Hi, my name is Ashleigh Klaassen (she/they) and I am one of the Organizers of the Lega Pauper Lipsia. This year we went with a small group of 6 People from the local Pauper to the People group to the Paupergeddon in Lucca and since I placed best of the group in the Main Event I wanted to write up a short tournament report, and especially report on my experience with the deck I was on, the expected Big Bad, High Tide.
The Deck
For those of you that dont know the current version of High Tide in Pauper:
High Tide is a Combo deck using the eponymous High Tide to make your Islands generate large amounts of Mana and then using Spliced onto Arcane Psychic Puppetries to untap your Lands to generate Mana. The spells that are spliced upon are Ideas Unbound and Peer Through Depths to enable searching for more cards to continue the Combo and sometimes a Petals of Insight to easily demonstrate a loop of generating infinite Mana (and potentially stacking your deck in the perfect way). Using this Mana you then use Stream of Thought to mill out your opponent and if they are on a Burn List that could kill you in response you Deep Analysis them to force them to draw 2 cards. Just in case.
As for Combo Protection the Deck runs Gigadrowse (to tap enemy lands) and Envelop (to counter enemy hand hate), alongside some protection spells, the usual Hydroblast, and some Snaps to trade in for my Hidden Strings in creature match ups.
Note for the Reader
After many rereads i notice that the order of the rounds is in fact incorrect, round 6 should have been round 5 and vice versa. I will not be correcting this in order to truly communicate the mental toll and the Blue Haze of the afternoon.
Opening
I went into the Tournament with a bit of a disadvantage since I had a lot of other Stress the weeks and month before the Event, so I didn’t have as much time for prep or confidence in my lines as I would have wanted. This also reflected in the testing we had done the day before where I had a string of successfully navigating my way into a decent Combo, but fizzling very quickly.
Moving onto the event, we arrived early enough that the Venue wasn’t open yet so we had to take our Showoff Pictures outside of the Venue.
Round 1:
After a kind of confusing pre round meetup (Communication was, as always, difficult, with a lot of it being in Italian first and the Venue being loud as hell) I got paired against a slightly hungover Italian who seems to have played in Fridays Top Pauper Player tournament. We roll and shuffle up and he wins, starting Land -> Faerie Seer turn 1.
Faeries is a horrible match-up for me so I slowly try to assemble combo and find my one Main Deck Gigadrowse but fail to do it fast enough to not get beaten to death by card advantage.
I board in my 3 Gigadrowses combining with the single one I play in main deck to a full play set, and proceed to very slowly try to stall and eke out any advantage, leading to me tapping him out on turn 7. He manages to protect two islands with judicious application of counter magic. I then open my turn with a Hidden Strings on his final two lands completely hosing his plan to counter my combo. I go into combo spend 10 minutes searching my petals, and mill him out.
Game 3 I mull to 5 and fail to gain any traction while he opens with 3 very clean turns on the play leaving me completely chance less.
Final Result 1-2 which I am happy with, Faeries is such a bad match up that it seems freeing to get it out of the way, and feel good to even get a singular win.
Round 2:
Thus in a good mood I find my second opponent who is an elves player at his first Paupergeddon. He neither knows high tide combo nor does plays hate in the board as I later learn.
He threatens lethal game one and is confused when I just pass back. Until I tap out his entire board but one Llanowar Elves start of combat with Gigadrowse and comfortably combo off turn 5.
The same game repeats game 2. I board in some Gigadrowses expecting him to have hate in the board but manage to comfortably set up my turn. At some point he tries to Faerie Macabre mid-resolution of Stream of Thought, where I regrettably have to inform him that he cant until I save the second Stream of Thought and Petals of Insight I milled. He ends up still exiling one Stream of Thought, but since I play Petals I just shrug and combo him out turn 4. I feel a bit sorry for the guy but he should’ve really packed better hate.
2-0. ez match up.
Round 3:
I sit down across from a deeply sleep deprived English guy on his layover on a flight back from Japan. This should’ve really prepared me for the mess that was about to happen.
He has a triple(!) sleeved deck. Its Sultai Turbo Fog. Most cards are Japanese foil special art printings. I tire very quickly at having to ask about every non basic Land drop he makes. Which are a lot, as I assemble my combo and attempt to tap him out. I end up going off losing one high tide to his arcane denial and start spinning the wheels. Sadly I fizzle, the whole effort being made harder since he resolved an (obviously japanese) Campfire.
I start getting extremely tired of this match especially since he fucks up tapping the right Mana a few times.
We board, me grabbing my extra Gigadrowses hoping to get some cards out of him and really regretting removing the Relics of Progenitus. He boards up to a play set arcane denials and some extra campfires. I combo at some point. I fizzle. I am very tired of playing Magic the Gathering.
To be entirely honest I made a LOT of mistakes in this match and should’ve really done better, probably the one game I feel worst about my play in, but so it goes.
0-2 for a total of 1-2 after round 3 and most of my will to live in the dumpster.
Round 4:
I sit down across from a very sweaty (did I mention it was 33 degrees outside with perfect blue sky?) surly teenager. Its the 1-2 bracket. No one is happy to be here. But I try to remain nice and cordial but he does not seem too into making conversation (or as would later be revealed might just not speak very good English). I lose the die roll. He opens Plains -> Lunarch Veteran. Oh god its white weenies this is what I’m here for. He slowly develops his board. I quickly develop my hand with Brainstorm -> Merchant Scroll -> Pieces of the Puzzle. I end up needing to ask about a few cards cus I so rarely see Weenies.
At some point I realize he is also German and I manage to make a bit of conversation. I then very quickly combo him out with no real way for him to contest me. He is VERY salty and asks to concede Game 2 which I take (obviously). Every break in this loud and hot room is useful to keeping my brain alive. I try to explain that high tide isn’t an auto win deck always (i am 1-2 after all!) but he seems semi convinced. Oh well. Off he goes to the Reloaded where he will draw to one of my traveling group members missing out on prizes. Teenagers will be teenagers, little to be done.
I end up 2-2 and use my full hour break to chat with one of the judges about spicerack failing (as usual).
While looking at the reloaded between matches I steal a friends ibuprofen and ask that anyone who goes to concessions please get me a coke.
Round 5:
Somewhere around Round 5 the blue haze sets in and I barely remember whats happening. I think next up was Grixis affinity. He gets detonated Game 1 with no struggles. Highlight of the game is the coke delivered to me which I immediately drink during the game. I board in some extra Gigadrowses but am very confident.
Correctly so it turns out as I combo him out easily keeping my day 2 Dreams/Worries alive.
3-2 with once again a lot of time to spare.
I check in on the rest of the group in the reloaded, and get to watch Gavin Verhey trying to tide against a friend of mine on Mono R Madness. It looks dire. I am most of the way out of my mind.
Round 6:
Despite my struggling mental state I manage to keep up a bit of conversation and get into Game 1, where I am once again confronted with a deck I did not prep for in Hot Dogs. My opponent quickly confronts me with two Red Mages Rapiers and I die very quickly before I get close to Combo.
After asking for the Equip Cost on Red Mages Rapier (3(!) Mana) I realize that boarding in Snap entirely strands the Rapiers and messes heavily with his burn plan I tried to drowse game 1 (Since its at instant speed he can wait for me to drowse or not. Snap however…..). So I bring in a bunch of Gigadrowses and exchange my Hidden Strings for Snaps. I make a mistake and board out Deep Analysis. This will cost me a lot of mental load later.
This time I manage to stall and mess with his game plan enough to go into a safe combo turn 4 or 5 and need to run through a lot of lines to attempt to not die on upkeep, but it works. I quickly realize my error and put my Deep Analysis back in. Going into game 3 I have to go through one of the longest and worst combos of my day ending only when I reorder my deck to draw deep analysis and stream of thought and kill him. It turns out he would’ve conceded immediately had he seen analysis game 2. Oops.
Guy had a really cool 3d printed deck box with his name and some city features (Bologna I think? apologies, the blue haze) on it. Loved that.
4-2 I am exhausted and look at the reloaded again while the usual half hour overtime happens.
Round 7:
I sit down for Round 7 next to an English guy who is also feeling the heat and who is on 4-1-2. My opponent is on 3-1-3. I have arrived in the Tournament twilight zone where magic goes to die.
My opponent is on tron… I see him play myr retriever. My brain is entirely fried and I fully believe it is flicker tron. I combo him out game 1. I go to sideboard. Hes flicker tron right? I board in Gigadrowses. I board nothing out. While shuffling he tells me hes on altar tron. I keep a hand with my deck of 63 cards. He keeps a one lander and misses land drop turn 2. He Last Rites me for 5 turn 4 before I can combo. The world is a haze. I draw some cards and combo off at some point and kill him. Maybe there is something fundamentally wrong with my deck. Mental Energy reserves are below zero.
5-2 I guess.
I go watch some nice relaxed Reloaded and worry if I have the will to play day two.
Round 8:
I decide that I will do whatever the hell happens to me and sit down for round 8 across from an acquaintance of one of our group. He asks to shuffle my deck. I don’t think he quite knows what he committed to but at this point I truly do not care.
We both keep 7. Hes on Mono Red madness. I play the most beautiful Control Game of my life going into combo turn 5. We are both very warm and tired. He does not speak very good English. I fizzle my combo. Take a deep breath. Board in my snaps and Blasts and go to Game 2 entirely detached from the world but the cards in front of me.
I play another Beautiful Control game, including snapping two Sneaky Snackers back to his hand which is worth it if only for the shocked looks. I tap him out and am forced into a tight combo of Tide Tide Puppetry Ideas Unbound. I flip the cards. Land, Land, Lorien Revealed. I concede and wish him luck day two. I get up and walk to our arranged meeting point where I meet no one.
This is of course because they had all started spectating my final game which I entirely missed. Oops.
I go home in a great mood at two unlucky fizzles but clean play.
This places me on Place 280/1076, and probably the best German in the tournament, for whatever that’s worth.
Intermezzo:
We get home and I immediately start looking at my side board, I played 3 disrupts which I never ended up touching so those go out for a Blue Elemental Blast (going up to 4 Blasts) and a pair of relics. I eat two whole pizzas and go to sleep.
Day 2: Paupergeddon Rebound
I register for day 2 with my new High Tide list, and get matched against Jund Wildfire, Red Madness, Red Madness.
i get discarded out by jund once, miscount one lethal and go into combo a whole 6 times. I fizzle all but one of them. I laugh maniacally and wish my opponents luck. I drop from the event and go home.
Great upside: I get to make a banger Lentil Ragout for Dinner
Notes on High Tide:
I don’t think this deck is too strong but I think it needs to be banned for the extremely toxic play pattern of being a non deterministic combo taking 10 minutes to resolve, while still being reasonably consistent (please don’t look at my results). You could consider banning Psychic Puppetry but honestly? they should probably just ban high tide. One cycle storm is enough.
Playing with Petals, which is, in my Opinion, the worse deck, was a choice I made to be able to survive 8 rounds of Tournament while still being able to play. I did play the higher land count of 16 Lands for more consistent mulligans and allowing me to board out one or two cantrips for match ups that need a lot of sideboard cards. In the end I think I kind of ran a worse version of the deck. Dubious choice but its the one I made.
Its also an expectedly stressful deck to play for 8 rounds, which together with the heat lead to me very quickly losing my mind for the second half of the day, which didn’t seem to impact my ability to combo off at least. But that’s just the deal with this kind of combo. I will probably, now that the meta has finally for the first time in a year slowed down enough return to my natural stomping grounds of the hardest control deck I can find. Skred and Familiars making top 16 is a beautiful sign of a meta game I want to be in.