High Tides was originally developed in 1998, during the height of the dreaded combo winter. Unlike traditional combo decks High Tides opts for an nontraditional kill method by "milling" an opponent to death in a single swoop. Originally the deck would play High Tides and Palinchron to produce an arbitrary large amount of mana. This mana would then be used to kill with a large Stroke of Genius. Like many decks during combo winter many key cards were banned including the major draw engine Time Spiral and Frantic Search. A few new cards were eventually printed to breathe life back into the deck. The most notably of this list was Brain Freeze.
After the Type 1 and type 1.5 split in 2005 High Tides returned to the scene in the form of Solidarity, the original combo deck of Legacy. The deck completely consisted of instants and land. The deck utilized Reset and Turnabout as mana acceleration under High Tide. After an 8 storm count the deck would play a lethal Brain Freeze with the help of Remand. As aggro decks grew faster it became harder and harder to reach the 4-5 land needed for the combo. Furthermore, the deck required an excellent mastery of the stack and timing to be successful.
Spring Tides attempted to solve the consistency and speed problems by adding sorcery speed spells. Cloud of Faeries and Snap were used to replace Reset as a faster engine. It allowed for a greater turn three and four win percentages but also made the deck vulnerable to a well placed removal spell.
A perfect storm, however, was created recently by the printing of new cards and a timely unban. Ponder and Preordain allowed for better hand shaping then brainstorm alone . Finally the unbanning of time spiral allowed for the Cloud of Faeries and a Snap engine to be retired. There are currently a few different designs of High Tide but they have a common core.
2. Why Play High Tide?
High Tide is unique that it is a combo-control archetype. Lists can run anywhere from 4-7 counters main with 3+ additional in the board. A unique feature of the deck is that is does not auto lose to any-match up. This is partly due to its inherent counter magic and robust wish board allowing it to compete with other combo decks and degenerate early plays. Furthermore, High Tides has an inevitability aspect. The longer a game goes on, the better the chances for a win. Most importantly High Tide gives inexperienced players a major problem in determining the game state. The only permanents in play are islands or a lone candelabra. This puts many inexperienced opponents on constant edge through out the game. Furthermore, it is not a mulligan heavy deck. Due to all the draw and can trips it is very consistent in the hands of an experienced pilot.
3. How to Play the Deck
Unlike most combo decks, High Tide does not want to combo off as soon as possible. In fact it is the exact opposite of fast combo decks like Belcher. All of High Tides mana source are islands thus, the more land drops that are obtained the higher the win percentage is on a given turn. Ideally, 4-5 lands are required to successfully combo. However, if there is no immediate threat on the board, the deck can wait even longer. Due to the importance of land drops in this deck there are two phases in playing High Tide.
Phase One: Survival
The main point of this phase is ensuring land drops. For this reason alone it is very important to take hands with 2-3 lands. Taking hands with less land can easily lead to missed drops. Digging for land here is very important and the correct can-trip order can greatly aide in this endeavor. Ponder is by far the best can-trip in pure digging and should be used first. Preordain should follow as it can remove dead cards from the top. The last can-trip that should be exploited is Brainstorm. You can see up to nine cards when the can-trips are played in this exact order. By the end of your second turn you should find your 3rd or 4th land in this manner. Turn three and four should be devoted to finding High Tides, without it even attempting to combo is very risky. It is possible during this time you may need to interact with your opponent unfortunately. A first turn Lackey for instance should be promptly met with a counter if possible. This may slow you down as you may have to pitch value can-trips or tutors. If you manage to survive to turn 4 or 5 there are a few aspects that need to be considered before attempting the combo phase.
Do you have High Tides?
Do you have at least one Un-tap effects or a Tutor for One?
Do you have Time Spiral , Two Can Trips, or Mediate?
If you opponent is blue do you have counter magic?
Is it not possible to wait another turn?
Phase Two: Combo
If your answered no to any of these you're not ready yet to start the combo phase unless your under a do or die situation. The clearest path to victory here to cast and resolve Time Spiral but sometimes this cannot be accomplished. In this case a Turnabout and a draw spell is required.
There are two important notes when comboing. Never tap all your land unless you're going to un-tap it or in dire need of the mana. Haphazardly taping land makes any new High-Tide cast less effective. Secondly, never spend so much mana that you cant un-tap your land. For instance if all you have is 3 mana left and the cheapest un-tap effect in your list is Turnabout you have to win with 3 mana or you fizzle. This is a very easy mistake to make when first playing the deck that is often overlooked. There are two ways to win
Once the combo has started generally you want to find a second or third high tides especially when combining off 4 or less lands. Once each Island is taping for 3-4 mana the deck goes on auto pilot. If your storm count is high enough it is possible to simply wish for a Brain Freeze. Typically this requires 17+ storm or 7-8 if you also play remand. The second option is if you have an 53+ mana built up for a lethal Blue Sun's Zenth. Generally the second option is safer due to Emrakul in the format and is the preferred kill mechanic. The Brain Freeze option is generally used when a fizzle may occur.
4. Core Card Choices
There are many different High Tide builds but each of them contains a common core of cards. This list tries to incorporate all the cards that are considered core to the main deck itself.
Engine
High Tide : It is the heart and soul of the deck. It turns the lonely island into a Tolarian Academy waiting to happen.
Turnabout : The original instant speed land up tapper. It can also doubles as a fog when necessary.
Time Spiral: It performs the two major operations this deck wants in the same card. It doubles your mana and refills your hand. An added benefit is that it recycles cards back into your deck allow for greater high tide counts.
Can-Trips
Brainstorm: It is a old classic. Combine it with a fetch land and It become an almost ancestral recall. It also can protect combo pieces from untimely discard.
Ponder : It sees three cards deep and allows for a shuffle if needed.
Preordain: The new kid on the block. It only sees two cards down but allows greater flexibly of moving dead draws then Ponder alone.
Tutors
Merchant Scroll : If your want an instant it does not get much better than this. It finds around half the cards in your deck.
Cunning Wish: It's an instant speed tutor that allows for a robust wish board.
Win Conditions
Blue Sun's Zenith: It is an upgraded Stroke of Genius. It can draw you cards or kill your opponent whichever is required. It shuffles back in so there is no need to fear that it won't be found again if need.
Brain Freeze : When you don't have enough mana for a lethal Blue Sun's Zenith this is the next best thing. It does not win on the spot but on the opponents next turn it should be lethal.
These are card choices that appear in multiple successful lists. Packages may be mixed and matched to suit the local meta game.
Retraced Image Package
4 Retraced Image Turns dead lands during the combo turn into free mana. It also can speed up the combo turn by one allowing High Tides to compete better with faster decks.
3 Pact of Negation Acts as a force of Will During your combo turn without losing card advantage . Don't worry if Pact gets countered as you only lose if it resolves
Cloud of Faeries Package
4 Cloud of Faeries Can be a budget replacement for Candelabras but are less effected by hate. They generate however far less mana.
1-2 Snap A left over from spring tides that combo's well with Cloud of Faeries. Watch out however for targeted removal in response.
Waves Package
3-4 Candelabra of Tawnos Acts as turnabouts 4-7 for mana production but is effected by permanent hate. Interestingly it combo's with turnabout. When you have 2+ Candelabra's it is ofter better to choose the mode untap artifacts it generally produces far greater quantities of mana.
0-1 Mind Over Matter Used with Candelabra to produce obscene amounts of mana. It can also tap creatures down in a pitch.
Eldrazi Package
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Some list run it as an extra win condition that can easy come down turn 3 hard casted. Most list that run him don't run mediate as they want the extra turn.
is still in the testing stages but has proven itself at the BoM 5. It helps greatly in the tempo and control matches by protecting High Tides at the beginning of the combo.
0-2 Counter Spell More controlish builds run this card to help ensure that more land drops are hit. The down side is that its UU makes it hard to use expect during the combo turn.
Draw Packages
1-3 Meditate Most list consider this a staple but a few successful list have run as few as 0. It is a MVP card against discard decks as it completely foils hymn and reduces the power of targeted discard. Learning when to play this card is Key. If it is played correctly its draw back does mater. Generally it is played at the end of your opponent's turn , mid combo, or in response to discard.
0-1 Intuition Some run it as the 8th tutor in the deck since it can grab Time Sprial. This however does open you up to extirpate
6. Wish Board
Unlike many decks High Tides cannot be thought of as 60 Card deck with a 15 card sideboard. Instead it is a 75 deck in which 15 cards are tutor targets that are protected outside the normal game. As such the sideboard for High Tide is very tight and must have at the bear minimum the four following cards
These must be included as they turn Cunning wish as into an emergency combo piece on demand. These cards alone however only make up part of the wish board. Bounce Cards are also typically added against aggro and storm match ups. They also remove hate pieces that will try to lock high tide out of the game.
Bounce Cards
0-3 Repeal Removal for pesky creatures and it replaces itself.
0-1 Echoing TruthGood at removal goblins from storm match ups. It also has the added benefit of bouncing multiple candelabras for even more man production.
1 Rebuild Gets rid of all the pesky artifacts that may lock you out of the game. Ethersworn Canonist,Top, Trinisphere, Chalice of the void. It also can cycle in a pinch and gets around Chalice @2.
1 Wipe away Removes Counter bounce for us when we need to get High Tide resolved .
Counter Cards
0-3 Pact of Negation Turns cunning wish into Cancels. Game 2 and 3 two are boarded in for merchant scroll targets aginst control decks .
0-2 Spell Peirce Used against combo decks when you need a little extra counter magic on your non combo turn.
Graveyard Options
Noxious Revival Acts as a recovery tool against discard or counter heavy decks. It basically turn Cunning wishes into mystical tutors.
Ravenous Trap Against graveyard dependent decks this card is an MVP.
It turns your cunning wish into graveyard removal.
Surgical Extraction Useful against loam and other graveyard dependent combo decks where shutting of a key card turns the tables of the game.
They want to control non-basic lands and creatures, your deck has neither. Game one should be almost an auto win. Game two and three they may have chalice of the void at one. Just wish for a rebuild or bounce and remove the pesky artifacts.
Enchantress Favorable
Your are a faster and more consistent combo deck. They focus on creature control you have no creatures. The only real must force targets are Solitary confinement game one. Game two and three they may bring in Leyline of sanctity which can be annoying combined with sterling grove. Bounce spells can help out post board.
Death And TaxesFavorable
Game one should be in your favor as they do not produce a very fast clock. The only pesky cards to look out for game one are Mangara of Corondor and flicker wisp. Both come online pretty late. Game two and three they will board in Ethersworn Canonist . Make sure you wish for bounce and the game should be yours.
GoblinsFavorable
As long as lackey does not connect this match is reasonable. Watch out for ports taping your land. Candelabra builds really shines in this match. Snaps and Echoing truth can stall for a few turns. Game two and three they have access the elemental blasts.
AffinityEven
Affinity can have very explosive turn 1-2 which will determine the course of the game. Thus it is very possible for this deck to present lethal damage 3+. Force is best saved for a ravager or cranial plating. Depending on the build game 2 and 3 can be rough. They may have access to cabal therapy or cannonist. Rebuild and Hurkyl's Recall from the board can win you the games so side them in this match. Simply tutoring for one is back breaking in this match up.
Burn Even
This deck has the same clock that of High Tides. The problem is that forcing anything but a lethal burn spell is un productive. Game one basically turns into a goldfish race. Retraced image builds have an distinct advantage here over other builds. Game two and three they may add Elemental basts so you may need a counter back up. A little extra counter magic from the board helps
Merfolk Slightly unfavorable
Before the printing of mental misstep this use to be a Favorable matchup. Winning the counter war is key here. Game two or three they may add a spell pierce or two but nothing really that affects us. We on the other hand have extra counter spells and bounce. Countering Vial is huge here as many merfolk mana bases are terrible at hitting double UU.
ANT & TESSlightly Unfavorable
Both are fundamentally a turn faster than this deck. Wining the die roll here is very important here as it gives you one more land drop. Game one is almost an auto lose if you are on the draw if they have a good hand and you do not have a force or any counter magic. Game two and three are better due to the increased counter magic. Against TES you may need echoing truth if they go the goblin route.
Team AmericaUnfavorable
It is one of the tougher match ups. They have discard, counter magic and a fast clock. Save the counter magic for their key threats (Jace, Gofy ,Stalker) 2-3 Spell Peirce from the board greatly improves the match up.
JunkUnfavorable
They have a lot of discard and LD in the form of vindicate. Losing land drops is horrible for this deck thus the discard is the lesser of the two. Meditate and Brainstorm here can make or break the match. A well timed meditate before the combo help immensely. Decks that run Noxious Revival also tend to due better. Watch out for extirpate game two and three. Swap the High Tide with a mediate since we really want the card draw in this match up.
Counter TopPoor
Pre-board they have a lot of hate for us. Now with the addition of metal misstep it can be rough. You need to fight of counterbalance if possible. If it does resolve you need to ether wipe it away or brain freeze them when they are tapped out with top. Game two and there they can bring in canonist which makes it even worse. You need to add more counter magic main in this matchup.
Solidarity Poor
This deck is just like yours, only it will walk all over you. You cannot combo off against them without tapping their lands with turnabout. They will ride your storm count to produce lethal brain freeze at any point during the combo.
9. Conclusion
High Tide is a challenging and rewarding deck not for the faint of heart. This deck rewards play testing more then any other deck I personally have played. I tried to make this overview as comprehensive as possible due to all the possible variations. If I am missing something or there is a typo please let me know so I can correct it.
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Random Opponent: Playing against 12 Post Feels like trying to win in Yugioh with no super secret rares.
I mean, hell, we're all on a forum for something that most people would describe as a "children's card game"...do what makes you happy. You are never too old to enjoy yourself.
We (I say that like I've posted in a high tide thread on MTGS before ;p) got bumped up to proven? Awesome.
What does everyone think of running the deck with zero acceleration? I'm thinking about bringing it to Indy next weekend (the open, not the invitational.) I figure goblins and storm will be rare enough that not having a slightly faster clock won't be a huge issue, and the mental missteps in their place really helps against other misstep decks.
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EDH: UUUJin-Gitaxias, Core AugurUUU
Modern WWWHatebearsWWW
I a currently running 2 Retraced image in the board( they are too good against fast aggro or burn to completely ignore). I am currently running 2 Missteps main in their place. I want to add a third but I am not sure what to cut. Also Noxious revival has been a house against Junk decks.
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Random Opponent: Playing against 12 Post Feels like trying to win in Yugioh with no super secret rares.
Imma be honest here, I'm trying to make this work so I can beat it easier, but then again that's how I got into ANT.
I actually do like this from what I've seen of it though, so unlike then I have respect for the deck I'm learning.
Imma be honest here, I'm trying to make this work so I can beat it easier, but then again that's how I got into ANT.
I actually do like this from what I've seen of it though, so unlike then I have respect for the deck I'm learning.
I think you need at least one Meditate in your main for a tutor target. Furthermore, Playing 3x main makes playing against discard much easier when combined with brainstorm and misstep.
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Random Opponent: Playing against 12 Post Feels like trying to win in Yugioh with no super secret rares.
Between you an Iñaki I think it proves that High Tide was not drastically hurt by mental misstep since we can run it as well successfully.
I had one high tide misstepped all weekend and it was kronenburger playing his mono blue. It doesn't hurt the deck half as much as people think. I easily could have been in the money. 11 mulligans in the 4 rounds I played day two.
I had one high tide misstepped all weekend and it was kronenburger playing his mono blue. It doesn't hurt the deck half as much as people think. I easily could have been in the money. 11 mulligans in the 4 rounds I played day two.
I look forward to hear your report. It is always sad when this deck gives poor opening hands as most are keepable.
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Random Opponent: Playing against 12 Post Feels like trying to win in Yugioh with no super secret rares.
As changing as the Tide, taking a day two and taking beats.
So despite everyone saying high tide combo is dead, I decide to be stubborn and play it anyway. I essentially took the Hatfield list, cut 2 Mind over matter’s and a candelabra for 3 missteps and a island for another preordain. Cutting that Island was essentially the dumbest move of all time. I had horrible mulls all weekend and lost to decks that had no business beating me. So onto the goodness. I’m writing a lot of this from bad notes and memory, so if I made a mistake here or there, apologies.
My crew leaves Albany at noon on Friday to head out to Providence, all three of us in a Prius listening to my buddy Riley’s horrible techno trance music while he delights in the audio waterboarding he is performing. We make it out to our hotel no worries and check in at the event no problem and a see a couple friends playing grinders. I already had 3 byes from winning a GPT at my LGS, so I pretty much walked around and scoped. I saw nightmare playing the U/W list that everyone seemed to be playing the night before, and reminisced about the old Albany VS Syracuse 1.5 battles that used to happen. (LAVA DART!) Onto the magic:
Here is the list for reference, DO NOT PLAY 17 LANDS IN THIS DECK LIKE I DID.
This round was exciting for me as I finally got to play some cards after sitting around a while. My friends were all 1-2 at this point so I had to make sure someone from the crew ended up day two. I sit down from an enchantress player and grin, thinking it’s in the bag as they are fully slower than I, and I expect to be 4-0. My opponent game one try’s to land a exploration, which I misstep, he doesn’t play anything relevant till turn 4, when I just go off. Game two He had turn 3 double sterling grove, which negates my bounce and I had no force to stop him. GG.
Game three was an epic battle, literally ending with both of us having about 5-10 cards in the library. Essentially he had me locked with double sterling grove, runed halo’s for both BSZ and Brain Freeze. He attempts words at war to win, I force then cunning wish for extraction, removing it, seeing he has 4 cards left, 2 of which are solitary confinement. I time spiral on my turn to draw a new hand, lucksack into an extraction and pass turn thinking I can just extract his confinements and deck him. On his turn, he casts solitary off of a 14 mana serra’s sanctum, I force, he casts replenish, I force, he casts replenish, I pact. At this point he has one card in hand, which turned out to be a choke that resolves and I can’t pay the pact trigger. GG.
3-1
Round 5: Merfolk
He never get’s a threat on board and tries to play control against me game one, which is always a mistake for merfolk. I sculpt a hand with double force, then merchant for Pact of Negation for the safety blanket and go off.
Game two was more of the same, I went off from 12 life after boarding in some spell pierces for preordains just in case.
4-1
Round 6: R/W/G Cascade LD
Not gonna lie, this guy caught me off guard. Essentially I combo’d turn 4 without seeing anything but smaller creatures and thought he was playing NO RUG or something similar. Game 2, he cast a bloodbraid elf into boom/bust and geddon’d me. GG.
Knowing what he was playing, I just sculpted to protect from the bloodbraid cascade and combo’d turn 5.
5-1
Round 7: Junk
My opponent in this round was a nice kid, and I saw he day two’d as well. This match is where my deck started ☺☺☺☺ting on me. Game one I combo’d off no worries, misstepped a thoughtseize and he never had hymn. Game two, mull to 5, keeping a decent hand but hymn finished it.
Game three was maybe the worst game of the tournament for me. Mull’d to 4. Now these mulls weren’t maybes, they were zero land or 6 land type hands. Hell I’d have kept a 5 land 1 ponder hand. These were HORRIBLE hands. So I keep a 4 hand with a land, a ponder, a brainstorm and a BSZ. Turn one I play land and ponder, no lands seen so I shuffle. He plays land, diamond, hymn. Turn two I draw no land, his turn 2 was a vindicate on my island. I never come back.
5-2
Round 8: NO Rug Burn
Nothing really of note here, his combo doesn’t kill quick enough to get me, so I combo turn 3 with candelabra with a progenitus staring me down. Game two actually was very close, having me have to turnabout his creatures to stay at 4 life instead of taking a hirearch beats, when I spiral he shows me the bolt that would have been lethal if I didn’t play defense with turnabout.
6-2
Round 9: Merfolk
I have one note for this matchup. PACT ALL STAR. It really was all day. The one maindeck pact really catches fish off guard when you merchant scroll for it. I ended up finishing the tourney 3-0 against the fish.
7-2 Day one finished
Feeling great day with a day two, we go to eat some Cheesecake factory. The food in providence was a win all weekend, with luxe burger being the highlight for their grilled cheese buns.
Round 10: Maverick
This is the beginning of the end for me. 3 games against a deck I should NEVER lose too, and I mulled to 6 and to 5. He get’s down some beats and I can’t recover in either game. I never made it past 2 islands in this round. At this point I’m pretty tilted, as that should have been an auto win for me, but try to recover for the next round.
7-3
Round 11: Merfolk
Played against a great kid that didn’t know how to beat high tide, he again went for control over beats, and maindeck pact just owned his force. I can’t overstate how nuts pact is against force of will in this matchup. It’ll stay in my mainboard as long as I play the deck. (Props to Rion for making me see the light on this)
8-3
Round 12: Zoo.
Game one, I mull to 5 from horrible draws again, he beats face. Game two, I go off at ten, when we realize he hadn’t pitched his original hand when he drew for time spiral. We call a judge as he has 9 cards in his grip now. Judge rules that he can just shuffle back and draw a new hand of 7. I thought this ruling was a little odd at Professional REL but my opponent was a chill guy so no biggy, until he draws lightning helix, bolt, fireblast for 10 off of his gift hand from the judge. I meditate in response, digging for any countermagic, don’t get there
So at this point I’m not having much fun, I feel that game was stolen from me and I punted a match against maverick by having to mull so often. Magic gods weren’t kind day two.
8-4
Round 13: Kronenberger Blue
This was piloted by none other than Chris himself, who I recognize from watching him win the SCG the week before. Can’t say enough about how nice of a guy he is, was a true pleasure to play against him, despite getting monkey stomped both games. He plays something like 17 counterspells, and I managed to actually fight through in BOTH games and resolve a time spiral with high tide active, but when we draw 7, he reloads on countermagic and I just can’t break through.
8-5
Was a disappointing outcome, with my deck busting me pretty badly with mulls etc. But we made day two with a “dead” deck. I will say this, the ONLY person who actually misstepped a high tide was Chris with his mono blue 17 counter deck. High tide isn’t hurt as badly as anyone thinks by MM. We play 3 of our own, have superior card filtration and it’s useless after a spiral.
It’s very much a viable deck in my opinion. I could have easily been in a much better position if the dice roll a little better. Removing that island was a deathblow to any chance I had to make the money in this one. I dropped with 5 losses as I couldn’t make top anything from there.
@big pacific Thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about your bad beats against Maverick it is close to this decks best match ups behind lands. I am assuming against Kronenberger Blue you were not able to tap him out before the time spiral with a turnabout as mental missteps and force should not be able to stop this deck alone post spiral.
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Nope, it was everything i could do just to get the spirals off. The only way i net out in countermagic against him is using pact, which i can't use to protect a turnabout as i'll just die in upkeep before i can go off.
Seems like just a few weeks after High Tide makes it into the Proven section, it is beaten out of being a competitive deck.
I am really wanting to push the deck as far as it can be, because getting the candles for this wasnt easy. Cant decide if I should start trying to get rid of them or not.
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"It's like some kind of Voltron... made of elephants??"
Seems like just a few weeks after High Tide makes it into the Proven section, it is beaten out of being a competitive deck.
I am really wanting to push the deck as far as it can be, because getting the candles for this wasnt easy. Cant decide if I should start trying to get rid of them or not.
The meta is not bad right now. Our worst match up Counter Top has almost been replaced in the Meta with Land Still variants. Just make sure you tutor for a few pacts before starting to combo against blue decks. It is also important to note that Spell snare and Mental misstep miss many of utility spells of the deck Cunning wish,Turnabout, Time spiral, Pact of negation to name a few.
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In my opinion dredge is the worst matchup currently being played. It has disruption and a clock, which is the death of us.
Cabal therapy seems to be the key in this matchup for me, if they only get 1-2 casts? I win, 3-4, i lose. Every time. I actually have ravenous trap and surgical extraction in my board to combat this as wish targets i hate the matchup so much.
A Primer
1. A Brief History
High Tides was originally developed in 1998, during the height of the dreaded combo winter. Unlike traditional combo decks High Tides opts for an nontraditional kill method by "milling" an opponent to death in a single swoop. Originally the deck would play High Tides and Palinchron to produce an arbitrary large amount of mana. This mana would then be used to kill with a large Stroke of Genius. Like many decks during combo winter many key cards were banned including the major draw engine Time Spiral and Frantic Search. A few new cards were eventually printed to breathe life back into the deck. The most notably of this list was Brain Freeze.
After the Type 1 and type 1.5 split in 2005 High Tides returned to the scene in the form of Solidarity, the original combo deck of Legacy. The deck completely consisted of instants and land. The deck utilized Reset and Turnabout as mana acceleration under High Tide. After an 8 storm count the deck would play a lethal Brain Freeze with the help of Remand. As aggro decks grew faster it became harder and harder to reach the 4-5 land needed for the combo. Furthermore, the deck required an excellent mastery of the stack and timing to be successful.
Spring Tides attempted to solve the consistency and speed problems by adding sorcery speed spells. Cloud of Faeries and Snap were used to replace Reset as a faster engine. It allowed for a greater turn three and four win percentages but also made the deck vulnerable to a well placed removal spell.
A perfect storm, however, was created recently by the printing of new cards and a timely unban. Ponder and Preordain allowed for better hand shaping then brainstorm alone . Finally the unbanning of time spiral allowed for the Cloud of Faeries and a Snap engine to be retired. There are currently a few different designs of High Tide but they have a common core.
2. Why Play High Tide?
High Tide is unique that it is a combo-control archetype. Lists can run anywhere from 4-7 counters main with 3+ additional in the board. A unique feature of the deck is that is does not auto lose to any-match up. This is partly due to its inherent counter magic and robust wish board allowing it to compete with other combo decks and degenerate early plays. Furthermore, High Tides has an inevitability aspect. The longer a game goes on, the better the chances for a win. Most importantly High Tide gives inexperienced players a major problem in determining the game state. The only permanents in play are islands or a lone candelabra. This puts many inexperienced opponents on constant edge through out the game. Furthermore, it is not a mulligan heavy deck. Due to all the draw and can trips it is very consistent in the hands of an experienced pilot.
3. How to Play the Deck
Unlike most combo decks, High Tide does not want to combo off as soon as possible. In fact it is the exact opposite of fast combo decks like Belcher. All of High Tides mana source are islands thus, the more land drops that are obtained the higher the win percentage is on a given turn. Ideally, 4-5 lands are required to successfully combo. However, if there is no immediate threat on the board, the deck can wait even longer. Due to the importance of land drops in this deck there are two phases in playing High Tide.
Phase One: Survival
The main point of this phase is ensuring land drops. For this reason alone it is very important to take hands with 2-3 lands. Taking hands with less land can easily lead to missed drops. Digging for land here is very important and the correct can-trip order can greatly aide in this endeavor. Ponder is by far the best can-trip in pure digging and should be used first. Preordain should follow as it can remove dead cards from the top. The last can-trip that should be exploited is Brainstorm. You can see up to nine cards when the can-trips are played in this exact order. By the end of your second turn you should find your 3rd or 4th land in this manner. Turn three and four should be devoted to finding High Tides, without it even attempting to combo is very risky. It is possible during this time you may need to interact with your opponent unfortunately. A first turn Lackey for instance should be promptly met with a counter if possible. This may slow you down as you may have to pitch value can-trips or tutors. If you manage to survive to turn 4 or 5 there are a few aspects that need to be considered before attempting the combo phase.
If your answered no to any of these you're not ready yet to start the combo phase unless your under a do or die situation. The clearest path to victory here to cast and resolve Time Spiral but sometimes this cannot be accomplished. In this case a Turnabout and a draw spell is required.
There are two important notes when comboing. Never tap all your land unless you're going to un-tap it or in dire need of the mana. Haphazardly taping land makes any new High-Tide cast less effective. Secondly, never spend so much mana that you cant un-tap your land. For instance if all you have is 3 mana left and the cheapest un-tap effect in your list is Turnabout you have to win with 3 mana or you fizzle. This is a very easy mistake to make when first playing the deck that is often overlooked. There are two ways to win
Once the combo has started generally you want to find a second or third high tides especially when combining off 4 or less lands. Once each Island is taping for 3-4 mana the deck goes on auto pilot. If your storm count is high enough it is possible to simply wish for a Brain Freeze. Typically this requires 17+ storm or 7-8 if you also play remand. The second option is if you have an 53+ mana built up for a lethal Blue Sun's Zenth. Generally the second option is safer due to Emrakul in the format and is the preferred kill mechanic. The Brain Freeze option is generally used when a fizzle may occur.
4. Core Card Choices
Engine
Lands
4 Time Spiral
3 Turnabout
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
18 Lands
1 Brain Freeze or Blue Sun's Zenith
Retraced Image Package
Cloud of Faeries Package
Waves Package
Eldrazi Package
Counter Packages
Draw Packages
Mandatory Cards
Bounce Cards
Counter Cards
Graveyard Options
3 Mental Misstep
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Cunning Wish
3 Meditate
4 High Tide
4 Turnabout
4 Time Spiral
1 Brain Freeze
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
12 Island
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Meditate
1 Brain Freeze
1 Rebuild
1 Echoing Truth
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Snap
2 Wipe Away
3 Spell Pierce
3 Pact of Negation
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
4 High Tide
1 Intuition
3 Meditate
3 Turnabout
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Time Spiral
12 Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brain Freeze
1 Echoing Truth
1 Intuition
1 Meditate
3 Pact of Negation
1 Rebuild
3 Repeal
1 Snap
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away
2 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
11 Island
4 Force of Will
3 Pact of Negation
4 High Tide
4 Time Spiral
4 Turnabout
3 Cloud of Faeries
2 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Ponder
1 Trade Routes
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Intuition
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brain Freeze
1 Meditate
2 Snap
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Hibernation
2 Counterspell
1 Wipe Away
2 Krosan Grip
3 Spell Pierce
4 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
4 Ponder
4 Merchant Scroll
4 High Tide
4 Time Spiral
3 Turnabout
2 Repeal
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Cunning Wish
3 Candelabra of Tawnos
8 Island
1 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Krosan Grip
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dispel
1 Gigadrowse
1 Brain Freeze
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Hibernation
1 Mindbreak Trap
8. Match ups
Lands Very Favorable
They want to control non-basic lands and creatures, your deck has neither. Game one should be almost an auto win. Game two and three they may have chalice of the void at one. Just wish for a rebuild or bounce and remove the pesky artifacts.
Enchantress Favorable
Your are a faster and more consistent combo deck. They focus on creature control you have no creatures. The only real must force targets are Solitary confinement game one. Game two and three they may bring in Leyline of sanctity which can be annoying combined with sterling grove. Bounce spells can help out post board.
Death And Taxes Favorable
Game one should be in your favor as they do not produce a very fast clock. The only pesky cards to look out for game one are Mangara of Corondor and flicker wisp. Both come online pretty late. Game two and three they will board in Ethersworn Canonist . Make sure you wish for bounce and the game should be yours.
Goblins Favorable
As long as lackey does not connect this match is reasonable. Watch out for ports taping your land. Candelabra builds really shines in this match. Snaps and Echoing truth can stall for a few turns. Game two and three they have access the elemental blasts.
Affinity Even
Affinity can have very explosive turn 1-2 which will determine the course of the game. Thus it is very possible for this deck to present lethal damage 3+. Force is best saved for a ravager or cranial plating. Depending on the build game 2 and 3 can be rough. They may have access to cabal therapy or cannonist. Rebuild and Hurkyl's Recall from the board can win you the games so side them in this match. Simply tutoring for one is back breaking in this match up.
Burn Even
This deck has the same clock that of High Tides. The problem is that forcing anything but a lethal burn spell is un productive. Game one basically turns into a goldfish race. Retraced image builds have an distinct advantage here over other builds. Game two and three they may add Elemental basts so you may need a counter back up. A little extra counter magic from the board helps
Merfolk Slightly unfavorable
Before the printing of mental misstep this use to be a Favorable matchup. Winning the counter war is key here. Game two or three they may add a spell pierce or two but nothing really that affects us. We on the other hand have extra counter spells and bounce. Countering Vial is huge here as many merfolk mana bases are terrible at hitting double UU.
ANT & TES Slightly Unfavorable
Both are fundamentally a turn faster than this deck. Wining the die roll here is very important here as it gives you one more land drop. Game one is almost an auto lose if you are on the draw if they have a good hand and you do not have a force or any counter magic. Game two and three are better due to the increased counter magic. Against TES you may need echoing truth if they go the goblin route.
Team America Unfavorable
It is one of the tougher match ups. They have discard, counter magic and a fast clock. Save the counter magic for their key threats (Jace, Gofy ,Stalker) 2-3 Spell Peirce from the board greatly improves the match up.
Junk Unfavorable
They have a lot of discard and LD in the form of vindicate. Losing land drops is horrible for this deck thus the discard is the lesser of the two. Meditate and Brainstorm here can make or break the match. A well timed meditate before the combo help immensely. Decks that run Noxious Revival also tend to due better. Watch out for extirpate game two and three. Swap the High Tide with a mediate since we really want the card draw in this match up.
Counter Top Poor
Pre-board they have a lot of hate for us. Now with the addition of metal misstep it can be rough. You need to fight of counterbalance if possible. If it does resolve you need to ether wipe it away or brain freeze them when they are tapped out with top. Game two and there they can bring in canonist which makes it even worse. You need to add more counter magic main in this matchup.
Solidarity Poor
This deck is just like yours, only it will walk all over you. You cannot combo off against them without tapping their lands with turnabout. They will ride your storm count to produce lethal brain freeze at any point during the combo.
9. Conclusion
High Tide is a challenging and rewarding deck not for the faint of heart. This deck rewards play testing more then any other deck I personally have played. I tried to make this overview as comprehensive as possible due to all the possible variations. If I am missing something or there is a typo please let me know so I can correct it.
-Warden
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
What does everyone think of running the deck with zero acceleration? I'm thinking about bringing it to Indy next weekend (the open, not the invitational.) I figure goblins and storm will be rare enough that not having a slightly faster clock won't be a huge issue, and the mental missteps in their place really helps against other misstep decks.
UUUJin-Gitaxias, Core AugurUUU
Modern
WWWHatebearsWWW
I actually do like this from what I've seen of it though, so unlike then I have respect for the deck I'm learning.
The currently doodled list runs a bit like this
3 Candelabra of Tawnos
Land
12 Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
Spells
4 High Tide
4 Time Spiral
3 Turnabout
1 Mind over Matter
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Cunning Wish
3 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
2 Meditate
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brain Freeze
1 Echoing Truth
1 Meditate
3 Pact of Negation
1 Rebuild
1 Snap
2 Spell Pierce
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away
Decks
:sympu::sympb: Reanimator :sympb::sympu:
:symu::symb: ANT :symb::symu:
:symr::symu::symg: NLT :symg::symu::symr:
Vintage
:sympu::sympb::sympg: Laboratory Maniac :sympg::sympb::sympu:
:symu::symb::symr: Snapcontrol :symr::symb::symu:
:symw::symu::symb::symr::symg: Titan Dredge :symg::symr::symb::symu::symw:
I think you need at least one Meditate in your main for a tutor target. Furthermore, Playing 3x main makes playing against discard much easier when combined with brainstorm and misstep.
Decks
:sympu::sympb: Reanimator :sympb::sympu:
:symu::symb: ANT :symb::symu:
:symr::symu::symg: NLT :symg::symu::symr:
Vintage
:sympu::sympb::sympg: Laboratory Maniac :sympg::sympb::sympu:
:symu::symb::symr: Snapcontrol :symr::symb::symu:
:symw::symu::symb::symr::symg: Titan Dredge :symg::symr::symb::symu::symw:
If you go to the Source, the player posted about it in the Spiral Tide thread.
Ya that was me. I'm writing up a report. Should have it up next week
Between you an Iñaki I think it proves that High Tide was not drastically hurt by mental misstep since we can run it as well successfully.
I had one high tide misstepped all weekend and it was kronenburger playing his mono blue. It doesn't hurt the deck half as much as people think. I easily could have been in the money. 11 mulligans in the 4 rounds I played day two.
I look forward to hear your report. It is always sad when this deck gives poor opening hands as most are keepable.
So despite everyone saying high tide combo is dead, I decide to be stubborn and play it anyway. I essentially took the Hatfield list, cut 2 Mind over matter’s and a candelabra for 3 missteps and a island for another preordain. Cutting that Island was essentially the dumbest move of all time. I had horrible mulls all weekend and lost to decks that had no business beating me. So onto the goodness. I’m writing a lot of this from bad notes and memory, so if I made a mistake here or there, apologies.
My crew leaves Albany at noon on Friday to head out to Providence, all three of us in a Prius listening to my buddy Riley’s horrible techno trance music while he delights in the audio waterboarding he is performing. We make it out to our hotel no worries and check in at the event no problem and a see a couple friends playing grinders. I already had 3 byes from winning a GPT at my LGS, so I pretty much walked around and scoped. I saw nightmare playing the U/W list that everyone seemed to be playing the night before, and reminisced about the old Albany VS Syracuse 1.5 battles that used to happen. (LAVA DART!) Onto the magic:
Here is the list for reference, DO NOT PLAY 17 LANDS IN THIS DECK LIKE I DID.
Rounds 1-3 Bye
Round 4: Enchantress:
This round was exciting for me as I finally got to play some cards after sitting around a while. My friends were all 1-2 at this point so I had to make sure someone from the crew ended up day two. I sit down from an enchantress player and grin, thinking it’s in the bag as they are fully slower than I, and I expect to be 4-0. My opponent game one try’s to land a exploration, which I misstep, he doesn’t play anything relevant till turn 4, when I just go off. Game two He had turn 3 double sterling grove, which negates my bounce and I had no force to stop him. GG.
Game three was an epic battle, literally ending with both of us having about 5-10 cards in the library. Essentially he had me locked with double sterling grove, runed halo’s for both BSZ and Brain Freeze. He attempts words at war to win, I force then cunning wish for extraction, removing it, seeing he has 4 cards left, 2 of which are solitary confinement. I time spiral on my turn to draw a new hand, lucksack into an extraction and pass turn thinking I can just extract his confinements and deck him. On his turn, he casts solitary off of a 14 mana serra’s sanctum, I force, he casts replenish, I force, he casts replenish, I pact. At this point he has one card in hand, which turned out to be a choke that resolves and I can’t pay the pact trigger. GG.
3-1
Round 5: Merfolk
He never get’s a threat on board and tries to play control against me game one, which is always a mistake for merfolk. I sculpt a hand with double force, then merchant for Pact of Negation for the safety blanket and go off.
Game two was more of the same, I went off from 12 life after boarding in some spell pierces for preordains just in case.
4-1
Round 6: R/W/G Cascade LD
Not gonna lie, this guy caught me off guard. Essentially I combo’d turn 4 without seeing anything but smaller creatures and thought he was playing NO RUG or something similar. Game 2, he cast a bloodbraid elf into boom/bust and geddon’d me. GG.
Knowing what he was playing, I just sculpted to protect from the bloodbraid cascade and combo’d turn 5.
5-1
Round 7: Junk
My opponent in this round was a nice kid, and I saw he day two’d as well. This match is where my deck started ☺☺☺☺ting on me. Game one I combo’d off no worries, misstepped a thoughtseize and he never had hymn. Game two, mull to 5, keeping a decent hand but hymn finished it.
Game three was maybe the worst game of the tournament for me. Mull’d to 4. Now these mulls weren’t maybes, they were zero land or 6 land type hands. Hell I’d have kept a 5 land 1 ponder hand. These were HORRIBLE hands. So I keep a 4 hand with a land, a ponder, a brainstorm and a BSZ. Turn one I play land and ponder, no lands seen so I shuffle. He plays land, diamond, hymn. Turn two I draw no land, his turn 2 was a vindicate on my island. I never come back.
5-2
Round 8: NO Rug Burn
Nothing really of note here, his combo doesn’t kill quick enough to get me, so I combo turn 3 with candelabra with a progenitus staring me down. Game two actually was very close, having me have to turnabout his creatures to stay at 4 life instead of taking a hirearch beats, when I spiral he shows me the bolt that would have been lethal if I didn’t play defense with turnabout.
6-2
Round 9: Merfolk
I have one note for this matchup. PACT ALL STAR. It really was all day. The one maindeck pact really catches fish off guard when you merchant scroll for it. I ended up finishing the tourney 3-0 against the fish.
7-2 Day one finished
Feeling great day with a day two, we go to eat some Cheesecake factory. The food in providence was a win all weekend, with luxe burger being the highlight for their grilled cheese buns.
Round 10: Maverick
This is the beginning of the end for me. 3 games against a deck I should NEVER lose too, and I mulled to 6 and to 5. He get’s down some beats and I can’t recover in either game. I never made it past 2 islands in this round. At this point I’m pretty tilted, as that should have been an auto win for me, but try to recover for the next round.
7-3
Round 11: Merfolk
Played against a great kid that didn’t know how to beat high tide, he again went for control over beats, and maindeck pact just owned his force. I can’t overstate how nuts pact is against force of will in this matchup. It’ll stay in my mainboard as long as I play the deck. (Props to Rion for making me see the light on this)
8-3
Round 12: Zoo.
Game one, I mull to 5 from horrible draws again, he beats face. Game two, I go off at ten, when we realize he hadn’t pitched his original hand when he drew for time spiral. We call a judge as he has 9 cards in his grip now. Judge rules that he can just shuffle back and draw a new hand of 7. I thought this ruling was a little odd at Professional REL but my opponent was a chill guy so no biggy, until he draws lightning helix, bolt, fireblast for 10 off of his gift hand from the judge. I meditate in response, digging for any countermagic, don’t get there
So at this point I’m not having much fun, I feel that game was stolen from me and I punted a match against maverick by having to mull so often. Magic gods weren’t kind day two.
8-4
Round 13: Kronenberger Blue
This was piloted by none other than Chris himself, who I recognize from watching him win the SCG the week before. Can’t say enough about how nice of a guy he is, was a true pleasure to play against him, despite getting monkey stomped both games. He plays something like 17 counterspells, and I managed to actually fight through in BOTH games and resolve a time spiral with high tide active, but when we draw 7, he reloads on countermagic and I just can’t break through.
8-5
Was a disappointing outcome, with my deck busting me pretty badly with mulls etc. But we made day two with a “dead” deck. I will say this, the ONLY person who actually misstepped a high tide was Chris with his mono blue 17 counter deck. High tide isn’t hurt as badly as anyone thinks by MM. We play 3 of our own, have superior card filtration and it’s useless after a spiral.
It’s very much a viable deck in my opinion. I could have easily been in a much better position if the dice roll a little better. Removing that island was a deathblow to any chance I had to make the money in this one. I dropped with 5 losses as I couldn’t make top anything from there.
Flusterstorm U
Counter target instant or sorcery unless it's controller pays 1.
Storm
It looks like a decent counter. After all it has storm.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)
I am really wanting to push the deck as far as it can be, because getting the candles for this wasnt easy. Cant decide if I should start trying to get rid of them or not.
Credit goes to Brofoux for the Sig pic.
Current Modern Deck
Black Licorice
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=11006564#post11006564
The meta is not bad right now. Our worst match up Counter Top has almost been replaced in the Meta with Land Still variants. Just make sure you tutor for a few pacts before starting to combo against blue decks. It is also important to note that Spell snare and Mental misstep miss many of utility spells of the deck Cunning wish,Turnabout, Time spiral, Pact of negation to name a few.
:LEGACY:
XLEDed DredgeX
BTraitor's GateB
:EDH:
GMolimo, Maro-SorcererG
WRTrias, The Betrayer (Gisela)RW
BRWKaalia, of the VastWRB
Thanks to SushiOtter of Hakai Studios for the awesome banner, and Argetlam of Hakai Studios for the equally awesome avvie!
Generation 2556677: The first time you see this, add it to your sig, but add 1 to the number. Call it a social experiment.
Cabal therapy seems to be the key in this matchup for me, if they only get 1-2 casts? I win, 3-4, i lose. Every time. I actually have ravenous trap and surgical extraction in my board to combat this as wish targets i hate the matchup so much.
But if you can resolve timespiral? GG.
Credit goes to Brofoux for the Sig pic.
Current Modern Deck
Black Licorice
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=11006564#post11006564