Legacy Focus: Imperial Recruiter

I've been somewhat busy the past few days, but here I am, finally back writing a post on this Friday.

Being a fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and being an American-born Chinese-American, I have a deep appreciation for the fact that Wizards was willing to make a set based on that (and its associated historical period (the Three Kingdoms period)). One of the most expensive (and significant) cards from that set is Imperial Recruiter.

There are two 'well-known' Legacy decks with Imperial Recruiter:

Imperial Painter:

//19
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
5 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of traitors

//21
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Painter's Servant
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Goblin Welder
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Phyrexian Revoker

//20
4 Blood Moon
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Grindstone
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Faithless Looting
2 Chrome Mox

Sideboard
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Manic Vandal
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Pyroblast
1 Tormod's Crypt


There are multiple angles of attack here:

Step 1: Play Blood Moon on turn 1.
Step 2: Watch your opponent curse at his fetchlands being mountains.
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Profit!

Step 1: Play Painter's Servant naming blue on turn 1.
Step 2: Play Grindstone and activate it on turn 2, and hope they do not have Emrakul in their deck :p

I thinK Faithless Looting and Sensei's Divining Top are both strong here, although maybe it is correct to play one of them as a 4-of (top has synergy with Welder, but so does Looting...?)

You can also get them with mediocre 2/2 beats once you have Blood Mooned a deck that is heavy on nonbasics out of the game.

The worst matchups for this deck are probably decks with a ton of basic lands or an extremely fast combo deck.


Aluren: (Martin Goldman-Kirst from SCG on April 2013)

1 Parasitic Strix   
1 Cavern Harpy   
4 Imperial Recruiter   
1 Eternal Witness   
2 Dream Stalker   
4 Coiling Oracle   
1 Venser, Shaper Savant   

4 Force of Will   
4 Intuition   
4 Brainstorm   
1 Life from the Loam   
4 Cabal Therapy   
4 Gitaxian Probe   
4 Aluren   

2 Forest   
1 Island   
1 Swamp   
2 Polluted Delta   
4 Verdant Catacombs   
4 Misty Rainforest   
2 Tropical Island   
1 Savannah   
1 Underground Sea   
1 Taiga   
1 Bayou   
1 Volrath's Stronghold   

Sideboard
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Peacekeeper
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Go for the Throat
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Thoughtseize
3 Firespout

Aluren sort of occupies this space of '2-card combo decks' that are marginalized in Legacy because they are a bit slower. This deck can only kill on turn 3 at the earliest (and also has no Deathrites atm, but i think space is fairly tight). Perhaps a list with Deathrite Shamans (and less colors) might be worth it.

Here's how you kill someone with Aluren:

On whatever turn, you cast Aluren (with Imperial Recruiter in hand).

From there, you can kill them at instant speed if they say, try to Disenchant your Aluren:

Cast Recruiter for Recruiter, another Recruiter for Recruiter, another Recruiter for Recruiter, then Recruiter for Dream Stalker.

From there, cast Dream Stalker, returning Recruiter, Recruiter for Harpy, Harpy to bounce Stalker then play Stalker bouncing Recruiter to get Strix.

You can then kill them with Strix + Harpy recursion.

Venser, Shaper Savant is a necessary evil, as is Eternal Witness (you probably get into situations where your strix or harpy are in the gy).

I think a Phyrexian Revoker might be necessary somewhere and Peacekeeper also seems pretty bad.

In additionally, having Shardless Agent + Birds of Paradise in your deck might be reasonable, so you can function as a rock deck even if you aren't well-positioned to 'go-off'. (You have a fair amount of disruption including Probe-Therapy as well as 4 Force of Wills).