[Deck] W/x Parfait (Tax/Rack Control)

[Cpt-Qc]

If not on Cataclysm, is Doomskar better than regular Wrath?

I think so yes. You might be running your 4 drop removal into daze when under pressure and a board reset can be quite the pivotal moment. Imagine you spent 3 turns just saving that plow because you had a wrath in hand and it gets dazed. You took several turns of 2+ creature damage for nothing. It happened to me more times than I'd like and it felt awful.

Also, the list I play has a pretty lackluster turn 2 so setting up for later with foretell feels like a good way to use that downtime. You can then decide if you want to jam it for 3 or use an orim's chant to resolve it, lowering your card advantage but ensuring the game goes longer.

[FTW]

Good points.

Has anyone tried playing 80-card Yorion Parfait?

80-card goes against the fundamental idea of variance reduction via deck-thinning. On the other hand, Yorion has good synergy with a lot of the newer card advantage engines with ETBs, is a win condition, and pitches to Solitude/March.

I think this makes The One Ring work...


//Companion: 1
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

//Lands: 32
3 Wasteland
4 Urza's Saga
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Arid Mesa
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Flooded Strand
11 Plains
2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
2 Karakas
1 Castle Ardenvale
2 Emeria's Call

//Spells: 18
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 March of Otherworldly Light
3 Abeyance
3 Doomskar
2 Sevinne's Reclamation
2 Cosmic Intervention

//Creatures: 11
3 Samwise the Stouthearted
4 Timeless Dragon
4 Solitude

//Enchantments: 1
1 Land Tax

//Artifacts: 14
1 Zuran Orb
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Expedition Map
2 Currency Converter
4 Staff of the Storyteller
4 The One Ring

//Planeswalkers: 4
4 Karn, the Great Creator

//Sideboard: 14
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Deafening Silence
1 Serenity
1 Humility
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Orim's Chant


Yorion is profitable with Staff, Solitude, The One Ring, Karn, Samwise. It also pitches to March & Solitude.

Staff works with Saga, Currency Converter, Timeless Dragon, Castle Ardenvale, Emeria's Call, other Staffs, Yorion.

Cosmic Intervention is profitable with all sorts of interactions: Wasteland, fetchlands, Expedition Map, Soul-Guide Lantern, Zuran Orb + Flagstones, evoke Solitude, Doomskar, Ratchet Bomb, something dying

Samwise + Karakas creates lategame loops with Wasteland, fetchlands, Urza's Saga, Soul-Guide, Expedition Map, other Samwise, evoke Solitude, 2x The One Ring (legend rule each other), Ratchet Bomb, Serenity

Karn/Etutor -> Scepter can imprint Abeyance (to lock out spell-based decks) or StP (to lock out creature-based decks) or Chant post-board.

I like the possibility of multiple card advantage engines instead of relying on one to work. There is a lot of graveyard dependence, which could get hated out post-board, but you also have the option to board out some of those slots for ETutor + silver bullets.

Needs testing. The 80-card plan might be too clunky. The SB (and combo in general) certainly get worse with 80 cards vs 60. Doomsday is basically a write-off. Could not find a way to make that matchup playable: 1-of Torpor Orb isn't enough to win and too much anti-synergy with the rest of the deck. Other combo can be disrupted with Deafening Silence/Canonist, grave hate, Karn, Abeyance, Isochron Scepter.

Edit: There are 30 cards with a 4cmc+ mode, but only 8 of them must be cast for that much mana (or risk being dead in hand)! The other 22 have alternate modes on 3 or fewer lands. I find this flexibility appealing. Lategame you have expensive tools to spend mana on, but early game there are still plenty of actions to take.

[Cpt-Qc]

I don't like 80 cards list. Not only is it ever so slightly more variance, land tax does even less as taking 3 lands out of the deck barely make your draws better. It seems like a poor strategy for a control deck that wants to streamline their draws.

Once again, the ring seems to be pushing you towards more of a combo shell. I'm not saying it's worse but it's getting further away from the spirit of the deck imo.

[FTW]

I don't like 80 cards list. Not only is it ever so slightly more variance, land tax does even less as taking 3 lands out of the deck barely make your draws better. It seems like a poor strategy for a control deck that wants to streamline their draws.

Once again, the ring seems to be pushing you towards more of a combo shell. I'm not saying it's worse but it's getting further away from the spirit of the deck imo.

Good points.

Perhaps it could be trimmed down to 60 cards:


//Lands: 22
3 Urza's Saga
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Arid Mesa
10 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
1 Castle Ardenvale
1 Wasteland

//Spells: 15
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 March of Otherworldly Light
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Abeyance
2 Cosmic Intervention
2 Doomskar

//Creatures: 10
2 Samwise the Stouthearted
4 Timeless Dragon
4 Solitude

//Enchantments: 1
1 Land Tax

//Artifacts: 10
1 Zuran Orb
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Expedition Map
1 Currency Converter
3 Staff of the Storyteller
3 The One Ring

//Planeswalkers: 2
2 Karn, the Great Creator

//Sideboard: 15
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Deafening Silence
1 Serenity
1 Humility
1 Porphyry Nodes
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
3 Orim's Chant


Karn is less necessary without the RiP+Helm combo. With both Karn & The One Ring that's 5 4cmc cards, but every other card in the deck has a mode at 2-mana or less.

The deck-thinning is still in tact: Land Tax, Timeless Dragon, Expedition Map loops, Flagstones + Zuran Orb, fetch + Cosmic/Samwise...

The same card advantage engines are present, just in lower numbers and without Yorion interaction.

[Weapon X]

Well I’m officially at a crossroads. While I have been enjoying the path I’m currently on, the back of my mind keeps telling me that I can be a chalice/3 sphere deck and the changes that does may actually make a stronger, more streamlined plan. The problem is that focus will up dead draws, but the card draw ceiling should still remain high so I don’t know if that’s actually an issue. It was a gut feeling, and they do tend to be correct.

[FTW]

Well I’m officially at a crossroads. While I have been enjoying the path I’m currently on, the back of my mind keeps telling me that I can be a chalice/3 sphere deck and the changes that does may actually make a stronger, more streamlined plan. The problem is that focus will up dead draws, but the card draw ceiling should still remain high so I don’t know if that’s actually an issue. It was a gut feeling, and they do tend to be correct.

You might be onto something.

The Chalice/3sphere plan used to be too high variance with bad draws, historically. That was before multiple new developments:
- The One Ring / Karn as powerful card engines
- Initiative & Monarch mechanics
- MDFC and utility lands reducing variance from topdecking mana sources
- Pitch elementals like Solitude
- Timeless Dragon to turn Sol mana into basic Plains

A white stompy shell can be quite consistent now. The recent Mono W Initiative deck proved it. Moon Stompy is now Tier 1 too. So you might find a viable white control shell there too. Sol mana would help accelerate into big plays like Karn and The One Ring.

[Weapon X]

And I was already trying to do the big plays with efficient white spells and sol lands. Cutting the efficient white means the sol lands will hurt much less which is where my main issue was coming from. Starting with a colourless shell feels like the answer

[Cpt-Qc]

I'll be trying a list with slight variations this month.

1 Helm of Obedience
1 Zuran Orb
1 Isochron Scepter
2 Currency Converter
1 Expedition Map
4 Staff of the Storyteller
1 Phyrexian Furnace

1 Land Tax
1 Rest in Peace
1 Humility
1 Ghostly Prison

4 Orim's Chant
2 Enlightened Tutor
3 March of Otherworldly Light
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Abeyance
2 Cosmic Intervention

2 Doomskar

3 Karn, the Great Creator

13 Plains
3 Urza's Saga
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Castle Ardenvale
1 Lotus Field
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Skrelv's Hive
1 Sevinne's Reclamation

I feel that adding 4x staves maindeck has helped stabilize mana quite a bit but I might be too light on "threats" now. I guess I need to test in real games to be certain. Either way I'm not sure there currently is many 3-4 drops that would make opponents snap-force and would fit in the main.

The first notable change is Skrelv in the sideboard. I'm interested to see how it does with Staff against control decks as it seems hard to match the pressure and card advantage. Unlike Bitterblossom, this only needs to deal 10 damage so stp does not become a liability.

The second is abandoning the red splash. I didn't feel like T3 moon had much utility in my local meta anymore. It might still be okay but I feel like T3 (at best) moon is a little slow and doesn't seem to punish as well as it used to. This allowed me to streamline the list so it sees less variance.

[Cpt-Qc]

// 60 Maindeck
// 11 Artifact
2 Currency Converter
1 Expedition Map
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Isochron Scepter
4 Staff of the Storyteller
1 Zuran Orb
1 Phyrexian Furnace

// 2 Creature
2 Timeless Dragon

// 5 Enchantment
1 Humility
1 Land Tax
1 Rest in Peace
2 Touch the Spirit Realm

// 13 Instant
2 Enlightened Tutor
3 March of Otherworldly Light
4 Orim's Chant
4 Swords to Plowshares

// 23 Land
1 Castle Ardenvale
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Lotus Field
12 Plains
3 Urza's Saga
1 Karakas

// 3 Planeswalker
3 Karn, the Great Creator

// 3 Sorcery
2 Doomskar
1 Sevinne's Reclamation


// 15 Sideboard
// 4 Artifact
SB: 1 Helm of Obedience
SB: 1 Liquimetal Coating
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle

// 4 Creature
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth

// 7 Enchantment
SB: 3 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 Skrelv's Hive
SB: 1 Sacred Mesa
SB: 1 Deafening Silence

This is the latest list I've been testing. I'm liking it so far even if mana can be a little sketchy.

I am really loving Touch the spirit realm and Timeless Dragon with converters. They also work really well for mana efficiency.