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When it comes to eternal singletons - no matter its EDH or Highlander people tend to build up decks based on last editions and some other products such as Planechase, Premium foil decks such as Graveborn. In last year a lot of old popular cards were reprinted and other new cards came. Some cards became more available, other new came and only one single card was not reprinted, but suddenly vanished from all shops all around...

Several times I have witnessed following game opening in EDH.

Swamp, Entomb, you go...
something
Animate dead, Primeval titan

5 out of 8 decks i play against also had Cabal Coffers (planechase) and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (the card which dissapeared from shops) in deck along with green titan (new card). In ideal situation this is also fueled with Dark Ritual (Divine vs Demonic, Planechase) and titan is in play in first turn. Also Entomb and Animate dead became available in Graveborn too.

Considering that Entomb is banned I believe that the worst scenario in Highlander will take more time or mana to play it as fast. What I still feel to be a bit broken is fact that Titan allows to search for any two lands. Cabal Coffers + Tomb of Yawgmoth is the most used combination. Consider this also when putting into play manlands. Another option? Urzatron. Or Valakut the molten pinnacle. when it works the titan itself deals 6 damage and valakut 6 more.

I wonder why no-one ever inspected the power level of the Primeval titan in combination with basic reanimating... no matter of format It allows to search for two lands once per turn at least, and from my experience searching for two cards allows faster and easier collecting of combo.

This is an example how metagame may change. Its mostly caused by availability of cards on the market.

My question to people here whether they feel same influence, and if they consider newly printed cards in their deck or prefer to dig in old cards...

Hello.

I would like to invite all Highlanders to the tournament in Trnava, Slovakia. We are inviting all players from Slovakia, Germany, Finland and Czech republic. Each country has its own specific metagame and we are eager to see international tournament.

For more information see www.quickening.eu

I have been involved into one discussion about Highlander format. Some people around me believes that the normal HL game has to end in 15 to 20 minutes and if not it means that both decks of the duel are not good, just because they are too slow.

We had a pentagram play here, it took two hours until I was able to leaving the game, I commited suicide because it was horribly boring and it took several hours - three or more. But on other hand I was on tournament, and i think it is almost impossible to play 3 HL games in 45 minutes.

One group here believes that Highlander games should not have any time limits. We build decks which are quite unique. The other group is trying to build tournament competetive decks, which purpose is to kill the opponent within time limits and gain the points - this mostly includes aggro decks.


I am trying to find a balance between agro decks and control decks for upcoming tournament. My experience shows that people here want to build fast decks, but also i see that tournaments are focused for shortest time possible, which makes control decks unusable. Timing rules just say that if you want to play control deck, you cannot win, but it is higly possible that your opponent cannot win either.

Owners of aggro decks are arguing that there must be some time limits, because if there are no time limits, the control decks will take the advantage. Well... what advantage? I think they have confessed that there is some kind of advantage on their side.

What do you think about it?

Few days ago i was testing some ways how to use Moonfolks in my own deck when i have found Oboro Breezecaller. Since i play Azami it is good to have another wizard, with flying, but i was bit stunned at its ability.

Some lands can provide more that 1 mana per tap. When Breezecaller is combined with them it can produce some additional mana while all lands will stay untapped. But it was not the strongest thing, about this. After Zendikar there was also Landfall.

Since i still play monoblue i cannot see all the possibilities of such wizard, but now also the Lands have the abilities - such as Valakut.

I see here some potential, but i really dont have some usable ideas for Highlander.

Hi everybody.

Since people from slovak MTG forum have constant headache from my deck questions i try to move my questions here, maybe somebody will help me

so what exactly means "Strict MonoBlue" for me?

There are only two permitted manacosts on cards which i play - Blue, Colorless and combinations. I made this choice to begin with easier manabase to manage and i really want to see what a single color can do, and what cant do. for example - Oona the Queen of Fae cannot be played in my deck, even if i am able to pay its manacosts.

I started to build the deck with a set of standard lands, but later i changed my main mana source to Snow covered islands. Here is the list of all cards which are connected with mana source or ramp:

19 Snow Covered Island
1  (Basic) Island

Bant Panorama
Esper Panorama
Grixis Panorama

1 Shoreline Ranger
1 Traumatic Visions

Crucible of worlds
Extraplanar lens
Armillary Sphere
Rings of Brighthearth

Dreamscape Artist

Darksteel Ingot

Springjack Pasture
Darksteel citadel
Riptide Laboratory
Tolaria West
Mouth of Ronom
Minamo, School at Waters Edge
Academy Ruins
Faerie Conclave
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

My main goal is to have more mana than my oponent. The reason is simple - to pay counterspells with X manacost, or to play more spells during my turns. since more than 50 percent of all manacosts in my deck are colorless i have no problem to use lands with such mana - thats also reason why i added Panorama lands. They are able to "deland" my library - especially in combo with crucible of the worlds, but also provide colorless mana in the moment when i play them.

Traumatic Visions and Shoreline ranger have similar goal with their landcycling, but more than once i was able to play them sucessfully (as blocker or counterspell).

Armillary sphere does its job quite good, but it is nothing to be compared with Dreamscape artist. This card is excellent in removing lands from my library.

Each card with any activated ability is able to work with Rings of Brighthearth. Many people disagreed with me that this card can do good work (2 lands tapped in play with panorama, 4 with dreamscape artist) and also manabase is not the only point when it can be used.

Extraplanar lens is quite useful - it multiplies mana gained from Snow-Covered Islands, which means that opponents cannot use my manaboost for their own, since most oponents uses nonbasic blue mana sources, or basic islands. Possibility of manaburn is also reason why i added there single Island (easily to find with any landsearch ability).

and now to nonbasic mana sources - there are two - darksteel ingot and darksteel citadel. Since i want to prevent to any landdestruction decks to crush me i added them here. 1U is much better as 0 after opponents Obliterate

Other lands are chosen for their abilities.

My question at this point is what i do not need there, or what i can add? to make your decision easier i post here the rest of my deck:

Planeswalkers:
jace
Tezzeret

creatures:
thalakos Scout
Infiltrator Il Kor
Looter Il Kor
Escape Artist
Thalakos Seer
Pestermite
Fog Bank
Arcbound Reclaimer
Thieving Magpie
Teferi Mage of Zhalfir
Trinket Mage
Ertai, wizard adept
Serra Sphinx
Temporal Adept
Master Transmuter
Platinum Angel
Inkwell Leviathan
Surveiling Sprite
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Magus of the Future
Fatespinner
Drift of Phantasms
Vedalken Aethermage
Steel Wall
Memnarch
Vexing Sphinx
Grozoth
Arcanis
Copper Gnomes
Duplicant

Artifacts:
Darksteel Brute
Senseis Divining top
Mask of memory
Sculpting steel
Loxodon Warhammer
Relic of Progenitus
Quietus spike
Oblivion stone
Lightning Greaves
Crystal Shard
Darksteel Forge
Nevinyrrals disk
Sigil of Distinction
Akromas memorial

Counterspells
Last word
Venarian Glimmer
Faerie Trickery
Hinder
Forbid
Muddle the Mixture
Power Sink
Time Stop
Cancel
Counterspell
Fold into aether
Spell Burst
Rewind

other spells:
Pulse of the Grid
Capsize
Fabricate
Transmute Artifact
Reality strobe

enchantments
Day of the Dragons
Psionic gift
Hermetic Study
Abduction
Confiscate
Fools Demise
Gaseous Form
Freed from real
Copy Enchantment
Arcane laboratory

there are more ways how to play this deck, and i fear that there is too many ways. I like to play Inkwell leviathan, copy it with vesuvan or sculpting steel and crush my oponent so fast as possible. Also very funny with Darksteel forge in play, but thats also the reason why i want to use "Part the Veil" instead of it. it is simple - there are spells like damnation or Wrath of god, or Cruel edict...

also i like the combo with ertai and arcane laboratory. some friend of mine recommended me Erayo, Soratami ascendant to do same (or better) lock. I like both ways, but also i found cards like Hisoka or Stronghold Machinist to do same.

the usual way how people around me use blue is "blue can draw cards", no matter what else blue can do.

right now i am thinking about new deck - same lands and manabase, but much more focused on stealing, misdirection and even copying of opponents cards.

basic idea looks like:

for copying spells and creatures
Mischievous Quanar
Uyo, Silent Prophet
Sigil Tracer
Twincast
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Vesuvan Doppleganger
clone
Shapesharer

for better control:
hisoka
Stronghold Machinist
Hisokas guard
ghosthelm courier
ertai, wizard adept
Arcane laboratory

and the same list of counterspells as before. i am not sure if Hisoka is so bad as i have heard about him, maybe he just need something like Tolarian Winds - similar effect can be brought with other cards...

for stealing:
Almost anything you can imagine
Confiscate
Take Possesion
Annex
Abduction
Control magic
domineer
Steal Artifact
Rootwater Matriarch
Callous Opressor
Legacys allure
Commandeer
Gather Specimen (extremely nasty with Living Death )

the main idea of new deck is "what can opponent play - i can play too, what i cannot play will be countered".

also i am not sure if to choose Draw engine (arcanis, archivist, pulse of the grid, mikokoro, whispers of the muse) or Search engine (long term plans, fabricate, cards with "transmute" ability).

what about Teferi's Puzzle box?

hope its not so much confusing

Hi. I just want to ask if i can organize officially Highlander league in our country using Highlander rules from this page (in its slovak translation).