Parmesan Ability (Patreon)

Parmesan Ability is something I factor into decks that doesn't get enough talk in magic. But what is this “Parmesan Ability?” In other strategy games they have what people call “Cheese strategies” ; these are things that win the game but are often not considered “Meta” and are exploitable in some way. Those Cheese strategies also often carry some baggage of being for “noobs.” However that's an oversimplification of what's going on in those games. In most cases what is actually happening is the player is ONLY doing the Cheese strategy and you are hard committing. Meaning that if the opponent counters this or breaks up this element of your plan you often just lose.

How does this apply to Magic? In Magic we also have gimmicky strategies that are all in and are exploitable. At the time of writing this article Aspiring Spike has released one of these decks onto the world with Tibalt Trickery. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5187881#online


This deck looks to just counter its free spell then cheat some unbeatable card onto the battlefield. This in most other games would be called a “Cheese strategy.” It's too inconsistent to be a real player in its current form while also just being able to be broken up fairly easily and requires extreme mulligan which sometimes will just leave you with nothing. However this is not exactly what today's article is about. Instead I proposing a new way to look at decks like this and strategies that have an element that some would call “Cheese.”

The thesis behind a Parmesan deck is that, much like actually parmesan cheese, you just have a little cheese sprinkled on the deck. Parmesan decks are decks that play a normal fair game plan but have some unfair element to them, often in the form of a combo. An example of this is Splinter Twin. You could be losing. Playing your worst matchup but if you can assemble twin plus pestermite you will win the game. In the past people have just called these decks “twin like” or just splinter twin. However I think that leads to two big responses that make it not the best term. First is a strong emotional  response from people and often puts a weird wall up with them. Having them may even disregard the deck. The second is that part of what made Twin so good was that it was also a weird control and tempo deck. So calling a deck a twin deck often means it needs to do these things. While I think a Parmesan deck doesn't need to have that many forms of game plans it can play. It just needs a normal game plan that's backed up with some unfair element.  

An example of a deck that could fit into the Parmesan style of deck is Hammer. While its an agro deck it also has unfair elements. A turn one ornithopter into Sigarda's aid is threatening lethal on the next turn if they have the two hammers. Which brings us to the two subtypes of Parmesan that a deck can produce.
Pseudo win Vs Hard win
A “Pseudo win” is one where you haven't actually won the game yet however on the next turn you will win the game. Doomsday decks in Legacy and Hammer in Modern are examples of decks that often put themselves in a position that is often unlosable if given one more turn but they do need the one more turn. While a “Hard win” is one that wins on the spot immediately if able to be executed fully. Think Splinter Twin in old Modern or the current Jeskai Breach decks. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of wins that deck can produce.

Often in the case of Pseudo wins the deck gets to be less all in on the combo. When looking at Hammer they often win by just playing a totally reasonable beatdown game and use the threat of the win along with its mana efficiency to overwhelm the opponent.

Jesse and Samantha
In recent months we have seen two players help redefine their favorite formats by doing this exact method. Jesse Robkin helped show off the power of the breach deck back in March.

While slightly different from the breach decks we see today. We see Jesse utilizing the parmesan theory. She is presenting an early tempo plan with Ragavan and DRC, and a fairly strong late game with both Urza's Saga and value Breaches. Then, like a little Parmesan on pasta, it still has that combo finish that Breach can enable.

Modern having a deck like this has changed the landscape of the format and made playing the incredibly long grindy decks like Yorrion control of old a much scarier proposition. Nowadays the deck is a bit more in on the combo with things like Teferi time raveler in the deck to help protect the combo, and cards like fable of the mirror breaker that while can play multiple plans don't provide that same tempo that cards like DRC were presenting.  Jesse here is sporting a hard win end game, that makes even her worst matchups winnable if she draws the right cards.

While in Legacy just over a month ago now we had Samantha Murphy do a similar thing with a tempo Doomsday deck.

Legacy is a very old format and redefining the format with something like this is incredible. She has combined the combo win of Doomsday and Thassa’s Oracle with the powerful midrange plans that Murktide can produce. While often a Pseudo win with the combo that players can't really stop and has changed how people look at and approach the Legacy Metagame.

What both these players have done is change how the format has to approach games and deck building as now they have more decks that can win the game out of nowhere. While it does hold true for Legacy, that is a format that is used to that, while in the case of Modern that is not really the case. Ever since the release of Modern Horizons 2 the format has seen a dramatic decrease in combo decks, and the breach deck is now not only the combo deck of the format but a bar of efficiency that every player must pass. The ripples of this are still being seen in modern as decks like Murktide have dropped a bit in popularity even post Yorrion ban, as they don't have the same Parmesan ability that the breach deck has. Love it or Hate it these two changed their respective formats for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
Identifying when a deck can work in a combo finish is something that as players we should be looking to explore more in these eternal formats. The work is not easy but when it pays off you get paid off in spades. Jesse was working on breach back when the card was first spoiled and then again back around September of 2021. She didn't get the break out finish with the deck for another 6 months. The road to incorporating these things into decks can be long and filled with adversity, but these two have proven that it's worth looking to see if your deck can include some Parmesan ability.