Why is Parfait so terrible?

[jpmeyer]

I think one of the other problems is that while Parfait has these proactive solutions, they are one card solutions to single cards.  The Crypt won't stop the Twist, the Mask won't stop the Stroke, and so on.

The other problem that I see is a weakness against mass sweepers, with Upheaval and Pernicious Deed being the biggest by far.  Upheaval is probably worse because it can't even be played around with Karmic Justice.

[ZoneSeek]

Who really plays Upheaval in Type 1, though? Pernicious Deed is cancelled out by Karmic Justice and Replenish, even moreso in Enchantress, but still significantly in Parfait. If you can catch either deck without the Replenish or Justice, it does hurt; don't get me wrong. It's just that board sweepers aren't as nasty as you might think. Pernicious Deed is also rarely played in blue decks; decks that would be able to sweep the board and then counter the Replenish.

[jpmeyer]

I play Upheaval.  I really think that it has potential to be a player in the format because of Moxen.\n\n

[lambosa]

Wow.  I'm not really sure what I think about seeing this topic in here.  I don't post very often, as there are many more capable folks around, and i don't like to see good threads trashed up.  I'm a bit hesitant to reply now.  But in the hope that this topic can generate useful discussion, and at the very least dispel some myths...

Some things that have already been mentioned (by Smennen, Rico, and JP in particular):

First off, I think that the idea of 'The Big White House' is somewhat flawed; you are not playing for untouchability, but rather to drop one or two cards that will cripple your opponent long enough for you to win.

That being said, out of a ton of *different* hosers, there are always bound to be some that are dead, and you are basically hoping to mulligan/draw into the ones that you need.

On the draw engine:

I'm not sure that there is any other deck in Type I that gets away with running so many high casting-cost/mana intensive cards, and yet *this* is the deck that runs tax/rack.  I won't say that it doesn't work at all, but there is a certain amount of tension within the deck itself.

On the deck in general, and playskill:

It seems to me that every good Type I deck has the ability to 'go aggressive' when need be.  I think that Parfait can often snag the tempo, but sometimes lacks the follow-up to take the game.  In my experience, the single biggest mistake I've made with the deck is trying to play too defensively, and yet the offense is not always there.  This seems a little paradoxical, and I wonder what others think about it?  In a nutshell, I don't think of Parfait as a defensive deck, but I don't think that it has quite enough offense either.

On Metagame changes:

A year ago, I would have said that Parfait was a pretty solid deck, something akin to playing combo:  you'd be pretty happy playing against most any agressive deck, and still have at least a chance against control.  But with lots of new decks on the scene, things have changed.  Mask is a pretty scary matchup, Goblin Sligh and TnT aren't super, GroAtog is bad, and Keeper is *much* worse than it used to be (for Parfait ).  Add to that the fact that Mono black and (to a lesser extent) Mono blue are less prevalent, and the overall metagame has gotten a lot tougher for Parfait.

Alright.  I hope that this hasn't been too redundant, and that something good will come out of it, rather than beating dead horses.

lambosa

[ZoneSeek]

I suppose I should have clarified what I meant by "who plays Upheaval" - I meant it in more of a sense of "What decks play upheaval". I've never seen it in any decklist at all on here, perhaps you should open up a new thread and enlighten us on where you're using it and how it goes. Six mana is a VERY hefty pricetag.

A 'heave backed by a solid threat would be backbreaking, but what if you don't have that solid threat? They may simply lay out free mana, discard all of their Enchantments, and next turn Chant a Replenish through. Most of Parfait's artifacts have traditionally been very cheap, so they will be quick to lay out.

[Zherbus]

Not here. Moved.

[Arthur King]

kinda on the topic
i want to know why people dont play dustbowl in parfait
with tax, you have access to all the land in your deck basically
so why not use it for bowling out a lot of land?
has this ever been tested?
i think dustbowl would be awesome in parfait
for anyone who plays 4-5 strips
why not play a strip and a dustbowl, to make room for other spells?

[Kheoinn]

I was over at www.mtgnews.com, and I came across Masked_Rider's version of parfait.

It ran Solitary Confinement, and Spirit Cairn for the kill.

Solitary Confinement is amazing utility, covering ivory mask and story circle, and creates somewhat of a lock. He runs squee, but even without it, Tax+Rack will supply you with cards. At worst, its a fog that can be replenished back or argivian finded back when you need it.

What do you think of his idea?

[j_orlove]

Uh, we have 1+ threads about that deck (spirit cairn/confinement) going on right now in the unregitered user forum. You should discuss it there, not here.

I'm no parfait expert, so I don't really have much else to say.  

[Matt The Great]

Quote Pernicious Deed is also rarely played in blue decks; decks that would be able to sweep the board and then counter the Replenish.

Pernicious Deed is, however, often played in black decks; decks that can make you discard the Replenish, then sweep the board.

[Puschkin]

Some quick notes about Parfait´s bad performnce in the Invitational so far:
I cannot speak for  the other matches of course but Nimrod should have won ours. First game he just owned me, second game he allowed me to rearrange a misplay (due to misinterpreteion of Karmic Justice) and made a glaring mistake in Argivian Finding the wrong card (but did this shortly after disconnect so he might have lost overview). Third game was drawn out and I do not know if I could have won without that giant YawgWin.
So, that would be 2-4 instead of 1-5. And while it is true that the other win comes from a Parfait mirror match, it is unfair to blame the deck for it, because this also means that one deck has to lose.

[Radjammin]

After reading post in here, I think I know why Parfait losses.

Because it takes effort to win with Parfait.  In all of white, the only broken card is Balance.  Sure there are good enchantments and artifacts and enchantments, but to pay for their durability and re-play ability threw good spells like find and replenish they have to cost more.  I am talking about broken sorceries.  Over the years other colors have gotten Yawgwill and Stroke and Fact or Fiction and Duress and hymn and living and burning wish and white is still playing with it's Alpha Rares, Balance and wrath of God.  Thew all of R&D's attempts at making good white spells, the only one that comes close to power is Cataclysm which just doesn't work in most decks.  We thought we had something in Oblation recently, but yet it was just another balancing act, probaby worse.

So White can't win without broken instants or socreries? Of couse I am not saying that.  Threw great deck design KRUN make a very good winning machine.  It's just when the machine gets broke, it's hard to fix.  These other decks have just as good or worse deck design, but threw the power of broken instants and sorcers these decks are able to recover when the chips are down.  I once cast a humility and blood moon on the same turn and I still lost to a mox monkey.  Died to a monkey becuase it took an act of God to get these two cards in my hand and cast in time.  So where are white's broken instants and sorceries.  Don't say that white doesn't deserve something?  Just cause it's white, doesn't give R&D to make it suck.  White week my ass.   I am waiting till the playing grown is fair and then we can have a white week.  Damn Racist.

So if you take anything form my post take this: White can win, it just can't recover if the chips are down.

[ZoneSeek]

The reason discard isn't as big of a problem vs. Parfait and Enchantress (when it comes to the Pernicious Deed situation) is that both decks can hide Replenishes from their hand. Parfait can Rack a Replenish on top of his library in response to a deed, and Enchantress can simply keep it as the first card of their library while Sylvaning. It's something I do quite often if i'm facing a deck that has discard capabilities. Since both decks are sorcery-speed for the most part, a card on top of the library is as good as one in your hand when it's not your turn.

[Matt The Great]

Radjammin, I am going to beat you with the word 'through' until you know it in five languages.

EDIT:
Spanish - por
French -  à travers\n\n

[-CF-]

Norwegian: Gjennom
German: Durch

You find two others, Matt.

--
Chris

[MoreFling]

Dutch = Door.

[Radagast]

Hungarian: Keresztül

[Gabethebabe]

I wanted to add the Japanese translation, but somebody through my dictionary in the trash