My Path to Legacy Painter

Written by Conor Plays Magic

I started playing Magic: The Gathering (MTG) in 2007 during the original Time Spiral block. I remember at day camp giving an older friend money to buy a starter deck for me. He returned the following day with a Future Sight deck. I thought he ripped me off — they didn’t look like Magic cards.

I remember those kitchen table days fondly. Every summer, I played all the cards I owned in a massive deck on the pavement or a bench, amazed by Ornithopter and Eater of Days; wrapping my unsleeved in a rubber band only to play sporadically at home with my brothers the rest of the year.

I gave up MTG when I got older — a big regret. I missed the prime years of MTG history in the 20-teens during high school and college. In 2019, I watched a podcast host try MTG Arena and the love of the game came flooding back. I’ve been hooked ever since.

I started playing Magic again just before the COVID-19 shutdown. I played in the Theros Beyond Death pre-release and getting into standard on Arena after the Throne of Eldraine ban wave. I played Underworld Dreams–Peer Into the Abyss combo.

I’ve always loved combo decks. The thought of winning out of nowhere always excited me. Against control decks, a combo pilot must know when to “go for it.” Against aggro, you need to interact and take on a control roll and/or race to assemble the combo. It’s a fun challenge.

I watched and played webcam Commander during the lockdown. I’ve always watched YouTube content — the The Command Zone, Prof (Tolarian Community College), Commander’s Quarters, Quest for the Janklord, etc. It was so fun and helped me pick up the pieces of the Magic I missed during my hiatus.

As I dug deeper into the world of Youtube MTG content, I found Playing With Power MTG and Play to Win and got really into cEDH. I built Godo, Bandit Warlord, which I loved.

After moving to New York City for a year, I got even deeper into cEDH; I played regularly with Rebell, Jorman, and the rest of the NYC cEDH crowd. I even placed in the top 16 of a large online cEDH tournament held through Cockatrice. I Recall the feeling of going deep in the tournament and getting the bug for competitive Magic.

As more places started reopened post-lockdown, I wanted to play more competitive Magic. I was interested in playing in-person 1v1 formats. My first true 1v1 format, other than the brief Arena standard stint, was Modern during the companion debacle.

I played a rouge Mardu Torpor Orb deck with Lurrus of the Dream-Den. I’d play game one, turn two Torpor Orb to the sign of my opponents playing Yorion, Sky Nomad elemental piles. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger and Hunted Horrors in midrange matchups were awesome. I even played Eater of Days after the Lurrus ban.

Post-ban, I endeavored to play more meta decks. I put together MonoGreen Tron in Modern and Lotus Field combo in Pioneer. After a few years, Tron was less powerful after the banning of The One Ring and my attention drifted to my current favorite format: Legacy.

I watched Cardmarket and Andrea Mengucci‘s content, which piqued my interest in other formats. When they covered Legacy, I got into ThrabenU and BoshnRoll. This was my first time watching Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) content. I really enjoyed it. MTGO was easy to follow and watch.

Taking the plunge into MTGO was intimidating. Instead, I kept watching and thinking about how I could start playing in paper. I didn’t own any dual lands and wanted to find a tier 1 or 2 budget deck with staple cards that could be used in other archetypes. I found Blue Painter.

Blue Painter had everything I loved; a combo finish, artifact synergies, and inspired me to acquire my playsets of Ancient Tomb and Force of Will. I loved the deck and played multiple iterations of it. At one point I removed the Painter Servant–Grindstone combo to play 8-cast Patchwork Automaton Stompy.

Having Force of Will, Kappa Cannoneer, and Urza’s Saga felt so powerful. I looked back at my Painter Servants and thought I should build Red Painter. I had a City of Traitors from my Godo Commander deck. I just needed some of the red cards: Goblin Engineer, Goblin Welder, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. These types of decks have adaptable shells that, while expensive, are a good ramp to Legacy without spending big-big bucks for dual lands.

Legacy Painter

There are experts who have played Painter strategies for years; light_walker, farmer from the Legacy Pit, etc. I have played Painter variants for over three years and learned some insights.

Meta Position

Painter is great against blue decks running anywhere from three to eight mainboard Red Elemental Blast effects. Even though Painter strategies have the combo, I don’t Consider them true combo decks. The archetype is best when played more like a stompy, midrange, or tempo deck with synergistic engines and a combo finish.

For example, the most common fast combo start is turn one Ancient Tomb, Painter, turn two second Ancient Tomb, cast and activate Grindstone. That draw feels incredible — I goldfished it when still new to the deck.

After playing Painter long enough, that all-in line is often not best. It’s vulnerable to nearly all interaction —countermagic, creature and/or artifact removal, etc. If you don’t win, you’re low on life with an anemic board contingent on top-decking into the combo again. Absent sufficient reason to believe the coast is clear, deploying engine cards like Goblin Engineer, Goblin Welder, or Emry, Lurker of the Loch is often the better early play.

Packages

Blue Painter has Force of Will but not Daze, so counter magic limited in quantity compared to most blue decks. The goal of Blue Painter’s countermagic is to protect the combo rather than fighting over opponents’ resources. Don’t assume that having access to blue means playing the control roll; you’re not.

Thought Monitor, Thoughtcast, and Stock Up are used to dig for a protected combo. Urza’s Saga offers a beatdown plan that demands respect, but Blue Painter leans heavier on the combo than Red Painter since the latter is better at rebuilding with the goblin package.

I often prefer Red Painter unless Blue Painter includes Kappa Cannoneer in the 75, since I my tendency is to lean into the Kappa-Patchwork Stompy-style in the 8-cast shell. Recent success has been seen with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Stock Up. I need to test those builds more. Playing a “protect the queen” gameplan with Tamiyo is stong. Turns out, drawing half your deck for U is good.

Emry is weak against graveyard hate. I’d rather have Red Elemental Blasts over Force of Wills given how blue the meta is.

Agatha’s Soul Cauldron by Jason A. Engle

Red Painter has a ton of variety. Agatha’s Soul Cauldron with Phyrexian Devourer is a strong combo that can be quickly assembled and kill out of nowhere in combat. Goblin Engineer into Agatha’s Soul Cauldron can win as early as turn two.

Unlike the turn two double Anicent Tomb Painter-Grindstone combo, if the Goblin Engineer plus Agatha’s Soul Cauldron combo with Phyrexian Devourer is disrupted, your board still has plenty of game. Engineer is an engine and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron is graveyard hate that generates engines.

The drawback of Phyrexian Devourer is being a dead card outside of the combo, which is susceptible to graveyard hate. Lists that play two to three copies of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron without the Devourer combo is reasonable. Cauldron is great maindeck graveyard hate that turns every creature into an engine (e.g. making Painter a Welder) or makes small creatures beefy.

Mox Opal vs. Lotus Petal

My current list features two Lotus Petals. I previously played one Mox Opal and one Lotus Petal. Typically, continuous use of Mox Opal is not worth the requisite of metalcraft. A single burst of mana for a Grindstone activation is usually what’s needed and Lotus Petals are recurrable via the Goblins.

Consider turn one Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Painter’s Servant, hold up Red Elemental Blast versus the same turn with Mox Opal instead. The latter doesn’t have access to Red Blast, which can be punishing in a fast format. Mox Opal being dead in the early turns is a drawback. I only want to Mox Opal in an 8-cast shell that supports many other 0-drop artifacts.

The One Ring

The One Ring is often seen in blue shells with Grim Monoliths but has wider applications. I play three copies of The One Ring in Red Painter. I support two to four copies in Blue or Red Painter even without Grim Monolith.

As an Ancient Tomb deck with access to other fast mana, The One Ring is objectively broken and often cast ahead of schedule. Given that The One Ring is best played when chained with copies of itself (flavor win!), I like having at least three copies. If I board out The One Ring, I board out all The One Rings.

I have played a ton of Red Painter mirrors and it rules! Many find mirror matches boring, but I can’t recommend painter mirrors enough. The intricacies of when to play Painter — it’s a symmetrical effect — the Mexican standoff of opposing Grindstones, Welders and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron’s creating engines amidst disruption; it’s the best type of Magic. You have to try it.

The Devourer combo and/or The One Ring heavily tilts the match up and takes pressure off the namesake combo. Post-board, take out all the blast effects, shave on Painters, and add Fury and Untimely Malfunction.

Untimely Malfunction

Untimely Malfunction is my new favorite sideboard card. I weighed it over Abrade, which I thought would be uncuttable since creature removal is so useful. However, most Red Painter lists run two to three copies of Lightning Bolt and Fury covers so much ground.

Untimely Malfunction is amazing. The redirect effect can counter countermagic or hijack removal spells or even redirect an opposing Grindstone activation in the mirror or a Tendrils of Agony for just enough (Tendrils targets!).

Removing blockers can help push through a the late game beatdown plan with Urza’s Saga constructs or a Devourer-comboed creature. I recommend Untimely Malfunction in any red sideboard!

That’s all for now. On to testing Monolithless Tamiyo builds and a Karn, The Great Creator or two in Red Painter!