Highlander Magic

Hi
Here I’d like to introduce another decktype which performed pretty well at the last HL GP. It was played by Thomas Pittner and finished 7th after swiss and was stopped by Nico’s Hulk Flash in the semifinal. The deck was setup really well for the metagame and I think it still has great potential after the last bannings. I play a similar deck myself and think it’s worth a discussion in this forum.
The deck is an Aggro-Control-Deck and is very flexible. First of all I’d like to post the decklist and explain some keycards and point out some diffrences between this deck and other Aggro/Aggrocontrol decks.

Lands:     5x Forest     2x Plains     7x Island     Tundra     Tropical Island     Savannah     Wastelad     Treetop Village     Faerie Conclave     Breeding Pool     Rishadan Port     Mishra’s Factory     Tranquil Thicket     Lonely Sandbar     Yavimaya Hollow     Horizon Canopy     Terrmorphic Expanse           Polluted Delta     Windsweapt Heath     Flooded Strand     Wooded Foothills     Creatures:     Squee, Goblin Nabob     Stonecloaker     Aven Mindcensor     Kataki, War’s Mage

Harmonic Sliver     Loxodon Hierarch     Trygon Predator     Mystic Snake     Anurid Brushhopper     River Boa     Llanowar Elves     Spike Weaver        Viridian Shaman     Hermit Druid     Eternal Witness     Genesis     Wall of Roots     Birds of Paradise     Uktabi Orangutan     Sakura Tribe Elder     Troll Ascetic     Tarmogoyf     Wild Mongrel     Ravanous Baloth     Fyndhorn Elves     Phantom Centaur     Waterfront Bouncer     Man-o’-War     Serendib Efreet     Venser, Shaper Savant     Looter il-Kor     Wonder     Thought Courier

Spells:     Swords to Plowshares     Enlightened Tutor     Solitary Confindement     Eladamri’s Call     Scrabbling Claws     Phyrexian Furnace     Aether Vial     Null Rod     Crystal Shard     Mox Diamond     Worldly Tutor     Call of the Herd     Life from the Loam     Survival of the Fittest     Back to Basics     Condescend     Gush     Brainstorm     Intuition     Upheaval           Gifts Ungiven     Wipe Away     Counterspell     Force of Will     Mana Leak     Deep Analysis     Forbid     Fact or Fiction     Syncopate     Misdirection     Psionic Blast     Mana Drain     Circular Logic     Impulse     Strategic Planning     Dissipate

So that was it. In the following I’ll explain some important cards and some problems this deck has in my opinion. Maybe you can comment my decklist and give some advice. Thanks

Lands:

• There is nothing special in this deck exept that there it has many basic lands to support Back to Basics which is one of the more imporant cards for this deck. Especially when the metagame changes to more control decks.
• In matchups vs. other aggro decks Yavimaya Hollow is very powerful.
• I don’t like the Expanse that much but the fact that there are only two basic plains in the deck makes it viable.
• Thomas played Bazaar of  Baghdad in his Top8 version but I don’t have one so I can’t tell anything about it.

Creatures:

• Squee supports Survival of the Fittest and Solitary Confinement. Most often Squee is the first creature you fetch with Survival.
• I considered to play Basking Rootwalla and Arrogant Wurm but without Survival they are not good enough. What is your opinion on that? I would prefer Rootwalla if I have to choose one of them.
• Hermit Druid is really good against control decks because he gets the “graveyardaction” going and guarantees the next landdrop.
• Trygon Predator is one of the cards which do work extremly well against Stax. Thomas deck was extremly good adjusted to the metagame. He won the quaterfinal against Patrick Richter even though Patrick had Mishra’s Workshop in both games. Other powerful creatures against Stax are Kataki, Viridian Shaman, Uktabi Orangutan and Aven Mindcenor.
• Furthermore Aven Mindcensor makes a great job against control decks. It “counters” Intuition, Gifts and other tutor effects and sometimes even denials an early fetchland.
• I added Anurid Brushhopper because it’s a good creature against control and it’s very hard to kill for your opponent.
• I cutted Terferi because it’s pretty hard to cast but. He’s really good when he hits the table but sometimes it was in my hand till the end of the game. Has anyone some other thoughts on that?
  

All in all the white splash makes the deck much better than a “normal” UG deck. It makes the matchup against Stax and other control decks much better. In addition to that it makes the matchups against aggro decks better because you ave access to Solitary Confinement, Loxodon Hierarch and Enlightened Tutor.

Spells:

• Enlightened Tutor is great against ervery deck. You can search Back to Basics against control decks, Survival of the Fittest in mirror matches or even Solitary Confinement against RDW.
• Aether Vial is important against control decks and in combination with Survival it can get you a fast victory.
• Null Rod is most often an “autowin” against stax. It was one of the cards that made Thomas’s deck so powerful. But I don't know if Null Rod is still necessary after the last bannings. What do you think. But maybe it's better to cut kataki.
• Survival of the Fittest is one of the keycards in this decks. It gives access to Genesis, Wonder and all other solutions needed in several Matchups. In only two or three turns survival can change the whole game.
• I don’t like Voidslime that much so I cutted it in my version of the deck. I think of putting it back into the deck cause it’s such a flexible card even though I don’t like the manacost.
• I also added Psionic Blast and Strategic Plannings. I’m just testing them and so far they do quite well.
• Maybe I should add Crop Rotation. It’s not as great as it is in a 5CC deck but it can search Wasteland, Yavimaya Hollow or Treetop Village. Do you think Crop Rotation is good enough?

Ok that was it. I hope we can get a nice discussion going about cardchoices, deck strategie or anything else about this decktype. In the next week I’d like to post a similar article on RG Beatz. I hope some of you read my posts J.

Thanks
Markus

well, the deck looks good nad was adapted to the metagame.. but i dont like playing cards like null rod... i think they are very specific.

i´ve been playing with teferi... and i hadnt that many problemas casting.. but usually it gets killed, because ppl dont like it, so they tend to destroy it quickly.

have you thought of playing krovikan horror? its not a very aggro creature, but in long games it may be quite good.

back to basics is very powerful.. especially if a deck is built around it, most ppl play with loads of non-basic lands, even in one color decks.

i agree with you. rootwalla is probably better. no madness cost.. its easier to cast

why no regrowth?

First of all thank you for your effort, Markus. I would like to give the deck a shot.

Would you mind attaching the .mwDeck-File to your post so we can all easily check it out, test and change it?

well, i´ve played against it (me in 5C control) and its quite a difficult matchup. if he happens to cast back to basics its gg for him. that card just ruins my deck.
withou back to basics i think its a 50%-50%.
shred memory, phyrexian furnace are great against his deck, algo sudden shock is quite good.

just a personal opinion, i would take out anurid and probably null rod. would add regrowth and krosan grip

Okay, I will testdrive the deck in the next week and after that, give you some feedback.