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Parfait -
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.
(source: dictionary.com)
Parfait is a control deck that has been around for a while, and is now considered by many to be sub-par. Parfait has, throughout its history, relied on the engine of land tax and scroll rack to generate card advantage, by basically allowing it to draw four cards a turn. Originally, parfait used sacred mesa as a win condition, and when onslaught came out, some players switched to mobilization. With mirrodin, goblin charbelcher is the finisher of choice for most, due to its excellent synergy with land tax.
There are several ways to build parfait. The classic deck was mono-white, and used only plains. Other builds use red for blood moon and red elemental blast/pyroblast. Mountains also have synergy with goblin charbelcher.
Some parfait decks use blue for force of will and counterspell. Believe it or not, mana drain isn't all that useful for parfait, due to the deck's almost meditative pace. Extra mana will not help a parfait player very often. Blue also allows for several sideboard options, including hurkyll's recall, which is seeing more and more play with the unrestricted-ness of mishra's workshop. blue elemental blast and hydroblast are not slouches in the sideboard either.
Classic (pre-mirrodin) parfait:
This deck used the parfait engine (land tax/scroll rack), sometimes augmented by tithe, to get card advantage throughout the game, and used cards like humility to slow its opponent's creatures down. swords to plowshares and balance were the deck's removal, sometimes along with wrath of god and the abyss. Games against parfait were very slow, and the deck used abeyance to allow it to play its win condition, sacred mesa or mobilization.
basic mono-white classic parfait skeleton:
land:
plains
artifacts:
mox diamond
black lotus
mox pearl
2 zuran orb
4 scroll rack
enchantments:
4 land tax
3 mobilization/sacred mesa
ivory mask
humility
sometimes, aura of silence
standard stuff:
4 swords to plowshares
balance
1 or so wrath of god
4 abeyance
4 argivian find
3 or 4 tithe
newer sets have brought many new tools to Parfait, including the new win condition: goblin charbelcher and a new lock with isochron scepter and orim's chant. as such, parfait has changed greatly from its humble beginnings. Here is the decklist that I have been playing. It splashes red for blood moon, red elemental blast, and sideboard rack and ruin.
land: 18
7 plains
3 mountain
2 plateau
1 chrome mox
1 mox diamond
1 sol ring
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 black lotus
parfait engine: 16
4 land tax
4 scroll rack
4 tithe
4 isochron scepter
random control: 18
1 zuran orb
1 humility
1 ivory mask
2 blood moon
1 balance
4 swords to plowshares
4 orim's chant
4 red elemental blast
win: 8
1 enlightened tutor
3 goblin charbelcher
4 argivian find
sideboard: 15
3 wrath of god
1 blood moon
2 humility
2 ivory mask
3 rack and ruin
4 tormod's crypt
Some people substitute a few plateau for plains or mountains in this build, though four is not really advisable. Plateau cannot be fetched using land tax, and so one must rely on tithe.
The black splash has a few advantages. The Abyss is an excellent weapon against creatures (except, of course, superman) and black has tutors that are far more powerful than white's or red's. demonic tutor, demonic consultation, vampiric tutor, yawgmoth's will, and diabolic tutor could all make appearances in a black/white build.
basic black-white current parfait skeleton:
land:
plains
swamp
a few scrubland
artifacts:
mox diamond
black lotus
mox pearl
mox jet
chrome mox
2 zuran orb
4 scroll rack
enchantments:
4 land tax
3 goblin charbelcher
ivory mask
humility
sometimes, aura of silence
1 or 2 The abyss
standard stuff:
4 swords to plowshares
balance
1 or so wrath of god
4 orim's chant
4 isochron scepter
4 argivian find
new black stuff:
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic consultation
1 yawgmoth's will ?
diabolic tutor?
necropotence?
yawgmoth's bargain?
duress? (good vs other control or combo)
chains of mephisopheles? (great against combo)
A blue splash allows the parfait player some more tech, including countermagic (force of will and counterspell. interestingly enough, not mana drain), sideboard options (hurkyll's recall, to name one) , and card drawing (ancestral recall, anyone?).
basic blue skeleton:
land:
plains
island
artifacts:
mox diamond
black lotus
mox pearl
mox sapphire
chrome mox
2 zuran orb
4 scroll rack
enchantments:
4 land tax
3 goblin charbelcher
2 aura of silence
standard stuff:
4 swords to plowshares
balance
4 orim's chant
4 argivian find
4 isochron scepter
new blue stuff:
4 force of will
4 counterspell
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
CARDS THAT DON'T BELONG:
creatures:
one of parfait's strengths is that it is utterly creatureless. to add some and turn it semi-aggro would just result in your opponent using whatever removal they have on your beaters. classic White Weenie sometimes used tax/rack with empyrial armor on a shadow creature, but that was a long time ago, and when was the last time WW was a force in type one?
wrath of god:
not maindeck. four swords to plowshares, four isochron scepters, and one balance (with minimal tutoring) is enough to handle aggro decks in game one. slap that StP on a scepter, and you are set versus mono black, TnT, angry hermit, dragon, mad-dragon, madness (mostly), or most other decks you can name! (GAT too). sideboard it in, since they will add their anti-control sideboard so you will need a little more juice.
mana crypt:
have you ever played parfait? don't you know that its games can last around fifteen turns? mana crypt isn't good when it takes away more than half of your life total.
mana drain (blue splash):
because of parfait's extremely sedentary play style, mana drain will wind up dealing you some damage more than half the time. that could kill you versus aggro or some combo. counterspell is just better in this case.
random other mana acceleration:
no. end of story. parfait does not want speed at the cost of card advantage.
nev's disk:
bad bad bad bad bad bad. it may kill all of your opponent's stuff, but parfait relies HEAVILY on its enchantments and artifacts. in fact, pernicious deed can own you real bad, and that (and disk) is why some people go with aura of silence.
OTHER WAYS TO CHANGE THE DECK:
sideboard options:
in black or red, removal is a good idea. especially artifact removal. red elemental blast, smother, diabolic edict, pyroclasm, rack and ruin, shattering pulse, pulverize, whatever. metagame this.
other types of control are also good sideboard effects. blood moon, more humility or ivory mask, hurkyll's recall, submerge, echoing truth, blue elemntal blast, gloom (oh wait, no), engineered plague. the sky is the limit!
maindeck changes:
parfait is very easy to metagame, due to the existence of three distinct viable builds and excellent sideboard possibilities. if you scout, and find out that everyone is going super aggro, play the black one with the abyss and other removal sideboarded. if you find out everyone is going combo, play the blue one with countermagic. if everyone is playing control, use the red one with red elemental blast and blood moon. or the black one with duress. you can also do things like MD hurkyll's recall, rack and ruin, humility, ivory mask, diabolic edict or anything else to suit your expected gauntlet.
specific cards:
aura of silence:
this card is good good good if you are worried about mass-destruction, since in type one it comes mostly in the form of powder keg, nev's disk, and pernicious deed. any of these can destroy you. aura is useful because it can not only destroy disk/keg, but it makes deed harder to use and then blow on the same turn.
seal of cleansing:
good if you expect to fight against null rod, and not the deed.
story circle:
with the prevalence of combo and control in type one, this seems to me like more of a sideboard card right now. it is, however, an excellent option against sligh, stompy, or suicide, when your other stuff just doesnt work or gets stopped somehow.
weathered wayfarer
bad with maindeck humility, but passable otherwise.
powder keg
need a little more juice against fast aggro? need to destroy lots and lots of moxen? just add some powder and some keg and you have powder keg!
color splashes:
because of the basic-land fetching power of land tax it is possible to play parfait with virtually any color combination, especially since tithe can fetch dual lands that have a plains aspect (scrubland, plateau etc). some players have been known to play "lime parfait" incorporating green effects like sterling grove and regrowth, and blur the line between enchantress and parfait. Other players splash two colors, playing builds such as WBR parfait, which has blood moon from red, the abyss from black, as well as additional, more powerful tutors. Other color combinations are also possible (WUR, WBU, WGU??? the sky seems to be the limit here) and may even make the deck more
consistant/powerful. |
