3cc Keeper. is it good now? and, building and playing it right.

[forests failed you]

From my personal Keeper players tend to fall into a specific model or player type; in particular, they tend to be fairly conservative players (in many cases far from the edge of Vintage innovation), they tend to be backward looking, and in many instances they are nostalgic Magic players. What I mean by this is that quite often Keeper, 4cc, 3cc, or whatever you want to call 'the deck' is selected by a particular pilot due to the familiarity of its style of play, or because of a sentimental attachment to the Keeper archetype.

However, this is article is not a an arguement to validate the merits of playing an old or outdated control deck based on my own nostalgic biases; nor is it an attempt to make a bad deck good again.  Rather, I hope it can be the start of a thoughtful and insightful dialog into the relevance of a particular deck strategy, that in the current metagame, seems to once again be strong. In a varied field full of Blue/Green Fish, (with Chalice of the Void) and Mana Drain combo decks, the defensive nature intrinsic to UBW control seems to make it a fairly strong deck choice. So without further adieu I present a retooled/metagamed version of 3cc, and an explanation of why I chose certain cards, or elected to leave out others; as well as an analysis of sideboard strategies against other key match ups within the current metagame.

3cc Keeper List, by Brian DeMars

//Counters
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

//Drawing
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Skeletal Scrying
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Sensei's Divining Top

//Tutoring
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Cunning Wish
1 Tinker

//Removal
1 Mind Twist
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Balance

//Miscellany
1 Time Walk
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Crucible of Worlds

//Win
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Decree of Justice

//Artifact mana
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

//Lands
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

//Sideboard
SB: 2 Energy Flux
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 2 Arcane Laboratory
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Duress
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt (or, 1 Coffin Purge, 1 Tormod's Crypt)
SB: 1 Skeletal Scrying

Let's start with the basics.  It should be obvious to all that Red has been cut from this deck completely; a change that after great efforts of testing, and extremely successful tournament outings, has proven to be extremely worthwhile.  Cutting Gorilla Shaman and Red Elemental Blast hurts, and the loss of Fire/Ice is also fairly annoying; but it is completely necessary in order to have a competitive Mana base.  I have dropped Red in order to keep the Wastelands main deck, as well as provide the room to play 2 Basic Island.  (Also, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is functionally a basic Island in this deck).
I know there has been some debate lately over whether 3cc decks should take on Red or White as the third color.  Of course that call should always be made on the merits of what decks you want to beat, and right now, as far as I can tell there is a lot of U/G Fish, FCG, and a lot of Gifts.  White seemed the stronger choice because of the powerful creature removal it provides the deck, via Balance and Swords. Also, I found the Red version had very poor ability to remove the formats key enchantments, Chains of Mephistopheles, In the Eye of Chaos, or Oath of Druids.  Also, I noticed when playing Red 3cc because of the Shamans and Wastelands there was a tendency to want to spend large efforts trying to attack an opponent's Mana base.  And while this was sometimes useful, most decks are optimized well enough that unless my opponent was Mana screwed from the start, exherting resources to stunt Mana development was in many ways a futile strategy and they could easily draw cards and not lose much tempo.
While this 3cc list utilizes land destruction in the form of Wasteland and Strip Mine, killing an opponents Mana is not one of the decks primary objectives.  Although the deck can sometimes do stupid things (Crucible, Strip Mine), it isn't part of 3cc's main objectives.  Rather, the purpose of the strip effects is to kill problematic non-basics that pose specific problems to 3cc's inherent strategy.  Boseiju, Bazaar of Baghdad, Library of Alexandria, Mishra's Workshop, Mishra's Factory, and Tolerian Academy are specific examples of lands that try to out 'advantage' 3cc in various ways.  Also, the Waste effects are key when trying to resolve important spells when an opponent has two blue lands untapped during your main phase and has Mana Drain threatening to counter Tinker, Mind Twist, Balance, or Yawgmoth's Will.

EXPLANATION OF THE MANA BASE

Although the addition of Wasteland, Strip Mine, and Library of Alexandria lower the capacity of the deck to play the popular model of 4-5 basic Islands, to a lower 2-3; I have very rarely found myself Mana screwed while playing this deck in tournaments.   
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is actually insane in this deck; it does so much for so little.  Firstly, for almost all practical purposes it can't be Strip Mined or Wastelanded, because it can be bounced.  However, the advantages don't end there.  It can go back to its controllers hand in order to get 7 in the grip for Library; it can be bounced, Brainstromed, and Fetched away in the late game; and it also can help to do some interesting Land Destruction when combined with Balance.  The only situations that make it inferior to Island are that it is Legendary, and is hosed by Blood Moon and Back to Basics.  However, it isn't susceptible to Boil, Choke, or Sundering Titan.

EXPLANATION OF THE DRAW AND THE THREATS

Keeper is, at its heart, one of the purest examples of Card Advantage control in Vintage.  Its primary style of play is to diffuse its opponent's early threats and then gain control of the game through crippling card advantage and counter.  The Skeletal Scrying/Brainstorm draw engine provides the deck with the capacity to gain huge card advantage (sometimes five or six cards for one spell), with the casting of one spell.  Not to mention that Scrying is a great sink for the main phase Mana provided from Mana Drain.
The key difference of this deck list from preexisting 3cc lists is the means through which the game is played out. Although many of the components of this list have been borrowed from preexisting 3 and 4cc lists, when brought together in this specific incarnation they seem to be particularly powerful in the current metagame.  The addition of one Sensei's Divining Top, one Crucible of Worlds, one Isochron's Scepter and Colossus, plus Tinker, has proved to be awesome.  Scepter, Crucible and Colossus provide a Trio of extremely useful Tinker targets, (two of which are easy two, even one drops depending upon the hand).  Isochron's Scepter and Crucible of Worlds are both good inclusions in 3cc because they provide extreme, and potentially, unlimited forms of card advantage over time.
As for Sensei's Divining Top, I can't say enough good things about it.  The card on its own is insane, but when combined with 3cc's numerous tutors, Fetches (+Crucible), and other shuffle effects makes Top a means of finding almost whatever you need, and also, a good way of never having to miss land drops (even over the long game, or in draw-go types of mirror matches).  Which lastly brings me to Colossus:  he isn't elegant, he isn't techy, but he beats the living crap out of the aggro match ups when he comes down early, via Tinker.  The Decree of Justice has also been a strong choice in the control Mirror since it is uncounterable and gets cycled during your opponent's end step.  I selected Decree over Angel because as seems to be common belief Angel is just too slow and doesn't do enough in the Control or Combo match ups.  Although she is good against aggro, Swords, Balance, Scepter, Colossus, and Wasteland seem to do the job just fine.  Not to mention the match up improves further post board, and there are additional tools available in the board via Cunning Wish.

The list also has a few other key one-ofs most of which are self explanatory and do devastating things: Balance, Mind Twist, Yawgmoth's Will, and Tutors.  The main card of interest in the main deck has been the Disenchant, and having it maindeck has paid off big time.  With Demonic Tutor and Mystical Tutor in the main deck it isn't hard to find Disenchant early in order to kill an annoying Chains of Mephistopheles, In the Eye of Chaos, or Chalice of the Void (all of which are devastating against modern control decks).

THE SIDEBOARD

Much of this deck's power, and the ways in which match ups become more, and more, favorable has to do with 3cc's ability to rely on its extremely versatile sideboard to win matches.  Cunning Wish is a tutor for silver bullets, and the sideboards is designed to directly attack the strategies of the most important and devastating decks in the format.
Energy Flux is so insane against anything playing with Workshops or Artifact Lands that it is ridiculous.  I kid you not, it is an absolute beating.  Not to mention 3cc packs multiple copies of Disenchant to deal with problematic enchantments or individual early artifact threats.  Against Goblins 3cc has Red Blast and Swords which both come in and slow them down to the point where you can just win. 
   Arcane Laboratory is actually good in this deck since you can play it as early as possible and then later cycle your win condition for the win.  I have also found that Tormod’s Crypt is a fairly useful tool that improves 3cc’s match up against gifts, since you can stop them from playing Yawgmoth’s Will, and ultimately killing with Tendrils. Then Colossus can be easily dealt with by way of Swords to Plowshares.  The more difficult match ups for this deck tend to be Gifts or Slaver, although they are still very winnable matches, especially if play skill and deck familiarity are on your side. 

CONCLUSION

   I have had very good luck with this list and after countless hours of testing and playing later I thought I would open up a discussion about my specific list.  Based solely on the fact that Gen Con tends to be a fairly aggro field, 3cc may be a perfectly viable metagame choice this August.  Hopefully some interesting innovation or insights on 3cc can be discovered or learned through a discussion of this specific list, or other lists that function similarly.

Tidied up the decklist. -Matt[/color]

[Wollblad]

Nice tech using Oboro, could be considered for other decks as well, but I would not cut Island number three to fit it in. By the way, it is not totally hosed by Back to Basics. Bounce it and replay. Sill, from the perspective of Stax, you have to return it to your hand if it targeted by Wasteland and that can cost you other, more important permanents if there is a Smokestack on the table. Such situations motivates at least three Islands.

What I cannot understand is why people suddenly have started playing Sensei's Divining Top when Scroll Rack is so much better when you have a lot of card-drawing and specially with Colossus in the deck. What is the motivation to play Top instead of Scroll Rack?

[Gabethebabe]

1) Sensei is one cheaper
2) Sensei is not card disadvantage
3) Sensei is hard to destroy once it is in play -opponent has to do it in response to its activation which nets you +1 CA (since you still draw the card)

Oboro doesn´t look very good when your opponents has something like crucible-wasteland or multiple wastelands out, because you need to keep 1 mana open to bounce it, which effectively means that you have a blue Lotus Petal in play. Also you don´t really want to play it early, because tapping out means that Oboro is vulnerable. The advantages of Oboro look like mid game advantages and if you play control you should already be in good shape when you make it to the midgame (playing against aggro, workshop or combo).
Win more card?

[forests failed you]

Yes, Oboro Palace in the Clouds could definately be cut for the third basic Island; however, in the games I've played it has worked out really well.  It really seems to have good synergy with the deck, and allows you to make a lot of techy plays. 

For instance, I was playing against Stax a week ago and my opponent tapped out to play Tangle wire EOT.  I had Oboro, and two off colored Moxen in play and Scryed for two during his end step and drew Mox, Mystical Tutor, and Brainstorm.  Unfortunately I didn't hit another Island to play the Ancestral Recall that I wanted to Mystical for.  Then during my upkeep with Tangle Wire's ability on the stack I tapped Oboro to Mystical for Ancestral Recall, and used Mana from a Mox to bounce Oboro to my hand.  Replayed Oboro and then cast Ancestral Recall during my first main phase. 

I realize that this is kind of a weird situation but the more I play with Oboro in the deck the more I discover that it lends itself to really techy plays.  Not to mention that Strip Mine can't kill it unless you Tap out; which isn't really an issue with this deck because it makes lots of Mana and plays extremely defensively.  Anyways I appreciate the thoughts and agree that Oboro could come out for Island, but I would at least recomend trying Oboro in this deck because it has a lot of synergy.

[Windfall]

Brian, what are you thoughts of playing a Vampiric Tutor in the SB?  Suddenly, you have 2 more ways to find Balance and/or Tinker in the Maindeck, which can give you a much better game 1 against Fish.  The card disadvantage of Vamping is almost a good thing when you're getting Balance...

Blue Blast is an interesting choice.  If you're worried about FCG, why not just play another Swords in the board which could also be good against other decks.  The only advantage I see to BEB is that it is a Blue card.  Red cards don't seem to be a huge threat against this deck aside from Welder, and you won't be bringing in Blasts against Slaver, which brings me to another point...

Without Pithing Needle, is Slaver a tough matchup?  Looks like you have Duress, Scrying #4, and maybe Crypts/Coffin Purge.  I assume you'd board out Swords, Tinker/Colossus?  It still seems like you will have a tough time competing with their speed and threat density because of Goblin Welder.

I would probably play a board like this...

1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Energy Flux
2 Arcane Laboratory
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Stifle
2 Disenchant
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Skeletal Scrying
2 Pithing Needle

Keep in mind Needle wrecks Bazaar's shit too if you are worried about it.

Turbo Gifts may be the new Drain deck of choice, and you should probably play 2 Crypts to deal with it.  You may even want 3, as I don't see Stifle doing much in this deck aside from randomly allowing you to not lose to Tendrils when you have 4 mana early in game 1.

If Oboro is working for you, keep it in.  You had to expect everyone would question its inclusion.  The way I see it, you have a lot of mana sources and it's not really meant to deal with non basic land hate, but rather to function as a third Island that allows you to do interesting things.  We techy players enjoy such cards in our decks...

[forests failed you]

FCG can be a very difficult matchup sometimes, especially if they have the nuts.  Blue Elemental Blast allows you to counter Kiki Jiki, Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin Recruiter and most importantly Goblin Ringleader.  Not to mention that it also kills their Blood Moons, and also, doesn't put you in the position where you need to fetch out a non-basic Tundra on turn one to kill their Lacky compromising your turn two Mana Drain on account of them ripping Wasteland.

Vamp is good and it has fluccuated in and out of this list over time.

Pithing Needle is another interesting choice for this deck, and I know that you and I had talked at great length about its inclusion for the Slaver matchup.  Two slots could very easily become Pithing Needles depending upon which matchup one was more worried about.