Regionals and soon after that Nationals are approaching already. This is time again for another cycle of Standard events around the World. The Invitational was timely and provided everyone with decklists from the supposedly top 16 Magic players in the World. As one could expect, those are going to be everyone's basis to shape the environment.

I've seen a lot of rants about the current state of Standard, and how it's supposed to be a horrible format. However, as pointed out by most analysts on different strategy websites, the Invitational decks were very diverse. This looks like a rather promising and open environment (which would become really great if they would simply ban Bargain).

So what to pick ? White Weenie Rebels, Stompy, Control Green, Accelerated Blue, Sabre Bargain…?

Enter the underdog.

Almost six months ago already, I won a PTQ with a Urza Block Constructed combo deck called Dark Tide. This was before the whole Bargain craze had started and very few people were actually caring about combos. Everyone was playing CounterTroll, Squirrel Prison, Stompy or Replenish. This was my decklist :

4 Dark Ritual
4 Bubbling Muck
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain
4 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Stroke of Genius
4 Turnabout
4 Frantic Search
3 Cloud of Faeries
1 Peregrine Drake
2 Snap
2 Tolarian Winds

12 Islands
12 Swamps

I went 8-1-0 and won the slot and some fuzzy warm memories of Dark Tide... I had a couple tough games, but most of the matches were pretty easy, for one good reason : people were totally unprepared for that deck. They boarded the wrong cards, countered the wrong things, or even (the fools !)thought they could win with an Opposition deck (while I knew Dark Tide performed something like 15-1 in playtesting :).

Why, you might ask, am I digging this deck out of its well-deserved grave? Because I think it's got a good chance in Standard.

Here's the current Standard version I'm using :

4 Dark Ritual
4 Bubbling Mucks
4 Turnabout
4 Frantic Search
4 Stroke of Genius
4 Duress

3 Yawgmoth's Bargain
3 Vampiric Tutor
2 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Snap
2 Peregrine Drake

12 Islands
12 Swamps

Tentative Sideboard :

1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Energy Field
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Defense Grid
1 Cursed Totem
3 Power Sink
4 Prosperity
3 Persecute

Explanation for the new cards:

Vampiric Tutors: Pretty obvious in a combo deck, though you don't really want too many of those in your opening hand. Allows nice synergy with single cards in sideboard– an excellent strategy that needs a little tweaking, as you can see my sideboard is pretty untested (even though it seems to work on paper…).

Duress: Standard is different than the environment I first played the deck in: it has a lot of Bargain decks. You need Duress to help against Permission, but the purpose of it is to destabilize other Bargain decks (or take their own Duress and go off first).

Peregrine Drake: Losing the Faeries for more Drakes makes perfect sense. I never really liked the Faeries, except for their Cycling ability–so I often sideboarded them out. Drake with 2 Islands and 3 Swamps in play in really awesome, and makes a lot of mana (even more in conjunction with Snap).

Now why would you play this deck over Bargain or the new Fecundity/Altar/Cluster deck ? I'll give you two excellent reasons:

One– Nobody expects it. The advantage of surprise is huge in tournament Magic. The way you play your lands is crucial. If you have an even number of Islands and Swamps available, play all Islands or all Swamps first. For the first few turns, your opponent might get confused and think you're playing Accelerated Blue or Control Black or anything. That might cause them to tap out imprudently, Tutor for the wrong card, etc… then, if they don't know the deck at all, all they see the whole time (before you try and combo them out) is a bunch of basic Swamps and Islands. Who plays that ? How can someone win on turn four without Ritualing out a Rector first?

Of course, you might think that after this article, people are going to put a lot of Dark Tide hate in their sideboards. You are mistaken. Nobody believes in my silly combo decks, but they work! And that leads me to reason number two:

Two– It's extremely hard to disrupt, and particularly resilient to the current sideboards. Think of it this way: the deck has NO permanents. Well, it's got those 24 basic lands. Not that they are invulnerable, but try to disrupt that without Stone Rains. They Disenchant your Bargain? No problem. If they did it on their turn, you just draw plenty and go off quietly on your turn. Bargain is just a boost, and is absolutely not needed to win (although it's so broken I couldn't ignore it). They kill your Drakes? Big deal. The latter situation is only annoying in response to a very needed Snap on your Drake, so be sure to Duress the black player first to check if he has any Snuff Outs. They get rid of your hand? Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will and Double Ritual that Bargain back into play!

You beat permission decks by casting Turnabout and Stroke during their turn then Duress during yours. If they don't have Thwarts, they're in for a lot of trouble. The only really annoying problem is sideboard hate, like Abundance (who plays that?) or Arcane Laboratory (not that common). Misdirection is annoying, especially on the Strokes of Genius you're casting as counter baits.

I always thought Dark Tide would be dead in Standard. Too many problems, not enough good cards coming in. I'd like to think I was wrong.

Manuel Bevand