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

**(nameless one)** · 06-20-2012 12:08 AM

PARFAIT

Originally Posted by (nameless one)

Parfait - par·fait (pär-f)
n.
1. A dessert made of cream, eggs, sugar, and flavoring frozen together and served in a tall glass.
2. A dessert made of several layers of different flavors of ice cream or ices, variously garnished and served in a tall glass.

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:

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

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.

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:

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

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.

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:

Land Tax + Scroll Rack

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:

Selecting 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:

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