MTG Salvation

Quote from metagame

I don't believe this works unless you Disenchant the Tide. Fading checks at upkeep, not automatically.

You are correct. I was confusing it with vanishing. That's too bad. It still seems like a pretty strong card.

I was reminded of Parallax Tide (and also this thread here) while reading the Master of Waves' thread. Wow, that card is pretty good. I'm going so far as to call it "The blue Tangle Wire".

Tangle Wire taps 4-3-2-1 permanents (against slower decks usually lands or other mana producers).
Parallax Tide is a bit more flexible, but should mostly be used to exile (A) 2-2-2-2, (B) 3-3-3 or (C) 4-4 lands. Option B is pretty close to Tangle Wire.

While those two cards have a lot in common, Parallax Tide has three advantages over Tangle Wire:
- PT always deals with exactly the lands that you want to deal with, while TW gives the opponent the option to choose less significant cards (and sometimes completely insignificant cards, like equipments or some other artifacts) to tap. This makes it easier to mana/color screw the opponent.
- While TW gives the opponent a window during his upkeep to use his mana for instants or activated abilities, lands exiled with PT don't produce any mana at all until it leaves the battlefield. This means that you can make sure that the opponent plays no spell at all for two or three turns.
- You have to tap a permanent or two for your own TW, while PT has no effect on you. This means that you are fully operational the turn after playing PT.

I'd say that those advantages roughly justify a fourth mana and the card would be pretty cubable if it were an artifact for 4. However, the double blue is a huge drawback. Not only does being bound to a specific color mean that it goes into far fewer decks than a colorless card, but blue is also the worst fit for such an aggro support card in most cubes. Still, if you think your cube's blue can make good use of it, then Parallax Tide should be a pretty strong card.

Personally, I have recently brought Opposition back and am about to generally reconstruct my blue section (including the blue guilds) a bit. I will certainly give this card a try. Thassa, God of the Sea and Master of Waves can turn the disadvantage of having UU in the cost into an advantage.

I want a colorshifted Parallax Tide in red.

Quote from wtwlf123

I want a colorshifted Parallax Tide in red.

Oh hell yeah! I'd put that on the list right behind the red Armageddon.

Cheers,
rant

Quote from wtwlf123

I want a colorshifted Parallax Tide in red.

Or in white. Or in black. Heck, even green would probably be better.

I just realized that you can use Parallax Tide to remove your own lands after tapping them for mana, then cast Upheaval or Balance or Armageddon or even Wildfire!

on the topic of Master of Waves, what would be a good "blue devotion" package? Currently I'm thinking of:

Master of Waves
Thassa
Vendilion Clique
coralhelm commander
aether adept

any other big playable blue permanents I'm missing?

Venser, Shaper Savant
Opposition

I'd run Venser in any cube and Opposition is strong enough without devotion but devotion may put it over the edge. You could also try Future Sight.

Cheers,
rant

Having Plumeveil as a UW card instead of something like Wall of Denial can also help to push it, along with Azorius Guildmage.

-AA

Quote from winterlude

on the topic of Master of Waves, what would be a good "blue devotion" package? Currently I'm thinking of:

Master of Waves
Thassa
Vendilion Clique
coralhelm commander
aether adept

any other big playable blue permanents I'm missing?

I tried / play all of those cards. The only one that didn't survive the cut was Coralhelm Commander(replaced with Faerie Conclave). The rest are fantastic. I'll also second rantipole and say that Venser and Opposition are also stellar in this deck. The important thing with Master of Waves is, I often find it's better to save him a turn or two later and instead deploy the tempo devotion critters beforehand. Something like:
T3: Aether Adept/Man-o-War/Clique
T4: Venser or any of the above
T5: Master of Waves

is just backbreaking.

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is also great.

Kira is also another nice one.

-AA

There aren't many tokens in blue tempo decks and sometimes he is just a 1/3 that does nothing.

I run an artifact theme in my unpowered so I have a bit less wiggle room to work with, but I already run all the cards steve_man mentioned except for Thasa and Master of Waves. I might try and wiggle things around a bit to make devotion happen again. I used to run it and it was a super fun/powerful deck when it came together.

I don't play devotion support cards, but blue tempo decks are great.

Blue tempo are always some of the best performing decks over here! One notable card for us that most cubes do not run, but has been overperforming in the blue tempo shells is parallax tide! It's the blue armageddon, but you don't even need to be far ahead because you can still pressure and develop for the next 2-3 turns depending on when you cast the card. Have other people here messed around with this card? I may be biased as I do love the card.

I think Parallax Tide would be really good in a cube that pushed blue aggro/tempo really hard. In the average cube where blue is usually a control color, I don't think there's room. Unless you're playing a deck that can take advantage of that set back quickly, I don't think it's worth taking a turn off to play the card.

I was big on blue devotion (Master of Waves, Thassa, Kira, Coralhelm Commander, etc) but have cut back on them in order to make space for other cards/archetypes. Blue tempo decks are already among the very best performing decks in my cube even without a devotion package, and with no particularly bad matchups (and relative ease of drafting) I don't feel the need for additional support, at least for now.

That sums it up perfectly. Blue tempo decks are draft-winning and available without dedicating tempo-exclusive cards to the blue section. It just doesn't need dedicated exclusive support to win.

I run like 2-3 cards in my 540 list that help bolster this archetype, and even that's not necessary.