I love when a deck can combine elements of a combo deck with a prison deck and still play cards that disrupt the opponent. Grindstone does all of that in Legacy.
First and foremost, Painter is a combo deck. The combination of Painter’s Servant and a Grindstone activation ends the game (against almost every deck, but Emrakul, the Aeons Torn will stop the mill plan). This entire combo only costs 3 colorless to enter the battlefield and 3 more to win the game. This can be accomplished as early as turn 1, and realistically by turn 2 or 3.
Painter is also one of the best prison decks in the format. Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon can lock entire strategies out of ever casting a single spell. In a deck that already wants cards like Lotus Petal, Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, and Simian Spirit Guide, a turn-1 Blood Moon can win the game, while a turn-2 Blood Moon is reliably consistent.
You also have access to another artifact that has been making waves in Modern Prison decks like Lantern Control: Ensnaring Bridge. Bridge shuts down many strategies in Legacy, shutting out small creatures while easily stopping huge creatures like Griselbrand and Emrakul from coming across after being cheated out by Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, or reanimation.
To bring all of these together, Legacy offers Enlightened Tutor. With Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge, and both Painter’s Servant and Grindstone being fetchable for a single mana, the access and consistency go through the roof. You also get Goblin Welder to help fight against counters and discard. If any key piece goes to the graveyard, it can be brought back at instant speed. You can also turn Grindstone into card advantage by milling yourself and hope to hit a Painter to return with Welder.
Finally, you get built-in disruption. Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast are main-deck material in Legacy already. The vast majority of successful strategies incorporate blue, so these are excellent cards without any assistance in many matchups. With Painter’s Servant, these spells become 1-mana counters/Vindicates.
With all of these rolled into one deck, Painter’s Servant is not the most explosive combo deck, but it is one of the most powerful. Prison elements and “counters for counters” is some awesome resilience for a broken combo deck!
Painter
UTLEY26, 5-0 in an MTGO Legacy League
