Introduction

Hello Everyone! Today I’m going to kick off my first official post by spotlighting my weapon of choice, my baby, and the only mistress I’ll ever take into the fray of Legacy: that is the Mono Blue Combo deck High Tide.

A quick background, Legacy is an eternal format (meaning its legal card base extends through the entire history of magic, from current set to Alpha) that with the exception of a moderate ban list, has access to all the juicy old cards like Dual Lands, Force of Will, Sensei’s Divining Top, etc. as well as old faithful mainstays such as Lightning Bolt, Brainstorm, and Swords to Plowshares. It is typically a rather fast format, winning as early as turn 1 in certain decks, and can cost quite a pretty penny.

But on to the deck that I play! I first encountered Legacy by watching a StarCityGames stream on sunday afternoon and seeing all these awesome old powerful cards getting showcased and thought; “oh man, this is much cooler than standard, I wanna do this!” At that time i was playing casual table top magic, and had just begun transitioning into Standard and “competitive” magic. I played Blue. I love Blue. One of my favorite casual decks at the time was a Mono U control deck that eventually casted High Tide and ramped that mana into a large fatty like Stormtide Leviathan and crashed in for the game. Those were simpler times. It was then that i saw the fantastic Feline Longmore (this wasn’t the match in question, just an example) pilot her deck onto an SCG feature match and my heart was stolen. This was a deck that didn’t need Dual Lands, didn’t care about Wasteland, and revolved around casting my favorite card in Magic. I was sold.

Eventually, I had the privilege of attending GP New Jersey as a spectator and got to buy into the first iteration of this deck, and took it to my Saturday afternoon Legacy tournament at my Local Game Store. The brew was awful, it lost consistently, and it was cheap- but it was mine, and it taught me how to lose. Slowly i began buying into the bigger and better cards. my Cloud of Faeries became Palinchrons, my Spell Pierces became Force of Wills, and my Islands became Fetches. Now i have a completed list that I’m going to share with you, and discuss in detail how it works, how its match-ups are, individual card interactions, explanations, and synergies, as well as budget options and sideboard suggestions for specific metas.

Decklist and Deck Tech

Here is my deck list.

The list above is my final and current iteration of the deck, and the one I have been piloting at the last 2 tournaments I’ve attended. First off, let’s talk about how the deck operates. I will preface this by disclaiming: High Tide is an extremely skill intensive deck to get right, and not only get right, but do so in a timely fashion. As you read, you will see that there is a lot of math involved in the comboing process, and it can be a very “fly by night” style of deck when things get hairy. It’s a deck that rewards you for knowing how it operates, how your opponent operates, and the difference between it being “safe” to go off, and NEEDING to go off. If you’re up for the challenge, let’s dive in and get started.

High Tide is a Combo deck that revolves around resolving the name-sake card High Tide, then resolving a variety of “untap” spells and abilities to generate a surplus of mana, to eventually cast the card Cunning Wish, searching for (typically) Blue Sun’s Zenith, and casting it targeting your opponent, forcing them to draw their library and lose on their draw trigger. The card High Tide is an instant that once resolves, allows all Islands to tap for an additional “U” mana until end of turn. The basic operation of this deck is to cantrip and counterspell to protect its vital spells until you hit a critical mass of mana that it becomes safe to “go off”. There are two means of proficiently going off with my list, and both are completely independent of each other- minus the High Tide. First of all, there’s the one that most who are privy to the deck are familiar with: that’s Candelabra of Tawnos. A 1 drop artifact that allows you to tap it and use ‘X’ mana, to then untap ‘X’ lands. Now for those math majors, if you have a single High Tide resolved, and a candelabra out with 3 untapped lands (and one tapped to resolve High Tide), you can tap the candelabra and all 3 lands to generate 6 mana, untap (up to) 6 lands. This allows us to untap all 4 of our lands and leave us with a surplus of 2 mana. This is an extremely powerful effect when coupled with effects that can untap artifacts like Turnabout, or with multiple Candles in play. The first part we’ll talk about is (in my opinion) the easiest way to establish a lock: an infinite loop. There are 2 in this deck, and I’ll go into detail explaining both now.

Infinite Combo and Card Explanations

Capsize is a Blue (duh) instant that costs 1UU and allows you to return a permanent to its owner’s hand at instant speed. The caveat is that it also has the ability “Buyback” which for 3 mana, allows you to return Capsize to your hand as it resolves. Now let’s break out our calculators for a moment.

We have 4 untapped lands, an untapped Candelabra and 2 resolved High Tides. This means we have 12 mana “floatable” (or on the floor as I like to say).

We tap all 4 lands to generate that twelve U mana.

we tap the Candelabra and use 4 of that mana to untap our lands. 8 mana floating.

We then cast Capsize with Buyback, targeting Candelabra. 2 mana floating, Candelabra and Capsize in hand, 4 untapped Islands.

Cast Candelabra.

We now have four untapped Islands, one untapped Candelabra, Capsize in hand… And one floating mana. The loop demonstrated above, will leave us with a surplus of one mana each time the loop is executed. This loop when uninterrupted and with either a Cunning Wish, Merchant Scroll, or a comfortable number of cantrips in hand, will win us the game. This loop however is NOT directly safe under the “12 mana rule” that I will talk about with Palinchron later on. Let’s take the same scenario, this time with 6 lands, 1 Candle, and 1 High Tide resolved.

Tap all 6 lands producing twelve blue mana

Tap Candelabra spending 6 to untap all 6 lands. 6 mana floating

Cast Capsize with Buyback to bounce Candelabra back to our hand

I can stop there, as we now have a Candelabra and Capsize in hand, with no floating mana, and 6 untapped islands able to produce 12 mana. That loop, actually lost us advantage as our candelabra is now no longer in play, and it would cost us 1 (potentially 2) mana to put it back out, leveraging us a loss of mana. No bueno. So the moral of the story is, The CandleCap loop is only safe when your lands can tap for mana equalled to half the total number of lands you have rounded up AND 12 floatable mana. So if you have 4-6 lands you’ll need 2 resolved High Tides to execute this loop because each land generates 3 mana AND adds up to 12+ total. 7+ lands will require 3 High Tides because each land taps for 4 (3.5 rounded up) and still generates more than 12. Get the picture?. It sounds like this is a lot of hoops to jump through just to establish an infinite loop, but once you begin the combo process, you’d be surprised how easily all these cards land in your hand. Not to mention that Capsize can be found with Merchant Scroll in a pinch, or wished for with Cunning Wish if it’s in your board for whatever reason.

The second loop is much easier to talk about, but first I’ll explain why this card is even in the deck. assuming you’ve looked at my list, you’ll see that Candelabra of Tawnos is absurdly expensive. Ridiculously so. When I first built this deck, i couldn’t afford the $25 Time Spirals, let alone a playset of $300+ artifacts from 20 years ago. I looked for replacements, and that led me to Palinchron. This guy was my sherpa that taught me how this deck functions and what it’s capable of, and to this day i still play him in a pair alongside Candelabra for a very special reason aside from nostalgia. I’m hard-pressed to think of any widely used removal in Legacy that can target both Candelabra and Palinchron, especially at instant speed. Palinchron dies to Swords, burn, Supreme Verdict, Terminus (not dying, but still), and gets turned off by Phyrexian Revoker and Pithing Needle. Candelabra falls to Abrupt Decay, Hurkyll’s Recall, Rebuild, Smash to Smithereens, and a bevy of other generic artifact removal. It is also hit by Needle and Revoker. None of these cards can hit both simultaneously, nor can a single Needle/Revoker target both Pali and Candle. As i got more experienced, and eventually obtained my pair of candles, i learned to slow-roll my lock until i have Candle in hand game one, simply as to not show Pali in my list, That way control decks side out creature removal and in artifact removal, and other decks side in artifact removal as well (especially if they’re a deck i want Grafdigger’s Cage/Defense Grid against). Then i resolve High Tide, tap for 8, use 7 and say “cast Palinchron… No response? Okay, *demonstrate loop* Generate infinite mana?” and watch their eyes widen. That Abrupt Decay, or Wear//Tear, or Ancient Grudge, or super secret Null Rod sideboard tech is now wasted deck space.

But Palinchron is a very simple mechanic that we can abuse to go infinite, as it DOES follow the “12 mana rule” mentioned above. if you have 12 (or more) mana floatable, Palinchron goes infinite. Simple as that. whether it’s 4 lands and 2 High Tides, 6 lands and 1 High Tide, or heck even 1 land and 11 High Tides, Palinchron will always generate you 1+ mana, because his loop requires 11 mana. 7 to cast, and 4 to return to hand. It’s honestly that simple. While this combo hurts your head less, Palinchron is susceptible to A LOT of instant speed removal that is rampant in Legacy. With the exception of Terminus, all the above mentioned removal is instant speed and can be used in response to your bounce trigger, so if you fear removal, you better pray you have enough mana to bounce it AGAIN in response to the spell. Yea, this deck can be tricky.

Now that I’ve spent enough time explaining Candelabra of Tawnos and Palinchron, the only other cards that need an introduction in the mainboard, are Turnabout and Time Spiral. Often the name-sake for the other name of this version of the deck- “Spiral Tide” Time Spiral is the engine that gets this wave rolling. Time Spiral is a sorcery that for 4UU forces both players to shuffle their hands, graveyards, and libraries together into a new library pile, then draw 7 cards. In addition to that YOU (the caster) untap up to 6 lands. The golden rule of High Tide is that with 4 lands in play, the proverbial flood gates are open. With 4 lands and an opening (or when threatened with lethal next turn) we tap for 1, resolve High Tide, Tap 3 (for 6 mana) and resolve Time Spiral, shuffling up with a new grip of 7 cards, and untapping our 4 lands for 8 mana to use all over again. Yay math! This card gets incrementally better as our combo goes on generating us more and more mana as more High Tides are added to our count. All the Sudden you can resolve a third or fourth Time Spiral and be generating upwards of 10 to 20 mana, and show no sign of stopping. This card honestly does it all in this deck. It refreshes our library with cantrips and High Tides, resupplies us with counterspells against decks we may need instant speed interaction for, as we all robs our opponent of any hand they were previously sculpting to use against you. Be cautioned though, as this DOES refill your opponent’s hand, you give control decks a brand new 7 cards to potentially find counter magic to hold up against you and stop you in your tracks. It’s recommended that unless facing potential lethal next turn, waiting to begin your combo until you can hold up enough mana post-spiral to throw several cantrips out to bait out counterspells. This usually isn’t a problem, but still a caution worth heeding.

The last card we explore will be Turnabout, and this will be the shortest explanation. Turnabout is a card you can pretty much take at face value, but remember how modal it really is. Elves or Eldrazi player swinging for lethal? Tap down his creatures as your opponent enters combat. Fear the Miracles player is holding up a Pyroblast, or Counterspell? Tap their lands down in response to your own cantrip. Wanna generate some extra mana for yourself to use before casting Time Spiral? Go for it! no sense just wasting it and sending it to the deck with no use right? have both Candles out and wanna untap them before you Spiral? do it! Spiral doesn’t untap them, why should they stay tapped when our Islands don’t?! You get the picture. This card both helps us, and hinders out opponent.

Sideboard

Onto the Sideboard. This will be easy, as most cards here are either Toolbox utility, or niche metagame choices.

Blue Sun’s Zenith: Our kill card. targets opponent to mill them out, but more importantly can target ourselves (for a non lethal amount) and draw us a bunch of cards, finding us a bevy of cantrips and counterspells, then found again since it shuffles itself back into library with no need for a Time Spiral!

Brain Freeze: Alternate kill condition. This card was hated out simply because several decks run Titan Eldrazi (Emrakul specifically) and generic mill is useless against Eldrazi, not to mention hitting 17+ storm while not impossible, is still pretty darn difficult. It’s definitely doable, and has the added benefit of being practically counterspell-proof thanks to Storm.

Wipe Away: Split Second removal is a God sent. Hits Top AND Counterbalance in response to a Top activation, hits a pesky creature, Chalice of the Void (that isn’t on 3), Trinisphere, Aethersworn Canonist, Thalia, a whole slew of troublesome permanents that get on our nerves. It can even bounce Candle in response to removal! Basically a single use Capsize. Will come in against Miracles, Eldrazi, Death & Taxes, MUD, Lands, and their ilk.

Stifle: All around useful utility. You haven’t played Control until you Stifle a turn 1 fetchland. Trust me, it’s magical. Also hurts Deathrite Shaman, Shardless Agent, Thespian’s Stage… Virtually anything with non-vanilla text should fear Stifle. Comes in against Lands, Shardless BUG, Delver, occasionally Miracles and other control match-ups, Especially if they’ve shown Venser or Glen Elendra, and ESPECIALLY Storm. Did I mention Stifle nullified storm triggers? Yeah. You can have 4 mana available, then Wished for Stifle and neutered a storm trigger in response. It is delicious.

Trickbind: Stifle #3 on steroids. In the board specifically for Miracles, this shuts down Top AND Counterbalance if you can catch a Miracles player with their pants down and deny them from finding a 2 drop. Otherwise, dropping this against a Grim Lavamancer, Scavenging Ooze, Young Pyromancer, Nettle Sentinel, Grindstone… Again, anything with text will also fear Trickbind. Comes in on Miracles, Painter, Storm, Sneak & Show/Attack, etc. Basically the same set as Stifle, but more centered on decks that capitalize on abilities that trigger multiple times per turn.

Hibernation: A bit of a meta call. My meta had an Elves player, a RUG Delver, and a Jund player in it. Bouncing all green permanents in response to a Craterhoof Trigger from Elves is crippling, Especially when one of their two lands is a Dryad Arbor. Comes in against the above mentioned, but this is a meta-game flex slot. feel free to substitute this addition.

Rebuild: Similar to Hibernation with a bit more utility. Hits all artifacts at instant speed, it was in old lists of this build because of the presence of MUD, but still holds its salt with Aether Vial, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Aethersworn Canonist, and even still MUD running around. Some people prefer Hurkyll’s Recall for this job, but having the added Cycling ability is a nice option. It’s important to note, that this card will also bounce all our own Candelabras in response to removal, or just to generally recast them for value. Will come in against Death & Taxes, MUD, Eldrazi, Affinity, Stax, and if I’m feeling frisky, Merfolk.

Surgical Extraction: An unsung hero of this deck. Any deck that has graveyard interactions that fear Grafdigger’s Cage or Leyline of the Void should fear this card as well. Not only is this instant speed graveyard hate, but it also removes all copies of the same card from your opponent’s hand and library. Next Level Pro Tip: You can extract Emrakul in response to the shuffle trigger. This comes in against Reanimator, Tin Fins, Lands (Hits Thespian’s Stage and Loam nicely), and Worldgorger. DO NOT be tempted to bring this in against control. Extracting a set of Forces is useful, but doesn’t come up as much as you’d like, and can sometimes burn you a card you desperately needed otherwise.

Grafdigger’s Cage: Same story as Surgical to an extent. Hit’s all relevant reanimator targets, Flashback spells (re: Past in Flames), Snapcaster Mage, as well as Green Sun’s Zenith, Natural Order, and most importantly Panglacial Wurm /s. This comes in against Combo Elves, Reanimator, Tin Fins, Storm, and Maverick mostly.

Defense Grid: Not much needs to be said about this one either. A Control player’s worst nightmare, this artifact makes all spells played outside of your own turn (yes that counts you too) cost 3 more. This also includes Force of Will and Daze, even through their alternative casting methods. This usually comes in against Miracles, the mirror (especially if they play Reset Tide), stax, some Stoneblade variants, Delver, anything that’s counterspell heavy.

Sphinx of the Final Word: I hate Miracles. I mean really hate Miracles. This card is specifically in my 15 to hate out Miracles and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Unfortunately, Miracles is our worst match up and it’s EVERYWHERE. While it’s on the down turn and no longer saturated, Miracles is still abundant and especially if you’re in the winner’s bracket, you are GOING to face Miracles; so I come prepared. 7 mana is ridiculously high for a creature that we don’t plan to attack with, can’t win us the game on the turn it comes out, and has a hard time being an efficient attacker against both Miracles and Delver decks. In my opinion however, it’s a necessary evil against a deck like Miracles that will “draw-go” us to death until they assemble the perfect board presence. This “best of a bad situation” turns our combo back on through a Counterbalance, and has Hexproof to protect itself for a turn from removal until we’re ready to combo. Just pray Mr. Lossett boarded out his Terminus’ i suppose.

Side Note:

*As a small aside to the deck list: I personally like carrying tokens with me in my deck box that represent Storm, “Tide Count” (the amount of mana each Island taps for), and Blue Mana Counter (floating blue mana). Some people prefer a minimalist approach and just use generic dice to represent these values, but I tend to think nameless die get confusing, especially when changing numbers quickly mid combo. Some players also put a die on an island to represent their Tide count, but i have flung dice across the table doing so. This way all 3 values (should you choose to keep storm) are accurately and cleanly represented so both players can read and follow your math, not to mention the game state is accurately stated and legible should a judge need to intervene. Let’s face it, our combo is long and arduous- why make it any harder on either player to get to the finish line?*

Meta-Game Breakdown

High Tide is considered to be one of the slowest combo decks in the format. functionally unable to combo before turn 3, and functionally uncomfortable doing so before turn 4, there are decks that are naturally faster, and naturally well positioned against this deck pre and post board. Here I’ll explore a handful of those decks and give a short explanation of High Tide’s strengths and/or weakness in the match-up.

Miracles: 25-75 Heavily Unfavored

The boogieman in the room. This is arguably our worst match up, and I’m sorry to say it’s everywhere, and here to stay. We don’t pack much in the mainboard that helps us fight the attrition of Miracles, and post board is still difficult at best. Our best bets pre-board are countering Top and Counterbalance on sight, and attempt to combo through hard counters like Force, while dodging a lethal Entreat or Monk assault. Post board, we can use some tricks to temporarily freeze or trip up their locks and counters for a turn or so, but it won’t last forever, so building that climactic one-two punch of Trickbind/Sphinx+combo is risky, but our best shot at times. Board: -1 High Tide, -1 Meditate, -2 Candelabra -1 Turnabout, -1 Merchant Scroll. +2 Stifle, +1 Trickbind, +2 Defense Grid, +1 Sphinx of the Final Word.

Storm: 40-60 Unfavored

Storm is strictly faster, no question about it. This deck can combo regularly on turn 2, and possibly on turn one, even through a Force of Will with the nut draw. Although these lists don’t pack counterspells, the mainboard cAND sideboard contain hand disruption like Cabal Therapy and Thoughtsieze, and these spells eat us alive. I actually carry 2 copies of Library of Leng as last-minute sideboard tech for Storm heavy metas. Pre board, we protect our hand and combo as fast as we can, trying to disrupt them during their combo if need be. Key cards to counter are typically their tutors. Wait for the iconic “Infernal Tutor, hold priority, crack LED” then counter the tutor on the stack. LED will have already discarded their hand and generated 3 mana they can’t do anything with. Flusterstorm is also considerably better in this match- perhaps even better than Force. Post board Stifle and depending on the specific build, Grafdigger’s Cage are auto-includes. Trickbind and Surgical are nice for redundancy, but might weigh you down if you can fight off their initial combo. I’ve been tempted to test Orbs of Warding against Storm, as it straight kills the deck. Tendrils can’t target you, Goblins can’t damage you, and even discard can’t hit you. the problem is hitting 5 mana. Board: -1 High Tide, -2 Candelabra, -1 Meditate, -1/2 Turnabout. +2 Stifle, +3 Grafdigger’s Cage.

Eldrazi: 55-45 Slightly Favored

Eldrazi poses a difficult problem for us that we actually have a relatively easy time solving. Eldrazi tends to function equally as a stax deck akin to MUD as an aggro deck, though it does a good job of being aggressive when it needs to. Especially against Control decks, They’ll rely heavily on their anti-control measures like Chalice and Thorn of Amethyst. Pre-board we have to accept either being run over by early aggo, or fight through their artifacts with Capsize, and even wishing for Rebuild or Wipe Away in a pinch if we must. Game 1, is tough but far from unwinnable. I put this match up as slightly in our favor as games 2-3 are a toss-up that we can leverage in our favor. Post board we can bring Wipe away and Rebuild mainboard, and mulligan aggressively until we either find our removal, or a Merchant Scroll to fetch it. Maybe I’m just lucky, but this match-up hasn’t been too terrible post-board. It’s important to note that with enough motivation, Palinchron can combo under a Thorn of Amethyst and even a Chalice as long as it isn’t on 3. If we can keep a single Chalice off 1 we can resolve High Tide and Palinchron for bunches into our Cunning Wish. Time Spiral isn’t necessary here. Oh, and Intuition’ing for Wipe away+Rebuild+Capsize is a thing. Brain Freeze is a mainboard option against this deck, as Chalice on 3 doesn’t hit it, but does hit Cunning Wish and Blue Sun. Board: -1 Time Spiral, -2 Meditate. +1 Wipe away, +1 Rebuild, +1 Trickbind.

Reanimator: 60-40 Slightly Favored

Reanimator is a “Do you have the Force?” deck with tricks up its sleeve. capable of winning on turn one and two, if Reanimator is known, you want Force in hand every time. The trick is, they pack Forces as well. That makes this deck pretty resilient to game one countermagic, but certainly not unbeatable. This is a deck that a timely Time Spiral can hurt more than help, so even if you don’t win with your combo, You can sculpt your hand to do so very shortly. Bear in mind this deck wants its fatties in the graveyard ASAP, so Shuffling away an early Entomb can win you the game. Preboard, we wanna counter any and all Animate effects, and be skeptical of any Entomb effects. They can Turn 1 play nothing, then discard a fatty to hand size and you can’t do anything to stop that…Pre board that is. Post board, we pack a slew of hate that can halt Reanimator as long as they aren’t opening a hand with Forces or Abrupt Decays. Be wary of Lotus Petals as they can provide an unknown color for sideboard tech; UB Reanimator can all the sudden access G for Abrupt Decay. Surgical Extraction plays a huge role here, as it can extract a fatty in response to an animate spell, or you can go Next Level and extract the Abrupt Decay to rescue the rest of your Cages. Either way, be prepared to play a slow attrition game. This isn’t a deck we wanna race, it’s a deck we wanna drain of its resources. They have a finite number of animate spells and artifact hate. the more we can remove, the better. Trickbind and Stifle have potential here as they shut down Griselbrand’s ability, burn Petals, and can cripple Iona, be cautious of packing situational hate though, we don’t want to let these cards hit the field in the first place. Even without their abilities, they’re still fatties who kill in 3-4 turns. Board: +3 Grafdigger’s Cage, +1 Surgical Extraction, -2 Meditate, -1 Turnabout, -1 High Tide.

Lands: 63-35 Favored

Lands has reemerged onto the scene since Jarvis Yu took a commanding SCG Open win with is several months back. The hype has died down a bit, but it’s clear the deck still exists, and it’s here to stay. This is another “Do you have it or not?” match that threatens us with a turn 3 Merit Lage 20/20 Avatar unless we can deal with it. Luckily we have the means to do so both pre and post board. A turn 2 or 3 Merit Lage is going to be difficult to deal with in this deck, that’s just a painful fact. Our hope pre board is that their keep is slower than they’d like, and we can pick up on their plan in time to either draw, or Scroll for our Capsize. Capsize is the only means we have to deal with the token, but with 4 functional copies, we have a decent chance of finding it with all the cantripping our deck does. One blessing of this match-up is that if we can manage to cripple or even just avoid the Avatar beats…This deck doesn’t do anything to us. The only real genuine interaction this deck has with us is Rishadan Port, and even that won’t matter after an invigorating game of “Land, go” with our opponent. Post board, we have much better chances than pre, as our opponent simply can’t get rid of enough dead cards in their library to subsidize us. The 4 Wastelands alone simply become “Wastes” as we have no non-basics to target, and that pretty $1000 Tabernacle their sporting is a now really expensive divider in their deck box for the next 50 minutes. As I mentioned above in the Sideboard tech, if you can manage to keep Lage off the table and Extract their Thespian Stage, they’ll frantically be trying to manually tick down their Dark Depths while you combo off unabated at your leisure. I would recommend leaving the Turnabouts in the main for this match-up, as it could provide a much-needed turn to dig for a more permanent answer to the token. Tapping it out of combat IS an out. Board: -2 Flusterstorm, -1 Meditate, -1 High Tide, -1 Pact of Negation. +2 Stifle, +1 Trickbind, +Wipe Away, +1 Surgical Extraction

Burn: 60-40 Favored

Burn is and always will be a race. This match is sort of straight forward. Counter anything that comes at your face when able, NEVER allow an Eidolon to resolve, try to pick off Lavamancers if need be, and be cautious of Fireblast in response to spells. I have been killed by a Fireblast in response to my Blue Sun because “what could a burn player do with 3 tapped Mountains?” Yea. They can do that. Preboard, counter anything that keeps you alive, and preferably above 4. Fireblast and Exquisite Firecraft are both in their list. Post board, be aware of Firecraft, and be on the watch for Boil. I’ve only seen it twice or so, but that card exists, as does its modern-legal reprint Boiling Seas. Watch for creatures and Turnabout aggressively if they appear more Zoo heavy. REB and Pyro should be on your radar as well, but not something to play around. Board: -1 Preodain +1 Trickbind for Zoo Burn. No changes for Spell Burn.

Delver: 45-55 Slightly Unfavored.

This match can go either way, but given the nature of tempo versus control, I’m giving them the slight edge. While some are going to be mad that i’m lumping all the Delver variants as one archetype, with the exception of maybe RUG, we functionally play the same against all of them, so there’s no sense in breaking them down. Delver is worth Forcing, so are Pyromancer and Goyf. If your opponent leads in with a turn 1 fetch into Tropical Island or even a Volcanic, beware of Stifle in response to a fetch, we can be blown out too. Delver likes to play Wasteland so we’re safe in that regard, however They only need 2-3 lands to function fully, so that colorless mana they produce is relevant. Like mentioned above, Turnabout aggressively and if faced with Goyfs or Deathrites, or Scoozes, don’t be afraid of our super secret sideboard tech Hibernation. Palinchron makes a surprisingly effective blocker in this match-up, so even without the combo, High Tide+Palinchron can be enough to stall and get you there. Like all blue decks, Force of Will is a full set in their main 60, and some lists pack Daze on top of it, especially Grixis and RUG. Post board Stifle can hurt both their mana and Delvers, and Wipe Away/Capsize can hurt them even more. If we can disrupt their tempo, we have a shot. 4-color is a thing as well, and lists will splash green for Shaman/Abrupt Decay. Board:-1 High Tide, -1 Meditate, -1 Cunning Wish, -1 Preordain. +1 Wipe Away, +2 Stifle +1 Hibernation (depending).

Infect: 50-50 Even

This match is more even than players like to give it credit. With counter magic, tap effects, and bounce spells; if High Tide can make it past turn 4 we have a serious chance of winning this game. Although Infect packs Forces, sometimes Daze, and protection spells like Apostle’s Blessing and Vines of the Vastwood, we actually care more about resolving Turnabout before combat than one would think. It doesn’t target, so Blessing and Vines can’t help, and can spare us a much-needed counterspell we’d otherwise waste on a pump spell. Anything that gets us one turn closer to our critical mass without wasting counter magic is a good plan. Hibernation is a viable plan here as well. It doesn’t target Glistener Elf, disrupts Noble Hierarch, and if timed right can come down before the Exalted trigger and put a damper on their “count to 10″strategy. Preboard our game plan is survival. It sounds corny, but when all we need to do is not get poisoned, our endgame is surprisingly linear. Another match where aggressive Turnabouts that either tap creatures in combat, or tap lands on upkeeps to sap their mana can get us that much needed delay to get the ball rolling. This is another deck that simply can’t stop us once we get rolling. Board: -1 Preordain -1 Meditate, -1 Cunning Wish -1 High Tide. +1 Wipe Away, +1 Hibernation +2 Stifle

Budget Replacements

The final section of this article will discuss budget alternatives to help ease you into this deck and its price point to make it functional in a 75 card list that will still keep the integrity of the foundation intact. Please take into consideration: Budget alternatives are almost always “strictly worse” solutions. The reason these cards aren’t played (or played less) is because they don’t serve as great a purpose as their counterparts. With that, The main pieces you’re going to have trouble acquiring are the counterspells, and Candelabras. First I’ll touch on the Candles.

Above, we already mentioned that I run 2 Palinchron mainboard alongside my 2 Candles. I stated that was originally a budget concession I had to make, as candles were previously far too high a price to obtain. Palinchron makes a fine budget long-term solution for Candelabra of Tawnos, albeit slightly worse in the long run as a replacement. Currently sitting at around $22 each, costing roughly 1/15th the price of a Candelabra is no laughing matter and makes this card a serious consideration. The caveat is that this card costs more in terms of mana, is easier to remove pre-board, and still gets hit by Needle/Revoker. If you’re sold on playing this deck as I have, I would strongly recommend this card as a long-term solution for your Candle problem. While Candles should be your end game (if you choose to stay with the deck long-term as I have), this guy will ride the wave with you every step of the way.

Now the counter magic. When I originally built my list, i couldn’t afford Force of Will, or Flusterstorm. The best counterspell i had in my list was my single copy of Pact of Negation, and in the meantime i tried some pretty awful counterspells to take the places I needed filling. I can safely say that there truly is no substitute for Force or Fluster like there is for Candle. If you want to play Blue in Legacy, you will have to bite the bullet and get your Forces, and possibly even Flusters. The good new is, with Eternal Masters on the summer horizon, Forces can already be had for relatively cheap in paper, and less than 20tix online. Flusters… well, we’ll work on that. The short answer is, I would recommend Swan Song, Counterspell, or Foil in these spots. That’s right you heard me, i said Foil. Swan Song can protect us mid combo, or get rid of that pesky spell that we just can’t allow to resolve all at the cost as some tiny bird beats. It’s not ideal, but in most decks it’s a beating we can take. Counterspell costs 2 mana, but counters anything unrestricted, and after turn two… who cares? The problem is it doesn’t stop early storm, doesn’t stop Belcher, and still costs mana. The same can be said for “tax” spells like Spell Pierce and Mana Leak. Spell Pierce is great, but it doesn’t stop Belcher on the draw, rarely stops an early Storm combo, and just simply has no use against creature decks or late game threats. Now let’s get to the “other other free counterspells”.

For those unaware, Force of Will isn’t the only “free” counterspell in Magic. there are 7. Force of Will, Daze, Pact of Negation, Rewind, Disrupting Shoal, Thwart, and Foil. Of this list, the only cards I would consider to be STRICTLY unplayable in this deck, are Daze, and Thwart. Card disadvantage in spells like Force and Foil are bad enough, but the single most punishing thing that can happen to us, is get set back land drops. Our priority is typically to get 4 lands in play. To return 1 to our hand to potentially counter a spell- or worse, do so to only cause our opponent to pay an extra mana -is horrendous, and it surely doesn’t get much better to return 3 of them just to have our Thwart Forced back for double the bad times. Time Walking ourselves should never be a solution in this deck. Rewind i won’t spend much time on, my only argument is that it costs 4 mana, and by the time you have that, you’re either burning a High Tide on turn 3 to stay alive, or your opponent is already far ahead of the curve. The argument i could make in favor of this card is its functionally better than Force and can actually GENERATE mana mid-combo, but i personally see that as too narrow to warrant inclusion, especially with a tuned list. If you’re budgeting though, feel free to try it and leave me feedback- I’d love to hear how it works. Finally we get to Shoal. Shoal is honestly a good spell, and probably one that “could” be considered for voluntary inclusion in a constructed list. The issue i have with Shoal is our curve. It’s ridiculously low, and with the high drops we do have, we don’t wanna be pitching those to a counterspell. I would argue against using 4 Shoals in place of 4 Forces, however if you already have 2-3 Forces, i can condone filling the last few slots with Shoals. At that point you have 2+ forces that fill the 5cmc spot of your curve that can functionally counter others forces or other 5 drop spells in a pinch… Or pitch the Shoal to Force, it’s your call.

Conclusion

I think this finally concludes my tech and analysis of High Tide. I apologize if this turned into such a long read, but this is a deck I’m very fond of and one that has a lot of nuances that need enlightening. High Tide is undoubtedly one of the most cerebral and mentally taxing decks in the format, and even all of magic. This deck however, is incredibly rewarding to play, and once you resolve your first Time Spiral and untap those lands, you’ll be itching to see bigger and bigger numbers on those die of yours and make your opponents draw more and more cards towards their demise. If you love combo, if you love Blue, and if you love generating ridiculous amounts of mana, this is the deck for you. Without the Candelabra’s this deck creeps in at a little under $1,000 in paper, and with budget cuts on Forces, Fetches, and Flusters, can qualify as a fine budget build to give you a small taste of what combo is all about in Legacy. As Matthias Hunt of the SCGLive Broadcast team once said in coverage; “If you give High Tide long enough, it’s going to combo and it’s GOING to kill you.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and if you like what you see please comment and let me know! I’ll be posting again as the week goes on, and taking into consideration any feedback I get. If you’re interested in more deck techs in Legacy, Modern, even Standard or Vintage, please let me know and I’ll do everything within my power to accommodate.

Thank you again, and I’ll be seeing you very soon!

-Batty