I'm shocked to see no one has posted a thread for this incredibly fun deck, recently published by Travis Woo. As described in this article and seen in this video, Black Tide revolves around using Rewind and Crypt Ghasts to generate huge loads of mana and extort your opponent to death.
I put the deck together last night and played it against white weenie. Against everything except the nut draw, Black Tide stabilized at 4-5 life and then pulled out the win. We went 3-1 in favor of Tide.
You can read the article or watch the video for a great description. In essence, once you get a couple Ghasts out you can quickly take over the game. A single Rewind can generate 16+ mana. Using that you power out some draw spells, land more ghasts, and extort over and over.
Unfortunately, the maindeck is incredibly tight on cards - Mutilate is the only one I currently see as negotiable, and its usually required to hold off the creature assault decks. Thoughts?
You certainly don't need Kessigs with so few good creatures. Get Guildgates and lay off the Chromatic Lanterns? But yes, Naya Blitz/Zombies/etc certainly runs roughshod over it.
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Very bad list. Idk what woo was thinking. I don't see this beating anything really.
Nut hand looks like shock turn 1. Turn 2 swamp heartless. Turn 3 swamp cast ghast, cast evil twin. Turn 4 cast gristle. That's if the opponent does nothing and your best possible hand. Only 2 gristles mean this would rarely ever happen.
Now that i read the article I think this is a gag deck. He doesn't even tell you about certain lines of play. Rather says learn yourself. What a better way to say waste your time. Fun? Maybe. Easy to beat? Most definitely. Competitive? Certainly not.
Also it will really open to burn and kill spells because this list is only running 4 counterspells.
And once you lose you basically one win condition it will be rather hard for you to win close games.
But I will admit this deck is fun to play.
Mutilate is an all star against aggro. Up that to 4 and this deck should be able to hold it's own against aggro.
I would go -1 Chromatic Lantern and -1 Griselbrand and +2 Mutilate. That should hold up well against most aggro decks.
Control would be the tougher matchup, a board wipe before you combo off would be tough to recover from. But I think the deck could be tweaked to be fairly competitive. Maybe Tier 1.25 as I call it.
Very bad list. Idk what woo was thinking. I don't see this beating anything really.
Nut hand looks like shock turn 1. Turn 2 swamp heartless. Turn 3 swamp cast ghast, cast evil twin. Turn 4 cast gristle. That's if the opponent does nothing and your best possible hand. Only 2 gristles mean this would rarely ever happen.
Now that i read the article I think this is a gag deck. He doesn't even tell you about certain lines of play. Rather says learn yourself. What a better way to say waste your time. Fun? Maybe. Easy to beat? Most definitely. Competitive? Certainly not.
You really should give it a whirl or watch some of the standard videos before discounting the deck. It is riotously fun, and while it definitely isn't top tier, it is effective and challenging to beat.
I don't expect it to roll an SCG or GP, but you will certainly gather a crowd at FNM and place decently. Watch one of the match videos - this is not a gag.
Very bad list. Idk what woo was thinking. I don't see this beating anything really.
Nut hand looks like shock turn 1. Turn 2 swamp heartless. Turn 3 swamp cast ghast, cast evil twin. Turn 4 cast gristle. That's if the opponent does nothing and your best possible hand. Only 2 gristles mean this would rarely ever happen.
Now that i read the article I think this is a gag deck. He doesn't even tell you about certain lines of play. Rather says learn yourself. What a better way to say waste your time. Fun? Maybe. Easy to beat? Most definitely. Competitive? Certainly not.
With 4 Mutilates your only tough matchup is control. Extort is going to keep you gaining crazy amounts of life. If you watch the videos you see that control was the one thing that threw the deck for a loop.
The one card I would add in would be Immortal Servitude for a late game win post board wipe. Since the Crypt Ghasts, Clones, and Twins all cost 4, you get them all back and then win right there.
I'm definitely going to give the deck a shot it looks like a lot of fun, and I like how it can get beat down to 4-5 life and them completely rebound and come back in a single turn. And it gives me something to do with my 4 Crypt Ghasts
You easily will have enough mana to tap out, cast tide, and float enough mana to cast everything again. It would help you with noncreature permanents and it could even help you get rid of your own Heartless Summoning when you no longer need it.
Yes, until you actually play this deck out in your mind or see it in action, it's difficult to truly appreciate it. With multiple Crypt Ghasts out and rewind, you can extort opponents to death by turn 5. You don't even care about the creatures they have out. If anything, the deck's major weakness is control, NOT aggro. If you watch the video you'll see what I mean.
You easily will have enough mana to tap out, cast tide, and float enough mana to cast everything again. It would help you with noncreature permanents and it could even help you get rid of your own Heartless Summoning when you no longer need it.
I like the idea of Tide, but unless we are going to Miracle it we are probably better off with Cyclonic Rift. Sadly we can't float mana between our draw step and our first main to replay things after a miracle.
There is much more fun to it than it seems at first glance, but it can also be made much more resilient.
I took out the 4 Clones as overkill - 2 Ghasts on the table are trouble and 3 are game over. Its much more important to find the Ghast in the first place, as typically you need to:
Chromatic Lanterns are a great plus. Nevertheless, what I did is:
I put 4 Dimir Charms, which allow me to counter some early pests such as Duress, kill an early threat or find a combo peace or land very early. I cut Think Twice to 2 copies as I put 2 Unburial Rites, so that I can flashback it if they kill my Ghast. The lanterns are enough to give me the white mana I need.
Then, I took out one Rewind and one Island, so land count went to 24 (with the lanterns, and with so much library manipulation, I think its enough), and I put 2 Dark Impostor. You play it for B and suddenly you have a machine gun on board! And it can be reanimated by Rites.
TECH!
Also, since I unfortunately have only 1 Griselbrand, I play 1 Lord of the Void. Which is also great TECH since you can play any creature of their own through your lanterns.
I think there should be some more attention to this new stereotype. I look forward to your FNM results!
Also, since I unfortunately have only 1 Griselbrand, I play 1 Lord of the Void. Which is also great TECH since you can play any creature of their own through your lanterns.
Not to derail the thread but you don't actually cast them with Lord you just put a creature into play so the lanterns are somewhat superfluous.
Does anyone else think this deck really wants Havengul Lich? He contributes to your extort plan by casting things, he recurs the creatures you care about, and if things go badly you can cast out of your opponents GY with lantern. (ps People really hate when you recur Thragtusk)
Realmwright + crypt ghast is the way to go. chromatic lantern doesnt make all your lands swamps, just lets you tap them for :B:. Rrealmwright makes ALL your lands tap for 2+.
Realmwright + crypt ghast is the way to go. chromatic lantern doesnt make all your lands swamps, just lets you tap them for :B:. Rrealmwright makes ALL your lands tap for 2+.
Realmwright works incredibly well with Ghast however, it doesn't really work well with Mutilate and that's what I feel this deck needs against a heavy aggro meta. The only changes I would make are:
Honestly the deck looks fun as hell xD. All the people crying about aggro vs this deck I don't think are really seeing the intricacies of the deck. It is not a mindless, easy blitz deck (hence why he said from the get go he likes decks that require thought and skill to play). But the 4 decks (well 3 tier 1 and 1 jank) that I can see this deck having problems with is UWR, esper control, Jund, and Grixis control. Jund and grixis have Slaughter Games which really hurts the deck (granted you can always call Grisslybrand your "Plan B") and in particular Jund has slaughter games AND ramp. So, assuming you are drawing on curve, Jund can get their slaughter games out before you get your Witchbane Orb out. Esper and UWR just have a stupid wall of counters.
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This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Idk. Not going to waste time on this pile, but it seems like mutilating a field when your win con is only 2/2 or 1/1 should you get hs out is typically a bad play. Designing a deck around that interaction is bizarre. Wouldn't dev tide be better since you can play everything back out? And cyclonic would be a one sided sweeper.
^ Thank god someone else sees this. You guys are putting way too much faith in someone that was only good with one deck. When con woods designs a deck then you can say something. Woo likes to make decks that are ok at best but did the best with a net deck. Just saying.
I have this deck sleeved up, but I prefer 2x Havengul Lich, allows you to cast creature cards from either yard and extort as well. Realmwright is not as good as chromatic in this regard and is very vulnerable. You have enough swamps that you don't really need to worry about the extra mana, and it doesn't play well with HEartless SUmmoning. Plus what do you cut for them. I shaved a clone and evil twin to fit the Lich.
Here is Woo's original decklist.
4 Crypt Ghast
3 Clone
4 Evil Twin
4 Chromatic Lantern
4 Think Twice
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Rewind
2 Griselbrand
4 Drowned Catacombs
4 Watery Grave
1 Island
14 Swamp
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Cyclonic Rift
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Mutilate
1 Curse of Death’s Hold
2 Griselbrand
I put the deck together last night and played it against white weenie. Against everything except the nut draw, Black Tide stabilized at 4-5 life and then pulled out the win. We went 3-1 in favor of Tide.
You can read the article or watch the video for a great description. In essence, once you get a couple Ghasts out you can quickly take over the game. A single Rewind can generate 16+ mana. Using that you power out some draw spells, land more ghasts, and extort over and over.
Unfortunately, the maindeck is incredibly tight on cards - Mutilate is the only one I currently see as negotiable, and its usually required to hold off the creature assault decks. Thoughts?
Check out Odds//Ends - My articles on Quirky Cards and Oddball Builds
Long-time PucaTrade member and sometime author. Send me cards!
Currently playing Knight of the Reliquary - Retreat to Coralhelm Combo
URWTwin
XAffinity
:symg::symr::symb: Domri Jund
I'm going to have to second this.
Also it will really open to burn and kill spells because this list is only running 4 counterspells.
And once you lose you basically one win condition it will be rather hard for you to win close games.
But I will admit this deck is fun to play.
URWTwin
XAffinity
Nut hand looks like shock turn 1. Turn 2 swamp heartless. Turn 3 swamp cast ghast, cast evil twin. Turn 4 cast gristle. That's if the opponent does nothing and your best possible hand. Only 2 gristles mean this would rarely ever happen.
Now that i read the article I think this is a gag deck. He doesn't even tell you about certain lines of play. Rather says learn yourself. What a better way to say waste your time. Fun? Maybe. Easy to beat? Most definitely. Competitive? Certainly not.
Mutilate is an all star against aggro. Up that to 4 and this deck should be able to hold it's own against aggro.
I would go -1 Chromatic Lantern and -1 Griselbrand and +2 Mutilate. That should hold up well against most aggro decks.
Control would be the tougher matchup, a board wipe before you combo off would be tough to recover from. But I think the deck could be tweaked to be fairly competitive. Maybe Tier 1.25 as I call it.
You really should give it a whirl or watch some of the standard videos before discounting the deck. It is riotously fun, and while it definitely isn't top tier, it is effective and challenging to beat.
I don't expect it to roll an SCG or GP, but you will certainly gather a crowd at FNM and place decently. Watch one of the match videos - this is not a gag.
Check out Odds//Ends - My articles on Quirky Cards and Oddball Builds
Long-time PucaTrade member and sometime author. Send me cards!
Currently playing Knight of the Reliquary - Retreat to Coralhelm Combo
With 4 Mutilates your only tough matchup is control. Extort is going to keep you gaining crazy amounts of life. If you watch the videos you see that control was the one thing that threw the deck for a loop.
The one card I would add in would be Immortal Servitude for a late game win post board wipe. Since the Crypt Ghasts, Clones, and Twins all cost 4, you get them all back and then win right there.
I'm definitely going to give the deck a shot it looks like a lot of fun, and I like how it can get beat down to 4-5 life and them completely rebound and come back in a single turn. And it gives me something to do with my 4 Crypt Ghasts
You easily will have enough mana to tap out, cast tide, and float enough mana to cast everything again. It would help you with noncreature permanents and it could even help you get rid of your own Heartless Summoning when you no longer need it.
Thread | Draft
I like the idea of Tide, but unless we are going to Miracle it we are probably better off with Cyclonic Rift. Sadly we can't float mana between our draw step and our first main to replay things after a miracle.
Check out Odds//Ends - My articles on Quirky Cards and Oddball Builds
Long-time PucaTrade member and sometime author. Send me cards!
Currently playing Knight of the Reliquary - Retreat to Coralhelm Combo
I took out the 4 Clones as overkill - 2 Ghasts on the table are trouble and 3 are game over. Its much more important to find the Ghast in the first place, as typically you need to:
1. Hold the initial wave against aggro
2. Cast Heartless Summoning
3. Cast Crypt Ghast, copy it with Evil Twin or cast another one
4. Do very fun things
Chromatic Lanterns are a great plus. Nevertheless, what I did is:
I put 4 Dimir Charms, which allow me to counter some early pests such as Duress, kill an early threat or find a combo peace or land very early. I cut Think Twice to 2 copies as I put 2 Unburial Rites, so that I can flashback it if they kill my Ghast. The lanterns are enough to give me the white mana I need.
Then, I took out one Rewind and one Island, so land count went to 24 (with the lanterns, and with so much library manipulation, I think its enough), and I put 2 Dark Impostor. You play it for B and suddenly you have a machine gun on board! And it can be reanimated by Rites.
TECH!
Also, since I unfortunately have only 1 Griselbrand, I play 1 Lord of the Void. Which is also great TECH since you can play any creature of their own through your lanterns.
I think there should be some more attention to this new stereotype. I look forward to your FNM results!
Not to derail the thread but you don't actually cast them with Lord you just put a creature into play so the lanterns are somewhat superfluous.
Does anyone else think this deck really wants Havengul Lich? He contributes to your extort plan by casting things, he recurs the creatures you care about, and if things go badly you can cast out of your opponents GY with lantern. (ps People really hate when you recur Thragtusk)
Realmwright works incredibly well with Ghast however, it doesn't really work well with Mutilate and that's what I feel this deck needs against a heavy aggro meta. The only changes I would make are:
-1 Faithless Looting
-1 Griselbrand
-2 Kessig Wolfrun
For:
+2 Mutilate
+2 Swamp
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Instant, 1R
"Deal three damage to target creature or player. If your opponent is playing this Travis Woo pile, win the game instead."