Forgotten Lore: Demonic Consultation

[Son of Serra]

Hi everyone, my name is Marc Poirier and I live in Anchorage, AK. For those of you who do not know, we have a thriving tournament scene up here in the Land of the Midnight Sun. But not so much for Vintage. I would like this to change, so I have decided to take matters into my own hands and start a Vintage scene up here through the local shops. Although I am an avid reader, I have not posted much yet. So as part of my agenda to promote Vintage in Alaska, I have joined the Mana Drain and will attempt to contribute to the community. Because our tournament scene is just starting and I have little to offer in terms of tournament results, I would like to offer some outside thoughts on old cards that have not seen much play recently. This thread is devoted to examining one such old card that many people forget about, hence the title "Forgetton Lore". Perhaps you will find my thoughts insightful in some way. So here we go...

Sometimes, I look at a card and wonder why nobody has abused it in some deck somewhere. I start listing the drawbacks and thinking of ways around them. And most of the time, I am forced to give up on “breaking” the card as the drawbacks are far too restrictive to the rest of a good deck. But when I recently vetted the card Demonic Consultation, I found a way to use it without compromising a deck that has already shown its worth in recent tournaments.  The deck is Painter’s Servant, and Demonic Consultation has been so valuable in my build of this deck that at times I prefer it to Vampiric Tutor and even Demonic Tutor.

Before discussing the reasons for my newfound love of this card, let me begin by sharing my current decklist for Painter’s Servant:

x1  Black Lotus
x3  Grindstone
x1  Lotus Petal
x1  Mana Crypt
x1  Mox Emerald
x1  Mox Jet
x1  Mox Pearl
x1  Mox Ruby
x1  Mox Sapphire
x1  Sol Ring

x4  Painter’s Servant
x1  Darksteel Colossus

x1  Ancestral Recall
x1  Brainstorm
x1  Demonic Consultation
x4  Force of Will
x1  Hurkyl’s Recall
x4  Mana Drain
x1  Mystical Tutor
x4  Pyroblast
x3  Thirst for Knowledge
x1  Vampiric Tutor

x1  Demonic Tutor
x1  Ponder
x1  Merchant Scroll
x1  Time Walk
x1  Timetwister
x1  Tinker
x1  Yawgmoth’s Will

x3  Island
x1  Tolarian Academy
x3  Flooded Strand
x3  Polluted Delta
x2  Underground Sea
x3  Volcanic Island

Now, the reason Demonic Consultation works well in this deck is that the combo elements are all run as in groups of three and four and are all good independent of each other. Using Demonic Consultation to get a Grindstone or Painter’s Servant is no sweat because I am not worried about removing my other combo pieces from the game, unlike Oath, Flash, TPS, or Tezzeret where I might remove a Tendrils of Agony, Time Vault or Hellkite Overlord from the game on my way to comboing out. Painter’s Servant decks use an unrestricted two card combo that does not rely on any additional cards to win, which is unique among almost all other decks in the current metagame.

Additionally, Demonic Consultation is an instant. That I can keep it in my hand to get a Pyroblast or Force of Will at a critical moment is often crippling to my opponent. And because it is a mere single black mana, I am often able to cast it without disrupting the mana requirements for the other spells I plan to play that turn.

After playtesting with Demonic Consultation, I decided to additionally try using Spoils of the Vault to see if it could be broken as well. But my testing with Spoils of the Vault showed me that the odds of killing yourself even looking for a card played as a four-of were high enough that it was not good enough to be broken. The life loss was simply too much of a problem.

I have not played Demonic Consultation in a Mishra’s Workshop based strategy yet, but I believe that it may also have a home there. Workshop based decks use a lot of four-ofs and may find the additional consistency useful for winning, especially in a deck that utilizes a combo like Metalworker and Staff of Dominance.

Demonic Consultation is not Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor, which are almost auto-includes in any deck that splashes black. In some decks though, specifically a deck with unrestricted combo pieces where the combo can be achieved without additional cards from the library, Demonic Consultation is one of the best cards in the entire deck.

[Son of Serra]

I added some words about myself and the reason for this thread in a new paragraph at the top. As I thought about it, I'm sure many of you thought "who the hell is this guy and why the hell should we care?" when you first saw this thread. Hope you enjoy!

[zeus-online]

While i've not tried it in Painter, i can promise you that it works atleast equally well in ad nauseam and belcher.

Anyway to comment your decklist:
I think you're really short on card-drawing, which to me indicate that you HAVE to be more aggressive in order to win...Especially in control mirrors where card draw is needed to win if the game goes long (which it, in my experience, tend to do)

The quadruple blasts indicate that the deck is designed to beat control decks (i know it works with painter, but i'd rather not have a disruption card based solely on a "combo")

So, how about cutting a few cards for a little more card-drawing...like +1 thirst, +1 FoF...maybe cutting a painter and probably a pyro.

You could also cut a painter and a grindstone, i'm sure demonic consult would still work great even with a 3/2 configuration.

As i said before, it works great in belcher and ad nauseam, and a  fair amount of time i've used it to fetch black lotus...And i think i've lost 1 or 2 times by doing this, which honestly isn't much.

/Zeus

[Duncan]

I would like this to change, so I have decided to take matters into my own hands and start a Vintage scene up here through the local shops.

I hope you will succeed! Good luck!

Now, the reason Demonic Consultation works well in this deck is that the combo elements are all run as in groups of three and four and are all good independent of each other.

I disagree with you on this statement. Painter is good on its own, Grindstone pitches to Thirst and 'counters' topdeck tutors, but that is no better than Millstone without Painter.

Demonic Consultation is being used in Vintage decks. However, the decks need to be of a specfic form and unfortunately these decks are not what I consider tier 1 at the moment.

Decks it is being used in:
Ad Nauseam (5th place)
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1010

Belcher (4th place)
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1012

GWSx (6th place):
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=974

MaskNought:
I have not seen Consultation in every posted list, bt some months ago I did some extensive testing with this deck and I found Consultation to be great getting your early game Confidant or Dreadnought.

These decks have in common that they
1. run Black (obviously),
2. are designed to kill fast (removing a lot of your library can seriously damage your mid and late game plans)
3. run multiple copies of their kill condition

Any deck that shares these characteristics can support Consultation as well, I think.

About your deck, I think it does not match the 2nd characteristic. In my view Painter is a control deck that wants to outplay the opponent and then drop its kill condition. You might consider running Lim-Dul's Vault in its place. It fills the same role, but also pitches to force and can find a singleton in your deck.

Also, I would run 2 Relic of Progenitus. If you don't, your chances against oath game 1 are seriously lowered once you have cast Ancestral (because of Blessing). It also increases game 1 % against Ichorid and shuts of opposing Wills.

[Son of Serra]

@ Zeus:

I have noticed the Pyroblasts are often appearing too frequently, so I will take your advice and cut one for a Thirst for Knowledge or Fact or Fiction. On cutting the Grindstone/Painter's Servant, perhaps I am forcing a "beatdown round peg" through a "control square hole", but I really like the additional threats and sometimes play them just to make my opponent deal with the threat. I have rarely had a problem with too many Grindstones and never a problem with too many Painter's Servants.

@ Duncan:

I would like this to change, so I have decided to take matters into my own hands and start a Vintage scene up here through the local shops.

I hope you will succeed! Good luck!

Thank you!

Now, the reason Demonic Consultation works well in this deck is that the combo elements are all run as in groups of three and four and are all good independent of each other.

I disagree with you on this statement. Painter is good on its own, Grindstone pitches to Thirst and 'counters' topdeck tutors, but that is no better than Millstone without Painter.

My fault on the wording. You are absolutely right that Grindstone is worthless without Painter's Servant. I merely meant to point out that unlike Oath, for example, Grindstone does not require another card somewhere in your deck, hand, graveyard, etc.

These decks have in common that they
1. run Black (obviously),
2. are designed to kill fast (removing a lot of your library can seriously damage your mid and late game plans)
3. run multiple copies of their kill condition

Any deck that shares these characteristics can support Consultation as well, I think.

About your deck, I think it does not match the 2nd characteristic. In my view Painter is a control deck that wants to outplay the opponent and then drop its kill condition. You might consider running Lim-Dul's Vault in its place. It fills the same role, but also pitches to force and can find a singleton in your deck.

This is where I need more tournament experience. In my playtesting against other opponents in my area, I have had what I have considered good results with creating a fast kill. I have attributed this to the additional copies of Grindstone and Painter's Servant. But as I said above, I may be taking the wrong Beatdown/Control role with my build for this deck. I have played this deck almost like a TPS deck, trying to combo out at just the right moment. That is where Demonic Consultation really shines. Is there any tournament data on a deck that runs three/four copies of Painter's Servant and Grindstone?

I will take your advice into consideration.