Spiral Tide

I do realize that I am running 5 win conditions in the deck. This could be the wrong way to go but it has proven to be pretty good in the lines of versatility. With the build I am testing you can cherry pick the right win con for the specific match up. I am kinda on the fence about Emrakul. He is, in my opinion, bordering on the line of "risk of cool things." If he hits play in the deck, you get to swing with him. With the speed that the deck can go off, basically means you put your opponent on a 2 turn clock and their board position, if any, is devastated before they will really get to do anything about it. However the counter argument would be: "How is hard casting Emrakul worth it, when you can Stroke them for the game?" I have tested a few versions of the deck so far and my response would be the above list has been working fairly well. I might try the deck without Emrakul, as it would open 2 slots which could become another Cunning Wish and another Pact of Negation. Maybe 2 Emrakul would be more of a match up call. Possibly a sideboard option for games 2-3. Thoughts on that?

I have no ideas in which matchups or board situations it's safer to win via emrakul than stroke or brain freeze. Maybe someone can explain this to me.

The disadvantages of emrakul are: not tutorable, not pitching to force and worst of all: you can't use meditate or pact.

In match ups such as Sneak and Show that get Emrakul into play, Brain Freeze can be a poor option because then you have to sideboard in something to deal with him as he hits the graveyard. In this case it is best to hit a Stroke of Genius and wipe them clean with it. This route circumvents having to tutor out Ravenous Trap or other graveyard hate. This logic also goes for any deck in games 2 and 3 that would have access to Wheel of Sun and Moon. Many decks use this sideboard tech for, it is my understanding, Brain Freeze, Dredge, Reanimator, and Lands.

Brain Freeze can be a bit faster to win with than Stroke of Genius if the opponent isn't running Emrakul or other effects that shuffle the graveyard back into the library. So as you would probably imagine it is generally the best bet for sealing the deal against most decks.

Some have suggested using Emrakul as a finisher because he can get around the Brain Freeze shortcoming of graveyard recycling. Although this can also be circumvented by just using Stroke of Genius. In all reality Emrakul is adds little to the deck overall other than shock value. Efficiency is likely lost. He does give some amount of flexibility to the deck, although with Stroke it is probably unnecessary. In my honest opinion, he is the new big guy on the block and everyone is just trying to break him. It is a Timmy, Power Gamer thing. I will admit as a combo player there still is something satisfying about landing a beast like him. Yet I would, after some more review, probably say he is a sideboard option for transformation if that is a route folks want to go.

Thoughts?

If you're hellbent on playing Emrakul you might as well play it as a 1-of with the Mind over Matter/Temple Bell combo. Mind over matter is in itself a pretty spectacular card since it can cycle through your deck with SDT's (finding Bell in the process), and Temple Bell isn't an entirely horrible T3 play since it draws you 2 cards without giving your opponent time to use them (unless your opponent plays a lot of instant disruption but meh). Mind over Matter also shares a tutor with Time Spiral in Ethereal Usher which is some interesting food for thought.

Also, I recently started to run Echoing Truth in the rebuild slot and haven't regretted it yet. It's cheaper and more versatile, and since it rarely lacks targets the lack of cycle is neglible, and it still tricks out multiple SDT's/Candelabras just fine. I currently have a stable turn 3 goldfish btw.

First successful results with Spiral Tide:

Barcelona 08/01/11
45 Players

Made Top 4 (going perfect in the 6 swiss rounds) with the following list, losing to a heavy aggro Quest of the holy relic deck with multi canonist and torn of amethyst, also have to say that made some heavy misplays and a mistake in the sideboard choice, before the tournament Iwas wondering wether I have to add the echouing truth or not, finally not playing it cost me the tournament. If I have more time I'll make a report.

"Spiral Tide"

Main deck 60

4x Force of Will
3x Pact of Negation

4x Merchant Scroll
3x Cunning Wish

3x Retraced image
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Preordain

4x High Tide

1x Brain freeze

4x Time Spiral
3x Turnabout
1x Meditate

14x Island
4x Polluted Delta
//may be any other blue fetch but all 4 the same

Sideboard 15

1x Brain freeze
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Meditate
1x Turnabout
2x Wipe Away
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Rebuild
2x Snap
1x Mindbreak Trap
4x Spell Pierce

After tournament thoughts:

-Retraced image is gold.
-3x Pact of Neegation are enough, but less is unacceptable.
-Should add Echoing Truth or Hurkyl's recall to the side (hurkul is more expeditive but echoing more flexible), maybe instead of Snap or the 4th Spell Pierce.

Greetings,

Iñaki.-

I did a few quick goldfishruns with this list and it did amazingly well. It's much faster than I expected it to be, and Retraced Image really speeds the deck up a lot. I'm definitely going to test this baby, seems there is a lot of potential there. Amazing list and congrats on the good finish.

Nice! What did you play against? Why maindeck Freeze with 3 Wishes?

Btw I'm thinking more and more that Pact is one of the worst cards in the deck. I run 2 Misdirections and only 1 Pact.

thanks jjjones, the deck is getting better with testing and I' m very happy with this main deck.

I played 6 swiss rounds:

1st - UBG Landstill 2-0
2nd- BW Training Rebel Counter-top 2-1
3rd- Aggro Loam 2-0
4th Goblins 2-0
5th- Canadian Threshold 2-0
6th- Quest of the Holy Relic 2-1

Top 8- Aggro Loam 2-1
Top 4 Quest of the Holy Relic 1-2

About Misdi, I thought of it but card disadvantage is too bad, The PActs are really gold, they are the key to succeed agains tempo decks (they along with Turnabout), in fact in my match against the 3hold deckI sided ZERO cards.

Greetings,

Iñaki.-

P.S. I' ve won some games with double Freeze, so I guess the maindeck freeze is more than correct.

Congrats!

Do you remember in what turns did you comboed off?
Canadian wasan't a problem? (FoW+Daze+Pierce+Stifle...)

I can't remember the turns, but I remember that I had no speed problems (I have been outraced in 1 out of the 20 games during the tournament, and it was agasint counter top sicen I kept a defensive hand in order to keep the CB away from the table).

Canadian wasn't a problem at all, a correctly placed turnabout along with the maindeck countermagic seals the deal pretty easily against tempo decks.

Greetings,

Iñaki.-

Hey guys. I know I'm a little late to post this (I've been taking a vacation from magic), but what do you think of the name The Tempest for the UG version of this deck? It is the name I was planning to use when I tested +3 Explore -3 Snap several months ago. I had concluded that without Frantic Search, it was impossible to generate enough mana and card draw, so dropped the idea, waiting for Frantic Search to get unbanned. I didn't expect Time Spiral to get unbanned lol.

As for card advice, have you guys looked into Xantid Swarm for the SB when using a green splash?

Ummon, please read the entire thread. The deck keeps mono-u because you can use Retraced Image rather than Explore.

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Originally Posted by Gocho

Ummon, please read the entire thread. The deck keeps mono-u because you can use Retraced Image rather than Explore.

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/slaphead. How the hell had we Spring Tide players missed that? That combos so well with Cloud of Faeries too!

I know, I can't understand how nobody find it before.

Does anyone knows when the list from SCG Kansas is going up?
And how did it do?
Last time I checked, it was 4-0...

I'm not sure but for what the reprots say I wonder he did 5-2-0, not cutting into the top 8.

Greetings,

Iñaki.-

He beat me in round 5 but then kinda scrubbed it after that. He ended up 6-2 out of T8 at 13th or so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpikeyMikey

He beat me in round 5 but then kinda scrubbed it after that. He ended up 6-2 out of T8 at 13th or so.

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Yeah he went 6-2 and didnt make T8. I found this in Morbid's report:

round 7) Jacob Baugh playing Spiral Tide, Loss-Loss

Game 1: I mull to 5, and since I’m already nervous about the match, I draw 6 and the judge ruling puts me to 4 cards. I apologize to Jacob, assure him that I'm not up to any shenanigans, and open with t1 Nacatl, t2 Lavamancer, and that’s all she wrote. He plays Candelabra of Tawnos on his opening turn, followed by t2 cantrip, t3 go off.

Sideboarding: +2 Krosan Grip, +2 Mindbreak Trap, +2 Pyroblast, +2 Knight of the Reliquary, +1 Bojuka Bog, +2 Choke, +1 Swords to Plowshares (he is playing Cloud of Faeries and Snap), -2 Sylvan Library, -4 Grim Lavamancer, -4 Tarmogoyf, -2 Path to Exile

Game 2: I board in a lot, mainly because I don’t have anything really gamebreaking against him. I keep my opening hand, in fear of mulling into oblivion. I actually get him to 10 life before he goes off, this time without needing Time Spirals, and setting up a kill of Brain Freeze for lethal + Cunning Wish into Ravenous Trap in case I had anything. Ugh. Another t3 kill.

To bad he didnt make t8, eventhough his list is a bit different ofcourse since he plays Candelabra.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1maarten1

round 7) Jacob Baugh playing Spiral Tide

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SCG listed Jacob's as Spring Tide basically due to CoFs and Snap, he played 4 TS and a Candelabra however which sorta makes it confusing.

Since there are 3 other existing threads pertaining to the same Storm archetype:
1> Solidarity - Reset/FoI
2> Spring Tide - Cloud of Faeries
3> Permanent Waves - Candelabra

maybe there's a way to finally organize all these and keep the discussion simple. Like merging them back into Spring Tide. Any suggestions?

He only had 1 Candelabra from what I heard from his interview...
Awating decklist...

Edit: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=36125