Topics

[fifty minutes]

Finnish nationals were held a week ago mid July, and the following discussion was raised by a participating player:



Currently http://highlandermagic.info/index.php?id=hinweise says: The recommended round-time for tournament best-of-three-matches is fifty minutes.

So should the recommended round time be changed to 60 minutes, and if yes, why?

Note that tournament organizers are still able to introduce any deviation from the recommended time limits, but they must be announced prior the registration.

Give us in the comments your well rationalized reasoning for either of the options, so the council can weigh in the pros and cons of them. Thanks!

While the official 1 vs. 1 commander may not resemble highlander much, Wizards has started to post daily league 5-0 lists, starting from this date onward:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/commander-constructed-league-2017-05-11

Why I bring this forth, is because it may give some brewers and idea what synergies there are and what to maybe experiment in this format.

Albeit they have more strict banlist and comparing Commander to Highlander is like apples vs. oranges debate, I hope results from mtgo hivemind may give someone a hint of cards that certain archetypes use, and you may have forgotten in your build process.

Hi,

No time to write long stories, but about a week ago we held nationals here at Finland. Just finished adding the deck lists:

http://mtgpulse.com/event/16954#239677

Source: http://mtgsuomi.fi/keskustelu/index.php/topic,68623

We had a small 4 round 8 player tournament. Results:

1____Pyyhtiä, Tuomas______12 pts___Emrakul-combo
2____Leminen, Markus_______9 pts___Naya-aggro
3____Niemi, Joni___________6 pts___UB-merfolk
4____Hänninen, Kari________6 pts___Bant-control
5____Ylä-Lahti, Henri______6 pts___GWUB-midrange
6____Orden, Christopher____4 pts___RUG-Ramp
7____Niemi, Miikka_________3 pts___UGB-Reanimator
8____Tran, Sami____________1 pts___Stax

If the participants see this thread, please contribute your own lists if you feel like it. If we can amass the top-4, I volunteer to post them to mtgpulse.com.

Here's what I ran:

Emrakul-combo
Mana (31):
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Badlands
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Underground River
1 Watery Grave
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Breeding Pool
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Shelldock Isle (Doomsday, Emrakul)

More fast mana (10):
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Dark Ritual
1 Rain of Filth
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Manamorphose
1 Pentad Prism
1 Squandered Resources

Counters & Disrupt (21):
1 Mental Misstep
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Daze
1 Dispel
1 Spell Snare
1 Disrupt
1 Flusterstorm
1 Force Spike
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pyroblast
1 Overmaster
1 Cabal Therapy (sometimes gets oathed gamekeeper too)
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Castigate
1 Negate
1 Mana Leak
1 Remand
1 Mana Drain

Draw/Tutor/Cantrips (23):
1 Serum Powder (exchanges opener seven of no Emrakul/Channel etc. straight away, also after applying HL spoils mulligan)
1 Chromatic Star
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Terrarion
1 Darkwater Egg (all of these eggs enable same turn Doomsday kill, smoothens mana and draw too)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Gamble
1 Time of Need
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation (Only worth tutoring with this if Emrakul already in hand. Risk dying mitigated by deck size and combos being multiple two parts. Definitely wins more than causes losses).
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Lim Dul's Vault (bad with Channel route)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tainted Pact (only stop and take is Emrakul)
1 Intuition
1 Perplex (Show and Tell, Doomsday, Vindicate... pending)
1 Rhystic Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen (Pending. Awkward mana cost, does not fetch Emrakul, have to show...)
1 Grim Tutor (Pending. Life loss, double black)

Utility (5):
1 Vindicate (Karakas)
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Noxious Revival (Intuition piles, doomsday-kills)
1 Frantic Search (Doomsday, if opponent has life 15 or >=)
1 Dream's Grip (Doomsday, if opponent has life 15 > 30, also eot hoses opponent's counter mana, buys time against random critters. For the entwine, maybe should pack City of Traitors...)

Combo counterparts (in order of importance) (8):
1 Channel
1 Show and Tell
1 Oath of Druids
1 Doomsday
1 Gamekeeper
1 Sneak Attack
1 Eureka
1 Tooth and Nail (Channel)

Win (2):
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Thorn
1 Bribery (not enough ramp, this blows, pending).

Original source with pending future changes can be found from: http://iki.fi/~pyyhttu/magic/highlander/emrakul-combo.txt

My match-ups were in order: GWUB-midrange, Bant-control, Naya-aggor and UB-merfolk. All matches were 2-1 except last one went miraculously 2-0 as this was the only game my opponent faced little mana screw.

28 people played 4 rounds of highlander at Kuukkacon in Jyväskylä.

1       Aalto, Tero              12      62.6    75.7576 54.035
2       Nousiainen, Janne        12      58.6667 61.5385 57.977
3       Antikainen, Tomi         12      57.3333 75.7576 51.7205
4       Öhman, Janne             12      53.2667 66.6667 47.2051 
5       Ahvenainen, Miro         12      45.2667 69.2308 43.5831 
6       Pulze, Aarne             10      41.8667 66.6667 40.9596 
7       Juntti, Juho             10      39.8667 56.4103 39.9784 
8       Kilappa, Vantte          9       64.6667 53.8462 60.4751

Rest of the standings and top-8 decklists at: http://vaihdetaan.kapsi.fi/forums/index.php/topic,63358.0/topicseen.html

[Banned:]

I don't have posting rights to the Announcement subforum of this board so here goes. The new Highlander unbannings have been announced at magicplayer.org.

Valid during October 15th, 2010 0:00 CET until April 14th, 2011 24:00 CET.

Changes to the present list, effective 10/15/2010:

Banned:

   * -

Unbanned:

   * Worldgorger Dragon

Watchlist:

   * Protean Hulk
   * Worldgorger Dragon

Unban-Watchlist:

   * Cephalid Illusionist

Other Changes:

With the format's originator Sturmgott standing down, the remaining four members of the council started to look for a replacement for him. It gradually dawned to us that no-one can really fully replace our former chairman. At the same time, we had two potent applicants as core members for the council. So in the end, we decided that we'd wanted them both.
Mark Hildebrandt (MarkusMagic) received good references from Sturmgott and his long experience of the format and merits as a prominent HL tournament organizer should speak for themselves.
Another international addition comes from Finland. Juha Ihonen (Nastaboi) was one of the first early adopters of the format locally and has ever since shown commitment by actively partaking into discussions as well participating in tournaments.
We feel these changes will continue to even out the workload among the remaining members as well as strengthen the demographic decision making policy.

New sets legal from release date onward:

In order to streamline and lessen the past confusion with the release dates, highlander format will now also include the standard set legality and allow sets to be legal as of its worldwide release date, instead of the 20th. day of the current month as per the old policy. We already had a well received but unofficial announcement from format's father Sturmgott on this, and it was applied in M11 set for the first time. The release date set legality has been originally applied in DCI Floor Rules since Morningtide. So as of writing this, the Scars of Mirrodin expansion will be legal in Higlander from its official relase date onward, (October 1, 2010).

Single card Explanations:

Worldgorger Dragon

Locking down Entomb and Survival of the Fittest earlier, enabled other cards to be put on a pedestal for a closer review. Among them is a card with a peculiar mechanic from Torment. Worldgorger Dragon. Earlier Dragon was being abused in vintage as part of an interaction with various Animate Deads and e.g. Bazaar of Baghdad where Dragon is part of a chain of events netting large amounts of mana and cards (win condition) for the player.
When Wizards initially announced their Singleton format axioms, the Worldgorger Dragon was not placed onto their banned list as they didn't want to eliminate all the combos but went after the heavier tutor banning instead. Although the two formats aren't near the same, (highlander still has those tutors) we feel that Dragon shouldn't significantly tilt the meta, partly because the combo has failed to make any kind of a show in its digital form.
Encouraged by this, we decided to put the card under community peer review. While testing the combo, we noticed couple of things:
*Worldgorger might potentially be explosive (e.g. with Doomsday), but it can be disrupted rather easily with timed, instant answers: grave hate, creature removal, bounce, as well as with enchantment removal. Anticipating these, the card promotes play skills on both sides of the table.
*Basically as a three card combo (likewise Grim Monolith/Power Artifact), tutoring or drawing the combo in time against aggro is challenging
However, we acknowledge that using Dragon one may be able to create a loop and get intentional draws if game state looks hopeless. We are following very closely should the Dragon enter the meta and cause this kind of an undesired show.

Protean Hulk

Now that Flash, Entomb and Survival of the Fittest are gone, Protean Hulk is back. It already caused a slight stir in Finland by winning the Nationals with Pattern of Rebirth/Academy Rector and sacrifice synergies, but other than that, we haven't seen much of the Hulk. Because of this, we wait for the results and give the necessary time to see whether this card could be taken off from the watchlist.

Cephalid Illusionist

The banned Dread Return keeps currently in check two powerhouses: Hermit Druid and Cephalid Illusionist. So in that sense the ban has been spot on. While the format has the seemingly more powerful Hermit Druid allowed, Cephalid Illusionist on the other hand is still behind the bars. And this has been legitimately been addressed. But because the Worldgorger Dragon was prepared this long, we don't want to cause too many changes all of the sudden, so we felt it was purposeful to introduce the Illusionist on the unban watchlist first, rather than to toss it straight into the format.

[Banned:]

The new HL bannnings/unbannings have been published to the index page of magicplayer.org (automated Google Translate version here) by Sturmgott a short while ago.

In a nutshell the changes are:

Banned:

• Entomb
• Grindstone
• Mind Twist
• Survival of the Fittest

Unbanned:

• Painter's Servant
• Power Artifact

Unban-Watchlist:

• Flash
• Protean Hulk
• Worldgorger Dragon

Ban-Watchlist

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• Survival of the Fittest
• Life from the Loam
• Sneak Attack

Other game specific changes:

The recommended minimum round time will be 60 minutes.

Edit: Forgot the Ban-Watchlist changes. Added.

27 people played 5 rounds of swiss with 60 minutes round time organized by Helsinki Safe Haven. The original report can be found from here with the contributions of decklists played by some of the players. No decklist were gathered.


   1 Häyrynen, Andrei                 13  60,0000  78,7879  53,7063  5/4/1/0 (good stuff.dec)
   2 Pyyhtiä, Tuomas                  13  53,3333  71,7949  52,8846  5/4/1/0 (Aluren-Swans-Nauseam combo)
   3 Sjöblom, Max                     12  61,3333  72,7273  56,2005  5/4/0/0 (Thopter-combo/control)
   4 Niemi, Joni                      12  52,0000  69,2308  50,7576  5/4/0/0 (Little Naya Zoo)
   5 Hammarberg, Vesa                 10  52,0000  66,6667  48,4343  5/3/1/0
   6 Hyvärinen, Mikko                 10  38,6667  63,6364  37,7778  5/3/1/0 (UB?-Control)
   7 Louhio, Jaakko                    9  64,0000  46,1538  59,9068  5/3/0/0
   8 Myllynen, Teemu                   9  57,3333  58,3333  53,7607  5/3/0/0 (RB Aggro)
   9 Plommer, Raoul                    9  52,0000  53,8462  51,9114  5/3/0/0 (RGB LD)
  10 Valori, Kim                       9  51,6667  58,3333  50,0000  4/2/0/1 (UW Fish)
  11 Inkeroinen, Rauno                 9  46,6667  61,5385  47,4444  5/3/0/0
  12 Mäkelä, Mika                      9  45,3333  50,0000  45,5711  5/3/0/0
  13 Seppälä, Antti                    9  40,0000  61,5385  42,9770  5/3/0/0
  14 Altmets, Mihkel                   7  58,6667  44,4444  56,7016  5/2/1/0
  15 Mäkinen, Arttu                    7  56,0000  44,4444  54,6320  5/2/1/0 (UG?-Survival?)
  16 Kettula, Joel                     6  65,0000  45,4545  57,6923  4/1/0/1
  17 H, Aleksi                         6  54,6667  38,4615  52,6623  5/2/0/0
  18 Ruso, Ilkka                       6  53,3333  33,3333  52,5369  5/2/0/0
  19 Ihonen, Juha                      6  51,6667  50,0000  49,8168  4/1/0/1 (Wildfire-Swans)
  20 Skäg, Teemu                       6  50,6667  50,0000  48,6410  5/2/0/0
  21 Niemi, Miikka                     6  50,6667  40,0000  50,0000  5/2/0/0 (Prison Stax)
  22 Gronberg, Joachim                 4  50,6667  33,3333  47,3085  5/1/1/0
  23 Hanninen, Kari                    3  68,7500  39,3939  63,2197  4/1/0/0
  24 Heikkinen, Mika                   3  63,8889  33,3333  61,6049  3/0/0/1
  25 Lepikko, Antti                    3  54,6667  42,8571  53,2479  5/1/0/0 (Mono-R Burn)
  26 Leung, Tomi                       3  46,6667  27,7778  48,9744  5/1/0/0 (Survival pile)
  27 Lindroos, Sarno                   1  50,0000  25,9259  44,1919  4/0/1/0

[Edit:]

Edit: Don't have time to reflect the changes here, but latest list can always be found from: http://iki.fi/~pyyhttu/magic/highlander/enchantress_wg.txt

I've been playing both in league and in real life a variant of Enchantress deck that is geared towards various aggro builds. I've tried to push the synergy level of this deck to the top (Zuran Orb/Land Tax/Scroll Rack/Life from the Loam/Solitary Confinement and so on), pack in few game ending combos (STFU Doll & Guilty Conscience/Pariah, Overgrowth on plains & Earthcraft & Mobilization/Sacred Mesa).

The deck can be categorized as a control/combo build as it can play any of those roles and tries to combine the best of the both worlds from Darren Di Battista's Parfait by packing in lots of deadly silver bullets (Wheel of Sun and Moon, Choke, Worship) and various Enchantress ideas (mainly combo builds). The starting hand states what strategy you're after with this.

I have on purpose left out beatdown strategies like Auratog/Rancor and other clumsy solutions like Yavimaya Enchantress (suboptimal) and Ancestrall Mask as it's too vulnerable. (Hey, it's an aura!). Those strategies are not even suitable in this deck. The role piloting this deck is always control. I often opt to let the opponent go first as have so many cards here that give me tremendous advantage if I go second (LoA, Tithe, Land Tax, Porphyry Nodes...).

So those were the initial design guidelines.

Here's the current list:

GW-Enchantress
Mon Apr 13 11:44:07 UTC 2009

Mana:

1x Temple Garden
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Serra's Sanctum
1x Tranguil Thicket
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Nantuko Monastery
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Kor Haven
1x Karakas
1x Flagstones of Trokair
11x Snow-Covered Plains
7x Snow Covered Forest
1x Mox Diamond
1x Chrome Mox

Acceleration:

1x Exploration
1x Wild Growth
1x Utopia Sprawl
1x Overgrowth

Removal & shutdowns:

1x Maze of Ith
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Path to Exile
1x Guilty Conscience
1x Gelid Shackles
1x Porphyry Nodes
1x Drop of Honey
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Pariah
1x Aura of Silence
1x Faith's Fetters
1x Moat
1x Parallax Wave
1x Wrath of God

Dudes:

1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Academy Rector
1x Stuffy Doll
1x Eternal Dragon

Tutors & Draw/Library manipulation:

1x Englightened Tutor
1x Wordly Tutor
1x Land Tax
1x Tithe
1x Mirri's Guile
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sylvan Library
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sterling Grove
1x Oath of Druids
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Enchantress Presence
1x Crop Rotation

Business & Silver Bullets etc.:

1x Ivory Tower
1x Zuran Orb
1x Argivian Find
1x Genju of the Fields
1x Hoofprints of the Stag
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Regrowth
1x Rofellos' Gift
1x Earthcraft
1x Life from the Loam
1x Rise of the Hobgoblins
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Choke
1x Squirrel Nest
1x Sacred Mesa
1x Story Circle
1x Mobilization
1x Holistc Wisdom
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Worship
1x Replenish
1x Ivory Mask
1x Humility
1x Opalescence
1x Dovescape
1x Enduring Ideal
1x Decree of Justice

I don't have time to write long stories, so I'll just say this deck is dedicated for high synergy and combos which it tries to set up. If that fails or better plan has all along been amassing mana and attack with Mesa/Soldier and Squirrel Tokens, that's fine. Rounds with this beast *can* take a long time, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend this deck to a GP if you've only got 50 minutes or so, unless you want to develope yourself as a player and expect aggro meta.

Some of the synergy / combos this deck supports:

Draw Engine:

Land Tax & Scroll Rack (+Zuran Orb). This setup also fuels Solitary Confinement lock, works with Ivory Tower etc.

Kills:

Earthcraft & Squirrel Nest: Earthcraft in this deck can be really nasty. One can combo it not only with Squirrel Nest but also with Sacred Mesa, especially if you've got Wild Growth or Overgrowth attached to a plains. Then also Mobilization generates infinite tokens. In early / mid game Earthcraft serves as a handy way to fix mana issues if you've played some creatures / tokens.

Stuffy Doll and Guilty Conscience. Stuffy also works with Pariah, setting up a lock for red nearly impossible to solve.

Argothian Enchantress & Worship: Usually check mate against red decks. Another good one is the old usual Library of Alexandria & Solitary Confinement. Argothian Enchantress / Enchantress Presence + Dovescape is also fine on a longer run.

Enduring Ideal in this deck just owns: if you've played yourself into position to cast it, opponent is almost always screwed.

Sylvan Library (Enchantress Presence / Argothian Enchantress) + Hoofprints of the Stag.

Also a tech against aggro is to attack/block with Genju of the Fields and activate it multiple times: it gains multiple Lifelinks.

You'll find other tricks as you play this.

The only cards I've been unhappy with are Opalescence and Verduran/Mesa Enchantress. Opalescence with Replenish used to be broken in old days but nowadays it just sets my precious silver bullets on the open and I can lose to the next Wrath of God or targeted burn. Same thing with the targetable enchantresses: they attract creature removal and I don't necessary get to set up the card engine. To get virtual card advantage, I'd say the best plan to develop this deck is to take out all the targetable creatures and this way opponent's removals to be dead cards. This ofcourse affects the Oath plan/graveyard filling.

Comments are welcome.

Edit: Added that Moat, cut the 2 enchantresses, and added Sigil of the Empty Throne.

Some of you may already play Singleton 100 in MTGO so here's a relevant resource for you: PureMTGO and Tarmotog's One Double O article series. It's not that I'm promoting S100 or Tarmotog's articles particularly, but this guy is one of the few dedicated ones who seem to have deep enough insight into singleton and that way can also reflect his ideas and contribute to this format as well: He often touches similar subjects, deck builds, cards choices, meta and ban list issues compared to this Highlander.

If "the council" (I still don't know who you guys are) wants a compact package to study the world of Singleton when preparing decisions impacting highlander format, this would be it.

So far he has mentioned Highlander directly in these articles:

http://puremtgo.com/node/1312
http://puremtgo.com/articles/one-double-o-7-tuning-walkthrough
http://puremtgo.com/articles/one-double-o-11-3rd-weekend-pe

Those of you who are unaware: Still banned cards have been added to the current watch list in order to play test them and consequently possibly unbanning them on April 15th. To my knowledge this is the first time an announcement has been made in advance regarding to changes in watch list. Kudos to that.

But this time it also raises some serious controversial thoughts as the watch list has been included with power nine cards, namely Ancestral Recall.

Ben Bleiweiss said: "Drawing three cards as an instant for a single blue mana is so ridiculous that nothing even remotely close to this card has been attempted again in Magic."

Ancestral Recall has now been taken into testing. and thus it's one of the cards to be potentially unbanned in four months. It was included to "help" control decks to battle against the slight dominance of lately emerged various aggro decks. This is what Frank Topel told us at german board, translated by Google:

If anything, a slight imbalance in the format exists, it seems that in a slight dominance of Aggro to lie, which is certainly not least of which is owed Spoils Mulligan. As to this, but surely no one wants to renounce again, and furthermore, the aggro decks Bannings not cope with is, we want to try different cards, which could help control decks. One of these cards could certainly be Ancestral Recall. The problem here is one I believe that a shift in the direction of the format T1 would be perceived, on the other hand, that only limited IU / CE Ancestral available seem weenn them are quite affordable (around 70, - euro, apart from that it was not T1 few players also play HL and the card always have).

Also, we see potential for abuse in the form of massive Regrowth effects, especially in UGX decks. Also Isochronous Scepter / Ancestral appears dangerous. But once to see how this card would indeed, it is on the watchlist Unban released for testing.

If my understanding via translation was right, the claims presented by Sturmgott were either a bad joke or a horrendously wrong analysis how the Ancestral Recall would "help" the format.

Aside the fact that Ancestrall Recall would be a no-brainer-auto-insert in every deck that just splashed for blue, regardless if it was combo, aggro or control, a P9 policy we are embracing here would only prune casual players and accessibility for the format.

A claim that a card is affordable from the CE/IE-sets is perilously misleading if you take the actual resell value into account: The cards from the aforementioned sets hold some value to collectors (Time Twister goes for about $40 and Ancestral Recall respectively for ~$100 in the secondary market at the moment).

What happens to the resell value after you've made it legal in Highlander?

And no, by that I don't mean the effect of the unbanning process but the actual mutilation of them when you take out the scissors and round the corners and make CE/IE card tournament legal by the HL current rules.

The card drops instantly from earlier mint to poor and if you get it sold for 1/10th of the list price then you can call yourself lucky. Collectors won't even think buying that. And this comes solely from the standpoint of a collector.

Investment for a non-tournament legal card in sanctioned events and solely for a casual format is questionable even from the hardcore player perspective and this just starts to be plain stupid. In addition a ~$350 tournament stable contradicts the earlier banning of Imperial Seal, which was banned due to availability and monetary issues.

Why would Ancestral Recall be different and how would it make the format *any* better from this standpoint? Or has the secondary market ever been a naming factor for the players or banned list maintainers of the format?

18 people played 4 rounds with 60 minutes round time organized by Tampere Pelimaa. The original report can be found from here with the contributions of decks played by some of the players. No decklist were gathered.

Final standings:

         Tie 1   Tie 2   Tie 3   Matches
Rank   No.   Name   Points   OMW%   PGW%   OGW%   P/W/D/B
1   3   Nevalainen, Ville [FIN]   12   56,2500   72,7273   56,3889   4/4/0/0
2   17   Suvela, Santeri [FIN]   10   45,8333   73,3333   44,1919   4/3/1/0
3   12   Haapa, Mikko [FIN]   9   54,1667   70,0000   51,5152   4/3/0/0
4   8   Ã–hman, Janne [FIN]   9   45,8333   60,0000   48,3586   4/3/0/0
5   15   Becker, Matias [FIN]   8   47,9167   54,5455   52,5000   4/2/2/0
6   2   Puranen, Jari [FIN]   6   77,0833   55,5556   64,0152   4/2/0/0
7   13   Kaipiainen, Arttu [FIN]   6   60,4167   54,5455   50,6061   4/2/0/0
8   18   Salonen, Jussi [FIN]   6   55,5556   50,0000   57,7778   3/1/0/1
9   11   Hiltunen, Jaakko [FIN]   6   54,1667   45,4545   48,1061   4/2/0/0
10   6   Himanen, Teemu [FIN]   6   52,0833   50,0000   48,3333   4/2/0/0
11   16   Becker, Kalle [FIN]   6   45,8333   50,0000   46,0859   4/2/0/0
12   7   Pyyhtiä, Tuomas [FIN]   5   45,8333   53,3333   47,7273   4/1/2/0
13   14   Tuominen, Kari [FIN]   4   54,1667   50,0000   52,8030   4/1/1/0
14   5   Vuorio, Jani [FIN]   3   64,5833   25,0000   61,9697   4/1/0/0
15   4   Matikainen, Lasse [FIN]   3   43,7500   36,3636   46,6667   4/1/0/0
16   10   Virtanen, Joni [FIN]   1   58,3333   18,5185   52,8030   4/0/1/0
17   1   Hämäläinen, Olli [FIN]   1   37,0370   29,1667   42,6587   3/0/1/0
18   9   Välimäki, Joona [FIN]   0   50,0000   20,0000   50,0000   2/0/0/0

Ville Nevalainen won the tournament with pure record of 4-0. His RG-beats won the last round against BR-Goblins played by Mikko Haapa.

Metagame was:
2x RG
1x Suicide Black
1x GW-Ideal/Enchantress/Parfait
1x MonoU-Skies
1x BR-Goblins
1x GB-Meat
1x Staxx

Rest of the decks were either 3C, 4C ja 5C-control builds.

This tournament also offered an opportunity to put Topel's Skies onto test, as one of the players didn't have time to put a deck together due to a move and his vintage staples were still unpacked. I put the deck together with some minor changes, as didn't find all the necessary cards in time (Curfew & Aether Spellbomb) or some of the choices in Topel's Skies felt suboptimal in short test (Wizard Replica & 1 Dream Stalker).

The Skies was eventually piloted by Kari Tuominen placing 13th.

The deck I ended up piloting was again something from the rogue front, GWEnchantress/Parfait/Ideal-kombo

1 Academy Rector
1 Argivian Find
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Aura of Silence
1 City of Solitude
1 Crop Rotation
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Decree of Justice
1 Dovescape
1 Earthcraft
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Elephant Grass
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Enduring Ideal
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Exploration
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Femeref Enchantress
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Genju of the Fields
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Guilty Conscience
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Hoofprints of the Stag
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Humility
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Ivory Mask
1 Karakas
1 Karmic Justice
1 Kor Haven
1 Krosan Verge
1 Land Tax
1 Life from the Loam
1 Limited Resources
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Moat
1 Mobilization
1 Mox Diamond
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Oath of Druids
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Opalescence
1 Overgrowth
1 Parallax Wave
1 Planar Birth
1 Porphyry Nodes
1 Regrowth
1 Replenish
1 Rise of the Hobgoblins
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Savannah
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Serra's Sanctum
7 Snow-Covered Forest
13 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Squirrel Nest
1 Sterling Grove
1 Story Circle
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Temple Garden
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Tithe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Wasteland
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Wild Growth
1 Windswept Heath
1 Worship
1 Wrath of God
1 Zuran Orb

The deck has a lot of synergy between various cards and is quite mana hungry. It runs with close to 40 different enchantments and gains card advantage by searching & playing an early game enchantress. The deck has numerous silver bullets (Humility, Worship, Wheel of Sun and Moon, City of Solitude...) and combos like Squirrel Nest/Earth Craft and Stuffy Doll/Guilty Consience. Late game win conditions involve Replenish, Opalesence, Sacred Mesa and Mobilization to name but a few.

The first game was ironically against Topel Skies which ended up as a tie, and because of my play mistake: In one critical attack phase, I could have activated Genju of the Fields multiple times to gain multiple lifelinks and thus secure my following turns to back up Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft combo.

The only win was achieved against GB-Meat and that match up didn't pose any problems. Another tie was against 4c-control because of opponent's fetch/top combinations and my Dowscape which eventually won me the first game after we had traded bird tokens for 30 minutes of so.

24 people played 6 rounds on a 60 minutes round time a small scale HL-tournament at Helsinki organized by Safe Haven. The winner Aleksi Väänänen played BR-Goblins, which was a slightly tuned version from the previous build he piloted to victory at the Ropecon highlander earlier this year.

Standings:

Rank   No.   Name                    Points    OMW%   PGW%   OGW%   P/W/D/B
1   17   Väänänen, Aleksi   16   64,8148   73,8095   60,2653   6/5/1/0
2   1   Notkola, Miikka   15   59,2593   66,6667   54,7660   6/5/0/0
3   25   Tuomi, Sami   13   53,7037   63,8889   54,3162   6/4/1/0
4   16   Sjöblom, Max   12   65,7407   69,2308   58,9120   6/4/0/0
5   10   Leung, Tomi   12   58,3333   60,0000   54,8247   6/4/0/0
6   20   Timonen, Jussi   12   56,4815   56,2500   53,2845   6/4/0/0
7   7   Ihonen, Juha   12   47,2222   64,2857   46,7394   6/4/0/0
8   9   Hänninen, Kari   12   41,6667   62,5000   42,3810   6/4/0/0
9   3   Niemi, Joni   9   59,2593   50,0000   55,9440   6/3/0/0
10   18   MJH            9   58,3333   50,0000   56,4484   6/3/0/0
11   13   Railio, Juha   9   53,7037   57,1429   51,0185   6/3/0/0
12   15   Pyyhtiä, Tuomas   9   52,7778   42,2222   52,5743   6/3/0/0
13   12   Schalin, Ville   9   50,9259   52,3810   52,0319   6/3/0/0
14   14   Malm, Karri   9   47,2222   50,0000   50,4355   6/3/0/0
15   8   Ihonen, Joonas   9   44,4444   48,8889   43,1481   6/3/0/0
16   22   Toikka, Seppo   6   64,5833   55,5556   58,3333   4/2/0/0
17   23   Salama, Tero   6   53,7037   40,0000   51,9114   6/2/0/0
18   19   Valori, Kim   6   44,4444   38,4615   43,5450   6/2/0/0
19   21   Lagerspetz, Simo   3   66,6667   42,8571   63,4921   3/1/0/0
20   5   Flink, Jesse   3   61,1111   26,6667   56,1755   6/1/0/0
21   11   Remitz, Johannes   3   45,8333   40,0000   45,4545   4/1/0/0
22   4   Niemi, Miikka   3   43,3333   27,2727   46,8620   5/1/0/0
23   24   Jokela, Aleksi   3   40,0000   23,0769   41,6090   5/0/0/1
24   6   Ampuja, Sauli   0   44,4444   0,0000   50,0000   3/0/0/0

Meta was largely control heavy with the exception of couple of RGs, WW and lone MeatElf. As an exception, Juha Ihonen played an interesting combo deck with lots of land tutors, untap effects, and time walks. Another interesting take on deck design was Valori's Gifts-Loam, which was built around black shell with green and blue splash, utilizing Worm Harvest and Raven's Crime alongside other more powerful spells.

Deck lists were not collected so the observations were made only from seats near me. I constructed more or less a casual PrisonStaxx build which kept me busy anyway:

1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Argivian Find
1 Argivian Restoration
1 Badlands
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Bayou
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Capsize
1 Chrome Mox
1 City of Traitors
1 Coalition Relic
1 Collective Restraint
1 Crop Rotation
1 Crumbling Sanctuary
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Defense Grid
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Fire/Ice (Fire)
1 Flooded Strand
1 Frantic Search
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Glimmervoid
1 Goblin Welder
1 Grim Monolith
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Island
1 Intuition
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Life from the Loam
1 Mana Drain
1 Masticore
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mind Stone
1 Mindslaver
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mishra's Helix
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mox Diamond
1 Null Brooch
1 Pendrell Mists
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Propaganda
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Regrowth
1 Reshape
1 Ring of Gix
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Rishadan Port
1 Rushing River
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Smokestack
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Static Orb
1 Strategic Planning
1 Taiga
1 Tainted Pact
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Tangle Wire
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Thoughtcast
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Time Spiral
1 Time Vault
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Trash for Treasure
1 Trinket Mage
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Upheaval
1 Vindicate
1 Volcanic Island
1 Voltaic Key
1 Wasteland
1 Wildfire
1 Windswept Heath
1 Winter Orb
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Zuran Orb

Sorry for the shitty alphabethical format, but that's the best I can do with my deck builder of choise now. I was positively suprised by the 12th. spot given the casual nature of the deck. The games tend to take longer with that build and especially games against aggro took time as board locking had to be gained inch by inch. Strangely enough, I didn't play against much controls. I chose the deck as was under an impression that the round times would be 70 minutes, but I guess a large turnout of players changed plans just before the tournament. Also another argument for choosing the deck was that this was probably the last time Time Vault can be played as ban of the card may be imminent due to the power-level errata.
Total board lock downs were reached a couple of times in form of Icy Manipulator, Rings of Brighthearth and Winter Orb + shitload of mana. In both games opponents scooped before the kill condition could be introduced in order to save time.

In couple of games the deck surprised by a fast early game combo in form of second turn Time Vault and a consequent third turn Rings of Brightheart = endless turns. Prior to tourmanent I tested the deck briefly against RG and Skies and the results were OK with 50% percent of games won. The deck is very sporadic: Some times I've got first turn Tangle Wire, second turn Masticore or something, sometimes I just draw mana artifacts and nothing else.

I lost my games against the combo build of Ihonen, RG, and some other deck I can't remember now.

Highlandermagic.info doesn't instruct on any standard round time that should be used so I am interested to know: is the round time something that the tournament organizer gets to decide? If yes, when should the players be informed of it: when the tournament is announced or just before the tournament has actually started?

I am especially interested to hear from the German HL-tournament organizers: how do you decide the tournament's round time or is there just some time allotment you generally prefer to use? What would you recommend?

Or are there any plans to standardize this and document at highlandermagic.info in the future?

So far here in Finland the round time in tournaments has varied between 50 and 70 minutes and this has raised some minor confusion among the players.

First of all, as the banning season is getting closer and there may be cooking some new possible bannings under the lid this July (Hermit Druid, Grindstone... ), I am looking forward to an English coverage from the masterminds of this format for the reasonings, and what lead to the possible ban decision(s) as provided last time. Doable?

Also, I'd like to ask if a similar reasoning for the past bannings is possible. Then there would be at least some thread for the english speaking majority with compiled info covering _why_ some card has been banned in the first place earlier.

I ask this because I strongly feel there's a need for a list like this to add transparency, credibility and trust for the format more as highlander has been criticized in the past mainly because of it's odd-looking ban list by the players with no deep enough experience of the format.

They really don't have any source to check what were the grounds for decicisions as the high level banning discussion is held in German language only.

Here in Finland we've started to adopt on small scale this "German Highlander" as we tend to call it. We've had these several in the past inside 12 month period and the current trend seems to indicate that we'll have these more. I gave some thought it might be interesting to let other people to know on what kind of decks get played in here.

I encourage other people to do the same: post deck listings, describe metagames, or just give out a personal tournament report.

Source: vaihdetaan.kapsi.fi

8 people played 5 rounds on 60 minute round time 12.4.2007. The final standings were:

Hyvärinen  4-1-0 (UB Control)
Ihonen 3-2-0 (UWG Control)
Niemi 3-2-0 (RG Beats)
Pyyhtiä 3-2-0 (UW Rebels)
Myllynen 2-3 (BR Aggro)
Virri 2-3 (GoblinPonza)
Hänninen 1-3-1 (MonoB Aggro)
Malin 1-3-1(5C Stax)

Deck lists:

Hyvärinen  4-1-0 (UB Control)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 88 unique cards
1 x Academy Ruins
1 x Ancient Spring
1 x Brainstorm
1 x Chainer's Edict
1 x Chrome Mox
1 x Circular Logic
1 x Compulsion
1 x Condescend
1 x Control Magic
1 x Counterbalance
1 x Counterspell
1 x Crucible of Worlds
1 x Damnation
1 x Darkwater Catacombs
1 x Deep Analysis
1 x Demonic Tutor
1 x Desertion
1 x Diabolic Edict
1 x Dimir Aqueduct
1 x Dimir Signet
1 x Dismiss
1 x Dominate
1 x Exclude
1 x Fact or Fiction
1 x Faerie Conclave
1 x Fellwar Stone
1 x Flash of Insight
1 x Flooded Strand
1 x Foil
1 x Forbid
1 x Force of Will
1 x Force Spike
1 x Future Sight
1 x Ghastly Demise
1 x Gifts Ungiven
1 x Hinder
1 x Impulse
1 x Innocent Blood
11 x Island
1 x Legacy's Allure
1 x Lonely Sandbar
1 x Mana Drain
1 x Mana Leak
1 x Masticore
1 x Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 x Memory Lapse
1 x Merchant Scroll
1 x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 x Miscalculation
1 x Misdirection
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Morphling
1 x Mox Diamond
1 x Mystical Teachings
1 x Nevinyrral's Disk
1 x Nightscape Familiar
1 x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 x Persecute
1 x Polluted Delta
1 x Powder Keg
1 x Power Sink
1 x Psychatog
1 x Recoil
1 x Remand
1 x Repulse
1 x Rewind
1 x Salt Marsh
1 x Sensei's Divining Top
1 x Shadow of Doubt
1 x Spite/Malice (Malice)
1 x Stalking Stones
3 x Swamp
1 x Syncopate
1 x Telling Time
1 x Thawing Glaciers
1 x The Abyss
1 x Thieving Magpie
1 x Thirst for Knowledge
1 x Thwart
1 x Trade Routes
1 x Treachery
1 x Underground River
1 x Underground Sea
1 x Upheaval
1 x Vedalken Shackles
1 x Wasteland
1 x Watery Grave
1 x Wayfarer's Bauble

Ihonen 3-2-0 ("Demokratian kriisi")

// Lands
    1 Tropical Island
    1 Tundra
    1 Horizon Canopy
    1 Hallowed Fountain
    1 Azorius Chancery FOIL
    1 Thawing Glaciers
    1 Mishra's Factory FOIL
    1 Brushland
    1 Simic Growth Chamber FOIL
    1 Yavimaya Coast
    6 Island FOIL
    2 Forest EURO
    1 Flooded Strand
    1 Selesnya Sanctuary FOIL
    1 Secluded Steppe FOIL
    1 Lonely Sandbar FOIL
    1 Wasteland
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Krosan Verge FOIL
    1 Tranquil Thicket FOIL
    1 Windswept Heath
    1 Plains APAC
    1 Temple Garden
    1 Maze of Ith
    1 Reflecting Pool
    1 Skycloud Expanse FOIL
    1 Wooded Foothills
    1 Breeding Pool
    1 Nimbus Maze
    1 Temple of the False God FOIL
    1 Savannah
    1 Adarkar Wastes
    1 Academy Ruins

// Creatures
    1 Eternal Dragon
    1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
    1 Aeon Chronicler
    1 Loxodon Hierarch
    1 Mystic Enforcer
    1 Wall of Roots JUHAN SEINÃ,,T
    1 Exalted Angel
    1 Solemn Simulacrum  FOIL
    1 Tarmogoyf
    1 Trinket Mage FOIL
    1 Eternal Witness FOIL
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder FOIL

// Spells
    1 Gifts Ungiven
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Decree of Justice
    1 Tithe
    1 Azorius Signet FOIL
    1 Pact of Negation
    1 Treachery
    1 Future Sight FOIL
    1 Exploration
    1 Deep Analysis FOIL
    1 Life from the Loam
    1 Faith's Fetters FOIL
    1 Stroke of Genius
    1 Misdirection
    1 Repeal
    1 Cryptic Command FOIL
    1 Force of Will
    1 Ponder FOIL
    1 Oblivion Ring FOIL
    1 Intuition
    1 Talisman of Unity FOIL
    1 Talisman of Progress FOIL
    1 Fact or Fiction FOIL
    1 Farseek FOIL
    1 Engineered Explosives FOIL
    1 Enlightened Tutor
    1 Wrath of God FOIL
    1 Mana Leak FOIL
    1 Gilded Lotus
    1 Mirari's Wake FOIL
    1 Phyrexian Furnace
    1 Swords to Plowshares ALTERED
    1 Vedalken Shackles FOIL
    1 Counterspell FOIL
    1 Remand FOIL
    1 Coalition Relic
    1 Sensei's Divining Top FOIL
    1 Simic Signet FOIL
    1 Regrowth
    1 Rout FOIL
    1 Condescend FOIL
    1 Take Possession
    1 Compulsive Research FOIL
    1 Control Magic
    1 Mind Spring
    1 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Mindslaver
    1 Primal Command
    1 Tidings

Niemi 3-2-0 (RG Beats)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 81 unique cards
1 x Arc Lightning
1 x Arc-Slogger
1 x Barbarian Ring
1 x Basking Rootwalla
1 x Birds of Paradise
1 x Blistering Firecat
1 x Blood Moon
1 x Bloodstained Mire
1 x Burning-Tree Shaman
1 x Call of the Herd
1 x Carbonize
1 x Chain Lightning
1 x Char
1 x City of Brass
1 x Dryad Sophisticate
1 x Fireblast
1 x Firebolt
1 x Flametongue Kavu
11 x Forest
1 x Frenzied Goblin
1 x Fyndhorn Elves
1 x Garruk Wildspeaker
1 x Giant Solifuge
1 x Grim Lavamancer
1 x Hearth Kami
1 x Horizon Canopy
1 x Incinerate
1 x Jackal Pup
1 x Jungle Lion
1 x Karplusan Forest
1 x Keldon Megaliths
1 x Kird Ape
1 x Lava Dart
1 x Lightning Bolt
1 x Llanowar Elves
1 x Loaming Shaman
1 x Magma Jet
1 x MaGus of the Moon
1 x Mire Boa
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Mogg Fanatic
1 x Molten Rain
10 x Mountain
1 x Mtenda Lion
1 x Nantuko Vigilante
1 x Pendelhaven
1 x Phantom Centaur
1 x Price of Progress
1 x Radha, Heir to Keld
1 x Rancor
1 x Reckless Charge
1 x Rhystic Lightning
1 x Rift Bolt
1 x River Boa
1 x Ruination
1 x Scab-Clan Mauler
1 x Scorched Rusalka
1 x Seal of Fire
1 x Shard Volley
1 x Shock
1 x Skizzik
1 x Skyshroud Elite
1 x Stomping Ground
1 x Sulfur Elemental
1 x Sulfuric Vortex
1 x Sword of Fire and Ice
1 x Taiga
1 x Tarfire
1 x Tarmogoyf
1 x Thornscape Familiar
1 x Tin Street Hooligan
1 x Treetop Village
1 x Troll Ascetic
1 x Viridian Zealot
1 x Volcanic Hammer
1 x Wasteland
1 x Wild Mongrel
1 x Windswept Heath
1 x Winter Orb
1 x Wooded Foothills
1 x Zo-Zu the Punisher

Pyyhtiä 3-2-0 (UW Rebels)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 81 unique cards
1 x Adarkar Wastes
1 x AEther Vial
1 x Amrou Scout
1 x Amrou Seekers
1 x Annul
1 x Aven Mindcensor
1 x Aven Riftwatcher
1 x Back to Basics
1 x Blade of the Sixth Pride
1 x Boomerang
1 x Bound in Silence
1 x Brainstorm
1 x Cephalid Coliseum
1 x Chain of Vapor
1 x Confound
1 x Counterspell
1 x Curiosity
1 x Defiant Falcon
1 x Defiant Vanguard
1 x Disenchant
1 x Echoing Truth
1 x Empyrial Plate
1 x Faerie Conclave
1 x Flagstones of Trokair
1 x Flooded Strand
1 x Force of Will
1 x Gilded Drake
1 x Hallowed Fountain
1 x Isamaru, Hound of Konda
9 x Island
1 x Jotun Grunt
1 x Karakas
1 x Knight of the Holy Nimbus
1 x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
1 x Mana Drain
1 x Mana Leak
1 x Mana Tithe
1 x Mirror Entity
1 x Miscalculation
1 x Misdirection
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Mother of Runes
1 x Mox Diamond
1 x Mutavault
1 x Nightwind Glider
1 x Nimbus Maze
1 x Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 x Outrider en-Kor
12 x Plains
1 x Polluted Delta
1 x Ponder
1 x Psionic Blast
1 x Raise the Alarm
1 x Ramosian Sergeant
1 x Remand
1 x Repeal
1 x Reverent Mantra
1 x Rushing River
1 x Samurai of the Pale Curtain
1 x Savannah Lions
1 x Sensei's Divining Top
1 x Serum Visions
1 x Soltari Champion
1 x Soltari Monk
1 x Soltari Priest
1 x Soltari Visionary
1 x Spiketail Hatchling
1 x Standstill
1 x Steelshaper's Gift
1 x Stifle
1 x Stonecloaker
1 x Sword of Fire and Ice
1 x Swords to Plowshares
1 x Thermal Glider
1 x Tithe
1 x True Believer
1 x Tundra
1 x Wasteland
1 x Waterfront Bouncer
1 x Whipcorder
1 x Windswept Heath

Myllynen 2-3 (BR Aggro)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 84 unique cards
1 x Auntie's Hovel
1 x Avalanche Riders
1 x Badlands
1 x Barbarian Ring
1 x Barren Moor
1 x Blazing Specter
1 x Blinkmoth Nexus
1 x Blood Crypt
1 x Blood Moon
1 x Bloodstained Mire
1 x Braids, Cabal Minion
1 x Chain Lightning
1 x Chainer's Edict
1 x Chittering Rats
1 x Countryside Crusher
1 x Cryoclasm
1 x Crypt Champion
1 x Dark Confidant
1 x Dauthi Slayer
1 x Demonic Tutor
1 x Diabolic Edict
1 x Duress
1 x Dwarven Blastminer
1 x Earwig Squad
1 x Firebolt
1 x Flametongue Kavu
1 x Frenzied Goblin
1 x Ghitu Encampment
1 x Graveborn Muse
1 x Graven Cairns
1 x Greater Gargadon
1 x Hand of Cruelty
1 x Hearth Kami
1 x Hit // Run
1 x Hymn to Tourach
1 x Hypnotic Specter
1 x Incinerate
1 x Jagged Poppet
1 x Lightning Bolt
1 x Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
1 x Magma Jet
1 x MaGus of the Moon
1 x Mindslicer
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Mogg Fanatic
1 x Molten Rain
4 x Mountain
1 x Mutavault
1 x Nantuko Shade
1 x Nezumi Graverobber
1 x Oona's Prowler
1 x Oversold Cemetery
1 x Phyrexian Rager
1 x Pillage
1 x Pyre Zombie
1 x Rakdos Augermage
1 x Rakdos Guildmage
1 x Rancid Earth
1 x Ravenous Rats
1 x Rishadan Port
1 x Scorched Rusalka
1 x Sedge Sliver
1 x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 x Sinkhole
1 x Squealing Devil
1 x Stone Rain
1 x Stromgald Crusader
1 x Sudden Shock
1 x Sulfurous Springs
14 x Swamp
1 x Sword of Fire and Ice
1 x Tainted Peak
1 x Taurean Mauler
1 x Terminate
1 x Thoughtseize
1 x Threaten
1 x Unearth
1 x Urborg Volcano
1 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 x Wasteland
1 x Withered Wretch
1 x Wrecking Ball
1 x Yixlid Jailer

Virri 2-3 (GoblinPonza)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 78 unique cards
1 x Ankh of Mishra
1 x Avalanche Riders
1 x Ball Lightning
1 x Barbarian Ring
1 x Bend or Break
1 x Blistering Firecat
1 x Blood Moon
1 x Bloodstained Mire
1 x Browbeat
1 x Chain Lightning
1 x Chain of Plasma
1 x Char
1 x Chrome Mox
1 x Cryoclasm
1 x Cursed Scroll
1 x Dwarven Blastminer
1 x Dwarven Miner
1 x Final Fortune
1 x Fireblast
1 x Firebolt
1 x Flame Rift
1 x Flames of the Blood Hand
1 x Fork
1 x Frenzied Goblin
1 x Gempalm Incinerator
1 x Genju of the Spires
1 x Ghitu Encampment
1 x Goblin Cadets
1 x Goblin Goon
1 x Goblin Grenade
1 x Goblin King
1 x Goblin Lackey
1 x Goblin Matron
1 x Goblin Patrol
1 x Goblin Piledriver
1 x Goblin Recruiter
1 x Goblin Ringleader
1 x Goblin Settler
1 x Goblin Sharpshooter
1 x Goblin Vandal
1 x Goblin Warchief
1 x Grafted Wargear
1 x Grim Lavamancer
1 x Imperial Recruiter
1 x Incinerate
1 x Jackal Pup
1 x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 x Lava Dart
1 x Lightning Bolt
1 x Magma Jet
1 x MaGus of the Moon
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Mogg Fanatic
1 x Mogg Flunkies
1 x Mogg Raider
1 x Moggcatcher
1 x Molten Rain
23 x Mountain
1 x Pillage
1 x Price of Progress
1 x Pyroblast
1 x Ravenous Baboons
1 x Reckless Charge
1 x Red Elemental Blast
1 x Rift Bolt
1 x Rishadan Port
1 x Ruination
1 x Sandstone Needle
1 x Shard Volley
1 x Siege-Gang Commander
1 x Sonic Burst
1 x Sparksmith
1 x Stingscourger
1 x Sudden Shock
1 x Sulfuric Vortex
1 x Wasteland
1 x Wooded Foothills
1 x Zo-Zu the Punisher

Hänninen 1-3-1 (MonoB Aggro)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 69 unique cards
1 x Bad Moon
1 x Bane of the Living
1 x Black Knight
1 x Blackmail
1 x Chainer's Edict
1 x Charcoal Diamond
1 x Chimeric Idol
1 x Coldsteel Heart
1 x Corpse Dance
1 x Cremate
1 x Cruel Edict
1 x Damnation
1 x Dark Ritual
1 x Dauthi Marauder
1 x Dauthi Slayer
1 x Demonic Tutor
1 x Diabolic Edict
1 x Drekavac
1 x Duress
1 x Fellwar Stone
1 x Graveborn Muse
1 x Grinning Demon
1 x Hand of Cruelty
1 x Helldozer
1 x Hymn to Tourach
1 x Hypnotic Specter
1 x Kiku's Shadow
1 x Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 x Laquatus's Champion
1 x Last Gasp
1 x Lightning Greaves
1 x Masticore
1 x Mind Stone
1 x Mutilate
1 x Nantuko Shade
1 x Nekrataal
1 x Nezumi Graverobber
1 x Night's Whisper
1 x Nim Abomination
1 x Ogre Marauder
1 x Order of the Ebon Hand
1 x Paralyze
1 x Persecute
1 x Phyrexian Arena
1 x Phyrexian Rager
1 x Phyrexian Scuta
1 x Plague Sliver
1 x Priest of Gix
1 x Razormane Masticore
1 x Sarcomancy
1 x Sengir Nosferatu
1 x Sengir Vampire
1 x Skeletal Scrying
1 x Smother
1 x Stromgald Crusader
1 x Stupor
1 x Sudden Death
1 x Sudden Spoiling
34 x Swamp
32 x Swamp
1 x Sword of Fire and Ice
1 x Sword of Light and Shadow
1 x Takenuma Bleeder
1 x Twisted Abomination
1 x Visara the Dreadful
1 x Wasteland
1 x Withered Wretch
1 x Wrench Mind
+1 x Prismatic Lens
+1 x Cabal Coffers

Malin 1-3-1(5C Stax)

Main Deck: 100 cards total, 100 unique cards
1 x Academy Ruins
1 x Ancient Tomb
1 x Badlands
1 x Barren Moor
1 x Bayou
1 x Bloodstained Mire
1 x Brainstorm
1 x Burning of Xinye
1 x Chain of Vapor
1 x Chrome Mox
1 x City of Brass
1 x City of Traitors
1 x Coalition Relic
1 x Coldsteel Heart
1 x Crop Rotation
1 x Crucible of Worlds
1 x Crumbling Sanctuary
1 x Defense Grid
1 x Demonic Tutor
1 x Devastating Dreams
1 x Duplicant
1 x Duress
1 x Enlightened Tutor
1 x Fact or Fiction
1 x Fellwar Stone
1 x Fire/Ice (Fire)
1 x Flagstones of Trokair
1 x Flooded Strand
1 x Forest
1 x Forgotten Cave
1 x Garruk Wildspeaker
1 x Gifts Ungiven
1 x Goblin Welder
1 x Guilty Conscience
1 x Icy Manipulator
1 x Island
1 x Life from the Loam
1 x Lightning Bolt
1 x Lonely Sandbar
1 x Magus of the Tabernacle
1 x Mana Drain
1 x Maze of Ith
1 x Mind Stone
1 x Mindslaver
1 x Mishra's Factory
1 x Mishra's Workshop
1 x Mizzium Transreliquat
1 x Mountain
1 x Mox Diamond
1 x Nether Void
1 x Phyrexian Furnace
1 x Plains
1 x Plateau
1 x Polluted Delta
1 x Prismatic Lens
1 x Propaganda
1 x Pyrite Spellbomb
1 x Reflecting Pool
1 x Regrowth
1 x Rishadan Port
1 x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 x Savannah
1 x Scrubland
1 x Sensei's Divining Top
1 x Smokestack
1 x Solemn Simulacrum
1 x Stuffy Doll
1 x Sun Droplet
1 x Swamp
1 x Swords to Plowshares
1 x Sylvan Scrying
1 x Taiga
1 x Tainted Pact
1 x Talisman of Dominance
1 x Talisman of Indulgence
1 x Tarmogoyf
1 x Tarnished Citadel
1 x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 x Thirst for Knowledge
1 x Thoughtseize
1 x Time Vault
1 x Transmute Artifact
1 x Trash for Treasure
1 x Trinket Mage
1 x Triskelion
1 x Tropical Island
1 x Tundra
1 x Underground Sea
1 x Unearth
1 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 x Volcanic Island
1 x Wall of Blossoms
1 x Wall of Roots
1 x Wasteland
1 x Wildfire
1 x Windswept Heath
1 x Winter Orb
1 x Wooded Foothills
1 x Worn Powerstone
1 x Zuran Orb

About a week ago I had a league match against Sturmgott and in the post game chit chat he mentioned Dream Halls:

0:24:11 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> I got to give you that:
0:24:18 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> Hulk and TPS were harldly fun.
0:24:43 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> i think the currently best combo deck is dreamhalls
0:24:46 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> First round degenerate combos are something for Vintage only, but "accident" kills should be in HL also
0:24:50 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> hmm..
0:25:01 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> I have to tell you that haven't seen any builds of it.
0:25:05 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> U/B/w build
0:25:08 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> Able to link me into one?
0:25:16 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> no, only got one offline
0:25:20 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> alright.
0:25:48 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> LOADS of draw spells, all the tutors, all timewalks
0:25:54 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> all 3?
0:26:03 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> those 2 from portal as well ?
0:26:04 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> all 4
0:26:18 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> especially the one that gives you two turns
0:26:26 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> blue myojin
0:26:27 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> I have em, should put them together and see what comes.
0:26:29 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> yeah
0:26:35 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> and tendrils of agony
0:26:35 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> what's the kill comdition?
0:26:39 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> right.
0:26:45 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> some protection
0:26:54 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> duress, thoughtseize, chant, abeyance
0:27:07 [pyyhttu] <pyyhttu> Well, I'll post the forums and ask if they have some insight into it.
0:27:21 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> second kill condition is zombie infestation
0:27:29 [Sturmgott] <Sturmgott> + time walks

In Highlander circles I've seen Dream Halls deck mentioned frequently in different sources (The deck is dismissed in that last thread quite heavily) and so far haven't witnessed (excluding old t2) that anyone in his sane mind has _seriously_ taken part in a tournament with Dream Halls-combo.

Soo... Heeding Sturmgott's advice ("LOADS of draw spells, all the tutors, all timewalks") and exploiting an old "reference-build" I actually went and quickly put together a "pile" of good cards from the sector of draw, tutor and timewalks (and disruption) and wrapped them around Dream Halls, Myojin, Show and Tell etc. but fail to see how this would make the best combo deck.

So my question is: Other than having Dream Halls deck being a good inside joke in Germany (is it?), have you seen a Dream Halls-deck played in your local tournament or do you even have your own build you run? What is it like and how does it work against others? Go to, folks!

I've been recently trying to build a solid build around Aluren card, having seen various builds of it in Legacy over the years. I also saw it was on the watch list at Highlandermagic.info (wondering what the hell it's doing there) but thought the deck might have potential. I've never seen _any_ actual HL builds of it anywhere and I'm trying to outline here what a good build should be like.

I share the belief with the Legacy players the deck should be turned into a control-combo deck (not the other way around), utilizing it's combo win condition as a secondary plan in slow paced format like HL. Abusing the synergy of various utility creatures like Crypt Champion/Saffi Eriksdotter and Cavern Harpy/Man-o'-War with any creatures from Essence Warden to Maggot Carrier, the deck gets also it's toolbox approach. The pieces would be fetched using Survival of the Fittest (abusing Recurring Survival in the long run) among other black tutors and green creture tutors. I've toyed with controlling 5C-build containing Imperial Recruiter and FTK (didn't work), ending to bare-bone UGB builds (best results against Sligh).

Tests against with these various Aluren builds against lil' brother's GoblinSligh have shown again, that a simple approach (UGB build) with solid mana base seems to be the right way to go but I need more testing and tweaking of the deck. I'll post my deck at some point if this topic gets going.

I'd like to hear if there are any other takes on this from more experienced players. What kind of builds you've seen if any? Is this deck type even playable in HL?