How to deal with Blood Artist
Standard forum
Posted on June 21, 2013, 7:46 p.m. by Schuesseled
How can you stop that artist from ruining your night, in B U or G, sideboard help please.
Unforgivn_II says... #3
Witchbane Orb is one that I saw, giving you hexproof. It wont stop their lifegain, but you won't die.
June 21, 2013 7:59 p.m.
Honestly the answer is kill him right away. You can always just bounce him with the likes of Simic Charm or Unsummon or you can kill him with Tragic Slip and Abrupt Decay and Pillar of Flame (even though that isn't in your color suggestion). He is a pain but there are ways around him. Junk aristocrats giving you issues?
June 21, 2013 8 p.m.
Arachnarchist says... #5
Also, Rest in Peace will stop anything from actually dying. So blood artist will not trigger.
June 21, 2013 8:23 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #6
@ 2austin5, RWB (junk?) aristocrats, wiped the floor with me.
Witchbane Orb is a good option, thanks, i'll look into getting some.
June 21, 2013 8:30 p.m.
junk is gwb, rwb is just rub lol but yea, it is a tough deck to beat when in the hands of a good player
June 21, 2013 8:49 p.m.
why kill him i love when people use his and i can get a Progenitor Mimic on it makes for a very lolworthy and expensive counter to it :D
June 22, 2013 9:27 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #11
My deck is BuG, so Rest in Peace won't work for me, thanks for the recommendation though.
June 22, 2013 12:08 p.m.
The problem with Witchbane Orb is that it's pretty narrow. It's decent against WBR Aristocrats because it also stops the other guy from bouncing 13 points to you off his Boros Reckoner /Blasphemous Act combo (in fact, he can't even play the combo because he'll be required to do 13 damage to himself), but he still has Falkenrath Aristocrat and Cartel Aristocrat and potentially Skirsdag High Priest to kill you with.
Against Junk Aristocrats, it's just plain bad, because it does nothing to stop the four or five other ways that deck has to kill you that don't care about Witchbane Orb .
What you probably really want is something like Curse of Death's Hold . It also kills off all of their Lingering Souls tokens and (in the case of WBR) makes their Falkenrath Aristocrat useless. Additionally, most Aristocrats decks (of either flavor) don't have any way if dealing with an enchantment that costs more than 3 mana. This can end the game in your favor much better than Witchbane Orb ever could.
June 24, 2013 9:44 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #13
If you're playing against Junk (G/W/B) aristocrats, ten use Golgari Charm to wipe his board out BEFORE Blood Artist hits the field. Otherwise you're going to need to use Abrupt Decay or Dimir Charm or something to remove it before all the triggers go off.
Since most of their creatures are x/1 you can wipe them with Golgari Charm . Now it won't get rid of Young Wolf completely, but I think taking 2 for a turn is MUCH better than taking 6 or 7 from Blood Artist triggers any day
June 24, 2013 4:15 p.m.
I second Curse of Death's Hold . Loss is also amazing in sideboard for Junk decks looking to deal with Blood Artist and Lingering Souls .
June 24, 2013 5:46 p.m.
@HarbingerJK: Blood Artist 's ability is a triggered ability, not an activated ability.
June 24, 2013 8:19 p.m.
Getting in about Profit / Loss : I tried it out in my sideboard (as Junk Aristocrats) to fight against the mirror, and I was very underwhelmed. To be effective, it kind of requires that the other guy extend himself. If he doesn't, the card just isn't that good, and if he does extend but extends into a Blood Artist or two, it might hurt.
This is a card that you definitely want to be more than a two-for-one against the decks you're likely to play it against (those with Blood Artist and Lingering Souls ), but too often it just doesn't do enough. It can be good for some blowouts here and there, but its consistency is subpar.
Also, it's kind of narrow. I'm trying out Intangible Virtue (also good against Jund) and Garruk Relentless Flip (incredible against UWR, still very good against most things) for the mirror match now.
June 25, 2013 9:29 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #21
Play that, and lose 50 life. What I lose? Impossible, fluffybunnypants said my problems were solved!
June 26, 2013 7:17 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #22
Of course your problems are solved, Schuesseled. fluffybunnypants said so.
Point being that everything has an answer in the correct environment and Blood Artist is no different than any other card in that respect. While I admit my answer was less than all encompassing, it was certainly more helpful that your last statement. Guess you just need to stop trolling and figure it out for yourself.
June 26, 2013 9:13 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #23
My point, which i clearly need to spell out, was that casting Curse of Death's Hold onto a battlefield full of Blood Artist and other 1 toughness creatures, is going to end the game, just not in my favour.
June 26, 2013 9:21 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #24
Well, if you didn't have to use your brain, the game wouldn't be half as fun as it is :)
June 26, 2013 9:28 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #25
Exactly, why I wouldn't run a card, that can't be used in anything other than a perfect situation, in my sideboard. If there are choices that cost less, are more mana friendly and more generally useful for the given requirement in my sideboard.
Hence why i have chosen to run 2x Witchbane Orb and decided to not use Curse of Death's Hold at all. The orb, costs less, can be used against any field to shut down Blood Artist wincon, and also shuts down a lot of other win conditions. It was a much better suggestion.
Thank you for contributing though.
June 26, 2013 9:34 p.m.
Wait a second.
Have you ever actually played against a deck with Blood Artist in it? Because it sure doesn't sound like it.
The way to deal with it is to kill it. There is no other way. There is no card in standard right now that simply takes away its ability so you don't have to worry about it, with the exception of Rest in Peace , which isn't in your colors.
So you have a choice. Kill it with a one-time effect (and you're playing black...you don't need any help on "what cards can I use to kill a creature", do you?) and let another one come back, or lay down a card that makes sure it never gets played against you again. It's not a board wipe. The things that are not one-toughness will not die when you play it, and if you take more than 5 points of damage from a Blood Artist by the time you play this on turn 5, then we can't help you.
There is no deck where Blood Artist is the sole wincon. In the deck that I play (Junk Aristocrats), the win conditions are, pretty much in this order: 1) Cartel Aristocrat , especially with Varolz scavenging, 2) Lingering Souls beatdown with Sorin emblems, 3) Demon tokens from Skirsdag High Priest , 4) Blood Artist in conjunction with having lots of creatures, 5) big Elemental tokens from Voice of Resurgence . Curse of Death's Hold eliminates 2, 4, and 5 and puts a big dent in 1 and 3 (since it reduces the number of creatures on the board). Witchbane Orb eliminates 4. That's all.
So please, please bring in Witchbane Orb against a Blood Artist deck. You'll be very happy with how it shuts down Blood Artist , and your opponent will be very happy that he can still kill you just fine with the rest of his deck. Everyone wins!
June 26, 2013 10:14 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #27
Firstly, I have played against Blood Artist Barandis, you could at least read the first post. The deck that stopped my deck "Varolz - Counter-Aggro Slam Daddy from taking 1 st in my last FNM was RWB aristocrats, beaten once by having Blood Artist hiding behind a wall of threats. The second win came from the Boros Reckoner act combo, Witchbane Orb would have stopped those win cons, that curse would kill all my creatures as well. So it isn't suitable for my deck.
June 27, 2013 5:52 a.m.
This is a tense forum. I'm going to break the ice by suggesting Pillar of Flame and Rest in Peace to stop artist. One a viable main deck choice, and the other an extremely viable sideboard choice. Most decks use at least one of the two colours pillar and rest are in, so problem solved. Wait... I just realised this guy uses the exact three colours these don't fit into. Oh well... To deal with solely artist, and not artist decks, then Witchbane Orb is better, but, as Barandis has pointed out, there are other Wincons in most artist decks, therefore making Curse of Death's Hold more diverse, but weaker at stopping the problem of artist itself, and more the deck. If you think the only problem is the artist, then go with the orb, or if the whole deck is the issue, then it'd be better to out in the curse.
June 27, 2013 6:12 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #30
Wait a minute, how does Curse of Death's Hold kill YOUR creatures??? It enchants a PLAYER so only HIS/HER creatures are -1/-1 and that card KILLS R/B/W Aristocrats as he can no longer cast Falkenrath Aristocrat , Lingering Souls , Blood Artist , Doomed Traveler .
The only cards LEFT in the deck that can stand up to it is Cartel Aristocrat (which is now a 1/1 btw), and Boros Reckoner which at 2/2 doesn't scare me that much.
In the case of the original deck colors (BUG) vs Junk Aristocrats, I'm supposing that he will have good enough removal to deal with the first Blood Artist
and then put the game more in his favor with a Curse of Death's Hold
.
I still say Golgari Charm is the way to go as it has more uses and is instant speed/less mana
June 27, 2013 3:06 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #32
Your quite right harrydemon117, i read that wrong. Anyway's it still doesn't stop the boros reckoner and blashepmous act combo, which was the other problem.
June 27, 2013 5:44 p.m.
harrydemon117 says... #33
No worries I was just curious :)
Anyway, you can use removal on Boros Reckoner in response to them casting that so it'll be just a board wipe
June 28, 2013 10:16 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #34
my deck has plenty of removal, but i don't always draw it in time.
June 28, 2013 2:51 p.m.
Sudden Spoiling isn't standard, but it gave me a good idea... Turn
atreyujames says... #2
Turn / Burn , Sever the Bloodline , and if your willing to go white then you could also have Oblivion Ring /Fiend Hunter
June 21, 2013 7:59 p.m.