Survey Results Continental Cup 2019

This survey was handed out on the Continental Cup #2 in Halle, November 2019. 47 of 90 people took part in the survey.

How often do you play Highlander (highlandermagic.info rules)?
(absolute frequencies

How satisfied are you with the format currently on a scale from 1 to 10 (1=not at all, 10=very much)?
(absolute frequencies)

(mean)
(median -> resistant to outliers)

satisfaction according to how often highlander is played

These card(s) should be banned:
(absolute frequencies)
(relative frequencies)
(cards currently on the Watchlist are italic)

Reasonings (single cards):
(I tried to make the written reasonings as unadulterated as possible, even if there were synonymous formulations (e.g. “too strong” vs. “too powerful”).)

Demonic Tutor
– quite slow
– fairly costed
– Tutors make the format too consistent in the face of power creep
– Combo seems too good atm
– broken, but if you splash its greedy
– allows strategies
– nothing broken
– easy splash for every deck
– 100 singleton format -> not having 2 copies of every card x4
– too powerful
– format defining card
– iconic card x2
– no tutors x2
– control needs this card
– fair powerful
– people splash b for tutor
– maybe too cheap
– generic
– skill intensive
– black payoff
– singleton
– banned Mystical < Demonic
– combo needs it
– not too strong at cmc 2 + sorcery
– too good overall
– it’s the best card of each deck with black
– combo and card too strong
– powerful card, not nuts

Dig Through Time
– doesn’t seem oppressive
– may be banworthy if some other changes are implemented
– maybe too good
– finds answers, digs deep
– finds too often heavy solution
– UU is often complicated
– nothing broken
– no action needed
– no tutors
– too good
– double U somewhat balance this card
– U staple that makes blue competitive
– one of the blue spells should be banned
– fuels decks with cantrips a lot
– extremely swingy
– undercosted
– out of nowhere
– 2 mana = 7 cards ?!
– too strong on balanced boards
– powerful card, not nuts
– too strong top deck
– good but not too good
– too much advantage for easy restriction
– is ok
– too strong and better than cruise
– too many delve cards in one deck are not possible
– if a delve spell should go i think it should be DTT

Entomb
– Best 1cc Tutor
– enables hard to interact with strategies
– only one deck plays this effectively
– Reanimator not oppressive
– a lot of combos
– nothing broken
– depends on Reanimate / Echo the Aeons abuse
– fair
– could be broken if more people bought Bazaar
– no tutors x2
– good for reanimator x2
– ban echo of aeons instead
– too strong
– narrow applications
– reanimator not Tier 1
– has not dominated in any archetype
– not more busted than other cards in the format
– is fine
– possibly too strong, but demonic is worse
– hard to say since reanimator is not that representative
– powerful card, not nuts

Mana Drain
– glorified Counterspell
– reactive, not worth banning
– most of the time Counterspell x3
– manapush is insane x2
– too good Counterspell
– it’s so Yu-Gi-Oh -> OP!
– nothing broken
– unnecessary to have Counterspell with huge tempowing
– almost fair
– necessary UU harcounter
– ramp in mono U + counter
– powerful card, not nuts
– variance increases
– strong but not unfair
– hard to abuse
– mostly no value
– strong but ok
– slightly better than Counterspell
– i think here are more problematic cards
– not as strong anymore, since the speed of the format has increased

Tainted Pact
– deck building restrictions  x3
– may be banworthy if some other changes are implemented
– bad Demonic
– requires greedy deck
– nothing broken x2
– no tutors x2
– ok, this card cannot be used by combo x2
– instant demonic
– in the right deck critical
– not universally playable
– skill intensive
– maybe too strong
– better than DT in most scenarios, but restrict deck building enough
– exiles library
– as long as DT is in the format we dont have to talk about pact
– the downside of exiling is real
– powerful card, not nuts
– fair card

Tolarian Academy
– hard to interact with x2
– deck is becoming too strong and will be able to win without x2
– not the problem in Academy
– ban other Academy stuff x3
– play solitaire
– deck is too fast, too consistent
– need to be weakened
– too boring to play against
– nearly every deck is playing Wasteland
– annoying to play against
– broken x2
– unfun
– too oppressive
– too good
– deck is retarded
– obv
– instant speed tutor, but needs deck built around it
– powerlevel?
– deck is inconsistent enough
– skill intensive
– too strong?
– much too strong
– very powerful
– too consistent
– if proxies are allowed, academy might be too powerful
– people should learn to adept first

Treasure Cruise
– doesn’t seem oppressive
– may be banworthy if some other changes are implemented
– maybe too good
– finds answers, digs deep
– too much [

] power
– who don’t like going on a cruise
– it’s ok
– too powerful
– too oppressive
– powerful card, not nuts
– too good
– blue needs some toys, this is one of it
– U staple that makes blue competitive
– extremely swingy
– undercosted
– out of nowhere
– 1 Mana = 3 cards ?!
– too strong on balanced boards
– too strong top deck
– good but not too good
– comparable to Ancestral Recall, which is banned as well
– is fine
– too strong, almost Ancestral Recall
– too many delve cards in one deck are not possible

Following cards were asked as well, even though they are currently not on the Watchlist:

Oko, Thief of the Crown
– hoses all creature strategies
– unfun
– too strong
– not able to kill without removal
– this survey is now a 3/3 Elk
– game turns to elk

Oath of Druids
– too oppressive
– 2 mana ‘I win’
– should at least be on the Watchlist
– it’s one of the most powerful card in our format

Scapeshift
– search and win
– just ridiculous
– too strong
– too consistent
– now also got Field of the Dead

These card(s) should be unbanned:
(absolute frequencies)
(relative frequencies)
(cards currently on the Watchlist are italic)

Reasonings (single cards):
(I tried to make the written reasonings as unadulterated as possible, even if there were synonymous formulations (e.g. “too strong” vs. “too powerful”).)

Skullclamp
– just broken
– needs setup to be good
– advantage doesn’t outright win
– to get creature decks going again
– could be interesting
– try out  x2
– that’s broken stuff
– too strong in the current meta
– needs setup, creature based decks
– fair enough
– enough antitech
– not sure, probably too good
– too strong
– please never unban
– unban jitte instead
– not universally playable
– archetype enabler
– too strong
– busted in already good creature decks
– takes aways the cost of playing mana dorks
– go creatures, go elves
– only helps mono G
– problematic in other formats
– stupid card
– auto include in every creature deck

Survival of the Fittest
– just broken
– may be banworthy if some other changes are implemented
– easy repeatable tutors are even worse
– too much combo already
– a lot of mana + setup + combo deck
– that’s broken stuff
– enables too strong interactions
– multiple tutor
– should be tried
– too oppressive
– too good and tutor
– maybe but first keep Academy in check
– that one is retarded
– repeatable tutor too strong
– i dont know
– broken combos possible
– please test it
– probably not too powerful anymore
– potentially too strong for reanimator
– I would love to but NO! Pls NO!

True-Name Nemesis
– unfun
– hard to interact with
– creature that can be answered
– too oppressive
– is actually not so bad
– not oppressive enough
– not good enough anymore
– not too strong
– fair enough
– complete unfun
– enough antitech
– dumb
– i really do hate this card
– good ban
– why ban?
– unfun card
– bad for gameplay
– not OP
– not for powerlevel, but for bad impact on the games it appears in
– dont care
– ban makes the match up against blue decks better
– not problematic for the most decks
– it’s and creature

Umezawa’s Jitte
– hoses all creature strategies
– unfun x2
– too stupid in creature match ups
– to get creature decks going again
– first unban Skullclamp
– jitte is just unfair
– only unban if SFM get’s banned x2
– fair enough
– enough antitech
– too good
– will warp every creature mirror
– if you really want to unban equipment, unban Jitte, NOT Skullclamp
– equipment drawback
– fun card
– too support creature toolbox decks
– not too strong at the moment
– seems ok to test
– turns all around once it enters
– please don’t
– tested and was too strong
– stupid card

How satisfied are you with the current Mulligan on a scale from 1 to 10 (1=not at all, 10=very much)?
(absolute frequencies)

(mean)
(median -> resistant to outliers)

Comments on the Mulligan:
– better than scry
– more games decided by flood/screw or bad hands vs. good hands
– today was fun
– more lopsided wins than with free mulligan
– i like this mulligan
– keep the current mulligan
– 1 free mulligan would be totally fine
– it’s nice to have a mulligan like in standard, modern etc.
– favours combo decks
– didn’t fix the non-game issue
– free mulligan would increase the number of games which are not decided by a bad starting hand
– mulligan is fine x2
– please ban it
– much more non-games x2
– maybe it’s too good with two-card combos
– current mulligan is ok
– i think the free mulligan should be a part of HL
– still undecided
– amount of non-games increased, but free mulligan + LM feels too strong
– i think more exciting games would happen on a free mull
– brawl uses freemull
– no opinion
– LM is perfect
– spoil 2 cards mulligan <3
– Mulligan is good
– especially mulligan to 5 still enables interactive gameplays
– non-games were drastically reduced compared to vancouver mulligan
– I would prefer London + Free Mulligan
– a lot worse without free mulligan
– free mulligan is not needed
– you can easier win games with mulligan on 5
– i prefer london + free

Comments on the Format:
– feels combo heavy
– need to be super aggressive or have a combo win
– fair decks seem to be not good enough
– powerlevel of cards is too high  x2
– currently in a pretty good spot
– combo decks are fine for the format as long as they don’t dominate
– I like the strong cards that cannot be played in other formats
– nice format
– i always hate bannings
– the Academy deck needs to be nerfed (ban Academy or tutors)
– the current format splits my community
– I would like if you ban some cards
– meta was nicely diverse