This will be a work in progress for a while but I wanted to get this deck out there to generate feedback.
Well, the reason this primer is going up is because today I came across an Article on PucaTrade that surprised me. It was an article about a new deck idea that would deal with the Eldrazi threat in Modern. The title was curious as it was the name I had lovingly gave my current Modern deck of the past 6 months. Paint It Black. Sure enough, the cards in the article were the same base I was running! I thought to myself, I guess I need to make a primer so we can make this thing the best it can be.
History
The history of this deck spawned from a casual deck I used to run that used Darkest Hour, Crusading Knight and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It had a simple strategy. Drop Darkest Hour and block with cheap protection from black creatures, let the opponent put out some land and have Urborg out before playing Crusading Knight. Swing away with unblockable creatures.
Fast forward to 2015 and I ran across this old deck of mine and decided to try and make it Modern legal.
Creatures
Painter's Servant2 One of the cards we are building around. Always run 4. Our goal is to make everything black and use that to our advantage.
Auriok ChampionWW Our early game blocker if Painter's Servant is out. Also serves to gain some life lost from fetch lands / shock lands and has insane synergy with Archangel of Thune. I run 4 but I could see trimming this down if a decent 1 mana protection from black creature gets printed
Devout LightcasterWWW If everything is black, everything is a target for this card. Exile whatever. It does come with a downside as it can sit in your hand waiting for things to be black and it feels horrible when it happens.
Mirran Crusader1WW This is our main beatdown creature early to mid game. Does very well as a blocker and dodges a decent amount of removal even when Painter isn't out.
Fiendslayer Paladin1WW This is an option for the 3 slot. Doesn't die to bolt and can block cheap creatures while gaining you life.
Archangel of Thune3WW Dropping this on curve with 1 or 2 Auriok out is just bonkers. All the sudden your team goes from small threat to ending games. This card loves to hit the field with Auriok and Mirran Crusader out.
Deathbringer Liege2(W/B)(W/B)(W/B) With Painter out this turns all white spells into "When you cast this spell, kill target creature". Plus it pumps your team for +2/+2 since everything is white AND black.
Spells
Inquisition of Kozilek Early hand disruption to protect Painter or whatever nasty early game stuff they have going.
Celestial Purge Another exile whatever you want card. Has the same downside as Devout Lightcaster in that it can sit in your hand.
Zealous Persecution Early game sweeper against some aggro decks and a way to pump your team to keep them alive or get in that last bit of damage.
Shifting Sky Since we rely so heavily on things being black, we need to make sure things are that way. Enchantment removal isn't rampant right now so this typically will sit on the battlefield for the whole game.
Distorting Lens This is an alternative to Shifting Sky. It hits lands but only changes one target until end of turn. I have tested this in some matches but it feels worse than Shifting Sky.
Story Circle Again, if everything is black, we can completely shutdown any incoming damage to us. If things aren't black, just name the color giving you issues. Mono colored decks that don't run enchantment removal have a real tough time winning against this.
Hallowed Fountain Our main source of fetch blue if we already have white and black on the field.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx With so many white symbols in our permanents, it makes sense to try and use them.
Glacial Fortress We typically have at least 1 Plains on turn 1 so this is great any turn after that.
Isolated Chapel We typically have at least 1 Plains / Swamp on turn 1 so this is great any turn after that.
Sideboard Options
Kor Firewalker This comes in against Burn and Goblins. Spellskite Infect, Boggles and if you are having trouble protecting Painter. Chalice of the Void Storm, 8Rack, Infect Engineered Explosives Affinity on 0 or 1 and aggro decks running alot of 1 drops. Celestial Purge Extra removal against any black or red deck. Stony Silence Affinity, Lantern Control, Tron, anything running artifacts that have to activate Leyline of Sanctity 8Rack, Jund, decks running early hand disruption.
This is a start to the thread and I will try making it easier to navigate over time while posting any changes people come up with. I have gone through probably a dozen versions of this deck and this is the current version. I will try and post earlier versions and why I took cards out after testing with them.
I'm really curious to see what others come up with for this deck as I have had a ton of fun playing it and I have posted good results in several FNMs.
Infect:
R/G Tron: 2-0
Against this deck, I always had Painter in my opening hand. Dropped Devout and Celestial Purge on their lands. They never assembled Tron and I walked over them.
Colorless Eldrazi: 2-1
Early Painter and disrupting their hand to get rid of Painter removal was what did it.
Boggles: 2-0
Not sure this was a good test as the player seemed fairly new to the game and was using a borrowed deck. I suspect game 1 would be tough but sideboard with Spellskite would help alot
Goblins: 2-2
Zealous Persecution before a lord hits the field kills this deck. Sideboard makes this even harder for them. I had a couple Goblin Piledriver flung at me when I didn't clear the board
Naya Burn: 4-0
The protection from red and green really works against this deck. Story Circle on Red had them doing nothing for half the game. Also stabilizing with Archangel of Thune was key.
Merfolk: 1-2
This is a tough fight. I tried keeping their spreading seas exiled with painter out and getting to the late game. Draws weren't the best
Through the Breach / Emrakul: 1-2
Also a tough match as we have to try and kill them before they combo off or exile their lands.
Grixis Control: 0-2
First game only thing that saved them was a top deck Damnation. Second game crappy draws.
Delver Control: 0-2
They never let Painter stay on the field and dropped Delver T1 and T2, flipped T3
This is a very rough estimate from memory and there are several home brews I have faced and done well against. Many of the losses were early in the decks life and those failures were why some cards now exist in the deck.
Wow, I really like this deck. I have seen some painter's servant builds as anti eldrazi tech but this deck just takes the concept to a whole new level. I really like your innovation with this list and it seems pretty fun to play.
I think this deck could use a little work but still it seems pretty nice. For example Circle of Protection: Black may be a good enough card to run in here if you are going to name black. Also Teysa, Orzhov Scion is a removal spell on a stick.
I definitely am gonna make a list, thanks for throwing up the primer
The reason I have Story Circle in the list is it's more versatile for 1 more W. If Painter or Shifting Sky isn't out, Circle of Protection: Black is a dead-ish card and I've had several games where I just name the color I'm facing with Story Circle and watch the wheels start turning as they try and figure out if they have an answer.
How did I not see Teysa, Orzhov Scion. The tokens coming in and Auriok Champion will more than make up for replacing Fiendslayer Paladin. Plus, she is fuel for Deathbringer late game with or without Painter. The only reason he was in there was to keep my life total up against some aggro decks. I am going to try and pick up a playset and run two this FNM to test it out. Might have to switch to Distorting Lens as if Shifting Sky is out, the creatures won't be white anymore.
Added some of the matchup details that I remembered. I've only included the ones that were against known decks as there was many matches against home brews.
Also, second guessing Teysa. Sacrificing three white creatures in the current form is really harsh unless you have tokens. We don't unless we make more changes. I was thinking of trying to run Lingering Souls but I gotta figure out what to replace. Not sure it's worth it at this point.
Wow, I've just been putting together this exact deck, small world. I'll definitely toss up my match up data as I come across them.
RW Land Destruction: 2-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-0, Game 1 they kill us if we're not expecting it with a ton of mainboard hate and the fact we can't truly turn on until turn 3+. Post-board, board out our paths for our extra purges and exile to keep them off their 4 mana need for Dark Dwellers and then just beat them to death with anything we can get to stick. IMPORTANT: DO NOT Crack your fetchlands until you are ready for the mana immediately. It will help a ton.
Soul Sisters/Martyrs: 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, We outheal them and have a metric ton of exile and destroy abilities mainboard. I managed to come back from 6 health with them up in the late 80s and beatstick them down on match. Definitely in our favor.
If the OP and others like him would like to get together in Skype and try and work on a proper primer, I am more than willing to try!
BrewSpytheMagicGuy on Twitch was building a combo with Teysa and Painter for modern called Paint it black at least a week ago. Teysa, a painter on black and 3 white dudes to start it are infinite exile.
Issue is, wouldn't that slow us down a fair amount? We're already pretty slow thanks to the clock on Eldrazi, and an infinite exile combo isn't that much of a boon when it only targets creatures.
Just found a kickass one-drop to flesh out our early game, since currently we sit around doing nothing for a turn. Soldier of the Pantheon not only gives us early pressure, but once we drop out painter, every single spell out there heals us and triggers Archangel
I've been meaning to test out Soldier of the Pantheon but haven't pulled the trigger yet. What would you drop to fit it in?
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Last nights matchups
B/W Tokens 2-1:
G1: They shredded my hand early and dropped a ton of tokens with Intangible Virtue. I managed to exile the first one but they had another in hand.
G2: Started game with Leyline of Sanctity. I dropped Painter turn two and had two Purges in hand. T3 exiled their only black source. Turn 4 exiled their Vault of the Archangel to put them on 1 land. They never recovered.
G3: Kept their tokens in check with a in-response Zealous Persecution when they tried to drop Intangible Virtue. Advanced my board state and dropped Sorin when they had no flying tokens.
Rakdos Burn 2-0:
G1: They got me down to 5 life within three turns but I dropped two Auriok Champion to stabilize the ground. Had two paths in my hand to get rid of the creatures. They had already dumped their hand so them having more land wasn't an issue. Slowly gained life from them and myself dropping creatures for +2 each time. Kept swinging in with what creatures I could leaving a pro red Auriok to keep hasting stuff at bay.
G2: Dropped Kor Firewalker T2 and Story Circle naming Red on T3. Sat on White mana and locked them out of the game swinging in with Firewalker each turn. Eventually got a second Firewalker to speed up the clock.
GU Eldrazi 0-2:
G1: Didn't have a Painter in first or second hand. Mulligan to 5. Painter shut off Eye to slow them down but he met with Dismember fairly quickly.
G2: Painter T2 shut off their Temples but again, met with Dismember and I eventually got ran over.
Note: If we can protect Painter, this matchup is decent for us.
Naya Midrange 1-2:
To sum this up: They ran mostly Green/White creatures with red splash for bolt and pyroclasm. When Painter or Shifting Sky is out, we can deal with their creatures. Without those, we have to rely on Mirran Crusader to block and they had bolts for him. Pyroclasm also was tough as it cleared our blockers early
I'm thinking we need better ways to protect Painter's Servant as it's critical to so much we do. We have Shifting Sky as a backup plan and Inquisition of Kozilek to try and disrupt kill spells but I'm going to test with replacing the hand disruption with Faith's Shield just to see how that works. With Painter's Servant or Shifting Sky out with our backs against the wall it gives us a way to survive another turn with us AND our permanents getting pro black. I'm also going to try out mainboard Spellskite to fizzle bolts / paths aimed at Mirran Crusader or Painter.
Im also going to try putting a little more aggro in on-curve I am going to try Hero of Bladehold instead of Fiendslayer Paladin. It's 1 more mana but with battle cry and getting two dudes, it gives us some bigger teeth plus gaining us life if Auriok is out.
One last thing I am going to try is 4 sideboard Negate. Getting board wiped by Pyroclasm/Anger or getting combo'd out by a deck is painful and we need answers. I think our matchups where we bring in Engineered Explosives will be decent moving the Spellskite to the mainboard. We lose a little against Affinity but we still have Stony Silence and Zealous Persecution. Chalice on 1 or 2 hurts us too much so those went as well.
I dropped a single Mirran Crusader and Auriok Champion for the soldiers, and am debating running Welding Jars to help keep the painter okay, but Faith's Shield isn't something I knew about before now.
So tested with 4 Faith's Shield and it makes a huge difference being able to protect Painter's Servant or any permanent for that matter with it. It also came in handy at 3 life to buy me another turn when I would normally be dead. I didn't like Celestial Purge in the sideboard and I will be putting it back in the mainboard. Moving Zealous Persecution to sideboard. Celestial Purge is good against everything whereas Zealous is only good when their creatures are small or in response to Pyroclasm. I'm definitely leaving 4x Faith's Shield in the mainboard. Spellskite also did work protecting our creatures against burn. I'm liking these changes so far. More testing to come.
I'm also going to try Worship in the sideboard to replace Kor Firewalker. I know Firewalker puts a big damper on Red decks but Worship accomplishes the same thing since they typically don't have enchantment removal. Worship also works against way more decks where Firewalker is VERY specific.
Hey all, this deck looks sweet. I'll try and pick up the pieces sometime soon.
Over on the Cheeri0s thread they mentioned Emerge Unscathed, it might be of interest here too? Extra value thanks to rebound! Not sure how often the Fateful Hour clause of Faith's Shield comes up.
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Vorthos-y Johnny. All will be One
Modern - Cheeri0s (building), Belcher (building), Lantern (building), UW Control (building)
RIP Magic Duels. Wizards will regret what they did to you.
I've looked at emerge unscathed and it's an option however I feel the upside to being able to protect all our permanents outweighs rebound. We run quite a few good noncreature cards both main and sideboard I want the option of protecting. Thanks for the suggestion though!
Just went over the deck with some of our LGS players and made some changes.
Went down 1 Nykthos and added Vault of the Archangel.
Brought back Engineered Explosives to replace Zealous Persecution since they hit the same cards but Engineered Explosives is more versatile
Went down 2 Negate and added 2 Nevermore. If we know which card is going to hose us, we might as well say it can't be cast instead of countering it
I think either one can be good here. Ratchet bomb does have a lower cost in the long run but allows more interaction by your opponent. I usually hold onto EE until I have the mana to cast and sac in the same turn unless I have no other option. I can also choose 0,1,2 or 3 at casting time where RB has to tick up.
I really love Painter's Servant. It's got to be one of my top 5 creatures ever. The legacy painters servant decks tend to set painter to red. But legacy has some ultra powerful cheap hate modern doesn't. Still, over all, I can't decide if there are better hate cards for red or black in modern. Anti black stuff seems to have more powerful destroy effects, but you get a much nicer curve and creature mix with protection from red.
I have been looking at Reveillark and contemplating if this would be a good mid to late game card. It's a post-wrath card in those situations and can get us any two key creatures. Being able to get things back from the graveyard might be handy. Just not sure if giving up Deathbringer or another slot is worth it.
I could see it sort of helping and sort of not. I haven't been able to track down a Deathbringer but I just got the rest of the list together, I'll run it this FNM and see how it works out. Also, about what kind of hand do we want to keep? I've been going for two creatures+a painter effect+ three land
It really depends on what deck you are facing. If you are facing a black and/or red deck, you are able to keep different hands than if you are facing, for example, Merfolk. Anything where I'm not facing the colors the deck naturally has advantage over, I try to make sure I have what you suggested.
I don't really worry too much about Painter effects against mono black decks since that is what we want anyways. 8Rack can be a problem since they are targeting us most of the time but that's why we run 3 Leyline in the side. Red decks, I try to at least have one Auriok Champion / Celestial Purge in my opening hand.
The most notable difference was Faith's Shield. That card stopped so much hate targeted at Painter. It definitely earned a spot in the deck. I'm not sure as a playset but more like 3. I had one game where I had 3 of them in my hand. I was at 5 life which made them extremely valuable but that situation is going to be rare. The other card that carried it's weight was Vault of the Archangel. Such a good card for board stalls. In the past this deck could get into board stalls because it blocks very well but the creatures aren't big enough to kill the attacking creatures. This fixes that in a big way.
After the Jeskai Control match, I want to look at maybe 1-2 Cavern of Souls and entirely replace Nykthos. I think we have enough humans that it might help control matches a bit. Have to look at the mana base again.
The problem with Painter's Servant is that if its not on the battlefield, your deck is not so good.
Whenever I play against Painter's Servant decks I already know: destroy that Servant over anything else.
I mean you have Faith's Shield, Skies, and Spellskite. I'd add 2 more cards here. If your deck is THAT reliant on Painter's Servant, you better protect him, and you better have a way of getting another one into your hand if you can't.
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This will be a work in progress for a while but I wanted to get this deck out there to generate feedback.
Well, the reason this primer is going up is because today I came across an Article on PucaTrade that surprised me. It was an article about a new deck idea that would deal with the Eldrazi threat in Modern. The title was curious as it was the name I had lovingly gave my current Modern deck of the past 6 months. Paint It Black. Sure enough, the cards in the article were the same base I was running! I thought to myself, I guess I need to make a primer so we can make this thing the best it can be.
History
Fast forward to 2015 and I ran across this old deck of mine and decided to try and make it Modern legal.
Creatures
Painter's Servant 2 One of the cards we are building around. Always run 4. Our goal is to make everything black and use that to our advantage.
Auriok Champion WW Our early game blocker if Painter's Servant is out. Also serves to gain some life lost from fetch lands / shock lands and has insane synergy with Archangel of Thune. I run 4 but I could see trimming this down if a decent 1 mana protection from black creature gets printed
Devout Lightcaster WWW If everything is black, everything is a target for this card. Exile whatever. It does come with a downside as it can sit in your hand waiting for things to be black and it feels horrible when it happens.
Mirran Crusader 1WW This is our main beatdown creature early to mid game. Does very well as a blocker and dodges a decent amount of removal even when Painter isn't out.
Fiendslayer Paladin 1WW This is an option for the 3 slot. Doesn't die to bolt and can block cheap creatures while gaining you life.
Archangel of Thune 3WW Dropping this on curve with 1 or 2 Auriok out is just bonkers. All the sudden your team goes from small threat to ending games. This card loves to hit the field with Auriok and Mirran Crusader out.
Deathbringer Liege 2(W/B)(W/B)(W/B) With Painter out this turns all white spells into "When you cast this spell, kill target creature". Plus it pumps your team for +2/+2 since everything is white AND black.
Spells
Inquisition of Kozilek Early hand disruption to protect Painter or whatever nasty early game stuff they have going.
Path to Exile Standard white removal
Celestial Purge Another exile whatever you want card. Has the same downside as Devout Lightcaster in that it can sit in your hand.
Zealous Persecution Early game sweeper against some aggro decks and a way to pump your team to keep them alive or get in that last bit of damage.
Shifting Sky Since we rely so heavily on things being black, we need to make sure things are that way. Enchantment removal isn't rampant right now so this typically will sit on the battlefield for the whole game.
Distorting Lens This is an alternative to Shifting Sky. It hits lands but only changes one target until end of turn. I have tested this in some matches but it feels worse than Shifting Sky.
Story Circle Again, if everything is black, we can completely shutdown any incoming damage to us. If things aren't black, just name the color giving you issues. Mono colored decks that don't run enchantment removal have a real tough time winning against this.
Lands
Plains Yes, you need these. I think...
Swamp Blood Moon is the reason you run 1 of these. We do run main deck Celestial Purge but still...
Island See above.
Marsh Flats Our main fetchland.
Flooded Strand If you don't have Marsh Flats, these work too.
Godless Shrine Our main shockland.
Hallowed Fountain Our main source of fetch blue if we already have white and black on the field.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx With so many white symbols in our permanents, it makes sense to try and use them.
Glacial Fortress We typically have at least 1 Plains on turn 1 so this is great any turn after that.
Isolated Chapel We typically have at least 1 Plains / Swamp on turn 1 so this is great any turn after that.
Sideboard Options
Kor Firewalker This comes in against Burn and Goblins.
Spellskite Infect, Boggles and if you are having trouble protecting Painter.
Chalice of the Void Storm, 8Rack, Infect
Engineered Explosives Affinity on 0 or 1 and aggro decks running alot of 1 drops.
Celestial Purge Extra removal against any black or red deck.
Stony Silence Affinity, Lantern Control, Tron, anything running artifacts that have to activate
Leyline of Sanctity 8Rack, Jund, decks running early hand disruption.
Core Deck List
4 Painter's Servant
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Mirran Crusader
Spells:7
4 Path to Exile
2 Celestial Purge
2 Shifting Sky
Lands:23
4 Marsh Flats
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
9 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Stony Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
Current Deck
4 Auriok Champion
4 Painter's Servant
2 Spellskite
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Deathbringer Liege
Spells:14
4 Faith's Shield
4 Path to Exile
2 Celestial Purge
2 Shifting Sky
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Marsh Flats
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
7 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Story Circle
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Worship
This is a start to the thread and I will try making it easier to navigate over time while posting any changes people come up with. I have gone through probably a dozen versions of this deck and this is the current version. I will try and post earlier versions and why I took cards out after testing with them.
I'm really curious to see what others come up with for this deck as I have had a ton of fun playing it and I have posted good results in several FNMs.
Infect:
R/G Tron: 2-0
Against this deck, I always had Painter in my opening hand. Dropped Devout and Celestial Purge on their lands. They never assembled Tron and I walked over them.
Colorless Eldrazi: 2-1
Early Painter and disrupting their hand to get rid of Painter removal was what did it.
Boggles: 2-0
Not sure this was a good test as the player seemed fairly new to the game and was using a borrowed deck. I suspect game 1 would be tough but sideboard with Spellskite would help alot
Goblins: 2-2
Zealous Persecution before a lord hits the field kills this deck. Sideboard makes this even harder for them. I had a couple Goblin Piledriver flung at me when I didn't clear the board
Naya Burn: 4-0
The protection from red and green really works against this deck. Story Circle on Red had them doing nothing for half the game. Also stabilizing with Archangel of Thune was key.
Merfolk: 1-2
This is a tough fight. I tried keeping their spreading seas exiled with painter out and getting to the late game. Draws weren't the best
Through the Breach / Emrakul: 1-2
Also a tough match as we have to try and kill them before they combo off or exile their lands.
Grixis Control: 0-2
First game only thing that saved them was a top deck Damnation. Second game crappy draws.
Delver Control: 0-2
They never let Painter stay on the field and dropped Delver T1 and T2, flipped T3
This is a very rough estimate from memory and there are several home brews I have faced and done well against. Many of the losses were early in the decks life and those failures were why some cards now exist in the deck.
I think this deck could use a little work but still it seems pretty nice. For example Circle of Protection: Black may be a good enough card to run in here if you are going to name black. Also Teysa, Orzhov Scion is a removal spell on a stick.
I definitely am gonna make a list, thanks for throwing up the primer
Mono Blue Control (Modern) BlUE
How did I not see Teysa, Orzhov Scion. The tokens coming in and Auriok Champion will more than make up for replacing Fiendslayer Paladin. Plus, she is fuel for Deathbringer late game with or without Painter. The only reason he was in there was to keep my life total up against some aggro decks. I am going to try and pick up a playset and run two this FNM to test it out. Might have to switch to Distorting Lens as if Shifting Sky is out, the creatures won't be white anymore.
Also, second guessing Teysa. Sacrificing three white creatures in the current form is really harsh unless you have tokens. We don't unless we make more changes. I was thinking of trying to run Lingering Souls but I gotta figure out what to replace. Not sure it's worth it at this point.
Soul Sisters/Martyrs: 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, We outheal them and have a metric ton of exile and destroy abilities mainboard. I managed to come back from 6 health with them up in the late 80s and beatstick them down on match. Definitely in our favor.
If the OP and others like him would like to get together in Skype and try and work on a proper primer, I am more than willing to try!
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
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Last nights matchups
B/W Tokens 2-1:
G1: They shredded my hand early and dropped a ton of tokens with Intangible Virtue. I managed to exile the first one but they had another in hand.
G2: Started game with Leyline of Sanctity. I dropped Painter turn two and had two Purges in hand. T3 exiled their only black source. Turn 4 exiled their Vault of the Archangel to put them on 1 land. They never recovered.
G3: Kept their tokens in check with a in-response Zealous Persecution when they tried to drop Intangible Virtue. Advanced my board state and dropped Sorin when they had no flying tokens.
Rakdos Burn 2-0:
G1: They got me down to 5 life within three turns but I dropped two Auriok Champion to stabilize the ground. Had two paths in my hand to get rid of the creatures. They had already dumped their hand so them having more land wasn't an issue. Slowly gained life from them and myself dropping creatures for +2 each time. Kept swinging in with what creatures I could leaving a pro red Auriok to keep hasting stuff at bay.
G2: Dropped Kor Firewalker T2 and Story Circle naming Red on T3. Sat on White mana and locked them out of the game swinging in with Firewalker each turn. Eventually got a second Firewalker to speed up the clock.
GU Eldrazi 0-2:
G1: Didn't have a Painter in first or second hand. Mulligan to 5. Painter shut off Eye to slow them down but he met with Dismember fairly quickly.
G2: Painter T2 shut off their Temples but again, met with Dismember and I eventually got ran over.
Note: If we can protect Painter, this matchup is decent for us.
Naya Midrange 1-2:
To sum this up: They ran mostly Green/White creatures with red splash for bolt and pyroclasm. When Painter or Shifting Sky is out, we can deal with their creatures. Without those, we have to rely on Mirran Crusader to block and they had bolts for him. Pyroclasm also was tough as it cleared our blockers early
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I'm thinking we need better ways to protect Painter's Servant as it's critical to so much we do. We have Shifting Sky as a backup plan and Inquisition of Kozilek to try and disrupt kill spells but I'm going to test with replacing the hand disruption with Faith's Shield just to see how that works. With Painter's Servant or Shifting Sky out with our backs against the wall it gives us a way to survive another turn with us AND our permanents getting pro black. I'm also going to try out mainboard Spellskite to fizzle bolts / paths aimed at Mirran Crusader or Painter.
Im also going to try putting a little more aggro in on-curve I am going to try Hero of Bladehold instead of Fiendslayer Paladin. It's 1 more mana but with battle cry and getting two dudes, it gives us some bigger teeth plus gaining us life if Auriok is out.
One last thing I am going to try is 4 sideboard Negate. Getting board wiped by Pyroclasm/Anger or getting combo'd out by a deck is painful and we need answers. I think our matchups where we bring in Engineered Explosives will be decent moving the Spellskite to the mainboard. We lose a little against Affinity but we still have Stony Silence and Zealous Persecution. Chalice on 1 or 2 hurts us too much so those went as well.
Here is my decklist for next modern FNM
4 Auriok Champion
4 Painter's Servant
2 Spellskite
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Deathbringer Liege
Spells:14
4 Faith's Shield
4 Path to Exile
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Shifting Sky
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Marsh Flats
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
7 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Celestial Purge
4 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Story Circle
3 Leyline of Sanctity
I'm also going to try Worship in the sideboard to replace Kor Firewalker. I know Firewalker puts a big damper on Red decks but Worship accomplishes the same thing since they typically don't have enchantment removal. Worship also works against way more decks where Firewalker is VERY specific.
4 Auriok Champion
4 Painter's Servant
2 Spellskite
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Deathbringer Liege
Spells:14
4 Faith's Shield
4 Path to Exile
2 Celestial Purge
2 Shifting Sky
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Marsh Flats
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
7 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Story Circle
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Worship
Over on the Cheeri0s thread they mentioned Emerge Unscathed, it might be of interest here too? Extra value thanks to rebound! Not sure how often the Fateful Hour clause of Faith's Shield comes up.
Modern - Cheeri0s (building), Belcher (building), Lantern (building), UW Control (building)
RIP Magic Duels. Wizards will regret what they did to you.
Went down 1 Nykthos and added Vault of the Archangel.
Brought back Engineered Explosives to replace Zealous Persecution since they hit the same cards but Engineered Explosives is more versatile
Went down 2 Negate and added 2 Nevermore. If we know which card is going to hose us, we might as well say it can't be cast instead of countering it
4 Auriok Champion
4 Painter's Servant
2 Spellskite
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Deathbringer Liege
Spells:14
4 Faith's Shield
4 Path to Exile
2 Celestial Purge
2 Shifting Sky
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Isolated Chapel
7 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Nevermore
2 Story Circle
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Worship
B/W Allies: 2-1
U/G Infect: 2-1
Naya Burn: 2-0
Jeskai Control: 0-2
The most notable difference was Faith's Shield. That card stopped so much hate targeted at Painter. It definitely earned a spot in the deck. I'm not sure as a playset but more like 3. I had one game where I had 3 of them in my hand. I was at 5 life which made them extremely valuable but that situation is going to be rare. The other card that carried it's weight was Vault of the Archangel. Such a good card for board stalls. In the past this deck could get into board stalls because it blocks very well but the creatures aren't big enough to kill the attacking creatures. This fixes that in a big way.
After the Jeskai Control match, I want to look at maybe 1-2 Cavern of Souls and entirely replace Nykthos. I think we have enough humans that it might help control matches a bit. Have to look at the mana base again.
Whenever I play against Painter's Servant decks I already know: destroy that Servant over anything else.
I mean you have Faith's Shield, Skies, and Spellskite. I'd add 2 more cards here. If your deck is THAT reliant on Painter's Servant, you better protect him, and you better have a way of getting another one into your hand if you can't.