[DECK] Painter - Remora

[RichardD]

I saw a tournament report from BOM III from FLUGZEUG where he describes a deck he calles "Bishop's Painter".
It is basically a Painter - Remora deck that uses Remora aggressively in the first turns to build up a hand, protecting itself with cheap and pitch counterspells.

It looked like a nice deck to me, so I thought I would try it during on of the local Vintage tournaments in Breda, The Netherlands.
In a field with 43 players I ended up coming in 9th losing only to Tezz (due to mana screws and sad mulligans) and BUG Fish.
I played against GWSx, Tezz (2x), GW Aggro, MaskNaught, BUG Fish. I should've also lost the match versus MaskNaught, but my opponent gave away game 3.

After the tournament I felt like a couple of changes should be made. Sad to say I can not safely say these changes are completely to the better of the deck, mainly the sideboard, because I haven't played a single game against Staxx or Dredge.

This is how I would play the deck next time:

Maindeck:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta

4 Force of Will
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
3 Commandeer
2 Repeal
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Brainstorm
1 Gush
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Mystic Remora
4 Painter's Servant
2 Grindstone
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Sideboard:
3 Planar Void
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Relic Of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pithing Needle
3 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Rebuild
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Basically using approximately the same sideboard strategy as described here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37907.0

Against Drains: No Sideboarding, unless they have a specific card which you have an extra answer against.

Against Fish: (nontarmo, null rod, chalice):
Out:
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
3 Commandeer
4 Mystic Remora

In:
2 Pithing Needle
3 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild

Against Tarmofish:
Out:
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
3 Commandeer
4 Mystic Remora

In:
2 Pithing Needle
3 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Relic of Progenitus

Against Staxx:
Out:
1 Misdirection
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
3 Remora’s (On the draw) / 3 Commandeers (On the play)

In:
1 Tormod’s Crypt (Only if they play Goblin Welder or Crucible of Worlds)
2 Pithing Needle
3 Threads of Disloyalty (if they play Goblin Welder)
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild

(Against Workshop Aggro always SB out the Commandeers.)

Against Dredge
Out:
3 Commandeers
1 Misdirection
4 Mystic Remora

In:
3 Planar Void
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Pithing Needle

and Hurkyl’s Recall for Sensei's Divining Top in case of game 3.

Against Oath:
Out:
3 Commandeer
0-2 Mystic Remora

In:
2 Planar Void
1 Tormod’s Crypt
and possibly Hurkyl’s Recall and Rebuild against Null Rod. 

[Grand Inquisitor]

Me and a couple guys played this at Stratford a few months back.  It seemed the right call for the event.  One of us T8'd and the other guy and I both went X-2, nearly missing.

The main difference was that our list used more traditional control elements and that it incorporated vault/key.  It was quite good at beating tez and the other remora lists at the time.  It had fine game against fish (with rebs) and workshops (basics, red gas).  I'm not sure how it would fare in a more (non-blue) creature heavy metagame.  For the record, mana drain was still pretty good.

[bisamratte]

I've been testing the list too, but with 4 Thirsts instead of Twister and Gush and DSC > Inkwell. My SB favorites were Ingot Chewers. They're pretty good against Stax and Dredge (both bad MUs). I think a single one postboard is too few.
Threads of Disloyalty are too bad in my opinion. They cost 3 Mana, which is difficult to obtain against Fishdecks. Explosives are a better opinion. You grill Null Rod with a blast and trade uneven with EE afterwards. Besides that, you can board them against Stax, Dredge and Oath. Try it

[RichardD]

I've noticed Gush is a real power house. Especially in combination with Painter in play and Commandeer in hand.
The Timetwister hasn't impressed me much indeed. But sometimes I could've used it for a resetbutton, but then I didn't have it.

I did notice that I didn't get to draw black mana sources when I had the black cards on hand, but I don't think the current list justifies extra black mana sources.

I actually like the Threads a lot, because they go past Null Rod and Stifle/Trickbind.
Indeed they cost a bit more mana, but I didn't have problems getting to 3-4 mana except for that one manascrew match against Tezz.

I don't know how good the Ingot Chewers are, because I never actually got to use him or the Viashino Heretic.
I think I need some serious testing with them as split cards and note down which one I'd rather have.

I would like to keep this deck focussed on 1 combo. Therefore I'd rather keep more Painter/Grindstone with extra blasts in there then incorporate Key/Vault.

Thanks for the first advice.
I will be posting more in this topic after I have some more experience with this deck.

[Qube]

I'm the one of those "Bishop's Brothers", Peter Flugzeug is the other.

I have to say, that the deck is realy good, I also failed 3x time to get t8 with places 9/9/10... I tested this deck for 5 month now, and played on 4 tournament (also at the BOM.

Now after restriction, I will sure play those cards:

- 1 Hurkyl's Recall
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Fire / Ice

What I'm going to cut:

- 1 Thirsts
- 1 Timetwister
- 1 Pyroblast (4 are enough)

With this changes, the deck gains alot, but doesn't lose alot. I exspect alot more Confidants and creaturebased.dec so you will be happy to have 1(2 with scroll) Fire/Ice in the deck. Also the Hurkyl's Recall is needed as I exspect more Staxx builds, and to make the matchup better.

As soon as I have some more time, I will tell you more about our testings. And If you have any special question, write me a PM, I will share my expiriance for this deck with you.

Qube aka. Bishops Brother I