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I would not overestimate the impact of Mystical Tutor. Agro or agrocontrol with blue simply dont need that and will not play it. They seldom play Wordly Tutor or even Enlightment tutor (appart Hulk deck). There are plenty of instant or sorcery answers to various board situations, but there are only two major cards that make Mystical tutor good. One is Terminus and the second one is Entreet the Angels. It the player use MT to tutor for Vindicate to get rid of PW, I am pretty fine with that and I will not feel cheated. Tutoring for Terminus gives control decks fighting chance against agro and it is X for 2 so far as the card advantage goes. Agro needs to count with Wrath effects, so I would not complain here either.

Entreet is different story, but think, when Entreet is good (on how many mana). If the control player is under pressure it will rather goes for Terminus than Entreet in the first place. 5 mana Entreet is rather weak, 6 is usually manageble and 7 is like certain win. But we are talking about 6+ MANA spell and resolving this should allow some wins.

Don't get me wrong Mystical Tutor is great news for control decks(using white). But the world will not fall appart. It will allow to end games faster for control players, which is good thing.

---
True-name Nemesis - on the other hand I am quite disappointed, that TNN is not gone. Most anoyig and frustating card I have seen in long time. In agro vs agro matchup it is just nuts and almost with certainty it will decide the result of the game.

Imperial seal - with Mystical tutor gone from the banned list, I see no reason this not to unbanned. OK, it cost $$$ (I would not personaly buy that) but that is not reason to stay banned. What is the most broken play would you do on T2 spending your whole T1 with imperial seal? I would bet it is Oath of Druids, but for that we have Enlightment Tutor that is even more powerfull. Creature decks don't want it so far as I can tell acording to mtgpulse and occurence of Wordly tutor in them (which again is an instant speet tutor).


Banned list : I want to congratulate to the council, because the change of mulligan rule has completely killed all possible combos that existed in format. I see no resurgence of them that is comming. I used to play lot's of combo earlier, but now it seems that everything is dead(you can still play them, but it is hard to gain consistent results with it). I will do some more attempts, but I am very sceptical now.

UNBAN

If you want to have format where there are also non agro decks, Top cant get banned. What would go next? Branstorm? Top gives nice ulitity to control decks, to combodecks and to ramp too. It is powerful card indeed, but nothing too broken. Agro can ignore opponents top calmly. In control mirrors it is pretty good card (but there is lots of cards that are way too good in control mirrors - Crucible, Mana drain, PW's, Loam, ...)

Hi
I would like to start new thread about this sweet deck. Three years ago there was thread also featuring Hearthbeat of the Spring. Oldtime hearthbeat deck was almost pure combo deck with ramp elements. The deck, I want to present today is diffrent, althought many aspects of the deck are similar. There are some big differences in deck structure.

Pure combo aprochach used one or two removals in whole deck, the rest was just bounce. Goal of this deck was ramp quickly, draw many cards and then kill. Usually it was using fog efects against agro. It could easily get in situation of almost no possible recovery - like winterorb or single hatebear.

Combo-control aproach is completely different. It is more atrrition deck than combo deck. It runs 4 wrats efects, 5 spot removals, hand full of counters, draw spells for mid and late game, 4 planewalkers to grind advantage, 2 lifegaining spells.

Here is the decklist:

//lands
7 Island
5 Forest
1 Plains
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mystic Gate
1 Karakas

//Combo
1 Palinchron
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Heartbeat of Spring
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Future Sight

//Timewalks+Untap
1 Frantic Search
1 Turnabout
1 Treachery
1 Time Spiral

1 Exhaustion
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Time Warp
1 Temporal Mastery

//Tutors
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Wargate
1 Tooth and Nail

//Defense
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wall of Omens
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Timely Reinforcements

1 Nature's Claim
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Oust
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus

1 Mental Misstep
1 Negate
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mana Leak
1 Remand
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Drain
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will

//Ramping
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Wall of Roots

1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Three Visits
1 Nature's Lore
1 Farseek
1 Into the North
1 Rampant Growth

//Regrowths
1 Eternal Witness
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Regrowth

//Draw
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Compulsive Research
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Careful Consideration
1 Concentrate
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tidings
1 Braingeyser
1 Sphinx's Revelation

//Cantrip
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library

//Planewalkers
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Gideon Jura


Funcitons of some cards overlap, so the division into these categories is not strict.

Goal of this deck is take over the game - wrath board, get PW's to play, draw many cards and if possible kill with combo or Emrakul. This deck is not evading comfrontation like High Tide decks. It is ready to get hit by some nasty spells like Mindcensor, Gaddock, W. Orb, Glena Eleandra. It has all the solutions to most common combo stoppers.

From the deck playstyle perspective it can be percieved as Timewalk combo. It outgrinds opponent by takind several timewalks in row. By timewalk I don't mean just regular timewalk, but cards that behave like timewalk under some circumstances - like Wrath opponents creatures, don't let opponent untap, tapping opponents creatures or lands on upkeap, getting lifes with Timely Reinforcements or Sphinx Relevation, stall game with Jace or Gideon, Oust a creature... there is plenty ways how to gain pseudo timewalk. When this deck gets to lategame it should overwhelm opponent by card advantage. It does not rely purely on the combo kill, but it can kill with planewalkers as well.

Against agro you play control card, against agrocontrol you play more like combo because they lack speed and against control you play like big control but with more crazy lategame plan. Upside is that opponents will have dead many cards against this deck. All the removal will be completely dead. This deck has capability of getting rid of cards that are out of matchup by several cards - Brainstorm, Jace, Frantic Search, Compulsive Research, Thirst of Knowledge and Careful Consideration. It is more than usual control decks have available.

I returned to this deck after some time and it has performed extremely well lately. Last two tournaments I had 4-1 score. Two losses were against WW and the second mono blue control. Our meta is filled with bluebased-agrocontrol decks and creature based combo decks. Int this kind of metagame this deck is realy what you want to play.

The best card in the deck is by far Futuresight! This deck is designed to do some incredible plays with this enchantment. And I do not meen just Top + FS combo.

High tide and Hearthbeat decks are two completely different things in my eyes. High tide wins in one BIG turn while, hearth beat wins when hits six lands and the win is spread over several turns. Hearthbeat is slower usually two turns slover than Tide deck. Everything usually happens on 6 lands, when Tide is fine with 5 in some extreme cases 4 lands are sufficient too (speaking about Tendril's Agony version).

It realy depends on the build. There are at least two kinds of hearthbeat decks - mine Bant or Hot bant version(version, that Tabris presented during in his playtesting video serie lately), that is VERY VERY defensive and has very possitive agro matchup and usually UGR version of the deck, that is all in and packs minimum disruption. My wote is for defensive aproach. Opponent can stick Thalia or Gaddock or even Mindcensor on turn 2 and Winter Orb later on and the game is usually over. Counters can't cover everything.. Agro is too fast now and getting stucked with one land while opponent having 3 creatures on turn 2 is just awful. Combo (using LANDS to win) is not faster than agro if not defending itself.

I would say, that hearth beat has possitve agro matchup, even more possive midrange matchup. When facing control it is not that simple to say - i would vote for favorable. Extremly fast combo could hurt hearthbeat. Burn might not be best matchup either.

Tide is different beast - it has VERY bad matchup against extremely fast agro, since we need 4-5 lands to win and stuff to stall agro, that this deck packs might not be sufficient. Midrange and controls are best matchups, since they do not have any clock and this decks pact all the counterspells in the world ;-)

Anyway I am currently playing hearthbeat all over the tournaments. I will post my current decklist next week or so. So you can Peek.


As for the splash for HT deck - I dont think it is necessary. There is already 5 mana Artifact version of Mirrary's Wake. 2 such effects are enought. I do not want to provide for opponents wastelands and Dust Bowls no other targets.

Hello everyone,
I realy don't understand why is everyone so obcessed, by cheating land count, or lower land count, that should be present in the deck. First of all, lands are usually not the only one source of mana that is in the deck. I have never seen here, that artifact mana was counted, or mana "elves" were taken into acount. Also blue deck has some sort of early turns fixation, that enables smooth the draws.... Lands are important, but crying about less 2-3 lands in the deck is pointless.

We should be gratefull to accually be able to cast our stuff, not to constantly complain about it. Screw factor is possible no matter how many lands you play. Increased chance to accually be able enjoy the game is worth it - ie NOT regular mulligen.

Highlander IS NOT limited. I have the feeling, that there are some players, that would like to turn HL to that. We can play the broken / very powerfull cards. Constant complaining about that someone ocasionaly lost to this card or that card is just crying out of place. Opponent will not play cards that help you. You have to be ready for what can happen or loose. Magic is quite merciless game. There is accually no place for rules - players cant play any PW until turn 5. Or you can't reanimate Iona on turn 2... etc. 

On Good stuff - do you realy want to play bad cards(I mean bad stuff decks) and call it day? Of course not. HL council does not print new cards and has no powers over this. So we are very dependent on what wizards print. Powerfull cards will continue to be printed and it is not possible to ban them all. Complaing about the fact, that someone plays good cards is pointles. You can't force your oponent to play bad cards just for your convinience.

Good stuff cards can be replaced by less powerfull cards that produce synergy. But this is singleton format. It is not that easy to put together syngergistic deck (tribal deck, storm combo, hulk, high tide, oath...) There is high risk that opponent manages to break source of synergy and you get stuck with set of not that great cards and loose probably.

For those, who keeps complaining about number of colors that decks contains. Look at other formats? Are there realy that many monocolor decks around in other formats? There are not. So why should HL be any different? Unless there is strong oposition of nonbasic hate, there is not that big reason not to play more colors. You have to be still sincere with your manabase and do not to exagerate.

Our group played old variant of mulligen two years after spoiler mulligen was introduced. And gues what was the best deck around? 5c agro accelerated with mana dorks. It was the best deck even though there we had starting life 25 for some time. Second best deck of that era was Protean hulk (it was harder for opponent to interupt combo plan), next deck that had high percentage was some sort of 4c control. So not exactly what you call 1color or 2color decks.

Enjoy!

A > B >>>>> C

Reason behind this is well summed in Vazru's post. Our group used old mulligen two more years, since the new mulligen rule was established. Transition to new rule was percieved as a major update by most players. It delivered more interaction, less mana screws and less color screws.

Nothing is more boring, than situation when one player is flooded and can't do anytnihing, while the second player strugles to get to three mana, to be accually able to play what he wants.

Even now it can happen, that player does not find his lands after spoil mulligen. Taking mulligen to 5 is almost guarantied loss. These type of games brings nothing but boredom and frustration to both players. When playing casually, these games are lost time. It is worth to let the oponent draw to 7 in order to enjoy the game. Spoils mulligen solves this issue better than any other form of mulligen.

Some myths:
It is confusing to new players - we repeat HL rules to every attendant at the beginning of every tournament that we organise. More experienced players should be also able to help to new players and explain the rules. After few games, the new player gets used to it. It will cause him more problems to adapt his deck to metagame and learn how to play against all the archetypes, that he can face.

Less shuffling - when opening hand is bad with either mulligen, you have to shuffle. It is almost guarantied to take more mulligens with paris.

More cards gets played with paris - more lands = less spell slots. Obviously mixed logic applied here. There will be more tension to get rid of more high casting spells in non agro builds (agro doesn't play those cards). Getting something that cost 6 mana on opening hand is almost mulligen.

[Into the Roil]

I would like to post update to my decklist. Every card except two earned their spots and don't feel that they need to be replaced. I would like to cower the change.

CUT
-Into the Roil - Another bounce protection is propably not needed. This one is quite slow.
-Spell Pierce - I agree, it was not superstar among counters.
-Drift Phantasm - I totally forgot about setting this aside. It was too slow to make the cut.

UPDATE
+Divert - Big difference to Denial or Pierce is that, this card has "cycling" so it is not dead when comes to comboing(draw 7 from Time Spiral or hit by Mind's Desire). Several times throught todays tournament it was absolute blowout for oponents, since it countered spell, and drew card. Countered several discards spells, some ponders and even Facts and helped me to win one counter war. Huge advantage is that this spell provides protection from the first turn.

+Nightscape Familiar - saves mana. Works as another medailon. I am very happy about him so far. It is relatively new addition. But too soon to tell.

+Quicken - This is inspiration from TPS Oath deck, that won GP. Match the theme and speeds up some sorcery tutors like Personal tutor / Demonic Tutor and even Concentrate. Anyway it nicely fits in the curve + understands well with Noxious Revival and Y. Will.

I have tested Arcane Denial in Spell Pierce slot and I did not like it. It is another two mana counter with drawback. Absolutely dead when comes to Spiral or Desire. I would play Miscalculation over denial, because of cycling.


New edition will bring in my opinion very handy spell:
Hidden Strings 1u Sorcery
You may tap or untap target permanent, then you may tap or untap another target permanent
Cipher

This will replace probably Cabal Ritual. This defacto produces black mana as well. And utilizes from Y. Will + medailons. It is solid card, that can solve problem of beeing choked on mana. Which can happen very often, when comboing on 4-5 lands. Cipher is bonus ability. I can imagine that this spell will resolve twice in combo turn when opponent is attacked from angry Augur of Bolas :-)

Cards what I am currently testing are Extraplanar Lens instead of Gauntlet of Power, Jace, Architect of Thought instead of Concentrate. These changes are to be tested.

Conclusion
High Tide is viable deck, when facing control + midrange metagame. Agro decks are not problem, when playing higher on the curve. Definitely worst matchup for this deck are most dull deck, that play just one drops. Today I had record 4-1-0 with this deck in tournament with 24 people. Faced RB vampires, Ur counter, 4c Oath, UB reanimation and 4c control (no green). Draw was with Ur, when we reached time limit.

Give the deck try. This deck is skill revarding, since you can many decisions through the game. Every turn is crucial, every mana counts ;-)

To other High tide players: I think, it is shame, that there are quite a number of members of this forum, that have their own version of high tide, but they do not share their deck list. Since High tide is nowhere to be found on mtgpulse.com, propably comunity shared wisdom to upgrade these decks would be good idea. There are probably other aproaches to this deck than mine, and may bee much better ones :-)  Please share..

@Tiggupiru
 I also disagree with greater part of your post. Most of points were pointed out by Maqi.


Our comunity in Prague played with old mulligen rule until last September. So if you count it is almost 5 years after new spoil mulligen rule has been established as the only valid mulligen rule. We played countless tournaments under this mulligan (even with 10 fetches). Metagame was not that different from what we see today. So you certainly cant solve issues like too much good stuff, with that. It was much harder to play themed deck though. And yes, card variability was lower, because you could not afford to play too many cc>4, because these cards were mostly dead as you drawn them against agresive deck.

The format was closer to legacy, where you have to play many interactive spells at lowest cost possible. In our HL, games last definetely longer than 3 turns, but decks are much more unstable in terms of how much lands you need to accually play your stuff. And you are not guaranteed to get to 3 lands after three turns. Some games were decided even before the game had started or were very one-sided. This can't be considered fun and we were often realy angry with beeing screwed like that.

When we switched to the new rule it certainly opened some possibilities for tuning of decks. And the screw factor has dropped (not waned, but we felt that as steady progress).


To shuffling issue: Yes, it takes some time. Nearly all decks play tutors and fetches or ramp spells, so there is no chance avoiding shuffling. If both players are reasonable, shuffling can be made through shortcutting. Someone on this forum (Maqi?) has already proposed that. But without further help and recommendations from HL council, it will not move anywhere. It migh be technicaly incorect magic guildline, but from practical point of view it may solve greater part of shuffling issue. It is propably more reasonable than hunt for banning fetchlands.

I think, that only way how to compare these three cards is to test them in various situations, as you did. But you should not score the results with method "Winner takes it all", but you should use some sort of scale. One contender can give just slight advantage and this fact of small advantage should be seen in the results. The same holds for Serum Visions - it is possible, that it can win threetimes and provide minor advantage, but in other six examples it looses badly.

1) I strongly dissagree, that Concentrate is worse Foresee. It is certainly not the best 4 mana draw spell. Propably the worst from those, that are included. But still very strong card.

When going of there is not only Jace, that is not the best card drawn from Time Spiral. Jace has on the other hand so much utility, that it is worth a shot. I agree, it is more defensive card than anything else. Braingeyser is much worse than any other draw spell. I run Zenith over him, just because I can play zenith and not to worry about my wincondition beeing in a graveyard + Zenith is instant speed. When you worry of beeing screwed on win conditions, I would care more about loosing Hight Tide. Without that specific card, there is propably no way you can win.

In our meta many decks run Praetor's Grasp as a way do screw combo decks(mostly agrocontrols). So doubling of win conditions is necessary here. In one game I lost Hight Tide and even Tendrils, but I was still able to win few turns after via Gauntlet of Power + Palinchron + Zenith.

2) I have some scepticism agains Arcane Denial, but it can be very good. I try give it a shot.

3) Peer digs for five and I realy want to find Mind's Desire, High Tide, Time Spiral... Telling time was last cut. It is decent card.

5) I tried to explain why are rituals awesome in this deck. They are enablers for Y. Will + Tendrills. They make going off so much easier. Sure they do nothing until the big turn. But majority of enablers do so. Or you are happy to draw on your opening Mind's Desire while having just two lands and you know, that fight for survival just begins? While going off and knowing, that you need either infinite mana = 6 lands with single high tide+Palinchron or 4-5 with multiple high tide, or have to be extremely lucky with Mind's Desire to reach storm count 25, it is nothing pleasant.

On the other hand with rituals you can consistently go off much sooner on smaller land count, because you need usually just storm count 9 and a way how to search for Tendrills. The deck play style is more linear and easier to achieve.


On Drift Phantasms: It was not originally in the deck. But the ritual addition convinced me. Y. Will is extreme killer here and Drift is fine way how to search it. Usually it gets just Y. Will or Zenith, other targets are Meditate during going off or Intuition for grave setup for Y. Will.

On Helm: playing Helm on turn 2 is propably bad idea. But otherwise it is very good accelerant and mana saver. Obviously Saphire Medailon is 100x better.

Hi,
I was tweaking with High tide little bit and got it to whole new level. Before posting decklist, I would like to comment it first a little.

1) I wanted deck perform at instant speed as much as possible. I wanted to minimalize number of necessary turns off tapping out without the ability to respond to the opponent. Sure, there are some spells that are worth tapping out, but you will not find any Foresee, Braingeyser, Future Sight, Mind Spring...

2) I wanted to maximalize protection for early turns. So nearly all good cheap counters are included.

3) I maximalized the use of cantrip spells. All good one mana and two mana are included + cantrip guys (that also stall borad little bit)

4) I have cut all traditional regrowth efect, that were originaly played in this decklist. This means there is no Relearn, Call to Mind, Recall. These cards are very dead early on and I feel there is too much good grave hate around, that these spells lost it's power. What I use are the new goodies - Yawmoth's Will, Snapcaster, Noxious Revival (this may seem little odd, but it comboes with intuition nicely + is "free").

5) I wanted the necessary time for perfoming combo to get shorter and comboing became more fun for both players (Opponent will still hate the go-off turn

6) I wanted to have two routes to wictory - ie at least two win conditions. It is traditional Palinchron-> infinite + BSZ. Second wincon was originally Brain Freeze, but I switched it to Tendrill's of Agony!


While it may seem little foolish to include 2BB sorcery with 2 black lands + 2 Signets. I added also two rituals effect. And here is where it gets realy spicy. Brain Freeze needed storm count at least 25, but tendrills needs storm count just 9-10. When played in shell, that was originally able to generate storm around 20+, it should not be that difficult to get storm count 10. Rituals serve double purpuse, they works nicely with Yawmot's Will + generate storm count at the same time as they generate mana. Once can look at them as some sort of "untap effect". For instance Cloud of Faeries net also 2 mana same as Dark Ritual does. One can perform kills even without resolved High Tide. With rituals intuition gets even more deadly.

Sure it depend's on the board setup and cards in hand, but pile of Yawmoth's Will, Demonic tutor, Noxious Revival can do wonders when having single ritual in hand.

What I have not tested yet is red splash to this concept. I fear of getting screwed by nonbasic hate, because single wasteland delays combo for at least 1-2 turns, whitch can be crucial. And even Blood Moon could be problem then. I am pretty sattisfied with current setup.

Deck playstyle is to be very defensive from the beginning. Get necessary lands to perform combo + find missing pieces and then perform fast and clean kill. The idea of interacting with opponent can be translated something like this - not let him do something, that would harm our game plan. Everyting else is irrelevant.

Decklist: (100 cards exactly - feel free to add Timetwisted and/or Candelabra of Tawnos)
// Lands
   1 [ON] Polluted Delta
   1 [ON] Flooded Strand
   1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
   1 [A] Underground Sea
   1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
   1 [RAV] Watery Grave
   1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
   1 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
   23 [ZEN] Island (3)

//Engine
   1 [FE] High Tide (1)
   1 [TSP] Gauntlet of Power
   1 [SC] Mind's Desire
   1 [US] Time Spiral
   1 [UL] Palinchron

   1 [US] Yawgmoth's Will
   1 [TO] Cabal Ritual
   1 [A] Dark Ritual
   1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony

//Untap
   1 [UL] Cloud of Faeries
   1 [UL] Snap
   1 [US] Turnabout
   1 [UD] Treachery
   1 [US] Peregrine Drake

//Tutor
   1 [PT] Personal Tutor
   1 [A] Demonic Tutor
   1 [8E] Merchant Scroll
   1 [TE] Intuition
   1 [RAV] Drift of Phantasms
   1 [RAV] Dizzy Spell
   1 [TSP] Mystical Teachings

//Regrowth's
   1 [NPH] Noxious Revival
   1 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage

//Draw
   1 [SOK] Ideas Unbound
   1 [MR] Thirst for Knowledge
   1 [DDH] Deep Analysis
   1 [8E] Concentrate
   1 [TSP] Careful Consideration
   1 [RAV] Compulsive Research
   1 [TE] Meditate
   1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
   1 [MBS] Blue Sun's Zenith
   1 [UL] Frantic Search
   1 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor

//Protection
   1 [LG] Force Spike
   1 [NPH] Mental Misstep
   1 [DIS] Spell Snare
   1 [M11] Negate
   1 [MM] Counterspell
   1 [5E] Memory Lapse
   1 [SH] Mana Leak
   1 [LG] Mana Drain
   1 [RAV] Remand
   1 [RAV] Muddle the Mixture
   1 [FD] Condescend
   1 [AL] Force of Will
   1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
   1 [LRW] Cryptic Command

   1 [GP] Repeal
   1 [IN] Repulse
   1 [ZEN] Into the Roil

   1 [SHM] Plumeveil
   1 [TE] Propaganda

//Cantrip
   1 [FNM] Brainstorm
   1 [M10] Ponder
   1 [M11] Preordain
   1 [ARE] Serum Visions
   1 [P2] Sleight of Hand
   1 [NPH] Gitaxian Probe
   1 [VI] Impulse
   1 [CHK] Peer Through Depths
   
   1 [M13] Augur of Bolas
   1 [ROE] Sea Gate Oracle

//Artifact's
   1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
   1 [FD] Wayfarer's Bauble
   1 [TE] Sapphire Medallion
   1 [VI] Helm of Awakening
   1 [RAV] Dimir Signet
   1 [MR] Talisman of Dominance


There are few more cards in which I see some potential: Forbidden Alchemy, Shield Sphere+Culling the Weak.

Ball.Lightning

I also attend this tournament serie in Prague and I have realy never felt, that collecting decklist is something necessary. Prices are more than OK in respect to realy small entrance fee. I have complained, even thought I won several tournaments last season.

In comparison: in Prague there are tournaments in legacy(20-30 players attend) every week. Entrance fee is 4euro and prices are highly sponsored by the shop owner. Noone collects decklists there and noone complains about that either. In this regard, I think, that decklist are unnecessary in this type of tournament(HL). For big tournaments they are propably must, but not in small friendly highlander community like ours.

I certainly miss both Sorin PWs, Wurmcoil engine and good discard ie. Inquisition of Kozilek + Duress.

I would cut cards, that are not great agains agro like geddon, Tangle Wire(this deck will always be behind). I would try to make place for more white cards like Aven Mindcensor or Ghostly Prison.

Other cards that comes to my mind (not necessarily autoincludes): Magus of the Tabernacle, Faint's Feathers, Suppresion Field, Oblivion Ring, Expedition Map

All cheap mana sources such as Sol Ring or Mana Crypt would put this format too close to Vintage. They enable a lot of combos, but may fuel agro decks as well.

I personally play monoblue deck based on both High Tide and Mind over Matter archetypes. To make the deck consistent I use a lot of blue tutors, but:

Putting any spell on your hand, graveyard or even battlefield at instant speed at cost less than 4 is bit broken in this format. Thats something thats direcly in conflict with the slower nature of format.

The questions are how slow or how fast should the format be.

0cc or 1cc manastones without card disadvantage(like Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox) or restrictive like Mox Opal would break the format in half. Especially many games would be decided on the fact, who draws mana stone in opening and who don't. Balance is stupidly good card and would not improve the format. If current problem is agro, you certainly do not want to unban Enlightment Tutor as it serves as second Winter Orb. Control can fetch Moat or Humility, while agro has solid amound of answers to that. On the other hand control almost always die when Winter Orb resolves.

I would be fine with mystical tutor on the other hand. Yet it would serve as a removal of choice for goodstuff. 4c decks would propably not be eager to cast armagedon that much. On the other hand its value would be apreciated mostly by control and combo, which have now serious trouble. It might be too good (happy Terminus times ;-) ). If Y. will is unbaned to grant some chance to combo, I think it is safe to allow Mytical Tutor as well.

But yet again, this would not solve the problem itself (which is this thread about).

Fetches are great, original duals are great, certailny they are best lands. But if you look at history of printing multicolor lands, you find, that there is almost one new multicolor land cycle every year. With this progres, manabases of HL decks will become nearly perfect even without fetches and duals. Look at time before Lorwyn - we had duals, shocks, pain lands, 5 fetches, taplands, karoos, mirage fetches, futuresight "duals", old filters plus city of brass and reflecting pool and that was almost all. Look what we have now and what we are getting. Everything is getting nearly perfect. Wizards obviously doesnt want players to get color screwed that often. Extreme example was 5c cruel control oce in standard that was able to cast Cruel Ultimatum, Cryptic Comand, BBE, Kitchen Finkse even Esper Charm.. Hopefully HL will never get to this point.

Building manabase is not hardest thing to do now. I dont see problem here. Netdecking has become phenomeon anyway. Second perfect manabase for goodstuff deck would be found sooner than later. Do you want people to become more honest with color requirements of their decks or just to make building manabases harder to them? I have the feeling, that most of the complains are just because of the goodstuff deck exists. What can solve this problem is more nonbasic hate (maybee wizards add some in near future) or accualy introduce combo to HL, not with banning lands. Unfocused deck cant be allstar in format, where combo is part of the metagame.