Messages

Good idea to collect opinions before the banlist changes.

Blood Moon / Back to Basics: Don't ban the non-basic hate enchantments. Rather remove them from the watchlist all together. Because right now, there is no point in even considering a ban of them; multi-colour will run wild if they are gone and then there is really no good reason left to stick with one or two colour decks. Our format needs them right now to stay healthy. If you really want to ban them, consider banning fetchlands in  the same cycle, too.

Demonic Tutor/Dig Through Time/Treasure Cruise/Mana Drain: Don't ban them either. They are basically the core of each controlish decklist in this format. Yes, they all offer strong effects and some of them (especially Dig Through Time and Demonic Tutor) enable some busted line of plays in combo decks. But that's more like a problem of combo/combo-control (I'd count Reanimator as such) decks being pretty strong with the previous unbannings (see below). The pure control archetype will fall out of the meta without them.

Imperial Seal/Entomb: That's what pushed combo/combo-control to Tier 1 status. Not like this was bad in general, but you have to consider archetype specific bans first if they prove to be too strong in the future - and that before you think about removing the good stuff the typical combo colours blue and black offer (see above).

Academy/Oath: Totally banworthy by sheer power level. Not sure if necessary, though. Don't have too much experience playing with/against them.

Gifts: Probably too strong right now because there is so much combo potential to abuse it with. While in the past it was used to set up slow CA enginges (Life from the Loam or the Regrowth / Witness + X + Y package) or slow combos (Academy Ruins + Crucible of Worlds + Thopter Foundry combo), it would currently result in a pretty fast combo win, probably the turn after resolving it EOT. Generally speaking, 4 CMC is a lot for today's game of magic that got really fast. If you can prevent it getting abused, this would be a nice addition to slower decks and especially the ones only splashing blue.

Mystical Tutor: The ban was heavily discussed for good reason. It was at a time Izzet ran wild. It also hit combo decks, but they got more than a replacement in form of Imperial Seal. I'm unsure about it, but is probably better banned for another 6 months until we know how the metagame adapts to the big combo potential right now.

I recently got to play vs him and his brother Manuel. Cool guys, I'm happy for him and wish the best of luck.

Hi there,

I am trying to reroll Tabris mission to produce some content for Highlander. I started to stream over Twitch.tv and recording some games. I would love to recive some feedback. At the momant all this videos are in german, if there are enough people who would like me to speak english, while I play I will try to do so.

here are some links and I will just inform you about new videos or when I strem over this thread:

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFqzuC5noEqi-8yVyYLH64w

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/payron_ger

Very nice! I'm excited and will leave a follow once I come back from work.

Good stuff, I especially like that the cards in hand are displayed on the bottom of the Video. Tank you!

A really well organized tournament from my point of view. It was the second MGM I attended and had an overall good day playing Esper Control (3-3).

Short report:

Round 1 vs. Sven playing Reanimator

In game one he didn't find a reasonable number of reanimation spells and the few he got I was able to counter. In the meantime, Lingering Souls tokens and finally Vendilion Clique + Restoration Angel to dodge his recurring Darkblast dropped him to zero life points.

In game two a T3 EoT Intuition made me think a lot. He showed a big number of basic lands so far and I put him on a pure U/B version so I expected Back to Bascis. On the other hand, I usually don't want Reanimator to resolve an Intuition. So I decide to counter the Intuition and on his turn Back to Basic seales the game for him. It didn't matter however since he had Misdirection as a backup so Back to Basics would have hit the table in anyways.

Game three took long and went back and forth, but he finally resolved a reanimation spell to Griselbrand which connects into GG.


Round 2 vs. Niclas playing Mono Black Aggro / Suicide

In game one I have an early Humility + Jace, Architect of Thought combo. His Sword of Fire and ice came too late to have any impact.

Game two was very close and probably the most fun of this MGM for me. He really knew his deck and made big plays via Lake of the Dead. A final alpha strike for 12 with some eot flash creatures + my manlands killed him in one big swing after he lost a lot of life to his own cards, went out of gas and had no more lands except for Lake of the dead. Kudos to Niclas for bringing this deck, I like it a lot.


Round 3 vs. Giuseppe playing High Tide

There is nothing much to say. I am too slow to pressure him seriously (my T2 eot Snapcaster without target gets Spell Snared and Restoration Angel bounced back to my hand 3 or 4 times until he has enough Islands to go off) and 1-2 counterspells in each game are nothing that concerns him in any way. Two easy free wins for him.


Round 4 vs. Felix playing BGw Rock

Driving more than 500 km to play against a mate from the same care - meh. Whatever. Game one he didn't really get going and new Gideon (Ally of Zendikar) wins almost on his own after I protect him with a Counterspell.

Game two showed how a well timed Wasteland screws over an entire game for the opponent. Combined with an aggressive start, this game was over very soon.

Game three I took mulligan to five: 4 lands + Sensei's Divining top. His start was not so explosive again so I crawled back slowly with a few X:1 trades. Then the momentum almost shifted over to him since the game took very long already. He got Life from the Loam enginge going but a horde of Elspeth, Sun's Champion tokens + a timely Vendilion Clique overhelmed him.


Round 5 vs. Jonny playinger Pattern Rector

I have almost never played vs this deck neither a good player bringing it. Jonny on the other hans probably mastered it and that showed in two somewhat quick games.

Game one he gets to combo the turn right before he dies since he can pay exactly two more mana (I only had miscalculation) for the win bringing Diabolic Tutor.

Game two I don't really know how to react since he attacks from multiple angles: he has several sac outlets, Evolutionary Leap in play and a ton of creatures to threaten a win via beatdown also. I didn't find a sweeper, but I Condescend what I assume to be an important spell. He follows up with Natural Order into Hulk and combos. Well played.


Round 6 Jens playing GB Rock (with a lot of land destruction)

In game one I can lessen the pressure with pinpoint removal and - most importantly - Spell Pierce his Hymn to Tourach. He gets slowly overhelmed so he surrenders.

Game two his deck does what it is supposed to: Wasteland, Sinkhole, I'm stuck on three lands and he plays Life from the Loam to get Wasteland back. Pretty fast game.

Game three takes ages. He keeps me short on mana but can not establish a serious clock at that time. He is also left on two lands after I remove two or three mana elves. I slowly pick at his life until it drops to zero.


In the end, the weekend was well worth the money spent for traveling + hostel and if the opportunity arises, I'll gladly participate next time again.


Greetings.

Top 8 Decklists are now complete.

http://mtgpulse.com/event/20635

Cool, thanks for the information. Could it be that mtgpulse is down right now, though?

Apart from my horrible performance, I liked this Highlander Cup very much.

Although we started a little late, the organisation was good and - which was most important - we had sufficient space on the tables. It was warm and there were a lot of people at the location, so it was even better to have enough space for your playmat, dices and stuff while playing without touching your neighbours elbows all the time.

Except for one encounter, I faced only friendly opponents and had a lot of good games (that showed me that I definitely need to play a lot more to get practice). One big tournament every few months is not enough. Also, playing a lot of control matchups is exhausting, but very interesting.

[How do you rate the banned-list on a scale from 1 to 10 (1=poor, 10=great)?]

Name/Nick: Marcel / Doks


Highlander banned-list

•   Ancestral Recall
•   Balance
•   Birthing Pod
•   Black Lotus
•   Chaos Orb
•   Entomb
•   Falling Star
•   Fastbond
•   Flash
•   Gifts Ungiven
•   Grindstone
•   Imperial Seal
•   Library of Alexandria
•   Mana Crypt
•   Mana Vault
•   Mind Twist   
•   Mox Emerald
•   Mox Jet
•   Mox Pearl
•   Mox Ruby
•   Mox Sapphire
•   Natural Order
•   Shahrazad
•   Skullclamp
•   Sol Ring
•   Stoneforge Mystic
•   Strip Mine
•   Survival of the Fittest
•   Time Vault
•   Time Walk
•   Tinker
•   Umezawa's Jitte
•   Vampiric Tutor   
•   Amulet of Quoz
•   Bronze Tablet
•   Contract from Below
•   Darkpact
•   Demonic Attorney
•   Jeweled Bird
•   Rebirth
•   Tempest Efreet
•   Timmerian Fiends


How do you rate the banned-list on a scale from 1 to 10 (1=poor, 10=great)?

7

Which mulligan-rule do you prefer?

Free Mulligan


How do you rate the free mulligan on a scale from 1 to 10?

9


How often do you play Highlander (mp.org-rules)

once per month


How often have you played on a HL-GP / -Cup (including this one / no. 14)?

3 times


Which cards are missing on the banned-list and why? (max. the 5 most important ones)

no suggestions


Which cards should be deleted from the banned-list and why? (max. the 5 most important ones)

Stoneforge Mystic: Compared to the time when its combo with Batterskull entered the format, I do think that this now fits the powerlevel which is acceptable for our format. Both control and creature based strategies can profit from it and as long as Umezawa's Jitte stays banned, I believe it's still ok.

Entomb: In theory, this allows for some broken starts which might show up in a while. On the other hand, building your deck around a potential Turn 2 play that most likely will win you the game, prevents you from following a more reliable and consistent strategy, which might make the card 'fair' (there's surely some testing needed). On a sidenote: This makes black a much more attractive colour.


Which prices do you like to win on a HL-Cup like this?

Highlander staples from older sets like Workshop, Tabernacle, Mana Drain, Duals since these usually cost a lot more than the also needed newer staples.

Helpful suggestions are welcome!

I am pretty satisfied with how the current format works out, the council members are doing a nice job in my opinion.

This is interesting, thank you. But I wonder how this list will look in the future.

For example, if you look at the Top 15 cards, most of them indicate a creature based strategy (these cards are either creatures themselves, an equipment, a tutor for creatures or creature-only removal spells). Wasteland, SDT, Demonic and Brainstorm are only up there because of their sheer power level, but are all run both in creature based and non-creature based archetypes.

Then, if you have a look at the following 15 spots, it's more about permission, disruption, flexible removal spells and harder to answer win options (Planeswalkers and Manlands).

Now, like Maqi said, this data has been collected over a longer period of time. In the recent past (old mulligan rule, 'greedy mana base'-discussion) I can imagine that, with the relatively new changes (new mulligan rule, unbanning of Mystical Tutor, the addition of the recent editions), the basic tendency of this list might change to a more diverse look within the next months.

Hi,

I have participated and have to say it was a very cool experience. Six rounds of mostly very friendly opponents were a welcome alternative to the recently much smaller gatherings in the area of Dortmund.

Kudos to you for recording the games, can't wait for the T8 lists and your commentary. Hope I can be there next time.

Hi all,

so the new set is fully revealed and I'm wondering why no one has become excited enough to start a discussion. I for myself am not very good at predicting how good a card might be, but there are definetely some cards that caught my attention (as a control player). These are:


1. Dig through Time + Treasure Cruise

I like both of them very much. They have the same CMC, one draws an additional card compared to the other and costs only U in the best case, the other costs at least UU but has instant speed and "tutors" the best two out of the top seven cards of your library (which is arguably a little stronger than "just" drawing three blind cards).

I've already been a fan of Tombstalker as finisher in my U/B(w) control deck and guess that Dig through Time will be another nice addition with the delve mechanic. More than two might be overkill, so Treasure Cruise might not make the cut.


2. Utter End

4 mana for a 1:1 trade doesn't sound too promising at first glance. However, I like that Esper Control gets another sorcery / instant - answer to permanents, especially planeswalkers, besides Unexpectedly Absent, Council's Judgment and Vindicate. I always loved O-Ring, D-Sphere and Banishing Light as an answer to early problematic permanents, but hated how fragile they were.

Now, with Utter End, Esper can maybe refrain from relying on the CMC-3 enchantments, replacing them by the named four spell-based answers and thus making room for overall board sweepers like Planar Cleasning, Akroma's Vengeance and Fated Retribution.


3. Sultai Charm

BUG Oath will love this. No need to run a one-sided answer like Nature's claim for Mystical Teachings anymore. And if it can't get the job done, it still digs at instant speed for a card that can handle the problematic situation.


4. Murderous Cut

The longer the game goes, the closer this gets to a non-conditional "B: Destroy target creature." Overall a very nice card in B's removal package. To get rid of an enemy Druid Hermit on the draw still requires you to play Innocent Blood or Fetchland + Ghastly Demise, but the other common choices (Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Ultimate Price) also fail to save you in that situation.


5. Sharkan, the Dragonspeaker

This might serve as a nice finisher for Izzet control. It's more about his first and second ability to control the board if needed (Flametongue Kavu effect) and bashing for a solid 4 points of damage while being hard to remove.


6.Mantis Rider

(Maybe?) This will find its place in aggro-control strategies like URw Tempo. From my feeling, it looks pretty good, but can't really evaluate, if aggressive decks are satisfied with 3 power for CMC 3.


That's it from me so far, what cards are you guys excited about?

Hey,

thanks for the effort. I checked the full spoiler few days ago and came to the same conclusions as you: For our Highlander format, this edition won't bring a lot with it (many 'unplayable' cards as you mentioned).

Only thing that really got my attention was O-Ring 3.0 (Banishing Light). It's better in that it won't force you to remove your own permanent like the original O-Ring does when the enemy e. g. bounces his only permanent in response to the trigger. This won't make a difference most of the time, but as you said: more flexible removal is always welcomed.

White/x decks without blue that can already make good use of O-Ring will play this for sure, but maybe decks playing U/W/x will hesitate to include it because of space: Do you really need another card of this effect in a colour combination that has the tools to find a copy when needed? If this is the case, Banishing Light will then replace the original Oblivion Ring. In either case, verdict 'format staple' fits it pretty well.

Hey.

So, I'm pretty surprised that there are next to no reactions in this forum regarding the bans published at the beginning of the month. I have at least expected some kind of hot discussion about TNN that may stay for some more time (it seems like so many people hate it and find it to be too non-interactive for our creature-heavy format) and the unbanning of Mystical Tutor (where people either think it will be blatantly OP due to Miracle effect cards or just another strong choice of the Mirage tutor cycle).

I personally like the unbanning of the M. Tutor, but can't share the hate for TNN except for being the ultimate planeswalker killer against control decks. Considering to unban Gifts Ungiven is also a step by our council that I welcome very much.


Is there nothing you guys are happy / salty about?

No Ban.

I AM very upset by this post Doks. How can you realy asking for a ban of pop, b2b or blood moon when we just had an HL Cup with the dominance of ONE single deck (for the record I dont think that deck is a problem but the mentality of the players).

In addition to that: the random win generated by wasteland IS EXACTLY what our format needs. Players need to be punished because the mechanics of the game itself is asking for that kind of hate. People have to lose games more frequently bc of holding 2 land hands with nothing but business. As long as people play 35 lands or even less they need to feel what that means stats-wise. (assuming we still use the inferior free mulligan).

I heard the 4c blood player held a 2 land hand in the semifinals with aether vial + hymn to tourarch (no double black on hand) and was on the draw against an ultra aggressive naya deck and is KEEPING that hand bc he thinks "every creature I draw is online". That kind of thinking needs to be purged and some cards help us to do that (if the variance is on vacation for that deck) (and just to be clear there are some situations were you have to be greedy bc you have to play your outs but this is not the kind of situation. One drop one Drop two drop and that would be game, easy as that)

There's no need to be upset if you read carefully. I see this evaluation as a great opportunity to communicate what I think is worth looking at (which is why I gave some detailed explanations and called more than 5 cards). The named ones are not candidates I want to see 100% gone with the next ban/unban phase, I just like to point out what I think can be kind of problematic in the near future and should be looked at.

Regarding PoP/B2B/BM: I am saying that one can see a problem in the fact that a single card outright wins a game versus certain decks while being next to useless against others. Obviously it's good having them to keep multicolour in check (which is where I agree with you and currently it seems that we need those anti non-basic strategies to be part of the metagame more than ever), but the exmaple of U/R non-basic hate points at a general problem of the format: there is no real incentive to play only one or two colours. Instead of fighting top strategies with narrow anti-cards (is this not a sign of a flawed playing environment?), we need a general solution (although I think that banning fetchlands is not the right one, but that's another disussion).

About Wasteland: A random Turn 1/2 Wasteland can screw every kind of deck (and therefore it's not specifically needed to "punish multicolour"), no matter what, and that is where my criticism is based on after the introduction of the Free Mulligan rule: You don't have to play one of the current top tier multicolour decks to lose a game to a random early Wasteland. People now have to keep mediocre hands more often and those weaker hands appear more often, even if you run enough mana sources. Say I have a hand I'd keep if I knew I wasn't eating a Wasteland in the first turns. I know there is 1 out of 100 cards in my opponent's deck that will roll me over, what do I do? This is not Legacy where I can show clever play by avoiding a potential mana screw, so losing those games is just based on pure luck - does my opponent have the Wasteland or not? Then again, I agree to that extent that we probably need a cheap way to get rid of strong utility lands.

€dit: so_not put summed it up pretty well:

Yes if there were more actual Wastelands available in the card pool the problem would not be as severe as playing around these cards would increase your chances of winning. As there are only 1 Wasteland in each deck, you never should mulligan your hand if it was otherwise keepable but loses to Wasteland. On the other hand you should definitely build your deck with the aforementioned hate cards (B2B, moon etc.) in mind and play around those cards. Wasteland is just a card that randomly gets you even if you had the perfect two color manabase but suddenly can't play around it due to inherent random nature of the game. In this format Wasteland is just too close a Strip Mine that it's not fun

Peace.