PARFAIT
Originally Posted by (nameless one)
Introduction
Parfait is a white-based control deck that utilizes [CARD]sLand Tax[/CARDs] to gain card advantage in junction with Scroll Rack to turn that advantage into quality. Scroll Rack also benefits from Land Tax's shuffle effect to shuffle away unneeded cards that are "scrolled" back to the library.
Extended Context
The first known successful iteration of a Tax/Rack deck was piloted by Randy Buehler in the form of White Weenie with the said draw engine:
The low mana curve of White Weenie was perfect with Land Tax as the deck can run with minimal lands on the field. With low land count, Land Tax can be kept active while the opponent keeps playing land so it can cast answers to the Weenie threat. The deck soon became an Extended powerhouse.
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
8 Plains
4 Plateau
1 Savannah
4 Wasteland
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Savannah Lions
4 Soltari Priest
4 White Knight
3 Disenchant
2 Firestorm
4 Land Tax
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mox Diamond
3 Scroll Rack
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Tithe
Sideboard:
3 Aura of Silence
1 Disenchant
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Honorable Passage
3 Pyroblast
2 Sand Golem
2 Suleiman's Legacy
Classic Control
Following Tax/Rack Success in Extended, few players tried porting the deck to Type 1. The lists turned from aggro to aggro-control to control. The first known iteration of a control-based Tax/Rack was published by Darren di Batista, featuring a list created by Raphael Caron and Parfait as we know it was born:
Instead of the aggro-base with a draw engine, Parfait used the Tax/Rack engine to efficiently find answer spells or silver bullets that were effective against the meta of its time. The name Parfait came from the word French word parfait which means perfect.Drawing Engine:
4x Land Tax
2x Scroll Rack
1x Jayemdae Tome
Survival Spells/Silver Bullets:
1x Story Circle
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Aura of Silence
1x Moat
1x Balance
1x Wrath of God
2x Zuran Orb
1x Ivory Mask
1x Ivory Tower
Utility Spells:
4x Abeyance
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Planar Birth
4x Argivian Find
Kill:
2x Sacred Mesa
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Soldevi Digger
Mana Source & Lands:
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Serra's Sanctum
13x Plains
1x Strip Mine
3x Wasteland
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
The Perfect Mix
The original Parfait decks had components that can deal with early, mid and late game.
For the early game, it had answers in the form of cheap and efficient removal and life gain. The removal is self-explanatory. The life gain is there so that the deck can stabilize for the mid and late games.
As the deck stabilize, the mid game of the deck revolves around finding silver bullets against opposing decks either by using the Tax/Rack engine or using Enlightened Tutor. Once the opponent has been effectively controlled, the deck can set up for the late game into a win.
The deck utilizes a comboesque win, using Planar Birth to recur discarded Plains (discarded through the clean up step with extra cards in hand) to power up Sacred Mesa. Parfait was one of the first control decks to have a "I win" button.
Caught in the Split
Back in its time, Tax/Rack was considered one of the best card advantage engine (it didn't just drew cards, it also had a built in card selection). It was considered so powerful that when the Type 1- Type 1.5 split happened (birth of the Legacy format), the combo had to be neutered in the "powerless" format. With this reasoning, Land Tax was banned in Legacy for almost a decade.
Eventually, the power level of the format increased and more two card combos started showing up. This created discussions and arguments on the validity of Land Tax in the format. The DCI finally showed leniency on the card and on June 20, 2012; Land Tax finally became Legacy legal. Now the quest to find the right deck for Land Tax begins.
A lot of players tried adding Land Tax to existing lists such as U/W Miracle Decks. In the end, it did not work out since the requirements to 'break' Land Tax cannot simply be met in a mana hungry deck. To make things worse, the format has become more efficient on spending its mana. With decks that can run and win on 0-2 lands. To make Land Tax work in the format, the list has to be built around the card. Here is where Parfait comes in.
In with the Old
In order to port the old Parfait lists to the current Legacy meta, we have to compare the before and now. Here are the notable changes from the old to the current:
- Aggro creatures becoming more efficient in terms of effect/power vs. mana cost.
- The prevalence of utility creatures.
- The dependence (and abuse) of graveyards.
- The birth of Storm.
- The advent of Planeswalkers.
- Multitude of two-card, game ending combos (both win and lock)
- Cheap and efficient removal
With the knowledge above and the principles of Parfait, it can then be determined on how to shape a new Parfait list.
Parfait Revival
Parfait is a [control] deck that revolves around an engine. In order for it to work, it has to be built around the engine. But in order for it to be successful, it has to work without the engine.
First the engine of the deck:
These cards are the reason why Parfait is Parfait.
Like any engine decks, Parfait needs to be built around to break symmetry and to make it efficient. The old lists achieved this by utilizing the following:
- Run cheap game changing spells (usually in the form of removal).
- Use means to reduce land count to fewer than your opponent.
- Use mana resistors to force your opponent to play more lands than you (and to slow them).
- Use cheap artifact mana sources.
In order for the archetype to be successful, it also needs to work without having Tax/Rack active. This was achieved by using [CARD]Enlightened Tutor[/CARD] (not only to find Tax/Rack pieces but also to find hate pieces). Cards that have X-for-one effects were also used to maximize each use of the cards (such as [CARD]Wrath of God[/CARD]). Scroll Rack can also be used to fix consistency
Primer
The old Parfait lists followed a certain shell:
- Draw Engine (Tax/Rack & Back up) [7-9]: This is where Land Tax and Scroll Rack go in. Back in its Type 1 days, Jayemdae Tome and Library of Alexandria would be used as back up. But with the current card selection Legacy has right now, there are better option that are also legal in the format; Sensei's Divining Top comes to mind.
- Swords to Plowshares [4]: This has been a staple removal in Classic formats, although Path to Exile could be an alternative depending on how the list is tackled.
- Silver Bullets [8-10]: They are cards/permanents that nullify different strategies, whether it be against creatures (Humility/Moat), graveyard strategies (Rest in Peace), spell-based (Trinisphere) among other things
- Tutor/Utility [8-10]: Tutor refers to Enlightened Tutor (although they used to be restricted in Type 1.). Utility refers to non-permanent spells (the ones you cannot tutor for) that help and support either the Tax/Rack engine or compliments to the silver bullets.
- Win Condition [3-5]: Every deck needs to win a legitimate way. These only have a few slots due to the comboesque win conditions used by Parfait.
- Mana Artifacts [5-8]: They reduce the dependence to lands as a means of mana source. This means that Land Tax can be kept active.
- Lands [18-20] (Plains [10-15]): They are still an essential mana source but they can also be used for utility.
The problem with the count between mana artifact and lands is that the Alpha Moxen are banned in the format. Finding the right proportion between the two is currently open for discussion.
Here are a couple of sample lists that can be used as guidelines for building the decks. Most of these are theoretical lists before Land Tax was actually Legacy legal:
Stephen Menendian's Stax-like build
Lands:
11 Plains
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Wasteland
Spells:
1 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Isochron Scepter
4 Mox Diamond
4 Scroll Rack
1 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
1 Humility
4 Land Tax
1 Moat
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Rule of Law
1 Sacred Mesa
4 Abeyance
3 Argivian Find
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Orim's Chant
4 Swords to Plowshares
Stephen Menendian's Suggested List Post Unbanning Circa June 2012
Hatebear-Based Parfait:
(nameless one's) Parfait Revival:
10 Snow-Covered Plains
4 City of Traitors
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Lotus Vale
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Helm of Obedience
3 Pithing Needle
4 Mox Diamond
4 Scroll Rack
2 Humility
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Rest in Peace
4 Land Tax
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
Sideboard:
4xLeyline of Sanctity
4x Trinisphere
3x Aura of Silence
2x Ghostly Prison
2x Karmic JusticeSelecting the 75
To be continued...
Piloting Parfait
To be continued...
Splashes and Flavors
Here is an excerpt from Stephen Menendian's article concerning splashes:
BLUE
Brainstorm
Brainstorm has natural synergy with Land Tax. The problem with Brainstorm is mana cost. You are going to be knee deep in Blue if you are relying on early Brainstorms. That means your manabase probably has some strange combinations of plains and islands, and perhaps a few fetchlands, and perhaps even a Tundra or two. The awkwardness stems from potentially needing to play both a first turn Land Tax and possibly Brainstorming early, yet having mostly basic lands. The longer the game goes the more value can be extracted from Brainstorm (shuffling away extra lands and digging deeper into an already thinned deck), so keep that in mind when analyzing opening hands and lines of play.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
If Brainstorm has strong synergy with Land Tax, certainly Jace does as well. It has direct synergy with Land Tax, a pseudo Scroll Rack. Jace is a natural finisher for a control deck of this caliber, and also has the ability of controlling creatures on the battlefield.
Daze
As my teammate Kevin Cron pointed out, Daze is insane with Land Tax, since it works like Zuran Orb, to return the land you already played to hand to guarantee Land Tax triggers.
RED
Blood Moon
Blood Moon is an excellent Tutor target, and highly synergistic in any Land Tax deck. Blood Moon neuters fetchlands, and can singlehandedly win matchups. It is a strong consideration for any W/R Land Tax deck.
Firestorm
Firestorm is an enormously attractive option, just as it was in the Extended decks of old. It’s a great outlet for Land Tax and will clear an opposing board. This is probably a staple for any W/R Aggro deck revival.
Seismic Assault
Fool’s gold in my opinion. Not only is it too difficult to reliably cast, but it’s a poor use of your card advantage compared to putting back into your deck with Scroll Rack or Jace/Brainstorm.Matchups
To be continued...
Outside Information
Here are some articles concerning Parfait:
Last edited by (nameless one); 01-23-2013 at 12:27 AM.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
This is an outdated source. For reference only
Personal List and Explanations:
Manabase:
10 Snow-Covered Plains
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Mox Diamond
3 Chrome Mox
Parfait Engine:
4 Land Tax
4 Scroll Rack
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Argivian Find
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Zuran Orb
Control Elements:
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Trinisphere
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Terminus
1 Humility
1 Smokestack
Win Conditions:
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Batterskull
1 Goblin Charbelcher
Manabase:
Snow-Covered Plains: I was going to use good old Plains but it is Parfait! Has to be frozen. Although regular Plains are just as fine.
City of Traitors : For the longest time, I was using Crystal Veins over this but with the inclusion of Trinisphere in the list, I need to consistently cast my cheaper spells under an active Trinisphere and City of Traitors isn't just a one time use only land. Although I am still contemplating on using 3/3 split between City of Traitors and Crystal Veins.
Wasteland: They get rid of utility lands and lands that will produce more than one mana for the opponent. They're also there to color-screw the opponent. The existence of Crucible in the deck can catch the opponents off guard.
Mox Diamond + Chrome Mox: They somehow help Land Tax trigger by lowering your land count on the field. While theres card disadvantage involved in using these, the Tax/Rack engine helps replenish your hand back.
Parfait Engine:
Land Tax + Scroll Rack: The engine of the deck. Under the right circumstances, you can dig through your library with these.
Enlightened Tutor: Not only they can find Land Tax or Scroll Rack, it can also find enablers for the deck and board control pieces.
Argivian Find: Either your draw engine pieces or board control pieces are bound to be countered or destroyed. These will get those pieces back.
Crucible of Worlds: It has a couple synergies with the cards that you have in the deck. It can replay City of Traitors, Wastelands, or lands that used for Zuran Orb or Smokestacks.
Zuran Orb: Its a good piece that can screw up the combat math. It also helps enable Land Tax.
Control Elements:
Swords to Plowshares: The debate was using this vs. Path to Exile. While Path to Exile helped trigger Land Tax, it also help your opponents work under taxing effects such as Ghostly Prison, Trinisphere and Smokestacks. In the end, I think Swords to Plowshares is still better than Path to Exile in Land Tax builds because if your opponents cannot recover from the mentioned taxing effects, you are still good and ahead of the game.
Trinisphere: It slows the opponents down and helps enable Land Tax (along with Moxen and Sol Lands) by forcing the opponent to play more lands. It is also a great tool against ritual-based combo and decks that run on minimal lands (such as Elves and Tempo-based decks)
Ghostly Prison: It slows swarm-based aggro decks and helps enable Land Tax by forcing your opponents to play more lands.
Terminus: Once the opponent overextended, Terminus is a bomb against your opponent's field. It is essentially the Balance the deck needs. It is also fairly easy to set up its Miracle cost because of Scroll Rack
Humility: This card can shut down a lot of utility and giant creatures in the format. It is also great that its tutorable.
Smokestack: This card helps turn whatever soft lock you've established into hard lock while at the same time enabling Land Tax (by sacrificing your own lands)
Win Condition:
Stoneforge Mystic: This can cheat a Batterskull onto the field. At worst, its a blocker that can reset your Scroll Rack.
Batterskull: For(via SFM), its a great beater. It also works great under an active Humility.
Goblin Charbelcher: Its a great late game finisher, when your deck is running low on lands. At worst, it can reset Scroll Rack.
Sideboard:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Cursed Totem
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Aura of Silence
Cards that need to be addressed:
Solitary Confinement
Tangle Wire
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Last edited by (nameless one); 01-23-2013 at 12:25 AM.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
Older post:
Parfait
Parfait is a mono-white control deck that uses the Land Tax + Scroll Rack combo. As long as you had less lands than your opponent, you are able to search your library and refill your hand with three basic lands. You would then activate Scroll Rack to replace those lands with useful card in your hand.
When the original Legacy (then type 1.5) ban list was released, Land Tax was one of the cards that got the hammer due to its brokenness with Scroll Rack. Over time, more better and effiencient cards got printed and Land Tax eventually turned from Broken to a laughing matter. Even though all this turn of events happened, Land Tax did not leave the ban list. Instead the apparent reason why it was banned is because it stalled games.
There has been a lot of speculations with the unbanning of Land Tax. It especially goes up everytime right before any updates on the B/R list. MTG Salvation is currently allowing a MWS Legacy tournament that allows players to run Land Tax. I myself would like to have my own take on Parfait for another Legacy tournament within my area that will be allowing Land Tax.
Recently, I have been playtesting this decklist, although not thoroughly. It has been working so far but far from being a deck to beat.
Here is my currently decklist:
Legacy Parfait 1.0
Lands:
13 Plains
3 Ghost Quarters
2 Serra Sanctum
Parfait Engine and Searchers:
4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Enlightened Tutor
Toolbox:
4 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
4 Orim's Chant
2 Abeyance
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Humility
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Runed Halo
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgement
1 Cataclysm
1 Agrivian Find
2 Zuran Orb
1 Pithing Needle
Win Condition:
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Painter's Servant
1 Grindstone
1 Goblin Charbelcher
Sideboard:
Still working on itUPDATECurrently the decklist clocks at 62 cards but I am still working on trimming it.
I find that when I am playing Parfait in Legacy, you have to be a passive deck. It basically answers what your opponent throws. You don't really have to build the Parfait engine right away. Instead, try to set it up mid to late game. You have SDTs to help you early game. Mid-game, you will run out of gas, this is when you're going to utilize the Parfait Engine and try to either lock your opponent or combo-win (depending on the situation)
Here are the main combo lockdowns that the deck utilizes:
Scepter-Lock (Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant): This essentially prevents your opponent from casting any spells and attacking with their creatures. It works by coping Chant via Scepter over and over again until you get enough mana and find your win condition.
Confinement-Lock (Solitary Confinement): This lock is more conditional as it requires the Parfait Engine. This is more like an add-on to your Engine. It works by utilizing the card advantage gained from Parfait Engine to fuel Solitary Confinement's drawback. Although it is not a permanent lock as Scepter-Lock, you can still utilize this to buy you time to set up your win conditions. It could also work with Land Tax alone but it will only protect you until you run out of lands from your library.
Here are the win conditions of the deck:
Luminarch Ascension: Luminarch is really effective once you've set up a lock to your opponent. However, it is not as threatening by itself.
Painter-Stone Combo (Painter's Servant + Grindstone): If you are in a hurry and have a way to Tutor them, you can always win with this.
Goblin Charbelcher: This is your late game win condition, when you have went through with most of your lands. It could also act as a conditional removal.
Other Card Choices:
This deck is an idea and some of my choices need justification:
Lands:
Plains: No need to explain
Ghost Quarter: This is your Wasteland. You might say its suboptimal but the main goal is to keep your opponent from their utility land, whether if its a man-land or a dual land. It is essentially a Wasteland but you want your opponent to have a higher land count as your to have Parfait Engine going. Whether your opponent decides to replace the destroyed land, its a win-win condition for you.
Serra Sanctum: You run ample amounts of enchantment. I dont see whats wrong with a land that produces a lot of mana.
Toolbox:
Sensei's Divining Top: Like what I mentioned above, you Parfait is only good mid to late game. SDT is your helper early game. It helps you draw essential cards that you need to get by early game.
Enlightened Tutor: If you need a silver bullet really bad, Tutor is there to bail you out. It could grab anything from combo-pieces to essential answers.
Path to Exile: PtE rivals StP in this deck as this creature removal is made for this deck. PtE virtually doesnt have a drawback with this deck.
Swords to Plowshares: For the most part, this is the best creature removal in the format. Having it to back up PtE does not hurt.
Orim's Chant: Legacy's version of Time Walk. I currently play Quinn and I find this card to buy you time early game. It also creates a lock when paired with Scepter.
Abeyance: This card is there to push through your counter. It also act as pseudo-disruption to certain decks. At worst, it cantrips for
Isochron Scepter: Pair this with Chant and you have Scepter-lock. Pair this with one of your removals and you have a beating stick.
Humility: Humility is one of those underrated cards out there. It shuts down a lot of creatures in a creature format. It also stops Qasali Pridemages and Trygon Predators from ruining your day. Makes Tarmogoyf an $80 1/1 for
Oblivion Ring: Tutorable utility removal.
Runed Halo: Its a pseudo-removal that protects you from a lot of dangerous things in the format. It can protect you from Goyfs to Tendrils
Wrath of God: Mass creature removal
Day of Judgement: Wrath of God 2.0. Sometimes, variety is good.
Cataclysm: I recently added this mass removal as a Balance version. It has been okay so far. I am still undecided. It helps stabilize the field when things are not going your way.
Agrivian Find: This deck runs a lot of singleton (because of its toolbox nature). Sometimes, you might need to recycle an enchantment or an artifact to win.
Zuran Orb: This helps you keep your land count in check. It can also act as life gain against aggro.
Pithing Needle: I have been debating a lot lately with this card. It is an awesome card as it shuts down anything from Vials to Survivals. If you dont need SDT anymore, you can shut down SDT to help you go through against CounterTop.
Recent Suggestions/Possible Inclusion:
Mox Diamond: Keeping your land count low is good. Mox D helps you with mana without going up on your land count. The problem that I have faced so far is that my deck's land count is too low to support Mox Diamond. Land Tax sometimes help but Mox Diamond itself is not consistent. Also, getting them removed is a hard pull-back.
Chrome Mox: I am running a lot of singletons and exiling a card for C Mox is a real hard decision.
So far, both have been unhelpful. Maybe I just dont know how to utilize Mox D properly but without Mox D, it has been working fine.
Moat: This card is more of a meta call. I have been seeing a lot of Qasali Pridemages and Trygon Predators and Humility has been the better call lately. If the meta's aggro has been without the mentioned two then I suggest running Moat.
Sacred Mesa: Originally, I was running this with Ascension's spot but I found that its more mana-intesive compared to Ascension. The "
Planar Birth: Vintage Parfait used to run this to return lands that have been sacrificed via Zuran Orbs. I have not really playtested with it and I dont see any help that it could provide.
Wheel of Sun and Moon: This card is more of a sideboard card as a gravehate. I like the of using this to keep Confinement lock an infinite hard lock but it feels like a win-more condition.
Ethersworn Canonist: This card has been on the main of Vintage lists. Vintage has a different meta to Legacy and not everyone will be running a storm based combo deck. This card is more of a sideboard card.
Splashes:
There has been a lot of suggestions concerning splashes. Having a splash does add more tools to the deck. The main problem that I see against splashes is that we already have a lot of little things going on. Having additional splash could result to a lot of micro-managing which will make the deck less effective. I'd like to keep a particular focus on the deck. Having said that doesn't mean that I am closing my mind on any splashes.
Thank you for useful advises and as well as constructive criticism. Other suggestions are still open.
With the recent rumor of Land Tax being a Judge Promo, there has been recent speculations that it will get reintroduced to Legacy. I decided to try to work with this deck again. It cant hurt to be prepared, right?
Here is the current version I have been testing:
Legacy Parfait 2.0
Changes and Discussions
Mana Base
There are now 19 lands in the deck
Ancient Tomb - Ancient Tomb helps accelerate whatever pieces the deck is trying to play. At the same time, it helps with the lower land count but producing 2 mana from one source.
Ghost Quarters - I was contemplating on running Wasteland on this spot but I think the main purpose of Ghost Quarters is to deny your opponent from having utility land such as manlands without lowering his land count.
Mox Diamond - I dont think a build with only 19 lands can support Mox Diamond. I also think having a higher artifact count does not help the new additions to the deck.
Spells:
Swords to Plowshares - I have switched Path to Exile with StP because Path to Exile was not as effective as I though it would be.
Sands of Time + Equipoise - The new addition to the deck. It is essentially a two-card lockdown combo (kinda like Scepter-Chant lock). With the deck's low land count and 0 creature card, both card can produce a permanent Balance effect. However, with this combo, The artifact count must be minimal, hence the lack of Mana Artifacts.
Sands of Time also synergizes with the low land count. You can use your lands during your turn to play permanents and use those same lands during your opponent's turn to play control cards, or even use Scepter. This is the reason why Sands of Time has a higher count than Equipose.
Open Slots:
There are currently 6 open slots right now. They are reserved for win conditions and other tools that can be utilized in this deck. My current win condition right now is Goblin Charbelcher but I dont think that that itself is enough. This deck should have a back-up win condition (possibly a Black Vise effect since its a lockdown deck)
Also, I think that other means of control should be used. I am thinking of using Humility, Runed Halo, Oblivion Ring, Wrath of God, or whatever would fit in the deck.
As usual, any ideas and constructive comments are welcome.
Last edited by (nameless one); 01-23-2013 at 12:26 AM.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
Just grabbed a nm legends playset for 70$
I somehow updated the opening post for a quick intro to the deck concept.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I don't like Belcher as a wincon since it's way too situational. I'm not sure about Runed Halo either - could be a tutorable 1of, I guess.
With Scroll Rack, wouldn't white Miracles be a feasible choice?
Also 4 Mox Diamonds should be a given in this deck.
I have been playtesting this list and it brings me back to the good old days:
Parfait
Manabase:
12x Plains
4x Crystal Vein
3x Mox Diamond
3x Wasteland
1x Mistveil Plains
Engine:
4x Land Tax
3x Scroll Rack
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Zuran Orb
Support:
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Orim's Chant
4x Path to Exile
3x Terminus
2x Argivian Find
2x Armageddon
2x Ghostly Prison
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Humility
1x Pithing Needle
1x Solitary Confinement
Win Condition:
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Goblin Charbelcher
Last edited by (nameless one); 06-20-2012 at 02:44 PM.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
No offense, but I'm positive a blue splash would be beneficial --> excess lands --> BS.
Jace seems like a tight wincon too.
No entreat the angels? That is a windmill slam of a win con. Also, no swords? Geez, I know path has more internal synergy with the deck, but I would run both. they're so damn good. IMO, 4 swords, 4 path, 3-4 terminus is where you should start. Banishing stroke could be run on top of that. Ghostly prison could go as it's a nonbo with path. I'm not hot on enlightened tutor, either. Humility seems like the only enchantment I'd ever truly feel good about dumping a card for. All the others have their uses but have more or less been dated by Qasali Pridemage. I don't think you need four enlightened tutors. Orim's chant? wouldn't you be better just playing more business?
@Klaus: yeah , brainstorm is sick, but if you were to run another color I think black would be the best. Blue tends to be a mana hog. This deck wants to play with as few lands as possible. All of black's disruption and removal is cheap ie: hymn, thoughtseize, innocent blood, duress, raven's crime.
Yeah, and since it's playing many 1-of, the deck could even include some tainted pact like the old tainted parfait did.
There is no knowledge that it not power.
Well, I think I'll stick with this thread for the Land Tax builds. I have a thing for Parfait. I loved that deck and played the crap out of it despite my love of it's nemesis, the Bazaar Reanimator.
Anyway, I already had a deck I played around with trying to get it to work over and over. If there was any card I complained about not having for it, it was Land Tax. So here's the original with it added in.
It's had the crap played out of it so questions are welcome. I think I played against just about everything except Delver because that deck didn't exist yet when I last had this thing out. (Innistrad wasn't out). The last set was Scars since I was playing around with Koth in it.
2 Koth
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
3 Rolling Earthquake
2 Humility
2 Banefire
4 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's DiviningTop
1 Decree of Justice
4 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
4 Land Tax
4 Plateau
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
3 Plains
3 Mountain
Ok, now this list just had Land Tax thrown in the obvious spots I knew I would eventually replace it with. Now the question becomes where do I put the Scroll Racks in at? Top is quite excellent in here and is worth keeping to some extent. I expect to take them down to 2 and Lightning Helix down to 2 as they would be the weakest removal at that point and Tops need to be cut if Scroll Racks come in. I will probably cut back on the amount of fetches and go down to 3 Plateaus also, using basics in the spots. Keep that in mind since I haven't tested it with tax in the deck yet.
The original deck could mangle anything with creatures including variants of Threshold like Canadian thresh so I have high hopes for Delver. Zoo, Stoneforge, Maverick, Goblins, Merfolk, and elves all just fell over dead to this thing as it was.
Control decks were tricky, but beatable. BUG control was the worst one since they had their own Mishras, Jace, and the ability to counter the planeswalkers better than most decks. I still ended up going to time a lot with them with 1 and 1. It's a matter of do they have a counter for the planeswalkers. If not, they lose, if they do, they stay alive for a while. Decking was the common way for them to win against this. Scroll Rack can help with that too. : ) Man, I'm happy about Tax.
Ok, Combo seems like it would suck and game one it most definitely does. The entire board was to hose them out and win via planeswalker. It's practically a transformational sideboard for it. It did work though. I was more worried about control since it was such a toss up. It seems like a terrible idea, but sometimes those work like a charm. This is one of those times. It's a nightmare to go through that mess after boarding.
Ok, some explanation of the other cards is probably necessary.
Koth - Seems horrible, actually isn't. It's a must counter for any control deck as usual just like in standard. But wait, you hardly have any mountains. Yeah, but you don't need much. It's that 4/4 making ability that is the dangerous one anyway. Admittedly, I did use the second one here and there to bomb people out though.
He does make 4/4's under a Humility. If you don't know how, you probably shouldn't be playing with Humility anyway. With Koth and Elspeth together, it's hard to lose against much of anything.
Path to exile - self explanatory, but now it has a cool interaction with our new card.
Ajani Vengeant - Another must counter for a lot of decks. Tends to get used to blow up Zoo creatures or tap down fatties like Knights and goyfs a lot. Very handy. One sided geddon is just a bonus.
Rolling Earthquake - Sadly expensive as hell, but really, really good. Makes people frown. You could replace this with the newer card Bonfire of the Damned and it might even be better with all the shuffle and Scroll Rack tricks now. The direct damage which is one sided of Bonfire might justify it over the easier to cast Rolling Earthquake.
Decree of Justice - It's a hold over from the old days, but it serves it's purpose well. Uncounterable and can be a quick blow out. Decree could easily become Entreat, but probably not since it's that uncounterability that really sells it.
Pithing Needle - to be honest, I can't remember why I had this in here. I just remember having 2 and going up to 4 very quickly. It was really awesome against something. lol Jace, Vial, Sneak attack, and crap like that come to mind though.
Banefire - Might not be needed anymore. It was another one of those "pushes" through control, but tax provides a way to just out threat them now. I'm sure I can come up with something better in that slot. Especially, since I have new toys since Scars was out.
This is the old board. It's dated, but it did work for what it was intended for. pissing off combo players. I play combo (Doomsday or TES) normally so I just picked out what I would most not want to see out of a deck like this. Easy enough. Isochron might be amusing tech, but probably not needed. The pyroblasts slowed them down to a crawl and chants stopped any luck dogging out of it.
Sideboard 15
4 red elemental blast
3 pyroblast
4 pyrostatic pillar
4 orim's chant
So all in all, I highly recommend using this as a testbed since it's already proven itself to me as a damned good deck list. I got my share of money out of it so I was happy as is, but I thought it just needed Land Tax too much to continue working on it.
Now I have it.
Bonus Hilarity - Now we finally have something to make Glacial Crevasses good. Silly, but true.
Anyone keep trying build an deck with Tax?
I'm playing whit:
// Lands
12 Plains
3 Crystal Vein
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Mistveil Plains
// Spells
4 Path to Exile
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Land Tax
3 Terminus
3 Mox Diamond
3 Scroll Rack
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Argivian Find
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Armageddon
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pithing Needle
1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Meekstone
1 Zuran Orb
1 Humility
// Sideboard
SB: 2 Argivian Find
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 4 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 Karmic Justice
SB: 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Cursed Totem
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
I think Land Tax / Scroll Rack isn't good enough...
[cards]Land Tax[cards] costs one card and one mana to get into play.
[cards]Scroll Rack[cards] costs one card and two mana to get into play.
Activating Scroll Rack costs another mana, so assuming you can get Land Tax to trigger, you'd be looking at:
0 activations is 3 mana for net -2 cards.
1 activations is 4 mana for net +1 cards.
2 activations is 5 mana for net +4 cards.
3 activations is 6 mana for net +7 cards.
So even with the Land Tax condition met, you'd have to get two to three activations and turns to make it worthwhile. So you've got conditionality for the land tax trigger, multiple turns for scroll rack untapping, and a pretty hefty mana investment for things to pay off.
I think using something else has more potential. For example consider:
Land Tax/Raven's Crime
Most of the time, it takes net 0 cards and 1 mana to get Raven's Crime into the gy since you can make the opponent discard.
I also expect that looting cards like Careful Study,Faithless Looting, or Ideas Unbound may be stronger companions to Land Tax than Scroll Rack is.
The thing with Land Tax is that its not a shoe-in in whatever developed decks out there. It has to be the engine of the deck. That being said, it needs cards that help enable it. I believe the best way to abuse is in a prison-based deck where your opponent is forced to play more lands while you can work under mana artifacts such as Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox.
As for Looting cards, I do agree on this as well. One of the guys at the local store is suggesting that Land Tax to be run with Looting effects (or even Teferi's Puzzle Box) along with Suppression Field.
I also believe that Suppression Field is great slowing a lot of decks in Legacy. It slows Fetchlands (making them a Land Tax enabler), Planeswalkers and cards that normally help get around Land Tax (such as AEther Vial).
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As for the actual Tax/Rack Parfait build, I ran a Parfait Build at the local store this Friday. It wasn't a big event, just a random Friday night thing. I did win enough store credit to get a Commander Pre-con (I got the Zedruu the Christmas Goat one).
Here is the list I ran:
10 Snow-Covered Plains
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Mox Diamond
3 Chrome Mox
4 Land Tax
4 Scroll Rack
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Argivian Find
1 Smokestack
3 Trinisphere
3 Ghostly Prison
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Terminus
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Batterskull
1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Sideboard:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Cursed Totem
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Aura of Silence
Match one: U/R Delver
G1: I win the dice roll. I go for the turn 1 Stoneforge Mystic (Stephanie) (via a Mox that I can't remember). I didn't have Land Tax, Scroll Rack or Tutor. Stephanie gets hit by Chain Lightning. Since my opponent had Volcanic with him, I first assumed that he was on Canadian Thresh. I topdeck Scroll Rack next turn, Scroll into a Tutor for a Land Tax. But I cannot get my draw engine active since he won't play more land ( I am hoping to draw/Scroll into Trinisphere). He eventually gets a double flipped Delver of Secrets with permission backup. (I tried StP three times and a Terminus). I later then realized he was just running U/R Delver because of basic lands. Goblin Guide got there for the win.
Side: +4 Leyline, -1 Smokestack/-1 Jitte/ -2 Terminus
G2: I go for the turn 1 Scroll Rack via City of Traitors. His was a Delver. Turn 2 I Scrolled into a Swords to Plowshares which met a Daze. I later get enough mana (via City of Traitor and Moxen) to get an active Belcher. Belcher deals with Delver and resets my Scroll Rack. He then Shattering Sprees my Belcher and Rack. I then resolve a Trinisphere which met a second SSpree. I topdeck an Argivian Find and use it to get my Belcher back. I then resolved a second Trinisphere ( I had two in my hand from the previous Scroll Rack activation). I hater then resolve Belcher and deal with his Grim Lavamancer. His burn cannot race my Belcher since he is slowed by Trinisphere.
G3: I goes land go. I go for turn one L.Tax which met a Force of Will. I go for a turn 2 Stephanie which gets Lightning Bolted. I then resolved a turn 3 Scroll Rack and activate it on turn four. I main-phase tutor for Land Tax and resolve a 3sphere. I then go for a second Stephanie which grabs a Batterskull. She eats another bolt but I had enough mana off of Moxen and City of Traitors to hardcast Batterskull. Batterskull protected with Trinisphere got there.
1-0 (2-1)
Match two: CounterTop Thopter
G1: I win the dice roll but I ended up mulling to 5 after having a land-flooded 7 and a landless 6. I Tutor for Land Tax on turn one and Land Tax resolves on turn 2. Unfortunately, my opponent has a active Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top by turn 3 and by turn 5, he has a active Jace the Mind Sculptor. I scooped at that point.
Side: +3 Phyrexian Revoker/+2 Aura of Silence/ -1 Jitte/-1 Terminus/-2 Prison/-1 Humility
G2: I go for the turn one Land Tax which met a Force. His turn one was a SDTop. On my turn two I resolve a Revoker naming SDTop. I then resolve a turn 3 Stephanie grabbing Batterskull. He then scoop as he was land-screwed.
G3: I resolve a turn one 3sphere. Then for the next 8 turns, I drew into 4 lands and 2 Moxen. He eventually gets a Counterbalance by turn 3. I tried resolving a Land Tax but he blindflips a Swords to Plowshare with Counterbalance. I then resolve Stephanie but it gets StP. I though this was fine because next I can hardcast a Batterskull as he was tapped out from casting a Thopter Foundry. Then next turn, he had a second StP for the Germ token. He then had Sword of the Meek. I eventually scooped.
1-1 (3-3)
Match three: Mono-red Goblins:
G1: He wins the dice roll and goes for the turn one AEther Vial. I go for a turn 2 Stephanie. I think he is land screwed as he is not playing lands (that or someone told him I was running Land Tax and he wanted to play around it). I get a turn 3 Batterskull and Tutor for Ghostly Prison. He later scooped when I resolved a second Prison.
Side: +3 Revoker, -3 Thalia
G2: I mull to 5. His turn one Goblin Lackey connects and drops a Ringleader. On his turn 2, he drops another Lackey. I then drop a turn 3 Stephanie to grab a Jitte. He attacked and I let it go through. He then drops a Siege-gang Commander and used it to get rid of Stephanie. On turn 4 on the face of 8 goblins I topdeck a Terminus. It bought me some but his Goblin Ringleader chains into another Ringleader and a bunch of Goblins and Ringleaders eventually get there.
G3: I go for a turn one Land Tax which met a turn one Vial. I then resolve a turn 2 Rack via City of Traitors and I scrolled for useful cards. My City gets Wastelanded (he now doesn't have lands). I then go for a turn 3 Stephanie for a Batterskull. I later resolve a Revoker on his Vial. He ended up not having non-basic lands on the field (and was unable to play his hate). He tried making blockers for the Batterskull but eventually ran out and was unable to deal with Batterskull in time.
2-1 (5-4)
Match four: Dredge
G1: He wins the dice roll. He mulls to 5 then goes for a turn one Careful Study dumping a Golgari Grave-Troll into his graveyard with something else. I go Land go. He then Dredges into Ichorid and Narcomoeba. Turn two I resolve a 3sphere (via City of Traitors). He starts attacking me with Ichorid. I resolve a turn 3 Ghostly Prison which made him scoop.
Side: +3 Grafdigger's Cage/ +3 Revoker/ -4 Land Tax/ -1 Smokestack/-1 Scroll Rack
G2: He goes for a turn 1 Putrid Imp. I go for a turn 1 Grafdigger's Cage. goes for a turn 2 Nature's Claim on my Cage. On my turn two, I go for a 3sphere. He responded with discard. He dredges into crap next turn while I follow up the 3sphere with Prison and Revoker naming Imp. I then get an active Rack which dug me another Cage. He didn't scoop since he wanted to see my deck, little did he know I sided the Land Tax package out. I got there with Stephanie with Batterskull.
3-1 (6-4)
I got top8 won store credit.
--------------------------------------------
I have since updated my list with the list I've posted on the second post of this thread.
If you guys have more questions about the list above and the my new list, please feel free.
As for the Mods, can we change the thread's name into "[Deck]W/x Parfait (Land Tax/Scroll Rack Control)" please?
Last edited by (nameless one); 07-16-2012 at 11:23 PM.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I’ve clearly gone in a very different list than the rest of you guys, but have been very successful so I’ll post my list here. This is pure control. Cards like Sands of Time, Equipoise are fun cards, but they do little to nothing and honestly can’t make the cut. Equipoise is especially bad because creatures just phase back in on their turn and can swing.
The cards that this deck still wants to fit are Crucible, Runed Halo, Porphyry Nodes, and a 2nd Humility.
Customs Tax
4x Land Tax
3x Scroll Rack
3x Isochron Scepter
2x Zuran Orb
2x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Orim’s Chant
4x Path to Exile
2x Argivian Find
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Humility
1x Moat
4x Mox Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
14x Plains
Sideboard:
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
2x Wheel of Sun and Moon
2x Seal of Cleansing
1x Aura of Silence
1x Cursed Totem
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Humility
1x Rule of Law
1x Ethersworn Canonist
POSSIBLE COLOR SPLASHES
RED
+1 Blood Moon
+1 Mountain
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Plains
Blue
+1 Back to Basics
+1 Island
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Plains
Green
+1 Choke
+1 Forest
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Plains
Card Choices:
Leyline of Sanctity: You generally want this out turn 0 against half the decks in the field or more.
Hurts: Burn, Discard, Storm Combo, Belcher, Jace, and Liliana’s Ultimate. Additionally, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, and other cards that happen to say Target Opponent cannot be used.
Oblivion Ring: This is your version of Vindicate, except it doesn’t hit lands. What it does hit, however, is Emrakul. Whether brought in by show and tell or hardcast, it can do the trick against him.
Goblin Charbelcher: When you cut out all the other crap from the mana base and go with just plains, you’ll end up flying through your deck and being able to easily belch out opponents after a few taxes.
Orim’s Chant: The main combo in the deck, the goal is to accelerate out a Scepter/Chant as fast as possible. With 4x Petal/4x Diamond, it can often happen turn 1. If you have chant in hand turn 1, it is almost always correct to EOT enlightened for scepter and go for the turn 2 scepter chant.
Humility: This is the most important Silver Bullet against Reanimator, Sneak Show, and Maverick. This card just stops everything they plan on doing.
Moat: Ye old faithful. There’s a reason it was a 1 of in The Deck in 96. I wouldn’t consider playing without it
Solitary Confinement: While I still have temptation to cut it, there is just too much combo potential with it. With active Land Tax, you can last a very long time. With Scroll Rack, you’re still drawing 3 a turn and discarding 1.
With Isochron Scepter - Argivian Find, once you hit 5 mana sources you can recur and play Solitary every turn, not discarding to it and letting it die. That would let you draw your card every turn in addition to recurring Solitary.
Last edited by yespuhyren; 07-19-2012 at 01:16 AM.
What you are failing to see is one of the best parts of the combo...is you will hit MULTIPLE TAXES.
IF you have 2 taxes, you are drawing 7 cards. Every turn. If you have 3 taxes you’re drawing 10. Multiple taxes is where this deck starts to go busted. That being said, turn 1 Tax turn 2 Rack and ancestral every turn for 1 colorless mana after that seems good.
I've tested Scepter/Chant and it's to mana intensive for Parfait.
Also, Tax/Rack doesn't go active against the half of the field (fast combo/tempo/and vial-based aggro) so you need support for to help Tax/Rack going.
I would suggest Sol Lands on top of Moxes to help hit 4cc spells.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I'm of the opinion that land tax is a shitty card and completely outdated. Just play Sensei's divining Top or add blue for Brainstorm and Jace...
So why post in this thread if you have nothing positive to say? There’s a reason this is in New/Developmental. If you want to make a netdeck go ahead, I’ve played about every conceivable deck, and this is the one I feel consistently wins for me and is fun. I went from Show and tell to w/r senseis top control to this. I'd rather draw 3 lands and a card a turn off tax.
@Nameless One RE scepter chant, I don't see how you consider it too mana intensive. Against a lot of decks it's a 2-3 mana win condition. Cheaper than both sands of time and equipoise. Scepter is used for a lot more than chant. As well, chant is an extra card vs combo, and stops sneak attack rushes and Emrakul swings.
While I'd love sol lands, my idea of this deck pulls all it's plains quickly so it can belch quickly and consistently. I'm tempted to cut 1 plains for ghostly prison or porphyry nodes as well, as nodes is much better with Argivian Finds main
That being said I do like your White/Stax’esque build, and would be happy to show you some of my other builds and test sometime. I’ve been a fan of parfait since it kicked my butt in Vintage days in 2003-5 and worked on it with local guys back then, so to play it in Legacy is awesome
Last edited by yespuhyren; 07-19-2012 at 01:16 AM.
Hi!
My name is Raphaël Caron and I'm the original Deck Parfait designer (you can read my old primer at http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/v...k_Parfait.html). 12 years later, Parfait has fallen out of flavour in Vintage, but the unbanning of Land Tax in Legacy incited me to give it a try in this popular format.
Here's my current version, as I'm playing it in local tournaments in Quebec City.
Artifacts
2x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Pithing Needle
4x Mox Diamond
4x Scroll Rack
2x Wildfield Borderpost
2x Batterskull
1x Grafdigger's Cage
Enchantments
4x Land Tax
2x Humility
2x Oblivion Ring
Lands
15x Plains
1x Karakas
4x Crystal Vein
1x Mistveil Plains
Planeswalkers
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Spells
3x Enlightened Tutor
4x Path to Exile
3x Noxious Revival
3x Terminus
Sideboard:
1x Rule of Law
1x Pithing Needle
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Moat
1x Cursed Totem
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Humility
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Timely Reinforcements
4x Banishing Stroke
This is a list I like very much but it's still in development.
Having read numerous Parfait threads after the unbanning of Land Tax, I decided to give some new cards a try, namely Crystal Vein and Wildfield Borderpost. I fell in love with Veins and Borderpost is actually very good, allowing me to cut Zuran Orb.
The new hotness in Parfait though is the addition of Noxious Revival over Argivian Find. Having played the card in EDH, I knew the sheer versatility would compensate largely for the payment of 2 life. Noxious Revival plays the same role as Argivian Find, with some significant bonuses:
- 0 mana cost;
- allows you to reuse ANY card;
- synergy with miracle cards;
- anti-reanimator card;
- etc.
I'm happy with the 2 Elspeth/2 Batterskull package, since those kill cards don't interact negatively with Humility, Parfait's strongest card.
I'm still considering Swords over Paths, even though Path seems superior in this build.
I'll probably drop the Moat for a Jester's Cap as well.
Questions? Comments?
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