Ladder Tournament: Winning High Tide list and suggestions

This is the High Tide deck I played in the Ladder Tournament.

Following the High Tide deck I have been playing lately, seven cards off the original.

First, some comments on cuts.

Cloud of Faeries: Acts as an untapper, and a free chump blocker before combo. What is not to like? The problem is, it does not do either good enough to warrant a slot. You don’t want to play two mana for just cycling, either.

Opt: You need sorcery cantrips to maintain Spellweaver Volute and dig land in early game. Being an instant with worse effect, Opt is a wasted slot.

Peer Through Depths: You’ll always hit something, but more often than not, the card you really want of the punch is neither Instant or Sorcery. Does not help you find land early game either.

Withdraw: Good, but have to compete with other anticreature cards. Right now I prefer Snapper and Ironfoot.

Delay and Miscalculation: Nothing wrong with these, just had to cut those to make room for other cards.

Repeal: Does not help against Gaddok Teeg. Using it to Treachery or Drake does not even generate mana.

Then, recent additions.

Wayfarers Bauble and Solemn Simulacrum: The deck’s worst matchups, apart from Fish, are the most aggressive ones. You need either six islands or multiple tides to go infinity with Palinchron, so you don’t want to play Tide until you absolutely have to. Fast decks can make you go off sooner than you’d feel comfortable to, and these two help you make that 6th land drop a turn earlier. Solemn even chumps to let you see that turn.

Rude Awakening: Self-explanatory.

Sea Gate Oracle: Wall of Blossoms nor Court Hussar this is not, but even at three mana, a blocker that Sleight of Hand‘s is too good to pass up.

Back to Basics: Does not fit the deck’s theme, but is such a bomb that one just cannot justify not playing it.

Calcite Snapper and Phyrexian Ironfoot: The best defensive creatures not already in deck. Other alternatives include Wall of Tears and Wall of Frost, but I choose ones able to get offensive if situation arises. Winning via damage is now more viable alternative plan. The jury is still on these cards if they really are better than more bounce or counters.

There are not many other cards I’d consider cutting. Telling Time and Concentrate are the two worst draw spells left. Telling Time sees three cards deep, which I think is the minimum and rules out cards like See Beyond. It is a great setup card and can be played End Step with counter mana up on opponent’s turn. The best sorcery alternative (to better support Volute) is Strategic Planning, a fine card but nothing spectacular. A protection spell could go into this slot too. Concentrate is at its best when the deck wants to impose a control deck, but is really clumsy in combo mode. The question is, does the deck pack enough pure CA without it, or will its best matchup (control) weakened too much for removing it?

Some excluded cards.

5+ cc draw spells: far too slow to make an impact. If you have abundant mana going off, just chain cheaper draw spells.

Library: not being an island is intolerable, and it only helps in already good matchups.

Candelabra of Tawnos: Have tested it and not liked it. It costs X+to untap X lands, so it’s less effective than alternatives, unless played beforehand. I thinks the biggest thing against it is, that unlike other untap spells, it does absolutely nothing before Tide. It might be that it still belongs, but I have done fine without.

Extraplanar Lens: Though asymmetrical and can be played early without fear of helping an opponent more, this actually slows you down as you’ll need one more land drop before you can go off.

Mind Over Matter: Just bad. [Ed: Can't imagine this being bad in the deck. It comboes very well with Candelabra of Tawnos btw.]

Thanks:

At least these fellow Finns have helped developing the deck: Sabo, Oze, Pyyhttu, deviant, Tiggupiru. The deck presented here is just my version, others have slightly different preferences on card choices and splash colours.