Deck Choice
Playing High Tide Combo into a local meta that I presumed would be made up of three-color value decks. It turned out to be a heavy combo-meta with Madness/Weenies/U Tempo representing the fair side of magic. I am fairly new with the deck, but got confident after standing an equal score in testing vs a lot of U Delver. Against blue decks, especially with 8+ counters its rough. Against anything non-blue the deck really shines.
Deck Tech
Try to assemble 3-4 Islands, 3 High Tide plus Psychic Puppetry (either 2-1 or 1-2) and 1-2 Ideas Unbound or Peer through Depths. With this setup you can start to chain the Arcane Draw Spells while untapping Islands mana-neutral. Once you have 4 Tide plus Puppetry (either 3-1, 2-2 or 1-3) you chain the Arcanes mana-positive. Once you have 5 Tide plus Puppetry (either 3-2 or 2-3) you can go find and cast Petals of Insight as often as you like, netting one mana every time and fully manipulate your library. You then use Stream of Thought to put opponents library into the bin and win. You can have this accomplished as early as Turn 3 with a very smooth draw. Very consistently you have it set up on turn 4 and 5.
Round 1 U Fae 0-2
Well, you line up for Jund Wildfire and you get U Fae on the Draw.
Game 1 & 2 they both have Faerie Seer into Big Ninja. By Turn 4 they have 5 Damage in the air, Ninja-Monarch and 4 Islands. I even get slight fighting chances by them tapping out, but I brick. Not much to be don 0-2
Round 2 Ruby Storm 2-0
Table 19 is a Bierbank with a Sofa. It is next to the open door in a 30° Comic Store. Kind of a VIP treatment for losing the first round. The table is so narrow, that we sit next to each other, not opposite. It kind of fits the “two ships sailing in the night” mode of the matchup.
Game 1 They try to goldfish-combo me on turn 4 on the play, but only deal 13 damage. I untap and goldfish-combo them 1-0
Game 2 they try to combo me on turn 2 but I have a hydro. This leaves them empty handed on one Mountain. I kind of get scared to lose from this position. Turn 4 they attempt to combo again with basically just a seething song, but brick after seeing another 15 cards. I untap and combo them. Peek 2-0
Round 3 5c Dredge 2-1
Game 1 I combo them through one Mesmeric Fiend and before they can set up a graveyard kill 1-0
Game 2 I kind of beat myself. On the Draw I cast Pieces of the Puzzle which forces me to discard to hand size (already no smart move). The Pieces then gives me my only Stream of Thought, which I chose to put in Hand rather than in Graveyard. Better safe than sorry. This is the kind of card you always have to hide away from opposing interaction. They even showed some interest in the total amount of Streams in my Deck during Sideboarding. In my endstep they then mill themselves including a Mesmeric Fiend. They could now untap, cast Dread Return on Mes-Fiend to seal the game. For that reason I actually discard the Stream at end of my turn. I can get it back later with Flood of Recollection. Of course, they untap, Coffin Purge me and I scoop 1-1
Game 3 I envelop their Dread Return on turn 4, untap, combo them 2-1
Round 4 Rakdos Madness 2-0
I know Madness from testing and I feel confident. They can bring in Duress and Pyroblast, but their clock is slower than mine - and they are non-blue (no offense Sneaky Snacker <3).
Game 1 They put me to 12, I untap, play High Tide, they ask me whether I have 4 Islands, I reveal from hand, they scoop. Wow 1-0
Game 2 they don’t like the matchup but they “know the deal” about it. We play it until turn 4 where they tap out and put me to 11. I untap, show them High Tide, they ask me for the fourth Island, I show it, they scoop. Quite the terrifying deck apparently 2-0
Round 5 Mirror 0-2
Onto the fun rounds. Table 1 is Madness vs High Tide, Table 2 is High Tide Mirror. Lol. Apparently not the worst choice of deck today. At least I don’t need to play vs U Delver anymore today. I believe.
Game 1 I am on the Draw with a decent 7 against their mull to 6. Turn 3 I tap out to transmute Muddle the Mixture for a combo-piece. I could have kept it open for counter-play, but my hand still needed sth and I had nth else to dig. I could have waited and top-decked for action the next turns, but I took the risk instead. They untap, show me the dream-hand on 3 Islands and run it home 0-1
Game 2 I realize during boarding, that I am not prepared for this matchup. I can only board Gigadrowse but decide against it. I just try to focus on combo while on the play. Again I have a decent opener but I develop into nth substantial on turn 4. They show me some spicey sideboard cards that I have barely ever seen. With no interaction, I tap out to dig for more. They untap and kill me with another loaded hand 0-2
After the game they showed me some interesting sideboard choices, and later went on to win the tournament. Congratz and Shout Outs! Next to us Madness survived the Tide and went to the Finals. The other person on High Tide went on to a second place finish and kind of convinced me to test Hidden Strings. Shout Outs as well!
Round 6 U Terror 1-2
Haha, and there we have it. Could have played a certain beloved individual on Rakdos Madness on table 1 - and now instead we are back to the boot camp.
Game 1 I beat a single Counterspell and a pretty slow Delver-Clock. How can a Delver clock be slow, you ask? Like I am talking actual Delver-Clock, not Insectile Aberration 1-0
Game 2 I start relaxing, I can do this shit. They present me nth into 2 Big Snakes on Turn 4, I have a decent hand including 2 Gigadrowse. On my turn 4 I just pass and use Gigadrowse to “Time Walk” them on 2 Snakes 2 Islands. They use their remaining mana to play another Terror and Delver. If the Delver flips I am now actually dead on board from 20 damage. They have 1 card in hand, tapped out. My hand can not beat a Counterspell. So if I let them untap again, I have to use my second Gigadrowse fully on their creatures to survive - and then still die if they have, or find, just 1 piece of Interaction against my combo. So I decide to go for it with a 50-50 hand and I brick while stumbling on mana 1-1
Game 3 They have 2 Delver and I start to feel the heat. My hand is pretty good this time with 1 interaction. On their turn 4 they tap out for Murmuring Mystic and I just go for it on my turn. I would call this a 80-20 hand, maybe even 90-10. But after ten more minutes of goldfishing I fully brick on mana with 7 cards left in the deck 1-2
Take Away
High Tide is very strong, especially against midrange and other combo. As soon as there is little Blue in a meta, especially with less Mono U Tempo, I would always consider running this deck. There is still lots of potential to improve the list and gameplay. I see a good chance that this deck will pick up play- and winrate in the near future.
One problem for sure is the play pattern. Some people you are kind of putting into torment with the goldfishing. So you have to double-suffer through some of your turns. If you pick up the deck, make sure to play it efficiently and communicate it cleanly - and for everyones sake try to not brick :)
55/60 of the list is kind of settled. I will test Hidden Strings, instead of Reach through Mists in the future. Bricking heavily on mana some games and seeing the no1 & no2 lists play it, convinced me to give Strings a try. The Sideboard is still wildly contested. I have the feeling you can only ever board 3-5 cards as to not weaken the combo too much. So you can include a lot of different 2-ofs.