[Deck] Imperial Painter

[oliverpool]

I really don't understand the Show and Tell plan, you're on??

It seems like you wanna split one half of Sneak'n'Show with iPainter and then make it something "new"?

If you wanna do it, by all means go ahead, I won't stop you, I just don't get it? :D

I've personally never tried splashing any color, but if I had to, I would probably go for black. Cabal Therapy seems like a legit card in a R/B shell, since the recruiter, once it hits play, is that damn 1/1, that usually is on chump block mode for me.

But so far, I'm just sticking with monoR, it's as awesome as ever :D

Its just what I feel has been working for me. Note that I am from asia and in my timezone on MTGO, I have been seeing almost exclusively burn, S&T, Storm, Reanimator and Delver(aggro version with 4 Swords and 4 bolts).

In these match up, I do not do well with the traditional shortcake version. For some reasons, Many decks these days run Chalice 4 of in the MB. When they see either servant or grindstone, they will chalice for 1 or 2 which pretty much makes it difficult to win game 1. Also Needle and surgical and revoker see alot of play during the times I am on MTGO.

For burn, servant is pretty hard to keep alive long enough to go off. Blood moon is pretty much useless. With S&T, I have a better chance to win even game 1 If I have one piece of the S&T puzzle with intuition in hand. Painter/Grindstone also serves as a distraction to slow the burn player down. Otherwise it just to mulligun to a hand that you can possibly win by turn 4.

Reanimator is fast, same for Storm. Force of will does help somewhat to prevent any hopeful turn 1 or 2 opponent wins. Turn 1 Painter on blue with forces in hand is also a fantastic play. Most reanimator also play with many basic lands so Blood moon may or may not be very helpful.

The delver I been seeing is the more red blue version. Maybe Wasteland prices is the cause of this? They usually do not play wasteland. With 8 removals and some counters, you pretty much have little chance of going off grindstone. Bloodmoon can be sided in game 2 to assist. I usually can win this by throwing painter/grindstone to their counters and when their guard is down, intuition for S&T package. S&T package with Blast in hand also works better as their 8 removal does nothing to help them. They siding in Needle or meddling mage is a issue. But they usually have to choose which part of the combo they want to hate. And they never know if I sided out S&T and move in Blood moon as well. Delver players play differently when they know moon is in play as they will fetch basics if they have.

I do not want to sidetrack this thread too much as my deck now is more the U/R version although I have REC in the sideboard and many games, I do side out S&T package with FOW and Brainstorm to bring in almost the whole red artillery.

Does anyone think that burning wish is a possible card for Shortcake? However I am struggling to find useful red or white sorcery that moves the painter strategy faster though.

[Kap'n Cook]

If you want blue you should be putting it in the sideboard and running the lists in the old thread fron Seth and drew.snt, intuition, and emrakul in the board from the old zoo days. Probably way better than the inbred style lists you have now as they'll give you better all around games.

[oliverpool]

If you want blue you should be putting it in the sideboard and running the lists in the old thread fron Seth and drew.snt, intuition, and emrakul in the board from the old zoo days. Probably way better than the inbred style lists you have now as they'll give you better all around games.

It may seem so as it does slow the deck somewhat from the pure quick combo painter version. Just wanted to test it out a while to see if it works.

Will you be recording your games again? Miss them on twitch.tv

[cab0747]

I am going to try and stream on a more consistent basis. Life has gotten in my way as of late (looking for a house, month-end work stuff). I know I am not Jack, but if you are looking for someone streaming Painter, I am going to try to do the 7:30 EST daily on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and maybe Wednesday as well (girlfriend time).

[Ish]

I am going to try and stream on a more consistent basis. Life has gotten in my way as of late (looking for a house, month-end work stuff). I know I am not Jack, but if you are looking for someone streaming Painter, I am going to try to do the 7:30 EST daily on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and maybe Wednesday as well (girlfriend time).

Cool. Good luck, and hopefully I can catch you playing sometimes and see some different lines of play.

I'm finding now that I'm pretty damn comfortable and confident playing the deck but I suck at mulligan decisions.

[jandax]

I always used shortcuts for mulling decisions. One lander? Always goes back. No combo/lock piece? Ship it. No play til turn three? Mulligan. Ask yourself those three questions and you really don't have to make a decision. The deck can be suprisingly forgiving if you don't overthink things.

[Sentient6]

I've personally never tried splashing any color, but if I had to, I would probably go for black. Cabal Therapy seems like a legit card in a R/B shell, since the recruiter, once it hits play, is that damn 1/1, that usually is on chump block mode for me.

That does sound pretty interesting. I'm running a Mono R list with Faithless Looting as a kind-of-replacement for the Enlightened Tutor, but somehow the Black Splash appeals to me. I've been searching the Thread to no real results, so has anyone ever tried splashing black and running Therapy and maybe Thoughtseizes?

[Friendship]

Hey guys! Long time lurker, first time poster. I finally finished piecing my deck together in paper, and am excited to play it. I've tested via proxies and cockatrice before, and felt like I had a decent grasp. However when it came to decks that use a whole mess of discard (Hymn, Lili, Seize, Pox,) I found myself pretty dead in the water. Is there really anyway we can combat this, via sideboard choices or some other means? Or is it just something we have to race and beat. Here's my list for reference, and sorry if this has been asked/discussed already.



4 Painter's Servant
4 Imperial Recruiter
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Goblin Welder
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

4 Grindstone
4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Blood Moon
2 Lotus Petal
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Trading Post

1 Great Furnace
4 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Arid Mesa
2 Plateau
3 City of Traitors
1 Wooded Foothills

SB: 1 Ratchet Bomb
SB: 2 Trinisphere
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Manic Vandal
SB: 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
SB: 1 Koth of the Hammer
SB: 4 Firebolt
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt

[Lysandros]

On mulligan decisions, there's a lot that goes into. One landers typically go back unless the hand is a monster and has a Top. Even then it's a huge risk. We open ourselves up to severe variance when playing this deck. Yesterday was case in point for me, where I had to mulligan in 7 separate individual games (and sometimes more than once in those games) in 5 rounds of Swiss. No landers are a bitch. There's nothing worse than keeping a one lander, spinning top and seeing 3 spells. Or keeping a one lander and having it Stifled or Wasted.

The thing I always ask myself is how does this hand win against this opponent? If you struggle to see a path to victory (for example, a hand that can't interact or combo off before T3 against Elves), ship it. There's really no substitute for just making those decisions and seeing how they go though.

Another thing to consider if you're having no-land-mulligan or just lack-of-land issues: Kap'n plays 19 lands because he's an expert with this deck. Prior to that, most lists played 20, and those lists didn't have the extra fetch and duals (and sometimes an artifact land) that shortcake has which expose them to more mana destruction effects. It's worth considering going up to 20 lands if you're having issues.

For those trying the mono-red lists, has anyone tried Coercive Portal at all? I want to try it, but I'm having a hard time seeing how it's better than Chandra (and Chandra is already borderline for the deck).

Also, anyone else hoping for something good with the new Commander 2014...lots of spec that Jaya will be the red planeswalker. If they keep the theme of having her abilities be spells she's quoted on (her abilities on her current card are Pyroblast, Incinerate, and Inferno, all of which she's quoted on in past printings), how about something like this...

+1 (Burnout): counter the next blue spell an opponent casts this turn

-2 (Pyroclasm): 2 damage to each creature.

-?: not sure for an ultimate

Would be pretty sweet for this deck, especially if it was 1RR with 3 loyalty. It'll probably be 4 - 5 cost though since it can be a commander.

[phoenix4]

That does sound pretty interesting. I'm running a Mono R list with Faithless Looting as a kind-of-replacement for the Enlightened Tutor, but somehow the Black Splash appeals to me. I've been searching the Thread to no real results, so has anyone ever tried splashing black and running Therapy and maybe Thoughtseizes?

I've never seen it, but i wanna try it, so I can see if it has a place out there :D

[Sentient6]

I've never seen it, but i wanna try it, so I can see if it has a place out there :D

If you do, be sure to report how it went. :)

[phoenix4]

If you do, be sure to report how it went. :)

Will do :)

[NathanS2k]

Played a 90 something people tournament at my lgs with the stock shortcake list. First time playing it at a larger size tournament and end up 4-3.

Round 1: 2-1 (Miracles)
Round 2: 2-0 (Miracles)
Round 3: 0-2 (Burn)
Round 4: 0-2 (Ant)
Round 5: 2-1 (Enchantress)
Round 6: 2-1 (Elves)
Round 7: 1-2 (Vial Sliver w/ no basic?) My opponent have the white Leyline from the beginning in the last 2 games and I just drew horribly.

Overall, this deck is very fine to play and I still have a lot to learn about side boarding. The least favorite cards I used today from my sideboard were the 4 Firebolts. I used it on the draw against Elves and it didn't seem so impressive.

[Moomba]

Any other Painter pilots going to Syracuse this weekend?

[oliverpool]

Played a 90 something people tournament at my lgs with the stock shortcake list. First time playing it at a larger size tournament and end up 4-3.

Round 1: 2-1 (Miracles)
Round 2: 2-0 (Miracles)
Round 3: 0-2 (Burn)
Round 4: 0-2 (Ant)
Round 5: 2-1 (Enchantress)
Round 6: 2-1 (Elves)
Round 7: 1-2 (Vial Sliver w/ no basic?) My opponent have the white Leyline from the beginning in the last 2 games and I just drew horribly.

Overall, this deck is very fine to play and I still have a lot to learn about side boarding. The least favorite cards I used today from my sideboard were the 4 Firebolts. I used it on the draw against Elves and it didn't seem so impressive.

You seem to have a good record against Miracles! I am not sure if its the way I play but I have a pretty dismal record vs Miracles. I believe my record is closer to 75% losses against them. I always try to keep blast vs counterbalance. But its ususlly not enough as they have counters and forces. And with Swords and miracles, they pretty much get rid of magus/servant and revoker. Even a early blood moon is not sometimes enough as they play alot of basics. Unless I get a superb draw and can combo off in 2-4 turns with blast protection as well. How do you play vs miracles?

I almost given up worrying about burn. I will usually just mulligan to 6 or even 5 to try for a draw that can win in 3-4 turns. Its just a matter if you can win in 4 turns and hoping that they do not have a rift or bolt for your servant.

I am also still unsure about firebolt. It may see some use vs delver decks. But I still feel that pyroclasm is more useful for just 1 mana more. Of course pyroclasm kills your revoker and magus and REC etc etc. But pyroclasm is very good vs elves, goblins and even dredge tokens to buy a few turns. Its also a blast vs the Empty the warrens player. Having one in hand vs them is almost a win in many cases. At this time I am playing with 2 pyroclasm and 2 firebolt in my SB. Still figuring out which is more useful.

I am also deciding if I want Maniac to be in the MB. With the amount of Tez (thophy sacrifice plus Chalice) and Vial decks and even tangle wire seen these days, It seems a very useful card to have in the MB. Most decks play with a few artifact these days. Or I may up the maniac count to 2 in the SB as pithing needle seems to be a key card in many decks SB. Maybe Spree in the SB may be a better option?

[Kap'n Cook]

Play slow vs miracles and counter card advantage stuff. The matchup is 65-35 in our favor. Firebolt shines vs creature decks since confidant destroys us. I currently have 3 but I'm still trying to fit the 4th. Pyroclasm is too slow and kills off your time walks (aka recruiters blocking goyfs and such). Dredge is already favorable with 5 pieces of yard hate at the minimum (2 tutors and 3 pieces), you don't really need to help it out there as bridge, ratchet bomb, and blasts provide interaction beyond pure grave hate. Goblins should not really be a problem as our combo is much faster and their painter removal is very limited. As for Maniac in the main, early welders provides the same help against chalice pre-board and most chalice decks struggle with removing jaya. Playing spree is fine, it's just hard to find unless you are playing 3 or more and at that point you are taking away space for helping worse matchups.

Overall though, the real thing is just more practice and learning the sequencing as well as what cards make your opponent's life tougher.

[Tiago]

Hello guys.

I live in Brazil and I'm finishing my Imperial Painter. Few people play with this deck here, is really unpopular, there are almost nothing about it in foruns.

Well, I hope we can exchange information. Actually, I play with Death and Taxes.

[Tiago]

I never played with the deck, but I can see that the Monored's version is doing better than R/W (starcity).

Somebody can tell me why? By logic, the R/W is more synergistic than the Monored.

Another thing...

Pyroclasm x Pyrokinesis x Firebolt

I can't understand why the players don´t use Pirokinesis. Somebody has already tested Pirokinesis? It seems really powerfull in this deck.

[Moomba]

I'm personally running 2 Pyrokinesis in my SB for Syracuse, I'm liking it better from testing so far. As to why you see more mono red top finishes, it's been around longer.

[Tiago]

I'm personally running 2 Pyrokinesis in my SB for Syracuse, I'm liking it better from testing so far. As to why you see more mono red top finishes, it's been around longer.

Sorry, i didn't understand your explanation about the reason why monored is doing better than RW.