[Deck] Solidarity (Reset High Tide)

[Burnout]

Well to run a White Splash is another risk! Because you give your oponent targets for their Waistlands...

I also thought about 2 Misdirections instead of Force of Will, they seem to be quite good.

That's a big problem ;-(

Thx for the quick answers!

[URABAHN]

According to starcitygames, Nathan J. Xaxson says Solidarity was hated out at GP: Philly? I can recall at least 4 Solidarity decks that made Day 2, and one that made Top 16. What else does that apparently lame article say?

[Pyrokinesis]

I got bored this morning and started doing some goldfishing (which, fellow combo whores, you should know doesn't get you much past a deck's basic mechanics). But I was having a lot of trouble finding High Tide by turn four. Yet another moment when you wish you had High Tide in the board... or, hell, a Mystical Tutor to get High Tide. There are problems with both, as has been beaten into a bloody pulp..:

High Tide in the sideboard: You reeeeeeally want to see it in your opening hand. Plus, it reduces your chances of a turn three kill (in the event you need it) drastically.

Mystical Tutor: Card disadvantage, mediocre to draw in the middle of going off, just sort of slow like that.

But in the case of wondering where the hell High Tide is, neither really matter. In almost all matchups you NEED High Tide, making the card your first priority. Thus, for such times, perhaps Mystical TUtor should be run in the Wishboard? Not only will it fetch High Tide, but whatever else you might think of Wishing for before going off. It has nice but narrow uses, so it seems like a good target.
Thoughts?

[Carlos El Salvador]

By hated out, I think he means nobody made top 8 with the deck. Which is fine. Like I said, I know David was 9th place, SWK made top 32 as well. I was 63rd place,unfourtenetly. The other one that made day two I have no clue about, however.

As far as finding high tide, I usually don't have a problem finding it. I think the fact is that you can't goldfish like you can with traditional combo. You win when you have to with the deck, or when the opportune moment strikes. This might mean you have three turns, or thirty turns. So Just play the 4 MD Tides, because cutting one will only make your chances of drawing it worse, even though you can wish for it. Or running a bad card in your sideboard is bad, especially with Gro already being a bad matchup.

[MattH]

Someone else mentioned Misdirection in another thread relating to this discussion, as shooting a Hymn back at a Black player is a fine way to screw with their strategy. Perhaps a higher proportion of early game conditional countermagic ala Daze and Force Spike might become necessary.

Disrupt is pretty good against discard.

[ExpectLess]

If discard actually does become a problem there are still a lot of options for Solidarity. That being said, I doubt Pox varients ever will become successful. Pox has tried to be good for ages snd while Dark Confidant may have made the deck playable, it certainly didn't go from tier nothing to DTB or anywhere near it. Pikula is just a really good player, he probably would have done well with any half-decent deck.

Muddle the Mixture is another option that wouldn't be bad against discard if it does become popular (UU: Counter target instant or sorcery, Transmute 1UU). It's a nice counter against a whole bunch of non-permanent problems and also serves as a pseudo-tutor for Reset, Twincast, and Brainfreeze. I would hesitate splashing white unless absolutely required though, simply because it slightly weakens a whole bunch of matchups.

[anonymos]

Oh my God! The Sky is Falling! This Deck is Bad now! I laugh at you all. Just because one REALLY good player does well, doesn't mean that it's good. This deck can do well reguardless. Not everyone can afford to play sinkhole or even confidant in some cases. Sure, this isn't good against aggro-control, but didn't we already know that. Now that it is becoming more prevalent, lets just find an answer, not complain. I got my resets for $2 each a year ago, and haven't put the deck down since. Sure, discard hurts. Could we just cut back the wish board some and grab something specifically for this match and NQG? If they came from the same direction that would be viable, but for now I think NQG is the more viable threat. I've had to deal with discard for a year from little kids and Rod in his reanimator. It sucks to deal with. Brainstorm is a best friend there. I think that disrupt may be worth trying. It at least replaces itself. Daze/Force Spike aren't really worthwhile. What about a super techy dodecapod from the board? Don't kill me for that please. Seriously, something in the board for them specifically. I don't know what, but something. That's my best plan. That and pray they don't pack persecute!

[herbig]

I'd like to ignore the previous post completely, give a quick tournament report and revamp some useful discussion on Solidarity. I beat out seven other players in four rounds at a tournament in Auburn (near Syracuse) today. All I really wanted to mention, since I had no trouble defeating any of my opponents, was that I went 2-0 first round against blue/black Battle of Wits. To be fair, he put up absolutely no resistance, and both times I killed him when he tapped out to transmute / cast Battle. It was pretty funny though. The other decks I faced were Burn (2-0), Loam-atog (2-0), and atrociously bad Burn, ie Scent of Cinder (2-1). My one game loss was due to not being able to make him draw a card, allowing him to untap and kill me during his upkeep...

What I've been wondering is how many people like Peek? I haven't tried it out but I'm not really sure I like it over cards like Opt, and I especially don't like moving a Meditate into the board. Gearhart did well with it so I get the feeling I may be wrong about it. What do other people feel?

About the Pox issue: It is a tough matchup, but its not like black control suddenly got playable with one showing in the top eight at a major tournament. Any type of "scientific" conclusion must be backed by subsequent results by the deck. Lots of people might jump to play it, but that doesn't mean it is going to win them tournaments. If that means putting Solidarity down until they've realized the deck isn't as good as Pikula makes it look, then thats another option.

[Lukas Preuss]

I haven't tried it out but I'm not really sure I like it over cards like Opt, and I especially don't like moving a Meditate into the board. Gearhart did well with it so I get the feeling I may be wrong about it. What do other people feel?

I don't like moving the Meditate to the board, either. Currently, I'm playing the pre-GP version with these changes: +2 Peek, -1 Opt, -1 Twincast, although I'm playing two Twincasts in the Sideboard now. They're just great against the mirror match and against Gro decks...

[PTBNL]

For the Gro/Threshold matchup, I think splashing Red for REB/Pyroblast could help. REB is obviously strong vs countermagic but it also destroys key obstacles like Meddling Mage and Arcane Laboratory. Gro normally doesn't run Wasteland so using Volcanic Islands should be safe. Also the red splash offers Pyroclasm vs Goblins, and artifact destruction vs Stax. If you don't like maindeck Volcanic Islands, you could put 1 or 2 in the sideboard.

A sample sideboard with red splash:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Hydroblast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Turnabout
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Volcanic Island

[anonymos]

the problem with splashing red isn't so much for the gro matchup. That actually may be improved with the splash. I don't know for certain. However, bringing in a SORCERY that is in a splash color in a deck that almost always wins at INSTANT speed is not exactly the best plan. I'm not so sure that running land in the sideboard to support the splash, reguardless of color is the best way to go either.

On a completely different matter, I apologize for the whole "the sky is falling" thing. I was very frustrated with everyones general dismissal of everything because of one event.

I'm a big fan of meditate in the board. My 4th one never left it. I wasn't very hot on twincast to begin with, so it was an easy choice for me. Would gro be easier to beat if we changed our play style against it than trying to board against it? I know I'm used to sitting back and winning when I need to with this. What happens if we take advantage of that they're working in our direction and just brain freeze with storm about 5 once or twice instead of just trying to "win now" because we are forced to. That means that we can take advantage of their card drawing more and play more like a "true" combo deck. We know that the tools are already there to beat most of the rest of the field, why not them too?

[-BK-]

I had an idea for a card you could perhaps play in the solidarity wishboard.
I thought of wishing for " keep watch". It's a 3 mana instant and it draws a card for each creature attacking you. I thought of perhaps waiting against aggro decks until they've declared attackers. Then their creatures are attacking. So you could start the combo before the damage goes an the stack and there would be a very powerfull drawspell in your sideboard waiting to be wished for.
Against goblins I if they attack you with perhaps 5-6 little green men this is a real good alternative to moving a meditate into the board.
and I say they will attack you with all their creatures because they dont think that you might play such a crappy card.
(if my idea is bad please dont be angry on me, because this is my first post at the source.)

[Slay]

It's a bad idea simply because it's far too situational. Gro is perhaps the greatest problem for this deck, and it will attack with 2 creatures max. Most aggro-control decks will do the same. And if you took Meditate out of the sideboard for that card, when you need to wish for a draw spell you're going to have to get Stroke and spend a lot more mana.

Basically, Goblins has to attack with more than 4 creatures for it to be a better Meditate. Other than that, it's inferior.
-Slay

[anonymos]

Has anyone else been considering using Three Wishes as a backup/substitute for Meditate?

here's the oracle text:Remove the top three cards of your library from the game face down. You may look at those cards as long as they remain removed from the game. Until your next upkeep, you may play those cards. At the beginning of your next upkeep, put any of those cards not played into your graveyard.

So it allows us to dig for three without losing a turn. Against all of the goblins, that's good. You can cast it in response to hymn and be able to start going off. You may not be able to finish it right there, but you don't lose your next turn to the attempt. That stops them from raping your hand and mana base when you time walk them with meditate. It has an odd synergy with Flash of Insight.

Good sides to Meditate: 4 cards IN HAND instead of 3 removed from game and then in graveyard.

:blues:

[-BK-]

In my oppinion 3 wishes is a good card, but no as good as meditate. meditate simply gets one more card advantage.
But I think that 3 wishes should be tested, but i don't know what I should take out of the deck, to make space for the 3 wishes.

[Ewokslayer]

Three Wishes has been tested. It Proved Sub-par at the time.
Its problem is fairly simple. You can never really use it before you are comboing off because you can't keep the cards.
With Meditate you can just cast it for cards against certain decks or in certain situations.
And the one card difference is significant.
As is the fact that you can't use any of those cards to pitch to Force of Will

[rleidle]

it seems like three wishes in the sideboard would be good because then it would allow you to play 4 meditate main.

[Lego]

I just moved Meditate to the side because I've been finding so often that I want to Wish for a draw card mid-combo, and Stroke of Genius just doesn't do that for me. Three Wishes seems almost as good mid-combo, although those cards can't be pitched to Force, and you do lose one card, which could be big. That being said, do you think it is worth it for the fact that you get to keep 4 Meditates main?

[dontbiteitholmes]

A sample sideboard with red splash:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Hydroblast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Turnabout
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Volcanic Island

Just so you know in solidarity Pyro/hydroblasts>>>>>>>REB/BEB because you can target a non-red/blue card with the ice age one and get your storm count up. The ONLY downside would be if someone was to Misdirect it to something you didn't want it to target which is unlikely and would also increase the storm count for you if you chose to go off that turn.

[Lego]

Since I've found my last three resets, I've been running this deck againt the gauntlet, and feel pretty good about playing it. Except, I've never tested the mirror. I've run it a couple of times, and it just seems crazy, I have no idea how to play it.

With an exact 75 card list, it seems like I would never, ever want to go off. I wouldn't really know how/when to stack things, and how exactly I would be winning. I guess if you go off on your opponents turn, it takes away their Resets, and you're not worried about Force, but they've got Flash of Insign to stop you mid Brain Freeze, plus when you get a high enough storm (and keep in mind that you're drawing a lot as well, so they don't need a storm as high as you do) they can just Freeze you. But with so much turn skipping due to Meditate, it seems like Words of Wisdom might be needed, except that when storm gets high enough, every cantrip becomes dangerous, as they can Brain Freeze in response. I just don't understand!!

Can someone give me some advice? Absolutely anything would be helpful, because I have no idea how to even begin to approach this.

Luckily, it's not a match I've ever had to play in a tournament.