[Deck] Solidarity (Reset High Tide)

[Hightower]

When is your report coming Van Phanel? =)

[Zinch]

What do you thing about this deck??

http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=19266

It has some variations such 3 twincast and 2 think twice that I personaly dislike, but it has performed well

[slyfer]

I don't like the loss of remand in the reset version. The faerie version is faster and can run on fow, but this is quite meh...
No tempo gain...
Think twice is good only in discard/control meta. I would play 1x in general meta.

[Van Phanel]

When is your report coming Van Phanel? =)

Right now

I played the sideevent of GP Kopenhagen with my Command-list and decided I would write a report about it. As this is in the Solidarity thread, I'll try to be rather detailed (in the interesting games at least) and I'd absolutely like to hear some opinions about my plays:

3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
12 Island

4 High Tide
4 Brainstorm
3 Opt
1 Peek
4 Reset
4 Impulse
3 Remand
2 Brain Freeze
3 Meditate
3 Cunning Wish
3 Turnabout
2 Cryptic Command
4 Force of Will
2 Flash of Insight

SB:
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Brain Freeze
1 Meditate
1 Turnabout
2 Wipe Away
3 Echoing Truth
3 Hydroblast
2 Twincast
1 Rebuild

Round 1:
Daniel with MUC

After two turns of Island, go I Peek him and see a combination of Propaganda, Shackles and Counters. I have a hard time hitting my landdrops, but get to five lands and a hand with 2 High Tide, 2 Turnabout, Meditate and 2 FoW. To avoid having to discard, I go for a half-hearted combo-attempt with one High Tide, Turnabout, he has Counterspell, Turnabout, he has FoW pitch Propaganda and I say ok. In my turn I had planned to resolve my Meditate but I topdeck Flash of Insight and use that to refill my hand. Two FoWs in hand suck in this matchup because you need cardadvantage rather than brute force so I hardcast FoW on a Sensei's Divining Top. Some turns later I go for the combo again and he again has two counters which resolve. In my turn I resolve Meditate past his FoW with my own FoW and hold 5 cards opposed to his 3. He gets antoher Top in his extraturn but nothing else and I Rebuild my hand for another combo-attempt. When I go for it for the third time he plays a Fact or Fiction in response to an untap and it resolves as he'd need three relevant spells in his five to make a difference. He reveals Powder Keg, Shackles and 3 lands and I split 5 to 0 as it doesn't matter. He then can counter three times but this time I'm set up properly and thanks to sitting on 11 Island I can easily work my way through his counters.

SB: - 1 High Tide, - 1 FoW, + 2 Twincast

G2: We both don't do much for the first few turns and when I'm ready for my first faked combo-attempt, he just doesn't try to counter so I make a real combo-attempt out of it. It seems he either has absolutely nothing or he's going to wait for my Brain Freeze and try to Stifle it. The latter turns to be correct and after I've worked past his Stifle and two counters the game is over.

1-0

We talk a little bit about our games and he tells me this was his first Legacy-Tournament. You could say he had a rough start. I explain some things about the matchup to him but also tell him that he has close to no way to ever win this matchup and we go on to round 2.

Round2:
Rasmus with 4-Color Landstill

In game 1 I have trouble hitting landdrops and have to break two early standstills in search for land. I still get stuck on three land for two turns but then I draw two lands in a row. I go for it in response to a third Standstill with a hand of 2 High Tide, Reset, Remand, Brain Freeze, Brain Freeze. He lets both High Tides resolve and counters Reset. I Remand it, he counters again, I let Standstill resolve, Brain Freeze him, with the original first Brain Freeze + Standstill Trigger on stack I Brain Freeze him again and win.

SB: - 1 High Tide, - 1 Reset, - 1 FoW, - 1 Impulse, + 2 Twincast, + 1 Wipe Away, + 1 Echoing Truth

In G2 he again has two early standstills but he has no manlands and when I go for it with six lands he only has a single counter and an Extirpate on High Tide but I can totally live with that.

2-0

Round3:
Sander with Merfolk

He wins the diceroll and starts with a Cursecatcher. My hand is not great angainst a deck with disruption and a fast clock, so I can just hope that he won't have to many lords. When he has turn 2 Lord of Atlantis those hopes get crushed and I play Brainstorm into his Cursecatcher. He likes his Merfolk though and I manage to find a third land and High Tide. He gets even more aggressive with turn 3 Wake Thrasher and I FoW which kills his Cursecatcher. I play my third land and he has a Merrow Rejerey. When he has a Cursecatcher in addition to that, untapping a land would make his Thrasher lethal so I have to go for it. I resolve High Tide Reset Meditate but can't find another untap in Opt + Opt + Brainstorm and I'm dead.

When I take my notes he asks if I'm writing a report for The Source and it turns out that he is registered here as Hightower. He is a cool guy and after the games we talk a bit about our decks and Legacy in Denmark (which seems to be pretty much non-existent).

SB: none

In game 2 he starts with Vial and I Peek him seeing FoW + Lord + Wake Thrasher + Rishadan Port + lands. Especially the Port could be a problem and I build up my hand. On his turn 3 he goes for Wake Thrasher, I FoW and he FoWs back. When he has a second Rishadan Port and lethal damage onboard I know that I am in trouble with maximum five lands in play and High Tide + 2 Turnabout. I can't combo in his turn so I try to fake being Spring Tide. In my upkeep he taps to lands and I play High Tide, Turnabout, Cunning Wish, Meditate. Then I go to my mainphase, play a land and try to find some more carddraw in Opt and 2 Brainstorm. both reveal nothing but Resets, FoWs, lands and another High Tide and I'm dead again.

2-1

Round 4:
Peter with U-g-r Dreadstill

In game 1 he starts with a turn two Standstill and two Factories but has trouble to hit his colored landdrops. I play an Impulse at the end of his turn and he has to discard 3 cards. On his next turn he goes for a Nought but I play an Eot Cunning Wish for Wipe Away and bounce it. He tries for Top + CB on his next turn but has no blue mana left and I combo in response. He can only counter once and I even though I don't hit enough drawspells I can Brain Freeze him for exactly his 45 cards.

SB: - 1 Cunning Wish, - 1 Remand, + 2 Wipe Away. (I hadn't seen any red, otherwise I'd have boarded Twincast in order to fight possible Red blasts)

He mulls to six but I do even worse and go to five. He has Factory + Island and on three lands I Peek him to see Dreadnought, Fow, CB, Pyroblast and Goyf. He draws Volcanic and Fecthland on his next two turns and I am stuck on four lands. I hold Reset, Reset, Meditate, Remand, 2 FoW and I go for an EoT Reset. He Pyroblasts it and I Remand it exactly as planned. The next turn I go for the combo in response to his CB with Reset, he FoWs, I FoW pich FoW and Meditate resolve but doesn't find a High Tide. I try for an Impulse and then Opt but without High Tide I can't win.

SB: - 1 Impulse, + 1 Twincast

I Peek him again and he reveals nothing but blue cards. 2 FoW, 2 Trickbind, Stifle and Trinket Mage. He tutors for a Nought a gets it into play. I can Wipe Away it twice but he plays it again the next turn. He then FoWs my Cryptic Command for another bounce and I go for the combo the turn when he'd have lethal damage with 5 land, High Tide, Meditate, Turnabout and Remand. My mana resolves and he FoWs my Meditate as expected, I Remand it - and he has drawn the third FoW and his 12/12 beater kills me.

2-2

Round 5:
Anders with Dredge
In game 1 I keep a probable turn 3 kill with FoW backup and he starts with City of Brass, LED, Breakthrough. I Force his Breakthrough and he discards one Ichorid, Troll and Imp. On his turn2 he dredges for six and hits a second Ichorid, lots of black creatures and another Troll. I have an Opt and my hand consists of 2 High Tide, Reset, 2 Meditate and the third land. He gets both Ichorids into play, hits Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, Bridge from Below and Cephalid Sage in his five dredged cards and he kills me.

SB: - 2 Cryptic Command, - 1 Cunning Wish, + 3 Echoing Truth

I start with Peek and he has kept Careful Study, Cephalid Coliseum, 2 Dredgers, 1 Cabal Therapy and Narcomoeba. I FoW his careful Study and he only has a go. My hand looks like maybe a turn 4-kill, probably slower, but has an Echoing Truth. He draws Gemstone Mine from the top and tears my hand apart with two Therapies, then Therapies himself for Troll and kills me with his Coliseum.

2-3 (I considered dropping but I wanted to write that report and there was nothing else to do anyway)

Round 6:
Mathias with Rock featuring Tarmogoyf, Confidant and Intuition.

He starts with a Thoughtseize and a whole lot of discard and the turn before he's going to kill me, he Duresses me seeing 2 High Tides but nothing else. Naturally he takes one and I untap with only one card and 6 lands in play. I draw: Impulse. When he tries to attack me, I play, High Tide, Impulse, Meditate draw untap + another Meditate, kill him. He couldn't believe it.

SB: - 1 High Tide, + 1 Twincast

He plays only a Goyf and Top in his first turns and when he goes for a Duress I already have four lands. In response, I play High Tide, Reset, Turnabout, Wish, Stroke me for Ten and show him a hand of 11 cards. Naturally he dies two turns later in response to another Duress.

3-3

Round 7: Axel with Enchantress.

I've seen him playing during the last few rounds, so I know he's playing Enchantress. He does nothing preboard, except playing a Sterling Grove and saccing it for a Confinement. When he has one Enchantress' Presence in play he plays his Confinement and I mill him for enough in reponse.

SB: + 2 Echoing Truth, - 2 ??

In g2 I hit my first landdrops and get to Remand a Choke twice. Then I let it resolve, he also gets Sterling Grove, Runed Halo on Brain Freeze and Wheel of Sun and Moon, but I just go for the combo and kill him two Echoing Truths and one Cryptic Command later.

4-3

To sum this up, I think I was rather unlucky with not at least going 5-2. All matches I won were complete Blowouts and I should have won both that last game against Dreadstill if he hadn't topdecked his third FoW and game 2 against Merfolk where I didn't find any draw with about 20 mana available. Losing against Dredge is alright, this matchup is that bad.

Any thoughts on my plays or sideboard-plans?

- Van

[jazzykat]

How was cryptic command in the deck. It would seem that remand, is way cooler especially since it costs half as much to cast.

[Citrus-God]

How was cryptic command in the deck. It would seem that remand, is way cooler especially since it costs half as much to cast.

Yes, but it seems that Remand is slowly losing it's use in this format. It's soo bad against Thresh, Spell Snare and Cryptic Command do so much better against the format.

[Zinch]

I love the remands. I loved them since its inclusion in the deck and I'm not considering cutting them yet (in my meta thresh isn't very popular).
I think the discusion is between cryptic command and spell snare. I use the later because is very good aganist my meta: goyf, confidant, counterbalance,hymn to tourach, counterspell,chalice at one, devastating dreams, piledriver... and the list goes on. Cryptic command only shines against a resolved counterbalance or to timewalk an aggro deck, but personaly I would consider other cards before this.

[Bahamuth]

I don't understand why you board out Fow and Tide against MUC instead of Cryptic Command. I think it barely does anything in this matchup. It doesn't really matter though. Same story against Landstill.

It seems that you would've had a much bigger chance in the 3th game of te Dreadstill matchup if you had Krosan Grip instead of Wipe Away I'd say.

Dredge isn't that much of a bad matchup, it's just completely random. I've won some matches 2-0 easily, while at other occasions, like yours, it gets what it needs and kills you without a chance.


I don't really have many other comments. Let me point out though that the Hydroblastsin your sideboard were useless all day long. In my build, they're out for more Twincasts.

[Van Phanel]

I love the remands. I loved them since its inclusion in the deck and I'm not considering cutting them yet (in my meta thresh isn't very popular).
I think the discusion is between cryptic command and spell snare. I use the later because is very good aganist my meta: goyf, confidant, counterbalance,hymn to tourach, counterspell,chalice at one, devastating dreams, piledriver... and the list goes on. Cryptic command only shines against a resolved counterbalance or to timewalk an aggro deck, but personaly I would consider other cards before this.

Cryptic command is better against decks playing Chalice then Spell Snare. By a lot. After all it can deal with Threats as well and there is no need to have it turn 1.

I don't understand why you board out Fow and Tide against MUC instead of Cryptic Command. I think it barely does anything in this matchup. It doesn't really matter though. Same story against Landstill.

Both High Tide and Force of Will produce carddisadvantage. Especially in multiples. I never want to have more than one of them in hand in any given situation and I can totally win totally without one, that's why I cut them down. I don't really care if my first try for comboing actually gets through I'd rather trade 4 of my cards in hand against three of his Counters (+ possible pitchcards to FoW) and then win by resolving a Meditate next turn. I rarely ever want to pitch anything to FoW (except Reset when comboing in my own turn). Cryptic Command absolutely shines in those slow matchups because it will always either produce cardadvantage if I use Counter + Draw or trade one for one with a counter. Also it is an out to Meddling Mage. Oh, right: regarding Meddling Mage: in nine out of ten cases, Meddling Mage will name High Tide so that's another reason to cut one.

It seems that you would've had a much bigger chance in the 3th game of te Dreadstill matchup if you had Krosan Grip instead of Wipe Away I'd say.

Indeed. If I remember correctly I didn't see a Fetchland in that game though.

Dredge isn't that much of a bad matchup, it's just completely random. I've won some matches 2-0 easily, while at other occasions, like yours, it gets what it needs and kills you without a chance.

An interesting point of view. And probably correct as well. If the meta was really infested with it, we could maybe run Leyline side, but currently I prefer sideboarding 3 each of Echoing Truth and Hope/Pray.

I don't really have many other comments. Let me point out though that the Hydroblastsin your sideboard were useless all day long. In my build, they're out for more Twincasts.

This means totally conceding the Burn-Matchup, but it's bad enough as is. You might be right here. Maybe I'll go down to two and board a Blast/ E-Truth mix against Goblins. A third Twincast against Chant-Protected combo (or even SI) would be cool.

[Eldariel]

Your fundamental turn is the same as Burn's and you run counters and win at instant speed. I fail to see how you totally concede it by not running Hydroblasts. Basically the only issue Hydro solves is Pyrostatic Pillar, and you can either counter that or bounce it.

[Van Phanel]

Well, I have to admit that "totally conceding" was exggerated.

Still the matchup is difficult. You absolutely must go off on turn 4 because on any later turn they can win at instant-speed as well. They'll just play their sorceries and Fanatics on their first turns and keep around 7 to 10 instant speed damage in hand. Then when you could realistically go off during their turn 4, they already have a possible kill available and now they wait for you to do something. They are playing our game of waiting for something done and if you wait any longer, they are just going to try and kill you in response. A Mogg Fanatic makes this situation even worse. Yes, the matchup is winnable but I personally would rather play against most other decks than against Burn.

[deviant]

The burn-mu becomes very die-roll dependant that way.

If you drop the blasts, but don't want to make the burn mu worse there are many other choices as well. Like Disrupt and Divert, which are both quite good against discard too, which can sometimes make you very embarrassed.

Oh, and Diverting Sinkhole/Vindicate is like masturbating in public!
( Now, I really fail to see how that makes any sense, but it just came so spontaneously that I'll just leave it there. )

[Zinch]

I have a doubt...
My sideboard is something like this:

1 Stroke of genius
1 Rebuild
1 Three Wishes
1 Brain Freeze
1 vision skein
1 Wipe Away
2 Ecoing truth
2 Spell snare (two more in the MD)
3 Hydroblast
2 ¿¿??

What else would you put here?? I'm hesitating between divert and disrupt... Which is better?? Are better options??
Let me know what you think...

[Bahamuth]

I have a doubt...
My sideboard is something like this:

1 Stroke of genius
1 Rebuild
1 Three Wishes
1 Brain Freeze
1 vision skein
1 Wipe Away
2 Ecoing truth
2 Spell snare (two more in the MD)
3 Hydroblast
2 ¿¿??

What else would you put here?? I'm hesitating between divert and disrupt... Which is better?? Are better options??
Let me know what you think...

Assuming you're playing Meditate mainboard, the Three Wishes could be OK. Still, there's no Turnabout in your sideboard, and that's not good. Also, Vision Skeins sucks. Don't play it. It's not worth the extra slot. My suggestion would be:
-1 Vision Skeins
+1 Turnabout
+2 Wipe Away

The Wipe Away's are only really good if there are CB's in your meta though. Otherwise, if there's alot of back discard, I'd take Disrupt.

[Zinch]

Thank you Bahamuth, but i've been thinking: what do you guys think on putting a flash of insight in the SB against discard??
I think it could be better than divert and disrupt because is not a dead card if you draw it later (I know disrupt replaces itself, but flash is much better midcombo)
I'm thinking in something like this:

1 meditate (I had 4 in the MB, but I changed this)
1 turnabout
1 stroke of genius
1 brain freeze
1 rebuild
1 flash of insight
2 spell snare
2 wipe away
2 hydroblast
3 ecoing truth

[GreenOne]

Why all those echoing truthes? Is your meta so infested with zombie tokens and ETW?

[Zinch]

yes, there are more Ichorid-ETW decks combined than decks with counterbalance.
I know is too much bounce... but there isn't many goblins decks in my meta, so i'm confortable with only 2 hydroblast. I'm even considering cutting them totaly to put discard-hate so much more common in my meta

[Citrus-God]

Why all those echoing truthes? Is your meta so infested with zombie tokens and ETW?

Echoing Truth is also good against decks like Dragon Stompy and Stax, where you need to bounce threats and/or soft lock components like Chalice and 3Sphere for the EOT win.

[Zinch]

It would be great if there was a single card (a split-card maybe) that would be able to either deal with a counter during the combo or deal with an annoying permanent.

Looking througth the discussion I find this comment and then a question comes to my mind: has anyone tested Venser, Shaper Savant?? (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/Card...spx?&id=136209)
It can be a pseudo remand or a bounce spell... What do you think??

[Muradin]

Venser is just not as good as Cryptic Command. The 2/2 body is not relevant, as you won't win with beatdown and therefore he is just inferior to Cryptic Command as this card can bounce and counter while still getting you some card advantage.
Furthermore it can act as fog, which makes it even better.