[Deck] Imperial Painter

[Imperial]

Finished 5th yesterday in Hanau, Germany. About 50 players, cut to top 8.


My decklist:


Team N!´s "judged by"


// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
6 [RAV] Mountain (1)
4 [MR] Great Furnace


// Creatures
4 [P3] Imperial Recruiter
4 [FUT] Magus of the Moon
4 [SHM] Painter's Servant
4 [PLC] Simian Spirit Guide
1 [UL] Goblin Welder
2 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
1 [TSP] Jaya Ballard, Task Mage


// Spells
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [DK] Blood Moon
3 [U] Red Elemental Blast
4 [IA] Pyroblast
4 [TE] Grindstone
3 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge


// Sideboard
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 1 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 1 [REL] Phyrexian Metamorph
SB: 4 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 [IA] Pyroclasm

Pyroclasm should have been sudden demises, but my order did not arrive soon enough.
No draw, no library manipulation, no burn. Just get first turn moon, empty your hand, lay back behind your ensnaring bridges and a lot of one mana, instant vindicates. I know it´s risky, but hey, all in and win. I play this deck since years, and this is the version I like the most at the moment.

After six round of swiss, I was first, won the first four rounds against deathblade, bw, blade controll and 12 post. Went awesome 8-0, not losing a single game! Lucky me! The next two rounds I was able to ID, so I went 4-0-2 and first.

Top 8 I was paired againt uwr delver, and the tide turned, we had two very strange games, I had the total board controll with moon and ensnaring bridge out, he has no chance to remove these two, but died both games to grim lavamancer and bolts, lol. But all in all a very funny day, seeing a lost of faces from the past ( I quit playing a lot of tournament magic years ago), funny games and two revised plateaus as the price.

Congrats man! Yeah, I'm thinking of taking something like this to a tournament Thursday. My local legacy scenes been growing, so it's time to bust out the BMoons!

[jandax]

Amended my list, mainly because I don't have the guts to play a 61 card deck...

9 Mountain
4 Red Fetchlands
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb

4 Recruiter
4 Painter
4 SSG
4 Grindstone
4 Blood Moon
6 Blasts (2 REB/4 Pyro)
3 Top
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Koth of the Hammer
1 Goblin Welder
1 Jaya Ballard
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Lotus Petal


SB:

4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Sudden Demise
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Manic Vandal
1 Martyr of Ashes

From the last list I moved the two Sudden Demise to the SB to make room for the Lotus Petal I shaved (mistake), the Goblin Welder (Want 2), and swapped out a City for a Mountain.

I shaved a Revoker from the side for a Martyr of Ashes, but like the Bloodfire Dwarf idea from Will_L. My main concern is that it's double Red to fire off, and because I just shaved a Sol land for a basic mountain, it should speak to how the deck can lock itself out of appropriate mana in the long run. Other than that, the sideboard is pretty much what it was the last time around. I'm prepared for my bad matchups; Show and Tell/Emrakul decks, Elves, Burn, graveyard decks, and am ready to squash the rest.

[slayjay]

Amended my list, mainly because I don't have the guts to play a 61 card deck...

9 Mountain
4 Red Fetchlands
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb

4 Recruiter
4 Painter
4 SSG
4 Grindstone
4 Blood Moon
6 Blasts (2 REB/4 Pyro)
3 Top
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Koth of the Hammer
1 Goblin Welder
1 Jaya Ballard
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Lotus Petal


SB:

4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Sudden Demise
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Manic Vandal
1 Martyr of Ashes

From the last list I moved the two Sudden Demise to the SB to make room for the Lotus Petal I shaved (mistake), the Goblin Welder (Want 2), and swapped out a City for a Mountain.

I shaved a Revoker from the side for a Martyr of Ashes, but like the Bloodfire Dwarf idea from Will_L. My main concern is that it's double Red to fire off, and because I just shaved a Sol land for a basic mountain, it should speak to how the deck can lock itself out of appropriate mana in the long run. Other than that, the sideboard is pretty much what it was the last time around. I'm prepared for my bad matchups; Show and Tell/Emrakul decks, Elves, Burn, graveyard decks, and am ready to squash the rest.

I like this list a lot! In your games, was your deck fast enough without mox and only 7 sol lands?

[jandax]

I like this list a lot! In your games, was your deck fast enough without mox and only 7 sol lands?

I'm not geared for fast. That's more all in where this is more controlling. The thing about moxen, they're card disadvantage where Lotus Petal is the free mana you need to accelerate. In the Painter spectrum, I prefer to be more stable than all-in. I've played both styles and this suits me more.

Regarding the 8th Sol Land, it could still be in there. I just haven't played enough games paying attention to the mana base to know whether the 9th mountain or 8th Sol land is justified. Splitting hairs I'm sure.

[rancOr_]

@Jandax: I play the same md but -1lotus petal +1city of traitors. If you play petal,wouldn't it be better to play the 8th sol first. I'd play the petal over a mountain first. Although I think it's better to just play 21lands instead then. You're sideboard looks pretty good! Have u got to test the cages yet ? I had extra blast/x instead ,but having some general gy hate is absolutely better in bigger tournaments.

[jandax]

I'm back and forth on the 8th sol/9th mountain thing...

Regarding Cages, I think they're the tits. They neuter Elves' engines (GSZ, Fetch> Dryad, NatOrder), they deal with Dredge/Reanimator/Tinfins for I'd just assume to run four instead of a split between Cages and Crypts. For what it's worth, Cages deal with corner case decks we see here in NL like Zombardment and Cephalid Breakfast and the like. I don't ever want to lose to jank.dec, no matter how much cool and awesome they are.

I think I won't be trail blazing and just play the ol' 8/4/8 mana base. 21 lands is just too much for my taste, might even shave another Mountain for a petal, going down to 19 lands. Gotta put the testing time in to observe averages though, again it's probably splitting hairs.

[Kap'n Cook]

I'm personally a fan of the panglacial wurm splash hate cage provides

[jandax]

English is my native language and I don't even

[Imperial]

Wow, looks like we're getting a little more popular. Imperial Painter now makes up almost 10% of the mtgo legacy metagame.

[Dice_Box]

That's because online Imp costs 2 bucks. Us offline players...

[jandax]

Wow, looks like we're getting a little more popular. Imperial Painter now makes up almost 10% of the mtgo legacy metagame.

Hey Imperial, as a Tinfins player, how would you go about beating Tinfins with iPainter?

Just curious

[BVB09]

Hi, I just built the deck, and I don't know how does this deck deal with decks with Emrakul.
I have seen lists in this thread that aren't running Crypt or Relic to answer the trigger.
Do we beat them by attacking with creatures? Seems like an imposible matchup.

[jandax]

Ensnaring Bridge. That's how we beat them. Then you can Painter/Jaya them out, or Koth of the Hammer ultimate, or chain Recruiters and go beat down. The thing with using crypts and relics to react to triggers on the stack, it turns into a three card combo. That's clunky and they can just kill you in the mean time. It's way better to sit behind a Bridge that they rarely can deal with and build up an alternative combo, the aforementioned are what I use, to close things out. Impossible it is not, it's actually pretty linear.

[Imperial]

Hey Imperial, as a Tinfins player, how would you go about beating Tinfins with iPainter?

Just curious

It's a rough one. G1 is pretty much an auto-loss, as Tin-Fins has the potential to win T1/2 quite easily. I'm not sure what the full statistics are, but a T1 kill is garunteed 16% of the time, while T2 is 60%. With that in mind, we do run Emrakul main, so the combo is essentially nullified. Main-board Bridge and Moon do help a lot, but we do run Petals and the occasional Chrome Mox, which do help a bit against all the moon effects. Post board is better, as you have access to GY hate, and Thorns. So, G1 be prepared to lose, but an early Moon/Bridge can steal games. G2 is obviously more in your favor. G3, it all boils down to who goes first. Hope this helps.

[Ish]

Bridges really hurt tin fins. However... I discovered this line of play in a tournament.

The emrakul can be your friend! I established a turn 2 combo kill but knew he was on tin fins (game 2)... Game one I combined off whilst him having drawn the emrakul lol! Anyway... The tin fins player tried to recur griselbrand, so in response I milled him. Emrakul triggers... Blam empty yard. Continue beatdown.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jandax]

Bridges really hurt tin fins. However... I discovered this line of play in a tournament.

The emrakul can be your friend! I established a turn 2 combo kill but knew he was on tin fins (game 2)... Game one I combined off whilst him having drawn the emrakul lol! Anyway... The tin fins player tried to recur griselbrand, so in response I milled him. Emrakul triggers... Blam empty yard. Continue beatdown.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is a line of play I can get behind. I've used Revoker on Griselbrand before, where that just bought me a couple turns before I got beat down. After sideboarding, what would you all bring in? Thorns, extra revokers, extra bridges, GY hate? Seems like there's a lot one could bring in, but what would go out? As mentioned, an early Moon is probably good but only hampering their game plan, it's no lock because they run basics and Petals. Blast effects I'd leave in, or at least shave some REBs to make room. The GS part of the combo could just come out to make room for a more prison/control deck. I dunno. My strategy is to just forego the PS/GS combo and work on sticking a prison piece then get in there with dorks or PS/Jaya.

[Hopo]

Koth is good in the matchups where you are hiding behind a Bridge, just like Jaya. Jaya is not a bad strategy but you need to have lot of blasts when trying to resolve it as if it's countered or killed, the game pace goes glacial. That's why I find it nice to have one or two extra bombs that can passively kill the opponent under bridge, through any defense. If there's something else besides Koth and Jaya that could do the work, please share. Or should one just put an extra Jaya to sideboard?

[.dk]

Bridge by itself isn't hard for Tin Fins to deal with, assuming that they are running Tendrils. All Bridge prevents is an extra draw 7, and Tin Fins can usually win off of 14 cards. Now, if you have Revoker on Griselbrand and Bridge out, then you're pretty golden, and continue with the Jaya plan.

/edit:

The tin fins player tried to recur griselbrand, so in response I milled him. Emrakul triggers... Blam empty yard. Continue beatdown.

Also, this is sweet.

[Imperial]

This is a line of play I can get behind. I've used Revoker on Griselbrand before, where that just bought me a couple turns before I got beat down. After sideboarding, what would you all bring in? Thorns, extra revokers, extra bridges, GY hate? Seems like there's a lot one could bring in, but what would go out? As mentioned, an early Moon is probably good but only hampering their game plan, it's no lock because they run basics and Petals. Blast effects I'd leave in, or at least shave some REBs to make room. The GS part of the combo could just come out to make room for a more prison/control deck. I dunno. My strategy is to just forego the PS/GS combo and work on sticking a prison piece then get in there with dorks or PS/Jaya.

Bringing in Thorns, Bridges, and GY hate should do the trick.

[Imperial]

Took IP to my first Legacy tournament today-

Round 1-Joe with Miracles 1-2
G1. Long drawn out game, but I eventually get there with Blood Moon and dorks.
G2. He kills me without too much effort using Clique. Blasts were nowhere to be found.
G3. I lose with 1 minute left on the timer.

Round 2-Dan with UW Vial-bears 2-0
G1. Jaya is good against Blue, drew the combo naturally.
G2. Beat-down with dorks.

Round 3-Connor with Stoneblade 2-1
G1. He kills me with Batterskull.
G2. I topdeck painter with Stone and a bunch of lands on the field, and it's off to Game 3.
G3. Blood Moon T2 against his 2 Tundra hand is good.


Thought I did alright for my first legacy tourney. Joe Cisneros, my 1st round opponent, is pretty well known around the SoCal area, and it a really nice guy. There were a few BUG players in the room, but I sadly didn't get the pleasure of playing against any of them. Overall good turnout, and a nice variety of decks. Some guy with Aluren even snuck in.