keeper - boréal

As for how Keeper wins. Keeper has a tripartite strategy for winning the game. It assumes the control role, and operates in these three ways.

First, Keeper is a good shell for many of the most powerful cards in the format. It plays many of the most powerful restricted cards, and plays them well. It does not have all of the best cards. For example, Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister are usually absent. Hymn to Tourach is only played on occasion, and Mishra's Workshop is right out. But most of the best cards in the Restricted List find a good home here.

Second, Keeper has excellent card advantage. In addition to the usual card-advantageous restricted cards, Keeper enjoys use of three or four copies of Jayemdae Tome. This card is as much a threat as a creature. Like a creature, it arrives on the table and asks the opponent a difficult question. But unlike a Savannah Lion, the Book has within itself the means to protect itself: It allows you to draw into more permission. And much like a Shivan Dragon, after a few turns of existing, it has often ended the game.

The third element of Keeper is what brings it all together -- tempo. The long and short of tempo is that it is making favorable mana-related trades with the opponent. If I pay three mana for a Sedge Troll and you pay one mana for a Swords to Plowshares, then you've gained some tempo. If I pay four mana for a Juggernaut and you spend two mana to Counterspell or Disenchant him, you have likewise gained some tempo. This is all to say that Keeper plays very efficient answers, often allowing the Keeper player to spend less mana than the opponent in a one-for-one exchange.

Part of the strength of Keeper is the way in which the latter two elements come together. Jayemdae Tome, while an integral part of the deck, is very mana-hungry. Fortunately, it pairs well with the under-costed answers highlighted above. Consider a turn in which you have five mana while playing Keeper. The opponent may tap out for a Djinn. You can cast Swords to Plowshares with one mana, while still drawing a card with the Tome. This means that your mana are being put to good use, as you slowly amass an increasing advantage over your opponent.

Finally, a note on the build. It is very common for me to change the build between tournaments. Sometimes this is in response to shifts in the metagame, as decks rise and fall in popularity. Other times, I change the deck based on the format -- for example, Atlantic may demand more answers to Robots than Swedish. And other times, I just want to try out an idea. At its heart, Keeper is a deck with many correct builds, and few wrong builds. Make sure that you play a robust manabase: Somewhere around 28-30, counting Copy Artifact. Be sure to play at least three Books. Don't cut too many answers at one or two mana. After that, you have quite a lot of room for flexibility and personal taste. 

I have been playing Keeper and Keeper-style decks since the 1990s, and I still love it today. It is a deck that brings you difficult puzzles to solve and challenging questions to answer, and rewards you for getting them right. To me, it represents both nostalgia for a time long ago, and also the joy of today's Old School format.

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source: Rich Shay - New England Old School​

picture: @oldschoolmtg