High Tide Pauper Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide
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On March 31st, the Pauper Format Panel surprised the whole Pauper community by unbanning one of the most Broken cards that is a Legacy Staple, and today, we’re diving into a full deck tech to show how this classic combo spell is making waves in Pauper once again.
Table of Contents
Pauper High Tide Deck Overview
Best Card Choices for High Tide in Pauper
The general idea behind building High Tide in Pauper is to create a smooth, spell-based engine that turns your lands into massive mana producers and lets you chain spells until you win. Let’s see the cards that make this happen.
The Enablers
[cards]{{High Tide}}[/cards]
The heart of the High Tide combo deck starts with, well, [card]High Tide[/card]. This spell is what kicks off the chain—turning every [card]Island[/card] into a two-mana land for the turn.
[cards]{{Psychic Puppetry}}{{Snap}}[/cards]
From there, you pair it with cards like [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] and [card]Snap[/card], which untap your lands for extra mana. What makes [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] special is its ability to splice onto Arcane spells like [card]Ideas Unbound[/card] or [card]Petals of Insight[/card], letting you untap lands mid-combo without even casting it. It's a smooth, spell-based engine where one piece feeds the next.
[cards]{{Merchant Scroll}}{{Peer Through Depths}}[/cards]
Cards like [card]Merchant Scroll[/card] and [card]Peer Through Depths[/card] help you find exactly what you need to get started.
The Card Advantage
Once your mana engine is online, you need cards to keep things flowing. That’s where your draw suite comes in.
[cards]{{Ideas Unbound}}{{Deep Analysis}}[/cards]
Spells like [card]Ideas Unbound[/card] and [card]Deep Analysis[/card] dig deep—[card]Ideas Unbound[/card] gives you three fresh cards for just {U}{U}, though you’ll need to discard them later. [card]Deep Analysis[/card] even lets you draw two more from the graveyard using flashback.
[cards]{{Ponder}}{{Preordain}}[/cards]
You’re also running classic cantrips like [card]Ponder[/card] and [card]Preordain[/card], which smooth out your draws early and help sculpt perfect hands during the combo turn. [card]Pieces of the Puzzle[/card] is another key player here—it can grab up to two instants or sorceries from the top five cards of your deck, fueling your next steps. And when you're running out of steam, [card]Petals of Insight[/card] can loop itself or draw you into the finish.
The Win Condition
This deck doesn't win with creatures—it wins by casting a flurry of spells and running your opponent out of cards.
[cards]{{Stream of Thought}}{{High Tide}}[/cards]
The main win condition is [card]Stream of Thought[/card], which mills four cards and shuffles four back into your library. Thanks to its replicate ability, you can cast it multiple times in one turn, often enough to deck your opponent entirely. You create so much mana with [card]High Tide[/card] and so many spell copies with replicate that closing out the game is just a matter of clicking through it all. Sometimes you even loop [card]Petals of Insight[/card] repeatedly with enough untaps to go infinite. In the end, you’ve drawn most of your deck, generated tons of mana, and buried your opponent under a mountain of spells.
The Sideboard
Since your main deck is laser-focused on going off, your sideboard is where you handle interaction and hate.
[cards]{{Gigadrowse}}[/cards]
[card]Gigadrowse[/card] is a must—it can tap down all your opponent’s lands or threats, and it gets around countermagic by copying itself a bunch of times.
[cards]{{Blue Elemental Blast}}{{Hydroblast}}[/cards]
Against red decks, [card]Blue Elemental Blast[/card] shines by efficiently dealing with burn spells or red creatures.
[cards]{{Dispel}}{{Muddle the Mixture}}[/cards]
You’ll also want some counters like [card]Dispel[/card] or [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card], which not only stop opposing interaction but also tutor up combo pieces thanks to transmute. You tailor this section based on what you expect in the meta, but the core idea is the same: buy yourself enough time to combo.
High Tide Pauper Strategy
In the early game, your main goal is to build up a solid foundation—think of it like laying the pipes before turning on the water. You want to hit your land drops consistently, ideally three or four [card]Island[/card]s by turn four, so prioritize hands that have a few lands and at least one cantrip like [card]Ponder[/card] or [card]Preordain[/card]. These cheap spells help you dig for your combo pieces without falling behind. Use [card]LΓ³rien Revealed[/card] early for Islandcycling if you're missing land drops, and don’t be afraid to keep a slower hand if it has good setup tools.
As you move into the mid-game, it’s time to sculpt your hand quietly. Look for windows when your opponent taps out—this is your best chance to resolve something like [card]Pieces of the Puzzle[/card] or [card]Merchant Scroll[/card] without disruption. You’re not trying to race here; instead, you want to assemble a hand with at least one [card]High Tide[/card], a way to untap lands like [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] or [card]Snap[/card], and some card draw or recursion like [card]Ideas Unbound[/card] or [card]Petals of Insight[/card].
High Tide Pauper Combo Explained
When you're aiming for a turn 4 win with High Tide Combo in Pauper, the best hands start with two copies of [card]High Tide[/card] and access to four untapped [card]Island[/card]s.
[cards]{{High Tide}}[/cards]
You begin by tapping one Island to cast the first [card]High Tide[/card], which turns every Island into a land that taps for two blue. Then, tap a second Island and use one of the two mana it produces to cast your second [card]High Tide[/card]. Now, all your Islands tap for three blue mana each—and you’ve got three untapped Islands that generate serious value.
[cards]{{Psychic Puppetry}}{{Ideas Unbound}}[/cards]
From this point, you can start chaining spells. The key play is casting an Arcane spell—usually [card]Ideas Unbound[/card]—and splicing [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] onto it. Together, this combo costs exactly three mana, and you can pay for the entire thing by tapping one Island. Then, [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] untaps that Island, letting you do it again. This doesn’t generate mana yet, but it draws cards and gives you a loop to work with. Your goal is to keep digging until you find a third [card]High Tide[/card] or start drawing more copies of [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card].
The deck becomes really explosive when you’re able to splice multiple [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card]s onto the same Arcane spell. With two [card]High Tide[/card]s active, every Island adds three mana. So if you splice three [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card]s, you're untapping three Islands and getting nine mana back. If the Arcane spell only costs five total, like [card]Petals of Insight[/card] plus the splice costs, you’re making a net gain of four blue mana per loop. That’s how you go infinite.
[cards]{{Petals of Insight}}{{Psychic Puppetry}}[/cards]
Once you've reached the point where you're casting [card]Petals of Insight[/card] spliced with three [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card]s, you can create infinite mana and dig through your entire deck. You never actually cast the Puppetrys—you always splice them, keeping them in hand and ready to reuse. With infinite blue mana, the win is simple: just cast [card]Stream of Thought[/card] with replicate enough times to mill your opponent’s entire deck. Sometimes, before going for the kill, it’s worth casting a single [card]Stream of Thought[/card] to reshuffle key cards like [card]High Tide[/card] or [card]Petals of Insight[/card] back into your deck in case you need them later.
Tips and Tricks for Playing High Tide in Pauper
Timing is everything—don’t try to combo off too early. Aim to hit your third or fourth [card]Island[/card] before going off.
Track how many [card]High Tide[/card]s and [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card]s you’ve drawn. Having multiples can massively boost your mana and spell output.
Remember that [card]Snap[/card] isn’t just a bounce spell—it untaps two lands, which turns into net mana after a [card]High Tide[/card].
You can use [card]Pieces of the Puzzle[/card] to intentionally stock your graveyard with spells, setting up great reshuffle targets for [card]Stream of Thought[/card].
Sequence your Arcane spells with care—splicing [card]Psychic Puppetry[/card] at the right time gives you extra untaps without casting another spell.
The deck is precise and rewards practice. Know your lines, test your loops, and always have a backup route in case your main plan stumbles.
Mono-Blue Terror Pauper Sideboard Guide: Matchups & Strategies
The following are suggestions on how to approach games with the deck, though they clearly reflect my own preferences based on my personal experience with the deck, so you’ll notice some different recommendations here than what you might be used to.
Mono Red Aggro
IN: 4 [card]Blue Elemental Blast[/card], 3 [card]Snap[/card]
OUT: 1 [card]Gigadrowse[/card], 1 [card]Stream of Thought[/card], 2 [card]Pieces of the Puzzle[/card], 3 [card]Hidden Strings[/card]
The plan against Mono-Red Burn is to have cheap answers to prevent ourselves from dying, fast, so we can go off by turn four. To this [card]Blue Elemental Blast[/card] is needed and [card]Snap[/card] plays a huge role in slowing them down by returning their setup creatures.
Gruul Ramp
IN: 4 [card]Snap[/card]
OUT: 3 [card]Hidden Strings[/card], 1 [card]Gigadrowse[/card]
Similarly, against Gruul Ramp the key is to stall them, and your biggest target is to bounce their [card]Arbor Elf[/card]. This will set them apart and since their main way of winning is through creatures, [card]Snap[/card] makes a great addition against them.
Grixis Affinity
IN: 1 [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card]
OUT: 1 [card]Gigadrowse[/card]
Sideboard is not great against Grixis Affinity, but we don't need much since the deck itself is not as strong as it used to be. One [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card] should be fine.
Dimir Faeries
IN: 3 [card]Gigadrowse[/card]
OUT: 1 [card]Pieces of the Puzzle[/card], 2 [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card]
Against Dimir Faeries, the plan is to tap out their resources at turn four or five on their end step and then go off on your turn. Notably, their removal is dead, but you could have a hard time to set up against a countermagic wall, and as such, [card]Gigadrowse[/card] is a must.
My Favorite Pauper Setup
Here are some of my favorite MTG products for Pauper—stuff I’ve tried, loved, and think you'll find super useful too.
The Amazon links use affiliate codes that help support future content if you grab something.
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