[Deck] Dawn of the Painter

Hi all,

Sorry for my english, message from France.

Even before the latest restriction, I was testing a build that had pretty interesting results.
Right now, I think it could be even more efficient given that :
- It is not impacted by the restrictions
- The deck may have pretty good matchups against the possible future strong decks (I use “may” cause I didn’t have enough time to test it sufficiently and who really knows what will be the future strong decks, expect shop and ichorid)

Here it is, its name could be “Dawn of the painter”

// Lands
4 Badlands
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Bazaar of Baghdad

// Creatures
4 Painter's Servant
4 Dark Confidant
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Goblin Welder
1 Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant

// Spells
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast

4 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy

2 Grindstone

1 Animate Dead
1 Powder Keg
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

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This deck can use 2 different strategies:
-   Primary one : Use the now well-known combo painter grindstone (4 painters, 2 grindstone)
-   Secondary one: Bring back from graveyard huge creatures: right now, my own package is “sundering+duplicant”. I am approximately 100% sure when it comes to sundering, the 2nd slot can be clearly discussed.

The draw engine of the deck is the “Dawn of the dead” one: confidant + bazaar/squee.
The disruption is made of 7 duress effects, 6 blasts and 1 powder.
The tutor package is the classical black one;
Last, it uses a nice silver bullet, the very old school animate dead.

Here is a quick presentation of synergies:
- Bazaar+Welder+artefact, Robot and pieces of the combo (a trick I used a few times : when only a grindstone on board – as an artefact - and a painter in graveyard, activate the grindstone, in response weld back the painter in place of the grindstone)
- Cabal therapy+Bazaar and Cabal therapy+multiple painters
- Thoughseize/Cabal and animate dead on opponent (animate dead may be a damn good silver bullet against ichorid)
- Thoughseize/Cabal on yourself if you don’t have any bazaar but a welder on line (or animate) and a robot in hand (it saved me 2 or 3 games).

This deck is not extremely fast but really consistent. The drawing engine is nice, the disruption package is pretty strong and it is pretty difficult to prevent pieces of the combo from arriving on board (thanks to welder).
Then, there is the secondary strategy, really different, that wins you games that would be really difficult to win thanks to the primary one, for instance against fish when there is a null rod and a meddling mage naming painter…

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Some explanations when it comes to card choices :

Only 2 colors, the mana base is pretty stable, no real problem to get the color you need. One question still remains: add a mountain instead of a swamp.
When it comes to the moxes, the 5 ones are used in order :
-   To allow a first turn confidant or painter (if your hand is full or blast)
-   To help you with the 3 mana of grindstone (given that accessing the 3 mana only from lands may be too long, bazaar takes you a turn)
-   To be used with welder

The use of cabal therapy: it has 3 main advantages in this deck:
-   can be discarded to bazaar
-   recycle the 2nd painter : when the first one is on board, the second is really useless and so can be used to cabal again
-   discard yourself (to put in graveyard your robot when bazaar has been stripped/wasted for instance)

The use of animate dead : that’s really a very efficient silver bullet :
-   animate you own robot, when no welder available (or against chalice 1)
-   animate a huge creature you discarded from opponent hand thanks to the thoughseize/cabal
-   animate a nice creature already in graveyard, for instance against a well known deck that loves putting all his card in graveyard (ichorid for those that didn’t recognize it  ) or against another one that uses welder, blue and big creature artefact (slaver).

Powder Keg is used in order to have an output against :
-   chalice 1 (right now, I am not sure if one powder is sufficient against that potential threat)
-   ichorid

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Then some information when it comes to the matchups, on the basis of my testings that need to be improved and continued:
-   Blue control deck - favourable matchup : the 6 blasts, the drawing engine uncounterable, the welders and the discard effects is a lot to deal with.
-   Slaver : still have to test more against it, not so sure right now.
-   Storm – even/favourable matchup : no fow in this deck so I need a painter online in order to be able to counter the yawgmoths tutored or topdecked.
-   MUD – even matchup : I still have to test this matchup but the first testings I made were pretty difficult (even if encouraging given that I don’t use right now the sideboard in order to finalize the testing of the main deck). Welder main deck, not expansive spells, lots of lands, a drawing engine not affected by spheres, the deck has some weapons.
-   Fish – even/favourable matchup : the secondary strategy is really useful and the blasts helps quite a bit;
-   Ichorid : well, first game is not a game over : you can be faster to combo them (but that’s not really frequent ). To slow them down, powder keg, the sacrifice of your creature thanks to therapy, animate dead on a nice target, … Not a lot of chances but it happens.

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Thanks for reading, I will keep posting my feelings while testing continues.

Nicolas