Vintage for P9

Still unclear on what I'm going to play in terms of formats on Saturday but I think my Vintage deck of choice might be changing. The most recent decent sized Vintage Tournament, an ICBM Open was won by Painter's Servant combo. The winning list:

1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Pyroblast
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Painter's Servant
2 Grindstone
1 Echoing Truth
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Demonic Consultation

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Trickbind
3 Thoughtseize
2 Pyroclasm

Now I love this deck but don't understand some parts of it. First I dislike it for being narrow. It can win with Grindstone and Servant or Tinker->DSC. This is fine but far from impressive in a field of turn one kills and Oath decks casting Tendrils for 20. The deck runs Merchant Scroll which also makes little sense to me. It runs 8 Blasts and 4 FoWs, will it need to scroll up more countermagic? Well of course it can tutor for its combo right? No, not really. It can scroll for Mystical for Vampiric or Tinker but that is all, seems slow. Lastly I see little reason to run Demonic Consultation over Imperial Seal, the Seal is both more reliable and flexible if a bit slower. The Gifts/Will package is okay but unless you have a Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Black Lotus you won't be doing anything quickly.

So with less than 24 hours before the event I decided I should make up a decklist that I like for testing tonight.

4 Painter's Servant
2 Trinket Mage
4 Dark Confidant
1 DSC
2 Grindstone
1 Tinker
3 Thoughtseize
6 Blast
8 Power
4 FoW
4 Brainstorm
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Delta
2 Mire
2 Volc
2 Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Library
1 Academy
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Tormod's Crypt

The most striking change is going from five creatures to eleven. This makes beating down with 2/x's a viable plan or at least reduces your DSC clock to one turn. Unanswered a turn one Bob will win most games of Vintage by drawing you ether into your combo or more control spells. The original deck sideboarded Duress effects, I find this a bit silly why wouldn't you want Thoughtseize maindeck? They are only bad versus balls to the wall aggro decks and Ichorid. Most of your cards are bad versus those decks, blasts certainly are. I also cut the blasts from eight to six, sometimes (rarely) they will be dead cards and having two or three in hand in those situations will suck. Also Dark Confidant will help you dig into more of them. Lastly, the deck only has four permanent sources of red mana so often you won't be able to cast many in one turn, again making them weak in multiples.

Tormod's Crypt is I think a worthwhile maindeck addition. Flash, Oath, Storm, and Ichorid are all popular decks that rely on the graveyard to win games. If you draw it in an irrelevant matchup you can Brainstorm or Tinker it away. Echoing Truth is a necessary evil giving you an answer to any number of problem spells. It might be worth replacing this with Engineered Explosives for better synergy.

The manabase is good but a bit light. All the artifact mana means that fitting in more than 14 lands is almost impossible but the 14 lands that are in it are solid. Honestly one or two more basics would be nice and I'm not above putting them in the sideboard.

Painter's Servant is a very exciting card and I'm sure it will cause more judge calls than any other card this weekend. When it is in play naming blue suddenly you can pitch a Mox to Force of Will (or Misdirection which I would love to fit in). I partly want to play this deck to see an opponent equip Sword of Fire and Ice to a creature. Here is a hint: it falls off.

I think this is a very strong deck that can play the control, beatdown, or combo roll depending on your hand and matchup. Having a two-card "I win" combo is invaluable in this metagame. Often opposing decks can demolish Flash's hand but unless they have a quick clock or massive card advantage a couple of good topdecks and they'll be seeing Flash->Hulk. I like this deck because it is very disruptive like a Fish deck or DeezNoughts but can pull off quicker kills than ether of those decks while using fewer cards.

I might skip playing in FNM to test Standard and Vintage tonight, will have to see. Then tomorrow I'll be up bright and early to drive down to Richmond for a weekend of Magic.