Quote Originally Posted by voltron00x View Post
See, the thing is, that's what people said about TES, and ANT, and Reanimator, and so on, but it didn't come true. The format adapted AND people not as skilled didn't replicate those results. With regard to this deck, I'm not convinced the exact same thing isn't happening. Great players playing great decks before the format adopts always do well, period. Sure, the deck's damn good, and so are, what, 15-20 other decks?
T.E.S. and Reanimator are much more vulnerable to hate than this deck is. Spiral Tide is able to sustain a large amount of hate due to the copious amount of draw and cantrip and unlike the decks you mentioned, and it doesn't require non-basic lands or an aggressive mulligan strategy to win games. A.N.T. and T.E.S. run their own selection of draw and cantrip, but they can hardly touch what this deck packs in its punches: the absurd ability to replenish itself and just win on the spot with a top-deck like Alix and Jesse were able to pull off. And even then, they sustained a critical amount of card-disadvantage when their opponents cast Hymns and Duresses against them like it was nothing. It's far easier for this deck to just win than those aforementioned as it doesn't just draw into unnecessary acceleration but sculpts its hands more evenly than any of those decks could ever do.

The question here is whether or not we can attribute the deck's recent string of success to the Hatfields based solely on their power of play, or what the deck itself is capable of doing on its own. And anyone who has played with or against this archetype in a similar fashion knows that the deck runs essentially on autopilot until the pivotal moment where the deck's pilot decides to "go off" and just win on the spot. Those combo decks you mentioned have the ability to sustain this action, but they are much more vulnerable to generic hate in the long-run and a deck like this which can replenish its hand and trick opponents into believing they are winning a "non-existent" battle (where life doesn't matter as it does in Reanimator with 'Reanimate' and in T.E.S. or A.N.T. with 'Ad Nauseam') is what gives Spiral Tide the advantage in the end.

The twenty life-points in Spiral Tide are almost like four(+) free Time Walks. You can't beat that.