So, somehow I Top 8’ed the SCG Legacy Open in Phoenix, with a sorcery speed High Tide deck. The deck was perfectly positioned to do well, despite the fact that I only played 1 Maverick deck the whole day. I felt like the deck was amazing. The only time I lost games were when I didn’t make land drops (exactly what happened in Top 8 I missed 11 land drops in 2 games), so I’m considering adding 1 Island for 1 Preordain. The reason I want to cut Preordain was because it was almost always: put 2 on bottom, draw, then shuffle off of a Merchant Scroll or fetchland.
If you want to see the exact deck list it is here
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=45474
Now to the tournament report:
Round 1
Game 1
I played against Matt Bussey, a Phoenix local who was playing a Through the Braech/ Windbrisk Heights Modern deck with dual lands. As a side note, I really liked the deck. I think if he switches out Primeval Titans for main deck Knight of the Reliquaries and makes room for the Grove/Punishing Fire combo I would play the deck.
Game 1: He mulled to 5 and his first land was a Windbrisk Heights which made me a little worried about there being Emrakul or Progenitus in the main deck. I went off on turn 4, but my Time Spiral was bad: 1 cantrip, 1 Time Spiral, and a Turnabout. I managed to cantrip through to 19 storm at which point my hand is lands, Time Spiral, Cunning Wish, Pact of Negation. So the decision was, do I wish for the Meditate and see what I hit or do I go for the Brain Freeze? I went for the Brain Freeze. Matt goes for his deck and flips it over. I ask “Are there any Eldrazi or Progenitus triggers?” He responds “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Thankfully, there was a judge standing behind me and he just had us put the deck back and start flipping. Of course, with so many Eldrazi my Brain Freeze did nothing. I end up Time Spiraling and Blue Sun’s Zenithing for the win.
Game 2: He keeps his 7 goes turn 2 Ethersworn Canonist, turn 3 Ethersworn Canonist. I end up casting a Cunning Wish for Rebuild at the end of his turn 4. Then on his turn 5 he casts a Summoning Trap, hitting Emrakul. I cast rebuild. I go off on the next turn and Blue Sun’s Zenith him again.
This was my most fun match of the day.
1 – 0, 2 – 0
Round 2
Game 1: I played against Kurt Samson Playing RUG Delver; he was a really nice dude. He wins the roll and has a turn 1 Delver, Stifles my fetch, and I miss land drops. I’m at the point where I am dead next turn and try going off my board is 3 lands and a Candelabra of Tawnos. My hand is High Tide, Pact of Negation, Force of Will, and Meditate. I go High Tide, Resolves. Activate my Candelabra, he Stifles, I pact, he Stifles, I lose.
Game 2: I have an opening hand with 2 Flusterstorms, High Tide, Time Spiral, and lands. He goes turn 2 Counterbalance, turn 3 Top but does not have any pressure for a few more turns. Eventually, I’m at 8 and he has a 4/5 Tarmogoyf and a flipped Delver of Secrets, at which point he Chain Lightnings me, I Flusterstorm. He misses his counterbalance trigger and doesn’t pay then he casts another Chain lighting, I Flusterstorm it again he remembers his Counterbalance and shows a Stifle countering it, and I lose, forgetting about the fact that the spell storms. My board 7 lands, Candelabra, My hand was High Tide and Time Spiral so it still could have been a game but we both screwed up.
This was my only lost in the Swiss and I couldn’t have lost to a friendlier person.
1 – 1, 2 – 2
Round 3
Game 1: I played someone who I didn’t know, but was also on RUG Delver. It was a usual game ;he had 1 counter spell and I didn’t do anything that could get Stifled, so I went off on turn 4.
Game 2: I only ever have 2 lands and get trounced.
Game 3: This was one of the most interesting games I played all day. I got a turn 2 Defense Grid and went off on turn 5. However, I fizzled on my Time Spiral, getting 3 lands, High Tide, Snap, Pact of Negation, and Force of Will. Thankfully, I had not cast any Meditates, so I didn’t have to skip any turns. In 3 more turns, I drew 2 Meditates so I went off again. This time ,without any Time Spiraling (this was my longest combo turn taking 25 minutes).
2 – 1, 4 – 3
Round 4
Game 1: I played Robb Miknus who was playing Death and Taxes. Game 1, he keeps his 7 but it’s a virtue mull to 5 since he has 2 Swords to Plowshares (and shows me). He knows what I’m playing so I’m sure his hand has to be nuts. It was very good – he got a turn 2 Thalia, which I Force of Willed, and a Turn 3 Thalia, which I can’t answer to until I draw a Merchant Scroll to get a Snap, which allows me to Snap the Thalia when I’m dead next turn. Then I went off at 4 life.
Game 2: I cast a total of 2 spells that game and die to a Thalia, Leonin Arbiter, Phyrexian Revoker on Candelabra, and a Mirran Crusader.
Game 3: He is stuck on 1 land for 3 turns and when he finally gets his second to cast Thalia I have the Force of Will and go off the following turn.
3 – 1, 6 – 4
Round 5
Game 1: I’m playing Jonathan Kornacki who was on R/U counter burn. Game 1 he should have killed me but forgot to attack 1 turn with the lavamancer and I went off on 1 life.
Game 2: I don’t remember if this happened or not but if it did I was trounced while playing around with blue cantrips
Game 3: I go off with Defense Grid after resolving 2 High Tides. Jonathan has 4 Volcanic Islands (12 mana) I cast Turnabout targeting myself with 1 mana floating and 0 land untapped. He pays 5 for a Mana Leak. I Pact it, he then pays 5 for another Mana Leak which I also Pact at which point I go off.
It was super fun to play against Jonathan.
4 – 1, 8 – 5ish
Round 6
Game 1: I’m unknowingly playing against Belcher and win the die roll. He goes off but I naturally have Force of Will and Flusterstorm, otherwise he would have had it for sure.
Game 2: He never really does anything and I mill him.
5 – 1, 10 – 5ish
Round 7
Game 1: I’m playing Arthur Macurda who was on Maverick. He’s a really cool guy, unfortunately Maverick is my best matchup so game 1 I took down without a fight and plus, he got mana flooded.
Game 2: He doesn’t see any sideboard cards and I go off unhindered, but we are talking about alternative ways for a mono-blue deck with no creatures to kill people. What we got was Goblin Charbelcher and Psychosis Crawler if any of you have any ideas, please let me know.
6 – 1, 12 – 5ish
Round 8
ID with Adam Prosak
Top 8
Game 1: I’m playing Serwin Pu on RUG Delver. He does not know that he has the right to play first since he is a higher seed then I am, when I tell him he takes the play. The game is really awkward for me. I miss a few land drops then when I start going off, I have some of the worst Time Spirals of the event (including 2 5 land hands). Eventually, I finally storm him out.
Game 2: He gets a decent clock and has the Stifles for fetches. I miss 5 land drops and die.
Game 3: He has a slower clock and I only get Islands (and no other shuffle effects) I miss 6 land drops and on my last turn, I have to High Tide, Turnabout him to stay alive. My next draw was Time Spiral.
Overall it was a great tournament, the judging was of a much higher caliber then in past StarCityGames events, and I played a very fun deck, though according to my girlfriend I was counting storm in my sleep that night. High Tide is a deck that is very fun to play and if you want to play it you don’t need the Candelabra of Tawnos. Plus the Solidarity version is still a real deck that beats the sorcery speed version and is great when there are a lot of storm decks running around. I want to thank everyone who was there for making it such a blast.
As a side note: If you are going to be playing this deck, I recommend making a sheet that has the following things on it:
- Tide Count
- Storm Count
- Mana in Pool
- Meditates that have Resolved
- Pact of Negations that have resolved