Winning with Parlor Tricks |
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Hello, everyone. Most of you know me by now, but a few of you may not. My name is Anthony, I am known online as KingRitz, and I am a relatively new member of the PDC community. My first Pauper Magic tournament was the so-called "Euro from the Future," a Two-Headed Giant event last November (until recently listed in November 2007 by the paupermagic.com deck database) in which I was randomly partnered with the amazing MagicalTrevor. It was here that the PDC world was first introduced to a glacially slow, horribly un-tuned blue-black-and-red control deck that one frustrated opponent described as just a bunch of "parlor tricks." Despite its and my shortcomings, this deck combined with MagicalTrevor's well-oiled ninja machine to go 2-0 in its first tournament appearance. Fast-forward to two weeks ago, when the Euro PDC Season 4 World Championship was won by a still-slow, slightly-less-un-tuned UBR control deck now known to all as Parlor Tricks. This article is my attempt to explain the creation, evolution, and rise of an entirely new top-tier deck in the Classic Pauper format.
(Part 1 of 2)
----------------------------------------------------- How was the idea for this deck formed? How did the deck evolve into something like the Parlor Tricks of today? What difficulties did it face, and how were these difficulties overcome? Why did I choose the cards that I chose? Were these the right choices, and, if not, how can these choices be improved in the future? How does Parlor Tricks match up against other top-tier Classic Pauper decks? How does one play this difficult, complicated deck well? How does one sideboard? Finally, what we learn about deck building and design, control theory, and the Classic Pauper metagame in general, by extension from this specific case? I hope to offer helpful answers to some, if not all, of these questions here. Today I present part one of a two-part discussion of these topics. 1. Conception Like almost all good ideas, Parlor Tricks borrowed much from ideas that came before. Several months ago, I had already seen the power of cards like Vedalken Dismisser and Peel from Reality in limited formats, and I already valued Izzet Chronarch higher than most in Ravnica-Ravnica-Guildpact drafts. Then, while playing Champions/Ravnica Standard, I ran into a blue-red deck that relied heavily on bounce and creatures with comes-into-play effects to force through twenty damage with an otherwise sub-par collection of 2/2's, 3/2's, and 1/3's. I was impressed by this deck's reuse and abuse of comes-into-play effects, by its ability to generally annoy an opponent's development, and by its mostly-common composition. I decided to throw together a version of that deck.
Not being an aggro player, my first move was to cut aggressive but less-thematic cards like Wee Dragonauts. Strongly thematic but badly underpowered cards like Sparkmage Apprentice were quickly discarded as well. In their place I added things like card drawing (Compulsive Research) and more and better removal (Skred). Black mana, absent from the deck I had observed, made an immediate appearance; bouncing Ravenous Rats seemed like fun. I also tried out a few cards that I can't recall. Sadly, the original deck list has been lost to the sands of time. Early versions of the deck showed flashes of power. Occasionally, the deck would generate massive amounts of mana, use the same Vedalken Dismisser five turns in a row, and win with style. Sometimes it would get Izzet Chronarch and Peel from Reality going and soft-lock a creature deck. Other times, however, I would sit with a hand full of Vedalken Dismissers, Ogre Savants, Peel from Realitys, and Izzet Chronarchs and watch while some combo deck would storm for a billion or some control deck would counter the only two relevant cards in the matchup. Still other times, some hyper-aggressive deck would put me on my heels, forcing me to burn all of my bounce to survive, and then the deck would simply run out of steam and I would lose even after having "stabilized." Finally, sometimes the mana just didn't work. Well, the deck had a lot of problems. I wish that I could impart some pearl of wisdom here about when to try to fix an underperforming deck and when to give up on a lost cause. But I don't have all the answers; all I can say is that I still saw the glimmer of potential in this case. Significantly, there existed cards that might solve some of these problems. Early changes seemed to improve the deck, suggesting that continued efforts might be worthwhile. One of the very first changes was absolutely key. I pored over every common in the Kamigawa/Ravnica Standard card pool, looking for cards that could give the deck action and staying power against non-aggro matchups without disrupting its internal synergies. In other words, I wanted a source of continuing and/or substantial card advantage -- ideally one that interacted with a plan that, at the time, I simplistically understood as "abusing comes-into-play-abilities." With that understanding, two Ninja of the Deep Hours replaced one Ogre Savant and one Vedalken Dismisser -- both "cool" but slow cards. The Ninja of the Deep Hours were a revelation, and they pushed the deck's evolution. Ninjas kept the removal flowing, but they relied on early creatures -- already underrepresented in the deck -- and they tended to die quickly. Around this time, my love of toolboxes combined with my observation of the deck's weaknesses against specific strategies and my need for cheap, hard-to-block creatures to enable the Ninjas. Two Dimir Infiltrators filled multiple holes in the deck, acting as uncounterable tutors and cheap, unblockable Ninja enablers. Given these tutors, several two-mana answer cards became obvious inclusions. Train of Thought was uncounterable, tutorable lategame staying power; Death Denied was a backbreaker against removal-heavy opponents; Last Gasp was tutorable creature kill; and Shred Memory completely turned around graveyard-oriented matchups while serving as an additional tutor for the rest. All of these cards made their way into the deck at the same time. The problem was that something had to go. Early in the process, however, I was too indecisive and uncertain to cut anything outright. So I shaved the numbers. High-cost cards still gummed up many draws, so one Izzet Chronarch, one more Ogre Savant, another Vedalken Dismisser, a Ravenous Rats, and a land all got cut (in addition to some card I can't remember, in case you're keeping count). I also split the deck's Signets equally between red and black to be mana-fixing tutor targets in a pinch. With these changes, the deck jumped into another gear. I started looking for more serious pauper games. Because I had not yet discovered the PDC community, this process was slow and uneven. Still, new problems became apparent quickly. Dissension had brought with it a formidable new threat: Guardian of the Guildpact. Almost immediately, invincible 2/3's were ruining my day left and right. After much agonizing, I cut the last two Ogre Savants for two clunky Wrecking Balls. Then, promptly, Time Spiral appeared and Standard rotated. 3. New Formats, New Competition The loss of Kamigawa and the introduction of new threats in Time Spiral posed several challenges for the deck. I could either port the deck into Standard, giving up my newfound Ninjas and Death Denied, or move into Classic, opening up a world of possibilities and challenges. In fact, I did both. However, the loss of key cards and the continuing challenge to adapt have led to mixed results in Standard. That challenge and those results are a story for another day. Moving into Classic required substantial collection-building. I have drafted online for a few years, but I still lacked many older cards. Despite lots of trial and error, I eventually managed to collect most key commons. Still, the limits of my collection at times affected the evolution of the deck. Lack of cards affected the pace of some adaptations to the Classic format. Probe, for instance, seemed better than Compulsive Research. But I had no Probes. Terminate might have made Wrecking Ball look silly, but Wrecking Ball was what I had. What I did have was one Echoing Decay to replace Last Gasp and fight against the suddenly pervasive Empty the Warrens decks, and one Deep Analysis to replace one Compulsive Research. At this point a deck list seems appropriate: ---------------------------------------------- With these final changes, I went looking for someplace to test my deck. I don't recall how I stumbled across the PDC tournament, but I'm glad I did. Two winning rounds with MagicalTrevor showed me the power of the Classic Pauper format and the potential of my own deck. I recall only one game; Trevor and I narrowly beat Mono-Blue Control paired with Freed from the Real combo. Trevor's Ninjas did most of the work, stripping the MUC player's hand completely. My deck just picked off threats here and there, Wrecked a bounce land or two, sat on uncastable Vedalken Dismissers, and finally Peeled every animated land the Freed player produced. These wins, together with the kind words of MagicalTrevor, led me to redouble my efforts. I went out and got a Terminate, running it alongside Echoing Decay for tutorable solutions to two problem cards (Guardian of the Guildpact and Empty the Warrens). I cut now-unnecessary Wrecking Balls. I gradually replaced Compulsive Researches with superior Probes. Working on a discard theme to combat combo and control decks, I began adding Duresses. The third Ravenous Rats bounced in and out of the deck. I shoe-horned in another Ninja of the Deep Hours. Mystical Teachings came, proved clunky and slow, and left again. The solo Deep Analysis disappeared. I took a hard look at the deck's continuing problems with hyper-aggressive creatures and with hard-to-kill creatures. Against fast decks like RG Aggro, I would sometimes die before my deck even really got going. In addition, untargetable, unblockable creatures like Silhana Ledgewalker, Shimmering Glasskite, and Guardian of the Guildpact still gave me fits. Innocent Bloods seemed like the answer to both problems, so I went out and got them. Two Innocent Bloods appeared in the deck, then three, and finally four. Making room required painful cuts. Many excellent articles have already discussed "the danger of cool things," so I won't belabor the point here. That said, some of the "cool things" that inspired the original deck had to go. Sadly but realistically, I said goodbye to the remaining Vedalken Dismissers and began cutting Peel from Realitys. After a few more minor tweaks, I had arrived at basically the deck of today. I even named it "Parlor Tricks" in memory of the nameless doubters from the past. The deck was ready for competition. 4. Parlor Tricks Two months after my Two-Headed Giant appearance, I played Parlor Tricks in a clan's single-elimination Pauper tournament -- and won. A few days later, I used Parlor Tricks to win the final Euro PDC of Season 4, just sneaking into Worlds eligibility. Exactly one week after that, Parlor Tricks won the Euro PDC Season 4 World Championship. A deck list is definitely in order: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Innocent Blood 2 Dimir Infiltrator 2 Dimir Signet Sideboard Well, I hate to leave everyone hanging, but I think that's enough rambling for one day. Come back tomorrow, when I will examine Parlor Tricks card-by-card, provide extensive matchup analysis, explain how to play the deck (and how not to play it), and offer my general musings on the future of Classic Pauper. Best wishes until then. Sincerely, (Part 2 of 2)
----------------------------------------------------- Welcome back. I hope all of you enjoyed our brief recess. After teasing you all with a bit of a cliffhanger ending, I suppose I owe you a brief refresher on where we've been. In the first part of this article I discussed how I came up with the idea that became Parlor Tricks, how that idea evolved in response to the deck's weaknesses and the shifting metagames and formats in which it competed, and finally how Parlor Tricks rose quickly through the tournament scene to become a World Champion deck. Near the end of the first part of this article, I presented the following deck list: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Innocent Blood 2 Dimir Infiltrator 2 Dimir Signet Sideboard I ended last time by promising card-by-card discussion, matchup analysis, a play guide, and my general musings on the future. Today I deliver on those promises. 5. Maindeck Card Choices After some experimentation, I have decided that the best way to understand the maindeck of Parlor Tricks is by separating its contents into four groups: Creatures, Spells, Toolbox, and Mana. Certainly there is some overlap in these groups; sometimes Terminate is just another kill spell, sometimes you Transmute for Ravenous Rats or Izzet Signet, and sometimes Dimir Infiltrator masquerades as a mediocre creature. Still, this division has guided my own thinking and seems like the clearest way to discuss the deck. I should make one final point before proceeding to the card-by-card discussion. I have continued to tinker with the deck slightly since Worlds. The evolving metagame affects some choices, and my own growing experience with the deck has motivated some refinements. SpikeBoyM also offered some useful constructive criticism about tightening up the numbers for consistency's sake and running more 4-ofs. Throughout the following discussion I will begin with the Worlds deck list, but I will clearly note my subsequent considerations and any recent changes I have made. On to the cards: A. Creatures Initial motivations for dipping into black mana, Ravenous Rats remain the deck's key cheap creature and Ninja enabler. The Rats frequently 2-for-1 or better by trading with opposing creatures, bouncing for discard double-duty, or drawing opposing removal spells. Their unassuming appearance and the occasional difficulty making 1B on turn two led to Ravenous Rats number three bouncing in and out of the deck for some time. Around Euro PDC Worlds, I had the Rats at a minimum; I was pinched for space and looking for easy cuts, and Madness was out in force. I was repeatedly and probably wrongly informed that running or leaving in discard against Madness was a Bad Thing. Further experience shows, however, that Rats are perfectly viable, if unspectacular, against Madness. Played carefully, they usually avoid enabling meaningful Madness cards -- with the exception of the occasional topdecked Basking Rootwalla. In any event, it is often better to provoke a Madness opponent's discards rather than allowing that opponent to discard for fun and profit at his or her leisure. Most importantly, there just isn't any good substitute for an early chump blocker and Ninja enabler. More recent versions of the deck have gone all the way up to four Ravenous Rats. The jury is out on the right number, but I would guess that it isn't below three. Steamcore Weird is an obvious "gimme" inclusion and part of the core of the deck. The Pauper Flametongue Kavu is slightly on the expensive side at four mana, but I have never seriously considered cutting even one. Weirds almost always 2-for-1 and frequently get 3-for-1 or more. Izzet Chronarch is, bar none, the most important, defining, and central card in Parlor Tricks. Far better than he looks, the unassuming old guy is the closest thing to a Pauper Eternal Witness. The deck almost always wants and needs at least one Chronarch when it is ready to win. Being dead in the early game and a touch expensive at five mana is the only thing that keeps Izzet Chronarch from being an automatic four-of. I think three is the right number. That said, I have on a couple of recent occasions gone up to forty cards into my deck with no Chronarchs in sight, cursing the fates as I lost won games. I think that these recent results are just flukes, but I wouldn't blame anyone who found room for a fourth Izzet Chronarch in the deck. This card has to be in any listing of a Classic Pauper Power 9. Ninja of the Deep Hours plays a key role in several of the very best decks in the format, including MUC, Orzhov Blink, Parlor Tricks, various Trinket Mage/Cog decks, and occasional Affinity builds, almost always with dominant results. In fact, if something like MUC ever got too dominant -- and some of you know that I think it's pretty close already -- Ninja of the Deep Hours would be the first or second thing I'd want banned, possibly just after the entire Affinity keyword. Parlor Tricks itself inevitably loses if a Ninja sticks around on the other side of the board for much more than a turn. When playing for the home team, Ninjas draw huge numbers of cards, bounce key comes-into-play creatures, almost always act as the deck's endgame damage source, and generally make the deck hum. Ninjas demand kill-on-sight status from all opponents and still rarely get less than 3-for-1. I would absolutely not run fewer than three Ninja of the Deep Hours in Parlor Tricks, but I don't run four for a few reasons. First of all, the present deck list is pretty tight. There just isn't much room. Secondly, Ninjas can glut a hand to poor effect; you don't really want multiples early on. They can also be hard to cast, although increasing the number of Ravenous Rats helps to ease this difficulty. Finally, Ninjas are only "good" instead of "dominant" in certain aggro matchups, because enablers can have difficulty hitting and because Ninjas do not directly or immediately contribute to the deck's early game defense. This is another card for which I remain pretty happy at three but I wouldn't really blame anyone for running four. B. Spells Innocent Blood is really good. Given that this deck aims to kill every opposing creature, Innocent Blood is a completely necessary four-of that solves difficult problems like Guardian of the Guildpact, River Boa, Silhana Ledgewalker, Jolrael's Centaur, Shimmering Glasskite, the occasional Humble Budoka, Welding Jar, and even Neurok Stealthsuit. It also conveniently gets around Momentary Blink. Innocent Blood's super-cheap one-mana cost even provides critical tempo gain against the most aggressive decks; and because the Blood can be easily cast along with another spell, it is surprisingly useful for enabling Ninja hits. Innocent Blood rarely hurts Parlor Tricks, because almost all of the creatures in the deck are easily expendable (and sometimes more-than-expendable, as when an annoying Pillory of the Sleepless sits on the board and/or a Death Denied waits in your hand). 3 Skred Skred is usually better creature removal than Terminate. I'll pause to let that sink in ... ... ... Yes, I said Skred is better than Terminate. Skred doesn't kill Guardians, but it does kill just about every other targetable creature, and it does so for one mana, as an instant. My most recent version finds room for the fourth Skred, and I recommend it. Skred is of course the second-most expensive card in the deck in terms of dollar value, slightly behind the solo Terminate -- seventeen snow lands are included just for Skred's sake, after all -- so I don't blame anyone who cuts it. If you do, Firebolt, Terminate, Last Gasp, and Echoing Decay are potential substitutes. I have one final comment on Skred: Be careful. Count your snow lands. I think that there are enough snow lands in the deck to enable Skred for almost every circumstance, but I have seen too many players Skred for too little damage through careless casting or careless use of Dimir Aqueducts and Izzet Boilerworks. I have even done it myself, once or twice. Again, please, just be careful. 3 Duress Duress is only clearly better than Rats and Probe against combo, and the deck does well enough against the stray Freed or Storm deck right now anyway. Duress is undoubtedly a strong card, but it occasionally whiffs against aggro, does less than you might hope against MUC (which is just far too redundant to be affected much), is hard to play on the first turn given only six Swamps, and has zero synergy with the rest of Parlor Tricks. Duress now resides as a four-of in the sideboard, but two or three could easily return to the maindeck in a suitable metagame. 3 Probe Probe is another card that has become a four-of in recent versions, but I haven't decided whether three or four is the right number yet. At five mana, Probe is a little expensive to cast. And make no mistake: Probe is a five-mana gold card with a three-mana alternate cost for when you're mana screwed, desperate for fast removal, or facing an empty-handed opponent. Play it accordingly; wait for five mana if there's a payoff. Oh, and don't substitute here. Get Probes. Massive, brutal discard dominates some midrange and combo matchups, so Probe really is a big step above something like the solid-but-unspectacular Compulsive Research. C. Toolbox Dimir Infiltrator is a three-mana, uncounterable tutor that can find a cheap answer to almost any problem. Tutors are sometimes slow and awkward, so three total tutors (counting the Shred Memory) seems about right. One Infiltrator or less is definitely wrong, but three Infiltrators would make an interesting experiment. I have also heard of players experimenting with a Mystical Teachings toolbox in place of the Transmute toolbox in order to allow for maindeck counter magic, but I don't know that it's an improvement. One mana makes a difference in this deck, and uncounterability is a nice feature. Mystical Teachings is repeatable and instant-speed, of course, but being able to recur tutors with Death Denied is a nice consideration on the Infiltrators' side; Dimir Infiltrator --> Dimir Infiltrator --> Death Denied is one of my favorite "tricky" plays with Parlor Tricks. As a final bonus, Dimir Infiltrators have a rather bizarre alternate ability that on extremely rare occasions allows them to swing for one, enable Ninjas, and block Guardian of the Guildpact (just getting Terminate is usually better, though). 1BB is a more difficult Transmute cost than 1UB in Parlor Tricks, making Dimir Infiltrator a better tutor than Shred Memory. However, Shred Memory has a more relevant alternate ability, patching a significant hole in the deck. Having graveyard removal and/or tutoring that can be recurred by Izzet Chronarch is a nice bonus. Peel from Reality was the number-one Swiss Army Knife in Parlor Tricks before Innocent Blood took over that title. My sentimental attachment to the card that motivated the deck kept Peel in two slots, and there was some validity to that choice. Peel from Reality solves lots of problems, it does more "cool things" than any other card in the deck, and it is rarely a "bad" card to draw. Peel + Rats = bad Recoil. Peel + Steamcore Weird = bad Jilt. Peel + Izzet Chronarch = bad Capsize (among other things). Recoil, Jilt, and Capsize are all fantastic cards, so getting even "bad" versions of these three all mixed together on one little instant is pretty nice. Still, sober realism and lack of deck space have led me to cut down to one Peel in recent versions of the deck; Peel from Reality is now exclusively a tool in the toolbox. Taking it one step further, I have seen several players swapping Jilt for Peel. Certainly the deck needs one tutorable bounce spell, and this seems like basically a judgment call. In addition to Jilt, Echoing Truth might also warrant a mention for this slot, but I support sticking with Peel. It simply offers more flexibility than other options, and in a pinch Peel from Reality doesn't really sacrifice much in the way of pure power. Terminate is far and away the best common kill card at two mana, and it kills Guardian of the Guildpact (and River Boa, and Myr Enforcers with Welding Jar backup, and, and, and...). I have definitely seen some people adding more Terminates to the deck. I still like Skred and Innocent Blood better, and I don't think the deck needs that much more removal, so I'll stick with Terminate as a tutor target and nothing more. Parlor Tricks runs only blue-aligned dual lands and signets, as I will discuss later, so it isn't really set up for multiple Terminates anyway. When you just want to win the game against a deck with counters, you Transmute for Train of Thought. Train consistently, uncounterably draws 3-5 cards in the midgame, can be cycled early on and recurred later (advisable against decks with Castigate), and provides a backbreaking total refill (5-7 cards) later on. Train of Thought is one significant reason for keeping all signets and bouncelands in Parlor Tricks blue-aligned. It is so good that I've considered running two, but so slow that I've never actually done so. I am absolutely baffled about why Train of Thought isn't a far bigger player in many more decks in the Classic Pauper metagame. 1 Death Denied Four signets accelerate Parlor Tricks to later turns of development earlier in the game. Steamcore Weird on turn three and Probe (with kicker, of course) on turn four, for instance, can be a dominating play. Signets also help enable many of the deck's backbreaking lategame plays, which include multiple X-spells (Train of Thought and Death Denied). All signets are blue-aligned for Train of Thought and due to the absence of RB cards in the deck. The signets are also evenly split between blue-red and blue-black to facilitate using Transmute for mana-fixing in a pinch (either to get red mana or to get the important second black mana). 3 Dimir Aqueduct The bouncelands cause occasional unfortunate mulligans and slow the deck down a bit, but they provide tremendous card advantage and mana fixing from lands, something almost unheard-of in Pauper Magic. Played carefully, bouncelands are a tremendous asset to the deck. Five or six bouncelands are probably appropriate. 6 Snow-Covered Island Two other options, cycling lands and Terramorphic Expanse, might warrant consideration. Cycling lands are virtual card advantage in the lategame, and Terramorphic Expanse is useful fixing. However, cycling lands are terribly problematic with Skred, and both cycling lands and Terramorphic Expanse have the substantial drawback of coming into play tapped. Parlor Tricks is very mana-hungry, often tapping out -- suggesting that losing even one extra mana due to a comes-into-play tapped could be damaging on many turns -- and the deck is ill-equipped to handle further tempo loss in the early game. Furthermore, Parlor Tricks does not currently color-screw an inordinate amount, and in the late game it rarely wants for card advantage. In any event, six bouncelands seems pretty close to the ceiling for comes-into-play-tapped mana sources, and I like the card advantage of bouncelands too much to start cutting them. With all signets and bouncelands blue-aligned, the regular lands can easily lean slightly toward red and black, minimizing mana burn on Skred and Innocent Blood. Just remember to think carefully about your land drops in light of bouncelands and Skred. The sideboard of Parlor Tricks is very much in flux. I will briefly present the choices I've made, the metagame that motivated them, and a few other options. Echoing Ruin is largely irrelevant in most matchups, but provides some slight assistance against MUC's Spire Golems, and in the Affinity matchup the extra removal is key. Tutorability is a nice bonus. The recent dearth of Affinity and the search for better solutions against MUC has led me to cut down as low as two Ruins in more recent sideboards. Condescend was another attempt against MUC, but it also plays against decks with expensive, backbreaking cards like Kaervek's Torch, Aurochs Herd, Corrupt, Consume Spirit, Rush of Knowledge, and so forth. Condescend is also useful against powerful four-mana creatures like Guardian of the Guildpact, Blind Hunter, and Coalition Honor Guard in midrange decks, so it actually comes in against Orzhov and sometimes Boros. Condescend's Scry ability is quite the useful extra. All of these are now in the maindeck. 1 Duress Duress is now a sideboard four-of, as mentioned above. It still comes in against all combo decks and against MUC. 1 Skred This is also in the maindeck now. It used to come in again aggro, Freed, and even MUC anyway. This was largely filler, as it turned out. The above-mentioned reservations about running the fourth Ninja never really lost their force in any matchup, so the fourth Ninja just sat here. It has since been removed. The second graveyard killer is quite useful against graveyard-oriented decks. 1 Nausea Others: I have also tried both Mindstab and Electrostatic Bolt in my ongoing attempts to win the MUC matchup. Mindstab has some utility in slow matchups, and might make MUC tap out on my turn at a bad time, but it is easy to counter and can cause Parlor Tricks to hit useless discard gluts in the lategame, as it did the last time I faced MBC. E-Bolt kills every creature in MUC -- for one mana, at instant speed -- without losing much compared to Echoing Ruin against Affinity. However, the deck just doesn't have room for that much more creature removal. So far, results are mixed. I have also tried a second Train of Thought for the Orzhov Blink matchup, which features Castigate and almost always comes down to a long attrition war. I continue to look for new ideas. Here is Parlor Tricks as I am playing it today: ----------------------------------- 4 Innocent Blood 2 Dimir Infiltrator 2 Dimir Signet Sideboard 7. Matchups and the Metagame The recent Classic Pauper metagame contains tremendous variety. Based on the paupermagic.com RG Aggro, GW Cloak, UG Deep Dog, MUC, Orzhov Blink, Boros Aggro and Aggro-Control, Parlor Tricks, Trinket Mage/Cog decks, Goblinstorm, MBC, GB and GBR Aggro variants, Grapeshot Combo, White Weenie, Freed Combo, Blue Meanies, UR Izzet-Post and/or Counter-Burn, RB Aggro-Control, and Mono-R Aggro/Burn. New decks pop up constantly; not long ago, Affinity, BUG Control, UB Control, 5-Color Aggro, and others were making Top 8 appearances. Faced with such a dizzying array of opposition, I can hardly hope to cover every matchup in depth. Instead, I'll classify by deck types, hit what I see as the biggest players, and try to say at least a little something about most matchups. A. Aggro Matchups Aggro matchups are generally favorable for the Parlor Tricks player, depending primarily on the amount of reach (i.e. burn) in the hands of the aggro player. RG Aggro Parlor Tricks versus RG Aggro is a roughly even matchup, maybe ever-so-slightly in the control deck's favor (50%-55%). The more tempo-positive Scab-Clan Mauler RG decks fare slightly better, whereas slower non-Mauler builds fare somewhat worse. For most of the game, Parlor Tricks plays control, aiming to completely clear the opponent's board. At the end, however, Parlor Tricks often has to race against inevitable topdecked burn. Because of this reality, the Parlor Tricks player should play as if, ignoring burn to the head, his or her starting life total was really between ten and twelve. Stabilizing below eight life often results in fiery death, whereas a life total above ten is usually totally safe. Along the way, the Parlor Tricks player should chump where tempo gain is possible. Using a Rat to block a Basking Rootwalla or a River Boa (assuming no Islands in play) is a strong play if the RG player's pump or regeneration may hamper that player's ability either to cast additional threats or to save the existing threats after the Parlor Tricks player untaps. Chumping to stay above dangerous life totals is also advisable if this life total maintenance is sustainable (such as if the control deck can kill the RG creatures once it untaps). In this matchup and most related aggro matchups, the Parlor Tricks player should side in both Nausea and Yamabushi's Storm. More generally, any deck that shows two good targets makes it worthwhile to bring in these miniature mass-removal spells. A Rat or two and/or a Ninja can come out. GW Cloak The GW Cloak matchup plays like the RG Aggro matchup, except with slightly harder-to-handle creatures and absolutely no reach for the aggro player. Harder-to-kill creatures just mean that the Parlor Tricks player has to manage his or her removal even more carefully, using the right answers for the right questions. The lack of reach, however, means that Parlor Tricks can spend up to nineteen life stabilizing. This key fact means that Parlor Tricks is 60% or better to win. UG Deep Dog UG Deep Dog, in turn, plays a lot like the GW Cloak matchup, except without hard-to-kill creatures and Cloaks. The presence of a few counterspells in the UG deck really doesn't even make much difference; Parlor Tricks's mana advantage often means that cards like Rune Snag will stop nothing of significance. In light of these points, it should come as no surprise that this matchup is hugely in a skilled Parlor Tricks player's favor, perhaps as much as 80%. In addition to the usual Yamabushi's Storm and Nausea, the second Shred Memory should come in from the Parlor Tricks sideboard here. Boros Boros Aggro decks come in several varieties, but all pack substantial burn. The consensus number of burn spells among all recent lists appears to be fourteen -- most often 4 Firebolt, 4 Incinerate, 4 Goblin Legionnaire, and 2 Kaervek's Torch. In addition, these decks run up to twelve haste creatures that may get through for damage before dying at sorcery speed (Parlor Tricks runs about 60% of its removal at sorcery speed, and it has no creatures that can block Skyknight Legionnaires). Yamabushi's Storm and Nausea don't really do anything in this matchup, so the Parlor Tricks player should just side in a pair of Condescends and hope to snag something like Kaervek's Torch. Ideally, the control player wants to stabilize, draw Condescend in the lategame, and sit in an unkillable position while dealing a quick twenty damage. Despite my two successes with this plan at Euro PDC Worlds, I still don't really think that the matchup is at all favorable; it's a 40% matchup for Parlor Tricks. Red Burn Decks Mono-red burn matchups are a lot like the Boros matchup for the Parlor Tricks player, with one key difference: They're way worse. Every card in some Mono-red burn decks is bad news for a Parlor Tricks player with little proactive game plan and no maindeck counterspells. Decks like Blazin' Buffalo Ranch supplement burn with land destruction, and even run burn with the land destruction built right in -- see Molten Rain. This only compounds the Parlor Tricks player's misery. There is almost nothing that the Parlor Tricks player can do here, and there's very little relevant sideboard. If you’re fortunate, the burn player won't have read this article and won't know to go straight for your head as fast as possible (often without even stopping to kill Ninjas, because there's not much worthwhile for the Parlor Tricks player to draw into besides discard). Stick in the Condescends and hope to get lucky. 25%. White Weenie White Weenie, like any other aggro deck with no reach, is again quite favorable for the Parlor Tricks player. There isn't much to say here. Kill the creatures, watch out for Fortify/Kjeldoran War Cry, and side in the mass removal spells. 80%. GB and GBR Aggro and Aggro-Control These decks are hard to classify neatly, and matchups vary. Dredge-oriented decks are rather favorable if Parlor Tricks can dig up its Shred Memory; the second Shred in the board should help. Midrange GB decks play like GW without Armadillo Cloak; these matchups are highly favorable and may not require sideboarding. The most aggressive GBR Madness decks play a lot like RG Aggro; these matchups are slightly in favor of the Parlor Tricks player, and call for the same sideboarding strategy as against RG, definitely removing a couple of Ravenous Rats. Affinity Of all the aggro decks with no reach, Affinity is by far the most dangerous. Its unbalanced nature has led me to support banning the entire Affinity keyword. I haven't played this matchup enough to give complete advice, but I can make a few observations. Sometimes Affinity just wins. If Affinity deck plays turn one artifact land, Welding Jar, Phyrexian Walker, Bonesplitter, Frogmite; turn two artifact land, Thoughtcast, Myr Enforcer, Myr Enforcer, there isn't much that many decks can really do. However, barring an Affinity god-draw, there is hope for the control player. Parlor Tricks has the tools with a good hand to kill every creature on sight. This is especially true after boarding, when any Parlor Tricks build should have four or five of some combination of Echoing Ruins and Electrostatic Bolts. I have one final observation here. Many Affinity decks run Rush of Knowledge, a card that is very bad news (read: invariably lethal) for the Parlor Tricks player. If you see an Affinity player conspicuously holding onto a card or two in the midgame, watch out. Either grab some discard and strip those cards away quickly, or try to hold enough instant-speed removal to get rid of all of the Affinity player's high-cost permanents and blank the Rush of Knowledge when it is cast. That’s pretty much all I know about this matchup so far. My best guess is that it's around even -- 50%. Blue Meanie Depending on the number of counters, Blue Meanie plays like a cross between a random no-reach weenie strategy and MUC. I haven't played this matchup much, but I think it's a reasonable guess that Parlor Tricks's strategy is a cross between its strategies against random weenie and MUC. Parlor Tricks should kill opposing Ninjas on sight, slog through the counters, and hope to stabilize just above zero life. My educated guess is that this matchup falls between "random weenie" and MUC in winning percentage, making it somewhat favorable for the Parlor Tricks player. B. Control Matchups Control matchups are skill-intensive and widely varying in nature, ranging from broad-based attrition wars to struggles over a few key cards, but the Parlor Tricks player's winning chances rarely stray too far from 50%. MUC Mono-Blue Control can be an extremely frustrating matchup for any deck. I'm a staunch opponent of heavy counterspell decks on principle; I consider them non-interactive, no fun, and bad for Magic. Because MUC is clearly Tier 1 or better, I am on record supporting bannings. MUC will only get more unfair when it gains real removal in the form of Piracy Charm in Planar Chaos, killing the only few threats that give that deck any problems at all. As far as substantive analysis, I can say that MUC is a continuing struggle for Parlor Tricks. I feel like with sufficient hate the Parlor Tricks player "should" be able to win the MUC matchup, and the Parlor Tricks sideboard surely has room to fit in 4-5 dedicated MUC hate cards, as it does for Affinity. However, I have yet to find any hate whatsoever that makes much difference to the MUC player, whose deck is both highly redundant and often able to outdraw the Parlor Tricks player by resolving an early, counterspell-protected Ninja of the Deep Hours. This last observation makes Ninja of the Deep Hours the absolute key to this matchup on both sides. If MUC sticks a quick Ninja and protects it, Parlor Tricks has no chance, but if Parlor Tricks can keep opposing Ninjas off the board then it should be slightly ahead in the matchup -- especially if Parlor Tricks produces a Ninja of its own. Still, it's a struggle. Side in Mindstab, Duress, Electrostatic Bolt, at least one Echoing Ruin, or whatever else you have. The Parlor Tricks player can only hope to win around 35% in this matchup. Orzhov Blink Orzhov Blink versus Parlor Tricks is a pure knock-down, drag-out attrition war. Orzhov Blink plays the pseudo-aggro role, working hard to flip its comes-into-play creatures into Ninja card machines (both Deep Hours and Okiba-Gang Shinobi varieties). Parlor Tricks of course would happily make its own Ninjas, but it is more interested in stopping the Orzhov deck's creatures. Momentary Blink can make it tricky to kill Orzhov's creatures at times, but Innocent Blood gets around this difficulty. Parlor Tricks really just wants to stabilize and/or play a mutual topdecking game at a safe life total (roughly 6-8, in light of Blind Hunter damage). Parlor Tricks will usually, although not always, win such a topdecking war, because its power cards and reloads are far stronger than its opponent's. Train of Thought, Death Denied, Transmute cards, and Izzet Chronarch are all usually auto-win topdecks for the Parlor Tricks player in the lategame. It is hard to pick an exact win percentage for this highly skill-dependant matchup, but I'll give the very slight edge for lategame inevitability to Parlor Tricks. 55%. Orzhov Trinket Mage Decks Trinket Mage decks like Stars and Cogs and Grand Entrance have the best card-advantage engine this side of Parlor Tricks, often featuring Trinket Mage, Leonin Squire, Momentary Blink, and Ninja of the Deep Hours. They have a solid proactive game plan, and, with such great card advantage, Trinket Mage decks can actually hope to force that game plan through to execution even against a massive attrition deck like Parlor Tricks. Trinket Mage decks sometimes have rather annoying Guardians of the Guildpact and Phyrexian Walkers, and some builds may be able to finish with a devastating Kaervek's Torch if they come up short of twenty damage through combat. Despite all of this, the Parlor Tricks player has solid chances here. Shred AEther Spellbombs and Momentary Blinks if possible, block all attackers, kill any Ninjas that get through, and try to outdraw and/or discard out the Trinket Mage player. Occasionally, Parlor Tricks can even run Trinket Mage decks entirely out of trinkets. As with Orzhov Blink, both sides playing off the top should favor Parlor Tricks, although less so here because of Trinket Mage's better card advantage tools and its potential Kaervek's Torch win. Echoing Ruins out of the sideboard are far less useful than they appear, but one Ruin should still come in, as should all of the Parlor Tricks player's Condescends. Don't hesitate to Condescend Trinket Mage, Leonin Squire, Guardian of the Guildpact (if necessary), and of course Kaervek's Torch (if applicable). Again, I'll give a very slight edge to the inexorable nature of Parlor Tricks. 55%. MBC I haven't played against Mono-Black Control much, but that matchup really seems to turn almost solely on the black deck's X spells. Consume Spirit, Crypt Rats, Corrupt, and Drain Life are no fun for the Parlor Tricks player, so it is fortunate for Parlor Tricks that most MBC builds run fewer than half of these sixteen possible burn spells. Grim Harvest and/or Gravedigger chains are also obvious problems if unopposed. On the plus side for Parlor Tricks, MBC is not fast, its creatures are not good (although one should be careful with Twisted Abominations; know where your Innocent Bloods are), and it has no card-drawing to speak of. If Parlor Tricks finds its Shred Memory and keeps it at the ready, it can safely outdraw the MBC player and often kill before getting hit by too many X spells. Parlor Tricks should side in Condescend (for X spells) and Shred Memory. It may side in a small amount of discard but should not overdo it; hitting X spells is good, but discard spells do nothing if MBC is topdecking, and MBC will almost always find itself trying to kill off the top, whether or not it loses earlier X spells to discard, because of the scaleable nature of these cards. Parlor Tricks's win percentage in this matchup is closely tied to MBC's number of X spells. Facing roughly 4 such spells, Parlor Tricks should be favored, around 60%. Around 8 such spells makes the matchup roughly even: 50%. Moving up to 12 X spells gives the MBC player a clear advantage; Parlor Tricks can only hope to win around 40% in that case. Parlor Tricks I have only played the mirror match once, so I don't have much to say about it. What I can say is that it's a crazy, swingy mess. Creatures die left and right, people get painfully and repeatedly Probed, hand sizes bounce around wildly, someone casts Death Denied, someone else hopefully Shreds stuff, Train of Thoughts go nuts, and eventually someone wins somehow. As you might guess, the key swing cards in this matchup are the big card swings. The minor keys are Probe and Ninja of the Deep Hours -- Duress and Ravenous Rats are okay too, but not as good. The major keys are Train of Thought, Death Denied, and Shred Memory. Try to win the battles over these cards; Shred your opponent's Train of Thought and Death Denied if possible, or at least Shred his or her creatures (Izzet Chronarchs first) in response to Death Denied. Play for card advantage over damage. Outplay your opponent in general. Good luck! C. Combo Matchups Even without maindeck Duress, Parlor Tricks packs enough discard to make it a nightmare matchup for almost any combo deck. Both Storm decks and Freed Combo have serious uphill battles to fight in these matchups. Goblinstorm Nowadays, Parlor Tricks relies solely on heavy discard to keep Storms small and heavy spot removal to pick off whatever is left. Empty the Warrens, with or without the occasional Goblin War Strike (if applicable), usually won't deal twenty damage as long as Parlor Tricks finds its discard, especially if the Goblinstorm player waits to go off until he or she finds War Strike (thus facing even more discard). Even so, Goblinstorm can sometimes go at least "halfway off" on an extremely early turn or despite a small hand, making 6-10 goblins, and sometimes succeed in forcing through enough damage. Goblinstorm becomes far less dangerous for Parlor Tricks in games two and three, after Parlor Tricks sides in Duress, Yamabushi's Storm, and Nausea. These changes provide targeted disruption and effectively five mass removal spells thanks to Transmute. Thus, the Parlor Tricks player can expect to be favored in this matchup. I haven't tested enough to give an exact number, but if I had to guess I'd say 60%. One Goblinstorm variant deserves separate treatment. Mono-Red Goblinstorm, packing substantial burn and an aggro backup plan, plays like a cross between Goblinstorm and previously discussed Mono-R Burn. Parlor Tricks's sideboard hate in the form of Nausea and Yamabushi's Storm are still excellent but somewhat less crushing here than against traditional Goblinstorm decks, thanks to Mono-Red Goblinstorm's Goblin Sledders. Mono-Red Goblinstorm's aggro/burn backup plan also somewhat blunts the usual dominance of Duress against combo decks. This variant of the deck might even be slightly favored against Parlor Tricks -- even though it "goes off" with Warrens less consistently than regular Goblinstorm does. In game one, Grapeshot has at least some chance to win if it pulls a top-quality hand and Parlor Tricks fails to find enough discard fast enough. Things get hopeless for the Storm deck after sideboarding, though. Parlor Tricks pulls out as many of its dead cards as it can: Skred, Innocent Blood, Terminate, and Peel from Reality. In their place, Condescends, Duresses, Shred Memory (to Transmute for Rats), and Mindstabs (if applicable) totally ruin Grapeshot's day. Barring something highly unusual, Grapeshot should absolutely never win after sideboarding. The matchup goes 80% or more in favor of Parlor Tricks. Freed Combo generally cannot "go off" especially quickly. It requires five mana and a certain amount of Transmuting to set up. In addition, most of these decks cannot "go off" through instant-speed creature kill. Furthermore, Freed almost always needs at least two cards in hand (Freed and a counter or a Gigadrowse) in order to win. These facts make for a nigh-impossible struggle for Freed against Parlor Tricks. By the time that Freed is ready to combo, Parlor Tricks can easily have a hand full of Skred, Peel from Reality, and Terminate, usually with a Ninja feeding ever more answer cards. Freed's Power Sinks and Gigadrowses are usually meaningless, because Parlor Tricks will almost always gain an overwhelming mana advantage -- Parlor Tricks simply does not miss land drops, thanks to six bouncelands and ample card drawing, and it has no difficulty drawing or fetching its signets by the midgame. Finally, Parlor Tricks's Rats and Probes and sideboarded Duresses (along with Condescends, in place of Innocent Bloods and some Steamcore Weirds) generally mean Freed will find itself locked in an empty-handed position relatively quickly. With little chance of stopping Ninja of the Deep Hours, there isn't much Freed can do to avoid its fate. One new hope for Freed is Lathspel's long-overdue innovation of including four Train of Thoughts in Freed's sideboard. Train of Thought has been criminally underplayed in the Classic Pauper metagame. It is a monster card in the lategame against Parlor Tricks, and it solves some of Freed's problems in the matchup. Still, this card is not available for Freed before Game 2, and even equalizing cards in hand probably does too little to solve Freed's mana disparity and weakness to instant-speed removal in this matchup. In five recent tournament games against Freed, I lost one game in which I mana screwed and won the rest. That sounds about right. As long as its pilot plays carefully -- aggressively building mana early and keeping instant-speed removal available from turn five or so -- Parlor Tricks wins 80%. 8. Playing the Deck (FAQ) Okay, so you read the history, you understand the card choices, you know the matchups, and you want to start playing Parlor Tricks. Great! But before you get started, there are some things you should know. Parlor Tricks is an extremely complex deck that is not easy to play. The Transmute toolbox confers great power, but, as we all know by now, with great power comes great responsibility. Your responsibility is to learn when to grab removal and when to take your lumps and grab massive card advantage instead, when to take Death Denied versus Train of Thought, and when to actually cast a Dimir Infiltrator or Shred Memory. Outside of the Transmute suite, your responsibilities include figuring out how much damage you can afford to take in various situations, knowing when to attack on an empty board, and learning when to cast Steamcore Weirds to the dome. Answers to some of these and several other questions are found in what I have written above. Even so, I think that collecting those answers and more that I may have missed in single section provides a useful tool for new Parlor Tricks players. In fun, friendly, question-and-answer format, here we go: 1. When do I Transmute for card advantage (Death Denied, Train of Thought) instead of grabbing removal for an opposing creature? 2. When do I Transmute for Train of Thought over Death Denied, and vice versa? 3. When should I cast Dimir Infiltrator in creature form? 4. When should I cast Shred Memory rather than Transmuting it? 5. What is a safe life total against aggressive decks? 6. When is it safe to attack against no opposing creatures? 7. When should I cast Steamcore Weird "to the dome"? 8. What's so great about Peel from Reality? 9. Should I choose "play" or "draw" if I have the option? 10. Does it matter how I make my land drops and play my signets? 11. Should I hold on to Innocent Blood or Skred if I have the choice? 12. When should I sideboard in Nausea and/or Yamabushi's Storm? 13. I see some changes that might improve the deck -- what do you think? 14. What else can I do to start winning with Parlor Tricks? 9. Looking Ahead I had planned to spend some time here talking about the future of the Classic Pauper metagame; the new respect for three-color decks in light of bouncelands, signets, and Terramorphic Expanse; the ongoing upswing of control decks with robust card advantage engines to combat decks like Parlor Tricks; and so on. I would have said more about the nature of control in general than can be easily inferred from my discussion of a single control deck. I thought I could even say a few things about SpikeBoyM's crusade to talk about everything in terms of power or "greed" versus consistency. I might have had a few words about the future of Parlor Tricks and the deck's prospects for adapting to future metagame changes. Finally, it has even been suggested that I should write about the Standard Pauper version of Parlor Tricks here. All of those topics are best left for another article on another day. After two parts and twenty-five long pages, I think I'll just say "thanks." 10. Thanks Now, at the end of this enormous work, I would like to take a final moment to offer thanks to a few members of the PDC community who have been tremendously helpful and supportive to me and my writing. I want to thank the following people: MagicalTrevor, for welcoming me into the PDC community, encouraging me, and reading part of a draft of this article SpikeBoyM, for encouraging me to write, and for his kind words about my deck StillIRise, for being an early adopter of Parlor Tricks and for encouraging me to write about the deck Icarodx, for reading part of a draft of this article GravespwnGoddess, for reading part of a draft of this article All of my readers, for taking enough interest in my thoughts to read the entirety of this massive article Thank you. Sincerely, Appendix: A World Championship Tournament Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------- I won Euro PDC Season 4 Worlds by the skin of my teeth, coming down to Game 3 in nearly every round. Here is my (very) comprehensive report from that tournament: Round 1: Bye. I won this one easily. 1-0 (2-0). Round 2: This was a tight matchup against Kaityson36's RG aggro. Because Magic Online booted me in mid-tournament, I do not have the replays for this match. Round 3: I faced one of my worst matchups in the tournament, RW Boros Aggro, as piloted by Magic Man 47. As discussed above, RW Aggro's heavy burn package can be bad news for Parlor Tricks. That said, I somehow managed to win this matchup twice. Round 4 was against MagicalTrevor's finely tuned, undefeated GW Cloak deck. Despite the loss, I made the Top 4 as the #2 seed with a 3-1 record and solid tiebreaks. In the Semifinal round, I had a rematch with Magic Man 47's dangerous Boros deck. Oddly, neither of us was thrilled with the matchup. The Finals paired me against Notsop and his Orzhov Aggro (no Blink, thankfully). I finished 5-1 (11-5) to win Euro PDC Season 4 Worlds. |
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