Parfait - Hardcore Control

[kuwv]

Origins: For those of us who are unfamiliar to parfait, it can be confusing and often difficult deck to play correctly. Parfait, which was originally created by K-Run(AKA Raphaël Caron) around 2001, is a mono-white control deck that utilizes a [card]land tax[/card]/ [card]scroll rack[/card] engine with [card]zuran orb[/card] to create massive card advantage and abuse silver bullets that deny an opponents strategy. The deck also has roots that can be traced as far back as the first balance deck, to the icy/ winter orb of ice age, plus the pt junk w/ [card]seismic assault[/card], and even the former Tier 1 parfait that killed via [card]Sacred Mesa[/card]. Soon after, problems with tutoring became more apparent as the speed of the format pushed this control deck to its limits. New and improved decks seem to just steamroll Parfait with fresh card pools, while whites best hope in tutoring; [card]golden wish[/card] (from the supposed white set) only proves that white will always have the worst tutoring in the game.

So fast forward a bit too why I think parfait is playable.  

TheDeck: Mono-White Control (Unspoiled)
 
Mana (19 cards)
[card]Plains[/card] x14  
1x [card]Lotus Petal[/card]    
1x [card]Mana Crypt[/card]  
1x [card]Mox Diamond[/card]    
1x [card]Chrome Mox[/card]
1x [card]Sol Ring[/card]
 
Control (21 cards)
4x [card]Orims Chant[/card]      
4x [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card]        
3x [card]Argivian Find[/card]
2x [card]Story Circle[/card]            
2x [card]Aura of Silence[/card]
2x [card]Disenchant[/card]            
1x [card]Humility[/card]    
1x [card]Karmic Justice[/card]    
1x [card]Enlightened Tutor[/card]    
1x [card]Balance[/card]    

Engines: (13 cards)
4x [card]Land Tax[/card]  
4x [card]Isochron Scepter[/card]    
3x [card]Scroll Rack[/card]  
2x [card]Zuran Orb[/card]

Kill: (7 cards)
4x [card]Raise the Alarm[/card]    
3x [card]Goblin Charbelcher[/card]    

The Sideboard (15 cards)
4x [card]Abeyance[/card]    
2x [card]Rule of Law[/card]      
2x [card]Dust to Dust[/card]    
2x [card]Tormods Crypt[/card]    
1x [card]Disenchant[/card]    
1x [card]Jesters Cap[/card]    
1x [card]Soldevi Digger[/card]    
1x [card]Tsabos Web[/card]  
1x [card]Karmic Justice[/card]

Synopsis: The card pool has broadened enough that parfait has a new host of tools to work with. Instead of being limited to the one time use of a spell and the limits of tutoring, parfait has been introduced a new tool to much the same effect as [card]scroll rack[/card] to its deck manipulation. Also the deck has access to new kill conditions that may work much the same way [card]cursed scroll[/card] and [card]sacred mesa[/card] do. It is also a very affordable deck at $150 on average, and is easily splash able to fit any specific meta.


The Chronies:
[card]isochron scepter[/card]: This card is the solution to Parfaits tutoring problem. Recursion A control opponent has no choice on rather to counter this or not, in much the same way the scroll rack draws counters. This in return gives the Parfait player more "have to counter threats" to its arsenal, and even the ability to bluff better then before. [card]argivian find[/card] gives the scepter an even sharper edge against mirror matchs' involving scepters.
Recommended 2-4

[card]orims chant[/card]: Anything from control, aggro, and combo should fear this first. If it hits first turn on a scepter the opponent is all but dead and will build up [card]land tax[/card] for you hastening your kill. Recommended 4

[card]swords to plowshares[/card]: Reanimator hate that doesn't forgive. If it hits a scepter most aggro decks should scoop.
Recommended 4

[card]raise the alarm[/card]: Another of parfaits new tricks. The benefit of this card is its ability to replace [card]Sacred Mesa[/card]. Alarm can be played early on to take out weenies in a way that mesa could never. It also has a bonus of becoming a kill condition against control, and can handle [card]smokestack[/card] better then T4K$S if imprinted on a scepter.
Recommended 2-4

[card]Abeyance[/card]: This should make it easier against control and combo. Almost surely you should side out 4x swords for this (unless dragon, then side out the alarm). It cuts the number of storm effects severely crippling [card]tendrils of agony[/card]
Recommended 2 or 4 side.


Protection:
[card]Argivian Find[/card]: This recursion should fish out counters when you know your opponent has them. When you have them in hand you should push the opponent to the limits of their hand with debilitating artifacts or enchantments that you have stored. Otherwise it's a good effect against aggro decks that main destruction or side it in and in no circumstance should these be sided out unless you have full knowledge of your opponent.
Recommended 3-4

[card]Story Circle[/card]: This is card above all else that will save you against burn, goblins, stompy, or even hold off a rampaging hulk(Dr. Teeth)
Recommended 1-2
           
[card]Aura of Silence[/card]: Moxes never looked more expensive and [card]goblin welder[/card]s have to work harder to get the best of it destroyed. This will also be the card that you need most to take out nev. disk if landstill is played in your meta.
Recommended 2-3 1 side if possible

[card]Humility[/card]: Creatures win games. Whether it's a [card]morphling[/card] or a [card]goblin welder[/card] just make them 1/1 tykes your soldiers will mop up. This will keep you alive with [card]zuran orb[/card].
Recommended 1-2    

[card]Karmic Justice[/card]: [card]Pernicious deed[/card] is bad against you, but if this is out it's worse for them.
Recommended 1-3
   
[card]Enlightened Tutor[/card]/ [card]Balance[/card]: Broken    

The Kill Option:
[card]goblin charbelcher[/card]: Finally the most important piece to make this deck list competitive. The problem with [card]sacred mesa[/card] was that it is to slow. With this condition just laying a [card]land tax[/card] achieves its goal. This card also has an advantage of dealing colorless damage to creatures and players alike.


Side:
[card]Rule of Law[/card]: Side this in whenever you play against combo and maybe even control(untested) as it slows them to a crawl while the parfait player can just play abilities to further setup the win.
-2x [card]story circle[/card] +2 of these.    

[card]Dust to Dust[/card]: Mass artifact hate mainly against TnT, T4K$S, and mask.
-2x [card]story circle[/card] +2 of these.  

[card]Tormods Crypt[/card]: Dragon, tog, reanimator, or even any welder variants will get punished from these

[card]Jesters Cap[/card]: For decks with limited kill conditions. Best against control    
-1x [card]Humility[/card] +1 of these

[card]Soldevi Digger[/card]: Side this in against Dragon or any control deck that might be able to deck.    

[card]Tsabos Web[/card]: Many decks tend to run [card]wasteland[/card]s and manlands now. So feel obliged to make it harder for them.



Considerations: Parfait is a deck that fortunately may splash different colors for extra control. There are also other cards that a parfait player may add to their list based on their needs. What to play depends on the player and what their expected matchs' are.

-Cherry Parfait: Utillizes 2x [card]gorilla shaman[/card] mained with [card]blood moon[/card] for non-basic hate. Among the usual broken cards in parfait, [card]burning wish[/card] may be added to smooth over the tutoring problems even more.

-Blueberry Parfait: Utilizes [card]back to basics[/card] instead of blood moons, and may also main [card]cunning wish[/card]es and [card]stifle[/card]s. Broken cards that may be added to this deck can range from [card]ancestral recall[/card] to [card]tinker[/card].

-Lime Parfait: Utilizes [card]sterling grove[/card] to protect a heavy enchantment based parfait, and fetch spells such as [card]land grant[/card] to thin the deck out further. Also may take advantage of [card]sylvan library[/card] as an additional [card]scroll rack[/card]. Among the selection of broken cards [card]crop rotation[/card] and [card]regrowth[/card] may be added for additional tutoring and extra recurssion, respectfully.

-Dark Parfait: From the original creator of parfait. Utillizes [card]vindicate[/card], [card]blood moon[/card]s and black tutoring for control.

-[card]Ivory Mask[/card]: Former mainboard piece of the original Parfait that protected against threats such as [card]lightning bolt[/card], [card]mind twist[/card], [card]hymn to tourach[/card], [card]duress[/card] and even [card]stroke of genius[/card]

-[card]Sacred Mesa[/card]: The former kill conditon of the old parfait. While being able to create quallity 1/1 flying tokens, its upkeep

-[card]mobilization[/card]: While not having a limitation like that of the mesa, the cost for each token is more exspensive and flying 1/1's are better then ones that don't tap.

-[card]spirit cairn[/card]: While this is an interesting card it is a totally different breed of parfait that demands that the deck be redesigened with its use, and so is out of scope of this descussion.

-[card]moat[/card]: This cards is amazing and is almost even better then [card]humility[/card], but it doesn't stop [card]morphling[/card]s, [card]psychatog[/card]s, [card]goblin welder[/card]s or even [card]seige-gang commander[/card]. Play it if you can afford it.

-[card]tithe[/card]: Land tutor that affords a parfait player dual lands that can be searched for. Also makes a decent imprint for [card]isochron scepter[/card]. See also dark parfait.



I hope this was informative, and will give some hope for white enthusiast. Enjoy!

Edit: Spelling is tech + I believe a few things needed to be stated clearer

[Matt]

I've broken a great number of Scepter-Chant 'locks' by either Wishing in response (or EOT) for something to kill the Scepter, or by countering the Chant copy and just dropping a Deed during my mainphase, then wiping the board. Chant really isn't a very good lock against anything with Wishes, or anything with MD artifact hate (which is virtually always instant-speed).

[Machinus]

This build seems a little clunky. Raise the alarm is unncessary if you are running belcher. If you are not going to be splashing any colors, I think there is a better build, especially for belcher. If you are using belcher, there should be mountains in your maindeck.

Here is a build from over a year ago:

Pre Mirrodin Parfait:

//Draw 8

4x Land Tax
3x Scroll Rack
1x Library of Alexandria

//Utility 7

4x Argivian Find
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Soldevi Digger
1x Replenish

//Disruption 17

4x Orim's Chant
4x Abeyance
3x Aura of Silence
1x Ivory Mask
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

//Removal 5

4x Swords
1x Humility

//Support Cards 6

1x Planar Birth
1x Balance
1x Ivory Tower
1x Story Circle
2x Zuran Orb

//Kill 2

2x Mobilization

//Teh Mana 16 (22 if you count other lands)

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Serra's Sanctum
11x Plains


This build had 2x Mobilization in that place for the kill. In this structure, Mobilization + Humility replaces Moat + Mesa, as it was less expensive in terms of upkeep (and the $$$ of Moat) and as vigilance is still good when everything is a 1/1.

The enlightened doubled all the singletons, like story circle and ivory mask. I think the humility fluctuated between 1 and 2 maindeck. There is a somewhat low mana count, but since you wanted to get a land tax out as fast as possible, this doesn't hurt it too much.


Considering Mirrodin, Isochron could be very beneficial to this deck. Locking the opponent under chant or abeyance seems unlikely, as the first three turns are when the prevention is most important, and I don't think this deck is consistent enough to offer that kind of lock.

However, belcher is a more attractive option as a kill mechanism, and I think this deck should certainly splash red for it. If I were to construct a build for testing now, it might look something like this:


//Draw 8

4x Land Tax
3x Scroll Rack
1x Library of Alexandria

//Utility 10

4x Isochron Scepter
3x Argivian Find
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Ivory Tower
1x Zuran Orb

//Disruption 17

4x Orim's Chant
2x Abeyance
3x Aura of Silence
3x Bloon Moon
1x Ivory Mask
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

//Removal 5

4x Swords
1x Balance

//Kill 2

2x Charbelcher

//Teh Mana 18  ( + 5 colorless lands)

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Diamond
1x Chrome Mox
1x Sol Ring
1x Tolarian Academy
3x Mountain
8x Plains

I am not sure how much Isochron helps the deck. I would rather lock an opponent with Abeyance than Chant, since this deck deals with creatures, artifacts, and nonbasics pretty well. You will notice I took out the Humility, since you have no need for creatures. The Chrome helps the land disparity with Land Tax. There are eleven enchantments, but seven cost three or more; there are seventeen artifacts, fourteen of which cost two or less (fifteen if you count the lotus). Without the need for colored mana to activate the Belcher, Academy easily replaces Sanctum as a mana source.

Hope this helps with the deck, I would like to know how your testing goes.

- Machinus

[kuwv]

I've broken a great number of Scepter-Chant 'locks'...

@ Mat

I believe you misunderstand. Parfait wants to get its permanents out as quickly as possible, and what your saying is that I wouldn't use the chant as a [card]xantid swarm[/card]. Orim's chant should be used only to gain board position against control.

You will notice I took out the Humility, since you have no need for creatures.

@ Machinus

How does not playing creatures warent you to not play humility? And why are you using [card]ivory tower[/card] instead of [card]karmic justice[/card]? Raise the alarm is golden in my book as for chump blocking early and swarming later.

[Rainula]

I've been playing parfait for quite a while, in the beginning with k-runs deck and more recently with blueberry builds.  I "tink" blueberry builds have access to many tools that improve the consistency and potency of the deck. Without further ado, I give you my parfait build.

Kill
3-Goblin Charbelcher

TaxRack stuff
4-Land Tax
3-Scroll Rack
2-Zuran Orb

Isochron stuff
3-Isochron sceptor
4-Orim's Chant
4-Swords to Plowshares
3-Argivian Find
2-Disenchant

Utility
1-Tinker
1-Back to Basics
1-Mystical Tutor
1-Ancestral Recall
1-Moat
1-Humility
1-Story Circle
1-Balance
1-Enlightened Tutor
1-Ivory Mask
1-Memory Jar

Mana
3-Land Grant
1-Mana Vault
1-Mana Crypt
1-Grim Monolith
1-Sol Ring
1-Black lotus
1-Lotus petal
1-Mox Diamond
1-Mox Pearl
1-Mox Sapphire
7-Plains
1-Island
1-Savannah
1-Tropical Island

        I understand that quite a few of the card choices in this deck are strange at best, but they have been working well for me.  The deck has more synergy and explosiveness due to the low land count.  The four blue spells that are all key mean that having blue mana almost as consistently as white is important, if not critical.  Those two reasons are why land grant is in. The tutors that blue adds are irreplaceable to me.  Memory jar is great in a deck with lots of fast mana and Orim's Chant, plus it's another tinker target surprise(sp).  I imagine That might help with the controversial cards, now what do y'all think.

[kuwv]

That is a pretty wierd build. I am personally playing Blueberry myself and I enjoy it, but I have one question for you. If you are running only 8 basic lands and 3x land grant, wounldn't you only need 3x land tax as it pretty much becomes a midgame threat. Also I think you would be able to adjust the deck so that it would have 4x scroll racks if you would like.

I also think 2x humility is more imortant then moat, but thats just me.

[Rainula]

Cutting the land taxes given that I only have 8 basics seems ok, however, having four land tax and 3 land grant  that can only get the two duals means that an early cast or tinkered belcher can take many people by surprise and steal many games really early, especially for parfait.  I will give it a try though.  Any other thoughts. I've considered both 4 ScRack and 4 Isochron, but I usually find that with tutors three is best for both.  Love moat to much.

[thecapn]

Rainula: isn't Tithe unquestionably better than Land Grant in parfait? It often nets you 2 lands, allows you to run Tundra instead of Savannah and Tropical Island, you can scepter it to fuel scroll rack, it only costs W and is an instant, you don't have to reveal your hand, and often Land Grant's alternate casting cost will irrelevant because you have Land Tax land in your hand.  I'm guessing you just forgot about it...    Also other recent versions I've seen on other boards are running Tithe, any arguments against it kuwv?

[Rainula]

tried tithe, it is a good card.  However, although it might get you two lands, you cannot cast it for free, which translates to extra riskyness if part the goal was to decrease lands and improve timeliness of belcher kill.  The way I see land grant many things can happen. first, you can have a land and land grant first turn which (unless opp has already played two on first ahead of you, unlikely) causes land, declare land grant, land of other color and have one mana for other stuff(tithe depends on having white mana and only gets you more if the unlikely two land oponent above). Two, land grant and no land on startup could be good or bad depending on mox status(additionally, have been thinking about chrome what do you guys think) and matchup, ie force or no.  Three, you do not have land grant in your first hand, irrelevent because we're talking about whether or not to have land grant.  Benefits to land grant beyond color fixer.  Allows a lower land count in the deck without  additional risking mana screw (no land hand), save FoW.  Notice that tithe is actually worse than land grant if you don't have the mana to pay for it, land grant risks counter but so does tithe, but it is a color fixer and deck thinner/shuffler(gotta love the ScRack) just the same.

[kuwv]

I honestly forgot about it. I guess after I pulled it off my want list I haven't given it another thought since, and also I wrote this post up late last night anyway. I think it is worth a try parfait with a splash, although it is not free, but mainly because it can be imprinted unto a scepter. I think it should be included in the list above. Thanks, I'll update.  The only problems I think I have with it is its redundency on the parfait players hands.  

[jshields]

I really loved my parfait deck about a year ago when people first started to realize the good things that a black splash can create in there.  K-Run had first made some plans on how to make Parfait evil, but then he just somehow disappeared along with his now out of date primer.  What the heck happened and how do I restart playing parfait, if this plan seems at all good, in a very balanced Type 1 Metagame where there are many Dragon, Keeper, Trinisphere Control, and Gay-R fish control players?  Also, why did K-Run k-run?  Last, is this still an accurate parfait plan?


Parfait 2003 because my deck list is not here with me and before I realized I should be running Duresses, a few duals, and possibly vindicates (I miss the primer)

5 Plains
3 Scrubland
3 Plateau
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Serra's Sanctum
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria - one of my only 2 pieces of power
1 Mox Jet - the other part of my power
1 Mana Vault
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond

4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
2 Zuran Orb
2 Tithe

1 Wrath of God
1 Balance
1 Aura of Silence
1 Seal of Cleansing

2 Blood Moon
2 Story Circle
2 Humility

1 Burning Wish
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor

1 Enlightened Tutor
4 Argivian Find
1 Replenish

2 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Sacred Mesa - Null Rod is big in my area


Sideboard:
1 Vengeful Dreams
1 Defense Grid
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Jester's Cap
1 Isochron Scepter
2 Disenchant
1 Armageddon
2 Powder Keg
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Earthquake
1 Wrath of God
1 Decree of Justice
1 Second Sunrise

[Entropy]

Hey guys,

I played my version of cherry parfait in the T1 Tourney at Gem's in La Mirada yesterday. This is my first post, but I just wanted to contribute to some discussion.

I will preface this by saying it was my first time playing T1, and I really had no idea what the metagame was going to be in SoCal.

We were allowed 5 proxy cards, so I proxied power artifact mana.

Here's what I remember of my decklist:
7 Plains
3 Mountains
2 Plateau
1 Strip Mine
1 Black Lotus *
1 Mox Pearl *
1 Mox Ruby *
1 Mox Sapphire *
1 Mox Emerald *
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault

4 Isochron Scepter
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Orim's Chant
1 Abeyance
3 Argivian Find
1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Burning Wish
1 Balance

2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Story Circle
2 Humilty
4 Land Tax

3 Scroll Rack
2 Zuran orb
1 tormod's crypt

4 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Eternal Dragon


Sideboard:
3 tormod's crypt
1 seal of cleansing
2 gorilla shaman
3 bloody moon
2 slice and dice
1 wrath of god
1 rolling thunder
2 rule of law


Here's what I played:
stax - I got really lucky and he had to default the first game, got pwned 2nd game, got an early blood moon 3rd game.
Madness (with dragon combo) - lost 2 games in about 15 minutes...
ankh-Sligh - lost to land screw, won with a burning wished rolling thunder for 14, lost to land screw
nether void - his first turn ritual necro killed him, pernicious deed is bad, ended in draw, but I would have won with a few more turns, was waiting on the belcher, but it wouldn't come.


Based on the matches, I'd say the following things:
deck: -1 lotus petal -1 tormod's crypt, -1 eternal dragon, -1 charblecher, -1 abeyance, -1 isochron,  +1 mox diamond, +2 seal of cleansing, +1 karmic justice, +1 decree of justice, +1 city in a bottle
SB: -2 rule of law, -1 wrath of god, -1 seal of cleansing, +1 slice and dice +1 tormod's crypt, +1 replenish, +1 planar birth


The deck is a decent deck; it could get you into the top 8, but I don't think it will win you the tournament. It wasn't fast enough to play against madness, and it seems to die to artifact heavy decks since they draw a lot and cast really quickly. There's really no way for you to wipe the board of artifacts without hurting yourself.

The way I played the deck was trying to delay long enough and trying to see a lot of cards so I could ultimately belch for the kill in one shot.

About some of the cards you guys mentioned:
Abeyance - I don't think it's worth playing this card

Isochron - it might have been our meta, but the nether voids and the trinispheres make the spells cost 5 to cast. The deck doesn't get out enough mana for that type of thing

Wasteland - if you're going to belch for the kill, you don't really want to run into these since you can't remove them from the deck in any way

serra's sanctum - I found that I never really get THAT many enchantments on the board for it to really be effective. Sure, sometimes it might be really really nice to have, but most of the time, I don't think it's useful enough. Also, read the above argument about wastelands.

That's really all I can think of for now.

Also, to the guy above me, you really NEED to have 4 vindicates if you have black in the deck. A half-priced desert twister is too good to pass up.

[boink0r]

i'd like to see a list of blueberry parfait, if anyone can pm me one or post here that would be great

[kuwv]

I think I will be able to post a list probably later today. I have been working like a dog lately and haven't had any time.