[Deck] RW Belcher Parfait

[keys]

I was browsing Waterbury 2006-07-30 results and I noticed a rogue Parfait deck by Brennan Bell.  Regardless of it's unimpressive 99th place, the deck immediately filled me with so much nostalgic glee that I had to wonder, will Parfait ever be viable again?  Remember that Land Tax is banned in Legacy, leaving Vintage the only format where it is legal.  Let me copy, paste, and reformat Brennan's decklist:

4 Gorilla Shaman

4 Solitary Confinement
4 Land Tax
2 Blood Moon
2 Aura Of Silence
2 Seal Of Cleansing

4 Lightning Helix
4 Swords To Plowshares
3 Orim's Chant
1 Balance
1 Enlightened Tutor

4 Scroll Rack
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Isochron Scepter

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Mountain
8 Plains

Sideboard:
4 Tormod's Crypt
1 Aegis Of Honor
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
1 Seal Of Cleansing
2 Abeyance
1 Shatter
2 Wrath Of God

Front and center we have the core Parfait "engine"-- Land Tax and Scroll Rack.  But these are secondary to the most important card in the deck; a card from Judgement that never saw much type 2 play: Solitary Confinement, which reads...

2W
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Solitary Confinement unless you discard a card.
Skip your draw step.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.

Confinement stops every win condition that's played in Vintage, and at 2W, it fits the mana curve quite well.  Most importantly, it stops Gifts Ungiven, Tendrils of Agony, and, well, creatures.  Having 4 maindeck is a must, and doubles on the table only force twice the answers from your opponent.  Enchantments are the most underplayed cards in T1, and few decks carry more than 1 enchantment removal spell pre-sideboad.

Grim Long or Gifts: Chain of Vapor/Echoing Truth your Confinement.
Parfait: Orim's Chant in response.

This only gets easier with REB backup.

Of course there are many changes I would make to this list provided above.  The first thing I notice is the use of Isochron Scepter.  Isochron is a fun card, but in Vintage 99% of the time it's just card disadvantage.  It is too vulnerable to artifact hate and bounce, putting all your imprintable spells at risk.  Moreover, it forces you to build the deck around it.  I can see in this version that Lightning Helix on Isochron is the win condition.  Not only is this fragile, but Helix is pretty bad without Isochron.  Also, imprinting Orim's Chant is cute against aggro, but worthless against combo where there's only one critical turn.

Removing Isochron lets us play cards that are much stronger on their own.  Lets move into card discussion:

Gorilla Shaman - If our strategy was mana denial, then this guy would fit right in.  Our goal is to stop our opponent, not slow him down.  Every card in parfait needs to have a strong influence on the game.  Mox monkey also gets hit with friendly fire from Pyroclasm and Slice and Dice.  Also, having no creatures in the deck renders all your opponent's creature removal dead cards in hand.

Aura of Silence and Seal of Cleansing - A total of 4 is recommended maindeck.  Since they're enchantments, they're tutorable, and can be recurred with Argivian Find.  Aura of Silence is also great against Storm based decks, making it much more difficult to play cheap artifact mana quickly.  But the extra W in the casting cost, which may seem minimal, is actually fairly prohibitive.  I can't decide if it should be cut for more Seals.

Wasteland - Doesn't work with Charbelcher.  Like I said before, the goal here isn't mana denial.

Blood Moon - I suppose this fulls under "mana denial," but it's more of a must-answer than either Wasteland or Mox Monkey.  It has proven to win games by itself.  The game one surprise factor can be nasty.

Swords To Plowshares - Efficient creature removal that also hits Collosus and Legendary Angels.

Orim's Chant - An answer to Combo.  If Confinement isn't set up yet, and even after it is, Chant offers that extra protection.  (Illustrated in example above).

Balance - Works like a cheap Wrath of God, or a Geddon when you have Zuran Orb.

Sensei's Divining Top - The Top shines when Tax is running.  I think it's good enough as a 1-of.

Zuran Orb - Sometimes needed to get Land Tax started.  It also gives you some level of safety against aggro when Confinement isn't on the board.

Enough for now, here's a decklist:

RW Belcher Parfait

2 Squee, Goblin Nabob

4 Land Tax
4 Solitary Confinement
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Seal of Cleansing

4 Swords To Plowshares
3 Orim's Chant
3 Argivian Find
1 Balance
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Burning Wish

4 Scroll Rack
2 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Zuran Orb

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby

3 Plateau
2 Mountain
7 Plains

Sideboard:
1 Pyrostatic Pillar
2 Blood Moon
3 Tormod's Crypt
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Dust to Dust/Shattering Spree
1 Pyroclasm/Slice and Dice
1 Tariff
1 Morningtide

Cards I haven't metioned yet:

Goblin Charbelcher - Stronger kill, period.  It has natural synergy with Land Tax.  Even if you reveal an early Plateau, it will usually do lethal.  If not, you get to stack your deck.  Once Charbelcher is adopted as the kill, it streamlines the deck a lot.

Squee, Goblin Nabob - Since Confinement is our MVP card, Squee makes sure we can pay the upkeep if Scroll Rack/Land Tax isn't running.  They can even work together for additional card advantage.  I can't imagine any situation where you'd actually want to cast him, but he's red just in case.

Burning Wish - It's wonderful, although it clogs up the Sideboard.  It can be gamebreaking at some times, and too slow other times.  This card requires more discussion.  And of course it's effectiveness depends on what we put in the sideboard.

Argivian Find - Cleans up after a counter or a destroying effect.  Also picks up cards that were pitched to Confinement.  I don't like to play without at least 2.

Mana Base:

All Artifact Mana - The deck needs acceleration for its relatively expensive enchantments and artifacts.  Also helps thin the deck of land for Belcher.

Plateau - 3 might be too many or too few.  It's a delicate question, which I can't really give the definitive answer to.

Basics - 9 seems to be adequate.

Sideboard:

Pyrostatice Pillar - Versus Storm
Tormod's Crypt - Versus Yawg Will
REB - Versus control

My wishbox choices are debatable, but they have to be efficient and versatile.

More options -

Gamble
Wildfire
Armageddon
Trash for Treasure
Winds of Change
Wheel of Fortune
Planar Birth
Replenish

That's all for now.  Let me know what you think about my card choices or the archtype in general.

[Moxlotus]

Way too slow to handle combo game 1.  Confinement doesn't come down till turn 3 or 2 at the earliest (and less often without the full set of moxen).  During this time you have only 3 chants to disrupt combo.  They will run over you.  I honestly think if you want to have a chance game 1 you need around 7 Chants/Abeyances maindeck.

[wethepeople]

Way too slow to handle combo game 1.  Confinement doesn't come down till turn 3 or 2 at the earliest (and less often without the full set of moxen).  During this time you have only 3 chants to disrupt combo.  They will run over you.  I honestly think if you want to have a chance game 1 you need around 7 Chants/Abeyances maindeck.

Unfortunately, that is true. This is the exact reason why the deck only managed to take 99th place.

[keys]

Game 2, 11 cards come from the Sideboard to fight combo, including Pyrostatic Pillar, Tormod's Crypt, REB, and the Morningtide if that's even necessary.  It's also possible to play 3 Pillars maindeck instead of the Blood Moons and Aura of Silence.  I made the change to the decklist above to show you what it would look like.

[zeus-online]

Why would you EVER play morningtide over tormod's crypt? :/ i don't get it?

/Zeus

[keys]

Why would you EVER play morningtide over tormod's crypt? :/ i don't get it?

/Zeus

Because it's wishable.  If Wish wasn't used then there'd be room for a 4th Crypt in the side.

[zeus-online]

Hmm i see but thats 2WR to remove a graveyard from the game.....at sorcery speed? Thats pretty slow.

/Zeus

[keys]

I agree but that's the price you pay for versatility.

[netherspirit]

I'm currently running a RBW version of this. I've found that Gamble is phenomenal, it serves as a tutor when your hand is full, and as Entomb for Squee when your hand's running low. My current list works by decking your opponent rather than actually killing them. I found that Squee + Solitary Confinement = gg. I haven't tested using Land Tax because of my low basics count, but the lock is easy enough to achieve with Squee anyway. My list is:

Lands (16)
4 Scrubland
2 Badlands
3 Flooded Strand
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Plains
2 Plateau

Critters (3)
3 Squee

Disruption (18)
1 Balance
4 Orim's Chant
3 Abeyance
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress

Tutor/Card Draw (12)
1 Demonic Consultation (you only ever go for Confinement or Squee, so removing cards doesn't matter much).
4 Night's Whisper
2 Gamble
1 Entomb
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Enchantments (4)
4 Solitary Confinement (needs to be a 4-of, any less makes it hard to get the lock established in time).

Artifacts (7)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
5 Moxen

There, it obviously works differently to your deck, however, I feel it is a good build. If we ignore the black, there are still a few differences - the inclusion of Gamble, 7 Chant effects, more Squees, and less enchantment protection/recursion. While I'll admit my lack of enchantment protection is a weakness, I feel you could probably apply the rest of what I've said to your current list. Well, that's just my (probably very wrong) opinion, I hope it helps though. Good luck with the deck!!! Oooh, and you may want to try Academy Rector.

[wethepeople]

what happens when your opponent builds up a perfect kill then just bounces your Confinement for a turn? Tendrils can get right by Confinement (life loss, not damage), so Gifts and Combo dont care that you have it out all game.

[UR]

Tendrils of Agony reads;

Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
Storm

Solitary Confinement reads;

At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Solitary Confinement unless you discard a card.
Skip your draw step.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.

So it doesn't get by Solitary Confinement because of the target.

[netherspirit]

I guess if you go down the Academy Rector route you can use something like Privileged Position.

[zeus-online]

How do you protect the confinement? everyone is playing bounce spells, often multiples.

/Zeus

[Kowal]

Being much of a Parfait buff back in its prime (and several months afterwards) it is with great sorrow I must inform you the deck is awful and won't beat much of anything.

A quick rundown of your matchups:

2c Storm Combo:  You have all of 3 actual threats to the deck, and 7 would-be threats, except they're easily removed.  With no draw engine, you cannot expect to see more than two of these threats in a given game.  PitchLong, coincidentally, has as many bounce/counters as you have threats, but instead of diddling around for 47 turns, it wins turn two or three pretty much every game.  Here is how your match will go, given a phenomenal hand.
You:  Land, go.
Them:  A draw7, brainstorm, or other card that doesn't necessarily win but might.  You might squeeze off a chant here, and it might even resolve, leaving them with enough gas to go off but not to break through a counterwall.  A deck like Fish wins here.
You:  Land, Pillar.
Them:  Counter that, or let it resolve and bounce it, or just keep playing lands until they find a tutor for Chain of Vapor.  It's not like you're giving them much of a clock here.  If this were Sphere of Resistance, they might have more trouble finding that Chain of Vapor given their tutors cost 4, but even then, in this deck preventing them from finding it for one turn does nothing for you, since your board position doesn't develop in to something pitchlong can't beat.  Either this turn, or within two turns from now, they bounce your hate card and go off.  If they need to bounce two, they can pretty easily suck it up, take the 10 damage or so, and find Will while they set up.

5c Storm:  They go off turn one and two with regularity.  The worst of their hands either don't go off or go off turn three.  The majority of your hate comes down on the same turn their weakest hands win the game.  They're less resiliant to the hate than 2c storm, but it doesn't matter because they go off before you become a concern.

Dragon:  Ironically this is one of your better matchups.  It's still bad.  Without pressure to make the dragon player go off early in to your hate, they have many turns to build up an unbeatable hand, and just win.  For any Dragon player worth their weight in salt, it's a simple matter to just play Xantid, or build up some duresses, or something else to prevent any silliness from Plow and Chant, and then just bounce Seal and go off.

Control Slaver:  You have no cards we care about.  Everything in your deck is non-threatening.  I can beat you by sandbagging Echoing Truth.

Gifts:  They go off very early, they do so with 10+ counters in their deck, and ignore 80% of the cards in your deck.

Workshops of all sizes:  Your best matchup, and arguably still pretty bad.  Stax is going to have access to Ray of Revelation in game two, which ruins your deck.  Workshop aggro will have more trouble, but that's because their deck is also bad.

Fish:  A nightmare for you, because there are only 4 cards in your entire deck they care about.  Their 'brokenness' slot negates both your kill condition and your draw engine.  Roughly 65% of their deck addresses your life total, and unlike oldstyle parfait there is no tutor for Ivory Tower play to ignore aggro decks, or anything remotely as good.  Jotun Grunt is much better than Zuran Orb (which, by the way, also loses to Null Rod)


In conclusion...  What exactly are you hoping to beat with any regularity?

[wethepeople]

Solitary Confinement reads;

At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Solitary Confinement unless you discard a card.
Skip your draw step.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.

So it doesn't get by Solitary Confinement because of the target.

ah my mistake. IMO it still sucks though.