[Deck] Solidarity (Reset High Tide)

Some Answers to your questions.

Words of Wisdom sucks. It is a bad card that only serves one purpose. Stroke of Genius can actually be used to draw a large amount of cards. Why waste a slot on something that does almost nothing when another card can do the same thing for only 2 mana more? Especially when that 2 extra mana will rarely if ever be important.
Evacuation is in the board to bounce creatures that have protection from blue, originally that was True Believer with a Mother of Runes out.
It can also be used as a massive stall play against weenie decks. It is not designed to be used in the Goblin matchup.

Did anyone thought about misdirection to help the deadguy ale matchup? i know that with duress and or cabal, odds are that we won't play the card, but almost a good half of deck's card can target the caster generating at last a 2 for 2...

Misdirection isn't that bad, but right now, I think I'd go with Disrupt, since, as you said, Misdirection can't target Duress or Therapy. It draws a card, too.

Instead of Misdirection you could try to use Divert.
That way you can create some card advantage

It's a good idea, but it still has the problem of being pretty bad against Duress, which is far more common than Hymn or Sinkhole, which is what I'd put it in for.

Disrupt is also good against Gro decks and such.
-Slay

Can someone explain to me how to sideboard with this deck? The maindeck is just so tight, I never know what to take out for Disrupt.

Also, I've done some minor testing with 4x Quicken and 2x Merchant Scroll in the main deck. I'd taken 2x Peek, 2x Opt and 2x Inpulse for these cards. The Quickens fit into the spot of the other 1cc cantrips without a problem, but finding a space for Merchant Scroll is really difficult. Impulse probably is not the correct choice, but I'm not sure what is. Has anyone else been testing this modification?

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Originally Posted by Raatcharch

Can someone explain to me how to sideboard with this deck? The maindeck is just so tight, I never know what to take out for Disrupt.

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Maindeck:
Instants
2 Brain Freeze
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
2 Flash Of Insight
4 Force Of Will
4 High Tide
4 Impulse
3 Meditate
2 Opt
2 Peek
4 Remand
4 Reset
3 Turnabout
1 Twincast

Basic Lands
12 Island

Lands
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta

Sideboard:
1 Chain Of Vapor
4 Disrupt
1 Echoing Truth
1 Evacuation
4 Hydroblast
1 Meditate
1 Stroke Of Genius
1 Turnabout
1 Twincast

I would board something like that (well it's not verry difficult, because you have only 2 diffrent cards to board in 4x Disrupt; 4x Hydroblast; 1x Twincast)
Against Gobbos you board:
-4x Remand
+4x Hydroblast

Against Pikula Deck/ Ying Yang or other Discard Engine based deck:
-2x Peek
-2x Opt
+4x Disrupt

Against Gro, Madness, Landstill:
-2x Peek
-2x Opt
-1x Brain Freeze (I suppose, the other cards are going to be needed)
+4x Disrupt
+1x Twincast

Against some other Aggro Decks:
-1x Reset
+1x Turnabout
I've found out, against MGA (Mono Green Aggro this could be very helpful)

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Originally Posted by Raatcharch

Also, I've done some minor testing with 4x Quicken and 2x Merchant Scroll in the main deck. I'd taken 2x Peek, 2x Opt and 2x Inpulse for these cards. The Quickens fit into the spot of the other 1cc cantrips without a problem, but finding a space for Merchant Scroll is really difficult. Impulse probably is not the correct choice, but I'm not sure what is. Has anyone else been testing this modification?

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I'm still testing it ;-D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raatcharch

Can someone explain to me how to sideboard with this deck? The maindeck is just so tight, I never know what to take out for Disrupt.

Also, I've done some minor testing with 4x Quicken and 2x Merchant Scroll in the main deck. I'd taken 2x Peek, 2x Opt and 2x Inpulse for these cards. The Quickens fit into the spot of the other 1cc cantrips without a problem, but finding a space for Merchant Scroll is really difficult. Impulse probably is not the correct choice, but I'm not sure what is. Has anyone else been testing this modification?

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I'm not sure if this has been talked about, but why waste slots on merchant scroll when you could just play 1-2 underground sea, then quicken tendrils FTW?

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Originally Posted by Burnout

Against Gro, Madness, Landstill:
-2x Peek
-2x Opt
-1x Brain Freeze (I suppose, the other cards are going to be needed)
+4x Disrupt
+1x Twincast

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Why would you take out Peek against Aggro-Control? This card is so amazing against Gro, I would never want to play the matchup without it.
Seriously, believe me. I've played Solidarity 2-0 against Gro at GP Lille and Peek was just amazing in these matches...

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Originally Posted by Lukas Preuss

Why would you take out Peek against Aggro-Control? This card is so amazing against Gro, I would never want to play the matchup without it.
Seriously, believe me. I've played Solidarity 2-0 against Gro at GP Lille and Peek was just amazing in these matches...

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So how do you sideboard against the gro matchup?

In response to WastedLife:

Tendrils strikes me as bad. I am making this claim without any testing to back me up, but here is my reasoning:

Tendrils makes you more succeptable to non-basic land hate. If you can only find one Underground Sea and it gets Wastelanded, or if you play both and both get Wastelanded, you simply cannot win. That doesn't seem good.

Also, I do not like the idea of Quicken being needed to win. I see Quicken/Merchant Scroll as a potentially powerful "engine" to help the deck along, but the neccessity to cast Quicken in order to go off seems like an unneccessary weakness for the deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raatcharch

So how do you sideboard against the gro matchup?

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Well, first of all, I was running a list different to those with Remands and Disrupts, since I hadn't thought about that before the GP. I think my list looked something like this:

4x Reset
4x High Tide
4x Brainstorm
4x Impulse
4x Force of Will
4x Meditate
3x Opt
3x Turnabout
3x Cunning Wish
3x Brain Freeze
2x Peek
2x Flash of Insight
2x Twincast

11x Island
4x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta


Sideboard:
4x Hydroblast
2x Twincast
3x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Echoing Truth
1x Rebuild
1x Turnabout
1x Brainfreeze

The only cards I sideboarded was one Twincast, since having three Twincasts in the maindeck is awesome against Gro. Note that David Gearhart sides his lonely Twincast in the board against Gro, as well...

Well, I don't need to mention that this list is not optimal and that Remand and Disrupt are awesome in the current metagame... I just wanted to point out, that Peek is amazing against Gro... I wouldn't side it out.

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Originally Posted by Burnout

Against Gro, Madness, Landstill:
-1x Brain Freeze (I suppose, the other cards are going to be needed)

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Definately don't take those out. Brainfreeze is one of the key cards in the gro matchup. With them countering your spells, brainfreeze is twice as good as it is normally. That, and it wins the game. You'd be left with only one brainfreeze in the main to dig for.

Hi there,
i am following the discusson for quit some time with great interest and now the time hast come to say some things by myself (due to the lack of posts recently^^)

About the Quicken / Scroll engine. Imo its not good for this deck for several reasons, the first thing is that scroll comes handy if you can cast it at sorcery speed in your turn, but the need to be combined with quicken in other situations makes it weak. Also I dont think its really needed, the deck has enough cantrips already and if you really want to use more i rather would use peer through depth instead of ms/quicken. (Note that both let you reaveal the choosen card, which can be a disadvantage too).

Another point is peek, i am not sure if 4xOpt could be better? Ideas?
(I ask because is see peeks value in the threshold matchup only, against nearly all other matchups i side it out after g1).

Well, I think you're right about the Qicken/Merchant Scroll engine. I came to the same conclusion after testing it extensivly during the last days. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, it's quite decent, but it doesn't actually improve any matchups...

In my meta, there's a lot of Gro decks... There's almost twice as much Gro in Western Germany than Goblins. I would never run Solidarity without Peek, since it's also good against Control like Landstill. If you don't expect to face a lot of Gro or Control, I think it's safe to run 4 Opt over 2 Peek and 2 Opt... but, as I said, right now I would not do the changes... it really depends on your meta.

Lukas, you quite often sing the praises of Peek. How exactly does it work to improve the Gro matchup? Is the improvement significant?

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Originally Posted by Raatcharch

Lukas, you quite often sing the praises of Peek. How exactly does it work to improve the Gro matchup? Is the improvement significant?

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It is a common misconception, that Solidarity should wait until it faces deadly damage and than goes off. Against Aggro, this is the right strategy in most cases, since you get to lay more and more lands while waiting. This means you fizzle less often. But against Gro, this can be wrong, since you want to go off when the your land/his counterspells ratio is favourable (I hope you get, what I mean, if not, ask and I will try again).

Well, when playing against Gro, you quite often find yourself wondering: "Can I go off now? How many Counterspells/FoWs does he have in his hand? Should I wait until I have more land, or is he going to draw his counterspells then? Can I go off through what he has in his hand?" In this case, it is wrong to wait until you face deadly damage, since it would give him the time to collect a bunch of Counterspells. You want to combo off at the exact right moment, when you can fight through his counters. This is where Peek is awesome, since you know exactly when you have to go off and through what kind of hand you have to fight.

Against pure Control it's kind of similar, it helps, but that matchup is favourable already.


Oh, and to answer your question: Yes, I think the improvement is significant. I have won games against Gro, because of Peek.

Hi I'm kinda new the hold legazy-thing..

But why aren't you guys running 8 fetches in your decks?

It thins the deck and has more synergy with brainstorm + protecs your lands agaisnt sinkhole and stuff..

Is it because of the lifeloss? or because of needle?

I have been thinking; is Solidarity a combo-control deck now? With the addition of four Remand, which has made this deck so much better, the deck seems to be more control oriented.

I can say for sure that against black, you do not want to be caught with Fetchlands against their Pithing Needles. This is how I beat Solidarity playing Pox (nevermind the obvious good matchup for me). Pithing Needle #1 & #2 on Delta and Flooded Strand, plus Sinkholes on Islands. He also didn't have Disrupt in his SB but that's another issue.

I won a tournament last weekend in Auburn with Gearhart's latest list and let me say that I'm very impressed with the way this deck has developed recently. Remand is simply amazing, and having eight maindeck counterspells is a really great feeling. I was a little hesitant cutting Words from the board but the only time I wished it was there was when I had to Stroke myself for cards and then flashback Flash to get to the Stroke for the kill. Words would have been easier but unnecessary. I kept eight blasts because, well its Auburn and I did end up playing against burn, but I don't think eight blasts is entirely necessary, just reassuring. I also kept a Brain Freeze in the board because for some reason I always seem to get extracted for it by bad players there. Anyways I just think the maindeck is pretty solid and even more fun to play with the Remand tricks. Highlight of the day: Comboing on my turn in the last round against Turboland with a Defense Grid in play. I must have reminded him three times that he had to pay more mana for his spells.

The past few weeks have seen very little discussion about the deck though, and I would like to see more thoughts on particular play styles so that people who aren't familiar with the deck can learn to play it. Basically every time Solidarity is mentioned on Starcity, The Mana Drain, and sometimes here everyone says that Deep6er is the only one who knows how to play the deck right. While I believe he is the best Solidarity player I don't think he is the only one who can pilot it correctly. But the vast majority of people who I have seen play the deck make incredible mistakes. I have beat Solidarity on workstation with Wombat. There really is no excuse for that.

So instead of constantly repeating well-worn and discarded ideas (ie splashing a color) perhaps we could look at situations, such as the above. I knew he had a Force to back up his Defense grid so I Forced pitching Reset instead of any of the other most likely candidates. I even had Cunning Wish in my hand to deal with the grid if I wanted to but since the game had gone on long enough I had enough land to kill on my own turn. Do others think this would be the right play?