Fall Brawl aftermath and second Mythic Store live tournament (part 1)

After the Fall Brawl, I decided to rethink my choice of creatures to use with Oath of Druids. Akroma and P. Nishoba were great, but only if they stayed on the board and – most importantly – in the game. The problem was that against control, those creatures were often exiled with Swords to Plowshares. I did have other win conditions left after that (namely, Sacred Mesa and Jester's Cap), but it would make the game much harder to finish in time versus control.

I decided to take a look at creatures that I could sacrifice at any moment to prevent them from being exiled. Without much testing, I entered the 2021 November Monthly with a list with 2 Chimera creatures and a Shard Phoenix. The idea with the chimeras was to be able to sacrifice one onto the other every upkeep to create a massive Serra Angel-like artifact creature that would emulate Akroma without being "exilable" with StoP. Shard Phoenix was there to clear the board if it would get too busy with creatures.

I kept thinking about my options though, and realized that a Triskelion would probably make a better choice than the Chimera plan. However, as the November Monthly had already started, I was stuck with the chimeras for the whole tournament.

Around the same time, another live tournament was held at the Mythic Store in Quebec City, and I decided that I would play a lone Triskelion.

This is the list I brought:

Raphaël A. Caron
November 6th, 2021
*Oath Parfait*

- Tax/Rack Engine -
4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
1 Sylvan Library
1 Zuran Orb

- Parfait Redundancy -
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Argivian Find
2 Sterling Grove
1 Replenish

- Oath Package -
2 Oath of Druids
1 Triskelion
1 Nature's Revolt
2 Gaea's Blessing

- Alternate Kill -
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Jester's Cap

- Removal and Silver Bullets -
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Humility
2 Aura of Silence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Ivory Tower
1 Back to Basics
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Equipoise
1 Propaganda

- Mana Base -
4 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
11 Plains
1 Forest
4 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Archaeological Dig

- Sideboard -
1 Engineered Plague
1 Phantom Nishoba
3 Orim's Chant
1 Ivory Mask
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Karmic Justice
3 Defense Grid
1 Replenish

The main changes were:

+1 Triskelion: The robot's ability to ping itself made it an unSwordable creature, while being big enough to stand in the way of most creatures, and it had the ability to shoot small ones too. At 6 manas, you can even possibly hardcast it, and as it is an artifact creature, Enlightened Tutor and Argivian Find have synergy with it. It was really good.

+1 Nature's Revolt: Looking for a better alternative to Greener Pastures to trigger Oath against creatureless decks, I came across that card and thought it could be very good, as it would also protect me versus mass removal like Pernicious Deed and Nevynirral's Disk. The only problem was that it could backfire if my opponent's lands kill me the following turn. If only there was a card to prevent that...

+1 Gaea's Blessing: It often felt risky to have a single Blessing in the deck. Having two feels much safer and allows Gaea's Blessing to be cast if drawn.

-2 Swords to Plowshares: Going even farther in my idea to have a maindeck built to beat control, I decided to cut anti-aggro cards to bring in cards that would be good vs control as well. So the 2 Swords were sent to the sideboard.

-1 Armageddon/+1 Back to Basics: While Armageddon could be a gamebreaking at times, it really needed the proper set-up to be effective. Back to Basics, while sometimes dead, is way easier to play and can be phenomenal in Premodern, as mana bases are not easy to build for most multicolored decks.

+1 Equipoise: A card I wanted to try versus permission control. The logic is that you will have less lands than your opponent, making them phase out their untapped lands during upkeep (they should have a few nonbasics kept in check with Back to Basics). In practice, it proved to be annoying, but not as great as I thought it would be.

+1 Propaganda: This card should be played more often. It's good vs aggro and the current control decks are affected by it as well (manlands, Decree of Justice tokens). It turns out to be the card that prevents the opponent to attack with lands animated by Nature's Revolt. I first saw it in Jose Carlos De Lucas' winning decklist.

-1 Serra's Sanctum/-1 Riftstone Portal/+1 Undiscovered Paradise: With Back to Basics being added, the Sanctum had to go, and Riftstone Portal proved to be unreliable, being sent back to the Library too often with Gaea's Blessing's trigger.

In my sideboard, I replaced Multani with the super-effective Nishoba and had to make some room for the Swords. Notably, Ray of Revelation was added after I saw Pablo Marcos run it in his winning decklist.

First tournament aftermath and first online tournament (Fall Brawl 2021)

The September Mythic Store tournament

Despite doing well in my first tournament (https://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=37573), I felt like I needed to change a few things in my deck. I had two loses during that tournament: my first game vs my good friend Mike Ducarme who played Full English Breakfast, and the finals won by Philippe Gareau who played Balancing Tings.

A week earlier, I playtested vs Mike a whole day and it felt like Parfait had a very good matchup vs FEB. I lost a few games but won the vast majority of them. So it felt like I just got unlucky to lose during the swiss rounds. As I won the rematch in the top 4, I thought that I didn't need to change anything in my deck to deal with FEB.

As the semi-finals vs Mike ended very quickly, I had time to watch the other semi-finals: Balancing Tings vs Astral Slide. I had never seen the Tings deck in action and quickly realized that I had nothing to deal with that deck in my 75. As the finals began, I experienced it firsthand. There was nothing that I could do to prevent my opponent from doing his things, and the first game ended with me feeling helpless. Looking through my sideboard, I suddenly realized that an Orim's Chant played in response to Balancing Act would prevent my opponent from playing the Anurid Brushhopper with the floating mana left from the sacrificed lands. I only had 2 Chants though, so I tried to use them wisely. The second game was a long and close one and, even if I eventually lost, it seemed like I had at least a chance. So the main change I did to my sideboard was to remove the Arenson's Aura (never used) to add a third Chant. 

The Fall Brawl

Happy with my first result, I decided to try to compete in the Fall Brawl and opted for a very similar decklist:

Raphaël A. Caron

Fall Brawl 2021

*Oath Parfait*

– Tax/Rack Engine –

4 Land Tax

3 Scroll Rack

1 Sylvan Library

1 Zuran Orb

– Parfait Redundancy –

4 Enlightened Tutor

3 Argivian Find

2 Sterling Grove

1 Replenish

– Oath Package –

2 Oath of Druids

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1 Phantom Nishoba

1 Greener Pastures

1 Gaea's Blessing

– Alternate Kill –

1 Sacred Mesa

1 Jester's Cap

– Removal and Silver Bullets –

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Humility

2 Aura of Silence

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Ivory Tower

1 Armageddon

1 Phyrexian Furnace

– Mana Base –

4 Mox Diamond

11 Plains

1 Forest

3 Undiscovered Paradise

1 Serra's Sanctum

1 Archaeological Dig

1 Riftstone Portal

– Sideboard –

1 Engineered Plague

1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

1 Aura Fracture

3 Orim's Chant

1 Ivory Mask

1 Tormod's Crypt

1 Abolish

1 Funeral Pyre

1 Karmic Justice

3 Defense Grid

1 Replenish

There's only one difference in the maindeck: I wanted to try Riftstone Portal and removed Crystal Vein to do so. Not that Crystal Vein was bad, but it was the safest land to remove.

The interest in Riftstone Portal was based on the following:

- It is rather easy to put it in the graveyard (Mox Diamond, Zuran Orb, Armaggedon, Oath of Druids and end of turn discard);

- It allows my Undiscovered Paradise to tap without being returned to my hand;

- It allows Serra's Sanctum to produce mana even if I don't have any enchantment in play;

- It makes getting green mana easier.

The sideboard was also changed from the previous tournament in this way:

+1 Orim's Chant (to fight Balancing Tings and some combo decks in general)

+1 Aura Fracture (more efficient than Arenson's Aura to destroy multiple enchantments)

+1 Abolish (against Prison decks that play Aura of Silence)

+1 Funeral Pyre (probably better than Phyrexian Furnace vs creatureless decks, and to trigger Oath)

+1 Karmic Justice (vs Pernicious Deed mostly)

-1 Engineered Plague (1 felt enough)

-1 Pariah (Oath is probably enough vs aggro)

-1 Arenson's Aura

-1 Aura of Silence

-1 Phyrexian Furnace

I ended up with a 5-3 record, winning vs Suicide Black, Goblins, Turtle Splash, Pox and Deadguy Ale, but losing to Survival Elves, OathStill and Pink Prison.

First tests... and tournament!

A big motivation to try the premodern format was that a RL tournament was announced in Quebec City, at La Boutique Mythique (themythicstore.com) on September 26th, 2021. I was quite excited to play in a competitive event after so many years! This is what my first PM Parfait list looked like:

 

Oath Parfait

– Oath Package –

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1 Phantom Nishoba

2 Oath of Druids

1 Greener Pastures

– Alternate Kill – 

1 Jester's Cap

1 Sacred Mesa

– Tax/Rack Engine –

4 Land Tax

3 Scroll Rack

1 Sylvan Library

1 Zuran Orb

– Parfait Recursion –

4 Enlightened Tutor

2 Sterling Grove

3 Argivian Find

1 Replenish

1 Gaea's Blessing

– Removal and Silver Bullets –

4 Swords to Plowshares

2 Aura of Silence

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Humility

1 Ivory Tower

1 Phyrexian Furnace

1 Armageddon

– Mana Base –

4 Mox Diamond

3 Undiscovered Paradise

1 Serra's Sanctum

11 Plains

1 Forest

1 Archaeological Dig

1 Crystal Vein

// Sideboard

2 Engineered Plague

1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

1 Pariah

2 Orim's Chant

1 Ivory Mask

1 Tormod's Crypt

1 Aura of Silence

1 Phyrexian Furnace

1 Arenson's Aura

3 Defense Grid

1 Replenish

When learning about the PM metagame, I realized that Oath of Druids was a great anti-creature silver bullet. The recommended creatures were Akroma and Nishoba. I wasn't quite sure about those two, but I tried them anyway and found them better that I thought. However, having them Sworded was an issue that I kept thinking about. I added a Multani, Maro-Sorcerer to my sideboard against decks that would play Swords. I also tried Greener Pastures as a way to make Oath trigger against decks that run no creatures. The result wasn't that impressive.

When I was playing mono-w Parfait, I used to run a Soldevi Digger for recursion. The Digger is so slow though, and using it takes mana that would be better spent on other things. With Oath of Druids and Gaea's Blessing, that problem is solved! There's a few tricks you can do as well, like using Argivian Find in response to the Gaea's Blessing trigger, making Argivian Find a very nice tutor effect. Your Argivian Find is even shuffled back into your Library! 

Another big difference with classic Parfait is the inclusion of Undiscovered Paradise. I used to choose to draw back in the days, but with U. Paradise and M. Diamond, you can easily play Land Tax on your first turn without playing a land, which is a very strong first turn play that allows you to keep one-landers as starting hands. The Paradise has great synergy with Land Tax and Mox Diamond. The Archaeological Dig and Crystal Vein are there to provide mana without having them returning to our hand, which is sometimes annoying with U. Paradise. 

Expecting Survival/Elves and Goblins, I played 2 Engineered Plagues in my sideboard. Arenson's Aura was supposed to deau with Pernicious Deed, a card that I thought could wreck me. I actually never sided it in during the tournament. I eventually made it to the finals of the 13-person tournament, losing to Balancing Tings.

PPP 1: Documenting my Premodern experience

Hi! I'm Raphaël A. Caron, and I'm the guy who designed the original Parfait deck, in 1999-2000. It was a Vintage deck that looked like this:

Drawing Engine:

4x Land Tax

2x Scroll Rack

1x Jayemdae Tome

Survival Spells/Silver Bullets:

1x Story Circle

4x Swords to Plowshares

3x Aura of Silence

1x Moat

1x Balance

1x Wrath of God

2x Zuran Orb

1x Ivory Mask

1x Ivory Tower

Utility Spells:

4x Abeyance

1x Enlightened Tutor

1x Planar Birth

4x Argivian Find

Kill:

2x Sacred Mesa

1x Tormod's Crypt

1x Soldevi Digger

Mana Sources and Lands:

1x Library of Alexandria

1x Serra's Sanctum

13x Plains

1x Strip Mine

3x Wasteland

1x Lotus Petal

1x Black Lotus

1x Mox Pearl

1x Mox Diamond

1x Sol Ring

Premodern is a thing. After many years of Commander play, I was longing for a return to a somewhat more competitive play environment and, even if I had briefly heard about Premodern, it was The Professor's YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3vJEZeBH0) that convinced me to try the format. It's just great! All the old cards, the ancient archetypes, and new ones as well! Even better than all that: the community. Helpful, friendly, welcoming.

So it was time to rebuild Parfait. Almost all the cards are available. Well, no Black Lotus nor Balance this time, but it's fine: the Power 9 is banned for everyone else as well. With that in mind, I wanted to try something new. When I first created Deck Parfait, I wanted to build a mono-white deck that could compete and NOT be White Weenie. This time I'm removing all the deckbuilding constraints I was forcing myself to follow. I'm going to try other colors, play creatures(!).

In this blog, I'll explain my thoughts about the format, the deck I'm playing, what I see, want I want to try. I have several other ideas for decks, I'll talk about them here as well. I'll start with explaining the Premodern Parfait initial design and then I'll explain each modification until we reach my current decklist. Feel free to comment, ask questions. And please keep in mind that English isn't my first language (sorry!).