~I'll try to keep it short and to the point:
So here we go again with High Tide, after a 10th in Seattle Wa. back in july earlier this summer, then a 32nd at Portland Ore. in mid September just 2 months ago, we're back to Seattle for attempt number 3 trying for a top 8 placing, & I have to say, I hope StarCityGames continues to post events in the pacific northwest as often as they can, for all of us magic players. ...anyhow, onto November-18th-2012, Sunday, Seattle Washington, type 1.5/Legacy open series:
The Deck: High Tide -version- Spiral Tide.
The Decklist:
4 Candelabra of Tawnos
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
3 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 High Tide
1 Meditate
1 Snap
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Time Spiral
Lands:
12 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Flusterstorm
1 Intuition
1 Meditate
4 Pact of Negation
1 Rebuild
1 Snap
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away
At the core, this is a High Tide deck, it's goal is to cast High Tides, draw spells, protect with counterspells, resolve Time Spirals, & get to a lethal Blue Sun's Zenith targeting your opponent, most of us all know the deck, & I just can't get myself to stop playing it, so in playing it, that leads us to, round 1...
Swiss rounds:
Round 1 table #62 -Win- 2 / 1 vs Bug Control, Daniel Nguyen
Game 1: High Tides casted: 1 - My opponent plays enough stuff from lands via fetchlands & netting different dual lands to let me believe they were playing BUG, when I get to my turn to start comboing off, and I get to the point of casting my first Time Spiral my opponent concedes, going straight to game 2.
Sideboard plan: 1 High tide, 1 snap, 1 wipe away to the sideboard, 3 pact of negation to the main deck
Game 2: High Tides casted: 2 - This game is a loss for me, as I try to start going off, it turns into a flusterstorm war, yes, my opponent casts flusterstorm on me, luckily however, I have one in my hand, so I return the favor, yet with my opponent having 1 mana open, means I can target all their spells for "they have to pay 2" except, 2 spells, which means something will still get through to stop me, worst part is I had a force but was saving it, and if I would have forced a counterspell, I could have had another storm trigger, and put the storm trigger on counterspell to somewhere else. I never recover, and the time is getting low, so when I know I'm done I concede and push for game 3.
Game 3: High Tide's casted: 4 - Pact of negation's casted: 3 - Not a big dramatic finish, I start comboing off and I am able to get there, casting draw spells, untap effects, & counterspells accordingly, nothing really stands out about this game, netting me a start with a win.
Record: 1-0-0
Round 2 table #12 -Win- 2 / 0 vs T.E.S., James Baman
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 3 - I am able to figure out that my opponent is playing ANT / TES / Storm like combo, however luck was on my side, and I not only saw 1 flusterstorms, but a second, and when they resolved enough Lion's eye Diamonds and other spells, they go for the burning wish, and I have to use both Flusterstorms to stop them they have so much mana available. After that, they were out of gas, and I was ready to go, netting me a game 1 win the same way high tide always does, by getting to a lethal blue sun's zenith.
Sideboard plan: 1 wipe away out, 1 flusterstorm in
Game 2: High Tide's casted: 3 - My opponent is still not able to get there right off the start, I'm able to get to protection, that being Flusterstorm / Force of will, and then I am safe to go off accordingly, nothing too dramatic standing out, my opponent had a bit of bad luck with not being able to go off super fast like their deck does, and their opponent, being myself, playing blue, meaning counterspells.
Record: 2-0-0
Round 3 table #07 -Win- 2 / 0 vs Show & Tell, Matthew Diesch
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 3 I see multiple copies of Overmaster, but not much else, I assume it's Show & tell based on that & the colors, but then I realize I've never seen a Show & tell list that maindecked those, what my opponent see's however, is high tides, candel's, Time Spiral's, & a lethal Blue Sun's Zenith.
Sideboard plan: 1 High tide, 1 snap, 1 wipe away out, 3 pact of negation in
Game 2: High Tide's casted: 6 My opponent burns himself a few times with Ancient Tomb, at one point he casts an Overmaster with enough mana open to Show and Tell afterward, so I counter the Overmaster, yet nothing ever comes, turns out he was just using it to draw a card, when I finally got to start going off and pushed for that lethal Blue Sun's Zenith, in the end, my opponent confirms that he is playing Show & Tell / Sneak & Show, but he never even got the chance to cast any either game cause he wasn't seeing them.
Record: 3-0-0
Round 4 table #02 -Win- 2 / 0 vs Humans, Coren Maynard
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 4 - Meditate -2 turns - At first, I thought it was Maverick when they did a turn 1 Cavern of souls, named humans, and played a mother of runes, but then on their turn 2, they played another cavern of souls, and named "horror" and I was like "???" only to quickly learn, it was phyrexian revoker, and the card to name, was candelabra of tawnos! OY! He resolves a 2nd one and names Candel again! and has a clock on me, luckily however I get to my bounce and wipe away the Mother of runes, & bounce one of the Phyrexian revokers before I start comboing off, I have to ignore my Candelabra in play until I can get to another bounce so I can use it, luckily however I'm able to get there the same way the deck does in the end, to that lethal Blue Sun's Zenith.
Game 2: High Tide's csated: 4 - Thalia & mother of runes are not good for me, however, when I get 2 candels in play, their clock allows me to have more turns than usual because there's just not enough damage coming from them, and I start getting to 4, 5, 6 islands in play, I get to the point of just playing through (meaning I pay an extra 1 per spell) playing through Thalia for a number of spells, before I get to the point of answering it, thank you candels in play and lots of islands!
Record: 4-0-0
Round 5 table #02 -Win- 2 / 0 vs U/B Tezzeret combo's, Paul Buzek
An interesting thing to note, when you go to a big tournament, you usually go there with other people from your local card shops that you go to regularly, or you meet other people there that are from the same shop as you, Paul & myself have played off and on in the past at local tournaments, so it was interesting that we had to play eachother and I told him I wish we didn't have to play eachother until later, but, it seems fate has drawn our match to be this round 5, and that was now:
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 2 - We know what eachother are playing, & luckily I'm able to start comboing out without too much disruption, doing the usual for high tide, nothing too out of the ordinary on this way to a Blue Sun's Zenith.
Sideboard plan:
Game 2: High Tide's casted: 3 - Meditate -2 turns - This one was a bit more interesting, they resolve a Jace the mind sculptor & a Tezzeret and I realize that these 2 planeswalkers together are immense card advantage, as soon as they are both on the field, I know I have to go for it, so I do and luckily, I pulled it off when I did, if I would have waited any longer my opponent would have had +2 cards more than me every turn I waited, and then they'd start trading weaker stuff for stronger stuff.
Record: 5-0-0
Round 6 table #01 -Win- 2 / 1 vs Merfolk, Gavin Bennett
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - I bide my time accordingly, let them play some fish, start swinging and get me low, when I get down to 8, I know I have to go off next turn, so I push for it and I'm able to get there, the hardest part about this first game, is that BOTH of us made a crucial mistake, that was pointed out to us after the game ended, there was a cursecatcher in play, and I had no mana available to pay 1, so they could have sac'd it to counter my lethal blue sun, not only did I not leave mana open for that, making the mistake of being out of mana, my opponent didn't realize the cursecatcher and we both quickly went to game 2, and immediatley were told of our mistakes.
Sideboard plan: 1 snap 1 high tide to the sideboard, 2 pact of negation to the maindeck
Game 2: High Tide's casted: 2 - Meditate -1 turns - A loss, my life total going from 20, to 19, to 18, to 14, to 8, to 2, to I have to try to combo out now, casting 2 high tides, and then trying to use Meditate in place of Time Spiral because I just couldn't get to a time spiral, in the end it doesn't work and I go from trying to combo out, to that next attack phase, dead.
Game 3: High Tide's casted: 4 - Meditate -1 turns - Pact of negation's: 1 - Not alot stands out here, they start out slow, and when I start to combo out, I'm still at 18 life, and when I finish combo'ing out & net the win, I'm still at 18 life, meaning I didn't even have to use any force of will's alternate casting costs.
Record: 6-0-0
Round 7 table #01 -Intentional Draw- vs Maverick, Robert Hunsaker
Record: 6-0-1 We I.D. because we are the only 2 people that have 18 points.
Round 8 table #02 -Intentional Draw- vs Aluren, Martin Goldman-Kirst
Record: 6-0-2 We I.D. because we'll both make it, just like the last round, it only took 2 seconds for us both to say "yes"
Going into top 8 as 3rd place:
Quarter-finals -Win- 2 / 0 vs U/W miracle counterbalance, Dylan Mense
At the beginning of the match, I thought I was doomed, Counterbalance is not a match I want to see first round of the finals, as I talked to my opponent however, they said as far as experience goes against "high tide" they had none, even so, I wasn't going to take the match lightly, it's top 8 & that mean's it's go time!
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - My opponent mulligans to 5 before keeping, so I feel a little more comfortable from the card advantage position. I just keep scuplting my hand accordingly, casting tutors here and there to net counterspells, then set myself up to go off, we both have so many lands out, and when 2 high tides are resolved, my opponent does an "entreat the angles" miracle cost for 6 flyers, it was all they could do though mid-combo as I continuted on, luckily, they never got to attack with them as I was able to finish accordingly, Whew!
Sideboard plan: 1 snap 1 high tide to the sideboard, 2 pact of negation to the maindeck
Game 2: High Tide's casted: 6 - Meditate -1 turns - pact of negations 1 - When they get me down to 6 life via a Vendillion Clique swinging over some attack phases, I just bide my time, sculpt my hand as best I can, and wait till I have to do it, and at 6 life I decide it's time. There's so many lands in play again, I have to keep track of the storm count most of the time (since flusterstorm is a storm card) In the end, I am able to get my lethal Blue Sun's Zenith after pushing through the counter war's.
Semi-finals -Win- 2 / 0 vs RUG, Tim Edgar
Game 1: High Tide's casted: 3 - Meditate -1 turns - They do a turn 1 Delver of secrets, but failed to flip them until 2 turns later, buying me a little time, they also get out a nimble mongoose, and between the 2 start eating at my life total for more and more, im at 20, 19, 18, 15, 11, 7, Threshold for them, now I'm at 1, it's time to go off! I start with high tide, then it turns into a counterspell war in which I have to rely on flusterstorm at first instead of force, since I'm at 1 life. At a certain point, I needed to untap, but my opponent had 2 mana open, I knew a stifle was coming, I had a flusterstorm to back it up, but if they had 2 I was screwed, so I crossed my fingers, used the candel to untap all my lands so I could net more mana, sure enough, they stifle, so I flusterstorm, and they, casted a force of will to stop my multiple copies of flusterstorm against their stifle. When they did it, I didn't even realize it until AFTER i reacted and said these words "Ok what are you targeting" and right then, I think for the both of us it set in what just happened, but it was casted already, so I was able to save myself because I got lucky on my opponents behalf, and eventually got to the Blue Sun's Zenith for lethal
Sideboard plan: 1 wipe away 1 high tide 1 force of will to the sideboard, 3 pact of negation to the maindeck
Game 2: (Feature Match / On camera): High Tide's casted: 3 - Meditate -1 turns - My opponent plays like 5 lands, doesn't get threshold, and gets out 2 Nimble Mongoose, pinging me for 2 every turn for a while, allowing me way more time than RUG want's a combo deck to allow, but I just wait it out, when I decide it's time, I don't want them having a buncha of counterspells after a resolved time spiral, or being able to use what's in their hand now, so I Turnabout them at the end of their turn, they in response surgical extraction Brainstorm from my graveyard, only other options are the other cantrips, being ponder's & preordains. Spells resolve, I go to my turn without brainstorms in my deck knowing that does mean my deck has less draw spells in it. After I combo out, their last attempt is a mindbreak trap, but by that time I had the counterspells I needed and was able to make it to the finals!
Finals -Win- 2 / 0 vs Junk/The rock, Matt Pavlic
One thing to note, both myself, and my opponent, go to thesource alot, & it's pretty cool to see eachother here like this knowing we both go there and even recall eachother from the online legacy community.
Game 1: (Feature Match / On camera): High Tide's casted: 4 - They use discard to eat at my hand, and abrupt decay to eat my candelabra that I played so it didn't get discarded. I'm basically on lands at this point, other than a flusterstorm which I use against an opposing green sun's zenith, their clock is a Tarmogoyf that keeps eating at me every turn, I need to get some draw spells so I can dig through my deck for my combo fast! This game came down to just that however, just sheer, incredible luck, not only do I top deck a High Tide, but I also top deck a Time Spiral, both well enough in time that I'm at 11 life when I combo off, luckily since I'm against a deck without blue, I feel much safer resolving that time spiral, & I'm able to get there for the lethal Blue Sun's Zenith.
Sideboard plan: 1 high tide to the sideboard (to prevent loosing all from an extraction maindeck), 1 blue sun's zenith to the main deck (to prevent not being able to win incase they discard my cunning wish and then extract it)
Game 2: (Feature Match / On camera): High Tide's casted: 4 - We both play some lands before a tarmogoyf hits play, swing for some damage, gaddock teeg hits play, swing for some damage, scavenging ooze hits play, swing for some damage, all while I'm just sculpting my hand, picking up a snap for the gaddock teeg, and waiting it out until it's "do or die" time. when I am finally down to 4 life, High Tide it is! Going along building up more and more mana, when I get close to "getting there" my opponent casts "surgical extraction" on me, targeting High tide, but I've already resolved enough that I could ignore it, but I figured I'd respond, so I brainstormed, cunning wished for my own extraction, let theirs resolve, then I extracted their extractions with the one I wished for, before going back to finishing my combo off, getting to a Blue Sun's Zenith that caused my opponent to draw 87 cards!
http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/341250560 (3:47:30 is when the final match starts)
A special thank you to that last round opponent Matt Pavlic on your 2nd place!, we will bug eachother again via thesource.
A special thank you to Reese Skogen, the ride I showed up with who happened to place 12th place themselves!
A special thank you to starcitygames for hosting these awesome events
& of course a very special thank you to these forums and its owners/members that we all are apart of.
Last edited by feline; 06-11-2013 at 03:08 PM.
Primary legacy deck High Tide primer
Congrats, I figured that had to be you. I didn't tune into the SCG stream after watching the GP unfortunately.
“It's possible. But it involves... {checks archives} Nature's Revolt, Opalescence, two Unstable Shapeshifters (one of which started as a Doppelganger), a Tide, an animated land, a creature with Fading, a Silver Wyvern, some way to get a creature into play in response to stuff, some way to get a land into play in response to stuff (a different land from the animated land), and one heck of a Rube Goldberg timing diagram.”
-David DeLaney
Interesting that you didn't opt to extract your own high tide and failing the search minus the graveyard target of their extraction. Good read though all around.
Congratulations on your finish! We had a High Tide player in our car as well (Forrest, blonde 19-year-old guy--he said you guys talked briefly).
One question, though: why are you only running 1x Turnabout in the main? I've played High Tide quite a bit myself and that card seems like one of the best in the deck--3 in the main has always been really good in my testing.
Congrats on the win, it was awesome seeing you and Matt in the finals!
Congrats on your finish Feline! It is great seeing two Sourcers go into the finals!
I also have the same question. I can understand Snap being sort of similar and also answering clocks/hate bears, but that's only 2 untap spells and 4 candles. Maybe this accounts for the 6 untappers historically played?Originally Posted by lochlan
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Technically, there's 8, if you count unspent Wishes as the boarded Snap and Turnabout.
Still, huge props for the win, and loved the dance. :)
As far as the extraction at the end goes, I at first was going to ignore it since I had enough High Tides resolved, but for some reason I decided, if you're gonna extract me, I'll extract you back *wink*
As far as running 1 turnabout main deck, I look at it like this, anything that directly gets me to a turnabout, or acts as a turnabout is essentially the same thing, so I could do it like this, the 1 turnabout = 1 turnabout, + the 4 candels = 4 turnabouts, + the 4 merchant scrolls = 4 turnabouts, + the 3 cunning wishes = 3 turnabouts (though I would be conservative about wish's since they're a 1 time use) but basically it means when you combine it with the tutors and candels, it's very easy to untap or get to a way to untap and that's a total of 12 cards that either untap, or directly get you to something that does, I have no problems running 1 turnabout because I can very easily get to it, it's the same reason I run 1 main deck meditate.
4 merchant scroll, 3 cunning wish:
2 turnabout 1 main 1 side
2 meditate 1 main 1 side
2 snap 1 main 1 side
2 wipe away 1 main 1 side
This is just how I like running this, it allows me room for other stuff, if I ran another turnabout & another meditate I'd probably have to cut a flusterstorm and a preordain from the main and I can't get myself to do that when, even though you can tutor for flusterstorm, sometimes you need it from the first turn, before you can tutor for it, like against fast show & tells, reanimator, faster storm type strats, etc.
I guess koby pointed out that snap could be that "6th untap" since I by view of candels/turnabouts, am only at 5, ty koby, because I did find myself using snap just to untap 2 lands and generate a little more mana, the bouncing their guy away was just a bonus!
Primary legacy deck High Tide primer
I would've cast Surgical Extraction in response to extract the High Tide they targeted, then choose not to take any others out.
Well done! So Candelabra is better than Turnabout?
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