Messages

Hi Guys,

First of all appologies for the absense. I've been very caught up with life and not here very much. My wife, who has been logging on, has said that you have been trying to contact me for a while.

I'll be online from tonight again and will try to get a match in tonight and tomorrow.

Apologies for the delays/non-contact/inconvenience.
Owen

Ok, I got this ICQ thingy going.
I'm # 485062880

It's the ICQ-number. Get one at www.icq.com

ICQ is by far the most popular instant messaging program.

How necessary is this for the league? I already have IM, mail etc etc.

Burke, Owen, ICQ # (noob q: what's an ICQ?)

well, i think the league players should be playing the same number of games... or at least have a maximum number of games per league.. so that in the end.. the player with the most games, doesnt win...

as for the more than life to magic.. i think a round per week isnt that much.. you dont even have to play the 3 rounds in the same day.. so... i dont think thats too much

I'd be up for this rather than tourneys. Wit the children it's difficult to find long periods to play but I can do 1 hour blocks every now and then. I just have to download MWS now and figure out how to use it! lol.

I'll be playing from France so same time zone as Germany

lets hope that the White has loads of loaylty and mass removal effects.. and that the blue is cheap and counters things..

Blue won't have a counter ability as the PLW abilities can only be used any time you could play a sorcery.

Much like the MWS question, Anyone interested in playing in the underpowered online variant, German Highlander on MTGO?

Look for Zimagic in the Casual or Anything Goes room or get on to me here.

Looking forward to some underpowered games!

[IF]

The discussion that zimagic pointed us to on themanadrain.com was lately rather going in a more general direction as to find the right criteria upon which banning decisions should be made. It is my experience that discussing single cards is often not very productive as different people have many different views on single cards.

For me it's too abstract and theoretical to discuss the right criteria for your banning policy. I think you've made a good job and i undersign the principles the "Highlander Rat" established. I think the more interesting and difficult part is to subsume this criteria for every single card...for some it seems easy for some imo impossible.

Let's start with...uhmm...maybe Trinisphere? A banned Trinisphere and unbanned Workshop must be a bit confusing for people who check the magicplayer.org banned list the first time. Isn't it so, zigmagic?

Just popping in to check up on various replies, but I can't stay long (in fact this is probably the worst time to get involved in format discussions as I'm moving house, but anyway!)

I have to say that in terms of banning policy you really have only two options: Ban the degenerate combo kill pieces or ban the cards that facilitate/get them.

IF there is a degenerate combo issue, then the enablers should be the first hit with a ban hammer. The queries/concerns/headscratching from certain areas regarding the presence or omissions of certain cards from the current B&L list are mostly based on the powerlevels of cards that needed to be restricted in T1 & banned everywhere else still being legal in this format.

If anyone has a compelling arguament as to why this is the case, a lot of the confusion will go away. Funnily enough, "It just is!" probably doesn't work. 

There will still be arguaments but I'd be happier seeing someone taking, say, Survival of the Fittest, as a random example, and proving that it is ban worthy than simply saying "But that's the brokenzorz!!! How can it not be banned?" Other groups have banned this very card. What's different? Someone mentioned the Storm mechanic as "having no place in singleton/highlander" That's a pretty strong opinion for a mechanic that, excepting Mind's Desire, is legal everywhere. Results seem to have shown that potential for domination is possible if certain cards are present in the HL format and they have now been addressed.

As regards the Trinisphere / Workshop issue, have a look at T1. Which is restricted, which is not? And why? One gives you the other and a way to work around it's drawbacks (in most cases) but Trinisphere wrecks more decks and warps the game so much more than Workshop does. Most decks can survive a first turn Workshop, can the same be said of Trinisphere?

That's about all the time I have for today kids! Keep talking, I'd love to log in next to a our banned list vs your banned list discussion.

[differences]

Following on from discussiong here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=33923.msg481904#new

and here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=32570.msg481882#new

I'd like to encourage a debate on bannings in the Highlander format  and the differences between the current list and the list which is generally being taken for reference, the Legacy list. Most people's criticisms are raised with a knowledge of the format and an understanding of the powerlevel of the cards being discussed.

Asi in particular on The Mana Drain has raised questions about some of the current HL bannings and lack of other bannings.

For reference here are the differences between the two lists:
Banned in HL (Legal in Legacy)
Crop Rotation
Dust Bowl
Lion's Eye Diamond
Mystical Tutor
Power Artifact
Protean Hulk
Trinisphere
Umezawa's Jitte

Banned in Legacy (Legal in HL)
Bazaar of Baghdad
Black Vise
Channel
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Dream Halls
Earthcraft
Entomb
Frantic Search
Goblin Recruiter
Grim Monolith
Gush
Hermit Druid
Illusionary Mask
Land Tax
Mana Drain
Metalworker
Mind's Desire
Mishra's Workshop
Necropotence
Oath of Druids
Replenish
Time Spiral
Windfall
Yawgmoth's Bargain

How much are each of these cards overpowered in a HL format in themselves and not in multiple copies as in Legacy? Goblin Recruiter is obviously not as strong as a singleton as it is in multiple copies, providing a constant and depandable form of CA advantage and board pressure, if it hit, for a deck that ran no other form of refilling it's hand and a high count of cards to hit with it's ability.

More worrying would be cards like Bazaar of Baghdad, Demonic Tutor, Entomb, Mishra's Workshop, Necropotence, Oath of Druids, Yawgmoth's Bargain that have consistantly proven themselves to be either cogs or locii for degenerate combos and have a well-above-average power-level.

From the other side, there is some mystification as to the presence of certain cards on the HL list: Crop Rotation (now that academy is gone), Dust Bowl, Mystical Tutor (given the lack of any other tutor bannings), Power Artifact, Protean Hulk (an interesting debate about this: degenerate tutor or crap rare?) & possibly Umezawa's Jitte.

Looking forward to the discussion!