Painter’s Servant and Grindstone. The former a scarecrow, the latter a rotating piece of stone used to sharpen tools and weapons. (Judging by the art of the original Tempest printing, enterprising individuals on the plane of Rath also like sharpening their enemies’ brains with it.) A variant on the antiquarian Millstone, Grindstone places two cards from a library into the corresponding graveyard, and repeats if they share a colour. With Painter’s Servant in play, everything shares a colour, ergo you get to turn over your opponent’s entire library. [As an aside, why would a painter’s servant make everything the same colour? Seems pretty unhelpful. Maybe that’s why this poor scarecrow has been sent wandering across fields.]

In any case, Painter’s Servant + Grindstone has been a niche but well-liked strategy in Legacy and Vintage for the last ten years. There have been a number of variants over the years, which fall into two main categories: Painted Stone and Imperial Painter.

La Belle Époque

Painted Stone decks are more ‘pure’ combo decks, which play cantrips to find the combo, counterspells to protect it, and Goblin Welder for resilience as well as a cute interaction with Intuition. An end-of-turn intuition pile of Painter-Grindstone-LED with an active Welder allows you to untap and win, and can happen quickly with fast mana like Mox Opal and Lotus Petal. These decks have tended to be blue-red, or Grixis, with occasional mono-blue lists popping up since the printing of Whir of Invention.

Mono-red Imperial Painter, and its most common variant, red-white Strawberry Shortcake, are combo-stompy decks. They seek to abuse the synergy between Painter’s Servant and Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast to forge one-mana Vindicates, combining with Blood Moon and Ensnaring Bridge to lock the opponent out of the game. Imperial Recruiter tutors for Painter’s Servant, Goblin Welder and a number of silver bullet answers like Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Manic Vandal. Seven sol lands and Simian Spirit Guide mean that both lock and combo pieces can be accelerated into. Shortcake gains the utility of Enlightened Tutor and the use of a number of better sideboard cards to shore up weak match-ups (including enchantments which Enlightened Tutor can conveniently find).

Grixis Painted Stone, after - thatniceguy

Strawberry Shortcake, after - pinkfrosting

All of these decks traditionally played Sensei’s Divining Top as a way of filtering draws and engaging in nonsense with Goblin Welder. Particularly in Imperial Painter and Shortcake, it was a huge boon to consistency given that they do not have access to cantrips or card selection. Shortcake also used it as a way of mitigating the clunkiness of Enlightened Tutor. The banning of Sensei’s Divining Top therefore drastically reduced the playability of the stompy versions of the deck, as well as removing an element that was unique among stompy decks, which have otherwise tended to live (and, frequently, die) by the opening hand and top of the deck.

Following the banning, a number of different attempts have been made to adapt Painted Stone and Imperial Painter/Shortcake. Painted Stone remains at first glance much the same, with cantrips continuing to provide consistency. Imperial Painter and Shortcake, however, while playable with more lock pieces or enlightened tutors, have lost the largest advantage they had over other moon stompy decks. Other stompy decks are also able to make use of the extremely potent Chalice of the Void to mitigate the impact of playing in a format where Brainstorm is judge, jury and executioner. With Grindstone, Pyroblast and Goblin Welder all costing one, Imperial Painter can’t afford to play Chalice of the Void.

I was mainly a Shortcake player, but losing top meant that the deck was both weaker and less interesting to play. Painted Stone builds provided me with some of the play that I felt was newly lacking from Shortcake, but are vulnerable. Yes, you have Force of Will, but you’re in two or three colours and you want to play artifact lands for Goblin Welder, making you vulnerable to Blood Moon, Wasteland and Back to Basics. Goblin Welder itself dies to a light breeze and the incidental graveyard hate of Deathrite Shaman as well as the more targeted hate for decks like reanimator and dredge mean that your combo is more fragile.

Furthermore, as an A+B combo deck in legacy, the spectre of Sneak and Show looms large over Painted Stone. They only have to resolve one spell and are more resilient, not needing to interact with the graveyard and not being as vulnerable to non-basic-land-hate. Not that this made me actually want to play Sneak and Show, obviously, but here too losing top reduced the uniqueness and power of the deck.

Recently, mono-red Imperial Painter lists have moved more in the direction of moon stompy decks, increasing the amount of fast mana and moon effects. Blood Moon is a powerful thing to be doing, and you can combo on turn 2 a higher percentage of the time, but you are highly reliant on your opening hand. Shortcake lists have been experimenting with Smuggler’s Copter as a way to fill in for Sensei’s Divining Top. A reasonable clock as well as card selection, Copter provides the deck with another angle of attack, and the deck already plays a reasonable number of creatures that can crew it in Imperial Recruiter, Painter’s Servant and Goblin Welder. Grim Lavamancer is another interesting option for the deck, providing an answer to the omnipresent Deathrite Shaman and crewing the Copter.

Fin de Siècle, Fin du Mond?

Looking at the aforementioned mono-blue lists, they take advantage of a powerful tutor in Whir of Invention. However, they don’t get to play the stompy game in the same way that Imperial Painter/Shortcake does or have the card pool afforded by being in black and/or red. Back to Basics’ impression of Blood Moon is somewhat lacking, and Hydroblast is significantly less good than Pyroblast without a Painter’s Servant in play. The fast mana doesn’t do as much for the deck and without Welder, the deck is less resilient to artifact removal.

Now, on a slight tangent, we all know how much Merfolk players love extolling the virtues of Merfolk. In conversation with someone at a large legacy tournament, one such player was making much of the deck’s ability to play Force of Will and Chalice of the Void. On my way home from the tournament (at which I actually played Food Chain), an intrusive thought kept popping up. What if you could play Chalice of the Void in a Painter deck?

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t I just say that Chalice is unplayable in a deck whose core strategy revolves around a one-cost artifact and whose support cast includes one-costing Goblin Welder and Pyroblasts? I mean, it’s not exactly synergistic, but maybe the raw power of Chalice would make up some of the decks shortcomings. Taking a leaf out of the mono-blue playbook, Whir of Invention and Transmute Artifact allow you to put Grindstone straight into play, bypassing Chalice. And hey, if nothing else, at least it’s something new to try, right?

Clearly, we need to cut the cantrips, the blasts, and pretty much anything that costs one mana and isn’t called Grindstone. What we end up with is a surprisingly powerful spiritual successor to Imperial Painter, even though it might at first blush seem to be a Painted Stone deck in terms of its colour.

The painter’s palette

Painter Stompy

How did I come to this motley crew of cards? Join me in Part 2 later in the week for an in-depth look at the card choices that make up the main deck! As well as the rationale behind each card, I’ll discuss common play patterns and share some tips and tricks. In the mean time, please do get in touch with any thoughts, as well as deck name suggestions. Bonus points for puns on art, artists or painting.

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