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    [Primer/Deck] High Tide, version, Spiral Tide




    To those whom would find it useful, the High Tide Discord channel can be found here.

    Like non traditional kills? How about milling out your opponent instead of going for the life total, making them draw their entire library of cards, & juggling one of the most demanding combos in Legacy that you could play, sometimes casting dozens upon dozens of spells over & over in the process.

    1) Playing High Tide
    2) Successful Decklists
    3) Card Choices & Building a deck:
    3a) Maindeck
    3b) Sideboard
    4) To Candel or not to Candel
    Candelabra of Tawnos
    5) Price guide
    6) Awesome links!
    In relation to High Tide & Legacy.
    7) The previous High Tide thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ER-Spiral-Tide by egosum & special thanks
    8) 30 Match ups

    1) Playing High Tide: short version
    The basics of High Tide overall are fairly simple, unlike other combo decks that want to go off as fast as possible, you want to wait, getting as many islands into play & as many card draws as you can until that "last turn" before their lethal to go off. You want to wait because that means getting to more protection (Counters) & more Islands (Because of High Tide & how it works with Islands) Then when you finally "go off" you start with a High Tide, then use any card draw/untap effects to dig for more & produce mana, then finally cast Time Spiral. Then you'll get a new hand & basically repeat that process, picking up counterspell back up accordingly against opposing disruption, casting more High Tides, more untap effects, producing more mana, until finally instead of casting another Time Spiral, you're casting a Blue Sun's Zenith on yourself to draw a ton of cards, or against your opponent for more than their library to win, your other route of success is a lethal Brain Freeze after enough spells played, provided they can't kill you on their next upkeep, or they have something like Emrakul, the Aeons torn in their deck.

    Playing High Tide: long version
    1.) Before casting Time Spiral/Blue Sun's Zenith, try to go off with as much protection as possible
    a.) Before every Time Spiral/Blue Sun's Zenith on yourself to draw or opponent to win, pick up as many Counterspells along the way, if you have one last draw like a Ponder or Merchant Scroll, use it before you Time Spiral/Blue Sun's Zenith, to dig for more Counterspells, if you lose the Counter war, you'll lose the game.

    b.) Another way to protect yourself, is cutting off your opponent from the majority of their spells, or even all of them altogether. Whenever you get the chance against an opponent, get them to tap out as soon as possible. Use that Merchant scroll or Cunning Wish to net your Turnabout & set yourself up, then at the end of their turn before you're going to go off, cast it at your opponent, if it resolves, choose to tap all their lands, if it doesn't resolve, worst case scenario, you got a counterspell out of their hand, & you can try again later. While you're mid combo, set yourself up to get untapped Islands in play, working your way down to 4 mana in your pool, then cast Turnabout targeting your opponent, either drawing out another Counterspell or forcing them to tap for mana in response, if they do, declare your attack step, emptying their mana pool, allowing you to continue on with less resistance from them. Blue decks or not, I've even had opposing BUG decks use Flusterstorm against myself at the Open in Seattle, while another used Extirpate against myself at the Open in Las Vegas, but they can't do that once they're tapped out!

    2.) After you resolve a Time Spiral:
    a.) Casted a High Tide, & a Time Spiral? Got your new hand of 7? Ok, don't tap your lands or cast another High Tide, yet. You have mana floating? Don't tap your lands until you cast all available High Tides first. Secondly, if you're cutting it close on draw spells & risk fizzling out? Use that floating mana to draw some more cards first, if your new hand of 7 only nets you minimal card draw, you might cast your single Ponder first, if you draw into nothing, you'll at least have a High Tide in hand if you have to start all over again. So always keep in mind your availability to draw more cards before you cast that next High Tide.

    b.) After resolving Time Spiral, there are spells you'll almost always want to cast first: Brainstorm Ponder & Preordain, they are cheap (1 mana) are not likely to be countered by the opponent, & allow you to basically, pick the best of 3 & draw it, possibly giving you what you were looking to get without having to cast your Merchant Scroll or Cunning Wish right away.

    3.) Primary Cunning Wish priorities: Cunning Wish to Blue Sun's Zenith > Cunning Wish to Intuition > Cunning Wish to Meditate > Cunning Wish to Brain Freeze:
    a.) Cunning Wish to Blue Sun's Zenith your opponent for lethal
    b.) Cunning Wish to Blue Sun's Zenith yourself for a bunch of cards, if you can't lethal Blue Sun's Zenith your opponent
    c.) Cunning Wish to Intuition, when Blue Sun's Zenith costs too much, get Intuition, get Time Spirals, then cast it, netting new cards & untapping for more mana
    d.) Cunning Wish to Meditate + 1 cantrip. If you cannot afford the 12 mana cost of Cunning Wish > Intuition > Time Spiral, you can still Meditate for 4 cards, then see the next 3 with a cantrip, netting you at least the best 5 of the next 7
    e.) Cunning Wish to Brain Freeze. If you go the cheapest route, Cunning Wish to Meditate & will lack enough mana afterward to untap, then you'll fizzle. This is a scenario that can occur, when it does, check the number of spells cast, because you also have Brain Freeze, you might have resolved just enough spells to win right there, which is a much better alternative than fizzling.

    4.) Secondary Cunning Wish priorities:
    a.) Grabbing counterspells. Even if your opponent is tapped out, there are still free things like Force of Will, so whenever you're in combo, one of your secondary priorities is Cunning Wish > Pact of Negation when you're out of Counterspells. However, Cunning wish is an instant, so you don't have to commit to grabbing a counterspell until they play one against you & you're out, just make sure you leave the 3 mana open for it, or 4 if you suspect opposing Daze.

    b.) Cunning Wish to grab bounce spells. Whether it's Snap against Thalia, Guardian of Thraben so you can untap 2 Islands, a Wipe away against Counterbalance, or Rebuild against Affinity, Mud, Stax, or Death and Taxes with Ethersworn Canonist and an Aether Vial with 2 counters in play, grabbing bounce is a very important option to have against many decks.

    c.) Cunning Wish to grab graveyard hate Surgical Extraction, Ravenous Trap. This one is straightforward, eliminate all copies of an annoying card in a graveyard from their deck, or remove the graveyard altogether. Quoting Reuben Bresler directly from his Seattle open report he wrote: ...Surgical Extraction to surgically extract Surgical Extractions surgically.. In other words, you can even extract opposing Surgical Extractions!

    d.) Cunning Wish to grab combo pieces. Need your Turnabout to untap? Or Intuition to get to Time Spiral? You're a combo deck, & you need combo pieces to go off.

    5.) Universal sideboard possibilities against High Tide to keep in mind against ANY deck:
    a.) Surgical Extraction is essentially "free" to cast. Assume every single game 2 and 3, that your opponent has the option of Surgical Extraction from their sideboard, so always sideboard out a High Tide for those sideboard games, if they catch you off guard & extract your High Tide, you will want the option of being able to Cunning Wish for a High Tide.
    Having said that, luckily, that is about as powerful as Surgical Extraction gets against High Tide, because Cunning Wish & Time Spiral remove themselves from the game when resolved, they'll almost never hit the graveyard.
    b.) Mindbreak Trap is the other universal card that you might see brought in against you. At the Starcityopen in Los Angeles in December, a goblin player drew 2 Mindbreak Trap's against myself after a resolved Time Spiral, however along the way in all my cantrips, tutors & card draw, I picked up some Counterspells, never forgetting the possibility, so when he tried to use them I was able to counter them both.
    c.) Leyline of Sanctity Leyline of the Void Tormod's Crypt Relic of Progenitus & friends. The only reason I even note these strategies is because they do actually come up, but they are the weakest of the "potentially from any deck" scenarios & honestly, anyone that tries them against you is probably only doing so because they either don't realize how ineffective it is, or it's literally all they have for sideboarding against you & they're just trading out dead cards like Swords to Plowshares. None of these strategies prevent you from comboing at all. The artifacts are a 1 time use, the Leyline's can be bounced mid combo once you have enough mana & a tutor to burn, & all their "mass graveyard hate" will never remove enough cards from your deck, it will just "shrink it." At best, the % of draw spells in your deck as a whole might be a bit lower, that's about it.

    6.) Mulligans:
    Nobody likes to mulligan, but I absolutely HATE it, if I do, that hand has to be horrible! Luckily with all the 1 mana cantrips, even 1 land hands are commonly keepable depending on the rest of your hand. Here's all you need to start comboing off at a minimum:
    at least 3 Island in play and 1 untap effect, or 4 Island in play
    1 High Tide
    1 Time Spiral
    to go off with protection, at least 1 Force of Will or Flusterstorm, or more.
    The more of those cards you have in hand, the closer you are to start your combo, & if you have at least 1 land and cantrips to boot, the chance of drawing into more of what you need is only better. So whenever you mulligan, look at everything, & make sure the hand you're going to mulligan away is actually worth discarding & drawing a new random hand minus 1 card.

    History:
    High Tide, Spring Tide, Solidarity (Reset High Tide), Combo winter! High Tide has a lot of history in Magic the Gathering that goes far back, but the current incarnation of High Tide as of today, in the format that is Legacy/type 1.5, started with this:
    December 20 2010 DCI Banned & Restricted List Announcement Effective Date: January 1 2011
    Legacy:
    Survival of the Fittest is banned
    Time Spiral is unbanned

    2) Successful Decklists: (Starcitygames Legacy Opens & other large player events from The Council since the unbanning of Time Spiral)
    2011:
    Jan-Apr High Tide, 1st wave
    13th place - Jacob Baugh SCG Kansas (193 players) Candels 1
    6th place - Lorenzo Fedeli - Cerro M MLL #5 (117 players)
    5th place - Lorenzo Fedeli - CerroMagg (MI) MLL #7 AFCT (106 players)
    1st place - Alix Hatfield SCG Edison (294 players) Candels 4
    9th place - Kyle Morin - SCG Edison (294 players) Candels 2
    3rd place - Jamie Cano - D-Day-IV Empoli (214 players) Candels 3
    22nd place - Gerry Thompson SCG Memphis (137 players) Candels 4
    16th place - Javi Rubio - GP Barcelona side event (196 players)
    1st place - Jesse Hatfield - SCG Atlanta (210 players) Candels 4
    3rd place - Alix Hatfield SCG Atlanta (210 players) Candels 4
    10th place - Ben Wienburg SCG Atlanta (210 players) Candels 4
    2nd place - Lorenzo Fedeli - Legnano MLL #8 (116 players)
    15th place - David Price SCG Boston (252 players) Candels 4
    13th place - Joshua Justice SCG Charlotte (211 players) Candels 4
    May-Jul May 13th Mental Misstep.
    9th place - Iñaki Puig Dollers - Bazaar Of Moxen V - Annecy France (633 players) Mental Missteps 3
    1st place - Carles Messegue - LCL Lliga Catalana de Legacy 4 Miag inGenio (100 players) Candels 3
    2nd place - German Vicioso - LCL Lliga Catalana de Legacy 4 Miag inGenio (100 players)
    2nd place - Javi Rubio - 6 LCL inGenio (120 players) Mental Missteps 3
    Oct-Dec September announcement Mental Misstep banned.
    4th place - Lorenzo Fedeli - Ovino_Sex Milano (390 players) Candels 2
    3rd place - Clement Denis - Last Chance Qualifier CdF (143 players)
    3rd place - Lorenzo Fedeli - MLL #4 Cardano al campo (VA) (104 players) Candels 3

    2012:
    Jan-Apr High Tide, 2nd wave
    3rd place - Andreas Dietz - Hanau Win a Lotus - Frankfurt Germany (247 players)
    9th place - Florian Zarges - Hanau Win a Lotus - Frankfurt Germany (247 players)
    9th place - Germán Vicioso - 1º Torneo Lliga Catalana (119 players)
    14th place - Germán Vicioso - 2º torneo Lliga Catalana (109 players)
    4th place - Sander Hendrickx - Belgian Eternal Weekend Legacy (104 players)
    2nd place - Eric Becker SCG Charlotte (153 players)
    4th place - John Rojas SCG Tampa (141 players) Candels 4
    4th place - Colin Chilbert - GP Indianapolis (1,214 players) Candels 3
    Day 1 undefeated - Michael Bernat - GP Indianapolis (1,214 players)
    5th place - Paco Benlloch - Melendians 2 (101 players)
    7th place - Alix Hatfield SCG Baltimore (264 players) Candels 3
    15th place - Jesse Hatfield SCG Baltimore (264 players) Candels 3
    7th place - Nathan Cardinell SCG Phoenix (137 players) Candels 3
    May-Aug
    19th place - Daniel Gillis SCG Columbus (258 players) Candels 3
    10th place - Feline Longmore SCG Seattle (187 players) Candels 4
    13th place - Casey Hanford SCG Kansas (209 players) Candels 2
    23rd place - Juan Mendez - 2012 Gen Con Legacy Championship (350 players)
    Sep-Dec High Tide, 3rd wave
    3rd place - Roberto Libanore - Tarmogeddon 6 Padova (210 players) Candels 2
    1st place - Michael Bernat SCG Indianapolis (204 players) Candels 3
    14th place - Jason Suire SCG New Orleans (91 players) Candels 3
    5th place - Jonathan Thatch SCG St Louis (162 players) Candels 3
    4th place - Michael Baker SCG Dallas (175 players) Candels 3
    8th place - Colin Chilbert SCG Dallas (175 players) Candels 3
    1st place - Feline Longmore SCG Seattle (164 players) Candels 4
    27th place - Michael Bernat SCG Invitational Los Angeles Legacy portion 7-1 or better (208 players) Candels 3
    2nd place - Michael Steinecke - End of Year Hanau (194 players)
    Special thanks to astormbrewing who did an analysis of 2012 High Tide decks based on lists noted from here

    2013:
    Jan-Mar
    32nd place - Christian Walton SCG Columbus (325 players) Candels 3
    7th place - Marcel Brigneti - LCL 2013 Enero (125 players) Candels 4
    14th place - Colin Chilbert SCG Dallas (212 players) Candels 3
    2nd place - Michael Tabler SCG Cincinnati (279 players) Candels 3
    4th place - Trapani Giulio - Tarmogeddon 7 (137 players) Candels 3
    Aug-Sep
    11th place - Feline Longmore SCG Minneapolis (302 players) Candels 4
    13th place - Aoyagi Motohiko - 晴れる屋レガシー杯 - トーナメントセンターオープン記念 (278 players)
    19th place - Garrett Young SCG Cincinnati (277 players) Candels 3
    8th place - Michele Giua - Legacy@Ovino8 (407 players)

    2014:
    9th place - Feline Longmore SCG Nashville (283 players) Candels 4
    32nd place - Feline Longmore SCG Seattle (320 players) Candels 4
    3rd place - Colin Chilbert SCG Dallas (308 players) Candels 3
    16th place - Feline Longmore SCG Detroit (225 players) Candels 4
    13th place - Feline Longmore SCG Indianapolis (346 players) Candels 4
    7th place - Feline Longmore SCG Providence (302 players) Candels 4
    14th place - Feline Longmore SCG Syracuse (230 players) Candels 4
    6th place - Feline Longmore SCG Atlanta (263 players) Candels 4
    7th place - Roberto Libanore - Ovinogeddon 9 (476 players) Candels 3
    6th place - Sander Hendrickx - Belgian Legacy Cup Finals (102 players)

    2015:
    7th place - Mikko Hyvärinen - Finnish Legacy Championship (109 players) (Solidarity/Reset Tide)

    3) Card choices & Building a deck: Based on the above successful deck lists. Staples & more commonly stuff will be noted in Bold with a #:

    3a) Maindeck:
    Combo pieces:
    High Tide (4) Namesake card of the deck, more resolved = more mana
    Time Spiral (4) All you want in 1 card, both draw & untapping

    Untap effects:
    Turnabout (1-3 main, 1 side) Untap your lands, or tap your opponent to "fog" their creatures, or tap their lands to cut them off from their mana
    Candelabra of Tawnos (3-4) Untap effect that becomes more powerful with multiple in play & a Turnabout on your artifacts
    Cloud of faeries Less commonly seen in lists. In place of Candelabra in some budget builds
    Mind over Matter Less commonly seen in lists, 1st wave of High Tide. Deemed "win more" before discontinued
    Palinchron Less commonly seen in lists, as a 1 of for infinite mana when comboing

    Tutors:
    Merchant Scroll (4) A tutor for any instant in your deck, including High Tide itself, card draw, counterspells, & untap effects
    Cunning Wish (3) A tutor for sideboard cards from game 1, combo pieces, card draw, to utility like bounce, counterspells, & graveyard hate
    Intuition (0-1 main, usually 1 side) Almost always a 1 of in the sideboard. A way to tutor for Time Spiral directly

    Card Draw:
    Brainstorm (4) A pillar of the format, add 3 to hand, put the 2 weakest cards from hand on top, & shuffle away with a shuffle effect
    Ponder (4) Draw 3, pick the best, or shuffle it & draw from a new top deck
    Preordain (2-4) Scry 2 then draw the best of, or dig deeper, post spiral you can brainstorm 2 unwanted cards on top, & scry them away with a preordain
    Sensei's Divining Top(0-4) Great against discard, with Fetchlands, to see cards 8/9/10 after every Spiral or shuffle effect
    Meditate (Average 1 main, 1 side) More recent lists have trended lower on the card. When you don't have enough mana to Spiral, getting to a Meditate & drawing 4, then using a cantrip like Brainstorm to draw 3 more, will still allow you to keep the best 5 of 7 in an attempt to refill the hand
    Gitaxian Probe Less commonly seen in lists, averaging as a 2 of
    Trade Routes Less commonly seen in lists as a 1 of

    Counters:
    Force of Will (4) A pillar of the format, keeps opposing disruption from hitting like counters, discard, annoying creatures, or opposing combo decks from killing you faster
    Flusterstorm (0-3 main, 1 side) Since most disruption will hit you before you try to combo (discard) or during (counterspells) this instant/sorcery targeting counter is usually a hard counter, & mid combo with enough spells played, it's always a hard counter. Also very difficult to stop since it can't just be counterspelled away traditionally
    Pact of Negation (0-1 main, 1 side) Less common in maindecks. 0 cast counterspell, perfect for just starting to combo off when mana is most vital
    Remand Less commonly seen in lists, along with Brain Freeze[/color] A secondary strategy in some non candel lists
    Swan Song Sometimes in place of Flusterstorm, sometimes in addition to Flusterstorm. Can hit enchantments like Counterbalance & Sneak Attack
    Spell Pierce Less commonly seen in lists
    Counterspell Less commonly seen in lists

    Bounce:
    Snap Less commonly seen in lists, along with Cloud of Faeries in place of Candelabra in some budget builds. Though usually a 1 of sideboard
    Wipe away Less commonly seen in lists, though usually 1-2 sideboard
    Repeal Less commonly seen in lists

    Kill condition:
    Blue Sun's Zenith (0-1 main, 1 side) With enough mana, Blue Sun yourself for a 1 sided Time Spiral of 7 cards or more, & of course, aim it at your opponents deck for the win when lethal
    Brain Freeze Less commonly seen in lists, along with Remand A secondary strategy in some non candel lists
    Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Less commonly seen in lists

    Lands:
    Island (average 12) At a minimum you will need 3 Islands in play to go off. 2 is extremely rare & not recommended anyway, but technically possible. 6 is the other extreme to look for when going off, because Time Spiral untaps up to 6 lands only. The most common in play however, is 3-4.
    Misty Rainforest Scalding Tarn Polluted Delta Flooded Strand (average 6) Brainstorm is the main reason for running fetchlands for it's shuffle effect.

    3b) Sideboard:
    Kill condition:
    Blue Sun's Zenith (1) One of 2 kill conditions, that also acts as massive card draw, & since it shuffles back into the deck, you an Merchant Scroll for it after each use
    Brain Freeze (1) The other kill condition, provided the opponent doesn't have shuffle back in effects like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or the ability to kill you on their next upkeep before their next draw step

    Untap effects:
    Turnabout (1) Wish for a tap/untap effect

    Tutors:
    Intuition (1) A key card to get to Time Spiral, Intuition for 3, keep 1. Works with any 3 & 4 of in deck

    Card draw:
    Meditate (0-1) If you can't Brain Freeze for lethal, & don't have enough to Wish>Intuition>Spiral because of lack of Spirals or mana, you can still Meditate for 4, cantrip for the best of the next 3, & still net a "new hand" that is the essentially, the best 5 of 7 to continue going off

    Counters:
    Pact of Negation (1-2) Both a wish target & a true sideboard card, bringing some in against heavier counterspell opponents
    Flusterstorm (1) Also a wish target counterspell, a hard counter once your opponent can't pay the mana, & can't be so easily countered back by traditional counterspells
    Spell Pierce Gives you options against non creature permanents when Flusterstorm won't hit a Planeswalker, Enchantment, or Artifact
    ~Less commonly seen in lists are: Mindbreak Trap Misdirection Hydroblast Disrupt Dispel Trickbind Counterspell

    Bounce:
    Wipe Away (1-2) Split second bounce, the best bounce against Counterbalance decks
    Echoing Truth (0-1) Often used against multiple opposing permanents of the same name, like Leyline of Sanctity as an example
    Snap (1) Great against problematic creatures like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben & Gaddock Teeg
    Rebuild or Hurkyl's Recall (1) For things like Stax, Affinity, MUD, or even Death & Taxes with an Ethersworn Canonist in play & an Aether Vial with 2 counters. Rebuild can cycle & doesn't target. Recall costs 1 less, but is more susceptible to Chalice of the Void
    Capsize (0-1) Usually for it's go infinite with a Candelabra
    ~For the infinite mana ratio with Capsize:
    1 High Tides resolved - 7 Islands in play = infinite storm, but mana stays the same / 8 Islands in play means infinite mana
    2 High Tides resolved - 4 Islands in play means infinite mana
    3 High Tides resolved - 3 Islands in play means infinite mana
    4 High Tides resolved - 2 Islands in play means infinite mana
    ~Less commonly seen in lists are: Repeal Hibernation Chain of Vapor

    Graveyard hate:
    Surgical Extraction (1) Wishable graveyard hate against things like Reanimate that can also extract other problematic cards, like their Force of Will's as an example, or even their own Extractions
    Ravenous Trap (0-1) Wishable graveyard hate that works great especially against Dredge or Ad Nauseam Storm decks that utilize Past in Flames

    Removal:
    Dismember Less commonly seen in lists
    Slaughter Pact Less commonly seen in lists

    Other:
    Twincast Less commonly seen in lists
    Gigadrowse Less commonly seen in lists
    Mana short Less commonly seen in lists

    Non wish target sideboard cards:
    Counterbalance (0 or 4) Can come in against any deck where you want to draw out counter magic before the combo turn, or resolve to help protect the hand/combo before & as you're going off
    Defense Grid (0-3) Sometimes used against opposing counterspell decks as a way to defend the combo, or even draw out a counterspell
    Leyline of Sanctity Less commonly seen in lists

    Non wish target graveyard hate:
    Grafdigger's cage (0-3) Graveyard hate that can also work as a secondary against Natural Order & Green Sun's Zenith as examples, 1 Flusterstorm stops 1 spell, but 1 Grafdigger's Cage stops them all
    ~Less commonly seen in lists are: Tormod's Crypt Relic of Progenitus

    4) To Candel or not to Candel: Running Candelabra of Tawnos
    Arguments for running Candelabra of Tawnos:
    1) It can remain in play as an untap effect while Time Spiraling.
    2) A Candel in play, is 1 less draw spell in your deck, meaning each time you Time Spiral, though miniscule, the % of your decks draw spells as a whole is "slightly increased" in comparison to the Candel being somewhere in your deck, helping decrease the chance of you drawing 7 non draw spells & fizzling ever so slightly.
    3) Synergy with Turnabout. 1 Turnabout untaps your lands once, 1 Candel untaps your lands once, but once you have 2 or more Candels in play, each Turnabout for artifacts, means you're duplicating untap effects for each Candel in play past the first.
    4) Candels cost just 1 mana to cast, it's easier to get past taxing stuff like Daze & Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, & can even be put into play against those cards before your actual combo turn.
    5) Candel's untap effect still works against destroy effects like Abrupt Decay Disenchant, etc. Worst case scenario after you untap & it's destroyed, it just shuffles back in with your next Time Spiral.
    6) Candels sometimes acts as "bait", when an opponent burns a Counterspell on it, that's 1 less counter you have to work through, since you can still go off with just 4 Islands in play without any untap effects.
    7) With 3 Islands in play, & a Candel in play from a previous turn, it only costs 3 to untap your lands, meaning you will ideally have 7 mana before you cast Time Spiral, allowing you to cast a cantrip, save the single mana for a Flusterstorm, or save it for after Time Spiral resolving.
    8) When you sideboard in bounce against some decks it is never a dead card, worst case scenario, your maindeck bounce turns into a mana producer, returning a tapped Candel to your hand, then play it again.
    Quoting Di:
    9) In addition to Turnabout, running Candelabra provides the easiest avenue to cast a lethal BSZ (relevant in any case where Brain Freeze is a liability). On it's own, Turnabout requires you to have played a higher number of High Tides and/or require more lands, which could potentially delay or hinder your ability to win. Additionally, this also requires more effort because you have fewer methods of generating mana, and thus need to spend more on resources to find them. This in turn will put you in more situations that involve struggling to continue comboing because more mana needs to be used to continue than normal. The likelihood of you winning a game with both is much higher than if you only have access to one.
    10) Only running a single untap effect outside of Time Spiral limits the deck's flexibility against hate. If a build running only Turnabout has either High Tide or Turnabout hit by Surgical Extraction or the like, the odds of winning through it are much more difficult as opposed to a more diversified list. You obviously can still win with Brain Freeze, but generating the storm to make it lethal would be much harder to do so.
    11) Only running Turnabouts limits the amount of mana you can have post-Spiral, or limits the odds you open an untap effect post-Spiral. This can hinder your ability to continue comboing because you work harder to find an untap effect.
    12) The ability to preemptively play Candelabra or go off with fewer lands isn't so much an advantage as it is a luxury, as it does provide a buffer against aggressive decks where you may want it. I personally don't go off turn three very often, but I do go off with three lands more often than I'd like to. It just happens that you don't hit lands sometimes, and this is among the only cards to help generate an advantage in that position. Again, that speaks to improving the flexibility of the deck.
    13) The one mana you spend to cast it the turn you play it is often mitigated by the fact that the same candle has the potential to generate more mana on its own later in the game. It's true that extra mana spent can occasionally be an issue against taxing decks. However, it only costs one as opposed to four. This makes it much easier to resolve in the first place and get something out of against these very same decks, and also helps situations where High Tide is Dazed and you need to be able to cast a cheaper card to generate some mana.
    14) Turnabout can be Flusterstormed, Candelabra cannot. This has actually come up a couple times for me where it's been highly relevant, and given the popularity of Flusterstorm will only increase if combo continues to be popular, this can become a common scenario. Additionally but far less relevant, Turnabout can be Misdirected.
    15) A great luxury, but I do have players often boarding in cards to fight candles alone. If an opponent is keeping Abrupt Decay in their deck or boarding into something like Krosan Grip or Ancient Grudge, then it's doing a great job at clogging their hand with dead cards. I've won countless games where I went off and the opponent showed me a dead card in their hand used to fight Candelabra.
    16) It opens up play patterns, and allows you to play a different game because you have access to a lot more options with more mana. This could (in turn) place less emphasis on resolving something like Meditate to continue going, because you can easily have an excess of mana to just find BSZ and draw 20 cards or something of the like.

    Arguments against running Candelabra of Tawnos:
    1) The biggest & most obvious, is that they cost so much $$$, & can only be played in a very narrow line of decks for Legacy (High Tide, 12post). However, this is a purely economical argument.
    2) Candelabra of Tawnos is susceptible to Stifle effects.
    3) Candels are susceptible to Pithing Needle Null Rod Stony Silence etc, however these cards don't really stop you from comboing, & can rather easily be bounced when you get to the point of wanting to Blue Sun's Zenith for a ton of cards.
    Quoting Di:
    4) The "downside" of Candelabra against the likes of Abrupt Decay or Stifle are minor. Abrupt Decay will almost never be an issue because you aren't likely to play it prematurely against a deck that runs them. Stifle I guess, but the same argument could be said for a fetchland. But if you're losing a to a Stifle on a Candelabra, odds are you'd be losing to another counter on a different spell. Besides, Stifle comes from a single deck, not all builds run them, and based on my experience, Stifle is one of the most-boarded out cards. It's far less of an issue than people make it out to be. Otherwise, it does a fantastic job of negating Daze and Spell Pierce.

    5) Price guide of more traditional High Tide cards: As of June 2013 (For the most current prices, click on the link of each card) (High-Mid-Low according to http://magiccards.info/ & http://magic.tcgplayer.com/all_magic_sets.asp)
    $50.00 or higher average:
    Candelabra of Tawnos $475.00 $349.99 $314.99
    Force of Will $99.95 $83.32 $69.00
    Polluted Delta $108.25 $91.45 $85.06
    Flooded Strand $82.88 $72.00 $59.00

    $20.00 to $50.00 average:
    Misty Rainforest $44.98 $37.94 $33.99
    Scalding Tarn $44.99 $38.00 $33.60
    Intuition $44.99 $34.62 $29.49

    $10.00 to $20.00 average:
    Time Spiral $28.79 $18.94 $15.86
    Pact of Negation $20.58 $16.51 $14.49
    Flusterstorm $18.12 $14.00 $11.25

    $5.00 to $10.00 average:
    Cunning Wish $6.94 $4.97 $3.49
    Meditate $16.03 $4.99 $3.25

    $2.00 to $5.00 average:
    Brain Freeze $3.06 $1.94 $1.15
    Surgical Extraction $5.99 $3.30 $2.66
    Turnabout $3.09 $2.21 $0.80

    $1.00 to $2.00 average:
    Merchant Scroll $2.05 $0.99 $0.45
    Brainstorm $2.34 $1.61 $1.09
    Hurkyl's Recall $3.09 $1.99 $1.39
    Defense Grid $2.19 $1.49 $0.75
    Grafdigger's Cage $3.08 $1.17 $0.36

    $1.00 or less average:
    High Tide $1.99 $0.75 $0.25
    Ponder $1.48 $0.93 $0.71
    Preordain $1.50 $0.45 $0.10
    Blue Sun's Zenith $1.29 $0.59 $0.35
    Spell Pierce $2.25 $0.94 $0.71
    Wipe Away $0.77 $0.37 $0.23
    Echoing truth $1.49 $0.71 $0.25
    Repeal $0.95 $0.21 $0.06
    Snap $1.64 $0.55 $0.36
    Rebuild $0.51 $0.30 $0.06
    Ravenous Trap $0.60 $0.16 $0.03
    Tormod's Crypt $1.02 $0.40 $0.14
    Island $228.95(Guru) $9.98(Unhinged) $6.71(Unglued) $6.11(Beta) $0.99(Zendikar) $0.03(Basic)


    6) Awesome Links: In relation to both High Tide & Legacy
    Price trends of singles:
    http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Fallen_.../High_Tide_(1)

    High Tide articles/reports/etc:
    2013:
    http://starcitygames.com/events/cove..._vs_laure.html Feature Match, High Tide in the finals SCG Cincinnati (Michael Tabler)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/article...o-Problem.html Article with an emphasis for those candeless High Tides (Carsten Kotter)
    http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazin...gpden13/day2#7 Deck Tech from GP Denver (Di/Colin Chilbert)

    3rd wave, late 2012:
    http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10871 Article by SCG Dallas top 8 (Di/Colin Chilbert)
    http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...lace-High-tide! Tournament report, SCG Seattle top 8 (Feline Longmore)
    http://starcitygames.com/events/cove...als_felin.html Feature match, High Tide in the finals SCG Seattle (Feline Longmore)
    http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ight=high+tide Tournament report, SCG St Louis top 8 (topef27/Jonathan Thatch)
    https://wizards.com/magic/magazine/A...aily/deck/1097 Article after the Michael Bernat SCG Indianapolis, 1st place High Tide finish (Conley Wood)
    http://starcitygames.com/events/cove...s_michael.html Feature match, High Tide in the finals SCG Indianapolis (Michael Bernat)
    2nd wave, early 2012:
    http://www.azmagicplayers.com/articl...-top-8-report/ Tournament report, SCG Phoenix top 8 (Nathan Cardinell)
    http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10358 Article from GP Indianapolis top 8 (Di/Colin Chilbert)
    http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...nd12/welcome#4 Feature match, High Tide in the top 4 Grand Prix Indianapolis (Di/Colin Chilbert)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/events/..._andrew_s.html Feature match, High Tide in the finals SCG Charlotte (Eric Becker)

    Effects of Mental Misstep, mid-late 2011:
    http://www.starcitygames.com/article...High-Tide.html Article after the banning of Mental Misstep (Anwar Ahmad)
    1st wave, early 2011:
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...Recruiter.html Article during peak of High Tide's 1st wave (Drew Levin)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...id_Thomas.html Feature match, High Tide in the finals SCG Atlanta (Jesse Hatfield)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...li_Kassis.html Feature match, High Tide in the finals SCG Edison (Alix Hatfield)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...ol_Rising.html Article after the unbanning of Time Spiral (Carsten Kotter)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...ring_Tide.html Deck Tech from the 1st Spiral Tide deck to top 16 at the Open Series, January 2011 SCG Kansas (Jacob Baugh)
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...ral_Storm.html Article right at the unbanning of Time Spiral (Drew Levin)

    High Tide decklist sources:
    Starcitygames.com High Tide decklists starting Jan-2011
    http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/tip...&format=Legacy
    http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/blog.php?b=7932 2012-13 decklists

    Legacy metagame:
    http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/decklists/
    http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/for...=Legacy&page=1
    http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...(started-2012)

    For Solidarity: Reset, instant speed High Tide
    http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...eck-Solidarity

    7) The Previous High Tide thread by egosum: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ER-Spiral-Tide
    Last edited by Dice_Box; 01-03-2018 at 08:30 AM.
    Primary legacy deck High Tide primer

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