begun testing Jitte and it has been obviously effective. Aside from that, nothing all that new:

[4x] Painter's Servant
[4x] Simian Spirit Guide
[4x] Magus of the Moon
[4x] Imperial Recruiter
[4x] Figure of Destiny
[4x] Red Elemental Blast
[4x] Lightning Bolt
[4x] Grindstone
[3x] Umezawa's Jitte
[3x] Chrome Mox
[2x] Pyroblast
[2x] Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

//Land
[10x] Mountain
[4x] Ancient Tomb
[4x] City of Traitors

[5doorfury]

I'm rather new to this deck and I really like it (as with many of you I assume) yet I feel that there HAS to be a way to advance this deck because of the power of these cards.

I see that a few of you have tried the aggro version of the deck, with ok results; but have any of you tried to go a more combo oriented route?

I am not exactly sure what that would entail... maybe gamble(etc.) or some other way to get through the deck or a way to find grindstone quicker?

[cwt1220]

Finally got around to making a new list and primer for what I call Imperial Aggro. Check it out.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Aggro&p=437571