t1 High Tide Viable?

[serracollector]

Hello gents, I have been out the loop for awhile, and have unfortunatley missed the "birth" of quite a few nice decks, such as the Grow-a-Tog, Hulk, new Stacks, and so forth, but i have been trying to keep up as much as possible by reading the forums/articles at this fantabulous site.  Anyways, I have noticed that more and more decks have turned into a aggro/combosish type over the control variants (OSE/Keeper/BBS etc) of the day, and was thinking that since MisD/Divert etc were seeing less and less maindeck, that possibly a deck such as High Tide (with a few turns and twists) could possibly be a good deck type in today's t1 format.  Here's a decklist with a sentence or two beside the cards I think I need a reason to explain themsleves:

Blue(36)
Ancestral Recall
Timetwister
Time Spiral
Windfall
Mystical Tutor
Stroke of Genious
Braingeyser (iffy actually, but needed a 2nd kill card)
2 Palinchron
3 Snap (stops that 99/99 psycahtog....sometimes)
3 Cloud of Fairies (works well with the snaps also)
2 Turnabout
4 High Tide
4 Merchant Scroll (fetches half the deck)
4 Impulse
4 Meditate
3 Brainstorm (works with the fethclands)

Artifacts(8)
Black Lotus
Mox Spahire
Lotus Petal (eh)
Mana Crypt (free mana, what more can i say?)
4 Helm of Awakening (chosen over the Sapphire Medallion due to the fact the make the other Helms free at the moment, still testing )

Lands (16)
4 Fetchlands (don't matter long as there blue)
12 Islands

Sideboard (15)
4 Force of Will (duh)
4 Hood Wink (bounces everything in stacker for cheaps)
3 MisD
2 Stifle
2 Divert

I can usually get it to go off in 2-3 turns, and Duress/FoW doens't kill it like you think it would.  So give your thoughts peeps.  Later

[Zalath]

I haven't played much tide lately, but what about Frantic Search and Mind's Desire? The first one is very nice since you'll get can cycle two cards and hopefully increase your mana base.

Edit:

Just tried a variant of it and it worked okay, though I increased the fetchlands to eight, I don't see a reason for running only four. You want to get your few lands out instead of having them take up space in the library, right?

[suicide_slushy]

Since your playing a slower combo I'd add some the control elements in your SB to the maindeck.  If your worried about stacker then replace the hoodwinks in the SB with energy flux or even hurkyl's recall.

[serracollector]

Thanks for the tips on the deck, and with Mind's Desire, I got to looking at the storm mechanic (as I said I've been out for a while) and I noticed Brain Freeze.  I changed a few cards in the deck, added a few Brain Freeze's, and...wow  I get the kill on turn 2, I would have to say almost 70% of the time.  I just cast mad amounts of the cheap spells/free spells, then cast one, two or even three Brainfreezes, decking my opponent.  The deck being mono-blue is more consistent, and I beleive faster and cheaper, not to mention, than any form of Academy I have seen (minus the unrestricted version of course).  The only decks I have seen of late that would use Gaea's Blessing (which screws the combo obviously) are some (and very few) Keepers, and some enchantress (do ppl still play enchantress?)  Anyways, here is the deck list, fairly simple I beleive.  Use high tide/Cloud of fairies/helms/snaps to cast lots of spells in a row, then cast a brainfreeze or two making them chuck thier top 40-60 cards for the game.

Blue(35)
Ancestral Recall
Timetwister
Frantic Search
Windfall
Mystical Tutor
4 Snap
4 Brain Freeze
4 Cloud of Fairies
4 High Tide
2 Merchant Scroll (fetches half the deck)
4 Impulse
4 Meditate
4 Brainstorm (works with the fethclands)

Artifacts(9)
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mox Spahire
Lotus Petal (a good card now)
Mana Crypt (free mana, what more can i say?)
4 Helm of Awakening (chosen over the Sapphire Medallion due to the fact the make the other Helms free at the moment, still testing )

Lands (16)
8 Fetchlands (don't matter long as there blue)
8 Islands

Sideboard (15)
4 Force of Will (duh)
4 Hood Wink (bounces everything in stacker for cheaps)
3 MisD
2 Stifle
2 Divert


As for the sideboard, I don't think I want to make any of it maindeck yet, as turns 1-3 doesn't seem like a "slow" combo to me.  Anyways, thanks for the tips please continue with them.  I need to do more testing against the "New Hulk" and this "Red Rock" deck I red about.  This is fun so far guys, I'm liking it.

[Rico Suave]

Why aren't you using 4 Force of Will?

[Sapromancer]

im working on a new tides build myself, ill post it shortly

[Dr_Nuxvomica]

I've built a version that uses the Cunning Wish to eliminate a few maindeck slots that you don't always need early on, or in multiples(Brain Freeze).I'm also digging on Mind's Desire as you tend to play 10-15 spells when you go nuts.

 I also use the Saphirre Medallion as you can't afford the luxury of your opponents spells becoming that much cheaper.And 4 Force of Wills I think are necessary in a combo filled enviroment where the first turn could also be your last.

 

 mana sources(22)
13 Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
R Mox Saphirre
R Black Lotus

Artifact(4)
4 Saphirre Medallion

Blue Spells (34)
2 High Tide
4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Snap
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Cunning Wish
1 Intuition
1 Meditate
1 Merchant Scroll
R Mystical Tutor
R Ancestral Recall
R Time Walk
R Windfall
R Timetwister
R Time Spiral
R Mind's Desire

SB(10 wishable)
1 Brain Freeze
1 Snap
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 High Tide
1 Meditate
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Frantic Search
1 Misdirection
2 Blue Elemental Blast

2 Null Rod
3 Back to Basics